IndyKid

The scuttlebutt now among the guests is that it was some kind of drill. If it was, they failed miserably. And a lot of people are P.O.ed...

Yes

Yep. But there won't be enough popcorn in Orville Redenbacher's warehouse to cover the demand...

What's the hurry? Stress level, frustration and blood pressure not high enough?

So this afternoon we had an alleged missing person situation, everybody was ordered to go to their muster station with their medallions to check in. I'm guessing they got a report of someone possibly going overboard? Anyway, it's a good thing it wasn't an emergency, it was a Class-A cluster, people all jam-packed in the stairwells and elevators trying to get to Deck 7, trying to cross back and forth through the casino.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Billions for ships, peanuts for IT support.

Just a quick update, after finishing my mimosa I decided to go up to the Lido deck and head back to the stern to check out the pool and the view overlooking our wake. I managed to find an empty lounge chair at the rear railing directly under Skywalker's and layed down with my book. The lounge chair next to me was unoccupied but had a towel laying on it. There was a couple using the 2 on the other side of it. After an hour, a couple came by, noticed the towel and inquired about it. I told them to take it but the guy on the other side said something of the effect that "she said she'd be back" and acted like he was going to say more, I said "the rule is 30 minutes, I've been here more than an hour and we're not playing the towel game!" That, along with my nastiest look put an end to it. I then got up so they could both have a chair as it was time for me to leave and go back to the room and wake up Sleeping Beauty....

Were there still marks on it from where the jockey was hitting it?😆

Ok, I'll be looking for it later this week, although we only have 2 more nights in the MDR, as I've booked Sabatini’s and Crown Grill for 1 night each, plus I'm surprising the wife with the Ultimate Balcony Dinner on Friday.

So yesterday was an unscheduled sea day due to unfavorable tendering conditions at Princess Cays. So we spent the rest of the day relaxing, drinking a little, enjoying some of the live music at the Piazza and Crooners. Dinner in the Palm MDR was decent, service was very good. The wife had what they said was pork tenderloin, it was actually ham but she enjoyed it. I tried the jerk chicken, it was good. One difference I noticed with Princess is that they don't offer steak in the MDR unless you want to pay extra; on RCL it was available if none of that day's specials appealed to you. I mentioned service in the MDR earlier, I should add that so far all my interactions with the crew have been very positive, they are always friendly and eager to please. For this morning I once again left the wife to let her sleep in while heading down to the IC for coffee. As I type this I'm drinking it by the windows in Good Spirits watching the water rush by. Seas still appear rather rough, I could really feel it laying in bed last night. Well, my coffee is finished. Time to grab a mimosa and head to the library for a comfy chair with my book.

Thanks, I stopped by and had a glass of Pinot Grigio this afternoon. It will be the first of many this week!

The girl at guest services said we have 3000 passengers this week and they expect 3200 next week, so you'll be filled to the gills...😐

I'll go check it out. I need to order our Ultimate Balcony Cruise anyway.

I'm not sure where I could get exact numbers for passengers, but I'd say we are near capacity, maybe a few inside cabins unoccupied. Figure about the same next week.

Our Princess transfer picked us up at the hotel about 11:30, we arrived at the pier about 11:45. There was a line waiting to go through security but it went pretty fast.

We're on Caribe Deck 10, port side just forward of the rear set of elevators with a balcony cabin. The room is nice, bed was very comfy, I slept good last night. We did the Premier package, wife likes all the extras, including the drinks. Crooners hasn't been too crowded at all. Drinks are plenty strong in my opinion, I'm thinking of trying Vines later today to see what they offer. We did the beach day stop at Labadee on our last cruise with Royal Carribean, it was OK, just another opportunity for the cruise line to pick your pockets some more. And since the ship is fairly full we thought we'd take advantage of sharing it with fewer people.

I'm not sure the Caribbean Princess has been converted, we're aboard her right now and service is somewhat slow at times....

Got up about 7 this morning, showered and got dressed. Forgot just how small the bathrooms are on a cruise ship! Wife likes to sleep in so I left and went out to grab a coffee at the International Cafe and explored more of the ship. Went up front to look over the exercise room and Sanctuary pool. Sad to say the towel game is in full force, some people have no respect for others. Went to the library to relax and drink my coffee mocha. Then received the news from our captain that the stop at Princess Cay was canceled due to rough seas preventing use of the tenders. We were planning to stay aboard while everyone went ashore. So much for having more of the ship to ourselves....😕 Well, my drink is finished. I think I'll go to the guest services desk and surprise the wife with a ultimate balcony dinner later this week, I've heard they are awesome!

We are on our first Princess cruise, today is our first full day at sea. So far I've enjoyed using the OceanNow feature, we had drinks delivered to our table in the buffet, and to our room. I think this feature would be something the other cruise lines would want to emulate.

Will do. 2 things I forgot to mention - the demographics are definitely skewed towards the 50 and older crowds, we saw only a small percentage of younger couples and only a few children, which is a plus for us. One thing we noticed is how much the ship tends to move - the water is fairly calm so not sure why? At over 100,000 gross tons, I figured we wouldn't feel much of anything?

Hello Everyone, we departed today from Port Everglades bound on the eastern Caribbean itinerary, I'll share a few impressions. I'll start with some background info - I'm 60, wife is 59. This is our first cruise with Princess and only our 3rd ever, first 2 were on Royal Caribbean. We're here on the recommendation of our travel agent, and from what I've seen so far she steered us in the right direction. The CB is, as most people know on this forum, an older ship, launched in 2004. It looks to have been well-maintained, I've not seen any glaring issues. Embarkation was fast and efficient, we were on board within about 20 minutes of arriving at the pier (we were green lane). Went through security, walked right up to a Princess receptionist who scanned our medallions, checked and scanned our passports and sent us on our way. It was much quicker than our last cruise on Allure OTS. We went straight to Crooners for our first drink of the cruise, then to our room to check it out. The balcony seems larger than both of the RCL ships. Less impressive was the shower, we would prefer an actual enclosure with a door rather than a curtain but that's a relatively minor issue. Had lunch in the buffet, it was very good, with plenty of options for every pallet. Plenty of seating available, which was a pleasant change from our 2 Royal Caribbean trips. Went up to the Lido deck for the sailing away party, watched Ft. Lauderdale fade from view. Went back to the room, found our luggage had been delivered. Unpacked, relaxed for a couple hours then went to the Palm MDR for dinner. We had 6 PM reservations, waited just a few minutes and were seated. Food was good, I had French onion soup, garlic prawns and salmon, wife just did the soup and Caesar salad. I will have to say that my appetizer was mis-named; I was expecting PRAWNS, but I got shrimp 🍤 instead. They were pretty much like the shrimp scampi at Red Lobster. Went back to Crooners for more drinks, listened to some live music, then back to the room. Tomorrow is Princess Cay, we'll let the crowds head ashore while we enjoy the ship mostly to ourselves.

Yup, they spend literally billions of dollars on their ships, but apparently little of nothing on IT support.

I guess it would be useful to know the percentage of cruisers who do Standard, Plus and Premier. If Princess is trying to become more upscale they might just bump up their base fare to the Plus levels and just call it the new Standard level with all the same amenities as the current Plus. With the way things are going they'll still fill every cabin.

Thanks PM. Enjoy the airboat ride, we've done that ourselves. Beware of gators!

Yeah, I got involved with a lively thread over in the Carnival forum concerning a complaint over being pulled aside while Fido did an invasive sniff test, he claimed it wasn't the first time. And I guess that some cruises on the West Coast even have a dog that stays on-board? And more than a few cruisers have done a U-turn back to their cars to "adjust" their luggage after seeing the signs warning of the K-9 searches? The discussion quickly devolved into "unreasonable searches", profiling, etc. I don't have a problem with it, as I don't use or carry any controlled substances and they have the right to check anyone they see fit that goes aboard their ship.