Regal Princess: Mini-Suite

Hubby and I have always stayed in a mini-suite for 15 out of our 16 Princess cruises.  The one time we stayed in a balcony cabin was on the Sea Princess where we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale and did not come back to the home port until 14 days later.  That was also a much smaller ship and the mini-suite cabin was actually much larger and well more expensive.

When I booked the Regal (12 months before sailing), I knew we were in for a treat.  New ship.  Larger ship.  Beautiful ship.  We were on the Ruby Princess while in St Thomas and saw the Regal docked ahead of us at Havensight.  We walked along the dock admiring this new ship.  I remembered meeting with the Future Cruise rep on the Ruby and booking a two week cruise.  For once, itinerary did not matter.  We wanted to experience a cruise on the Regal.

The Princess Future Cruise rep wanted to know where on the ship we wanted to be.  I don't know.  Where are all the mini-suites located?  Unlike the Grand-class ships, where the mini-suites are located on the Dolphin deck 9 and a few towards the back on Emerald deck 8, the Regal has them on several decks.  Wow!  Okay, where are the lower priced mini-suites located?  Forward on Marina deck 15 and Lido deck 16.  I chose a cabin M208 and it was available for both weeks.  Sweet!

Hubby and I were entering uncharted territory.  We've never had a cabin on a high deck and so far forward before.  Hubby said we should feel a lot more motion.  Way cool!

When we boarded the Regal, we were anxious to see our cabin.  We immediately noticed the main hallway was not straight where you can see from one of the ship to the other end.  Instead the hallway appears to be broken into sections where it's straight for a couple of cabins and then the hallway extends out for a couple of cabins and then the hallways goes back in for a few more cabins.  Here's one end of our hallway.  I spied a wifi access point on the ceiling which explains why I had great wifi connectivity in our cabin.  Yeah Princess!

Here's our cabin door.  We enjoyed having a larger area outside our door.  Rare to see our mailbox empty:

Upon entering the room, there's a slot to store our cabin card key.  This slot activates the interior cabin lights.  Supposedly, when you leave the room, you're suppose to take the cabin card with you and all the lights will eventually turn off.

But I can see an issue with this.  Hunger sets in and I run out the door.  Slam!  Knock! Knock! Knock!  Hubby, can you hear me from the balcony?

Here I temporarily use my cabin card which I eventually replaced with an Embassy Suite key card.  See, I knew all those extra hotel key cards I've accumulated would come in handy one day!

Welcome home to our mini-suite!

Queen bed where two twins are pushed together:

The living area with a sleeper sofa:

A view of our cabin from the balcony.  Notice the curtains that can be used to divide/separate the sleeping and living spaces:

Here's our closet space which includes our life vests (upper left).  On the Grand-class ships, there would be mirrors on the front of the cubby doors.  Behind the cubby doors is a safe:

The safe is big enough to hold my iPad Air, my mirrorless camera (Fuji XT-1), our travel documents, wallets, and jewelry.

In the previous picture, you can see a door knob to the right of the cubby shelves.  That's the bathroom.  I really enjoyed having a large rectangle basin especially when I had to hand wash a few items or soak our waterproof cameras.  

The tub came in handy when I had to rinse our snorkel gear.  There's also a laundry line to hang our wet items:

The desk and chair in the living area.  On the right side of the desk is a door.  Behind this door is our mini fridge where our room steward, Shiv, replaced our bucket of ice daily.  On the left side of the desk are drawers.  The top drawer has a blow dryer that is already connected to a power source behind the desk.  I used the drawers here to store all my gadgets, chargers, batteries, cables, etc.  There are two 3-prong outlets under the desk ledge:  one on each side of the desk.  

We were patiently waiting for our luggage to arrive:

Our balcony with two reclining chairs, one foot stool, and a table:

Looking forward from our balcony.  Can you see the bridge?

Looking towards the back of the ship.

We enjoyed our balcony.  Though it was not as deep as the Grand-class ships, we did like having an overhang above.  It took me a few days to get used to this.  On the Grand-class ships, I could always look up to see other fellow passengers on their balconies...sometimes peering back at me.  We really enjoyed the Regal's balcony and more privacy.

Here's what our closet looked like after a week of living at "home":

Here's a part of a placard that is on our door.  You can see the mini-suite cabins are longer and therefore goes further out into the hallway than the regular balcony cabins.  To give you an idea of our room location (see the two red dots):

Oh yeah, the two TVs in our cabin: