I'll start with a confession: it is actually the next morning as I finish this post. I started it last night and got...not far. In fact, I had so little written when I fell asleep that I've simply changed any "todays" to "yesterday" and "this mornings" to "yesterday morning". I think this is the first time I've slacked all winter, but, luckily, today is a sea day, so I'll not have much to type again tonight.
We docked yesterday morning at Pier 4 in Port Everglades in total darkness, a result of the time change. Close to us at Pier 2- in fact, so close I couldn't get much of it in one photo- was the Royal Princess.
Later, after the sun had risen:
We had been looking forward to yesterday for a couple of months, as we were going to have our second Bon Voyage Experience (BVE) ever on a turnaround day. Last year we toured the Caribbean Princess, and though we'd already cruised earlier this winter on the Royal Princess, we were anxious to go back and refresh our memories about some of her features.
We had breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room, served by dear Fin from the Philippines. We weren't in a huge rush; we knew that we weren't going to be able to get on the Royal Princess until all the passengers that were disembarking today were off that ship and they had achieved a zero count. Just before 9:30am, we walked off the Emerald Princess. Going through immigration was a smidge slow, despite the fact that there were five ICE agents checking passports and customs forms today, but on a Sunday with seven cruise ships in port, it went as well -or better than- we might have expected. It was about 10am when we finally exited Terminal 4...and walked across the parking lot to Terminal 2. When we had booked this BVE in January, we had never imagined that, on a busy Sunday, we would be parked "bumper to bumper" with the Royal Princess.
The Royal Princess bow on the left and the Emerald Princess stern on the right:
Luckily for us, the entire BVE check in process in Terminal 2 was handled perfectly today (much unlike our check in for the Caribbean Princess last year, when they didn't know what to do with us). I had completed the requisite registration on line with passport information, and printed out our boarding passes, which looked exactly like the boarding passes that required to embark on any cruise. While we were waiting to board the Royal Princess, we posed for our free embarkation photo...in front of a Waikiki Beach backdrop. Really? It's been almost a year since this ship launched, and they haven't had photo backdrops of it made?
We had just a bit of a wait, but were quite content using our iPhones to pay bills, check accounts and make phone calls. At 11:10am, Royal Princess Future Cruise Consultant. Nikki Beare greeted us and led us up the gangway. We've known Nikki for years, since she was a cruise staffer, and the last time we saw here she was heading off the Emerald Princess to go backpacking in South America. Big hugs, which were watched with amusement by the other two people doing the BVE. Then we stepped on the ship and immediately encountered a security officer whom we had gotten to know very well last winter on the Emerald Princess. More hugs ensued, at which point the other lady doing the BVE asked, "Do you know everybody?" No. In fact, those were the only two people we recognized the entire time we were on the ship. They just happened to be the first two we saw. ;-)
We opted to show ourselves around the ship, and not take a guided tour. In fact, we were people on a mission: to see the cabin we have booked for next winter again, and answer some questions about it that have popped up in our minds. We knew that we needed to hurry, and that the cabins would soon be locked in preparation for new passengers coming onboard. Still, we took a second to take in the -WOW- view of the Piazza, which is simply gorgeous.
While we were standing there, we took a photo of that notorious mid-ship staircase that is closed to passenger traffic above Deck 7. Here's how it's blocked off; a half flight of stairs goes up from Deck 7 with a door at the top.
And since we were two of the first four people on board, the door to the crew-only stairs was still wide open, and I snuck a photo. This is what all the hulabaloo is about: the fact that these stairs have not been furnished to passenger standards and are closed to passenger use. They're there; they're just not for us.
We then hurried up to Deck 16, Lido Deck, to see our cabin again. We were in luck; the cabin doors were all still open. We snuck in and took lots of photos, most of which are similar to photos we took and I posted last October, so no repeats will be posted here. We wanted to verify storage capacity, and which way the bathroom door opened. It's opposite our door on the Emerald Princess, which means that I'll need to reinforce that side of our over the door shoe rack that lays under the bathroom door handle. Over the course of several months, that tends to rip if not reinforced.
While we were on Lido Deck, and the cabin doors were all still open, we peeked into one of the four sideways inside cabins up there. Though the closet is a bit narrower, there is definitely more storage in the sideways cabins. The vanity is a bit longer, and still has the three narrow open shelves at one end that we use on the Emerald Princess to house G's baseball caps, the hair cutter, etc. The cabin we've chosen for next year doesn't have those, and we'll have to rearrange a bit when we sail on the Royal Princess. What I don't like about the sideways inside cabins is that one long wall of them is the corridor wall, and the very plain door opens directly into the bed area. Noisy, and absolutely no privacy. I can just see me in there dressing as G walks in, with anyone in the corridor getting an unwanted show. No, we'll put up with slightly less storage to get more privacy.
That conclusion reached, we walked across all the open deck areas on the top of the Royal Princess. There were still no other passengers on board, so we were provided with a wonderful opportunity to get some people-free shots (the kind which, I had quickly learned ten years ago, are impossible to get in China).
The splash pool and main pool areas, with those fountains (grrr...) in the middle:
Lots and lots of loungers:
Movies Under the Stars (MUTS). I hadn't realized how far from the screen most of the loungers are.
The adults-only Retreat Pool:
The $40 per day Sanctuary:
By the time we got to the Sanctuary, the first passengers had boarded, and there was a line of people waiting to purchase their passes, so the $40 per person per day price tag clearly has still left plenty of demand. Kudos to Princess for raising the price (now maybe they need to lower it for cooler weather itineraries!). The people waiting in line nearly had a fit, thinking that we were getting or seeing or doing something before they could. We had to explain that we were just visiting, and were actually off the Emerald Princess, before we were allowed by passengers to pass. Oy. We've been nearly run over on embarkation day on the Emerald Princess by people racing to the Sanctuary; there has to be a better way to reserve loungers there!
Another nice seating area just aft of the Retreat Pool:
Up on the walking/jogging track, an area we are most looking forward to using:
Love, love, love this outdoor exercise equipment:
We next went to lunch in the Concerto Dining Room on Deck 6, where we were served by delightful waiter Luigi from Italy. In fact, that was the biggest surprise of the day for us: how friendly and welcoming every crew member we encountered was. It was not that way last October; in fact, we had consoled ourselves at that time with the knowledge that crew friendliness and service levels change over time. Well, obviously so. The embarkation day lunch menu is a bit of a disappointment compared to other Princess ships we've been on, and by that I mean it doesn't feature the salmon I enjoy so much. It does offer trout, but Luigi warned me against it, so G and I both had the chateaubriand and a glass of house red wine and the hazelnut soufflé for dessert.
By this time G was talking- seriously- about canceling the Emerald Princess cruise leaving that day and trying to get on the Royal Princess. I spent lunch trying to convince him that that was just not going to happen; even if there were empty cabins on the Royal Princess, I know Princess reservations well enough to know that we would not be able to book one. G kept saying that the Royal Princess was "a hundred times better than the Emerald Princess". Well, it certainly is prettier...
Then we left the dining room, and everywhere we went on the ship was crowded. Very crowded. And obnoxiously noisy. A party band was playing in the Piazza (this is welcome aboard music? Soothing piano or strings music is so much more welcoming), and a Sheryl Crowe concert was BLARING on MUTS. It was all noise and people and the elevators were basically unusable. We started noticing that, in the Lido Deck pool area, which would basically be for us what the Terrace Deck is on the Emerald Princess, there is no escaping the masses and the noise. Of course, this was a 7-night cruise crowd, which is decidedly different than a 10-night cruise crowd, and I would expect (hope) that Princess will tone down some of the party tone of embarkation day for the longer itineraries next winter, but it definitely felt at odds with Princess's new TV commercials for their new tag line, "Come Back New".
Luckily, G stopped talking about jumping ship from the Emerald Princess to the Royal Princess that day, and stopped saying the Royal Princess is "a hundred times better". More realistically, he admitted that, while some things were better, others were...not so much.
Before we left the ship, we returned to the Vista Lounge to see if the seating there had been improved at all since November. No, it's as nonsensical as ever. How does anyone manage getting into or sitting in those swivel bucket seats?
But I did love the granite on the tables and took photos to put in my kitchen re-do idea folder. It looks like maps to me:
Just before 3pm, we collected our complimentary embarkation photo and left the Royal Princess. We needed to walk over to Walgreens and get back to the Emerald Princess by 3:30pm. The day had turned hot, and we were definitely feeling the heat coupled with the pace of our day. We reboarded the Emerald Princess just in time, grabbed a Barefoot Bubbly and headed for the (quiet!) Terrace Deck. The Emerald Princess was docked bow first at Pier 4, which provided the best view imaginable to watch the other cruise ships sailaway, as we were facing almost directly down the entrance channel. The Emerald Princess sailaway was delayed until 5:30pm, due to luggage and stores loading issues at Pier 4, so we were able to see five ships sail before ours.
The Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam and Royal Princess sail:
As soon as we had finished the bottle of bubbly and sailed ourselves, we didn't even take time to shower, but went directly to Dinner with Darko. We dined slowly, clearly missing the 7:15pm Welcome Aboard Show, but went to the Princess Theater for the 8:45 show. I didn't last...they were playing a blaring playlist while we were waiting for the show to begin, and my exhaustion, coupled with, by that time, my complete intolerance to more loud music and "party" atmosphere, had me fleeing for the cool quiet of our cabin. I started this post, got about a paragraph into it, and fell asleep. That's what I needed to "Come Back New".