A favorable and honest review of CB-- Best cruise yet!!!

[BeachinBeauty]

OMG the horror a carpet with a stain!!

 

Lol :rolleyes:! I'm pretty sure I read something somewhere on the internet where someone was calling the carpets "disgusting," and such. I can assure everyone there was nothing disgusting on the entire ship.

[mcgratru]

We were on this ship last year. It was an awesome cruise and the ship was very clean and well kept. Would go again in a heartbeat!

Edited April 10, 2015 by mcgratru

[BeachinBeauty]

Okay, so, embark...

 

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, my photo taking skills are not the greatest. I'm always so paranoid what other people are thinking and/or if I'm holding up a line. Something I need to work on. Let's get going.

 

We pulled up to the terminal at approximately 12:18 PM. I was astounded at the size of our home for the week.

 

The Park n' Go shuttle pulled right up to the boarding line area and the shuttle driver unloaded our luggage to a porter standing there. We were so relieved not to have to worry about handling our heavy bags at all. The line was enormous and the end of it was wrapped around the side of the building. That's where we went. Around ten minutes later, we started moving. Okay, great! Or, so we thought. Apparently, a staff member had been responsible for roping off an area designating the proper line formation. The line was NOT supposed to wrap around the side of the building. None of us knew that. A staff member attempted to move all of us who were in that area (around 50 people) to the new designated end of the line... behind the probably hundred people who'd arrived since we had. One of the ladies ahead of us was not going to take it lying down. Thankfully so, she got all of us put in the correct spot so that we didn't have to wait any longer. It was about forty five minutes of standing outside. My attempts to pack "as light as possible," still somehow seemed to fail. I was anxious to get on the ship.

 

After the forty five minute inch-along, we finally got inside and did security stuff and got our cards. I took the picture of our ship at 12:18 PM when we were pulling up to it. I took this picture of us walking onto the ship at 1:17 PM.

 

 

Sorry, that one embarrasses me. Terrible quality. But, do I see dirty carpets on that gangway plank?! Heathens! Heathens, I tell ya! ;)

 

Once we were onboard we made a beeline right for our room via the mid-ship elevators that were directly in front of us.

 

It wasn't hard to find because we were directly off the mid-ship elevators on deck 8, in E415. We had an obstructed oceanview cabin.

 

 

 

 

The obstruction wasn't really all that bad, as you can see. It took us no time to clutter the place up and make it our own! I was ECSTATIC! I was in love with the ship and had only seen the hallway, so far. Ready to unwind with a drink and some lunch.

 

After we got our carry-ons dropped off, we went down to guest services, added money onto our account, and went up to lido for a burger and fries. That process was easy breezy. Getting a drink to wash it all down with, not so much. We hit up the bar just outside of Horizon Court, by the pool. I want to say we stood there for about ten minutes before being addressed by a bartender. There were three working. During that time, I noticed the bartender having a lovely conversation with a man in a floral print shirt. I did not know, at that time, that Princess has deck staff dress in Hawaiian shirts. I thought the bartender was chatting up another guest. Nope. Soon enough, two more staff members walked up and the group of them carried on as if they were not working, at all. Eventually, we got our Caribbean Coolers and walked into Horizon Court to eat our meal in the air conditioned refuge.

 

 

My dessert plate:

 

 

Okay, okay, I should correct this to say, "My FIRST dessert plate." That was my biggest weakness the whole trip, those delicious chocolate cookies. We walked everywhere, though, due to limited elevator availability and children playing with the ones that were. So, I only ended up gaining a pound the whole cruise. And boy, did I eat.

 

After our lunch, it was muster drill time. That was the usual rigamarole. Our muster station was Explorer's Lounge. Just in case you're thinking of booking a room near where ours was and want to know where the station will be. I've seen people ask that question before on here.

[BeachinBeauty]

When muster was over, we returned our life jackets to our stateroom and headed up to lido for the sailaway. Much to our surprise, we had a visitor out on deck. The Easter bunny, himself!

 

 

I do not know the individuals in the photograph. If it's you, please don't sue! Hey, that rhymed!

[shredie]

That's a good room. Very little obstruction.

[BeachinBeauty]

That's a good room. Very little obstruction.

 

Yep, I recommend it to anyone who is wanting to get the lower cost but who would like at least somewhat of a view.

 

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[debjo]

Superb review so far...anxiously awaiting more, as we sail on the CB on 4/18. It is so nice to see some "realistic" viewpoints from recent passengers. We're middle-of-the-row cruisers too and don't sweat the small stuff. Hey, any cruise ship that is as clean or cleaner than my house is good enough for me...I'm on vacation and don't have to lift a finger! Wear and tear happens, as everyone knows who has lived in a place for any length of time.

 

So, tell us more...don't leave any details behind. By the way...your picture additions are great! I know it takes a lot of time to put these reviews together & answer everyone's questions! We appreciate you effort! Glad you had a great time...we hope to do the same in a week!

 

Debjo

[BeachinBeauty]

Superb review so far...anxiously awaiting more, as we sail on the CB on 4/18. It is so nice to see some "realistic" viewpoints from recent passengers. We're middle-of-the-row cruisers too and don't sweat the small stuff. Hey, any cruise ship that is as clean or cleaner than my house is good enough for me...I'm on vacation and don't have to lift a finger! Wear and tear happens, as everyone knows who has lived in a place for any length of time.

 

So, tell us more...don't leave any details behind. By the way...your picture additions are great! I know it takes a lot of time to put these reviews together & answer everyone's questions! We appreciate you effort! Glad you had a great time...we hope to do the same in a week!

 

Debjo

 

Thank you! Yeah, that's what I'm saying... If I'm in a place that is clean and less cluttered than my house and I'm not the one having to do dishes and laundry, then it's all good! I almost feel guilty leaving dishes lying around on a cruise because I'm so used to being the one who handles those things. It's so nice.

 

I will hopefully get more added soon. Probably later today.

 

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[BeachinBeauty]

Can't believe it's been exactly two weeks since we set sail :( I miss the ship and the atmosphere so much!

 

When I left off, we were preparing to pull out of Port Everglades and head off into the wild, blue yonder. The Easter bunny appeared. Boy, he must've nearly been bunny stew in that heat!

 

Our version of sail away was much more peaceful than one might imagine. My first two cruises, sail away was a big, huge, loud party. This past cruise and the one before it were not so much. Maybe we were standing in the wrong spot? But, there was also only one other ship leaving when we were and it wasn't in the appropriate proximity for a big ship to ship fanfare. We admired the fancy homes and yachts while relishing in a small breeze that the ship's movement was suddenly creating.

 

This is not my finest moment in photography, either...

 

 

After we got a certain amount of the way out off of the dock, we began walking around, exploring the outer decks. We found the aft pool and I caught this photo that I really love.

 

 

I regret that we didn't hang out in this area at all for the rest of the cruise. Walking back to this pool, we caught a whiff of a horrid sewage smell. It was only in a very certain spot, but it was strong. We continued to catch that same odor on random occasions both out by the Sanctuary pool and also inside (and out) on Promenade, port side, directly mid. This didn't affect our cruise, but I promised to be honest in pointing out flaws I noticed, just in case that would be a deal breaker to someone else.

 

I can't specifically remember what all we did in between this time and going down to dinner, so I apologize. I'm pretty sure we roamed around a bit. I'm already beginning to forget certain details, so I'm going to probably write from here on out and go back and add in pictures after I post. Photobucket plus my upload speed is a recipe for disaster in the race against time and my memory.

 

I do remember dinner that night. We'd chosen anytime dining. As soon as we rounded the corner near the Coral dining room at 7 PM, I hated that choice. I've always been a traditional, MDR diner on cruises. I want a set time, the same waiter and the same dining room each night. The line for Coral was outrageous. We walked up to see what the deal was and were told that they were currently turning people away due to every table being full. So, we hobbled over to guest services and asked to be switched to set dining. The attendant made a phone call and told us we'd need to go talk to the Maitre'd in the Palm dining room (CB's only set time dining room). So, we trekked up, down and all around until we found a path to Palm. You have to go directly aft and take those stairs and elevators ONLY. You can't get to it any other way.

 

The maitre'd was cordial and we chose 5:45 dining time. Only problem was, it was now 7:20 and we'd missed out for that night. So, we were sent back up to try Island dining. This time, we got a seat. Or, a table, should I say.

 

Presented with the menu, I chose my cruise staple, a caesar salad. I also ordered the peach bellini soup and the Puerto Rican pork mofongo dish. The menus featured an island favorites-type section (is that what it's called? I've got a picture but being lazy) with a different island being focused on each night. Because we'd gone to Puerto Rico on our last cruise and dined in San Juan on authentic pork and mofongo, I had to try it on Princess. It was fahhhntastic! Now, keep in mind, I am no culinary aficionado. I've seen many complaints regarding Princess' "horrible food" and "deplorable menus." I found the food not horrible nor the menus deplorable, but I am an average person. My pork was on the spicy side and if I could suggest anything to improve the dish, it would've been to have had a reduction in spice. If you are prone to heartburn, pack Tums or just skip out on ordering this. The mofongo was delicious and was placed as sort of a bed for the pork. It was a sweet mofongo, whereas the mofongo I'd had in PR was a savory one. I felt the sweet perfectly offset such spicy meat. There was a fried plantain on the plate, as well, it was a bit tough. While I've not had many plantanos in my life, I don't recall them ever being as rubbery as this piece was.

 

For the life of me, I cannot recall my mother in law's main dish. She always gets the shrimp cocktail and caesar salad every night of a cruise as her appetizers, though.

 

For dessert, I had the blueberry and peach cobbler with a side of vanilla ice cream. The cobbler was bland. I won't lie. I like my desserts sweet. If you don't, you'd love this. But, I have a horrible sweet tooth that I battle with. The ice cream complemented the cobbler nicely by adding sweetness to the dessert. My mother in law ordered the creme brulee. That was one of her biggest selling points on Princess. Every night of our Carnival cruise, she kept asking me if they'd ever have the creme brulee again. They only had it one night and she was disappointed. Because it is a nightly staple on Princess, they get major points with her.

 

We also had coffee with dessert. This is where my love affair with Princess coffee began. I'm afraid it shall never end. Yes, we loved the free, dining room coffee. I know, I know. I've heard the stories. Maybe I was dreaming and, perhaps, I still am. Please do not wake me up.

 

Another final note to add about dinner (and the MDR food, in general) portions are HUGE. If you're a big eater, or related to one, Princess beats Carnival out on portions. I'm not a big portion eater and was left absolutely miserable with leftovers on my plate at every single meal.

 

After we ate, we went to see the Welcome Aboard show with Al Katz, the comedian. He was pretty funny and we enjoyed it. We also enjoyed Princess Theater and the seating areas outside of it. We never actually had to utilize the seating areas, but they were beautifully done and the air conditioner never faltered in that spot.

 

Bedtime was well welcomed when the show concluded. We were exhausted and looking forward to an amazing week. We ordered room service just to do it, I guess, because I can't say we were starving. It was a 45-minute wait! My mother in law fell asleep waiting and I forced myself to stay awake because I knew they'd be bringing the food. I ate a cookie and packed the rest of the food up in the fridge. Then, slept like a baby. Or, what's the saying? Like a husband? ;)

[Mackenzie1]

Thank you for your review. What happens at the Coral dining room is that it accommodates the early traditional dining 5:30 p.m. seating, and so by 7:00 p.m., many of the early traditional diners have not finished dinner yet.

[BeachinBeauty]

Thank you for your review. What happens at the Coral dining room is that it accommodates the early traditional dining 5:30 p.m. seating, and so by 7:00 p.m., many of the early traditional diners have not finished dinner yet.

 

I didn't realize that! I know seven o clock probably isn't the best time to decide to go down to dinner on a sold out ship, either. Not my best idea. But, from now on out, I'll just go ahead and do early set time dining.

 

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[DMCruiser]

Orange juice was fine. In fact, I recall the waiter in MDR saying, "Would you guys like some of our fresh squeezed orange juice?" So, don't know if he was just saying that or if they still are doing it. Either way, I had a glass every morning. I don't drink fresh squeezed orange juice at home, so it's not a requirement of mine. One thing I've noticed is people continuously saying Princess coffee is "horrible." I'm not a big coffee person, but OMG!!! I had to have several cups with breakfast and the best part of dessert after dinner was getting a cup of that nectar of the Gods! Haha. Maybe they've changed their supplier? Maybe I don't know what good coffee is. Probably, I don't, because like I said I don't drink it much. But, it was fantastic to my taste buds. It could've been the creamer, too. We don't use real cream at home and I think that really made it perfect. Now we're planning to go out and buy real cream to put in ours here. On another note, I've also seen many posts claiming Princess pizza was rated best cruise line pizza. I felt there was nothing that set it apart from Carnival pizza. It was very standard. I liked it, but it wasn't phenomenal.

 

The next time try the pizza in Alfredo's (located in Sabatini's restaurant during lunch). The pizza is fabulous and very different from what they serve in the Grill.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your review.

[Mackenzie1]

The next time try the pizza in Alfredo's (located in Sabatini's restaurant during lunch). The pizza is fabulous and very different from what they serve in the Grill.

 

Thanks for the hint! I didn't know Sabatini's was open for lunch, and served pizza. I love pizza, but I thought the pizza at the Grill was skimpy on toppings, sauce, and cheese, and not worth the calories or carbs.

[JF - retired RRT]

Thanks for the hint! I didn't know Sabatini's was open for lunch, and served pizza. I love pizza, but I thought the pizza at the Grill was skimpy on toppings, sauce, and cheese, and not worth the calories or carbs.

Not on every ship, unfortunately.

[Mom33]

Thanks for the hint! I didn't know Sabatini's was open for lunch, and served pizza. I love pizza, but I thought the pizza at the Grill was skimpy on toppings, sauce, and cheese, and not worth the calories or carbs.

 

 

There is no Alfredo's on the Caribbean Princess. Sabatinis is not open for lunch either. What ship are you referring to?

[debjo]

For BeachinBeauty...

We're hanging on every work of your review, as we leave on the CARIBBEAN PRINCESS soon! I know you are trying to chronologically post your activities and impressions of the ship & cruise...but I do have one question that might be out of context:

 

Do you know if the CB has "fresh" or "salt water" pools? From our past PRINCESS cruises, I'm remembering that the pools were "fresh" water ones (which I prefer)...and hope this hasn't changed.

 

As always,

Debjo

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

For BeachinBeauty...

We're hanging on every work of your review, as we leave on the CARIBBEAN PRINCESS soon! I know you are trying to chronologically post your activities and impressions of the ship & cruise...but I do have one question that might be out of context:

 

Do you know if the CB has "fresh" or "salt water" pools? From our past PRINCESS cruises, I'm remembering that the pools were "fresh" water ones (which I prefer)...and hope this hasn't changed.

 

As always,

Debjo

 

The pools on the CB are fresh water. I believe that only the little sisters of the fleet (Pacific and Ocean) have salt water pools

[BeachinBeauty]

For BeachinBeauty...

We're hanging on every work of your review, as we leave on the CARIBBEAN PRINCESS soon! I know you are trying to chronologically post your activities and impressions of the ship & cruise...but I do have one question that might be out of context:

 

Do you know if the CB has "fresh" or "salt water" pools? From our past PRINCESS cruises, I'm remembering that the pools were "fresh" water ones (which I prefer)...and hope this hasn't changed.

 

As always,

Debjo

 

Definitely fresh water, no worries!

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

[BeachinBeauty]

Tuesday, March 31st, was a sea day. After having slept better than we had in years, we woke around 8 AM, got dressed and went down to the Coral dining room for breakfast. I like to have breakfast in MDR, so we did this each day of the cruise.

 

I had orange juice, my beloved coffee and a ham and cheese omelet with fruit plate and sausage. I ate that breakfast each morning. I also indulged in one pastry and one croissant each morning, as well. Hey, I was on a cruise!

 

I think most days my mother in law got eggs over easy with bacon and fruit.

 

After breakfast, we went to our room and got ready for some pool time. We chose the Sanctuary pool. There were no seats available pool side. Tons of chair hogging going on. That rule is not enforced anywhere on the ship, by the way. So, we had to go up the steps to the next level that looks down on the pool and lay there. It was a cramped area with too many chairs in that spot. But, I was in Heaven staring up at the gracefully moving sky with my headphones in. I cooled off briefly in the pool and chatted with a nice lady for a bit. Then, returned to my seat.

 

Once we'd had all the warmth we could take, we left the pool, went back and got dressed in regular clothes, then headed up to Horizon Court for lunch. Upon arriving there, it was super crowded and that was the first time I noticed the very unpleasant attended who was working in there. I'm not sure if the buffet attendant thing is always the norm on Princess cruises, or if this was due to recent noro outbreaks, but I definitely prefer just grabbing my plate and not being hassled at a buffet. A woman walked up wearing a swimsuit underneath a swimsuit cover-up. The attendant barked at her, "Ma'am, no! You need to go get dressed up now." The passenger said, "I didn't realize I was supposed to dress up for the buffet." Attendant, "Yes, ma'am. You need to go dress up or you can't eat here." For Pete's sake, this is a buffet directly off of a pool! The woman did have a covering over her suit and she was not dripping or wet.

 

The line was long, though, so we ended up walking over to Caribe and getting our food. It was Mexican day. The chicken enchiladas were amazing! I also had rice and beans and a roasted chicken kind of deal. I recall other offerings on the buffet including a taco salad bar and fajitas. But, I went with the enchiladas and wasn't disappointed.

 

After lunch, we'd scheduled ourselves for the ladies' pamper party at the spa. I knew it was going to end up being a sales gimmick, but wanted to see what it was all about as it advertised receiving a free facial, a makeover and a teeth whitening treatment sample. My advice (which, I'm sure you experienced cruisers already know): skip it. Seriously, spend that time doing trivia or lounging by the pool. The facial consisted of the spa attendants hurriedly squirting various products on our fingers and instructing us to apply them to our faces. After applying four or five things, my face felt like I'd dunked it in a bowl of Crisco. It was so oily and even, sticky? Ick. Then, the teeth whitening "sample." It was a small bottle of this mint mouthwash stuff that you rub onto your teeth. While we were rubbing it on, the spa consultant announced that it would do nothing to whiten our teeth or show any indication of the service being worth the hundreds of dollars it costs. It was merely a primer for the actual treatment. Okay, then. They called someone from the audience up to receive a free Sunglow makeover. I was a little perturbed because the flyer advertised a free makeover for all. Not just for a volunteer. They applied the Sunglow stuff and I really, really liked it. I could see myself purchasing this makeup. Once the volunteer's makeover was done, they dismissed us but did say those who wanted to try the Sunglow could stick around and receive an application. I opted to stay and get the application. I liked the way it looked, but had to go wash my entire face before formal night portraits and dinner because my face felt so nasty from the facial products used before the Sunglow application.

 

When the spa girls left, we kinda just sat around because that space segued into the "footprint analysis" seminar. When I heard, "footprint analysis," I guess I had a completely different idea of what that meant than what it actually meant. Again, basically just skip any of these seminars, as they're all sales pitches. We were instructed to step on a sheet of paper, given our ink blot footprint and told we needed to buy $200 shoe inserts. Nope.

 

At that time, the afternoon had nearly withered away. It was time for happy hour in Club Fusion. Buy one get one free drinks, heck yes!!! So, we headed there and got a Bahama Breeze. Back in our room, I realized something I needed to wear under my dress was wet, so I took it down to the laundry room on our deck to dry it. Only, every washing machine and dryer was full. So, I took an elevator trip to deck eleven and put it in the dryer there, went back down to Club Fusion with minutes to spare and ordered us another round of Bahama Breezes (I bought one drink both times and gave my mother in law the free one) and went back to start getting ready for dinner.

 

This night was our first night in the Palm dining room. We met our waiter, Randolf, and his assistant whose name escapes me. They were both from the Philippines, so I thought it was pretty cool that Princess paired them that way so that they could possibly relate to each other better.

 

I ordered the caesar salad, the risotto cakes and the Atlantic salmon. It was the Princess 50th anniversary menu that night, but nothing appealed to me on that side. The risotto cakes... I'm still fantasizing about them right now. I can't even tell you what all they had in them, but wow!

 

 

The salmon was delicious. It was a basic salmon, no frills. But, I love salmon so I didn't mind that. It came with a white sauce to pour over it and fresh, steamed veggies. The sauce provided the right amount of zest and flavor and the veggies were quite tasty. My mother in law had the tri-tip roast with chimichurri sauce. Once again, portions were gigantic and we were unable to clean our plates.

 

But, I can never turn down dessert. Neeever ever! I ordered the 50th anniversary dessert. It was a full order of creme brulee in addition to this chocolate raspberry thing...

 

 

Wish I could remember the actual name of this or the description. The red stuff was a thin, sort of cake crumb layer with a slight raspberry flavor, covering a chocolate cheesecake interior. I'm not a big raspberry-flavored anything fanatic. I like raspberries, themselves, so I ate that and I didn't mind the coating around the cheesecake because it was paper thin. But, I did spoon out the raspberry syrup from the top and set it aside. Like I said, this came with a full serving of creme brulee, as well.

 

 

Even I was thinking, this is too much dessert! Haha! I ate half of each.

 

After dinner, we were both dying. But, wanted a formal portrait before changing for the Piano Man show. So, we found a place to take that photo. The lines were outrageous. On my Carnival cruises, the lines never got that bad. I am assuming this had something to do with Princess offering an 8x10 print of each and every single photo you take onboard for a grand total of $50 for their 50th anniversary. I paid $22 for ONE 8x10 on my most recent Carnival sailing. If DH had been with me on the Princess cruise, we would have been hitting up all the stations for that deal, too.

 

While we were taking pictures, the champagne party was going on in the piazza. We missed getting any champagne, but we did witness the champagne fountain. Yeah, I know, I don't know how we missed out on actually getting the champagne even though we were there while it was being poured. There were a ton of people seeking that stuff and we're not huge on the flavor, so weren't going to fight tooth and nail for a glass.

 

 

Was under the impression I had a better photo of this. But, I guess not.

 

After our portrait was had, we changed into more comfortable clothing and went to see the Piano Man show. We loved it! I'm a huge Billy Joel and Elton John fan. Not really so much of a Barry Manilow fan, but I survived. It was great!

 

We got back to our room late and I put on a bathrobe and pajamas and shamefully snuck up to lido for pizza. Bedroom shoes were donned in this event. I am honestly shocked a Carnival ship was not dispatched immediately to retrieve me :eek:! :D I think you'll find my sense of humor refreshing. In my defense, the hallways were empty. No one saw me get on the elevator either time and the elevator was empty both times (there and back). The pizzeria was right off of the elevator. So, I was seen minimally. I would hope that the level of intoxication of each guest who did have the misfortune of seeing me was so great that they either do not remember or were too happy to let it affect their cruise.

 

Someone's gonna say I should've ordered room service. I'm gonna say that I wasn't waiting 45-minutes for food just to waste it again because I'd be exhausted by the time it got there.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed my pizza in the privacy of our cabin. We watched a bit of television and then retired.

[golfb4cruzing]

So no passengers were harmed in the wearing of your robe??:eek:

[BeachinBeauty]

So no passengers were harmed in the wearing of your robe??:eek:

 

No, not that I know of! Can you believe it? I heard no codes over the loud speaker and partying continued well into the night. In fact, those who did see me weren't really even paying too much attention. Perhaps they were minding their own business and -gasp- enjoying their well-earned vacation :eek: ! Lol!

 

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[debjo]

We're lovin' every minute of your cruise...now counting the hours toward ours. You and your M-I-L seem to have had a great time. I love your "go with the flow" attitude.

Debjo

[BeachinBeauty]

Before I begin this segment, I'd like to encourage everyone to feel free to ask me any and all questions. It gets a little overwhelming trying to cover all bases here, and I know I am forgetting little details that others many be curious about. So, if there is anything in particular that I can help with, ask me and I will tell what I know.

 

Wednesday, April 1st, 2015. Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. Grand Cayman is my favorite place of all places I've ever been. This trip, we decided to go with the ship's turtle farm, Tortuga, hell excursion. I can assure you, there are much better ways to spend two hours of your morning.

 

We had to meet our excursion at 8:30 AM in the Princess Theater. So, we got up early, dressed, packed our bags for the day (backpack and beach bag), and headed down to breakfast in Coral. We had our usual fare and walked to Princess Theater. Upon approaching the entrance, you hand in your tickets in exchange for a sticker. Then, the sitting and waiting begins. Sit as far towards the front of the theater as possible, as this group of rows gets called first. We got onto the tender at 9 AM.

 

Off the tender, we skipped by the ever-annoying, cruise line photo op and found the person who would be leading our excursion. We were placed to the side and told to wait momentarily, then we were guided across the street and through the shopping mall there. The name is on the tip of my tongue, but escapes me at the moment. On the other side of the mall was our taxi van. It was very clean and nice. The driver, whose name also escapes me (it's something very common like Sandra or Debra or something), was friendly and told us all about the island as she drove us around. Good sense of humor!

 

First stop was Tortuga, which happened to be my favorite of the stops. Good, strong wifi. They let you sample rum and rum cake. Their rum is absolutely delicious, as are the cakes. I'd had the cake plenty of times before but never the rum. We bought a five pack of assorted rum for $20. I will say, the way it was packaged, we were under the impression the bottles were a bit larger than they are. We got four 2 ounce shots out of a bottle. My advice is to pick your favorite flavor of the samples and buy a large bottle of just that. How the purchase works is, you pay and give the cashier your ship and room number and they send your liquor to the ship. On last sea day, the steward delivers it to your room so you can actually drink it onboard. That was pretty cool. Plus, you do not have to carry around your purchase all over Grand Cayman for the rest of the excursion.

 

The stop at Tortuga is only fifteen minutes. Then, you get back on the van and head to Hell. The ride to Hell takes a little while. The tour guide provided us with interesting and fun tidbits about things we passed on the way. At Hell, you are given twenty (?) minutes. There is a small gift shop there. We purchased a Bell, postcard and stamp, filled out the postcard and then went out back to take a few pictures of the ruins.

 

Back on the van, it was only a few minutes to the turtle farm. We were given wristbands and instructed to return to the bus in thirty minutes. There really wasn't much to this place, at all. I was so excited about it, but it was a let down. It might be better to book independently and pay extra to get access to the back half of the park. The cruise excursion doesn't cover anything over than viewing the observation pools and an opportunity to hold a small turtle. We did hold the turtle. A quick stroll through the gift shop and we were the first back on the bus at a few minutes until 11:00 AM.

 

At the beginning of the tour, the guide told us she would drop us off at the beach at the end of the tour if we wanted. We neglected to bring this up to her because we figured that she would make an announcement as we were approaching the beach access. She didn't. Not being familiar with the island, I didn't realize it was too late until we were pulling back in to the shopping mall across from the terminal. Another couple on the bus also had this realization. So, we had to pay her an additional eight dollars to take us back down the road to Royal Palms. I gave her a $10 and she kept my $2 change. Not a big deal, but just have plenty of $1s when you travel by taxi on the islands.

 

We arrived to the beyond-anything-I'd-ever-seen crowded Royal Palms, paid the $2 PP admission, and picked a table to sit at the bar/restaurant area. Receiving a menu took around 10 minutes, so I knew we were in for a wait. I excused myself to the restroom. It took about five minutes to get an open stall. The crowd was insane. There was a young, college girl in line behind me making small talk. I honestly feared for her safety because she was incredibly drunk, but she had what appeared to be a "babysitter" with her. They were cruising, too, so I hope they made it back safely.

 

After the restroom trip, I returned to the table. My mother in law had ordered us waters. I scoured the menu and nearly passed out at the prices. They're Cayman prices, which means you're going to pay more in US dollars than what is listed. I'd viewed their menu online before going and didn't see the bit about the price difference. People, GC is a verrry expensive place. Assuming you haven't been. We decided to share a lunch because we were on a budget. I noticed a table across from us doing the very same thing. We ordered the Mahi sandwich and fries.

 

I knew the wait would be horrendous, so I went back to the restroom and changed into my swimsuit. Someone was in the changing room before me and I think I stood there for fifteen minutes waiting on her. Once my suit was on, I got back out to the table and the food was there. My mother in law was done eating. The sandwich was good. A little spicy, but nice flavor. French fries were delicious, but the waitress made a single appearance and removed the plate from me while I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't get to finish them.

 

While we were eating, we decided the beach was out of the question as there wasn't a square inch of space available. So, we waited thirty whopping minutes for our check before heading to the pool. To share a sandwich and fries and drink two small waters, after leaving a tip, we paid $30. I noticed a table beside of us that had a family of five, everybody with their own entree and a drink. Must be nice to have $200 to blow at an outdoor grill, lol!

 

We went to the pool. It was loud and obnoxia (I made that up!) reigned supreme. I'm not a party girl. I'm young, but I've never been into that kind of stuff. My mother in law was very preoccupied with being able to e-Mail my father in law in regards to business, so that kind of dampened the experience a bit. We were inching our way around the pool trying to connect to the wifi. The connection is horrible. Eventually, we got a nice connection sitting on a pool step. So, I cooled off and we sat in silence as she was focused on a response and I didn't feel like screaming over the DJ.

 

After thirty minutes, it was getting time to head back to the ship. I was incredibly sad because I felt I'd wasted a whole day at my favorite island. The turtle farm was a let down, and then RP was, as well. We wanted a place to have the beach, food and wifi. I'm pretty sure that's the only place on GC to get that? If it's not, someone please let me know! I do not really desire to go back there and I may be in GC on my next cruise.

 

Getting a taxi back was no big feat. Someone was waiting to throw us in their van by the time we hit the bottom of the steps leading away from the pool. Fare was $4 PP. We sat up front and the taxi driver was talkative. It took about ten minutes to get back to the taxi parking near Margaritaville. From there, we had to walk to the South terminal. It was a three minute walk, roughly.

 

We waited five minutes and were on a tender back to the ship. Back on CB, we climbed the full three or four (?) flights of stairs back to our cabin. We freshened up for afternoon tea in Coral (btw, this is what we did to kill a bit of time on the first sea day where I said I'd forgotten). By this time, it was nearly 3:30, which is when tea starts. We got in to a table and welcomed food. The offerings were much more pleasing than Carnival's tea offerings! Princess wins tea, hands down!

 

Tea is poured and cream and sugar are provided. Then, someone comes around offering desserts, another with about seven or eight types of sandwiches, someone with cookies, someone with scones and a person with cream and jam. We were starving, so we got two tea sandwiches, a tea dessert, a scone with jam and cream and two of the little butter cookies. DH and I did tea on Carnival. There were two sandwiches offered and both weren't very tasty or appealing. Then, there were desserts, which also weren't amazing. That was it.

 

After tea, my mind escapes me on what we did. I want to say it was trivia in Explorer's lounge and drinks at Fusion. But, I could have my days mixed up with our second port day. An interesting tidbit, BOGO drinks are also offered in the nightclub every night from 11:00 PM- 12:00 AM. These locations never changed and neither did the times. If you're not big drinkers and looking to save a few bucks, definitely plan to get drinks then.

[BeachinBeauty]

Pictures that I couldn't add to my previous post. Didn't realize there were editing restrictions on this board... I hate when that happens <insert mean face emoticon here since there is an image restriction>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also wanted to add, since I can't edit my embark day post, we did go to 90s music trivia that night in Club Fusion. I can't believe I forgot! I lost by ONE point to a team of six. My lonely, ol' young self nearly beat out six adults. I didn't win the champagne, but I won in my mind!