Thursday @Sea

 

Hubby didn’t get up until 10am. We had a late breakfast. It started to rain and there were a lot of people hanging out at the Horizon buffet dining room. A mother and daughter from NC sat with us. We talked about this week’s cruise and our past cruising experiences.

Before heading back to our cabin, we walked around the Promenade deck.  I came across a crew member blowing up balloons: 

 

I figured the balloons would be released later this evening for formal night.  (I never did go back to check)

We hung out in our cabin for most of afternoon. I spent some time going through my pictures and posted a few on FB. Internet/Satellite access was extremely slow. That’s typical for a day at sea when everyone was using WiFi.

We tried to sit in our balcony, but it was blazing hot with the sun shining over us. I sat outside for about 15 minutes and came back inside our room to cool off. I did this every hour until I was so sleepy and ended up taking an afternoon nap.

We missed lunch, so I headed down to the International Café to get my P&B cookies.

Dinner was at Caribe Café.

After dinner, we caught the last 30 minutes of Puss ‘n Boots at MUTS. As we were passing the Pizza place, I saw small bags of popped corn. I grabbed one and we headed back to our room to see if a movie was playing on one of channels. I ended up going back for two more bags of popcorn.

Wednesday in Aruba

 

We woke up around 7:30am to get ready for our excursion. I had packed our excursion bag the night before. All we had to do was put on our swim gear and suntan lotion and head out.

We boarded a bus outside the terminal and waited for a few more cruisers to board. We headed to the California Lighthouse for a photog moment and then headed to Moomba Beach for a few hours. The beach was beautiful! Hubby and I walked towards the Palm Beach area. The beaches here were­ beautiful! We swam around in the beautiful blue waters. It was invigorating.

 

 

We arrived back on the ship around 1:30pm and grabbed a quick lunch. We were off to do some window shopping in town. It was hot in Aruba. 

Back onboard, we heard an announcement of four people who were not on the ship. We waited for the last two to arrive. I heard a lot of hooting and hollering outside our balcony. This is what happens when you are late getting back to the ship…you will get a loud greeting from your fellow passengers until you step foot onboard.

 

 

We were sad to leave such a beautiful island. We will be back. 

 

 

Tonight was Bavarian night in the Caribe Café. We knew there wouldn’t be anything, but lots of meat here. We opted to get some slices of Margherita pizza and then head over to the Trident Grille for grilled chicken sandwich for hubby and a plate of French fries for me.

We came back to the room to watch a movie on one of the channels.

Tuesday in Curacao

 

The wind and ship movement was still present when I woke up in the early morning.

Hubby and I went to see the doctor in the morning…follow up visit. He prescribed hubby more meds and said if certain numbness grows to let him know by Friday afternoon and they will get us off the ship in the early morning so Hubby could get another CT in Ft Lauderdale.

We could see the island of Curacao around 11am.

 

We docked around 1pm and watched many cruisers line up outside for their excursions. We grab some lunch and head down to the port and walk around.

 

We walked around the Rif Fort area. There were plenty of shops and restaurants here. We walked towards the floating bridge only to find there was a 20-30 minute wait for the bridge to float back into position. Hubby and I walked a bit further and took a ferry across to the other side called Punda.

 

We walked away from the cafes and saw the open air markets. Here, small boats arrived from Venezuela to bring fresh fruits and veggies to Curacao.

We continued to walk around Punda and then headed back to the floating bridge when it started to rain. It was a brief shower and it felt refreshing.

 

Back at the Rif Fort area, we continued to walk around looking at the expensive stores.

I did a little window shopping, comparing jewelry prices. The only jewelry that caught my eye was the “blue diamonds”. Still quite expensive, but very beautiful.

Monday @Sea

I was up at 6am to the slow movement of the ship.  I decided to take advantage of this time to update my blog while hubby was still sleeping. 

Today was a sea day.  The seas were pretty calm most of the morning and into the early afternoon.  The weather was nice and warm compared to the first day on the ship. 

In the morning, hubby saw pods of dolphins swimming across the front of the ship.  By the time I looked up into the water I saw last two leaping out of the water.  It was awesome!

I did some window shopping onboard.  I also did some laps around the Promenade deck.  The winds were strong when I walked up a flight of stairs to walk across the bow of the ship. 

In the late afternoon, the winds picked up.  The captain mentioned roughly 33 knots.  He warned us that the seas would be a bit rough and to be careful walking about deck.  He wasn’t kidding.  The last time we experienced this type of rocking and rolling was on a smaller ship, the Sea Princess.  So for us to experience this type of movement on a large ship…was extraordinary.  We were thoroughly enjoying it!

We watched the 8pm showing of Money Ball on MUTS.  It was very windy on the upper decks and with the ship moving about, the water in the pool was sloshing all around.    

Tonight was a great night to sleep with all this movement.  J

Sunday in Princess Cays

I automatically woke up at 5:30am.  I took a peak outside to see the balcony glowing a bit.  I thought we were having a full moon.  I stepped outside to find the weather somewhat warm.  I looked up and saw that the lit up Crown Princess sign was above us.  Around 6am, hubby got up and opened the curtains…the sun was beginning to rise.  I grabbed my camera and started to click away.  It was going to be a beautiful morning.

We headed up to the Caribe Café for breakfast.  It was very quiet here.  We really enjoyed the peacefulness.  With our bowl of oatmeal, we also had scrambled eggs, hash browns, yogurt parfait, smoked salmon and capers, and pineapple.  Of course the portions were small.  My plate had lots of empty spaces.  So far we were avoiding breads. 

We arrived into Princess Cays at 8:30am.  We were anchored out at sea.  We decided to stay on the ship.  I did not think hubby could take the too much motion today and I knew the tenders would be rocking and rolling around to get to the beach/dock area.  That would be torture for him. 

Tendering at Princess Cay

Around 9am, we took a trip to the medical center.  Hubby’s back was still hurting and then his lower front was slightly swollen.  The medical crew was awesome.  His blood pressure had gone done less than when he was in the hospital.  Good sign.  We spent about 20 minutes with the doctor.  He was very thorough in asking questions and having hubby go through the motion to see if the pain problem was internal or external. 

They drew some blood and told us to come back in an hour.  We went to the International Café to get some tea and then to the Library to pick up the day’s Sodoku puzzle.  We ended up at the Promenade deck to sit in the sun. 

Medical Center

Medical Center Office

Back at the medical center, we met with the doctor.  The results from the blood test were the same as the ones from the hospital.  Good news as nothing had changed.  We’re now thinking the pain was external.  He prescribed some medication to reduce the swelling and for the pain.  Hubby was not to use the stairs.  Laying down, standing up, or walking was better for his the back.  Sitting for long periods of time was not good.  Armed with the medication and that information, we were ready to resume our vacation. 

We found our room steward not to be very attentive.  We went down to our room several times throughout the day and it wasn’t cleaned.  At one point, we really needed to take our shower.  He came in at that point, I told him to come back.  He finally got it done around 3pm…really late.  He was beginning to annoy me.  I told him about hubby’s back problem.  We’ll see if that helps with the service.  

We spent the afternoon lounging in the upper deck (it got a bit chilly) and then found some chairs in the sun.  It was windy in PC and as long as we were in the sun, it wasn’t so bad. 

Around 3:30pm, everyone was required be back on the ship.  Apparently, they had a hard time finding someone named Camille who resided on the Emerald deck.  Finally, the captain made an announcement three times asking for her to call him.  Around 4pm, she was accounted for.  We pulled anchor and headed back out to sea. 

I did my daily afternoon ritual of visiting the International Café for cookies.  Today’s choices were oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip. 

I was busy downloading pictures and using Photoshop Elements to crop and add my copyright notice to the pictures.  I planned on updating my cruise blog during the week.  I knew I was going to be taking lots of photos on this cruise and did not want to wait until the end to do my process on them.  

Saturday in Fort Lauderdale/Embarkation

I did a final pack of our luggage and placed them inside our room near the door around 8:50am.  They came around 10am to pick up our luggage.  We checked out around 11am and waited for the Princess rep.  I did go into one of the conference rooms to see if our luggage was there.  One of the hotel employees marked our bags with orange dots.  I found the Princess rep and she checked off our names.  We filled out the health form and waited for our bus to arrive.  We left the ES and headed out to the Terminal after 12 noon and arrived 15 minutes later. 

We had an issue with the Princess transfer at this point.  As we arrived at the terminal, we were told that we had to again identify our luggage and give them to the porter.  Half of our group’s luggage was not on the bus with us, including ours.  We waited and waited.  Twenty minutes or so later, another Cabana bus arrived.  It was total chaos.  I retrieved our two pieces of luggage and gave the nice porter a tip.  This process at the terminal was not a good way to start our cruise. 

We headed towards the terminal and Hubby pulled me towards the Princess Preferred entrance.   Once inside we were greeted with a line to get through security.  The next stop was the Princess Preferred desk to have our passport checked and scanned and to receive our cruise cards.  We walked up and out of the terminal and proceeded to enter the ship.  A princess security crew took my card and scanned it into a handheld device.  Then he took a picture of me from the same device.  Now, we were officially on the cruise!  We were on the ship before 1pm!

We immediately found our room, on the port side and forward.  We were in a mini-suite.  This is the first time that we were that forward on the ship.  We were also one door down from the forward exit area.  The exit area contained the elevators and the stairs.  I was not too sure about this location when we booked it.  So far, the noise and chatter from that area had been minimal.  We hardly heard the elevator ping-type tone.  The only thing we would hear was the door shutting from our neighbors. 

We grabbed some lunch in the Caribe Café.  The Horizon Buffet area was crowded with long lines.  Apparently, not too many people know about Caribe and we walked right through. 

I dropped hubby off at our room.  I went downstairs to the Internet Café to find instructions on how to login to the ship’s Internet.  I also stopped by the International Café to grab some peanut butter cookies and also a fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookie.  Yummy!

From my laptop, I was able to connect to the Internet and setup my login account.  I also setup Hubby’s account as well.  This was one important task to take care of.  I’m not sure if we got any additional free minutes by signing up on the first day.  We each received 250 minutes for free and the $3.50 service fee was waived.  I had visited the Internet Café again to find out if the 250 free minutes was for the first week of the cruise or for the two whole weeks.  The Internet Manager apparently did not understand my question and told me it was good for the whole cruise.  We’ll see what happens. 

Our muster drill was scheduled at 3:30pm.  We heard the 7 short and one long over the intercom.  We grabbed our life vests and headed down to the Princess Theater for our muster talk and life vest demo.  Captain Nash spoke to us about the importance of this muster drill and also mentioned about the Costa accident.  Twenty minutes later practiced putting on our life vest and took it off.  We headed back to our cabin for the sail-a-way. 

Henry was our room steward.  I was a bit confused as the card on our desk had the name Luis.  Henry didn’t show up until after our muster drill.  L  A few minutes later, he arrived with our champagne.  J  It was a few minutes past 4pm and we watched the Grand Princess sail out of the port.  She is a beautiful ship, especially after going through the extensive dry dock upgrades.  We were next to leave port.  I was using my iPhone and on FB posting pictures and comments as we sailed out of the port.  I was still on it after 5pm.  At 5:18pm, I lost my 3Gs connection on my iPhone.  Still impressive while several miles out at sea!  I quickly changed my iPhone to “airplane mode” for the rest of the cruise. 

I took lots of sail away pictures.  The sun was setting behind us and the views were awesome. 

The ship started to rock and roll.  Yeah!!!  I was unpacking hubby’s suitcase (on the floor).  Several times, I almost landed inside his suitcase!  Hubby was laughing at me at my antics.  I’m glad I could provide some entertainment for him.  J

An hour later and two suitcases put under our bed, I tried to sit down and chill.  I couldn’t.  I’m feeling antsy. 

Henry comes by around 6:30pm and we decided to leave our cabin so he could turn down our bed for the evening.  We were undecided what to do for dinner.  We were still wearing the clothes we came onboard.  We agreed that something light would be appropriate especially after having a buffet lunch.  We headed down to the Wine Bar for some wine and free sushi.  Hubby had his white wine (Pinot Gris), while I had my red (future health benefit) Pinot Noir.  We ordered the sushi combination:  seaweed roll, ahi tuna, white tail fish, and some other white fish, spicy ginger, and wasabi.  It was all good!

It was still chilly up in the open decks as I was heading to a bar to get a huge bottle of water.  I was also looking for popcorn, but didn’t see any.  I assume it was the football game that was showing on MUTS and/or the lack of people in attendance.  Yes, it was quite chilly to be lounging in the chairs outside.   The Trident Grill was quiet as well as the ice cream station and the pizza place.  This was 8pm!  The cooks looked a bit lonely.

By 9pm I was ready to hit the sack, but ended up going to sleep an hour later.  My eyelids were quite heavy.  Zzzzzzzzz.

Friday in Ft Lauderdale and a Scare!

I woke up early (2:30am) to find Hubby not feeling well.  I found him curled up on the couch.  I immediately went down to the front lobby looking for the manager.  Broward County Hospital was less than 10 minutes away.  She called a taxi while I went back to the room with a wheelchair.  Hubby let me know that he wasn't going to use the wheelchair and was able to make his way down to the lobby on his own.

We headed to the ER and waited.  After several tests and a CT, the doctor ruled out kidney stones and appendicitis.  He mentioned something about Flank Pain.  I asked the doctor if Hubby would be able to cruise and he basically gave the okay.

We left the hospital and arrived back at the ES around 6am.  Just in time for breakfast.  Hubby was feeling pretty good at this point, but I kept a careful eye on him.

I headed out to Publix to get some ibuprofen for Hubby.  I did a little window shopping along the way back to the ES.

We caught up with our sleep until the early afternoon.  We decided on lunch and slowly headed out to the Harbor Shops behind the ES.  We had a really nice lunch at Lauderdale's.  Hubby had the peppered tuna while I had the parmesan and almond crusted salmon.  Yummy!

We lounged around the ES pool area for the remainder of the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and quite warm.

In the evening, we headed out to pick up a light dinner.

Thursday a Travel Day

We flew into Miami before 1pm.  We quickly retrieved our luggage and met our Princess rep.  We were the only ones heading to the Embassy Suites in Ft Lauderdale and we boarded a huge Cabana bus.  Forty minutes later, we arrived at the ES.  We were happy to hear that our room was available.  We went to our room and quickly dropped our luggage and bags off.

As a ritual, we headed over to the Bamini Boatyard restaurant for a late lunch, early dinner.

Hubby was looking really tired and I knew his back was bothering him.  Instead of walking around, we headed back to the ES to get some rest.

Later that evening we had a lite snack at Carlos and Pepes.  Then we headed over to Publix (behind the ES) for to get some suntan lotion, bottled water and a few necessities for our cruise.  We went next door to Total Wines to get two bottles of wine.

We were exhausted from traveling and turned in early.

Port Everglades Web Cam

This afternoon, hubby and I, watched the Port Everglades Web Cam.  We watched several ships leave for their cruise.  Out of the 10 ships in port, the Grand Princess was the first to leave.

I've included a link to the HDTV web cam:  http://portevergladeswebcam.com/

Enjoy!

Getting Ready Again!

We're getting ready for an upcoming cruise.  This time we'll be on the Crown Princess heading to the Southern and Western Caribbean.

We've been on the Crown before (2008) and sailed out of San Juan on a B2B cruise.  That was the most memorable cruise as I remembered our room steward greeted us with "welcome back to your home" when we started the second leg.  We enjoyed being on this ship and had a lovely two weeks.

We are sooooo looking forward to cruising again.  It's been a hard year for us to wait a full year for vacation.  We've been talking about what we'll do on the ship and how we are going to enjoy our time.

I can't believe I haven't started packing.  I do have my handy dandy cruise packing list that I have refined from our last cruise.  Hmmmm...every year it seems to get refined.  :D   I better get the suitcases out and get started somewhere.

Will be back with more posts and pictures...stay tuned!