CanadianBurger

We ate in the reserve dining room, and only one night had a long line. That was the night we tried Horizons deck 6 (5 min wait), and there was too much motion. We went back to the reserve, sat at Wheelhouse with drinks until the hostess came and got us when our table was ready.

Staying at the St. Regis in Rome. Got upgraded to a suite. Booked the lowest room with points. Status and points from all my work trips staying at mediocre hotels pays off when taking a vacation. Tried booking this room for a day next week and it’s €2K a night! 😳

Princess undoubtedly doesn’t consider us profitable cruisers, as we don’t spend much money on board. With all the OBC, most of our final folios look like this. I don’t expect them to send me the 14 cents…

We did have a delay leaving the port. Apparently someone driving a black taxi van hit a cyclist, and didn’t stop. The police stopped our van, and every other black taxi van. We had to wait for a detective to arrive, and he carefully checked each van for damage. After finally clearing us, we were on our way about 20 minutes later. It was slightly amusing watching all the taxi drivers arguing with the police, including much gesticulating. Didn’t matter to us, since we were going to a hotel, but the people trying to catch a flight must have been getting worried.

I was going to do a whole post about this. One of the drawbacks of a standard-depth balcony like our reserve mini is the chairs. They don’t recline, and quite frankly, they’re uncomfortable as hell. Enough so that I couldn’t sit there for more than five minutes. I think they don’t put recliners there because there’s no room to recline.

Between the cabin and cabana is a standard slider. There is a fold-away door and between the cabana and balcony. Which doesn’t work for making the cabana “part of the cabin”. In the reserve cabanas on deck 9, both sets of doors are folding.

Disembarkation was painless. Our car was booked for 10am, so we wandered off with no wait about 9:35. The gangway was on deck 7, and it was a lot of ramp-walking to get to ground level. Bags were easy to find, a porter grabbed them, and the driver was waiting with a name sign. Staying in Rome for a couple of days before heading back to Canada. Still more posts coming!

We had a look at the Cabana mini we’re staying in for our booking in December. It’s one of the Deck 10 ones NOT one of the reserve cabins right on the cabana deck. I have to say, we may switch it for a non-cabana mini. The seating in the cabana area was not comfortable at all for lounging, and was a far cry from the nice-looking L-shaped furniture in the preview pics. The bathroom was much smaller, the shower was a foot less deep, and there was NO DRAWER. One less closet unit, and the whole cabin felt much more cramped. I will say the balcony was MUCH bigger, and had chairs that reclined. The inside doors to the cabana don’t fold like those on deck 9. Also took pics from one that was made up. You can compare them to what I posted from ours at the beginning of the Live.

I noticed there was a lot of pile coming off the new carpet in public areas.

I can’t rave enough about the bartenders. Junella, Joy, Marvin, Allan, and Farral have all been fantastic!

Our Farewell Dinner. Again, the filet was absolutely perfect. Unbelievably tender. the desserts weren’t all ours! Snapped pics from the next table.

I found one while cleaning up the cabin this morning.

I finally made it to Good Spirits. It’s tucked between Princess Live and The Arena, so unless you’re going to the starboard side of the Arena on Deck 7, it’s easy to miss. I wish I’d have gone there earlier! Loved the spot. Had a Vanilla Sky, which was really fresh tasting. They said they squeeze all their juices fresh in the bar. I didn’t notice any prices on the menu, so I have no idea how much they were. The Vanilla Sky must have fit under the $15 Plus limit, since I wasn’t charged anything.

The only time it’s felt crowded is trying to walk around deck 7 of the Piazza during the Captain’s Party. I think half the ship was crammed in there. Other than that, not at all. I will say that we avoid peak times for things, so maybe that helped.

Notwithstanding the buttons left on that once, there’s no way to choose another deck once you’re in the elevator. The display shows what decks the elevator will stop at. I must say, the elevator system has been much more efficient than on other ships. Only a couple of times has it seemed like a long wait. And no more “milk runs” of stopping at every floor.

I posted one earlier in this live from the Sun. On other ships it’s the round bump. In the middle of the light itself.

Pompeii was amazing. We booked a private tour with a woman that has a PhD in Archeology, and is actively working a new dig in Pompeii when not giving tours. Her parents were both archeologists, and she grew up playing in the ruins. Her explanations were the most in-depth I’ve ever had on a tour of ancient ruins. Her website is https://www.elianasandretti.com/en

Never was able to peek behind the secret black door. It says “Coming Soon” in small print.

I don’t think location services are working that well yet. Locating shipmates in the app is sometimes 15 minutes behind where the person actually is. And I tested ordering things in the app, which said it couldn’t be delivered at least 80% of the time. I was IN the stateroom one time when I tried and got this message:

I found one elevator that had floor buttons enabled one time. I’ve seen elevator technicians working on them at various times, making adjustments.

My signature has links to the last few, and a link to my index.

LOL. I asked the same question when I noticed the gap in the floor. I asked if it raised, and was told “not yet”.

While it’s not super bright like the hallway light that comes on with the fury of the sun on other ships, it’s still awfully bright in the middle of the night. We always bring a small nightlight to plug into the razor outlet in the bathroom, which was rendered useless here. I tried taping over the sensor between the light switches, to no avail. I discovered there’s a second sensor under the counter in the bathroom, since if you’re sitting there and the light goes out, you can move with the door closed and it will come back on, but it looked too complex to mess with. There are adjustment controls under the sensor on the wall in the hall; I’m guessing brightness and delay time based on the icons. Next time I’ll bring a tiny screwdriver.

I actually wondered about this myself, and asked our headwaiter. He said all the beef on the ship comes from the USA. I was really surprised, and he said they couldn’t get tenderloins this good in Europe.

It’s a medallion sensor, but I don’t think it works, since it didn’t know we were in the cabin for the safety video, and our stateroom steward seemed confused about whether or not we were in the cabin.