CPASam

Just wanted to add a few thoughts regarding the Ultimate Ship's Tour we took on Saturday morning, our last day at sea. As DH stated, I thought the tour was great! We saw a variety of spaces on the ship, that we would not otherwise have seen. I wanted to see examples of crew cabins. I'm guessing privacy issues prevented that from happening. Aaron, our assistant cruise director was our guide through the maze of the ship. He explained that each class of princess crew on the ship had a different color of door designating their crew quarters: Tan for officers, Blue for the next level of staff, and Red for the remainder of crew members. When we got back to our cabin, late in the afternoon, we found two princess bags filled with the following as a result of our Ultimate Ship Tour: A very nice blue (dark and light) checked apron, a Princess cruises white bathrobe, a pad of paper with my name printed on it from the print shop, an 8x10 wooden photo frame, an 8x10 group photo with the Captain on the bridge, three smaller photos taken during the tour--the group in the engine control room with the chief engineer, on stage in the princess theatre with two of the dancers in their Chorus Line costumes, and at the bow of the ship with one of the staff captains with the heavy anchor chain, and the ropes wound up ready for docking the next day in port everglades. If you are interested in this tour, you need to sign up for it as soon as you board the ship. We signed up after lunch in the dining room and were 2nd and 3rd persons on the waiting list. I believe they set up a second tour for those people on the waiting list. It is expensive>>$150 per person. I am so cheap! It used up our OBC. But even if we didn't have OBC, I would have said to book it! Very enjoyable. Aaron did a great job of keeping us moving. At times during our past cruises, I wondered what was going on "behind the scenes." I wonder no more! The Captain took about 15 minutes out of his busy schedule to spend time with us and answer our questions. This meant a great deal to me! Also, hearing the other crew members' explanations of what they do was very interesting! I recommend 100%. DH also mentioned that I took a two hour CPE webinar (free!!). I would not have done this, if we didn't have unlimited internet on the Regal. When I registered for the class before the cruise, I tested all of the stuff on my computer while I was at home. I even talked with the AICPA help desk to be sure I had everything up and running before I left home. As DH mentioned, I messed up the times and was not certain if I would be able to get in. I took a few minutes at the beginning for the webinar to "boot up." I normally wouldn't spend time on the ship doing this. It was a sea day and it was free! We're retired and need to save all of our pennies. 40 hours of CPE each year is required in my state to maintain my CPA license. It was probably one of the best webinars I have seen since becoming a CPA. The presenter was awesome!

Lor, Thank you so much for your commentary! Geoherb and I are looking forward to sailing on the Regal in a few weeks! CPASam

Our cabin steward replaced our shampoo, conditioner, soap in our suite on the Royal in Dec 2017. You will also get the Princess Lotion. We needed a few more bars of soap and I left our cabin steward a note and he left them and always saw that we had all of those extras when things were running low. The suite life was sweet! You will love it! We normally dine at a large table of cruisers at the late seating. We had to get accustomed to the CC Dining with our two person table. We met a family in Sabatini's our first morning and they invited us to dine with them for three evening meals in CC. Geoherb and I will be in a balcony cabin in a few weeks on the Regal. After reading this post I am realizing that I'm going to miss the suite life!

Can't wait to see Victoria and Abdul on MUTS! I may be watching from the pool :) on the 2/18/18 cruise. CPASam

Geoherb and I enjoyed the royal back in Dec 2017. We don't have kids. It was a pre-Christmas cruise so there were not many teens on board because they weren't into their holiday break from school. We really enjoyed the sports area including ping-pong at the rear of the ship. Matt O is an excellent cruise director and has a great staff that will work with well the teens and kids.

I'm enjoying your review. Thank you for providing it and for the additional comments from others. I enjoy surprise sea days. I'm sorry for the people who had something special planned in Grand Cayman. I hope the weather improves during your cruise! DH and I try to get off the ship in each port. If we don't have a shore excursion planned, we do a little bit of shopping at the port. One exception is Jamaica. We stay on the ship there.

Loving your review and the additional comments! I'm glad you're enjoying the cruise! Thank you for posting!

I had 12" of my colon removed in Sept 2017 and went on a 10 day cruise in Dec 2017 on the Royal Princess. This was not bariatric surgery, but something similar. I ate a pretty standard breakfast each morning, including yogurt for my Walgreen's daily powder. I ordered less for each meal in the dining room. I reduced my dessert intake to one at dinner. I talked to our Head Waiter about foods i couldn't eat and he provided me a menu of the next day's meal for planning. When I was considering my meal for the next night, our head waiter volunteered to fix one main dish without the seeds, prepared especially for me. On the ten day cruise my DH and I only ate one meal in the buffet. Portion control is key and I have no will-power in the buffet. I drink water with each meal (mimosas for breakfast in Sabatinis). I also purchased one bottle of merlot that lasted me the entire 10 day cruise. Basically, one glass of wine with each dinner. DH and I brought on two bottles of wine that we (mostly me) drank at happy hour in the afternoon on our balcony.

Thank you for your interesting reports! Great news about the unlimited internet for elites! Glad you got on the ship before 11am! DH and I will be sailing in February, so I am very interested in what you have to say! Thank you for taking the time to let us know how your cruise is going! :D

Thank you for an excellent review. DH and I were on the Royal, Dec 10-20th. We opted for an upsale to a suite just under the bridge on the Aloha Deck. This was our first suite experience and it was sweet! We had two rooms with a sitting room with our balcony off of it. The bridge overhang provided us some protection from the sun. Fortunately most of our times at port we were facing the port and not the sea. I considered that lucky for us. We also had a huge window at the front end of our cabin with slanted walls. We enjoyed the extra space in our suite and the forward view from our window. We told our cabin steward never to pull our curtain closed to that window. He closed it the first night and we had problems pulling it back open. This was basically the same view as the bridge cam. I enjoyed getting up early and watching us sail into each port. Instead of Princess Cays, we docked at Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. This was a very pleasant surprise. The swimming pool at the dock was huge and they were playing 80's disco music which brought back pleasant memories for me but I'm sure was not pleasing for all. I stayed in the pool (and on a lounge chari) the entire time we were at port and DH explored around Amber Cove. Getting back to the Suite Life with Geoherb and CPASam: we also enjoyed the Club Class dining. We usually dine at the late seating with a huge table of people. Club Class dining is basically dining for two. During breakfast at Sabatini's our first morning at sea, we met another family of 3 + one of the daughter's friends. They invited us to eat with them for 3 diners in Club Class dining. We also had an ultimate balcony diner to celebrate DH's birthday during the cruise. We experienced the balcony diner as we sailing away from Martinique at sunset. We'll probably never enjoy the suite life again but it was nice! We had an inside cabin for our British Isles Cruise on Princess on the Caribbean Princess in August. Also, our Cruise Director, Matt O, joined the ship for the December 10th cruise on the Royal! He has an excellent personality, is very personal, and added to our excellent cruise experience. He was an Asst Cruise Director on the Caribbean Princess in August. Again, thanks for your excellent, detailed review. Loved the pictures too!

Sailing with Geoherb on the Regal in Feb. Thank you for your review! Also thank you for the picture of the Royal. We were docked behind you. The window from our suite was on the port side just below the bridge. We had the same view as the Bridge cam with slanting walls in our cabin. I recommend the balcony dining! We've done it to celebrate special occasions and it is fun when we're sailing away from a port at sunset. I also watch the sail aways prior to our cruise on the Port Everglades webcam! Fun to see the ships depart! Watching Men's figure skating tonight after our hockey team got beat 7-1 by the Boston Bruins. Again, thank you for your review! CPASam