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

[geoherb]

And speaking of Princess Plus, the glass of wine I had at lunch appeared on my statement. I was checking to make sure my onboard credits had appeared correctly. The goodwill credit never showed up on the "Payments" tab of the Cruise Personalizer, but it was on the travel summary--and it's showing up on my account on the ship as well.

 

I stopped by guest services about the charge. Guess what the answer was? She's going to have to check with her supervisor. She said she could see that I had the beverage package but did not know why it was not activated correctly. She told me not to worry about the charge. It would come off when they fixed the problem. She jotted down a note about it.

 

Here are photos of the wine list showing what's available. The online version is slightly different. I noticed some things are on it that are not on the ship's wine list and vice versa in terms of being available by the glass. The online version also has descriptions of the wines. I think the dining room has a larger version that includes them.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by geoherb

[geoherb]

Here are the pages from today's Patter as well as the schedule of events for Elites. There's just one show tonight in the Princess Theater--comedian Tom Briscoe. I checked my dinner reservations, and they've disappeared from the app. With the ship not being crowded, I'm not going to worry about it.

 

 

[loge23]

36 minutes ago, geoherb said:

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.

Did you question Room Service about this? I assume you're talking about the two missing beers among the shorts. We too use the minis for sauces or short trips stateside.

[Carolina Cruisers 2]

6 hours ago, geoherb said:

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. 

 

Greetings

Well, we never made it out of New Bern to Charlotte. American rescheduled our flight three times and the last change had us arriving at 3:35 pm and there was no way we could retrieve our luggage and be on ship by 4 pm.  Same for brother and SIL.  Also friends Joanie and Sam flew from PA to Charlotte yesterday and never got out of Charlotte so they are flying back home as I type.  What the heck is going on. Some weather and some staffing.

Wishing all a great cruise.

 

I'm pulling for Carolina!  😉

 

[Carolina Cruisers 2]

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

And speaking of Princess Plus, the glass of wine I had at lunch appeared on my statement. I was checking to make sure my onboard credits had appeared correctly. The goodwill credit never showed up on the "Payments" tab of the Cruise Personalizer, but it was on the travel summary--and it's showing up on my account on the ship as well.

 

I stopped by guest services about the charge. Guess what the answer was? She's going to have to check with her supervisor. She said she could see that I had the beverage package but did not know why it was not activated correctly. She told me not to worry about the charge. It would come off when they fixed the problem. She jotted down a note about it.

 

Here are photos of the wine list showing what's available. The online version is slightly different. I noticed some things are on it that are not on the ship's wine list and vice versa in terms of being available by the glass. The online version also has descriptions of the wines. I think the dining room has a larger version that includes them.

 

 

Would you please email that list to me?

  fpwaters@suddenlink.net 

 

Thank you.

[CineGraphic]

Someone on-board just started streaming live video of the sail-away on Youtube.

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxg-Kul4MPg

 

 

[dickinson]

Have a wonderful cruise.  Thank you for the Live From.

[13cheermom]

49 minutes ago, Carolina Cruisers 2 said:

 

Greetings

Well, we never made it out of New Bern to Charlotte. American rescheduled our flight three times and the last change had us arriving at 3:35 pm and there was no way we could retrieve our luggage and be on ship by 4 pm.  Same for brother and SIL.  Also friends Joanie and Sam flew from PA to Charlotte yesterday and never got out of Charlotte so they are flying back home as I type.  What the heck is going on. Some weather and some staffing.

Wishing all a great cruise.

 

I'm pulling for Carolina!  😉

 

Wow can't believe no one could leave NC?  We're also from triangle area and didn't have any kind of bad weather in our area.  I thought the North was the area being hard hit.  So sorry to hear your trip got cancelled.  Hoping the airlines get things straightened out soon.  We will be flying to FLL next month but routing through Atlanta instead of Charlotte.  We have had our flights changed like 4 times since November with Delta, however we are flying out the day before.  Hoping you can reschedule and enjoy later on!

[Carolina Cruisers 2]

5 minutes ago, 13cheermom said:

Wow can't believe no one could leave NC?  We're also from triangle area and didn't have any kind of bad weather in our area.  I thought the North was the area being hard hit.  So sorry to hear your trip got cancelled.  Hoping the airlines get things straightened out soon.  We will be flying to FLL next month but routing through Atlanta instead of Charlotte.  We have had our flights changed like 4 times since November with Delta, however we are flying out the day before.  Hoping you can reschedule and enjoy later on!

No weather problem here. It was 69 yesterday and about 50 today with lots of beautiful sunshine. Joanie was told the first cancelation in Charlotte was due to not enough crew members available for the flight. She and hubby flew in a day early and had more aggravation than us.  Enough pity party.

We send good wishes to all of you. 

[CPASam]

Sailaway looked great on www.portevergladeswebcam.com.  After the Rotterdam sailed out, the cam showed Regal from a distance as it was heading south along the coast!  Have a great trip!  Metro will play Central for the $1million in the NHL All Star Game. UNC v. Duke game starts in an hour at 6pm! 

[azbirdmom]

Thanks for sharing the Patter.  I guessed right on which nights would be formal nights.  Well sort of.  Interesting that they first one shows formal and the second "dress to impress"?  There was a post a while back about having only dress to impress nights on some sailings but I haven't seen anyone indicate one of each.  Have you heard an explanation of why they did this and what they expect to be different?

[avonlady6390]

I just got off the regal this morning.  My mini bar was worse than yours I got 4 beefeater gin for liquor 4 beers and sodas and Perrier bottles.  I see they changed the platinum and elite lounge I was on for 2 cruises 4 night and 5 night ours was in club six.  Captain party was in Vista.  Have a fun and relaxing cruise.

[azbirdmom]

18 minutes ago, avonlady6390 said:

I just got off the regal this morning.  My mini bar was worse than yours I got 4 beefeater gin for liquor 4 beers and sodas and Perrier bottles.  I see they changed the platinum and elite lounge I was on for 2 cruises 4 night and 5 night ours was in club six.  Captain party was in Vista.  Have a fun and relaxing cruise.

 

Did they ever bring you the missing items?  Even with the addition of two beers you were still short 2 little liquor bottles.

[kb4683]

17 minutes ago, avonlady6390 said:

I just got off the regal this morning.  My mini bar was worse than yours I got 4 beefeater gin for liquor 4 beers and sodas and Perrier bottles.  I see they changed the platinum and elite lounge I was on for 2 cruises 4 night and 5 night ours was in club six.  Captain party was in Vista.  Have a fun and relaxing cruise.

We were on Regal for 5 nights in December and got exactly what you did.

[kb4683]

1 minute ago, azbirdmom said:

 

Did they ever bring you the missing items?  Even with the addition of two beers you were still short 2 little liquor bottles.

We didn’t.  They said that was all they had!

[geoherb]

48 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

Thanks for sharing the Patter.  I guessed right on which nights would be formal nights.  Well sort of.  Interesting that they first one shows formal and the second "dress to impress"?  There was a post a while back about having only dress to impress nights on some sailings but I haven't seen anyone indicate one of each.  Have you heard an explanation of why they did this and what they expect to be different?

 

I did not notice until you pointed it out. I had also guessed right on which nights they would be. If I have a chance to talk with the loyalty manager, I'll ask her.

[geoherb]

13 minutes ago, kb4683 said:

We didn’t.  They said that was all they had!

 

I tried start a Crew Call chat. That feature of the app is currently not working. I'll try again later. The erroneous charge for my wine at lunch is still showing up on my statement. The mojito I had at sailaway and the bottle of Perrier that I had later did not show up, so hopefully they've fixed part of the problem and just have to work on taking off the charge from lunch. 

 

The Cruise Critic meet and greet was sparse, but I enjoyed talking with the people who were there. I met three very nice couples. One of them is staying on to do the 14-day cruise. The others are on for just this week like I am.

[gardenbunny]

2 hours ago, Carolina Cruisers 2 said:

 

Greetings

Well, we never made it out of New Bern to Charlotte. American rescheduled our flight three times and the last change had us arriving at 3:35 pm and there was no way we could retrieve our luggage and be on ship by 4 pm.  Same for brother and SIL.  Also friends Joanie and Sam flew from PA to Charlotte yesterday and never got out of Charlotte so they are flying back home as I type.  What the heck is going on. Some weather and some staffing.

Wishing all a great cruise.

 

I'm pulling for Carolina!  😉

 

so sorry you missed your cruise.  I am not a fan of American.  Twice we missed cruises using them in 2019 and 2020. 2019 was a flight from Atl to NYC at 8 in the morning.  We never fly same day but little over an hr. flight and ship leaves at 7 pm to Halifax.  What could go wrong - famous last words.  First delay was no plane.  A couple hrs later they sent us to Miami to catch a flight back to NYC arriving at 2 pm.  Horrific rain t-storm just before boarding and airport shut down til storm passed.  Left at 4!  Got to NYC at 6:30.  No way to make it to Brooklyn terminal.  Luggage never came.  It had been sent to Baltimore and was on way back to NYC.  Got it at 8.  In the meantime had TA on phone trying find us flight to Halifax (first port) that night.  Had us on Delta leaving at 9 pm.  Had to take bus shuttle to that terminal.  Just as we got to Delta counter flight cancelled due to mechanical trouble and reschedule for 8 am.   Got hotel to spend the night and be at airport at 6am.  Plane did not leave til 10!  Got in at noon.

But we had a nice extra day in Halifax until we finally got on ship the following morning.  It was EZAir so at least paid for!

2020 was even worse!  Won’t bother those details but it involved spending the night on chairs in Miami airport…..

Now I am back to only using  Delta.

[avonlady6390]

How many passengers are on this cruise the 4 night one on January 27 had 1030 and 5 night only 800 crew was 1400. We are getting spoiled and won't want to go back to full capacity.

[geoherb]

1 minute ago, avonlady6390 said:

How many passengers are on this cruise the 4 night one on January 27 had 1030 and 5 night only 800 crew was 1400. We are getting spoiled and won't want to go back to full capacity.

 

I ran into the cruise director, Aaron Hawkins, a few minutes ago. I had not been closely watching the entertainment and cruise directors thread and did not realize he had taken over as CD on the Regal from Natalie Costa three weeks ago. Anyway, he told me it was around 1,100. He will get the final number to announce at the show tonight.

 

Aaron was an assistant cruise director on the Regal when we sailed on it four years ago. He was in charge of our muster station and did the floss while waiting for the muster drill to start. He also was the one who led our Ultimate Ship's Tour on that cruise. I am happy to see him promoted to CD.

[cjpj]

4 hours ago, geoherb said:

And speaking of Princess Plus, the glass of wine I had at lunch appeared on my statement

I believe for drinks in port at FLL they have to pay state tax on those. That may be why it was charged. PP probably doesn't kick in until after they leave port.

[geoherb]

The Captain's Circle Lounge for suite, Elite, and Platinum passengers is in the Vista Lounge. I made it in time. Tonight's featured item was chips with fresh guacamole and salsa. They also had little mini calzones, crab salad, crudites and dip, cheese and crackers, mini pretzels, nuts and dried fruits, fruit salad, and mini Eaton messes.

 

There were a couple of servers going down the line with passengers and getting what they wanted. So, a new system from how it was on the Caribbean in December when we were allowed to pick up the individually portioned items and were served the other things. With so few passengers, it worked fine.

 

 

 

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, geoherb said:

It looks like they're missing the Courvoisier and tonic water and shorted me 2 alcoholic beverages.

In the scale of things, does the loss of $5 worth of drinks really matter?  

A sense of perspective is needed.

[Carolina Cruisers 2]

1 hour ago, gardenbunny said:

so sorry you missed your cruise.  I am not a fan of American.  Twice we missed cruises using them in 2019 and 2020. 2019 was a flight from Atl to NYC at 8 in the morning.  We never fly same day but little over an hr. flight and ship leaves at 7 pm to Halifax.  What could go wrong - famous last words.  First delay was no plane.  A couple hrs later they sent us to Miami to catch a flight back to NYC arriving at 2 pm.  Horrific rain t-storm just before boarding and airport shut down til storm passed.  Left at 4!  Got to NYC at 6:30.  No way to make it to Brooklyn terminal.  Luggage never came.  It had been sent to Baltimore and was on way back to NYC.  Got it at 8.  In the meantime had TA on phone trying find us flight to Halifax (first port) that night.  Had us on Delta leaving at 9 pm.  Had to take bus shuttle to that terminal.  Just as we got to Delta counter flight cancelled due to mechanical trouble and reschedule for 8 am.   Got hotel to spend the night and be at airport at 6am.  Plane did not leave til 10!  Got in at noon.

But we had a nice extra day in Halifax until we finally got on ship the following morning.  It was EZAir so at least paid for!

2020 was even worse!  Won’t bother those details but it involved spending the night on chairs in Miami airport…..

Now I am back to only using  Delta.

Hoping to board on the 12th.  Wish I was with all of you.

[DavidsNana]

@geoherbThanks so much for this "live from".  We are on the Caribbean Princess on Feb 27th and have a reservation at the Embassy Suites for the night before.  I was becoming afraid that I had made a bad choice with all the bad reviews that I read but after reading your assessment, I am confident it will be fine.  I know it is old and outdated as we have stayed there before, 3 1/2 years ago.  But as long as it is clean we are just fine.  If you have time, may I ask how much a taxi from the airport to the hotel should be?  My son and I will be coming in from different parts of the country and arriving at different times so I would like to tell him what to expect to pay.  Also, he is flying from Memphis via Charlotte and reading all these problems with flights via Charlotte is making me a little nervous.  Hopefully, by the end of the month, the weather will be better and things will be working as scheduled.  Crossing my fingers. Thanks again, I always enjoy your reviews.