ISLAND PRINCESS AND THE ATLANTIC OCEAN, HERE WE COME!

Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Aboard the Island Princess, Atlantic Ocean
85F

TK on our Hilton balcony

The Island Princess is over his right shoulder 

the background--

 If you have already read the long tirade about our luggage caper, and are still awake, I won’t keep you too long.  After boarding the transport to the ship, we arrived at the port terminal about 3 minutes later—I did not realize how close we were!

Boarding took a little longer than usual, but it was quite easy. Everyone must watch a safety video on his/her “device,” then check in at the muster station for our stateroom. The ship does not leave port until everyone has watched the video—Princess knows!

 

Buffet entrance

Buffet dining area

Ship's Forward

Our stateroom is great, and I forgot to take photos before we plopped our stuff (2 wheeled carry-ons and 2 tote carry-ons.

Outdoor Pool

with Movie Under The Starts screen

Indoor Pool

Highlights:

1. We met a couple from Wilkes Barre! We talked a long time—they have cruised to Antarctica and South America, where we have not.
2. A lady told me she met someone who brought 15 pieces of luggage, and that lady was not the only one who did that!  I cannot imagine that!
3. There are a lot of retired military onboard, as well as other veterans. So far, mostly U.S. Navy!
4. There are many veteran cruisers on board—world cruises for 9 months and so on. We are light with only about 67 cruises.
5. The striploin steak I had for dinner was really medium rare, and I was provided with a sharp knife!
6. As I write, all of our luggage has arrived!!! 8 p.m.—the latest we ever got our luggage on a cruise.

 Another day on the high seas! Another adventure!

 TK’s Takes (Monday):  It was a long day and he had 13,000+ steps.

TK’s Takes  (Tuesday):  We went from being too cold to too hot. It seems like we never left the ship--this stateroom is almost a carbon copy of the one we had on the Sapphire Princess. We have a bigger dining room. He saw 3 kids and he bets there are less than 10 aboard.

 

RIDING THE OCEAN AND GUESS WHAT THIS DISH IS!

Regal Princess/At Sea on the Atlantic Ocean
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Cloudy, spots of rain, 79F

A pretty cool photo by TK

The days are getting much warmer and the sea is quite calm.  Today the Third Officer announced at noon that we are 1062 miles from the nearest land mass, the island of Santa Maria, part of the Azores Islands.  He also said that we are 1600 miles from our next port of call, Antigua. That means that we are REALLY alone on the Atlantic Ocean, far from land!  

(Note: Usually on the TA, we can see another ship crossing with us, or some container ships, or freighters. Not yet!)

Nothing makes me feel tinier than being on the ocean with absolutely nothing in sight. Even though our ship is fairly large, certainly larger than the Brig Niagara (110 ft long w/o bowsprit) and the Mayflower (about 100 ft long), it still looks small in the ocean.

Another note: On the ocean, the horizon is about 3 miles away--depending on the viewer's height and the height of the vessel.  

Regal Princess: 360 ft in length (about 3 football fields long); 217 ft high (about 22 stories high); and 155 ft. wide (almost the size of the Millcreek Mall/WICU tower).

Another stat that I do not understand and I could be comparing apples to oranges:

Regal Princess:  141,000 gross tonnage

Brig Niagara:  492 gross tonnage

Mayflower: 230 gross tonnage

This little exercise is to show that the ship we are aboard right now is very big, yet very  small on the Atlantic Ocean.  I am not even going to think about the 102 passengers and 30 crew on the Mayflower crossing the Atlantic with little knowledge of where they were going.

Enough of that—today was a very quiet day of eating, reading, resting, and writing, nothing to report.

But, TK’s Contest, Guess this dish is!!  Yesterday, October 15

PUMPKIN PIE!

According the the Chef on Regal Princess

Thank you to Ann, Julie, Heidi, and Chris for your great ideas!

 Ann was really on the money with, “A pastry shell filled with pumpkin and some kind of   custard on the side, plus whipped cream (not enough!)”  Every detail!  Plus, TK agrees that the 2024 Regal Princess chef got closer to what beef stroganoff really looks like! Spaghetti-no!

Julie and Heidi had an interesting (and very good) guess:  Pastel de Nata, a Portuguese egg custard tart pastry, optionally dusted with cinnamon—they have enjoyed this pastry (brought to U.S. by grandson/nephew) and it not only sounds delicious, it l ooks exactly like the Regal’s pumpkin pie!

 

Pastel de nata

Chris took a different point of view which to me seems like a good possibility:

“The mystery dish sort of resembles a chicken pot pie, maybe melted cheese on top and leaking gravy from the bottom, lol…and a decorative bit of sour cream. My lunch tastes tend to be more on the savory side than the sweet dessert side.”  Honestly, we can see this too!

 

TK is so pleased that there were guesses that he found another mystery food.  I do appreciate that you humored him on his quest. I am betting today’s challenge is going to be more difficult!

 TK'S TODAY CHALLENGE OCTOBER 16

Guess what this dish is:

What is this?

TK’s Takes: He saw two seagulls soaring over the ship today—think about that, 1000 miles from land!

TK went to Movies Under the Stars last night--Dune II

He did not stay--3 hours is a long movie, but he brought 

very good popcorn back for me!

It's a movie I want to see, but we have it recorded at home.

REGAL PRINCESS: ROUGH DAYS AT SEA!

Regal Princess/At Sea, A distance off the Coast of Morocco
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Clouds and sun, 70F

 We have been at sea without seeing land since 6 p.m. on Wednesday. The sea has been very rough, but we are fine.

On Thursday, TK commented that there has been a temperature change of one degree per day since leaving Cobh, but we have to amend that because now the temperature is about 70F. 

On Friday the Captain announced that we were headed SSW on the Atlantic Ocean.  The depth of the sea on Friday was 16,000 ft. deep, that is over 3 miles, or the distance from our house near Grandview to the Bayfront Highway!  I cannot wrap my mind around a depth of water like that, and we are not in the deepest area of the Atlantic.  The captain also told us that yesterday we were in gale winds at 30 knots per hour, about 34 mph. Thankfully the ship is well stabilized.

Today, Saturday, we are still headed SW with 265 more miles to get to Madeira (at noon), but the sea is only 14,800 ft. deep—whew, not quite 3 miles deep. That’s a relief.  The 3^rd Mate who spoke today at noon said that Funchal, Madeira Island, Azores will be about 72F tomorrow. We will be warming right up!

Keeping one’s balance is a challenge in such a sea, and the waves today are even bigger than yesterday, about 14 ft swells.  We are working on the art of being graceful as we walk along, but TK had plenty of experience on the USS Columbus, a heavy cruiser--4 years. I had my share of practice on the U.S. Brig Niagara when I sailed as crew on the Atlantic years ago when a hurricane chased us up the Atlantic seacoast.

So that has been our excitement for the past several days!  Tomorrow Funchal, Madeira!  

This probably doesn't look like much, but!

TK’s Takes: He thinks the menu in the dining room should have pictures, so you know what you are getting. And, he says the sea is rougher than he remembers for a long time.