Regal 9/9/17 Transatlantic Patters and Menus

I'm just off the Regal's TA cruise from Copenhagen to New York. I am posting the Patters and dinner menus to my personal website, http://www.stonejongleux.com/. Day 1 is up and I hope to do one a day.

Along the way, I'll post some comments about the cruise. To get it started, I'll start with I was very unimpressed with the Captain (Fabrizio Maresca) and his inability to adequately communicate how we were being affected by Hurricane Jose. His announcements were infrequent and tended to raise more questions than they answered. Leaving Cobh on Friday 9/15 bound for Boston on Thursday after five scheduled sea days, we were aware Jose was out there but unless you used your Internet minutes, little information was available on TV. But early the evening of 9/16, those of watching the moving map on our TVs saw a 20 degree left course change. But nothing was announced.

Late the next morning, Sunday 9/17, the captain made a ship-wide announcement that we would not be stopping at Boston or Newport. But he said nothing about what we would do instead (two more sea days? an alternate port?) nor what route we were taking to avoid Jose.

A few hours later, we turned 30 degrees right and were now pointed at Halifax. But no announcement. Were we going to Halifax instead? Was Boston back on? Rumors started to run around the ship. The next evening, it was a 40 degree turn back to the left to point us at Florida. And finally another announcement but only to say we would arrive in New York a day early and that a couple of weather maps showing the probable track and expected waves were made available on a screen in the ship and on TVs. But nothing about route or conditions we might experience (while the map indicated we should expect heavier seas, without knowing the planned route, it was of limited use).

Throughout the day on 9/19, rumors continued to flow. We were going to Manhattan on Friday. We were going to Manhattan on Friday but CBP was not available so we'd be confined to the ship. Or maybe something else. Not a word from the bridge the entire day other than the routine noon position announcement. Lots of grumbling about the lack of good information from him. And he had to know or should have known all the rumors flying about - unchecked rumors going around a ship can lead to a bad situation.

Finally, late the morning of 9/20, he was on the P.A. again and came the confirmation that we were going to Manhattan, everyone would need to go through Immigration clearance there, and that we would reposition to Brooklyn overnight for our scheduled arrival in Brooklyn. And then another day and half of silence from him despite the seas we were encountering (not bad enough to stop services other than closing the Promenade and decks 18 and above) - not a word about how long they were expected to last. Still watching the map, we could see us continue southwesterly until we were abeam North Carolina before starting to turn back north. But unless you watched the map, you had no idea where we were as nothing was being said.

Other than those few announcements and his appearance at the Champagne Waterfall (1st formal night while crossing the North Sea from Norway to Scotland), we was invisible. He was not at our Captain's Circle reception. I realize that dealing with the hurricane was his priority but information does not change so fast (not when it's still five days in front of you) that you need to lock yourself away. You get the information, you act on it, and then you wait for new information. I've had better information come from an airline captain dealing with a dead engine and that's a much more time critical situation.

I'm sure some people weren't bothered by the lack of information. I was. He may be a very competent ship handler. But as a communicator to his passengers and crew, he was a dud.

We were with you on the cruise and were disappointed with the dropping of Boston on 9/22 but assumed it was for the safety of the ship.In the airport on 9/23 we were talking to a couple that had sailed on NCL and they told us of their lovely day in Boston,on 9/22, where we should have been!

I've talked with a couple of people who were on your cruise. They said there was great communication from the bridge... except that the Captain has a very strong Italian accent and he could be hard to understand.

They said he made several announcements over days, sometimes multiple announcements in one day.

You missed all of them? Also, regular updates were given on the television channel.

I've talked with a couple of people who were on your cruise. They said there was great communication from the bridge... except that the Captain has a very strong Italian accent and he could be hard to understand.

They said he made several announcements over days, sometimes multiple announcements in one day.

 

You missed all of them? Also, regular updates were given on the television channel.

Multiple announcements in one day? Nope. He made three announcements regarding the itinerary changes - Sun 9/17 at 11:04 announcing we would skip Boston and Newport, Mon 9/18 at 18:54 announcing we would arrive in New York Friday morning, and Wed 9/20 at 11:00 announcing more details of the New York arrival. How do I know the times in that detail? Becasue they're in the Log of the Cruise (and those three times match my memory).

There certainly were other announcements (e.g. noon position report, sales in the shops, etc.) but none from the Captain.

Updates on the television? Yes, they put two NOAA weather charts there once a day. But that was it. Of course there was the moving map - that let us see major course changes that received no explanation from the captain including almost 24 hours of, after announcing we weren't going to Boston, turning back towards Boston only to turn away again. Never an announcement as to what our course would be - if you didn't see it on the moving map, you would have no knowledge that we went as far south as we did.

Perhaps this met other people's idea of great communications but I stand by what I've said and I give him an F on passenger communications. Given a choice, I would NOT sail with this captain again.

Day 2 (Aarhus) is up.

Today's comment is the casino. I had come prepared to give $2 to 3,000 in action (total bets, not total bankroll - 100 hands of Blackjack at $10 per hand would be $1,000 of action). But then I found that all the Blackjack tables (other than the $25 table which I never saw open) now paid 6 to 5 on blackjacks rather than 3 to 2. Nope. In the end, I never played in the casino other than the CC slot pull.

If you're not a Blackjack player, you probably don't realize how big a deal this is. With a 3 to 2 pay on blackjacks and a player playing perfect basic strategy, the house edge is a little over 0.5%. Give $1,000 in action and you can expect to lose a little over $5. But pay only 6 to 5 and the house edge increases about 1.5% to over 2%. Now give $1,000 in action and you can expect to lose a little over $20 (another way to look at it is if you're betting $10 per hand, the casino is now charging you a 15 cents per hand fee to play).

Throw in that many cruise ship blackjack players are very bad (do not play anything close to perfect basic strategy) and the ships already had a license to print money (I've seen some horrendous play by big bettors on ships). So to go to 6 to 5 is just plain greed. And I think the players noticed as I saw very little blackjack being played (much less than on my two previous cruises when it was still 3 to 2).

I could have played craps but chose not to. They haven't messed that game up yet but the table was only open in the evenings (the other tables games have even worse house edges). In the end, we spent more time listening to the lounge musical entertainers, an area we've neglected in the past and for the most part excellent.

I've talked with a couple of people who were on your cruise. They said there was great communication from the bridge... except that the Captain has a very strong Italian accent and he could be hard to understand.

They said he made several announcements over days, sometimes multiple announcements in one day.

 

You missed all of them? Also, regular updates were given on the television channel.

Nope, agree with OP, not many announcements by captain at all. Also, no information on the TV channel. OP is totally correct in his comments.

Day 2 (Aarhus) is up.

 

Today's comment is the casino. I had come prepared to give $2 to 3,000 in action (total bets, not total bankroll - 100 hands of Blackjack at $10 per hand would be $1,000 of action). But then I found that all the Blackjack tables (other than the $25 table which I never saw open) now paid 6 to 5 on blackjacks rather than 3 to 2. Nope. In the end, I never played in the casino other than the CC slot pull.

 

If you're not a Blackjack player, you probably don't realize how big a deal this is. With a 3 to 2 pay on blackjacks and a player playing perfect basic strategy, the house edge is a little over 0.5%. Give $1,000 in action and you can expect to lose a little over $5. But pay only 6 to 5 and the house edge increases about 1.5% to over 2%. Now give $1,000 in action and you can expect to lose a little over $20 (another way to look at it is if you're betting $10 per hand, the casino is now charging you a 15 cents per hand fee to play).

 

Throw in that many cruise ship blackjack players are very bad (do not play anything close to perfect basic strategy) and the ships already had a license to print money (I've seen some horrendous play by big bettors on ships). So to go to 6 to 5 is just plain greed. And I think the players noticed as I saw very little blackjack being played (much less than on my two previous cruises when it was still 3 to 2).

 

I could have played craps but chose not to. They haven't messed that game up yet but the table was only open in the evenings (the other tables games have even worse house edges). In the end, we spent more time listening to the lounge musical entertainers, an area we've neglected in the past and for the most part excellent.

Although I have seen horrible play on most ships,I played so little on this cruise that it didn't much matter.I did have to get up when a player split 10's against a dealers 10.

Also agree with OP--communication from the Captain was very poor. We went to the front desk for info. Should not have had to do that. Not only did the Captain say little, his accent was quite heavy.

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Thanks for sharing.

Although I have seen horrible play on most ships,I played so little on this cruise that it didn't much matter.I did have to get up when a player split 10's against a dealers 10.

OMG!!! :loudcry:. I'd only try that in their tournaments if I was forced to gun for as much money as I could get to qualify and was under the gun with not enough rounds left. That is otherwise a suicide move.

But this 6:5 payout sucks huge. I'd rather play Hold 'Em at the poker table.

I get irked when someone is hitting under 17 against dealer's 6 or 5. Then I figure if two people are playing badly, maybe they cancel each other out.

What annoys me is you have to go up to the higher stakes table - like min $25 - to get decent play.

Days 3 (Kristiansand) and 4 (Sea Day) are up.

Today's comment is Entertainment. In the past, we tended to only pay attention to lounge entertainment when we went to a lounge for a drink. This time, we went to lounges to hear the entertainers first and have a drink (not often) second. Regal had what I now realize is its full complement of lounge entertainers - a piano vocalist (Liam Stewart), a guitar vocalist (Phillipa Cookman), a string group (Trio Ad Libitum - piano, violin, and cello), a classical pianist (Tetiana Karmatska), and two small banks - what they called the party band (Real Deal) and what for lack of a better term I'll call the rock band (Randy Heddon Quartet). The party band is the one that would typically play a lot on the pool deck when weather is conducive which was not this cruise.

Our favorite was the string trio - would have loved to take them home to play pre-dinner music for us. :-) On the other end, the classical pianist was technically proficient but seemed to have no passion for the music she was playing - it was just too mechanical. But all were enjoyable for listening.

In the Princess Theater, we had a wide variety. They're down to three production shows (Spectacular has been retired and they were rehearsing behind closed doors a new Stephen Schwartz show (NOT Magic To DO but another Schwartz show) that will officially debut with the start of Ocean Medallion but they said would start previews in early October (just like Broadway shows, previews are public performances prior to the official opening and for reviewed shows, by convention, the show is not reviewed until the official opening as previews are also the opportunity to make changes based on audience reaction) - I believe I heard 10/6 as the first performance so it sounds like the 9/30 cruise may get it on the last night).

Other Princess Theater shows were Comedian John Martin, Vocalist Paul Baker (two different shows on two different nights), Tribute Act Beatlemaniacs (plus a Piazza show the next night), Comedian David Copperfield (a different David Copperfield than the magician), Magician Aidan Murphy, Comedian/Musician John Bressler, and Vocalist Michelle Montouri (both John and Michelle did unscheduled second shows later due to Boston being skipped and not getting the planned acts on-board). We saw all of them except the opening night show (conflicts with late TD) and Michelle Montouri's second show (it was the last night when we were in port in Manhattan - she did just a single show that night).

Many evenings had a 9pm Vista Lounge show: both of the production show female vocalists did solo shows, Chelsea Coyne (the guest vocalist in production show Bravo) did a solo show, the Randy Heddon Quartet did two special shows there, and piano vocalist Liam Stewart did a show.

Of course, there was MUTS but the only things we watched there were two of the afternoon concert videos (Pink and Billy Joel) - both times finding an overhang to sit under in the rain while being two of at most half-a-dozen people that appeared to be watching.

Days 5 (Greenock) and 6 (Belfast) are up.

Today's comment is Dining. We ate late traditional (all 14 nights) and the service of excellent. We had a waiter and asst. waiter who worked very well together and were extremely attentive. We could routinely have dinner in 1:15 to 1:30 as we were rarely having to wait for the next course to be served.

Unfortunately, that wasn't true of the MDR for breakfast and lunch where things seemed to drag (on days we were tight for time, we made the mistake of assuming a table for two would be faster until we realized that a group of four two-tops gets served as if it's a single eight-top (take orders from all four at once and then bring each course to each one before moving on to the next step). But none the less, we do prefer to be served rather than the buffet.

I think the venue totals for us, in addition to the 14 MDR dinners, we 12 MDR and 2 Horizon Court breakfasts and 6 MDR, 4 Alfredo's, 1 International Cafe, and 3 on-shore lunches.

All Patters and menus from Regal Princess's 2017 WB TransAtlantic cruise are now up on my website: http://www.stonejongleux.com

I've talked with a couple of people who were on your cruise. They said there was great communication from the bridge... except that the Captain has a very strong Italian accent and he could be hard to understand.

They said he made several announcements over days, sometimes multiple announcements in one day.

 

You missed all of them? Also, regular updates were given on the television channel.

I was on this cruise also and I agree with the OP. There were 3 announcements made by the captain about the change in itinerary. Communication was lacking on this cruise. We should have been informed much more frequently as to where the ship was in relation to Jose and we should have been given information that we could understand about the wind in the height of the waves. I saw the maps that they put on television but I don’t think they were any help at all.

Transferred from another topic:

How long did the ship dock in Manhattan on 9/22? That was an extended sea day after missing Boston!

We docked in Manhattan at 8am, all aboard was 11:59pm, but we didn't actually depart until 4am docking in Brooklyn at 6am.

Enough time to go around Manhattan area then. Thanks for the response.

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Enough time to go around Manhattan area then. Thanks for the response.

There were ship's shore excursions available. We went next door to the Intrepid in the morning (all passenger had to disembark and pass through Immigration since this was the first U.S. port and no one could re-embark until everyone was off (zero-count procedure)). We then went back to the ship for lunch. Then we did our own version of an excursion the ship was offering - walk across the Brooklyn Bridge - ship wanted $80/pp for the bus transportation. I did it for $5.50 per person - walk to 8th Avenue, subway to Brooklyn Heights, walk across the bridge, subway back to Times Square, walk back to the ship. But I grew up in northern New Jersey and know the city and the subway very well.