Tuesday, December 28, 2021; At Sea- Final Day of the Cruise

 Tuesday, December 28, 2021; At Sea

Sadly, we have arrived at the last day of our Caribbean Christmas cruise.  After having a sit down breakfast, we began the task of transferring everything back into our suitcases.  Janet and Ben joined the Internationals for morning trivia, but lost by 2 points today.  I guess the rest of the Internationals will need to find a replacement for Ben for their next go-around in the Caribbean.  The next leg of the Regal Princess’s cruise will take her to St Kitt among other islands.  

We met with John and Price for a sit down lunch and then we did the afternoon Vines Wine tasting program.  We learned that blending a Chilean Carmenere with an Argentinian Malbec produced a more balanced and appealing wine than either in it’s pure state.  Ben wished he had know that a couple nights ago when he had a glass of the Carmenere and didn’t particularly care for it while Janet had the Malbec.  Next time.  

We have been very fortunate in being able to complete our itinerary without interruptions or canceled ports of call due to Covid, but there may have been some Covid cases on board.  There have been no announcements, but this afternoon, as Ben was wheeling one of our suitcases into the hallway, a procession of crew in hazmat gear (head to toe Tyvek suits with goggles, respirators, gloves) pushed a dolly with suitcases wrapped in plastic down the hallway with a person following spraying disinfectant as the convoy made it’s way to the service corridor elevator.  

Overall, the impacts of the Pandemic on our cruise experience are certainly noticeable.  The most significant impact has been on the experience in the buffet where selecting what you want to eat and then having to flag down a galley staffer to plate it and hand it to you takes so much more time, and plates, that choosing sit down dining for most meals seems more hassle free, especially since there are no silverware stations so you have to sit and wait for someone to come around and hand you utensils.  The other very noticeable aspect of the buffet experience is 2/3 of the buffet area has been closed off for most of the cruise so it feels like the selection has been reduced.  You used to be able to snag cookies in the bakery/desserts cafe just about any time, but now you have to order the cookies to be delivered via room service.  There has been much more emphasis on room service- with no extra charges for delivery and a wider selection of food service and beverage items available.  It is also pretty easy to order things through the Medallion app when the network and app aren’t being buggy.  Connections do seem more reliable when you’re sitting in your cabin than in some places like around the pool deck where connections are particularly problematic.  

This cruise has 1900 passengers on board.  The Regal Princess is ramping up capacity as the Captain said after we disembark, the next 8 day cruise will carry 2100 passengers, and that the following one will carry 2400 passengers.  The ship normally can carry about 3600 passengers.  When we did the Baltic with a full passenger manifest, there were some issues with crowding at the theater and other venues.  This cruise, we never really had to “fight” for good seating at any shows or find a spot for our trivia team to sit together, so that has been a positive benefit at least early in the pandemic cruising era.  

This was our first experience in a mini-suite.  The kids would have been quite comfortable with John, Price and Ciara all sharing a single mini-suite as the couch area is just as large as the regular bed area, and has a real couch sleeper sofa that is comfortable to sit 3 across and even nap on.  There is a second TV so viewing from either the bed or couch is equally comfortable.  The full sized bath tub/shower is quite a nice addition.  The bathroom feels like a normal apartment bathroom, and not a RV bathroom.  But the balconies on the Regal Princess are just a bit too small, even with the divider open between two adjacent balconies because they are just barely deep enough to set up a lounge chair on.  You have to shimmy sideways to get between the chair and railings.  We miss the much larger balconies on the Coral and Caribbean Princess deluxe balconies, which are probably 3 times as deep.  Since Ciara’s boyfriend Tom and his family were with us, the mini suites were superfluous- we would have been just fine with two regular balconies plus the inside stateroom that Ciara and Tom were booked in.  But it was nice to give the mini-suite a go for this holiday.  

The Princess Plus package included crew incentive gratuity, unlimited single device internet, and premium beverage package which included espresso drinks, cocktails, wines, and liquors.  Tom’s family did not book with the Princess Plus package because they didn’t think they needed or wanted the beverage package, but Tom ended up needing full time internet access for his work.  We could have easily managed without it, but it was much more convenient with the unlimited internet because the metered plan required logging on and off every single time you needed to access the internet.  Our Elite status gives us metered internet access for free, as well as a free mini bar set up, but throwing in the crew appreciation gratuities seems to make the Plus package hard to pass up.  It also contributed to more of a party mood to have free and liberal access to any beverages any time.  It was also a good way to be able to sample many of the different spirits and liquors they have in their stock, including many whiskeys, bourbons, vodkas and gins.  It was quite the challenge to try to sample each of their signature coctails at least once during the voyage.

The final dinner featured Surf and Turf with prawns and steak, as well as many other options including bacon wrapped meat loaf and veal.  Meal service in the dining room by Ryan and Ramir was courteous, friendly and accommodating throughout the voyage.  We will miss being pampered like that at meals.  

The final Princess Theater showtime featured vocalist Josh Figueroa Jr, who had made it into the top 17 in The Voice.  He did a Motown and Gospel show which was energetic and entertaining, even without dancers or backing singers.  The Princess orchestra was up to their usual high level of excellence and professionalism.

We would up our night with the last Triva of the cruise: Famous Faces.  With the kids, we ended up in a 3 way tie, which we won in the tie breaker due to son John’s recognition of Brendan Fraser’s obstructed image.  We got a bundle with 2 each string bags, water bottles, notebooks, wine stoppers and coasters.  We gifted a water bottle to a couple who has played basket ball with Tom and Sam all cruise long, and a water bottle for our room steward, along with the Champagne we won in the very first Trivia.  It was nice to bookend our Trivia wins with the first and last trivia games during the cruise.

Our clock fall back an hour tonight.  We disembark in the morning.  Most of our suitcases were gathered up while we had our dinner.  Ben and John will Uber to an Enterprise car rental in Hollywood, a neighborhood 8 miles from the cruise port, to pick up a mini-van which we will use over the remaining vacation to tour southern Florida with the kids.