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 The Dome Entertainment Center on Regal Princess
A PARNAMI Cruise Page
At the time of her introduction, Princess proclaimed of Regal Princess: "She's a ship for the 90's, with a revolutionary design destined to change the shape of cruise ships to come." Much of this high expectation centered upon designer Renzo Piano's domed observation lounge featuring what Princess considered to be "cruising's most unique entertainment complex." While "unique" may be an apropos description, it certainly did not change the shape of cruising! The cruise public never warmed to the stark interior design and the awkward placement of the Casino never was emulated on future ships, from any line, including those of Princess!
The Dome is located atop the ship, just above the navigation bridge and, if you consider the profile of Regal Princess to be reminiscent of that of a dolphin, would be considered to form the "brow" of that creature. During the day, it is intended to be the ship's restful observation lounge. Evening's are intended to see the activity level taken up a notch as the action in the Casino takes hold and the nightclub swings into high gear. Unfortunately, none of these venues ever truly hits its stride!
Using the Dome as an observation lounge, passengers are seated along its outside perimeter, surrounding the Casino. The windows lining the outside walls of the Dome, each, are divided into three vertical panes with thick steel bars used to capture the glass. Each window is further isolated by huge "plastic" ribs enclosing the steel support beams running up and over the Dome structure. The result provides passengers with a feeling of enclosure with seated passengers lacking the ability to view passing scenery through any but the window directly in front of him. A continuous wall of glass would have better served the purpose!
Clusters of leather upholstered barrel chairs surround small tables before each window with wooden benches lining the lower edges. Each bench contains two high wattage bulbs which shine their light up against the window with their resultant glare making it impossible to see outside when they are illuminated.
Passengers hoping to catch a spectacular sunset from the Dome would be best looking elsewhere: The ambient glare from the Dome is so great that Bridge Officers require the electrically controlled shutters covering the windows be closed as dusk approaches. At night, a few windows in the aft of Dome are left unshuttered, but, the glare from those bulbs makes them so unusable, they might as well have been closed!
The Casino's sharing the same space causes some unexpected problems. While, naturally, the Casino does generate some noise (tokens falling, bells ringing, etc.), normally, since the Casino action doesn't begin until well after the departure of the observation room crowd, there shouldn't be much problem. However, management saw fit to place a bank of "Wheel of Fortune" slot machines at the very front of the casino, just behind the most popular, forward facing, portion of the observation lounge area. These machines, six of them, all have loud "attract modes" used to draw the attention of potential customers. Unfortunately, the regular shouts of "wheel of fortune" and wild applause grows to be quite annoying to someone seeking a bit of peaceful respite while gazing out at the passing ocean. Without question, this is the most obnoxious distraction I've experienced in a resort setting anywhere, on land or at sea! When asked if the sound could be turned off or at least turned down, the Casino Manager responded: "NO! We're permitted to have it on!" Wrong answer!!! What's the big deal? TURN IT OFF DURING THE DAY AND ON AT NIGHT!
That way nobody gets annoyed and Princess loses no customers!!
The Casino portion of the Dome, actually is a nice facility, benefiting from the high ceilings and 80's style futuristic design (Remember though, the ship entered service in the 90's). There is a good selection of slot machines including some accepting nickels. Ten gaming tables (Vegas Blackjack, Roulette, Let it Ride Poker, Caribbean Draw Poker, and, progressive Stud Poker) fill the main floor with gaming machines, glass partitions and greenery providing a berm between the outer edge of the casino and the observation area. The infernal 'WHEEL OF FORTUNE" machines are NOT partitioned though, so passengers seeking a peaceful existence can experience the full impact of their annoying attract mode. But, heck, "They're permitted to have it on!"
The game machines, with the exception of the nickel slots, accept only US currency and Princess tokens, so won't be places to rid yourself of any extra change that you may have accumulated. Its out of the way location requires a conscience effort on the part of the passenger to visit, so it doesn't benefit from passenger traffic just happening to be flowing past while enroute to a show or other event. Perhaps, if Princess had spent time in locating a profitable location for their casino, they wouldn't have had to institute all of the nickel and dime charges to supplement on board revenue for which they have grown known. Gambling age is 21.
In the aft portion of the main dome is the Dome Lounge with a bar and dance floor. Live entertainment is performed nightly from 9:15 until "late." Regrettably, and I suspect more as an element of the out of the way location and not a reflection on the talents of the performers, usually, they find themselves performing late into the night, but to an empty room!
 Copyright © 2001 Mel Litzenberger. All Rights Reserved
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