LIVE: Crown Princess Transatlantic Cruise, 9/22/19 - 10/8/19

[geoherb]

I made a Future Cruise Deposit for each of us using the Ocean Concierge online this afternoon. It's a lot easier than filling out the paper form and dropping it off--not that that was too arduous a task.

[topspot]

DH and I board the Crown tomorrow.  Thanks for the live from thread.  We like to play trivia.  We'll avoid the "professional" players, as though it is nice to win, IF we do, we'd like it to be because we knew something, not that we remembered the answers from last week.😀

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

 

 

They had oysters on the half shell and lobsters today at lunch in the Horizon Court. I went up around half an hour after they made the announcement. This was all the lobsters they had left. I did not get any. (I had been in line and could have, but decided to stick with my Meatless Monday for lunch at least.) I tried the vegetarian tacos at the poolside burger place. They weren't as good as I remember them from the Caribbean Princess. And then I had a slice of pizza. I also had some of the watermelon salad at the International Café. 

 

 

They did that on the Royal last year the day after they had lobster in the DR. They served them to you as you went down the line. 

They literally had hundreds of them (only tails) but they were terrible.

Luckily I only took two & couldn't even finish one. They looked pretty but for some reason they were like rubber.  

[geoherb]

We went to the Voice of the Ocean. They had eight singers. Most of them were good. I would never have the nerve to sing on stage in front of a large audience. I agreed with the coaches' selections of their three finalists, but I was pulling for the woman to win. I went to trivia before the voting concluded. I played with the Canadian couple again. We finished with a respectful 14 out of 20. The winners had just 16. It should go without saying, but apparently some trivia hosts need a reminder: they shouldn't make jokes about the Holocaust. 

[Thrak]

16 minutes ago, geoherb said:

It should go without saying, but apparently some trivia hosts need a reminder: they shouldn't make jokes about the Holocaust. 

 

Say WHAT?

[Kingofcool1947]

Herb.  I thought I heard the captain announce a few days ago that an ill PAX with medical emergency needed a blood transfusion.  And requested PAXs with type O to give blood.   Isn’t that out of the ordinary?

[Griller]

23 minutes ago, geoherb said:

We went to the Voice of the Ocean. They had eight singers. Most of them were good. I would never have the nerve to sing on stage in front of a large audience. I agreed with the coaches' selections of their three finalists, but I was pulling for the woman to win. I went to trivia before the voting concluded. I played with the Canadian couple again. We finished with a respectful 14 out of 20. The winners had just 16. It should go without saying, but apparently some trivia hosts need a reminder: they shouldn't make jokes about the Holocaust. 

We were busy packing, which host was it?

 

Will, William or Mark?

 

Unthinkable!

[Griller]

1 minute ago, Kingofcool1947 said:

Herb.  I thought I heard the captain announce a few days ago that an ill PAX with medical emergency needed a blood transfusion.  And requested PAXs with type O to give blood.   Isn’t that out of the ordinary?

 Type 0 negative - mine - is Universal Donor so anyone can have it as there are no antigens in it.

 

I believe the lady who needed it was actually A positive. So that would be ideal for her as well.

 

The Medical Center was closed for the morning and early afternoon while the Doctor dealt with the emergency

[geoherb]

I never heard the results of the blood transfusion request. I assumed they must have had enough volunteers because they did not make any subsequent announcements that I heard. We have heard requests for blood before on cruises, so it wasn't totally out of the ordinary to hear it. It must be scary to have a medical emergency while in the middle of the ocean. At least the patients they evacuated in France and Madeira were able to be transported to hospitals. The ones eligible to donate had to have a current blood donor card. They weren't taking blood from others even if otherwise qualified. 

 

@Griller: The middle one.

 

 

[Griller]

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

 

 

@Griller: The middle one.

 

 

Williams first language is Afrikaans and I was not there at Trivia to hear what he said, in fact I have no idea whatsoever what he said,  - and with my ethnicity etc believe me I am not making any excuses for him - but maybe he didn't realise what he was saying?

His English has been a little unusual at times. He seems a nice enough lad otherwise.

He needs to remember who owns 51% of Carnival who own Princess.

Mickey Arison probably would have no sense of humor at all over that sort of thing. And nor do I though I am generally not over sensitive.

[Griller]

3 hours ago, MissP22 said:

They did that on the Royal last year the day after they had lobster in the DR. They served them to you as you went down the line. 

They literally had hundreds of them (only tails) but they were terrible.

Luckily I only took two & couldn't even finish one. They looked pretty but for some reason they were like rubber.  

Today these were delicious and like excellent Maine Lobstah! No complaints!

 

The MDR lobster the other night were the usual  little things, decently cooked but not a patch on todays.

 

All in all it wasn't a bad way to spend 25 days, but very average, nothing much outstanding, missed ports, a little roughish weather, food was OK and sometimes great. service was OK, ship is a bit tired looking here and there but comfortable, and really that's pretty much enough for us after getting on for 800 days on Princess. Our opinion but YMMV!

Edited October 7, 2019 by Griller

[geoherb]

Time to say goodbye. The soprano ended her show in the theater with this song. She was excellent. Her name is Nadia Eide. She was the guest soprano for Encore as well. I saw her frequently down at the International Café. She is not staying on the next cruise with the rest of the cast for the carryover cruise with the new cast. 

 

Before dinner, they held the captain's farewell cocktail party in the piazza--free cocktails. I grabbed us a couple of glasses of white wine. We finished off our bottle of champagne, sharing a glass with a friend in Adagio before dinner. We met a lot of very nice people on this cruise.

 

Here are the menus from tonight's dinner.

 

[MishelleMcc]

Bravo!  And Thank you!!!

[donswife]

8 hours ago, Kingofcool1947 said:

Herb.  I thought I heard the captain announce a few days ago that an ill PAX with medical emergency needed a blood transfusion.  And requested PAXs with type O to give blood.   Isn’t that out of the ordinary?

While we were on the Royal last month there was a medical emergency announced, with a request for B+ and O- blood donors, with a donor card. I didn't go, as I don't have either type, but I heard that the venue (Princess Live) was full of volunteers.

[MissP22]

4 hours ago, donswife said:

While we were on the Royal last month there was a medical emergency announced, with a request for B+ and O- blood donors, with a donor card. I didn't go, as I don't have either type, but I heard that the venue (Princess Live) was full of volunteers.

Looks as though they've found another use for Princess live after all ! 😄

[geoherb]

We received our final statement. I had checked a couple of days ago. There weren't any surprise charges, thankfully. We had that one time on a Princess ship and had trouble getting it reversed. Everything fit on two pages. I'm sure there are people whose statements are several times as long. There was one bit of DH's laundry that came back yesterday afternoon, bringing our total to $149.75 in free laundry credits. We did not spend much on drinks on this cruise (just five drinks plus corkage for two bottles of wine), especially considering it was 16 nights. We bought just a bit in the shops and did not take any excursions. I'm pleased.

 

 

[geoherb]

We are currently waiting in Club Fusion. They're running about 20 minutes behind schedule now. Earlier it was 40. We are in a group that's supposed to disembark at 9:40. The lounge was packed when we got here after breakfast. We ate in Botticelli. They're using the midship dining rooms as meeting places. 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

17 hours ago, Kingofcool1947 said:

Herb.  I thought I heard the captain announce a few days ago that an ill PAX with medical emergency needed a blood transfusion.  And requested PAXs with type O to give blood.   Isn’t that out of the ordinary?

No.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks so much for the live.....

Have a safe trip home.

[donswife]

3 hours ago, geoherb said:

We are currently waiting in Club Fusion. They're running about 20 minutes behind schedule now. Earlier it was 40. We are in a group that's supposed to disembark at 9:40. The lounge was packed when we got here after breakfast. We ate in Botticelli. They're using the midship dining rooms as meeting places. 

 

 

They did that for lunch on our last cruise, because our return was delayed, and it caused a real traffic jam. It was made worse because so many were doing walk off, they were dragging suitcases around.

[MustangGT]

It was nice to put a face with you name & Sam’s this morning!  We had a great time on the 28 day cruise!

Disembarkation this morning was the worst we have encountered.  Our group was called about 20 minutes late and it felt like they just said,”Okay!  Everyone left on the ship - Go!”  Finding luggage was a challenge and having Global Entry didn’t help as they only had one lane open. It was disorganized confusion for taxis vs shuttle lines.  From the time we retrieved our bags until we got to the airport was an hour.  Not what we have experienced in the past.  We were behind about 40-50 people in the taxi line.  I kept thinking about all the posts asking “Can I make an early flight?”  Today would not have been a good day to try that! Lol!

Hope you had a quick, uneventful trip home!

[loge23]

On 10/7/2019 at 11:16 AM, tip said:

This is indeed said to hear and see.  Unfortunately we have found this to be the case on many Princess ships lately.  Evidently the ships' libraries do not make any money for them.  We shall be on the Crown next month for a ten day cruise.  I shall have to bring along four or five paperbacks and leave them on the book swap shelf when finished.

Big difference from the selection we had on the Royal for the Spring crossing in 2018. I wonder if Princess just got fed up with people not returning the books. 

[greenie082756]

Well now I have caught up and have totally enjoyed your writings.

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us.

Until next time..

[geoherb]

We're home! A friend who now lives in Fort Lauderdale picked us up at the port. We got to see her condo and take her out to lunch. We made it to FLL in time for our flight. We met two women who had been on our ship, but we did not recognize them. They were flying through Atlanta, and their flight was taking off at the gate beside ours. 

 

Our plane was on time. The Atlanta flight was delayed, even though the board above the gate agents said it was on time. The flight home was a little bit bumpy, but not as bad as our flight to London from Toronto. We ubered home at rush hour. It took eight minutes longer than predicted.

[happiness is cruising]

Hi... YOU ARE THE BEST....thank you so so much for your Live..I am on the Regal in April...doing the EXACT... itinerary....the other way..learned so MUCH........sad you missed several ports...but you made lemonade out of lemons!!!!  WELCOME HOME!!!     Ann