Live from the Caribbean Princess, Dec. 27-Jan. 3

[geoherb]

We are waiting to start our back-to-back cruises on the Caribbean Princess. For the first time, we drove down to Fort Lauderdale from Raleigh, North Carolina. We drove 12 hours yesterday, stopping for the night at the Fort Pierce exit. Traffic was not bad except for about the last 45 miles in South Carolina. It took an hour and 20 minutes to go that distance. There was also a wreck that closed three lanes of I-95 near Boca this morning. We got off the highway and bypassed it by going down U.S. 1 a ways until we were around the blockage.

 

Getting to the port was easy. We left Fort Pierce around 9 a.m. and were dropping off our bags at 11. It took about 10 minutes to park and bring our carry-on bags down to the terminal. There wasn’t any wait for security. We declared our two bottles of wine at the desk. I could have easily gotten around doing so, but I figure we might as well follow the rules. We’ll get two more bottles on Tuesday when we have the

 

Check-in was a breeze. Only three other couples were ahead of us in the preferred boarding line. Even the regular line seemed to be going fairly quickly. We made it to the Elite waiting area at 11:35. They have water, orange juice, coffee, tea, and pastries available. There are only 22 people waiting in here with us now. As I type this, it’s 10 until noon. I’m hoping they start boarding us shortly.

Edited December 27, 2014 by geoherb

[geoherb]

And they did, about 2 minutes after I shut down my laptop. We were in our cabin before noon and in the dining room for lunch at 10 past. We had lunch with a couple who had been on for the Christmas cruise. They said it was great. That one was 5 days long and went to Princess Cays and Cozumel. They said there were a lot of children on the cruise, but they never saw any misbehaving.

 

The menu for embarkation lunch was different today. They did not have my favorites—the ravioli (which I usually get as an appetizer-size portion) and the salmon. I had the fettuccini and cod instead. Both were good, but neither was as good as what I usually get.

 

The couple had good things to say about Kelly Rose, the cruise director on the CB. We have not sailed with her as CD before. The captain is Giorgio Pomata, Tony Ruggero is the staff captain, Adam Gorst is the hotel general manager, Michael Glass is the food and beverage director, Deirdre Doyle is the customer services director, Antonio Cereda is the executive chef, and Angelo Balbiani is the maître d’.

 

The one production show scheduled for the Princess Theater is “Piano Man.” The other two nights will feature comedian Phil Tag and comedy magic by Farrell Dillon. Movies Under the Stars is showing Guardians of the Galaxy and Edge of Tomorrow.

 

All of our minibar setup was ready for us when we got to our cabin. We haven’t received our Elite bathroom amenities yet. We have some conditioner leftover from the stay last night. My hair needs it when I use the Princess shampoo that they have in the bathrooms now.

 

Our cabin is a handicapped accessible one on the Baja Deck for this first cruise. The extra space is nice. I’ll have to learn not to step up into the bathroom—and then learn to do so again when we switch cabins in three days. The couple we ate lunch with remarked about how easy their switch had been this morning. They moved from an aft cabin to a balcony near the front of the ship.

Edited December 27, 2014 by geoherb

[CruiserN1]

Thanks for the live report. We are on the Jan 3 cruise.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the live.

We really enjoy Capt Pomata, and have sailed with him many times. :)

 

Bon Voyage!

[geoherb]

Thanks. According to the people with whom we ate lunch, the seas were smooth when they came back yesterday. The weather was sunny this afternoon. Some clouds have come in and it's currently mostly cloudy with some peeks of sun.

 

Our luggage arrived really quickly, soon after we got back to the cabin from lunch. DH took a nap and walked a few laps around the Promenade. The Patter lists the Chef's Table. We have traditional dining this cruise and won't be doing it. If it is offered next cruise, we will consider doing it again. I've done it three times and enjoyed every one of them. The chef is the one who was on the Sapphire Princess, I think. He was one of the best.

 

Sailaway is shortly. Our cabin steward has brought us the schedule of the Platinum/Elite/suite event. Tonight it's the major margarita with guacamole. Tomorrow night is the chairman of the board with smoked salmon. Monday night is salsa and mojitos. When we took two 4-day cruises back to back on the Ruby last year, they had new specials on the second cruise. I'm hoping they will for our next cruise as well.

 

The muster drill went smoothly. We were one of the last ones down to the casino and had to stand beside the bar. But that got us out of there sooner. I'm about to enjoy a gin and tonic as we sail away.

[sunfun1433]

Thanks for the report! I will be joining you Dec. 30th....Can't wait!

[seamanfs]

Thank you so much for the report on the Caribbean!We board on Feb 7th for 19 days!! Anxious to hear your thoughts on the experience. We are on Aloha deck 638.

[Dudleydog73]

Good to see my fellow Raleighites are having a good time! If you get a chance could you find out if Phil Tag will be staying on through January? We will be doing a B2B starting jan 17. Thanks again and have a fabulous cruise!

[Disconnections]

The muster drill went smoothly. We were one of the last ones down to the casino and had to stand beside the bar. But that got us out of there sooner. I'm about to enjoy a gin and tonic as we sail away.

 

Now that Captain Pomata is back onboard, were you required to bring your life jacket to the muster drill? It was required when Craig Street joined the ship, but not a couple weeks prior with Giorgio Pomata.

[f1mauro]

Sailing on her Jan 8. First time Princess cruise. Subscribed.

[JustinPlusLauren]

Thank you for the live updates! I'm sailing on March 7th aboard the CB and I'm reading everything that I can in anticipation of my cruise :) It is my first cruise as a Platinum member so I'm looking forward to the extra little perks! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

Do you happen to know what the cutoff is for the MTP function? :confused:

[minniem]

We are boarding Feb 21. We are very excited. I will be following your post. Thank you for taking the time to post live.

[geoherb]

We enjoyed the guacamole and margaritas at the Platinum/Elite/suite event. We went to the early show. Cruise director Kelly introduced Phil Tag, the comedian. It was not the usual welcome aboard show—no introductions of the cruise director’s staff and no short number from the production show cast. I did not miss those things. Phil Tag was funny. The theater was about two-thirds full. I don’t remember which cruise we saw him on before. Most of his material was different. I did not remember seeing him before until he did his Robert De Nero face.

 

We have a large table in the dining room at second seating. Only one couple showed up, so there were four empty seats. Our waitress wanted to wait to see if others were coming, so she delayed taking our orders. I had the fried sushi, fruit trio, and barramundi. I ordered an extra side dish of steamed broccoli. They never serve enough vegetables with the entrees. Everything was tasty. The waitress mixed up one of our tablemate’s orders, bringing him the prime rib instead of the medallions of beef. I think he would have been better off accepting the mistake, because the medallions did not look as good. DH and our other tablemate ordered the crawfish pot pie. It looked better than when I tried it a few cruises ago, but I think I’ll stick with the barramundi as my first night choice.

 

The Caribbean Princess will be getting to Princess Cays in a couple of hours. We are looking forward to a relaxing morning on the beach. I’m not sure we’ll stay for lunch. We may come back to the ship and eat at the International Café.

 

On tap for today in the Patter: interdenominational church service, speed Sudoku, knitters and natters get-together, morning trivia, Wii bowling, bible study, ring toss, golf putting, water volleyball, afternoon tea, basketball challenge, and afternoon trivia. Tonight: line dance lessons, Farrell Dillon comedy magic show in the theater, and the ultimate deck party. Epithani is the band playing in Explorers Lounge. The Sun Down Duo play Wheelhouse. Oliver Holland is in Crooners. We passed by last night. I think we’ll skip his act. They have three NFL games scheduled on MUTS beginning at 1 p.m. with the Chargers vs. Chiefs. The other games are Lions vs. Packers and the Steelers vs. Bengals. They have a “tailgate @ sea” before the last game. We will be at dinner then.

[geoherb]

They said to bring life preservers to the muster drill in the Patter. And after the crew members demonstrated how to put them on, the passengers had to do it.

 

I'm not sure about the most traveled passenger event. I'll try to find out if I see the Captain's Circle host.

 

We got a nice surprise of $25 per person refund of port fees.

[minniem]

Can you tell me what time early traditional dinning starts. I know the website says early is at 6 but I have read some ships do early at 5:45 Thanks

Minnie

[philv]

I'm enjoying your narrative. We are on CB March 7. Love to hear what's in the Patter. Are they doing the Crab Shack in the Cafe Caribe?

[geoherb]

Can you tell me what time early traditional dinning starts. I know the website says early is at 6 but I have read some ships do early at 5:45 Thanks

Minnie

First seating traditional in the Palm Dining Room is 5:45. There's also one offered at 5:30 in the Coral Dining Room. Our second seating starts at 8.

 

Our cabin steward delivered our Elite bathroom amenities the first night. They included shampoo/conditioner combination in a tube, gel eye mask, emery board, cotton balls and Q-tips, shower cap, and luffa mitt.

 

We ate breakfast in the dining room. The specials this morning were the Caribbean sunrise fruit boat and some sort of open-faced mushroom omelet with polenta and sausages. I had the fruit boat and smoked salmon. One of the women who joined our table couldn’t decide what she wanted to eat. Her husband saw what he wanted on the menu and ordered. She said she didn’t see anything she wanted. Finally, after talking about wanting corned beef hash, we suggested that she ask the waitress. No problem.

 

Princess Cays was relaxing. We took one of the first tenders over. Not having to wait for tender tickets saved a lot of time. This cruise is the first time we’ve been able to take advantage of this Elite perk. On our last cruise, the ship skipped Princess Cays due to Tropical Storm Bertha. We found a couple of nice chairs in the shade of one of the tin-roofed palapas. There seemed to be plenty of chairs up until around 11 a.m. We walked about as far as we could on both sides of the tender drop-off area. To the left, we did not go any farther than the Sanctuary bungalows. To the right, we walked down past the point. It gets pretty tricky past the point with rocks and roots, so we did not go any farther.

 

We ended up eating lunch after a relaxing swim. The water feels a little bit chilly right at first, but you get used to it quickly. The weather could not have been better—mostly sunny and nearly 80 degrees. The beach barbecue had a wide variety to choose from. A lot of people seemed to be enjoying the hamburgers and ribs. I stuck to the grilled fish, salad, and fresh fruit.

 

One of the best things about taking the early tender over was that there wasn’t a line for the tender back to the ship when we were ready to come back around 12:30. It may not be as bad today as we’ve seen it in the past since we’re staying longer than I remember. We got here at 9 and the last tender is at 4:15.

[geoherb]

I'm enjoying your narrative. We are on CB March 7. Love to hear what's in the Patter. Are they doing the Crab Shack in the Cafe Caribe?

There hasn't been one yet. Tonight's special theme in the Café Caribe is Caribbean dinner buffet. I'm hoping there is one on our 4-night cruise. We are planning on skipping dinner in the dining room and trying that and the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. I'm going to ask this afternoon about making reservations for our next cruise while on this one.

[geoherb]

Do you happen to know what the cutoff is for the MTP function? :confused:

According to the Captain's Circle hostess, there isn't going to be a function for the most-traveled passengers on this cruise. She said they won't have one for the 4-day cruise either. The most-traveled passenger on the ship has 1,352 days. There are 55 Elite passengers.

[Disconnections]

They said to bring life preservers to the muster drill in the Patter. And after the crew members demonstrated how to put them on, the passengers had to do it.

 

Thanks! Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[FlynnRider78]

We are boarding CB in May so very excited for your live posts.. Have a great time [emoji2]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[markf]

we will be on CB shortly as well -- we have a full suite, DO WE GET ACCESS TO THE PRIORITY EMBARKATION ROOM?

How often do they offer the chefs table-? where do we sign up for it?--do you know if they abide by dress code -so if it is formal night do we need to be dressed formally for the chefs table?

[svend52]

We leave in about three weeks. Keep posting please. Thanks!

[I object 2]

Enjoying your "Live From". Thanks for taking time to post. We board the Caribbean Princess January 17th.

 

Jan