Repositioning Cruise to Europe/ Onboard the Ship

Ken and I had a wonderful vacation April 13th through May 4th. We went on the Princess Regal ship from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida across the Atlantic ocean to reposition to Copenhagen, Denmark. 

 We left St. George on Saturday, April, 13th to fly to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
At St. George airport.

We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale late on Saturday night.  We got up in the morning, stored our luggage at the hotel, then took an uber to church.  I forgot to take pictures.
We got on the ship that afternoon.
We have been on many Princess cruise ships, but this is the largest we have been on.  We really loved it.   We walked around the ship to explore it.

One unique feature of this ship was the see-through floor on the highest deck.  You could look through and see the ocean bubbling below.  It was a bit dizzying.

This first post of our vacation will be of our time on the ship.  The cruise started with 7 days at sea, crossing the Atlantic ocean.  We then  had five stops, ending in Copenhagen.  I will do a post about each of those ports.  This first post will be a potpourri of our time on the ship. The pictures aren't in any organized order.

We attended a lecture on the Bermuda triangle while we were in the Bermuda Triangle.  We survived it just fine.

Our "at sea" days fell into a pattern.  Each afternoon, after the lunch rush, we went to the buffet area, found a table and worked.  I worked on preparing my Gospel Doctrine lesson that I would have to teach the day after we got home.

Beautifully presented and delicious food is always one of the best parts of a cruise.

This was typical dessert for Ken each night.  He ordered crème brulee' every night (it was on the anytime menu .  It is his favorite dessert) and an assortment of ice creams.

Late one evening on the windy deck.

Ken loves hot chocolate, and this ship had a great hot chocolate machine.

In our room

Ken took his laptop and worked each afternoon on digitizing his missionary journal from his youth.  It is a big project and he got a good start on it on this cruise.

Ready for dinner on the first formal night

Shrimp Diane- one of my favorite meals of the cruise.  I think my favorite entrees of the cruise were this one and the Beef Wellington.  I always love the beef wellington.

Ken enjoying his crème brulee

The entertainment on the ship was amazing.  The props, costuming, dancing, and singing were just wonderful.  

This guy could sing.  Like Buble' sing. No, really.  He was that good.  But he wasn't much of an entertainer.  He didn't relate with the audience at all.

Niki Ataman- a pianist that put on two great shows.

We also read a lot.  I finished this book, then donated it to the ship's library.

I loved this book.

Not a bad view as we worked.

Another delightful book that we both read on this vacation.

After our first port in Portugal, we had some at sea days on our way to Belgium.  Those were rough days.  We had hurricane force winds and deep swells.  Ken actually took these pictures of the rolling ocean because the ship was rocking so much that I couldn't stand still enough to take them.  That ship was rolling.  Many passengers got sick.  Food consumption went way down on the ship.  Sea sick pills were sold at the front desk.  I haven't been seasick since our first cruise back in the '90s.  I can't say I got nauseated, but I didn't feel well.  I got a headache and wasn't interested in food.  Ken got me a couple of the seasick tablets, which helped.  It was a rough couple of days.  Our captain was amazing.  Each day at noon, he gave quite a lengthy report.  During these days, he was particularly calming.  He knew exactly when we would reach calmer waters, and he was right on.

I found it interesting that, though we were in troubled waters, the skies were so clear and sunny.

Ken's pattern on a cruise is to get up early each morning and walk five or six miles on the top deck.  He met a man similar to him up there, and the two of them became quite good friends.  This man was a Seventh Day Adventist, and they had some pretty detailed religious discussions.  Anyway, on the first morning of the hurricane-force winds, Ken and Leon went out as usual to walk.  It wasn't long before an officer came and told them they had to come in; that it wasn't safe out there.  Later that morning, the captain mentioned Ken and Leon (not by name) in his report that he gave over the intercom, and that it wasn't safe on the open decks, apologizing for curtailing their walk.  So Ken is famous.

On special nights, the chef prepared "chocolate journey" desserts.  They were amazing.

This violinist was one of our favorite entertainers.  He did three shows.

His most impressive show was an afternoon concert that he doesn't usually do.  It featured beautiful classical pieces that touched our souls deeply.

This picture shows our room.  It was an "upgrade" from the inside cabin room we ordered. And the bathroom was bigger and nicer than most.  But, as you can see, there were bunk beds on both walls.  They were folded up, and remained so, but it made it difficult to get into our bed on either side-taking the headspace.

Waiting for a show

We sat right behind the band for a show in the piazza- center ship.  It was fun to follow along on their music on their ipads.

Beetlemania.  

These guys were good and did sound like the Beetles.  The last night they put on a show in the center of the ship.  It was so fun to see people on several floors of the ship, young and old, rocking out to Beetle music.  We watched one young girl singing every single word along with them.  Beetles are timeless, I guess.

Cell phone light sing along

Another chocolate journey.

This high-class show was one of my favorites- full of opera.

During this concert, I kept hoping that Heavenly Father was letting my mom peak through a hole in heaven and listen.  She would have loved this show.  I'm sure she's listening to far better now!

This soprano was amazing.

Our great waiter, Chaiyut from Indonesia

Our onboard time was wonderful.  So wonderful, in fact, that we're considering doing this same cruise again sometime.  In the next little while, I will take you to each of the ports and towns we visited on this cruise.  Stay tuned . . .