LIVE from Regal NYE Cruise 27DEC-07JAN

[bethfelk]

Spent the day today reading one of my books from start to finish, napping, and drinking Speyside cider (my favorite on board drink I think that is not tropical.) We have just sat down to Sabatini’s so I will update my thoughts on this

[bethfelk]

Sabatini’s last night was excellent in terms of gluten free. The gf arancini was great, I’ve never had arancini before so that was cool. I skipped salad, had the salami and cheese which was nice (loved the Parmesan), the risotto, and the carbonara with gf pasta. The risotto imo would’ve been improved by sauteeing the mushrooms a little longer and chopping them finer, and the carbonara I would’ve added a touch more acidity to the sauce. But both very good nonetheless. Dessert I had the panna cotta which was fine. Overall though it was a great experience gluten free and well worth the upcharge imo

[bethfelk]

Today was supposed to be grand cayman but it was cancelled due to weather (which I actually predicted last night). We did not have any real plans so not particularly upset 

[Belle2002]

Last week we also missed Grand Cayman but later found out that there were other ships in princess lies all the times we had a tour in Rotan and they told us that we were going straight to there and spending 12 hours

 

 

[nini]

5 hours ago, bethfelk said:

Sabatini’s last night was excellent in terms of gluten free. The gf arancini was great, I’ve never had arancini before so that was cool. I skipped salad, had the salami and cheese which was nice (loved the Parmesan), the risotto, and the carbonara with gf pasta. The risotto imo would’ve been improved by sauteeing the mushrooms a little longer and chopping them finer, and the carbonara I would’ve added a touch more acidity to the sauce. But both very good nonetheless. Dessert I had the panna cotta which was fine. Overall though it was a great experience gluten free and well worth the upcharge imo

 

Thank you for your report about Sabatini's. I love Mushroom Risotto and I have found an easy non- labor intensive way to make it at home. It is in my InstantPot! Truly! It comes out fantastic and creamy.

[nini]

4 hours ago, Belle2002 said:

Last week we also missed Grand Cayman but later found out that there were other ships in princess lies all the times we had a tour in Rotan and they told us that we were going straight to there and spending 12 hours

 

 

 

It seems strange that the Captain would lie about needing to miss a port. They may be overly cautious? Strange...

[Belle2002]

Don’t you think you it is odd that the same ship misses the same exact port last week and this week for the exact same reason holland America is there now they had no trouble and last week ncl was there last week sorry but something is wrong here

 

[nini]

5 minutes ago, Belle2002 said:

Don’t you think you it is odd that the same ship misses the same exact port last week and this week for the exact same reason holland America is there now they had no trouble and last week ncl was there last week sorry but something is wrong here

 

 Next time, grab the attention of an officer and find out what is truly happening.

Maybe someone on your Roll Call has the nitty gritty.

Edited December 31, 2023 by nini

[CruzinNoony]

I sat next to the captain at the most traveled luncheon last cruise and he mentioned that the wind is the worse thing about sailing into a port.  That was the reason that we missed Grand Cayman last week.  Riding a tender in high winds would be very dangerous.  The captain doesn't just cancel a port because he doesn't want to go.  

[nini]

1 minute ago, CruzinNoony said:

I sat next to the captain at the most traveled luncheon last cruise and he mentioned that the wind is the worse thing about sailing into a port.  That was the reason that we missed Grand Cayman last week.  Riding a tender in high winds would be very dangerous.  The captain doesn't just cancel a port because he doesn't want to go.  

 

Thank you for mentioning your conversation with the Captain. Possibly, the HAL ship was docked and not tendering? I thought it would be strange just to ditch a port on a whim.

 

In December 2008, we were on a HAl ship and the port was Cabo San Lucas. The waves were dangerously high and we had to wait at least an hour or more to tender in. We were able to contact the shore excursion company and did make the tour. Once there, the water was lovely close to shore, but quite rowdy where the ship was anchored.

[bethfelk]

Dining room breakfast today, origami, survival game show, and speed painting. Speed painting was super fun! I started with the outline of a raptor and I think people thought it was a dragon instead but other than that were very faithful to my vision. This activity was so much, honestly one of my favorites on a cruise ship that I can remember 

[2and2]

My last visit to Grand Cayman with Norwegian, the waves seemed choppy with wind and cloud cover. They decided to go ahead and tender over. We got on the tender boat, got our seat, and I could see how wavy it really was. I wanted no part of the ride. We got off the tender before it left and off it went. It turned out, that was the last tender as  all the excursion got cancelled because of the weather. All those that tendered over had to return in those waves .  I hated missing on of my favorite ports, but it was a good decision. Maybe Princess has learned from the past.

[charliedalrymple]

Thanks for a great report and photos!

Edited January 1 by charliedalrymple

[redtop101]

Crazy busy NewYear’s Eve party up on Deck 16, pool deck. Happy 2024 everyone. 

[helenb]

We were in the piazza. We missed the balloon drop of old, but enjoyed the elbow room while we danced.

[eclue]

23 hours ago, Belle2002 said:

Don’t you think you it is odd that the same ship misses the same exact port last week and this week for the exact same reason holland America is there now they had no trouble and last week ncl was there last week sorry but something is wrong here

 

It is not odd at all. There were high winds. If the port authority. Cancels the tenders, then we skip the port. Pretty easy to err on the side of safety. Having done over 50 cruises on Princess, I have never heard of a captain lying to skip a port, Passenger

safety is of prime importance.

[nini]

35 minutes ago, eclue said:

It is not odd at all. There were high winds. If the port authority. Cancels the tenders, then we skip the port. Pretty easy to err on the side of safety. Having done over 50 cruises on Princess, I have never heard of a captain lying to skip a port, Passenger

safety is of prime importance.

 

Agreed. I trust these Captains and their experience. There are never any port guarantees on an itinerary. We have been very fortunate and have only missed two ports since we began cruising.

[redtop101]

6 hours ago, nini said:

 

Agreed. I trust these Captains and their experience. There are never any port guarantees on an itinerary. We have been very fortunate and have only missed two ports since we began cruising.

I agree. The captain is not going to lie, to avoid a port. Passenger safety is taken very seriously. We missed a port once near our hometown. It was in Victoria, BC. It’s not a tender port but the ship normally docks, but in our case the winds picked up, and Victoria is quite a tricky port to get in at the best of times. Some passengers were very upset, cursing and swearing, but safety comes first. 

[mrmarklin]

9 hours ago, nini said:

 

Agreed. I trust these Captains and their experience. There are never any port guarantees on an itinerary. We have been very fortunate and have only missed two ports since we began cruising.

What possible motivation does the Captain have to lie?

 

He gets paid whether the ship docks or not. 

[nini]

1 hour ago, mrmarklin said:

What possible motivation does the Captain have to lie?

 

He gets paid whether the ship docks or not. 

I think your comment is better directed to @Belle2002 in Post #82.

[bethfelk]

Hey everyone, I’m back to update the past 2 days which have been busy for us. NYE party was awesome. We experienced all three different parties (Wheelhouse, piazza, and deck) at different points throughout the night and all were fun. I was honestly surprised at what a “rockin’” party princess threw, seemed more so than our Ruby last year. One thing tho, have they done away with free champagne?? We did not see it at all unless we missed it. That is a very upsetting change to me if true, bc champagne is just such an important part of the NYE vibe. At the very least if not free they need to have an auxiliary table where package holders can quickly and easily get glasses of the included ones. We only saw a table selling bottles

[bethfelk]

Yesterday morning we slept in after a late night and didn’t do much before hitting dining room lunch when it opened. I had pre-ordered gluten free food at dinner the night before and they did a great job of handling it. I had the Mac and cheese, which was awesome, and the monte cristo, which was not good. But being gf didn’t really have anything to do with why it was bad, it was just weirdly made and generally unappetizing (you can see in the picture I think) and my family’s non gf one didn’t really look any better. 

[bethfelk]

Yesterday afternoon we spent at the retreat pool reading and in the hot tub. And as a note we think the retreat pool is an awesome area and a definite advantage of the bigger princess class. For dinner the dining room menu did not sound good to me so we tried Alfredo’s. It was pretty underwhelming to me, I had the Hawaiian and it was just ok. My sister had one of the more authentic Italian ones and seemed to like it. 

[bethfelk]

Today in Belize we had booked a manatee watching tour with Splash Wave’s tours. I was very displeased with how princess handled the debarking, we were very confused about where to go and we never heard any announcements (perhaps we just missed them)? and different staff also seemed confused and gave us conflicting info. Curious what others on board thought bc perhaps I was just having a stupid morning?
 

We did make it off tho. We were in a big rush bc our tour said to meet at 7:45, which we knew wasn’t realistic and missed, but we ended up not getting on our tour boat until probably 9:45 ish which was frustrating on Splash Wave’s part bc we could have had a much more leisurely morning. Other than that the tour was great tho. They told us our manatee tour was cancelled since we were the only people, but they moved us to the river tour which also had plenty of manatee viewing so I think we got a better deal honestly. In addition to the manatees we saw crocodiles, iguanas, howler monkeys, and lots of cool birds. And our guide was extremely knowledgeable about biology and the local animals and I learned a lot.

[bethfelk]

After getting back on the ship we had deck pizza. The deck place does make gluten free pizza, but you have to ask and it takes some time. Not sure what the wait today was bc my sister who stayed on ordered it for me and had it waiting when I got on (thank you @kruisin_kt if you are reading❤️). The pizza was very good imo, but the whole thing is strange to me. At Alfredo’s last night, it was very obviously a premade crust (and not a very good one). So I expected that they have switched to this fleet wide, but no they still have what appears to be house baked gluten free dough at the deck place. As you can see in the picture, it was very small though. On Ruby last year it was much larger/roughly a normal “Small” pizza size. I found this pizza to be much better than Alfredo’s though interestingly. I plan to get it again tomorrow probably so I will see if it’s always that small