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

[JimmyVWine]

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We have arrived in Kotor! But just like the last time we were here on the Oceania Riviera and were docked at the pier, the Nautica is taking that spot this time.

Is it even possible for a ship the size of Regal to tie up at the dock?  Has anyone on a Grand or Royal Class ship ever not tendered?

[Ken the cruiser]

27 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Is it even possible for a ship the size of Regal to tie up at the dock?  Has anyone on a Grand or Royal Class ship ever not tendered?

This is only a guess, but I wouldn’t believe so. The Oceania Nautica is a small 660 passenger R-class ship and it took up quite a bit of the available pier space and I didn’t see any pier extensions where a much larger 3-4000 passenger ship could tie its aft ropes to.

[Ken the cruiser]

Then there was the sail away back to the Adriatic Sea with a variety of turns through the gorges along the way. Fun times! 😁

 

 

Thought this fish hatchery was interesting.

 

 

 

 

There were 2 of these tunnels about 100 yards apart with small boats going in them as well as coming out of them. Not sure where they went though. All the way through to the other side or just a big loop.

 

Picked this helicopter up about 15 minutes after we left port and it was with us well after we entered the Adriatic Sea. I guess is our protector from potential evil doers

 

 

Thought these sloped housing developments were interesting. The finished one is on the right, the one in progress is in the middle, and the one on the left is just being cleared. Notice the winding drive down to the water.

 

 

Approaching the Adriatic Sea and open waters.

 

The Mamula Fortress which is at the mouth of the entrance from which we came.
 

Just one final picture of Montenegro as we sail towards Messina, Italy.

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Mary loves to travel]

these photos are breathtaking!

[Esprit]

Hi Ken

This was one of three submarine pens. Date back to the Yugoslavian days,

[Esprit]

We did a Princess tour via the old city to Our Lady of the Rock island, which included a three course meal, water and wine (or beer).

Our guide was strangely a German now married and living in Kotor. He was excellent.

[Esprit]

Tha Captain announced that there would be a helicopter circling us to add aerial footage for the Love Boat TV show.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

There were 2 of these tunnels about 100 yards apart with small boats going in them as well as coming out of them. Not sure where they went though. All the way through to the other side or just a big loop.

 

 

They are old, abandoned Yugoslav submarine tunnels.  Tour boats go in for a looksee.  They are dead ends.

 

 https://www.kotorspeedboattours.com/submarine-tunnel/

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Esprit said:

Hi Ken

This was one of three submarine pens. Date back to the Yugoslavian days,

Thanks! That makes a lot of sense as we couldn’t figure out who would pay to just dig tunnels into a mountain just so boats could have fun going into them. 😂

 

[Ken the cruiser]

53 minutes ago, Esprit said:

Tha Captain announced that there would be a helicopter circling us to add aerial footage for the Love Boat TV show.

LOL!! And here we thought it was an armed escort!! 😂 That explains the big camera-looking device in front of the helicopter. That’s for keeping me straight! 😁

[antsp]

3 hours ago, Esprit said:

Tha Captain announced that there would be a helicopter circling us to add aerial footage for the Love Boat TV show.

Never seen parasol / umbrellas on Princess 

[Ken the cruiser]

After dinner we headed to the theater to watch David Knight, The Mind Persuader and Comedy Stage Hypnotist.

 

 

Afterwards we stayed in the theater to play Deal or No Deal, and unfortunately out of our 3 cards only one card scored 3 times (winning a bingo package) while the other two were duds.

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[tml1230]

Ken ....absolutely incredible photos! thanks! and  a quick question...I ask as as I am making  final payment this week  for the regal princess transatlantic cruise back to port everglades from Rome in November...we are in a Club Class mini suite...

are you still happy that you did the club class package? we did a CC in the Caribbean  some months ago and really enjoyed it....the dining room perc was what won me over!....it appears you guys are enjoying  CC too! any regrets ?  again, in advance, !!thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, tml1230 said:

Ken ....absolutely incredible photos! thanks! and  a quick question...I ask as as I am making  final payment this week  for the regal princess transatlantic cruise back to port everglades from Rome in November...we are in a Club Class mini suite...

are you still happy that you did the club class package? we did a CC in the Caribbean  some months ago and really enjoyed it....the dining room perc was what won me over!....it appears you guys are enjoying  CC too! any regrets ?  again, in advance, !!thanks for your thoughts!

 

No regrets what so ever with Club Class dining and we love the cabin we have which is pretty much in the center of the ship. But to be honest, Club Class dining IS why we book the M1 category. We like the No reservation required aspect of it, even though we usually show up at 5:30 pm when the doors open, as well as on many occasions we have ordered the extra entree as it’s usually pretty tasty! 

[ROWSE]

On 7/18/2022 at 2:08 PM, NIkkiGR said:

Beautiful pictures. We will be touring the Vatican prior to our 21 day cruise on the Regal staring from Rome on September 10th. Our ticket does not include the Basilica. Did you stand in line for a long time to get into the Basilica? 

I am sorry for hijacking thread for a minute.  AND if someone already wrote about this tour I am sorry too as I have not read through everything yet.  

We were able to do a tour called the Scavi tour but booked so far out as they only take a few people an hour.  It is an underground tour of the Vatican where we saw an area containing. St. Peter’s bones and so much more.  This was the highlight of our Vatican Day.  Planned it for first tour.  You write them on the “contact” heading with possible days.  Only 13 euro each.  THEN, the best part is that you can go immediately into the Basilica from end of tour.  No waiting in that line.  It may be already full or not work with your time, or you could be claustrophobic.  It was amazing.  The line for the Basilica was huge when we finished and came out.  Here is a link:  http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/en/biglietto-di-ingresso.html

 

 

[Manderius]

Ken, when you were in Istanbul, were there taxis or something that could  take you to the Bizare? 

 

[caribill]

17 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 Under the Kotor Open Tour sign, you can barely read the stops, but Perast is the third stop.

 

 

This may help to read what it says:

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Manderius said:

Ken, when you were in Istanbul, were there taxis or something that could  take you to the Bizare? 

 

I’m sure there were, even though we took a tour. 

[Esprit]

25 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I’m sure there were, even though we took a tour. 

There are indeed quite a few in the underground car and coach park. The new cruise terminal is huge with escalators taking you to the parking areas. They are well sign posted too.

[Alcairns]

10 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:.

 

 

Afterwards we stayed in the theater to play Deal or No Deal, and unfortunately out of our 3 cards only one card scored 3 times (winning a bingo package) while the other two were duds.

 

 

 

It’s very difficult to win anything serious on the Deal or No Deal Cards. In March we found our card contained only half the numbers that were on the board the rest were duplicates. This makes it very hard to match the numbers. I checked with several other card holders and they had a similar spread of numbers. It’s fun to watch though -  apart from the annoying Fortuna Luck! 

[Esprit]

If anyone is torn between eating in Sabatini’s or the Crown Grill I would recommend the Grill first.

We ate twice at Sabatini’s last week and the second time it was underwhelming so we cancelled our third visit in favour of the Grill.

[Ken the cruiser]

44 minutes ago, Alcairns said:

It’s very difficult to win anything serious on the Deal or No Deal Cards. In March we found our card contained only half the numbers that were on the board the rest were duplicates. This makes it very hard to match the numbers. I checked with several other card holders and they had a similar spread of numbers. It’s fun to watch though -  apart from the annoying Fortuna Luck! 

The highest number on our 3 cards was $50 and most numbers appeared twice which gave you, in theory, twice as many chances to get a match. But then the computer already knows which numbers are on each purchased card, so it really wouldn’t be too hard to programmatically calculate where to place the numbers on the board prior to the start of each game, IMHO.

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Messina, Italy! In a few minutes we’ll be heading out on our 7 hour excursion to Mt Etna which includes a 2 hour drive each way. 
 

 

 

[mrgame101]

11 hours ago, ROWSE said:

I am sorry for hijacking thread for a minute.  AND if someone already wrote about this tour I am sorry too as I have not read through everything yet.  

We were able to do a tour called the Scavi tour but booked so far out as they only take a few people an hour.  It is an underground tour of the Vatican where we saw an area containing. St. Peter’s bones and so much more.  This was the highlight of our Vatican Day.  Planned it for first tour.  You write them on the “contact” heading with possible days.  Only 13 euro each.  THEN, the best part is that you can go immediately into the Basilica from end of tour.  No waiting in that line.  It may be already full or not work with your time, or you could be claustrophobic.  It was amazing.  The line for the Basilica was huge when we finished and came out.  Here is a link:  http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/en/biglietto-di-ingresso.html

 

 

I can agree! We did this in the fall of 2019 and one of the most unique tours we have ever done. 

[Esprit]

2 hours ago, Alcairns said:

….   apart from the annoying Fortuna Luck! 

Boy, does she get on your nerves!

She can’t be that ditty 24/7 surely 🙄