Waves of Blue

Royal is a direct clone of Regal .. so pictures were nice to see. Are the drink specials only for Elites ? We did have some drink specials in the MDR for $3 in tiny souveneir glasses (which I forgot on board) like lemoncello and some cream liquor thing I didn't want.

I hope your Retreat Pool evening had a better turnout than ours because it is just so perfect, like being invited to a South Beach party ! I was hoping for another, but they had a crew event there and I guess turnout was not so good. Our cruise should have had more evening stuff for the fairly young crowd including lots of families where parents might have had a date night out with kids in the kids center ! Only big turnout was for balloon drop dance party !

Pictures are lovely. Those grilled veggies were one of my 5pm snacks can't recall if I had them with a martini glass appetizer, the carved duck, the mussels and oysters, oh .. I miss the food !

Port = left, starboard = right (mostly for my benefit)

If you are heading north, I would pick starboard, particularly if you are cruising near the summer solstice with long days and some travel between ports during twilight (which can be hours long near June 21 at high latitudes). The scenery is especially stunning when you get north of Juneau. South of there, there may be islands on both sides of your route.

If you are heading south, I would pick port for same reason.

My experience is very much not cruising, but taking the Alaska State Ferry from Haines to Juneau, Juneau to Sitka to Juneau (no car, 3 days camping on Sitka, a few cruise ships in port), and then Juneau to Port Hardy, we then drove from Port Hardy to Victoria and ferried on to Seattle. Our travel agent was not happy with our 3am sail time out of Haines and she was absolutely right, I still have some memories of visions of pre-dawn glaciers on the mainland though which you may see from your correctly located cabin even if you can't stay up all night ! Sleeping on deck in a sleeping bag on a lounger .. big balcony ! Cafeteria was pretty dreadful.

Also spent 3 weeks camping in Alaska including actually seeing Denali (we spent 4 nights there in a campground too) and the northern lights.

I am really thinking I need to cruise Alaska, I would do one way and now I am thinking that it may be worth to sail June-July just for the long days rather than September. Princess spends a lot of time in port, which has some benefits (although some of those ports were fine to see in a 2 hour ferry stop, but this is 30 years ago), so less daytime cruising time.

One way primarily so I can spend some time in Alaska after the cruise, will likely rent a car although the train to Denali seemed nice and it is a long lonely drive up there ! Camping and cruising would make for a weird but possibly delightful combo.

Regal had most of the shady spots around them main pool outfitted with tables and chairs and even couches in the center. Some shady loungers at high noon might have been nice (there are other nooks and crannies, on 19 and in the grassy areas but families wanted to be near the pool).

Princess would be wise to follow the lead of doctors offices and buy some bariatric capable loungers and chairs. The chairs are basically love seats that can be used by skinnier people for that or for the larger or otherwise handicapped by one. A lounger maybe could be a cozy nook for a couple or a place for a larger person to lounge.

Gosh Princess moves those loungers and chairs a lot. Not sure why they can't keep any loungers out in the evening .. and my teen center son was looking for places to hang out and said they had put a lot of things away .. And at 6pm even in the Sanctuary which seemed like a nice outdoor bar for nighttime but only used once for a disco type event that was very poorly attended but seemed nice with a Miami Beach vibe.

There were plenty of young folks on our Spring Break cruise in beautiful long dresses and elegant men's evening wear. If people want the option of wearing more casual clothing, it would be nice to also allow people to dress up, whether for photos or fun or to get another wearing of a dress they bought and loved and only wore once, without reference to prom or criticism of formal wear that they may well have bought long ago, but if they like it how does it hurt you ?

Piazza filled with people dressed in evening wear was a special sight .. and I liked wearing my floor length sparkly dress too, with some more comfortable shoes.

Conditions will only improve by May, but access to areas that far east on St John was still questionable a few weeks ago. Your taxi driver would know or you can just drive as far as the roads will take you .. all beaches are nice on St John ...

Info is from ranger at the SJ visitors center, but she seemed a bit confused ...

Clearly internet is a $20-30 per day revenue source for all the non-Elite passengers. ***** has some features that may impress technophiles and maybe feed marketing some info or let someone optimize blanket distribution at MUTS.

And yes, if you sail away from your workforce, you probably have to stop work (can't have IT people cooking dinner and probably have lots of EU-East people lining up for the cruise jobs, need EU language skills, etc).

If internet is passing through the steel walls, you can hook ***** into that .. so other than the door iPads having power not sure I see an issue. Door iPads should be on the same side of the steel wall as you are .. Inside the cabin, again the internet can poll those devices. But maybe they were planning to use some line of sight or other technology and need to rethink that ... something else to do over the summer back at the developers labs and their engineers. Maybe they will lay out another ship slightly differently and then retrofit the Regal.

Not sure I need ***** that much .. but it will be fun to see what it can do besides open your door. In theory, marketing already knows everything you buy on board with your card, but I guess they don't know if you are eating or hanging out in the Piazza or sound asleep in your room (well they may know you have been in there for a long time due to key card activation).

On Regal only (I believe) :

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ocean-medallion/*****-preview-modules/free-messaging.html

We were offered 7 days of internet for $20 a day on up to 4 devices. Internet was fast.

I did not try free messaging and my son used the internet wifi for his phone, which was buzzing all the time.

I did not notice the free messaging before I agreed to buy the 7 days, but both son and I had things due during the cruise as well, mine needed a full internet connection.

Drinks consumption on our cruise seemed low ... Princess will add happy hours if their beverage revenues drop. The unlimited packages seems wildly high.

My son liked the mocktails but did not want to encourage himself to drink all those sugary beverages in the soda and more package (he's an athlete). I wish I had gotten a coffee card, the coffee was just OK at buffet and ice tea even worse. MDR coffee was very good, especially with those chocolate journeys !

Drinks of the day, including lemoncello and one of those cream liquor drinks were $3 and included a tiny souvenir glass. Guy came around the Horizon Buffet area with a pitcher one day during my 5 pm snack. Also saw a sign in the MDR. Never hurts to ask.

Better than nothing and certainly the bottle of wine I brought on board was nice to have.

From what I could tell on our April 1-8 Eastern Carribbean, there were few Medallions and the only cabins equipped with the new technology (an iPad type device to replace the scan card and your mailbox) were in the forward section and maybe only on 14 and 15 very furthest section, the only sections I walked through. Did not seem the Medallion people were either giddy with excitement or angry.

Again high speed WiFi was nice .. got a bit slower as more and more people jumped on. Pricing was $10 a day for 1 device, $30 a day for 4, with discount to $20 a day for 4 as you added more days .. so cheaper than advertised in our final few emails. I think my son might have streamed a movie or two, but definitely email and surfing on my phone was pleasant.

My guess is that the ***** will never be exciting, unless you like to be called by name or have a drink ready, but maybe it will help with tracking people on the ship to quickly adjust food or number or staff to help say escort people to their seats in theater. With the ship at 3950 people last week, including lots of 3rd and 4th people in bunks, there were still never crowds or lines of any appreciable length, but we did avoid trying to be the first ones off at port.

Eleuthera Adventures has a private excursion which someone on my ship said was fantastic. About $119 and includes drinks, transportation to Lighthouse Beach for many hours, and a grilled lunch, chicken, fish or conch.

Still free on 4/4 but with water on and snorkel rentals open, that could change any day. Giving $5 a day to the US national park service also would not have upset me .. not sure if they honor the annual pass for $80 ..

Best beach I have seen outside of Hawaii and Treasure Cay in the Abacos .. best snorkeling outside of Grand Cayman and the Abacos ...

If you end up on Kim Sha .. eat at the Greenhouse restaurant on the beach ,very good food with high reviews online .. 2 for 1 drinks so $4 for 2 Presidentes or Red Stripe or $8.50 for 2 mules .. etc.

There is also a supermarket on the main drag with smoothies and a food bar that looked good .. also smoothies at a drink bar.

Beach was pleasant .. but I would do a boat trip if I return .. it just wasn't spectacular (although coming after St John, was a tough thing to do to impress us). Lots of groups coming by in rental jeeps, ATVs, jet skis, etc. We got an awesome deal on just an umbrella for $5 rental .. so it was a low cost day.

We had a 10pm departure so did the same thing as Justprettynpink .. taxi to ferry to taxi. Rented snorkle equipment from shop upstairs in ferry dock. However, the snorkel rental at Trunk was open and also charging $10 a day for MFS and had vests too. Rest rooms and showers were opened, but they all close at 4:30pm, bathrooms locked and shower water turned off. There are several pavilions with shade, still missing the top of their roof and perfectly serviceable.

Cost is not insignificant ($10 +$8 + $6 = $24 per person ... each way). Cheaper to take the cruise ship on your own, but that only leaves you an hour or so at the beach. We were there for 3 hours ... Taxi ride on St Thomas will show you some devastation and even a big dump with sheet metal roofing .. but it's pleasant .. Taxi ride on St John is spectacular ride along the beach .. you can see a bit of what is left of Caneel Bay .. beaches are beautiful.

We also got sandwiches at North Shore Deli in Mongoose, they were excellent, wonderful bread.

Cruz Bay is a cute town and ready for business, with one restaurant on the beach, some other stores, smoothie shops, bars .. etc. Mongoose seemed to be the most upscale and was fully open.

Also note that power is off several times a day, except for the ATM, so bring cash (and no it is not a trick to not tell FEMA about income as some have suggested).

The beach is spectacular with views of other islands and a vast length of perfect soft white sand. Snorkeling was very good to excellent, you snorkel around Trunk Cay rocks where there are hundreds or maybe thousands of fish. Had to take a break when a busload (or 2) of people arrived, about 100 with an accompanying paddleboarder. Once they left, there were only a few people left. We took a 5:30 pm shuttle back to ferry got to Haversight at 7pm where all the stores were closed or closing so we boarded the ship and went to another fine free meal onboard.

Ship: Regal Princess

Class

Deck: 14

Stateroom # R516

Category IB (Guarantee)

Port/Starboard/Bow/Stern - Port Stern

Connects With Cabin # No

Accessible No

Quiet Yes

Balcony Size None

View None

Privacy Issues Center Door into Bedroom area

Wind N/A

Soot N/A

Problems

Comments - Nice Cabin, Large closet area outside bathroom

Like many engineering projects, I think the biggest mistake was allowing marketing to enhance the features before the product rolled out. But the system shows promise .. and having a digital ship is the right direction to go. Regal is the focus group, especially since only limited cabins have gone live. And there is always staff as a back-up.

Internet was very good for our entire journey and for a week, 4 devices for $20 a day .. which is higher than I would like, but my son was thrilled to keep up with his iPhone chats (ocean conceirge had a messenger which might allow iPhones to get free messages without the plan .. but not sure). Would be nice if it was free or cheaper, but seems like an essential upgrade for those of us who don't want to come back to work after a week or longer and not know what is going on ... or to not have the ability to weigh in on in progress work ..

We had the non-medallion room with the card needed to keep lights on .. any old hotel key card works really well.

The big digital screens were nice and the kids loved playing the games. The schedules were well organized, touch screens and scroll down for more, to the right to see future on that day and a day tab to see next days activities. And showed the time. I think the ship map one was different from the

The only thing is the app had some missing info, like live links to the maps ..

if they can control lines and even send up kitchen and wait staff to the buffet during peak periods .. great.

No mandatory photos on my cruise .. no need to spend any money at all other than tips ..

2nd formal night was much more casual than 1st formal night ..

Regal has this on the 2nd formal night and it kicked off a really fun dance party with Static our ship band. Kids insisted on popping the balloons, and some cried because they wanted to keep their balloons. Should have really kept them or the DJ in the Piazza until the wee hours, but it did send about 100 people to Club 6, which was a ghost town for much of our Spring Break cruise.

April 1 to 8 cruise, 700 youths under 12 .. full house.

If you hate dressing up, then just wear a nice dress or dress pants and a nice shirt, maybe a tie. Rather you didn't wear the I'm with Stupid t-shirt between 5pm and 11pm .. but it is your cruise.

However, on the first formal night, looking up at all the fancy dresses and suits in the Piazza standing on the grands stairs before the champagne waterfall was quite amazing.

And if you have something really fancy in the closet, this is the time to bring it out, maybe with some more comfortable shoes. Nothing would really be too fancy. Men in tuxes .. evening gowns ..

I brought casual and nicer wear and often wore the nicer things .. why not ? Laundry facilities are really nice and do have ironing equipment and a nice sink for hand washables.