It is early in the morning of our last sea day of the
crossing.
Last night was a formal night
and neither of us felt like dressing up.
I had just spent five hours working on my Montevideo and Buenos Aries
presentations and all I wanted was a drink and some food. Plus it was almost 8 pm!
So we wandered up to the buffet (love that the Patter lists
the theme of the buffet each night) and enjoyed a lovely meal. Have to comment that for lunch I went into
the buffet to grab a salad and they were totally out of lettuce (on both sides
too). So I patiently was waiting by the
salad bar when a nice chef came over and asked if he could help.
When I said I was just waiting for the
lettuce to replenish he said “they had to go all the way downstairs to get more
and it be a bit of time”. I said oh that
is okay I will just get everything for a salad, minus the salad part (which
still tasted great because of all the options you can add to that plain
lettuce). He even offered to bring a
bowl of lettuce once it arrived, but I said I am okay. Again amazing service here on the Crown
Princess.
Okay back to last night.
Although the food was great this was the first night when
service was really lacking up there. We
have never had to wait long normally for water, or drinks but tonight not a
single server approached us asking if we wanted anything (finally just got up
and got our own). On this ship the cutlery
is wrapped and in holders on the tables.
But there was no cutlery on our table or the three around us. And while we sat there not one table had their
holders filled either. I know it is not busy here tonight (it is a formal
night) but it was quite noticeable how poor the service was considering how
great it has been most of the voyage.
I have enjoyed the food in the buffet but because it is the
old style there is just not enough room to have the huge selection that we had
come to love on the Royal or even the Caribbean Princess with their new World
Fresh Marketplace.
I also find I eat a whole lot less at the buffet and usually
make better choices. In the dining room
I order a starter and then a main and sometimes dessert. Often there is more food
I am served and I am full before I can even finish my entre. But with the buffet I normally get one plate
and it is rarely full and a lot of it the salad bar.
So some random thoughts of the cruise:
The passengers have been very different from other longer
voyages. A lot of friendly people. Most will engage with you in the public
areas. A lot of good mornings, etc as
you pass in the corridors.
Not as many people in scooters than I have seen on previous
cruises. Although there is one woman who
is in a scooter that I finally had enough of.
The other night we dined in Crown Grill and I had to get up and use the
washroom. When I was returning and
walking along Promenade towards the restaurant she appeared beside me and was
zooming towards the entrance and the hostess.
Well she was also heading right at me on an angle. As I got toward the entrance I finally had to
put my hand out and shouted STOP.
Thankfully she did as she would of slammed
right into my legs. I know she was desperate
to get there before me, but she was not going to do that safely and plus I
already had a table I went directly to. Oh
and her husband was a good 30 feet behind her. Okay I am not proud of that, but
I am proud that that was the first time I kind of lost my cool – but it was not
safe.
Have really enjoyed getting to know Deb of Debsdays.com
better. We originally met her and Ed on
the Caribbean Princess this summer but this voyage we have gotten the chance to
sit and chat more with them.
Deb even took some time out of her sea day to listen to one
of my Port Lectures so she could give me some feedback.
Really appreciated that and it was quite
helpful. Yesterday we got the chance to
head up to the teen club (since there are no kids on board they open it up from
2 – 4) to play some skeet ball. Felt
like a kid again. And it was quite
busy.
We have really loved our cabin. Of course when we booked so close to sailing
there were not a lot of options in cabin but we knew we wanted forward. We secured B203 the very first forward inside
on Baja deck. We have only one passenger
cabin on our right (to which we can hear their tv and exactly what show they
are listening to, wish Princess would improve the sound insultation between
cabins). On the other side of us is an enclosed space that I am guessing has
pipes as we often hear water coming down from drains above. At first it was
quite noticeable but after a day or two we barely notice it – although I am peeing
more with the sounds of water! To the
left of us is crew cabins.
I also want to add that the first few days of the crossing
were quite rough and the ship moved considerably. Yes we felt it in our cabin, but I really did
not notice any difference in the movement from our cabin compared to sitting in
the Atrium on deck 5, to being on Promenade in Explorers to our friends cabin
mid ship Dolphin. Although I always hear
the ship is more stable the more in the middle of it you go, I have never
noticed much difference.
Our steward Joseph has been very attentive and good. Our cabin is cleaned and ice has been filled regularly. I do see cost cutting measures. Those little bars of soap are only put out
when the current one is so thin you could get a paper cut from it. Ice is only replenished if you ask for it
(although some stewards replace automatically).
The pads of paper use to be thick, but we keep getting small pads of
only a few pages that have needed to be replace twice this voyage --- maybe we
are writing too much? The shower curtain
is getting to the point that it should be taken down and washed but I believe
they are on scheduled cleanings.
Oh and
no little table in our inside cabin – which is fine with us as it only got in
the way and we usually would just place in the closet. I had heard from someone that they also
removed the extra chair in the balcony cabins.
I would like some things in the cabin to be improved in
general.
- Get rid of those useless hair dryers and replace or omit completely
- Make the cabins more soundproof
- Remove the cabinet door for the fridge. Instead have the fridge visible or add some decorate cover (like a wall paper to it) so that the fridge can keep the items cool and have enough venting.
- Add more plugs! Thankfully we bring a small power bar but wish we did not have to.
- Caribbean Princess NEEDS to update their tvs so they offer tv on demand.
- We personally hate their pillows (some love them) and when we ask for a different pillow type, which we know they have, we are told sorry we don’t have them.
- Get rid of the large cupboard in the desk with the one shelf – I prefer the ones that have drawers there. Oh but I love the small shelves on the side of the desk – very practical.
- On once cruise line they have baskets type shelves in the bathroom that provides extra storage.
Entertainment Staff on board have been phenomenal!
Doing these longer voyages (and we had 10 sea
days) can be exhausting for the cruise staff.
Every sea day saw tons of things to do. Some new things that I really
enjoyed like the Teens Club, Couch Potato Game Show, Dancing with the Crew, Lip
Sync Battle (did not see but heard it was amazing), Norman Love Chocolate Demo,
Coffee with the HGM in the Atrium, Lots of spots to play cards or games (they
even opened up the aft Dining Room for this), puzzle table set up on deck 7
forward, oh and so much more. Plus all
the usual stuff like trivia’s, martini demo, great lectures, guest entertainers
and wonderful production shows. We saw Encore and Blame it On the Boggie (for the
100th time I think but still good). We missed Magic To Do (would of
like it but we ended up soaking the Jacuzzi for an hour instead under the
stars).
Like I said we ended up sitting in the Jacuzzi last night
reflecting on the voyage. Discussing the
next voyage – yes we are staying on for the ten day Caribbean Princess.
Talking about my contract as Destination
Expert for South America and what we need to do before hand and what we need to
bring. We also spent a long time
discussing what we want to do in January.
We don’t want to be in Cape Breton for the winter and are
hoping to do something in January. Since
my contract starts February 2nd we are hoping to cruise or something
prior. I have been checking out prices
for cruises and some that we want to do are still too high. But I did spot the Caribbean Princess (which
we love) and it is doing a Panama then a 14 day Caribbean – hmm that could be
good. We will see, in the end it comes
down to costs.
The Crown is also
available but to tell you the truth because of the lack of the big buffet
(which we dine at, at least 60% of the time), the dismal tv selection (when you
are on as long as we are having options for tv are important), and the very
poor wifi (which I do need) it makes the Crown a low priority. But I have to say that the Crown Princess
staff make it jump up again – but is it enough for me and for 30 days on board?
So stay tuned as to what we will do.
I have been busy working on my presentations for South
America. So far I have completed almost
half of them. I have spent every
afternoon in the cabin working hard at them for at least five hours each
day. I get so engrossed in them that all
of a sudden it is 6 pm! I am loving
it!
We did find out we are going to be docking at pier 4 in Fort
Lauderdale. This makes us very
happy. This will be the Crown Princess’
first stop in Fort Lauderdale after being away for so long. A lot of crew have to go thru immigration
process. Coast Guard is going to be
there to make sure all is good. And
public health could potentially come on too.
It will make it a very busy day and I am sure boarding will be delayed.
There are only 80 in transits (one of the smallest numbers I
have ever seen). Since we are close enough
to 17th street to walk there we have decided to go ashore and do some
shopping and to meet up with Roy and Sandra for lunch.
Well off to enjoy our last sea day.
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