12/27/2021 – With the current Omicron variant of COVID, Princess is requiring a negative COVID test 2 days before embarkation. We decided to drive to the Sarasota testing site to get a free test. You get what you pay for….We got there early, about 8:30 AM as it opens at 9:00AM. We were in row 13!!!! We had to wait 3 1/2 hours to get tested! The good news is we did get the results within an hour, and we were negative for COVID! This means we can pack tomorrow!
12/29/2021: This is is 8 day Caribbean cruise on Regal Princess. We are in stateroom M506
12/29/2021 – Board at 11:30am
12/30/2021 – Sea Day
12/31/2021 – Sea Day
1/1/2022 – Tortola, British Virgin Islands 8:00AM – 6:00 PM
1/2/2022 – St. Kitts 8:00AM – 6:00 PM
1/3/2022 – San Juan, Puerto Rico 7:00AM – 5:00PM
1/4/2022 – Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos 12:00PM – 7:00PM
1/5/2022 – Sea Day
1/6/2022 – Ft. Lauderdale, disembark
So I am anxious to get on the ship early because I want to book reservations for the chef’s table. We got to Ft. Lauderdale about 10:30am, dropped our luggage, parked the car, showed our passports, vaccine card and negative COVID tests at least 3 times, and were on the ship by about 11:10am. Went to customer service to inquire about the chef’s table, and they don’t know if they’re doing it this cruise! Bummer! We had to soak up our sorrows at the bar on the back of the ship ☹️. Dave tried a taste test with couple of different Margaritas and I stuck to mojitos….until I switched to wine. Left port, still awaiting 1 of our luggage bags…. Yikes! The ship plays the Love Boat theme. Then, passing condos before heading out to sea, there are some people with a huge Princess flag and they played the Love Boat theme again for them. Cool! Still no luggage. Called the dining line and was told no chefs table this sailing. Asked about Wine Makers dinner and told it was already booked. I am not happy. Dave gets a call from customer relations that they have our luggage. Finally brought to us with a sticker on it the says “alcohol”. Really? We have the beverage package … why would we try to sneak alcohol aboard? Oh well, we finally have all our clothes 😁.
We had dinner and the evening entertainment did not look exciting. After dinner, went back to the bar on the back of the ship and enjoyed a few more adult beverages before heading to the stateroom.
12/30/2021: Sea Day! Attended destination presentation which is a discussion on the ports we will be visiting. Went to our favorite new bar of the day on the back of the ship and just chilled. Princess uses a “medallion” app and you can order anything from anywhere and it will be delivered to where you are sitting. We sat there late morning, on the back of the ship, for over an hour, near the bar, and not one server approached us. I think the servers are only responding to orders from the app. Dave doesn’t agree with me, but we’ll see. He said we could have flagged someone down. That’s true, but it used to be the servers would approach you when you sat down. We were at the same bar yesterday and the servers did not approach us. I ordered from the app. After lunch we went to Trivia. We did not do well – only 7 out of 20 questions. In our defense, you can have a team up to 6 people, but our team is just 2….Dave and me. We went to the Captains Circle Happy Hour, and I had my first Chairman of the Board drink, which is unbelievably good considering it is a blend of Vodka and gin, and I think Cointreau. At dinner, we found one of the waiters we had on our November transatlantic – Attilla. He is a big, friendly guy with a loud voice! But we liked him, so glad we can ask for him at dinner time. We went to the evening show. The entertainment was a vocalist, who also played the trumpet, Dan Delgado. He was backed by the Princess orchestra, and despite our concerns, he was entertaining. After the show we went to the marriage game, which is always hilarious. It was held in Princess Live!, which is a smaller venue, and it was packed! Not a good situation with COVID-19. No social distancing! Of course, we wore our masks, but only about 95% of everyone else did. It’s always those 5%…… Tonight we lose one hour of sleep, turning our clocks forward one hour.
12/31/2021: Another sea day….spent a lot of time enjoying the ship and relaxing. Went to a presentation on the last two ports, ate lunch In the piazza, went to a quiz on destinations, which was actually a Princess advertisement, and a trivia. We did better in the trivia, but did not agree with the answer to one of the questions. Not that it mattered as far as our final score…. We went to the captains circle happy hour. While there, the captain announced we are not going to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were not surprised based on what we heard before the cruise. Puerto Rico is requiring COVID testing before letting passengers disembark, and our ship is just not prepared to test 2200 passengers all at once. The ship is going to St. Thomas instead. We will probably just wander around the St. Thomas port, having been there before. After our little happy hour, we went dinner, which was a little special…I had a lobster tail and Dave had Beef. Then we went to the martini bar, but the entertainer was not feeling well, so he didn’t show. We moved to the wheelhouse bar where the guitar player played. That was much better. We decided, based on Omicron, not to go to the main New Years celebration around the pool…I know, we are wimps ☹️. Dave is talking about how we’d be home by now if we went to Flemings, which was our original plan. Unfortunately, we waited too long to book, so we could not get reservations at Flemings.
We retreated to our stateroom by 11:00 to privately celebrate the new year. The ship is decorated beautifully for the holidays. This is a picture of some of the gingerbread houses onboard:
Happy New Year!
1/1/2022: This morning we are in Tortola. We have not been to this island before. It was one of the ports we were suppose to visit on our August Celebrity cruises, but was dropped from the itinerary. We went on a 3 1/2 hour excursion in a taxi.
The taxis have long seats for 4 people and ours had 5 rows. I’m sure during non COVID times lots more than 4 people sit on each long seat. The roads are windy with hairpin curves and lots of up and down the hills/mountains.
The first place we stopped was an African Church. Not many people got out, because they had trouble climbing in and out of the taxi. Dave and I were able to climb in and out.
I found it interesting they used molasses as a binder.
After checking out the church, we drove some more, eventually we will drive around the whole island. Our driver is a bit hard to understand, but he points out local spots like the post office, community center, police station, resorts, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. He stops in a couple of overlooks to give us photo opportunities of the neighboring islands and the beautiful sea.
Our ship is in this one.
We stopped briefly at Cane Garden Bay and were offered water or fruit punch. There is a beach here, and I think pre-COVID, probably some shops. Of course, today is New Years Day, and maybe most places are closed because of that. There was a bar open, and bathrooms, but otherwise the main attraction was the beach. We drove some more and made another stop at Pusser’s Landing. Most of the shops were closed, but there was a restaurant, a clothing store and grocery store open. Pusser’s Landing is in Soper Hole which is home to a marina. I imagine the grocery store is for stocking up boats. I saw a few people from the marina taking advantage of the public showers. After our visit to Pusser’s Landing, we drove back to the ship. It was a scenic drive with lots of beautiful long views.
We got back to the ship around lunchtime and decided to try Alfredo’s Pizza, which is one of the included restaurants. It was pretty busy at lunchtime. Dave and I both ordered pizzas, as they are 12”, thin crust, personal pizzas. There are chefs making the pizzas from scratch, and you can watch them. We thought the pizzas were OK, but certainly not the best we ever had. After lunch we walked around the port area, but again, very few places were open.
Tonight we have dinner reservations for the Crown Grill, a specialty restaurant. We went to the Wheelhouse Bar before dinner to hear Dan Austin, a guitarist we like, but his schedule had been changed. I think one of the entertainers got COVID, so they are switching things around. We had a good meal in Crown Grill – I had lamb chops and Dave had Sea Bass. We tried to get another reservation for another night, but the Crown Grill was fully booked. We finished dinner late, missed the shows, so just went back to our stateroom.
1/2/2022: Today we are in St. Kitts and have booked a ships excursion. Our guide is Jaja and his vehicle is GT77. It is a 3 hour tour, and Jaja is a great guide and driver. He gives us a running commentary on St. Kitts, he was easy to understand, and very entertaining. He paused along the road in several spots to point out highlights. He pointed out petroglyphs, which was a fertility symbol; St. George’s Anglican Church which was originally built in 1670, then burned by the British in 1706 and rebuilt 4 years later and has subsequently suffered a fire, earthquake and hurricanes, and was again rebuilt in 1869. He pointed out Bloody Point and Bloody River which is where British and French forces came together to massacre over 2000 native Carib Indians causing the river to flow with blood for 4 days. Jaja pointed out the extinct volcano, Mt. Liamuiga, which created the island as a result of the lava flows, centuries ago. There are hikes that go up the volcano, and you can go down into the crater which is 1000 feet deep and 1 mile wide, with a small fresh water lake at the bottom. But that volcano hike is not part of our tour today….or probably any day!
Our first real stop was Romney Manor. This land was originally claimed by Samuel Jefferson II, the 3rd great grandfather of US President Thomas Jefferson. Samuel Jefferson later sold part of the estate to the Earl of Romney. Our guide told us the Earl of Romney travelled a lot and brought back exotic plants which he planted on his estate. Today, the gardens are a beautiful setting with lots of plants.There is a bell tower still standing which was used to tell slaves when they were to go to work or when the work was done. Most bell towers have been destroyed because of their symbolism, but Mr. Romney was a benevolent owner, so this bell tower is probably the last bell tower still standing. The original manor house has been partially restored, and now houses Caribelle Batik. These are artisans who create designs by hand, on fabric using a wax and dye process known as batik. Of course there is a gift shop when you can buy their products.
and unfortunately I’m in the foreground.
Our second and last stop was The Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. The first cannon were mounted on Brimstone Hill in 1690 by the British in an attempt to recapture Fort Charles on the coat from French occupation. The fortress was designed by British Army Engineers and built by African slaves. The British and French alternatively fought and regained control of the fortress over the years. The fortress was a abandoned in 1852. The Society for the restoration of Brimstone Hill was formed in 1965, and in 1973, HRH Prince Charles reopened the first restoration. In 1985, Queen Elizabeth signified Brimstone Hill Fortress as a National Park, affirmed by legislation in 1987. The Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Upon returning to the ship, we walked around the port area when there are shops. Many shops are shuttered, and I don’t know if that’s because today is Sunday or because many shops have not reopened due to COVID. Our guide, Jaja said that pre COVID, St. Kitts would get as many as 17 ships a week. He said now they get about 12, and today they were suppose to have 3, but one had to cancel because it had too many COVID cases onboard ( more than 1%). However, the second ship must have been turned away, as the only ship in the port was our ship. Jaja also said all the shops in town would be closed today because it is Sunday. St. Kitts has a VAT tax of 17%, because they do not have an income tax. However, the stores in the port area are exempt from charging VAT tax. We debated getting a Carib beer, local beer brewed in St. Kitts, but decided to go back to the ship instead.
After dinner, we went to the show, which was a two person act “Five O’Clock Somewhere”, a man playing guitar, and a woman playing keyboard and piano. Mostly music, but she did sing “Hallelujah “. We enjoyed their show.
1/3/2022: Today we are in port at St. Thomas, which is the port that was substituted for San Juan. We docked at the Haverhill port – St. Thomas has two ports for big ships. We did not book an excursion, and we have been her a couple of times in the past. Our plan was to possibly take the sky ride to “Paradise Point” where they serve a rum drink, Bushwacker”. We took our time getting off the ship, and started walking around. I told Dave I did not see the point in spending $25 each to take the 7 minute sky ride just to get an alcoholic beverage. He did not argue. So we wandered around, and walked through the shops in the port area. There are many shops that are not open and probably won’t reopen due to no tourism for 18+ months. We spotted a huge mast and I could not believe it was on a ship, but it was! It was very unusual and not the typical yacht.
Picture of big yacht, and second picture comparing it to our ship.
While wandering thru the port area, we saw many other large yachts, and it just makes you wonder who owns these things.
Dave remembered where a grocery store was from a previous trip, so we went there looking for Pringle’s for Dave. They only had “Pizza” flavor, so Dave bought some Lay’s Stax, which must be a competitor to Pringles. I hope he likes them. We walked back towards the ship, and it is a beautiful day. We stopped at an outside bar to sit and enjoy the view. We finally get a Carib beer, which is suppose to be a Caribbean beer. Looking at the label, it was brewed and bottled in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The all aboard time is 2:30PM, which is early. But we decided to go back to the ship and have lunch at the international cafe. Then we looked for a place to sit outside, but all our favorite places were already taken, and it was very hot in the pool area, so we decided to sit on our balcony.
Today our side of the ship is facing the port, and sure enough, we got to enjoy some port runners who were late for the ship.
The captain was tooting the horn, I think giving notice that the ship was ready to leave. This is unusual, because he usually plays the Love Boat theme as we are leaving.Then we found out people were missing and not back onboard, so the horn was for their benefit. Two couples were very late and didn’t get to the ship until 3:10, and the ship was suppose to leave at 3:00. The captain made a couple of announcements about them – first at about 2:50 saying 2 couples were not onboard and he would only wait until 3:00. Then about 3:00 he made another announcement that they had found them and they were 10 minutes away, so he waited for them. Everybody onboard was hooting and hollering at them as they came within site and were running for the ship. I am a bit surprised they waited so long, but probably St. Thomas did not want to deal with getting them back to the states with COVID raging.
Tonight is formal night, our last formal night thank goodness. I’m not getting super dressed up, just wearing a long black dress. Finally had escargot for my dinner appetizer. After dinner we went to the show, which was a split show. The first half was a comedian, and the second half was two magicians. After the show we went to crooners martini bar to listen to Dan Austin, the guitarist.
We gain an hour tonight….an extra hour of sleep!
1/4/2022: our arrival at Grand Turk is scheduled for noon, but we actually arrive about 11:00am. It was very interesting to watch the captain maneuver the ship along side the dock.
Made me feel really bad about the way I maneuver crew boats into our beach at Indian Mound Park. There is one long dock, and the Holland America Rotterdam was already alongside the dock on the north side. It looked like we were heading right for the Rotterdam, but the captain glided right along side the dock on the south side. The dock is about 25 or 30 feet wide, and these are big ships. It was really amazing to watch.
Then the captains signaled each other with their horns, with ours playing the Love Boat theme with his horn. I have to admit, that is a cool feature on the Princess ships. Carnival Corporation built the dock, and the adjacent village, which houses the worlds largest Margaritaville. Since the dock will only hold 2 ships, they had a full house today and most of the shops were open to the captive audience of the Regal Princess and the Rotterdam. Right as you walk off the dock, there is a huge beach, which also happens to be right in front of Margaritaville. Dave and I are not beach people, so we decided we’d have lunch at Margaritaville. We both had burgers and Margaritas. The island charges a 12% tax and Margaritaville charges a 15% service fee, so our bill was about $61. Kinda funny that all these people, including us, that can eat free on their respective ships decide to pay inflated prices at Margaritaville. We wandered around all the shops, but we don’t need any more souvenirs, so we just wander and look. The jewelry stores everywhere are more aggressive, trying to get you to try on jewelry, but I just want to look, so it’s frustrating. I end up not even looking because I can’t deal with the sales people, so there’s no chance I’ll see something I like because I can’t just look. We got back to the ship fairly early and we’re able to snag two seats at the back of the ship. We watched the Rotterdam leave, and the captains had another battle of the horn with our ship playing the Love Boat theme, and the Rotterdam just tooting. We watched a beautiful sunset. After the Rotterdam left, I got a picture of the beach, and Margaritaville, at the end of the pier:
Amazing how close the beach is to the ships!
1/5/2022: Today is a sea day as we head back to Ft. Lauderdale. We packed, spent some time lounging in the pool area, and packed. I gave in to my craving for a frozen Margarita and it was delicious! But as a result, I wasn’t ready to eat at our reserved time, so I changed our dinner reservation to a later time. After dinner we went back to our room, and found our room steward took it upon himself to move all our bathroom items from the shelves to the countertop so he could clean the shelves in preparation for the next occupants. Dave and I were pissed! During this time of COVID-19, we did not appreciate him touching our stuff – even our toothbrushes! Dave called Customer Service and complained. Then Dave opened the door to our stateroom and happened to run into the room steward. Dave let him know we were not happy with him. When I did the post-cruise survey, I also stated how unhappy we were that he would touch our personal items. Disappointing way to end our cruise.
1/6/3022: Disembarkation was easy and quick. We got up about 7:00am, showered, went to breakfast at 8:00, and left the ship about 8:45. We were in our car and on the long drive home before 9:15.