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LIVE from the Emerald - 11/28/10 to 12/18/10

ccrain

By ccrain,
in Princess Cruises

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ccrain

ccrain

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Well – almost live…

 

We’re back and ready for another fun filled cruise. Our favorite time of year for a cruise – the “cheap” time for cruising between Thanksgiving and Christmas. On our CC signature this is the “traded off cruise”. We were going to do Australia in January, but then the 28 day round trip out of LA on the Sapphire came out and we opted for this cruise and the Sapphire instead of Australia. Australia will have to wait until 2013.

 

I have brought the dreaded work “laptop” and cell phone. Yes I know it’s a vacation, but there are things going on at work that I need to be ready to help on. I just have to avoid ticking off Judy and having my laptop and cell phone end up in 6000 feet of water – but better the laptop than me! So I will be testing VPN access via cruise ship satellite hookups. It also means I can write a better travelog and upload it rather than composing in the internet café.

 

Cruise Overview:

 

This cruise will be the 20 day (B2B of two 10 day Emerald cruises). We will be visiting St. Kitts, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Thomas (twice), Princess Cays (twice), Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, Aruba. Two of the islands we have never visited before and we are doing our first private tour on St Thomas. We have no other tours scheduled. We typically stay on the ship and enjoy having the run of the facilities while everyone else goes ashore.

This will be our 20th cruise on Princess, our first cruise on the Emerald, our first cruise on the Gem class “super grands” and our first cruise in a suite. Judy does still not know about the suite. I’m hoping to keep her in the dark until I get her actually in the door – it’s a surprise. We shall see if I am successful – of course explaining the luggage tags will be a problem – time to get my dancing shoes on.

 

For those of you who haven’t followed our past adventures, our new found cruise passion is dancing – ballroom, latin, disco, line – if it has a beat and Judy can get me on it, we can dance it. Amazed at Derrick Hough’s choreography, rooted for Jennifer Grey, felt sorry for Max and just love Cheryl Burke – or at least I do! So we will be haunting the wheelhouse or wherever there is dance music. We will also be in the front rows during the production shows, the best place to experience them.

 

We are also foodies. Loved Season 6 of Top Chef, rooted for Ming Tsi – but he blew it, have noticed Bourdein’s bad side has really taken a back seat lately, love Alton Brown, knew Artie was going to win from like Week 2, would kill for a table at Morimoto’s and would like to follow Guy around the country. We hope to do Chef’s table an Ultimate Balcony Dinner and take advantage of the suite perk to deliver dinner to the room on more than one occasion.

 

So with no further ado - let's start the Vacation!

 

11-26-2010: Fort Lauderdale

 

We traveled on T-Day to ensure weather wouldn’t affect our schedule – we have a history of blizzards happening on the day we fly – and it was cheaper. But good flights yesterday, no problems and the luggage arrived all in one piece and in the first wave of luggage instead of waiting until the last minute and causing my blood pressure to spike!

Cabbed over to the Hilton Marina, splurged on HH points for this trip, and hit the hay. We have a tower room overlooking the marina to the North. Good view. Room is older style, cramped, but functional and there is a balcony. It will be strange moving onto the ship on Sunday into a larger room, but hey, I'm game.

 

Today has been a good day. We wanted to check out Fort Lauderdale while we had the chance, and the best way is walking. We got up and had our free HHonors breakfast and then walked up to the riverwalk and the Museum of Science IMAX theatre to see Harry Potter. About a 3 mile walk, great weather, overcast with a breeze, so it was nice and cool. The movie was better than I expected. They did a real good job editing an overall boring book - how much camping in England can you take?

 

After the movie it was time for lunch at 100suite on the river walk. A very nice place with calamari, clams in wine sauce and Samuel Adam's Octoberfest. Beer, clams, fried calamari and flatbread – what more can you ask! There are many restaurants on the riverwalk, fresh seafood, Italian, you name it. If you have time to kill and want a nice environment to walk around in, this is the place to kill a day.

 

The Riverwalk is very nicely done and it has a real river. The most interesting part is wandering by all the yachts, boats and super yachts. These things are huge, sleek and impressive! The boat traffic is fun to watch, from 100’ huge yachts to 10’ zodiacs and everything in between.We tried to get on the water taxi at several locations, but all the boats were packed to the gills. We ended up taking a regular cab back to the Hilton to relax for a few hours awaiting the sushi bar opening.

 

The China Grill at the Hotel has good sushi but at a high price. Really expensive, but I had promised Judy sushi and sushi she would have. (One piece of Nigiri for $5 is a bit much.) We did go during happy hour and the drinks were 2 for 1, which only made me wonder how much it would have been if we had not gone during happy hour!

 

After dinner we walked up to the Walgreens to get some water. There is a Publix up the street a little further – south side of 17th – for those of you who want to stock up before the cruise.

 

All in all. A good day.

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Seal

Seal

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We usually stay at the Hilton Marina and use that boat to take us everywhere--except up and down 17th and always to the drugstore before we sail--about a year ago we stayed at the Hilton on the water--very large building--condos upstairs used as regular guest rooms--great rooms--but trying to leave and all but one elevator had failed with everyone trying to get downstairs--I think we were on 14th floor--not good--I made it to the tenth floor before the elevator I was in stopped--I panicked and got off on 10--somehow got downstairs--only had my little pull suitcase--got downstairs some way--John was waiting for the bell service up on 14 with the major luggage. There is another Hilton--maybe closer to the airport--it's off on a side street and NO CABS at all--walk to the main street and all cabs are full-soooooo--it's only 17th Street for us now in FLL.

 

Nancy:D

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cindep

cindep

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Enjoy your cruise and especially the suite! You will be totally spoiled. Some dear friends of ours are on your cruise, so I'll be checking in regularly to see how your trip is. If you run into Steve and Julie from the UK, tell them hello from their friends in South Carolina!

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cindep

cindep

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Don't know if they are on CC and whether they would attend a M&G. Like I said, they are Steve and Julie from the UK (pretty hard to miss that lovely accent). She looks a bit like Princess Diana ... and he looks a bit like Simon Cowell ... quite the handsome couple.

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ccrain

ccrain

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We have a very active bunch of CC members on this cruise, and there is a host of activities planned. Tonight will be a pre-cruise dinner for 10 of us - MORE STEAMERS - at the Quarterdeck just north of 17th.

 

There is a M&G, a slot pull, a gift exchange and afternoon tea planned. Monakayk has been keeping a comprehensive list of activities on our roll call.

 

Several of us are staying for the next leg as a B2B.

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geocruiser

geocruiser

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We have a very active bunch of CC members on this cruise, and there is a host of activities planned. Tonight will be a pre-cruise dinner for 10 of us - MORE STEAMERS - at the Quarterdeck just north of 17th.

 

There is a M&G, a slot pull, a gift exchange and afternoon tea planned. Monakayk has been keeping a comprehensive list of activities on our roll call.

 

Several of us are staying for the next leg as a B2B.

 

I hope we win big on the slot pull.

 

Thanks for the live thread. See you on board.

 

Maria

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rdsqrl

rdsqrl

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I'm really excited to read your Live -- I love all the details you include, and this B2B you're doing is on my definite to-do list. Plus . . . On the day your cruise ends, mine (on the Crown) starts, so your Live is going to be my countdown clock.

How was the Quarterdeck, by the way? I was looking at that restaurant myself for dinner on my night in FLL.

Bon voyage; hope Judy is completely stunned and excited by the suite surprise!

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ccrain

ccrain

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11-27-10 Fort Lauderdale:

 

Even with the day before’s long walks, at 0200 I was up and awake. Excited about the cruise I guess. We decided to go to Hugh Taylor Birch state park this morning and hike around the park to see the sites. We cabbed up to the park, it’s about 4 miles from the hotel, and hiked around the park for the morning. It’s a beautiful park. Full of spiders of all colors and sizes, and all kinds of dogs and dog lovers. So having been away from our two labs for two days, we petted almost every dog in sight.

 

For some reason the rental shops were not open. No canoes or bikes to rent. They have a nice pond/lake to canoe in, which would have been fun. Biking would have been fun as well as the place is pretty flat.

 

After circling the park we headed to the Fort Lauderdale beach. We had a beautiful walk back to the hotel highlighted by seeing Oasis of the Seas at dock from the top of the 17th street bridge. That is one monster of a ship for sure. (The Crown was in port as well.) The weather was overcast, which really cut down on the heat and we had a nice cooling breeze from the sea.

 

We did lunch at the Bimini Boatyard just west on 17th street from the hotel. For some reason a fancy burger sounded and tasted quite good and their key lime pie was great. There are a lot of restaurants, liquor and grocery stores in walking distance along 17th street for those of you staying at the Hilton.

 

At 7pm we had our pre-cruise dinner with some of the CC roll call participants at the Quarterdeck. There are actually two in the local area, one just north of 17th street on Cordova and one further north on 1A nearer the state park. We all had the chance to release the pent up excitement generated in the roll call awaiting this cruise and put names to faces. The food was good, but as is typical to this part of Fort Lauderdale, on the more expensive side. I had the steamers, which are nothing like Pacific Northwest steamers, but still really good. Judy had shrimp and pasta, always a good combination. All in all, not bad.

 

Staying these two days in the Hilton Marina reminded me of why we cruise. Resort destination hotels are really expensive, and they charge for everything! I travel and stay at business hotels 60+ nights a year, typically Hilton and more specifically Hampton, Hilton Garden or Homewood. Free breakfast, free dinner (Homewood), free internet, free business centers are the norm even for non Hilton Honors members. At Hilton resort properties, like the Hilton Marina, internet is $13 per day for non-Gold+ members, the “free” breakfast has so many rules (orange, glass, or coffee, not both, one sandwich or yogurt, or cereal) and upcharges Judy wanted a rule book! I swear there might even be a counter behind the roll of toilet paper!

 

Cruising is just cheaper than land vacations, and its one of the reasons the variety of upcharges on Princess don’t bother me too much. As long as the basic cruise and food are there, the optional little nickel and diming around the edges don’t bother us too much. Besides, one week in Wakiki on a beach front hotel will make anyone long for the simplicity of cruising!

 

The next cruise out of FLL will be from a different hotel. Maybe back to the Hampton Plantation, or one of the Hilton Garden Inns or the Hilton airport. But I’m glad we did it once, just to check it out.

 

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Re-packing the suitcases for embarkation! We’ll catch a cab at 11 and run over to the port to get in line.

 

See ya all on board!

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ccrain

ccrain

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I successfully completely suprised Judy with the Suite. Had her close her eyes and walked her down the hallway into the suite and then said 'Merry Christmas"!

 

She was completely surprised. Didn't have a clue and I've been keeping this to myself for months now.

 

We're on the ship, out to sea and rocking the night away. More later.

 

E'ya later!

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