Sea Day – February 6

I woke a few times throughout the night but was shocked when I opened my eyes and it was 9:45.  Where did the time go, oh yeah we put those darn clocks forward, guess it does affect me after all. 

I missed Zumba, I am said.  I had promised Leesh I would be there but guess sleeping won out today, but promise when I see her later I would be there tomorrow.  Better set the clock now!

At 10 am is the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and we are up in Skywalkers 15 minutes late but we see that Captain Draper, Peter – Hotel General Manager and Generosa – Maitre d’Hotel are all there, but sadly they were not introduced to everyone so many people didn’t know who they were.  I got to meet quite a few people who follow my blog, and are on my fan page.  Such a treat for us to meet such lovely people.

Again today is the Showcase at Sea in the Atrium.  I really enjoy this event and this time Bernie comes along with me.  We wander around and get our raffle tickets, some finger foods, opt out of the champagne but go for an espresso instead.  The Showcase starts at 11 and the draw isn’t until 11:45 so it did feel a bit like we were waiting around for the draw.  I spoke with Peter the HGM for a bit and I liked his idea of getting Lee the CD to do a bit of a running commentary.  But now that I am back in the cabin I think it would be great if in between songs that Accent is singing Lee wanders to the various stations and does a small interview or comment, like casino/blackjack table and find out what they are raffling off and maybe plug something like a slot tournament, then next song, then back to another table like Vines and promote Crown Grill, or shops and the rum they are raffling off and promoting a sale happening, etc.

We do book Crown Grill for tonight because of seeing the menu there today and we do head into the shops and buy two Tommy Bahamas Shirts for Bernie and I get a lovely bag with the Princess logo on it that will use for my work bag.  We love the first two sea days as we got an extra 10% off because we spent over a $100, plus our Elite 10% off as well, so I basically got my bag for free!

Club Fusion and Leesh is hosting The Famous Faces Gameshow, we team up with a couple from Florida and we do so so but we have a lot of fun and that is truly what matters. 

My afternoon was a blurr, after a quick bite in the Horizon Court and then some time in the International Café reading we were back in the cabin and I decided to head to the Thermal Suite for about an hour.

Dinner tonight was with Johan in the Crown Grill.  We are sat at a lovely table and Edgar is our waiter once again.  We had him two cruises ago and he was amazing.  We start with the beet and goat cheese salad, then the French onion soup, then I had the five oz. fillet mignon again and it all was wonderful.  Of course the molten chocolate cake was so yummy again!  Dinner tonight was 10 times better than last time and has renewed our faith in the Crown Grill.  

Jan 20 - Princess Cays Again

Oh a Beach Day

We are in Princess Cays today.... oh nothing better than a private beach in the Bahamas. Unfortunately I loaded the pictures backwards so I will start out talking about what we did in the afternoon after Princess Cays.

The Cruisecritic gathering was arranged by Karen, with Cameron doing name tags, and Paul hosting the gift exchange. The event was held at 4:30 today and I had sent out invitations to many of the crew, for which I was quite pleased to see so many attend, including Captain Yeomans.

At the gathering we introduced ourselves and shared stories, and then had the Captain say a few words, and a few of the other officers spoke as well.

Was so happy to see Chef Joel again - we originally sailed with him on the Emerald. Since the last time we sailed Joel has married and is hoping to start a family soon.

Captain Tony Yeomans, just back from a relaxing vacation of shoveling snow in Britain.

Fellow Cruisecritic member Rick, letting us all know that is officially a "Blue Carder"

We had organized a gift exchange for everyone to participate in if they wished. With a maximum of $10 per gift and having it reflect your home the gifts were interesting and quite imaginative. We brought some items representing the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games coming up. The mittens were a hot commodity. With the option of stealing a gift when your name is picked caused Allan to loose the mittens but Cathy.

Allan smiling when he got the mittens, but it was short lived.

Cathy ended up getting the mittens in the end.

Now to get back to the stop at Princess Cays. We slowly pulled up towards the island and the day is beautiful. We get our stuff together and head down to get ready for the tender. We got on the second tender and headed in the same direction as last week, all the way in front of the bungalows. It was actually quieter here than last week. Bill and Cathy were all ready there and we got lounges together.

This is the area we usually get lounges - right in front of the colored bungalows.

Check out the abundance of water sports you can do.

Jerry and Rose found us and the gang was together again. Here Rose poses with Bernie.

Bernie brought some fish food again (cereal) and we went in for some snorkeling. Fish were in abundance. The water was very nice and we absolutely loved it.

We got a bite to eat at the buffet barbecue. The norwalk precautions have been carried to the island too, so the lines are longer as the staff have to hand you everything and serve you everything. It is a bit of a pain but necessary. Loved the burgers, chicken, ribs, slaw... yum.

I bought a few items from the gift shop, so handy to just pay with your cruise card here. We catch the tender back around 3 pm and shower and get ready for the afternoon fun.

Panoramic shot of Princess Cays from the ship.

After the meet and greet we went to Karen/Allan's cabin for some wine and some laughs. Then we went to Skywalkers for Platinum/Elite get together that they have every night with a drink special and special appetizer. But we were kind of surprised to see that you had to check in (why not just show your cruise card) and once we were told you had to be dressed in the evening attire (formal, dress formally, ie no shorts etc) which we noticed was relaxed as the cruise went on. The drink specials are nice but we did find that the staff were run off their feet and on few occasions the drinks were not what we liked. The appetizers were a nice treat, but again to get ready early to get a drink was not usually in our schedule. I believe we ended up having dinner in the Horizon Court tonight because we just were not up to eating in the dining room.

Aruba

February 2, 2009

Now if you remember the last time we were in Aruba I had planned to surprise Bernie with a helicopter ride over Aruba. Unfortunately they were not able to accommodate us because of some mechanical problems and waiting for a part. We had rescheduled it for today. Bernie was excited and we both had our fingers crossed that the trip was going to happen finally. We left the ship and went to the helicopter landing pad, no one was there. We had about 10 minutes until the official meeting time so we walked around and took pictures.

Can't believe I was able to capture this butterfly just when it opened it's wings.

All of a sudden we could hear the helicopter off in the distance... the adrenaline is kicking in! Here is a link the company we used. http://www.arubahelitours.com/

Click on the video just to see a small portion of what we experienced.

Oh my God I can't believe I am actually putting up this horrible picture of me, but it is the only one I have us both on the helicopter. Cool!

This is the Natural Bridge that collapsed (actually collapsed the same day Katrina hit). Beside it is the Smaller Natural Bridge.

A shot of the ship from the helicopter

De Palm Island

Our chopper! See I know the lingo.

We were on such a high! We walked around the city and did some shopping and had lunch, at Pizza Hut, yup Pizza Hut... I had a craving for Pizza. Across the street are a whole bunch of craft vendors and souvenir shops.

Bernie finds his hidden talent and makes some money performing on the streets!

We are tired, and it is hot so we head back onto the ship and take a nap and relax because tonight it is the Chef's Table. Now for those of you who don't know about the Chef's Table well all I say is WOW. You need to sign up ahead of time, they usually only have two Chef's Tables per cruise and each table holds 10 people. The cost is $75 per person but includes a behind the scene tour of the galley during dinner. While in the galley you are served four appetizers with champagne. The whole event is hosted by our Matre D'Hotel Guisseppi, along with Executive Chef Guisseppi.

Here is our favorite waiter Julienne. We all have to wear these coats to ensure cleanliness. But you can call him Dr. Bowne.

Yummy champagne



the two Guisseppi

Caviar on a potato base

Some of the great staff that work very hard


The place is hoping and runs very very smoothly




Lobster risotto

Raspberry Sherbet served with Grey Goose Vodka to cleanse the palate

The Executive Chef prepares the main course in front of our table

Our main course

Baked brie served with a port reduction and walnut biscotti

The pastry chef prepared a special dessert for us! Not to mention the spun glass dish.



All the courses were paired with wines, a white, a red and a dessert wine. We were stuffed. The evening finished with the photographers coming in a taking a picture of the table and then one with us and the Chef and Matre d' Hotel. We were given a copy of the Princess Cookbook with a special insert of the menu we were served tonight. And finally a rose... ahhh

Executive Chef, Matre d'Hotel and Pastry Chef

Me and Guisseppi, a very nice man who was so good to us throughout the entire 28 days.

Last Day and First Day

January 30, 2009
Turnaround Day in Fort Lauderdale

Now this is our third back to back cruise and turnaround day is always interesting. Everyone else is getting ready to get of the ship and head home and here we are roaming the halls knowing we still have two weeks on board.

We get up and head up to the Horizon Court and have breakfast. We packed up our clothes as we had to go back to our old cabin. They came and got our stuff and moved everything around 8:30 and we quickly unpacked in our room and did wash and ironing.

What is truly the best is you can wander the almost completely vacant ship. Most of the cabin doors are open and you can check all the different cabin types.


We checked out the suites next to us and then checked out the Penthouse Suite on the Lido deck. Now wow is all I can say. Huge, bigger than my first apartment. It even had a Jacuzzi tub on the deck with access to it from the bedroom. There was a computer, fireplace, large table to eat at and two bathrooms. It was nice to see because I will never ever be able to afford that room.

We had to head down to the meeting area for all back to backers at 9:30 to clear the ship and customs and then we were free. It happens that there were 28 of us doing a back to back and it was nice to meet these new people. We were cleared and back on the ship within a half hour.

In the afternoon we got off the ship and went and picked up some supplies at the local wine store that we love "Total Wine" which is within walking distance and right next to a grocery store where we picked up some necessary supplies and some lovely flowers. We stopped at Starbucks and got our coffees and then returned to the ship.

Of course the first day of the second sailing is very weird. We keep thinking we see people from the last sailing, we wonder what are friends are doing, where they are right now. Janie and Tim are getting ready to sail again too and I wonder where they will be. Also we are looking at all the new people and wondering how this new cruise will be, how will it compare to the last cruise.

The weather is no cooperating, and it is cool and windy and there is a chance of rain. Looks just like the sail away from two weeks ago. We did have a Cruise Critic meet and greet set up at the Oasis bar again but when we head up there we are told by the staff that it has moved to Skywalkers. Once up there we quickly say hi and introduce ourselves and there are so many new faces and lots of names to remember. We really wanted to experience the sail away on deck so we said goodbye until the next day when we meet up for the Formal Meet and Greet.

We ordered our traditional sail away drinks and then enjoyed the party. Check out the video.

There are even so many new cruise staff on board, but we look forward to meeting new people and becoming good friends with so may.

This is leaving Port Everglades.

To another great cruise!!

Day at Sea

January 29, 2009


Our last sea day.

Now we feel a little conflicted. Today is the last day of the first cruise. We are sad that so many of our friends will be getting off tomorrow. But we are both excited to start the next cruise and do it all over again.

Usually last days of any cruise are crazy, everyone trying to get in as much as they can before they get off. All the shops on board are busy. The line at the Purser's desk is snaking around the Atrium. People are soaking up as much sun as they can so that can prove they were away in warmer climates. And the halls are beginning to fill up with luggage.

Brian and Nancy had organized a lovely luncheon for all the Cruise Critic gang. Many of the officers attended and I got a picture with Captain Carlton.

After lunch I wandered around the deck and took some pictures.

In the afternoon the group was invited to the Bridge for a tour. That was my first time to the Bridge and I found it rather interesting.

The Bridge



Hey, there is the Canadian Flag!

This guy just watches, yup three hour shift of just watching for anything in the water.



Yes Princess gets their first female Captain.

For dinner we met up with friends and had a final dinner. Sad to say goodbye but I have a feeling that we will meet up again.