Princess Regal & Panama Canal

The cruise was great. First, thank you for the Champagne Balcony Breakfast. I have never seen so much food for two people, but it was delicious. We ordered orange juice, so we stretched the Champagne, or diluted it, for awhile with Mimosas. Thanks for making our cruise even more special. Thanks also for the coupon for the casual photos.

The above brought about a question. When we were on the Tahitian cruise a couple of years ago, we got two bottles of wine in the room. There was no note with it, so we assumed Princess thought we were special. Since they didn't seem to think we were that special this time, we wondered if you had sent the wine on that trip. If so, we apologize for not acknowledging it before.

The Hyatt Regency was nice. I had read unglowing reports about it, but they took care of us. We were supposed to be in a room with a partial ocean view somewhere between the 4th and 19th floor. They put us on the 20th floor with a magnificent view of the bay. There was nothing partial about it.

When we got to the hotel, we saw the Princess desk in the lobby. We immediately asked if we could get a transfer to the ship on the 6th. For $24, they handled everything. It was good to have the luggage taken care of. We were worried about getting it from the taxi to the ship.

Boarding the Regal was the fastest we have ever had. The bus got us there before 1 p.m. We got off the bus, went to check-in, had our picture taken, boarded and were in our cabin within 15-20 minutes. It was great.

We had read some "not so good" reviews on the Regal, but we didn't have any of those problems. Our cabin was clean, our steward was very efficient and we had no problems. The only problem I encountered on the ship was needed maintenance on the public ladies rooms on deck 7. There was a lot of activity there and they seem to have several plumbing problems, but they took care of things promptly. There were a lot of females on deck 7 at one time.

We were seated for dinner with two very nice, entertaining couples, one from Chicago and one from Seattle. They were in our age range and were on the same deck. Princess seems to do a good job with seating arrangements. We only missed one dinner in the main dining room and that was because our tour was so long and we really didn't have time to dress and get there. The food on the Regal was a little above average, but certainly more than edible. We didn't go hungry at all!

The Panama Canal was awesome, to say the least. Rob thinks it's the best cruise we've ever done. It took about 8 hours, but the balcony certainly paid off. We were on the correct side for him ( and me ) to see everything in the other lane. (For Rob to say it's the best cruise says a lot. He is an avid scuba diver and didn't dive once on this cruise. The Panama Canal blew him away...even better than diving in Tahiti.)

We did pay the $200 for a future cruise. As soon as we go through our everything, I'll copy the paperwork and send it to you.