Thankfully we were up early and the sun was beckoning for us to come out and enjoy the morning. The Caribbean Princess was already docked in Terminal 2 so we could see the backside of the ship from our balcony. We made a quick Starbucks run down the 17th Street Causeway. Then we headed back to the hotel to eat a light breakfast.
I needed at least two hours to sort and repack our luggage. We had a combination of our cold winter clothes and warm FL clothes mixed together. Most of the heavy batteries, gadgets, and reading materials we carried in our backpacks for our flight were moved to our luggage. Three bottles of wine went into Hubby’s backpack along with his GoPro and iPad. I unfortunately could not remove too much from my bag as I was carrying my cameras and lens. You know the important stuff.
We managed to leave our gorgeous room prior to check out time (11am) and headed out to flag a taxi. Our driver was from Haiti and he took us along a shortcut to get to the terminal. We dropped our luggage with a porter and headed into the Terminal to check in. After going through security, hubby’s backpack was flagged. We acknowledged the $15 corkage fee for the third bottle of wine. The first two we could bring onboard for free. We gave the wine checker our third bottle of wine and he stamped all over the front label of our bottle of wine. We were free to go. :)
We proceeded to the check-in counter to get our cruise card and the Princess rep gave us a different “check-in” card. So we went from a Blue 5 to a Black Group-C because we are Elite. The Princess reps were directing us to a waiting room full of fellow cruisers. I could not tell if we were with the general population or with fellow Elite and Platinum cruisers. We were waiting in the lounge for 10 minutes and when the groups were called starting with the Black Groups B & C. That’s us!
We had our official cruise embarkation photo taken. The photographer had to take two shots of us. So, I’ll be looking forward to see what happened with the first shot. No, it was not me who blinked.
Once we were onboard the ship, our cruise card was scanned and we got our picture taken. It took us about 35 minutes from the time we left the hotel until we got onboard. Not bad at all. This was the first time we’ve arrived at the terminal early and before boarding started. Waiting in the lounge was not bad.
As we made our way up the stairs we noticed the cabins were not ready. They had closed the entrances into the cabin hallways. That was a sign to get something to eat. That was our clue to head up to Deck 15 (Lido) for some food.
We enjoyed a leisure buffet lunch while sitting in the new Planks dining area (what used to be Caribe Cafe). I also enjoyed seeing the new contemporary soft seatings around the new dining venues.
Back in March of 2017, the Caribbean Princess went through an $8M renovation. The Horizon Court buffet became the World Fresh Marketplace dining venue (still buffet, but updated and an improvement). The Caribe Cafe became two separate dinner dining venues called Planks BBQ and the other called Steamers Seafood. During the breakfast and lunch times, Planks and Steamers offers an extension of the Marketplace and it’s free. During the dinner hour Planks and Steamers become a specialty dining venue for additional $.
Also part of the renovation included upgrading all the cabin mattresses and bedding. Our cabin has a new sofa. All the wood framed pictures have been replaced with printed canvas panels. The carpeting in our cabin is also new. I also noticed all the cabin hallway carpeting has changed. The color coded carpet has been replaced and now Hubby and I can’t tell which side is port or starboard.
Sometime after 12:30pm, an announcement was made all the cabins were ready. With no luggage in sight I left Hubby to enjoy our cabin and I took my camera to capture shots around the ship. I started on Deck 15 (Lido) and worked my way up taking exterior pictures. I stopped in the Lotus Spa and made a haircut appointment this evening.
Our muster was scheduled to start around 3:15 and we ended up going down to our muster station on Deck 7 (Promenade) in the Princess Theater. This was the first time we did not need to take our life jackets with us to the muster station. Nice change Princess.
Our luggage appeared after the muster presentation. Then there was a ship-wide announcement that a good number of folks did not attend the safety presentation and were told to meet in the Wheelhouse Bar immediately. Fifteen minutes later (4:15pm) our ship dropped her lines and we were sailing out of Port Everglades. It was beautiful clear day.
After a quick dinner, I dropped Hubby off at MUTS so he could enjoy some football time on the large outdoor screen. I had some errands to run including changing our complementary specialty dining time at Sabatinis and the most important hair appointment at the Lotus Spa salon.
At the Spa, Anntonina from the Ukraine consulted with me and examined my hair. Yes, I know it’s quite dry. Yes, my Hubby’s barber does a so-so job with cutting my hair. I ask “can you please wave your magic wand and make my hair look healthy and well…fabulous?” All I can say is “WOW!” Anntonina did a fabulous job cutting and styling my hair. I thoroughly enjoyed the special attention and well my “me” time.
Tonight was an early lights out. It was a long day for us and we could hardly keep our eyes open. Zzzzzzzzz!
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