Day 128: Wasting away again in Margaritaville

Darn, it was fun. Really, really fun. Here in the Opposite-land that is these Caribbean Princess cruises, we slept late, ate breakfast all alone on the beautiful Terrace Deck overlooking the turquoise water of Grand Turk and then, around 1pm-ish, finally walked off the Caribbean Princess. We HAD to sleep late...we had had another late night on the ship, getting sucked up in the frenzy that is happening in Skywalkers every night until after 3am. 

It's madness I say. Madness!

We walked as far as Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, which is to say, not far at all (it's right at the end of the pier at which the Caribbean Princess was docked). Much like when we cruised for 7-nights on the Allure of the Seas, we are letting ourselves just go with the flow this cruise. Of course, what flowed today were margaritas (for me) and music (Salt! Salt! Salt!). Our fellow cruisers provided the best entertainment, but by the time the DJ played MJ, even I had to get up and dance. On the spectrum of cruise experiences, this cruise is as far from our 16-night cruise from Papeete to Los Angeles on the Pacific Princess as one can get, but we are lucky to have enjoyed ourselves immensely on both. 

Caribbean Princess docked at Grand Turk 

Beach by Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville (G calls it Milliondollarville, because that's how much Mr. Buffet is making here every day).

The pool at Margaritaville is a nice alternative to the beach.

G's drink of the day...

...and mine. And I won't say just how many of each were consumed (but our bill added up to a good percentage of our cruise cost).

In our single good deed of the day, I bundled up several things we've accumulated (shot glasses, Coke tumblers and Elite amenities) and delivered them, as well as a small gift, to Samantha at Effy jewelers in the cruise port. The day after I had fallen in St. Thomas, G stood in Effy writing out postcards, and Samantha, seeing how very bad I looked, offered me a seat, brought me a water bottle and kept me company. She was very sweet when I most needed it. 

Funny how that, around 3:30pm, the DJ at Margaritaville stopped broadcasting and the party started to wind down. I guess it takes that long (all on board was 4:30pm) to get people in shape to walk back to the ship. Luckily, in Grand Turk, it's not a long trek.  The security staff at Margaritaville was pressed into service helping inebriated passengers back to the ship, using a wheelchair when necessary. We didn't drink that much, and had no trouble getting back under our own steam, and subsequently showered and went up to Skywalkers for sailaway. I stopped by Vines on the way to dinner to get a different glass of wine to have with dinner, and what a dinner it was. We. Were. Starved. I enjoyed five courses, and G had six (he thought my pasta fagioli soup looked good and so ordered it for himself). A leisurely two hours later, we returned to our cabin for a brief lie-down. The show tonight was magician Alex Ramon, who is wonderful but...well, it's a repeat for us. 

My choice of dessert, when it's offered, is always pavlova!!

We were still in the cabin when there was a knock at the door. It was steward Antonio with the laundry we had turned in just last evening hanging in one hand. After I thanked him, he pulled out from his other hand, hidden behind his back...washcloths!  I gave him a silent happy dance and he doubled over, silently laughing himself. Clean clothes are nice; clean washcloths are something to get excited about. 

The big event of the evening was the 50th anniversary Love Boat Disco Deck party.  It's a repeat; too, but we did not want to miss it, with these cruise passengers. The weather was picture perfect, and the deck around the Calypso Pool was packed with dancers. The funnest part is always the Love Boat theme song singalong. Imagine 500+ people singing the Love Boat song at the top of their lungs. When I used to watch that show, who would have imagined that all these years later I'd be on a Princess ship singing the theme song at a deck party?

The production company dancers dressed in YMCA-type costumes for the party.

And, finally, Captain John Foster gave us an update today on the ship's norovirus situation. Apparently, the number of cases has not dropped and we will continue under Code Red for the remainder of this cruise (no surprise there...it only lasts one more day). Frankly, it also wouldn't surprise me if we are under Code Red for the entire length of next cruise (5-nights), too.  Caught between a certain snow shovel and a possible stomach flu, we're choosing the latter and staying on for one last cruise of the winter. 

Day 127: At Sea

Today we witnessed the intensity of a sunny sea day on a 4-night cruise, and, especially with this one falling so perfectly over a weekend, it is really something to see. The shops are packed, the casino is packed, bingo sessions are packed, the photo gallery is packed, the bars are packed. As a CCL shareholder, this pleases me to no end. As a passenger on this ship, I'm hiding in the corner of the closet in my cabin until it's safe to come out.  ;-)

No, really, everyone is being very friendly and upbeat. The Patter is chock full of activities to keep passengers occupied and happy. The same sorts of events that are offered on longer cruises are happening here, just at a faster pace. And they are all extremely well attended. I tried to get into Wilson Jean-Baptiste's steel drum class this morning, arriving five minutes after sign ups started, and ten minutes before the class began, and every drum was already taken.  Even at drummer Antonio's Festivals of the World Caribbean drumming circle, nearly every instrument was in use (but I snagged the clappers today!). Just as in previous cruises, the class grew by at least 50% from start to finish, including my own husband, who came looking for me and ending up getting involved, and, when it was over, everyone agreed that it was great fun.  

I chose not to purchase a soda sticker for this four day cruise. Our minibar items are arriving too fast and furiously, and G has been trying to keep up on his own and failing miserably. I am lending a hand this time around, drinking gin and tonics and Perriers (they're just fancy fuzzy water!). In the end, it's probably for the best. Every time I've walked past a bar, there was a crowd of people around it three rows deep.  It was confided to me that 600 of the all inclusive drink packages were sold ($50 per person per day), more than ever in the past on this ship. It seems like everyone is walking around with a drink in hand, all the time. 

We skipped breakfast altogether and met in the Coral Dining Room for lunch. I had the best lunch dessert I've ever had, a peach crisp with marzipan. Wow, that was yummy. It's on the lunch menu with the chicken Caesar salad, so look for it if you'll be taking a Princess cruise. After Antonio's drumming circle, I returned to Club Fusion for the Passenger Feud game show.  Probably due to the expected popularity of it, the BOGO Happy Hour, usually held in the Wheelhouse Bar from 3 to 4pm daily, was also held in Club Fusion at the same time, and that made for a fun and rowdy Passenger Feud.

G and I met up in the cabin where I had some closet time to decompress. He watched a movie on TV (not sure which one, but it was LOUD!  It was leaking through my earbuds while I was trying to watch the third episode of Season 5 Downtown Abbey on my iPad). Tonight's suggested dress was "dress to impress", which was a new one for us. Dress to impress?  We had no idea what to expect. I wore my silk kimono and G wore his best tropical shirt and we fit right in. We saw everything tonight, including one man in a tuxedo. Most men wore either long sleeved shirts or sport coats; women's wear ran the gamut from capris to dresses. 

We stopped by Vines, the wine bar on board, before dinner in lieu of going to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers. People watching is just so much fun on this cruise, and it's much better done in Vines, on Deck 5 in the Piazza, than in Skywalkers. We hit pay dirt when a wedding party walked through the Piazza right after the ceremony took place. Weddings are a spectator sport for me; I loved seeing that!

Our dinner menu was the 50th anniversary menu we first had on the Grand Princess, with that same heart-shaped dessert. It's the fifth time we've enjoyed it, and we are still enjoying it, very much. Our beef tenderloins were fork-tender. There is no Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall on this cruise, but there was a 50th anniversary balloon drop in the Piazza at 7:15pm. We've seen several of those by now, so instead went to the Princess Theater to get good seats for production show Pianoman. Love that show!!

We are taking a brief break and heading back out tonight to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to the Massina Duo. The lead female singer from party band Fresh Power has laryngitis, and the singer from Massina Duo filled in with 20-minutes notice tonight when the band played for the balloon drop. There was a private party (the reception for the wedding that took place today) in the Wheelhouse that kept it closed until 10pm, and it was fortuitous that Massina wasn't needed in the Wheelhouse until then. 

No new news on the norovirus. We're still under Code Red, and probably will be all this cruise, but don't know if the cases of it are increasing or decreasing. We're steering clear of the buffet except in cases of extreme hunger (so...not often), washing our hands 250 times daily and not eating anything with our fingers and staying happy and healthy. 

Cruise #13: Just a day at the beach!

Day 126: Fort Lauderdale (turnaround day)

Well, the sky did not fall today, a deep cleaning turnaround day for the Caribbean Princess. It was all handled efficiently and professionally and, after we checked out the winter weather on the webcams back home, we couldn't imagine any other place we'd rather be than in warm, 83 degree Fort Lauderdale with another cruise to look forward to.

Onward!

We didn't get up as early as we wanted to (shock!) but still easily made it to breakfast in the Palm Dining Room. We spent some time in our cabin sorting through the inevitable paperwork influx that occurs on every turnaround day and, mid morning, decided to walk off the ship and do...something. There had already been an announcement that embarkation was delayed, and in transit passengers (those staying on for another cruise) should meet in the Princess Theater at 11am instead of 10:30am, but when we walked off, though the immigration line in the terminal was long, it moved steadily. Once through the terminal, we decided to skip the Water Taxi today (it was extremely windy and cloudy, though it was warm) and any attempts to meet with a realtor to tour some condos in Fort Lauderdale. Instead, we opted to hop on the free shuttle to the Galleria Mall and see what the day brought there. 

The free shuttle was a beautifully equipped touring bus (actually, there were most likely two of them) making the 5 or so mile drive to the Galleria Mall continuously (or continually?  Heck, they both work!) from 9:30am to 4pm. We rode there along the beach, down Ocean Blvd., and, once we'd been dropped off, first went across the street to Starbucks (the food court in the mall was being renovated). While we were on that side of Sunrise Blvd., we also went into the Publix Supermarket right there to get a couple of things:  some contact lens cleaner, more Wet Ones hand wipes and foaming hand soap. We had tried to get through these 28 days just using the round bars of soap provided in our cabin, but the norovirus on board forced us to give up. Psychologically, to us, bar soap does not seem to clean as well as foaming antibacterial soap. 

We sat outside the Apple Store in the mall for awhile, using the free wifi while G downloaded some TV shows from Comcast TV2Go, and I downloaded more magazines onto my iPad using the NextIssue app. We were just two of several Caribbean Princess in transit passengers there doing the same sort of thing. We went to PF Changs for lunch (one thing we don't get a lot of on a cruise is Chinese food) and caught a shuttle back to Port Everglades about 3:30pm. Traffic was bad and it took nearly 30 minutes to go 5 miles, reminding me of one of the reasons we moved out of South Florida 25 years ago. 

Arriving back at Terminal 2 at around 4pm, we walked right back on the ship. And once on board it was just a usual embarkation day, with music in the Piazza and people eating at the International Cafe. We dropped our purchases in our cabin and got showered for the evening while the muster drill was taking place at 5pm. Sailaway was at about 5:45pm, and we watched from Skywalkers for as long as we dared, not wanting to miss our table at dinner tonight, the first night of the cruise, by arriving too late. 

With just two sea days and one port on this 4-night cruise, I will use internet minutes to upload menu photos, showing the new regional items, Internet speed permitting. They really are the most blog-worthy photos I'll have. 

Paradise Island Fruit Salad

We made it to the 7:45pm show of comedian Phil Tag. His funniest line:  Armoire is French for "no room for the husband's stuff". Yep, that's what it means at our house. ;-). It wasn't a typical Welcome Aboard show at all; no singers and dancers, no Princess slide show. I guess they didn't want to waste time on that on this short cruise. I'll point out other differences as I come across them. Big news:  piano entertainer Bert Stratton came onboard today. I wanted to go to see him at 9:45pm, and still might, but G is done for the day (I think he wants to watch one of his new TV shows on his iPhone). 

This is our first Princess cruise of only 4-nights, though we've done one on Celebrity years ago out of Seattle. We're curious about how this cruise will feel the same and differently from the 5-night cruise that just ended, which seemed to follow the usual Princess format (Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall, formal night; Captains Circle and MTP parties), so I'll be posting some information about that over the next three days. 

As for our fellow passengers on this 4-night, (mostly over a) weekend cruise...there are many younger, working adults, of course, some families and many seniors, too. And several small groups of women of all ages cruising together. Everyone we've talked with so far is on for only four days, but I'm sure there are many here for this cruise and the next, another 5-night cruise. And there were nearly 700 in transit passengers who stayed on from last cruise. We've learned that the most traveled passenger has nearly 1000 days on Princess, only the top 10 couples receive a voucher for specialty dining (we're going Sunday night), and the cutoff for that was 440 days. 

We have no formal nights this cruise, just one "Dress to Impress" night tomorrow night. No Captains Circle party, no MTP, and only one port, Grand Turk, on Saturday. We received free drink coupons in our cabin in lieu of the Captains Circle party (I want to use mine for a new Chocolate Journeys drink).  There is an Elite Lounge in Skywalkers every evening. We did get an Elite minibar setup as usual. I can send in laundry (it's been getting back the very next day every time I've sent some in). So, for the most part, it seems like a typical Princess cruise. We've heard no grumbling at all about the delay in boarding today. Everyone seems happy to be escaping the cold, even if only for a few days, though the people we've talked with are combining this short cruise with a visit to relatives or friends in Florida or a trip to Disney. 

A new cruise means new passengers bringing on board new energy and new excitement. It's one of our favorite parts of doing back to back cruises. The other:  Instead of waking up tomorrow and facing an all day snow-shoveling session, I'll wake up to just another day in paradise. 

Life is good. :-)

Day 125: At Sea

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. 

Tandoori Beef Wrap

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.