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

[caribill]

6 hours ago, insidecabin said:

Both should be elite next one that's a lot of minibar stuff, 3 lots per leg if in a suite.

 

Two Elites in a cabin still only get one mini-bar setup. If in a full suite, then a second one.

[Ken the cruiser]

We stayed on the ship, but our son and his DW went on a PCL excursion to the Acropolis, Corinth and the Corinth Canal and took some great pictures! 
 

Acropolis 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Corinth, which was pretty much a bunch of ruins, with a few exceptions, from the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last stop was the Corinth Canal. In all it took 10,000 men over 12 years to dig the canal. 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off again. Athens is so big, I had to take 2 pictures!! 😂

 

Next stop, Santorini!
 

 

[NoWhiners]

Hi Ken

 

I've been following your posts and pix, thanks for the news. I was wondering how the internet is onboard (I think you might have posted the speeds a while back but I can't remember)? It seems Ok if you are able to post updates and pix to CC. Do you think Princess has resolved their internet connection issues?

 

Thanks.

[JimmyVWine]

5 hours ago, phabric said:

Is there anything at the Athens terminal - duty free , stores?

None that I can recall.  The departure port of Athens is somewhat unique in that many of the people who board the ship there are spending as much of the day as possible seeing the sights of Athens. So the "crowd" really trickles in in dribs and drabs with no waiting around. So there isn't anything there to occupy your time.  Of course, the city of Piraeus has an economy all its own and there is shopping and dining there.  But that is a hefty walk from Terminal B.  As you can see from Ken's photos of the port area, at no time does a crowd build up the way one would expect at Port Everglades, SF or San Pedro.  The last time we sailed out of there we had already spent 3 full days in Athens before the cruise, so on departure day we headed to the port in a taxi at 10:00 and were on the ship by 11:00 without waiting in a single line. Straight shot onto the ship.   

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Then Corinth, which was pretty much a bunch of ruins, with a few exceptions, from the pictures.

There actually is a bit more to Ancient Corinth, but yes, there are many ruins.  I think Paul's lost letter to the Corinthians must have said something like: "Clean up your mess."  But there are significant structures of baths and commercial shops.  Corinth was a trade center given its strategic location, which is why the canal was built to cut down ship travel time. 

 

 

 

 

And if you get down to the canal level, you can witness an engineering marvel: The submersible bridge.  Instead of building a bridge where ships pass below it, or a bridge that raises to let ships pass through, they built a bridge that sinks into the canal so that boats pass OVER it.  First photo is the bridge as it appears when cars drive over it.  The second and third photos show the bridge disappeared into the water with a boat passing over it, and the fourth photo shows the bridge after it is re-raised, soaking wet.  When this happened, there were many minnows trapped on the bridge and the seagulls had a buffet feast!  They were so smart.  They knew what was happening and were lying in wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2022 by JimmyVWine

[dickinson]

A submersible bridge.  Fascinating!  Thanks for the pictures.

Edited July 16, 2022 by dickinson

[JimmyVWine]

2 minutes ago, dickinson said:

A submersible bride.  Fascinating!  Thanks for the pictures.

"Bridge", not "Bride".  If you submerge your bride, you are likely headed for big, big trouble! 😁 

[dickinson]

2 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

"Bridge", not "Bride".  If you submerge your bride, you are likely headed for big, big trouble! 😁 

Lol!  Fixed it.

[Ken the cruiser]

Tonight after dinner we went to the theater and watched an hilarious comedian from Scotland, Geoff Boyz. 
 

 

We then headed over, as usual, to the Princess Live and participate in the Trivia for 100 Game Show. 
 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 16 - July 17 - Santorini, Greece

 

 

Edited July 16, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

Hi Ken

 

I've been following your posts and pix, thanks for the news. I was wondering how the internet is onboard (I think you might have posted the speeds a while back but I can't remember)? It seems Ok if you are able to post updates and pix to CC. Do you think Princess has resolved their internet connection issues?

 

Thanks.

It all depends. For example, the download speed this morning was at 3 mbps. But that on a transition day with very very B2B passengers onboard, as most were probably on excursions or touring Athens on their own. 
 

However, this evening the download speeds are super slow. For example, I’m typing this response while the pictures on this page continue to download to my iPhone. Now, I will say there are 3600+ passengers on this leg which means there are a lot of young adults in the evening using social media to communicate with their friends back home.
 

So, when you include that into the equation, that 3 mbps will get sucked up in the evening, especially between 8-11 pm from what I’ve noticed. 

 

Maybe one day Princess will do what Celebrity did and have two internet packages, basic and premium, where the latter’s internet speeds are about 3 times as fast as the Basic rate. But, you pay $12 per day more for their Premium service. 
 

But, as they say, it is what it is. 

[NoWhiners]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

It all depends. For example, the download speed this morning was at 3 mbps. But that on a transition day with very very B2B passengers onboard, as most were probably on excursions or touring Athens on their own. 
 

However, this evening the download speeds are super slow. For example, I’m typing this response while the pictures on this page continue to download to my iPhone. Now, I will say there are 3600+ passengers on this leg which means there are a lot of young adults in the evening using social media to communicate with their friends back home.
 

So, when you include that into the equation, that 3 mbps will get sucked up in the evening, especially between 8-11 pm from what I’ve noticed. 

 

Maybe one day Princess will do what Celebrity did and have two internet packages, basic and premium, where the latter’s internet speeds are about 3 times as fast as the Basic rate. But, you pay $12 per day more for their Premium service. 
 

But, as they say, it is what it is. 

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. <Sigh> I was hoping they would have done something to address this by now. I only need internet for email to stay in touch with the dogsitter, but I also like to try and listen to Sirius radio online. It has always worked in the past but that was with more 'normal' service. We don't cruise until November, so maybe a miracle will happen 😉

[coo359a2]

41 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. <Sigh> I was hoping they would have done something to address this by now. I only need internet for email to stay in touch with the dogsitter, but I also like to try and listen to Sirius radio online. It has always worked in the past but that was with more 'normal' service. We don't cruise until November, so maybe a miracle will happen 😉

Have you tried Spotify for music.  My DH makes up his own playlist  while at home and doesn't need wi-fi to listen to the songs on the ship.  Not a techie but think this is right.

[NoWhiners]

1 minute ago, coo359a2 said:

Have you tried Spotify for music.  My DH makes up his own playlist  while at home and doesn't need wi-fi to listen to the songs on the ship.  Not a techie but think this is right.

 

Yes, you have it right. I listen to Sirius XM radio, mostly for all the football games I can't watch when we're cruising but also for old radio programs and other content, not just for music. It doesn't take much signal but needs something somewhat reliable. I used it up and down the Amazon on Oceania and Princess in the past with no issues and was hoping to do the same in November in Europe. It won't be the end of the world but it's nice to have.

 

[coo359a2]

17 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Yes, you have it right. I listen to Sirius XM radio, mostly for all the football games I can't watch when we're cruising but also for old radio programs and other content, not just for music. It doesn't take much signal but needs something somewhat reliable. I used it up and down the Amazon on Oceania and Princess in the past with no issues and was hoping to do the same in November in Europe. It won't be the end of the world but it's nice to have.

 

I'm use to using Facetime each day with grandson.  Have no idea how that will work on a TA or on other cruises. Internet has always been good for us until people started posting about their TAs this spring.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

There actually is a bit more to Ancient Corinth, but yes, there are many ruins.  I think Paul's lost letter to the Corinthians must have said something like: "Clean up your mess."  But there are significant structures of baths and commercial shops.  Corinth was a trade center given its strategic location, which is why the canal was built to cut down ship travel time. 

 

 

 

 

And if you get down to the canal level, you can witness an engineering marvel: The submersible bridge.  Instead of building a bridge where ships pass below it, or a bridge that raises to let ships pass through, they built a bridge that sinks into the canal so that boats pass OVER it.  First photo is the bridge as it appears when cars drive over it.  The second and third photos show the bridge disappeared into the water with a boat passing over it, and the fourth photo shows the bridge after it is re-raised, soaking wet.  When this happened, there were many minnows trapped on the bridge and the seagulls had a buffet feast!  They were so smart.  They knew what was happening and were lying in wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fascinating pictures. There are a few cruise lines that use the canal. I must update my bucket list! 

[Esprit]

As Ken rightly said, the comedian Geoff Boyz was really funny. I’m glad his Scottish humour didn’t pass over other nationalities.

Then we went to the Vista lounge to listen to Xcite. They are such a great band for getting people up and dancing.

[Esprit]

8 hours ago, coo359a2 said:

Have you tried Spotify for music.  My DH makes up his own playlist  while at home and doesn't need wi-fi to listen to the songs on the ship.  Not a techie but think this is right.

Spotify works fine for me without a saved playlist.

[Esprit]

According to our CD there are 3,360 passengers on this cruise.

It fascinates me how the ships vibe changes from one week to the next.

[caribill]

10 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

Maybe one day Princess will do what Celebrity did and have two internet packages, basic and premium, where the latter’s internet speeds are about 3 times as fast as the Basic rate. But, you pay $12 per day more for their Premium service. 
 

 

 

Are Celebrity speeds different for the basic and premium or do they just restrict the basic from accessing sites which use a lot of bandwidth?

[Carnevale]

On 7/15/2022 at 11:13 PM, Esprit said:

Latin and Ballroom dancing update.

 

Week one was disappointing. We only managed a rock jive and tight Cha Cha the first  night in the Piazza. A  band plays there every night but we must have missed the songs you could dance to.

We attended the Salsa and Bachata classes and the assistant CD Cesar from Colombo was excellent. Not many attendees though!

We also tried the Ballroom Dance Music hour in the Vista lounge but we were the only couple there. You get one track for each dance type so if you want to practice a particular dance you have to wait awhile. The Vista floor is narrow and curved so not great for a Samba or Tango.

Each evening the Vista lounge turns into a night club from 11 to 2 pm once the Xcite band have finished their set. This is because Club Six is closed, presumably because of the TV show being filmed. According to one of the film crew they finish next weekend.

We are hopeful our second week will see us dancing more🤞

Many thanks for the update…really appreciate your post on this and hope you will post again regarding week 2.  It’s very disappointing to hear that there’s so little dancing.

 

What kind of music does Xcite play?  How loud is?  I ask about volume as on HAL the rare times there was dancing happened with music that was so loud we were not comfortable staying in the venue (so we no longer sail on HAL as without dancing a cruise isn’t as enjoyable as we’d like).

 

 I hope you get more time on the floor!

[Esprit]

5 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

Many thanks for the update…really appreciate your post on this and hope you will post again regarding week 2.  It’s very disappointing to hear that there’s so little dancing.

 

What kind of music does Xcite play?  How loud is?  I ask about volume as on HAL the rare times there was dancing happened with music that was so loud we were not comfortable staying in the venue (so we no longer sail on HAL as without dancing a cruise isn’t as enjoyable as we’d like).

 

 I hope you get more time on the floor!

Hi there,

Xcite play mostly 70’s and 80’s classic disco numbers with a few current hits.

Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson and the Up town funk song got people on the floor last night.

Hard to judge how loud the music is. We could hold a conversation without shouting at each other.

Fingers crossed we get on the floor more this week.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Are Celebrity speeds different for the basic and premium or do they just restrict the basic from accessing sites which use a lot of bandwidth?

The download speeds are different. On the 4 B2Bs we’ve been on since last August, we were unable to even log onto CC with the default All Included Basic package if there were more than 1100 passengers aboard. We could check email and do simple web searches and the download speed in the Caribbean for the Basic package was around 0.50 - 0.75 mbps. However, once we upgraded to their Premium package, the download speed increased to between 1.75 - 2.5 mbps and I had no issues posting to my Live threads with multiple pictures on each of those cruises, during the day or evening.

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Santorini. Funny thing was when we woke up and looked out our balcony, this is what we saw. Notice the lava flow to the left. That’s Nea Kameni, the ancient volcano.

 

 

 

Then we pulled up a map to try to figure out where Santorini was, as all the populated areas looked so far away. But we figured since the winds were high and there were swales all about, we figured we’re hiding out in some cove as the water may be too rough for the tenders.

 

 

Then we went to breakfast and looked out the starboard side, and there was Santorini! Just a 10 minute tender ride away! 😁

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Ken the cruiser