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Soloing the Caribbean: Live from the Regal - 22 Jan to 05 Feb 2017

Croptop

By Croptop,
in Princess Cruises

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Kenosha Cruiser

Kenosha Cruiser

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Croptop, thanks for posting the Princess Patter. I see Billy Hygate is the cruise director. I had heard Kelly Rose would be the CD when we board on Feb. 12th. The information I received was correct about the commodore (Giuseppe Romano) being with us. He is a very approachable and nice captain. Hope you have the chance to meet him. Enjoy your cruise and I will be following your journey.

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

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Croptop

Croptop

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Another update from the bridge: apparently the power outage was due to a fire in one of the power plants in the port. It sounds like things have finally been resolved and there are about 300 passengers left to embark.

 

Muster drill has been pushed from 1515hrs to 1545hrs and our estimated departure time is 1630hrs or thereabout.

 

In the meantime, I've had a nice tour of the ship (she's very different from the Princess ships I've cruised on before) from stem to stern. I submitted my Future Cruise Deposit form - tip: you can do it online with the Princess@Sea pages instead of filling out the paper form - and I've booked my table for the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. I was going to take a peek at the Sanctuary but the line up to get in was longer than I was willing to bear.

 

Just the muster drill to get through and then this vacation can truly begin.

 

Must resist the urge to hit the buffet.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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Croptop

Croptop

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Day 1: Continued.

 

As predicted, muster drill was held at 1545hrs. Nothing really new to report here. If you've done a Princess muster drill before, you know what happens. Once that was done, it was back to my cabin to drop off my life preserver and then up to the Sun deck (just aft of the radar domes) to watch the sail away.

 

Of the 5 ships in port today (Caribbean Princess, Regal Princes, Celebrity Silhouette, and ships from HAL and RCI whose names I didn't jot down), the CB was the first to slip and proceed through the channel and out to sea with repeated baritone blasts of her horn, answered shortly thereafter by the Silhouette who was next to sail. By 1630hrs, it was our turn, announced by those familiar opening bars of The Love Boat theme thundering out from the Regal's horns. I've heard them before from afar but it's ear splitting up on deck 18. Even the strong winds from the west did nothing to mitigate the volume of the blasts.

 

Once we were out to sea, I did a quick circuit of the Lido deck to check things out and then it was back to my cabin to change for dinner. With so many of the passengers enthralled with the NFL game on MUTS, I figured it would be a good night to check out the chaos that is the main dining room for those of us in steering with neither Club Class nor Traditional Dining privileges.

 

Tonight's mission: show up at the Symphony dining room and see how long it take to get a table for one. For tonight, I dined with the seniors; I showed up at 1730hrs, asked for table for one and was seated right away at a two-top. Service was fast and friendly, and the butterflied shrimp appetiser and prime rib main was quite good. And, for those of you keeping track, there was a butter dish on the table (four pats if that matters) but there were no brioche in the bread basket - I should probably start a new thread! I skipped dessert and coffee and, thus, was done and out of the dining room by 1800hrs. What can I say? Meals go fast when you dine by yourself and don't have to waste any time on idle chit chat.

 

(Minor interruption for an incoming phone call. Cripes! Even at sea, I'm beset by wrong numbers!)

 

Of course, I realise that dining at 1730hrs is pretty damn early -- it's even prior to Traditional's first seating at 1745 -- but with the early start to the day I was hungry early. I'll try various times throughout the cruise to compare the crowds. Tomorrow is 1st formal night and I decided to skip formal nights on this trip so I'll be hitting the Crown Grill instead. But on Tuesday, I'll wait to dine at 1830hrs to see how the lines shake out.

 

At the risk of sounding dull, I skipped the Welcome Aboard show and just retired to my stateroom to relax a bit and unwind. With all the wandering around Ft. Lauderdale yesterday and the exploring of the ship today, I'm whipped. The clocks go forward an hour tonight for some reason. Oh well, it's a sea day tomorrow so I've got nowhere to be (although I want to make it to the stretch and ab classes tomorrow morning at 0700hrs in the fitness centre).

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jrzebird

jrzebird

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Just a mention that, unless you have a plan I'm unaware of, or you're a millionaire, turn off your cell phone. Not just off, but put it on Airplane mode and turn off your data. Otherwise, you are going to be VERY unpleasantly surprised. I'm sure you know this, and perhaps the wrong number was on your stateroom phone, but I almost fell out of my chair when I read that.

 

Anytime dining isn't steerage. LOL. You probably could have gotten into Traditional if you had gone to see the Maitre'd today. Maybe you still can. Do you really want to eat alone? I find that meeting new people is a big part of the fun.

 

Also, aren't you going to the Meet and Greet, which I presume is tomorrow? So you do have some place to go to tomorrow!

 

Enjoy!!!

 

Maureen

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caribill

caribill

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Then it was off to Alfredo's for a bite, stopping in the way to pick up my Soda & More package and a coffee card. Ordered the veal ravioli based on the constant raving on this board about it. Was not disappointed. Irwan, my waiter, almost convinced me to order a second helping but I resisted. I've got to pace myself.

 

Of course, I realise that dining at 1730hrs is pretty damn early -- it's even prior to Traditional's first seating at 1745 -- but with the early start to the day I was hungry early.

 

 

Looks like you should have followed Irwan's advice.

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MrSchwump Great Review Rare

MrSchwump

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I see that Christopher James is performing on your cruise. We saw him on the Regal last year and I thought he was very entertaining . I'm not a fan of many comedian/magicians but he is good!

Edited by MrSchwump
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Croptop

Croptop

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Day 2: Sea Day

 

Up bright an early to get in a run before the scheduled stretch and ab classes. Sadly, due to very high winds, the outdoor track closed so I had to resort to the dreadmill. Always fun running on a 'mill with random lurching as the ship sways. Helps get in a little more core work.

 

During my post-workout ablutions, I marvelled at how the designers of the Regal managed to increase the size of the shower (as compared to, say, the CB or the Ruby) without actually increasing the size of the bathroom itself. In fact, it occurred to me that, should the need arise, I could easily sit on the toilet whilst simultaneously showering and brushing my teeth over the sink. I'm not claustrophobic but I still felt the need to leave the bathroom door open to give myself a sense of space.

 

Breakfast in the Horizon Court was uneventful. The food was plentiful and good and the service was attentive as always. Looking through the Patter, I was drawn to a mid-morning enrichment lecture about bushcraft survival being given by an Australian Army survival instructor (who also happens to be a trumpet player -- trumpetist? trumpeter?) in the Regal's orchestra. How's that for a mix of professions? Given that I'm surrounded by billions of litres of seawater on all sides, what better time to learn about the priorities of survival in the bush?

 

So off I trundled to the lecture where Gordon Dedman gave us a hour's worth of instruction on the priorities of survival and the 10 most important things to have on you at all times; but if you can't have all 10 then just these 5. And if not these 5 then at least have a knife! No knife? No problem; here's how to make one out of a rock. Or a beer bottle.

 

All of which will come in handy if I get myself lost on the Lido deck somewhere between my cabin at the bow and the buffet at the stern.

 

That was the first of five lectures that Gordon is going to give. Next up: tomorrow we make fire in the Princess Live theatre. Seriously. Should be a good time. Stay tuned.

 

Once that lecture was over, I had just enough time to scoot over to Club 6 for Morning Team Trivia. I was just going to play on my own but two other couples ended up sitting with me and we formed a team. It's a good thing, too, because on my own, I'd have scored 6 out of 20. But as a team we managed a respectable 16. That had us tied with another team for second but we were edged out by a team that scored 17. Oh well. No prize for us. Which is really too bad because just like TracieLynn over on her Singapore cruise, I could *really* use a magnet or two in my stateroom.

 

Once trivia was done, it was noon and I'd gone more than three hours without eating. Not only is that not good, I'm pretty sure it's against the rules as spelt out in the Princess passage agreement. Look it up; I'm sure it's in there. I checked out the menu at the Concerto dining room but nothing really sang to me enough to make me want to spend a drawn out period of time eating so I went on up to the Horizon Court instead and after washing my hands at the hand washing station -- seriously, am I the only one who uses those sinks? -- proceeded to load up a plate of food and settled in at a window adjacent two-top to eat and read my book.

 

Waiter Alexei from Moldova spotted my Kobo and we had a nice chat about Kobo vs Kindle which segued nicely into various books and genres we'd read. I came away with a nice list of books that I need to find and add to my "to be read" pile. As for lunch itself, the food was again good and plentiful. I did my best to not overeat in anticipation of tonight's visit to the Crown Grill.

 

This afternoon's mission is to find a nice, quiet nook to kick back and do some serious reading.

 

What can I say? I'm a wild man.

 

To address some comments:

..unless you have a plan I'm unaware of, or you're a millionaire, turn off your cell phone. Not just off, but put it on Airplane mode and turn off your data. Otherwise, you are going to be VERY unpleasantly surprised. I'm sure you know this, and perhaps the wrong number was on your stateroom phone, but I almost fell out of my chair when I read that.

 

Thanks for the reminder but my cell phone is, indeed, off. The wrong number was on my stateroom phone.

 

You probably could have gotten into Traditional if you had gone to see the Maitre'd today. Maybe you still can. Do you really want to eat alone?

 

Yes. I specifically chose to dine alone. Maybe later in the cruise -- when I become bored with talking to myself -- I'll share a table or two. And I stayed away from Traditional dining because I want to experiment with different dining times to report on the wait times.

 

By the way, what and where is Amber Cove? I've never heard of it.

 

Amber Cove is in the Dominican Republic and it's tomorrow's port call.

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Croptop

Croptop

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Day 2: Cont'd

 

The afternoon was pretty sedentary. A couple of times, I tried to practice what Gordon taught us this morning at the survival seminar but every time I started hacking down the potted plants to build a shelter or tearing up seat cushions to weave some cordage, a Princess crew member would admonish me to stop and give me that look as if to suggest that perhaps I should waddle off to the buffet and get something else to eat. So instead, I spent a lazy afternoon reading and napping. Boring, I know, but just what I needed.

 

But soon enough evening arrived and it was time for what is always the highlight of every Princess cruise I've taken -- dinner at the Crown Grill. And once again, it did not disappoint. The Black and Blue Onion soup was its usual oniony, cheesy goodness; my ribeye was cooked exactly the way I like it. By the time the dessert menu arrived I was stuffed and pretty much determined to skip it but my waiter (apologies: I forget his name in my meat coma) seemed to take personal offence to my statement that I was done and gave me that look. So I ordered the Norman Love Peanut Butter and Chocolate Thingy just to get him off of my back. Oh who am I kidding? It was chocolate and peanut butter. Of course I was going to have one. And it was good.

 

If I had to come up with any type of complaint about the Regal so far it would be this: with the open design of the atrium, deck 7 has an opening that looks down into the casino. And I find that any time I walk through that area on deck 7, I can really smell the cigarette smoke wafting up from the casino. Similarly, the Terrace Pool at the ship's aft is a designated smoking area and if I come up the aft stairway into the Horizon Court, it reeks of smoke. I notice this much more than on any other Princess ship that I've sailed on. It's not ruining my vacation but it's something to be aware of.

 

Tomorrow is Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. I've never been there so I'll probably disembark and at least have a look around. Maybe even build a shelter and start a fire. You've got to practise what you've learned if you want it to stick.

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