Disembarkation from the Regal Princess

We couldn’t rely on those normal telltale signs that our cruise had come to an end, such as the thrusters spinning our ship into place at its berth, to act as our alarm this morning. Instead we set alarms on both phones and my iPad to make sure we didn’t miss our final Sabatini’s breakfast.

We were there when the restaurant opened at 6:30am, using the front elevators to go directly from our cabin (M437, now that we’re off the ship) to Deck 5 (easy peasy at that time), taking all our luggage with us. We always appreciate the calm that pervades Sabatini’s breakfasts but never more so than on disembarkation day. Pure bliss. It was hard to say goodbye to the Indian mafia (their term), Raj, Royal, Francis and Tony and Philippino waiter Roderick. As G told them, regardless of how good any future cruise dining experience is, it will never top this one.

I had one goal for today and that was to avoid any time in a disembarkation lounge (for us, Concerto Dining Room) so we didn’t have a repeat of last year’s germfest. From Sabatini’s, we took a front elevator up to Deck 6 about 8:00am and easily walked off the ship with our luggage. I had apparently already forgotten our St. Thomas immigration lines and didn’t realize until we walked right through the terminal that we didn’t need to do immigration procedures today at all.

We had reserved Galveston Express seats for the transfer to Houston Hobby. I absolutely love that airport. It almost makes up for the 45 mile ride from the cruise port to the airport (which is still easier than going to Bush). However, those winds that hammered Galveston overnight were still at it, and with a 60° temperature it was pretty bitey waiting nearly a hour for our pickup. It made me sorry I had decided not to take a headband or beanie on our cruise, because I would have opened a suitcase right there in the parking lot to get it if I had.

We had just arrived at Hobby when McGee texted me. He was also flying out today and was just packing up for his trip. Did I want any team gear? I already had a team cross country T-shirt I’d brought on our cruise, but asked if he had any beanies. Of course he did. He even sent a pic of two to offer me a choice. Bring on the forecasted wind in California!

I wasn’t checking luggage, but we had to wait until four hours prior to G’s flight to check his (well, actually, his and mine), so we found a charging tower outside security and settled in. Once through security, his gate was located in one direction and mine the other so we said our goodbyes. I’ll be home Saturday night; he won’t have to bach it too long.

I walked a short distance into my terminal when I came across a string trio playing classical music and stayed until they finished their concert. Very unexpected! Very nice!

A USO was located right next to my gate, and I settled in there until my boarding time, more than an hour after G’s flight had left. ABC (always be charging)…I had a three hour layover in Las Vegas tonight and needed to have enough juice left to order a Lyft when I arrived in California. I needn’t have worried. My first aircraft had plug ins (and free WiFi!). Southwest, like Princess, has had its share of cutbacks lately, but, also like Princess, there is still a lot to love.

I sent this text to McGee, who was at that moment sitting in a Centurion Lounge at his airport.

USO in Houston Hobby airport 

Basic but decent

Sure wish I was a service academy senior with free Amex card and Centurion Lounge access instead of 27-year Army spouse 😂

G and I were both extremely fortunate that we didn’t face any of the major flight delays that have been popping up across the country. It was also nice, while in the USO, to overhear a Southwest pilot reassure someone there that these winds weren’t going to be an issue. Not that I was worried…but it was nice all the same. They were gusty! In fact, about the time the Regal Princess docked last night, a cargo ship hit a pier in Galveston and that’s now a whole thing, with an oil spill in the harbor that has it partially closed to ship traffic until it is cleaned up. The first Regal Princess cruise out of Galveston this season is impacted. Sound familiar? Guess we were fortunate to safely get into port at all!

I started fading a little during the layover in Las Vegas. I hadn’t been in that airport since 1982, and all I remembered about it were the slot machines. That hasn’t changed a bit but I really don’t think anything else has either. That airport needs a major refurb. I had to walk from a gate at the far end of B terminal to one at the far end of C terminal, but I had plenty of time and it felt good to stretch my legs after so much sitting today. I had planned to have dinner there but, as always, was encouraged at the USO in Houston to leave with enough of a stash to last the rest of the day. Even junk food is filling if you eat enough of it, I guess.😳

At 11pm, I am happily ensconced in my hotel room. McGee and his team are in a different (read: nicer) hotel nearby (this team does not suffer). His parents are arriving tomorrow afternoon, and McGuy tomorrow evening. I haven’t seen both of my guys at the same time since the night before we left for our June cruise. You can see why I was so intent on staying well!

The next three weeks include a weekend at the NCAA Regionals and a weekend at Nationals (where a normally priced $100 hotel room goes for $500 due to the race. This IS just college level cross country, right?). Praying he has no injuries. Then, the weekend after that we’re off on another cruise or two. Busy for the best reasons.

Check back early next year to see if I get inspired to blog again. No promises (though I loved your emailed protestations! Thank you so much for caring enough to let me know). I will take December off and then consider perhaps picking back up again in January. Those cruises are a bit more interesting. Meanwhile, I’ll work on my tap dancing.

Life is good. :-)

Days 21 and 22: At Sea

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.

Day 20: At Sea

I’m starting to feel the way I imagine CD Aaron was feeling when the start of production show Born To Dance was delayed 30 minutes due to technical issues and he did everything but tap dance to try to keep a packed Princess Theater entertained and content. Another sea day, this one not originally planned, and I really couldn’t say just how we spent our day. Actually, I know how I spent my day, but am a little embarrassed to admit that it was all football, all day. It’s easier now that we’re on CDT and I don’t have to stay up half the night to watch games, but not nearly as much fun as it would have been if even one NFL game had been shown on MUTS.

Breakfast in Sabatini’s gets longer and more relaxed every morning, not that we’re eating any more food. It’s just that we have coffee, read the news online and check on things at home before we even place our orders (which are the same items every day). I love it!

I went directly from Sabatini’s to check out a couple of laundry rooms, but they were all busy this morning, so I instead joined G on the Horizon Terrace until the games began and I returned to the cabin.

I did go to the International Cafe for the very first time to get a sandwich for lunch which I brought back to the cabin to eat, and then didn’t leave again until we went to the PES Lounge and dinner in the Symphony Dining Room.

It was not a very exciting day. Cue the tap dancing. 😂

Our weather continues to be mostly sunny with a stiff breeze and small white caps on the ocean surface. I don’t have a lot of experience with hurricanes (I moved out of South Florida a year before Andrew hit, thank God), but I’ll admit that, when I’ve followed those swirling storms on radar for years, I never imagined the weather just outside those rings to be so pleasant.

A delicious dinner didn’t help our lazy mood (though the outcome of a couple of games did make us very happy). We returned to the cabin for more football and I was able to do a load of laundry in an empty laundry room at 7pm and am all set until I return home in six days.

With nothing more exciting to discuss, I thought I’d comment here on the new Medallion holder I’m using for the first time this cruise. It’s one of those Air Tag holders sold on Amazon that slides onto an Apple Watch band.

It works great, but I did have to deactivate my Apple Wallet because that would open every time I scanned the medallion (just turn off the passcode to do that). I wear it to sleep in, too, and it’s stayed in place. I like it better than wearing a separate band with the medallion on it. BTW, I had to get my medallion replaced yesterday because the battery died, but G’s is still working.

I’ve already seen the Patter for tomorrow, and am relieved to report that there are a few activities I’m likely to attend, and no football until the evening, so I should have more to report. Yay for blog content!

Day 19: At Sea

Today we were again spared any discomforting effects of Melissa. I’m still a bit amazed by our location on radar relative to the storm, knowing how unaffected we are on board. It is a little bouncy, but the open decks are still full of passengers and activities between intermittent rain showers.

Some clouds, some sun, occasional showers and even a rainbow

We went to breakfast in Sabatini’s a little later today. Our shockingly empty calendar required that we space out the really good parts of our day a little. I finished up yesterday’s blog post sitting in the Piazza, then had a wonderful chat with a retired teacher who has done several Roads Scholar trips including an African safari I have been considering.

I stood up to leave and happened upon an officers v guests line dance challenge. I have no idea how one judges something like that but it was huge fun to watch these officers we’ve gotten to know including HGM Shane and the two deck cadets, Jamie and Eduardo, getting jiggy.

Getting in the Halloween spirit dancing to Thriller

Hunger had nothing to do with going to the Allegro Dining Room for a fish taco, and we then returned to the cabin to watch a couple of those enrichment lectures we’ve missed.

Source: Wikipedia

We passed by a lighthouse about 6pm, which was a little surprising as we really haven’t seen land from the ship since we left St. Thomas. It was the Cay Lobos Island lighthouse, about 190 miles south of Nassau, Bahamas.

The evening followed the usual format: PES Lounge, dinner with Berenice and Sebastian (I had all vegan until dessert. Pavlova!!!!!), and then to the Princess Theater for another show by piano man Jason O called Sing us a song. Loved it (though we sat in the last row of seats to make a quick getaway if the nearby coughs got too scary. We lasted about 20 minutes until we were chased away). I’m a little concerned about disembarkation day. I remember from last year how horrible the coughs were in the public lounges as we waited to leave the ship. For every person actively coughing around the ship, there are likely another two actually staying in their cabins and they will have to wait with the rest of us.

My favorite vegan menu

The ratatouille was so pretty!

We finished the evening watching the Michigan v Michigan State game on my iPad in the cabin. We’ve had no football on MUTS so far this cruise, not that I would expect to find a college game on the big screen, but I’m still hoping for a NFL game or two tomorrow. Thank you Mary for your email…it IS great to be a Michigan Wolverine!

I had a final bag of laundry to go out tonight but it was still in the cabin when we returned. Our steward said that we can no longer send laundry out (would have been nice to have been told that in advance). I’m going to have to wash a load in the next three days, which shouldn’t be too hard to do, with us having five sea days at the end of this cruise. I’m not going directly home, and need to have a couple more clean T-shirts in my suitcase.

We move clocks back one hour tonight and will finally be on CDT, a sure sign that this wonderful experience will soon be over. I will be very sorry to see this cruise come to an end, but I have some exciting things to look forward to in the coming few weeks and we will be walking on another ship in only a month. I need to stay well for another few days: hard to believe I might just pull this off!

Day 18: At Sea

We didn’t know what to expect today, weather-wise. Hurricane Melissa (or maybe it’s still just a tropical storm) is causing lots of trouble in the DR and Haiti with winds and excessive rainfall, and while lives are being devastated, we are cruising comfortably along. The Regal Princess was sailing on the north side of Hispaniola, so it was mostly protected from the storm, and we had a warm and muggy day with passing showers, and no extreme weather at all.

The abundance of coughs on board have made me reconsider the lectures I enjoy so much in the Princess Theater, and I planned to watch them later in the cabin. Instead, we spent a lot of time on the Horizon Terrace where there were also coughs but I convinced myself that they were being blown away by the breeze. The day was far more pleasant than we had initially believed it might be.

We skipped lunch in the dining room and I had another fajita salad in the Horizon Court Buffet. I love those; I think it’s because of the shredded lettuce that makes them so easy to eat when I’m sitting in a comfy chair on the Horizon Terrace. I get a deep soup bowl, fill it halfway with lettuce, then fill the rest of way with chicken, peppers and onions, and top it with salsa, guacamole (no cheese or sour cream) and all the broken tortilla chips I can find in the bottom of the serving bowls. Yum!

Naturally, Melissa was quite the topic of conversation on the Horizon Terrace today. Few people believed we’d actually get into Grand Cayman as scheduled in two days; the rest of us figured we wouldn’t but a few optimistic souls felt that another port would be substituted. There’s nothing out here. Jamaica is also under warnings and the next closest (Cozumel?) is already full of ships 365 days a year. So we waited…and appreciated the fact that we were being kept so safe from the havoc being wreaked just a couple of hundred miles away.

A couple of people have emailed me commenting on my healthy diet. Don’t let them know that I just discovered that the oatmeal cookies on board don’t have raisins. Raisins in baked goods are an abomination until the Lord, and, absent them, these oatmeal cookies are the bomb.

These small square bowls (stacked next to the warm desserts) are perfect for holding 3 or 4 cookies (2 oatmeal for me, 2 peanut butter for G). Easily transported for consumption on the Horizon Terrace. Dangerous!

We were sitting at dinner in the Symphony Dining Room just after 5pm when G commented that the captain was surely going to tell us something soon when-boom- he made an announcement to do just that. Of course, we’re missing Grand Cayman; the port is actually closing, so this wasn’t a Princess decision to make. No one seems too bothered by it.

The Buddha bowl from the vegan menu. Delish!

The Princess Theater entertainer tonight was a vocalist singing some female rock anthems. We sat at the very top of the theater and left early when the coughs got too scary.

With just four sea days remaining, we’ll have some time to consider our packing list for our next cruise, also 21 days long but without the temperature variations that we’ve had on this cruise. I’ve challenged myself to do it with just a carry on and backpack, which I’m pretty sure I can do. And then, who knows? Can I manage seven weeks with just the same? It’s good to have goals!

Day 17: St. Thomas

We could have predicted how today would go, with St. Thomas being the first US stop on our itinerary. Yeah, it was all that, not that we were one bit bothered by it, but it was a pretty difficult morning for many passengers, US and non-US citizens alike.

Which leads me to today’s lesson (and look at my St. Thomas post from last fall too, to see the same message): if you’re on a transatlantic crossing and St. Thomas is your first US port, AND there is something you have your heart set on doing, book a Princess tour. If you read about our experience last year, you’ll see that we escaped the chaos by being escorted through immigration in order to make our ferry’s departure time for a Princess trip to the island of St. John. Many passengers today waited in lines of over two to three hours which stretched from the Vista Lounge to the forward elevator lobby and back around to midship.

Book a Princess excursion. Or do what we did, which was hang out on the Terrace Deck until they made a last and final call. It was a walk through then (about noon), though the line for non-US even at that time still stretched around the Vista-less Lounge and back to the Wheelhouse. Frankly, I don’t know if the CBP agents are even being paid right now, and when I thanked the agent who checked us into the country for being there, she actually hugged me, so I think it’s not been easy for them.

Once we received that valuable ‘get out of jail free’ card, we simply walked off the ship into the shops area of Havensight. We hadn’t planned to do that (walk off the ship without so much as a credit card on us), so when the newly opened Hampton Inn right on the pier was giving away water bottles, I did take one. Actually, I first thought the lady said that they were THREE (as in $3) and didn’t have even that much in my pocket, but then she said again that they were FREE and I picked one up since I am never usually without one when leaving the ship. Which prompted G to joke (as one antagonist accuses), “Those Yellows are always trying to get something for free”. And then we laughed and laughed, as we always do when we make that joke.

There’s only so much shopping you can do when 1) you’re not a shopper and 2) you have neither cash nor credit card on hand. We did walk around until we got too warm, took note of the current taxi fares and Paradise Point gondola price ($30pp) and were back on the ship by 2:30pm.

We grabbed a Horizon Court Buffet lunch (again with the fajita salad for me) and stayed on the Horizon Terrace while first the Carnival Vista and then the Zuiderdam sailed, and finally the Regal Princess followed at 6pm.

CD Aaron made an announcement at that moment reminding us that tonight’s Princess Theater performances were going to take place at 6:30pm and 8:30pm to accommodate the 80s deck party at 9:30pm, and also that the show was an Elton John tribute act. I hadn’t realized that, and though we thought we’d skip tonight’s show…Elton John!! G stayed on deck, but, dressed as I was, still wearing the shorts and T-shirt I’d worn off the ship, I raced to the Princess Theater and got one remaining seat, front row, stage right.

Sure I had heavy coughs on either side of me, and felt like I was sealing my own fate…but Elton John! “The” Jason O had a heckuva show, so very good that after the show, I decamped to Club 6 hoping to catch a little Thursday Night Football on one of the screens (none!), and then returned to the Princess Theater to await the 8:30pm performance. Yeah, I do love Elton’s music, especially my all time favorite song, “I guess that’s why they call it the blues” (which I’ve always considered to be the military spouse’s anthem). But I also appreciate really good piano entertainment, and enjoyed the horn section getting downright jiggy during “Crocodile rock”. Again with the coughs; we’re at the two week mark now and they have exploded on the ship in the past couple of days. Will I escape unscathed? Stay tuned.

That got me to 9:30pm and the start of the 80s deck party so I swung across the Lido Deck on my way back to the cabin. It was fun, but G was already asleep and I didn’t stay out too late.

On an unrelated subject, we met blog reader Jim from Canada today, who thought he recognized first one of us and then, when he saw us together was certain. It was wonderful to meet him and he’s cruising in Australia soon, which is a destination close to my heart. It brought back another Caribbean memory, with us returning to the ship after a full day on shore, salty, sweaty and sandy, and definitely tipsy when someone riding the elevator with us asked, “Are you G?” yet having no idea that this mess standing next to him was me. Fortunately, I was a little more put together today to meet Jim.

Next up: two more sea days. Can’t get enough of them! We’re loving this so much!