JamieLogical's Live from the Enchanted Princess 8/10

[JGmf]

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I asked Bon last night and he said his contract isn't up until December, so you will see him in October!

 

Thanks very much for asking.  I really appreciate it.  Very much looking forward to catching up with him 

 

 

[grimace95120]

Hi Jamie, I'm a classic gin martini kinda guy. My go to gin is Tanqueray ten. Nothing wrong with the standard tanq, i just love ten in a martini. Have you seen Tanqueray ten on the ship at all?. I suspect if they have it it would most likely be in Crooners or  Good Spirits. And i hope( fingers crossed) that they have a decent vermouth like Noilly or Dolin, the Martini and Rossi stuff is... well i wont say what I really think of it 🙂 . 

Thanks and PS loved your writing style, super informative and descriptive narratives, felt like I was there ! 

[Teechur]

5 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 There were two men seated two tables down from us and they each ordered four appetizers and then FIVE surf & trufs between the two of them! Now I understand why other lines have started charging for extra entrees or extra lobster tails! 

 

 

I noticed on the menu you posted, an extra surf and/or turf is $10.00. Good to know in advance as I am taking two of my grandsons (ages 18 & 24) on our upcoming Alaska cruise. They are in good shape but can eat amazing amounts of food, LOL!

 

I've really enjoyed your blog. Thanks again for sharing your adventures!

[555]

4 minutes ago, Teechur said:

I noticed on the menu you posted, an extra surf and/or turf is $10.00. Good to know in advance as I am taking two of my grandsons (ages 18 & 24) on our upcoming Alaska cruise. They are in good shape but can eat amazing amounts of food, LOL!

 

I've really enjoyed your blog. Thanks again for sharing your adventures!

 

I though the $10 fee was only for an additional lobster tail, not another piece of meat. 

[Teechur]

6 minutes ago, 555 said:

 

I though the $10 fee was only for an additional lobster tail, not another piece of meat. 

I took another look at the menu in post #321. You may be right, but the wording doesn't make that clear.

[555]

5 minutes ago, Teechur said:

I took another look at the menu in post #321. You may be right, but the wording doesn't make that clear.

All I know is that I got two pieces of meat & there was no additional charge.

They can keep their crayfish tail. 

[Teechur]

18 minutes ago, 555 said:

All I know is that I got two pieces of meat & there was no additional charge.

They can keep their crayfish tail. 

I hope you are right. My boys can eat several of those tiny filets.

[Scottdalfonso]

44 minutes ago, 555 said:

All I know is that I got two pieces of meat & there was no additional charge.

They can keep their crayfish tail. 

YES! This is my plan- 2 turf, keep the surf! I don't even like looking at lobster, lol

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, grimace95120 said:

Hi Jamie, I'm a classic gin martini kinda guy. My go to gin is Tanqueray ten. Nothing wrong with the standard tanq, i just love ten in a martini. Have you seen Tanqueray ten on the ship at all?. I suspect if they have it it would most likely be in Crooners or  Good Spirits. And i hope( fingers crossed) that they have a decent vermouth like Noilly or Dolin, the Martini and Rossi stuff is... well i wont say what I really think of it 🙂 . 

Thanks and PS loved your writing style, super informative and descriptive narratives, felt like I was there ! 

 

I have definitely seen Tangueray Ten onboard. I am sure at Crooners, but I believe other bars as well 

[grimace95120]

Thanks , appreciate the update !

[kalkal]

It’s been a pleasure following your daily adventures.  Wish I had your energy and spunk as you accomplished so much each day.  Look forward to your next blog and adventures.

[vickykay]

Another terrific review. Can you tell me what a Fellini is?  Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[canadarocks]

Jamie, I know you haven't eaten in the MDR very often but hopefully you can answer this question. Since this is a Circle Caribbean and not two B2B seven day cruises, have the MDR menus been repeated? Meaning - 7 day menu followed by the same 7 day menu?

[Crusin Karen]

On 8/23/2024 at 1:53 PM, 555 said:

 

I though the $10 fee was only for an additional lobster tail, not another piece of meat. 

I was wondering the same thing. So I’m guessing you can order a 2nd turf but $10 for another surf (?) Jaime, I have in my notes to look for Bon when I cruise on 9/14! 

[JamieLogical]

23 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Jamie, I know you haven't eaten in the MDR very often but hopefully you can answer this question. Since this is a Circle Caribbean and not two B2B seven day cruises, have the MDR menus been repeated? Meaning - 7 day menu followed by the same 7 day menu?

 

The dinner menus were unique each day. Even though we did not go often, we did at least look at the menus every day to help determine whether or not to go.

[JamieLogical]

I will post about the last day of my cruise as well as disembarkation on Saturday as soon as I can. Things have been hectic since returning home.

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

I will post about the last day of my cruise as well as disembarkation on Saturday as soon as I can. Things have been hectic since returning home.

No problem. Do what you can, when you can. I appreciate the update.

[Lady Arwen]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I will post about the last day of my cruise as well as disembarkation on Saturday as soon as I can. Things have been hectic since returning home.

Thank you Jamie for keeping her in good shape for us!  She’s a beauty!

[summercruiser20]

4 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I will post about the last day of my cruise as well as disembarkation on Saturday as soon as I can. Things have been hectic since returning home.

Thank you Jamie for your great blogs!  I’ve taken notes for my upcoming sailing - first Princess but not new to cruising (I actually think we’ve been on an NCL together just can’t remember which one😊) ❤️So looking forward to sailing on the Enchantment 

[dreams_of_travel]

Thanks for posting your most excellent review/synopsis.  I very much enjoy reading when you post.  I always learn something, whether it is packing method, essential travel items, or unique food places to try in port.  I appreciate your detailing all of these things. 

[JamieLogical]

Sorry for the late post about our final day onboard and embarkation day. After getting home on Saturday it was immediately full tilt back into real life: unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, and back to work for the first week of classes at the college where I work! I will do my best to remember as much as I can!

 

Friday was our final sea day and the final full day of our cruise. We awoke one last time to our room service breakfast delivery. The weather was pretty gross (cloudy, rainy, and cool) in the morning. I attempted to open our balcony door and met with a lot of resistance and what sounded like a fog horn when I managed to get it open, so I quickly closed it again.

 

I showered and typed up my blog, then I had to work and had a meeting at 10:00, so wasn't able to meet up with my husband for board games until around 10:30. Because of the crappy weather, everyone was trapped inside, so Good Spirits was a mob scene. We tried to head over to Crown Grill Bar, but there were no tables there either. Finally, we made our way to Sabatini's, which advertised that board games were available most mornings in the Patter, so we figured that could be a good spot to play some games. We found a nice, big table and had plenty of room for our final round of 7 Wonders Duel, which my husband won by one point!

 

My husband still wasn't feeling too great, so he decided to do lunch on his own while I headed to Gigi's one last time. This was the first and only time there was a wait for lunch at Gigi's. With everyone trapped inside and probably a lot of people wanting to use up their casual dining from Princess Plus, there was a large crowd of people waiting outside and at Bellini's for a table. When I put my name in, I was 7th on the waitlist. It wasn't a big deal to me though, as I just grabbed another Fellini and watched the people down in the piazza doing a dance class.

 

Once I finally had a table, I texted my husband to see if he was up for joining me, but he wasn't, so I ordered the Pizza Tarantina. It is loaded with seafood, so my husband would definitely NOT have wanted to share that one with me! Then I enjoyed my last delicious tiramisu of the cruise.

 

After lunch, I headed back to the room for my afternoon nap. I found out my husband had just eaten all of our exotic snacks as his lunch. That was actually probably a good thing overall because we were not going to be able to pack them all for the trip home.

 

After my nap, we went down to Crown Grill Bar, where we were able to find a table. The weather had cleared some for the afternoon, so more people were probably back up on deck. We played our last round of Splendor and some Rummy and had our afternoon coffees. We stayed until the bar opened and I ordered my last Floradora of the trip. Then we took our games back to our room, packed our checked bag to leave out for the porters, and headed to Ocean Terrace one last time for dinner.

 

LA Strings was playing in the piazza, which made for a nice experience with our VERY quick dinner. I once again had the octopus nigiri and the spicy salmon roll. It was delicious as usual.

 

After dinner, our main objective was to stalk Ian Frost around the ship. He was going to be playing three sets, one in Crooners and then two in Crown Grill Bar. Sometime in there, I cashed out my casino bank from the previous day and then proceeded to lose a bit more money.

 

Since Ian was playing at Crooners, we got there early to get seats and to give all our love to the amazing bar staff there. Bon made me one last concoction. This was probably the best one yet! It tasted like ice cream. We took photos with the staff and gave them their last-day tips.

 

Between Ian's sets, I ran back up to the room to pack my bundle, which required me to change into the "street clothes" I planned to travel home in the next day since my cruise uniform needed to go into the bundle. It felt good to get all of my packing out of the way, though.

 

With our bundles packed and pretty much everything but our charging cables and toiletries taken care of, we headed down to Crown Grill Bar for Ian's second set of the night. He was taking a lot of requests and playing a lot of variety, which I really appreciate about him. We had to say goodbye to KitKat, our favorite server from the Crown Grill Bar. I learned that his contract is over on the 31st and he is heading home soon!

 

After Ian's set, I ran up to Slice for my last pizza of the cruise. My husband headed up to bed. I made it back down for part of Ian's last set, but couldn't hang for the whole thing (didn't end until 11:15). Fortunately, Ian played "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker which has a line in it about losing all his money playing poker. This reminded me of gambling, which reminded me I hadn't cashed out my final casino bank money from the gambling I had done earlier in the day! I raced over to the casino to cash out while I still had the chance! I would have been out some serious cash if I had forgotten!

 

I headed up to bed and set an alarm for the morning since there would be no room service wake-up call for disembarkation.

 

Day's Drinks:

Champagne & Chambord from Princess Live

2x Fellini from Bellini's 

Americano w/ Bailey's from Princess Live

Floradora from Grown Grill Bar

Sailing Through Orchards from Crooners 

Bon Concoction #6 from Crooners

2x Vodka & Ginger Beer from Crown Grill Bar

 

I actually woke up a couple of minutes before my alarm and looked out the sliding door at the exact moment that the ship was turning to dock and the Statue of Liberty came into view. I have sailed in/out of NYC so many times now that it has lost some of its novelty, but it was still cool to see.

 

I showered while my husband packed the rest of his things and then I packed the last of my things while he showered. The plan was to go down to International Cafe for our morning coffee and some breakfast. We split up and my husband got in the coffee line while I got in the food line. I was heartbroken to see they didn't have any pizza muffins! That had been my go-to breakfast for the entire cruise and I was really looking forward to them one last time. I ordered some egg muffins instead as well as a breakfast sandwich and danish for my husband. However, after waiting a very long time, I gave up on my egg muffins, as the server seemed to hand what I *thought* were supposed to be my muffins to the guy in line behind me.

 

Having not accomplished any food for myself, I decided I would head up to the buffet. There I was able to acquire a fried egg and some beef tagalog. Once I was done eating, I headed back down to the room to double check we had everything packed up and then we waited until 8:00 when we were supposed to all be out of our rooms. At this point, it was clear disembarkation was delayed, as the ship had not been cleared yet.

 

We were supposed to meet up in the theater on Deck 6, since we had "Gold 6" luggage tags with our expected departure time being 8:55. Since we weren't in a rush, we waited by the elevators and were letting people go ahead of us as they could. Almost all the down elevators were completely full by the time they got to us on Deck 10. There were some frustrating moments, like when an older couple was waiting with us for a while. The gentleman had to walk with a cane. Then an elevator came and another couple who had JUST arrived raced over to the elevator and took the empty spots, while the older couple couldn't get there fast enough. At that time, I definitely made a comment about people having no common decency which may or may not have been overheard by another couple who was waiting at the time with two very large suitcases. That couple was waiting patiently as well and weren't trying to push onto any overcrowded elevators with their giant bags.

 

We continued to wait, but when it got to over 15 minutes, I started thinking we should really just take whatever the next elevator was that we could fit on. One came at the 18-minute mark and another couple who had JUST arrived raced over and they were closer than we were. I said something like "wait wait wait... we've been waiting for 18 minutes here, you can't just cut in front of us." From out of nowhere, the guy from the young couple with the large suitcases who had been waiting nearly as long as us just started screaming and cursing at me. I really could not understand what was happening, I was just so shocked. I don't think I even realized he was yelling at me until my husband started yelling back at him to defend me. All I really registered was a lot of F-bombs and something about my "loud mouth" or "loud voice"? I don't understand what I had done to offend him. I was trying to advocate for the people who had been waiting a long time, like him and his wife. It wasn't fair for people who had just arrived at the elevators to take up spots when others had been waiting over 15 minutes. As soon as my I registered what was happening, I told my husband not to engage and fortunately, we were on the elevator and whisked away. I did feel bad for that other couple who had cut us off and I had basically kicked off the elevator. They were stuck there waiting with that guy and who knows what he said/did once we were gone?

 

Once we were down to the theater, it was pretty obvious there was no need for anyone to be in a hurry anyway. They had only called the self-walk-offs and one or two luggage tags at that point. It was a VERY long time before they called any more tag numbers. People around us were definitely anxious about missing their hired cars and even their flights. Our listed disembarkation time was 8:55, but they didn't call our tag until 9:36. There was a bit of a line to get off the ship once they had called our number, but it wasn't too bad. What was bad was when we got down to the luggage area, our bag wasn't there.

 

We started looking all around, combing the other baggage sections in case ours was just in the wrong area, but could not find it. I was just about to try to flag down a porter to ask about it, when a cart came by our area, "Gold 6" with another load of bags and ours was on it. Clearly they had called our tag color/number before all the bags were actually ready.

 

Once we had our bag, we got in the VERY long customs line that snaked through the whole baggage area. It was a long wait and we didn't make it out of the terminal until about 10:15. Our flight wasn't until 1:17 out of JFK, so I wasn't too worried, but waiting in the heat and the sun for our Lyft was stressful. Also, they have rearranged the outdoor area at the Brooklyn terminal since the last time I was there. The area where the rideshare pickup had been was designated for taxis now and the ride-share pickup is across the first street on the island where they have the luggage porters for the new passenger drop-off. It was very chaotic.

 

Our first Lyft ride got dropped by the driver and we had to wait about 20 minutes for a new one. By this point, my husband was actually starting to panic about missing our flight and also really really had to pee. So he was incredibly grumpy. Our driver did finally arrive though and we on our way to JFK. It took about an hour to get there, as expected and we were checked in for our flight and dropped off our checked bag around 11:45. Security was a nightmare. Apparently in the JetBlue terminal (5) they don't have the new luggage scanners where you can leave your electronics and liquids in your bags? That was a nightmare because it meant we had to pull out all of our electronics, of which we had many! The poor guy in front of us literally had an entire desktop computer he had to unpack! I can't remember the last time I had to do this. I have flown something like 20 times since COVID? We just flew from JFK on Delta in May and this wasn't a thing. I didn't realize any airport terminals still required you to take out electronics and liquids. I would definitely have made some different packing decisions!

 

Once we were finally through security, we went searching for a lunch spot (because none of the airport lounges I have access to are in Terminal 5 either!) and ended up at some place called the Loft Kitchen? It was decent. Our flight was now delayed until 1:53, by the way. But, once onboard, we made it home without incident and our kitties were very happy to see us!

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 28 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

That's it for the "live" blog. I will post some final, overall thoughts about the cruise when I get a chance later today or this week.

[canadarocks]

Thanks so much Jamie! It's been great to read. 😊

[Essiesmom]

The kitties don’t look too sure about the interloper…. EM