The Food
So, one area where this ship really excelled was in it's food service. Unlike many mainline ships today, there are only 2 upcharge restaurants on the Regal Princess, being the Crown Grill (Steakhouse) and Sabatini's (an Italian place) and a for pay Gelato stand that was hardly ever used. We didn't eat at either during our cruise. One of the reasons we like Princess (and DCL, for that matter, and really CCL, though they have more pay places, they still have a bunch of free ones) is that the included food options are diverse and satisfactory. On the pool deck, there is the Trident Grill and Prego Pizza (pretty standard poolside cruise fare). Trident Grill would also have extra things like cheese fries, or wings, or BBQ on some nights in addition to the regular menu. There was also an included soft serve ice cream place by the pool. This stayed busy, unlike the Gelato stand off of the Piazza. Also on the Piazza is the International Cafe, which while being the main espresso coffee bar also is a 24/7 sandwich/soup/bistro/pastry kind of place. The food is all included, our go-to being the ever available ham and cheese croissant. Also of note, they always had 4 different kinds of cookies here (double chocolate being my favorite).
Another nice option is that on the 2nd sea day, Princess offers a pub lunch in the Crown Grill that is complimentary. This stayed busy and was really good.
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A quick aside. My wife is Elite with Princess. Part of this means that by default, they put a minibar setup in our room. As neither of us are big drinkers, one of the nice things you can do is swap it out for other options, one of which is a 15-count Premium Coffee package for 2 people in the stateroom. So, DW and I had basically free specialty coffee drinks all week (Caramel Latte for me and Salted Caramel Latte for DW) and had plenty left to get DD and her friend Caramel Frappucinos a few times...
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Another included option is the dedicated pizzeria, Alfredo's, off of the Piazza. This place was table service individual pizzas, pastas, and calzones. DD and her friend LOVED this place. They literally wanted to eat here every night. Pizzas were fantastic (they were good on deck too, but these are another level)
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The MDR was very good as well, but we only went 3 nights. One night we went to Alfredo's and the other 3, we ate at the buffet, which brings me to: The Buffet.
Now, I am not usually a big fan of buffets. Cabanas is fine, but it's not the number one thing I think about on a DCL cruise. Carnival's buffets are "good" as well, but I don't remember much about it. RCCL's Windjammer (at least on the Serenade) was mediocre at best. On Princess, I had mixed experiences. Our first cruise on the Dawn Princess was great. The rest were in the fine, but don't remember much, and last summer, we sailed Emerald Princess to Alaska and it was downright not good (which surprised us). So, we didn't have big expectations going in. I had read that the buffet on the Royal class ships was better, but we were in for a very pleasant surprise when we got on board. Quite honestly, Regal Princess has the best buffet of any of the 23 cruises I've been on, and, it's not even close!
The buffet is huge. There are literally 3 different buffet areas as well as a 4th area that was dedicated to pastries and desserts. Unlike other ships, that tend to repeat items at different places, not here. You had to scan the whole thing because it was different at each area. Also, there were connections between some of the areas that would contain even more stuff like bread stations, salad bars, and cheese service. The setup itself was nice because as far as we could tell, at least some part of the buffet was open from 5am until 11pm continuously, so there was always food available. Most notably, when you came back on board from an excursion, say at around 3:30, you could pop in and get something to eat. Other lines (looking at you Serenade of the Seas!) we had been on closed the buffet from 2-5pm. On RCCL that was a big problem because that ship (the Serenade) did not have a poolside grill, pizza, or ice cream. They were in the buffet. But, no such problem on Princess. It's open most all of the way through.
But even better than the hours and the selection was the quality of the food. I was bracing for the worst, thinking our Emerald experience might be a downward indicator, but man, was the food good. Also, the staff went out of their way to make us happy. One thing that happened to us. We had been doing a bunch of things around the ship and got up to eat late (after 8) and they were taking down one of the 3 lines. In that line they had a grilled shrimp entree that had been taken up and my wife said, "That sounded good". The line cook heard my wife and grabbed the serving bowl and offered the rest to my wife. As they looked a bit "off the line" for a minute, she politely passed. We found some other things, and sat down to eat our food. A few minutes later, here comes the cook, tapping my wife on the shoulder. Turns out, he is the Chef de Partie in charge of that particular line. He had brought my wife a bowl of steaming hot, freshly cooked shrimp. His name is Joel from the Philippines, and he became our friend for the rest of the cruise. Joel sat down with us and we all just started talking. He said that they all got a lot of joy out of our enjoyment of the buffet and that they take a lot of pride in it. He mentioned that not only are a lot of the MDR items at the buffet, but sometimes, it's better to get it there. For instance, they had Filet Mignon on the buffet one night. He said, sure, you can take the ones out of the serving dish and they are good, "but we'd be more than happy just to cook you one to order". From there, we were sold. There were so many good things on the buffet (Beef Wellington, Carved Turkey's, Ham, Filet, Crab Cakes, Shrimp Cocktail, Fried Shrimp, always 2-3 soups, on and on..). Another thing we liked on the buffet, and this is a Princess thing, is that when you sit to eat, you don't get your drink. There are servers all over the place to come and get your drink order and bring you (and refill) your drinks.
Other buffet highlights included one station would have an international night that had either a mongolian wok station (pick all of your ingredients and they cook it for you), a german night, crepes one night, fajitas, an asian "hot pot" creation, and a "Create your own pasta" station one night. I mention the last one because Princess, on their MDR menus, has static items and rotating items every night. One of the static items is a really good Fettuccine Alfredo. Back in the day, Princess used to serve this in a parmesan bowl. However, for the last few cruises, it's been on a regular plated bowl. However, my wife got a chicken Alfredo at this station in the buffet and when they brought it out, lo and behold, it's in the parmesan bowl. For the record, I got a spaghetti with meatballs that was fantastic.
I should also mention that one day for lunch, they had a whole sushi area that was excellent:
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Here's your shrimp cocktail, DCL fans!
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Now, this is not to say that the MDR paled in comparison. Actually, it was really good as well. One night, I had some dish that the TV Chef Curtis Stone created for the line that I could best describe as a pot roast cooked in red wine with a cheddar biscuit topping. This may be my favorite cruise meal ever. It was so, so good. They also had really interesting ice creams on their dessert menu. Two I remember were Butter Almond (so, so good) and some kind of "Kahlua Mascarpone" ice cream (also good!). Lobster night also did not disappoint. Service here was top notch as well. We had Anytime dining, but on the 3 nights we went to dinner, we didn't have to wait.
The Curtis Stone thing... Not sure what it's called (I think it was Beef Tenderloin Tips and Mushroom Cobbler), but it was SOOOO good...
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Finally, I should mention room service. For some reason, my DD (and her friend) would rather eat room service than just about anything else (though Alfredo's took them away from this quite a bit), and that's been true for a number of years regardless of line we were on. Princess has a rather large room service menu (bigger than DCL's) and I can't tell you how many times I came back to the room to find grilled cheese and cheese fries... Room service is still included on Princess. We would get some things as well and they were all good, but I will say, the cheese plate didn't have anything on DCL's All Hands on Deck...
Bottom line. I'd put the food options and quality on the Regal Princess up against ANY of the cruises I've taken. And the best part was... I didn't have to spend a dime on upcharged food to feel like I was eating really good food...
Upcoming... Entertainment, Kid's Area's, and General Thoughts...
