We like to cruise most major cruise lines, especially if it goes from NYC or NJ and we don’t have to fly to a port. Occasionally we will fly to FL, especially in the winter. We had not been on Princess in quite a few years, and wanted to try the Royal class ships, and Regal was beautiful. Did our online check-in and got Medallions early February. We flew into FLL Saturday and stayed overnight at Hilton beach resort. Stopped at Publix to get one bottle of wine each to bring onboard. We left the hotel around 11:30 Sunday morning and arrived to very heavy traffic into the port on 17th Street by the bridge. Fortunately we were the first ship (out of 7 that day) on the way in to the port. Arrived to a short security line and Preferred check-in went quickly after filling out a health form with two questions on it. Onboard!

Stopped at our aft corner suite to drop carry-ons off. Very nice cabin although different in layout than the mid-ship port or starboard suites appeared to be, or aft one we had on Caribbean Princess. Bedroom is separated by a curtain and the closets and second bathroom entrance are in kind of a hallway-type space, so it’s more like a right angle shaped cabin with the bathroom inside the right angle. The cabin space seemed a little smaller, less deep than other suites, although the large wrap balcony was wonderful. There was a slider to balcony access in the living room area and also the bedroom--so one on the stern aft-facing, and one on the side. We did not really have a soot problem due to the direction of the winds. Stocked mini bar, slippers and robes, some canapes the first night (not my thing so we did not reorder any for the week), bowl of fruit that was very hard. One night we got a chocolate tray and that went very quickly. Chocolates on pillows every night. Bar soap was in the bathroom (though we needed to ask room steward for more at one point) and bottles of body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. Salt by the bathtub. I thought the shower lacked power, and the tub water never got hot enough for me to bother wanting to take a bath. Layout flaw is the only place for bath towels is by the tub. So don’t forget to grab one before getting into the shower as it is NOT next to the tub. Toilet and sink in a separate section of the bathroom. Plenty of bathroom storage space. Closets in cabin had plenty of space for our stuff. No USB ports anywhere. One thing we found out about this suite was that the bedroom had weird noises around it at night--not people noises--creaks, cracks, bumps, tapping noises.

A friend who cruised with us had a balcony cabin on the Aloha deck and it was nice too. I understand people’s complaint about sitting areas in the balcony cabins. Read more