Caribbean Princess Sea Day, Sept 6

As kids hubby and I both grew up in poverty. Food stamps and all. Life is never easy and you never think there is a way out. But education was our way. College and careers. It still wasn't big money - public school teachers in Idaho didn't make that much but it was better than we'd had before. Growing up poor, cruising is something we never ever considered being a part of our future lives. Then after 20 years of marriage (and saving) we were looking for a way to celebrate our anniversary in a big way. It was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. A cruise. Seven days roundtrip from Seattle to Alaska on the Diamond Princess. Somehow that once in a lifetime trip turned into something we fell in love with. For us, getting to go again and again (and again) is nothing short of miraculous.

And if not for the Love Boat we probably wouldn't have ever started. As a kid, watching Captain Stubing and Julie McCoy and Doc and Gopher and Isaac each week (and let's not forgot all the tv and movie stars showing up each week) made me think there was another life out there. Granted, not one I would ever live, but it was out there.

So it was quite surprising when we booked this cruise last minute and received an email about who would be onboard. We hadn't seen any activities listed in the Patter about him yet. But he showed up today.

We watched his biography in the Princess Theater and then stayed for the Q & A session. He told touching stories of his life. He also had a book signing and photo opp session, but the crowd was from Wheelhouse all the way to Club Fusion so we didn't stand in line.

Listening to him tell stories about Marion Ross and Mary Tyler Moore and the filming of the Love Boat was enough. It definitely was a how did I get this life? kind of moment for me.

Who is that special guest we have joining us? None other than Captain Stubing, Gavin MacLeod.

That was pretty much the highlight of the day.

Coming in second was getting a look at the new accessories for the Medallions. The case in the Ocean Front area off the photo gallery is full of them. Click the link under the Medallion™ Update section below to see the pictures.

Getting the disembarkation paperwork and luggage tags came in a close third. Not because we're excited to put them on our suitcase, but because we were excited to not need them. Yeah, we called yet another audible and decided to stay for one more cruise. (If you're counting, that makes four back-to-back cruises.) By the time we leave this ship we will have had 31 days here. Yay! Or as hubby likes to say, "Booyah!" (Whatever that means.)

The sunrise has to be on the list somewhere. It had to be a good day when the sunrise might be the fourth best thing of the day.

Medallion™ Update:
To make the progression of the roll-out more clear I've grouped the posts by week. Today we're talking about the new Medallion accessories. 

 You can find the post here on the Sept 1-8 update page.
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.

Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off:
Restroom behind the buffet.

One more sea day tomorrow as we head our way back to Fort Lauderdale.
As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please click on the envelope icon at the top right of this screen.

Caribbean Princess in St. Maarten

Today was the umpteenth perfect day in St. Maarten. Just like last week - Here's the recap of that day. Actually, today was perfect up until the point we tried to get a taxi back to the ship.

The drinks were again good at the Bikini Bar on Orient Beach.

 They had raked the sea grass so there were paths to get to the water.

While the beach was busier than last week it still wasn't crowded.

Even when the afternoon winds and tide brought in more sea grass and I decided to stop going into the water, it was still a great day.

Great until the taxi driver approached us as we were ready to leave. 

We've visited many Caribbean islands and many places in Mexico and have seen taxi drivers being pretty darn aggressive with cruise ship passengers. I get that drivers have to hustle to get tourist dollars but they don't have to flat out hustle passengers to get the dollars. We recognize when people are being scammed and we had a driver today trying to scam us. (Hubby called it a shakedown.) Most tourists would believe him, follow him, and pay him. But we weren't having any of it. While we made it back to the ship in plenty of time (after finally getting a different driver) the entire experience made us just not want to go back again. We'll see. 

Tonight we have the Most Traveled Guest Cocktail Party up in Skywalkers. The 40 passengers on the ship with the most days on Princess Cruises are invited to this. Sometimes it's a party, sometimes a luncheon, sometimes a brunch. We just barely made the cut this cruise. In fact, one of those invited couldn't make it so we were next on the list. So technically we were #41 on the ship. So I'm guessing the  number of days cutoff was in the mid 400s. I may or may not take food pics. If so, I'll add them here later tonight.

Update to Most Traveled Party: No food pics, but look what was on my side of the bed when we came back to the cabin - compliments of our cabin steward who has been teaching me how to make towel animals.

Medallion™ Update:
To make the progression of the roll-out more clear I've grouped the posts by week. Today I'm addressing a few of the questions and comments you've been sending my way.

You can find the post here on the Sept 1-8 update page.
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.

Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off:
In the restroom at Bikini Bar.

We've got two sea days in a row coming up.

As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please click on the envelope icon at the top right of this screen.

Caribbean Princess in St. Thomas

7:30 am - pack the snorkel bag
8:00 am - go to the Future Cruise Consultant office to book something
8:20 am - pick up hubby from the International Cafe
8:30 am - walk off the ship to grab a taxi 
9:00 am - catch the ferry from Red Hook to St. John
Eat breakfast at the Cruz Bay Landing restaurant in St. John. Get a taxi for an island tour. Stop at Trunk Bay for a few hours of sunning and swimming and snorkeling.
3:00 pm - catch the ferry back to Red Hook and grab a taxi back to the ship.

Not being able to stop in Princess Cays because of the hurricane allowed us a full day on St. Thomas. Which meant we should have had a nice chunk of time on St. John. But you know us, things don't always go as planned.

When I went down to International Cafe this morning to pick up hubby up on the way off the ship I found him in a bit of pain. He had wrenched his back and couldn't hardly move. Couldn't hardly talk because of the pain and barely could get out of the chair. Poor guy.

So instead of an 8:30 walk off the ship time we took the elevator back to the cabin and he wound up with an 8:30 stretch and heat compress and massage time. Finally by 11:00 he thought he might want to take the short walk to the Smoking Rooster for a couple of glasses of sangria to dull the pain. He thought after those then he'd really be ready to go. We were at the Smoking Rooster a couple weeks back so he knows what the drinks can do. Here's the recap of that visit.

But today two glasses of sangria turned into three. And three turned into four. Of course I kept up with his number of drinks, just with the Mai Tais and a new drink, a Blue Parrot Tail. 

And 11:00 turned into 3:00, just like that. We talked to the server who waited on us just a couple weeks ago. We love hearing people's stories! We talked to the guys smoking the meats. Don't tell anyone, but the guys cut off the end of one of the racks of ribs as they were pulling them out of the smoker and gave them to us. Oh. My. Goodness.

We shared an Italian Beef sandwich and decided we had to call it a day. We headed back to the ship and hubby went to take a nap and I went right to the spa pool and stripped. Thank goodness I still had my swimsuit on, right? I floated a bit then plopped myself into one of the comfy loungers and proceeded to fall fast asleep.

It was not what we planned for the day but it still wound up being the umpteenth perfect day.

Here's the Smoking Rooster menu, just in case you're ever in St. Thomas.

Medallion™ Update:
To make the progression of the roll-out more clear I've grouped the posts by week. Today we're talking about the information on the current cruise cards versus the Medallion.
You can find the post here on the Sept 1-8 update page.
August 18-25 updates can be found here.
August 25-Sept 1 updates can found here.

Encouraging Word Money Pocket Drop Off: Left at the Smoking Rooster. 

Tomorrow we're in St. Maarten. If hubby's back holds out we're heading back to Orient Beach for the day and have the Most Traveled Guest Party tomorrow night. Should be a full day.

As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please click on the envelope icon at the top right of this screen.

How to Fold an Origami Cruise Ship - Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday and I have a cruise-themed project for you. If you're looking for a project using only one supply, check it out.

One single dollar bill and the directions in this video (which was filmed last week off the coast of Belize) will have you coming away with a little origami cruise ship.

Planks and Steamers on Caribbean Princess

We fought it as long as we could. 

When we boarded the ship over two weeks ago our plan was to walk off after three weeks with no balance due. We booked these super-cheap cruises so late that we didn't have any promotions tied to the bookings. But we did have some of the onboard credit that comes with future cruise deposits, a small amount of additional bonus onboard credit, and the $100 loyalty credit per cruise segment. It was all enough to cover the gratuities for both of us for three weeks. Plus a couple shirts for hubby at the 2 for $20 t-shirt sale. No drinks, no other shopping, and no specialty dining would ensure we walked away from the ship with no charges.

But these Planks and Steamers restaurants have been peaking our interest. Then Vickie and Bernie from http://vickieandbernietravel.blogspot.com/ were on the ship a couple weeks ago and talked about Planks and Steamers. She had written about their visit on her blog, too. So we finally took the plunge tonight and paid a whopping $12 each for our meal. Boy, it was a bargain for the amount of food we received. And the flavor? Yummy yum yum.

We ate on the Planks side but they allowed us to mix and match from the two restaurants. Here's what we got for $24 total.

Welcome starters from the Planks side: Chipotle BBQ meatballs and honey and bacon-cheddar cornbread with jalapeno-honey butter and pimento cheese

From Steamers: Tomato-Lime Ceviche with breads and sun-dried tomato-cream cheese and smoked salmon spread

Look at the bacon in that cornbread.

Next up, appetizers. We chose both from the Steamers side.
Caesar Salad and Clam and Smoked Ham Chowder

Main courses:
From Planks: You can order four different meats. If you want to want to double up on a meat and not choose four different ones, you can. We went with smoked kielbasa, ribs, and a double order of chili-spiced roasted tri-tip. It also came with wedge-cut fries, 3-bean chili, slaw, toast, dill pickles, and two different BBQ sauces.

From Steamers:

We went with the Fried Seafood Platter. It had fried torpedo shrimp, battered haddock, fishcakes, carrot and raisin salad, fries, and tarter sauce, cocktail sauce, and ketchup.

For dessert we went from just the Steamers side. Strawberry shortcake and key lime pie in a jar.

I probably should have taken a picture after we were finished eating. But you probably wouldn't notice we had finished because we left so much food behind. Again, all of this for $24 total!

The highlights of the meal included the jalapeno-honey butter, the Caesar salad (hubby loved the capers on it), the ribs and tri-tip, and the haddock and the shrimp. I think the desserts were a tie for what was the best. So basically everything was delicious.

If you want more detail about our menu items or want to know what else is offered, here are the menus for both places.

I'm totally okay we went over our budget by a whole $24.