Just off Regal to Alaska

[mrdawson]

Just returned Wed from Regal's 1st Alaska trip this year....I'll review in a few different posts to keep it easy....

 

Embarkation...Pouring rain in SFO but only 2 minutes for luggage to porter and right in to terminal at 11:20. Lines were not too bad and was on the ship putting hand carries in Baja 236 by 11:55...so far so good!!!

 

Lunch in the main dining room at 12:45..with my first souffle for desert!!!!

 

Things were off to an excellent start.....Sailaway was good..the rain stopped and we were off...

 

2 days at sea, the first was a little rough but not too bad...

 

Ports:

 

Ketchikan....nice but wet as usual, still an enjoyable little town that my wife likes to jewelry shop in.

 

Juneau....Went whale watching with Capt. Larry...saw a humpback breach completely out of the water...in all we only saw 2 whales but Capt Larry said they are a little slow returning to Alaska this year. Also saw sea lions, eagles nests, eagles...For those of you wanting to know about the new boat, it will be arriving in late June and Capt Larry will take it. Capt Scott will take the Awesome Orca..Scot was with us as well as Larry and he has learned very well from Larry so don't worry if you go with Scott and not Larry. They are always in communication and will both know where the good viewing is to be found.

 

Skagway...Rented a car from Avis and drove to Carcross, saw emerald lake, had cinnimon buns, and the highlight was while driving up there we found a wolf lying by the side of the road checking everyone out, we stopped and got several excellent pictures of him.

 

More to follow...

 

 

Mike

[mrdawson]

Tracey Arm..It was 80 degrees for a few days prior to out arrival and Sawyer Glacier was calving like crazy...therefore we say lots of huge icebergs but were unable to get any where close to seeing the glacier. It is expected to be hot this summer so don't count on seeing Sawyer, you had better get your glacier fix at Mendenhaul in Juneau.

 

Victoria.....raining like mad...didn't get off the ship..just relaxed.

 

Food.....Pizza in Bravo's is excellent, Main dining was very good as well...King crab was excellent (had 2 servings) Lobster was good but very small (so I had 6, they came 2 to a plate : )...) I only ate once in the buffet and it was not bad, typical buffet food quality. Had awesome waiter Benji, he has a nice dry sense of humor.

 

Entertainment....The shows were OK...we went to 3 of the 5.

 

Lounges....Stop by the Adagio lounge and say hello to Beatta for us. She is from Poland and very funny, also Carlos in the Adagio is excellent as well. Tell them Mike and Gabriele who had the mother from Germany with them say hello!!!!

 

More soon

 

Mike

[mrdawson]

Disembarkation.....the usual hurry up and wait while they track down the last 3 or 4 morons who haven't paid their bill or haven't gone through immigration.....I had a thought about them while I was waiting to debark...if a few or a whole bunch of us would go down to wherever the late people have been paged to go to...pursers desk, immigration..when the names are called and wait for them to show up and publicly humiliate them and maybe even a swift kick in ?1#$, after a few cruises of this maybe it would stop happening...probably not..pardon my raving...it was pouring down raining, (again) my cruise was over, the next day I knew work would suck, and I had to wait an extra hour for some idiots to do what they were suposed to do 2 hours prior.... I feel better now..

 

Overall cruise rating....excellent...10 days of relaxation, great food, way too many berry, berri martinis. The 2 aft hot tubs on deck 11 were great, we have some nice pictures with the wife and I in them with huge icebergs in the background...In Tracey arm bring a plastic wine glass full of your favorite vino in it and head to the hot tubs..its a great spot to view everything.

 

Mike

[coiran]

The Regal is our favorite ship - we will be taking her to South America in February.

 

Ron

[mrdawson]

Regal is in fine shape regardless of her age, she shows it in a few spots but is still looking good.....A few more notes....wife won $525 in casino, that helped the bar tab...speaking of bar tab having only sailed previously with Celebrity I was most impressed with the very reasonable drink prices...i'LL HAVE ANOTHER BERRY BERRI MARTINI PLEASE!!! Also the WIFI connection in the attrium works reasonably well, its not very fast but is OK to download email and view offline, not very good for surfing. Also the computer officer Dave is very helpful if you need him, just ask for him at the pursers desk....I think this is enough rambling for now, If you have questions..just ask!!

 

Mike

[Sheebah]

Thank you for the hot tub tip and review. You mentioned rain in some ports, bot overall, how was the weather- cool enough for jackets in say...Juneau?

[ghgeckos]

Thanks for the review. I too am looking foward to my first souffle, princess makes them so well.

[bdjam]

Long live Regal Princess…:(

[mrdawson]

yes it was cool enough for a jacket, the 80 degree temps left the day b4 we arrived, it was in the upper 50's and low 60's the entire time we were there.

 

Mike

[cflutist]

Mr Dawson,

 

I am curious as to what the Balcony Cabins were like on the Baja Deck? We booked A175 for our cruise in May 2006. The brochure says "Teak capped steel bulkhead of the same height replaces balcony railing on Baja deck categories BB - BF". Does anyone know what this means?

 

Right now we are paying extra for the Aloha deck but will gladly downgrade to the Baja deck to save some money if I knew for sure we could see through the balcony railings without standing up.

[Druke I]

Steel bulkheads capped with teak - like the balcony cabins on Sun class, a bulkhead with teak railing on top, cut into the superstructure.. Unless you are tall and sit erect, you can't see out. Standing, no problem, unless you are very short or a young child.

 

Nice ship, the Regal Princess. We'll be on her again, 'round the Horn, Mar 06.

[cflutist]

Druke I,

 

Thanks for the info. I'll stay on the Aloha deck then.

[mrdawson]

You can see thru the railings on the balcony cabins on Baja deck...at least in mine you could. I could sit on my bed and see everything just fine.

 

Mike

[mrdawson]

Our cabin was B256 a BD cat cabin.

 

Mike

[Coral]

Hi,

 

Am on the Sun Princess for the last 2 weeks. We also heard about the wolf siting the first week as we were going to drive into the Yukon. We choose to wait until the second week to make the drive (hoping for a little better weather). On the 2nd week - many people we spoke to in Skagway and in the Yukon said that the wolf was actually a dog and it has been rescued.

[Arizdee]

Steel bulkheads capped with teak - like the balcony cabins on Sun class, a bulkhead with teak railing on top, cut into the superstructure.. Unless you are tall and sit erect, you can't see out. Standing, no problem, unless you are very short or a young child.

 

Nice ship, the Regal Princess. We'll be on her again, 'round the Horn, Mar 06.

Is the visibility problem while sitting on Baja veranda because of the top railing or because of a higher solid section along the bottom next to the deck?

[SharkieRools]

Who were the main officers/staff on the ship?

[Aprils22]

Hi Mike

Well reading your review made my day-- sailing on the Regal in July---- I will remember to have a berri berri martini for you--

I just hope that I might be as lucky as your wife in the casino

Cheers

April

[mrdawson]

And good luck in the casino...Have a great cruise!1

 

Mike

[SFParrtHd]

Who is the Captian and the Cruise Director? My wife and I are on the June 7th sailing.

 

Bob

[cflutist]

Bob,

 

Websailor and I are from Concord also. Late 40s/early 50s with no kids.

Too bad we are sailing on the Regal May 2006. Would have loved to have met you and your wife on your cruise this year.

[mrdawson]

Right now the Captain is Capt Mariano Manfuso and CD's name is JJ, Sorry, CD's don't interest me much so I don't keep up with their names and I can't remember his last name...but for CD's he was not too bad, kind of young 35 ish and from San Diego. I think he said he was transfering to Tahitian Princess in about 4 months

 

Mike

[SFParrtHd]

cflutist and websailor,

 

It is still not to late to meet. My wife and I are also sailing on the DAWN PRINCESS this Nov30th, San Francisco to Mexico and back. We are mid 50ish children grown and away from nest.

 

BOB and DONA

[mrdawson]

In SFO today....should be leaving right about now...can't get bridgecam to show up.....: (

 

Mike

[alwalaska]

Disembarkation.....the usual hurry up and wait while they track down the last 3 or 4 morons who haven't paid their bill or haven't gone through immigration.....I had a thought about them while I was waiting to debark...if a few or a whole bunch of us would go down to wherever the late people have been paged to go to...pursers desk, immigration..when the names are called and wait for them to show up and publicly humiliate them and maybe even a swift kick in ?1#$, after a few cruises of this maybe it would stop happening...probably not..pardon my raving...it was pouring down raining, (again) my cruise was over, the next day I knew work would suck, and I had to wait an extra hour for some idiots to do what they were suposed to do 2 hours prior.... I feel better now..

 

 

Mike

 

I don't understand. Do you go through immigration on the ship before you pick up your luggage and all off the ship? The only cruise we have taken was with Disney and you went through immigration after you got off the ship? Was the pursers office something like someone paying cash and not using a charge card or does everyone normally have to go to the pursers office at the end of a cruise?

 

Sorry to sound dense, I'm just wondering. We won't have anything scheduled immediately after disembarking, so I would rather sit back and relax and not fight with everyone else to get off immediately, but I don't want to make other people wait either by my not being there.