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Crown Princess ABC islands Jan 12 to 20, 2018

Bimmer09

By Bimmer09,
in Princess Cruises

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

Bimmer09

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I’m coming out of the shadows to check in early for a change, Norris:D Looking forward to your review. We’re headed to some of these islands for the first time in December. Is Crown Princess your favorite of the line? Cheers, Michelle

 

Welcome back Michelle! The Diamond is my favorite ship of the Princess ships I have sailed and the 5 reasons why are listed in my review of her from 2012. I like the Crown/Ruby/Emerald trio and so far have only repeated 2 ships-Crown and Ruby but the itineraries always play a major part in choosing. The Grand is the only one I have no interest in.

Norris

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

Bimmer09

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Love your reviews Norris - especially all the photos including food porn! How can we follow you when you cruise on other lines??? Ann - I hope you post a review as they are always entertaining and informative.

Karen

 

Karen, thanks for the compliments on the reviews. I usually link to a Celebrity review from the last Princess review I do and vice-versa. Also if people have signatures turned on to view they see a list of all the reviews I have done-this I think is my 14th in the past 6.5 years.

When I do the Azamara review I will put it on the X board as it is very active and gets a lot of readers whereas the AZ board is quiet.

Hope this helps!

When I post this now all my reviews will appear if you have signatures turned on...

Norris

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

Bimmer09

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So glad to be reading your review. Btw, love your photos. We so enjoyed our ABC cruise on the Crown Dec 30 and I am really looking forward to seeing all your pictures and reliving some of the cruise with your review. It seems I have never come across your legendary reviews up until now! Do you have a link for the Canada New England? This has always been an interest but I do worry that the weather will be rainy and cloudy so this keeps me away (being from the North I am already sun deprived...).

 

Hi and thanks for reading and responding!

All my reviews are listed in my signature which pops up on all my posts.

If they don't click just copy and paste.

We had good weather on the recent Regal cruise.

Norris

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

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We had a dinner reservation in the hotel's 3030 Restaurant for 8 pm but even so we had to have an outdoors lunch to truly believe we were in Florida. We walked through the grounds to get there.

 

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No shortage of palm trees

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Nor water

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What? More palm trees??!!

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We are walking to the beachside restaurant Sea Level

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Where we order our favorite sharing dish-crab salsa with tortilla strips

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A refreshing dish and light enough that we will still have an appetite for a sit down dinner in a few hours.

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

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On the beach hotel staff are setting up for an outdoor event this evening. The hotel hosts large numbers of business retreats and there were a couple of hundred people with laminated name tags swarming around the bars discussing core competencies, takeaways, paradigm shifts and power-point presentations, corner office envy and such.

 

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Sunset is approaching

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We are facing the East so the sun is in the trees behind us

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An MSC ship leaves Port Everglades

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On another part of the beach in front of the hotel rooms another big dining event is being set up for later

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* I do hope you are all seeing these photos as big as I do. If you have a Mac HIDE YOUR BOOKMARKS as the CC page is very narrow-a lot of blank or advertising space on the Right. On a PC I guess you hide your Favorite Places.

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

Bimmer09

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YEEHAW! Norris and Carol are back! We are on the Crown in 11 days and I was so hoping that I'd get to see some of the always entertaining reports before we leave. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the ship.

 

Thanks for joining us again with such YEEHAW gusto!

I will have some pics of the ship up, later today I imagine as I only have one day in Ft. Lauderdale to cover-so I'd better get on with it!

Cheers!

Norris

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

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Later that same evening, while Carol was napping I went down to the smoking section to sit and enjoy the night air.

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then took a walk over to the beach, via the pool area

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I came upon the waterfall which wasn't illuminated but luckily I was using my new Canon camera that sees well in the dark. It doesn't have a flash (which I never use anyway)

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The main pool

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Sadebud

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Yay, Norris and Carol are back from the ABC's!! I've been waiting for this review since I finished the Royal review just a few short weeks ago! I can't wait to hear of your adventures on the islands as we will be doing this itinerary in November, on the Royal. Also looking forward to your review on the Crown as we sailed her January, 2017 for 14 days and enjoyed the ship very much!

 

Cheers!

Tracy

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

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The beach party has kicked off around 7.30.

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I had popped into the Sea Level bar on my way to the beach and parted with $11.66 for a 12oz plastic tumbler of Stella Artois. A six pack in the real world costs $9.99. Captive audience!

I am at a table outside a now-closed thatched roof beach bar sitting enjoying the warm breeze.

The beach party hasn't invited me so I have to use my zoom lens for a closer look...

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I feel a couple of spits of rain and pack up my cameras just in case. I am going to head back to the hotel as we have dinner in about 20 minutes. The spits turned into one of those "watch me bounce off the footpaths!" deluges and the beach partiers shrieked and yelped and scrambled for cover. Luckily I was ahead of them thus avoiding the stampede and grabbed a beach towel as I hustled by the pool until I found shelter under an overhang by the hotel's spiffy new juice bar. I dried my hair but my pants and shirt were moist. Luckily they dried soon after we sat down to dine.

The rain lasted about 3 minutes but pretty much blew out the candle on the beach party.

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

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3030 Restaurant is great for two things- the stellar food and the noise level which has to be 100 decibels of talking loudly, glasses clinking and a keyboard player with his amp turned up to 11.

Luckily the service when it is busy as it is tonight is slow and relaxed which means at some point the keyboard player stops singing Margaritaville and takes a break and the crowd doesn't have to yell to be heard. The sound dies down to a hubbub from a din.

 

I took this picture at the end of our meal when it was quieter

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The chef here used to be Paula da Silva, a winner of Hell's Kitchen who since moved on but is now an assistant to Gordon Ramsay on that same show. Her replacement used to work for her and man can she cook! Her name is Adrienne Grenier. She won $10,000 on the cooking show "Chopped" so she has particular skills, just like Liam Neeson. She doesn't hunt people down and kill them unless you can die from an overdose of flavor?

Carol sent me her notes this morning and without them I would be lost as to what we ate last week. I only put on 1.5 pounds on the cruise but I always seemed to be having a napkin laid on my lap. At home I eat one slice of toast for breakfast, half a Panera sandwich for lunch and then a one course home cooked meal (Carol is quite the chef)

for dinner. On the ship I chowed down so I can tell you I really enjoyed the food.

Carol's notes tell me that we waited 45 minutes for our first course in 3030. I was sipping my glass of Malbec from Argentina (Bucket list destination for me is Buenos Aires and I'll drink a bucket of Malbec when I get there no doubt) and just enjoying the sensation of my clothes drying and being in Florida and not Chicago.

If you want to see the food they turn out here, follow this link...

http://www.3030ocean.com/fort-lauderdale-restuarant/Photo-Galleries.html

 

I ate all the bread and flatbread in this next photo-I know you are not supposed to fill up on bread in restaurants but Frankly my dear-I don't give a damn. Give me a bottle of wine and some bread like this and I am one happy camper.

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When the food arrived we attacked it like a band of jackals.

This was a sublime start to my meal-pappardelle with short rib ragu.

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Maybe because I was so busy with my head in the bowl inhaling this fine, fine cooking I forgot to take a picture of Carol's starter which was baby greens with shaved pear. She tasted my ragu as we both love short ribs cooked long and slow.

A while later our main courses came along and I have to say I don't mind waiting when I know there is a wizard at the stove. I may have had another glass of Malbec.

Here comes my coriander roasted swordfish! En garde!

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and Carol's blackened grouper with lentils and baby carrots hiding somewhere underneath

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Not done yet...

 

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Bimmer09 "Live from...." Rare

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The dessert menu came around but we already knew what we would like

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Carol's Key Lime Bar with coconut ice cream (which is for me!)

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and as you may know my favorite dessert is a double espresso and a glass of Sambuca Romana

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A truly memorable meal for $174 including a $30 tip

We sat outside by one of the many flaming fire pits, admiring the ships at anchor offshore with their deck lights on. We went to bed at 10.30 knowing that in the morning we would be checking out of our hotel with our luggage bearing tags that said E734 Crown Princess.

I say Bring it On!!

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CruzinNoony

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Norris, I always thoroughly enjoy your reviews and this is no exception! We are going to the ABC Islands on the Royal in November so I look forward to reading what you did there. The hotel you stay in is awesome. I would be stationed on the balcony right next to Carol!

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Silkroad

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I ate all the bread and flatbread in this next photo-I know you are not supposed to fill up on bread in restaurants but Frankly my dear-I don't give a damn. Give me a bottle of wine and some bread like this and I am one happy camper.

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I’m with you Rhett, I mean Norris! Skipping excellent bread is for amateurs:evilsmile: Great review and photos. Loving the food porn too. Can’t decide whether I want your selections or Carol’s lol. - Michelle

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24acorns

24acorns

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Hey Norris

Can't believe I'm late at the party already!!

Already enjoying the witty narrative and fab photos.

Brightening up the grey January days of the UK, we may not have your cold but boy can we do grey miserable. Been counting the days for your hit of pure gold.

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Babr

Babr

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I’ve been reading your reviews for a while. Every time I do, I think of the line from Emily Dickinson: “Instead of getting to heaven at last, I’m going all along.”

 

You certainly are. I admire your ability to enjoy the good things this life has to offer. Bravo!

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