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March 3-10 / Grand review via 1st timer

2Ragin

By 2Ragin,
in Princess Cruises

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2Ragin

2Ragin

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Posted

I will start off with, I am very "research" kind of person and read all the posts from “1st timer’s” recommendations to "long-time" travelers posts and yes, some were helpful and some made me more nervous about going on a Cruise. My hope is this may help someone also.

I know I did something’s "not according" to recommendations but I had to fit this trip into a time schedule -

My wife and I arrived Ft. Lauderdale 10am on Saturday 3/3 and went straight to the dock via taxi, no complaints quick and easy. Inside the Terminal, they directed us to a waiting area; at this point all seemed very organized and as expected. The chairs were in rows and once boarding starting I assumed that there would be some organization to how the rows where sent to the waiting Princess Check-in counters, to my surprise it was a little chaotic, with others jumping lines or complete disregard, please people the ship is not going to leave for hours.... My wife is a heavy soda drinker, so once aboard we purchased a coffee card and a Beverage card, by the end of the trip these were good investments. We had no problem finding our room A702 and meeting our Cabin Steward. Lunch, Emergency drill, dinner and general relaxation :-) went off without anything unexpected.

Day 2 - Princess Cays - Upon some discussion, we decided to not visit the Island and spend the day exploring the Ship and relaxing, we were glad we did. We had "anytime" dining option and went to the Michelangelo dining hall about 6:30pm, yes we received a pager but with a bar and someone on the Piano, the time seemed to fly bye. We joined 4 other couples and an enjoyable dinner and conversation.

Day 3 - Sea day and Formal night - Played Bingo, went to the Casino, and enjoyed the Sun and pools with my wife. She had made a reservation for the Crown Grill for that evening, no worries, We still dressed up, me in my rental Tux and her in a very nice Gown, and we enjoyed our dinner at the Grill.

Day 4 - Curacao, arrival 1pm, I went and made 2 dives with The Dive Bus, highly recommend this shop,(short taxi ride) and my wife went shopping. The ship departed at 10pmish and after the long day we enjoyed the buffet and sitting out and watching the Bob Marley concert on MUTS.

Day 5 - Aruba, arrival time 8am - this day was devoted to a tour that I had been looking forward to since I booked back in January, Trikes Aruba. We met them outside the gate at 9am, where they whisked us off to the North part of the Island to meet up with another family and our "trike", this Tour is well the trip, my wife and I enjoyed this very much. Again another day in the wonderful Caribbean Sun, once back aboard and with the Ship to depart at 4:00pmish, we enjoyed the Buffet once again later in the evening after some relaxation and a couple of beers.

Day 6 - Sea day and Formal night - I enjoyed a day of the Sun, pool and Casino and my wife enjoyed Spa, Sun and pools. We had originally decided to go Formal night but we were able to get a reservation for Sabatini's and completely enjoyed this and were very happy we did, as there Lobster was very yummy as well.

Day 7 - another sea day - pretty much the same as before but the shops started having all there "really" good sales, so my wife was there and the spa :-)

Day 8 - Back at Port Everglades - Disembarkation went well and quick, then off to the airport

Some of the points I would like to make...

- yes, as everyone has stated - you will over pack, we did

- there is a lot to do aboard the ship, it sometimes is overwhelming, so we did as many suggested and sat down at breakfast with the Patter and hi-lited what we wanted to do - sometimes it changed depending on our "relaxation" level at the time - never made it to any shows but did enjoy MUTS many evenings

- would dive again with "the Dive Bus" and would take the tour again with "Trikes Aruba"

- you will eat too much, running comment - "it had been 30 minutes, time to get something to eat"

Thank you to everyone who posts and the many comments that are made as they made this an "easier" trip.

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Caribensun

Caribensun

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Thanks for posting, anyone going on the Grand recommend Sabatini's highly for the food and of course Crown Grill too, the Chef cooks the food to perfection! Sabatinis has a different hand made pasta each night, wish we would have tried the ravioli.

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2Ragin

2Ragin

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Crooners has a piano player most evenings, and yes we did sit and and have drinks, olives and listen on a couple of the nights.

MUTS had -

The Help

Dolphin Tale

a movie w/ George Clooney in Hawaii/ sorry can't remember the name

a Bob Marley concert

if I remember this evening, we brought home all the Patter's - I can check on some of the other nights

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