fpsphil

8 and 10 PM. Vista lounge was not heavily used throughout the trip

20 max seating. No cost as of now. I can see them up-charging at some point

Caught him right as they brought in the 5PM sitting. They meet right outside international cafe under the stair case.

We only ate in Capri as that was where club class dining was. Amalfi was nice as well but was only in there during wine tasting

Barcelona: Decided to sleep in a bit this morning as we were tired after already going for 2 weeks onboard. This ended up working in our advantage since when I went down to the IC to get coffee there were lines of people disembarking for the day. This also gave us the opportunity to watch some of the turn around day activities and wander around different room categories including walking through the Sky Suites up on deck 18. Once we were off just did a Hop-On-Hop-Off tour and were able to complete both loops around the city. Not enough time to go into Sagrada Familia unfortunately but got to see a lot within the city. Was back onboard a couple minutes before all aboard time even as Princess transfers were still dropping off bags on the dock. Overall good day but wish we would have stayed in port a bit later. Sea Day: Woke up to a phone call from the manager of 360 who I had caught a few days earlier in regards to seeing if we could get 360 and sure enough we were in for the second sitting. We were super super excited to experience this and the entire rest of the day was spent getting hyped up for our forthcoming experience. Weather was absolutely perfect so got a full use of the balcony with almost no wind to be had across the decks. Dinner itself was perfect, there has been other threads all about 360 and I don't plan on ruining any surprises beyond what has already leaked out but if you have the opportunity to experience this drop what you are doing and take it. The amount of food and the flavors had us in a food coma the entire next day in Gibraltar! Gibraltar: Another day with a later start due to our Cruise Critic arranged private tour scheduled for 12 meaning we got off around 10 to wander around the downtown area. Happy to arrive in Gibraltar via cruise ship as we were not super impressed with the entire downtown area and quickly finished the main street. Our tour though was great and we were able to experience all the sights on the top of the rock and a drive all around Gibraltar with an experienced local guide. Despite the heat we all walked across the runway at the end of the tour and all had a great time. I would highly recommend doing a small private tour in Gibraltar instead of a cruise one as the groups we saw were all packed into little mini busses that did not look pleasant at all. Will post up Marseille, Genoa and Livorno as well details of the disembarkation mess we experienced in Rome a little later this afternoon.

Hey Everyone, Just safely returned home. Below are the last week of charters. Will also be posting reviews of the final week after this post!

When I spoke to my CVP when I made final payment she told me transfers from Rome center could only happen if I booked the hotel through Princess.

Jeny has been a fantastic bartender in Take 5 every night. She’s had our names and room number memorized since the evening we boarded.

In our mini we have 2 Euro plugs and 2 US plugs on the desk area. There is a euro plug under the bed I have been using for phone charging as well. Also I am going to be taking the next few days to enjoy the last few ports and the cruise. I’ll come back and comment but I will do our final reviews for ports/patters once we disembark on Saturday and are relaxing in Siena!

Our favorite bartender has been in Take 5 the entire cruise so we are always going for her suggestions

They have the discounted menu out but there’s nothing of interest on there

Champagne waterfall, store events, auctions, captain circle party are free

Let me find the Viator link and I will post it up. On an exciting side note I had a word with the 360 manager the other night and we got the call this morning inviting us at 7:30. We are super super excited to be able to go!

I believe it’s 2 max since the couch folding out would block emergency egress Balcony is definitely not locked at sea. Have been outside with 40 knot+ winds over the bow. Only thing that gets disabled is the balcony light at night. There are days though you don’t want to use the balcony at all when the wind is too strong. It can get scary out there

We did not do princess prizes. Food quality has been fantastic and surpasses all the cruises we’ve done since the restart. Might be supply tho with European suppliers. We skipped Crown and Sabatinis this cruise. We did balcony dining and are planning to do it again on Marseille sail-out which is prepared in crown grill kitchen. Would highly recommend the Catch. We are doing that again in 2 days.

Messina, Naples and a day at Sea Been another exhausting stretch of ports but going to try to get caught up. If I am missing any patters I will be bringing them all home and scanning them when we get back. Got into Messina about 25 minutes early and were off on our tour to Mt Etna and Taormina by 12:05. Unfortunately there was a large wreck on our way down to Etna causing us to have to detour around it. This kind of threw a bunch of wrenches in our timing as by the time we got to Taormina we barely had time to grab a drink at a cafe and buy a quick souvenir. Will skip Etna next time but we wanted to see it was both our first times going up there. Beautiful sail out of Messina at sunset which was fantastic. Will have a couple photos down below. Woke up with some deja vu being back in Naples. Had an independent tour booked through Viator that was taking us to Capri including Blue Grotto. With 3 ships there early in the morning you can imagine the pandemonium as droves of Celebrity passengers were hoarding the ferry dock. Our guide Paola a native of the Capri island was on it though. She arranged for us to be off the ferry first and because of the incoming crowds and the expected weather conditions by late morning she already had a boat waiting with the engine running for the 14 of us to jump into and go to the Blue Grotto. We were through the Blue Grotto by 10 AM and later in the day we found it has closed at noon. Super happy we got to experience one of the most fascinating sights in Capri. Spent the rest of the day enjoying the beautiful but crowded island that was overrun with groups at that point from both Princess and Celebrity. Happy today is a sea day. Going to be laying low and maybe doing some bingo this afternoon. Happy 3 of the next 5 days are sea days so we can recharge a bit. Also in regards to the Wi-Fi it has only gotten worse for us as the cruise has gone on. Some images in this post failed randomly. Going to try to stop in to talk to the internet manager to ask if there’s a reason they are still using SES over Starlink. He’ll probably shrug but it’s worth the shot. Also will be asking about Marseille this afternoon.

Coming soon to the Discovery but apparently not on the Enchanted yet since no branded merchandise

I will say the news articles have slowed down about the riots so they may be calming down

We haven’t been eating in the MDR consistently so I always forget to snap pictures. With this port intensive itinerary some days we just want some comfort food and to wander the ship.

I’ll try that next photo batch. With the Wi-Fi in the state it’s been for me thus far I usually upload and forget about it.

According to my Apple Watch we climbed 63 flights of stairs. We went all the way to the top and according to maps that’s about 900 foot ascent. You can do the hike to the first church which isn’t that bad and is about 300 feet up. Off to bed have been nodding off tired even after 3 coffees tonight. Thank god we get to sleep in a little tomorrow. This is a full marathon for us cruise wise!

Motion has not been bad other than your normal shimmy/shake you can get with any forward/back cabin. We’ve had crazy calm seas other than some windy nights where the vibration got bad. Room also currently has 2 full loungers, 2 normal balcony loungers, full size table, and 2 small lounge chair mini tables.

No word yet. I’ll ask passenger services but they prob will deflect me to Friday like everything else so far that involves another “segment”

Santorini, Sea Day, and Kotor Wow the last few days have been a complete whirlwind with us taking every moment we can just to rest and relax after 6 days of ports in a row. Will start with Santorini day where we took the Discovery Family Oia Village and Beach day. Was a great tour and are extremely grateful we were the 3rd bus at Oia town for the day before it turned into a complete madhouse by the time we left. The beach day was very nice at a restaurant with loungers, a great lunch and a beautiful beach. Got back to Fira town and had a quick bite at Nektar lounge before wondering around town, grabbing souvenirs and checking out the cable car line. Line was pretty long and we wanted to enjoy our last hour there so we ended up hiking down. Was a pleasant hike down and we are happy we did that. Sea day was pretty uneventful. Patter seemed on the light side but we did have a cruise director change in Istanbul and I feel Jason the new CD hasn’t found his groove yet filling in the patter throughout the day. Kotor…. WOW was so impressed. Reminded me of sailing into a port in Norway but with opposite weather. We took the boat out tour to Perast and Boka bay. Again we were extremely lucky as we were the 3rd of 4th boat landing on the island for the day and it was not crowded. After we had finished touring the church there were multiple boats incoming full of ship groups and the island was mobbed by the time we got back on our boat. We were back in old town by 11:30 which gave us time to do the Kotor steps and wow we both almost fainted. We did manage to make it to the top but my legs are already making me regret it. Had some time for a quick beer and some souvenirs before wandering back to the ever growing tender line (we could see it from the top of the stairs). Princess was only using 2 ship tenders and the rest of the small water taxis which made the line crawl. Why they didn’t put more of the high capacity ship ones I’ll never truly understand. Ended up leaving about 45 minutes late due to the lines on the dock. Posting up the Patters and some various pics below!

I’ll post up my YouTube once we return and I get all the footage we have edited,