Caribbean Princess Day 3 of 7 - Sea day - more of the same

Caribbean Princess cruise - Day 3 of 7

Sea Day

Before I get into today's musings, I have to report on something that completely slipped my somewhat feeble mind.  On the very first day of the cruise, while we were eating burgers, Arlona looked over at a man in line and said, "Wow, that guy sure looks like someone I used to work with at the Lansing Craft Centre - Don - and I remember that he really liked cruising."

For some context, we live in Florida, having retired in 2018 and moving away from the harsh Michigan winters.  We used to live in Holt, Michigan, a suburb of the capital city of Lansing.  Arlona, a retired General Motors engineer, worked in most of the facilities in Lansing, including the now-shuttered and demolished Lansing Craft Centre, where GM produced multiple vehicles including the EV1, Chevy SSR, Chevy Cavalier and Pontiac Sunbird convertibles, and the end-of-life production of the Cadillac Eldorado. She worked there from 1996 to 2003.

Anyway, as he and his wife walked by us, we asked if his name was Don and if he had worked at the Craft Centre.  He said yes, and that he did, so Arlona said who she was and sure enough, it was the same man.  Funny how that works with cruises.  We have met people playing trivia on a cruise that lived a few miles from us.  We have run into people we recognized from a previous cruise on the same ship but on different oceans. We haven't been on a cruise since retiring to The Villages, Florida where we haven't met someone else on the ship from The Villages.  Good cruise, bad cruise, so-so cruise - we always meet interesting people.  That's one thing we like about cruising.  We had met another Villager couple that was coming on this cruise and ran into them tonight.  We hear that there is at least one other Villager couple on the ship.  We shall see if we run into them.

On to today's adventures.

First, let's chat about the overnights.  Our room is right next to a fire door.  What that means is that right outside our room, there is a door that can be closed to prevent fire from spreading. Because the door is designed to seal completely, there is a metal threshold on the floor.  No big deal, right?  We are on deck 11.  There is nothing on decks 10, 11, and 12 other than staterooms and guest laundry.  I can tell you that every night between 2AM and 3AM, they wheel trays of something - glasses, dishes - I don't know what - that rattle loudly. Do you want to know what makes them really loud?  Rolling over a metal threshold.  It appears that every night, I will be awakened once or twice by the loud crashing of a tray of something being wheeled over the threshold two feet outside of our door.  The fact that the stateroom door has a solid 1/2" open gap at the bottom does wonders for routing the sound directly into our room.  It also channels in all of the conversations of people talking loudly in the hall as they walk, blissfully unaware that people might be in the rooms they are walking by.  Oh well.

It is July 4th, America's Independence Day.  It was fun seeing lots of folks wearing red, white, and blue.  Princess got in the spirit as well.

This morning, we decided to try the omelet station.  It is located behind the buffet on the seafood side.  They had a nice selection of meat and veggie add-ins, and three cheese choices.  We placed our orders, were given a numbered ticket, and told that they would bring them out to us.  We grabbed the other breakfast items we sat down.  Several waitstaff walked by, noting our numbers.  It took somewhere between 10 - 15 minutes for our omelets to arrive.  Even though that was excessively long in our opinion, the omelets were hot, fresh, and tasted good.

Other oddities...

We stopped to get another Diet Coke after breakfast.  We have Yeti and RTIC metal thermal cups that we use as they keep the drinks cold and don't sweat.  We went to the bar and asked for ice and Diet Coke.  Even though they put it in our cups yesterday, he said they are not allowed to put anything in someone's cup.  OK, I'm good with that, especially given COVID and all that.  We asked him for two big cups of ice and two cans of Diet Coke.  He gave us the ice but said he could not give us the cans, even though we were going to dump them into our cups.  We figured it would save everyone time.  He said that if he gives us the can, he would have to charge us $2, even though we have the drink package and soda is included.  But, if he dumped the can into a glass and then gave us the glass, it was included in the drink package.  What?  So if I dump the soda from a can into my glass, it is $2, but if he dumps it into another glass and then I dump it into my glass, it is included.  How does this make any sense at all?

Part of the problem is that canned soda really isn't part of the drink package but fountain soda is.  The issue is that all of the fountain dispensers on the ship don't work (like so many other things). Their only alternative is to use canned soda.  But the decision-makers at Princess can't wrap their heads around the fact that if the situation changes, they need to change.  So if they hand me a can, it's $2.  If they hand me a glass containing the contents of that same can - it is included.  Seriously.

We decided to explore the ship a little bit.  Here are a couple of things we saw.

Right behind the buffet at the stern of the ship, we see the Outriggers Bar, a pool, and some seating - there are impressive views from deck 15 out over the back of the ship - that walkway and structure overhead is Skywalkers Nightclub

Midship, we see the large video screen that streams music as well as movies.  The main pool is right below that - we are up one deck in this photo

Moving farther forward, we see another pool with hot tubs

On deck 17 forward, we see The Sanctuary - an adults-only area with "Serenity Stewards" - access is limited, first come, first served and at a "nominal charge"

We went up to deck 18 which features Princess Links - a small putting course - it was a little windy...

In the center of the ship we see the main atrium that rises several floors

As I mentioned in earlier blogs, this ship is now a Medallion Class ship.  This means that every person on the ship carries a medallion.  The medallion is your unique identifier and serves as your room key.  It is used for embarkation/debarkation, purchases, both onboard and onshore (at participating merchants), and as a locator throughout the ship.  Sensors throughout the ship track your movements, allowing the associated smartphone app to display your current location as well as plot a route for you to whatever venue you are going to.  It all sounds great.  And once it all works, I think it will be great.  Unfortunately, the sensors just don't work.  Multiple times at bars, they tried to scan our medallions and wound up just asking for our room number.  The medallions are about the size of a quarter, are color-coded based on your Princess loyalty level, and are laser-etched with your name and cruise dates.

They come with a lanyard - other wearable options like wristbands and fancy jewelry-like items are available for purchase

These large touchscreens are located throughout the ship and can provide venue information, events schedules, and directions - if you scan your medallion (see the scan area on the left side), they will also display personal things like birthday greetings

Here's a look at our room, B602 - a balcony cabin.

Your names are displayed on a screen outside your cabin door.  When you approach with your medallion, it recognizes you and unlocks the door - the screens also serve as do not disturb and service room signs

The look into the cabin

To the left is the open closet and dressing area

The cabinet has several shelves and the safe - some of the number buttons on our safe do not work

 - the door to the left is the bathroom door

Here we see the extra-tiny bathroom with the stool mounted at an angle

The small vanity - there is another shelf at the top that I, unfortunately, cut off in the photo - you can just see the edge reflected in the mirror

The smallest shower at sea - I can barely turn around and absolutely cannot bend over - the showerhead is fixed and can only be slightly adjusted up and down

The room itself is smallish but not horrible - the bed is quite soft and actually nicely comfortable

Like all cruise cabins, the walls are metal, so magnets are a must-pack to allow for hanging things on the walls

There is a small desk with the only two electrical plugs in the entire cabin - in this day and age, cruise ships need to be updated with better power - anyway, they are located right under the oddly placed hairdryer - right next to the sliding glass door

The TV and a drink shelf are across from the desk - there is a cabinet below that hold the mini-fridge - in our class of cabin, it is unstocked

The deck is small but typical of this class of cabin on most cruise ships - the glass on the balcony is tinted blue - I don't like it - I want to see real colors

We tried the buffet for lunch.  Again, we were disappointed.  We were in the mood for a salad, but the two big salad lettuce bowls were completely empty with nobody doing anything about it.  We opted for a BBQ rib and a piece of southern fried chicken instead.  Both were OK but nothing to write home about.  Both were warm-ish - definitely not hot.

As we ate, we noticed a couple near us getting food delivered.  That's one of the purported benefits of the Medallion Class app - you can order food from just about any venue on the ship and have it delivered wherever you happen to be.  The server found them and delivered the food they ordered.  We asked how long the delivery took.  They checked their order time and confirmed that it took a solid hour to get food delivered and it wasn't warm when it got there.  They did say that they tried ordering drinks and those arrived much quicker.  Again, an interesting application of technology - not yet ready for prime time.

This afternoon, we attended the first-time Princess cruisers presentation.

Cruise Director, Christoph, running the show

The Captain, welcoming folks - he said he was overdressed as he was performing six - count 'em - six weddings today - he is leaving us tomorrow and a new captain will be taking over

Basically, they made a pitch about why we made the right choice to cruise Princess.  It was standard fare.

Afterward, we attended a jewelry seminar so Arlona could get a free charm for her free charm bracelet.

Tonight is a formal night.  This means that folks that want to will be dressing up.  We chose to participate, so here we are, all dolled up.

On the advice of other passengers, we tried to talk to the Maître D' for the steakhouse to see if we could get in.  In plain terms, the answer was no.  All specialty reservations are booked.  So we are on a waiting list and we'll see if we get a call.  We aren't holding our breath.

We headed to one of the three main restaurants and waited for a table. This was waiting to greet all who entered - a nice touch:

Many of the waitstaff also had red, white, and blue garb on - another nice touch.

It didn't take long and we got seated at an eight-person table.  Once again, dinner was more than a two-hour affair with long delays between courses.  We had very nice dinner partners, so we enjoyed the conversation and time with other passengers.

After dinner, we stopped for Limoncello and talked with a very nice couple from northern California.  It made for a nice wind-down to the evening.

With a Limoncello in hand, we headed back to the room for the evening.

Tomorrow, we are in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.  We have a snorkeling excursion booked and are looking forward to more time in the water.

Bar watch (If the name is red, we have not yet been there.  If it is green, we have sampled their wares.) I missed a few and have updated the list...

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