So here I sit in the International Cafe writing this and people watching.
The Cafe serves breakfast sandwiches and wraps in the morning along with coffee and tea (the latter you have to pay for). The menu changes slightly through the day to small sandwiches and cake. And items for Tea Time.
Now today is the first day of two November 5th and all I can say is Princess has no idea how to handle this day. The Princess app is useless most days but today it is down for the count. No Menus for the various restaurants today. The ships schedule is mixed up with the November 5 -day 2. There isn’t a cruise line that gets this right.
Today is the Melbourne Cup Horse race. Okay over half the ship is from Oz and this is a BIG deal for them. Can you say party for a 2 minute horse race. I can bet if we had cock roach races they would be in for that. A fun group to cruise with.
Since we left Japan the seas have been pretty rough. The weather has been warm but those white caps in the pool and hot tub cause all sorts of problems.
For the most part it has been fine. The only problem is sleeping. The feeling of floating out of bed and the pending thud and shutter will wake you from time to time.
We are only on our 4th sea day with 5 more to go.
So I have been asked what do you do on these sea days. Well the schedule offers many things such as movies and different events around the ship. Guest Lecturers talking about many things. There are deck chairs around the 2 pools to lie in and soak up your Vitamin D.
Most days I find a deck chair and watch the world go by. The problem I have is I would sit on our Balcony but the sea spray soaks everything. The Room Steward does wash it down every 2 days but there is that odd day. Did I say I am located on Deck 12?
Yes, the ship has things like Halloween now. When I first cruised there was no such celebration. I have been on cruises for a few Halloweens now and this one was very good. The theme was great for both lunch and dinner/
Now something I have not seen before was the whole pig that was served at lunch.
I will now talk about food. I will preface this by saying the Food onboard a ship is of decent quality. The problem is with so many people from different countries eating what you get at home may not be to your liking on the ship due to a different recipe.
Most cruise lines have made the change of Executive Chefs from European to Indian Chefs. This has changed the flavours we now have onboard a ship. Last cruise I did I ordered Eggs Benedict and it was topped with curry powder.
Yesterday at lunch was a prime example of this. We took a sharing table the we shared with 3 ladies making 5 of us. We had a good discussion going on this subject. The topic turned to this single lady onboard who is from New York who is a huge problem around the ship. The crew can’t do anything right according to her.
As we are just finishing up this topic we see the Hostess bringing said Lady to our table.
At first she appeared to be fine. She ordered her meal which was a Tuna Melt with extra Mayo on the side. We continued on with our conversation, eating along the way. The lady’s meal arrived and she opened it up and then she started in on the waiter. Screaming at him saying this isn’t a Tuna melt. I mean she was so loud the dining room Manger came over as she could be heard through out the room. Claudia then said to her calm down, this table has good energy right now and you are destroying it. Boy this shut her down right away.
This a prime example of how we think a meal should be, and how different in other places around the world.
I will talk about the Brunch Buffet that was held a couple of days ago. I have to say Princess went all out for this with cooking stations along the wall. They were serving Alaska Salmon vs Atlantic and it was poached and was very well done and presented. Man you can taste the difference.
For the most part I am happy with the food that is served. The big problem I have is the temperature of the food. Ordering French Onion Soup and it comes stone cold is not okay.
Now this ship the Coral Princess had just come out of dry dock the day before we boarded. All carpet was replaced except in the cabins. All bars were removed and redone to meet current ADA standards. Horizons Buffet was gutted and rebuilt. The pool area was all redone including the tile floors in areas. All chairs were recovered.
All shops were gutted and rebuilt.
We are now almost 3 weeks from this and boy things are starting to show. Tiles had to be replaced in Tokyo due to them coming up. Chunks of floor ripped due to moisture getting under the floor and causing rust to break through.
For being a 22 year old ship it looks in great shape. It may not have all the things that come with today;s new builds but they have tried to keep with things like adding USB charging ports and Flat Screen TV’s in the room.
So these are a few things that I have noted so far.