talkorpi

Officer board. Will respond to questions and post photos shortly.

Here’s the patter for tomorrow - St. Thomas. Looks like when I take photos directly when posting they will upload. Weird.

I took pictures of all the patters but when I upload them they all turn out like this. Ugh! This is making it hard to do a live review

Sorry for not posting as much lately. We were in San Juan today for over 12 hours and were in port ALL DAY. Exhausted is an understatement. I took over 500 photos today so will post the best ones soon. Had a great day in Puerto Rico and loved every minute of it. This has been a great cruise so far and it’s going by WAY too fast!

Yeah, the food was really good. I think it was the atmosphere that didn’t impress me. Not a fan of the open to the piazza design. The waiter was also good, but the only other time I have had Sabatini’s, it was the best waiter I have ever had, land or sea - hard to top that lol

Waitress was Iryna from Ukraine. She was fantastic

Also - good morning. Having our first sea day today. Weather is perfect so far but supposed to turn pretty rough this afternoon. Here’s today’s patter. There is way more entertainment on this ship than my last cruise. Pretty impressed so far as I generally find that to be the weak link on Princess. Also, DuVal is a FANTASTIC cruise director. The best one I have ever had on Princess and the second best I have had at sea across all lines. He is hilarious!

Ate at The Catch last night. Sorry, Sabatini’s, but you’ve been dethroned. The meal was absolutely incredible! Tale of Citrus was so good - a poached lobster tail with sesame, grapefruit, and lemon zest. The crab cake was also like 100% crab with no filler. The grilled king prawns were literally bigger than lobster tails. I have no idea where they find shrimp that big but they were excellent. The shiitake crusted halibut was one of the best things I have ever eaten. So many flavors and cooked perfectly - would recommend this if you haven’t been to the Catch yet. Desserts were also very good and HUGE. I got the strawberry pavlova which was the “smallest” dessert and I could still only eat half of it. The “Rudi’s Face” dessert was GIANT - on the menu it just says it’s three truffles but they neglected to mention that it also has cheesecake, chocolate cake, fresh fruit, and vanilla cream… all very decadent. Service was also fantastic. This was a fantastic meal and I highly recommend going here if you haven’t been able to try it yet!

Sorry for the lack of updates today. Was having a lot of fun ashore. Exhausted now though! Water shuttle process took a long time, longer than usual apparently. I was in group 1 and we just kind of pulled up to the island and sat in the water without docking for like half an hour. Finally got ashore around 10:30 and went straight to the south side to grab some loungers in the shade. The island is beautiful and very relaxing. Have never been to a private island nor the Bahamas before so I have nothing to benchmark on, but I really enjoyed the island. Walked around and took some photos before getting in the water. Mom got lunch but I didn’t eat. She said the food was not very good. Sorry, no pictures - I was in the water. The time flew by so fast! We also had an excursion - the clear bottom lagoon kayaking with wildlife encounter. There were only four other people on the excursion with us, so it was a great chance to ask lots of questions. Kayaked around the lagoon and got to pick up / hold conchs, sea urchins, starfish, a sea biscuit, sea cucumbers, Caribbean lobster, and even a sea turtle! This was a fantastic excursion. 10/10 recommend! Water shuttles back to the ship were basically organized chaos. Our excursion ended at 2:45 and the last water shuttle “leaves” at three, so I was expecting most people to be back onboard and be able to walk right on. Boy, was I wrong! The line to get back onboard stretched about halfway down the Island and we didn’t get back to the ship until like 4:15… yikes! It did move quicker than expected and was very organized, but yeah, very chaotic… Overall, a very tiring but also very fun first port day. We are cleaning up in the cabin before heading down to dinner at The Catch this evening. Of course most of my photos will not attach. Not sure what is going on there. They look fine on my end but turn out to be a black screen when I try to attach them here.

Good morning from Princess Cays! Had an early breakfast (photo not attaching again) at the buffet and waiting for the water shuttle now. I was going to use the elite lounge priority water shuttle thing, but we got boarding group #1 so we are just going the normal route. They finally came over the PA this morning with tendering information. Hid a couple of ducks while we wait to go ashore - looks like a beautiful day outside.

Final Four on MUTS. Always fun to watch special events like this on the Lido deck. Heading to bed soon. Princess Cays tomorrow. No water shuttle info was left in cabin or announced aside from what was printed on the patter so I guess we are gonna wing it in the morning 😁

Dinner was good! Did a short review with a couple photos on the last page. TL:DR - great food, good service, mediocre atmosphere

Tomorrow’s Patter, which is still called the “Princess Event Listings” on this ship

Having dinner at Sabatini’s. Last year on Ruby, Sabatini’s was the best meal I have ever had in my entire life. Tonight is still very good but the special touch just seems to be missing. The food is excellent again and the Mushroom Risotto was the star of the night. Ossobucco was also very tender and piping hot. And of course you can’t forget that delicious rocher for dinner. I think the thing that didn’t make this one stand out like last cruise is the atmosphere. On this ship, Sabatini’s is completely open to the Piazza and so I think Princess tried to remake it as a more casual venue. No tablecloths, the waters wear T shirts, and the Piazza noise is LOUD. And it’s also VERY HOT in here. Still one of my favorite venues, but I wish that it was enclosed and where Rudi’s is now.

Yep! Standard balcony cabin.