Sunday, July 15, 2018- Disembarkation and the Long Trip Home
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0g5VaUrzJGuUxP
After an early breakfast, we had an effortless Princess transfer from the ship to the Copenhagen airport. Our luggage had made the trip in advance and was waiting to be picked up at the airport with free luggage carts to take them to the airline check-in counters. There was a huge line at the Air France counters- several hundred people long, but on our arrival, there was a dedicated “Princess Cruises-Air France” check in counter for those whom had used the Princess airport transfers and EZ-Air. Easy-peasy, as Janet would say. We just walked up to that window and voila, our luggage was tagged and on its way to Seattle.
Smoking Booth at Copenhagen Airport
We had no trouble getting through security and to the gate. However, just as we were starting to board our short hop from Copenhagen to Paris, we received alerts on our Apple Watches and iPhones that our Air France direct flight from Paris to Seattle was cancelled. We spoke with the flight attendants in flight, and they reassured us that Air France would make it right somehow and not to worry. Well, on arrival in Paris, we received a follow up email detailing that Air France had rebooked us onto a flight from Paris to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to Seattle. Instead of arriving in Seattle at 2:51PM, we would be arriving at 9:50PM. We had to scramble to get our Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle reservations changed, which we were able to do via wifi and email.
The flights that were rebooked kept us in Premium Economy seating, but we were no longer sitting next to each other. On the transatlantic leg, a single passenger was willing to change seats so that Janet and I could sit side by side. While the seats had fancy foot rests, video monitors and power, it was still just bearable to get through the 8 hour flight. It was certainly better than the economy seating, but at this point, for a transatlantic flight, economy is simply cruel and unusual punishment.
To add insult to injury, the Air France flight from Paris to Atlanta was 30 minutes late to depart. We already had a tight connection without that delay. Then on arrival, we learned that we would have to claim our bags and clear customs before we could continue on to make our Seattle connection. We saw that the boarding time for the connecting flight was 6:25PM. We didn’t get off the plane from Paris until 6:00PM. We had to struggle through the crowds to literally run to customs and immigrations area. There was a huge line there already, presumably from an earlier flight, but thanks to our Nexus card membership, which includes Global Entry, we were allowed to bypass the line and go to the Global Entry Kiosks, where there was no line.
From there, we ran to the baggage claim, where we waited for our bags to come out. It was 6:27 by then. After about 200-300 bags came out, ours not amongst them, an overhead announcement was made for us and about 25 other passengers to see the Delta Agent across from the Carousel. Well, there was no Delta sign anywhere, but there was a desk with a big Korean Airlines signboard above it. On closer inspection, there was a Delta employee sitting under the Korean Airlines sign. She informed us that our bags had failed to make it onto this plane, and would be sent to Seattle directly on a different flight. So we just had to finish the customs and immigrations process and then find the gate for our connecting flight.
Well, it turns out that our flight was leaving from a gate that was a 5 minute train ride away. So we ran to the train, and then ran from the train to our boarding gate, where boarding was well underway. We were sweating and breathing hard, because we were afraid we were going to miss the flight. Well, we made it onto the plane, even if our luggage hadn’t. Again, we weren’t seated together. We were two rows apart and on opposite sides of the plane in middle seats. Ben sat between two young men who were fine seat partners for the 6 hour flight, but poor Janet, ended up next to a man who shook his leg for nearly the entire 6 hour flight. She imagined if this were a cartoon, or Hollywood movie, she would have taken a thin dagger and stabbed it through the man’s leg to pin it to the seat. But she managed to survive that bizarre form of slow torture.
In Seattle, we stopped at the Delta Baggage Customer Service desk and file a claim for our missing luggage, which she assured us would arrive sometime Monday, and then be shipped UPS to our home in Oak Harbor sometime Tuesday. It’s a good thing we didn’t have anything irreplaceably essential in our checked bags. Laundry will just have to wait couple more days.
Our Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle got us to Oak Harbor at 1:15AM, so we were in or home by 1:40AM on Monday, July 16, 2018. Boy, that was a long trip for us to get home. Enroute via the plane from Paris to Atlanta, we did hear the FIFA World Cup score at the end of each quarter from the Pilot and flight crew, who were super excited to win the World Cup after beating Croatia. We wonder if our first flight crew had cancelled the Paris to Seattle direct flight so they could stay at home and watch the World Cup finals. That added 11 hours to our return trip time, and the tight connection caused by Air France’s 30 minute late departure from Paris added a lot of anxiety and discomfort. That’s another airline to avoid in the future.
Overall, this was a very memorable and enjoyable Baltic Cruise on the Regal Princess (Just have to erase memories of the Air France flights and the struggle to get back home). We would highly recommend the ship, itinerary, and excursions that we did, including the SPB-Tours.com company, which saved us a lot of money over similar Princess Excursions and featured much smaller tour group sizes. We would recommend travelers considering this itinerary to spend at least one more day in Copenhagen than we did. We certainly saw a LOT, but were rushed for time and could easily have spent another full day to see the highly acclaimed aquarium and a few other museums.
We seem to have picked the best time of the year because we had PERFECT weather throughout the entire trip. The seas on the Baltic were calm throughout the entire trip with whitecaps and 2-3 ft seas only on the very last leg of our trip, which weren’t enough to even be felt on the Regal Princess.
The buffets in the Regal Princess were noticeably better than on any prior Princess or Norwegian ship we have been on. There was vastly more variety and the selection changed frequently. It also feature a taco bar and an Asian noodle bar on occasion. There was also a Brazilian churrasco night featuring a variety of spit roasted meats like the Fogo de Chão restaurant chain.
The fare in the main dining room was not any different than our prior Princess cruises aside from the lobster dinner being much better on this Regal Princess, but the Buffet was certainly a step up. We were disappointed with our dinner at Sabatini’s, but since that was thrown in for free with our Carnival Shareholder benefit, we won’t put too much weight on that. In the future, we’ll choose the Crown Steakhouse or Crabshack options for premium dining instead.
While we didn’t receive the Ocean Medallions on this trip because the Ocean Medallions are basically in a beta testing stage, the internet service was remarkably better than on any prior cruise experience. Having decent internet available really changed our port of call experiences because we didn’t have to spend any time at all looking for Wifi. That really made our ports of call much more relaxed and enjoyable.
The new on-demand video system took a while to figure out (the Back Button is your friend), but was also a big improvement in the in-stateroom entertainment experience. The navigational display was also vastly improved. However, the news from CNN, MSNBC, and FOX remains as biased and depressing as always, so it’s best to just avoid news during any cruise.
Since Ben swapped out the magnetic clasp Milan Loop watch band on his Apple Watch for the non-magnetic Nike sport band, he never had to have his or Janet’s room card reprogrammed even once during the entire cruise! Apple Watch wearers, take note, because on the 60d S. America cruise, Ben had to take his room card to the passenger service desk at least 20 times for reprogramming until he figured out the magnetic clasp was the problem.
With fewer days at sea, there was much less emphasis on trivia games, but we still ended up with a stash of wine bottle stoppers, Regal Princess coasters, Champagne, string backpacks and notepads. We also passed on the Paper Airplane and Egg drop challenges. There is always so much to do on these ships that there is never a dull moment unless you actively schedule time for doing nothing.
We did make another future cruise deposit, and Princess is offering to double the value of on board ship spending credit for Panama and Caribbean cruises completed before July 2019. So now the hard question is: Where to Next?
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