Caribbean Princess cruise - Day 7 of 7 - Sea Day - not much to do so we hit the bars

Caribbean Princess cruise - Day 7 of 7

Sea Day

I find commenters interesting, especially the anonymous ones.  I have one commenter that has been chastising me for complaining.  First and foremost, this is my blog, not yours.  I am documenting my experiences, not yours.  If you are having an amazing cruise with stellar service, I am happy for you.  But I am not and I am documenting that.  Anyone that has followed my past cruises knows that if a cruise line fails, I call them out.  If they succeed, I sing their praises.  I like to think that I am fair and balanced.  No company is perfect.  If they suck, I say they suck.  If they're amazing, I applaud that loudly.  I really wish I had something, anything, to applaud on this cruise, but in the 11th hour, I'm still looking.

Here's the interesting thing...today, we spent some time barhopping.  As we sat in several bars, we talked to a whole bunch of people.  I asked how their cruise was going.  I didn't prompt.  I didn't lead.  I simply asked how their cruise was going.  Every single person said the same thing - poor service, overworked staff, too little staff, poor entertainment choices.  So based on this very unscientific experiment, it's not just me.  This has been a rough cruise.  With the number of kids on here, it is pretty evident that we are beyond the 3,142-person double-occupancy passenger compliment - I'm guessing somewhere north of 3,300 passengers.  With barely over 1,000 of the planned 1,200 crew, it is a no-win situation.  The crew is handicapped having to serve more people than they are equipped to serve. The passengers are getting a sub-par experience, even though they are paying full price.  Nobody wins here.

Case in point - I mentioned that this is the first of our more than 25 cruises that our cabin steward failed to introduce themselves on day #1.  In this case, we are on day #7 with no introduction.  Today, we actually talked to him but he never actually identified himself.  We still don't know his name.  He has done a passable job maintaining our cabin, but from a cruise perspective, we certainly didn't feel like valued guests.  We were more of a job.  That is a fundamental change in the cruise experience.

Ok well, it is what it is and we go home tomorrow.

After breakfast in the buffet, we attended a cooking demo in the theater.  It turned out to be a highlight of the cruise.  The chef and food services manager did the presentation.  It was informative, silly, and quite entertaining.  One interesting tidbit is that between their food services and culinary teams, they manage about 500 people, or nearly 50% of the crew on the ship. That leaves the other 50% to handle all of the hotel cleaning, ship maintenance, engineering, guest services, and entertainment.  We found that to be interesting.

After the demo, we returned to the room and did some reading on the balcony.

We decided to try pizza or burgers for lunch but the lines on deck 15 at the burger and pizza stations were 20+ long.  Being not willing to wait for a half-hour or more for that, we hit the buffet.  As we finished lunch, we decided that we would spend the afternoon trying almost all the remaining bars.  Why?  Like yesterday, there was little on the agenda today.  We thought it was just us, but as we ate lunch, the woman behind Arlona said, rather loudly, "There is absolutely nothing to do on this ship!"  OK, it's not just us.

We went off to deck 17 aft and tried the Reef Bar.  It is located at the kid's pool and water play area - a respite for parents who can have an adult beverage while still being close to their kids as they play.  It was well-sheltered and offered spectacular views off the back of the ship.

Next, we dropped down to deck 16 forward and hit the Tradewinds Bar.  On the way, I made a restroom stop.  This was placed over the urinal.

I'm no symbol expert, but it appears that they don't want you to throw snorkels and flippers into the toilets - perhaps I'm misreading it...

The Tradewinds Bar was more exposed, meaning hot, but still a nice venue near one of the pools.  We headed back to the room for a little more reading and then hit trivia in the Explorer's Lounge.  We joined a very nice pair of ladies from Canada and enjoyed the competition, even if we didn't win. After that, we stopped in the Wheelhouse Bar for a pre-dinner drink.

For dinner tonight, we decided to try our original lunch plans - pizza and burgers.  At dinner time, neither venue had a line at all, so we were able to get our dinner quickly.  We stopped on deck #5 for cookies before going to the Effy store for a raffle.  Arlona won the raffle tonight, scoring an Effy charm bracelet.  Woo!

We headed to the theater to catch comedy magician, Naathan Phan's second performance of the cruise.  We felt it wasn't as strong as his first performance, but we still enjoyed the show.  Afterward, we stopped at the Casino Bar - completing our bar hop, except for Skywalkers Nightclub - oh well - that one will remain out of reach for us.

We returned to the room as we had more activities planned, namely packing.

It will be an early day tomorrow, grabbing a quick breakfast and an 8:15AM self-assist departure time.  We're parked in the parking ramp across the street, so getting to the car should be quick.  Then, we'll head home, probably making a stop at Giordano's Pizza in Orlando for lunch and leftovers.  It will be fun experimenting with Super Cruise on the way home, letting the vehicle drive us home, hands-free.

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

I'll write one more post-cruise post tomorrow, summarizing our experience.  Tune in tomorrow.