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This will be short because the cost for Internet access is $0.50 per minute. Saturday was our first full day on board Regal Princess. Days at sea are always great because you don’t have to make any hard decisions. The biggest things you have to decide are where to eat and whether to play bingo or swim or just relax and read. Bingo turned out to be a good decision after winning $50 on a coverall game. Managed to read quite a bit in some books that had been piling up as well. Sitting in a deck chair on the Promenade Deck is still one of my favorite ways to spend a day at sea. Unfortunately Regal doesn’t have the wooden deck chairs as the other ships do. The plastic ones just aren’t as comfortable.

Sunday we were in Aruba, and we went horseback riding for a couple hours in the morning. The ride was great, taking us through hills filled with rocks and cactus, and ultimately down to the beach on the northern side of the island. Beautiful scenery, although quite different from what folks often think of when they hear the name Aruba.

Today was our second day at sea, with more eating, reading, sun, and bingo. Unfortunately bingo wasn’t as lucrative today. Tomorrow we will transit the Panama Canal. We reach the first set of locks at 8:20 AM, and exit into the Pacific around 6 PM or so.

Pardon any spelling errors. Don’t want to want to waste minutes doing a manual spell check.

We’re sitting on deck waiting for Regal Princess to set sail. This morning we went on a walking tour of Old San Juan. Temperatures were in the 80s and it felt great! Especially after the cold snap we had been having back home in St. Louis. The highlight of the tour was our visit to El Morro, the fort at the mouth of the entrance to the harbor at San Juan. Easy to see why this was such an effective defense against anyone trying to attack San Juan.

We finished our tour at Fort San Cristobal and headed back to the hotel to catch a cab to the Pan American pier where Regal Princess was waiting.

We checked in and found our cabin on Caribe deck (we’ve been on Caribe for all four of our cruises). No balcony this time, but the bathroom is huge by cruise ship standard with a normal size shower!

Our bags arrived within half an hour so we were able to unpack and get settled right away. Quick shower, change of clothes, and we were off to explore the ship. Regal is quite a bit different from the other ships we’ve been on (Sea Princess, Sun Princess, and Island Princess). Smaller but with its own interesting features, very cozy. This will be the last opportunity to sail on Regal since she will be going to P&O Australia later this year.

After dinner (with some nice folks rom Lodi and Sturgeon Bay!) and the requisite muster drill, we watched the film RV in the theater. Silly film, but laugh out loud funy.

So now we’re waiting on deck at 11 AST to watch our departure and catch a view of the forts as we leave San Juan. An announcement just came over the PA that we’re secured for sea and ready to cast off our moorings. Here we go!

Our hotel stay started out well enough at the Hotel Milano in Old San Juan. After settling in we walked up to the Parrot Club and had a great dinner. We walked back, headed up to the room, and made ready for the next day. Just as were going to bed we started to hear a dripping in the bathroom. When I checked it out, I discovered that water was seeping through the ceiling tile into the shower. Great.

So we had to pack up, get dressed, and move down the hall into a room half the size of ours with a smaller bed and a tiny bathroom. The AC doesn’t work as well, and to top it off, my phone has a scratch across the screen that wasn’t there before we moved. Good thing I have the replacement insurance on it. and at least it still works.

Sigh. We’re ready to get on the ship tomorrow.

We just laded at the airport in San Juan. Couple hours late but at least we made it.

Now we are all in the terminal. Apparently it is going to take longer than they thought since they need to get yet another part.

Wait, they just said we can reboard.