First Cruise: The western Caribbean
Striking Observations Day 1, 2
The length of the corridor outside our stateroom is about the length of a football field.
The length of an open dining room: about a city block.
The noise of polite conversation in an open-seating dining room: you raise your voice to converse
The sound of the ship motors when you hit the pillow at night: a soft hum below your pillow
The speed of the cruise ship at sea -download–Ocean Froth Passing
The tiny shower stall in our Stateroom : If you put your hands on your hips, you touch the walls.
The substantial closet space: A six-foot bar about the length of a suite closet at home.
The complications of cruise packages on Princess:
How do cruise packages they differ from “onboard credit”? How can you tell if you have a “benefits package”? How do you squeeze 15 drinks/ day from a benefits package? Admittedly it covers more than alcoholic drinks. But how do you consume any combination of 15 drinks/ day?
The catch: You have no ability to look at your spending online; that remains a mystery. Although you can ask how your money gets spent: credit card, onboard credit or benefits package ? This mystery of how much you have spent keeps you from deciding “I’ve spent too much.”
Generally you eat without additional charges, especially if you go to buffet meals. But they also have “Specialty Dining,” which adds to the cost of eating. You want to eat a couple of times in Specialty, because there you are in quiet dining room at a private table, with an upscale menu. We’re going to the Italian Specialty Dining: Sabatini’s. Italian, of course.
P.S. Sabatini’s was amazing– a four course dinner, new table settings for each course. An excellent bean soup, a cheesy, lobster tail salad, mouth-watering lasagna. Could not even muster an appetite for dessert without the Quiet atmosphere in an intimate, circular dining room.
What happened to us today: we went to “Guest Services” to ask how our expenses were charged. We were blown away to find our travel agent had purchased “Princess Plus” for $208/ person, which is a $1000. per person discount! The travel agent told me the day we left that she had purchased no benefit packages. Turns out she did, for a travel agent’s discount. Must have forgotten, but she got us better wifi coverage, 15 drinks per person per day, and all kinds of free exercise classes, other stuff we may not use. Moral: use a reliable travel agent to book a cruise.
It has been cloudy and windy all day, but we walked the Promenade Deck for three laps (equal 1.25 miles) and it was fun. Tonight we go to Sabatini’s, Specialty Dining.
Tomorrow we stop in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We’ll go ashore without a planned excursion. The adventure continues. . .