LIVE from the Grand Princess - 14 days - February 4 - 18, 2012

[regnig]

Pia, watching the Grand leaving port right now. I'm waving... see me. Horn just blew.

 

Barb

[Caribensun]

Hello Pia, we board next week. Saw you sail away, hard to believe we board next week. Saw 2 women with balloons on their balcony.

Enjoy your evening. Have a nice valentine's day onboard. Seadeck2

[cruzin princess]

Hi Pia:

 

Glad you are having a great cruise. We will be boarding in 2 weeks and would love to know what time they start letting you board.

 

Thanks,

Sue

[Dietemann]

I guess I should have stressed that we did not "hide out" but had attended the Muster before leaving Rome and therefore were not required to attend again on leaving Venice.

[seamwoman]

I love your "LIVES" Pia and wish I had followed it on "our" Med cruise!:D

Thanks for the info about "my" Fabrizio ~ Florence with him was fabulous!

Karen

[shepp]

Hey Pia! It was such a pleasure meeting you and Mike, and our trivia victory was sweeet. Every time I use that stunning refrigerator magnet, I'll think of you.

 

Happy sailing,

Shepp

[DougH]

No repositioning but a South American circuit very popular has been fully booked since last June and the wait list is also closed. BUT some lucky people have been getting the odd cancelled cabin by trying every day

 

That what I figured it was. I did, or tried to do, two legs of this last year. I was booked on the infamous earthquake cruise out of Santiago and ended up missing about the first ten days. Was going to complete my round SA trip this year by doing the Santiago to SF portion but had to cancel. The Grand is my replacement for that.

[Pia1913]

Good morning folks as we have been diverted and will not stop at the Cays. Captain says a front is approaching and we are going straight on to Curacao. Internet also has been erratic and I couldn't get on at all this morning. Still can't from my computer, so copy and paste is not an option.

 

 

Good thing we didn't do MUTS last night because we would have been rained out. Instead watch a silly movie Zookeeper in our cabin and laughed for almost 2 hours.

 

I am going to try an post this and then continue if I can.

[highheel girl]

Good morning folks as we have been diverted and will not stop at the Cays. Captain says a front is approaching and we are going straight on to Curacao. Internet also has been erratic and I couldn't get on at all this morning. Still can't from my computer, so copy and paste is not an option.

 

 

Good thing we didn't do MUTS last night because we would have been rained out. Instead watch a silly movie Zookeeper in our cabin and laughed for almost 2 hours.

 

I am going to try an post this and then continue if I can.

 

Enjoy your sea days!!

[Pia1913]

OK. Continuing.\

 

Since it was supposed to be a beachy day there was nothing much scheduled on board other than Breakfast at Tiffany's. Love that movie but have seen it at least 5 times.

 

Tonight's offerings are a female singrer Jacqui Michaels, Al Katz the comedian in Vista and MUTS has Cowboys and Aliens. We're going to see Al.

 

 

Just found out lunch cutoff is 249 and we are again going to be number one.

 

 

Paul: yes, all thos people actually complied, because they needed 100% checkout in order to allow us to reboard.

 

Hope this one posts too.

[kajee75]

Hi Pia,

I am enjoying your posts and will be following extra closely this week as my sisters, Maureen(Maun) and Trish just boarded yesterday. I watched the sailaway yesterday on Portfever and have been kicking myself ever since for not joining them!

Sorry to hear of the bad weather. Hope it clears soon and that you have nice, sunny visits to Curacao and Aruba.

[srpilo]

Pia, just an extra sea day to hone those Trivia skills :)

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the second half

Pete

[ssbeagle]

I would rather have the extra sea day than stop at the Cays. Bet they added a few more things to do pretty quick.

 

What is Portfever? Please tell us what the site is.

[1 HappyCruiser]

 

Just found out lunch cutoff is 249 and we are again going to be number one.

 

 

 

Post the numbers for the top three cruisers when available.

[mek]

My DS and DIL are on the Grand right now - sorry to hear you didn't make it to the Cay, this is the second time they have missed it and they are beach people! Hope the weather gets better for the rest of the week.

[ronl]

Pia I will be on the Grand in March all I want to kn ow is when was the Muster Drill was it before you left the dock or was it right after you sailed?? Ron

[mwvcruiser]

Pia - love keeping up with your adventures. How do you buy wine in Fort Lauderdale ? Do you take a cab from airport and stop at some place on 17th street? Can you send name or address of place to buy wine? What is ONE5? Continue enjoying the warm weather. Thanks

[Pia1913]

I'm back, but not for long. Answering questions first.

 

1. I live not to far from the port, so when we board from here we carry on all our supplies. ;)

 

2. #2 and #3 are very close to each other in the first third of the 500's. I have a lot more.

 

3. One5 is the new nightclub which took the place of Skywalkers

 

4. Muster is prior to sailing; at approx. 3:30

 

Posting this now and will continue

[Pia1913]

The weather stayed clear and mostly sunny throughout today. I heard someone talking about rough seas, but can't imagine they meant ours.

 

We decided to "do lunch" in Alfredo's and had them make us a pie of 1/2 Grand Princess (cheese, tomato sauce and parma ham) and 1/2 Vegetariana (cheese, tomato sauce, black olives, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, avocado and onions). YUM! Together with Dos Equi (Mike) and Pinot Grigio (me) it made for a nice change.

 

Now then, wifi is still down and no telling when/if it will come back. I'm here in the cafe and manager just shrugs his shoulders. Whomever it is that is fixing it; isn't. Since doing this completely live eats too many minutes, if you don't hear from me for a while you know the reason behind it. In the interim, I will continue to do my writing off line and post it whenever I can.

 

Goodbye for now and hope to see you tomorrow.

[san diego sue]

Wifi on the Grand last year was awful too. Thought because it was transatlantic that was the problem. However, once in ports, still had problem.

Pia, Do you remember that the Internet Manager gave my husband the crew log in to use and it worked okay but still slow. Maybe he can give you that one.

Still recognizes you and uses your minutes but at least you can get on.

I also remember that all their printers were off line and everyone was screaming at the guy because they wanted their boarding passes printed.

[5fathom]

Pia, we ate at Alfredo's two weeks ago on the Grand and we asked for a combo from two of their pizza's and they said "no", no variance ! Still great pizza though ! :confused:

[coo359a2]

Pia, will you post which pier you docked at in Curacao? Thanks

[lannp]

I was on the Grand Jan. 21-Feb. 4. The internet service both weeks was bad. A lot of people were complaining about it.

Princess generally holds their muster drill prior to sailaway and when we docked in Curacao week 1 we were at the pier on the edge of town. You had to walk through the hotel complex and cross the pontoon bridge to get into town.

[caribill]

Pia - I may have missed seeing it in your posts, but is the $3.99 Happy Hour still offered?

[cayugashue]

Hi Pia, So enjoying your updates! I will be on the Grand Feb 25, can't wait.

Question regarding you bringing the 4 bottles of wine on board. Did you carry them on, or pack in your luggage? Wondering as the Princess policy now is "1 bottle of wine or champange per voyage", and not per port as it was before.

Thanks in advance!