LIVE: Regal Princess, February 5-12, 2022: Geoherb goes solo again

[geoherb]

I'll start the live thread for my cruise a day early while I'm staying at the Embassy Suites. I got up early this morning to catch a 6:40 flight from North Carolina. I flew on Southwest. The flights were uneventful. Even though I signed on right exactly at 6:40 the day before, I was still in the first B group to board. It did not matter. I got an exit row seat that my long legs appreciate. The plane stopped in Tampa on the way to Fort Lauderdale. Five of us were staying on for the flight to Fort Lauderdale. I decided to move my seat up to the first row for the short flight from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale. 

 

When I booked the Embassy Suites, the website said they had an airport shuttle. They did not mention that it's $15 for a single or $8 per person for a couple. I decided to take a taxi instead of waiting for a shuttle to come get me. The taxi driver tried to cheat me by saying that it would be a flat rate that was more than I knew it should be. He said his meter wasn't working. I told him what the fare should be--and what I'd pay him. He accepted it. 

 

I got to the hotel early. The official check-in time is 4:00, and it was before noon. I was willing to have them hold my large piece of luggage, but the front desk clerk said she would check to see if a room was available. She said my room was supposed to be one with a larger balcony. I let her know that did not matter. She put me in a great room on the 10th floor with a view of the 17th Street Bridge and the ships in port. There were two Celebrity ships here today. The Silhouette left already. The Summit is leaving now. 

 

There are some not-so-positive recent reviews of the Embassy Suites. I haven't noticed anything major. My room is clean, the bed is comfortable, the TV works, the evening reception poured me two glasses of red wine, and the pool was refreshing.

 

I met a friend for lunch at Kelly's Landing. It's in the shopping center diagonally across 17th Street from the hotel. It specializes in New England style seafood. I had one of the specials--a "stuffed" baked haddock. It was good but a little bit skimpy. And it's not really stuffed but rather just topped with seasoned breadcrumbs. We also had a half order of onions rings that we split, which was huge. BTW, they're good, but more like onion straws. They're very fine rings battered and fried. I'm glad the waiter talked me into ordering just the half portion instead of the whole. Some of the other portion sizes were also huge, and some were not based on what I saw people getting at other tables. My friend's salad with grilled shrimp was one of the huge ones. She has enough leftover for a couple of meals (along with the leftover onion rings).

 

I will try to post photos of the Patters daily and answer any questions that anyone has once I'm on the ship. I talked with a Princess rep in the lobby. She said there were 55 passengers staying here booked through Princess. I did not ask how many of them were on the Regal and how many on the Sky tomorrow, or perhaps even the Caribbean Princess on Sunday.

 

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

I’ll be following your live from. Thanks for posting and safe travels!

[Host CJSKIDS]

Enjoy your sailing tomorrow. Can’t wait to read all about it as I board the regal in 3 weeks. 
 

hope your weather is terrific!

[LawDog61]

Great that you are blogging again.  You do a good blog!

[geoherb]

There was a little glitch with my medallion app tonight. For some reason, it had me back in the blue lane instead of the green lane. It claimed I needed to enter my passport info. I finally got it to scan successfully. For some reason, the app was using the selfie camera on my phone. I had to contort myself to see it successfully read the info. I tried entering the data manually, but it would not let me type in my birthdate. I could only go back month by month. That would have taken a very long time to get back to when I was born.

 

That part of the app worked fine before my December cruise on the Caribbean and August cruise on the Majestic. And it had been working fine until today, bringing in the data from my previous cruises.

[nini]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Happy Sailing!

[geoherb]

I'm up at 6 a.m. to watch the ships come into port from my balcony. The Sky is already at Pier 2. The Allure of the Seas and Nieuw Amsterdam are at their docks. The Rotterdam just went by the Allure. The difference in size is amazing. The Celebrity Apex and then finally the Regal Princess will be next. 

 

Unfortunately, someone posted on our rollcall that they're not going to be able to make the cruise because Boston's airport is closed this morning. Another person posted her group's flight yesterday almost did not happen, but that they did barely make it out of Boston.

 

Several Decembers ago, we flew out of North Carolina on a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 60s. Unfortunately, the plane we were going on to Fort Lauderdale was stuck in Manchester, New Hampshire, due to a massive winter storm in New England. We waited at the airport for four hours before being able to catch another plane. But it went to Orlando, and we had to change planes there. It was a tight connection. We made it, but our checked bags did not. The airline delivered them to our hotel during the night. A family we met on the ship from Texas were not as lucky with their luggage. It did not catch up to them until St. Thomas. But they were luckier than the Protestant minister who missed the ship completely.

 

 

[Donyb]

Thank you for taking the time out of your vacation to keep us informed about your experiences. I'll be joining the Regal in 2 weeks (assuming my Covid test is negative) so I'll be following along with you on this one. Our roll call is very quiet so I am guessing we won't be sailing anywhere near capacity.

[hllwdcruiser]

Following - I love your blogs and can't wait for more.

A couple of weeks ago I was at the convention center and could see the Regal from the parking lot. All I wanted to do was somehow stow my way on to the ship. 

Bon Voyage! 

[billco]

13 hours ago, geoherb said:

When I booked the Embassy Suites, the website said they had an airport shuttle. They did not mention that it's $15 for a single or $8 per person for a couple. I decided to take a taxi instead of waiting for a shuttle to come get me. The taxi driver tried to cheat me by saying that it would be a flat rate that was more than I knew it should be. He said his meter wasn't working. I told him what the fare should be--and what I'd pay him. He accepted it. 

The last time I took a taxi from the airport to the Embassy Suites the driver charged me for address lookup. He didn't get a tip. Since then, we always use Uber. Once, I lost my billfold in the Uber car. I called their number and they put me in touch with the driver who met me in the parking lot across the street at Waxy's Pub. Billfold was on the floor under the seat. He got an extra tip.

Edited February 5, 2022 by billco

[geoherb]

I am planning on getting an Uber to the port. If the ship had been docked where the Sky is, I would have walked. Terminal 21 is a little too far for me to go with luggage. 

 

Sadly, two more couples have announced on our rollcall that they're not going to make it. Their flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, kept getting changed to where it will not arrive until too late this afternoon for them to make it to the ship. Princess offered to switch their flight to ones that would have them meet the ship in Costa Maya. They decided it was not an easy itinerary and declined the offer. 

 

On my cruise on the Caribbean in December, I saw several people getting on the ship with their luggage in Cozumel. 

[geoherb]

Here are photos of the ships in port this morning. The first one has the Regal Princess sailing past the Sky Princess as taken from my hotel room's balcony. The second is of all the ships in port from the 17th Street Bridge. From right to left, Sky Princess, Allure of the Seas, Nieuw Amsterdam, Regal Princess, Rotterdam, Celebrity Reflection, and Celebrity Apex.

 

[phabric]

What ports are you going to?

[floridababa]

We are suppose to go on her March 12 for transatlantic ending in Rome. We keep changing our minds if we should go or cancel??.?

[13cheermom]

11 hours ago, geoherb said:

There was a little glitch with my medallion app tonight. For some reason, it had me back in the blue lane instead of the green lane. It claimed I needed to enter my passport info. I finally got it to scan successfully. For some reason, the app was using the selfie camera on my phone. I had to contort myself to see it successfully read the info. I tried entering the data manually, but it would not let me type in my birthdate. I could only go back month by month. That would have taken a very long time to get back to when I was born.

 

That part of the app worked fine before my December cruise on the Caribbean and August cruise on the Majestic. And it had been working fine until today, bringing in the data from my previous cruises.

Curious, had you already previously entered your passport information?  Read where someone else had a similar situation and had to re-scan it.  That's kind of annoying to have to do it again once it's been accepted, lol.  We were hoping once we got the Green Lane check, we would be good to go.  

[CPASam]

Have a great cruise Geoherb!  UNC Plays Duke tonight at 6pm after the NHL All star game and they're broadcasting ESPN Gameday from the Dean Smith Center!

[Kenosha Cruiser]

Love following your live thread along with your pictures. You do an amazing job! Have a wonderful cruise. We will be boarding the Enchanted Princess Feb. 28th. We always fly down to Ft. Lauderdale the day before to be safe, but even the day before you can run into flight problems. 

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

[CineGraphic]

I'll be on next week...my first solo, so of course, I'll be following.

Enjoy your cruise!

[geoherb]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

What ports are you going to?

 

Costa Maya (Majahual, Mexico), Belize City, Roatan (Honduras), and Cozumel (Mexico). We have a day at sea tomorrow and the last full day. I picked this cruise over the eastern Caribbean itineraries because I thought the water would be warmer farther south. 

[geoherb]

I was on board the Regal Princess shortly before 11. I caught an Uber from the hotel to the ship. It was $8.88 before tip. I was right about the distance being too far to walk with luggage. There are sidewalks along most of the way, but not all of the way.  There were plenty of open lanes for the security check. The check-in stations are upstairs in this terminal. Once again, I did not have any wait. The woman checking me in, though, was new and had to keep asking the guy beside her for help. It took just a couple of minutes. She tried to get me to sit where a lot of passengers were already waiting, but he told me how to go to the waiting area for Elites.

 

There were around 30 people waiting there. Princess had small pastries, juices, coffee, tea, and water available. I had just a cup of water. The woman who was greeting people told me that boarding would start in 5 to 10 minutes. It started more like 3 minutes after I got there.

 

They had the fire doors closed, so I could not drop off my carry-on bag in my cabin immediately. I waited up at the Outrigger Bar. They made the announcement that cabins were ready around 11:30.

[CruzinNoony]

Geoherb, I will be following along.  Thanks, once again, for taking the time to share your cruise with us.  Was the dining room open for lunch?  We just got off the Grand (Hawaii) and it was closed.  The excuse we got was because of the Covid testing we had to do at the pier, they didn't feel that there would be enough people onboard during lunch time to warrant it.  I sure was disappointed.

[azbirdmom]

Thanks for sharing your experiences again.  We will be boarding the Regal in two weeks and it's the same itinerary as your's so I will definitely be following along!  Have a wonderful cruise.

[geoherb]

45 minutes ago, CruzinNoony said:

Geoherb, I will be following along.  Thanks, once again, for taking the time to share your cruise with us.  Was the dining room open for lunch?  We just got off the Grand (Hawaii) and it was closed.  The excuse we got was because of the Covid testing we had to do at the pier, they didn't feel that there would be enough people onboard during lunch time to warrant it.  I sure was disappointed.

 

Yes, the dining room was open for lunch today from noon until 1:30. They had the regular embarkation day menu. I had a salad, appetizer size portion of the vegetarian ravioli, salmon, and a fruit plate. The passenger who sat at my table had the shrimp and avocado appetizer, the beef tenderloin, and the orange souffle. Everything I had was tasty, and he said his was as well. He said he lives about an hour away from Fort Lauderdale and this is his sixth cruise since the restart. He's staying on for next week as well. There were people eating at tables near us who said they were on their third cruise of a b2b2b.

 

One of the waiters mentioned there were around 1,300 passengers on this cruise. I wonder if that number includes some people who will miss the ship due to all the flight delays and cancellations. 

[geoherb]

Here are some photos of my cabin. It's an aft balcony on the Riviera Deck. I'm glad I'm not on the Marina Deck. The first photo is a photo of the balcony in the cabin above mine, and it's very exposed to anyone looking over the railing from the Lido Deck. Of course, my balcony is similarly exposed to anyone on the balcony in the cabin above mine.

 

The bathroom is the standard small one but comfortable enough for me sailing solo. If DH were along, I'd have to try to stake my claim to my share of the shelf space. Same thing applies with the closet area. It feels spacious compared to the inside cabin I had in December on the Caribbean Princess. The loveseat folds out for a single bed if someone wanted to book this cabin for three. The chairs on the balcony will recline, and there are foot stools stored underneath them.

 

My large suitcase arrived while I was at lunch. My cabin steward dropped by to introduce himself and ask if I was expecting more luggage. He also asked if there was anything else I needed. I asked about the Elite bathroom amenities. He said he would have to check with his supervisor. I also asked about the order form for the canapés for tomorrow's formal night. Once again, the answer was he would need to check with his supervisor. I let him know I'd leave him a note later in the cruise about trading out some of my minibar items.

 

[geoherb]

Speaking about the minibar, here are photos of what I received: 2 each of vodka, gin, and Scotch; 2 beers; and 2 each of Perrier, soda water, bottled spring water, Sprite, and Diet Coke. It looks like they're missing the Courvoisier and tonic water and shorted me 2 alcoholic beverages.

 

Since I have Princess Plus for this cruise, it doesn't matter as much. But it would be nice to take home the minis. It would be even better if they had the Courvoisier. I use it and the Scotch in cooking occasionally but not often enough to keep a large bottle on hand at home.