Wednesday, July 4, 2018- Regal Princess Embarkation

Wednesday, July 4, 2018- Regal Princess Embarkation

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We hit the breakfast buffet around 7AM and then finished packing our bags, setting them outside our room by 8AM for Princess to pick up.  We then had a bit of time to nap before the Tycho Brahe Planetarium opened.  There were a few exhibits around the perimeter of the planetarium, but the planetarium is primarily an IMAX theater/planetarium. The first show started at 10AM, and was an IMAX movie Journey to Space that explored the theme that man has always wanted to explore new frontiers.  It did detail the Orion mission to Mars.  The credits started to roll just before 11AM as we sprinted out of the theater and back to our hotel.  We were able to grab our backpacks, drop off our keys and join the Princess transfer line.  

The Princess transfer to the Regal Princess was easy and comfortable.  It was also nice to be Platinum members with priority boarding for this cruise, where there was virtually no wait for us to check in and walk onto the ship.  

The Regal Princess is a larger ship with new features and venues than we had seen on our prior cruises. We were happy to see the return of the International Cafe, where we had our lunch.  We then walked around the ship locating the various venues, restaurants, fitness center and theater.  We walked through the Horizon court buffet, which seemed to have a tremendous selection compared with what was available on the Island Princess.  

We participated in our first Regal Princess trivia, scoring 13/20.  The winners managed to score 15-1/2 points, winning Regal Princess coasters.

We had our mandatory Muster drill and then had dinner in the Symphony dining room.  Ben opted for prime rib, while Janet had fettuccine with chicken.  We had a nice table right by the window so we could watch our sail away out of the Copenhagen harbor.  

We attended the Oslo destination lecture by Chris Roberts in the Princess Live venue, which is set up like a TV studio audience show. They videotaped the lecture for rebroadcast on the ship’s on-demand video system, so that venue makes sense.  We have a tour booked through the same company that our St. Petersburg tours are booked through, so it was good to have a preview of the popular sights. The destination lecturer was energetic and entertaining, throwing in a few humorous slides, including a shot from JAWs when talking about how important fishing in Norway is.  

We caught the early production show of Sweet Soul Music, and thought we recognized one of the male lead singers from a prior cruise.  The Princess Theater on this ship is larger with a more contemporary decor.  The stage appears a bit larger as well. The show was quite well done and even included real pyrotechnics towards the end.  The quality of the singers and dancers was up to par for Princess productions, which is high.  

We attended an evening multimedia trivia of guess the celebrity caricature.  We ended up with 46/60, while the winning team scored a perfect 60 to win a bottle of champagne.  We learned that because of the circular nature of this itinerary, many passengers are at the end, rather than the beginning of their cruise because you can start this itinerary in St Petersburg, Berlin or Copenhagen.  We wonder if that perfect score was because they ran the same trivia earlier in the cruise an this might have been a repeat.  

Janet was hoping to win something at an Effy drawing, but we apparently missed the drawing time, and you had to be present to win.  She looked at some jewelry, but found the staff to be very hard selling and pushy.  This might discourage her from spending more time at the Facets jewelry store.  

We tried to figure out the TV, but weren’t able to bring up any on demand movies. We ended up watching some presentation on Russian folk art, but fell asleep.  I guess we’re still a bit jet lagged.

Tomorrow we arrive at Oslo Norway.