sonomaphil

Far right is the character Fortuna Luck. For the most part she stays in character the whole cruise. Not sure if she is casino, entertainer or cruise director staff.

Nothing noticable for one day. Stabilizers every once in a while but that's normal with aft cabins. We are almost always somewhere toward aft so we're used to it.

More to come, need to get to the gym for a workout.

Day 1 Ths was the easiest embarcation we have ever experienced. Our Uber picked us up at 10:15 and we were at the pier by 10:30. $35 from the Riverside Hotel to the pier by the way, surge pricing. We basically dropped off our bags and within 5 minutes we were in the Elite lounge. We only stopped for 30 seconds while they scanned our passports. FYI, no one asked us for our vaccination cards, and yes, you must be vaxxed for Columbia. Even at this early hour we still got group 2 for boarding! Right on time at 11 boarding began and we were onboard by 11:05. Cabins were not available until 1, so time to wander! First stop, passenger services to order flowers for the cabin. We picked the anniversary arrangement for $59 and it was delivered to our cabin while we were at dinner. We then headed up to the Sanctuary to pick a day. In an oddity after 20 cruises we’ve never done the Sanctuary so we're giving it a try on day 3 for the afternoon. Don’t ask me why we’ve never been. You get a number when you get to the Sanctuary and then a manger comes over to you and shows you options. We were 14 and they were on 8 so we had a little 15 minute wait. The dining room had just opened for lunch by this time so off we went. Lunch is served in DiVinci on deck 6 and I’ve already posted some pics. I enjoyed my Bay Shrimp app and the Beef Tenderloin was great. Very nice first meal. Tonight we’ll be at the Crown Grill for dinner, more on that to come. Cabins are available now! We are in E730 a mini suite as far aft as you can get and still be on the port side. This was a specific cabin I wanted as what makes this cabin special is it is fully covered and has an extended balcony, literally it is almost the size of 2 regular mini suite balconies. I posted some pics of the balcony earlier. We usually get far aft C743 on the starboard side when we do a regular balcony room. C743 also has a bigger balcony than other Caribe cabins. Our quick rule, 7 days or less, balcony cabin, 8-10 days, balcony or mini, over 10, mini. I know people love to see the Elite benefits so here goes, bathroom amenities and mini bar. And some cabin photos.

Our cruise director is named Dave and Georgia is his assistant. They are doing the Wake Show this morning. Manuel is doing the progressive trivia. I do remember him introducing Josie at sailaway, not sure of the others!

This is held in Skywalkers from 5-7 each day and is for Elite, Platinum and I think those guests in suites.

Stanley just made an appearance on our bed.

No. Period. End of thread.

Elite lounge set up this evening.

Salted Watermelon Margarita at the Outrigger Bar after sailaway.

I enjoyed it either way!

Anyone care to guess what cabin we're in?

Lunch in the main dining room. Very good, the horseradish is hot!

In the Elite lounge already, waiting to board at 11.

Happy Embarkation Day! More on that soon but we still have to cover our day in Lauderdale. We had breakfast at the Wild Sea Grille here at the Riverside Hotel. Maybe I’m just not used to prices outside California but $20 for breakfast for 2 seems mighty reasonable, especially for a hotel restaurant. My wife had the sausage and egg on an english muffin served with hash browns while I had the “Mix It Up” which is sort of the everything breakfast, eggs, bacon, pancakes, toast, hash browns. After that we walked about 4 blocks to the CVS for a few quick items. Riverside Hotel is right at the beginning, or end if you will of the Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk so we decided to get some steps in before a pool break. On the walk we picked up tickets for a 3 PM cruise on the intercoastal. You can call this our first excursion of the trip. Some photos of the walk: The pool has a sign about not feeding the iguanas, they weren't kidding. Our excursion was a riverboat cruise on the Carrie B. We actually went all the way out into Port Everglades but even at 3:30 there were no cruise ships there! Most of the cruise was the guide pointing out homes and boats you and I could never afford. But we did cruise right by the Princess birth under the 17th street bridge. An adult Beverage or two at Big City Tavern (Happy Hour 5-7 everyday!) followed by dinner again Kuigi's Tuscan where I had the meat lasagna. I almost always order classic dishes at Italian restaurants because if they can't get classics right there is no hope. Luigi's is a keeper. Alright folks that concludes the preliminaries, now on to the main event. More to come soon!

Good Morning from Fort Lauderdale! Yesterday's flight from San Francisco to Lauderdale was quite uneventful, which is good. I’d happily fly Alaska Air again if the opportunity presents itself. My wife pointed out that we had a female pilot, I didn't even notice, which is good because it shouldn't and doesn’t matter. Side note, did anyone see “Come From Away”? Great show, I saw it in London a few years ago and I highly recommend it, you can catch it on Apple TV. Took an Uber from the airport to our hotel, a little more expensive than usual with it being so busy here, $30. We are staying at the Riverside Hotel on Las Olas. We’re in the original section of the hotel which is very nice but if you think an obstructed view cabin is terrible take a look at our view! Pretty huh? South Florida is very busy and hotels are very expensive this weekend being New Year’s and the Orange Bowl, so I booked this months ago. This really is a lovely hotel and I highly recommend you stay here. There is so much in this area of town. We spent New Year’s Eve bar hopping here on Las Olas and had dinner at Luigi’s Tuscan Grill. That wasn't the plan for dinner as we actually have a reservation there for tonight but we ended up canceling our original reservation at Cafe Sensei since we were having fun making friends while having a few beverages. I had the Baked Ziti and it was delicious as was the Grilled Octopus Salad my wife and I shared.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the as live as the internet onboard will allow it to be Emerald Princess 15 day full transit Panama Canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles. This first post comes to you from someplace high over Arkansa enroute to FLL. This is our 20th Princess cruise and the longest we’ve ever taken. We did a quick repo cruise back on Royal last September Vancouver to San Francisco as a primer since through circumstance (Covid) and land vacations (Hawaii and Europe twice each) we haven't been on a cruise since 2017. While I liked the Royal (with some reservations) I'm glad to be back on a Grand class ship. We have wondered if we might be on the younger side of the demographics on this cruise even in our late 50’s! Guessing this is not a cruise filled with children or teens. Speaking of that (filling a cruise) as of three days before the cruise you can almost have your pick of cabins if you don’t want a suite. I counted 8 minis available and gave up courting available balconies when I got to 75. Interior and oceanview are wide and I mean wide open. My guess is we may be south of 1800 onboard. I heard the cruise before us in reverse had 2700 but that was over the holidays. We stayed at the Hilton San Francisco Airport for one night since our flight is at 8AM New Years Eve and we didn't want to wake up at 3 AM to make the drive. Works out well as the off airport parking lot in front of the Hilton was much cheaper than our regular lot at SFO by $150. We’re on a nonstop flight from SFO-FLL on Alaska Airlines, first time flying with them for me though my wife has before. Southwest is my preferred airline but nonstop wins every time. Same flight on SWA we would have stopped twice with a plane change and taken 3 hours more. We land (hopefully) at 4:30 PM in Lauderdale so we can have a nice New Years Eve dinner to start our vacation. The Hilton was just fine and we had a few adult beverages and some apps at a place called Kincaid’s that was within easy walking distance. Very rainy at SFO but very beautiful at 32,000 feet! We left on time and will arrive a few minutes early. More to come!

The afternoon tea on Princess is not the kind where they put a big tower on the table. Instead servers bring around scones, cakes, sandwiches etc. You can take what you like and skip the sandwiches.

All your credibility has been lost with you ordering a filet medium well. 😆😁

Both have been removed as option in the 2022 dining guide and has been removed from the deck plans. Doubt they will ever come back.

Bye!

Just got past the passenger info screen and made a "Hold" booking. I picked Princess Plus at the main screen, same price as Princess Standard, no other options to pick Plus or Premier where it usually comes up. On my travel summary Princess Plus does NOT show up as being included. This booking will not be paid for.

Basically you can't make a reservation at princess.com I've now tried cruises I really want to book and cruises I have no intention of booking. Every time you get "We Apologize for the Inconvenience" after entering passenger info. I tried choosing Princess Standard and Princess Plus, no dice. I tried getting into the site using the players club email offering an extra discount, still you can't book. I do know where I can make a booking, celebritycruises.com You read that correctly John Padgett.

Will you be posting the menus if you get a chance?