Last Day at Sea - heading home

Today was a very pleasant day, even though it was our last full day on board the Crown Princess. Mary attended the cooking demonstration and galley tour this morning.  

Princess put on a "Dessert Extravaganza" at noon today with the entire buffet line filled with desserts of all kinds. Two of Mary's pictures are included to be representative of the several dozen cakes. Some were predictable like Black Forest and Carrot cake, but there were also some very unusual ones like Vanilla Corn Cob cake that actually looked like an ear of corn! 

I tried to hold myself to one small plate, but ended up with two.  (Mary had much better discipline!)

This afternoon was a backstage tour of the theater where shows are performed by the dance company, which was quite interesting, followed by a ship navigation talk.  

We have now finished packing and our suitcases are in the hall... they may be ready to leave the ship, but we are not! 

Grand Turk

We had an open morning today since we did not arrive at Grand Turk until after lunch.  I had bridge play scheduled for the morning, but not enough players showed up for our table so I did a few laps around the Promenade deck.  On one lap I spotted this reader enjoying the warmth. She got lucky to find an open chair as I noticed every deck chair was occupied this morning. 

Our arrival was rather exciting as we docked next to the Ruby Princess - and there was not a lot of room between the two ships. It was fascinating to watch our ship approach the dock and snuggle in so close to this other large ship. This pairing of ships is intriguing as 5 years ago we were on the Ruby with our kids and next June we'll be on the Crown with them.

I had a stingray and snorkeling excursion this afternoon which went very well, except for running on "island time", returning over 45 minutes late.  I got to hold and pet two sting rays while the snorkeling went well and I saw a nurse shark and lots of colorful fish, but the reef colors were rather dull.  

Tonight we watched a new production show, then visited the photography store to pick out our souvenir picture.  Tomorrow is our last full day on board and we plan to enjoy it. 

A Beautiful Day in St Thomas

We had another great - and quite hot  - day in St Thomas today.  We headed into town early to beat the heat and did our planned shopping at Cariloha which sells clothes made from bamboo, and Del Sol (products that change color in the sun), before taking a break for a local beer.  We visited Frederick Lutheran Church, founded in 1666, then headed back to the ship. After a nice lunch we had a very relaxing afternoon, with reading and watching as the ship left for Grand Turk, followed closely by the Disney Fantasy which has a small Dumbo on the back.  

We think the Disney ship was getting impatient because it blew its whistle (which played the opening line from "When you Wish Upon A Star") 3 times as we were getting ready to leave.  Later at the Captain's cocktail party for passengers with more than 5 cruises the Captain noted that the Disney ship was a little slow getting into its berth this morning so he "gave Dumbo a little push".  I'm guessing the Disney captain was paying him back. 

Dinner after the cocktail party featured one of our favorite meals, lobster and prawns.  It was excellent and very enjoyable.  It will be very hard to go back to regular meals in a few days - we're trying not to think about that.

We've seen several movies on this cruise.  First Mamma Mia, then last night was a very cool baseball movie last evening - Fever Pitch - about the Boston Red Sox finally winning he World Series.  Tonight we are watching the Story of Steve Jobs. 

St Maarten

We had a very enjoyable and relaxing day in St Maarten. 

 The morning was not rushed as we did not dock until 10:00 am. Since we did not have a lot to do, we stayed on the ship until after lunch, then headed to the city.  Check out this view of the nice, warm and sunny beach. (To my readers experiencing sub-zero wind chills, focus on this picture and feel the warm sun!)   This is a very nice shopping town, with one main street with all the shops, a variety of local shops as well as the typical chain stores you see at every port.

Speaking of shopping, Mary got some more bling today.  Last January she acquired an Alexandrite ring;  today she got some matching earrings!  We even got an extra discount for being returning customers to the same store! Somehow I suspect our next trip to St Maarten may involve an Alexandrite pendant....    

Do you remember how I mentioned our unusual balcony?  Well here you can see just how unusual it is!  Note how, while the other balconies are lined up, ours is the only one that sticks out from the side of the ship.  

Sea Day heading to St Maarten

We've had a nice relaxing day today, with a nice set of activities.  After enjoying Mamma Mia on tv in our room last night, they showed it on Movies Under the Stars this morning!  Mary went to the shopping show and I played bridge before we met up for Pub Lunch (traditional British foods).  Next up was Pool Games for Bill and some sun for Mary. 

The day has been sunny, warm and clear with nothing on the horizon to see except water.  Quite a contrast with Michigan where the only visible outside water would be frozen.  B-r-r-r-r!!! 

Tonight, since the menu in the dining room did not catch our interest, we did something different and tried out the Crown Grill, one of the premium restaurants on board.  With all the on board credits we received for this cruise we have extra $$$ so we thought we would give it a try.  The service was excellent and we enjoyed our steaks and desserts very much. I had a rib eye and Mary a fillet.

Her dessert was a 7 layer S'Mores treat while I had a double chocolate soufflé with chocolate ice cream on the side.  we actually went through en entire bottle of wine as well.  Woo hoo! Guess we will be in good spirits for the evening show "Destination:Anywhere". 

Our Ship, Cabin and other Notes

Compared to the small ships we've been on recently the Crown Princess seems enormous!  We are still getting used to the size.  Seems like we have to walk forever to get anywhere!  Just getting from our cabin to the middle elevators seems farther than walking the length of the Ocean Princess! (See this side-by-side picture from Gibraltar last September) Mary commented that we should wear a pedometer and see how far we walk in a day! But when the ship is 952 ft (vs 592 ft) long some walking is to be expected but it sure seems like a lot farther to get anywhere!

Our cabin, A747, has some very notable features.  One nice one is the larger balcony as I noted yesterday.  We have never been this far astern before (we were close to it on the Grand Princess last January) and one very obvious difference is the vibration from the engines is quite noticeable. In a way that kinda lulls you to sleep, but I'm sure we'll get more used to it in a day or two.

But being on the top, back corner of the ship also means were are quite a ways from the center of gravity which means a bit more movement as the ship sails.  Normally I only wear my motion bracelets in rough seas, but last night I woke up in the middle of the night and put them on.

We had one surprise this morning!  Mary spotted our waitress from the Ocean Princess last September, Sandra, in the buffet this morning.  She's in the De Vinci dining room during dinner so we may have to visit that dining room this evening.  

Princess Cay

Today we visited Princess' private island area in the Bahamas.  It's a calm, relaxing day and we typically spend it on the beach. Princess puts on a nice barbecue lunch on shore and I relish playing some beach volleyball. It used to be the only activities were renting various beach equipment, but on this cruise they have actual excursions available like a glass bottom boat ride, speedboat ride, and dune buggy rides.  Not that were interested in any of those. 

Normally a volleyball game strikes up pretty early, but not today.  Volleyed for a bit with two other guys, but no one else showed up so, after hitting for a while we stopped. 

They had a lot more variety for lunch today than in the past. Besides burgers and hot dogs, they had bratwurst and some excellent ribs.  Another new addition was a fruit bar with kiwi, watermelon, cantaloupe, melon, and bananas. 

This is a tender port so we always take that opportunity to get some good pictures of the ship. I also enjoyed a  tender boat training exercise being conducted off our balcony.  They would throw a life ring overboard, call "Man overboard", then steer back to pick up the ring. The trainer would call out distance and directions to the driver.  Several times the driver would goof and run over the life ring which brought a few jeers from the passengers watching. But later on they did a pretty good job of steering right next to the life ring so it cold be hooked and hoisted on board.  I's nice to know they practice such things. 

Dinner tonight is surf and turf so we are looking forward to that!   We have a Day at Sea tomorrow, as we head to St Maarten and those are always enjoyable.

On Board the Ship

We caught the early shuttle to the ship this morning and arrived at 10:30.  We checked in, then had to wait for a few minutes, but were on board ship and in our room by 11:30.  

Enjoyed a great buffet lunch, did a which photo tour of the ship, then headed back to your cabin in time for our luggage to arrive.  Normally we have a cabin near the front of the ship, but this time we are in cabin A747 - the last cabin on the starboard side of the ship. One advantage of this cabin is a larger balcony and has a nice view forward along the side of the ship.  For now, our view is of the dock, but that will improve once we sail.   Mary is on the balcony enjoying the afternoon sun as I write this.   

It is a nice, warm sunny day here as opposed to the snow that is falling back in Michigan. Our sail away is early - 4:00 pm so we have muster drill at 3:30.  We checked out the dinner menu during our tour around the ship and they are having Pina Colada soup tonight (hurrah!). I am debating between the Hawaiian Pork and Prime rib for my entree.

That's about all for now! 

Warm and Sunny!!

We had an uneventful trip to Fort Lauderdale yesterday.  Only surprise was at Detroit metro when the TSA-Precheck Security line was longer than the normal airport security line! But it moved faster and has other benefits so we stayed in it.

Slept in this morning until 7 (!), enjoyed an excellent hot breakfast here at the Springhill Suites Fly-n-Cruise location, got some sun by the pool and found a really cool place for dinner - the Moonlite Diner.  One thing we like about this location is the availability of restaurants within walking distance - a Burger King, McDonalds, and Taco Bell are all very close.
Mary has enjoyed getting some sun out by the pool and I joined her for a relaxing book-reading session.  It's nice to have a day here to chill out and get into "vacation mode" before heading to the cruise ship.
Could not resist posting palm tree pictures!  Note the sunny, blue skies! I went for a walk in jeans this morning, but quickly changed into shorts when I got back.  Enjoyed a nice dip in the pool after lunch as well.  Had to give everyone in the freezing cold up north something to drool over.  8-)
Tomorrow we head to the ship on the 10:00 am shuttle.  That should get us on the ship as soon as they start boarding since we get priority boarding and will be there early.  We would rather read in the Princess lobby and board early than spend more time in the hotel and board later.  After all, the buffet lunch is calling!