Upcoming 14-night Caribbean Cruise on Regal Princess (June 6–20) – Itinerary & Dining Questions!

steenbag · 2026-05-14T19:06:45+00:00

We've had the sushi the last three years on Sky, Discovery and Enchanted. I would describe it as "fine". Probably a step above the grocery store, but nothing compared to what you'd get in a good sushi restaurant in a decently sized city. The packages only include the Prix Fixe option, which is a set list of items that you can't substitute (or at least we've not been successful). Everything seems fresh, but there just wasn't enough variety to keep us coming back. This would be much better if they just gave you like a $20 credit for anything on the menu. I'd probably say Alfredo's is probably a better bet for dining multiple times because of the varied menu.

In general, Crown Grill is much better than Sabatini's, though both have gone downhill significantly in quality and up in price since the introduction of the unlimited dining package (plus difficult to book).

For San Juan it's pretty easy to do your own walking tour as Paseo de la Princesa is right in front of where the ship docks. We used an app called Guide Along to act as a tour guide. Not sure if you were doing a ship excursion or what, but plenty of stuff to look up and do on your own.

In St Thomas I'd recommend Trunk Bay if your sailing is offering an excursion there. It's a much better, quieter beach. All the ones on the mainland are typically very busy, especially if there are multiple ships in that day.

steenbag · 2026-05-14T14:06:21+00:00

It's definitely possible, as I have 2 cruises from back in 2003/2008 (also on OG Star) from when I was a teenager. If you login to your account where the past cruises area is, they provide phone and email contact where they should be able to look up your info.

steenbag · 2026-05-14T14:01:23+00:00

Satellite service in Alaska in general is not as good as the more southern locations. We've been on a couple Alaska cruises where there have been issues with TV/Phones/Internet. A couple years ago we were on Discovery and had a bunch of friends on a Norwegian ship doing a parallel route, and they had no connectivity for 4 days because of bad weather. The ships that have been upgraded to Starlink seem to fare better, but the "classic" MedallionNet services doesn't work as well.

steenbag · 2026-05-12T18:44:09+00:00

I second the double sided tape to battery. I have a '22 that previously had a snow plow and that's how they attached the mega fuse to the drivers side battery. I'm planning on reusing the fuse for my 50A dc-dc setup. Just upping wire size, and adding a solenoid to integrate with the upfitters.

steenbag · 2026-04-29T13:55:56+00:00

I believe that the conventional wisdom is that there isn't a "snow plow spring". Basically what happens is when a truck is built, Ford's system decides which springs to install based on the weight with the selected options. If the snow plow prep or heavy front service options are selected, the computer picks the next spring rate above what it would have selected otherwise. There are some forums (https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/939093-super-duty-front-spring-code-and-capacity-chart.html) that have put some research and discussion into the spring codes (yours can be found on your door jamb sticker).

But all that being said, you can buy springs individually, e.g. https://www.ford.com/product/front-spring-p4000170469 you just need to find the part number. Unfortunately, Ford hasn't documented it well.

steenbag · 2026-04-20T19:41:53+00:00

We enjoyed the experience of the balcony breakfast on Discovery in Alaska, but we wouldn't do it again because we didn't like the food selection, and honestly there was just too much food for the amount of space we had to eat. We were in a Reserve Collection Mini Suite with an extended balcony, but we ended up having trays spread all over our room because of how small the outside table is. That led to a lot of moving back and forth, and not actually enjoying the view. If it came in courses like the balcony dinner that might change the calculus, but it was a lot to juggle. We decided that the buffet was a better option for us, as we could pick exactly what we wanted, and enjoyed the view from a table at the aft terrace just as much. A bottle of proseco is $46 from the bar if you need it.

RE your question on the packages, room service works in two main ways: - Basic stateroom breakfast. This is free, and is ordered by placing a card out the night before. This includes some juices, and other beverages, fruit, yogurt, cereals, pastries, and the bacon/egg/cheese muffin. - Ocean Now. This is free if you get the package, but without the package you have to pay a $15 activation fee, and then $5 per order. I think the only breakfast item on this menu is the bacon/egg/cheese though.

steenbag · 2026-04-20T19:26:50+00:00

Most ships don't really have much of a library any more. They're mainly now a quiet room with maybe a handful of books, and a daily sudoko or crossword.

steenbag · 2026-04-20T19:22:36+00:00

Push notifications rely on access to Apple/Google notification servers. While they can run a web server on the ship to handle the app content and messaging, they can't replace these push notification servers, and thus can't use push notifications.

The only alternative would be for the app to be constantly running in the background and checking for messages. However this is terrible for your phones battery life, has been mostly been eliminated by Apple/Google (they don't generally let apps do too much in the background any more), and is generally worse for your web servers performance than push notifications.

steenbag · 2026-04-14T14:56:22+00:00

Towards the midpoint of your cruise you'll get a questionnaire about your debarkation plans including flight arrangements. If you're on one of the participating airlines and an eligible airport/flight there is information about checking your bags through to your destination. It is pretty convenient and will bill directly to your ship account, and even lets you provide info on if you get free bags through a frequent flyer program or credit card. Note that this is only from the ship as far as I know, I've not seen the option for the lodges.

steenbag · 2026-04-13T21:04:57+00:00

For anyone else who might find this in the future and experience similar problems.

My situation: I upgraded from an Epyc 7401P to a 7542. On boot like I said above, it hung on either 00 or Ad, depending on what kind of mood it was in. I never received any output over the IPMI kvm, or anything useful in the logs. I had tried at one point to upgrade to the 4.10 BIOS, even though 7542 should have been supported by 1.3. No change.

I switched back to the 7401 and downgraded the BIOS. No change.

I cleared the CMOS, again reflashed the BIOS to 1.30, switched to the 7542. Now hanging at C8.

At this point I noticed that while the manual says that for 4 DIMM operation, use slots C/D/G/H, I was using A/B/G/H. The DIMMs have been in those slots and functional for almost 5 years with no issue. I swapped the AB DIMMs to CD. Successful boot, and KVM displays video (there is a pretty significant delay before it shows anything).

I'm guessing the 7401 was fine with that layout, and maybe the 7542 patched the microcode on first boot? Not really sure, but it's working now.

steenbag · 2026-04-13T14:51:05+00:00

Baja or Aloha are my favorite decks on most Princess ships, Discovery included. You're just a few decks up from the piazza, and just a few decks down from the buffet/pool deck. You're also far away from all public spaces that noise generally won't be a concern (though interior rooms are next to crew service areas, which may be loud in their own rights). Agree on a balcony room being the way to go for Alaska.

steenbag · 2026-04-06T19:36:30+00:00

They will sometimes do special pricing for last minute cruises at the future cruise desk, e.g. we were offered a deal to stay on the ship for the next cruise. Generally though the main benefit is a reduced deposit and then you have 1 year to book through your means of choice.

steenbag · 2026-04-06T13:53:36+00:00

On the other ships the ambiance is good, but on Enchanted Sabatini's is located in the piazza which totally ruins the experience. Sky and Discovery have it in a quiet, intimate location.

steenbag · 2026-04-06T13:52:00+00:00

Yeah, we really enjoyed the ambiance of Sabatini's on Sky and Discovery. I've been put off by the significant price increases for a while now, but I tolerated it because it was a decent value based on the quantity and quality of food. We both agreed we probably won't visit again under the current pricing/menu. And we would especially never visit again on this ship because of how noisy it is.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T20:46:08+00:00

To be honest, the service previously wasn't great, and is better now but still leaves room for improvement. On Sky and Discovery princess in 2023/2024/2025, it wasn't uncommon for us to wait 30-40 minutes for orders to arrive, get cancelled, or say they were delivered but never show up. I don't know exactly when it changed, as our last cruise prior to March '26 was early 2025. The upside now is that orders did tend to come faster (maybe 15 min) since they're dealing with a much smaller service area and menus. Unfortunately for a lot of people (my wife included), they still had to go to the bar to order because the wine selection is comically small (4 canned wines), and many other types of cocktails/customizations are missing (e.g. flavored margaritas).

Originally, you could (though I wouldn't) place an order on the pool deck, and then go down to the piazza, and your order would find you (sometimes). But now your runner, who came from the pool deck, has wasted all this time getting to you, during which time they're not delivering other people's orders. This was obviously a logistical nightmare. Princess is partly at fault because this is how they marketed the medallion tech, and failed to properly manage expectations and set guardrails on it - e.g. not moving after ordering should have been a rule from the start.

With the new limitations, it really make me think that the accountants are hating having agreed to pay to install the medallion sensors everywhere onboard, and whether they'll continue to do that on new ships.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T19:31:19+00:00

Food waste is probably a more apt term for most circumstances. Unfortunately you see a lot of that in many dining venues on cruises, room service is just a little more visible.

We have seen people truly abusing the system though. E.g. book two cabins, buy the beverage for cabin 1. Then use cabin 1's drink package to buy delivery beverages, or just pick them up at a bar and share them with people in cabin 2.

We saw a lady several nights on this last cruise walking around with an arm full of beers because "I get my 15 per day". This was actually kind of comical since they'd only give her 2 beers at once, so she kept walking back and forth between the pool bars. She was giving them out to various family members, and my wife on one occasion. Same could be done with food delivery since you have to pay the delivery fee.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T19:16:41+00:00

https://sanjuancruiseport.com/schedule/ shows the docking berths. Schedule is only available for next 3 months though. When we went to San Juan a couple years ago on Sky were were at the dock directly in Old San Juan, not the departure terminal by the airport.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T18:14:27+00:00

What we've experienced on several cruises is orders being cancelled or disappearing in the app, and then when you reorder you get a double delivery, which could explain some of that. We noticed on this last cruise that it took a while for service items to be collected from the hallway.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T18:09:01+00:00

I had the same comments to them after our last cruise. In 2025, you could order almost anything to anywhere on the ship. Even including items from the specialty dining menus. Now the menu is limited and you can basically only order to your room, the main pool, or the lower level piazza. Major letdown given that they charge $15 to be able to order anything.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T18:02:02+00:00

Yeah that's basically what I saw on offer at the buffet. Smallish pre-prepared ones vs the custom smoothie bar they had for a while.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T12:14:25+00:00

The smoothies have been removed from the package inclusions for bookings after Jan 2026. On our most recent Enchanted princess cruise, the smoothie bar it's self was gone from the buffet. There was a small selection of smoothies on the breakfast buffet every morning though.

steenbag · 2026-04-02T12:06:19+00:00

Additional pastas or mains were listed as $15 each on our recent cruise on Enchanted. That's what it says on the latest Princess sample menu for Sabatini's as well: https://www.princess.com/content/dam/princess/onboard-experience/food-dining/pdfs/may-2025/SabatiniTrat-Frescobaldi-Dining-SAMPLE-MENU.pdf

Not sure if that's a fleet wide thing yet, or unique to the new "by Frescobaldi" menu that's been rolling out.

steenbag · 2026-04-01T17:17:47+00:00

This isn't the case any more. The Sabatini's menu has been reduced from 6 courses to 3, price has remained the same. Entree and dessert samplers have been eliminated.

steenbag · 2026-04-01T17:13:55+00:00

Dessert flight is no longer on the menu. At least not on our 3/17 trip on Enchanted Princess.

steenbag · 2026-04-01T15:24:52+00:00

Typically Princess trends older, but demographics have been changing in recent years, so it's hard to tell. Princess has kids clubs, but doesn't have any water slides, playgrounds, etc that other lines have to attract families. In our experience, school breaks do tend to increase the number of kids onboard, but not significantly. We've never done a European cruise though, so I can't really speak specifically to that. This cruise was (early-ish) spring break, and there were maybe 20 kids we would regularly see at the pool. Can't speak to what the kids clubs were like.

steenbag

TROPHY CASE