Day 3: At Sea

Whew, this was a full day at sea. It is 11pm as I start this post after beginning the day with breakfast at 8, and we slowed down only long enough to charge our phones and take the first showers of the cruise. 

Simply stated:  we were not crazy to take this cruise. In fact, we were very, very wise. If we hadn’t taken a chance and stepped outside our comfort zone, we would never have realized how much we love this ship. Yep, this small ship fan loves this ship. And I am confident of this because I spent the entire day exploring and walking and enjoying and exploring and walking and enjoying. I *think* we’ve covered all of the decks except for the spa area in Deck 6 and Deck 5 (all cabins). I’m pooped tonight!

G slept in a bit, but I went to breakfast in the Sanctuary Restaurant, and, though he did finally join me, it was close to the closing time of 9:30am and we went to the Eatery for him to get an omelet. 

To get to the restaurant, I walked aft on Deck 9 and
entered the upper level of Piazza, with this view.
Nice way to start the day!

We walked up to the Eatery (buffet) and right into Restaurant Manager Mihai from Romania who we hadn’t seen since we spent three months with him on the Ruby Princess in Australia just before COVID. What a pleasant surprise!! We sat out on the outside deck along the starboard side of Deck 9 while G had his breakfast, then explored the Wakeview Pool area on the back of Deck 8. 

We spent the remainder of the morning exploring the upper levels of the ship, including the Dome which had been closed for an event when we tried to see it yesterday. It was the only place that had no loungers available about 11am; the remainder of the pool areas had plenty of empty loungers. 

The outside area at the very front of the ship was closed due to wind, which meant the outside portion of the indoor-outdoor pool was closed off, too. I wonder if it’s ever open while the ship is at sea. 

We went to lunch at 11:30am so I could get to an enrichment lecture at 1pm, but I’m not sure we’ll make a big effort to get to the Sanctuary Restaurant for lunch most days. It was the standard dining room menu with no special items (though I’ve heard they’ll make just about anything you want). 

I swing into Princess Live on the way to the Arena for my lecture, because we’d learned that MTG Joyce, who I’ve hadn’t seen in person in ten years though we stay in touch on Facebook, and also new cruise friends Michael and Zennie who we met on the Emerald Princess were on board and they always do trivias. It was nice to see them all again!  They are first and third most traveled guests (we are fourth this cruise). 

The enrichment lecture on Life in the Tropical Seas was right up my alley. Naturalist James Engman (a retired marine biology professor) is excellent. But the best part was the quality of his slides and the visual quality of the screen in the Arena. It is shockingly good. I have a lifelong vision issue where I don’t see a lot of depth, and this screen was like looking through an old tine Viewmaster (remember those?) that I used for the fun part of my vision therapy when I was a child. It was shockingly good; the fish seemed to swim off the screen. 

More exploring followed, but our phone batteries were exhausted (we’re having to use them constantly to navigate the ship) so we eventually returned to the cabin about 3pm and got cleaned up for the evening. 

I think my very favorite part of the ship has to be the cabin bathrooms. The shower is the best one I’ve ever used on any ship. The storage space, the lighting…it’s all good. The only issue I had was the Drybar hair dryer wouldn’t stay plugged into the European outlet at the desk,  G offered to stand there holding it in the outlet  (really…so sweet) but, while he was doing that, he discovered another one above the refrigerator and that one did work. 

Just two of the several drawers in the cabin hold nearly all my clothes with lots of room to spare. 

We stopped in the Elite Lounge in Princess Live on our way to dinner at 5:30pm. Dinner has already become the highlight of our days.  Waiter Somphot from Thailand and Junior waiter Man from Nepal are so sweet to us, and both nights so far we’ve ordered from the special items, which, if they’re even available in the main dining rooms, would cost extra. I’m betting that G is going to have a filet mignon every single night of this cruise. I opted for the salmon tonight, and it was brought around in a carving station. I added the broccoli I have every night and it was a delicious dinner. 

Restaurant Manager Ray carved me the first piece of salmon coulibiac tonight

We left without dessert and coffee to get to tonight’s Arena performance by Janet Martin, and is there anything that lady can’t do?  She played violin and sang while doing aerial stunts and played guitar and piano. It was an excellent show. 

From there we went back to the Sanctuary Restaurant for cappuccino and G had ice cream, then to Princess Live for comedian Tom Simmons. He was pretty good, really funny at times. 

We went up to the Dome to see what it looked like lit up at night but couldn’t stay awake long enough to attend the after party with the DJ up there. 

This water feature is two stories tall

The loungers in the Dome are heavily padded

It is now midnight, and I’m going to wrap this up. I’ll fix its many, many typos tomorrow morning; right now I can barely keep my eyes open. Fun days wear me out!

Day 2: Embarkation on the Star Princess

I’m starting this post at 8:30am on embarkation day. Believe it or not, we are already parked on the benches outside the check in door at Terminal 2 in Port Everglades. We had an Uber pick up for 8am at the La Quinta and that went very smoothly.  I might have questioned G’s wisdom in having me reserve such an early transfer but the driver today said at least ten times that we were smart to get here so early. We could see the dozens of police vehicles getting set up to direct traffic into and out of the port. This isn’t the busiest Port Everglades day we’ve ever witnessed (that honor belongs to the Sunday before Christmas 2003, 50000 passengers, but I’m sure they’ve since broken that record), but it’s still a busy one. G promised me that I’d have a bench to sit on, and I do, and it’s actually a lot like life:  hard, but good. 

A little more about our day yesterday… our Uber driver to the airport was the most fascinating guy I’ve talked with lately. He was a fashion photographer in New York until 9/11 wiped him out, physically, financially and emotionally. In that capacity he had several dealings with Donald Trump and the Trumpettes. I jokingly asked if he got paid and he said only after six bounced checks and then only partially. It was a fascinating walk through the world of Epstein and drugs and modeling and sex trafficking, a world that I, coming from a Catholic girls school in the Midwest, could only imagine. If he could have driven us all the way to Fort Lauderdale, I would have loved the ride. 

We were happy, given our United Basic Economy tickets, to finally get assigned seats just under 24 hours before our flight. We were both in row 36, and each had a window. G wondered aloud if perhaps the person in the middle seat next to him might be willing to switch with me so we could chat all the way to Fort Lauderdale. 

🤨

Um, the correct question might instead be if I would be willing to give up my four hours of peace, quiet and a window seat to sit in a middle seat and chat about all the things we got done during seven weeks at home and what our to do list looked like for the rest of the summer.  And that answer would be a hard NO. 

We did have Starlink WiFi that was smoking, and power ports in each seat, and I watched videos all the way to Fort Lauderdale and it was simply wonderful to have the uninterrupted time to do that.  No leg room, of course, especially with my backpack being stowed under the seat in front of me, but I was still able to stand up at the end of the flight, so I count that as a win. 

No issue getting our luggage, but, as I said last night, things went a bit south when we were waiting…and waiting and waiting…for our “free” shuttle to the hotel. It didn’t help that things were just so packed at the airport; it was well after dark and all I could see as I watched for a white bus (and they were ALL white buses) with La Quinta on the side were headlights. After well over an hour and several phone calls to the hotel (and being told time after time that the bus was just coming into the airport), they agreed to reimburse our fare there. Had we known that we would be waiting that long, we would have Ubered at the start ($38 for a 4 miles). 

We finally made it to our room at 11pm and crashed…and then got up 7 hours later to have a quick breakfast and catch our Uber this morning. The La Quinta 20 years ago was our go to pre-cruise hotel in Fort Lauderdale but it has gone downhill quite a bit. I stuffed up immediately from the mold in the room (or a prior animal occupant, who knows?), but it was generally clean and just under $200 which, if you’ve seen the prices for hotels around Port Everglades lately, is about as cheap as they get. 

So, back to today. We were actually in our Star Princess cabin and G was unpacked before 11am. We rolled on both our large suitcases, and they absolutely did fit through the security scanner (this is always debated online). Several other people did also, so if you don’t want to wait until after dinner on embarkation day to get your luggage, give it a try. But it could slow down your embarkation if you can’t safely manage the escalator with your suitcase, and I can’t imagine it working if you have more than one suitcase. 

Sunrise from the La Quinta

We got an Uber for $30 which worked out to be the same price

My first impression of the Star Princess was almost exactly what I’d expected it would be:  this ship feels an awful lot like the Carnival Jubilee we cruised on out of Galveston in late 2024. Part of it, I’m sure, is that it is just as new as that ship was, with the same contemporary styling. In fact, the Piazza is very reminiscent of an area called Center Stage on the Jubilee. But we both returned to that thought several times today. The Carnival haters may deny it but the truth is that this ship is as much Carnival-feeling as Princess. 

We were invited to drop the luggage we’d carried on in our cabins, but were warned that they wouldn’t yet be ready. But our steward was just vacuuming ours and said we could move in right away. And that is how we both came to be unpacked before we went to lunch. Meanwhile, while I unpacked, G ran down to the Celestial Dining Room to meet restaurant management about our dining reservation. 

Just between you and me, I almost didn’t want to go on this cruise, for one reason only. When we booked this cruise, the only traditional dining that was available was a table for 6 at 7:30pm. That wouldn’t work on any count. I feared a repeat of our initial Emerald Princess experience, and our initial Ruby Princess experience and longed for the days when we booked a cruise and a traditional dining experience was pretty much guaranteed. 

We don’t have friends in high places, but apparently we have friends who have friends in high places, and, for this cruise at least, our luck changed. We will be dining in the Sanctuary Restaurant for all our meals. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, what was I saying about dreading this cruise?   I guess the first thing I’m eating is my words.  This is a windfall beyond description. 

Welcome gifts, too!

(No, w’re not in the top 3)

However, I had already gotten us a table in the Aurora Dining Room when G found me with this information, and we were hungry so we just ate lunch there. It was not the usual Embarkation Day menu, but something closer to, but not as extensive as the lunch menu we’ve seen on other ships. I ordered the quinoa salmon poke bowl and it was a disappointment. There was perhaps an ounce of salmon and had white rice instead of quinoa. Princess is getting fast and loose with its menu descriptions.

Lunch with a view!!

After we finished, we returned to the cabin to recharge our iPhones and let me talk about our cabin. Simply stated, we love it. The storage, though completely different than on other Princess ships, is ample. I can finally see why G gets so irritated at the nine decorative pillows I have on our bed at home. We have five fewer here but they are simply in the way, and because our room can accomodate a third person, that extra bedding is stored under the bed and the pillows won’t fit there.  The cabin is smaller than other Princess cabins, but we expected that. Still, it’s large enough, nearly new, with lots of USB-A and -C power ports and fantastic lighting. The bathroom is a wonder, with a much larger shower (laughably larger compared to a Grand Class shower) with a glass door in lieu of a curtain. That alone makes this ship a winner. 

We are having trouble getting the ventilation straight. We have the fan turned all the way down and the heat turned all the way up and are freezing in here.  Turning the system off  doesn’t stop the fan. That extra comforter for the third bed?  It’s already been put to use. We’ll have to figure this out tomorrow. 

We were up on deck for the sailway party (a lot of fun, begging more comparisons to Carnival) and then watched as we sailed out of the Piet Everglades Inlet into the open ocean. It’s been at least ten years since we’ve done that (I kind of swore off Florida for awhile which, considering we once contemplated moving there is saying something). And I actually teared up for a minute remembering how much Mom used to love watching us on the Port Everglades webcam  as we left on our cruises. 

We changed for the evening and went to the Elite Lounge, held in Princess Live from 4 to 6pm (frankly, a little disappointing, food- and staff interaction-wise, without the live music we’ve come to enjoy on other ships), then went to our first dinner in the Sanctuary Restaurant, and how, oh how, will I ever return to normal life?  

We walked through The Eatery on the way back to the cabin (I’d imagined we’d be eating all our dinners there) and it looked nice but I can’t say anymore than that about it at this point. It was too chilly to step out to the outdoor dining area there. We passed by the International Cafe and it looks fantastic, listened to some live music in the Piazza and called it a day. 

We are here.  Life is good. :-)