LIVE - Caribbean Princess, Aug. 2, 2014

[geoherb]

Last night they offered the Crab Shack at Café Caribe. They were still setting it up when I was heading up to Skywalkers for our evening cocktails so I did not get to see the food. We enjoyed the Italian menu in the dining room. It has been revamped since we last had it. I don’t believe they offered it on our 4- or 5-night cruises on the Ruby. I missed the melon with ham appetizer and the shrimp Fra Diavalo that used to be on the menu. But I enjoyed the seafood appetizer (shrimp, squid, and mussels in a salt marinade) and the beef carpaccio appetizer. DH and the wife of our tablemate family raved about the mashed potatoes with shrimp and scallops. I thought it was OK. It wasn’t much of an entrée—served in a small au gratin dish. The daughter ordered the chicken. The spinach that came with it looked delicious—and it was. I asked our waiter for a side dish of it.

 

We saw the production show before dinner. It was Caribbean Caliente. They only offered two show times for it at 7 and at 8:30. They showed a movie in the Princess Theater at 10:15 because they were having a rock and roll party on the deck. I guess the noise from it would compete too much with MUTS even though it was at the Neptune Pool. We had never seen this production show. The singers and dancers are pretty good. The women are outshining the men.

 

Los Brilliantes Mexican Trio performed two shows last night in Explorers Lounge. They’re pretty good. I’m sure it makes more sense to have them on the ship for the western itinerary. Bert got the night off. A jazz quintet performed at Crooners. Once again, I only heard them as we passed by. A lot of folks were hanging around enjoying their performance.

 

The rest of our laundry came back last night before dinner. I had sent out a few shirts, shorts, underwear, and socks the first morning. The underwear and socks came back the next evening. The shirts and shorts took two days. I’ll send out a second batch of items this morning.

 

The ship just docked in San Juan. We have a beautiful view from our balcony. It must have rained last night, because there are some puddles of water on the ottomans. Fortunately our chairs were under the covered portion of the balcony.

 

My shoulders got a little bit sunburned yesterday at the beach. I’ll be sure to put on a lot of sunscreen if we get off the ship. We may stay on the whole day, but will probably go ashore for an hour or two. We have toured both forts before and the major public buildings. On a Celebrity cruise, we took a taxi to the botanical gardens near the university. I would not want to do that again on our own. We were fortunate to have met a couple who went with us. The younger guy spoke Spanish fluently. We also stayed in the Condado Beach area for two nights after one of our Royal Caribbean cruises that left out of San Juan. I’m sure there are things we haven’t seen before, but being on the ship and relaxing is nice when so many other passengers are gone.

 

The only two things on the schedule that we may do are a morning trivia at 10:30 and the champagne ring toss at 2:30. I don’t need to get another bottle, but I’m sure I can find someone who would like it if I win again. Tonight is no smoking night in the casino. They did not have it the first formal night. Scott Wyler, the comedian who performed a short set at the welcome aboard show, is featured in the theater tonight. He’s doing three shows. We may go after dinner if we’re awake enough. We’ll be at the Captains Circle party before dinner.

[suejoe]

Thanks for doing a live report! We board in just 3 more days.......very excited!! :D

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Susan

[zacc]

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We are all enjoying!!

[geoherb]

Today’s forecast is for a high of 86 degrees F (30 degrees C). It already feels hotter than that at 9:30 in the morning because of the humidity. Since we’re from North Carolina, we’re somewhat used to humidity, but this feels even more oppressive than what we’re used to.

 

I took a few photos of Old San Juan from the ship. The Sanctuary really gets in the way. The Carnival Liberty is docked beside us as well, blocking the view on the starboard side. Someone said a Royal Caribbean ship was scheduled to be in port today too. I have not seen it yet.

 

One of the ship’s photographers was using a drone early this morning to take photos or video of the ship. It flew outside of our balcony. Good thing we were dressed appropriately. We did not know who was operating the drone. The people we ate with at breakfast said that they saw him with the controls.

 

We talked with the youth security officer last night. He said there were more than 200 teenagers on our cruise. So far, we have not seen any of them misbehaving. Today appears to be a major maintenance day around the ship. They had two sections of the Promenade Deck roped off. I’ll probably get a lot of my walking done inside today anyway to avoid getting more sun. If we get off the ship, it will be for about an hour after 3:00. All aboard is at 4:30.

[FritzG]

Yes he was on the Ruby two years ago. He is a little freaked out by Cruise Critic.

 

We had a wonderful day in St. Thomas. We took the little ferry from the marina to Water Island. We rode the free shuttle provided by Dingy's and enjoyed the beautiful beach, sparkling clear water, a few rum drinks, and jerked chicken sandwich.

 

Why do you think Capt. Yeomans is freaked out by Cruise Critic? We've sailed with him several times, and while he makes comments about some of the rumors that pop up on CC I think he's making the comments in jest. He has a very dry sense of humor which I love.

[TinaLee]

Why do you think Capt. Yeomans is freaked out by Cruise Critic? We've sailed with him several times, and while he makes comments about some of the rumors that pop up on CC I think he's making the comments in jest. He has a very dry sense of humor which I love.

 

I think he was talking about his room steward being freaked out, not the Captain :)

[geoherb]

Why do you think Capt. Yeomans is freaked out by Cruise Critic? We've sailed with him several times, and while he makes comments about some of the rumors that pop up on CC I think he's making the comments in jest. He has a very dry sense of humor which I love.

It wasn't the captain. He had quite the sense of humor about it, even joking at our roll call meeting about reading this thread and knowing what I had for breakfast. It was our cabin steward who freaked out a bit when I asked about his being on the Ruby.

 

I forgot to mention a few minutes ago that the refund of the port fees for missing Princess Cays showed up on our statements. Earlier we had received a credit of $7.58 each. That must have been another adjustment, because last night they gave us another credit of $18.40 each.

[Colo Cruiser]

Captain Tony reads Cruise Critic quite often! Especially when he is the topic. :D

Hi Captain! Great guy.

 

 

[vplsh]

Manu and Joseph.

 

Please tell Manu and Joseph that Lisa and Steve say hello! We spent many hours with them at Vines during our two weeks onboard in July. They are wonderful!!!

 

Thanks for the live thread! You're helping me relive our wonderful cruise onboard Caribbean Princess.

[Pia1913]

Captain Tony reads Cruise Critic quite often! Especially when he is the topic. :D

Hi Captain! Great guy.

 

 

 

He certainly does read it. When I do a LIVE he has told me that when he reads what I write he knows what's going on with his ship. Fabulous guy with a great sense of humor. With Neil doing the Live, he knows what's going on even without me. :D

[geoherb]

Victory was ours this morning at trivia. Now we need to find someone who needs water bottles. We got 15 out of 20, and the second place pair had 14. About 20 people played, most in pairs.

[Host CJSKIDS]

Please please please tell me that Bert Stratton will be long gone by the time we board on the 16th, otherwise I will need to bring extra bonine :p

 

 

You just about made me spit out my coffee!! LOL

So agree with you.

[seababe]

Again Seababe says what a special treat to read live ! Many Thanks again ~~ wasn't Water Island fun ! we are too "old" to hike back up the Hill wish they had a shuttle

Good Going for trivia good win! and all those Water bottles I will remember the Hawaiian Alphabet may come up in our trivia we have our own Pencils ~ & sharpener ` we are serious :rolleyes: Ha!

Yes Captain Tony is a funny one

^^^^^^^^^^to go~~~



Do you have your next cruise planned

[JunkieofER]

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

 

 

:waving hi:

[geoherb]

Again Seababe says what a special treat to read live ! Many Thanks again ~~ wasn't Water Island fun ! we are too "old" to hike back up the Hill wish they had a shuttle....

The guy at Dingy's gave us a ride back to the ferry. He told us on the way over that he rode back to the ferry about fifteen minutes beforehand.

[geoherb]

A loss for us at afternoon trivia. I was still trying to add up our score because the guy who scored our sheet sheet didn't give us the bonus points for some answers. I think we had 17 out of 23 points and the winners had 19. Ian gave prizes for second and third place, which we may have qualified for. But we don't need any more ship prizes, it would have been nice for our teammates.

[geoherb]

During trivia, about 4:40, they paged three males with the same last name from an Emerald Deck cabin. About ten minutes later, the captain came on the public address system to announce that everyone was on board and that we would be sailing for Grand Turk momentarily. I just lost my cell phone coverage after posting the short update on our loss.

 

We will be heading to the Captains Circle party soon. Our evening canapés should be here in about an hour. We had thought about going to afternoon tea, but a light nap took place of that. There’s only one more chance for us to enjoy afternoon tea because I don’t want to spoil our appetite tomorrow. We finally opened one of the two bottles of wine we brought on board for in-cabin consumption. We’ll get a bottle of red wine with our Ultimate Balcony Dinner tomorrow night. Someone from room service called to confirm that they could handle my request to switch out the half bottle of champagne with the wine of comparable value. We’re also getting my request to have the entrée be lobster and shrimp instead of twin lobster tails or surf and turf. I’m trying to cut back DH’s consumption of red meat. He has been pretty good compared to past cruises.

 

Our day in Old San Juan was nice. We walked off the ship around noon and came back around 2. We made it to Fort San Cristobal. We did not tour the whole fort—just a free section at the front before the ticket office. We have toured it twice on cruises before, back when they did not charge admission. It’s now $5 per adult. We experienced a few scattered showers but did not get very wet. They were light and over quickly. We went into a few shops but did not buy anything. I did not see anything made in Puerto Rico that I wanted. I did see some nice locally made jewelry, soaps, pottery, and artwork in a few shops. One of the problems was that a lot of the shops were not air conditioned. It actually felt hotter in them than outside in the shade. The shops in the terminal at the pier had pretty good prices on liquor. I did not compare their prices to any in St. Thomas since we did not make it to town yesterday. But they were better than the prices on the ship. Our tablemates bought a watch in St. Thomas. I hope they got a good deal on it. She’s happy with it now, though, so that counts a little bit. I just hope she doesn’t feel disappointed if she researches it later and finds it for less somewhere else.

 

Bert gets the Explorers Lounge for a show tonight. There’s a jazz trio in Crooners. Karaoke is in Club Fusion, including the third opportunity to qualify for the finals of Princess Pop Star.

[Cruisebird]

okay...this is going to sound really sad. We are Platinum and until I read this report I never realized that there was "happy hour" at Skywalkers every night! We must have been living under a rock! Thanks for the report. We are on CB 8/23 for a much needed break from land and work.

[islandatsea]

okay...this is going to sound really sad. We are Platinum and until I read this report I never realized that there was "happy hour" at Skywalkers every night! We must have been living under a rock! Thanks for the report. We are on CB 8/23 for a much needed break from land and work.

 

We also did not know about the "Happy Hour ". Guess we share the same rock !!

[rdsqrl]

okay...this is going to sound really sad. We are Platinum and until I read this report I never realized that there was "happy hour" at Skywalkers every night! We must have been living under a rock! Thanks for the report. We are on CB 8/23 for a much needed break from land and work.

 

We also did not know about the "Happy Hour ". Guess we share the same rock !!

If it makes y'all feel better, you can always just blame whoever was the Captain's Circle person on your previous ships. S/he is the one in charge of getting out the invitations, which you should find in your cabin on embarkation day. On my last cruise, I didn't get one and so forgot all about it until about night 3 or 4 -- out of sight; out of mind. So, next time, remember to check with the Circle person (also the person to see if your invitation to the Captain's Circle party on formal night is blank inside . . . which mine was. I don't think that Captain's Circle person liked me very much . . . !).

[geoherb]

We had a nice Captains Circle party even without any hors d’ouevres. They had the regular carafes filled with bar snacks at the tables, but no waiters passing around with trays of food like they did at the champagne waterfall. We also did not get our canapés delivered to our cabin before dinner. We left about 20 minutes after I had requested them to be delivered. They were waiting for us in our cabin when we got out of dinner. I’ll have to throw them away since they were left sitting on our bed for nearly three hours.

 

The third most traveled passengers had 920 days. The second place couple had 957. The winners had 1,833. There were 120 Elite passengers. I did not have a chance to write down all the other levels. Overall, though, I think new people outnumber us by quite a bit.

 

The second formal night menu lived up to my expectations. The escargots were wonderful. I also had a seafood appetizer and an appetizer size portion of the ravioli. They did not serve a sorbet before the entrée course like they used to on formal nights. Everyone at our table ordered the lobster and shrimp. The shrimp tasted better than the lobster to me. We’ll see how tomorrow night’s is for our UBD.

 

We saw the couple assigned to our table who have not been for two nights. They had joined another couple at dinner tonight. According to our head waiter, they should return tomorrow night.

[EightFurryPaws]

Yes, Captain Y reads CC for sure. Last year on the Crown Trans-Atlantic, our ship remained in port in Southampton for 3 days due to a tremendous storm in the UK.

 

Passengers were livid when Captain announced we would only make 2 ports in 16 days so we could get back to FLL. as scheduled. They were writing all kind of nasty things on CC about the cruise, and how they felt we should have at least been able to port in La Harve. and that the Captain was making a mistake. I think everyone was in shock when Captain made the announcement that comments on CC where totally inaccurate and unless posters new all the actual details, they should stop posting false information.

 

We did have Kelvin as our CD, so we had a great time regardless. And Princess was very generous with credits even though it was all mother natures fault.

[TinaLee]

Yes, Captain Y reads CC for sure. Last year on the Crown Trans-Atlantic, our ship remained in port in Southampton for 3 days due to a tremendous storm in the UK.

 

Passengers were livid when Captain announced we would only make 2 ports in 16 days so we could get back to FLL. as scheduled. They were writing all kind of nasty things on CC about the cruise, and how they felt we should have at least been able to port in La Harve. and that the Captain was making a mistake. I think everyone was in shock when Captain made the announcement that comments on CC where totally inaccurate and unless posters new all the actual details, they should stop posting false information.

 

We did have Kelvin as our CD, so we had a great time regardless. And Princess was very generous with credits even though it was all mother natures fault.

 

My daughter was on her honeymoon on this cruise as well. Lots of chatter about causes, etc. She said she felt especially bad for all of the vets who were looking forward to going to Normandy. And you're right, the cruise credits were very generous. But that was a LOT of sea days and very few ports. She'll probably never get her new DH on another transatlantic :)

 

(sorry didn't mean to hijack the post!)

[counsdr]

What is Skywalkers?

I hope this captain will still be on board for our 9/20 cruise!

[Colo Cruiser]

What is Skywalkers?

 

Its the disco/bar/lounge at aft at the top of the ship .

(in the shopping cart handle)