Turn Around Day, January 27 - All Aboard

Turnaround Day

Of course there is no chance of sleeping in today, at 6 am we are coming into port and you can feel it. We are not in any rush but we do want to give our cabin steward some time to get the cabin ready for the next passengers. So we are showered and packed up by 8:00 am and we head up to Aloha to see Elisa our new cabin steward and she says it is fine for us to move our suitcases into the closet until later so this is what we do. Now Princess will gladly move the suitcases for you but they are so busy with the total ship clean up that we don’t want to add to the work and we are only moving two flights up on the same area.

Many have asked why we are moving, couldn’t we have booked the same cabin, etc. So here is the details, when we originally booked these two cruises we booked the same inside cabin C721 for both legs. But last fall the price dropped $150 per person for both legs so we decided to upgrade only the second leg to a balcony and this is why we had to move.

There are quite a few in transit passengers and we are called to the dining room for 10 am and we are told their that because of the sanitizing that is needed to be done we will be escorted off then clear customs then taken back on board but will be in held in Club Fusion until the ship is cleaned. In the end we were escorted off at 10:30, went thru customs and were back on the ship around 11:15 and waited in Club Fusion until 11:45 (juice, coffee, water, tea, papers were on hand for us). In all it took a little longer than usual but it was done very professionally and most passengers didn’t mind. Of course if you wanted to head ashore and do some errands you could of and then you just come back on at your leisure.

We just went back to our cabin and unpacked everything and got settled. We went ashore around 12:30 and went to Starbucks, Total Wine and Publix. We had a lovely meal at a Mediterranean restaurant and then we walked back to the ship.

bar is all set for the sailaway

Since we are in transit we were able to skip the muster drill and we went up to the Sun deck to enjoy the peace and quiet before everyone comes up for sail away. Colin and Gwenda meet us and they come up with a bottle of champagne to toast the voyage. We then head to Skywalkers for the drink of the day, margaritas and a few laughs.

One issue we have with our cabin is the cabin across the hall from us (an inside A745) smokes cigars in his cabin. The smell drifts into the hallway and thru the vent in our door and into our cabin, our cabin stinks of cigar smoke! We mention it to the purser’s desk and they will look into it. According to the Patters and the notice sent to each cabin cigar smoking is not permitted outside of the Speakeasy. But it looks like the Purser’s desk doesn’t want to deal with as the manager called this morning saying “well there is nothing we can do if they smoke in their cabins” I quoted the policy but he hummed and hawed…. So we thankfully brought duck tape and we have taped over our vent in our door. Too bad that someone can ruin it for so many and no one seems to really care. This so far has been our only beef, not bad and we will not let it ruin our cruise.

Dinner is back in the Da Vinci dining room where Francesco has been able to accommodate us in the dining room at a table for 8 at 7:45. The meal is great and it is so nice to enjoy with good friends.

After diner we are both so tired and we are back in the cabin and resting and soon are sound asleep. The next two days are sea days and we know that we will get lots of rest then.