Another Lap Around the Pond- Live from the Caribbean Princess- May 28 to June 4, 2022

[MustangGT]

9 minutes ago, TracieABD said:

Pretty much the lounger is the deal. If you book the whole cruise, it is $30 a day.  The real advantage is that it is outbid the fray. It is quieter (most times). The stewards bring food and drink ($3 delivery in some cases). But my most favorite part is afternoon tea! It is such a treat!

Yippee!!  I get to cruise with Tracie again!! (from my couch!) 🤣

You hit the nail on the head about the Sanctuary!  We love the afternoon tea brought to our lounger.  And the “where can we find a lounger” game was never a favorite cruise pastime!  Love knowing where we will be every day.

Happy Sailing!! 🚢⚓️🛟

Edited May 30, 2022 by MustangGT

[ranger55]

Hello, all just friendly reminder our meet is tomorrow at 330pm to 430pm at wheelhouse bar see you all there be safe 

[arizonaperson]

20 minutes ago, TracieABD said:

There was the flourless chocolate cake!  I might have gobbled up my piece and some of Jon’s too!  

Good to hear. I hope they keep it onboard always.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, TracieABD said:

Pretty much the lounger is the deal. If you book the whole cruise, it is $30 a day.  The real advantage is that it is outbid the fray. It is quieter (most times). The stewards bring food and drink ($3 delivery in some cases). But my most favorite part is afternoon tea! It is such a treat!

Thanks! It definitely sounds like something to consider, especially if we’re in an inside or Oceanview cabin!

[TracieABD]

 

Evening 2

May 29, 2022

Princess Cays

 

Hi friends-

 

Our day in the Sanctuary was lovely. It was overcast, which kept the temperature at a more manageable degree. So far, people have been really quiet. It is exactly all that it is supposed to be.

 

We ordered lunch from the spa menu. While the food is free, there is a $3 delivery fee- which is just fine. Jon got the tuna which was canned tuna and lettuce. Not exactly what he was expecting, but he ate every bit… so I assume it was good. I got the gazpacho- it was delicious. Actually it was some of the best gazpacho I have ever had. We shared pineapple and cottage cheese, fruit carpaccio, and veggies and dip. All of it was served in Bento boxes… a super fun twist! Also, the portions seemed much larger than those on the Regal and Royal.

 

I am not sure if I mentioned this… This is the first time Jon has been on a Grand class ship. I have not been on one (the Diamond) since 2017. There are features that I really love with this class of ship… the Promenade, trays in the Princess theater, Explorers Lounge, the many pools, the lux paneling (ok. I know that one is pretty weird), the many super comfy nooks to tuck away into. To be fair, I love the Royal class ships too… there is nothing like “new ship smell”… but then again… any smell beats the smelly smell of our cabin and hallway.

 

We gutted out the rest of our day in the Sanctuary. One of my most favorite parts of the Sanctuary is Afternoon Tea. All Princess ships offer Afternoon Tea in one of the main dining rooms. It is a lovely sit down affair that includes sammiches, cakes, tea, and best of all… delicious scones. However, if you have lounger in the Sanctuary, the Serenity Stewards bring you tea and cakes and scones right to your seat! Bonus! Yay! This may be my most favorite thing in the whole world!

 

We extracted ourselves from the Sanctuary around 4 pm and took a quick nap before dinner. Jon napped. I might have taken a coma. After a long day in the sun, I slept hard. Once I woke up, I scrambled to get ready for dinner, while Jon headed down. This might be necessary, as there is not a whole lot of space in the cabin.

 

Dinner was a bit livelier than our previous evening meal. Our section was definitely tighter, so even though we were seated at a “private” table for two, we were so close to our neighbors that there was virtually no way to no way to not engage in conversation. We were a bit underwhelmed by the menu, so we each had the tropical fruit cup, the Bahamian pea soup (think more like a white bean soup vs. a green pea soup- due to the pigeon peas), and I had ziti. Jon enjoyed the corvina- which he proclaimed very delicious.

 

We quickly wrapped up our meal- and scurried to the Princess Theater for the comedian- Don Friese. I have seen a lot of comedy on cruise ships and some of it is pretty meh. This guy was funny. Like seriously funny. His bit on the airline pilot was hilarious. He is doing smaller shows again this evening, and we will do everything in our power to be there. He was totally worth sitting in a packed theater with a KN-95 on.

 

We rounded out the evening by playing cards and drinking tea in the Atrium. The very loud singer from Crooners was back. She had toned it down a bit, and when she sang our wedding song (we are newly weds- married 10 months), we both got a little verklempt. Had  we been up in Crooners, we would have danced. As an aside, one of the best gifts of getting married later in life is the realization that you have to make every single day count. So we might be those people who would dance in the middle of the a bar- without the dance floor.

 

We turned in around 10 pm- yep- we are that old- only to discover that we were hungry. We ordered a little room service. Word of warning here- it took over an hour to be delivered. But it was hot and it was delicious- so no complaints. We just have to plan accordingly.

 

That ends our first day of our weeklong cruise!

 

Anyone want to guess our wedding song?

 

Thanks for following along-

More later-

Tracie-Lynn

[TracieABD]

14 hours ago, MustangGT said:

Yippee!!  I get to cruise with Tracie again!! (from my couch!) 🤣

You hit the nail on the head about the Sanctuary!  We love the afternoon tea brought to our lounger.  And the “where can we find a lounger” game was never a favorite cruise pastime!  Love knowing where we will be every day.

Happy Sailing!! 🚢⚓️🛟

That is so sweet!  Thank you for being here!  I am so happy to see you on the boards!

[azbirdmom]

Final passenger count for the sailing is 2742. And our toilet issues continued through the night. Got to meet a plumber at 3AM. And it’s nothing we did. Fingers crossed that it’s now fixed once and for all. Otherwise trip is great. 

[JF - retired RRT]

19 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

Great news!  Unfortunately our toilet issue persists although it’s not awful. I used it when we got back to the ship and nothing happened when I flushed it. Henry said wait a few minutes and sure enough it flushed itself. Still going to report it after we are showered. 

IDEA...flush, wait 5 minutes, then do your "business". 🤣

[TracieABD]

3 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

Final passenger count for the sailing is 2742. And our toilet issues continued through the night. Got to meet a plumber at 3AM. And it’s nothing we did. Fingers crossed that it’s now fixed once and for all. Otherwise trip is great. 

It feels really “full” today… being a sea day and all.

 

Love hanging out with you at the slot pull!!! You big winner, you!

[TracieABD]

Day 3

May 30, 2022

Sea Day

 

Hi friends-

 

Today is Memorial Day. I want you to know how much we appreciate those who paid the ultimate price for their service to our country. We hold so much space in our hearts for their family and friends. Thank you ensuring our freedom.

 

This morning started off with a bit of a kerfluffle. We both sleep too late. While “sleeping-in” may work for many, for us (especially Jon) it can be counterproductive. Because we ordered room service so late, we had no natural instinct to wake early- because we are still full. Jon headed out to grab coffees- and I tidied the cabin and prepared laundry to be sent out.

 

Forgive the redundancy (from previous blogs), but I will repeat myself on more time for those who may have missed it the first ten times. I have one vice. Only one. My morning coffee. I get one cup. Only one. I would like it to be made correctly. I really enjoy an iced latte and preparing it is a simple matter of physics (and chemistry- as I was recently reminded). If you pour hot espresso directly over ice- you get a watered-down sloppy lukewarm mess. The proper way to make an iced latte is to pull the espresso. Mix it with the milk to cool it. Add ice. That way you don’t dilute the structural integrity of the espresso. It is simple. Seriously. However, Jon tried to explain this to the barista to no avail. So now, Jon just orders the espresso, the milk, and the ice separately and we mix it ourselves. But I don’t get it. It is no more difficult to make it correctly than incorrectly. But having to go through this drill every day is so… well… redundant. And I get it. These really are problems of privilege.

 

Once we had gotten a proper coffee, we moved our grumpy selves to the Sanctuary for a bit of an attitude adjustment. As we walked to the Sanctuary, by the pools, most every lounger as taken. It is so nice to know that we have a dedicated space to plop down and relax. One note about this particular Sanctuary, while there is no sound bleed through from MUTS (like on the Royal and Regal), there is some extraneous noise from the Neptune pool which is directly one deck below. Water carries sound- again, it is physics- this time, it is acoustics. They make noise cancelling headphones for this. I will note, it is better when the ship is moving vs. “parked”. The sound of the wind and waves seem to dull the distant sound of voices.

 

We hung out in the Sanctuary until it was almost time for our CC slot pull.  I have never participated in one before… so I was pretty clueless. We had about 24 people from our roll call join, so there was a lot of action. The upshot is that we all doubled our initial investment plus some! Winner winner! Chicken Dinner!

 

We grabbed a snack in the MDR then headed back up to the Sanctuary to sanctuate some more. Actually, we are waiting for tea. Then I have the CC Roll Call M&G. I think Jon has other plans. So we will catch up a bit later.

 

Tonight is formal night… and with the strength and voracity of the cabin blow dryer, I will need to plan for extra get-ready time. I totally forgot about the blow dryers on the Grand Class ships. Oh. My. I could breathe on my hair and have it dry faster… No worries. I just need to be mindful of the extra time.

 

I am going to cut here.

 

Any one have any fun suggestions on how to spend our big winnings???

 

Thanks for following along-

More later-

Tracie-Lynn

[KKB]

Could you remind me the cost of the week in Sanctuary? 

Though thinking just booking afternoons most days should be good. 

Doing B2B in July & may jump at the 2nd week since I will be solo that week.

Do you happen to know what day we would go to book the next week--assuming the day before disembaraktion...

(are all seats in the shade?)

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by KKB

[MustangGT]

24 minutes ago, KKB said:

Could you remind me the cost of the week in Sanctuary? 

Though thinking just booking afternoons most days should be good. 

Doing B2B in July & may jump at the 2nd week since I will be solo that week.

Do you happen to know what day we would go to book the next week--assuming the day before disembaraktion...

 

We started doing afternoons only a few years ago.  By the time we get going, have breakfast and do some deck walking, we were never in the Sanctuary much in the mornings.

If I remember correctly:

Full day - $40 pp

Half day - $20 pp

Full day full cruise - $30 pp

[JF - retired RRT]

2 hours ago, KKB said:

(are all seats in the shade?)

 

Depends on where the lounger is (middle?, front?) and the direction the sun is coming from. The stewards can help you pick.

[JanetGofWI]

Hi Tracie-Lynn, just started reading your posts. I was on the CP in March.  I spent quite a bit of time in Planks BBQ, working on my computer. I didn’t realize until nearly the last day that Planks has no cover charge to have lunch there . My sister and I also noticed they had a BOGO offer in the medallion app for dinner. I sure wish the server had mentioned about lunch being no charge, I would have had lunch there instead of heading up to the buffet. I did see crew come in for lunch too. Anyway passing that along. Let me know how the food is there if you do happen to eat there. We’ll be back on CP in November for B2B.

Janet 

[Thrak]

12 hours ago, TracieABD said:

We quickly wrapped up our meal- and scurried to the Princess Theater for the comedian- Don Friese. I have seen a lot of comedy on cruise ships and some of it is pretty meh. This guy was funny. Like seriously funny. His bit on the airline pilot was hilarious. He is doing smaller shows again this evening, and we will do everything in our power to be there. He was totally worth sitting in a packed theater with a KN-95 on.

 

We rounded out the evening by playing cards and drinking tea in the Atrium. The very loud singer from Crooners was back. She had toned it down a bit, and when she sang our wedding song (we are newly weds- married 10 months), we both got a little verklempt. Had  we been up in Crooners, we would have danced. As an aside, one of the best gifts of getting married later in life is the realization that you have to make every single day count. So we might be those people who would dance in the middle of the a bar- without the dance floor.

 

Pretty sure this is the same comedian we recently had on Royal Princess - 12 day Alaska round trip out of Vancouver). It was surprising to find a comedian that really "clicked" with the Princess audience. People laughed out loud on numerous occasions. It was refreshing. No "suction toilet" or "amorous shower curtain" jokes (I really hate those) but a lot of jokes that actually worked with the demographic on the cruise. It was surprising and very cool.

 

As for being newlyweds... Enjoy yourselves. We got married really young - I was 19 and she was 20 - and it hasn't always been a smooth ride but it has turned out to be totally worth the effort. We celebrated our 50th anniversary on that cruise. You just never know how things may work out. Hopefully you will have a great life together. It's worth a shot for sure. 😀

 

Edit: I haven't seen or heard the word "verklempt" in a loooooooooooong time!

Edited May 31, 2022 by Thrak

[Thrak]

8 hours ago, TracieABD said:

We hung out in the Sanctuary until it was almost time for our CC slot pull.  I have never participated in one before… so I was pretty clueless. We had about 24 people from our roll call join, so there was a lot of action. The upshot is that we all doubled our initial investment plus some! Winner winner! Chicken Dinner!

 

Wow! I am jealous. We've done 3 slot pulls from CC roll calls. We won a dollar, we lost a dollar, and we broke even. I thought that was winning!

[ranger55]

I would like to thank everyone that attend CC meet and greet it was nice to see everyone hope to see you all soon on the next voyage be safe on your journey 

[srice]

Tracie, the MTP cutoff is now at 360 days.  They have had several cancellations and the number keeps dropping but probably won't drop much more.

[Big Tiger Fan]

Tracie, Thank you for updates on the CB. We were on her in January and are returning in July.  Since you are near capacity wondering if all 3 MDRs are now open instead of only two. 
Hope you have a great cruise.

 

[Big Tiger Fan]

Planks is back open?? In January we played cards back there in the afternoons. It was a marvelous space. Did the same on the Emerald in April.

[azbirdmom]

10 minutes ago, Big Tiger Fan said:

Planks is back open?? In January we played cards back there in the afternoons. It was a marvelous space. Did the same on the Emerald in April.

No it isn’t but the seating area is open as overflow from the buffet. 

[azbirdmom]

22 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

IDEA...flush, wait 5 minutes, then do your "business". 🤣

Ha!  Well I’m happy to report that we have gone an entire day now with a fully functioning. The parts they replaced along with other plumbing wizardry performed at 3 yesterday AM did the trick. Our cabin steward showed me one of the parts. I had no clue what I was looking at but it appeared to be ancient. 

[TracieABD]

Day 3- Evening

May 31, 2022

Still At Sea (Is there anywhere else to be?)

 

Cabbage Soup

 

Hi friends-

 

The balance of our second full day of the cruise was lovely. I attending the Meet and Greet, which was very well attended by both members and officers. The officers spent a great deal of time answering questions. Most of the questions centered around the opening of the Chef’s Table (and other like events) and COVID practices and policies. We then received our “payouts” from the slot pull. Since I was the only one who attended, I collected Jon’s too, but don’t tell him… Shhhhh. It is our little secret. 😉

 

It was formal night and we decided to eat really early, so we were getting ready before 5 pm. In an interior cabin, this requires a bit of choreography. But Jon can make anything fun and silly… so it always works out perfectly. We are “dresser-uppers” for formal night. I have some lovely dresses that I only really get a chance to use on cruises. Jon is game. Thank goodness!

 

We waited less than 5 minutes for a table for 2. Dinner was French onion soup, salad with goat cheese and beef tenderloin. All was delicious- especially the beef. We found that on our last cruise on the Regal, the beef in the MDR was actually better than the Crown Grille. Because it was formal night, my boyfriend, Love- Norman Love- made an appearance in the form of a citrus hazelnut bar. Yummmmmm. Is it terrible to admit that I am only here for the dessert?!?!?

 

We made our way down to the Explorer’s Lounge for round 2 of the comedian, Don Friese- but did not end up staying. The lounge was packed. So we headed off the the IC to drink a pot of tea and play cards- (I won!!!).

 

On our way back to the room, about an hour later, we chanced upon a trivia game- 70’s Music- in the Explorer’s Lounge. We joined a lovely couple from Florida. We were in the toppish teams with 36/40- but the winning team had 40/40. They won “headache in a bottle”. We stayed with our new friends for the comedian. He was again so funny. With an entirely new set. And fast on his feet. His improv was every bit as good as his practiced bits.

 

We decided to head to the cabin and take a little nap. There was supposed to be a historic meteor shower- making an appearance at 1 am that we did not want to miss. We could not settle down. We decided at 12:30 to imbibe in our 800th meal of the day at the IC. It was really deserted but this time.

 

We headed up to Deck 15 to see what we could see, but the lights of the ship were obscuring the view, so we climbed up to Deck 18… but to no avail. However, something really fun came of middle-of-the-night foray… I discovered there is a Skywalkers on the ship! For those of you who know- I honestly thought they were all gone… for those of you who don’t, Skywalkers was a “over sea” nightclub off the aft of the Grand class builds. You take a moving sidewalk to get to it. Most of them have been removed- as (I have heard) they impacted the aerodynamics of the ship- created a lot of drag- thus wasting fuel. The last time I was in a Skywalkers was on the Star in 2013. (That one has been removed). There are only two left- the Caribbean Princess and the Grand. How fun that was to show Jon another old school feature on the ship.

 

We finally made our way back to the room and fell asleep promptly. Another wonderful day at sea!

 

Now for the explanation of the title “Cabbage Soup”. It has to do with the on-again/ off-again smelly smell. Someone suggested that it smelled like cabbage… and with that I was totally able to reframe my thinking about it- so instead of standing bilge water- I am thinking of it as cabbage soup. (And still using Vick’s when it gets too strong).

 

I think that I will cut here.

 

Did anyone actually see the meteor shower????

 

Thank you for following along-

More later-

Tracie-Lynn

[TracieABD]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Pretty sure this is the same comedian we recently had on Royal Princess - 12 day Alaska round trip out of Vancouver). It was surprising to find a comedian that really "clicked" with the Princess audience. People laughed out loud on numerous occasions. It was refreshing. No "suction toilet" or "amorous shower curtain" jokes (I really hate those) but a lot of jokes that actually worked with the demographic on the cruise. It was surprising and very cool.

 

As for being newlyweds... Enjoy yourselves. We got married really young - I was 19 and she was 20 - and it hasn't always been a smooth ride but it has turned out to be totally worth the effort. We celebrated our 50th anniversary on that cruise. You just never know how things may work out. Hopefully you will have a great life together. It's worth a shot for sure. 😀

 

Edit: I haven't seen or heard the word "verklempt" in a loooooooooooong time!

Thank you so much, Thrak. I am pretty sure at our age and stage we will not see too many milestone anniversaries, In the marriage- every day counts! Hope to see you on board soon, friend!

[TracieABD]

1 hour ago, Big Tiger Fan said:

Tracie, Thank you for updates on the CB. We were on her in January and are returning in July.  Since you are near capacity wondering if all 3 MDRs are now open instead of only two. 
Hope you have a great cruise.

 

 

1 hour ago, Big Tiger Fan said:

Planks is back open?? In January we played cards back there in the afternoons. It was a marvelous space. Did the same on the Emerald in April.

It looks like only the Palm (6-aft) and the Coral dining (6- mid) are open at this time. 

 

We have yet to see Planks/ Steamers open. Right now they seem to be using it for additional buffet seating!

 

And thank you so much!