Regal Princess: Piazza Venues and Activities--Part 1

Hubby and I spent a lot of our time in the Piazza or atrium area on decks 7 (Promenade), 6 (Fiesta), and 5 (Plaza).  This venue is stunning.  When we first boarded the Regal, we stopped here to take in it's beauty.  If Hubby is stopped in his tracks that says something.

Looking up from Plaza deck 5:

Looking down from Promenade deck 7:

Looking across on Promenade deck 7:

Looking across to the three tiered central venues.  If you sit anywhere in the central venue, you have a great view for people watching and entertainment:

Close up of the three tiers.  The top venue is the Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar...think Sushi!  The middle tier is the Bellini's Bar.  The bottom tier is a sitting/lounge area.  The bottom lounge is also used for the Royal Afternoon Tea ($):

Yes, I burned many calories walking up and down these and other Piazza stairs.  The glass sculptures remind me of small rays:

Here's a close up of the sitting/lounge area (bottom tier).  Nice comfortable chairs and couches.  I saw many folks here with their laptops, Kindles, and iPads:

Of course, the flower arrangement caught my eye:  

Later in the cruise, I come upon the Royal Afternoon Tea ($) which starts at 3:30pm.  Here's a serving setup for the Royal Afternoon Tea ($).  I would have taken a picture of this venue all decorated, but I came by late and there were folks enjoying their afternoon tea.  I did not want to spoil their enjoyment by taking a picture as they bit into their scones with clotted cream and jam:  

The Royal Afternoon Tea ($) looks like it's offered during sea days.  I will double-check the Princess Patter to verify.  The Royal Afternoon Tea costs $10 per person which includes fresh berries and cream, scones, and other indulgent treats.  If you look in the above picture, you can see chocolate covered strawberries!  For $20 per person you can add some classy champagne to go with your afternoon meal.  I did find a picture I took of the Royal Afternoon Tea:  

Note:  There is a regular afternoon tea (included) hosted in one of the dining rooms that starts also at 3:30pm.  I was not able to find it listed in the Princess Patters, but I did occasionally see a long line out the door of the dining room around 3:20pm (for those lining up and ready to eat again).  I did not attend this event on the Regal, but have on other Princess ships in the past.  I assume they still serve scones and finger sandwiches in the dining room.  

We're now up in Bellini's Bar (middle tier).  There's comfy chairs here.  Even when the venue is not open, you can still take a seat and enjoy the surroundings:  

Open from 11am until late:

The backside of Bellini's walking from the front (forward) of the ship:

Here we are at the upper tier or Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar ($).  I really like the decor here.  On sea days, it's open from 11am-11pm.  On port days, they're open from 4pm-11pm.  On embarkation day, open from 1pm-11pm:

Enjoying the view of the glass decor hugging this seafood bar: 

Hubby and I ate here one evening and it was just awesome!  It was the whole dining experience that made for a enjoyable evening.  

Others are are enjoying this lovely dining experience:

While we were waiting for the sushi chef to make our meal, I ventured out for a few minutes.  I came back and Hubby had confiscated my camera.  So, here I am in t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops!  Yes, I'm really comfy in casual wear.  Behind me, you can see a few of the shops on the outer areas of the Piazza:

Here's the backside of the Ocean Terrace:

During the later afternoon or evening, you might hear Trevor Cole playing on his steel pan drum:

Or you might hear the Palonia String Quartet playing center stage on the Plaza deck:

Here we found the Captain's Welcome Aboard party during the first formal night:

Captain Perrin did a fantastic job of entertaining us.  He's funny and very personable:

Balloons for the balloon drop at night:

Regal Princess: Fitness Center and Fitness Activities

While Hubby and I were busy with relaxing and enjoying the activities on the ship, we did make it up to the Fitness Center.  Our work outs were not scheduled, but more like when we had nothing else to do and we knew we needed to burn some calories.

The Regal Princess Fitness Center was located on deck 17 (Sun deck) above the Horizon Court/Bistro.  The only time I was able to take pictures was during turnaround day and I happened to have my iPhone with me.

In this exercise area/room, they have dumbbells and balls to use.  I spent time in here stretching and lifting some dumbbells.  Most of the time there were health classes taking place in here so did my workout elsewhere.

Here are the weight machines located towards the back of the fitness center.  Hubby and I spent most of our time here.  There were a lot of folks working out, but the machines were always available (not hogging the machines).

Further past the weight machines, there's an office on the left where the personal trainer lives.

There was always treadmill available to use:

On the upper deck (Sports deck 18), there is a walk/run track available.  Hubby and I really enjoyed our time up there walking and running.  There are lanes which include one for walking and one for running:

The track has slight curves:

Here's a workout station on deck.  I've tried this one out and basically it uses your weight/resistance:

More workout stations on deck:

Yes, the view up here was pretty spectacular!

In the center of track is the basketball court.  This is also where they held Zumba classes (and the class was always filled)

Table tennis court:

On the stairs between Sun deck 17 and Sports deck 18:

Looking up from Sports deck 18 to see the Princess Logo:

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: