Day 128: Grand Turk

We were awake early today, watching from the front of the ship on Deck 8 as the Emerald Princess slid into its berth across the pier from the Celebrity Constellation, already in place. By 8am, the ship was docked and cleared and we were sitting down to breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room, peering out the windows at the Constellation. On Tuesday, the Constellation will finish up a 10-night Bare Necessities nudist cruise. We had been next to the ship in Fort Lauderdale on February 6th when that cruise began, and saw nothing out of the ordinary on the open decks. Nor did we today. Sure, there were a lot of people on their balconies wearing robes, but that was the only unusual thing.

Another local time-ship time discrepancy

We had a surprising appetite this morning for the day after a Crown Grill dinner, and I had fruit and a egg white veggie omelet. By 9am we were walking off the ship packed for a beach day, but our intended destination today was not Margaritaville, nor Jack's Shack. Instead, we walked out of the Grand Turk Cruise Center and turned left down the island's main north-south road. After an easy 30 minute walk, we arrived at Governour's Beach, part of the Columbus Landfall National Park. It's just north of, and on the same stretch of beach as where the ship docks, but because of a fence on the other side of the freight dock, it can only be reached by walking out to the main road and back. 

We had two main goals for the day:  escape the noise and music and crowds of Margaritaville, and snorkel around the shipwreck that we could see from the Emerald Princess. We set our things on a large wooden picnic table, buried in sand so deeply that the seat was about 4" off the ground, inflated our floats and spent hours enjoying that crystal blue water and snorkeling around the shipwreck and the rocks in the water off the center part of the beach. 

The wreck of the Mega One Triton due to Hurricane Sandy at Governours Beach, Grand Turk 

https://www.visittci.com/grand-turk/governors-beach

The snorkeling was not impressive. Despite the fact that G later found a gorgeous purple sea fan washed up on the beach, there were no corals at all by the beach, and only a few types of fish (though I did see a few of my favorite wrasse). Mostly we just enjoyed the peace- there were fewer than ten cruisers and locals on the beach- and the sound of the waves...and seeing the sun. We didn't get a lot of that in our ports last cruise. But it was a good thing we'd gotten an early start to the day...by 1:30pm the clouds started to move in again and, by the time we packed up and began walking back to the ship, it started to rain. 

Leaving the beach, we returned to the main road until we arrived at the sign for Jack's Shack, and then cut back to the beach, walking back to the pier along the water. I think it was a shorter, but harder way to go, walking in the sand instead of on the road. 

Once back on the ship, we showered and rinsed out all of our snorkel gear and beach wear. And that was the first time I wished we were on the Royal Princess, washing things out in those much larger bathroom sinks. Actually, it's the second time. The first time was when I was trying to deal with our statement kerfuffle a few days ago at the Passenger Services Desk while Strings and Steel were playing in the Piazza just one deck below. Who ever thought that loud music near the front desk was a good system?  At least on the Royal Princess, the PSD is more removed from the main Piazza. 

It was 3:30pm by the time we had finished washing and rinsing and were at the Horizon Court Buffet. That's a tough time to be hungry. Eat too much and we'd spoil dinner; still, we were too hungry to wait until 5:30pm. I had just a small salad and a Bosc pear, and that was enough to take the edge off. We were up in Skywalkers when the Constellation sailed about 4pm, and then for our own sailaway at 5pm. Of course, we started to see some blue sky again just as we sailed (so typical).

Governours Beach is where the shipwreck is past the freight pier

An empty Margaritaville, just before the Emerald Princess sailed 

For dinner, I chose the ceviche starter and orange roughy entree. That is one of my favorite dishes, and not too dissimilar from how I prepare fish at home (though I often settle for tilapia for budget reasons). After pine-orange sorbet for dessert, we have returned to our cabin for G to take a power nap, but are shortly heading back out for the 8pm production show; Disco:  Blame It on the Boogie. It appears we won't be seeing Magic To Do this cruise; which is a surprise. The embarkation day Patter had it listed as one of this cruise's shows. Come to think of it, I wonder if something has happened to the magician, Erik Bryan. We were supposed to see him in his own show, too, and haven't yet. 

Whatever the reason, we always enjoy Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie. Other things this short cruise has not included:  the champagne waterfall, the Love Boat Disco Deck party, and lobster in the dining room. We also did not have an MTP or Captains Circle party. In their place, the top 10 couples (cutoff this cruise was 470 days) received a voucher for dinner at Crown Grill or the Crab Shack. We were the #2 MTP and received a commemorative crystal and a bottle of wine in lieu of Korbel champagne in our cabin last night. We also received one drink voucher each, though I'm not certain if that was for all Captains Circle members or just Platinum level and above. I won't bother Captains Circle host Melissa by asking her...she has been working 24/7 putting together the new member packets for all the first time Princess cruisers (over 1000 passengers!). 

One other noteworthy item...we have received four new bed pillows in our cabin since yesterday. They are wonderful, and must be part of the new bed rollout that Princess has undertaken.  Ambrish said new linens will be on board soon (I don't know if they'll be in place before we disembark). Once they are, the Emerald Princess will be among the first ships to have everything related to the new beds in place. They really are spectacular, and we are two happy cruisers. :-)

Day 127: At sea

At this point in our winter, after more than four months of travel, these closely spaced sea days are saving us. Not that we're not sleeping well (we are), nor that we're not feeling well (we are...as soon as I purchased a box of Puffs Plus lotion tissues at Walgreens two turnarounds ago, all signs of a cold instantly stopped), it's just that these days are allowing me to sit in the Piazza drinking decaf coffee and reading and people watching and G to do whatever he does all day (talking...lots of talking). Plus, we're spending a considerable amount of time thinking -and talking- about what we'll be doing next winter. That's a conversation we'll be having, with increased intensity, throughout the spring and summer.

So, with a long day stretching out in front of us, we slept until 8am. G immediately threw on clothes and left to get hot chocolate, but I dawdled a little, taking time to shower and sort through the paperwork that inevitably piles up on the first day of every cruise. Our on board statement that I thought had been straightened out is not, exactly, and so I made a list of notes on the final statement from last cruise of the errors (new ones) and omissions and dropped it off at the Passenger Services Desk. 

Still not hungry, I went to the International Cafe to get a cup of coffee and carried it over to the peace of Vines wine bar right next door. I could see out the window how pretty the day was, but considered myself lucky that I didn't feel the need to be a slave to the sun. It's amazing how much time that has freed up in my days. 

I sat there, drinking coffee and reading a book on my iPhone. One disadvantage to being at sea is that my books- ebooks on my Kindle apps on iPhone and iPad and audiobooks on Audible- are not instantly synced. How did we ever survive without cloud syncing?? Cruise staffer Lucy from Brazil MC'ed the fruit and vegetable carving demonstration for this cruise starting at 10am, and the Piazza briefly filled to overflowing, but then it half-emptied again, back to the normal level of activity. 

Much can be said about these shorter cruises, but I can't disparage them at all. Of course, the passenger demographic is different. There are many first time cruisers on board, and still more first time Princess cruisers. On this particular short cruise, falling over a holiday weekend, there are plenty of kids. An intolerant person would find lots to upset him- shorts and baseball caps in the dining room at dinner, dishes left in the hallways and elevators, chair hogs everywhere on the open decks, kids in the adults only pools- but it would be foolish to book these cruises expecting it to be different. The fun part is viewing the excitement with which these passengers approach the 'same old, same old' cruise activities such as fruit and vegetable carving and last night's production show. It makes it more exciting for us, too. It's kind of like seeing Christmas through a child's eyes.  

I met G in time for lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room. Our waiter, Worawut from Thailand (I think I spelled that wrong the last time I mentioned him) is a wonderful guy. G and I ordered only salad topped with chicken breast, but Worawut brought three types of dressing...and a plate of blue cheese crumbles to go with. We both looked at each other and said, at the same time, "Spoiled". We are so spoiled by certain members of the crew. Worawut took some time to tell us about the camping trips he takes in Thailand with Suttipong and the other Thai waiters we know when they have their vacations together. If we can't have Sutti, Worawut is an excellent substitute. 

With no plans for the afternoon, I went to the fitness center to do weights and some cycling, and use the steam room. When I returned to the cabin about 4pm, G was changing to go to a hot tub. I changed too, and followed him, but was deterred by the 26 people sitting around the edge with their feet in the hot tub. No thank you; I returned to the cabin for some quiet closet time.

We were meeting Chief Roddy at the Crown Grill at 7pm, and after I was showered and dressed for the evening, I got so hungry waiting for G to finish that I was ready to eat the only food we had in the cabin:  breath mints. It was nice to go to dinner with an appetite. I had scallops and salad and a filet mignon. And several lobster tails, of course. :-) Accompanied by a nice Pinot noir, it was a wonderful meal. Three and a half hours later (none of us are exactly shy and quiet types), we returned to our cabin. It had been a wonderful meal and a good day. 

We had missed all entertainment tonight (there was a mentalist performing in the Princess Theater), but I am quite content tonight to finish reading about- well, you know what- in the the latest issue of Sports Illustrated that I had downloaded on my iPad on turnaround day.  The afterglow continues... ;-)

Day 126: Fort Lauderdale (turnaround day)

I don't have much to report after an unremarkable turnaround day today in Fort Lauderdale. Maybe that's not quite right; we were the only ship in port today, and turnaround day when we're the only ship in port is a remarkable thing, like a whole different sport. It was funny...while we were walking down 17th Street, most of the other people also walking down 17th Street were crew members from the Emerald Princess, so there were a lot of familiar faces. 

Also noteworthy:  the Emerald Princess turned and docked at Pier 2 in Port Everglades without waking us up this morning. I can count on two fingers the number of times that's happened in the past, out of nearly 50 cruises. It was the door slamming around us about 7am that finally woke us up, and we immediately went down to breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room. We both splurged today, and had blueberry pancakes after our orange segments. We usually stay away from pancakes (they're not the most nutritious breakfast) but knew we'd be having a high-protein lunch. And they were very splurge-worthy. 

About 10am we walked off the ship, once again being escorted to the front of the immigration line with our Global Entry cards. But today it only saved us about 5 minutes; there was no line at all when we disembarked. We first walked down to Office Depot, where we faxed our ETrade statements to Princess in California to secure the CCL OBC for our last cruise. We split up then, and G went to Chase and I went to Walgreens and bought just some hand soap and another bottle of Barefoot Bubbly. We met up and were back on the ship right at noon. 

The day was sunny (finally!) and dry but very cool. It was only 48F when the Emerald Princess had arrived early in the morning, and I think the high for the day was 70-ish. But it had been a perfect day for a walk. We went to the DaVinci Dining Room for lunch and discovered a very different menu for this 4-day cruise. 

G was thrilled to see chateaubriand- the 'old' embarkation day lunch beef- back on the menu. I had the salmon and  he ordered the beef...and then he ordered another serving of it. We split a 375ml bottle of Chardonnay and I left him still eating and drinking and walked back off the ship into the terminal to make some phone calls and use the free wifi to download some magazines and books on my iPad. Honestly, after 2pm or so, the terminal is a more quiet and peaceful place to sit than anywhere on the ship. 

One of my calls was to Princess shareholder relations to intervene in an effort to get that OBC applied. We had already electronically submitted the info twice and then faxed it again today; time was running out.  By 3:15pm I had finished everything I needed to do, and a few minutes after I heard the horn sound the muster drill emergency signal, I reboarded the ship. By then, everyone was at drill and it was fast and easy to get back to our cabin. 

Sailaway was celebrated with Barefoot Bubbly on the Terrace Deck. Dinner was necessarily light; I had just a seafood entree....and flourless chocolate cake for dessert, of course. G skipped dessert altogether but later picked up some ice cream from Scoops. We were thrilled to see that the Welcome Aboard show on this short cruise wasn't a Welcome Aboard show at all, but instead production show I Got the Music. We hadn't seen it in a few cruises. In fact, last cruise, 5 nights long, we saw only two shows:  Welcome Aboard with Dan Riley and Farewell show with...Dan Riley. The rest of the nights were taken up with MTP and Captains Circle parties. And watching the Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50, of course. Have I mentioned that lately? ;-) (Today, I did really, really, REALLY enjoyed getting caught up with the media coverage that followed that game). 

And that's all we did tonight. One of the Piazza entertainers whispered to me this evening that this short cruise over Presidents Day weekend is going to be very interesting. It will, but it's not anything we didn't see last year on the short Caribbean Princess cruises. I may need to hide in our closet every so often to decompress, but, if the weather stays nice and people can be on the open decks, we should all survive just fine. 

Fingers crossed. 

Cruise #7: 4-nights to Grand Turk

Day 125: At sea

I don't have much to report about our day today. I didn't go to breakfast (our late dessert yesterday evening had ensured that I wasn't hungry first thing this morning), but had coffee in the International Cafe before once again waiting in line at the Passenger Services Desk to deal with our onboard statement issue. I am happy to report that we received a message on our cabin phone tonight that it appears to have been resolved. Yay Princess!!

But that really did take up much of my morning. I had just a little time to take apart my Fuji XP80 camera to see what might be wrong with it, and let me take a minute to talk about that...

I haven't needed my new waterproof camera nearly as much on these Caribbean cruises as I did in French Polynesia, but still appreciated having it on beach days. It had performed perfectly until yesterday when we were climbing Dunns River Falls. Nothing happened to it that I could tell, but it suddenly stopped working. Still, I was happy to take at least a couple of photos before it refused to take anymore (though it still turned on and did everything else). I took it apart last night, removed the memory card and the battery, and left the case open overnight, wondering if water had somehow infiltrated the casing. 

This morning, when I put it back together, it worked for a few photos, then stopped again. Even worse,  it erased the photos that had been on the memory card. Luckily, I had downloaded most of them already, but a few of them are gone forever. In French Polynesia, this would have been catastrophic; in the Caribbean, it's been a minor inconvenience. Fortunately, for $25, we had purchased a 2-year warranty on the camera, but even without that, it was a Sam's Club purchase less than a year old. We're covered either way. 

I will give G his due though...last summer, I had been looking at cameras more in the $400-$500 range, but he had talked me out of it, saying that a waterproof camera is a purely expendable item. I think he was right. :-(

G and I went to lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room and I had gazpacho (I could consume Princess gazpacho by the bucket-full) and a chef salad, and then went with G to the Internet Cafe as he printed out an E-trade statement we needed as faxable proof that (warning: excessive acronym usage to follow) we own CCL shares to secure our shareholders OBC for the cruise that we've added since we've been on the Emerald Princess. Tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale is our drop dead date to get that submitted. 

Then we retired to Vines, the one bar next door to the Internet Cafe, where I revisited my bottle of Merlot that is stored there. Cherry served me some tapenade and hummus with pita chips to go with it and I was in heaven. Really. Tapenade, hummus and a glass of wine...I can't think of a better way to spend a cloudy sea day afternoon. 

Speaking of cloudy, our weather this cruise has been abysmal. I think we've seen the sun for less than an hour in five days. Of course, for G and I, trying to avoid the sun, that's been a good thing, but even we would have appreciated less wind and swells. For those passengers on the Emerald Princess for an escape from winter, it's been considerably more disheartening. 

We left Vines, where I had been drinking wine, to go to the Grapevine Wine Tasting to drink more wine. We had made plans to join Dan and Dawn, who remembered G from Christmas on the Emerald Princess two years ago when he hosted the Cruise Critic meet and greet. Frankly, I think G was thrilled to meet up with someone who knows him for himself and not as G through this blog. ;-) I consumed more wine (are you starting to see why I don't have more to report for today?), and we stayed very late talking with Dan and Dawn. We also, for the first time, saw waiter Rafael from Mexico who had been on the Pacific Princess with us last fall. We love when that happens!

G squeezed in a visit to the hot tub on the back of Deck 17 but didn't stay long. He said it was a huge party up there of 30-somethings who had met on the cruise and he decided to leave them to their fun. We went to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room with Victor and Darko (not that one) and took the bottle of wine we'd been awarded at last night's Captains Circle party. Except for the time we were #1 MTPs and received a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne, we've been trading the Korbel champagne awarded for second and third place for wine. G trades many of our minibar items in for beer, and I drink the wine and happiness reigns. 

We both had the tamarind salmon tonight; sure, G had it as an appetizer before he had a NY strip steak, but the point is that he ate fish!!!  I have been raving about the tamarind salmon that is now appearing on the menu the final night of each cruise, and he was brave and decided to try it...and loved it, too. Paired with a Sauvignon blanc (still more wine) it was delicious. 

Out of the window by our table on the port side of the ship, we could see a lighthouse on the end of a peninsula on Cuba's north coast. We found our location on Google Maps and estimated we were just 12 miles off the coast. Friend CubaGreg is working on a plan to get us even closer. We can't wait!

Dessert was simple, just a scoop of dark cherry sorbet each, because dessert #2 was enjoyed later in the Horizon Court Buffet:  red velvet cheesecake (me) and a brownie (G). It's the only night of the cruise that we double up on dessert. Honest!  In between, we saw comedy guitarist Dan Riley's performance in the Princess Theater. We had spent part of Super Bowl Sunday with Dan and learned we won't be seeing him again this season. We'll miss him; his shows have certainly been well received on these cruises. 

Our plans for tomorrow just involve typical turnaround day activities. Faxing the ETrade statement to Princess from the Office Max on 17th Street tops the list. We need a little more cash for extra tips, and a couple of minor items from Walgreens, but that's it. We already know that the Emerald Princess is the only cruise ship in port and will be at Pier 2, which certainly makes everything easier. And I've warned G that I need time- major, uninterrupted time- to watch and read all the news coverage about Super Bowl 50. Have I mentioned the Denver Broncos won it?  I know I have, but have I mentioned it lately?

;-)