lor74

Have a wonderful cruise!

Sounds like a pretty good day!

FYI, the main pool is adults only. There is a staff guy with a whistle who keeps children away (they are allowed in the hot tubs), he also keeps adults with drinks out of the pool. On our cruise there was constant live music by the pool which was great.

Awesome review, eagerly awaiting more. Great pics, I am so hungry!!!

On our last b2b, we changed the bar both weeks for a total of 3 unmarked coffee cards and 10 bottles of water

my end goal is 200lbs without a lot of muscle gain or up to 220 if I should really get into the weight lifting again.

Good luck with your weight loss :)

Follow up to the diet/exercise theme:

13 days "clean" prior to the cruise = 7lbs weight loss

16 days "dirty" while on vacation, followed by a few days back to "normal" with no exercise = 4lbs gain

As of today I am down 3lbs for 2016. I will call January a big success :)

enjoy the rest of your cruise! How I miss the Regal :(

Photos have been posted to Flickr. There are 2 albums....patters/mdr menus & misc/food pics

https://www.flickr.com/photos/98631961@N04/albums

We used uber for our last 2 cruises in Miami and Fort Lauderdale...it saved us time and money. Highly recommended!!!

I used it to and from the terminal for the cruise I just got off of. Going there from the hotel, I just put in port Everglades, and told the driver which terminal to go to once in the car. Leaving from the terminal, the uber app gps knew we were at terminal 2

Uber...obviously the first thing you need as an Internet connection on your phone. When you open the app it gps' to your location, so the pickup point is already set. Just choose a destination and then you can get an estimate on the price. When you actually confirm your uberx, it will show you the picture of the driver and make of car, with the estimate of arrival time. For pickup at the port, we just walked to the private pickup area, which is in the front before you reach the doors to enter the terminal...not the side where the taxis and baggage guys are. While Ro stayed on the sides with the bags, I just walked to the beginning of that zone so I could catch the car as soon as he entered the area....to make sure he didn't drive right past us to the wrong area. Your uber account should be setup in advance of leaving your house, with your picture and credit card. If this would be your first time using uber, there are referral codes out there.....a Google search will give you a lot of results. Mine is lorens335ue

We chose the early walk-off. We did not need to get off the ship early, but we prefer to handle our own luggage and leave when we are ready. It was between 8:30 - 9am when we decided to leave. We were off the ship in a matter of seconds, then waited around 15 minutes to clear customs. We used Uber to get to the airport, it cost $9.80

I have another story I need to share. After dinner tonight (salad, chicken, turkey, potatoes, cake), I noticed there was a mistake on our account...bracelets that we bought earlier did not have the 10% elite discount applied. We went back to the table where they were being sold, and told the woman who sold them to us about the problem. She found the receipt and went to get a manager to make the correction. When her and the manager came back, another couple and their friend were also there looking at the items on the table. At that moment someone passed some serious wind....I'm talking about 2 day old baby diaper left in the sun kinda stench! We assume it was the large older gentleman. The following all happened within seconds of each other: as the manager starts to make the correction on the computer, he makes a disgusted looking face, then the friend of the couple says something to them and disappears, then another worker at the other end of the table covers his face, and then the smell hits us, and we cover our faces and back away. The poor manager and the sales woman are stuck in the fog for several minutes as they are working on my receipt and also dealing with stinky who is buying something. Ro and I had backed away about 7 feet and are laughing while trying to find clean oxygen. The other guy at the table is making faces also looking for clean air, and when we made eye contact, we both lost it. I am trying not to make a scene laughing, and he has to walk away from the table completely. We stayed on his side of the table, and knowing what we were avoiding, the manager gave the guy the new proper receipt to punch up, and walked away with a smile on his face. While completing the order, the dude says to me "omg, that was bad!" [emoji40]

We are checked in for our flight and our bags are almost packed. Last year when we got home it was -30C, I think tomorrow it is going to be +4. What a difference a year makes!

Sigh, our 2 weeks are just about finished [emoji33]. This has been a good "Princess" cruise. I define a "Princess" cruise as one with exceptional service, good food and while the entertainment might not be as good as some of their competition, there is not a lack of things to do. The biggest negative from this trip has been the weather. It has not been horrible and there were no complete rain outs, but we have been blessed with mainly great weather throughout our years at sea, so hot & sunny skies are an expectation for us. Our deluxe balcony cabin is E721. This aft starboard cabin is a few from the back of the ship, and is directly over the Vista lounge. I had concerns that there would be noise pollution in our room at night, but there was none. I thought it was happening one night, but that was short lived, and I now think it probably was coming from another cabin. We had enough room for all of our stuff. Alex, our cabin steward has been great. We had 2 technical problems in the room, with a socket not working and a burnt out light. Both were resolved within 24hrs. I had the issue with the laundry service, but that was also quickly resolved. We have only had excellent service all around, in all departments. We have both been very happy with the food. With the exception of one lunch at Alfredo's, and 2 dinners at the CG, all of our meals have been in the Horizon Court. The huge buffet offers enough selection to keep us satisfied, but the best feature is the inner section with the vegetables, fruit, cheese, breads, seeds, nuts, etc. On every other cruise we have been on with the exception of the Regal last year, you could not expect to have the same selection of vegetables every night. Some items would be available one night and not the next, while as the week would progress, the kitchen would run out of stuff as well, or you would see the progression of the lettuce going bad. During these 2 weeks I was able to have my huge salads with every meal, and the items were just as fresh looking on the last day as the first. I would be able to come back on board and eat completely vegetarian for the entire cruise...this would sound pretty insane to anyone who knows me well....but that is how good the vegetarian options are....maybe a piece of lamb would sneak its way in [emoji56]. The entertainment was typical "Princess". We did not participate much, but that is because at this point in our travels, we do our own thing on our own schedule. The cruise had a very good participation rate for most events, and the general vibe of the ship has been a positive one.

We have 2 complaints:

1 - the wifi is not good enough. I can only complain a little about this since we get it as a free perk, but I feel bad for anyone who actually pays for it. It "works" to do a specific task such as reading email or doing a specific search. I was able to make calls with the Convoi app, but it would take multiple attempts to initiate a call, and once connected there was a 2-3 second delay. Most of my time was lost while watching the circle spin as I was waiting for a page to load or email headers to download. The other day my father sent me "dad spam".... I was watching that circle spin for a long time, and thought it was just the connection being even worse than normal....until the email finally came in.....***** he cced me on an 8mb MP4 joke....thanks dad! Next time I will remind him not to send me his junk while I am out of town!!!

2 - the other complaint is the lack of live music by the pool. This is where we spend most of our time, and It seems like there is less action with every new Princess cruise we take. All those years of live Caribbean music are a thing of the past. On this ship we got the steel drum guy a couple of times and the DJ a couple of times...they might as well not have been there, as they were both completely ignored. Rhapsody is the band that generally plays in the Atrium. It would have been great to have them at the pool everyday, but they only come out for deck parties.

In general I did pretty well with controlling my food consumption and getting the exercise in. The first week was fairly easy, but on the second I loosened up on the eating. Aside from breakfast pastries, I did not limit my dessert intake at all...I have never eaten so many sweets in my life....in the past I would rather have had more of my main course instead of dessert, but now that my habits have changed, a piece of pie or cake holds a lot more value.

While I did not run everyday, I did swim on 13/14 and ended with 710 laps. I will do my final weigh in on Wed morning.

My Flickr link should be ready on Monday for pics of all the patters and random shots of food and sea.

I think that is it, unless anyone has any questions....

It was a very good/long sea day under the sun. Dinner was salad, veal ravioli, mushroom pizza, potatoes and spinach lasagna. After that we walked around...I won an Effy raffle [emoji183]. It is an early night for both of us.

Today feels like the last day of our cruise. I am tired and have no idea what the date is. I turned on the tv and couldn't understand why CNBC had nothing on...oh, it is Saturday. It is cool and windy right now. Looks like it will be a partly cloudy day, but I think the wind will stay with us all day. Breakfast was my usual plus an extra hash brown, a cheddar biscuit, and a slice of walnut French toast. The morning will be talking by the pool....at this point I don't even know if I will get the laps in. Need to go check in for our flight in a few hours...

Lunch started with a slice of pepperoni and a slice of mushroom pizza. This was followed by a mega salad topped with lamb. Been in the pool multiple times. The lido is jammed, it is a perfect sea day! [emoji274]

50 laps are done. So far the weather is great. Pool area is full. I just watched an old bitty steal someone's chair...she did not give a ***. Inside Out is on MUTS again. Time for a nap

We went to the IC and got coffees. I had my donut, numnumnum! Up to the pool, and there are towel reservations everywhere....or are there...a supervisor was walking around removing all towels that did not have any belongings with them [emoji106]🏻. We got our usual spots. I am tired all over, so I will get to the swimming later. I just finished breakfast, which included: my 2nd omelet and few pieces of bacon for the trip, potatoes, my first bagel, and a banana. As of now it is a nice day, and will probably be very hot later on[emoji28]

Right after the last post it started to rain,but then the sun came back, followed by the clouds, and then the rain again...hey look, a rainbow [emoji304]. Overall it was a good day and we were in and out of the pool. I threw in another 50 laps for good measure. We had another great meal at the Crown Grill....salad, shrimp, soup, lobster, steak....always good!

We have 2 days at sea to end the trip. It should be warm today with clouds. Hopefully the sun will stick around and we won't get those crazy winds again. I am looking at today as my last chance to eat whatever I want. I try not to go crazy on the last day because I don't like going into a travel day feeling stuffed, bloated, etc. I have yet to have a chocolate glazed donut...I think that will be my first stop today [emoji507]

After a light breakfast, I decided that I would do my own solo beach excursion on foot. It was hot and sunny at that moment. I went down to the cabin...FYI, it is 149 steps between 16 & 8....how many times have I done that in the past 2 weeks....I put on a good amount of sun block and got all my stuff organized. As I am about to head to the gangway, I realize that my hat is in Ro's bag at the pool. I go back up and ***!, it is totally grey outside and very windy like a couple of days ago. In a matter of minutes the climate had totally changed. I was so upset!!! At that moment it did not look like the rest of the day would be any good. Ro got herself dried up, and we got off to walk around the shops and take a few pics. While doing this, the clouds went away just as fast as they appeared, and it was once again totally sunny and hot! We didn't buy anything, and I was soaked by the time we got back on the ship. With my sun screen running all over my face, I decided it would not be a good idea to walk all the way to the beach just so I could do a little swimming. When we got back to the Lido deck, I dropped off my stuff and went in to grab some lunch. By the time I got back outside with my plate of food, the dark clouds were back and there was a mist in the air....it is going to be one of those days.....it is a mix of sun & cloud now. Lunch: big salad plate topped with couscous & pieces of lamb. It was quite good. We have a 6:30pm reservation at the CG tonight, and I do not want to spoil my appetite. I will be going back in the pool shortly.

We arrived early and the ship was cleared around 7am. It is currently a nice day, but the captain said some thick cloud might roll in and stick around. I decided the beach is too far a walk to do first thing, so into the pool I went. My feet and arms are tired from yesterday's run, but with the sun already shining on the pool, I was motivated to be done my 50 as fast as possible. Around 12 minutes later, I am drying off in the shade. I hope to do an ocean swim a little later.

It was hot and sunny with a few clouds throughout the day, and we were in St Thomas until 7:30pm. Lunch was a cheeseburger with a few fries, and I also went for a large salad with a lamb wrap. The day was spent going in and out of the pool with Ro. It was around 5pm when I decided to go to the gym. I did 40 minutes on the treadmill, and it was probably the best treadmill run I have ever had. Dinner: salad, onion ring, wedge fries, warm potato salad, chicken/turkey/veal schnitzel. Dessert was a sampling of cakes and some peanuts. We then had a coffee while listening to the classical quartet in the atrium.

Tomorrow we have an early (7:30am) start in St Maarten. Maybe I will walk straight to the beach for my morning laps. The forecast is hot n sunny.

*story*. So around mid day an older woman (60s?), occupies the lounge chair next to me which had been unused all day. She proceeded to make multiple calls on her cell phone to basically anyone in her contacts list, so she can whine about the crappy cruise she is having. As she is making these calls, she is oblivious to the evil eye that myself and the guy on her other side are giving her. Maybe if I share her story with you guys, I will be able to forget about it 🤔: " I am with the VTG singles group, and I don't like any of the guys. They all ask where you are from, and are not interested at all if you do not live near them. You should see how all these tramps dress, all of their boobs are practically hanging out! I am sharing a cabin with this woman from Buffalo...so she is stupid because she is from Buffalo. I got these invitations to some sort of cocktail, so I went and left one for this other woman. Let me tell you, she yelled that she wouldn't use an invitation that had someone else's name on it. Who cares, just use it...she got so loud...Buffalo, stupid and no manners. I am done traveling with other women! It is so hot out! I wanted to go shopping, and went out in shorts. Omg, it is so hot, I had to turn around and go back to the ship. It is too hot, I can only imagine how unbearable it must be in July! The food is really good on this ship! The singles dining time is 8pm. If I ate a heavy meal at that time, they would need to roll me off the ship! I go earlier and pick at the buffet, then at dinner, I just eat a string bean."

On the 5th call of her telling this same story, it can be added " this guy is yelling at me to get off the phone....I am

sitting on a lounger by the pool. Whisper, whisper, whisper."

On the 5th call I lost it and asked her to go talk somewhere else. I was totally ready to rip into her, but after she finished her call in low whispers, she got up and left without saying another word. I can still hear her complaining in my head [emoji36]

I woke up tired today. It is a nice day with some clouds. I jumped into the freezing pool a little later than normal, but did my 50 laps in only 15 minutes. After drying off we went ashore to do some shopping. BI was on the hunt for a bottle of scotch for a friend. I had already identified the best store to get it the last time we were here. Sure enough, they were still the cheapest that I found in the complex. I think the name of the shop is Caribana. They are located close to the street near the Harley Davidson store.

Back on the ship I had a light breakfast. Time to put my swim suit back on and lotion up...it is a hot one [emoji41]

* I have dropped 2lbs since yesterday. I think I will probably go home +5. I can live with that considering the low that I had started with.

Today ended up being an "off" day for me. After a light breakfast, I went to my usual spot by the pool. The wind was fierce and did not let up all day. Peanuts was on MUTS again. I eventually got fed up with the wind and left the deck. I thought I might have better luck on the balcony, but the sun & the wind had me swearing to myself. I had a tired feeling for most of the day which had me kinda cranky....a side effect of last nights over eating. I went to the casino and had zero luck so that did not last long. I ended up skipping lunch today except for a small plate of Waldorf salad from the IC, and an iced coffee. I handed in my future cruise form and the debarkation questionnaire. I had to go to the pursers desk because of a problem with the laundry we had got back...my 4 pairs of black underwear were completely discoloured. When I told the person at the desk, her manager told her to point out to me the fine print on the laundry form which states that they are not responsible for colour damage. With this being said, she still had me fill out an incident report. A few hours later I received a call that my report had been looked at, and my account has been credited with the value that I put down for the clothes. I am happy that this was resolved so quickly, and was not surprised by the outcome. I have always been impressed by Princess' customer service. I eventually went back to the pool to say hi to Ro, who was parked under the sun....takes a little more than 30 knot winds to make her move! After chatting with her I went back into the shade. The Avengers came on to MUTS. I stayed for a little bit longer and then went back to the cabin for a nap. I tried not to eat to much for dinner. I had: salad, onion soup, a few potatoes, piece of chicken, piece of veal and a little pasta. We went to the IC for dessert, where I had a blueberry tart and some nuts. We watched the beginning of the champagne waterfall. Someone had proposed right before it started. We then went to the theatre where vocal impersonator Travis Turpin was performing. We walked out on his 3rd song.

It looks like tomorrow will be a nice day in St Thomas. I look forward to it!