golden princess 17 dec cruise

[excalwop]

DAY1 cabin C256 caribe deck

arrive at pier 4E at 11:15 am got in line to turn baggage it tooked 6 minutes have a tip ready for the baggers or they put your bags in a another cart which sets while the others are moved to the ship.

took 5 minutes to get into the building got assign to a in progessing line (assign by deck) this took 16 minutes to reach the counter. tooked 3 minutes there

then up to the secutity check point had to wait for 25 minutes before they openup thank heaven for the duty free store there giving out free samples lost count on how many i had was in no pain when they open up, HA! bought three bottles of rum while witing carried them in our back pack no problems in taking them aboard the ship. they stayed on our cabin desk the whole trip. only two left the ship.we also carried aboard a 12 pack of diet pespi and a case of bottle water.

had lunch tour the ship for a while

left the ship to the K mart by the plazza America the bigest mall in pr. got some last minute items and some under warer cameras taxi cost was 15 dollars each way. got back to the ship found ours bags at the door unpacked and did more touring of the ship

had dinner at the Canaletto dining room 1st setting at 6:15 pm the prime rib was out standing met our table mates. this was the only time we were all there at the same time. eating was very causal we were still eating when the muster call came thru some of us missed finishing dinner had a long walk to our cabin to get our life jackets and then to the the muster station which was the ships theater. got our brefing and return to our cabins.filled out our post cruise tours and turn them in. got ready for our next day tour.at 9:30 went to the wheel house bar to meet with a group from the critic board went to the wrong bar and missed them

 

day2 (st thomas)

had breakfast at the horizon court not the best but eatable. got off the ship early took a taxi to red hook for a daysail with captain Max. spent 7 hours sailing and snorkeling had one hell of a time (will post on st. thomas board later) got back to the ship clean up and went to dinner which was great went back to our cabin clean our gear and got our gear ready.

 

day3 (st kitts)

had breakfast at the horizon (wish they open the breakfast atthe Domatelle at a better time than at 07:30 am. ) took the spirit of st. kitts nevis sail away (the only cruise line tour we booked and the costest) the trip to the snorkel site was the way i like it bouncy the snorkeling site was ok close to a cliff and was in shadow which made viewing hard the sun was just hitting the area when we left and the view was inproving sail to nevis island and pinney's beach. the lunch was good chicken and a hot dog, pasta salad, corn dish, and banana bread not bad the drinks were strong. the beach was a very fine sand little surf and a fast drop off water was great had a light shower which lasted for about 5 minutes. had a few ventors who were not pushy and left when you said no to them.

on the trip back a young girl had her 16th birthday and the crew use to to have one hell of a party . she was in high heaven they treated her like a princess. and she took it all in.

the stop here was to short !!!

clean up went to bingo No luck. ate , did not go to formal night did launadary insted

 

day4(grenada) A DAY TO FORGET!!:mad:

slept in late had breakfast at the Donatello was great went to welcome center for tour with A&E turn out to be a total waste of time would NOT ever use this company again two hours waiting around give our private tour to someone else stuck us with a group from another ship nothing what we wanted all demanded return to our ships and they wanted a tip.

went shopping .ventors were pushy trying to sell thier stuff.

boarded the ship found a notice to go to the purser's office they wanted to know how we were getting back to the air port inform them that i booked a post cruise tour .took them 15 minutes to find it got it corrected(i thought) went to bingo again no luck had dinner wes great( hightlight of days activies) found out they canceled our spa activities and the sonna was fulled. went to the pool they were filled so went back to our cabin and broke a bottle of rum open and had some good drinks and watch tv or spent time watching the stars

 

day 5 (isla margarita) high point of cruise

had breakfast at the horizon got off the ship had to walk to the end security point to catch our private tour hardest part was getting pass the taxi handlers we found Marcella and her husband waiting for us .conform our day of planned activities 1st stop was the marine national park were the first there for tours was taken on a tour of the park which was just wounderfull. saw seahouses, star fish, birds of all types.and the plant life around the area .every area had a speical name.

started the island tour they really knew the island and when my DW asked if they could stop some place to get something for her sinus congestion they took us to a super market i wish ours in the states could equal. took us into the mountains, then to the northern end and the beaches there then to a small shopping area from there to the west side and the views of the shoreline and beaches were out standing with the small fishing villages. the beaches were mostly empty and we just wish that we had more time to spend to enjoy them.

they said that we would be back at the ship by 12:20 to make the 12:30 boarding well they got us back at 12:19. we just didn't want to return to the ship.

got back aboard had lunch at the Donatello went to our room found our departure package had us for a 10:35 departure had to revisit the pursers office again the female clerk there was very un helpful. she didn't wanted to help in any way and the other male clerks didn"t want any thing to do with us. she kept saying that she could not check at this time for they were to busy at the time ( i was the only person at the counter at the time) and that i was starting to get rude toward her. that was when a ships officer a three striper step in and told that i had every right to get rude to her for the way she was actting . he made her check the computer and found that i did have a tour booked and got things corrected. had new baggage tags made up and tour the old tags off the papers and toss them on the floor . that officer went around that desk and tooked her into a back room.

went to play bingo again no luck had dinner at Canaletto .went to a show the cabaret showtime was good . help some kids to hide from the youth patrol it was so easy to do .just could not but help them out. the look that youth officer had was worth it.

 

day 6(aruba)

had breakfast, took a taxi to our day sail and snorkel with MI Dunhi(M.S.) got drop off at the wrong pier close so we walked to the correct one. went to three sites the 1st was very choppy the 2nd was the best tons of fish and coral to view ran out of film. the 3rd. was ok close to shore saw a small barrracuda there had lunch had a rope swing which got good use found that we were the only ones from a cruise ship on board had a good time telling about the ship and what was aboard. back to the ship clean up back to shop found a few items back to the ship again played bingo, ATE at CANALETTO CLEAN OUR GEAR AND PACK IT AWAY meet some of our critic co writers then back to our room and died.

 

day7(at sea)

slept in late had breakfast at Donatello had that corn flack french toast not bad. crust was hard.started packng taking our time at it went to lunch took our time did some on board shopping went back and finish packing was tempted to pack up our room attentent to take home

tryed bingo again still no luck went to dinner and just spent the rest of the evening wlking around the ship

 

day 8 (leaving ship)

got up had breakfast did a last minute check of the room went out on deck watch the baggage handlers on the dock move the bags around . went to deck 7 meet some critic writers there talked until our departure for the rain forest was called. was listed for 4hours but we arrived at the air port 3hours and 22minutes after leaving the ship had a long wait for our flight and then it was delayed

paul

[sun&sea]

Sounds like you had a nice time! Thanks for taking the time to write a review!

 

Janet

[Logie]

Thank you for the review, looking forward to going on the Golden this weekend!

[SeaTeacher]

Yes, thanks for taking the time to write the review. Maybe next time you could use capital letters, punctuation and complete sentences. Then more readers could better understand your experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

[Coolmama_1]

Yes, thanks for taking the time to write the review. Maybe next time you could use capital letters, punctuation and complete sentences. Then more readers could better understand your experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

 

It was hard to read. Sounds like you had a good time.

[Northender]

Thanks for the review. We are going on the Golden in March '06 and also will be on the Caribe Deck. Did you like the extra room on the balcony? Also, would you recommend doing excursions on your own or trying the ones through the Ship. We have the Jolly Pirates in Aruba set up on our own, but right now that is all we have.

 

 

We will also do an excursion after the cruise as we have late flight. Did you enjoy the rain forest. I think there are a couple of others, so would appreciate your advise on your post cruise excursion.

 

Is Pier 4E in Old San Juan? The duty free shop you were in - did it also sell wine? Thanks for any help.

 

I had no problem reading your review.:)

[excalwop]

Yes, thanks for taking the time to write the review. Maybe next time you could use capital letters, punctuation and complete sentences. Then more readers could better understand your experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

 

SeaTeacher,

 

Sorry you didn't like the way I wrote the review up.Been up from the morn of the 24th. After a late flight home had some messages from faimly giving me some bad news.That and a bad head cold. I wrote it up before getting some sleep. what a way to spend X-mas

paul

[sacway]

hi paul & rose -

thx for the review and we are sharing the post-cruise grogginess (we got home about 10:30 christmas eve, or 1:30 am christmas day EST). it was easier to post while we were on the cruise (well fed well rested and plenty of time) rather than now, when we are dealing with jet lag, ten days of mail to answer, etc. sorry about the cold, knock on wood we are fine, and haven't yet mentioned that we heard less coughing and sneezing on this ship than any past cruise, IMHO due to the abundance of handwashing signs and ever-present hand sanitizer (didn't need to bring my Purell wipes).

let us know who/how to contact the pearl people, once you get the ones we were talking about. (we could use our old Roll Call thread, assuming not everyone on the Princess page would be interested)

I was especially impressed that you logged how long various things took. and appreciate your sharing your many port excursion experiences, hope you can put some of those contacts on the Ports of Call page, I always check there when I'm planning my cruises.

hope you are staying warm & dry!

[obladi1]

Northender,

We did the Jolly Pirates in Aruba and loved it. When you walk out of the Holiday in, go to your right a bit to find them. The snorkeling was great and make sure that you try the rope swing. Have fun!