The fun continued today on the Caribbean Princess, as we maintained our participative ways and attended several activities. Our stellar (Really. That's the only word for it:) weather also continued. Unlike our days spent in the Eastern Caribbean, the Western Caribbean has brought us nothing but sunny skies, warm temperatures and calm seas. It's like a bathtub out here. Unfortunately, we continue to be plagued by strange and heretofore unexperienced shortages, and the one black cloud in our maritime universe remains the dreaded norovirus, causing a few bad moments in an otherwise good cruise.
We were up early, having set an alarm for 8am. On a sea day? Yes, on a sea day. We were informed by Captains Circle host Yuki that there will not be a Most Traveled Passenger party next cruise, which is only four days in length, and that, in its place, we will receive a voucher for dinner at a specialty restaurant. Now, between you and I, this is our favorite MTP perk of all, better than a cocktail party and much better than a luncheon. We have also been hearing grumblings on these short cruises from passengers who are receiving a specialty restaurant dinner as part of the 1-2-3 booking promotion but who can't get a reservation, or can only eat at 9:30pm, due to the limited availability. We did not want to have a similar experience, so I phoned the DINE line a few days ago and was told that reservations for next cruise would be taken starting at 8 this morning. Hence, the alarm. We were able to get a reservation in the Crown Grill at 6pm the evening we wanted (the last night of next cruise). We're looking forward to it!
It would take an army to drag me to the buffet on these days, so when we missed breakfast in the dining room, we chose breakfast in the International Cafe. Luckily, the cook with whom I had experienced Muffin-gate now always serves up fresh food with a smile (or confides in me if all he has left will not please). Little things on the Caribbean Princess just seem amiss: some days we place our coffee orders at the IC at the end of the counter; other days, we'll have a line there only to be informed that we should go directly to the barista area, and get in line there behind people who arrived after us. Unfortunately, these sorts of things are not going unnoticed by passengers, and, with half the passengers on board being new to Princess, are not leaving the best first impression.
I made it to Wilson Jean-Baptiste's morning steel pan drum lesson in Skywalkers, then met up with G for lunch in the Coral Dining Room (calimari and chef salad for me). I've found some of the food on the Caribbean Princess to be the best we've enjoyed this winter (especially the fish, which is always perfectly prepared) with a couple of exceptions. Too many things are served frozen. Not cold...frozen. Butter patties always, but today's dessert of blueberry roulade has been rock hard the two times I've had it on board, and inedible.
Following lunch, I attended magician's Alex Ramon's magic class in Club Fusion. I keep trying to learn tricks that will entertain the twins, as entertaining them gets harder every year. I was on the right track; every 8-12 year old boy on the ship was there (as well as at least 50 grandparents who share my goal) and, though I had to leave early to go to the wine tasting, I actually learned three tricks. Now, if I can just remember them later...
Grapevine wine tasting could have turned into a major gripe session, as frustration levels among both passengers and crew are starting to rise a bit, but the headwaiters took control and asked people to hold off on personal discussions so others could enjoy the wine tasting. Go them! I'll get into the frustration part later in this post... Still, once again we witnessed something that I've never seen on any ship except the Caribbean Princess: they are out of the souvenir shotglasses usually given away with each wine tasting. First Washclothgate (which still occasionally occurs) and now Shotglassgate. On a ship that was just in Fort Lauderdale four days ago. It's a mystery to me. The wine, however, never fails to make the event enjoyable, especially after the headwaiters tamped down any negative waves.
We had just enough time to get showered for the evening and go up to Skywalkers for Breeza Marina night at the Elite Lounge. We were served our herbed goat cheese (and all other hors doerves) by junior waiters (no self-serve), but at least we had them. The view from up there on Deck 18 of a mirror-smooth sea and the sun preparing to set directly behind the ship was spectacular. That was Skywalkers at its finest.
Dinner presented another of what we've started to call a "Caribbean Princess moment". There was a new menu tonight, again with several familiar items but also some of the new regional specialties. On the upper left corner was an entire paragraph about johnnycakes and their history in the Caribbean. It ended with the suggestion that, to try johnnycakes with our dinner tonight, order the Bahamian fish stew. Well, I love seafood and I like cornbread, so I did. I had my starter and then was served my fish stew and was part way though it before I realized there was no johnnycake. I mentioned it to Marian when he checked to see if we were happy with our meals, and he sent Slava back to the galley to get one. Slava eventually returned with (you won't believe this) a silver dollar sized brioche on a plate. There were no johnnycakes. They never made johnnycakes. And the galley tried to pass off a brioche as a johnnycake. Geesh...just admit you don't have them. Don't post a paragraph on the upper corner of the menu describing how johnnycakes are made from cornbread and then pass off a brioche as a johnnycake.
Bahamian Fish Stew sans Johnnycake
Johnnycakegate is just another example of how there seems to be a passivity when it comes to providing a truly quality cruise experience on the Caribbean Princess. Not that we haven't had a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves, because we have. It's just that it seems as if no one cares that there aren't enough washcloths, no one cares that food is served that's inedible because it's rock hard, either because it's not fresh or because it's frozen. Or that an entire menu is built around an item they forgot to prepare. It's certainly not typical of our past Princess cruises.
We made it to the Princess Theater for comedian Troy Thirdgill's first show tonight, and spent 45 minutes laughing, which went a long way to pushing any negative waves out of our minds. He is one funny guy. Then we watched the 50th anniversary balloon drop in the Piazza before going to Explorers Lounge for another session of 50th anniversary trivia.
We checked with cruise staffer Theo who was running it...he said that there would be an entirely different set of questions this cruise, along with five of his own, so we felt we could rightfully play. This time, the questions came right off the Love Boat Q&A that we had watched on MUTS for an hour leading up to the Love Boat Disco Deck party just two nights ago; they weren't about Princess Cruises at all. And this time we walked away with Princess water bottles as our prizes. Go us!
We are heading out again tonight for an activity called Quest, to be held in Club Fusion. Now, Quest is a regular activity on Royal Caribbean, but I've seen it only once before on Princess. It is usually highly entertaining, and we don't want to miss it tonight with this ship's Cruise Director's entertainment staff. They have been the stars of these cruises for us.
And, finally, when I logged on to Internet last night to publish my blog post, I saw that we had received an Emergency Notification email from Princess about the Caribbean Princess being deep cleaned during turnaround day tomorrow, delaying the boarding of new passengers until at least 2pm. This was not a huge surprise; we already had been talking about how to spend our day in Fort Lauderdale if that was the case. In transit passengers (and there are over 600 of them) will be held in the Princess Theater for two hours while the ship is sanitized, and even then can't return to their cabins until at least 2pm.
The good news is that we don't have to be on board until 5pm, instead of the usual 3:30pm, and we're thrilled about that. Princess is also offering a free continuous shuttle to Galleria Mall for those interested in shopping. We plan to either buy an all day pass on the Water Taxi or tour a couple of condos with realtors (if we can get that set up). Either way, we'll be away from what will inevitably be a rough turnaround, with delayed boarding on an already short 4-day cruise, and the resulting negative waves.