Back to Cruising! Regal Princess Christmas Caribbean Cruise Day 0-1

 Sunday, December 19, 2021

When we had scheduled this Christmas Caribbean cruise on th Regal Princess, the world was seeing miraculous responses to the new mRNA SARS CoV-2 vaccines, and it looked like the pandemic was going to run its course quickly.  However, no one could have foreseen how political vaccine hesitancy and Covid denial would lead to ever rising death tolls.  As of this month, 800,000 Americans have died from Covid-19.  And as if to pour gasoline on an already blazing fire, the Omicron variant emerged just 2 months ago, and has proven to be 70 times more infectious than even the Delta variant.  People who have been fully vaccinated were getting breakthrough infections.  Fortunately, early data suggested that most breakthrough infections in previously vaccinated individuals was generally mild.  We were very hopeful that vaccination would eliminate troublesome testing requirements by now, but Princess and most cruise operators are still requiring negative Covid testing that must be completed within 2 days of embarking their ships.  

Janet’s brother and his wife had completed two cruises in the Covid era on Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL).  NCL was testing all passengers at the cruise terminal.  Princess however, requires passengers to obtain testing and present with proof of negative testing on check in before embarkation.  The biggest problem is that the most commonly available testing is PCR testing, and in many places, it can take several days to get a test result reported.  While there are some PCR tests that state they can provide results in a matter of hours, when looking around the area for tests and appointments, it is clear that the USA is woefully behind the curve on Covid testing.  

To accomodate this reality, Princess allowed Rapid Antigen Tests to satisfy the negative testing requirement, but only when the testing was medically proctored.  Commercial testing sites at international airports abroad can do the testing for less than $25, but at US international airports, the tests are more like $100.  A telehealth company called eMed markets the Abbott BINAX antigen test, which is sold OTC in pharmacies for $15-30 each but without proctored testing.  Using teleconferencing over the internet, they can now sell bundle of the test kit with included proctored test taking that Princess Cruises and many airlines will accept.  The marketing materials stated that it was a simple matter of placing an order over the internet, then they would overnight the kits to you, and you could get test results in less than an hour.  However, demand for the testing so far outstripped the company’s resources that for a while, it was extremely unpredictable whether proctoring would actually be available when it was needed.  I decided to buy a six pack of tests 3 weeks before our embarkation date just in case there were problems.  Turns out, the company was swamped and we received the kits just 3 days before embarkation.

I had discovered that appointments for testing had short scheduling windows, and if you didn’t sign up for testing slots the instant they opened up, they’d fill up and be gone within minutes or hours.  Just to be safe, I had scheduled Rapid Antigen Testing with reporting within hours to occur at Walgreens’s Pharmacy in Oak Harbor on December 19.  I had also scheduled back up appointments which promised PCR results within hours on December 20 at a CVS Pharmacy in Fort Lauderdale since we were flying in early in the morning and a day before embarkation.

Then late on December 17, we received email notices that the Walgreens testing had been canceled with no explanation.  It was impossible to reschedule Rapid Antigen Testing in Oak Harbor at all in the future, and Walgreens locations within a 200 mile radius had no appointments available before January 6.  There were no other test providers that had any openings on December 19 except Rite Aid, which offered PCR tests, but did not guaranty a test report any sooner than 5-7 days.  But we signed up and got swabbed, hoping that maybe test results could be available by embarkation time.  

John had gone to a local walk in clinic for his testing, and ended up spending more than 2 hours in line, and spending over $200.  But he was able to get his test with verifiable report on December 19.  

Janet and I booked red-eye flights.  We boarded the Whidbey Sea-Tac Shuttle at 5pm and arrived at Sea-Tac Airport at 7:45pm.  We were flying first class and could check all our luggage.  Pre-Check also breezed us through the security check points so we got to the gate with nearly 90 minutes before scheduled boarding time.  We grabbed a mediocre and expensive meal at the food court- Ramen and a Chicken teriyaki rice bowl.  

We had no trouble boarding the plane on time, but the plane sat there for a very long time.  The  flight attendants eventually explained that there was no water pressure in the bathrooms, and technicians were working to get it fixed.  But in the end, we ended up deplaning and going from the C terminal to the N terminal to board a replacement plane.  All the luggage had to be off loaded and reloaded.  The racket coming from under the floor as the baggage handlers were stuffing the bags in sounded like Valkyries bowling with the gods.  We finally got off the ground 2-1/2 hours late.  

Even in First Class, it is hard to sleep on a red eye.  Alaska Airlines’ first class service was certainly much more comfortable than coach, and significantly nicer than premium economy, but there were no blankets, pillows, eye shades or ear plugs like Delta offers.  We did have a round of drinks and a selection of fruit, cheese, meats and crackers to snack on.  

After arriving in Fort Lauderdale, there was some sort of mix up in the baggage area which delayed our bags a bit.  Janet had used a brand new small roller bag, and when it came off the carousel, it was missing one of its wheels.  The baggage agent said Alaska Airlines doesn’t cover damage to wheels, handles, or any other parts that project outside of a suitcase’s shell, but did credit us $25 for the delay, and $50 for the missing wheel damage.  

We ended up really struggling to get the airport shuttle for the hotel to come pick us up.  The driver ultimately came after nearly 90 minutes and at least 5 phone calls.  He had explained there was some sort of mechanical problem that required the coach to get emergency service, but the hotel was not even 3 miles from where we stood on the airport pick up lanes.  We explained to the drive that our children were arriving later, and we hoped that he would make their experiences better than ours.  

The good news was our room was ready for immediate occupancy.  It was 12:30PM by the time we made it to the hotel’s lobby after our plane had touched down at 9:30am.  We got showered and took naps while our kids boarded their flights.  

It turns out John had a terrible wait getting through security- over 2 hours.  He had to sprint, but made his flight.  He fortunately didn’t have trouble getting to the hotel.  Price and Ciara, however, also ended up taking nearly an hour to get from the Airport to our hotel.  

We discovered that our hotel was kind of stranded in the middle of a wasteland surrounded by water and freeways.  There is a huge Bass Pro shop within easy walking distance, but no other restaurants, shops or services.  Other hotels that we had stayed in pre and post cruises had much more interesting locations.  We would not recommend anyone staying at this particular hotel unless they were just spending a night and immediately boarding a cruise ship the next morning.  

The hotel did have wifi.  Ben and Janet managed to do the eMed telehealth proctored Covid 19 rapid antigen tests.  The proctors all had dense foreign accents and were reading off a script, but we were each able to get our testing completed and have an electronic record within minutes after completion of the testing.  Even though the test itself takes 15 minutes, it actually took us each about an hour to get through the entire process.  

Price and Ciara arrived last, just about 6:30pm.  We walked to the Bass Pro store’s restaurant and bar and had appetizers and drinks for happy hour as dinner.  Everything was extremely expensive.  We ended up spending $75 on 2 beers and a couple rounds of appetizers including conch fritters which were good, chicken tenders that were supposed to be “wings” that were really pretty lame, a smoked whitefish dip that really was bland and awful compared with smoked salmon pate, and tough and flavorless peel to eat shrimp.  We are really looking forward to getting on the Regal Princess.  

After “dinner” we got Price and Ciara’s covid testing done.  Fortunately, everyone tested negative.  But late in the evening, Ciara got a text that Tom’s mother, Lifen, had her PCR test turn up positive.  That news threw the entire Zhang family into a tizzy.  I explained that because they had previously all been infected with Covid, even though they were subsequently fully vaccinated with the Pfizer mRNA vaccines, some people have false positive PCR tests.  They sometimes shed non-infectious RNA fragments for months.  That is why the CDC does not recommend testing out of quarantine after someone recovers clinically from Covid-19.  So I recommended they try to get a Rapid Antigen test instead.  If that is negative, it most likely means the PCR test was a false positive, especially since Lifen was fully vaccinated and entirely asymptomatic.  Their family ran all over town and eventually managed to find a place that could do a rapid antigen test.  But the place didn’t issue a report before they closed up.  Just as their family had decided to stay home, sending only Tom, who had tested negative, as well as everyone else except Lifen, to go on the cruise, they finally heard that Lifen’s second test was negative.  So we’ll have to see if she shows up tomorrow at the cruise terminal.  Their flight boards at 5am tomorrow.  

Ben had forgotten to pack naproxen and acetominophen, so he walked 1.5 miles to the nearest drug store, which happened to be the CVS pharmacy that had canceled our testing appointments for that morning which forced us to use the eMed teleproctored kits.  As of early am December 21, not report from the Rite-Aid PCR tests has arisen.  On the walk, it became apparent just how isolated the hotel location is.  There was a lot of abandoned commercial property between the hotel and the CVS Pharmacy, and between the Bass Pro Shop and Sterling street, there were several RV’s boondocking in an area that looked like it used to be used to park buses.  Unlike the Seattle homeless RV neighborhoods, there was no trash or debris at all anywhere around these RV’s.  Perhaps the city of Dania Beach picks up trash for these pop up communities.  

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Day 1- Embarkation: Fort Lauderdale

John walked to the CVS in the morning, not realizing I had walked there the night before, but we had him stop at the Jewish Bakery and he brought back bagels and pastries for breakfast.  Breakfast was not included in this hotel’s fare.  We booked and paid $10 each for the 11am shuttle to the cruise port.  It was a crowded ride, but we made it there in one piece.  

Our Ocean Medallions had not been shipped to us in advance, and were to be picked up at check in.  This slowed our check in process a little, but we were processed pretty efficiently, with no crowded waiting anywhere during the process.  We did have to show our passports, Covid Vaccination cards, and Covid testing results.  They verified by glancing at the cards and the NAVICA Pass displayed on our iPhones without scanning the QR codes.

The Zhang family boarded the ship before us.  Since Lifen’s repeat Rapid Antigen test came back negative, the whole family joined us on the cruise.  They had gone to the Horizon Court buffet because their staterooms were not ready for occupancy yet.  We were able to go directly into our staterooms.  We had booked mini-suites for this Christmas cruise because when we initially booked the cruise, we could book the mini-suites for the same price as our usual premium balcony staterooms.

The mini suites are spacious with a real pull out sofa and second TV in the seating area.  The desk is wider and there is a third night stand cabinet.  The bathroom has a bath tub so the shower is now in the bath tub.  This makes the shower and bathroom that much larger than in the regular balcony rooms.  We were able to get both mini suites adjacent to each other so that we could open the divider between the narrow balconies and create a narrow but long common area for our family.  

The pandemic has changed many procedures. It has done away with the mandatory muster drills, which was a huge plus.  Passengers must view a mandatory safety video before any other media can display on the TV, and then passengers must tap in at their assigned muster stations with their medallions.  

There were some issues with the Medallion Class app and network initially with laggy performance.  Fortunately, performance improved to a tolerable state by mid afternoon.  It is handy that you can order food and drinks just about anywhere in the ship, and someone will bring it right to you.

The pandemic has also caused many changes in procedures.  The room stewards don’t seem to pop into your rooms nearly as often, and you use the Medallion Class app to let them know when your room is ready for service.  As far a the buffet goes, there is no self service.  You pretty much have to wait until someone behind the counter is available to be your personal slave for their section of the buffet.  You also end up with way too many dishes because they seem to want to plate everything on its own dish.  The most troublesome change is the lack of access to silverware.  You have to flag someone down to get them each time you need something like a clean spoon for a dessert if you make a second or third pass through the buffet.  There is also no self service for coffee, tea or lemonade.  

Procedures in the dining rooms seem less impacted, although there is no longer a basket of rolls on the table.  The waiter will bring rolls around and put one on your plate for you instead.  But service in the dining rooms has always been pretty much no hands on, except for the rolls, salt and pepper.  We were able to get seated at a table set for 9.  There wasn’t a lot of elbow room, but it worked just fine.  

After dinner we attended the Princess theater presentation of stand up comedian Paul Adams. He was born in Australia, lived mostly in New Zealand, and when cruises were shut down in the Spring of 2020, he was stranded in the UK because Australia had shut its borders.  He was unable to return home to see his parents since Australia didn’t reopen its borders even to citizens until very recently.  He will get to go home to Australia for the first time in January.  His act was slow to get going, so some of us caught cat naps during the show.  It’s a good thing we were seated far enough back that we were out of his vision range.  

We then did a trivia where you had to guess the next lyric line for songs from a variety of eras ranging from the Rat Pack, Disco, 80’s, 90’s, Gen Z and odd covers.  Surprisingly, we managed our very first win, scoring 28 out of a possible 30.  We gave Ciara and Tom the Champagne. We out scored second place by just one point.  This was followed by a Name that Place trivia, where we came in second by 2 points.  One clue was this city has more bicycles than cars, and had pictures of bicycles chained to a painted rail along a canal, and European architecture with a planter of tulips.  Price guessed Amsterdam, but the place looked indistinguishable in the pictures from Copenhagen.  Unfortunately, Ben changed the answer to Copenhagen thinking it was a more likely place for cruise ship business, but it was Amsterdam.  We also missed the city with the largest population of Polynesians in the world.  We guessed Papeet, the capital of French Polynesia, but it turned out to be Auckland.  Too bad the picture didn’t include Auckland’s skyline, which we would have easily identified. We also missed the first Alaska cruise season for Princess by 4 years, which was 1969.  The winners got the aluminum water bottles, which the cruise staffer said were wind chimes if you hung more than one together.  

Ben ran into Ciara and Tom at the International Cafe for a late night snack of soup and a Cuban sandwich, then turned in. Tomorrow is a full day at sea and our first of two formal nights.