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Ruby 12/30- 1/5 and Blue

Justprettynpink

By Justprettynpink,
in Princess Cruises

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Justprettynpink

Justprettynpink

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We start our cruise today and I am super excited. Hubby is still sleeping, so I thought I would start my review:-)

 

We are in our 40s/50s and I am a teacher so the times that we can cruise right now are the "expensive" times (holidays and summers). We are celebrating our wedding anniversary on this cruise

 

This will be our first Princess Cruise thus the Blue in the title). I have read all the post I can and tried my best to do research about the Princess way.....

 

We booked a 1A (inside) guarantee and we got a 1A cabin. We received our cabin assignment about 5 days ago. Are we disappointed? No :-)

 

We have pre-ordered a couple of bottles of wine and saved a couple of dollars from the onboard price. We could have saved a few more dollars by bringing our own aboard, but we didn't feel the hassle of bringing it was worth it. I want to drink the wine at dinner so we would have paid the corkage fee.

 

My husband is a coffee drinker so I got the Personal Choice Package #4 which includes chocolate covered strawberries, coffee card and $25 OBC.

 

This cruise is full so the first thing I plan to do once we board is make dinner reservations for our anniversary at the Crown Grill.

 

We had the 530 dinner time but made it through the 6 pm wait list. When I last checked a week ago.The wait list for the late seating was at 184 so there was no way we could even make that. With the ship full I thought the anytime dining would be quite crowded plus we like to get to know our wait staff and our table mates :-)

 

We drove from NC. I do not mind driving if we are moving but I-95 is getting to be a regular parking lot. We planned for two days driving down and with all the accidents and congestion I am glad we did.

 

We stayed in Boca Rotan for our pre-cruise hotel and will be parking in the park n go lot.

 

 

My review will not be live but I hope to have a useful review when we return on Saturday :-)

 

Happy New Year everyone!

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Justprettynpink

Justprettynpink

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We are back...I put the wrong return date...we returned on the 4th. :-(

 

 

We arrived at park n go after driving around for an hour because we wanted to sop at a drug store for last minute things and we couldnt find our way back to the parking area. While waiting at a light, a policeman blocked the intersection and there was a huge police motorcade escorting two charter buses that had "Ohio State" on them. That made getting lot not so bad.

 

We arrived a the park n go lot and pulled under a yellow canopy where they unloaded our luggage into the shuttle. They tried to empty out more than was had already been over packed. They kept my keys (I was a little nervous about) We were on our way shortly and got to see wild monkeys at the exit of the lot. We had a rate of 7.99 per day. http://offairportparking.com/portevg/

 

 

 

We were dropped off at the dock and tipped the driver.(we were the only ones who did) Our luggage was secure with the folks at the dock. (tipping them also)

 

The security line was outside but moved very fast. I used the restroom and my husband had moved up in the line a great distance. They passed out the health forms while waited.

 

Once inside, there were 4 lines (at least) to go through security. Tip: put all metal items in your carry on (keys, change,belt).

 

I did at the last minute decide to bring a bottle of wine. One of the security workers directed me over to the wine table. There was no way she could have watched to see if I really went or not. Once I got close to the table, a gentleman was asking people if they had brought wine. So Princess is really working on the honor system. He was also having only one person in the party deal with the alcohol table while the rest of the party got to get into the next line to get checked in.

 

This line also moved pretty fast. My ultimate kid package sticker (soda and more) was already on my card.

 

We headed to board the ship. They divide the ship by cabin numbers to board. Low number to the left and high numbers to the right. We rode the escalator and decided to get our welcome aboard picture taken. We had to show our card to get on the gangway and once we boarded the ship we had our pictures taken for security using our card. So once you get your card keep it in a place where it is easily accessible.

 

We got a scavenger hunt card and went directly to our cabin. We met our cabin steward "Henry". Our strawberries were there and also with a nice insulated cup with fancy straw (from my drink package- there was no extra charge for it) My husband's coffee card was not there so went off to do the scavenger hunt.

 

Before we left our cabin, I tried to make reservations for dinner in a specialty restaurant for later in the week but no one ever answered.

 

 

The scavenger hunt was a good way to find things around the ship. We went down to the International Cafe to inquire about the coffee card. We got the card and went on our quest to find the other places. We pasted the Crown Grill where I did make reservations for dinner (yay!). Sabatini's was a place that was on the scavenger hunt so we also made reservations there. (bonus)

 

We did the spa tour and hubby decided that we would do the Thermal Spa for the week. I wasnt too sure I was excited about that...

 

We toured the Sanctuary. I had talked to the hubby prior to the cruise about getting it but he was not excited so we decided not to do it. (stay tuned minds can change :) )

 

We went back to our cabin to get ready for the muster drill. Henry gave us some instructions. We were on the Baja deck (11) and our muster station was on the Promenade Deck (7). We went a little early and got a seat. It was a good thing we did because the seats all got full and it was standing room only during the official drill. You do not have go to the drill wearing your life jacket but you do have to practice putting it on during the drill.

 

Getting back to our room was fun because everyone was needing the elevators all at the same time. I was not too excited about walking up 4 flights of stairs but we did...

 

We headed to Meet & Greet at the Outrigger Bar at the aft part of the ship. There was about 10 of us and it was great to meet everyone. It was an informal M&G in that no one from Princess was invited nor expected to be there. It was nice to see a familiar face or two later on the cruise.

 

We headed back to our cabin to get ready for our 6pm dinner. We were assigned to the Boticelli Dining Room. This dining area was on deck 6 in the aft part of the ship. We rode down the elevators close to our room and walked back to the aft part but we did not make it too far...we hit a dead end...we learned we have to use the aft elevators or get off on deck 7 and walk to the aft of the ship to take the stairs one flight down.

 

We finally made it to the dining area and were seated at our table of 10. We placed our order and the assistant waiter was bringing us our food. He gave everyone the wrong food and we were passing things around to each other. No one was upset just a little comical.

 

The vibration from the engines is felt in this dinning room. There is a slight vibration and a low hum.

 

We were waiting for the next course when the lights flickered and then it went dark. No more engine vibration and no low hum. After about 10 seconds the emergency lighting came on. Did dinner service stop? Nope...they kept on working. The captain came on and said that they were working on the situation and that it would be resolved shortly. About 30 minutes later the lights, vibration and hum returned. In that short time, our table had jokingly went through all the worst case scenarios. No one was in a panic, it was just an adventure.

 

We went to the drawing for the scavenger hunt and played Bingo ($10 per sheet) We were not winners....

 

 

We then went to MUTS at 1015 to see Wolverine. It was nice to have blankets in that it was a bit chilly. We got pizza from the pizzeria. We also had pop corn. I loved doing MUTS except that hubby kept waking me up because I was snoring too loud....lol

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Justprettynpink

Justprettynpink

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Nice review, where did your cruise go to? I see that it was a 5 day cruise. Caribbean? :confused:

 

Yes Caribbean...We stopped at Princess Cays and Grand Turks...

 

 

More later...getting ready to finish the 4 hour drive home to NC (We stopped in Hinesville near Savannah)

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Justprettynpink

Justprettynpink

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inside_2.png

 

** This is not our actual cabin but the linens were the same. There was a light switch for the hall and bedroom by the bed but there are no outlets by the bed

 

The refrigerator was empty and just needed to have the temp adjusted to cool our water

 

There are two outlets by the vanity and those are the only two in the cabin besides the one in the bathroom for a men's razor.

 

There is a cabinet on the opposite side on the refrigerator that has one shelf.

 

The closet is open and had 30 hangers to use. There is a tall cabinet with 6 shelves and that is where the safe is stored.

 

 

On day one after we returned from breakfast, I opened our door and was almost knocked out from the smell of feet....I got the Frabreze out and took care of that real quick...don't forget to bring something to take care the smell if you have the same issue :o

 

We had plenty of room to unpack all of our over packing. We stored our luggage under the bed and brought magnets to hold all the Patters/ papers.

 

The shower was small and there is only one shelf that does not hold shaving cream. Shaving the legs was a little challenging in that I didn't have much room to bend over. I was too lazy to want to walk to the spa to use the larger showers :-)

 

The water was hot and we had great water pressure.

 

Will continue more soon...Princess Cays coming next with pics and the patter :-)

 

Thanks for reading :D

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Justprettynpink

Justprettynpink

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11827866966_2151ef0fe1_c.jpg

 

 

 

We got up late and missed not being able to eat breakfast in the dining room. (after 9), so we ate at the buffet. We went down to get hubby some coffee and it looked like a mad house trying to get into the dining area to get a tender ticket.

 

After breakfast we leisurely went to get our tender ticket. I was lugging our snorkel equipment because I was hoping to be able to snorkel :-)

 

We got our ticket #29 and the called group #24..."great" I thought...we are going to be here a while....nope...with in 15 minutes we were in the tender headed over to the key.

 

I was not really excited to being going over there....don't get me wrong I love to see beautiful places and I love to snorkel but I felt that this was just a money making area for Princess especially since I knew my drink card would not be honored there.

 

We get there and it is wall to wall people. We do manage to find a lounger in the shade for the hubby. I went down to the water to check the water temperature.

 

11827864086_8ed2d1a5b9_c.jpg

 

Those look like people swimming in the water but I think they were really polar bears! That water was too cold for me to even think about snorkeling.

 

11827346223_4da3fed02f_c.jpg

 

I was ready to go back to the ship to be in a less crowded place and to be able to have beverages without paying.

 

We went back to the ship and shared the pool with about 15 other people. It was very relaxing.

 

We then decided to enjoy the Thermal Spa. This is where there are 2 steam rooms, heated tile loungers, Eucalyptus Vapor room. ($199 per couple for the cruise- unlimited used)

 

We got ready for formal night. I was looking forward to the lobster.

 

11827331573_4a5651b7f4_z.jpg

 

It was very yummy :-)

 

After dinner we decided to go to the casino and we passed the Champagne Tower

 

11827061315_dd314cf005.jpg

 

We brought in the New Year with the balloon drop in the Piazza.

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MSN-Travelers

MSN-Travelers

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This may sound like a silly question but there has been some discussion about FL State tax being charged for items purchased while in port or within 6 miles of the port. Specifically related to coffee cards, soda packages and the like.

 

It appears you did pre-order a couple of these in advance. Did you happen to notice if FL State sales tax was charged in addition to the normal fee plus gratuity?

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greenie082756

greenie082756

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This may sound like a silly question but there has been some discussion about FL State tax being charged for items purchased while in port or within 6 miles of the port. Specifically related to coffee cards, soda packages and the like.

 

It appears you did pre-order a couple of these in advance. Did you happen to notice if FL State sales tax was charged in addition to the normal fee plus gratuity?

 

Seems to me like one more way for the government to get more money. Most people are on the ship at least an hour before it leaves and has either a cocktail or drink for sail away. I'm sure that adds up. Seems like I'll be buying soda cards ahead of time to avoid it. I know its only a 6% tax, but it still irks me.:mad: Oh well..

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Justprettynpink

Justprettynpink

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We used it 4 out of 5 days (closes at 10 pm). You have to leave your cruise card at the Spa Desk so they can control the number of folks using it. The couple's Package includes a Rasul package which is an hour in a private (locked) area of the spa. You get to use scrub and mud products on each other then use the private sauna. The mud felt like icey/hot when you are in the sauna. It was a great thing to do on our anniversary :-)

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