The Crown Plaza perfectly suited our needs for a one night stay. The bed was sooooo comfortable, the shower was in a bathtub but I survived, and we had wash cloths and hand towels and bath towels. Oh my! Take note, Princess. The TV was very small but we never even turned it on (not even to watch Monday Night Football). We were tired last night!
It started to sprinkle while we were in the shuttle going to the ship, but, at Berth 93, we had a covered area to wait under until we could get into the terminal. This won’t go down in anyone’s memory as a stellar embarkation, and, as we’ve seen in the past, we’ll never know the whole story behind the delays we encountered, We heard that 1) the ship was late arriving; 2) disembarkation didn’t start until 8:30am; 3) USPH was on board for inspections; 3) the CDC was on board for inspections and 4) they were waiting for a saxophonist to complete the band. 😉 I know the ship wasn’t late (I watched it arrive on the ship’s webcam) and I’m inclined to exonerate the saxophonist, so it was most likely one or all of the other reasons. Whatever, we were in the Botticelli Dining Room just after it opened at noon for lunch, armed with a healthy appetite. Half a cheese stick doesn’t have much staying power.
I was so thrilled at lunch to meet up with Cruise Critic poster “that” (quotation marks mine, because this sentence just looks wrong without them 😉), who recognized me while waiting in line for lunch. It’s fun to put faces and real names with Cruise Critic names.
Our cabin was ready when we finished lunch, and I unpacked my backpack and waited for my suitcase to be delivered…and waited and waited. I heard frequent activity in the corridor but discovered it was simply my neighbors checking for THEIR luggage to be delivered. G had rolled his suitcase on, so I appreciated knowing others around us were playing the same waiting game I was. Luckily I had showered at the hotel this morning and the clothes I’d worn for two days were not an affront to my fellow guests at dinner, ‘cause that’s what I ended up wearing.
The sail away party had to be moved to the Piazza due to rain, so we skipped that, and, since we had crapped out getting a table arranged for dinner during the day, at 4:15p we both lined up, him outside the Michelangelo (traditional) Dining Room on Deck 5 and me outside the Anytime Dining Room on Deck 6 to see what we could get.
After 45 minutes of waiting, he got nothing, and, since I was first in line, I got a nice table for two next to a window (in fact, a table we’ve had many, many times on previous Emerald cruises)…for tonight only. No amount of cajoling would get us assigned to that table for the remainder of the cruise. As for the Michelangelo Dining Room, the high number of in transit passengers had every reservation locked up in there until late dining. So how do we get one of those tables for next cruise? We’re not sure, but it’s good to have goals. In the meantime, for the next nine nights we will be waiting outside the Da Vinci Dining Room on Deck 6 to get a table. And, yes, we had phoned the Dine Line on land and that 45 minute waste of time yielded nothing.
Happily, our servers Rex and Raol were wonderful, and dinner was delicious. But we are left to wonder about what has led to the degradation of the dining system on Princess. Certainly the introduction of Reserve Dining is part of the reason, but one would think it has been offset by the introduction of the Premier package with its unlimited specialty dining.
And speaking of Premier Package, we spoke with a couple at lunch who had just upgraded to it when they got on the ship and then immediately had trouble getting reservations for a table in any restaurant on any night at a time they wanted. Is there any joy in dining Mudville?
The Princess Theater shows are scheduled at 7pm and 9pm, which makes for quite a rush at dinner, particularly when one has to wait in line to get in. Tonight’s show was one we saw just a couple of weeks ago, Alfred and Seymour, pretty ridiculous stuff but it did put a smile in our faces, not an easy task on an embarkation day as rough as this one. But we’ve cruised enough to know that embarkation days are hard. Things will be better tomorrow. They always are.
And, speaking of better, my suitcase was delivered while we were out for the evening. Fortunately, I packed with those frequent cabin changes in mind, and unpacking was quick and easy. We certainly know the cabin storage situation in an inside cabin on this ship! We move clocks ahead an hour overnight, so I suspect we will have a bit of a lie in tomorrow morning.
