APDMOM

Princess Patter Day 7 - At Sea Download PDF: Princess Patter Day 7.pdf Pictures of the Princess Patter:

My View: End of day 7 - At Sea IMG_4175.mov

Dinner - Room Service from the APP We decided to enjoy dinner in the room tonight. I was SUPER impressed with the speed and quality. This has been the best APP order experience of this cruise. Until tonight, we had about 50% success. One time, our order was just ‘cancelled’ without explanation. Another time, it added 4 items to our order and changed our location to deck 5, rather than deck 16. Tonight, it was about 20 minutes from order to delivery. The dessert (chocolate cake and cheesecake) were probably the best we had on the cruise - very moist chocolate cake! TIP: If you order in the APP, be prepared to stay in the same location for at least 30 minutes. If you are in a busy location (like the Marketplace), you may never see your order. In our experience, it is best to go to a bar if it is close by.

Afternoon Fun: I had to make a quick trip to the putting green - just to say I did it. I have to say, I look forward to more adventurous minigolf on Breakaway next week. This is one thing I missed on this cruise.

LOL! It is just a ‘normal’ Friday night for our family. Our last night of the cruise, and what do DH and DS choose? Some geeky ‘not-so-general’ knowledge show about the building of cruise ships… (I’m not complaining, because this is truly interesting)

TIP: Another thing I love about the APP is that you can locate your family members or “Shipmates”. Just click on the chat function, click on the person’s name, then click on info (i indicated by arrow below), click on ‘locate’ to see their location.

TIP: You can use the app to ‘chat’ with customer service. That way you don’t need to stand in the long line at “Guest Services”. It is not as personal as talking to someone, but it was usually successful to address our questions.

TIP: Free desserts with Plus package: I had read that you can only get the “premium desserts” for free at the gelato bar. I asked twice during the cruise, and was told I could order ANY choice of gelato for the free desserts. So, you can get the premium desserts listed, OR the regular gelato desserts for free - 2 per day. (I only had 2 the whole cruise… just too much good food 😄) The Premium Desserts: The Regular Gelato Options: I loved the Salted Caramel. The Amaretto was good too, but it had some icy pieces. Also featured in this picture is the mango sorbet.

TIP: This one I got from right here at CC. Bring some painters’ tape to cover the sensor on the “nightlight” by the bathroom. It really is VERY bright and would have woken me up at night. We only adapted the tip a bit by creatively packing our painters’ tape. We wrapped some around our spray bottle of rubbing alcohol… easier to pack.

The Wake View at “Full Speed”: While we were at lunch, the captain announced that there would be a medical evacuation by helicopter. The ship was going at full speed to get closer to Key West for the Coast Guard to perform the evacuation. This is the view from our balcony before we were asked to leave. The aft balconies and cabins were all evacuated for about 2.5 hours. The Coast Guard did an amazing, quick job of safely evacuating the patient. IMG_4113.mov

Lunch at Gigi’s: We decided to have our second ‘free’ lunch at Gigi’s. We got there right around 11 and easily got seated. The food was way too much. We opted to only order the pizza and still had about half left over. The pizza was excellent- worth an up-charge if it had not been included in the plus package. Vegetarian Pizza - excellent! Hawaiian Pizza - excellent!

Egg Drop Competition: Our morning entertainment included this event in the Piazza. It was quite fun! The team that won had a great invention, including a ‘parachute’ to keep the egg from breaking.

@JGmf Hopefully, you are all packed and ready for the cruise tomorrow! We did not have many kids at all on this cruise. I only saw one kid in the aft pool, but I did not spend much time there. I did get two photos today - one around 2:15 and one around 4:50 PM. The pool is always quite crowded when I passed it. Overall, the kids on this cruise were very well mannered and we had no concerns. This was probably the lowest number of kids we ever cruised with… maybe that is a Princess thing 😄

Yes, it is a folded sheet with 4 sides, as well as a narrow flap with highlights… I have not been scanning the flap, but will do so for this last one as example.

TIP: If you need a copy of the Princess Patter on embarkation day, pick one up at Guest Services. If you don’t receive one for some reason, they are also available here every day. PS: You don’t need to stand in line to get one - just walk to the side of the counter and take one.

Since it is a sea day, I will post some more ship tips: TIP: Something I love about Princess is that beach/pool towels are available for pickup - no need to sign it out with a warning that you will be charged ‘if you lose your towel of forget to return it’.

After another time change (spring forward one hour again), we enjoyed this most spectacular sunrise of the week:

My View: Day 7 - At Sea

Princess Patter - Day 6, Costa Maya Download PDF: Princess Patter Day 6.pdf

My View: End of day 6 Dinner was in the buffet, and evening entertainment was with Duo Glitz again. This was the second formal night. We found fewer people dressed up than the first formal night. We just did not want to bother, so we enjoyed a more relaxing evening in the buffet.

Leaving Costa Maya in our wake:

TIP: Learn a few expressions in Spanish before visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel. One of our favorite expressions is, “lo siento”. When vendors try to sell things to you, just say ‘lo siento’ (I am sorry). They will respect that and not be pushy. I also say, “No necesito nada, gracias.” (I don’t need anything, thank you) We took 3 years of Spanish together as a family and now enjoy visiting Mexico. The locals really appreciate our efforts to converse in Spanish. 🙂 Zipline Experience Anyone? If anyone has done this excursion/ zipline/ ropes course/ water park experience, please report back. I would like to know if it is worth the price…

The Port: I heard the port being referred to as a ‘resort’ experience by our cruise director. It is a bit of a stretch - yes, there is a pool and a ‘beach’ area with loungers, but no real ocean experience. There is a small space to swim with dolphins as part of an excursion. I would say it is worth walking around the port one time, but don’t set your expectations too high. 🙂 The dolphins: Part of the pool area, as seen from the ship: ”The beach”, which really consists of some loungers, sand, and hammocks: Quite guarded security - I have not seen this before in Costa Maya: TIP: There is a tram for those we have difficulty walking the long pier:

Views of Costa Maya from the Ship: One reason I would have disembarked - I love the harp musician in Costa Maya. It was just too hot to do so on this day: TIP: If you do get off the ship - be sure to watch this ritual performance - If I remember correctly, it is every half hour.

Early Morning Arrival Views: TIP: Time changed overnight again - spring forward 1 hour to match Costa Maya hours. Enchantment of the Seas, we meet again. (This is the ship where our son got his sea legs in 2005 as a 13-month old 😄)