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Caribbean Princess Cruise |
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April 3-12, 2009 |
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At Sea Day: Monday, April 6th |
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Monday Sunrise
I’m not sure what all the hoopla about the beds is, but I slept great last night. Our beds came with an egg crate, and I don’t believe we pre-requested online. If anything, this bed is just a wee bit too soft, but positively not too hard for me. The pillows and duvet comforter are also very nice. Fluffy, new, nice thread count. The beds aren’t as comfortable and plush as HAL, but the beds in room B754 certainly aren’t the concrete slabs that so many referred to princess ships as. |
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It started raining around 8:00 a.m. this morning, so I decided to take some time to get all the tasks done for the week. Because we came in 3 days prior to sail, I had some laundry to do. It worked out perfectly well, as there wasn’t anyone using the laundry on the first sea morning. $1.00 for a wash and another $1.00 for a dry. We brought our own laundry detergent. The cycles last about 30 minutes each. While waiting for my clothes, I took a walk down to the Piazza. By 9:00 a.m. the place is hoping with live piano player and a festive activity of 70% off sales. Prices onboard are actually more reasonable than I remember being on other ships. I purchased a Bonaire and Dominica T-shirt for $10.00 a piece and they are decent quality. I had every intention of purchasing a coffee card, but I found the coffee in the lido poor overall, but good enough to meet my one cup a day habit. Note: I did quit drinking coffee last summer, so my taste buds might be a bit skewed at the moment. Real coffee drinkers beware. |
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Vines in the morning. They sell beautiful merchandise. I almost splurged on Italian cut glass wine stopper but somehow managed to refrain. |
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Our official meet-n-greet was scheduled for 2:00 at Outriggers. Here is a link to our meet-n-greet web page: Roll Call Caribbean Princess April 5-12. The head Maitre’ de came to introduce himself and act as a princess representative. Turns out, he has a place in Traverse city, Michigan so it was nice talking about home for a bit. Princess sectioned off the entire left wing of Outriggers for our party. As expected, not everyone from the roll call participated in the meet and greet. It’s so hard to actually remember the time, and place, and then make sure you’re not eating lol. We actually had more numbers at yesterday’s unofficial meet and greet than we did at today’s official one. Regardless, we were a small but mighty crowd. Very friendly and open to sharing travel stories and adventures. A few drinks and a couple hours later, we went our separate ways only to run each other again throughout the week.
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Here’s a photo of the meet-n-greet. At the time the picture was taken, about half of the crowd had already wondered away to do various tasks. Moya’s husband was in the slot tournament, so we’re all anxious to hear how he did.
I’m deliberately leaving all the names off the photos to protect the innocent :). |
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After the meet-n-greet we pretty much just chilled out. Layed in the sun a bit at the aft pool. While the sign says ‘adults only’, they certainly weren’t enforcing the rule strictly.
We had lunch in the buffet. The buffet has a reasonable selection with parts that change daily. Today was a Mexican theme with lots of chips, salsa, and guacamole. All were very good.
Came back to the room to listen to the wake (pictured to the right) and take a nap. Went to Caribe Café for the Seafood Buffet. They no longer call it ‘Seafood Extravaganza” and now it is just referred to as the ‘seafood theme’, but there was all you can eat lobster claws and legs. If you want the tail, you’ll need to head to the regular dinning room.
Desserts have actually been very good, especially for cruise ship standards. I typically like my desserts the old fashioned way. Nothing fancy and dripping in chocolate. They have had brownies (with nuts for those allergic) and cookies out daily and both are my kind of desserts, so I’ve been happy.
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Huge mounds of lobster were available at tonight's buffet. The pot was at least 2 feet in diameter and was refilled about once every 10 minutes. In addition to lobster, there was shrimp (cocktail and pan fried), grouper, beef tenderloin, Caesar salad, halibut, flounder, etc…..
I would highly recommend attending this buffet. We spoke with several people who did both (the buffet and dinner) who said that the Monday Night buffet was better than the dining room.
I do have a suggestion for Princess. Supply shell cracking tools, or get the folks in the kitchen to actually crack each piece. I can’t tell you how much wasted lobster I saw because the shell was not properly cracked. |
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Ship Entertainment
We did three venues for entertainment tonight. Well, 4 actually if you consider getting our make up applied real entertainment, and I’m reasonably certain it falls in that category based on the smiles and snickers we received from innocent passerby's. Lladies, I’d recommend getting a make up application. The application is free and there is no hard sales pitch because surprisingly, the make-up ladies do not work for commission. We did the following:
1) We went to club fusion for the first round of “Princess Pop Star”. We were judges for the contest. This is Princess’s version of American Idol. Let’s just say that some folks have a bunch of talent. Others, not so much. Cynthia and Heather, you rock…… and Ray…… we really did enjoy your Perry Como interpretation :). Shout out to Pete in the final round….. Find me ;-). 2) After, we went to the explorer lounge to catch the last part of the hypnotist/comedian. All I can say is that if those people weren’t faking, I want to be hypnotized~!! Honestly, super cool show. 3) Then there was Bert with an E. Oh boy. To say that Bert has is own sort of appeal is an understatement. He is certainly entertaining in a Jim Carry sort of way. In fact, he’s sort of a cross between Jim Carry and that huge guy in Green Mile… Uh Huh. Bert has a good voice, and can certainly play the piano…… it’s just the rest of the show that is an acquired taste. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Bert hater……… but I do appreciate an old fashioned sing-a-long piano player and that he is not.
Note: Entertainment for the rest of the cruise was hit or miss. We didn’t enjoy the ventriloquist all that much, but did enjoy the ship comedian more than others. The big dancing shows were pretty consistent for ship entertainment. All in all, the entertainment was nothing fabulous, nor poor. It was pretty typical, offered lots of choices, and MUTS was always available should none of the shows tickle your fancy.
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Seafood Buffet was offered on BOTH formal nights! |
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The Sanctuary $10.00 per half day. $20.00 whole day. Sessions run from 8:30-12:30 and 1:30-5:30 p.m. |
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The Caribbean Princess has 5 pools. Two of the four are adults only. This is the Aft Pool surrounding Outriggers Bar. It is the more noisy of the two adults only pools. The Lotus pool (found just below the sanctuary) is the quieter of the two adults only pools. Neptune's pool is family friendly with live music and the Calypso pool is also family friendly offering Movies.
All pools are FRESH WATER! |
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More Ship Photos Click Here |