LIVE on the Caribbean Princess, Western Caribbean, December 5-12, 2021: Geoherb goes solo again

[geoherb]

7 hours ago, cpcanuck said:

Hi Geoherb! Thank you for taking the time to post all this great info. I keep meaning to ask about the wine pairings listed on the MDR menus…

 

are these offered as bottles of wine or by the glass option? If by the glass are they included in the plus beverage package? I don’t see a price listed on the menu.

 

They have been ones offered by the bottle so far. Here's a link to the current wine list: Wine Menu (princess.com)

[geoherb]

Streaming my hockey team's game was pretty good, but it did have a few little hiccups in the broadcast. These added up to where it would get behind enough that what I was seeing was five or six minutes behind. I could reset it to catch up. The Hurricanes won.

 

While I was enjoying a glass of wine while watching the third period, I decided to order the key lime pie verrine from room service. I couldn't get the order to go through on the Medallion app. It kept giving me an error message. But it worked fine ordering through the TV. One of my tablemates at a breakfast or lunch said that ordering by phone now has a charge since they're trying to encourage people to use the app. I haven't heard that anywhere else.

 

The service was very quick. Someone brought my dessert within 10 minutes. I'm happy to report it was like the delicious key lime pie in a jar that I had two years ago on this ship when I was quarantined. It has a graham cracker crust on the bottom, the delicious filling made with key lime juice and condensed milk, and a layer of whipped cream topping. It's garnished with a thin rectangle of colored white chocolate and mint leaves. The one I had on the Majestic in August was horrible. It tasted like canned lemon pie filling, no crust and not much whipped cream and no mint leaves for garnish. (I can do without them.) Here are photos of both.

 

I woke up early this morning and decided to go back up to the top deck to look for Comet Leonard. I could not find it. I'm going back to bed. It's about 6:15 EST but just 5:15 here.

 

 

 

[chamima]

Thank  you again for all of your informative posts!

Has Princess re instituted EZ Check (or whatever they currently call it) where you pay $25 a bag to have your luggage taken to the airport.

 

(For those that aren't familiar - it's the best money we've ever spent on a cruise. It's $25 a bag and you are given special disembarkation luggage tags and you put your luggage outside your room the last night and don't have to touch it again until your home airport. You get to avoid the LONG checkin lines at the Fort Lauderdale airport!)

[chamima]

Duplicate

Edited December 8, 2021 by chamima

[CPASam]

The sea looks calm on the CP webcam anchored in Belize.  I hope you enjoy your day!

 

[geoherb]

2 hours ago, CPASam said:

The sea looks calm on the CP webcam anchored in Belize.  I hope you enjoy your day!

 

 

I think looks can be deceiving. I've seen the tenders bobbing in the water. Someone at breakfast said it's a 45-minute tender ride. I don't know if that was the actual riding time or included the loading and unloading. Either way, I'm glad to stay on board the ship.

 

I lost one of my baseball caps yesterday. Guest services had it. I'm glad to get it back. 

 

Breakfast was nice. The waiter knew I wanted sliced avocado before I had a chance to sit down. One of the assistant head waiters has it as a standing order for me for the rest of the cruise. I had it today with fried eggs and rye toast. Tomorrow I'll have it with smoked salmon and rye toast. 

 

The time change has messed up my internal clock. As I wrote earlier, I was awake way too early. It turns out a 7:30 a.m. excursion would have been doable. 

 

After breakfast, I walked a bit on the Promenade Deck and tried to get Wi-Fi calling to work. It would not for me. My phone's carrier sent me a message letting me know I was in range for Belize cell phone service. I get to send texts for free with it and could pay 25 cents a minute for calls. My brother just tried to call me, and I let him know by text why I didn't pick up. He sent our Christmas present, and it requires an adult signature. I'm sure DH and UPS will connect eventually.

 

Morning trivia was a mix of hard and easy questions. I won with 14 out of 20 right. About a dozen people showed up. I'm going to go for a swim and decide on what to eat for lunch. I've already changed my dinner reservation from 8 to 7 to fit with tonight's show times. They've been moved up to 6 and 7:45 to accommodate the deck party at 9. And it will be Broadway Ballroom--the first production show--now that the stage machinery has been fixed.

 

 

[geoherb]

5 hours ago, chamima said:

Thank  you again for all of your informative posts!

Has Princess re instituted EZ Check (or whatever they currently call it) where you pay $25 a bag to have your luggage taken to the airport.

 

(For those that aren't familiar - it's the best money we've ever spent on a cruise. It's $25 a bag and you are given special disembarkation luggage tags and you put your luggage outside your room the last night and don't have to touch it again until your home airport. You get to avoid the LONG checkin lines at the Fort Lauderdale airport!)

 

I haven't received any info on disembarkation, but guest relations said it is not available on this cruise. (The crew chat feature of the app works great.)

 

I used the similar service in Seattle (called Port Valet) this past August after my Alaskan cruise on the Majestic. It's even better because it's a free service offered by the Port of Seattle. You only have to pay the usual baggage fee charged by the airlines. 

[geoherb]

A relaxing day on board while the ship was anchored off the coast of Belize. A woman from Tennessee who joined us for trivia said the tender ride was not that long. So whoever said it took 45 minutes must have been including the time to load and unload. She and her friend went shopping. She said it was nice. We played with an English woman who lives in Florida and won with 13 out of 20 points. Second place had 11.

 

I also played the ring toss and won another bottle of champagne. I got a large glass of orange juice this morning and transferred it to a water bottle. The champagne was good for mimosas. I did not try it on its own.

 

For lunch, I decided on a BLT burger at the Salty Dog. It was very tasty. I then had a small salad and cup of fruit from the buffet. After taking a little nap, I decided to check out the International Cafe before ring toss and ate a little espresso-hazelnut cheesecake. It was delicious.

 

Here are photos of the burger and tonight's menu.

 

 

[cltnccruisers]

We were on Sky last week and not impressed especially with the MDR.  We have a family cruise scheduled on Caribbean in March.  Hoping the food will be better.

[cltnccruisers]

8 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

I think looks can be deceiving. I've seen the tenders bobbing in the water. Someone at breakfast said it's a 45-minute tender ride. I don't know if that was the actual riding time or included the loading and unloading. Either way, I'm glad to stay on board the ship.

 

I lost one of my baseball caps yesterday. Guest services had it. I'm glad to get it back. 

 

Breakfast was nice. The waiter knew I wanted sliced avocado before I had a chance to sit down. One of the assistant head waiters has it as a standing order for me for the rest of the cruise. I had it today with fried eggs and rye toast. Tomorrow I'll have it with smoked salmon and rye toast. 

 

The time change has messed up my internal clock. As I wrote earlier, I was awake way too early. It turns out a 7:30 a.m. excursion would have been doable. 

 

After breakfast, I walked a bit on the Promenade Deck and tried to get Wi-Fi calling to work. It would not for me. My phone's carrier sent me a message letting me know I was in range for Belize cell phone service. I get to send texts for free with it and could pay 25 cents a minute for calls. My brother just tried to call me, and I let him know by text why I didn't pick up. He sent our Christmas present, and it requires an adult signature. I'm sure DH and UPS will connect eventually.

 

Morning trivia was a mix of hard and easy questions. I won with 14 out of 20 right. About a dozen people showed up. I'm going to go for a swim and decide on what to eat for lunch. I've already changed my dinner reservation from 8 to 7 to fit with tonight's show times. They've been moved up to 6 and 7:45 to accommodate the deck party at 9. And it will be Broadway Ballroom--the first production show--now that the stage machinery has been fixed.

 

 

We tendered into Belize from Sky last week.  I think what stretched the trip to 45 minutes was waiting for space at the dock.  Wasn't too choppy but definitely took my Pittsburgh Penguins hat off.  😀

[cltnccruisers]

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

A relaxing day on board while the ship was anchored off the coast of Belize. A woman from Tennessee who joined us for trivia said the tender ride was not that long. So whoever said it took 45 minutes must have been including the time to load and unload. She and her friend went shopping. She said it was nice. We played with an English woman who lives in Florida and won with 13 out of 20 points. Second place had 11.

 

I also played the ring toss and won another bottle of champagne. I got a large glass of orange juice this morning and transferred it to a water bottle. The champagne was good for mimosas. I did not try it on its own.

 

For lunch, I decided on a BLT burger at the Salty Dog. It was very tasty. I then had a small salad and cup of fruit from the buffet. After taking a little nap, I decided to check out the International Cafe before ring toss and ate a little espresso-hazelnut cheesecake. It was delicious.

 

Here are photos of the burger and tonight's menu.

 

 

You're giving us hope for the food in March.

[geoherb]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

We were on Sky last week and not impressed especially with the MDR.  We have a family cruise scheduled on Caribbean in March.  Hoping the food will be better.

 

The food has mostly been very good to excellent. The beef tenderloin I had tonight was initially too done, but the waiter noticed and brought me another plate that was more rare. The bouillabaisse could have been served hotter, but it was still tasty. I could have mentioned that to him as well, and I'm sure he would have brought me another.

[geoherb]

Broadway Ballroom was very good tonight. I still hate that they're lip syncing in many of the numbers. The principal singers were singing live when they're on stage. There was one number in particular with the female dancers where they were pretending to sing that was egregious. I wish they'd just rewrite the show to have them dance if there needs to be time for the real singers to change costumes. 

 

Having such a reduce number of passengers makes going to the show easy. I arrived three minutes before it started and had my choice of seats.

 

Dinner in the dining room was enjoyable. I joined a table with a couple from Canada, a couple from Colorado, and another from Minnesota. The Canadian couple had been on my snorkeling excursion. It was a fun table. I moved tomorrow's reservation up to 7 as well. It will work better with tomorrow night's activities.

 

Here is the Patter.

 

[Bgwest]

Posting the daily Patters is much appreciated. 

Each day I look to see if there is a 50s music trivia. But none so far……….

[geoherb]

16 minutes ago, Bgwest said:

Posting the daily Patters is much appreciated. 

Each day I look to see if there is a 50s music trivia. But none so far……….

 

I haven't been to the music trivias, so I don't know how many questions were from the 1950s. 

[geoherb]

I walked off the ship in Costa Maya for about an hour. The shops had much of the same types of items as Cozumel. The prices were better on vanilla and liquor in Cozumel. I did not pay attention to other items.

 

Costa Maya is a manufacturered port. There are two other ships in port with us today: a Carnival and a Royal Caribbean. It was pretty crowded. There are the aforementioned shops plus bars, a pool, fish pedicures, and dolphin swimming. I did not do anything other than wander and watch other people spend money. 

 

Our last time here was in 2003. It's about the same as I remember, except I thought there was a natural beach area where people could swim. I saw a beach to the right of the pier, but it was outside the fence and I did not see anyone on it or in the water.

 

This morning's trivia was hard. I had just 9 out of 20. A team of four won with 14. I did argue that my answer to one question was right in addition to the one she had.

[geoherb]

Here are some photos from Costa Maya along with tonight's menu and my lunch from the buffet. I also had a slice of pizza. I had to argue to get fresh basil on my slice. The server tried to tell me the basil is in the sauce. He had some right there.

[chamima]

Did the HW make Pasta Arrabiatta?

That's my favorite thing on Princess and I certainly hope it isn't another victim of the shutdown.

[Scotto97]

2 hours ago, chamima said:

Did the HW make Pasta Arrabiatta?

That's my favorite thing on Princess and I certainly hope it isn't another victim of the shutdown.

Yes, I would like to know also - My favorite as well

 

[cltnccruisers]

Thanks for the menus.  Naturally there are items in common with the Sky but there are enough other items to be encouraging.

[geoherb]

3 hours ago, chamima said:

Did the HW make Pasta Arrabiatta?

That's my favorite thing on Princess and I certainly hope it isn't another victim of the shutdown.

 

I have not seen it on the menu, but perhaps it will be a special added tonight. Someone in Club Class mentioned they're not doing anything tableside over there either. 

[geoherb]

The sunset from Skywalkers was beautiful tonight. My cabin steward delivered the card to select canapes for the second formal night. People who like such things should probably ask before the first formal night to make sure they get them then as well. I'm tempted to order some just to see if they have improved. It's not the list of items from my previous cruises.

 

I have only received the general handout about the Captain's Circle events for the whole cruise (posted back in post #10). Tomorrow is the Grapevine Wine Tasting at 2 and the party at 5:15 (for me). I don't know if they're having just one party or two. I haven't heard what they're doing for Gold or Ruby passengers. I'm wondering if they will be delivering individual invitations tonight or tomorrow morning. Otherwise, how will I win a bottle of champagne?

 

 

[chamima]

12 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

I have not seen it on the menu, but perhaps it will be a special added tonight. Someone in Club Class mentioned they're not doing anything tableside over there either. 

 

We're trying Club Class for the first time in January. 😟

Hoping for a little more space between the tables.

 

"select canapes for the second formal night"

 

Are there 2 formal nights on a 7 day cruise?????

And have you heard anything about a luncheon for the top 40 most cruised passengers?

Edited December 9, 2021 by chamima

[capriccio]

10 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

We're trying Club Class for the first time in January. 😟

Hoping for a little more space between the tables.

So are we.  That is the major reason we are trying it although we are also looking forward to the special dishes and not having to wait for a table.

[cltnccruisers]

14 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

We're trying Club Class for the first time in January. 😟

Hoping for a little more space between the tables.

 

"select canapes for the second formal night"

 

Are there 2 formal nights on a 7 day cruise?????

And have you heard anything about a luncheon for the top 40 most cruised passengers?

There were 2 Dress to Impress nights on our 7 night Sky.