Our amazing trip on the Crown Princess, June 17 - 26, 2007
Pre-cruise: Saturday, June 16, 2007. We flew into NYC (and boy were our arms tired . . . ahhhhh, bad joke, sorry) on a direct flight into LGA. Our luggage was first off the plane and we were waiting for my dad within minutes. Spent the day on Long Island with my family and getting antsy for Sunday.
Embarkation: Sunday, June 17, 2007. We arrived at the pier at 11:40 am. We loaded our luggage on the concrete, a porter then loaded it on to the cart and we proceeded to the front door. Once inside my heart started to pound, we were here – finally. After counting down from 429 days we had finally made it to “the day.” We quickly filled out our papers saying we had not been sick in the previous 24 hours and proceeded to the “line.” There were no lines . . . we moved through and up to the desk, handed the check-in gal our passports and boarding passes, she activated our room keys and done! Walked right on to the ship, got our picture and went straight to our room – it was Noon! After spending the next few hours meandering and meeting some of our CLF friends prior to the official meet at 3 pm, we finally ate something in the Horizon Court. At 3 pm we met with our new friends at the Tradewinds Bar. What a great group of people!!! We hung out and talked for roughly 45 minutes and then we disbanded so we could be ready for the muster drill. Night number one at Club Fusion – it’s just the beginning.
Days One and Two at Sea: Well, what can I say, two glorious days of sunshine and fun. We spent time at the pools, eating, talking and making friends with our CLF roll call buddies. Nights number two and three at Club Fusion. Night two, however, was 50’s night first and then Heat #1 of Princess Idol. So, 50’s night. My DH is very quiet and reserved, but we’re sitting there waiting with Musicgirl and her DH for Princess Idol to begin and they do an Elvis Trivia . . . the MC says he’s going to ask a trivia question and if you have the answer you need to run up and high-five him and give him the answer. So, they ask what Elvis’ middle name is. My husband is almost knocking over the elderly to answer the question . . . ?????? . . . he’s never done that before! He didn’t even move that fast when I told him my water broke with our first child! LOL! So, he gives the MC the answer and is then asked to stand up in front . . . oh no – this cannot be good. I can’t tell you exactly what happened because I don’t want to ruin it for other as I’m pretty certain they do this on each cruise. Hopefully Musicgirl’s DH will post the video on You Tube like she said he would!
Night number three (2nd sea day), proved to be fun as well. We (GR82CU2, Musicgirl, Asil65, Junior, myself) met with our spouses in Wineforhealth’s suite and had a fun wine tasting event. The ship was not rocking, but when we left, it probably looked like it was by the way we were walking – LOL! Then, DH and I headed back to our room for our Ultimate Balcony Dining experience. Amazing is all I can say – the food was superb and our server, Jovelyn was AMAZING!!
Grand Turk: Beautiful island. We did the ship excursion to Governor’s Beach – not necessary to do the ship’s excursion. The beach is free and you could have gotten a taxi or even walked, although it was a little hike down the road. The beach was nice, clean and the water was beautiful. The following is taken from Musicgirl’s report as she put everything so eloquently . . . After dinner, we met up with Musicgirl and her DH, and Asil65 and her DH. We first stopped in at Explorer Lounge where it was jammed packed. We were a bit too loud for the singing group, so we decided we'd better leave before they asked us to leave.
We went to Club fusion for some bad karaoke. We sat in the back, but we were laughing so hard and loud that we didn't want the singers to think we were laughing at them....really!
We headed up to the Skywalkers lounge where the real fun began. Some how the Kamikaze fairy visited us with shots for all!! We were enjoying the 80's music until those darn teens came in and started requesting their music.
Well, by this time, we were having a good time and were pretty loud. Why was the youth security stalking us????? Adult content coming up!! This was the first of many conversations about the viagra and cialis commercials. Yes, all the guys were in agreement that if it lasts for over 4 hours you really shouldn't call your doctor unless you are going to thank him. Then you should call your guy friends so you can high five.
Ok, next bar is Explorers. The kamikaze fairy visits again. Or is that a kamakamakie fairy or maybe a kamcamokie fairy..... Ok, this was looks different than the first round????? Just as we start laughing again, the same singing group comes out that we left earlier. We felt bad that we were walking out on this group a second time in one evening, but I'm pretty sure those around us were thrilled that we left.
Back to Club fusion for the final round of kamikazes. Ok, this one is different too?????
San Juan: Wow – I will never complain about hot and humid again here in the Midwest! I swear!! It had to be 95 degrees with 99% humidity – icky! We chose to walk to the end of the pier/port and take a “taxi” tour. We decided on the Old San Juan tour which was $20 pp and it lasted a good 3 hours or more! They dropped us off in the shopping district where we went to the Coach, Dooney & Bourke and Guess outlet – best deal for us was at Guess. We headed back to the ship and collapsed! I think we put swim suits on and went swimming until sail away, which we watched from the confines of our balcony.
Then we met up with the gang and I believe we went to Club Fusion first and then it was on to the Island Deck Party. Musicgirl had this to say: “A bunch of us met after dinner to continue the previous night’s festivities!! We ended up at the Island Deck Party. Tip: If you want a drink at the party, go somewhere else because no one would wait on me at the pool bar and the waiters were all intent on selling light up glasses.” My thought was that if you just get your drink at Club Fusion, you can take it with you!!! Needless to say, it was another late night. But, Wineforhealth certainly showed his dancing skills this night! Ok, we all did. J
St. Thomas: We went on the full-day Catamaran sail to St. John with Asil65 and her husband. And for those of you on the cruise reading this, yes, our ship-sponsored excursion caused the ship to leave late (3:15’ish) from St. Thomas . . . evidently our catamaran captain was not understanding the “we have to be on the ship by 2:30” comments that the group of 48 were making . . . go figure. Despite being late, we had a great time on this excursion. DH and I snorkeled for the very first time and we really enjoyed it.
We got back and as we’re walking/running down the pier to the ship (DH wanted to know why I was rushing – I was NOT going to be the last one on the ship – no way!), I hear my name – DH say no . . . sure enough there it is again . . . my name is being yelled – from the ship!! I look up and there is PrincessEsq and her family yelling my name and waving – OMG, I was mortified! LOL!
Tonight we had dinner with Asil65 and her DH and then went to the Princess Theatre for the Motor City show. It wasn’t that great – very very amateur, but that’s ok. We made the best of it. Then it was off to bed afterwards – we were worn out!
Sea Day: Time to relax, enjoy and remember that tonight is the 2nd formal night – that means lobster! Since we had anytime dining, we were certain to make a reservation since there were 10 of us – 8:30 dinner time – perfect! Dinner was great the company was even better – all 10 of us met here on the boards!
Bermuda: We had a ship sponsored excursion planned, but decided to cancel as we were beached-out. Instead we took a taxi tour with Asil65 and her DH. Cecil was our driver and he was great! We learned a ton about Bermuda and basked in the beauty. After 3 hours, we headed back to the ship. Got back on the ship, had lunch in the dining room and headed out to the dock to shop. We found some good deals and took a ton of photos. After shopping we headed back to the ship, changed into swimming suits, got a couple of pina coladas and sat by the pool and watched the sail away. Tonight we headed to the Princess Theatre for the comedian, Glenn something. After he got started, he got funny, but in the beginning, it was slow going. We were going to stay for the crew talent show, but we were soooooooooooo tired (I mean really, we’d been partying every night since the first night).
Final Sea Day: What a beautiful day . . . but sad because it’s the last day. We sat out at the pool and got our final dose of sun. Spent the day reflecting on the previous 8 days and how much fun we’d had. Tonight was the Princess Idol finals! We had to go and cheer Junior’s new wife on! What a treat, she was first and she rocked! We had our seats up front and Wineforhealth brought leis and other stuff which we all wore – we were definitely a spectacle. But we cheered and screamed and had a blast and guess what? Junior’s wife won! Yahhoooo!!! But, the night was over . . . and we didn’t want to say good-bye – it was tough. We took a few group pictures and a mystery woman showed up, ????? who the heck was she? Oh well, we did get Fernando to take pictures with us – oooooh what a hottie.
Disembarkation: Boohooo, it’s the last day. We stayed in our room until about 8:45 am, of course I spent a half hour on line because there was a mis-charge (someone else’s room charge of over $800) on my final bill. But it was all taken care of once it was my turn. J We went to the 6th floor to wait for our color (brown) to be called. Because Immigration didn’t give their ok until after 8:30, it took a bit longer than the ship’s estimate to be called – but no biggie, we were being picked up by family so we were certainly not in a time crunch. We were called to get off the ship about 10:45 or so, on the road by 11 and at my folks’ house by noon.
All in all, we had an amazing time and will most definitely cruise on Princess again. The service was fantastic, and the new friends I met here are priceless!
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6/17/07 Crown Review
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