Paying it forward: just back from Caribbean Princess
D Ball
We just returned from a week on the Caribbean Princess, and I thought
I'd share a few impressions in case anyone is going soon and has
questions. This is my way of "paying it forward" for the generous help
I received from Lola. She and John did the Caribbean Princess over New
Year's and posted on their return. When we booked our Caribbean
Princess trip in February, I immediately emailed Lola for pointers.
Thanks, Lola, for all the great info and tips!
We cruised March 16-23 out of Ft. Lauderdale with stops in Princess
Cays, St. Maarten and St. Thomas. This was a peak Spring Break week,
as well as the week ending on Easter Sunday, so the demographics were
heavy on extended families. There were roughly 750 kids under 18
aboard, and they expected 950 during the current Easter week! Because
we were cruising with our teens and their grandmother, our party of
five fit right in, and honestly, I thought the crowd was fairly well
behaved...considering. But it wasn't a week to suit everyone's tastes.
It was loud and a bit raucous a lot of the time, there were little
ones to trip over, slow pokes to navigate around (including our own
slow poke!) and a precious few seats by the pool, in the theatre and
alongside the buffet to fight over.
The surprise disappointment was we experienced "March in like a lion"
weather, with many gray, cool and windy days. The seas were moderate,
which caused some tender delays at Princess Cays, late docking at St.
Maarten and cancellation of a number of excursions. It was too rough
to snorkel anywhere, and the surf was so wicked at Coki Beach on St.
Thomas, we had to pull our lounge chairs way up on the beach to stay
dry!
Speaking of port stops, we discovered one of our favorite excursions
ever: the America's Cup sailing race in St. Maarten. No experience
required, quite thrilling! www.12metre.com The $25 beach cabana
shading 2 loungers was well worth the money on Princess Cays (Tom K.
said he found shade, but then he visited Princess Cays with the hoity
toity QM2 group, LOL--there wasn't a lick of shaded beach to be found
when we arrived with the masses). Note, at the newer Crown Bay cruise
dock in St. Thomas (a 15-20 minute walk from downtown Charlotte
Amalie), the going rate for a taxi to Magens Bay is $9 per person and
to Coki Beach is $10 per person. Those are one way charges. Coki
doesn't charge admission, but a beach lounger is $5.
High points about our Caribbean Princess experience: Consistently
excellent dining room food, including a nice variety of vegetarian
offerings on every menu (I'm hitting the cooking sites next in search
of a recipe for goat cheese souffle with garlic sabayon sauce...it was
to die for); super evening wait staff; thoughtful cabin service;
complimentary steam and sauna (some ships assess a fee); and terrific
selection of movies shown in the theatre, on the big screen by the
pool (Movies Under The Stars, complete with blankets and popcorn) and
in your stateroom (yes, we did a lot of vegging this cruise). Oh yeah,
we won some of the best plastic cruise line stuff yet at trivia, and
the piano bar crooner dedicated a song to my MIL each night, which was
sweet.
Low points: Entertainment was lousy; inadequate seating for the large
number of people this big ship carries; purser's staff never got our
key cards straightened out; and persistent sewage smell on Aloha deck,
port side, to the aft...right by our cabins, of course!
Curiosity: For those of you who have cruised with Princess, doesn't it
drive you nuts that they don't publish the dining locations/hours in
the daily Patter? There is a card reviewing dining options stuck in
the front of the big guest services binder on the desk...if you find it,
are you supposed to carry it? memorize it? consult it each morning and
plan ahead?
That pretty much covers everything notable about our Caribbean
Princess cruise. We lost some money in the casino, took some decent
family photos both formal nights and never fired up the computer (but
got voice and data service from Sprint and ATT in St. Thomas, and
unless I'm reading the online account summary incorrectly, it appears
we didn't incur any additional charges for that service). All in all,
we enjoyed a much-needed, low key week being pampered by Princess...life
doesn't get much better than that.
If anyone has questions, I will be happy to try to answer them.
Diana Ball
Austin, TX
Charles
<19f82b5a-5f5b-423b...@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, D
Ball <diana...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Consistently excellent dining room food, including a nice variety of
> vegetarian offerings on every menu (I'm hitting the cooking sites
> next in search of a recipe for goat cheese souffle with garlic
> sabayon sauce...it was to die for); super evening wait staff;
Did you do traditional or personal choice dining?
--
Charles
Boomer
"D Ball" <diana...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:19f82b5a-5f5b-423b...@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
You're saying that you had to share Princess Cays with a Cunard group?
Strange that they scheduled a stop there at the same time.
We found the walk into Charlotte Amalie to be more like 30-40 minutes & the
sights along the road weren't the prettiest. It was still worth the time for
the exercise.
We were on the same cruise a year prior & found the same seating problems
although the Entertainment was decent. Did they still have the musicians at
the Horizon buffet in the evenings?
John & Lola
"D Ball" <diana...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:19f82b5a-5f5b-423b...@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
Glad to hear you had a nice week Diana. I'm happy I could help you with
some good info regarding the Caribbean Princess. She wasn't our favourite
ship, but we were on a cruise and we did have a good time.
Lola in Hamilton
Jeff Gersten
experienced the same problem last summer on our Baltic cruise on the
Star Princess. I had the feeling that the theater was not big enough
considering the number of passengers on the ship. (This was the largest
ship we have cruised on so far).
I know that Royal Caribbean and Cunard have even larger ships. Are their
theaters also too small for the number of passengers?
D Ball
> --
> Charles
Hi, Charles,
We made a standing reservation for 6 p.m. at a specific table, with a
certain waiter and assistant, in the Personal Choice dining room to
which we were assigned. So it was like having traditional. That is my
preferred solution to the PC assignment you always get on a last-
minute booking.
BTW, for those who are interested in Caribbean Princess dining
minutiae, we selected the Palm dining room because it was located aft,
and our cabins were aft, thus a single elevator ride away, which was
important for my mobility-challenged MIL. I recommend it to anyone
looking for a quieter dining experience on this ship. Because it is a
little hard to find/get to (it's on deck 6, and deck 6 is one of those
screwy decks with no client passage through the middle), and the other
dining venues are centrally located amidships, it seems the Palm was
rarely full to capacity. The negative about the Palm was the
vibration--for a new ship, the Caribbean Princess just didn't feel
quite right, with a constant level of rumbling vibration at the aft,
among other things. We were seated far aft in the dining room the
first night, and the surface of my wine was rippling the entire time.
It was weird. The permanent table we found was in the most forward
starboard "nook" of the dining room, where the vibration was rarely
noticeable, we were physically separated from the overall din of the
main body of the dining room, and Attila and Ashok took great care of
us and, as it turned out, several tables of nightly regulars.
DKB
PS-How are your crossing plans coming along?
D Ball
> You're saying that you had to share Princess Cays with a Cunard group?
> Strange that they scheduled a stop there at the same time.
> We found the walk into Charlotte Amalie to be more like 30-40 minutes & the
> sights along the road weren't the prettiest. It was still worth the time for
> the exercise.
> We were on the same cruise a year prior & found the same seating problems
> although the Entertainment was decent. Did they still have the musicians at
> the Horizon buffet in the evenings?
Hi, Boomer,
No, we were the only ship that called on Princess Cays that day. You
are right, it was confusing the way I wrote it. Sorry. I was just
teasing Tom K, who recently visited Princess Cays while on a Queen
Mary 2 cruise. Because he and I are both fair and require lots of sun
protection, I asked him about the cabanas...that's where I got the
lore on "plenty of shade" to be found, which wasn't my experience!
It seems like I've read of occasions when Princess and its affiliated
lines have more than one ship scheduled for the Cays...but I couldn't
be sure. I love checking the ports calendars at www.cruisecal.com --
very handy for planning.
I didn't do the walk to Charlotte Amalie myself, so my long-legged
husband and son might have underestimated the time. My daughter and I
started out on the walk just to get a taxi to take us to Coki. It was
a bit aggravating. Because no one wanted to go to Coki at the same
time we did, the taxi stand "director" started telling us lies about
Coki to try to get us to change to another beach so he could cram us
into a half-filled taxi and avoid sending a taxi out with just two
people (for the uninitiated, "taxis" on St. Thomas are shared van
rides in big vans or multi-seat open-air jitneys). So we just walked
out of the cruise terminal and hit the road toward town, we got picked
up in a few minutes.
Regarding entertainment, I don't know about musicians in the Horizon
Court, as we ate all dinners in the dining room. We did enjoy the
several different individual and groups of musicians who played in the
atrium every afternoon and evening, and Bert Stratton was the piano
man my MIL enjoyed so much (my husband and I thought he was fun for
one night--he is something of a legend, folks either love him or hate
him, apparently, this was his last week at sea for a while). We like
production shows and were disappointed to find we had already seen the
two shows featured during the week--and the last time we cruised on a
Princess ship was 16 months ago, which shows how "stale" their
rotation program is. There was no headline musical entertainment the
entire week, which was a first in our 18 cruises across all mass
market lines; rather, they filled all those spots with
comedians...including Sarge, another Princess standby we've seen (and
not liked) before...and magicians. It sorta hurt when we were in port
with the Costa Fortuna and heard some of her pax talking about the
Three Dog Night show on their cruise. Okay, so I'm a sucker for those
old groups that play the cruise circuit. ;) So this is why we rated
the entertainment fair...but like food, that's such a subjective
factor, others might have thought it was a bang up cruise in the
entertainment department.
So, thanks for reading my review. Where are you going next, Boomer?
Diana
D Ball
> some good info regarding the Caribbean Princess. She wasn't our favourite
> ship, but we were on a cruise and we did have a good time.
>
> Lola in Hamilton
Lola, you really did save me--I didn't have time to do much homework
for this one, so I so appreciated all of your help!
I agree with your takeaway 100%: The Caribbean Princess wasn't our
favorite ship, but hey, we were out there, and it was fun!
I see you talking about going on the Solstice with the GGC2009...that
will be an interesting new ship for you to explore.
Thanks, again,
Diana
D Ball
Hi, Jeff, nice to hear from you,
Honestly, I don't recall having the same theatre over-crowding problem
on other Princess ships (we've been on two Sun-class ships and two
Grand-class ships, including the Star Princess). But if you found that
to be the case on the Star in the Baltics, then perhaps Princess does
need to pay more attention to theatre capacity in its new builds. I
had quickly read a few reviews of the Caribbean Princess before we
left to see if I could pick up on any trends in the comments, and the
theatre crowding was mentioned often, with the tip to go as early as
possible before show time to get a seat.
It seems the way Princess is dealing with this on the Caribbean
Princess is to schedule a variety of competing entertainers in various
venues, so, e.g., there'd be the production show in the theatre and,
at the same time, a comedian in one of the lounges, as well as the
usual assortment of house bands in other lounges and MUTS out on deck.
The problem, of course, is when everyone wants to see the "main act"
of the night....
As for Royal Caribbean, we've been on the Liberty in the Freedom
class, two of the Explorer-class chips and a Vision-class ship, and I
don't recall theatre over-crowding being an issue, but I stand to be
corrected. For our family's tastes and interests, Royal Caribbean
offers the best entertainment on the seas, so we can be found in the
theatre almost any given night of a Royal Caribbean cruise.
We've never done Cunard, so can't comment on their ship theatres.
Are you cruising this year, Jeff?
Diana
John & Lola
Thanks, again,
Diana
No problem Diana, glad to help. I agree with you about the ride on the
Caribbean Princess. I found she rode very badly, especially one night when
we had high seas. I don't mind the motion, but some of the passengers were
quite loud in their complaints.
Yes, we are booked on the GGC2009!!!!
Lola in Hamilton
number6
, we were physically separated from the overall din of the
> main body of the dining room, and Attila and Ashok took great care of
> us and, as it turned out, several tables of nightly regulars.
Attila ??? Attila Zoltan maybe ??? A waiter we had on the Pac Princess
several years ago ... He was remarkable ... great waiter with a wry
sense of humor and looks resembling Randy Quaid ... Our most memorable
waiter ever ... Attila is not exactly a common name ... so could it
have been him ??
D Ball
> > main body of the dining room, and Attila and Ashok took great care of
> > us and, as it turned out, several tables of nightly regulars.
>
> Attila ??? Attila Zoltan maybe ??? A waiter we had on the Pac Princess
> several years ago ... He was remarkable ... great waiter with a wry
> sense of humor and looks resembling Randy Quaid ... Our most memorable
> waiter ever ... Attila is not exactly a common name ... so could it
> have been him ??
Hi, number6. It must've been the same Attila! We didn't get his last
name, but I think by your description (I see the Randy resemblence,
but Attila seemed younger and thinner, or at least that's how I view
just about everyone these days, LOL), and particularly your comment on
his wry sense of humor, it must be the same Attila. He was from
Hungary, a senior waiter of some status (e.g., he led the galley tour
and says he does it most cruises), and just an awesome guy generally.
We chose him for our "You Made A Difference" card (or whatever that
thing is called). And the fact that we so enjoyed being with him (and
his able assistant Ashok, a young, articulate fellow with his own dry
wit) definitely factored into our decision to eat in the dining room
every night and skip our usual trip to a specialty restaurant.
I am glad to know his full name. I wish there was a way to find out
where those star staffers go when they switch ships. I wonder if the
cruise lines appreciate how staffing might influence an experienced
client's booking decision, i.e., After you cruise a certain threshold
number of times (that number will vary person to person, of course),
the reasons you select ship A over ship B for what I'll call a
"routine Caribbean cruise" change, and I, personally, would give
serious weight to the personnel factor if I know Attila Zoltan was on
ship A. It sounds like you might do the same sort of thing, number6?
Take care, good to hear from you. Are you are cruising in Europe again
soon? European cruises sure seem to offer the best value at the
moment.
Diana
number6
> I, personally, would give
> serious weight to the personnel factor if I know Attila Zoltan was on
> ship A. It sounds like you might do the same sort of thing, number6?
I surely would ... I'd ask for him specifically ... really made dining
enjoyable and memorable on several levels ...
Your mentioning him brought back some fond memories ...
> Take care, good to hear from you. Are you are cruising in Europe again
> soon? European cruises sure seem to offer the best value at the
> moment.
Just got back from the Transatlantic/Iberian Peninsula/Barcelona
vacation ... Haven't had time to write a complete review yet ... but
it really was a great time all around ... Especially 6 days of pure
relaxation while on the high seas for my retail manager wife after
Christmas, post Christmas returns and inventory ... interesting
ports ... and 3 days in Barcelona ...
I'll get to the review soon ...
sheree
sheree
"D Ball" <diana...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:19f82b5a-5f5b-423b...@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
Jeff Gersten
>Hi, Jeff, nice to hear from you,
Same back at you.
>Honestly, I don't recall having the same
>theatre over-crowding problem on other
>Princess ships (we've been on two Sun-class
>ships and two Grand-class ships, including the
>Star Princess). But if you found that to be the
>case on the Star in the Baltics, then perhaps
>Princess does need to pay more attention to
>theatre capacity in its new builds. I had quickly
>read a few reviews of the Caribbean Princess
>before we left to see if I could pick up on any t
>rends in the comments, and the theatre
>crowding was mentioned often, with the tip to
>go as early as possible before show time to
>get a seat.
We definitely had that problem on the Star Princess. My wife traced the
start of her migraine to the time we had to stand in the back of the
theater.
I have read some Princess reviews that also mentioned theater crowding,
and again they were probably reviews of the Star Princess.
>As for Royal Caribbean, we've been on the
>Liberty in the Freedom class, two of the
>Explorer-class chips and a Vision-class ship,
>and I don't recall theatre over-crowding being
>an issue, but I stand to be corrected. For our
>family's tastes and interests, Royal Caribbean
>offers the best entertainment on the seas, so
>we can be found in the theatre almost any
>given night of a Royal Caribbean cruise.
We've been on the Enchantment of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas.
Those are vision class, I believe. We did not experience any theater
overcrowding problems on either of them. I wonder if traditional dining
with 2 shows pegged to work with the dining times is at least part of
the reason there is no problem.
>Are you cruising this year, Jeff?
Nothing planned now. We were considering a quickie 2 day NCL cruise from
NY next month, but it ran into Passover. And we discovered that they did
NOTHING. I did not need a real seder, just some accommodation.
My wife has said no major cruises this year. I wish I had forced on on
her during President's week. Instead she took a walk, slipped on ice and
fractured her right elbow. She is slowly recovering from the surgery.
Maybe if we get another last minute offer (like we did in December) for
that short NCL cruise and she continues to recover, we'll book it to
celebrate.
Maybe in the future, we'll be looking at the Greek isles. My wife also
wants Florence either on a cruise or a longer land vacation.
Surfer E2468
really liked the 2 bands they had there on several of our cruises.Made
for good dance music,something hard to find on a lot of ships.
surfer e2468
<
cruise lover>
Tom K
On Mar 25, 6:09 am, "Boomer" <nos...@aol.com> wrote:
>No, we were the only ship that called on Princess Cays that day. You
>are right, it was confusing the way I wrote it. Sorry. I was just
>teasing Tom K, who recently visited Princess Cays while on a Queen
>Mary 2 cruise. Because he and I are both fair and require lots of sun
>protection, I asked him about the cabanas...that's where I got the
>lore on "plenty of shade" to be found, which wasn't my experience!
Did you walk left once you got off the tenders? The opposite side from
where the Cabanas are? That's where we found the shade.
--Tom
D Ball
> welcome back!!
> sheree
Hi, Sheree! I haven't been on much this spring, so totally missed the
reports of your "free" NCL cruise over President's Week, I think it
was. Did you have a good time?
I do see in another thread you are gearing up for the Baltics this
summer. Or is it a Northern European itinerary? I'm confused between
London (wasn't that supposed to be a separate trip??!) and Amsterdam,
LOL. Anyway, always love watching you work to get ready, you make it
look so easy!
Take care,
Diana
PS-I think Marty would love the sailing regatta, so don't forget that
one for the next time you hit St. Maarten! Lizzy surprised us all by
loving it so much, she wants to haul out our little sail boat and take
lessons. Go figure...you never know with these kids!
D Ball
> My wife has said no major cruises this year. I wish I had forced on on
> her during President's week. Instead she took a walk, slipped on ice and
> fractured her right elbow. She is slowly recovering from the surgery.
>
> Maybe if we get another last minute offer (like we did in December) for
> that short NCL cruise and she continues to recover, we'll book it to
> celebrate.
>
> Maybe in the future, we'll be looking at the Greek isles. My wife also
> wants Florence either on a cruise or a longer land vacation.
Jeff, what a bummer for your wife to have fractured her elbow and
required surgery. That'll teach her to ignore your cruise offers! But
I love your future wanderings ideas. I have searched several times for
just the right Greek Isles cruise, without success, but it seems there
are more offerings now than the last time I investigated. After our
wonderful trip on a small boat in the Med off the southern coast of
Turkey last year, I am more interested than ever in cruising the Greek
Isles. And you can never go wrong with a land trip to Italy. I am sure
I have mentioned it before, so forgive me for repeating, but I love
Italy so much, I try to squeeze it into any itinerary--and my husband
keeps saying, if you keep going back to Italy, you'll never see the
rest of the world!
Hope that serendipitous cruise comes along for you just like the
Caribbean Princess did for us....
Diana
D Ball
Hi, Annie, I know you have enjoyed Princess. We love the food and
service, and this Princess cruise was tops in both categories. And
yes, they still have the Wheelhouse Bar! There were several venues for
dancing on this ship--lots of live music options.
I hope you and your husband find a cruise and get out there for some
dancing soon!
Diana
D Ball
> Did you walk left once you got off the tenders? The opposite side from
> where the Cabanas are? That's where we found the shade.
>
> --Tom
Hey, Tom, yup, I followed your good advice, of course! But wow, it was
wall-to-wall people and all sorts of beach "stuff" to the left, no
available shade in sight. In fact, it was wall-to-wall to the right,
too, and our little cabana was set up 5-6 rows off beachfront way down
the curve of the beach. I felt like bargaining on a discount price,
just like you do with so-called waterfront real estate. I guess there
were just that many more people on a full-to-capacity sailing of the
CB compared to the QM2's beach crowd? Whatever, I sure was happy to
have the cabana shade, as the UV was especially deceptive that day
with mostly gray skies--our daughter got burned pretty badly for not
reapplying through the day. Not a happy thing, but maybe she learned
that lesson!
Can't wait to hear about your Adventure on the Adventure!
Diana
Boomer
So, thanks for reading my review. Where are you going next, Boomer?
Diana
We don't cruise from late spring to early Oct after the hurricane season.
Our next two are the Panama canal (Island Princess) in Late Oct & the
Emerald Princess in Dec. (Caribbean). I would book another for the future
but we have some airline travel miles we have to use & I think we'll take a
trip to southern Texas. I've never had the chance to visit lots of neat
places I've only read about or seen on TV.
D Ball
> We don't cruise from late spring to early Oct after the hurricane season.
> Our next two are the Panama canal (Island Princess) in Late Oct & the
> Emerald Princess in Dec. (Caribbean). I would book another for the future
> but we have some airline travel miles we have to use & I think we'll take a
> trip to southern Texas. I've never had the chance to visit lots of neat
> places I've only read about or seen on TV.
Boomer, if you get that Texas trip going and consider adding what we
call Central Texas to your itinerary (Austin-San Antonio-Hill
Country), let us know, and we'll try to organize a get together to
welcome you. There are four of us located fairly centrally that come
my mind...Jean, Dillon, Joe and me...and likely some lurkers who might
come out!
Diana
sheree
of teens
he's taking sailing lessons at summer camp this summer. He's going on Lake
Winnepausakee for 2 weeks
our trip this summer is a baltics cruise out of dover. we'll be in london
for 4 days prior. help!!
sheree
"D Ball" <diana...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d524fc9b-dd39-425d...@n77g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
Surfer E2468
that has GOOD music you can dance to,and it continues all evening. We
spent many good hours listening to and dancing to the wonderful music
in the wheel house .
Jack LaLanne must like them also as we met him and his wife in there
dancing up a storm.
<
cruise lover>
Jeff Gersten
>Jeff, what a bummer for your wife to have
>fractured her elbow and required surgery.
>That'll teach her to ignore your cruise offers!
>But I love your future wanderings ideas. I have
>searched several times for just the right Greek
>Isles cruise, without success, but it seems
>there are more offerings now than the last
>time I investigated. After our wonderful trip on
>a small boat in the Med off the southern coast
>of Turkey last year, I am more interested than
>ever in cruising the Greek Isles. And you can
>never go wrong with a land trip to Italy. I am
>sure I have mentioned it before, so forgive me
>for repeating, but I love Italy so much, I try to
>squeeze it into any itinerary--and my husband
>keeps saying, if you keep going back to Italy,
>you'll never see the rest of the world!
We were actually looking at the Celebrity and RCL Europe books and
thought that their added 4 day cruisetours with Florence and Rome would
make fine vacations by themselves. I'd probably be burned out on museums
after following around my art teacher wife. I know after our first
cruise (Mediterranean), I could not go to another museum for a long
time.
>Hope that serendipitous cruise comes along
>for you just like the Caribbean Princess did for
>us....
Thanks
Bill C
bands and musicians on the ship.
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=734372
Deposits are now 30% of the cruise cost.
Bill
--
Visit my Caribbean Princess website:
www.cruisingthecaribbeanprincess.com
Jeff Gersten
>>Cannot wait to book another princess
>>cruise,that is the only cruise line that has
>>GOOD music you can dance to,and it
>>continues all evening. We spent many good
>>hours listening to and dancing to the
>>wonderful music in the wheel house .
>>Jack LaLanne must like them also as we met
>>him and his wife in there dancing up a
>>storm.
>>cruise lover>
>There are reports on Cruise Critic that
>Princess is cutting down on the bands and
>musicians on the ship.
>http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php
>?t=734372
>Deposits are now 30% of the cruise cost.
Interesting thread over at cruisecritic. Thanks for the heads up. One
thing I read there was that the theater capacity at Princess is 30% of
the ship's passengers. If they cut down on live dance music as an
alternative to the main theater show the overcrowding at the theater
that we noticed on the Star and Diana commented on on the Caribbean
could get even worse.
bob wald
to the movies on a ship...lol
HAhahaHaHAHaha......
Boomer
"bob wald" <bob36...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12166-47E...@storefull-3173.bay.webtv.net...
> omg!!!! thats the dumbest thing i ever read yet. paying thousands to go
> to the movies on a ship...lol
> HAhahaHaHAHaha......
>
So give us your idea of a good time- perhaps sitting in a cigar bar having a
drink & having a drink? Just because someone wants to relax & view a movie
late in the evening doesn't make it dumb.
Neal Eckhardt
wrote:
>omg!!!! thats the dumbest thing i ever read yet. paying thousands to go
>to the movies on a ship...lol
>HAhahaHaHAHaha......
Watch a movie, or sit in the hot sun. No contest there.
Watching a movie, or watching the babes soaking up sun? Now that's a
different story.
--
Neal
"I love deadlines. I especially like the WOOSHING sound they make as they go flying by." - Douglas Adams
Gregory C. Read
> news:22446-47E...@storefull-3258.bay.webtv.net...
wgc1...@verizon.net
> One thing I read there was that the theater capacity at Princess is 30% of
> the ship's passengers. If they cut down on live dance music as an
> alternative to the main theater show the overcrowding at the theater
> that we noticed on the Star and Diana commented on on the Caribbean
> could get even worse.
Actually per Princess web site, there are 746 seats for 3,100 passenger. Or
about 24%. And I don't think that counts 3rd and 4th berths??? In any
case, compared to the Grand Princess, et al the seats with 748 and 2,600 or
about 29%, the seats definitely fill much faster.
Crown Princess is our favorite ship, and we get to the shows early.
--
Greg
bob wald
who in thier right mind would ever watch tv/movies on a cruise???
hell i can watch taking a cruise on tv!!!
Tom K
> th whole purpose of a cruise is to get away from everyday things....
> who in thier right mind would ever watch tv/movies on a cruise???
> hell i can watch taking a cruise on tv!!!
>
I disagree. I hate the big production singing/dancing theater shows.
My view is why would anyone want to go to one of those. To me they're as
passé as the Ed Sullivan show. But people do seem to like them - though I
have no idea why.
I'd far prefer to watch a first run movie that I'd be interested in, rather
than see some kids prancing around on stage.
--Tom
D Ball
Hi, Bob,
Do you care what I think about how you spend your vacation time??!
The fact is, weeks go by without me watching TV or going to a movie,
so catching a flick while cruising was definitely a "get away from
everyday things" for me. I had not seen many of the movies nominated
for Academy Awards this season...so I was thrilled to see Michael
Clayton, for example. I had also missed the movie Kite Runner, a
favorite book of mine, so I thoroughly enjoyed watching it during my
vacation. My sole purpose in commenting about the movies was to
emphasize the good, "new release" selection Princess offered.
Another factor influencing me to watch movies was, we've had the
opportunity to cruise a fair amount. After so many cruises, the
newness wears off, and you don't feel like you must "do it all/try it
all" to get the full value of your cruise vacation. Indeed, one
express purpose of this particular cruise was to get some much-needed
R 'n R from our go-go-go everyday life.
Finally, the weather was crummy most of our cruise week. I had to be
inside a lot. I don't like art auctions or bingo. I'm not sure what
YOU think I should have more appropriately been doing, but I loved
being able to spend some time watching movies.
So, no, I don't care what you think about how I spent my vacation
time.
And oh yeah, I looked at your Usenet posting history, Bob. You are an
interesting fellow. In fact, under the strictest definitions of
"troll," you qualify, and we are idiots to reply to you. Congrats!
Have a great weekend,
Diana
Cal Ford
ship, either in the theatre or on deck. Depending on other factors of course
sometimes it is the best thing to do out of all the activities offered.
Given that, it is extremely rare that we will lay around the cabin just to watch
a movie. About the only times I remember were late at night when we were wide
awake from jet-lag or something like that.
Cal Ford
Lido Deck Cruises
In article <182c0248-9359-4453...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, D
Ball says...
sue mullen
D Ball wrote:
> Speaking of port stops, we discovered one of our favorite excursions
> ever: the America's Cup sailing race in St. Maarten. No experience
> required, quite thrilling! www.12metre.com
I have always been fascinated with this, but wondered if I would do ok
with it. Did your MIL go with you on this or was it just the four of
you? I don't remember anyone who went on it, saying they didn't enjoy it.
The $25 beach cabana
> shading 2 loungers was well worth the money on Princess Cays (Tom K.
> said he found shade, but then he visited Princess Cays with the hoity
> toity QM2 group, LOL--there wasn't a lick of shaded beach to be found
> when we arrived with the masses).
Well I wasn't with the hoity toity people, I was on the Emerald Princess
and we found two lounge chairs together under a canopy. I think it was
just luck that we found shade and you didn't.
> the piano bar crooner dedicated a song to my MIL each night, which was
> sweet.
Beautiful!!
> All in all,
> we enjoyed a much-needed, low key week being pampered by Princess...life
> doesn't get much better than that.
Sounds like you had a great cruise, just sorry that the weather wasn't
better.
sue
Charles
<bob36...@webtv.net> wrote:
Who in their right mind would think they know what others should want
to do on a cruise?
--
Charles
Charles
<kjmu...@comcast.net> wrote:
> I have always been fascinated with this, but wondered if I would do ok
> with it. Did your MIL go with you on this or was it just the four of
> you? I don't remember anyone who went on it, saying they didn't enjoy it.
Anyone can do the America's Cup sailing excursion. In addition to
sailing assignments like grinders they had for example someone with a
clipboard assignment handing out assignments, someone handing out water
and drinks etc. Also with the sailing assignments, those are shared so
some only do it a few minutes. Anyone can do the excursion.
--
Charles
sue mullen
Thanks Charles, I could hand out water and drinks.lol
sue
Gregory C. Read
news:6588csF...@mid.individual.net...
>> Anyone can do the America's Cup sailing excursion. In addition to
>> sailing assignments like grinders they had for example someone with a
>> clipboard assignment handing out assignments, someone handing out water
>> and drinks etc. Also with the sailing assignments, those are shared so
>> some only do it a few minutes. Anyone can do the excursion.
>
> Thanks Charles, I could hand out water and drinks.lol
>
> sue
Yes. Any level of physical ability is accommodated. The grinders operate
"winches", while the drink servers are called "wenches".
One word of advice, don't drink too much coffee that morning, as there are
no facilities on the boats. On one of my America's Cup excursions, a young
lady arrived on the boat and ask to use the bathroom. The crew member said
the best he could do was give to her a bucket. There is no "down below" on
these vessels.
==
Greg<-----did it three times and loved every one.
George Leppla
"Gregory C. Read" <rea...@verizon.net> wrote
>
> Yes. Any level of physical ability is accommodated. The grinders operate
> "winches", while the drink servers are called "wenches".
I did this way back in 1997 and was a grinder. Look at
http://www.cruisemaster.com/sail.jpg
> One word of advice, don't drink too much coffee that morning, as there are
> no facilities on the boats.
Another caution... if you are prone to motion sickness like I am, don't eat
breakfast and take some seasickness meds. Even with those precautions, I
was very queasy. Didn't hurl, but I wanted to.
It is a great excursion.
--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com
May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm
Jeff
We had just 400 on the Costa Med....that was plenty! But Costa has the
aft pool which is adult, and enforced! Saw the security guards a few
times fetching kids out....lol.... We had foul-ish weather too this
time and we were the week after you! Gosh now I better sit down to
write up my review here....
Jeff
Jeff
>
> Interesting thread over at cruisecritic. Thanks for the heads up. One
> thing I read there was that the theater capacity at Princess is 30% of
> the ship's passengers. If they cut down on live dance music as an
> alternative to the main theater show the overcrowding at the theater
> that we noticed on the Star and Diana commented on on the Caribbean
> could get even worse.
>
I'm definitely of the view the main show lounge is too small! I thought
that on both the Golden and the Crown.
Jeff
Jeff
Lol....perfect response Charles! I agree!
Jeff
Brian K
>
> "Gregory C. Read" <rea...@verizon.net> wrote
>
>>
>> Yes. Any level of physical ability is accommodated. The grinders
>> operate "winches", while the drink servers are called "wenches".
>> I did this way back in 1997 and was a grinder. Look at
>> http://www.cruisemaster.com/sail.jpg
>>
what they call Sub (Hero) sandwiches.
(snip)
--
________
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Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951