Live from the Regal Princess 2/2/2020 Collaboration

[Vic The Parrot]

Good to see you're having a great time. We did this itinerary on Regal 2 years ago, and loved it. 

 

BTW, how did you make out with the embarkation brew? 😇😎

[CruiseVA]

Still have a couple of brews left, we're spending 2 nights in fort lauderdale post cruise, so I suspect those brews will disappear by the time we leave. 🙂 It's been awesome weather, an awesome cruise. Still love the Regal, even though there are lots of people on her during Sea Days 🙂 That's what a balcony is for!

[CineGraphic]

6 minutes ago, CruiseVA said:

That's what a balcony is for!

Glad you enjoyed the cruise. We were on the Royal and Regal when they first joined the fleet, and have not been back since.

I own shoes that are bigger than the balconies on those ships.

[CruiseVA]

I found a mini-suite with a bit larger, than normal, angled.  Mariner deck, which has turned out to be a great location!

 

[CruiseVA]

31 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

I own shoes that are bigger than the balconies on those ships.

It appears that I still owe you that drink!

[Vic The Parrot]

Does that mean those brews were confiscated?  😵😰

[CruiseVA]

No, I still have them. 

Getting off I spied new mattresses bring loaded. 

[AF-1]

That's a good sign

 

[CruiseVA]

What??? I've been off the ship for 5 hours, and, I have to pay for food now? 

[Daniel A]

We got up early today and after breakfast we went to the Vista Lounge which was the Platinum Disembarkation Lounge.  (That's what the sign said - I don't know if they had a separate Disembarkation Lounge for Elite.)  The lounge was fairly empty, at most about 25 people.  We sat down and used a Champagne split to add to our Orange Juices and right after making the Mimosas, it was announced that all passengers in the lounge were cleared to disembark regardless of color group.  We were off the ship much earlier and CBP was a breeze.  A porter took all  of our bags to our car in the Northport Parking Garage and we were on our way!

 

All in all, we had a wonderful voyage.  I only remember there being rain yesterday afternoon, but it was brief and intense.  It was a sea day and chillier than the rest.  We met a couple doing a B2B and in the car on the way home, we all agreed that we should have booked a B2B.  Seven day cruises are going by much too quickly.  I hope to meet up with you all on a future cruise... 

[Daniel A]

3 minutes ago, CruiseVA said:

What??? I've been off the ship for 5 hours, and, I have to pay for food now? 

 

That better be some burger for $17.00   While you're staying in Fort Lauderdale, I recommend taking a Canal Tour if you've never done it, but take one that is narrated - the water taxi isn't the same thing.

Edited February 9, 2020 by Daniel A

[gwcruzer]

On 2/2/2020 at 2:24 PM, CruiseVA said:

Ahoy! There be bars of soap onboard Mateys!

 

[BIG TIME CRUISER]

On 2/9/2020 at 9:33 AM, CruiseVA said:

No, I still have them. 

Getting off I spied new mattresses bring loaded. 

It's about time. Our mattress had seen it's better days.

I also heard that there were problems in some cabins with insufficient AC.

Ours was fine.

[Daniel A]

7 minutes ago, BIG TIME CRUISER said:

It's about time. Our mattress had seen it's better days.

I also heard that there were problems in some cabins with insufficient AC.

Ours was fine.

I noticed that when the steward was done making up the cabin, the card in the slot for electric was pulled and placed at a diagonal in the slot turning off the electric in the cabin.  This also turns the AC off.  (I was annoyed as I was trying to recharge my tablet with the Medallion Class Apps while off ship but it never charged with the power turned off.)  If you have a balcony and don't close the light blocking drapes, the strength of the Caribbean Sun makes it more difficult for the AC to cool the cabin down.

 

[Daniel A]

I just saw on another thread that Caribbean Princess (Which was the Princess ship docked next to us on Regal February 2) cancelled port stops and is cutting their cruise short and returning to Port Everglades early due to Norovirus.  According to the CDC 9.9% of PAX are sick and 1.9% of crew are sick.  Anybody (including CruiseVA) staying in Fort Lauderdale Hotels should be wary of any Caribbean PAX moving into your hotels.  Remember: "Washy, Washy.."

[AF-1]

That is sad news about CB.  Hope everyone gets better and no one has serious illness

[BIG TIME CRUISER]

6 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I noticed that when the steward was done making up the cabin, the card in the slot for electric was pulled and placed at a diagonal in the slot turning off the electric in the cabin.  This also turns the AC off.  (I was annoyed as I was trying to recharge my tablet with the Medallion Class Apps while off ship but it never charged with the power turned off.)  If you have a balcony and don't close the light blocking drapes, the strength of the Caribbean Sun makes it more difficult for the AC to cool the cabin down.

 

We had an inside cabin which didn't have the heating problems like a balcony. The AC never shut off even if the card was pulled out by the steward. If we had the thermostat set to max it would be at 68 degrees when returning to the cabin at night. 

Our outlets would also stay energized- we alway keep our nightlight on.

[polmcs]

On 2/9/2020 at 11:31 AM, Daniel A said:

We got up early today and after breakfast we went to the Vista Lounge which was the Platinum Disembarkation Lounge.  (That's what the sign said - I don't know if they had a separate Disembarkation Lounge for Elite.)  The lounge was fairly empty, at most about 25 people.  We sat down and used a Champagne split to add to our Orange Juices and right after making the Mimosas, it was announced that all passengers in the lounge were cleared to disembark regardless of color group.  

Smuggled aboard, or is the Regal still offering the small bottles of Korbell aboard the ship?

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, polmcs said:

Smuggled aboard, or is the Regal still offering the small bottles of Korbell aboard the ship?

  Neither, I'm not really a wine drinker so it was my allotted bottle of champagne that I was permitted to bring on board with me.

[polmcs]

3 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

  Neither, I'm not really a wine drinker so it was my allotted bottle of champagne that I was permitted to bring on board with me.

Ah. Thank you. I had held out hope that some ships still had the splits available 😞 

[bookmama22]

I was also on this cruise. I will agree about the small balcony, what a disappointment as we had booked and paid for a deluxe balcony. We had done the same cruise several years ago on the Ruby Princess and this balcony seemed either the same as that one or smaller. We were surprised I suppose because the last cruise we were on was Norwegian Breakaway from NY to Bermuda and the deluxe balconies have a lounge chair and much bigger rooms, a bathroom twice the size with many amenities as well as comfortable couch as opposed to the dumpy love seat we had this time. Our bed was however very comfortable so we must had had a new mattress. The decor was at best drab but again not really in the room all that much. We did have a stationery packet and the bar soap was replaced several times, so not a problem with that. I wouldn't use whatever shampoo/conditioner or gel is in those canisters in the shower as who knows what is in them.. so I was well prepared with shampoo/conditioner, etc.

Big disappointment on this ship was the "library without books". Literally empty cases as if they filled a few shelves with books left behind. Good thing I was well prepared with at least 4 books. 

Princess Cays stop was fine, at least we didn't get a norovirus as we did at the Turks and Caicos stop. We have been to both St Marteen and St Thomas several times, both on previous cruise and at hotels, so not a big deal. Would have done an excursion to St. John but all were sold out and we weren't motivated to do taxi/ferry/taxi so we just went up the cable car for panoramic view, went to town and came back to relax by pool. Too bad the hot tubs were more like warm tubs. 

Mostly we just relaxed on deck enjoying the wine we brought aboard and enjoyed the Super Bowl and MUTS although one night too windy. Went to comedian show one night. Never spent any time in Piazza. Would have enjoyed more of the jazz band but they are forced to play almost in the corridor by bar near Crown Grill and hordes of people marching by to go play bingo. Poor strategic planning to have them play there. 

Had anytime dining and enjoyed some nice dinners. Never use the buffet except to have a salad at lunch. I did see in the Patter that one night was Bavarian night as someone asked. 

So relaxing week. Would not book another cruise until this Coronavirus is dealt with as it will most definitely spread.

[Daniel A]

Well.... I hope everybody has arrived home safely and that your trip with us will be a very pleasant memory.  As for DW & me, it's back to the daily grind...

 

[CruiseVA]

10 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Well.... I hope everybody has arrived home safely and that your trip with us will be a very pleasant memory.  As for DW & me, it's back to the daily grind...

 

We made it back fine after 2 nights at the Hollywood Beach Marriott (got upgraded to an oceanview suite, which was nice). We had a direct flight home on JetBlue, we even took off 10 minutes early!  

It was a pleasure meeting you Dan, till we meet again.

I spotted this sub from our balcony in the Marriott, first time I've seen one at sea.