Son-in-law supreme Barry Dancer has been known to visit cruise ship casinos. So much so that the cruise lines (Princess in this case) seem to fall all over themselves offering him free cruises. Daughter Veronica can accompany him simetimes but her work schedule won't allow her to go with him as often as he would like. What's a guy to do? Invite his wonderful Father-in-law, of course. But only after all of the other known options have been exhausted.
The irony is that Debbie and I have been working and anticipating our free cruise based on our status from Oceania. We're not there yet, but we're getting close. Very close. Barry, by contrast, gets free cruise offers willy-nilly.
Thus, for the two of us, willy-nilly it is. This is how two guys wound up on the Regal Princess for a one-week Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Fort Lauderdale. It's a pretty big boat, along with 3,800 of our best friends - the most ever for me. We had an inside cabin. After spending the first day and a half being lost, we eventually got the hang of the layout. The buffet alone is so huge, I believe people are still wandering around in there from the previous cruise.
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| Regal Princess |
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| Regal Princess |
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| Regal Princess |
The Caribbean is rather warm in August. When the ship is in motion, the Ocean breezes help. This trip would entail three ports of call. Wanna hear about them? Here goes.
Princess Cay, Bahamas
They make it sound as if this were a private island, but it isn't. It's part of long, skinny Eluthera Island in the Bahamas. Incidentally, Debbie insists that the owner of the company she used to work for owned the entire island when she worked there in the 1970s. I'm not so sure. But I will say this: the Princess Cay section was quite beachy. Too bad it took an hour and a half to get there by tender. Most of that time was spent waiting on board for our tender ticket to be called, so don't feel too sorry for us. Once we did arrive, the beach and the beer were nice.
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| Princess Cay |
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| Princess Cay |
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Time for a self-guided walking tour designed by ChatGPT. We modified it to mostly just go to the two massive forts, but we did see a few other things along the way. Castillo San Felipe del Morro, aka El Morro, is a huge fort on top of a grassy hill. It overlooks the entrance to San Juan Harbor, and it certainly is imposing. It imposed on us after the mile walk up there in the heat. Barry and I visited all the levels and nooks and crannies, of which there are many. There was a lot of good historical information, as the fort (as well as Castillo San Cristobal) was built by the Spanish in the 16th century.
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| El Morro |
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| El Morro |
Castillo San Cristobal is about as massive as El Morro. And the views from the top of the fort were at least as good. There were more levels, more nooks and crannies, and more history.
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| Castillo San Cristobal |
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| Castillo San Cristobal |
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| Castillo San Cristobal |
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
We took an early morning taxi to Magens Bay. Several thousand of our best cruising friends were on their way as well, so it was good to get there early. It's fun to take the open-air vehicle over the mountain and down the other side. Magens is an idyllic white-sand beach. We even saw some wildlife: pelicans galore, a few iguanas, and lots of little fish that liked to nibble on Barry (I shooed them away from myself).
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| Magens Bay. |
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| Magens Bay. |
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| Charlotte Amalie |
Closing thoughts
That's it for ports of call. We had two additional sea days before we disembarked in Fort Lauderdale. Here are some thoughts about the Regal Princess.
On the positive side:
1) This was a free cruise. We had to pay port taxes and transportation, but that's it. We also each bought the Princess Plus Package that includes drinks, gratuitites and WIFI. Daughter Veronica believes we probably saved about $200 each compared with the normal price of this cruise.
2) The food was excellent. No complaints here. Dinners were just fine, even with the limited menus. The buffet is humongous. It's confusing, but the quality and variety are great.
3) Service was excellent. Our cabin steward was as good as any I've had in the past. And it was great having the same waiter at dinner each evening.
4) The ship's decor, including the art, is beautiful. The atrium is stunning. This ship is kept very clean, including the (almost) required hand-washing heading into the buffet.
5) The gym is open at all hours as far as I could tell. It also never seemed too crowded. This is an important factor for some of us early-morning types.
6) Even though the ship is so huge, they do about as good a job as possible handling 3,800 people. Most of the time, that is. The exceptions are listed below, on the negative side.
7) Some of the happenings were fun, especially the comedian show, the trivia game that we won, and the meet the captain and head chef events.
On the negative side:
1) It's hard to get past the ship's size. As I said, most of the time, crowding wasn't a problem. Except for:
a) The elevators were packed during busy times
b) I tried to get in the pool during a sea day afternoon. There appeared to be more people than water. Not wanting to take a communal bath, I opted to stay dry.
c) The atrium was packed with people at times.
2) The noise is just too much. Wherever you go, there's annoyingly loud music, announcements, or just plain yelling. I tried my best to avoid the main pool area because the jumbotron added a ridiculous amount of additional noise. The noise in the atrium was also particularly awful. Princess needs to add quiet places. The library had about 12 books and around 5 chairs. Oh, and a few games.
3) Princess tries a little too hard to sell you extra stuff. The port talk and some of the games were nothing more than sales pitches for future cruises, the spa, the shops, etc.
4) We had to tender over to the Princess "Private Island". This took a bunch of extra time and trouble.
5) Princess needs to lose the plastic water bottles. Other cruise lines have gone to refillable bottles with refill stations located all around the ship. This is a much better solution.
In summary, the cruise met my expectations. Big thanks to Barry for bringing me along.
Check out the running blog post. It's a little unusual.
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