LIVE: Regal Princess, Eastern Caribbean, Feb. 18-25, 2018

Looking forward to following your cruise on the Regal. Will sail on her April 1st. First time on Princess.

We are on that same cruise and have been on the Regal 3 times.......I think you will enjoy Princess and the Regal:)

Following. Thanks for posting! We get on the same itinerary in 3/4. Can't wait!

 

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Its a mystery why they are so often disorganized in the MDR, fixed seating on night one.

We traveled with a friend who owned some great restaurants. As she said:

• They know how many are coming months in advance
  
• They know the menu since it rarely changes
  
• They could/should know closely how many will order the prime rib, the fish, etc.
  
• We all arrive at the time they say when in Traditional.
  

One time when they were in real disarray we had to hold her in her seat to prevent her from leaping up and sorting the staff out and clearing the logjams!

Thanks. Hard to believe it's been nine years since we sailed with you on the Emerald.

 

Thanks for the info and updates, we're sailing the western route on 3/11. Any info on Ocean Medallion ? Mike in CT

Following along! We love sailing on the Regal. Enjoy your cruise!

We had a great day at Princess Cays. The weather was perfectly sunny most of the day. We ate breakfast with a fun group of people in the Concerto Dining Room. After breakfast we changed into our swimsuits for the beach and lathered on the SPF 50. By the time we were ready to go, they were making an announcement that there was no longer a wait for tenders but still go to the dining room to pick up a tender ticket. At least this way no one who had been waiting could object to our getting to get on an earlier tender due to our Elite status.

 

The tender ride to the island was slow. We were on one of the large local boats they use. They also had a couple of tenders from the ship in operation. Our boat was bobbing and weaving in the water, waiting for the previous tenders to clear from the dock area. It took about 20 minutes plus 10 minutes waiting for the tender to fill before we untied from the ship.

 

The beach is still beautiful. We put our things down on a couple of chairs and headed into the water. It's brisk. It took me about five minutes to get acclimated to it and go all the way in. DH took 25 minutes. After an hour in the water, we headed back to wait for a tender to the ship. We had about a 10 minute wait for one to come and unload. Lots of folks were still heading over at 11:00.

 

We got back on the ship in time for the Minute to Win It game in the piazza. The first challenge was to stack seven Solo cups into a tall tower three times in under a minute. The dozen or so people who went ahead of me all failed. I managed to do it thanks to the lenient judging of the assistant cruise director. I won a foam hand that says "I'm a Winner." DH was the last person on the signup sheet. He got to play a different game--trying to blow the cards from a deck of cards from an upturned glass and leaving just one card. He had it won but unfortunately did not realize it and blew the last card off. He did not come as close again on his second and third attempts.

 

Lunch at Alfredo's was very good. I had the vegetarian antipasto and a pizza with mushrooms and artichokes. I had them leave off the ham and black olives that usually come with that pizza. They also left off the basil from the description. I hate when a dish does not match the menu description, but I did not bother to ask if they had any fresh basil. DH had a salad and Hawaiian pizza. We both had small slices of delicious tiramisu.

 

After a short nap, we went to Crooners for the champagne ring toss. Neither of us won one of the three bottles available. We stayed at Crooners for the BOGO happy hour. There was quite the crowd. I thought a couple of women behind me in line were about to come to blows. The older one accused the other of breaking in line. The younger one eventually relented into letting the older one ahead of her. It did not make much difference since two bartenders were ready to take orders practically simultaneously when they got to the bar. We enjoyed our Beverly Hills iced teas outside on the shady side of the Promenade Deck.

 

I walked around the ship a bit before it was time for "country trivia." I thought it was going to be about the countries of the world. It was really about country music. My team had a respectable 11 out of 15 answers right, just a couple of points behind the winners. We really should have had 12, but our secretary wrote down one of my answers wrong. I also guessed the wrong Judd. If I had guessed the other one, we would have tied. But we have enough Princess wine stoppers from our previous cruises.

 

We went back to the Platinum, Elite, and suite event with our teammates from trivia. It was packed tonight. I think part of the difference was we arrived earlier. We made it up to Outriggers afterward for the LGBT gathering. Some new folks showed up for it tonight.

 

Now it's time to get ready for dinner. The Horizon Court had an Italian night theme. I'm not sure what our menu in the dining room will be. If there's a way to see it online, I haven't found it.

Woohoo, us as well!

 

Can't wait! The more I read, the more excited I get for this cruise!

Thanks for bringing us along!

Glad to hear you are having a great cruise. You haven’t ran into Kathy and Bernie have you? They are on doing a b2b. She said you had some rain today which ruined their tea time in the Sanctuary.

 

What a difference you Platinum/elite party is. Ours last night had almost none. Lots and lots of blue cards and first time cruisers.

Bon Voyage.

 

Following this thread.

 

Keith

Glad to hear you are having a great cruise. You haven’t ran into Kathy and Bernie have you? They are on doing a b2b. She said you had some rain today which ruined their tea time in the Sanctuary.

We have not run into them to know of. Are they doing b2b with the previous cruise or the next one? We've met several people from both camps.

 

I found out about the rain after posting yesterday afternoon. It must have happened during our naps. The woman I talked to said she was at Princess Cays during it.

 

There were lots of entertainment options throughout the ship last night. We went to see Teacake Ferguson in the Princess Theater perform her tribute to the divas: Aretha and Whitney. She is a very good singer. Theater was around 90 percent full for that show. I bet the early show was packed as usual. After the show, I went from great singing to bad--the auditions for the Voice of Princess karaoke in the Vista Lounge. Thankfully the singers at the end were better than some of the ones I heard first. One young woman did a great job with "Hopelessly Devoted to You," and a man sang a John Legend song great. They both made the cut to be among the final eight contestants.

 

I stopped to listen to the band performing in the atrium after karaoke. I was still walking around the ship to get my 10,000 steps in for the day. That's probably not enough to counteract the number of calories I ate. I'm going to try to be better today and only have dessert once.

 

Last night's menu was the Italian-themed one in the dining room as well. I've been observing Meatless Mondays for the past several years. There were enough options for me on the menu. I had the spinach and greens salad with pine nuts with the bacon left off, the peach bellini soup, an appetizer size portion of the penne arrabiata that one of the staff members was preparing near the entrance, zucchini with an onion and potato stuffing, and two small scoops of the gelatos (stracciatella and zabaglione). Two of our tablemates were surprised by chocolate cakes to celebrate their retirements. One, though, isn't able to eat anything with milk in it, so he passed it down for the rest of us to split.

 

My bet that one couple not showing up for dinner was right. One of the couples said they had seen them around the ship during the day. The couple who did not show did not mention not showing up. Our waiters, though, sensed it and went ahead with our orders expeditiously. Dinner still lasted until 9:45, but it was because we lingered sharing the retirement cake and enjoying our other desserts. We were not rushed feeling as we had been the night before.

We did this same itinerary in January. We had a great cruise. Sounds like you're enjoying yours also.:)

On Regal 3/4. Who is the CD and ED?

Thank you for taking us on your cruise. Can you tell me if for someone unfamiliar with the port it is difficult to park in the garage where you parked ? Wasn’t the garage full ? Thanks

On Regal 3/4. Who is the CD and ED?

Thank you for taking us on your cruise. Can you tell me if for someone unfamiliar with the port it is difficult to park in the garage where you parked ? Wasn’t the garage full ? Thanks

It was not too difficult to park. We dropped off our two large bags first to be checked then followed directions to get to the parking. It's in the deck right beside the terminal. Since you have about the same number of passengers getting off the ship and getting on the ship, it was not full.

Were the Candians Kathy & Bernie?!!

Were the Candians Kathy & Bernie?!!

 

 

 

Vicki and Bernie are on the last leg of their February cruise. They are on the Royal.

Enjoying your report very much.

The Regal is my favorite ship!

Linda [emoji41]

 

 

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Some random thoughts this morning. I woke up early and walked around the upper decks. The sun is rising now. There were a lot of other early risers around having their coffee. I only saw a couple of chair hogs. Yesterday at lunch, one couple complained that 90 percent of the chairs had been reserved but only 10 percent were occupied with people. The rest had books, shoes, etc.

 

Another pet peeve is that as we were waiting for a tender to come back to the ship in Princess Cays, we overheard a woman telling her parents that one of the granddaughters was sick. She had been for two days and had a fever. Obviously if she'd been sick for two days, that meant she was sick when she got on the ship the day before. I'm betting the mother lied on the health questionnaire.

 

The cabin bathroom is better than on the Grand class ships. The sink is larger--rectangular. There seems to be more counter space beside the sink and plenty of storage on the glass shelves. The shower is also larger--just slightly but enough to make a difference. They've added a little ledge area to the shower so that ladies can shave their legs.

 

Last night's buffet in the Horizon Court included carved beef tenderloin and shrimp cocktail. It looked very nice. They also had a Mongolian wok section at dinner up there that I have not seen on other Princess ships. I could have missed it on our Royal Princess cruise.

 

We have not enjoyed our balcony as much on this cruise yet. It's still too narrow. We like the Caribe Deck cabins on the Grand class ships, of course. The chairs are comfortable and there's a tiny little table I can use as an ottoman. I'm typing this on our balcony now.

 

My laundry from Monday came back last night--one day turnaround. That's great. I'll send out a few more things this morning. DH sent a few yesterday. That might be it for us for this cruise. I packed sort of light but will have enough things to see me through the rest of the cruise and the one or two days we spend on the road heading back to North Carolina. DH packed as if we'd be gone for two weeks.

 

It's great being able to see our stateroom accounts online. I'm thinking we probably will not make the cut for the Ultimate Ship's Tour. I may ask this morning if anyone has dropped out. If not, I doubt we'll touch any of the refundable credit. That will be a nice check to get in a few weeks. It would have been nice to be among the folks trying out *****, but the credit is also nice.

 

The two couples at our table are continuing on the next cruise. Last night, one of the head waiters came around to see if they wanted to keep the same table. They do. I don't remember this happening when we did back-to-back cruises. We just had the same table assigned to us automatically. (Even the time we decided not to eat in the dining room on the second leg because we wanted to try all of the specialty dining options--Sabatini's, Crown Grill, Crab Shack, and an Ultimate Balcony Dinner.)

Edited February 21, 2018 by geoherb

Have a great remainder of the cruise Geo!

 

 

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We've enjoyed our day on the ship. The weather this morning started off nice, but there have been frequent showers throughout the afternoon. We enjoyed breakfast in the dining room with a table of nice folks. One couple had been on our British isles cruise this past summer on the Caribbean Princess.

 

Our regular trivia teammates all showed up for the morning trivia. The Canadian guy had an afternoon tour booked. The wife of the couple of who live in Florida wasn't planning on getting of the ship either. The husband was going shopping for a watch. We won with 18 out of 20 points.

 

We went back to Alfredo's for lunch since the dining room was closed for the port day. The agnolotti dish was not as good as I remembered it being on the Royal. This one had more of a Parmesan crust on top. That is how the description reads--"gratinated." We split a pizza. We heard several folks around us ordering just what they wanted. We ordered one of the standard pizzas from the menu with the request to leave off the black olives. Once again, it came without any basil on it. But our waiter did bring some fresh basil when I asked him if it was available.

 

We played the 60-Second Challenge again after lunch. This time the task was to keep two balloons in the air, not letting them touch the ground. No one was able to do it. One man was hilarious. His shorts fell down around his ankles as he was taking his turn. The assistant cruise director gave him a prize. Everyone who tried it ended up getting a participation prize at the end since no one was successful. It was the wine stopper.

 

I learned a new dice game (Premier 5000) at a friend's house a few weeks before the cruise. DH and I played a few games while waiting in the piazza for the ring toss challenge. This time, they used the wooden target that has five sticks of different value (5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 points). I did well my first two turns, getting 50 points each time. I missed totally my third turn and ended up in second place, which was good enough for another stopper.

 

The BOGO happy hour in Crooner's was not as crowded today. We had planters punch, which was a nice tropical drink without too much booze. I sat beside a Canadian couple on their first cruise. I gave them one of the bottle stoppers. They were drinking beers. I asked if the waiters would leave the tops on for them, but they said they came to the table with the tops half off.

 

Our attempt at afternoon trivia did not go as well. We had 11 out of 20 points. Two teams tied with 13 points. The assistant cruise director asked a tie-breaker question since he did not have enough prizes for both teams.

 

I enjoyed a swim in the main pool. There were a few kids around but not in the pool with me very long. Two preteen boys did jump in but did not stay. If they had continued jumping in, I would have asked them to leave--pointing to the sign that says under 18 not permitted without adult supervision. I do wonder about parents letting their kids run around unsupervised like that.

 

I'm not sure what time we'll go to dinner tonight. The menu looks good. There's a surf and turf main course featuring petite filet mignon and shrimp that I'm planning to order. I'll ask for an appetizer size portion of the other good main course--a seafood skewer. Sometimes when I've done this on previous cruises, they've served me just the skewer. Other times I've ended up with two regular size main courses.

 

The guest singer is doing a new show tonight at 7 and 9. We're planning on going to the early show if we can get a seat after the movie quote trivia at 6:30. The "Hollywould You" gameshow is also going on tonight. I was a participant on it in December on the Royal. I told DH I'd go back if he'd sign up to do it. He declined.

 

I'm not sure if we'll have the deck party under the stars tonight. The rain seems more constant now. But it could clear up by sailaway time.

It was not too difficult to park. We dropped off our two large bags first to be checked then followed directions to get to the parking. It's in the deck right beside the terminal. Since you have about the same number of passengers getting off the ship and getting on the ship, it was not full.

 

Good to know! This will be our first time driving to Port Everglades from Tennessee, with an overnight stopover in Jacksonville to see my mom. I'm hoping the traffic won't be too terrible on I-95 on a Sunday morning. We're planning to leave Jacksonville early, probably around 6:30 that morning.

Good to know! This will be our first time driving to Port Everglades from Tennessee, with an overnight stopover in Jacksonville to see my mom. I'm hoping the traffic won't be too terrible on I-95 on a Sunday morning. We're planning to leave Jacksonville early, probably around 6:30 that morning.

 

 

when we drive from SC we always use the cruise port terminal. Very safe and covered. Traffic should not be a problem on I-95. We have stayed near the Villages several times and travel was easy.

Should be about 6 hours for you. Enjoy your cruise.

Good to know! This will be our first time driving to Port Everglades from Tennessee, with an overnight stopover in Jacksonville to see my mom. I'm hoping the traffic won't be too terrible on I-95 on a Sunday morning. We're planning to leave Jacksonville early, probably around 6:30 that morning.