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LIVE from the Grand Princess - 49 days from FLL thru South America to SFO

Pia1913

By Pia1913,
in Princess Cruises

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rdsqrl

rdsqrl

Posted
Posted
Hi Pia.... lots of our friends onboard.... should be some Tim Tams around for you to pinch.... ask the Aussies' date=' I bet they brought them with them. There is a new flavour out..... Raspberry! :D[/quote']

Stop, you evil temptress . . . !

 

Pia, if you think there are a lot of Elites/Plats on this cruise, wait until the Royal trans-Atlantic!

Hmm: I wonder what voyage to date has had the largest number of Elites/Plats? Might be an interesting bit of historical trivia for Princess to unearth and include in the Patter or CC magazine. Clearly, they need a historian working for the company. Clearly, that historian needs to be me.

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TracieABD "Live from...." Rare

TracieABD

Posted
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Stop, you evil temptress . . . !

 

Pia, if you think there are a lot of Elites/Plats on this cruise, wait until the Royal trans-Atlantic!

Hmm: I wonder what voyage to date has had the largest number of Elites/Plats? Might be an interesting bit of historical trivia for Princess to unearth and include in the Patter or CC magazine. Clearly, they need a historian working for the company. Clearly, that historian needs to be me.

 

Rdsqrl for Princess Historian!!!

 

You have my vote!:)

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Kiwi Kruzer

Kiwi Kruzer

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Gee, 1795 people for the preferred check-in line.

 

And only 780 for the other line :p

 

I have seen that before on HAL. We arrived for a cruise and the Mariner preferred line was very long, so we just went to the standard line where no one was waiting and went straight through.

 

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coo359a2

coo359a2

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I’ll second Pia on our M&G. More people than I’ve ever seen at one. Everyone on a private CC tour (and there are a lot that have been arranged) were scurrying around trying to find the tours we were on to pay the leader. I got all mine done and for the 2 Rio tours I have, all but 2 people made it to my table to pay.

Bill - there was not an Elite or Preferred Line - at least at 11:30 when we arrived. I took one look at the line and asked a Princess Shore Helper if there was an Elite line. He said – Lady, this is the Elite line with over 1500 Elites/Platinum. After standing in a line for 2 hours we finally made it to our cabin. It was total disorganization and frustrating to see one long line turn into 3 lines all trying to enter one regular size door (maybe 36-40 inches wide). Not a pretty sight. When we finally entered the building (still a long snaking line to go through) there were only 2 xray machines operating. They did open a 3rd xray machine before we got to that point. They were still putting luggage on the ship at 6pm. But we all got on and we left shortly after 7pm and all was well.

We saw Michael Minor – ventriloquist/singer/impressionist and he is probably the best we have ever seen. An excellent show not to be missed if you have him on your cruise. We saw Jeff Dunham on a Princess ship before he started on the Comedy channel and I think Michael Minor is better than Dunham – IMO.

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HKM

HKM

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So glad to hear Bernie's been promoted! She was on the staff for 2 of our cruises and was exceptionally good. We often think of her when we play Trivia - there was always a Chili question. :-)

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted
there was not an Elite or Preferred Line - at least at 11:30 when we arrived. I took one look at the line and asked a Princess Shore Helper if there was an Elite line. He said – Lady, this is the Elite line with over 1500 Elites/Platinum. After standing in a line for 2 hours we finally made it to our cabin. It was total disorganization and frustrating to see one long line turn into 3 lines all trying to enter one regular size door (maybe 36-40 inches wide). Not a pretty sight.

 

Have a great cruise.

It will be interesting to see next fall how well the embarkation goes with the Royal in Port Everglades with the additional number of passengers it can hold.

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dmwnc1959

dmwnc1959

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Other than the M & G and food, we did very little else today except attend John Maxtone- Graham’s “Only Way to Cross” lecture....

 

The absolute bible for passenger ship lovers! Such an honor it must have been to hear from one of the worlds foremost maritime historians.

 

 

Have a great cruise.

It will be interesting to see next fall how well the embarkation goes with the Royal in Port Everglades with the additional number of passengers it can hold.

 

I think Grand Princess departed from Terminal 29 which I hear (from the RCI and HAL forums) is notorious for horrible embarkations. Royal Princess will depart from Terminal 2. A fully loaded Caribbean Princess departs from there, so maybe it won't be an issue for Royal Princess? We can only hope! ;)

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trbarton "Live from...." Rare

trbarton

Posted
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Hi Pia,

 

Have a wonderful cruise and take good care of yourself!! Will be reading and following along each day. If you see Franky, tell her I send my best to her as well.

 

Joyce

 

I'm doing a M & G on the May 10th cruise to Alaska. How does one get name tags made up? I usually make up my own.

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

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trbarton "Live from...." Rare

trbarton

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Welcome aboard the Grand Princess where we, at least some of us, will spend the next 49 days together. We are starting here in Ft. Lauderdale and will end up in San Francisco on March 16th. Oh yes, there’s a whole lot of South America in between.

 

　

Even though we only live 40 miles from the port, we decided to spend last night at the Rodeway Inn and taking their shuttle here this morning. Our friends Gloria and Lew from San Diego had booked there too, so even though they are not cruising with us now (they are on the CB), we wanted to spend some fun time with them. We also had a mini M & G at the Bimini Boatyard restaurant, located on 17th St near the port. There must have been over 100 CC folks at the beginning of Happy Hour, where beer and wine were only $3.00 each. The restaurant also presented a huge fruit, cheese and crackers platter; nice touch.

 

 

 

The port played one of their switcheroos on us, so this time we boarded at #29 instead of the usual #2. I guess we are considered the “small” ship. Boarding was a zoo; no real place to wait at this outlying area. But, they did take Elites first and we were in our cabin (balcony on Baja) shortly after noon. Decided to have a dining room lunch; nice juicy burgers.

 

 

Here’s some of the important stuff:

 

 

Captain: Anthony Herriott

Hotel Manager Andreas Pitsch

Food & Beverage: Riccardo Capraro

Customer Service: Trent Denovan

Maitre d’ Francesco Ciorfito

Cruise Director: Sammi Baker

Circle Hostess: Dawn Harrison

 

 

More important stuff:

 

 

The welcome aboard show “One Night Only” will be presented at 7 and 8:30, though we won’t be there. Then again, there’s a comic, Michael Minor too, so maybe we’ll take a peek. MUTS is showing The Avengers and Hope Springs is the movie in Vista. We’ll just check out the shops and the casino and perhaps early to bed. We already get to lose an hour sleep tonight. Oops, almost forgot, Maurizio is here. In Crooners. The Wheelhouse band is Soundtrack and the Explorer’s band is Latin Connection.

 

 

Almost time for muster so goodbye until tomorrow morning.

 

I'm doing a M & G in May. Do you know who the Executive Chef is?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

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trbarton "Live from...." Rare

trbarton

Posted
Posted
Someone on the roll call volunteers to make them. This is not soemthing done by Princess.

 

 

That means on the Grand Cruise someone made up 350 tags. WOW that's a full time job. This is the first time that I ever heard of tables set up for CC members doing private tours.

 

Tom

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WendyG

WendyG

Posted
Posted

Pia,

 

First of all, congrats on your quickly improving recovery from your surgery! :) You sound much better and more "up" then the last cruise!

 

Wish I had known you and Gloria were at Bimini, Ron and I would have come to join you for pre-cruise drinks! (even though we aren't cruising again until April!)

 

Have a wonderful time on your 49 day adventure - looks like a wonderful way to relax and enjoy! Bet you'll be kicking that treadmills ass by the time you disembark in SF! :D

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Pia1913

Pia1913

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Happy Monday everyone, as we smoothly sail towards our first port of St. Thomas. Skies are almost sunny and temperature today will be in the upper 70’s.

　

Last night we did in fact attend the Michael Minor show. What a fantastic showman. He is so multi-talented and we are very happy we went. I’m not one for “shtick”, but this guy was so good I forgot I wasn’t supposed to like it. I should learn not to make snap judgments so often.

　

Now then, today’s Patter is chock full of things to do. Pick and choose. In the morning we have a lecture by astronomer Peter Anderson; “Flying Saucers and Alien Visits.” Also in the morning among other things is the first of many 3 hour only $10 sales, an egg drop challenge and another presentation by John Maxtone-Graham; “Titanic Survivor.”

　

Afternoon begins with a pub lunch, a lecture by Evon Anderson (wife of the above Peter?); Mysteries and Myths of the Bermuda Triangle, the first rehearsal of Princess Pop Choir (yes I will go to see if songs have changed), the first art auction, and the movie “The Artist.” If that’s not enough there will also be arts and crafts, MUTS movie Raiders of the Lost Ark and back again, something that hasn’t been around for a long time; Princess horse racing.

　

Tonight’s offerings are The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on MUTS, the movie Arbitrage in Vista and a female vocalist Jamila in the theater. Since we’ve seen both movies and don’t really like a solo singer, we just might watch a movie in our cabin or just read.

　

Comments/Responses:

1. Jim: I took on two boxes and received another bottle from my TA. Good start, as I know each leg will bring another TA bottle. :)

2. Eileen: LOL. I don’t need Tim Tams, but I will ask the Aussie member of our trivia team.

3. #29 pier - this is only used if Princess has 3 ships in port and we were the smallest one. Not to worry about Royal. She will definitely get number two.

4. Tom: I'll find out about the chef

Breakfast time now. I earned it. Good workout today; gets better every day. :D

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Kiwi Kruzer

Kiwi Kruzer

Posted
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Looks like St Thomas could be a bit busy for you...

 

 

Ships in Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas) on 29/01/2013

 

Ship.............. Passengers

Carnival Dream ... 3,652

Carnival Freedom . 2,974

Celebrity Eclipse. 2,850

Grand Princess.... 2,600

Oasis of the Seas. 5,400

5 Ships...........17,476

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luvcdays

luvcdays

Posted
Posted

Thank you for posting your "live from" on this cruise. This itinerary is on our bucket list.

 

I would love to hear if you like your stateroom. Curious how much you might use a balcony for this voyage.

 

Will you be posting any pictures for us to see?

 

Have a great time!

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Julia’s Journey’s

Julia’s Journey’s

Posted
Posted
We enjoyed John Maxtone-Graham's lectures on a TA last spring. He and his wife Mary also entertained with skits titled "All you ever wanted to know about passengers but were too polite to inquire".

 

I enjoyed his lectures and the skits he and his wife did on the Ruby 2011 TA. The theatre was packed for all his talks:)

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