Caribbean Princess cruise - Day 6 of 7 - Sea Day - not much to do, so not much to say

Caribbean Princess cruise - Day 6 of 7

Sea Day

Today was a sea day.  This will be a short blog as we didn't do much.  Part of that was because there wasn't much to do.  There were lots of sales in the shops.  There were photos we could get taken.  We could pay for spa services.  But for general activities, there were movies, a couple of trivia/games, the evening show, and music in various venues throughout the ship.

We had a buffet breakfast and then strolled through the shops.  One had an event featuring port t-shirts, but they really didn't have t-shirts that featured the ports we visited, so I guess we didn't understand the concept.

One thing that has bothered us was the fact that if you have not cruised Princess before, there was no way to know that it is all but impossible to book specialty dining once you are on the ship.  Our travel agent had given us a voucher for specialty dining that was simply impossible to use since we cannot get a reservation.  We went to Guest Services and registered a complaint about that.  As first-time cruisers, we were incredibly disappointed that we had no way to dine in a specialty restaurant.  We were hopeful that they could find a way to fit us into the steakhouse.  Nope.  So, they refunded the cost of the specialty dining voucher to us.  Not what we wanted, but given how this cruise has gone, we'll take it.

Speaking of customer service, I should mention what happened the first night.  We opted to eat in the Coral dining room - one of the three main dining venues.  I was wearing shorts - well within the acceptable dress code for the first and last night of the cruise.  After we were seated at a table of eight, the waiter made sure to loudly point out that I was wearing shorts and that is not acceptable in the main dining room, other than on the first and last nights of the cruise.  Again, this was the first night.  I said that I knew that, and since this is the first night and I had not yet fully unpacked, I wore shorts.  He reiterated that it isn't allowed after tonight.  OK - I get it.

Fast forward to tonight.  It was the final formal night. We again ate in the Coral dining room.  What was I wearing?  A tuxedo - white jacket, black slacks with satin accents, suspenders, hand-tied bow tie - the works.  We were again seated at a table of eight.  The last two guests to arrive were two women.  How were they dressed?  Rolled-up denim (blue jeans) shorts and t-shirts.  Were they chastised?  Were they asked to dress according to the dress code?  Nope.  So, Princess, it is nice to see that you have a double-standard dress code - admonishing someone who is conforming and ignoring others that are not.  Yet another failure in Princess's customer service.

After breakfast, we spent some time on the balcony, enjoying the sea breeze and reading before grabbing lunch.  We sat in on a Disney movie song trivia. Lucky for us, a person that joined us was a Disney-aholic and knew many of the songs and the movies they were from. 

We wandered around a bit in the afternoon and enjoyed a libation or two.

Then, we returned to the room to rest up a bit and then dress for dinner.  As I mentioned above, it was the second and last formal night so we put on the duds.

We headed down to the Coral dining room for dinner and got seated at a table for eight.  As luck would have it, we were seated with another couple with who we had shared two dinners with already.  As is typical, everyone was very nice, even the two ladies that ignored the dress code.  Of course, it isn't their fault for ignoring it - it is Princess's fault for not telling them to go to the buffet as the dining room has a dress code.

One fun thing that happened at dinner was that a gentleman named "Steve" stopped at the table and asked if I was "Garry".  I said yes and he explained that he has been reading this blog and wanted to introduce himself.  He has commented on an earlier post as well.  He was very gracious and it was a nice conversation.

After we finished our meal and were leaving, we stopped by his table and met his wife, (I have no idea if I am spelling this correctly) Merilee.  The fun part is that they are considering The Villages, Florida (where we live) as one of several possible retirement residences.  We hope that they contact us when/if they come to check it out.

After dinner, we enjoyed a Jeopardy-like trivia game (even though we didn't do exceptionally well) as well as a game billed as Generation Frustration - a game pitting generations against each other, sort of.  It was all good fun.

We had a nightcap at Good Spirits at Sea on deck 5.

Then, we headed up to the Baja deck (11) and our room.  This was waiting for us.

Yes, that is the dreaded disembarkation information and luggage tags.  This is the sign that your cruise experience is coming to an end and typically a huge disappointment.  In our case, we're OK with it.  We're good with this trip ending the day after tomorrow.  I am looking forward to working internet.  The ship's internet has really struggled today.  The photos in this blog, even after being downsampled to shrink them, took a while to load.  I couldn't get to several websites throughout the day.  It was frustrating.  Mostly, I'm looking forward to being able to bend over in the shower and not being able to read through the toilet paper.  And, since we haven't gotten any feeling of customer service on this cruise, we won't be missing anything as we head home.

Bar watch (If the name is red, we have not yet been there.  If it is green, we have sampled their wares.)

Good Spirits at a Sea

Vine Wine Bar

Crooners Bar

Club Fusion

Explorers Lounge

Grand Casino Bar

Wheelhouse Bar

Calypso Bar

Outriggers Bar

The Mix

Tradewinds Bar

The Reef Bar

Two bars on Princess Cays

Skywalkers Nightclub

For the record, we've kind of given up on hitting every bar.  That isn't to say that we stopped going to bars - just that many haven't impressed us, so we stick to the ones we like.  We might try one or two more tomorrow, but at this point, I doubt we'll hit them all.

We have one more sea day tomorrow before we head home Saturday morning.