REGAL PRINCESS: Quiet Cruise to Nowhere, Two Letters, and a Yokohama Flashback

So I’ve been referring to our little cruise as the ‘Cruise to Nowhere’ but that’s just wrong. The island of Eleuthera is NOT nowhere, and it’s not just the island where Princess Cruises plops their passengers for an idyllic day in the sun, for lounging, snorkeling, and feasting.

Ok the Princess part of the island IS all that, but Princess only owns 40 acres of Eleuthera, the longest of the Bahama chain at 110 miles. This gorgeous island paradise is known for its magnificent beaches, aqua-marine waters, Bahama charm, and laid-back vibe.

We hopped off to explore the Princess acreage and its pristine sandy beaches, and by cruise ship standards, the resort area had a tropical ghost town vibe. Long rows of empty lounge chairs, quiet solitary strands of sand to stroll down all by ourselves, no lines at the buffet. Definitely our kind of beach, with drinks service. We lay in our loungers, snorkeled and read under a palm tree, relatively alone except for the man snoring a few loungers down the row.

That’s because the Regal Princess, which can hold up to 4200 passengers, had only 1100 booked guests aboard. We booked our getaway to use up cruise and airline credits, which many cruisers from the Before times (before covid) still hold and are frantically working to use up as deadlines loom, just as we are (still a few more to go). 

For the price of a new X-box (less, actually), we sailed for 5 days/4 nights in a balcony cabin, and Princess threw in a specialty restaurant lobster/filet mignon dinner for free. Ok, ok, I had to pay $10 extra to add the lobster tail, but whoa such a deal. And the only place we ‘went’ to was Eleuthera, so it was almost ‘The Cruise to Nowhere’ except for our restful ghost town excursion to the Princess Cays resort.

Strange times to be relaxing on a cruise ship, we understand. Just know that we booked this mini-cruise long before Omicron, long before the megalomaniac monster madman invaded Ukraine. These facts, of course, don’t reduce our privileged capitalist guilt one whit, no sir. 

Once back in drizzly Seattle we plan to ponder how best to support refugees, and work toward the downfall of this madman, from our small Pacific Northwest retired-folks perch. Sometimes the little things people choose to do add up and matter, so we’ll do what we can.  

As travel persons here’s a small thing we’ve already done: We booked an Airbnb in Odessa, Ukraine, for two nights, starting later this week. Ok we are a bit nuts but not that nuts, and we will not be checking in, don’t worry. US citizens have ‘raised’ over two million dollars this way, by booking Ukrainian airbnbs and not showing up. (and yes, we also sent a note through Airbnb that our booking was meant to be our donation, not a real visit). This puts cash in Ukrainian citizens’ pockets right now, for food, transportation, survival, when they need it most. For more info, see here.

An Airbnb booking may not seem like much in the face of cruise missiles and nuclear threats, but who says ordinary citizens can’t tilt the world back onto its axis with concerted action? As Margaret Mead so aptly noted, “we should never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Small acts of kindness by Carnival Cruise Lines, owner of Princess Cruise Lines, are helping their Ukrainian and Russian crew members in these fraught times, as well. When we arrived at our cabin, we found a letter from Princess Cruises’ President John Padgett on the desk:

Our thoughts right now are with our Ukrainian and Russian team members, as we know they are concerned about events unfolding in their homelands and the impact on their friends, families, and loved ones. Please know that we are doing everything possible to support our team members affected by recent events by offering aid as needed, including internet vouchers, counseling through our company assistance programs, scheduling accommodations, and alternative payroll solutions if they are unable to access their bank accounts. 

Princess’s floating pleasure palaces stay in business due to the efforts of an international cast of staff, including crew members from over 120 countries around the world, including Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Axerbjan, Serbia, Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Philippines, and many more. Maybe the cruise lines should teach the rest of the world how to live together side by side in harmonious peace, perhaps? We will not give up our hope that maybe, just maybe, we’ll get there someday.

BACK ONBOARD: DINING AND ENTERTAINMENT ON THE LOVE BOAT

Ok, back to the boat. Regal Princess is by far the largest cruise ship we’ve ever sailed on, although it didn’t seem massive due to its emptiness. We’re not sure it’d be as relaxing, with 4000 other souls jostling for the elevator, but we have reveled in its spaciousness. 

I remember watching Sailaway parties on other ships, passengers lined up three deep at the railings. Not this time; I just happened to be strolling by as the party started, grabbed an empty lounger, and watched close up as the dancers danced and the Loveboat theme, played on a foghorn, floated over the deck. Cool.

We aren’t big-ship, big-crowds, or big-drinks people, and even when ships were full back in the day, we had a way of finding quiet spots where we could relax. This mini-cruise was an introvert’s dream-come-true, but someone looking for a party might have been disappointed. Entertainment venues were pared down to match the passenger numbers, with only one extravaganza show a night, and fewer musical venues available.

Dining services were excellent, as usual, although we no longer served ourselves from the buffet (yay), and we saw plenty of sprawling emptiness everywhere. No fighting for a table by the window on this cruise, no difficulty acquiring specialty restaurant reservations either.

One staff member told us that our cruise was one of the last scheduled with such a small number of passengers: boo for us, but yay for the cruise lines, since we’re sure the uptick in passengers is essential to their bottom line. Sounds like things are due to return to normal in a few weeks, which means back to the big numbers. World events may change that equation, of course, but during our cruise we reveled in the quiet and lack of lines.

SWIMMING POOLS: LOTS OF ‘EM

We’ve hung out at the Retreat Pool, mostly, although I took a tour of the Regal’s other swimming pools since I just love swimming pools:

SO WHAT ABOUT COVID?

Oh yes, Covid. Don’t we all want to put that monster in the rearview mirror about now? Not quite, not yet, since we had to fork over $200 for testing to board the ship (we will be reimbursed by our health insurance). Made the mistake of thinking we could test ourselves (not) so as long as that requirement is still in place, make sure to plan better than we did. In terms of masks, they are now optional, but all staff members wear them, at all times, and many passengers, including ourselves, still do so when in a crowded indoor place.

I understand, now, why we saw so many Japanese in their train stations, wearing masks back in 2018. It’s an excellent way to stay healthy and avoid spreading germs to others. Neither of us have had a cold, or even a sniffle, for going on three years. What’s not to like about that? Masks, paired with hand washing, work – obviously. Duh. 

In the Before times cruise ship passengers inevitably passed around germs, and what we called Cruise Cough started up about a week in, every time.  The horrid norovirus also plagued cruise ships on regular intervals, remember? Germs and viruses love a crowd, they really do. Didn’t hear a cough or sniffle this whole trip. Amazing how that works. So the new masked, hand-washed cruise world may be our new go-to – better than getting sick. And you know what, Governor DeSantis? I’ll wear a mask if I want to! Ha! Yay Freedom! (just had to say that so I’ll stop now.)

YOKOHAMA FLASHBACK: BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR TRANSFERS

Ok, I mentioned 2018, and that takes us back to… The Diamond Princess. Yes, THAT Diamond Princess…. The one where passengers were trapped in Yokohama, Covid raging through the halls and decks? The footage we all saw of passengers being loaded into ambulances, and wondering if Covid was coming for us too?

Sure it was coming for us, as we all know by now. Back in 2018, though, before Covid, before ship quarantines, Padre and I were stuck in one of Diamond Princess’s lounges, waiting to be let off the boat, at 7:40 a.m. This was at the end of a three-week cruise from Sydney, Australia, and we needed to catch a flight to Bangkok (who in heavens’ name planned THIS crazy trip? Yep that was me…). 

Anyway, we had to be standing on our underground train platform by 8:26 am, and we still had to catch a taxi, buy tickets, and navigate through underground train station tunnels in a foreign country to Platform 10, in 46 minutes. Somehow, not sure how, we made it with three seconds to spare. Really. (story here).

What we learned from that near-disaster is that if you can arrange to have the cruise line transfer you to the airport, DO IT – because on your own you just better hope nothing goes wrong. If something goes wrong when the cruise line is in charge, they will fix it. If something goes wrong when you are in charge, good luck. 

That was also back when I believed, falsely, that travel insurance would cover expenses if we missed a connection. Not. That’s called ‘your mistake’ in the fine print. Didn’t know that, then. I sure do now. ‘Your mistake’ can be sooooo expensive, and I’m sure it would have cost us a bundle if we had arrived at that platform only to watch our train roll away down the tracks without ourselves onboard. 

That memory came back to me in all its agonizing detail when I found still another letter on our cabin desk, informing us that our Fort Lauderdale arrival transfer and excursion had been cancelled. Curses! That trashed my nice neat plan, and we had to move our flight up a day. 

Now we had to get off the ship and to the airport, to catch a 10:05 a.m. flight to Key West. Could we make it? Angel at Guest Services (that really was his name), helped us plot our boat-taxi-plane dash. And of course, if we missed our flight this time, we could just rent a top-down convertible and cruise down US 1, maybe a stop in Key Largo at Alabama Jack’s, our fave Florida beach bar….hmmm. Maybe a missed flight could be a win-win?

But naw, it all worked out fine. We’re headed to our REAL home in the Northwest today (yay and boo), and back to ‘normal’ life, whatever that may be.

We’ll leave you with a favorite recent photo of Key West’s Basilica of St. Mary’s Church, as we say several prayers for the refugees and leaders of our world, during these fraught times. 

Thanks everyone for following along, as always!