Doing warm-up exercises:
Was that my left or my right?
It was interesting to watch the line dancing formations:
Everyone to the right, to the right:
I just realized that the Piazza was decorated for tonight's Mardi Gras:
Up next is Alfredos dining venue located on the Fiesta deck 6 midship. Here Hubby and I had wonderful Italian meals here. Dining here is included. The only additional cost was for the bar drinks which I believe came from Bellinis across the way.
At this venue, you can have 10" pizzas, calzones, eggplant, etc. I even personalized one of their pizza offering. Since I don't eat red meats, I had their Hawaiian pizza without the ham. It was delicious! Their menus are scaled down in offerings, but should be able to find something to your liking. I will be back to post the food pictures from this dining venue. (My foodie pictures are on my iPhone)
Across the Piazza on the same deck level is the Photo Gallery. I spent some time here chatting with the ship's photographers. I got to know Nilo who took our formal evening pictures during the first week's cruise. Then I met Mr T who sold me our photo package during the second week. We were able to save some pictures from the first week's cruise. The staff has a small storage filing system in the back where they saved our folder. The following week, I came back to retrieve it along with some new pictures I found on the wall for the second week. I was able to pick out the best pictures from the two weeks of cruising. Mr T was able to locate the digital copies and saved them to a Princess thumb drive. The only digital pictures I could not get were the ones taken off the ship (gangway pictures and Princess Cay pictures). That was fine with me as I wanted the formal evening copies.
The Photo Gallery has Nikon and GoPro cameras for sale. I also saw a Fujifilm P&S camera on display. They also have compact camera cases and media cards for sale as well.
Now when we headed down to the Plaza deck 5, we found the International Cafe to be a busy venue. Here's what I called their gourmet teas:
Here we would get our caffeine fix on the left side of International Cafe or IC. The IC is open 24 hours:
You enter the IC with the treats on display. Yes, they caught our eye!
Here are the IC food displays. The food here are included.
During the late afternoon and evening we found their desserts on display:
During the lunch hours we found some salads and sandwiches on display including a few desserts:
Now the specialty coffee and teas are extra ($) here in the IC. This is where we purchased our coffee card.
Across from the International Cafe is Vines:
We only saw Vines open a few times in the evenings during our cruise. Or course the wines are extra ($), but we could order complementary tapas and sushi here to go with our purchased wine.
There were maps of various wine regions around the world. Here's one of the familiar Napa Valley:
Here are placards describing this artwork. Etched and sandblasted bronze mirrors with printed plexiglass labels. There were other map artworks from Tuscany, Hunter Valley, and Bordeaux.
A shot across the venue. Can you see me?
Wine display case:
Next door to Vines also on the Plaza deck 5 is Gelato. Yes, we could have used our coffee card here to get Gelato. We did not. We were good. Here are some fellow cruisers getting their Gelato fix:
Look at all the flavors and colors!
Next door to Gelatos is Celebration. This shop is for Chocoholics!
Fellow cruisers were admiring the displays. I was salivating....
I went through this shop several times during our cruise. The staff don't mind at all and they enjoy chatting about Norman Love chocolates as well as the ones on display.
Check out this display case with a bow on top:
Next door to Celebrations is the Internet Cafe. Nope, there is no food being served here. Thank goodness! Typically the first day of the cruise is the busiest as folks are signing up for their Internet packages and also asking questions about accessing Princess@Sea from their iPhone/iPad/laptops.
Hubby and I came here during the first day of our cruise to sign up for our complementary Internet package for Platinum members. Once that was taken care of, we were able to access the no fee WiFi from our stateroom and use the Princess@Sea from the web browser: Regal.Princess.com The Princess@Sea contains the current day's Princess Patter with the day's events listed. There are also maps with a pin location to see where the events are taking place. There is also a Messenger feature to keep in contact with family members and/or fellow cruisers who are on the same ship. I used the Princess@Sea to keep tabs of our onboard portfolio.
Fellow cruisers who need to access the Internet to get their emails or use Skype or access their FaceBook or Blog their daily activities need to purchase the Internet package. For those of us who are Platinum and Elite members, we received complementary Internet minutes depending on the length of our cruise.
I had to visit the Internet Cafe for the second time after our turnaround for the second part of our B2B cruise. I noticed that Hubby and I still had our minutes from the previous cruise and not new minutes for the next cruise. While I was standing in a long line, I was able to help our fellow first-time Princess cruisers who were waiting behind me. I explained the Princess@Sea and the difference between WiFi and Internet access. That seemed to be the most popular question onboard. I was glad I could help them out.
The Internet Manager told me that my minutes from the second cruise would show up after I use up the first week's cruise. Oh cool! I enjoy the things that happen automatically on the cruise ship No worries!
This of course did happen automatically as I let my first week's minutes dwindle down to zero (0). The system automatically logged me off the Internet and I had to log back in to finish my blog/picture uploads. After I logged off the Internet, I checked my Princess@Sea and there was my additional minutes for the second week of cruising. Thank you Princess for making this so much easier for us Techno-Geeks! Yeah Princess!
Backup on Promenade deck 7, Hubby and I spent some time in Facets by Effy:
On the Regal, this shop exclusively sells Effy jewelry. There were many beautiful pieces in all price ranges. They also carried jewelry for men. This was neat to see. Before on previous cruises we hardly saw any for men. Good to see Princess now has a contract with Effy.
I mostly came here to look for a specific watch that I saw on the Ruby Princess last year. I wanted the special edition Citizen watch that had the Princess 50th anniversary logo. None to be found on this ship! I was told to come back every few days and check to see if new watches came in. I was cautioned that the 50th anniversary was going to end in March.
Next door to Facets by Effy is the Captain's Circle office:
Next door to the Captain's Circle office is the Future Cruise Center. Here is where I purchased additional Future Cruise Credits (FCC) for future cruises and had wonderful cruise conversations with Heather.
I think that's it for the Piazza area venues. I have a few pictures on my iPhone that I need to upload and add to this and the previous posts. Next up...other venues on the ship. Stay tuned!
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