I’m lumping both of our last two sea days together in one post, as there really isn’t lot to report (a helpful reminder to me of why I’m not planning to blog about our December cruises (at a minimum)).
I finally decided that, unless I wanted to lock myself in our cabin, I needed to wear a mask and attend the shipboard activities I wanted to. It must have worked. For the first time in recent memory, I’m going to be leaving a cruise healthy, something that was a year long goal for me. It’s a miracle!
We enjoyed our final dinner in the Symphony Dining Room with Berenice and Sebastian (because we had specialty dining reservations for the last night). Goodness, they were so incredible to us! Surprisingly, we also loved our lonely table for two by the galley. DRO Enache would check, every time he stopped by, if we were still happy. Perhaps even happier than at a window table, and no one was more surprised by that than we were. It gave us total freedom with our evenings, and there were at least three nights when we stayed up on the Horizon Terrace to enjoy sail aways but didn’t have to feel guilty about a window table sitting unused.
Tonight’s entertainment was one of the cast vocalists from the production shows in his own show. He was obviously pinch hitting because of the Grand Cayman miss, but he did a fine show backed by the always good Regal Princess orchestra.
We contemplated, as we sat at breakfast on our final sea day, how much we have enjoyed this cruise. G felt, as he always does, that it has flown by, and, especially considering the fact that he had just completed an 11-night cruise the day before we flew to London, he’s been cruising for over a month. On the other hand, I feel like we’ve been cruising for months and months. I truly don’t know how we ever actually did cruise for months and months (and months). I still enjoy it…just not that much! It took Covid to show me how much I loved being at home.
😖 The cure for my chronically low blood pressure. 😂
We actually did get something for free tonight as a result of the water view we had in our cabin for a couple of days (I never mentioned the ripped silk kimono to guest services because, really, what could they do?). Or maybe it was payback for being most traveled on a recent short cruise without a Captains Circle Party when we were given a specialty dining reward but there were no reservations available. At any rate, we had a reservation tonight in the Crown Grill for 5pm. For free (and we laughed and laughed again).
We ate a light breakfast this morning, and then nothing after that to prepare for this. I had never had one of those warm cheese-stuffed Crown Grill rolls before, and they were addictive, but our waiters (the same team as we had at our breakfasts in Sabatini’s) warned us not to fill up on them. It’s hard not to!
We both ordered the iceberg salad, French onion soup and a filet. Everything was delicious and perfectly prepared. However, we both felt that the experience was just not the same as it was before the introduction of Premier packages, and that surprised us. It was packed, noisy, and our waiters were run off their feet. It no longer seemed to be the special experience it used to be. JMHO, of course, but there was nothing about it that would compel us to book Premier on a future cruise. Frankly, our main dining room experience was actually better.
Tonight’s Princess Theater performance was a farewell variety show. We had anticipated this (hence our dinner reservation in the Crown Grill with no need to rush to a show). Variety shows aren’t our favorites.
Captain Traverso had made an announcement just before dinner about the gale force winds expected in Galveston overnight. As a result, he said the Regal Princess would be arriving earlier than planned to allow the ship to be at its berth before the storm hit. This being Texas, this messed with the alcohol allowed to be served on the ship. That started a couple of announcements by the HGM which were hard to hear (what with the Crown Grill being so loud) but, I think the gist of them was that alcohol purchases would require an additional Texas tax and packages would not be honored after 8pm but package holders would receive a $25 OBC for Texas-compliant alcohol purchases after that time. That’s also what is done on cruises leaving from Galveston.
I’m guessing there was more alcohol consumed on the ship between 5 and 8pm than there had been the prior five sea days. The bars were instantly and totally packed. We had planned to sit in the Wheelhouse after dinner to listen to music, but it was a mad house. Instead we walked out onto the Promenade Deck (raining and big thunder and lightning) and returned to our cabin.
With all of our luggage wheels working perfectly, and being familiar with the nearly level deck 6 gangway in Galveston, we decided to do walk off tomorrow morning and so didn’t have to set our luggage out tonight. That alone would be enough to convince me to pack lighter for future cruises.
We still had to do some thinking when packing up. G is heading home tomorrow but I am flying directly to California for McGee’s last cross country conference championship on Friday. I was originally scheduled to fly home with G and head back to the airport the next morning to fly out, but it eventually occurred to me that made no sense. I wasn’t looking forward to hauling my big suitcase along with me on this little side trip but with only one checked bag now free on Southwest (for their credit card holders) and $45 for a second bag, I didn’t want G to have to pay to take my suitcase with him.
G watched the spectacle of me wrestling my packed suitcase onto my bed tonight and common sense prevailed. In the end, he’s taking both large staircases with him, and I am flying with just a roll aboard. I still tried to convince him I could handle getting my luggage into an Uber and my hotel room, which prompted him to remind me just how much I am spending on flights and hotels for this meet plus two more cross country meets in the next month. Yeah, it’s a lot. I could probably cruise for a month for less. $45 to check a bag pales in comparison.
The Regal Princess was at her berth in Galveston by 10pm. After so many days at sea, it felt strange to be on a stable ship…but I didn’t miss the hanger dance that inevitably happens the last night of a cruise (IYKYK).
I’ll publish a wrap up post tomorrow night. Fingers crossed for an uneventful travel day in light of government shut down related flight disruptions.
