I slept until 9am this morning! Slept like a baby...I have a good sleeping mattress; G, sadly, got the bad one this time around. He's going to have to address that, or have a deformed back by the time we disembark after 28 days. (It flattens down to nothing.) I may, in a separate post, tell you just why I was so exhausted last night. Or not. We'll see...it's definitely blogworthy (it's a great story) but will also be easily misunderstood. That's why I'm holding off another day to consider it.
So, back to this morning, waking up after 9am, without a headache for the first time since Wednesday (yay! My sinuses were in shock after first returning home and then leaving again so soon). G was putzing around in the cabin, which looks shockingly empty and organized. Did we really bring that much less stuff with us for this round of cruises? I guess so. We did bring three larger suitcases, simply because they were free on Southwest Airlines, and it's nice to pack our wetsuits and snorkel gear separate from formal clothes, but they weighed in at 35, 37 and 41 pounds at the airport yesterday, far less than our usual four suitcases of 45 to 48 pounds each. What I'm seeing in our neat and tidy cabin is reflective of that. I love it!
I was instantly reminded of last night's issues when I went into the bathroom. We had no washcloths to wash up after a night's sleep. This was ridiculous. G went into the corridor and snagged a single washcloth off of Antonio's cart but said he didn't feel right grabbing even two; Antonio only had five on his cart (for 18 cabins?!? What the heck is going on?). I quickly claimed that single washcloth (I really didn't feel like I had completely removed my makeup last night, using just fingertips to wash my face) and G appropriated our single hand towel for use as his washcloth. This is like camping!!
We also didn't have our Elite minibar yet, on Day 2 of a 7-night cruise. Craziness. I phoned Room Service again and put the phone on speaker while I got dressed. It took that long for someone to answer. No, they hadn't gotten all the minibars delivered last night and ours was on tap for this morning. Geesh, we usually like taking a couple of beers with us to Princess Cays, but then we've never had this issue before. We decided things would look better after coffee and breakfast...
...or not. We went down to the International Cafe (hereafter IC) on Deck 5 in the Piazza for some fresh brewed coffee. We had clearly missed breakfast in the dining room, and so decided to follow our pattern set on the Grand Princess of having a bacon, egg and cheese muffin from the IC for breakfast. While they had always been freshly made, hot and tender on the Grand Princess, we both received one where one side of the English muffin was as hard as a rock. We couldn't even bite into it. G gamely removed half the muffin and started to eat his as an open face sandwich, but I have my limit, and the Caribbean Princess was strongly testing it. I went back up and asked for a different sandwich, with a muffin that I could bite into (I helpfully demonstrated that I could not even bend the muffin with my fingers, it was so hard). In response, I was given two sandwiches. I only asked for one, but it didn't make any difference; they were both similarly hard as rocks on one side. This was silly, and, frankly, I have no patience with such incompetence. Back up I went (as G tried to hide in the Piazza) and explained that this was simply not acceptable. I really needed a sandwich I could eat, and they needed to know that they were serving inedible food. The chef went back into the kitchen and got a fresh muffin sandwich, put it on the panini press for not nearly long enough, and handed it to me. Well, it certainly wasn't overdone but it also wasn't warmed through. But that was all the strength I had in me to do battle before breakfast; I took it and ate most of it. We then went up to the Horizon Court Buffet and got some fresh fruit to go with it.
Back at our cabin, we tracked down steward Antonio and asked about the washcloth situation. He finally admitted that the ship didn't have nearly enough, and that they keep ordering them but they were not arriving on turnaround days. This is also ridiculous; it's not like this is a ship on the other side of the world dependent on restocking every three weeks or so. This ship is in Fort Lauderdale at least every seven days. They can't get a container of washcloths to stock it? Can't they knock on the side of the Royal or Regal Princess and ask to borrow some washcloths?? I have truly never heard of such a thing. I am going to go to Ross Dress for Less on turnaround day and buy some damn washcloths.
By noon we had still not received our Elite minibar, but decided that if we wanted to go to the island for lunch, we needed to get going. Just then, there was a knock on the door. Our minibar had arrived!! Score one for the Caribbean Princess! Finally!!! No apologies for its tardiness, of course, and the beers were not cold, but beggars (and, by this point, we truly were begging) can't be choosers.
Not our best Princess cruise start, but everytime I tried mentioning that, G would cut me off. "Negative waves, babe. No negative waves!" And, of course, he was right. We are going to salvage this cruise!
A ride to Princess Cays on the open top of a tender went a long way to make things right. The day was warm in the sun, but the breeze made the shade feel cool, and the net effect was that it was a perfect day, weather-wise, if one did not intend to be in the water. I did see several people swimming and snorkeling, but far fewer than normal. We simply went over to get lunch, and I got my favorite chicken topped with balsamic dressing, salad, coleslaw and cucumber salad. We took our lunches to two lounge chairs right by the water near the feeding pier and soaked up some sun (armed with Tilley hats and SPF50, of course). Princess Cays never fails to remind us of all that we love about the Caribbean: clear blue water, colorful water toys, tropical vegetation and live Caribbean music.
We got in line for a return tender about 2:30pm. The line was long, but moving fast, and by 3pm we were back on the ship. I immediately went to the bar on the Terrace Deck (Outriggers?) to get a fuzzy water when those negative waves found me again. The bartender informed me that I did not have the correct soda sticker for this cruise and asked if I had bought one for this cruise. Uh, yes, I did, this one, yesterday during lunch in the Coral Dining Room. Well, I had the wrong sticker. He explained that what I needed to do was go to the Passenger Services Desk and get a copy of our statement showing I had paid for a sticker and then take it to the Calypso Bar, the only bar that still had the stickers today. Okkkkkkkaaaaayyyyy...
So, back I went to the middle of the ship, down to Deck 6 where I saw a very long line (no surprise to me) at the PSD. Luckily, I was able to wait in the Suite/Elite line, which was much shorter. Normally, I don't take advantage of that, not wanting to be helped in front of others, but today...today I was feeling a bit differently. The rep who assisted me insisted that I did, in fact, have the correct sticker, and started to explain to me about the three different drinks stickers Princess sells. :-| I told her I was familiar with them, and that I had paid for the least expensive one and simply wanted a beverage, but was having trouble getting one. "Well", she explained, "You can only get certain beverages with the sticker you bought. What were you trying to get?" When I told her I was trying to get soda water, she replied that I should have been able to with my sticker and wanted to know who had misinformed me.
I asked for a copy of my statement so I could show it to a bartender as proof that I had, in fact, purchased a Soda Package and she hesitated. "Well, there's an issue. It hasn't yet posted to your account. Did you really purchase that sticker this cruise?"
Negative waves, babe. Negative waves.
I told her where and when I had purchased it, and she went behind the wall and returned with a stack of receipts. One by one she went through them, until she found the one that I had signed yesterday in the Coral Dining Room. When she found it, she said I was all set. Well, not quite. The bartender at the bar closest to our cabin seemed to think otherwise. I asked for a copy of the receipt to present as proof of my purchase, and she made me one. I then took it up to the Calypso Bar where I asked the bartender if I had the correct sticker. "Oh no. You have to buy a sticker every cruise. You can't use the one from last cruise. That's cheating!!"
Negative waves, babe. Negative waves.
I produced the copy of the receipt, showing that I wasn't cheating, and told her I just wanted the correct sticker and a large soda water, easy ice. And, 20 minutes after I went for a fuzzy water, I finally had one. When I returned to the cabin, I saw that we had TWO hand towels and one washcloth from our morning service. Things were looking up! And remember, we endured 120 days with the Steward Nazi two winters ago. We can do this!
While I was fighting that battle...er, resolving that situation, G had decamped to a hot tub. Smart man! He returned and asked why I had never shown up to join him. When I explained the latest situation, he reached his limit. After he showered for the evening (he got to use the sole wash cloth tonight; we take turns!), he went down to have a chat with Passenger Services, only the second time in 69 Princess cruises that he's felt compelled to do that.
At 5pm, we met up in Skywalkers for the Elite Lounge. One whiff told me it was Breeza Marina night; herbed goat cheese was in the air. Yay! Bartender Armando made me the best one I've ever had, and I enjoyed my favorite hors doerve (hor doerve?) of the cruise. On a "what are the odds" note, we talked with a man, 89 years old, who said he had just completed a cruise on the Oceania Marina. When asked, he told us the cruise started in Valparaiso, and I added, "And finished in Papeete on January 4". He was dumbfounded and asked how we knew. We told him we had watched his ship sail into Papeete harbor that morning from our hotel room balcony. Really, what are the odds of that?
Almost as unbelievable, our cabin steward looked familiar from the first time we met him yesterday, but we couldn't place him. By last night he had figured it out. He had been our cabin steward on our 5-night cruise on the Royal Princess in October 2013. He also remembered that we had been moving to the Emerald Princess for the rest of the winter. That he remembered us was amazing; that we'd have the same steward on two different ships in two different years is even more so. He was a great steward; this wash cloth situation is not of his making.
Dinner had a few new regional choices on it, and they were quite nice.
We had hoped to get to production show "Born to be Wild" at 7pm, but when we arrived in the Princess Theater, it was standing room only. We did stand for a part of it and decided it was good enough to come back for the 8:30pm show. We went to listen to the duo playing in the Wheelhouse Bar and returned to the Princess Theater at 8pm for the show...and got two of the last seats. Oh yes; we're back to needing to arrive 30 minutes early for a show.
Born to be Wild was very good, not the best we've seen, but I enjoyed the music and the pink Cadillac (really! There was a car onstage!) and the smoke and pyrotechnics. Having slept until 9am, we were full of energy tonight, and headed to the Explorers Lounge for the 50s and 60s Rock and Roll party at 9:30pm. It was huge fun, and we really loved the music of band Epithanie (that's not a typo). We stayed until the end of that, then went next door to the Piazza for the 50th anniversary balloon drop party, where busy Epithanie also played. That was a lot of fun, too, and I took some video I'll try to post in St. Thomas (so nice to be able to do that!!).
It was a great evening, topped by our return to the cabin where we discovered not none, not one, not two but FOUR washcloths and two hand towels. I hope this doesn't mean someone else is doing without tonight, but things are definitely looking up.
I believe there are no bad cruises, just occasionally bad moments on a good cruise. What kind of challenges/fun will tomorrow bring? We can only imagine...
