January 8 – AT SEA, Cruising The Atlantic Ocean

half of the lunch set up

Weather – 27º, sunny

Steps – 5,723…yikes!

Humidity – 70%

Our sea day today started with a trip to the Sanctuary lounge to talk to the future cruise guy. We’re trying to plan something for end of May / beginning of June. We had some ideas for a Princess cruise, but it doesn’t look like it’ll work out on this ship…that’s fine. We’ve realized we like this ship enough to sail on this or its sister ship, but that’ll have to be another time.

ringing the bell!

The Sun Princess (sailing since 2024) and Star Princess (since 2025) are what Princess calls ‘sphere class ships’ – there is a giant sphere in the middle where there are shows, concerts etc. Apparently on these 2 ships things are all in the same places…bars, restaurants, pools, theatres etc. Their other older ships as a group position bars, restaurants etc. in the same spots. I can see how on ships this size predictability like that is super desirable. If we were to be on here again, we’d have less to learn and get lost less.

champagne wall!

Anyway…doesn’t look like we’ll be back any time soon, because the cruise we wanted isn’t available. We also talked to the future cruise guy about onboard booking promos…they have basically nothing we are interested in. Regent’s book on board deal is a reduced (minimally) fare, while Princess’ fare is reduced (maybe) it includes a lot of other ‘incentives’ that sound to us a bit time-shareish-scammy. We passed on everything book onboard. We don’t know what we will do in the spring but know it won’t be on Princess.

We found semi-shade spots at the pool and hunkered down for the rest of the morning/afternoon. I got myself a bircher-muesli in the Sanctuary lounge, so I wasn’t hungry and Chris…well…I think I’ve mentioned his breakfast habits. The Sanctuary pool buffet is perfectly fine for lunch, so we didn’t need to leave the

from a different hole

pool area for lunch.

We also stayed long enough to get a champagne from the ‘champagne wall’. There’s a bell you ring, and a white gloved hand comes out of one of 3 holes in a plant covered wall with a champagne! Cool!

There was live music in the Piazza when we wanted our pre-dinner cocktail, so we headed to that. As it turned out it was very country and very American/military tribute…fine, but not our taste. We left and found ourselves at the casino.

We had a bit of onboard credit left and Princess (different from Regent) allows it to be used in the casino. I ended up winning about $60!!! This was won using my credit, so really, I walked away with $100.

I need one of these for home!

Dinner was at another reservation required restaurant. We both had steak – it was good. Last night at a different restaurant we wanted a glass of the New Zealand sauvignon blanc…although it was on the menu, they didn’t have it. We thought we’d try again tonight…nope, they are out. No surprise, no different from last night and really no big deal. What was different, was how they handled it.

Celtic duo

The waiter told the wine guy who then came over to apologize and offer a different NZ sauvignon blanc – great!!!

After dinner we checked out O’Malley’s, the Irish bar. There was a guitar guy playing. I had a Heineken Zero – this was very real beer like. I’m not a regular Heineken drinker, but I doubt I’d every know it was non-alcoholic.

Lastly, was a trip to the Sphere. A Celtic duo was playing a 16+ show. We only stayed for a few songs, one of their songs was a bit dirty, but you actually had to listen...do teenagers even pay attention?? Maybe to dirty songs they do.