LIVE: Royal Princess, Trans-Atlantic, Sept. 10-25, 2018

Neil and Sam, remember me? You need us on your trivia team, just as we needed you. :D

 

Sailing along with you with fond remembrances of when we were bringing the Royal across for the first time in 2013.

Last night we went to a couple of performances. The first was an encore performance by violinis Michael Bacala. Unfortunately, he was scheduled in the Vista Lounge so that we couldn’t see his whole performance and get to second seating dinner. It would have been great to have his performance moved up half an hour to let those of us with traditional dining to see the whole thing. After dinner we went to see Scott Harris, a comedian from Canada. I chuckled a few times, but he’s not the best comedian we’ve seen on a ship. One of our tablemates, who sat with us, expressed the same thoughts.

 

 

We finally tied at trivia this morning but lost the tiebreaker question. We would have won with Pia on our team. We didn’t get the little notepad books to give away. We’ll go back for the cruise-long trivia later this morning. It’s in Princess Live, which won’t hold everyone. We’ll get there early.

 

Take care in Sunset Beach. We're waiting for our neighbors in Topsail to be able to get back on the island to give us a report. We've seen the flooding in New Bern on the Weather Channel and the coverage of the mother and infant killed by the tree on their house in Wilmington.

 

The temps yesterday were cool--a high of 52. Today is supposed to be warmer, with a high of 64. It's bright and sunny outside.

Thanks for your review Neil, really enjoying it. Hope to see you on a future cruise.

 

 

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Following along, thanks for the ‘live from’.

I looked at booking this TA for the Belfast and Bergen stops but decided on the Crown out of Rome with 3 days Pre cruise in Cinque Terre. Hope you have calm seas with the changes made. Guess it worked out as DH has been in NC all week on storm watch.

Amazing that they would reuse the same trivia from last week when they know how many are doing B2B😂

Thanks. Rome sounds great. We met several couples who are going back there to cross again next month. One couple is even doing a third crossing later in November.

 

A $27.21 credit appeared on our stateroom accounts this afternoon. It’s a refund for “government port tax.” Tonight’s show in the theater is the performer from Crooners, Ray Coussins. We’re going to skip it.

We received an updated schedule for the Platinum, Elite, and suite event. The Captains Circle parties have been moved back two nights will now be the 20th and 21st, the first sea days after Ponta Delgada. They were originally scheduled for the 18th and 19th. I wonder if we’ll get an updated schedule for formal nights or if they’ll stick to the original plan.

They had the pub lunch yesterday. The menu was fish and chips, steak and kidney pie, bangers and mash, ploughman’s lunch, and bread and butter pudding. We did not go. The line to get in stretched nearly to the atrium. I heard mixed reviews of the food. Our tablemates enjoyed it. Another gentleman, though, said the fish was mushy.

 

The Royal should arrive in Vigo at 10 a.m. We leave tonight at 7:30. Thankfully they’ve left traditional dining the same instead of going to open dining. We’re planning on getting off the ship for a few hours to walk around Vigo, probably after lunch. We did not book an excursion and aren’t planning on going to Santiago de Compostela on our own. The port lecturer said there’s a tour bus that will take passengers around Vigo on a 90-minute guided tour. It’s not a hop-on/hop-off where we could catch the next one if we want to linger at a site, but it will have a few stops along the route for 10 to 15 minutes.

 

We start gaining back our lost hours, moving our clocks back an hour tonight between Spain and the Azores.

My mom and step-dad are on this cruise! I'm loving your detailed review. If you see a little lady named Ann with a husband named Vaughn from Arkansas, tell them Regina says "Hi!" :) Enjoy the rest of your trip!

I have been reading your very interesting blog. I especially enjoyed the report of your days in London. My DH and I visited that great city several years ago and some of the places you visited were also part of our sightseeing plan.

I do have to say though, that you seem to have a lot of energy that allows you to pack in a lot of activities and experiences in your day !

Kudos to you !

I hope that you and your hubby enjoy the remainder of your travels.

Following again after two days of no power due to Hurricane. I hope your beach house was ok, we were very lucky at the south end of NC. Continued enjoyment of your cruise!

 

 

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We just got off the Royal when it docked in Southhampton after the British Isles cruise! It was a good cruise, though cold and rainy part of the time. We are doing the crossing later this fall on the Crown, so we didn't do it on the Royal, though last year we did and had a great time.

 

 

 

We are travel bloggers and talked extensively about our trip on the Royal just a week ago - you might be interested. twotogo.net.

 

 

 

Ellen

Finally a trivia win, sort of. We tied with another team. We both guessed the same number in the tiebreaker and tied again. We let the other team get the Princess drawstring bags. I played the jumbled word game right after and came in second, which was good for a bottle stopper. We then won the morning trivia.

 

 

We ate lunch at Alfredo’s before heading off the ship in Vigo. We walked up to the Castro Castle for great views from the top of the hill. It’s the ruins of a fortification and has some lovely gardens and fountains and sculptures in it in addition to the views of the harbor and town.

 

 

Most shops away from the harbor area were closed. We did find an open pharmacy to buy DH some lozenges for his cold.

 

 

Around 75 percent of the shops in the mall beside the pier were open. It has free Wi-Fi. Lots of folks from the ships—passengers and crew—were in there using it. I downloaded our hometown newspaper on my phone and then transferred the PDF to my laptop to read. I’ve been using some of my free internet minutes on the ship to do that, but it’s nice that I could save some, especially considering it was the larger Sunday edition.

 

 

I enjoyed a nap/watching The Greatest Showman while DH went up to the pool and hot tub. The pool was warm enough for him to swim. We watched sail-away from one of the Promenade Deck balcony areas before dinner. It was beautiful seeing the town at sunset as we sailed away. Lots of locals were at the harbor area to watch our ship sail away.

 

 

After dinner, we went to see The Secret Silk performed by the singers and dancers. Some of the effects were great, but the show isn’t one of my favorites. The theater was packed even for the second show. I’d prefer a show with more singing and dancing than a show with a weak plot that they try to weave into a pastiche of popular songs.

Following again after two days of no power due to Hurricane. I hope your beach house was ok, we were very lucky at the south end of NC. Continued enjoyment of your cruise!

Thanks. Glad you came through OK and your power is back on. We haven’t heard yet about Topsail. One friend’s condo on the mainland had some water damage. We’re still waiting for our neighbors to get back on the island and give us a report or else get one from the rental company we use.

 

 

My mom and step-dad are on this cruise! I'm loving your detailed review. If you see a little lady named Ann with a husband named Vaughn from Arkansas, tell them Regina says "Hi!"

We haven’t seen them yet. We eat at shared tables for breakfast and lunch, so maybe we’ll meet them eventually. The couple with whom we ate lunch today said that there are 60 percent Elites on this cruise. I know there are a lot, but that number sounds high. I’ll find out the numbers at the Captains Circle party and report back. I did hear a report on the nationalities. The top three: 2,223 Americans, 600+ Canadians, and 100+ British.

Tonight will be our second formal night. The schedule has been changed from the original. I don’t know when the third one will be. We got back another hour last night. DH went to the show in the Princess Theater—Flamenco Express Dance Duo. He said they were good. They’re performing again tonight with a brand new show in the Vista Lounge. Once again, it’s scheduled so that those of us with second seating traditional dining can’t see the whole thing. I caught DH’s cold and went to bed early. There’s a lot of cruise crud going around. Thankfully it’s not the flu like last year on the Caribbean Princess.

 

Tonight’s featured entertainment in the Princess Theater is international recording artist Will Martin. I’ve never heard of him.

 

For some reason, this cruise seems to have more conflicts scheduled of things I’d like to do. Today the early morning trivia is at the same time as the golf chipping into the pool. Later on, the second morning trivia is the same time as another golf event. We’re going to the Norman Love chocolate and wine pairing tonight at Vines. It’s scheduled at the same time as our evening cocktails with friends.

Two wine tastings today. The first was the afternoon Princess Grapevine Wine Tasting. Today’s selections were Woodbridge Chardonnay, Robert Mondavi Chardonnay, Disono Malbec, Simi Landslide Cabernet Sauvignon, and Conundrum white blend. There were a lot of folks showing up for it—apparently over 250. There’s another wine tasting for Elites on Thursday for those who did not make it into the dining room today. We were at the end of the line since we had trivia right beforehand and were a little bit late. They cut off the line right after us and were referring people to the second wine tasting.

 

 

The second wine tasting was a chocolate and wine Stammtisch at Vines. The three chocolates were by Norman Love. The three wines were fumes blanches gris de sauvignon, Decero Malbec, and Embruix de Vall Llach embotellat. It was a nice event. They poured one bottle amongst the 10 participants and left another bottle of each wine for us to have on our own. We enjoyed the tasting a lot and met some nice people at the tasting. One couple had been on the previous cruise, so we got a chance to talk about the ports that we went to last year. Like us, they were disappointed in not going back to Belfast to see the things they missed on the first cruise.

 

 

We made it to the tie-breaker of the afternoon trivia but missed the year of the Battle of Culladon. Our Brit let us down. That’s OK. We came in second on the technicolor trivia earlier in the afternoon. That one was led by Matt O. We had a four-point lead in the cruise-long trivia this morning. There were even threats to our knee caps on the Wake Show. One team had a perfect score. I’m not sure how many points they were behind. It was not the second place team.

I am familiar with the Princess wine tasting extended to the Elite level. Was the second tasting for those who couldn't get into the first or was there an additional charge for the Norman Love chocolate pairing ?

Sali

Just found this thread. We had this cruise booked and had to cancel at the last minute due to DH health issue. Would have been disappointed missing those ports but the North Atlantic weather looked really nasty, and it’s better to be safe. Have been to Vigo and Ponta Delgada and loved them. Hope you all are having a great cruise.

Berni

Can someone tell me who the Cruise Director is on the Royal? We board in 36 days.

Someone posted it was Ron Goodman ED and Matt O'Brien CD.

Question:

Are there still mailboxes outside cabin doors?

On the ships that are now introducing the Medalian, they have been removed.

We board the Royal next month and usually decorate around the mailbox. Won't bring with me if no mailbox. Anyone know?

We had a lovely day in Ponta Delgada. We just walked around the town. The highlight was going to the fort. It’s 3 euros per adult. We had great views from the top of the fortifications across the harbor to our ship. We also went to the largest church. It irritated me to see my fellow passengers in it disregard the signs for no photography (and just common courtesy for men to take off their hats).

 

The little shops contained some interesting items. The big local products are pineapples and tea. They also had Portuguese pottery at good prices. I liked some of the terracotta pieces with a band of white slip and cobalt decoration over it, but I did not buy anything other than some honey liquor and green tea. I had 5 euros plus some change leftover. I haven’t counted how much I have in pounds, probably around 20 or so, since we did not get to Belfast to spend them.

 

I enjoyed sail-away from the island with some friends at Outriggers. It was a nice view from the back of the ship. We did not see any whales or dolphins. I heard later that they’re more of a spring thing. DH was enjoying the pool and hot tub. The water in the pool is very warm.

 

We received a letter from the captain tonight right before dinner. Passengers are getting a $200 refundable onboard credit. I think it’s great. It would have been great to have known earlier. We probably would have taken an excursion today in Ponta Delgada if I had known sooner.

 

Tonight’s show in the Princess Theater was Colors of the World. We both enjoyed it. I liked that it had more dancing than The Secret Silk.

 

Earlier in the day, we played early morning trivia. We lost by 3 points. I played the afternoon trivia with two of our regular teammates and a woman who joined us. We were in a four-way tie with a perfect score. It helped that five of the questions were repeats from earlier in the cruise. All four teams got the right year for Prince Andrew’s birth, so the assistant cruise director gave us all the wine stoppers. I won one earlier in the afternoon playing the 60-second challenge. Only four of us signed up for it. The first challenge was moving coffee beans from the table to a saucer using chopsticks. I won that round and went into the finals. The second challenge was catching a ping-pong ball in a cup, then adding another cup on top, and then catching another ball, and so forth, until we had a stack of six cups with a ball in between each. We came down to practically a tie in that challenge, so we both got a prize. I also played the putting challenge but did not do well in it.

 

Our big event tomorrow will be the morning cruise-long trivia. We’ll see how close the next team behind us is now. We also have our Captains Circle party tomorrow night. Tomorrow’s entertainment in the Princess Theater is vocalist Jessen Allen. We’ve sat beside him the past two nights at the second shows.

 

For the next five days, we’ll get three meals a day in the dining room. We ate lunch in the Horizon Court this afternoon after getting back to the ship. The food was OK. There were not a lot of appealing vegetable choices.

Question:

Are there still mailboxes outside cabin doors?

On the ships that are now introducing the Medalian, they have been removed.

We board the Royal next month and usually decorate around the mailbox. Won't bring with me if no mailbox. Anyone know?

Yes. We still have a mailbox. Sometimes our cabin steward leaves us our mail on the bed, though.

I posted the entire letter received about the $200 credit over on the thread I started about the itinerary change: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=57084442#post57084442

Today is another pub lunch at Wheelhouse. Today’s menu includes fish and chips, traditional cottage pie, chicken curry, Scotch egg and salad, and sherry triple (which I think is a typo for trifle on the chalkboard). Once again, the line was long, stretching almost to the piazza. I checked the lunch menu in the dining room and decided against going there since DH is nursing a sore knee.

 

 

We did the early morning trivia with two of our teammates. The three of them went to the lecture: “Fascinating facts about the ocean.” He said it was a good nap. I played the airplane challenge. My planes flew well for distance but poorly for accuracy.

 

 

We met back up for the cruise-long trivia. Our lead is shrinking. I think the assistant cruise director had a wrong answer for one, just like he did this morning. It’s not worth fighting over. I played my limit on the slot machines, coming back with a little bit of a profit. I did not see my favorite machine from the Caribbean Princes: one called Spartacus. I never understood it, but it was fun. I did not understand the machine I played this afternoon either but did hit one nice win and a lot of little wins. I don’t understand the people who play the machines that don’t pay out little bits all along the way. I lose interest too quickly with them.

Yes, great info. Especially the 3 meals on offer in the MDR on sea days. Nice to know for folks booking TAs.

 

 

I think trivia would frustrate me with the suspicion that others already know the questions and answers. We often just play against each other rather than join a team. Thanks for sharing your enjoyment!