January 5 – AT SEA, Cruising The Atlantic Ocean

Weather – 25º, sunny, especially lovely when in the shade and a bit of cruising breeze

Steps – 7,843 (silent disco wasn’t until 11…I was a pumpkin long before then!)

Humidity – 60%

I remember the Princess beds from the last time we were on a bunch of years ago…they are super comfortable (better than Regent) but small…as in short, a bit narrow, and I’m not tall – but sooooo comfortable!

It was a sea day, and there was brunch in the Sanctuary restaurant. Dennis told

sabering

us all about it yesterday, and although Chris isn’t a big breakfast guy, he can’t turn down a mimosa (or a ‘grimosa’ as Dennis called the one he made with grapefruit) and we went. The Sanctuary restaurant is calm, unhurried, and spacious. We both had a few things from their buffet and ordered from the menu…I had 1 eggs Benedict and Chris had 2 fried…that’s all we need – the next feeding isn’t far off.

We wandered through the main buffet area, and I’m glad we have access to the Sanctuary restaurant. The main buffet is staff served, which is sooo civilized (not to mention hygienic) but makes things take much longer. You can’t just take a couple of this and one of that, you have to convince the server that you don’t want a whole plate…just a bit – I hate wasting food and feel I have to finish everything I have.

sabered cork with some bottle intact

Then we checked out the Sanctuary lounge…a quiet, calm, unhurried, and spacious area with a great view of the wake where they have a coffee bar, and booze bar, light snacks and a few staff to help with dinner reservations, excursions, and general questions. We had a question about the show seating.

snack, guitar, drink, sabering

We knew we were supposed to have reserved seating because of our package, but that didn’t seem to exist last night…we got it sorted…the main ship shows have reserved, the guest entertainers (which last night’s were) don’t.

Then it was pool time. The main pool is super busy (no surprise at all) but we have a Sanctuary pool. It was busy, but we were able to find loungers in the almost shade…it’s an Olympic event trying to predict how the shade is going to be and where the sun is moving to. We try to add the direction of the boat, to the direction of the sun, and the side of the ship we are on.

The Sanctuary pool is (like everything Sanctuary) calm, unhurried, and spacious. Nice to relax, but for ‘action’ not so much. There was a DJ, and a guitar player, but no uncha, uncha, uncha like at the main pool. I’m fine with calm, unhurried, and spacious, but a bit of uncha now and again would be OK. It’s a Goldilocks situation.

Maid of the Sea

The Sanctuary pool has a small buffet of very tasty snacks that we made lunch out of the perfect amount of food (there were even plenty of veg!)

A short nap preceded us leaving the room before 5! Anything that happens before 6 (or even 7) must be pretty special for us to leave the room for. Basically, if you want to find me on a ship around 5/6, I’m in the room…either napping or enjoying the balcony or getting ready.

The activity that got me out of the room before 5 was a champagne sabering in the Sanctuary lounge. Chris thinks we’ve seen this once before, but I can’t remember. Anyway…it was very cool. We had a small taste of the champagne, a ‘Sea Legs’ cocktail.

Then we checked out O’Malley’s Pub…Chris found himself a Guiness (in a can, but still a Guiness) and I had a ‘Maid of the Sea’ – very tasty.

All of a sudden, we saw a wave of humanity passing by, and thought… “interesting, did something just let out?” then we saw another wave and realized they were all going to Fiera the show we were planning to see. Even though we had reserved seats, even those were limited, so we said goodbye to Derrek our bartender and joined the flow of people.

another 3er

Good thing we went when we did…we got good seats, but 10 minutes later and they were gone. These reserved seats are released 5 minutes before show time…ha! There was an open seat beside Chris, but for the most part the reserved (and everywhere else for that matter) was PACKED! The designers of this ship obviously made this theatre this size for a reason, but wow, to me it could be 20% bigger…but…it isn’t revenue generating, so…

The show was a Broadway style show, with singing, dancing, and a bit of a story. It reminded us of & Juiliet, that we recently saw in New York, in that it used familiar pop songs. Ship shows are only about 45 minutes, so before 8:00 we were out, looking for the next crowd to join.

The Captain was doing his welcome in The Piazza at 8…perfect…we wouldn’t ever seek this activity out, but right place…They were passing out champagne for a toast. It was hard to get one and as we have a

here we are

drinks’ package, we ordered a fresh one from the bar. The package we have limits drinks to $20 or less, which is basically every drink save for the very top shelf ones. The usual champagne is $15; there are a couple extra special champagnes in specific bars/restaurants for $20. I haven’t had one of those yet, but I am all for getting my money’s worth. As far as I’m concerned…all champagne is special.

Sanctuary Lounge events

We planned to go to Alfredo’s the ship’s pizza place for dinner. Based on the crowds, we thought we’d better get our names on a list because we’d probably have to kill some time…nope. No problem getting in. In fact, the guy at the front joked about how busy they weren’t. Apparently this place is busier at lunch

We shared a pizza (New Yorker, basically peperoni), a salad (misto), and a dessert (cannoli – not good). That was plenty of food. According to David our waiter from Dominican Rep, the Hawaiian is
the most popular – my fav!

After dinner we wandered through the casino. Smoking is allowed in the casino which is so annoying to me I may never gamble – a good anti gambling strategy. It doesn’t seem to stop many people, because the place is plenty busy. Chris ended up staying, I went to bed.

There was another silent disco, but it was at 11…by 11 I was flossed, brushed and tucked into bed.

Diana - yes, the bathroom is great, especially the separate toilet room with sink

Dbitty - thanks for reading!

January 4 –Fort Lauderdale

nice place to blog

Weather – 25º, sunny

Steps – 13,074 (4,000 was from the Silent Disco!!)

Humidity – 60%

I was happy when I woke up early this

getting there!

morning. I got a muffin and cappuccinos from the hotel’s café for our balcony watching the boats go by. The hotel (as it seems all hotels these days do) charges a ‘resort’ fee even if the hotel isn’t at all a resort. This one is resort-ish, but sheesh…just roll it into the nightly rate. These fees usually cover Wi-Fi, the gym, parking, the pool/towels, and other amenities. Often, they come with a portion given back as credit to use at the hotel. This hotel’s fee was $30, with 20 of that back as credit…that’s what we used for

and closer

coffees.

 

Our morning task was to attach our Princess luggage tags to our large suitcases. Regent sends adhesive luggage tags (like airline ones) prior to the cruise, Princess ones require printing out at home and then stapling. We weren’t about to bring a stapler and assumed we’d borrow from the hotel. That’s what worked. Plus, Chris fashioned our

door just opens!

Westjet tags to pierce through the Princess tags for some extra insurance. Regular Princess cruisers have some kind of plastic pouches from Amazon – depending one this cruise, maybe we’ll become regular Princess cruisers and will get buy the pouches, or…Chris will just continue to MacGyver ours.

 

Yesterday’s port recon gave us confidence about walking to the port. It was super easy! From the time we left our room to being onboard the ship was about 30 min – NICE!

 

first look

We are in the “Sanctuary Collection” section of the boat. This is what Princess calls their ship-within-a-ship-section. Ship-within-a-ship is what mainstream cruise lines call their Regent-like spaces. One perk of this was being able to bypass the main line to get onto the ship – I can live with that.

bed room

 

The first main difference I notice between Regent and Princess is that Princess is more ‘party’. The workers are very upbeat and energetic – Regent staff is great, but not as ‘spirited’.

Oh yeah, and Princess has ‘the medallion’. Basically, a device that is the size and shape of an Apple air tag that serves as your room card, but significantly more. As we approach our room it recognizes us and the door automatically unlocks! As we approach a bar, the bar tender sees us on a screen etc…pretty slick!

 

bathroom

Once on the ship, we found our muster point and then a drink. There is no welcome champagne here…unless you have a drinks package (like we have) you pay as you go for drinks. We found a spot to sit and Chris got us welcome margaritas.

 

This ship is BIG. There are 4,300ish people onboard so that many people need space. There are a lot more floors than Regent too…not sure how much stair climbing we’ll do. Our room is on 17, our Sanctuary restaurant is on 8…that alone is a lot of floors!

on 1 of our TVs

 

We had lunch at the Sanctuary Collection restaurant and then it was time to get to the room. Lunch was good…much simpler than Regent…in a good way. I had a salmon cobb salad and veg spring rolls – it was great. I’d be happy to have that all week!

 

Our room is BIG. We have a sitting area, a bedroom, a separate bath and shower AND a toilet in a water closet. It will be nice to spread out. The balcony is pretty big too.

 

sailaway blimp

After unpacking we headed to the pool deck for the sail-away party…this was just slightly different from Regent. LOUD music and packed – a very upbeat vibe. Princess plays The Love Boat theme on departure…fun.

 

Next on the itinerary was a nap.

We had our pre-dinner cocktail at ‘Crooners’ – ship’s jazz bar. We sat at the bar – there is no lack of drink service, but at the bar you are pretty much guaranteed not to be missed. The band was good.

I had a very thin piece

Dinner was at the same place we had lunch and the servers were the same too. There is no requirement to stay with the same servers, but it would be hard, I

imagine, to sit elsewhere. Dennis and his partner are both fun, so we are fine with the same section. We have specialty restaurant reservations for 5 of the 7 nights, so we won’t be with Dennis a lot anyway.

Dennis getting used to it

We went to see some acrobats at the after-dinner show. Another perk of Sanctuary Club are reserved seats for shows – not all apparently, as there were none reserved. We found seats nonetheless…not great ones, but fine.

acrobat

The highlight of the evening was SILENT DISCO!! I’m not sure why I like it so

much, but wherever it is offered…we DO IT. 45 minutes of dancing increased our steps by 4,000 – not bad. We stayed for a bit of the band’s show and checked out the Arena where there was a DJ and a handful of people dancing, we didn’t stay. On the way back we stopped to watch a bit of the end of

shhhhh! Silent Disco

the football game, shown on the big screen.

 

January 3 – Miami/Fort Lauderdale

arrow marks where we had lunch

Weather – 23º, sunny – lovely, unseasonable cool, but it was lovely for wandering

Steps – 16,392

Humidity – 60%,

Sleep – 2hr, 48 min. I feel that it bears mentioning that according to my Apple Watch I haven’t slept for days. It must be the motion of the ocean that makes my watch think I’m not sleeping, I can’t remember this every being an issue before.

We expected the disembarkation process to be arduous today because we are in Miami – we were right. We’ve disembarked in Miami before and the port workers don’t make anything easy. I’m not sure if they are always ‘working to rule’, but this is the third time we’ve disembarked in Miami, and it has never been smooth.

blimp in the distance

There were 800 guests (and probably some staff) disembarking and one immigration worker looking at passports (there were actually 2, but one very busy looking at his phone.) It took us 45

gotta get some sleep

minutes to get through. We were an hour late getting off the boat in the first place and then this delay made us late meeting our driver. I’m glad we didn’t have a flight to catch.

In the end we made it to Fort Lauderdale by about 1130. Of course, everyone hopes their hotel room will be ready early, we weren’t lucky. We checked our bags and headed out for a wander.

The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina is where we will spend tonight before getting on the Sun Princess tomorrow for a week. The hotel is a bit rundown, but the location can’t be beat. Chris and I agree, this is one of the best locations for a hotel room we’ve ever had. I mean the geographical location and the balcony room we (Chris) chose overlooking the hotel pool and the Intercostal Waterway.

The Intercostal Waterway is a 3,000-mile inland waterway stretching from

evening view

Massachusetts to the southern tip of Florida, some parts of it are natural bays, inlets etc. and some are artificial canals. We watch giant yachts, tourist boats and small boats going up and down all day.

We also saw the Goodyear blimp flying around…very neat!

The hotel is so close to the port we figured we could walk tomorrow rather than take an Uber but wanted to do some recon today without suitcases. It is about

a 10-minute walk without suitcases mostly along sidewalks. There will be a few spots where there will be brick sidewalks/roads which will be a bit rough, but all in all, it will be doable – we’ll see.

Then we walked…I wanted to get a good walk in and there was a place along the waterway about 3K away that we though would be good for lunch. 15^th Street Fisheries is a huge, casual place right along the waterway. As the crow flies, it is actually very close to our hotel, but it’s on the other side of a canal. We could

soon!

have taken a water taxi, but again…we need to walk.

The place was packed. We wanted an outdoor spot (there was also a musician playing out there who we wanted to listen to), so we sat at the bar and waited. It was only about 15 minutes before our table was ready which was good, because we didn’t need to

downtown skyline at night

listen any longer to the old guy next to us talking about how he never takes vaccines, never gets sick, and the only time in his life that he was forced to take a flu vax for the army was when he got sick – did you know the flu vax gives you the flu??? Good grief! I was about to tell him I have every imaginable vax when our table was ready…sheesh!

Lunch was a BIG salad (Regent’s food is great, but I just want a plain ol’ salad) and calamari – we shared.

Next to the restaurant’s deck is where you can park (or is dock the right term?) your boat, so it is a happening place to watch life. There are also massive tarpon fish…some a meter long that kids were feeding right off of the dock. I could see how fun that would have been as a kid…or as an adult really. You could buy food for 25 cents from an old school bubble-gum machine.

Then we were back to the hotel for some down time and a glass of wine. We didn’t ever end up drinking our in-room bottles supplied by Regent, so we figured why not bring them. We rarely bother, but we knew we’d have some hotel time and a glass or 2 of wine would be nice.

These bottles of wine made my backpack approximately 1,000 pounds. I had 2 bottles of wine and my laptop in addition to other things in there that made it HEAVY!

Good thing we drank one bottle, so my backpack won’t be so heavy tomorrow. Although we have a drink package on Princess having a bottle in our room will be convenient. Princess allows each person to bring on one bottle.

We found a pub near the hotel for a late evening snack. It was actually a bit chilly around 9, not cold, but chilly.

We were back and in bed before 11.

January 2 – AT SEA, Cruising The Bahamian Waters

Chris talking to An about an Aperol Spritz

Weather – 23º, sunny, windy

the requisite 'chips for the table'

Steps – 5,971

Humidity – 50%

Today is the last day of this cruise. It’s been a great cruise. We haven’t had to miss any ports or excursions – this is rare. Neither of us got sick (despite there being a lot of respiratory illness onboard, or so we are told) or dragged a door across a toe – not that we’ve ever done that!

Fridays on Regent they have frittata and sangria for breakfast. Although Chris isn’t big on breakfast, he is ok with going for the themed breakfasts. They had peach, cherry, watermelon, and berry flavours…we both had peach – pretty tasty.

so sad

We spent the rest of the morning at the pool. It was sunny, but the wind was cool. Then we got a noon time Aperol Spritz while watching Ross’ Cool by the Pool.

Lunch was Tex Mex…I can’t say no to guac, chips, roasted peppers, and tacos.

another Regent ship sailing past

After lunch it was back to the pool, this time in a bit of sun. The wind was still so cool, that we had to find sun…this is rare for us.

We visited the future cruise consultant to purchase an onboard booking certificate. There are incentives for booking a cruise onboard. Sometimes you’re not sure what cruise you want to book, but this way you can figure that out later, but still get the incentives.

tonight's menu

Then it was time to pack. I hate packing. I think what I actually hate about packing is packing things I didn’t wear. I haven’t no problem wearing the same thing multiple times, I don’t get bored of clothes and tend to repeat what is comfortable and I think look good on me. I think I bring things I have and feel should wear but end up ignoring – there is a reason I don’t wear these things. Vacations remind me how little clothes I need and inspire me to purge when I get home. Then somehow, when I’m home, I unpack and forget about getting rid of stuff.

I had the pina colada mousse

As we were packing the captain came on the PA saying that the Grandeur, another Regent ship was passing just outside…neat!

We were once perfectly happy with a rolling case and a backpack for a cruise. Especially with Regent (and Princess next week) including laundry, there is nothing we need that can’t fit into a carry on and a suitcase. This does NOT apply to a cold weather cruise – we will definitely need large cases for next year’s Antarctica journey!

a typical sea day part 2

The show was pre-dinner tonight – Broadway Unplugged. It was good (as usual, we’ve seen it before) but there was a fair number of newer selections.

We had dinner a bit earlier because of the early show and were back at the room by 9. It was 8 actually. We had to turn our clocks back one hour to be on Miami time and the ship decided to do it tonight instead of last night. Seems like the wrong decision when we have just had 2 sea days to adjust on disembarkation day, but at least it was back and not forward.

a typical sea day

January 1 – AT SEA, Cruising The Atlantic Ocean

my balcony set up

Weather – 23º, partly cloudy, a couple of tiny sprinkles of rain

Steps – 7,406

Humidity – 65%

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We rang in the new year like the mature folks we are – stayed up late but drank very little…had the cocktail of the night - a ‘snowball’ (coconut and crème de menthe – surprisingly tasty) and a sip of champagne to toast the new year. I didn’t even have my own champagne at midnight – Chris’ champagne was flat, so we shared mine…fine with me…I’m responsible.

As a result of being so responsible and mature, I felt fantastic this morning!!

Krew Kapers!

Nonetheless, we had no where to be, so were in no rush to get up. We figured our balcony would be in shade for the 2 days sea days back to Miami, so would use the balcony this morning.

Chris isn’t as big a fan of balcony time as I am. He prefers to be at the pool where the ‘action’ is. I question his definition of ‘action’ – people sleeping, walking the track, staking their claim and taking off…not exactly action in my books. Plus…if someone offers to bring me a mimosa at 10am I don’t want to be rude and refuse – I refuse a lot of the time, but still don’t want to be rude.

almost full

For the first time this cruise the ship put on “cool-by-the-pool” – the duo played. We had our regular noon-time Aperol Spritz served by Dipak, a waiter we knew from our Africa cruise…he remembered us because we always have an Aperol Spritz at noon…he said “Giorgio always sent me with Aperol Sprits for you”…YES! that’s right!

We sipped and listened to the duo, ate lunch in our favourite spot watching the wake, Chris got a haircut, I read a bit…and that was the afternoon.

The predinner show was Krew Kapers…the best show of ALL of the Regent shows.

tonight's menu

Krew Kapers is a talent showcase for the ship’s crew…the house keepers, the deck hands, the cooks and the waiters have the opportunity to sing a song or dance a dance – I LOVE this show and try to NEVER miss it. No one was particularly amazing, but WOW, the effort and enthusiasm! It always chokes me up. We had a cultural dance from Indonesia and one from Philippines, there were a couple of hip hop dances, a Lionel Richie tune (yippee!), a few others, and of course ‘Dream the Impossible Dream’. Then many of the rest of the ship’s crew flood the stage – there are 458 staff from 37 countries.

always available!

Dinner was at the main dining room as usual, and another reason that this is our place…sat in Melona’s section…a server we got to know on our Africa cruise. The staff makes the experience so much more fun. She is halfway through her 8-month contract! We also chatted with Pratap, a bar waiter we have gotten to know…he just started his contract and won’t be back to his home in Goa until August!

The show was the comedian – not good, oh well…

Chris ended the night at the casino and was fortunate to be playing at the same time as the super loud woman from a few nights ago was…that was the only place he found luck.

Back at the room, we found our last delivery of laundry. This is such a fantastic service. I have no problem doing my own laundry but this service is very nice. I’m actually looking for the cruise ship room (or hotel room for that matter) with en suite laundry machines…I would LOVE that!

Lori - I love that idea of a collage or reel of Chris bringing the drinks

December 31 – Tortola, BVI

Weather – 28º, sunny

Steps – 13,811 (could be counted as 15,811…got 2,000 after midnight!)

Humidity – 65%

This is our second visit to the British Virgin Islands (pop.30,000). The last time we were here, we visited Virgin Gorda and the Baths. It was such a cool experience, that we decided to try to replicate it…don’t do that. We were worried it wouldn’t live up to our memory.

to The Baths

We had fun but weren’t as wowed as we were the first time. Plus…there were more people here this

boats in the Viegin Gorda bay

time – or at least it seemed that way especially in one spot where it is very skinny between the boulders. Everywhere else seemed similarly full of people.

Anyway, a visit to Virgin Gorda and the Baths requires a 45-minute ferry ride from where the ship is docked on Tortola (one of the 4 main islands of the BVI). Then a 10-minute truck trip and we are at “the baths”. The last time we were here the guide, who was more of an escort than a guide, told us to ‘have fun and be back in a couple of hours’. This time the 3 escorts, led us to the first point of

giant boulders

interest which was a beach. We dipped our toes in the water, admired the beauty and finally told the escorts we would continue on our own.

This was a good plan because when we

waiting in line

got to the entrance to the caves (more like narrow passages between huge boulders) there was a line up. It is very narrow so that you need to go single file. There are stairs and ropes to use, so that it goes slow…but this was really slow. At one point about 10 people ahead of us an 80-year-old man had a seizure. This is not a good place to have a seizure. I think they eventually got him out on his own, we were told emergency folks were coming, but we didn’t see any.

painkillers

The ship gave everyone who booked this tour a reminder that this was a strenuous tour, that you had to be physically fit, couldn’t be claustrophobic, and other cautions…and that this wasn’t a beach break. Even if someone just wanted to go to the beach where we first stopped, they would have to traverse a steep, long path.

Anyway, The Baths are impressive…huge, granite boulders sprinkled at the edge of the water. As you wind through the rocks you are walking through ankle and sometimes kneed deep tide pools. Because we’ve been here before and because of the crowd, the shine was off of this place for us a bit.

beautiful bay

We knew there was a beach bar at the end of rocks and planned to spend some time there chilling in the shade. We weren’t rushed but didn’t have that much time for chilling.

finally got the conch

We also wanted to stop at the restaurant at the top of The Baths for a painkiller (famous BVI cocktail) and conch fritters. We had a drink, but no fritters.

Back on Tortola, we went back to Pussers, where we had lunch last time – this time we got the fritters!

A short nap before we were out for New Year’s festivities which started with Jassan Allen’s pre-dinner tribute to Lionel Richie – it was fun.

Pre-dinner meant it was over at 645. We went back to the room for some reading on the balcony time before our usual pre-dinner cocktail followed by dinner and then the party. We planned to be out until midnight so starting at 6 and staying out was just too long.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The ship’s New Year’s party took place in the theatre. This is our 3^rd New Year’s in a row on this ship – the last 2 had the parties in the theatre. This sounds odd,

our usual

but it’s great. There’s lots of room for people to spread out, for servers to serve, and for the band to play. Lots of people danced on the dance floor, but some danced all over the theatre…that’s what we did – how we got our steps up!

We got to bed around 1 – it was a great New Year’s Eve!!