LIVE - Caribbean Princess, Aug. 2, 2014

[Colo Cruiser]

I thought Capt Giorgio Pomata was on CB?

 

He was to be there from July 12 to Oct 18, must have changed things around a tad.

[geoherb]

I will, Pia. One good thing about having him as the captain is that I can understand what he is saying. And unfortunately we just heard him announce at the end of the muster drill that we will be missing Princess Cays tomorrow due to Tropical Storm Bertha. We will have an extra day at sea. Time for sailaway and our informal meet and greet.

[TinaLee]

He was to be there from July 12 to Oct 18, must have changed things around a tad.

 

Thanks Keith :)

[immsters]

I go on the Caribbean Princess on the 9th when you leave.

 

You should go to the roll call page and join our roll call. We're excited to be on her soon!

[bhopal21]

Could you also tell me whether any of the specialty restaurants are open for lunch?

 

No they are only open for dinner except Sabatini's is open for breakfast if you are staying in a full suite.

 

Mike:)

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for posting your "live from" thread. I am looking forward to following along. Congrats on your first anniversary.:):):)

[islandatsea]

I go on the Caribbean Princess on the 9th when you leave.

 

We sail on August 9th too :). Will be interesting to hear about the ship a few days before we cruise.

[geoherb]

We missed our meet and greet after the muster drill. Our mothers were watching the Port Everglades webcam and we waited until after we had sailed past the condos leaving Fort Lauderdale before heading up to look for people. DH thought he recognized one woman from her description. He yelled out her name and we waved, but she did not seem to notice us. We later saw her on the way to dinner and confirmed that she was on our rollcall. She saw us waving, but thought we were waving at someone else.

 

The Platinum/Elite/Suite event in Skywalkers was nice. The menu the first night was guacamole and chips for the featured item plus the regular assortment of veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, olives, dried fruit, and nuts. The drink of the day ($5) was the Mejor Margarita. The menu for the rest of the week is smoked salmon and Chairman of the Board on Sunday, salsa and chips and mojitos on Monday, goat cheese and Brezza Marina on Tuesday, nothing on Wednesday because of the Captains Circle party, stilton and port on Thursday, and shrimp fountain and cosmopolitans on Friday.

 

The movies they’re showing at MUTS include Frozen, Million Dollar Arm, The Lego Movie, Captain America, Transcendence, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Some of the ones they’re playing on the TV are Nebraska, Last Vegas, Thor, Jobs, Say Anything, Philomena, Safe Haven, and of course The Proposal. I’m amazed they’re not still showing The Blind Side. It seemed that has been on the schedule for the last five or six cruises we were on.

 

We went to the Welcome Aboard Show before dinner. Lee Childers was his usual self. So was Scott Wyler, the comedian. I think we heard the exact same set from him on another ship. The singer and dancers did “Please Don’t Stop the Music.” I kept hoping it would stop. They were in some sort of futuristic black costumes. There seemed to be just one featured singer performing. Her voice was OK, but both she and the dancers seemed to lack energy.

 

Our table in the Palm Dining Room is in a good location near on the port side. We ended up at a table for seven with a couple from England and a mother, father, and college age daughter from Vancouver. We enjoyed dining with them. Our waiter is Sherwin. I don’t remember his assistant’s name. I hope the assistant improves. He gave me an old iced tea that had been sitting at the food station, probably left over from the early seating of dinner. My food was excellent. I had the red snapper ceviche appetizer, the melon ball appetizer, and the basa with a tropical salsa. The prime rib looked awful but DH said it was good. He ordered it medium, but his piece and all the others looked like they were cooked very well done. I couldn’t have eaten it. I like mine rare. I had the fruit plate again for dessert. DH had the flourless chocolate cake. He’s cutting back—not having ice cream with it like he used to.

 

There were no upgraded bathroom amenities in our cabin. I wouldn’t mind getting a little sewing kit. I bought one on a cruise when the button from my tuxedo jacket came off. Since then, some of the colors of thread have run out. I could always sew something up with the colors I haven’t used. I’m also missing the extra pillows I requested from our cabin steward. We also did not get a Patter last night for today. It could be that they were late printing them because of the additional activities they’ll be adding for our unexpected day at sea. When we were on the Island Princess, however, the ship also missed Princess Cays due to it being too rough to tender. On that cruise, they had new Patters with the added activities printed and distributed within an hour of when the captain announced the cancellation. The Patter was in our mailbox this morning.

[coldinerie]

Can you tell me if you went to the Serenity area to book any days and what your experience was? On the 16th of Aug sail and want to get some days in the Serenity area. Hoping there will be some left.

[Pia1913]

Two things:

 

1. Don't miss Philomena (if you haven't seen it)

 

2. Tell me about trivia :p

 

Oh yes, congratulate DH on his "diet." :D

[Mapu]

Thanks for posting this live thread. We live in Florida and have been watching Bertha's track. It looks like she will be out of your way but I am sure the seas might be too rough for the tenders to Princess Cays. Enjoy your sea day.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Mapu

[akeasley]

Thanks so much for posting a live thread...I'm really enjoying reading it. I think the movie selections sound really good, it's such a great way to catch up w/o going to the movie theatre.

 

Hope you have a great rest of your cruise!

[islandatsea]

My lunch was delicious. I already knew what I was going to order: a salad, the appetizer portion of ravioli, and the salmon. I had the fruit plate for dessert.

 

 

Which dining room was lunch being served on embarkation day? TIA.

[phabric]

Can you tell me the tempature ? I have never cruised in the summer before.

[Woobstr112G]

Some facts from the first Patter: captain is Tony Yeomans; CD is Lee Childers; chef is Antonio Cereda; and maitre d' is Mario Propato. Formal nights are scheduled for Monday and Wednesday. Production shows are Do You Wanna Dance, Born to Be Wild, and Caribbean Caliente. Other entertainers are magician Landon Swank, comedian Scott Wyler, and ventriloquist Jerry Goodspeed. Tonight the show times are 7 & 8:30. We have second seating, so I will make it.

 

Have a great cruise:). You have the best Captain at the helm. I thought he retired, but it's good to see him on a Princess ship.....:):):)

 

Bob

[FritzG]

Have a great cruise:). You have the best Captain at the helm. I thought he retired, but it's good to see him on a Princess ship.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

We'd love to sail with Capt. Yeomans one last time. Now every time we sail we have to hope for a last minute change to get Capt. Tony!

[geoherb]

I'll tell him. The temperature has been warm--around 90 degrees yesterday in Fort Lauderdale with high humidity. I think the forecast is for high 80s and low 90s for every day this week where we will be.

 

Lunch is in the Coral Dining Room on Deck 6. We had no problems getting in yesterday--no one tried to persuade us to go to the buffet instead. It's the dining room that is used for breakfast everyday and lunch on sea days. We're getting an extra lunch in the dining room today since we're skipping Princess Cays.

 

The upgraded bathroom amenities showed up this morning. Our cabin steward delivered them when he refreshed our room while we were at breakfast and walking laps around the Promenade Deck. We received everything except the sewing kit. As I passed him in the corridor, he mentioned the extra pillows I requested. He hasn’t brought them yet, but I’m hoping to get them tonight. I slept fine without them last night, but having an extra one would have been nice this morning as I was drifting awake.

 

We ate breakfast in the dining room. I had my usual: fresh melon and pineapple, a bran muffin, smoked salmon with rye toast, and green tea to drink. DH ordered bananas and stewed prunes, oatmeal, and wheat toast with orange marmalade. We sat at a large table with a grandfather and his two high school age grandsons and a man who lives in Texas who is on the cruise with a late-rising wife.

 

The chair hogs on the cruise are also late risers. When I was up by the pools early this morning, there were not any chairs being held by books or flip flops. By 10 this morning, there were pretty many in the poolside chairs at both main pools. The worst was the pool with MUTS.

 

While DH went to the interdenominational church service, I went to the gym to continue my walking. There were several open treadmills and the other gym machines available. I’ve been keeping track of my steps for more than four years now. Cruises are always a great week for extra ones. I average around 14,000 most days. I’ll probably average 18,000 a day this week.

 

Other activities scheduled today in the Patter are the usual bingo and horse racing, shopping presentations, spa events, and casino tournaments. Others include origami, Zumba, Princess Pyramid, steel drum lessons, Scattergories, rum tasting, and morning and afternoon trivias. The ventriloquist is tonight’s featured entertainer in the theater. The singers and dancers are performing a short presentation in the piazza. Club Fusion features a “country and western hoe down” tonight. Bert Stratton is the pianist/vocalist in Crooners.

[jenseib]

I'm loving this...Thanks for taking the time.

I will sail CB for the first time in Sept!

[Colo Cruiser]

[counsdr]

Thanks for doing a live report!

I'm doing my first Princess cruise on the CB on September 20th and I'm anxious to learn all I can about the CB!

I hope you have fair skies for the remainder of your cruise.

Cheryl

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Capt Yeomans must be filling in, I thought he retired.

 

 

That's what I was thinking, maybe he needed a vaca from retirement ;)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - Oy, excuse the auto correct ;)

[SULLJO]

Thanks for the Live! Have you seen an offering on the Chef's Table on the five day??

[jb9991]

Thanks for all the well wishes. I am typing on my phone now, so please excuse any typos. We got to the pier a little after 11 this morning and were on board the ship shortly before noon. I put our names on the list for the Ultimate Ship's Tour, and we were seated in the dining room by quarter past.

 

My lunch was delicious. I already knew what I was going to order: a salad, the appetizer portion of ravioli, and the salmon. I had the fruit plate for dessert.

 

I called room service to set up our Ultimate Balcony Dinner. The woman I spoke to at least got us down for the date we wanted--Thursday night to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. She said she would have to have someone else call me about some of the specialization I want. While I had her on the line, I requested the items we wanted switched out in our mini bar. The guy just came to do that, much quicker than I anticipated.

 

Did you book the Ultimate Balcony Dining ahead of time or when you boarded?

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Forums mobile app

[geoherb]

There was an ad for the Chef's Table in today's Patter. Our cruise, though, is seven nights. I paid for the Ultimate Balcony Dinner beforehand, but we had to wait until we boarded until we picked the night and time for it. I'm still waiting to hear back from someone about my menu changes.

 

We did get our two bottles of Perrier today.

 

We enjoyed a relaxing day at sea. The people we met earlier did not show up for trivia, so we joined up with another couple. The woman from our rollcall joined in late. She did not help us with any of the answers we were missing or unsure of. We had 14 out of 22 points. The winning team had 18. We could have had 17 right if we had gone with some of our other guesses.

 

After trivia, we enjoyed a relaxing swim in the spa pool. I loved that the position of the ship let us enjoy have the pool in the shade. We saw our first fight over chairs. A woman was saving three of them for the people traveling with her while they went to lunch. That did not go over well with a couple of women who had been in the hot tub with us. But they backed down and did not cause too much of a scene. The good news was that we were able to enjoy an adults only pool area even if some of the adults were acting childish.

 

The menu for lunch in the dining room had a lot of my favorites: the mixed grill, veggie burrito, red snapper with succotash, and Cobb salad. I ended up ordering the snapper. It was delicious. I’m wondering if we will see this menu again later in the week since this was an unplanned day at sea.

 

We stopped by the art auction for a free glass of champagne after lunch. It’s seemed the same as always. I watched the mariachi band perform in the atrium. When I got back to our cabin, our cabin steward delivered my extra pillows. I’m happy now.

 

The rum tasting this afternoon was well attended. We went to it because it came right before afternoon trivia. We got to sample three different rums. There may have been more types being sampled, be we sat near the back of Explorers Lounge and only got three tastes. Our friend from our rollcall joined us again for trivia. We did not see the couple who played with us in the morning. We did well—winning a bottle of champagne for a score of 18 out of 20 possible points. I pulled some answers out of some back recesses of my mind. I liked the way this staff member had the questions on the screen as well as saying them. The room was a little bit noisy because of the folks who had attended the rum tasting who were not interested in trivia. We missed the inventor of television and the first space ship to orbit another planet.

 

Our friends with whom we had drinks our night in Fort Lauderdale came by the Platinum/Elite/Suite event. We enjoyed a round of drinks with them as well as the smoked salmon. It’s silly that I don’t buy it more often at home. But because I don’t, it’s a treat on cruises.

 

The ventriloquist did a fun show before dinner. While we were dressing after the show, there was a man-overboard announcement. We could see from our balcony the beacons they dropped in the water to help locate his position. We headed on to dinner. About a half hour later, the captain made an announcement that the person had been rescued. He said a 24-year-old man was being treated in the medical center. We’ve never had that happen before on a ship. Before the announcement, we could feel the engines in the dining room. I’m not sure if we stopped or turned around.

 

We’re heading to bed now. I watched a little bit of the action in the casino. I’m still holding onto by $10 bill for later in the cruise.

[Morganwerk]

My wife and her mom and brother are on that cruise. Thank you for the updates.