Pics of Aft Balcony C753 and Diamond Riviera Cruise 12/4

[marciemi]

Here are the links to my pictures from last week's Diamond cruise. We had a great time and I hope to get a review up as soon as possible!

 

C753 aft BB balcony pics:

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/231290997lPryJu

 

General cruise pics volume 1:

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/231303732zFgcag

 

And volume 2:

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/231328488DLmfsM

[Lynda90]

Thanks so much for sharing your cruise. Great pictures. I was there the week before and your pictures brought it all back.;)

[momrox1]

Thanks so much for sharing the pics of 753 aft. I will have this cabin on the Sapphire and I assume it's the same setup. Having never sailed Princess I found these very helpful and reassuring. :)

[marciemi]

lynda - I followed some of your roll call thread (per steve). Sounds like you guys had a blast the week before ours!

 

momrox - I'd guess structurally the setup would be the same, but seems like the furniture on any balcony is a crapshoot. We were told on this cruise that the "supervisor" said no loungers on that balcony because they wouldn't fit. Yet we had 2 loungers on C752 (same size) on the Grand. We "borrowed" the extra table and cushions from the pool area to make our footrests!

[Lynda90]

lynda - I followed some of your roll call thread (per steve). Sounds like you guys had a blast the week before ours!

Yes we did. We had so much fun that I hated to get off. We had tremedous group participation on this cruise with the roll call group. Felt like we were old friends before we ever met. Would love to do another cruise with the same group. Steve was quite the organizer. I followed some of your thread as well. Glad you had such a good time.

[marciemi]

Lynda - we met a couple of really nice CC couples (in one of my pics), including one (goforfun) who drove us to the airport after the cruise. But we really enjoyed the cruise somewhat due to our dinner table. We just had an awesome table of ten and an even more awesome waiter. We had traditional first seating, and were more than once the last table out of the dining room. I felt guilty leaving so late, but our waiter (waitress actually) would still be encouraging us to have more coffee, desserts, and having so much fun with us that I didn't feel as bad. She told us it was rare to have a table hit it off so well, and it was even more interesting because we certainly didn't have much in common on the surface. We were a mom & daughter (I believe you brought your mom on your cruise didn't you?), there were 4 couples, one much younger than me, some my mom's age, one older - some from California, some from Canada, some first time cruisers, some elites, etc. We switched places daily so we got to know everyone and I already sent everyone Christmas cards & emailed them the pics (since they're not CC people!)

 

We also really loved our balcony, in case you couldn't tell by the pics! Lucky you having one booked and 2 opens still! I don't have any idea if or when we'll do another one, but I got my platinum card on the last day so I'm ready for the next one, whenever it is!

[Lynda90]

Marci, yes you are correct about me going with my Mom. She is my travel buddy and we travel together all the time. We went to Alaska last May and can't wait to go again next May. We had a mini-suite and spent a lot of time having our morning coffee and evening coctails on the balcony. I hope you don't mind, but I copied one of your "sunset view from balcony" pictures to my picture file on my computer. I am not a picture taker, so I don't have any of my own.

 

We tried "anytime" dining for the first time and enjoyed it because Steve made the arrangements for our table. We had dinner every night with Steve and Dawn and Meg and Marty and sometimes others joined us. When we are by ourselves, however, we will always choose "traditional" as we like eating in a large group.

[sharkaymon]

We are scheduled to be in C753 on the Grand. Is that one identical to yours? Thank you so so much for your pics. :)

[marciemi]

It should be identical in layout. Furniture just depends on the ship, stewards, people before you, etc. You'll love it - I promise!

[ivalee]

Thanks for the great pictures. The sixteen of us women have that "corner" of the ship booked in March, to include C753.

[goforfun]

Hi Marcie--

Your picture links deserve a bump to the top. Thanks for sharing.

 

Our next cruise is with friends that we don't often get to see, because we now live in CA and they now live in AR. We met in TN, then we moved to WI and KS and they moved to eastern TN, then to GA. We cruised with them on Princess to Alaska 10 years ago and we're looking forward to cruising with them again next summer. They are fascinated with my reports about all the information sharing that happens on line. Think they may have been of the school that travel agent knows all. Think we're all here to say that isn't necessarily the case.

 

My take is that our sharing and comparing adds to both the anticipation and the experience.

 

It was fun meeting you. Our Ypsi family draws us nearby several times a year. Will try to touch base and say hi.

[marciemi]

Sandy - even though not too many people are posting on this thread, my webshots totals say nearly 3000 people looked at them last week, so at least they're checking them out! We've been busy planning a Disney trip next (actually a month from tomorrow). Never planned on such short notice before. I've pretty much taken up residence over in the Disney Boards like back in the old days - it's funny, other than the color scheme, they operate exactly like CC! DH is going out for business so we decided to have me & my 9 year old come along. The older 2 are staying home with Grandma (Alice) since they already missed over a week for our Voyager cruise in Sept, it's the first week of their new semester, and it would just cost too much to bring them! Our youngest was only 5 the last time we went so there's a lot he doesn't remember and a lot he was too small for then! Should be fun with just the two of us most of the time. I read your review on the boards - I have mine composed in my mind, but just can't find the time/motivation to write it all down. We're leaving for skiing tomorrow, so packing for that is the priority right now! Hopefully next week!

[goforfun]

Hey, Marcie--

 

Wrote a note and then did the wrong keystroke and everything went away. So that is incentive to be brief and concise. Have fun skiing. We're balmy here in SoCal right now--unlike the day we boarded the Diamond--more like the day we disembarked.

 

Have you ever seen Jodi Benson (aka the Little Mermaid) performing on the Disney boats? She is a friend of our LA daughter, Laurie (the swimmer). Jodi was there for Laurie when Laurie was widowed 4 years ago and sang at Laurie's wedding last year. I'd love to make it possible for you meet Jodi if she's performing on your cruise. She is soooo talented and a lovely person.

[marciemi]

We're not doing the Disney cruise :( Just a couple hectic days at the parks - trying to cram all 4 parks, plus a water park plus Disney Quest into 3ish days! We did the Disney Cruise in 2000 and weren't all that thrilled with it. Think even then my boys were too old for it. It just felt too crowded to me. I felt much less crowded on the Diamond. I saw your response about kids in the other thread. I think they estimated close to 300 on our cruise, believe it or not. We did the Canopy tour with one of the crew members from the 8-12 age group and there were 62 kids in that age group alone. We spoke to many parents on the cruise whose kids were off from Thanksgiving through New Years - kind of a year round school, with half the break in the summer and half in the winter. I agree though that we had no trouble with kids acting up anywhere on the ship. Now our flight back from LAX to Detroit I won't go into - that was another story. How many screaming 1 year olds can you fit on the same plane? (and they were all sitting by me!)

 

I didn't know your daughter was widowed (sorry!) or remarried (congrats!) Guess we didn't have enough time to talk on the ship!

[goforfun]

Wow!

Didn't know there were that many kids. Gotta think kids are not the problem--it's the parents. Now, on an airplane, I speak from firsthand experience as a grandparent. I was in charge of keeping an exhausted/end of ropes toddler strapped in without kicking the immediately accessible seat in front or screaming in frustration. May I say, I was not entirely successful. But eventually the toddler konked out and we had...peace. When we landed he exited the plane as though there had been no trauma, thanking the attendants and the captain for the nice ride! Gotta love it.