Monday-Travel Day

Last night, I had contacted our taxi service and made arrangements to pick us up at the Embassy Suites and take us to the Fort Lauderdale airport.  They promptly arrived at 5am this morning and I gave them the Princess voucher as payment (our included transfer).  Since there was hardly anyone on the road, we arrived at the airport within 10 minutes.  Let me just mention the airport was very busy at this early hour.  We were dropped off at the JetBlue door.  I gave Hubby the "follow me this way" look and we immediately found an open kiosk inside.  After receiving our boarding passes we headed to a short line at the counter.  Our luggage came in under 45 lbs each, except for mine came in at 47 lbs.  Yeah team!

We were scheduled on the first flight out.  All around us were worried folks who were not sure if their destination airports were open.  

Hubby and I had backup plans with the worst case scenario of sleeping at the airport.  We were not too sure once we landed at our destination if the roads would be open or drivable.  We made sure we packed a few goodies in our carry-on as well as warm clothes.  

It turned out for the best and we made it home to about 28 inches of snow!  One of our neighbors came out and helped us get our luggage to the front porch.  We ate a quick lunch and went outside to shovel and burn all those dessert calories we consumed the last two weeks.  Whew!  

Hubby and I had the best cruising experience we ever had.  It was a fun adventure.  We tried new things.  We were not on a schedule.  We were just cruising.  I will be back to post about the Regal Princess ship experience, the itinerary, and more pictures.  Stay tuned!

Sunday: Disembarkation Day

The Regal Princess was gliding along into Port of Everglades.  I knew without having to get up and open the curtains.  No more rocking and rolling.  Awe shucks...I'm going to miss that!

I turned on my iPhone and turned off Airplane mode.  I checked my emails and text messages and waited for Hubby to wake up.  It was 6am and we decided to head down to the Concerto dining room on deck 6.  We wanted to avoid the crowds in the buffet and Shiv said the dining room would be open at 6am.  Shiv was wrong...they opened at 6:30am.  Hubby and I left to go to the International Cafe for our last specialty coffee...skinny double mocha madness.

We arrived into the dining room at 6:30am and seated immediately at a two-top table.  Yes...we already have our coffee.  Yes...I wouldn't mind some cranberry juice.  

My last Princess skinny double mocha madness:

Do you want to know how cold it is in Ft Lauderdale?  I had ran into Mr "T" who is one of the ship's photographers and sold us our portraits.  He said he got blasted with the cold weather as he walked by the open doors where the crew was unloading all the luggage.  He told me he would miss our photo conversations.  I wished him well.  Sigh!  

So here we are in our sweats and jackets in the dining room:  

Hubby ordered poached eggs:

I had the special scrambled eggs with asparagus:

We took our time at breakfast.  We did not want to leave the ship.  Shiv had mentioned to us that the ship's next sailing was not full.   Hmmmmm...we could get a really good last minute deal.  

We went back to our stateroom to freshen up and to charge our tablets and phones.  Shiv said we could stay a bit later in our stateroom and relax.  We did not want to impose and throw his schedule off and thanked him for the suggestion.  I don't think Shiv wanted us to leave.  We enjoyed our hallway conversations with him and I'm sure the feeling was mutual.  

We left our stateroom promptly at 8am and looked for Shiv to give him a gift.  He stepped out of one of the smaller staterooms and greeted us.  We gave him an envelope and he handed it back to us saying what we gave him last week was enough.  I put the envelope back in his hands and told him please use it for your daughter's future.  He graciously accepted and we could see tears welling up in his eyes.  This is when you know you're part of a cruising family.  We say our goodbyes and Shiv mentions again that the next sailing is not full.  We all laugh.  Shiv...you have one big heart!  

Hubby and I head down to deck 7 and make our way to the Vista (Elite) lounge at the back of the ship.  Along the way, I see Heather (FCC) in her office.  I say a quick goodbye to her and then I remember that the next sailing is not full.  Oh well.  It was a nice thought.   

We wait until our second to last group is called.  At 10am, all remaining groups are called to disembark the ship.  This is probably the hardest thing we've done on a ship...leaving.  As we leave the gangway we can feel the 40 degrees Ft Lauderdale has to offer.  Crew members were wearing heavy jackets.  

Once in the terminal, we quickly found our three pieces of luggage.  We waited in a long line to go through Immigration.  We were directed to an empty counter and struck up a conversation with the Immigration person.  He was really nice and personable.  We chatted for a few minutes and as you can imagine holding up the long line behind us.  This seems to happen to us frequently.  

We left the terminal with luggage in tow to find a Princess rep.  Yes, we need to go to the Embassy Suites.  Way cool!  You have a bus ready for us?  Awesome!  We are the first of four stops:

We arrived at the Embassy Suites around 10:45am.  Wow!  That was the fastest disembarkation we've had.  No rooms available?  I thought so.  Yes...please call my cell phone when you're ready.  We try to find a warm place to sit and camp out.  The whole lobby area was just chilly.  Doors opening and closing.  Our feet are getting cold.  Okay, so it did not help that we were wearing flip-flops.  At least we had our sweat jackets and pants on.  I opened up our luggage to pull out warm socks and sneakers.  While I was putting mine on, my cell rang.  Cool!  Our room is ready.

We dump our luggage in the room and by this time (like clock work)...it's lunchtime.  Hubby mentioned that Shiv recommended an Asian restaurant near the Ross (dress for less) store.  We walked out into the cold but sunny day.  We walked and walked and could not find the restaurant.  So I looked on Yelp to find a Thai restaurant nearby.  Except we could not find that one.  So I called the Thai restaurant and found out we were on the wrong side of 17th street.

We found this wonderful restaurant.  They served wonderful chicken broth soup and this beautiful Pad Thai:

After lunch, we took a quick walk back to the hotel to get warm and get comfy.  No need for anyone of us to get sick at the end of our wonderful vacation!

Saturday-Day 14: @Sea and the Last Day of Our Cruise

In my mind, this day and the last day of our wonderful cruising experience was the hardest.  I tried to fill my day by attending different events...crammed into one day.  You think I would have learned by now, but I don't.  It's not that easy.

So, I dutifully pulled out all three suitcases from under our bed.  Hubby retrieved all his clothes except what he will be wearing tomorrow when we disembark and piled it on our bed.  It took me awhile to figure out how I packed the three cases when we left home a little over two weeks ago.  The three suitcases each weighed in around 41 lbs at the airport.  That was my target this afternoon give or take a pound or two.

My past packing experience showed I can take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to complete.  Depends on how motivated I am and also the weather.  If it's sunny and warm, the packing takes longer because I can find a million and one things to do outside in the sun on the upper deck.  If it's chilly, windy, and rainy outside...well you get the idea.

I was stalling all afternoon.  What?  You're hungry?  Sure...we can go and have a late lunch.  Put a few more things into the luggage.  It's 3pm?  We need to hurry to the Grapevine Wine Tasting!  A few more items go into the luggage.  I need to run down to deck 5 and get some tip envelopes.  Eventually the packing is done by 6pm.  I place a Princess tag on each piece of luggage and Hubby places them outside our stateroom door.  The crew will stop by and pickup the luggage to be placed in storage until the ship docks in Ft Lauderdale.

It was sad to see our stateroom looking so bare:

The only items left in our closet?  Clothes to wear tomorrow and important documents and jewelry in our stateroom safe:  

A few toiletries needed for overnight which will be placed in our carry on tote bag:

I'm going to miss this shower/tub and the hot water:

The last items to pack?  All my gadgets!  I've learned over the years to keep them all in the desk area.  My laptop, cameras, chargers, extra batteries, media cards, Instax printer, and cables were stored in the desk drawers.  I haven't had any issues with missing items plus all my gadgets would not fit in the stateroom safe.

Here's Hubby reviewing the videos he made with his GoPro.

As we walk out of our stateroom, we noticed our luggage was gone.  That's when it hit me...this was our last night on the ship.

We make our rounds on the ship.  We spend very little time outside on the upper decks as it was very chilly and windy.  We do stop by to see Marvin in the Pastry Shop.  He was sad to see us go.  He spends extra time chatting with us even while he's handing out desserts to the other passengers.  We mention to him that my aunt and uncle will be on the Regal in February and to look for them.  Marvin  thanks me again for the pictures and the envelope we gave him.  Sigh!

Marvin gave me his last dessert from his secret fridge:

Saturday-Day 14: @Sea and What a Difference a Week Makes

Exactly one week ago, we were at sea.  On a Saturday.  Here's a picture of what the ocean looked like:

Calm, huh?

Here is what it looked like today:

I was watching a cargo ship in the distance:

Here it is kind of parallel to the water:

And then kind of...well, do you see what I mean?  I was wondering how bad their motion was on a smaller vessel.  

We kept on going...rocking and rolling:

I'm sure it looked much worse on the lower decks...looking out the windows.

Saturday-Day 14: @Sea and Galley Tour

Very early in the morning or maybe it started last night and I had not noticed, but the hangers in our closet have been clanging a melody.  Our stateroom walls had been creaking.  Every now and then, the ship would shudder a bit and then the rocking and rolling would continue.  Sometimes it felt more like we were gliding along, then roll a bit, and then rock a bit.  I was lying in bed taking this all in.  Then sleep took over.  Wake up again and hear the hanger melody and then drifted back to sleep.

I can't recall what time I woke up, but it was late.  I've noticed on non-port days, we ate breakfast after 9:30am.  It was more noticeable when we ran into Marvin who arrived for the start of his daily shift at 10am prompt.  Yes, Marvin...we just got up, late again.

I checked my iPhone and noticed I was late to an event.  No worries, I can arrive towards the end of the cooking show and still be early for next event, the tour of the galley.  After breakfast (deck 16), Hubby and I worked our way down to the International Cafe on deck 5 for some "skinny double mocha madness" to go.  Yummy!  I had two coffee cards in my pocket.  The current one had one remaining non-punched area left.  Hubby found an old one from the Crown Princess (years ago) that still had a few non-punched areas on the card.   I handed both cards to the barista.  Then I received none back.  Looked like the barista needed to have his first cup of coffee.  Ummm...I think I need my coffee card back...the old worn out card from the Crown.  You can keep the other one.

We walked around the atrium which was in full swing with people milling around and enjoying their coffees, some folk reading from real books and many from their Kindles.  I spied a handful of passengers with their laptops...hopefully blogging and not doing real work.

I walked Hubby back up to our stateroom on deck 15.  Hubby wanted to do some balcony time.  I grabbed my camera bag (which I should keep with me at all times) and headed back down to deck 7.  I walked into the Princess Theater in time to see the last five minutes of the cooking demo/show:

I see a black forest cake ready to eat:

Introducing the newly promoted dining team:

After the show, we were led out of the Princess Theater (see why I came late and stood in the back on deck 7) and I followed one of the dining hostess.  We walked from the front of the ship, across the atrium, to the back of the ship and then down a set of stairs.  We were in the traditional dining room.  We continued to a set of metal double doors into the galley where the tasty meals and desserts are created.

The crew that supervises, maintains, and watches over the high standards in the galley:

Do you see the huge mixer?

Early in the cruise, I mentioned to Hubby I had noticed especially in the buffet area that there were a lot of potato dishes offered.  Now, I know why.  Here's some samples of how to use, cut, cook potatoes.  I understand they had 50 of them!  Who knew?

Prepping sandwiches (where's Hubby?) and other meals:

This galley went on and on:  

What's for lunch?

More potatoes:

OMG, more?

(I have to pause here.  Will be back with more pictures)

Friday-Day 13: Leaving Cozumel

As I mentioned in the previous post, Hubby and I and many other passengers were late getting back to the ship.  As in an hour late.  All was good as the ship was waiting for us.  Once everyone was account for and "all aboard" the Regal tried to leave the dock around 5pm.  The swells/waves were rough and so was the wind.  Captain Perrin was being extra careful.  We were able to set sail around 5:45pm.  

For the rest of the evening and into the night we felt the ship's movement everywhere on the ship.  We were not the only ones who kept bumping into each other or bumping into furniture.  While in the buffet area, I lost two onion rings.  They didn't jump off my plate.  They slide off when the ship rolled slightly.  Yeah, that was a sight to see.

After a long day in port and with the ship movement, I was really, really tired.  It showed on my face.  Marvin made a point of commenting on how tired I looked.  We grabbed our desserts and headed to a quiet table to enjoy our sweets.  Hubby has a sugar-free Tiramisu dessert:

And a lemon bar to go with it:

I had a nice looking chocolate hazelnut torte:

Then Marvin stops by our dining table and asked if I like crepes.  Well...ummm...yes!  He said he would make a special one for me and disappears.  I grab my camera and quietly follow him into the Pastry Shop.  Here he is scooping out the crepe batter:

Do you think Marvin enjoys spoiling us?

I think Marvin knew I was spying on him.  He is proud of his creations:

Marvin said it would take a few minutes and I should sit and rest with Hubby.  I went back to our table and within a few minutes this marvelous creation arrived with a scoop of delicious ice cream:

After we had a week's worth of sweets in one sitting, I went back into the Pastry Shop to take more pictures.  Here's Marvin (from Philippines), Karthik (from India makes the specialty coffees), and Oleg (from Ukraine).  I call them the Three Musketeers as there was always something funny going on in the Pastry Shop.  I was able to print several copies of this picture for them to keep:

When we waddled back to our cabin, I had all the intentions to start packing.  Of course that never happened.  So luggage tags and blank Immigration form sat on our desk until one of us was motivated.  More than likely tomorrow.   Zzzzzzzzzzz!