Note: photos won’t load again. This platform honestly sucks for blogging. I just hate to think about changing now!
Now we have a very specific course of action when we first board the ship. We know that our state rooms probably aren’t ready because God bless the room stewards who have to get all of the previous passengers out, clean all the rooms and get prepared for the new passengers, all within a 5 to 8 hour window, let’s say.
But, we’ve learned that if you are a super nice courteous human you have a really good shot of at least dropping by the room to politely ask if you could just simply tuck your bags into the closet and then immediately leaving so that you don’t stay in their way. Even better if you meet your room Steward— tip early. Now you’re in their good graces and they know you mean business. So that’s what we did. We met Lino who was lovely and we dropped our bags!
Right before we dropped the bags we added one new thing into the boarding process… we stopped by the laundry room and threw a load of laundry in. There was one washing machine available and we were overjoyed to find it. It’s always good to start the week with all of your clothes available. I’ll have you know that the ship is more than double the size of the last ship we were on, but they did not increase the number of washers and dryers. So there are two washers and two dryers available for guests on each floor and there are hundreds of people on each floor. It’s really a crap shot on whether you will be able to wash or not.
While in the laundry room, another couple popped in and we really enjoyed chatting with them while they waited for a machine. They’ve been traveling for a month already and were from Australia. as we left, the guy shouted out, “floor 10 for the win!” I had a feeling we would probably be fast friends. ( our cabins are all on floor 10)
With those things done, and with our alarm securely set so we didn’t become those jerks that leave their stuff in the washing machine, we took off for the most important onboarding task, and that is -finding the bar to have our first gin and tonic.
I have to say we were feeling a bit, overwhelmed and even slightly confused because our princess vessel of choice is the regal. We’ve spent more than 50 days on her and we know every nook and cranny like the back of our hands. This ship is new and as I mentioned twice the size. I write this even two days later and I still haven’t quite figured out whether I’m coming or going.
Anyway, we did a very quick lap on all of the decks with bars and restaurants and entertainment, and found ourselves up on 17 aft on a gorgeous open air sun deck. There were maybe four other people out there and this was starting to look like a winner. We grabbed our gin and tonics and sat down on super comfy chairs and finally felt like we could take a deep breath.
Sue had dropped by the Crown Grill to ask if they could squeeze us all in for dinner at five. Everyone had a reservation at that time already except for us because we always do everything late so by the time we went to book ours, we couldn’t get it until 8 o’clock. But Sue worked some magic and next thing you know we were all meeting up at five for dinner. The Crown Grill is a specialty restaurant, which means if you don’t have a separate package, you would need to pay extra to eat here. You can always eat for free at a bunch of different places, the main restaurants, the buffet, some other little pop-up places like a pizza grill outside by the pool. But on this ship, there’s also 5 to 10 specialty restaurants. They’re really nice when you start to get bored of the same old thing over and over again. That might seem strange if you haven’t cruised for longer cruises, but when you’re on a ship for a month, you really can wear out on some things. Anyway, we have the highest level package, which in addition to free drinks of all kinds, including specialty coffees up to higher-end liquors, it also allows us to eat in the specialty restaurants for free. “Free”. 🤣
We were sitting there waiting for everyone to show up and all the sudden there came Ginny and Rich around the corner and we hadn’t yet seen and it was awesome to see them again! With that the Malbec crew was reunited and we went to enjoy our meal. Sue and Jerry had graciously brought three bottles of wine that they purchased the day before in Montepulciano where we were supposed to have been wine tasting with them except we had to cancel because of our continued delays. We had a great meal and a great time catching up.
One hilarious moment occurred while we were dining. And that was Mike who loves to joke around with everyone asked Ginny what she had bought at a certain port on her previous cruise. She didn’t hear him so he said again what did you get there? And Rich immediately said, “she got the clap.” The whole table roared with laughter. (Note: she did not get the clap)
After, everyone kind of split up and went different ways we popped by the O’Malley‘s Irish pub with Ginny and Rich and listen to a little music and had another glass of wine. Wouldn’t you know that our laundromat friends came in and sat down next to us? See! I knew it!
The Irish music was awesome. But, the place is a little small, the doors were closed, and I was a little too tired for music that loud! We grabbed our glasses and headed up to the room to unpack unwind and hopefully get a great night sleep. We knew we had to be up early for an excursion the next day to one of our favorite cities in the whole world - Sorrento! 😍❤️🙌
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