Crown Princess ABC islands Jan 12 to 20, 2018

I see where you mentioned it is your birthday next week, mine is too! We will be leaving on my birthday, Thursday, to cruise on the Crown, but I don't think your review will be done by then. I'll have to catch the end when I return.

 

I hope you get the gift that you want!

Happy Birthday !!

We will also be on that sailing.... My hubby's birthday is the 26th...

6 in our party...

enjoy !! I also wish this review was further... so enjoying it...

thank you !!

I had my batteries charging for our Glass Bottomed Boat excursion and so went to the MDR with just a pocket camera. An MDR breakfast is something I miss back in the real world of a cup of coffee and a slice of toast. I have to go to the fridge which is about 8 feet away from where I sit at the breakfast bar with my computer (exhausting!). No fresh baked croissants or apple turnovers in the house. The pictures won't be great and I don't have a note from my mother for once.

Double Cappuccino

 

Carol's little fruit bowl in a soft focus (doh!)

 

 

And my hearty meaty breakfast



 

 

 



 

 



 

 

Amazing rainbow pic....All your pics are amazing! Thank you! We are getting on the Crown on Friday so I will have to check back in March for the rest of your blog!

According to my watch (with perhaps a nudge from Facebook) Today is your Birthday....Happy Birthday to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NORRIS

Susan;)

Happy Birthday, Norris!!! Will have a Guiness in your honor later today!

Cheers,

Tracy

Happy Birthday!! Strong:hot-beverage:, then a:beer-mug: Enjoy your Day!

I would have been tempted to dive in the water and look for that pot of Gold, since the Rainbow ended so close to the ship! :D

Kathy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NORRIS!! I am so enjoying your review. I'm in no hurry for it to end! :D

Amazing rainbow pic....All your pics are amazing! Thank you! We are getting on the Crown on Friday so I will have to check back in March for the rest of your blog!

Bon Voyage for Friday! I wish I was going too. It hasn't been a month yet (close) since we stepped off the ship but it seems like so long ago. If I didn't have these photos and the review it could get lost in the everyday humdrum stuff that life is more full of. No two days the same on a cruise and I can't say that about each day since. But that's life!

I have a boatload of Crown pics to show you but you will see her for yourself soon.

Catch up when you return and thanks for reading along this far.

Have an amazing cruise!

Norris

THANK YOU!

 

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to wish me Happy Birthday!

 

It is living up to its name already. We are celebrating it tonight at a favorite fantastic Chicago restaurant called Girl and the Goat owned by Top Chef Winner of season 4.

 

Sorry I can't write any more at the moment as the clown has just started blowing up the balloon animals.

 



 



 

Norris

 

 



 

Now, back to or regular scheduled programming...

 

 

 

Happy birthday Norris! Dinner at the girl and the goat - I am jealous! One of my top five meals of all time. Enjoy every bite!

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Thank you for the great review. The pictures are amazing as always. Sailed the Crown in September. Had a great time.

The Aruba photos bring back memories of our week stay there a number of years ago. Some really nice resturants. Favorite was one night we got Subway and sat on the beach for Sunset.

Leaving Thursday for Bahamas cruise. Trying the Grandeur as it is a 20 minute drive. Smaller than I usually sail, but I'll see. 9 days so will finish up the read when I get back. Happy Birthday Norris. You and Carol have a great evening. Pam

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Yes the rainbow was very close to the ship and so much so that I could see the fine mist changing color as it fell though it. Amazing world we live in. As a National Geographic magazine subscriber for over 20 years I already knew that.

We have to go ashore for our excursion. No photographers in costume. Oh, come on! Work for your money! We will buy your photos!

I think we were expecting a bus but no, just a short walk to the same pier the ship was tied to and there was a little boat loading. No time to get the camera out of the bag so here's a shot of our boat from later, when we were having lunch and it came by with new passengers.

small boat with wooden seating around a rectangular view box looking down into a well with a glass bottom (hence the name!). Cosy. A captain and a guide who was a diver brimming with 13 years of knowledge of these waters and reefs. He was about 30 years old and good at his task.

Bonaire is famous the world over as a site for great diving and marine life so I was expecting a live aquarium of dazzlingly colored fishes but from above the water that isn't what's on the menu. All my previous underwater events have shown me a bluen/green world where color is not to be had. Only when I went scuba diving in St. Thomas in 1990 (?) did I see the color through a dive mask, close-up.

If you even see a fish in my sad photos shout out. I'll be having fish for lunch so that might have to do. According to the guide the reef has already lost in his lifetime 20% of its mass and inhabitants as global warming and pollution takes its toll.

Bon Voyage for Friday! I wish I was going too. It hasn't been a month yet (close) since we stepped off the ship but it seems like so long ago. If I didn't have these photos and the review it could get lost in the everyday humdrum stuff that life is more full of. No two days the same on a cruise and I can't say that about each day since. But that's life!

I have a boatload of Crown pics to show you but you will see her for yourself soon.

Catch up when you return and thanks for reading along this far.

Have an amazing cruise!

Norris

Thank you! I wish you were on our cruise too! You have quite an audience sailing the crown on Fri. I hope you have an Amazing Birthday!!! Terry

I planned to shoot video underwater without getting wet even though the water was a lovely 82 degrees F. Two days before leaving Chicago, while packing my cameras, I found that I had lost my waterproof housing for the GoPro. My favorite retailer had one at my doorstep the next day!

So my plan was to attach the GoPro to a selfie stick and operate it via wi-fi from my iPhone app. Isn't technology wonderful?

Do I understand it correctly? You took a glass bottom boat and barely saw any fish?

If you even see a fish in my sad photos shout out.

 

 

Is that tiny black "thing" in approximately the upper left center of the photo a fish?

Thank you for the great review. The pictures are amazing as always. Sailed the Crown in September. Had a great time.

The Aruba photos bring back memories of our week stay there a number of years ago. Some really nice resturants. Favorite was one night we got Subway and sat on the beach for Sunset.

Leaving Thursday for Bahamas cruise. Trying the Grandeur as it is a 20 minute drive. Smaller than I usually sail, but I'll see. 9 days so will finish up the read when I get back. Happy Birthday Norris. You and Carol have a great evening. Pam

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Pam, sometimes the simple things like a "Subway sandwich on the beach" fit the bill just nicely.

Ambience counts for a lot with me when dining out. I spent some time trying to pick out a restaurant in Aruba with a water view as there were many that looked tempting with a menu that appealed. I think it was Carol who found the Bistro de Paris. French Bistro is all I needed to hear.

We haven't been to the Bahamas (I don't count Princess Cays) but stop at Nassau which I know many consider Nass-ty (but seeing is believing) on the way back from Cuba 11 months from now. I will be interested to hear about your Grandeur of the Seas experience. Have fun!

Bon Voyage!

Norris

Happy birthday Norris! Dinner at the girl and the goat - I am jealous! One of my top five meals of all time. Enjoy every bite!

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Normally we go to my favorite Chicago restaurant for my birthday-Mercat a la Planxa which excels at Barcelona tapas. It is owned by Joe Garces who is one of the Iron Chefs on Food Network TV and dish for dish eclipses any dish we ate in Barcelona. Stellar food!!

We ate at Girl and the Goat in December for Carol's annual dinner with her Chicago staff and one of them (whom we trust) picked Girl out of the names we were bandying around. We had a table for 8 closest to the open kitchen and had a good view of the owner Stephanie Izzard who was expediting at the pass. Service was impeccable as they worked as a team to bring dishes to the table for sharing, each one with an explanation although I would have been fine if they had just said "hot food". We shared 8 dishes so got a good sampler of some of the tastiest food we have eaten-yes I'd say top 5 too. Impressive enough for me to have no hesitation in booking it for my Birthday and I booked it a couple of months ago. I counted 14 cooks on the line all working like beavers to keep up with the crowd. It was packed on a Wednesday night at 8 p.m.

I owe them a review on TripAdvisor but I am so behind on my reviews there.

Cheers!

Norris

Do I understand it correctly? You took a glass bottom boat and barely saw any fish?

Not when I had the camera around my neck, alas. I was expecting shoals of brightly colored fish and lots of them just like you see on any Bonaire footage on tv shot by professional diving cameramen. There is a video coming up next where you can see enough fish to make the boat trip worthwhile.

Stay tuned!

Norris

 

 

 

 

I planned to shoot video underwater without getting wet even though the water was a lovely 82 degrees F. Two days before leaving Chicago, while packing my cameras, I found that I had lost my waterproof housing for the GoPro. My favorite retailer had one at my doorstep the next day!

So my plan was to attach the GoPro to a selfie stick and operate it via wi-fi from my iPhone app. Isn't technology wonderful?

I see a fish in each one of these photos. The only one I can ID for sure is the Stoplight Parrotfish in the second photo. My eyes are tired now, so I'm not seeing as well as I'd like. Maybe I will check back when my eyes have not spent the last who knows how long reading CC.

We were in Bonaire this past November, and I can assure you that there are lots of fish in the water there! I was on scuba, though, and on much healthier reefs than the one you saw from the glass bottom boat. I'd hijack your review and post some fish pics, but I'm on my tablet which has not been cooperating with my attempts to post picutres lately. The only thing my hosting site wants me to do here is buy the stuff they're selling with my pictures on them.

The sunset pics from Aruba were breathtaking, as usual! We enjoyed our stop in Aruba, and hope to get back there soon.

Please accept my belated happy birtnday wishes! No, I don't have a note for this one, but I hope you and Carol had a wonderful birthday dinner!

 

 

We are celebrating it tonight at a favorite fantastic Chicago restaurant called Girl and the Goat owned by Top Chef Winner of season 4.

 

 

Not only Top Chef winner, but new Iron Chef

Robert

Happy belated birthday and thank you sooo much for the review. I visited the ABC islands in November 2016 and Bonaire was my favourite island, so much so that I booked to go again this April, but Princess has changed the itinerary, so I won't get back there this time:')

Happy belated birthday Norris! I hope you and Carol had a superb dinner. Still reading your wonderful review and enjoying your beautiful photos, as always:)

Cheers ,

Michelle