Sunday, November 3, 2013

Day 6: Disembarkation from the Royal Princess

I am typing this post in absolute disbelief.

You know how I always say there is no sleeping in on turnaround day; between the thrusters spinning us around into Port Everglades and fellow passengers slamming their cabin doors, we've never slept past 6:15am or so, even with no place to go.

Well, our cabin on the Royal Princess is so quiet, we slept until 7:30am. EST. Yikes! We had to rush to shower and pack our final things (over the door shoe rack stuff, toiletries, night stand items) and vacate the cabin. Even then we were a bit late, at 8:15am. So sorry Antonio.

Dragging all our carry ons, we quickly toured the front corner mini suites and the deluxe balcony cabins on the front of Lido Deck, and a sideways inside cabin (see other post on that) and are settled in at the outdoor seating just forward of the Horizon Bistro. We had our first ever breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet, and I've learned that if I just look confused about where to go (not hard to do), there is an immediate offer of help. I got my usual scrambled egg beaters and salsa, and fruit (the egg beaters came from the buffet, not the bistro).

In a first for us, we are not disembarking until 11:30am. That's late! We're among the five last groups that all disembark at the same time, and it's perfect for us today, but I wonder if the Royal Princess disembarkation will always run so late.

Last night we had a bit of a scare...it was almost 11pm when we set out our four humongous suitcases, and I phoned the PSD to make sure t wasn't too late. I was assured that they would be picking them up until midnight. Good.

At 1am G got up and peeked outside our cabin door...the suitcases were all still there. Hmmmm...I phoned PSD again. "2am madam; they will be picked up by 2am". Okay, no worries. At 3:30am I woke up...still there. I phoned again. "By 4am madam. They will be picked up by 4am". Well, a bit worried then, we wondered what would greet us in the morning. Thankfully, they were gone. Whether they appear in the terminal at 11:30 is another question. Stay tuned...

These five days have been a blur of beaches and blogging and exploring. I feel a bit like a reporter trying to collect all the facts...and that's work! I'm looking forward to "diary days" on the Emerald Princess, but first...another ship!

Photo 1: notice on the balcony door of all the forward facing cabins.

Photo 2: the Nieuw Amsterdam and the Allure of the Seas in the distance

Photos 3 and 4: minisuite L106