pkt1976

Forgot the photos… 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️😅

I’ll catch up….eventually 😅 I went to the Bayou restaurant again because the first dinner was so incredibly good. I really wanted incredibly good again.. Tonight though, it was all bad. 😞tough chewy meat, pulverized salad, overcooked sides … I was starting to think they hate me 😅🤦🏼‍♀️ the service was a bit rough too, but they were understaffed and have clearly new people. Everyone has a bad day sometimes so I didn’t send it back or anything and certainly wasn’t mean to the servers, but I’m disappointed … especially as it’s an up charge restaurant. i Was actually thinking about getting up and leaving after the first two courses. 😬 Other than tonight the food and service have been outstanding. The head waiter did come up to me when he saw I wasn’t eating much … and was probably glaring at the difficult piece of steak. 😅He said he’d bring me something else but I declined. The peach pie dessert was very good though. Hard to believe there was such a huge difference between the first night and tonight. The meat with the fries is alligator rib meat. I didn’t take pics of the salad, rice, fried “green” tomatoes or potatoes. Ah well, I’m not starving 🤷🏼‍♀️😅

Here are some photos from the Getsami and walled city walking tour through Princess. It was quite a lot of walking but lots of interesting architecture, community areas and murals to see. it is a lot of walking but that’s the best way to see the areas covered.

Here are some photos from On The Bayou production show, only on the Island and Coral. I really enjoyed it, great talent and beautiful costumes. I was sitting /rocking in my seat as the seas were a bit rough very impressed with the whole crew.

Patter catch up !

I’m behind 😅there’s just been so much going on but I will catch up. We had a Rocky couple days and being a smaller ship, definitely felt the movement. finally won a few Princess prizes 🙌🏻 $25 3 times, lots of entries to the final drawing. I’ve had most breakfast mostly in the dining room. Ahhh here is breakfast, more to come

Jamaica had the big port area. Cartagena had shops and an animal refuge. Limon has a limited port shopping area

Mine is working. The dining room is a bit warm this morning

We are docked in Falmouth Jamaica today, it’s warm but windy. I didn’t book an excursion today but went into the port area and did a bit of shopping. this is a very nice port with s lot of shops, food spots and even a Margaritaville within the port area. I got back in the ship, had a nice swim and some lunch at the buffet. Smaller ship means smaller buffet but the choices were very good. Im relaxing on the balcony looking at the view and listening to the ocean, a dirty banana in hand. ☀️ 🌊 🚢

Hi! Here are the senior officers onboard. I didn’t meet the Maitre D yet, i don’t know but will ask if given the opportunity.

The production show last night was Do you wanna dance? I haven’t seen this show before, very high energy and fun. it was excellent and The singers and dancers onboard are very talented!!

The martini demonstration is always a great time! I volunteered for the Baked Alaska Martini and managed not to spill anything!! 😅👏 IMG_7880.MOV IMG_7881.MOV IMG_7883.MOV

Yes it’s been fine for me. Yayyyyy

Here is the patter for today. haha I’m so lost of this ship! It’s not like the other ships ive been on. I do like that there are 4 decks in the piazza. The decorations are so pretty ! no luck so far on Princess Prizes other than entries for the end of cruise drawing/s. i am going to the destination expert presentation in a bit then our meet and greet is at 11. and do you see what I see? Alfredo’s pizza for lunch at Sabatini’s!!! They said they should have it each sea day. Yayyyy!

No there isn’t anywhere that’s 24 hours. The buffet is open the latest.

Per Cruise Director Cole, passenger count is 1259 which is about 50% capacity. 😮

here’s the patter for today. All pools are empty today for maintenance. They may re open them tomorrow. this ship is wayyy under capacity. I don’t know the number yet but it’s no where near max.

Boarding started about 12:45 and I was in group one. My balcony is awesome, a corn set with clear plexi? Or glass? I actually don’t know 😅all around it. sailaway was fun, though they poor CD lost his mix for a bit and was trying to yell for the whole deck to hear 😅 I danced at sailway, my feet are not amused. I can walk today but they are sore…. So No Zumba for a couple days 😬 Our sail away was a bit late, around 5pm. now I’m enjoying dinner at the Bayou Cafe. These cheese biscuits are to die for yummy…. More to come

I’m At the port in the elite lounge, waiting to board. They needed to do a customs inspection so waiting ti get cleared to board, hopefully around 1. very nice and big lounge here at Fort Lauderdale. I got here about 1115

I Had such a great day at Epcot. My right leg doesn’t agree 😅 I used the Genie + and was able to get a boarding pass for Guardians of the Galaxy. I LOVED that ride. The crowd level wasn’t bad, I rode test track, soarin and living with the land 2x each. I didn’t get to look Inside all the pavilions but a lot of them. There are was Yummy holiday regional foods everywhere too! Lets hope my right leg feels like letting me walk tomorrow 😬 I will say I’m ok with canceling the Jamaica excursion I had made, I may still be recovering 😅 tomorrow morning I will fly from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale to board the Island Princess, looking forward to a dirty banana on the balcony and 10 days of fun and some relaxing.

I did end up rope dropping and had a fabulous day! My right foot is big mad 😂so we will see if I can walk on it tomorrow 😬 it was a great day though!

Whew what a travel day. I Made it to the hotel in Orlando … eventually 😅. The luggage door got stuck on the plane then car rental process took a long time as well. It was two hours before I was on my way… yeah I’m spoiled working from home, not used to traffic any more 😅. After checking into the hotel, I then went to the Disney Character Warehouse (official Disney outlet) and bought some Merch. It was only $8 for those Tiki Room ears 🙌🏻 💯 HAD to get them. For dinner I went to the Cheesecake Factory, which was right by the same shopping center. I was thinking of eating closer to the hotel but I was reaching hangry level 9. I was starving and that was the first real meal I had all day. I had the egg roll sampler, a non alcoholic lemonade with. Pineapple and cherry I believe, very tasty. I did get a piece of reeses pb and chocolate cheesecake to go, I was full and it will be a great breakfast tomorrow 🤔 😅except they didn’t give me any utensils so either I’ll get creative or wait til I have some. tomorrow morning I’ll need to wake up to try to join the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy at 7am. I watched the special Christmas GOTG show on the plane. Then I’m going back to sleep hopefully as I can’t go to the park until 9. I do have all my stuff out and ready for tomorrow though, can’t wait! I guess one positive about having to be up at 3:30 am this morning is I’m already to go to bed and get up early again tomorrow. Im flying from Orlando to FLL Monday morning. We got a notice that they expect boarding to be delayed until 1 due to a customs inspection. I believe the Island is currently on the TA to get to the US. My flight lands at 10 so I’ll get food at the airport before catching an Uber or Lyft to the port. … no one wants to see me hangry🤷🏼‍♀️😅

Will do! Yes this ship is a different one layout wise

I’ll post pics of the patter, no worries 😉

Well, I’m hoping to be able to post fairly live anyway 😂 The internet in October on Discovery was soooo bad. I’m hoping the Island will be better. I’ll make my posts dark purple so easier to find. I let the folks on my roll call know to feel free to share their experiences as well if they’d like. Yes, this year I’ll have sailed on the newest and one of the biggest ships AND one of the smallest and oldest Princess ships. I’ve had three other cruises this year as well, twice on the Majestic and once on 😳 THAT ship, 😅the Crown restart cruise. We ended up getting a 50% credit so that put a nice dent in the price of this cruise. 5 cruises in a year is a first for me, and not something likely to happen a lot. It was a lot of fun though. I will be going to Epcot Festival of the Holidays the day prior to boarding so if Disney doesn’t interest you, you’ll want to skip a few days. To me, it’s a great lead in to a cruise to new places. This trip will have many firsts for me. I have been to Epcot but plan to enjoy the World Showcase more, with so many International food and entertainment opportunities. I do have the Princess Premier package so will keep track of Princess Prizes. I plan to take a ton on photos and of course enjoy two specialty dinners. I’ve never seen a ship decorated for the holidays so very excited for that as well. This will be my first time to the Panama Canal, and I booked on the Island to be able to experience the old historical locks. My first Princess cruise was on the Sea Princess, but It was my first cruise and I never knew where I was going 😅 I am very comfortable on the ships like the Crown, Ruby and Royal class ships, but the Island layout is very different, especially with the changes that were made several years ago when more cabins were added 😑 I’m a detail person so am excited to find new places and views on the Island. I have been to Jamaica and Grand Cayman, but the others are new ports for me. I originally had friends planning to come too but they both had to cancel, so solo it is this time. I don’t mind. One of my friends who is a crew member was to be onboard as well, but plans changed so he won’t be. We will have a brand new Cruise Director, Cole from New Zealand. I don’t know who the other officers are yet, but will see once onboard. I’ve researched the less known viewing areas on the Island and plan to scope them out the first few days onboard. I do have a deck 10 mid forward corner bumped out balcony but like Alaska, views from different areas of the ship add to the experience. I didn’t even try to bid up because the location is great and the balcony position is perfect. I booked Princess excursions in all ports except Jamaica. I’ve been there and did Dunns River falls. There wasn’t anything I really wanted to do so will visit the port area, maybe lunch at Margaritaville, and otherwise just enjoy the ship. Cartagena will be the tour of Getsemani and the old city. In Panama it will be Gatun Lake and Locks Cruise & Embera Indians. In Limon I booked the Tayutic Hacienda & Lunch tour. In Grand Cayman, it will be Stingray sandbar and Cayman highlights (turtle center, rum cake center, Hell). I’ve done a stingray sandbar tour before and enjoyed it, and this has the bonus of the other places as well. I will be trying out Bayou Cafe and probably Sabatini’s as well. I have a shellfish allergy so sorry …no Chefs table 😞I’ve asked a couple times but they weren’t accommodating food allergies yet. We have a small roll call and I have set up a meet and greet on the first sea day. A bit about me… I started cruising in 2012 after having stage 3 cancer in 2009, after I had sufficiently healed. Since then I’ve cruised a lot to places all over the world. I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list 😅. Ten years later my priorities and what I enjoy have changed some. Things I used to worry about, I don’t so much anymore. Travel teaches lessons you don’t experience anywhere else. I’m pretty useless at a lot of trivia onboard 🤷🏼‍♀️😅but sometimes I know some random fact no one else does. I always try to sign up for the yes /no game, and I win pretty often. Liars club is my other favorite game show, always great for a laugh. I’ll post menus, patters and some food pics as long as the Internet connection is in the mood. There are a lot of logistics pre cruise on this one. A Park/sleep/fly hotel (because of the 5:30 am flight), car rental, hotel stay, Epcot, another flight, then an Uber or Lyft to the ship. My flights changed several times due to airline scheduling changes and flight cancellations. The flight to Orlando has a tight connection so I paid the pre check in charge for Southwest so I can get a seat toward the front of the plane on the first leg. Tonight, the adventure has begun and I’m checked in at the airport hotel for the night, hoping to fall asleep early! The cost for the hotel for the night and parking package was less than parking at the airport in the closer parking areas. There was no way I waited to Park in economy at 4 in the morning. I’m staying at the Residence Inn Sacramento Natomas. It’s an all suite Inn, very nice. I hope you come along.