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Review and Travel Journal of our Sun Princess Cruise From Barcelona to Southampton-“The Sun Also Rises”


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So begins my Review and Journal of our family’s latest adventure, a 9 Day Cruise on Sun Princess from Barcelona to Southampton.  As in the past, my posts will be long (I fear), informative (I hope), irreverent (I promise) and accompanied by photos (where helpful).  Within the content you just might get answers to many of the most oft-asked and burning questions that cause sleepless nights among the members here on Cruise Critic.  So with that: 

 

Who: Me, my wife (K) and our daughter (S), age 26.  My wife and I live in the New World and flew to BCN from Philadelphia after a layover.  S lives in the Old World (Edinburgh) and flew direct to BCN on Ryan Air.  

 

What:  The cruise was marketed as a “9 Day European Explorer” on Princess’ newest ship, Sun Princess sailing on September 14, 2024 and arriving in Southampton on…well…we’ll get to that.  However, the voyage name was not really descriptive at all.  This was a one-off itinerary whose purpose was to relocate from the Med to Southampton in preparation for its maiden TransAtlantic to be followed by its inaugural Caribbean season.  We did not “explore” Europe at all.  Or certainly not in the sense that Magellan “explored”.  But all is well as we do not choose itineraries based on what Princess calls them.  Rather, we choose them based on the places that Princess calls on. 

 

All three of us are Platinum Captain’s Circle members.  I say that not to brag, but instead to provide some context regarding perks, access and costs.  We sailed in a new-to-Princess Cabana Mini-Suite.  Not one on Deck 9 that has private deck access, (and used to have Reserve Dining Access), but one on Deck 10.  Much more on the cabin in a following post. 

 

As for the Hemmingway reference in the thread’s title, well that has layered meanings.  First and foremost, there has been some negative chatter about how this cruise ended, and even some negative chatter about Sun Princess generally.  Spoiler alert, we don’t have much negative to say, and would consider this to be another in a long line of wonderful cruises.  Of course, there is room for improvement and I will point out certain areas where improvements are needed.  But on balance the cruise weighed heavily toward the positive.  So yes, the Sun also rises, at least in our eyes.  The other reason I chose that title is because the cruise was very much centered in Spain, as is Hemmingway’s novel.  So there’s that.

  

 Where:  As noted, we departed from Barcelona and called on Palma, Mallorca; Cartagena (the one in Spain, not Columbia); Cadiz (again, the one in Spain, not the one in the Philippines); and then finished in Southampton (the one in England, not the one on Long Island). 

 

When:  Embarkation date was September 14, 2024 and we disembarked on September 23.

 

Why:  Lots of reasons.  S lives thousands of miles away in Edinburgh and we do our best to plan family vacations that allow us to all be together and try not to  burden her with heavy costs in the process.  So I looked for an itinerary that would be both interesting and easy for her.  Her travels to Barcelona and then home from Southampton were seamless and cheap.  Of course, the “Third and Fourth Guests Sail Free” promotion didn’t hurt.  Second, as many know who have read my prior journals, S received her Master’s Degree from the University of Edinburgh in Classics and Archaeology with a primary focus on the Roman Empire.  The ports of Cartagena and Cadiz offered excellent opportunities to see firsthand some of the things that she had studied, and this field has become of great interest to both me and K through osmosis.  Third, the 9-day itinerary with only three ports (not including the port of embarkation—Southampton) meant a heavy dose of Sea Days.  I viewed this as a perfect opportunity to immerse myself in everything that the new, Sphere Class ships had to offer.  And the Sea Days would also afford us more family time to catch up (and drink.)

  

So there is the set-up.  What will follow is a recounting of our trip that will also serve as a “Review” of the ship, food, drinks and ports using self-indulgent prose sprinkled with literary, cinematic, television and music references. Hemmingway starts us off.  Along the way I will focus on certain aspects of the ship and provide more detailed analyses that hopefully will offer insight for future cruisers.  I truly appreciate those of you who find the time to do “Live From” threads, but that is not me.  I can never find the time to compose my thoughts or download my photos while I am enjoying my cruise. 95% of the photos that follow were shot on a Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR with “consumer grade” lenses.  On certain itineraries (such as Alaska) I rent “L Series” lenses to up my game but did not do so on this trip. As always, if you have any questions, ask away and I will do my best to answer them.  If I don’t know the answer, I will make one up.  And everything I post will be my opinion, (or that of my travel companions).  By definition, my opinion cannot be “wrong.”  You may not share it, and that is fine.  Feel free to chime in and disagree.  But no fighting or I will turn this ship around and head back home! 

Edited by JimmyVWine
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Posted (edited)

Days One and Two of our Vacation (which were not Days One through Two of the Cruise.)

 

Nothing much t say about Day One.  K and I flew from BDL to PHL and baked in a very long layover in PHL to avoid any risk of missing our connection.  While in PHL we made excellent use of the Centurion Lounge where we enjoyed a civilized atmosphere, good food, drinks and clean, modern bathrooms.  Our overnight flight on AA took off on time, and as soon as the wheels left the ground on that second flight, I actually felt like I was on vacation.  Day One for S was not a vacation day for her as she didn’t have an overnight flight, and she spend that day working her butt off, panicking about getting everything done before signing off for over a week.

 

Day Two.  K and I arrived at BCN on time, collected our luggage, cleared customs and then inquired where we needed to go to meet S’s arriving flight on RyanAir.  Good thing we asked.  Unbeknownst to me, BCN uses two different terminals that are not connected in any way that would allow for foot travel, trams or moving sidewalks.  S’s RyanAir flight arrived in Terminal 2 which, as the crow (or airplane) flies is “only” 2.5 miles away, and requires a free, 15 minute bus ride to access. Not to worry, as we had ample time to meet up with her, as her flight did not arrive until 3 hours after ours.  We opted to wait it out in the airport rather than have each of us take separate taxis to our AirBnB.

Once we met up with her and finished exchanging prolonged hugs, we taxied to our AirBnB that would be our home for the next two nights.  We found a nice top-floor (with lift/elevator) apartment near the Rocafort Metro stop that was in a nice neighborhood and was convenient for what we wanted to do while in the city.

 

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Our agenda for that first day in Barcelona was limited given our need to rest and recover from our overnight flight.  Primarily, what we aimed to accomplish was: 1) find Iberico Ham and other charcuterie; 2) find wine; and 3) have a nice dinner.   After a pleasant conversation with our host and settling in, S and I went out in search of items 1 and 2 on our list.  Just around the corner from our abode was a gourmet market called Ametller Origen that offered everything we need.  And many things that we did not that we bought anyway. After returning to the apartment, S put together a stunning charcuterie plate that we devoured with gusto (and wine) while listening to my Spanish Acoustic Guitar playlist through the Bose speaker I brought from home.

 

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A rainstorm settled in so we took some time to organize our packing to get ready for the cruise and to catch up on life.  When it was time for dinner (which is usually 9:30 or so in Spain, but 8:00 for us given the jet lag), we made the short walk to a fabulous restaurant called “La Gastonomica (Tapas and Platas)” not to be confused with its sister restaurant “La Gastronomica (Burgers)”.  This restaurant came highly recommended and the fact that it was just two blocks from our apartment sealed the deal.  It was excellent in every way. Casual atmosphere, but high level cooking.  We enjoyed scallops, short ribs, fish, and what turned out to be the first of what I think was 7 consecutive days where we consumed some form of cephalopod.  If there is grilled octopus on a menu in Spain, we are ordering it. Period. Full Stop.

 

By the time dinner was over, K and I were beginning to fade, so we headed home to call it a night.

Edited by JimmyVWine
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Day Three.  We had a bit more ambition today, and our objectives for the day included: 1) find nice wine glasses to take on the ship with us; 2) purchase any last minute items that we needed for the cruise that we didn’t want to pack (which for K and S meant a trip to Sephora); and 3) visit Park Gűell.  We had done the self-guided “Gaudi Architecture Tour” the last time we were in Barcelona, but never made our way to the Park and we were hellbent to make it there this time.  But first things first.  Must. Find. Wine. Glasses.  My research suggested that we might have luck at a place not to far from our apartment called “New Home”.  A picture that I grabbed off of Google Maps showed an entire aisle of wine glasses and this place did not disappoint.  In addition to three really stunning Burgundy glasses that we picked up for E3.50 a piece,

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we found a number of other items that tickled our fancy, including some costume bling that K and S intended to wear for our Steampunk “Spellbound” night.  More on that [much] later.  A mile-long walk brought us to a large mall that had a Sephora, and before lunch, items 1 and 2 of our agenda were completed.  Back to the apartment to finish off all that charcuterie that we purchased the day before, and then it was into an Uber for the drive up to Park Gűell.

 

Park Gűell is a failed housing development that became a very successful public park.  At every turn there are examples of Gaudi’s whimsical architectural style that make you say: “I have no idea what this guy was thinking, but I’m glad that he thought it.”  Fortunately S inherited her father’s penchant for [over]planning and thought to use her phone to purchase ticket in advance while we were having dinner the night before.  She mentioned that the Park might sell out and she was right.  By the time of our timed arrival at 2:00, there was a sign informing many frustrated would-be visitors that the Park was not selling any more admissions for the day.  Keep that in mind if you choose to visit.

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Day Three (Continued)

Every detail of the park, the fences, the buildings and the walkways have been touched by Gaudi’s magic wand with no inch of the place left to boring, utilitarian structures. Pictures cannot do the Park justice, but I will share some anyway.

 

Part of a wrought iron fence at the entrance.

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A shaded walking path.

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An easily overlooked homage to the Acropolis.

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Flowers that Gaudi did not plant, but I liked them anyway.

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A pigeon who was as interested in us as we were in him.

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Stunning views as far as the eye can see (which, by the way, is an expression that makes no sense.  Is there a view that is farther than the eye can see?) This one of La Sagrada Familia.

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The “Aqueduct”

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Painstakingly detailed mosaic bench.

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S and K sitting on said intricately detailed mosaic bench.

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A walkway designed to capture the movement of a perfect wave.

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Golf tees for the Jolly Green Giant??

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S swears that she did not intend to color coordinate with the columns, but I have my doubts.

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A mosaic lizard, because…why not?

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A look up toward the main plaza.

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And of course, the money shots of the fairytale abodes that were intended to be two of many but are now two of two.

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Day Three (Continued)

Getting an Uber back to our apartment was not quite as easy as arriving in one.  We had no problem ordering one, with an expected arrival time in 12 minutes.  But that 12 minutes dragged on to about 35.  Fortunately there are benches placed in the mandatory Uber waiting area which is a few blocks down the hill from the Park entrance where we could rest while we waited.  I think we logged around 20,000 steps this day.

 

Given that dinner is later than we are used to in Spain, we still had plenty of time to freshen up and change for the evening.  We had originally planned to take a Metro to the restaurant, but opted for some extra rest time and took an Uber instead as that would shave 20-25 minutes of walking and waiting time off of our travels.  Dinner tonight would be our fourth dinner in Barcelona when you add in our previous visit from a few years ago, and I can say that we are a solid four for four in picking great restaurants.  Barcelona may be the best restaurant city in all of Europe for high-style cooking at affordable prices. This night we dined at RAO just off La Rambla.  The team there could not have been more friendly and accommodating and every dish we had was perfect.  And we found a lovely wine that was served both by the bottle and the glass. 

 

After we polished off our bottle, we each added on an extra glass.  Our cephalopod streak now stood at “2 days”.  We took the Metro back to apartment by way of L1 (Red Line) from Placa Catalunya to Rocafort and then used the rest of the evening to re-pack what needed re-packing to get ready for “Fun on the Sun”.

 

Next up: Embarkation Day.

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Day One of Cruise-Embarkation

The Embarkation Process

 

I am going to switch over to a new counting system now so that the days of the cruise coincide with the titles of each post.  So while this is Day Four of our vacation, it is now Day One of the Cruise.

 

As I mentioned earlier, this was a one-off itinerary for 2024 and from what I can tell, is not replicated next year of the year after.  That means two things:  First, I had no way to poke and prod others for insights on the cruise and ask about things like: “Which nights are Formal Nights” and “Will there be a White and Gold Party?”  So I was pretty much flying blind, and that did trip me up a couple of times.  The second thing it means is that no one else reading this is going to gather any specific intel as to their upcoming cruise because none of you (I think) are booked on this same itinerary in the future.  That is another reason why I did not do a “Live From” because I knew that I wouldn’t really be assisting any future cruisers and the “real time” aspect of the reporting would largely be pointless.  But to the extent that certain of our experiences will reflect some of your future experiences, I will do my best to capture those.  With that, let’s get started.

 

I pre-arranged for a car service to pick us up at our AirBnB so that I could guarantee myself a vehicle large enough to carry three passengers and all of our bags.  Yes, we do pack for Formal Nights.  S absolutely loves them and if she is going to dress up, then mom and dad are going to as well.  The Covid lockdown caused my tuxedo to shrink several sizes, so I no longer travel with that. But a jacket and some ties are not a burden, though they do cause us to hit the very limit of our luggage weight allowance.  Literally.  One bag was 49.8 pounds and the other was 49.4.  The service we used was called “Book Taxi Barcelona” and the van I pre-paid for was in the right place at the right time and got us to the port without any issues.  I would use them again.  The price was probably triple what an Uber would have cost, but I am pretty sure that we would have needed two Ubers to take the three of us with all our bags. So in that respect, the cost was probably only 30% more than what we would otherwise have paid.

 

We arrived at the terminal at around 9:30.  We were what I call “The last of the first” to arrive.  By that, I mean that there is a subset of people who strive to arrive early.  After that, there is a lull in the action, and then hoards of people start to show up.  We were in the tail end of that first group.  When we joined the queue to get into the terminal, we got behind everyone else who was there before us, and very few people lined up behind us for the next 20 minutes or so.  And then the crowds started to form.  At this point there was no differentiation between P/E/S and everyone else, though several of the “E” and “S” people in the crowd could not help themselves and ask everyone they could find where their “special entrance” was. The answer was always the same.  There isn’t one.

 

Luggage drop-off was simple, but a tad confusing.  We got out of our van and wheeled both our to-be-checked bags and our carry-ons with us into the one and only line outside the terminal. Off to the right there was a desk that looked just like the counter that one would find in the departure gate area of an airport.  Behind that was a conveyor belt, though nothing seemed to be placed onto it.  Everyone in front of us also had all of their luggage with them, so I was a bit confused.  After a few minutes, and sure that there had to be a luggage drop-off somewhere, I walked over to the airline-looking counter and asked what we were supposed to do with our bags that we wanted delivered to our cabin, and the person staffing the station said that this is the place to drop them off.  It would have been easier if their had been a sign, any sort of sign, informing people of that even if it was written an Catalan.  When others saw me take our bags to the counter, many followed suit. Freed of our heavy luggage, we then waited a short time for the terminal to open.  Just after 10:00 the doors open and the fun began.  First stop was through the security x-ray machines and one had to produce a medallion or trip confirmation in order to get to that point.  Bear in mind that this being a European port with many of the guests coming from countries outside of the U.S. and Canada, the majority of people did not yet have their medallions as they could not be mailed to them.  This made things especially fast and easy for those of us who did have them and were fully “Green-Laned.” After Security we were given a processing number.  This would serve as both our check-in group number as well as our boarding group number.  We were #1.  I was so proud! 

 

Now passed Security, we arrived at our first of two waiting areas.  Here we waited until the check-in team was ready to process people.  It didn’t take too long. Maybe 10 minutes. They then called Group 1 to begin the check-in process.  Almost everyone, (and in fact, it may have actually been everyone) in front of us was Blue Lane eligible because they did not yet have their medallions.  There was a fork in the road at the end of the path where one proceeded into either the Blue or Green Lanes.  Despite being 30th or so in line, we were the first people to veer off into the Green Lane.  We were shown to a pen of iPads on stands whereas the Blue Lane people went to the counters.  But it didn’t matter.  Indeed, the Blue Lane people were processed faster as the iPads were not functioning properly (surprise!) and needed to be booted and re-booted.  Frustrated, the person staffing our iPad gave up and just typed in our names from our passports and checked us in that way.  The whole “tap in” method of checking in was a fail, at least for the first 15 minutes.

 

Now checked in, we were shown to the second waiting area.  I didn’t notice the P/E/S waiting area until it was time to actually board, but it wasn’t really necessary. It’s not like I needed food or drinks at this point.  At 10:30 the boarding began with people needing assistance, (and the 8-9 other people each was traveling with!) and then the general boarding began with the people in the P/E/S area, followed by our Group 1.  We were on the ship at 10:40.

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Day One of Cruise-Embarkation (Continued)

On The Ship

 

A crew member was walking side-by-side with us as we traveled the boarding bridge and I asked him what Deck we would be arriving on, as I wanted to get my bearings.  He said that we would be entering on Deck 7, Midship, Port side.  OK. So that meant that we would be walking straight for Bellini’s.  Perfect. This would be the first blot on our “Cocktail Lounge BINGO Cards”, as we were intent on having a drink at every possible location on the ship.  Oddly, we never did receive the little note card telling us that the cabins were not ready and to please wait for the all clear before heading to our cabins.  I am not sure whether the cabins were ready or not, as I never did hear any sort of announcement.  But old habits die hard and we instinctively and reflexively walked to Bellini’s to treat us to a welcome glass of Champagne, (Mumm Cordon Rouge) sipping it while sitting at a lovely seating area just behind the bar, right where the passengers were boarding.  Great people watching opportunity.  From this vantage point we proceeded to enjoy our bubbly, get some coffee for K and S at Coffee Currents, and a donut for me from the same place. 

 

We settled in for a bit where I proceeded to break things down for K and S.  Both knew that the ship was new and different, but I hadn’t spent any time going over any of the specifics because I wanted them to come in with as much of an open mind as possible.  I explained that Deck 7 was, for all practical purposes, the lowest usable deck on the ship, much as Deck 5 (Plaza) is on other ships.  I informed them of the new location of the International Café (which they immediately thought was a dumb idea and that opinion only solidified as the cruise went on.) I explained that the decks no longer had names (which bummed out S as she joked that she would be lost if she did not hear the lady say “Aloha”.) And I showed them what they already had discerned which was that the Piazza was an entirely new animal now, set up as a full-on entertainment venue as opposed to a relaxation venue intruded upon by entertainment.  We all loved the design of what we had seen so far, if not so much the layout.

 

We set up our Wi-Fi accounts and watched the safety cartoon while enjoying our second glass of Champagne.  I then slipped away to head to the Horizon MDR to meet with the Maître d to see about changing our standing dinner reservation.  On the app, there is a huge gap between 5:40 and 7:20 when one cannot make a reservation.  Or at least there was all the way up through our cruise.  Maybe after answering the survey after the cruise and reading my comments, they have changed that.  5:40 is too early for us, and 7:20, while pretty much the time we normally eat, is a bit late if one wants to catch any of the 9:00 entertainment on board.  So I went to the area where the Godfather was greeting guests on the day of his daughter’s wedding, trying his best to withhold no favor, and when it was my turn to kiss the ring, I asked if our “same time every night” reservation could be moved up.  He said “Sure! How about 7:00?”  I didn’t want to get greedy, so I said that this would be fine, and before I walked out of the restaurant, the dinner time showing on my app already reflected the change.  Don’t ask me why 7:00 was not an option on the app when moving to 7:00 was effortless.  Some things just can’t be explained.

 

Before long it was time for lunch, since we didn’t have much of a breakfast, and another old habit led us up two flights of stairs to Alfredo’s.  Apparently the ship had encountered some rough weather on the way in to Barcelona so the outside areas were all being hosed down and were off limits.  That was a shame, as I was looking forward to our first “Al Fresco” experience at Alfredo’s.  Oh well.  The interior was just fine, the service as great and fast, and the pizza was as good as always.  For some reason I assumed that the size of the pizzas would be shrunk down now that Alfredo’s had become a “extra cost” venue/Included in the Packages venue and the ordering was based off of a “one app, one pizza, one dessert” model.  Surely one would not want or need a pizza the size of what we were used to if one were eating it all by themselves, coupled with an app and a dessert.  So I assumed that they would now be “personal size pizzas.  Oh, no.  Perish the thought.  The pizzas were as large and delicious as always.   Whereas before the three of us would share two pizzas, we now shared three.  Boy were we stuffed, even after foregoing dessert.  And the antipasti that I had as my app was really good.  I order those reluctantly as often they present as a sad plate of a lonely salami triangle kept company by a cube of cheese.  But this was actually quite good.  We each enjoyed a glass of wine out of Princess’ stems as we had not yet broken out our good ones from our carry-on bag.

 

We figured (correctly) that we could now make our way to our cabin, so we headed there to get settled. 

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Day One of the Cruise-Embarkation (Continued)

Sailaway, Dinner and Evening Entertainment

 

After unpacking it was time to find a place for the Sailaway.  We usually don’t go to an organized Sailaway Party and instead try to find a nice place for a glass of wine or cocktail to chat and watch the world (or port city) go by.  Many times that takes us up to the back of the Lido Deck behind the buffet on many ships. But on Sun Princess, the back of what would be the Lido Deck is cabins.  So we walked around to find a new spot to call home, and settled on the Wake View Terrace on Deck 8.  We took the “Wonka-vator” as we called it, (the glass elevators at the very back of the ship) because we thought that would be a cool experience.  We found a nice seating arrangement and settled in with our new wine glasses and some glasses of Whispering Angel Rose and then some cocktails.  The Wake View area is lovely, but know that it is half set-up for smoking (Starboard side).  If this is an issue for you, know this going in.  The smokers find this area quickly and make heavy use of it.  I’m not blaming them.  There are few places to smoke and this is one of them.  So it gets used to its fullest extent. 

 

One of the main features of the Wake View area is the “Infinity Pool”.  A very cool idea, but the designers really should have made the side of the pool that faces the wake “infinity” and the side of the pool that faces the bar and seats “finality”.  When one gets in the pool, they are on full display, magnified by the optics of the glass, and look to the rest of the world, well, sort of like this. 

 

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Before we knew it, it was time for dinner.  We were still exploring different areas of the ship, hunting for a bar that might have a more diverse wine selection seeing how Sun Princess does not have a “Vines” venue.  On our way to dinner we walked by the Promenade Bar on Deck 9 and got a glass each of Belle Glos Pinot Noir.  Oddly, we found that this bar, and the bar attached to the International Café to have the best wines.  Nothing “off the menu” like you might find at Vines.  But we found that the Whispering Angel rose, Flowers Chardonnay, Belle Glos Pinot Noir and Silverado Cabernet were the best wines by the glass on the ship, but they are not available everywhere.  Far from it.  But the Promenade Bar outside on Deck 9 had all four.

 

Glasses filled (to the appropriate level), we made our way to the Horizons Deck 7 MDR.  This is the deck where reservations can be made at “any time” though as noted earlier, “any time” has a lot of holes in its definition.  We arrived at 7:00 on the dot and waited in a 3 minute line to be accommodated and seated.  We were shown to a wonderful table toward the back of the restaurant.  The setup of the restaurant is a bit odd, with a number of tables for two set up in what amounts to a hallway with people walking past constantly.  So glad we were not seated there.  Also of note is the disappearance of service stations in the dining room.  On other ships, no matter where one is seated, one is never more than a table or two away from a service station with clanging dishes and silverware.  Sun Princess has rectified this with the elimination of most of those stations. 

 

Dinner was quite good.  Our table ordered Greek Salads and Fettuccine Alfredo to start, Linguini with Clams, Short Ribs and a Strip Steak as mains, and a Cheese Plate, Cheese Cake and Crème Brulee for desserts.  There were no losers in the group.  The Fettuccine Alfredo was not quite what it used to be, but certainly not a bad dish.  And the Cheese Plate deserves special applause.  I thought that S was taking a risk here as and MDR cheese plate can run the risk of a server coming over and squirting cheese from an aerosol can directly into your mouth.  Or if not that, then a plate of non-descript cheese cubes of varying unnatural colors.  But such was not the case.  This was a legitimate cheese plate with several recognizable cheeses that were all high quality. 

 

During dinner the sommelier came to chat with us, as would become familiar territory throughout the 9 days.  Bring in some nice stemware of your own and all of a sudden you become a rockstar to the wine service staff.  A gentleman by the name of Gift was the sommelier in the Deck 7 venue that night and he was charming and a pleasure to get to know.  He certainly added to our experience.  The only negative of the evening came not from anything Princess did, but instead from the attitude of the table of 6 seated behind us. They had to take the time to complain to their servers and to the restaurant manager about everything. I just don’t know how people go through life with that dark of a cloud over their heads.   The shrimp were too small.  The soup wasn’t what it used to be.  “We’ve been on blah blah blah number of Princess cruises and we have never experienced blah blah blah like this before.”  It got so bad that K intentionally raised her voice in a passive/aggressive manner while talking to me and S, praising many of the things that the blowhards were complaining about, loud enough so that they could surely hear her.  “This short rib dish is the best I have ever had on any of our 10 cruises” and the like.  I felt so bad for the servers but we made it a point to praise their service and let them know how much we enjoyed our meal.  They clearly understood what we were trying to combat and they were obviously grateful.

 

After dinner we made our way to the Piazza to join in on a game of “Port or Starboard.”  This was a new game to us and fits perfectly withing that venue.  It is essentially a 50/50 multiple choice trivia game where each participant moves over to the Port side if they think that the answer to the question is being shown on the Port side video screen, and over to the Starboard side if they think that the right answer is being shown on that side’s monitor.  If you get one answer wrong, you are out and the process of elimination continues until there is one winner.  I made it to the end of one game with one other contestant and we looked to be headed for a stalemate, so the Assistant Cruise Director Niamh (pronounced “Neev”) gave us an open-ended question and the person giving the closest answer would win.  The question was: How many men have walked on the moon?  My opponent went first and said “3” so I knew right then that I was going to be the winner.  I couldn’t remember if there had been an Apollo 17 mission or not, so I wasn’t sure if the answer was 10 or 12, but it didn’t matter.  Either answer would be the winner, so I said 10 and took home a nifty pair of “not available anywhere else” Port/Starboard socks, one colored red and one colored green.  S is now in possession of them.  One other funny thing to note about the video screens in the Piazza.  Earlier in the day they were showing pictures from tomorrow’s port, Palma, Mallorca.  The screen is set up so that it can split with each half moved off to one side (hence the “Port or Starboard” game.)  But when showing pictures of Palma, the word MALLORCA was split so that half was on one side and half on the other.  It took me a minute to figure out that they did not intend to display the words that would suggest that a Killer Whale was at a Shopping Center. 

 

After my thrilling victory we went to Princess Live! for the first of many, many trivia contests, as Pub Quizzes are a big thing for S and her friends in Edinburgh.  Apparently it is a blood sport there.  We finished a very respectable second.  A few words about Princess Live!  Thank you, Princess for doing away with that awful, sterile “TV Studio” abomination on the Royal Class Ships and bringing back a functional entertainment venue.  For those who have not seen it, Princess Live! on Sun Princess is very much like the Explorer’s Lounge on the Grand Class ships that have it.  More on Princess Live! later as I review specific venues, but I thought that I would toss my kudos here before I get into some of the negative stuff.

 

That would pretty much do it for us for the evening.  I did keep a scorecard of our overall usage and consumption of “add-ons” that we would have had to pay for if we didn’t have a Package, and also to compare what we would have paid under Plus versus Premier. (We did not upgrade to Premier 90).  I will run those numbers and report back toward the end of this Journal.  But so far, our stateroom folio was “clean”.  No erroneous charges, nor any legitimate charges either. 

 

Next up-Day Two in Palma, Mallorca.   Hope to have that done tomorrow.     

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59 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

a nifty pair of “not available anywhere else” Port/Starboard socks, one colored red and one colored green. 

 

That is the ABSOLUTE BEST prize I have ever heard of anybody winning on one of those passenger contests/shows.  I want a pair.

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This is a fantastic review- you’ve had me laughing out loud and reading to the hubs. As fellow parents of an archeologist, I can attest to becoming interested by osmosis. Lucky you that S’s area is Ancient Rome.  Our daughter is a specialist in cemeteries and mourning rituals 🙈

 

Can’t wait to follow along with the rest of your report

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Day Two of the Cruise-Palma, Mallorca

Port Visit-Travel Logistics

 

Two of the most attractive things about this itinerary were the port stops in places that are not all that common to Princess cruises, and that fact that these places could be visited “on our own” with some basic research and planning.  That is not to say that there are not fun, exciting $250 per person excursions that one can sign up for if one is so inclined.  But to us, that wasn’t necessary.  Some research, reading and mapping was all that was needed to visit all of the ports on this cruise by foot, racking up some serious “daily steps” in the process.  We are fortunate that we are all physically able to do this.  I appreciate that not all can.  The other benefit of foregoing organized excursions is that there would be no “Meet in the Princess Theater at 7:45 a.m.”  obligations.  K hates that when she is on vacation. 

 

Our “set in stone” agenda for the day included only two things that were time sensitive.  I had pre-purchased a timed entry ticket to visit the Royal Palace of La Almudaina (a/k/a “Palau Reial de l’Almudaina”) and we had a lunch reservation up near the Placa d’Espanya at 1:00.  Besides that, we would walk the streets, do some shopping, admire the architecture and generally soak in the sights, sounds and atmosphere of a place none of us had ever visited.  I told K and S that our goal was to be at the plaza that frames both the Cathedral and the Palace at 10:00, so they could use the morning accordingly.  We used this time to make our first visit to the International Café and the Eatery, joined at the hip on Deck 9.  Neither venue impressed us.  The IC seemed far more crowded than we were used to.  Perhaps it was the fact that on other ships, there is Piazza seating in the IC area and in the Good Spirits Bar area that absorb the crowds, whereas here, hoards of people were crowding around the ordering and pick-up stations.  It just seemed more hectic and crunched than we were used to.  As for the breakfast buffet, it was kind of hard to figure out.  I was expecting more of a distinction between food offerings as one traversed the various stations.  This was true for the pastries.  But for other foods, it seemed rather random.  There is bacon and sausage here.  But also over there.  And again, over there. (And not for nothing, but the bacon is served by the pound, not by the slice.)  And the drink service (if one can even call it that) is terrible.  You basically have to find the service tables where the juice pitchers are located and serve yourself, guessing which pitcher holds which type of juice as there are several pitchers containing varying shades of orangish/yellow liquids.  We were all able to get the foods that we wanted, but it was way more of a scavenger hunt than it needs to be.  However, I will say that the outdoor seating on Deck 9 is quite nice and a big upgrade over other ships.  Just don’t expect to receive any service out there.  When we sat outside, (which was most days) we pretty much had to take the initiative to serve ourselves, whether that was for coffee, water, juice, or anything else. 

 

Having finished our food adventure, it was now time to make our way to Palma, which brings me to the first lesson of the day: Don’t overthink. Take the path of least resistance.  The ship will dock at Dique Del Oeste. Getting from there to the City Center is the subject of web pages, blogger reports, YT videos and plenty of inquiries in the Port section of Cruise Critic.  If one chooses to walk from there to the area of the Cathedral, (and some do) it will take a tad more than an hour to do so.  The first half of the walk would be uninteresting and industrial, and the second half of the walk would be a spectacular stroll along the waterfront, gazing at more yachts and sailboats than you have ever seen in your life. 

 

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Looking at the photo above (taken from our balcony after docking), one would walk to the left of the photo, out of the frame of the picture, (that would be the uninteresting, industrial part of the walk), and then make a sharp right-hand turn to walk along the waterfront with the buildings on your left and the water on your right. That is the spectacular part of the walk.  But even as one reached the very right-hand side of the picture frame, one is still not at the Cathedral.  That is even further off the frame. 

 

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Hopefully that gives a decent description of what the walk would entail.  But you would see some pretty awesome yachts.

 

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For those who choose not to walk (and that was us), there are three options, with one of those options having two sub-parts.  1. City Bus.  2. Private coach.  3. Taxi.  The first option is the one with two sub-parts, so let’s start there.  There is a city bus that goes from the port to area of the Cathedral and it only costs a couple of Euro.  The stop where one would get off is called “Argentina-Sa Feixina.”  Easy Peasy.  But the “two sub-parts” have to do with where one boards the bus.  In preparation for our trip, I researched this and found a helpful YT video that showed people arriving on a RCCL ship and boarding the bus right at the port terminal.  As in, exit the terminal building and BAM!, there is the bus.  Ordinarily the closest bus stop to  Dique Del Oeste is about a 10-15 minute walk outside of the port on the road just opposite the old fort.  But the YT video said that when ships are in port, the buses come all the way into the terminal area, and the video certainly supported this theory.  This is the route we intended to take.  But when we exited the terminal we asked where we need to go to board the city bus and we were told that we had to make the 15 minute walk outside of the port area.  I asked if the buses would come into the terminal area and was told “Not today.”  So the two sub-parts to taking the city bus are: Maybe you will board right at the terminal, and maybe you will have to walk 15 minutes outside of the port area.  I opted to skip this approach because I was concerned that we would be flying blind as it were, uncertain how many other people would be waiting at the bus stop, and if we walked all the way there only to be unable to board due to crowding, we would have to wait another half hour or so for the next bus.  Not worth the risk.

 

The second option is a bus that goes directly from the terminal to a large pier very close to the Cathedral area. These are private buses that partner with the cruise ships and run pretty frequently.  The cost is $16 per person, round trip.

 

Here is the information that we received the night before, and in our Patter:

For those of you who want to explore Palma City Center a limited taxi service is available as well as a shuttle service organized by our Shore Excursions team for a fee of $16 for a Day Pass. You can purchase the tickets using the Princess app stateroom TV, and portals around the ship. Buses depart at 8:30; 9:00 and 9:30.

 

Very little of this information proved to be true.  The night before I tried to use both the app and the TV to book a reservation just in case we decided to use this service.  The Excursions section of the app and TV showed nothing of the sort.  Second, taxis outside of the terminal were not “limited”.  They were “abundant.”  Third, bus service did not end at 9:30.  Buses were boarding well after that.  What is true is that the cost is $16 per person.  So having decided not to take the city bus, we were left with the other two options—private bus or taxi.  Seeing an abundance of taxis, we hopped in one and for E15 we were driven directly to the Cathedral Plaza, along the same road that one would walk if one chose to, and had a great view of a beautiful waterfront.  Oh. And by the way.  When we passed the bus stop outside of the castle, we saw a bus there with people waiting to board.  Way more people than that bus could carry.  So many of those people would either have to wait a half an hour for the next bus; continue in their direction of travel and complete the 1+ hour walk to the city, or backtrack to the port and board either a private coach or taxi. 

In the end, the taxi proved to be the path of least resistance, and for the three of us, cost E30 for the roundtrip whereas the private coach would have cost us E48. 

 

This wraps up the logistics report, so now on to our visit to Palma.

Edited by JimmyVWine
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Day Two of the Cruise-Palma, Mallorca (Continued)

Port Visit-The Sights (The Palace)

 

When we arrived at the plaza, we had a good half-hour before our timed entry ticket to the Palace would be operative. So K and S took that time to do some shopping at an outdoor “artisan’s market.” 

 

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And I took some time to shoot some photos.  Bot K and S picked up dresses at  very reasonable prices which would be worn later on in the cruise.  The lighting of the Palace and the Cathedral was not great, but I took some pictures anyway as I did not know how things would change over the course of the day.  More on that later. 

 

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Soon it was our turn to enter the Palace.  With our pre-paid tickets we walked past the line at the entrance and straight into the castle.  But there was no shortage of side-eyes cast our way from people thinking that we were cutting the line, or somehow “privileged.”  Yeah. It’s called the privilege of pre-planning and buying tickets online.  Not a new thing.  Look into it!  The Palace was originally built as a Muslim fortress and was later rebuilt into what we see today in the 1300s by King James II of Mallorca with further modifications done in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.  It remains one of the official residences of the Spanish Royal Family.  The architecture is revealed in diverse styles, with both Arab and European influences evident.  (All pictures were taken without a flash with the ISO set to 1600 or 3200, so the clarity is not great.  It was dark in there.)

 

The Fireplace Room.  Not hard to figure out how this name came about.

 

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Portraits of Mallorcan Kings

 

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Pretty sure this was worn by John Cleese

 

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 John Cleese Fox News in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 

 

 

Original Arab tiling seen on the ceiling.

 

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An outdoor cactus garden with the ships in the distance.

 

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A mix of architectural styles blended together.

 

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A very Arab courtyard.

 

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Lions.  Because there always has to be lions.  It’s a rule.

 

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Here is an actual “working” room, as in, a room that would still be used today for receptions and official business.

 

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Next up.  A stroll through the city.

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Day Two of the Cruise-Palma, Mallorca (Continued)

Port Visit-The City

 

We left the Palace with enough time for a comfortable walk along beautiful, tree-lined pedestrian streets on our way to our lunch destination.

 

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My research revealed that there were a number of buildings in the area designed by disciples of the Gaudi style of architecture.  Boy, did they get that right. 

 

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The Gran Hotel (which is no longer a hotel and instead serves as an exposition space).

 

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S saw a Vespa parked in front of a Gaudi-esque building and said: “This is Europe in a nutshell.  Let’s see who can take the best picture in the style of Fellini.”  The first two are my attempts, and the third picture is what the actual lighting looked like.

 

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We approached the block where we were to have lunch a bit early which under most circumstances wouldn’t be an issue, but when the restaurant does not actually open until 1:00, arriving early does one no good.  Luckily we came upon a street festival with music and dancing performed by a troupe in full regional costumes.  Unfortunately, the crowd around the performance was too dense for me to take any photos, but it was a sight to behold. 

We killed enough time to get to “Buscando el Norte” right on time.  It took a bit of research to find a recommended restaurant that was open on a Sunday, within walking distance of where we were going to be at lunch time.  But this place hit all the marks and our cephalopod streak remained in tact!

 

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We dined al fresco and enjoyed a lovely bottle of Albariño, one of my favorite sunny day sippers. Is it just me or does this look like Stewie on the label?

 

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Our lunch spot on Carrer de Sant Miquel just above Placa d’Espanya was designed to be the furthest reach of our walk such that all travels from here on would be back toward the ship.  All aboard time was 4:30 and it was now 2:00 and we needed to leave time to secure a taxi back for the 15 minute drive to the port.  We continued our sightseeing tour along Carrer de Sant Miquel to Placa Major, Palma Square and then back to the Cathedral Square and the outdoor shopping kiosks as there were a couple of things that S wanted to pick up, but didn’t want to drag along with her all day.  Our travels took us past some beautiful public and private buildings, as well as a 600 year old olive tree in Palma Square.

 

King James, or locally, Juame

 

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The Olive Tree “Olivera de Cort”

 

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City Hall

 

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The Counsel Building “Consell de Mallorca”

 

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And then around a bend from the building shown above, you find yourself right back at the Cathedral and Palace Square.  So S and K went to finish their shopping and I took some time to take more photos of the Cathedral and Palace.  At the start of this post I mentioned that had taken pictures in the morning in less than perfect lighting, not knowing how the day would unfold.  Well, it unfolded wonderfully, and it you want to get some better shots of the Cathedral and find yourself in that area in the afternoon, the lighting is much better.

 

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Having checked off everything on our must-see list, we made our way to the taxi stand that our driver told us about at the start of the day (near the Cathedral) and headed back to the ship. 

 

Next up-Our time on the ship.

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Day Two of the Cruise-Palma, Mallorca (Continued)

Back on the Ship

 

After tapping back into the ship with our medallion and walking up to Deck 7 (trying to take an elevator from “The Landing” was a losing proposition), we thought that we would head to a cocktail lounge and mark another venue off of our BINGO card.  However, when got up to Deck 7 we were greeted by a signboard urging guests to set aside some time for Formal Portraits tonight.  Huh?  Wait. What?  Is tonight a Formal Night??  Second lesson of the day:  Always consult your Patter. As I noted in an earlier post, this was a one-off itinerary so there was no way to ask questions of prior guests here on CC or elsewhere about things like “Which nights are Formal Nights?”  All I had to go by was past experience and common sense, both of which told me that with all the Sea Days we had on this itinerary, the two Formal Nights would be on Sea Days.  Or certainly the first one would be.  So I booked my Specialty Dining accordingly.  This new ship build offered far more dining options than any other ship we had been on and we intended to hit up as many as we could. But as part of my planning, I guestimated which nights would be Formal Nights so that we could have dinners in the MDR on those evenings.  So tonight we were booked at the Crown Grill as surely this was not going to be a FN.  Wrong!!  I dug out our Patter that I had placed in our carry-around bag for the day and sure enough, right there on the side it said that tonight was a Formal Night. 

 

So instead of heading to a bar, we returned to our cabin so that K and S would have plenty of time to shift gears and transition into Formal Mode. 

S went down to Deck 9 and the Promenade Bar to get cocktails for all of us and we sat out on our balcony sipping our drinks and listening to Spanish Guitar music while we took turns showering and getting ready.  I also took the opportunity to look at the MDR menu on the TV to see what we were missing out on.  Turns out, not much.   The menu that night was not really up to the standards of other FNs we have enjoyed.  In fact, it seemed pretty pedestrian as if the person who declared this to be a FN failed to consult the Head Chef the same way they failed to consult me!  That certainly took the sting out of my misstep. 

 

We made it to the Crown Grill right on time and were seated in a nearly-empty dining room.  Over the course of the evening it never seemed to get past the half-filled stage.  Our dinner was wonderful and our steaks were probably the best Crown Grille steaks we have had (but far below what one would get at a true, land-based steak palace such as Capital Grill.  Truth be told, it has been a long time since we have gone to a Crown Grill as we have never been impressed.  But we were determined to try out as many Specialty Dining options as possible, and since two of them were included in our Package, this meal felt “free.”  Free of charge and free of risk.  There were only two issues worth mentioning.  First, and least important, the knifes that we were provided could not cut mashed turnips, let alone a steak. We spent the meal tearing away at our slabs of beef rather than elegantly slicing through them.  It’s hard to imagine that this has not been noticed before and we did mention this to our server.

 

The second issue is more significant, but thankfully we received an acceptable workaround.  One would think that the ship’s signature shrine to all things red meat would have the ship’s best wine list.  Or at a minimum, the best red wines on the ship.  Oh no. Indeed, the wine list at the Americana Restaurant had a better, deeper list, especially when it came to wines included in the Premier Package.  The bar attached to the International Café had a better wines by the glass selection.  Heck.  EVERY single venue we went to had a better wines by the glass selection.  Undaunted, when it came time to take our order, I told our server that we would each like a glass of the Silverado Cabernet even thought I did not see it on the list.  Surely they had that.  [As an aside, the Cabernet served by the glass was the Bonanza Cabernet, available at my local Total Wines for $19 per bottle which is what they charge by the glass if you don’t have a package.  The Silverado is available at my Total for $53 and the ship charges $20 per glass.  I’m not making this up when I say that there is no comparison between the wines.] The server did not say a word and left as if my order would be filled without question.  A few minutes later the sommelier arrived and said that he noticed the fine stems that we had brought to dinner and correctly surmised that we knew a bit about wine.  He then said that they did not have the Silverado Cabernet in this restaurant, but that he could go get a bottle, and that we could have the whole bottle for our table and he would deduct 5 credits from our drink allotment.  I thought that this was a very fair solution, and in fact, one that I offered to the bartender at Vines on our last cruise, where I suggested that he deduct 6 credits from our accounts in exchange for allowing us to take an entire bottle of Whispering Angel back to our cabin instead of us having 2 glasses each while sitting at the bar.  He refused.  I just don’t get it.  So the takeaway here is that the wine list at Crown Grill is pretty awful, but the sommelier was very accommodating.  But he shouldn’t have to be.  If I can get Silverado Cabernet with buffalo chicken wings at the Americana, why can’t I get it with a ribeye at the Crown Grill?  More on the topic of “beverage inconsistency” below.

 

The portrait photographers were still out and about after we finished dinner and since we had some photos included in our package, we decided to sit (or stand, actually) for some photos to see if there was anything we like. It is impossible to take a bad picture of S or K.  Me? Not so much.   But I figured that at a minimum I would end up with a couple of recent, professional pictures of my girls. 

 

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Afterwards we headed over to Princess Live! for cocktails and “Majority Rules”, with S and K trying out different gins that they had not had before and me sticking to the Buffalo Trace Bourbon.  Maybe it was the wine or the cocktails, but we just couldn’t jibe with the rest of the audience and did horribly.  But we still had fun.  After that we grabbed what seemed to be the last three seats in the Princess Arena, behind the stage, for a performance by singer Danielle Grace Williams that started at 10:00.  She was really good.  But perhaps it was the low lighting combined with the big meal and drinks, because by the time the performance ended, I was ready to fall asleep so we headed back to the cabin, as tomorrow would be another port day.

 

Beverage Availability

From time to time I will address a topic that was not unique to this particular day, but rather is an issue (good or bad) with the ship that is a more general nature.  Since the topic of which wines are available where earlier in this post, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to address “beverage availability.”  Sun Princess prides itself on its beverage program with lord knows how many new cocktails it claims to serve, with each bar having its own menu.  This sounds, in Love Boat parlance, “exciting and new.”  In practice, it can be very frustrating.  If you go to a bar on a lower deck of the ship and find a drink that you really enjoy, and then later in the cruise you are up by the pool and want that same drink, more likely than not, (because it happened to us repeatedly), you will be told “We don’t make that drink here.”  On past cruises I could walk up to any bar, as for a “Captain’s Bounty” and be handed one in minutes.  On Sun Princess, if you go to Good Spirits and ask for an “Azul Blanco”, you get it.  If you ask for that drink at the Wake View Bar, you won’t.  But here’s where it gets really silly.  Good Spirits serves the Azul Blanco comprised of “Silver Tequila, Lime, Blue Curacao, Pineapple and Elderflower Foam.”  At the Wake View Bar, they serve a drink called the “Blue Pineapple Margarita” comprised of “Blanco Tequila, Pineapple, Blue Curacao and Lime.”   Crooners serves a drink called the “Rum Brulee” comprised of Jamaican Rum, Crème de Cacao, Banana Liqueur and Bitters.”  The Wake View Bar serves the “Driftwood” comprised of Zacapa Rum (from Guatemala, not Jamaica), Banana Liqueur, Passion Fruit, Pineapple and Lime.  But it’s not as if they don’t have Crème de Cacao or Bitters behind the bar.  And its not as if Crooners doesn’t have Pineapple or Lime behind its bar.  All of the ingredients are at all of the bars, but their adherence to their special cocktail menus is both frustrating and inefficient.  Now, guests have to study each menu at each bar to see what it is that they want, or what comes closest to the drink they had the other day at that other bar and that slows things down.  And the complexity of some of these drinks seriously slows down the pace at which the bartenders and make the drinks.  I know that Sun Princess is very proud of its unique bar setup, but a bit more (or a lot more) homogenization would really make things run more smoothly.

 

And as noted earlier in terms of wine, there should be no such thing as a venue that does not have “that particular wine” when the wines by the glass at the Premier level have been winnowed down to about a dozen.  There is no excuse for any bar to not have Flowers Chardonnay or Silverado Cabernet.  We’re all sailing on the same ship and we know that the wine is on the ship.  Just go down to the storage room and bring up a couple of bottles at 3:00 p.m. and stick them in your cooling unit.  It is one thing for Vines to have a wider, more unique wine list.  I understand why the 24 wines by the glass served there are not available at the Mermaid Bar by the pool.  But when the ship does not have a Vines, and serves only a dozen decent wines, all of those wines should be available everywhere for people who paid good money for their Package.  All of this was repeated in my post cruise survey. 

 

Next up-Our Day in Cartagena.  (Still working on those photos, so it may be anther day or so.)

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Truly enjoying the information about your Sun Princess cruise. I just have to ask.  Did you travel from venue to venue with wine glasses in hand?  Did the bartenders wash them each time you ordered?   Inquiring minds want to know.  I will be on ship with my daughter on the 19th and think a good glass is a very good idea.

 

 

Gretchen

 

 

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46 minutes ago, indexcards said:

Did you travel from venue to venue with wine glasses in hand?  Did the bartenders wash them each time you ordered? 

Yes, we carried them with us from venue to venue.  As for washing them, there is a funny story behind that that I wasn't going to include for fear of veering too far afield.  But now I have to!  We have a rule in our house: "Thou shalt not wash wine glasses on the evening that thou hast been drinking."  Rinse them out a bit and leave some water in them overnight so they don't stain, and wash them the next day when your hands are steadier.  We do the same on the ship. We  neglected to tell Allan, our steward, that we had brought on our own glasses and after the first night on board, we left them in the area where the ice bucket and other glasses are, intending to wash them after we toured Palma.  When we got back to our cabin, we found that our glasses were gone, and instead some generic glasses had taken their place.  I panicked because I thought that Allan might not have appreciated that those were our own glasses and now they were mixed in with all of the ship's other glasses.  Since the stewards take their breaks in the late afternoon, neither Allan nor any other steward on our Deck could be found.  We were hurrying getting ready for our dinner at the Crown Grill and figured that we would never see the glasses again.  I had already started scouting out places in Cartagena where we might shop for new ones.  But about 15 minutes before our dinner time, I looked out into the hallway one more time and found Allan.  I told him that the glasses in our room were ours and he laughed, removed a towel that was covering a glassware rack, and produced our glasses.  He said that he had taken them to the galley to be cleaned in the ship's stemware washer.  They were immaculate.  I thanked Allan for going above and beyond.  After that, I washed them each morning before we left our cabin as it really shouldn't be the steward's job to look after my glasses. 

 

When we use the glasses for dinner, and we think that we are going to go somewhere else for different wine, I simply take some water from a water glass on the table and swish a little around and then dump that into an empty water glass.  That's all that is needed to move from one wine to the next.  And I will say that we got to know all 5 sommeliers on the ship, especially Rose who works in the Reserve Dining Room that we never used.  She just passed us in a hall on the first night, looked at our glasses, and started up a conversation that lasted 15 minutes or more.  After that, she was a friend to us on the ship, and all because she instantly noted that we took wine as seriously as she does. 

 

And a final note on this.  We bring our own glasses because we have seen what is offered on other ships.  But Sun Princess, as a general rule, has much better stemware than the other ships.  I especially like the water glasses that are used throughout the ship.  They are all the same, but change in color based on what venue you are in.    

Edited by JimmyVWine
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Day Three of the Cruise-Cartagena, Spain

Port Visit- or “It Was Built By The Romans”

 

Our day today began much like the day before.  No organized excursion meant no need to be up at the butt crack of dawn.  And because the ship docks right at the base of the city, there would be no need for taxis, city buses or private coaches.  Just a comfortable pair of shoes.  And that meant that there was no need to get  up early.  We had a leisurely breakfast back at the Eatery, only this time we went all the way to the back where the Specialty Restaurants used to be.  Notice that I said “used to be.”  More on that later.)  That area of the buffet was far more relaxed and easier to negotiate.  As I write this, that area is transitioning (or has transitioned) to the Americana Diner, so I don’t know if the separate area of the buffet will continue to exist, given that the Americana Diner serves its own breakfast—all day long.

 

Today was a Monday, which may not mean much to anyone, but as it were, almost everything in Cartagena shuts down on Mondays.  Pretty much like what a Sunday looks like in places that still have Blue Laws.  Museums. Public buildings. Shops. Restaurants. Very much a day of rest.  However, my research suggested that certain of Cartagena’s major tourist sites would operate if one or more cruise ships were in port, albeit on a more limited schedule.  “Check our website for updates” is what I was told in response to my direct inquiry.  Well, I did that.  Repeatedly.  And every time I would see the same thing: “No museums will be open on this day.”  Finally, about four days before the cruise was scheduled to depart, the website changed to reveal that certain of the major attractions would be open from around 11:00-4:00.  These included the Ancient Roman Theater and the Roman Forum, the two things we were most interested in seeing, and both of which are FREE to visit, if that matters.  Our day would be compacted, but productive.

 

The walk from the terminal exit to the Cartagena Town Hall, known locally and shown on Google Maps as “Palacio Constistorial de Cartagena,” is about a quarter of a mile along the length of the pier and then a left-hand turn along the waterfront.  When you get to the end of the pier you are blocked by the medieval city walls and must walk parallel to the wall until it opens up for you.  No need to say any magic words or sneak past any guards (or lions).  When we made that turn, the first thing we saw was a really cool piece of art. Or was it a really cool trash receptacle?  Yes and yes.  Some genius created a nautical-themed piece of art for the collection of empty water bottles to serve as both a practical recycling system and to remind people of how important it is to keep plastics out of the ocean, and out of the bellies of the creatures who live in the ocean.

 

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I have already sent this photo to our Town Council with a request that they commission an artist to construct similar receptacles specifically themed to the history and features of our town. 

 

Just past the what I called the “Bottle-nosed Dolphin” stands the City Hall in all its Modernist glory.  Completed in 1907, (MCMVII), it ushered in a rebirth of the city after heavy destruction during the Cantonal Revolution toward the end of the 19th century.

 

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Here you can see the proximity of the Plaza to the ship.

 

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The building still serves as the City Hall, meaning that it is a working building, not a museum.  Still, visitors are allowed and encouraged to step inside the entrance and take pictures (no flash) of the grand foyer.  Obviously, if one had official business, they could delve deeper into the building, but that is not allowed for mere tourists.

 

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The ceiling is quite detailed and beautiful.

 

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I’m sure that every family has its own inside jokes and ours is no different.  Often they take the form of phrases we have heard in our travels that repeated from time to time when they fit the situation in a humorous way.  For example, we will never forget the time that we were in “KetchiCandies” in Ketchikan, Alaska and the person in front of us in line asked the store clerk: “Do you take American money”?  I can’t tell you how many times S and I have brought that one up in various situations.  Well, now we have a new one that we will surely bust out often.  As we were walking down the City Hall steps on our way out, a man said to his wife: “This building was built by the Romans. You can tell by the ceiling.”  Now, I suppose that in 1907 certain of the artisans who helped construct the building were Italian, and maybe even from Rome. So there’s that.

 

Next up-Our visit to the Roman Theater

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Day Three of the Cruise-Cartagena, Spain (Continued)

Port Visit- The Ancient Roman Theater

 

If you paid (very) close attention to the clocktower in the previous photos, you saw that we visited the City Hall at around 10:45, and as noted earlier, the truncated hours of the museums this day would begin at 11:00.  So after our brief visit to the municipal building, we headed directly across the plaza to an unassuming pink building with very little signage other than a stone arch with the letters MVSEO carved into it.  Sorry, but I didn’t take a photo of it, but I grabbed a public one off of the web.

 

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License details

Creator: Duccio Malagamba 

Copyright: © Duccio Malagamba, Barcelona. All rights reserved 

 

The entrance is in the enter of that photo, where you can see a white stone arch that looks out of place on the building.  But in all likelihood, there will be a line of people outside of the building, and they will serve as your guideposts.

 

The theater is old, but the museum is not. In fact, many of the street-view shots on Google Maps don’t show the entrance because it didn’t exist at the time the images were grabbed.   This is due in large part to the fact that the theater itself is a very recent discovery in an archaeological sense.  Years of city development led to a cathedral being built on top of the much of the theater grounds, along with neighboring residential buildings.  Renovations to certain of these buildings in the late 1980s led to the discovery of the theater after which the cathedral was decommissioned and excavations began in earnest. Excavation continued throughout the 1990s and the museum was not open to the public until the early 2000s. 

 

The picture below, taken from the museum’s official website, shows what the site looked like in 1997, and you will see from my photos below that we’ve come a long way since then. The theater is believed to have been constructed between 5 and 1 BCE based on the statuary discovered and the people who were being honored.  So this isn’t one of those new, modern theaters build in, say 350 CE. 

 

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I think that I had said earlier that the entry was free.  That was a mistake.  Entry to the Roman Forum was free.  Here, the cost was around E7 per person.  I didn’t save my receipt.  It was free for S who still has a UNESCO admission card from her studies.  The line forms outside of the entrance and admission is metered by a security guard.  Since the museum is not large, only a handful of people are allowed in at one time, sort of like a velvet rope outside of a popular night club.  Still, the line moved quickly and we did not wait more than 3-5 minutes to be let in.

 

Once inside, and before getting to the theater itself, you make your way through this well curated, medium-sized museum that does an excellent job of explaining the how, what, when and why of the theater.  You go up several levels, looking at various displays along the way, such that by the time you get to the theater, you are midway of the height of it.

 

One of the statues that rimmed the stage area that helped establish the timeline of the theater.  The archaeologists obviously have a better idea of who this is than I do.  I can’t make heads or tails of it.

 

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A scale model of what the theater looked like at the time of its use.  Very elaborate, but according to S, very typical of the style and design of most theaters.

 

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Details of a column that once stood outside.

 

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Finally, after an escalator ride up two more floors, (or an elevator for those who require it), you walk through a tunnel that opens up to the main attraction, and you are mid-way up the seating area.

 

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Unlike many historic treasures that are “look but don’t touch”, you are allowed fairly open access to the entire theater as long as you stay on the modern stairs and paths.  The photo above shows all the different places you can explore.  The theater is thought to have held upwards of 7,000 people, or  V̅I̅I̅ in Roman writing,  so it isn’t a small venue.

You can see a mix of original seating infrastructure coupled with modern cement work that replicate what the finished seating would have looked like.

 

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This is a view of the stage area.  Obviously the area where the people are walking and standing is modern and not ancient.

 

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This is a picture of what remains of the cathedral that once stood atop of the theater.

 

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And this shows a wider view of the cathedral in relation to the overall theater footprint.

 

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Our visit concluded with all of us very impressed and thankful that this treasure of a site had been rediscovered and preserved.  It was not time to make our way to lunch.  As was true of the day before, finding a not-overly-touristy, highly regarded restaurant open on a Monday was not easy, but we landed on Restaurante La Tartana which we reached by walking up Calle Mayor and Calle Carmen, two gorgeous, tiled pedestrian streets lined with beautiful architecture and shops, (many of which were closed.)

 

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Our lunch lived up to the recommendation and was visited mostly by locals that day, and our cephalopod streak remained in tact yet again.  A nice Albariño paired nicely with our dishes and when we were finished it was time to head to the Roman Forum for a too-brief visit before it closed for the day.

 

Next up-our visit to the Roman Forum and then back to the ship.

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Day Three of the Cruise-Cartagena, Spain (Continued)

Port Visit- The Ancient Roman Forum

 

The confluence of the Spanish lunch time, (1:00 at the earliest), the truncated hours of the museums (4:00 closure), and the “all aboard” time for the day (5:30) meant that we would have to hustle our way through the Roman Forum if we hoped to do any shopping or see any more of this beautiful city.  (I’ve always wanted to use the word “confluence” in a sentence that did not involve the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, and now I have!)  The walk from the restaurant to the Forum, again on beautiful, narrow, pedestrian streets, took about 10 minutes leaving us with just about 90 minutes to tour the site.  The bad news is that that isn’t really enough time for an immersive visit, but the good news is that we were literally the only three people at the site at this time.  For most people that is probably enough time.  But for S and her inquisitive parents, we would have liked a bit more time.

 

Admission here is free, and you begin, again, with an indoor museum experience that eventually leads to an outdoor, covered, self-exploration of the forum site.  The indoor portion of the museum contains a fabulously preserved, original Roman roadway that you actually walk on.  I do not know if this road once led to Rome, but I know that it doesn’t any longer.

 

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Also within the inside area is a large living room, for lack of a better name, (I am sure S could tell me if I asked) that was part of a residence of a very wealthy person.  This room would have had marble-clad walls where you now see simple stonework, water features and a checkerboard tile floor.  I don’t know if they called it “checkerboard” back then.  The game dates back thousands of years before this would have been constructed, so, maybe??

 

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Once you transition to the outside, you are actually exposed to the open sky for a brief moment before moving underneath a large canopy with open sides covering an area of over 2,000 square meters.  While outside, you see the remains of a small, private temple dedicated to some major or minor god.

 

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Once we got underneath the covered area, I put my camera away for most of the visit, both because we were busy reading signs describing what we were seeing, and because it was very dark and shadowy in there and taking good photos was not worth the effort.  But these adequately demonstrate the nature of the visit which has you walking on an elevated path looking down at various shops, residences and what served as sidewalks.     

 

We almost always see ruins like this without the decorative murals, paint or marble cladding on them, leaving us to think that the Romans lived in boring stone structures. But that was very much not the case, and some of the wall decorations can be seen here.

 

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Here we can see marble cladding on the columns and the remains of a water feature in the middle of this residential room.

 

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And in the upper portion of this photo you can see some attempts to recapture hand painted artwork on the walls. 

 

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We more or less closed the place down, leaving us with an hour to walk leisurely back to the ship.  While the all aboard time was 5:30, we were aiming for 5:00 so that we would have time to get drinks and scope out a good place to watch “runners” try to make it back to the ship before the gangway was taken away.  Always a fun time. 

 

We made our way back to the ship after finding the obligatory Christmas ornament, or some item that could craftily be converted into a Christmas ornament commemorating our time in Cartagena.  Our Christmas tree decorations are now almost exclusively mementos of our travels and as we decorate the tree, we are reminded of the places we have been and the stories that will live on forever.  Of course, when the bald eagle ornament from Ketchikan is placed on the tree, someone always has to say: “Did we pay for that with American money?”

 

Before embarking on this new ship, I did a fair amount of research and watched countless videos that people had posted on YT that promised “full ship tour.”  Thank you to all who did that.  One video in particular caught my attention because the guy who posted noted that the portion of his video taken on Deck 17 was taken on the third day of his cruise as he had not yet been up to that deck prior to that.  I thought that was odd, and nigh on impossible.  The pool deck (Lido on other ships) is so much of a centerpiece of the ship that it would be unthinkable that one could go three days and never step foot up there.  Well, guess what.  Here it was, 5:15 p.m. on our third day and we had not yet been up to Deck 17.  Not for a second.  This really does speak volumes about how the new layout shifts one’s focus.  So after dropping off our walking around stuff in our cabin, we made it a point to finally see Deck 17, get some drinks and find a good spot to watch for runners. 

 

We made our way up to the Sea View Bar to check it out.  The Dome was closed for a private function, but we were able to walk around it to the bar area and then down to the seating area (Sea View Terrace) on Deck 16.  While the seating in that area is new and unique, I did note that the cushions that I had seen in prior photos and videos were missing.  I guess they repositioned them in the Sanctuary after people complained about not having comfy seating up there.  Nevertheless, the seating in this area was an upgrade from the standard blue Princess loungers.  We had a couple of rounds of drinks and found a good place to sit/stand to watch the last of the guests return to the ship.  And while it was not shown on the Sea View Bar menu, I asked the bartender if he could make a Dirty Banana, and thankfully, instead of saying:  “Sure.  If I drop it on the floor”, he said, “Sure, no problem” and soon I was sipping on one of my Princess favorites. 

 

Next up—Dinner at Sabatini’s and evening entertainment.

Edited by JimmyVWine
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58 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

And while it was not shown on the Sea View Bar menu, I asked the bartender if he could make a Dirty Banana, and thankfully, instead of saying:  “Sure.  If I drop it on the floor”, he said, “Sure, no problem” and soon I was sipping on one of my Princess favorites. 


That is good to know.  That is a favorite of my wife.  With the drink menu changes, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to find one.

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3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:


That is good to know.  That is a favorite of my wife.  With the drink menu changes, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to find one.

Not every venue will make them.  Not sure if that is due to the absence of bananas at the bar, or the bar's unwillingness to run a loud blender in that location.  I only order that drink at outdoor venues for the latter reason. 

Edited by JimmyVWine
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2 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

  (I’ve always wanted to use the word “confluence” in a sentence that did not involve the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, and now I have!)

 

Congratulations.  I agree.  That is an achievement.

 

That brings up a question for those of us who have, pretty much, given up on stick-and-ball sports.  Does Three Rivers Stadium still exist?

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1 hour ago, XBGuy said:

Does Three Rivers Stadium still exist?

Gone for 23 years now.  Replaced with PNC Park for the Pirates, and Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field) for the Steelers. 

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