abbydancer2003

CrownDecember Day 14 Our last (or so we thought) sea day. Note that I have nothing for day 13, other than the last rehearsal for the hula/ukulele show. We started at the IC for coffee and pastry, and today they had almond croissants, my favorite croissant! Yay! First thing up for me was the rehearsal for the Aloha ‘Oe show - the hula and ukulele classes recital. I was told to be there at 10:50 or so, and sit in the front rows. I arrived on time, and joined a lot of people sitting there. At about 11:20, the curtain opened and Tiki Dave and Leialoni (ukulele and hula teachers) started giving instructions. First Dave placed the ukulele players, and then Leialoni placed us. Basically she let us place ourselves based on how comfortable we were with the routines. I put myself in the second row. We then ran the show. Rehearsal was supposed to end at noon, but the noon announcement came at about 11:58, so we had to pause, and finished around 12:10. After that we went to the dining room for lunch. There was a short line, and the asked about sharing. I was a bit reluctant, because the show was at 2, but they told me there would be 5 of us at the table and no more. It was nice and one of the other 5 was also in the show. We both left at about 1:40. I went up to the room and put on my brand new tropical skirt, and headed to the theater. We went on stage at about 2:07. Over all the show went well, and no major collisions, etc. After the show I met Glen, Carol and Eric and we went to the IC for coffees. There was no room to sit, so we decided to hang out in the Horizon Court. Eric thought about going to the last rehearsal of the Pop Choir, but he’d missed so much that he thought it wouldn’t be fair. We stayed until around 4, and then went back to the room. We watched MSNBC for a while and then went to the lounge. Following that we went to the second show of the Beatles guy with his wife colleen. It was a fun show as he did stuff from the groups that influenced the Beatles. After that it was time for dinner, and we were once again seated in our favorite section of the dining room. It was a Chef’s dinner and I had mushroom soup, beef with romesco sauce and finished with a salted caramel Pot d’Creme. I did a bit more casino, and then back to the room where we finished watching the second season of The Good Fight. Sadly, packing starts tomorrow.

CrownDecember Day 12 Sea Day Another sea day and chance to sleep in and have a late breakfast in the buffet. We headed back to enjoy some relaxing time in our room, and by 1pm, when I should have gone to lunch in time for Hula, we weren’t hungry so once again, skipped it. Dining room can take too long, and the buffet is getting boring, with pretty much the same stuff every day. There’s not a lot of choice there. I went to Hula and we’re getting down to the wire there. Following that, we had pizza. Their pizza remains very good. Next stop an hour our two later was the Elite Lounge. We decided to go to the show before dinner. Eric was back with us for this, and we got decent seats. The show was Alfred & Seymour, who were billed as “comedians from the village of Beverly Hills”. We were in the row of the center risers and there were two women in the front row with a very small child, who spent the first half of the show playing on a tablet. The show was completely inappropriate for a small child, but my guess is he wasn’t listening. I thought that the child should not have been there, and it’s rude to the people nearby to have the tablet on. Whatever happened to common courtesy? Midway through he moved to one of the laps. The show was Ok, but urban comedy is not really our style. After that, we went to dinner, and were seated in the section we liked. It was Italian night, so I started with Peach Bellini soup which was good. For entree, I had the breaded chicken (yummy with extra gravy). I finished with the always available pineapple brûlée. It was basically a creme brûlée with the addition of pineapple chunks on the bottom. Our plan was to go to the, probably final, We Play You Say game, but we had some time, so we walked around the promenade deck. Glen decided, after the walk to go back to the room, but the other three of us headed to Explorers for the game. It was hosted by two of the cruise staff. We got our cards. They started by a minute of asking which category the crowd wanted, and then they’d play the song once, do some joking around, and play it a second time. Then, finally they’d reveal the answer. The game was moving so slowly that in spite of having a perfect score so far we left, giving our card to some people nearby who came in late. This is, I think, the first time any of us have walked out on a game, but it was so slow moving we had to. I was on this ship in September and it was a different, and much better cruise staff. This staff seems to think that their job is have fun together and hope the guests like what they do. We didn’t. So after the game, it was goodnight and back to the room to work on finishing The Good Fight.

The fun here continues. On the 16th, my mom, who lives near us and my sister, who lives in NY showed up. (My mom was staying with her while we were on the cruise). My sister was here to go to the US Figure Skating Championships with me, and then on the X Solstice. 4 days after they arrived, the Saturday before the Championship, my mom fell in her bathroom. 3 hours later, when she couldn't move her right leg without pain, we called 911, and she's been at the hospital ever since. She broke the top of her femur, so they replaced it, and her being 90, it took over a week for her to recover from surgery. We are very grateful that Glen took over hospital duty while we went to most of the skating. Today, she finally went to a nice rehab facility near us, and Glen will take over rehab duty while we're on the cruise. So that's been my last two weeks. If you watched any of the men's figure skating, Jason Brown was even more incredible in person. My plan for this is to complete it tonight. I may be missing a sea day or two, but they all blended together. I'll post all the days I have through the end of the cruise. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

CrownDecember Day 11 Happy New year’s day! We did a traditional New Years thing and slept in. We did breakfast at the buffet, and then headed to Adagio to read. We decided to order some drinks. Glen got a tea, and it arrived, but the lemon and sweetener did not. I ordered a latte and it was awful. We think it was made with bad milk. I then ordered a second one, which was much better. We decided to skip lunch, since neither one of us was particularly hungry. So, I dropped my stuff in the room and went off to hula class. I guess now that I have the skirt, I’m committed. We’d ordered tea for the room at 4, but Eric was still under the weather, so it was the three of us. We had a nice time and Carol brought some food back for Eric. After that, we changed for dinner and ended up at the retreat lounge because we hadn’t had any food in so long (ha ha). At 7ish, Eric met us at rock and roll trivia, which turned out to be a lot of early rock and roll songs. We did pretty well and won. More messenger bags. After that it was dinner, and the plan was to try to be done by 9:30. Eric went back to the room to rest, as he still was recovering. We were seated in Liza’s section, which was nice. I started with Corn Cakes with baked brie and Chutney. Unfortunately it was a cold dish, so the corn cakes and brie weren’t good (would have been if hot) but the chutney was pretty good. However, I switched to the potstickers, which were good. I had roast beef for my main, and drambuie soufflé’s for dessert. The odd corn cake appetizer: And my very tasty roast beef: We finished in time to go to the Beatle tribute show by Jesse Kezemak. It was quite good, and I’d see him again (turns out I can). Eric felt well enough to meet us there. After the show, Eric and Glen both went back upstairs, and Carol and I took a walk. We ended up chatting with a fellow passenger for a while. She had some extra OBC, so I showed her how to use it in the casino. After that we said good night. Now Glen and I are figuring if we can finish the first two seasons of The Good Fight before we leave on Friday. I finish with a picture of the night:

I wish. Still down - in spite of closing my account and restarting it in my husband's name. Anyway, I'll post the next day before I go to bed.

I've seen other lines where, usually in the Caribbean, you can book a b2b as one cruise. One of my friends once did that and wondered why, at the mid point of her 14 day cruise, the ship called at the port she boarded on. I think it was Princess in that case.

If you ask my sister (who's a little wacko on these sort of things) it's because American media doesn't report anything out of the US except Ukraine.

HI, I have not abandoned this. We came back to most of our cable being out and have now spent hours on the phone with Xfinity. Technician today seemed to break things more, and there's been some other stuff going on. I'll get back to this soon. Thanks for your understanding.

My experience as well.

The date on this is a week old. Is it still active? My quick search didn't come up with anything later, but it was quick.

CrownDecember Day 10 Sea Day Today is our first of 5 sea days, and it’s New Years Eve. We started with a late breakfast in the buffet, which is our normal for sea days, as we tend to sleep in a bit. After that back the room to work on the blog. That was followed by lunch and then, the daily hula class resumed. Glen and I wandered around for a while, and then, after dressing for formal night, when to the lounge for a while. Carol joined us, but not Eric, as he has a cold (Not Covid). We decided to do a fun take on movie trivia - the questions were in the form of questions to Siri, and you have to guess the title. For example: Siri, is Mrs. Robinson trying to seduce me, and Siri, why did it have to be snakes? (Answers tomorrow) It was fun and we didn’t win, but came close as usual. After that, the three of us went to dinner. We were seated in a different section than we liked, but it was not in the center of the room. Since it was formal night, dining room was crowded. The service was good, but a little strange. First, when the waiter poured out water, he put it in wine glasses and told us they were out of water glasses. OK. When the assistant waiter refilled the water, he replaced the wine glasses with water. They never introduced themselves though. The dinner was great. For an appetizer, I had baked brie and beef carpaccio. These are two of my very favorite appetizers, and I debated just ordering 4 of each and calling it dinner, but that seemed like overkill. For my entree, I went with surf and turf. I’m not a fan of lobster, but I do like filet mignon a lot, so I got it. ON the app, it said it had bernaise sauce, but on the menu it was Demi-glaze and melted butter. I got the dish, but no melted butter. Waiter said it was already there (baked in? Seems odd). This dish didn’t really improve my opinion of lobster, but I did try it. For dessert I had baked brie. Kidding, I actually had Cherries Jubilee. Interesting that it was a special NYE dessert, since it shows up on Princess Favorites regularly, although the Favorites version doesn't mention kirschwasser and this does. After dinner, Glen decided to head back to the room, but Carol and I wanted some walking so we walked some of the inside hallways, and then went to the Wheelhouse to listen to some music. I think it was Elua doing a set. They say Hawaiin, but it wasn’t that much different than any other set in the wheelhouse. After that we said good night. Went back to the room to wait for midnight while watching tv.

I think we used tourguideushuaia.net last time and were quite happy with them.

Everyone in a full suite, plus people who book Club Class Minis. We usually do it to get the better service, with no waiting. They also offer specials which are sometimes very good. (Pre pandemic we've had crepe suzettes - before they were part of the rotating princess favorites) and pastas cooked in the dining room at lunch by the section manager.

I'll be the second. I usually get mine fairly late in the day, though.

No, I was told by the loyalty manager on the Equinox that it should happen automatically, but if not, he/she can do it. Only would be an issue of the points came from a double point offer or something like that.

It should. You might need to talk to the the loyalty manager if it doesn't happen automatically.

I think it's when you do an open book on board, without a specific cruise.

We had Robin a few times, I agree. Who is the manager of Luminae?

Turns out we were staying a block away from you night before the cruise.

Crown December Day 9 Today is Maui, and our last port before Ensenada. Again we woke up early enough to go to breakfast. After breakfast we gathered our stuff and headed off the ship. We really didn’t have plans for the day, so we picked a nearby park to walk to. We exited the ship and did quite a walk through the port, since it’s an industrial port and they carved a fenced in route between all the containers. Apparently port information said it’s a half hour walk, which seems about right. At the exit to the port, we noticed a shopping center with both a Whole Foods and a Longs. We walked past those and found the park. It turns out the park was just a narrow strip of beach, with a canoe club. We walked along the beach for awhile. Glen spent about 5 minutes watching a crab hole to get a picture of the little sand crab. He succeeded. We decided it was hot (although not as much as Hilo or Honolulu), so we walked back along the beach. On the way back to the ship we stopped at Longs, so I could make a small purchase. There were lots of ship people there. Ship from the shore. 30 minute walk back. Once back at the ship we stopped at the IC for lattes. From there, back to the room to drop our stuff and then lunch at the buffet. The interesting thing today was that there wasn’t much that appealed so I went to the grill for a burger. They gave me a beeper and told me it would take 10-15 minutes. Apparently they are now cooking burgers to order. About 9 minutes later the beeper went off and I got my burger. It was way better than the burgers used to be, when they’d precook them and warm them. After that back to the room for a bit, and then I went to see The Secrets of Dumbledore on MUTS. I watched about the first hour of it. It was still somewhat hot, so I left. I went back to the room and then decided to visit the Captain’s Circle host to see if Carol and Eric could be moved to our CC party on the 3rd. Glen went down with me and headed to the IC. There was one woman talking to her and she seemed to have a list of about 10 things, most of which really should have been handled at guest services. There was also a gentleman waiting. After about 10-15 minutes with this lady still going, I finally asked if I could ask a quick question. For some reason, the regular person wasn’t there, but the lady doing it wrote our cabin numbers down. On our way back from coffee, she was there without anyone, so we talked to her. She’s in guest services, and said Vanessa was in a meeting or something and she wants to move into the role so she’s covering. She recorded the numbers and said she’d get back to me. She was very nice to chat with. After that, I thought I might go to the hot tub in the spa. I went up there and realized that Friday night services were about to start. (Chapel is across the lobby from the spa). I went over and said I didn’t think I was dressed appropriately. They said I was fine, so I went to the hotter, chatted with a couple in the tub with me for about 10 minutes and then went back over and listened to the service. Then back to room to watch sail away from the balcony. As usual, some people came up just after all aboard. Then it got a little odd. 6:00 came and went, and they hadn’t pulled the lines. They did raise the gangplank though. There was also a guy standing by the ship with a clipboard. At about 6:15 we finally left. No idea what the delay was about. After that, we went to the lounge. We were joined soon by Carol and Eric. They are now making my clean bananas. Tonights dinner was at the Crown Grill and it didn’t disappoint, although Glen had to have his steak recooked, because it was overdone. Other than that, it was perfect. I started with the onion soup (and I now know the Black part of the Black and Blue Onion soup, is from the Jack Daniels Black label used, and followed up with the ribeye with baked potato, mushrooms, asparagus and spinach. For dessert I had the creme brûlée cheesecake. There was a singer doing a show, so we tried to do that, but it was too crowded by the time we got there, so we hung out in explorers until it was time for We Play, You Say. That’s their version of Don’t Forget the Lyrics. We did OK, but didn’t win. After that, a quick walk on the promenade, and back to room for the night. Next up, 5 sea days to Ensenada.

Love this so far. We were on the Silhouette on her TA back to Miami, so I'll enjoy reading your thread. Maybe someday I'll move up to an RS, but in the meantime Sky Suites it will be. Have a blast!

Did I imply I was unhappy? It was just an observation .... Congrats

We often book Club Class minisuites. On Celebrity we do minisuites, called Sky Suites. They are minis, ie one bigger room. On Princess, the only real difference in ongoing amenities is the breakfast in Sabattini's or Crown Grill. For lunch and dinner they have the same Club Class dining. The Royal class ships do have a lounge, but only for full suites. We occasionally book them, but only when the price works. This cruise, we joined our friends who were in a regular mini suite, so regular dining for us.

You might check some of the third party groups, such as shore excursion group (we're going with them on the previous cruise), or Viator, etc.

Because we sail in mini-suites, the prices are different. On Princess, a mini gives you a nicer bathroom and more space (we like hanging out in our room, so that's worth something). On Celebrity, it gives you a suite experience, with private restaurant, butler, and lounge with concierge. So, they're not the same. If I were going in a balcony, it would probably come down to itinerary and price. As a rule of thumb - Celebrity for long cruises, Princess for short ones, since we live in California. That said, we did this one to sail with our friends.