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

[Kenosha Cruiser]

Croptop, glad you made it back! You had us all worried, believe me your not boring, we love your humorous style of writing. Keep it going the last few days of your cruise. :)

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

[gotta cruise again]

View from Regal's bridge cam this morning...not the usual camera angle either!!

Regal 3Feb2017 Cozumel.pdf

[easyboy]

Nice of you to be back Croptop. Missed your good humor!

[Daniel1313]

Croptop, glad you made it back! You had us all worried, believe me your not boring, we love your humorous style of writing. Keep it going the last few days of your cruise. :)

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

Hope you keep us updated on how your cruise is going since your on a week before us.... Won't be long for you now.0

[SIMMY67]

Croptop,

 

Hope you enjoyed your cruise as much as we enjoyed following you! Safe journey home tomorrow or whenever......

[Croptop]

My morning started off the same as every other morning in the over the last two weeks with a quick coffee and banana on the aft terrace before the 0700hrs stretch and abs classes. And yet it wasn't the same. Two weeks ago, when I stepped off of the plane -- having come from the winter cold of Canada -- I'd have described this morning's temperature as warm with strong breeze. But after two weeks acclimating to the Caribbean sun and heat, this morning's 20C temperature was noticeably cooler than I've become used to and it served as a reminder that my brief respite from winter is almost over.

 

Instead of eagerly looking forward to the (in)activities of the day, I found myself in a melancholy mood -- reflecting on the wonderful time I've spent aboard the Regal. While not "perfect", this cruise has been fantastic, my favourite cruise to date. Any of the alarmist comments or complaints about the Regal that I read on Cruise Critic prior to my trip have all been forgotten. Others may disagree but I have found that this Princess cruise was as good or even better than any of my prior cruises.

 

And I never lacked for butter or a dish to keep it in.

 

For those of you who asked about the Pub Lunch, it was held today from 1130-1330hrs in the Crown Grill/Wheelhouse Bar. I didn't attend as it's not cuisine that appeals to my palette but it is alive and well at least on the Regal.

 

The afternoon was my usual mix of reading, watching movies and just generally relaxing with a short detour back to my stateroom for a little introductory packing. I managed to get most of my personal effects squared away with the exception of the clothes that I plan to wear tomorrow and my ablution kit.

 

In a moment of serendipity, I ended up sharing a table with the same people that I dined with on the first night of this leg of the cruise and it was quite fun to rehash the activities of the week. And, given that some of us are flying home in the morning, we delightfully traded our various airline horror stories. That was fun.

 

So now I'm all packed and my luggage has been shoved out into the hall. In a moment of inspiration, I even remembered to keep out some clothes to put on tomorrow morning. One more movie and a night of tossing an turning before the chaos of disembarkation and the flight(s) home.

[Candycrusher]

Hey Croptop..safe travels home.. nice meeting you on the first week on the Regal. We, too, loved our cruise. It has been 12 years since we were on a Princess cruise...so glad we decided to try the Regal. Loved the Crown Grill and Sabatini, and Alfredos. The Horizon court Buffet, by far the best of any cruise ship. We did club class dining, which was mediocre. Needs improvement. Loved the Ultimate Ships Tour.....wearing the bathrobe as we speak, lol. Wonderful production shows and we really enjoyed the magician. Great crowd and fellow passengers as well. I would be sad too thinking of disembarking tomorrow ( especially to a cold climate) , but we live here in South Florida. Enjoyed MUTS.

 

 

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[Mamma Drum]

I was on Regal in October and I did the Ultimate Ship Tour and I really enjoyed. The only problem I had is I'm on 5 feet tall and the Princess Bathrobe I received is really too big for me. You will receive a few other surprise gifts as well. Enjoy. And sign up asap.

 

 

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[jrzebird]

My morning started off the same as every other morning in the over the last two weeks with a quick coffee and banana on the aft terrace before the 0700hrs stretch and abs classes. And yet it wasn't the same. Two weeks ago, when I stepped off of the plane -- having come from the winter cold of Canada -- I'd have described this morning's temperature as warm with strong breeze. But after two weeks acclimating to the Caribbean sun and heat, this morning's 20C temperature was noticeably cooler than I've become used to and it served as a reminder that my brief respite from winter is almost over.

 

Instead of eagerly looking forward to the (in)activities of the day, I found myself in a melancholy mood -- reflecting on the wonderful time I've spent aboard the Regal. While not "perfect", this cruise has been fantastic, my favourite cruise to date. Any of the alarmist comments or complaints about the Regal that I read on Cruise Critic prior to my trip have all been forgotten. Others may disagree but I have found that this Princess cruise was as good or even better than any of my prior cruises.

 

And I never lacked for butter or a dish to keep it in.

 

For those of you who asked about the Pub Lunch, it was held today from 1130-1330hrs in the Crown Grill/Wheelhouse Bar. I didn't attend as it's not cuisine that appeals to my palette but it is alive and well at least on the Regal.

 

The afternoon was my usual mix of reading, watching movies and just generally relaxing with a short detour back to my stateroom for a little introductory packing. I managed to get most of my personal effects squared away with the exception of the clothes that I plan to wear tomorrow and my ablution kit.

 

In a moment of serendipity, I ended up sharing a table with the same people that I dined with on the first night of this leg of the cruise and it was quite fun to rehash the activities of the week. And, given that some of us are flying home in the morning, we delightfully traded our various airline horror stories. That was fun.

 

So now I'm all packed and my luggage has been shoved out into the hall. In a moment of inspiration, I even remembered to keep out some clothes to put on tomorrow morning. One more movie and a night of tossing an turning before the chaos of disembarkation and the flight(s) home.

 

Thanks for bringing us along with you. You should join us in October on the repo from New York - 10 days of awesomeness on the Regal 7 of which are sea days.

 

By the way, there really is no chaos disembarking. I've always been amazed at how easy and stress-free it is.

 

Safe home!

 

Maureen

[jrzebird]

Sorry for the lack of posts, everyone. Rest assured that I am OK, I have plenty of internet minutes and I haven't become trapped in some obscure corner of the ship, forced to eat slugs and burn carpet strips for warmth (although I did get locked out of my cabin briefly this morning when my cruise card stopped working). I was so traumatised that I had to have a second breakfast prior to heading down to Passenger Services to get a new one.

 

Anyway, the reason for my dropoff in posting is this: I am a boring creature of habit. After so many days of saying, "I got up, did the ab and stretch classes, had breakfast, went for a run, had lunch, read a book/napped, ate dinner, and watched a movie before drifting off to sleep with the gentle rocking of the ship", I figured it was getting a bit repetitive.

 

I really don't have much else to report. The taxi drivers in Montego Bay were as aggressive as everyone has reported but they weren't nasty about it, at least not to me. The line of cars stuck in traffic on Grand Cayman stretched for over 2 kilometres from the start of my run at the dockside.

 

We're just docking in Cozumel as I write this. Once we get clearance I'm going to go ashore and...

 

Attend a Mexican cooking class and beach day excursion.

 

Just kidding. I'm going for a run. Surprise!

 

How did you like Cozumel? One of my favorite stops. When we were there in October it was their Independence Day. Lots of happy people.

 

Maureen

[cindsue]

Thank you, Croptop, for taking us on your Cruise Odyssey! I'm glad you had a great time and am now looking forward to our upcoming adventure even more. Safe travels home!

 

 

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[Daniel1313]

Thanks John ( Crop Top ) for answering all the questions I had... Safe travels home. We will be on the Regal in two weeks. Can't wait..

 

Dan

[Kenosha Cruiser]

Croptop, it was a pleasure following along with your live thread. One more week and our two week adventure will start. Have a safe journey home! Like jrzebird (Maureen) mentioned you should join us on the Regal Princess In Oct from New York to Ft. Lauderdale. It falls during Halloween so you can imagine all the excitement to be had!

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

[LadySpoilt]

A thank you to CropTop for your review. We were on the 2nd leg of your b2b and I told hubby about your "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" . He and his brother decided to attend the first one to "kill some time". They too enjoyed the lecture (all 3 of them as a matter of fact).

Had it not been for your review I am quite certain I would not have noticed it in the Patters.

 

BTW, the cotton ball/vaseline fire does work. Hubby felt the "need" to try this survival skill upon coming home.

 

Thanks again for the review and recommendation

Spoilt

[gotta cruise again]

Sitting in Gordon's 2nd lecture: here is fire!!!