Live from the Regal - July 2-23 - Med Cruise - R/T Barcelona

[karabear15]

11 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for following along with us! Give us a couple weeks to rest up and you can follow along on our “Live” 24 day Celebrity Summit Canada, Iceland and Greenland B2B. 😁

I'll definitely be following along with this "live" as the hubs really wants to go to Iceland. He made mention of it last night and I said don't worry, there's a cruise for that!

[Esprit]

We are back home in the U.K. with all our luggage 👍😂

Our BA flight operated by Iberia was only a few minutes late on push back but we landed 10 minutes ahead of schedule 👌

Passport control and luggage  reclaim was a breeze too.

We all the bad news recently about Heathrow we expected the worse!

[Billish]

2 minutes ago, Esprit said:

We are back home in the U.K. with all our luggage 👍😂

Our BA flight operated by Iberia was only a few minutes late on push back but we landed 10 minutes ahead of schedule 👌

Passport control and luggage  reclaim was a breeze too.

We all the bad news recently about Heathrow we expected the worse!

Welcome back. Sounds like you had a good cruise. 

[Esprit]

Being up so early for our disembarkation we caught sight of the Edge coming in.

Our SIL will be boarding it later to perform some work for a few days on Audio/Visual tasks. I suggested he fix the lights on the Magic Carpet too!

Edited July 23, 2022 by Esprit

[Esprit]

I hope everyone on board following this thread gets home as successfully as we did🙏🤞

I’m staggered at the number of views you had Ken and look forward to following you again on Summit.

Over 700 posts and not a single plated meal picture. Must be a record👍😂

[JimmyVWine]

Ken: Thanks for the detailed presentation. And a shout out to Esprit for weighing in on the last leg as that journey will be our next (and first post-pause) cruise. Nice to have two cooks in the kitchen. I promise to reciprocate, though because our cruise is the last of the season with that itinerary, there is no rush to get things up and running as a “Live”. But there will be a post cruise Journal to follow in hopes that it provides guidance to future cruisers. Pay it back and pay it forward!

Edited July 23, 2022 by JimmyVWine

[LACruiser88]

7 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I promise to reciprocate, though because our cruise is the last of the season with that itinerary,

We board on October 26th for 37 days and will start a "Live" if no one else does before me.

[Steelers36]

18 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We board on October 26th for 37 days and will start a "Live" if no one else does before me.

You are boarding just after we depart (we are jumping ship two days early in Messina to spend six days in Sicily before returning to Civitavecchia to board the Island for another tour of duty (LOL).  I will do some reporting, but no plans for a "live from".  I will be interested in how the atmosphere is on board, Dining situation, internet reliability, and activities on board for the sea days.

[chrysalis]

29 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We board on October 26th for 37 days and will start a "Live" if no one else does before me.

We board on October 15th for 48 days, and might just try to add to the discussion....

[LynnSD]

Thank you for this posting - we are onboard September 3-24/.  Sounds like the ship and the excursions were great!

 

I especially appreciate Esprit posting that their Iberia/BA flight ran smoothly,I’ve been worried about that. 

Fingers crossed that our flights are smooth and our luggage arrives.

[Anubi]

2 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

We board on October 26th for 37 days and will start a "Live" if no one else does before me.

Oh that would awesome.  I can follow along until we join you!  🙂 

[Ken the cruiser]

5 hours ago, Esprit said:

We are back home in the U.K. with all our luggage 👍😂

Our BA flight operated by Iberia was only a few minutes late on push back but we landed 10 minutes ahead of schedule 👌

Passport control and luggage  reclaim was a breeze too.

We all the bad news recently about Heathrow we expected the worse!

Glad you had an awesome uneventful trip back home. We arrived in Philadelphia a couple of hours ago from Barcelona with 2 more legs to go before we get back home in another 6 hours or so. 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

We just touched down in Alabama at 11:15 pm which equates to about a 26 hour adventure from the time we woke up this morning. But for a little excitement we did see a lightning storm just out of Charlotte that was pretty cool!

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Carnevale]

Esprit, thx for all that you contributed to this amazing blog.  I really appreciated your first hand account of the dancing you did during the first week.  I am hoping there were more opportunities during the second week.  Was this the case?  Was there ever dancing outside when The musicians played there?

Thx again!  Glad you are home safely.

[Esprit]

45 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

Esprit, thx for all that you contributed to this amazing blog.  I really appreciated your first hand account of the dancing you did during the first week.  I am hoping there were more opportunities during the second week.  Was this the case?  Was there ever dancing outside when The musicians played there?

Thx again!  Glad you are home safely.

Thanks Carnevale for your kind words.

Unfortunately we did no dancing whatsoever the second week. We sort of lost interest in trying to. On previous cruises we have got into it and carried on throughout the duration. We really missed the old Wheelhouse bar on the Grand Class ships with the dance floor tucked in the corner. We had many great dancing nights with like minded dancers. A small band would play there unlike in the Wheelhouse on Royal class ships.

I really don’t know what happened on this last cruise in the Piazza. We were in Bellini’s most nights (except the last due to an early disembarkation) during the second week and it was extremely quiet compared with our Royal cruise.

There was one night when Xcite played up on deck but we didn’t bother to check it out.

Despite the lack of dancing we had a great cruise. I hope you will not be put off. Every cruise is different which is why we return time and time again.

[Ken the cruiser]

We made it back to the house around 1 am CDT with no issues. I have to admit we really enjoy being able to track our bags on the airline app, in this case AA, while we’re flying home. 

But I do have one lesson learned if flying out of Barcelona on AA. Make sure you check in to your flight prior to arriving at the airport. If you do, you can get into the usually very short Verifly/Already Checked In “fast pass” line which for AA is to the right of the regular checkin line. We finally realized this after standing in the regular line for about 15 minutes and saw the “fast pass” line which saved us a good 30 more minutes to just check in our bags. 😁

Edited July 24, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[cruzingnut]

@Ken the cruiser, I've been following you along with the "hoards" and have enjoyed your VERY Live From!  This is Linda of Linda and Dave....of HAL and the "Amsterdam Cigar Club".  Looking forward to your next trip in 2 weeks.  Hope you get some good rest in so you are ready to go do it all again!

 

Linda R.

[NIkkiGR]

On 7/21/2022 at 4:26 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

That could be a possibility. It was definitely shoved way back there behind the paper laundry bags and totally out of sight.

I will throw one in the suitcase just in case.

[tarzanacruisers]

We embark in Athens on the Regal on Aug. 6.  Does Princess require the original CDC vaccination card or is a photocopy sufficient?

[PacnGoNow]

52 minutes ago, tarzanacruisers said:

We embark in Athens on the Regal on Aug. 6.  Does Princess require the original CDC vaccination card or is a photocopy sufficient?

Everything I have read, you need the original certificate, no copies. Are you from the US?  

 

We took the original certificate for boarding and a copy when we’re in port, as some places required to see our vax card.

 

Princess website: 

 

• Europe
  We will accept the EU digital Covid certificate.

For international, non-UK guests, the following formats are acceptable proofs of full vaccination: Digital or paper records, or QR codes, showing the vaccine type, the date of each vaccine administered, the individual’s name and date of birth or other identifier.
 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, tarzanacruisers said:

We embark in Athens on the Regal on Aug. 6.  Does Princess require the original CDC vaccination card or is a photocopy sufficient?

We always take the original cards and our passports just in case. But we also keep photocopies of both on our iPhones as a backup when we go ashore or have to upload them in some app.

[Carnevale]

Flight tracking on the AA app is a great step forward especially right now with so many stories of delayed bags.  For airlines that don’t do this we have found that using Apple air tags works very well.  On a trip to Italy on Air Canada in May we were able to see where our bags were every time we changed planes.

[Jilliebean28]

On 7/23/2022 at 1:46 PM, LACruiser88 said:

We board on October 26th for 37 days and will start a "Live" if no one else does before me.

Yes, please!!  We'll be on with you beginning Nov. 6th so I'll jump into your "Live"!

[NIkkiGR]

On 7/24/2022 at 7:40 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

We always take the original cards and our passports just in case. But we also keep photocopies of both on our iPhones as a backup when we go ashore or have to upload them in some app.

Off topic Ken. Is there still dispensers of shampoo & conditioner in the showers?

[RV Queen]

Ken, did you have to fill out a SpTH (Spain Travel Health Form before entry and get a QR code for entry?