Post #8: At Sea September 14, 2015

  Today was our first sea day after the stopping the first 2 days of the cruise. We also saw something that we had not seen since we left Canada – that is a big bright thing in the sky. It was absolutely sunny all day with very few clouds. We have been sailing from Bergen to Glasgow. We arrive tomorrow morning.

   

Regal Princess

I did manage to get up “early” this morning which means that we actually made it to zumba at 9 am. I did have to get Judy up as she had read late into the night last night. Zumba was not as hard as some of the other times we have tried it on ship but it was a good workout. Our friends told us later that they had a good laugh watching me try to keep up. Of course they were watching and not “playing the games”!

Following breakfast we needed to report to immigration for our entry into Britain. It involved standing in line, having the passport stamped and then handing it in to the ship. It was nothing like we have

Stern

experienced in the past where we have photographed , scanned for temperature and fingerprinted!

The lazy morning also gave us a chance to actually walk around the upper deck to get a feel for the outside of the ship. There are many different things on this ship which are an improvement over the older ones in the fleet. You could see the design improvements all along the upper deck. The walking track is very much improved and the whole ship is very neat and clean looking which is expected on a new ship.

   

Sea Walk

The inside of the Regal has a completely different feel. There are more open spaces for the greatly expanded shopping that you can't escape. The design is totally for selling and from the number of people in the shops that has probably proven a good thing for Princess. It has taken some time to get a handle of where everything is located. The atrium is definitely improved. Activities like zumba, dance, evening entertainment used to be held in the lounges. Only one large venue still exists. The atrium is now used for these activities and it is more roomy than the other ships. The rest of the spaces are now bars, shops, etc. We are glad that they kept the International Cafe and Coffee Bar in the same spot because it is probably the one public area that we use the most. It is very much the same as the other ships.

     I did speak with the Captain's club host today. I am still trying to find the photos that I submitted. We did find the one that Buck ad Marg found on an earlier cruise but since I sent in 3, I wanted to know if the others were here as well. There are hundreds framed on every deck so it is not easy to find 1 in thousand? The host said he had a list when he was on the Royal but not on the Regal. He will “get back to me” on that one.

   It was pub lunch day today. We passed up the champagne art auction. On our way into the pub, we happen to meet our friends so we sat with them. The rest of the afternoon was quiet with the exception of the line dance session. We skipped the Waltz session earlier in the afternoon. However I went to line dancing. Judy was sound asleep when I left. It was way better than in the past. We started with Ah Si and followed that with Country As A Boy Can Be. After that is a variation of their old favourites.

 

All Dressed Up

  Tonight was formal night so we dressed in our finest, met our friends had a drink, then went to the champagne waterfall event. With 3500 passengers you would think it would be crowded. It was not. They kept coming around with more. Dinner was wonderful. The beef was wonderful, probably the best we have ever had on |Princess. The dessert was out of this world. Again a special 50^th Anniversary of Princess cruise lines.

During dinner we suddenly stopped moving and the

Special Dessert

thrusters came on. We thought that they were adjusting them. We have seen this happen before. However the Captain made an announcement that both engines (electric) had been tripped and we were sitting dead in the water. After about 90 minutes we started to slowly move along on one engine. As of now we seem to be steaming along at a good clip trying to make up the time lost in order to be along side by tomorrow morning.

     A production show and the second George Casey comedy act ended the evening. The bonus is that we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. I think we better get a wake up call for tomorrow since we do have our tour booked.