Caribbean Princess-4/11/15-4/18-15: "The Last Cruise I'd Ever Take!"

[JimmyVWine]

Aahhhhhh.....Rocco. Mr. Six Pack. Let me just sit back and sip my coffee and remember good times and good views. :D

 

No kidding. Every time we saw him in the Piazza, I felt guilty about eating the Norman Love desserts. Man is that guy buff.

[JimmyVWine]

Day Two-April 12, 2015 (Princess Cays)

 

We awoke to find that the ship was anchored and we sat just offshore of Princess Cays. Our Port side cabin gave us this view.

 

 

 

As you face the island, to the right hand side of the docking area you will find “clam shells” and a beach that is nice for walking. If you do so, you would be heading toward the southern tip of Eleuthera. This is the “less developed” side of the compound, if one can characterize it like that. To the left of the docking area there are shopping/souvenir pavilions, lounge chairs, more clam shells, the buffet area, bars, the water sports rental booth, the snorkeling beach and the “quiet” beach. A more close-up view of the docking area and the two sides described above can be seen here:

 

 

As noted above, the ship sits anchored off of the coast of the island. So this means that this is a tendering port. In other words, you must abandon ship into a rescue craft and be “ferried” over to the island. It is a simple process, but one that comes with the natural complications of a landing operation involving thousands of people. While it needn’t take an Eisenhower or a Montgomery to pull off the landing, there are some things to take not of. If you want to leave the ship “early”, as in, say, the first 90 minutes after the invasion signal is given, then you will need to go to the designated MDR holding area, get a tender ticket, and wait for your number to be called. If you wait a while after the first wave descends on the island, you will be told that you will not need to go through the ticketing exercise and can simply make your way to Deck 4 (oddly called the “Gala Deck” as if there are festive occasions taking place there…there aren’t) and once on that deck, you will be shuttled onto the rescue craft for departure.

Now, there will be times when the tendering is rendered so difficult so as to be cancelled. This caused much grief and consternation among the passengers. But the photo below should spell it all out for you. You are on a 950 foot ship moving onto a tiny little platform that sits on the water, and then you cross over to a rescue craft that could be bobbing up and down in rough seas. The water was smooth the day we were there, and I would guess that this is more typical than not. But when you look at the “without a net” boarding process captured below, one can see how rough seas would make this a “not recommended” activity.

 

 

Whenever a crowd of 3,000 people gather to do anything, competitions will ensue. Who can be first? Who can get the “best seat” on the rescue craft? These little games of one-ups-man-ship are to be expected. But rest assured, you will only be on the rescue craft for about 6 minutes. We decided to let the crowds go before us, as our intent was to snorkel most of the time that we were on the island. We were not in a rush to secure the “best” lounge chair, the “best clam shell”, or the “best of anything”. So we had a late breakfast on our balcony from pastries we got at the IC, and fruit that we got at the Horizon Court. (Note to the staff at the Horizon Court. There is no need to proudly tell the passengers that they are being handed a “fresh, hot plate!” when they enter the buffet area. To the people who are there to get slices of pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, and strawberries, a hot plate is the last thing we want.) I digress. So we finished our breakfast, headed to Deck 5, and were told to go directly to Deck 4. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200. Do Not Go To The MDR For A Tender Ticket. We got the last three seats on our craft, as passenger after passenger passed on boarding so that they could be “first” to board the next craft, as if doing so would change their lot in life for the better. Oh well. We got the last three seats inside the craft, at the stern, facing backwards. Sort of like the “way-back” of a 1972 Buick Station Wagon. But lucky us. The window at the stern was wide open and provided a perfect frame for a photo. Provided, of course, that a decent photo could be taken while the craft banged up and down as if we were shooting the rapids on the Colorado River. So I pulled out my camera, set the shutter speed to 800, pointed, and fired away, figuring that I’d never get a usable photo. I guess I was wrong.

 

 

A funny thing to note about your arrival on Princess Cays. The Patter promised that as we disembarked, we would have the opportunity for (and I am quoting here), “a once in a lifetime photograph.” First, we never saw where this “opportunity” was, perhaps because we were late arrivers, and second, because this same phrase was posted each and every day that we got off the ship. As my daughter put it, “This is our once in a lifetime opportunity to have our picture taken with a pirate/orca/crab fisherman/sailor”. Been there. Done that.”

 

So we made our way to the left (as you face the docking area) and walked all the way to the spot where the octagonal structure juts out into the water. This separates the swimming beach from the retaining wall beach. We had read that this is where the entrance to the best snorkeling area was. And this is true. We claimed two lounge chairs for the three of us that were shaded, and proceeded to don our masks and flippers. We always bring our own gear. To me, using snorkel gear that others have worn and slobbered into is orders of magnitude worse than putting on bowling shoes that others have sweated in. Neither option is all that appealing, but I simply cannot endure the former. Lounge chairs were rather plentiful, I must say, and we had no trouble getting two together in the shade to hold our stuff as we ventured out into the water.

 

Truth be told, private cruise islands are not my thing, for all the reasons that I laid out in Post #1. I love a nice crescent beach on a tropical island. But what I love about that does not look like this:

 

 

Still, this was to be our home for the day, and I refused to be a sour-puss and stay on the ship. There is a world to see out there, good and bad, and darn it, I am going to see it. And with the promise of some “OK” snorkeling at Princess Cays, we would surely make the most of it. We entered the water in the swimming area, and made our way around the point to the snorkeling area. I wish they could design a separate entry for snorkelers, perhaps down a ladder. The swimming area was wall to wall people who churned up the water to the point where visibility was nil. Simply swimming out of that area to get to the snorkeling area was like negotiating traffic on the D.C. Beltway. But we managed.

 

The snorkeling lived up to its “OK” billing. Fish were plentiful, but live coral was not. But it certainly provided enough fun to make the trek out to the island worth it. I have no regrets about our time in the water. As for lunch, we decided to play it by ear. If we were done swimming in time to head back to the ship to eat, we would do that. But it turns out that we spent enough time in the water, and worked up enough of an appetite that we opted to hit the buffet in its last 20 minutes of operation. The food was about what one would expect. Sort of like a giant Trident Grill. There were Burgers and Knockwurst and ribs, all of which we collectively ate and enjoyed. There were salads that looked like they had outlived their “born on” date, so we skipped those. Desserts were a disappointment, but we figured (rightly) that once back on the ship, we would hit up the IC for espresso and could get some better desserts there.

 

We wanted to dry off as much as possible before heading back on the tender, so my daughter and I walked around and took some more photos. Here they are, along with a little photo lesson. The shot of the beach and chairs above was shot with a Canon 24mm-70mm “L” Series lens. If you want to know what benefit a wider angle lens might get you, here is a similar photo taken with a 10mm-18mm lens.

 

 

(Continued in next post)

[rocklinmom]

Fabulous review! Awaiting the rest...

[JimmyVWine]

Day Two (Continued)

 

Here are two similar shots taken from the jetty, the first with the 24-70 lens and the second with the 10-18.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of part of the snorkeling area in front of the quiet beach with retaining wall. The entire area is roped off about 50 yards off shore to separate the water craft from the snorkelers. I wish that the snorkeling area were bigger. But given the choice between a larger area and having people sliced up limes awaiting a Margarita, I guess it is better to have the snorkelers penned in.

 

 

 

This next two photos capture what I believe is the essence of Princess Cays. An opportunity to enjoy the water, with a ship in the background. In the second of the two photos, you can see that the water is so clear that you can make out large numbers of fish.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, a shot of the ship from the shore.

 

 

 

The evening portion of the day (including dinner at Sabatini’s) will be covered in a subsequent post.

[Pia1913]

Really enjoying this and laughing out loud. A lot. Makes the boring Caribbean a bit less boring. I refer to the island, not the ship. :)

[Corinda]

this is a wonderful story ... er...review :) Loving it!! Getting me excited for my alaska cruise in August!!

[JimmyVWine]

this is a wonderful story ... er...review :) Loving it!! Getting me excited for my alaska cruise in August!!

 

Ooohhh. Then you should spend a little time reading this!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1903541

 

 

And thanks for the kind words.

[Hawaiifrank]

I started reading this thread because the title caught my eye. I continued just to see what you did in St Thomas and Nassau. Alas, you haven't gotten there yet. :D

 

Lots of details and I like the humor. I'll stay tuned to read the rest. Those 2 ports have been troublesome for us too. The only place we've been in St Thomas is K-mart. Yep, 3 times in that port, 3 trips to K-mart a half mile down the road from the port.

 

Nassau isn't much better. I think 4 times there, maybe 5. The visits kind of blur together...A gauntlet of vendors to get outside...the giant Sr. Frog statue beckoning...the wicker maze of the Straw Market...murky water...mountains of Rum Cake.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing your experience.

[Pia1913]

 

Lots of details and I like the humor. I'll stay tuned to read the rest. Those 2 ports have been troublesome for us too. The only place we've been in St Thomas is K-mart. Yep, 3 times in that port, 3 trips to K-mart a half mile down the road from the port.

 

Nassau isn't much better. I think 4 times there, maybe 5. The visits kind of blur together...A gauntlet of vendors to get outside...the giant Sr. Frog statue beckoning...the wicker maze of the Straw Market...murky water...mountains of Rum Cake.

 

I'm looking forward to hearing your experience.

 

St. Thomas: Supermarket on your right before you go up the hill to KMart.

 

Nassau: You forgot the hair braiders.

[JimmyVWine]

The only place we've been in St Thomas is K-mart. Yep, 3 times in that port, 3 trips to K-mart a half mile down the road from the port.

Are you sure that you weren't on my cruise? There is a K-Mart story coming up when I get to STT.

[JimmyVWine]

Day Two (Continued)

 

After returning to the ship, we made our ritual trip to the IC for espresso and a cookie (or two), and then we took a long walk around the ship, realizing that we really hadn’t explored much of it up to this point. We made a lap around the Promenade noting that someday in the future, we might not be able to do this anymore. We eventually made our way back to our cabin for music and wine on our balcony, which proved to be another daily ritual. Originally, I had counted on consuming just one or two bottles over the course of the week on the balcony, but it soon became apparent that I had missed the mark badly. So I made a vow to find some decent wine on St. Martin and test the “can you bring on board wine purchased at a port” theory. A French island had to have some decent wine, non?

 

We had a 7:00 reservations at Sabatini’s, and having looked at the MDR menu options for that night, I was relieved. I had originally set up our Specialty Dining reservations based on what our day had in store, and whether we would be having a nice lunch or not. In other words, the more pedestrian the lunch, the greater my desire for a fancy dinner. And vice versa. Knowing that our lunch on Princess Cays day would either be at the island’s buffet, or at the Trident Grill, I concluded that this would be a perfect day for our first Specialty dinner. Up to this point, we had always enjoyed Sabatini’s, and put it a notch or two above our experiences at the Crown Grill. So for this cruise, I had planned on burning through much of our on board credit by having dinner twice at Sabatini’s and once at the Crown Grill.

 

We arrived a few minutes late, wine and wine glasses in hand, and were shown to a nice table in the center of the restaurant. Service was very professional, and the atmosphere was delightful. I started with the Burrata and my girls each had the Artichoke Soufflé. These dishes were quite good. I then added a “mid course” to my order of Spaghetti alla Scogli, which was a red sauce with mixed seafood, (langostino, diver scallops, tiger shrimp, vongole (clams) and black mussels in cherry tomato sauce). The “diver scallops” were actually bay scallops. So if a diver went down to get them, he needn’t have had a boat. But they were sweet and tasty. No points off for culinary skill here. Only points off for the inaccurate description. The rest of the seafood was very good….except for the langostino. Not sure what went wrong here, but I suspect that the culprit was “Mr. Freeze”. The meat of the crustacean was bone dry. As in “powdery”. I likened it to the scene in “Christmas Vacation” where Clark Griswold cuts the turkey and it “poofs” into nothingness. So too here. I politely left the 90% uneaten sad little crustacean on the side plate provided for the shells and carried on. Other than the Saharan Langostine, the dish was fine.

 

My wife and daughter, not wanting me to dine solo for the mid course, agreed to split an order of the Penne with Short Ribs. It was perfectly fine, if a bit uninspired. For our Mains, my daughter had the Gamberi alla Caprese con Verdurine di Stagione (garlic infused shrimp with cherry tomatoes and potpourri of vegetables) and my wife had the Lobster Three Ways, while I had the Roasted Veal Rack. I had always enjoyed the “Veal Chop” in the past, and, though saddened that it had been replaced with the Veal Rack, I thought I would give it a go. My daughter’s course was a real winner. Plenty of shrimp in a tasty sauce. My wife’s dish was actually “Lobster Two Ways”, because counting the sauce on the plate as one of the “Ways” is really cheating. She was satisfied with her dish, but not overly enthusiastic. My “Rack of Veal” was very similar to a Veal Chop. In fact, I think I liked this better. It seemed more moist. So for anyone out there lamenting the loss of the Veal Chop, fear not. The current menu option should satisfy you just fine. We were all stuffed, but just had to look at the dessert menu. Surely there was something to split, right? Well, we actually found two things to split. The Norman Love chocolate dessert special, and the Sinfonia di Sapori. It was a real struggle, but the three of us managed to do damage to both desserts. All in all, I would say that our meal here was a success, and there were ample menu offerings that we did not try this time that continued to tempt us. So a second visit here would not be wasted.

 

After dinner, my daughter took her leave to join her friends for the night. My wife and I took a walk around the ship to burn off a bit of dinner, and see if there was a lounge that we wanted to hang out in. The Theater performer was “Master Magician”, Alex Ramon. I would have liked to see that, but the show started at 10:15 and my wife was convinced that she would have fallen asleep after the first 5 minutes. She was probably right, as ultimately we decided to go back to the cabin and see if there was a movie or show on TV that we wanted to watch. The snorkeling must have done us in, as we were both sound asleep after watching about 10 minutes of a home renovation/flipping show on TV. And isn’t it about time that Princess retrofits the older ships with watchable TVs? It is really difficult to watch those old TVs when all you are used to now is digital HDTV. Turns out that it didn’t matter much as that 10 minute stint was the only 10 minutes that either TV was turned on during our entire week. Tomorrow, a Sea Day.

[lynwar]

Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!! We were on the Caribbean Princess Sept. 20-29, 2014 for the second time. The first time was Sept. 18-25, 2004!!! So it was a reunion for us and I felt right at home.

We aren't snorkelers or go to the specialty restaurants so I'm enjoying your experiences with them. Hubby would undoubtedly choose Sabatini's for Italian food, while my choice would be the Crown Grille for steak!! Most of the week we hang out in the Horizon Court/Cafe Caribe areas, and Aft Terrace pool space to eat. I think we went to the MDR once, on the first formal night. As for the water, he'd like to go in one of the hot tubs or pool but I'm not a water person, except for 15 decks above it. :D

 

Per Princess Cays-we've gone over most of the time and walked around and eaten the buffet food, but then head to the Lido deck once back at the ship. One time, there was some entertainment in the tiki hut bar area that we enjoyed while rocking in one of the rocking chairs. On our CB cruise, they were all taken so ended up at a picnic bench which was OK, too.

 

I'm glad that you saw Bert with an E ! We missed him in 2004 because of Hurricane Jeanne (yes, that was our week) when most regular staff was on a break and finally caught up with him in Sept. I was certainly "Bertified" and became a groupie. I totally agree that he is a fine musician that many people don't appreciate because all they see is his more manic performance. Did you know that he's co-authored church anthems? Our choir sang one of his pieces during Holy Week. I will be taking a friend on his Bert Cruise on the Regal during the week of January 24-31, 2016. So good!

 

Anyway, thanks for your wonderful review. I just wanted to get in my two cents now, and then will continue reading.

 

 

Lynne

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts. Pictures are great too.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Tyskie]

We have been on the CB multiple times - love your writing style - quite entertaining! ;)

Thanks for posting.

[silverbird]

Absolutely wonderful review. Cannot wait for future episodes. Keep up the great work. Thank you.

 

SilverBird

[JimmyVWine]

Day Three-April 13, 2015 (Sea Day)

 

Remember where this all started? My daughter telling me that she wanted an April vacation where she could lay around and do nothing? And remember the part where I said that I know her too well to think that she could ever be so sedentary? Well, put those two things together and you more or less have our “Sea Day”. The night before, while dining at Sabatini’s, I made the comment to my wife that it must feel odd to be on vacation with me doing “nothing”. She said: “What do you mean by ‘doing nothing’? We went to the island today, snorkeled for almost two hours, came back to the ship and walked around.” My daughter chimed in: “Yes. But that is ‘doing nothing’.” I guess that all depends on how one defines “doing nothing”. Seinfeld made a fortune on a show “about nothing”, yet “something” happened in every episode. To me, a day when there is no alarm clock set, where there are no appointments to make, no excursions to be on time for, and no activities that require payment, that is a day of “nothing”. As I mentioned earlier, I am not one who sits still often or voluntarily. And neither is my daughter. She has plenty of my DNA, and our double helixes are constantly spinning. But I could see where the dinner conversation was headed, so I relented. “OK”, said I. Tomorrow, on our Sea Day, I will let you two lead the way. Anything goes. The Alpha Planner will become the Beta Follower. And thus it was decided that our Sea Day would really be a day of lounging and relaxing. At least, for me and my wife. The Teen Center had a rousing game of Dodgeball planned for 11:00 a.m. and my daughter wanted to join her friends to do that. So she had to be up and out of bed by at least 10:57. My only request was that we not sleep so late as to miss out on the pastries from the International Café. I wanted to get some breakfast foods from there before they transitioned over to lunch. Our breakfasts on the balcony are a cruising tradition and I intended to stick to that, even if breakfast was to be had at the crack of noon.

 

That is all a very long way of telling you that I will be very short on details for this day. Not much to tell. We had our breakfast of IC pastries and Horizon Court fruit (served on a hot plate) out on our balcony. For about a minute. Turns out that the wind had really picked up. The Captain, (John Foster at this point in the cruise), had promised that we would be proceeding at 22 knots and doing so directly into a 25 knot wind. So you can do the math on the Apparent Wind. I didn’t need to. I can tell you that napkins would be flying overboard as well as any light (in weight, not calories) pastries. At the muster drill, they told us to stay on the ship unless it is a last resort, and to throw a flotation device overboard if we see anyone go into the water. They did not tell us what to do if one of our custard donuts went overboard. I would have jumped in after it. Sorry, Captain, but a man has to do what a man has to do! So breakfast was in the room this day. And then my daughter left to join the Dodgeball game and my wife and I headed out to find a not-so-windy spot to read the pile of newspapers that we had brought with us that needed catching up on. A lounge chair + old newspapers + earbuds + my Summertime Playlist on my phone would be my “nothing for the day”.

 

I’m no physicist or Navy vet, but I can figure out what “apparent wind” is, and even if I couldn’t, this is one time where experience would be the best teacher. In any event, I suggested to my wife that the best (and perhaps only) chance we had of finding a place where we could open up newspapers and still be outside was out by the Terrace Pool (which, for those who do not know, is at the stern, aft, back, closest to the wake area of the ship). There is seating on several levels there, and it was my hope that the ship itself would act as a windbreaker against the otherwise interfering wind. It did, to a degree. We found a couple of loungers there and had a devil of a time putting our towels down on them. The word “futility” comes to mind. But I discovered that on the non-cushioned loungers, the material that you lay on is held in place by bungee cord material wrapped around the framing. By squeezing a small portion of the towel underneath the tight bungee cord, I was able to get enough of a grip on the towel so as to keep it in place. Then, folding the newspapers into small sections to create less of a sail for the wind, we were able to read most of our stockpile of old papers without feeding them to the fish. Holy Smokes! The Patriots won the Super Bowl! Does catching up on two month old news count as doing “nothing”?

 

When we got hungry, we decided to make a meal out of the offerings from the Trident Grill and the Horizon Court. I would get a knockwurst and fries from the former, and some salad from the latter. The plan seemed flawless until I walked out of the Horizon Court with my salad heading back to the table we had found on the Lido Deck near “Scoops”. The wind was just about to toss my salad overboard when I placed my hand atop it to hold it in place. I managed to save nearly all of it on my walk back to our table which was thankfully free of heavy wind. But now I had Balsamic dressing all over my hand. Turns out that this whole “doing nothing” thing is more difficult than it appears on paper. With lunch finished and Scoops in my sights, I headed over to get myself a little treat. Turned out to be a big treat. The soft-serve machine was down for repairs, so they were scooping out hard ice cream at no cost. Cool. For once, “Scoops” was living up to its name. On most other days, it would be better named “Swirls”.

 

Mid-afternoon came, and it was time for the ritual espresso in the Piazza. We headed down there and found comfortable seating out of the reach of the wind and decided to hang there for a while. I apologize if occupying seats there long after you have finished your food/beverage is considered a faux pas, but I suppose with all the faux lashes, faux nails, faux jewels and faux body parts that I saw during the week, I was entitled to a faux pas, at least just this once. But the “Paper Airplane Contest”, Steel Drum Player and singer, Kieron Cox were lined up, back-to-back-to-back, (which on this Board is written as B2B2B), in the Piazza, and we just didn’t feel like moving. So we had our espressos and enjoyed the slow pace of doing nothing for almost two hours, if watching paper airplanes and listening to music is “doing nothing”. Seinfeld would say “yes”. My wife might argue against that proposition. Batteries recharged, it was time to begin the process of getting ready for Formal Night. So we headed back to the cabin to do just that. We had made a reservation for 7:30 in the Coral Dining Room by calling DINE that morning, and based on that, told out daughter to be back in the cabin by 5:00. Two-and-a-half hours should be enough for a 17 year old to get ready for formal night, right? Not really. But she came close.

 

Our Formal Night meal and evening entertainment will be discussed in a subsequent post.

[Walt fan]

Just chiming in - I was looking for reviews of the Star Princess - and stumbled upon your CP review and was completely hooked - love your writing style and details - thanks for the taking the time to post! Cannot wait for more!

 

We are taking our first Princess cruise in June so your details are reassuring and making me even more excited - we have only cruised RC in the past and I didn't want to set my expectations too high. Thank you again for all the details and helpful hints.

[JimmyVWine]

Day Three (Continued)

 

We checked in at the podium of the Coral Dining Room for our 7:30 reservation at around 7:40. We were seated immediately at a nice table close to a window, but it was dark enough by now such that it didn’t matter. The service was perfectly fine. My only complaint comes from the fact that there are service stations placed every 25 feet or so around the dining room where servers perform final preparations, remove place settings, and otherwise work like busy bees in a hive. Not the servers’ fault. It is simply the system that the ships have created. This beehive of activity creates noise and commotion that really alter the sedate nature of a nice dinner at the end of the day. Constant movement. Constant sounds. Sometimes I feel like I am in a diner instead of a nice restaurant. We find this to be a bit unnerving, but perhaps we are the only ones.

 

Our menu for the evening was to be the 50th Anniversary menu. I suppose that I have no quarrel with the concept, but I found the selections to be overly limited and bland, but more so in the creativity sense than the taste sense. Each section of the menu had only two choices. Now mind you, the Ossobuco Agnolotti was quite good. But if I were on a B2B cruise and was faced with this menu a second time, I would be hard-pressed to find something different to choose as a change of pace. And the entrees—Turbot and Beef Tournedos—are hardly inspired dishes, and can scarcely be called dishes that are emblematic of the “Two Thousands”. The meal, especially the mains, all seemed like boring banquet food not befitting a Formal Night dinner. So lobster and rack of lamb were not around in the Two Thousands? For what it is worth, I had the beef, my wife had the fish, and my daughter punted and ordered from the Fettuccini Alfredo as her main course. None of us was displeased with the quality of the food we had received. But we all were left with the feeling that we had been somewhat cheated out of a true Formal Night experience. Norman Love came to the rescue with a simply fab Chocolate Raspberry Mousse with Vanilla Crème Brulee and Crunchy Shortbread dessert. That was a winner, and I hope it does not go into a 50 year hibernation before reappearing on the menu.

 

7:30 is a bit later than we typically dine, because this dining slot can cut you out of a lot of the evening’s entertainment. But for this night, my wife and I had decided that we would go back to Crooners to catch Bert With An “E” in his stylized vocals mode. We had seen him on Saturday night in acoustic mode, and Sunday was his day off. Or, as he put it, his “therapy day”. Never having seen/heard him in full throat, we decided to make that a priority. Much to my surprise, our daughter opted to spend the evening with us instead of joining her friends for the evening. She said that her friends were not getting dressed up for formal night, and that she didn’t want to go back to the cabin and “undo” herself just to join them for a couple of hours. So she stayed with us, looking fabulous, and enjoyed the show along with us old folks. A few Guinness for me, Tanqueray and Tonics for my wife, and Mocktails for our daughter, and we were set for the evening. Crooners was, of course, standing room only, and we once again closed the place down. Off to bed to get ready for our day in St. Maarten and St. Martin. Pictures will be included. I swear. And I think you will like them.

[JimmyVWine]

Just chiming in - I was looking for reviews of the Star Princess - and stumbled upon your CP review and was completely hooked - love your writing style and details - thanks for the taking the time to post! Cannot wait for more!

 

We are taking our first Princess cruise in June so your details are reassuring and making me even more excited - we have only cruised RC in the past and I didn't want to set my expectations too high. Thank you again for all the details and helpful hints.

 

Thanks for the kind words. I think (hope) that you will find Princess to your liking. Despite the mild rivalry, RC and PCL are far more similar than different, at least until you get to the Oasis class ships. Princess has nothing that compares with those, whether one is trying to do a positive or negative comparison. We were docked beside the Independence of the Seas all day in St. Maarten and it was very clear to me that the folks on our ship would likely have loved that ship, and vice versa.

[JimmyVWine]

Day Four-April 14, 2015 (St. Maarten/St. Martin)

 

As I noted earlier, this port stop was one of the deciding factors in getting me to choose this cruise. It was the one port stop (other than Princess Cays—but I have been on other private islands before and pretty much knew what to expect) that I had not yet visited. And it had two things that I knew we would enjoy: good food, and shopping opportunities that did not involve Diamonds International. But keeping with my overall plan of making this a relaxing vacation of relative “nothingness”, I opted not to book any excursions. Not through the ship, and not independently. This is a rarity for us. But hey! Nothingness rules!

 

We were not yet to St. Maarten when we awoke. Our scheduled arrival time was 10:00 and it appeared that we would be close to that. As we pulled into port, the Independence of the Seas, Disney Fantasy and Norwegian Getaway were already there to greet us.

 

 

 

We spent the day next to the Independence of the Seas and it appeared to us that this is a ship we would enjoy if ever the opportunity arose. Nice, big balconies. A walkable Promenade. It looked like a decent design.

 

 

I asked my daughter if she wanted to ride on Dumbo, and until she went out on the balcony, she had no idea what I was talking about.

 

 

 

 

We had several goals that we wanted to achieve in this port. First and foremost, we wanted to break away (which is another ship altogether) from the crowd. Sources revealed that there would/could be as many as 15,495 people docking in St. Maarten that day. And we would be three of them. I don’t like those odds. As you know by now, that is not even close to what I want or expect out of a visit to a Caribbean island. So escaping the crowds meant getting off of Voorstraat (Front Street) in Philipsburg. The second thing we hoped to accomplish was having a nice lunch on the island that is said to be the culinary capitol of the Caribbean. That also meant getting out of Philipsburg and heading to the French side. The third thing we wanted to accomplish was some boutique shopping, including but not limited to getting my daughter a wide-brimmed straw hat. She had wanted one before the trip but didn’t find one that she liked at a price that I liked. I told her to forget about the trinket kiosks on Princess Cays, and that she should find what she was looking for in St. Maarten. Or, to be more precise, St. Martin. Again, that meant getting out of Philipsburg.

 

Now, I don’t mean to rain on Philipsburg’s parade. By all accounts, it is one of the best, if not the best place in the Caribbean to do a certain type of shopping. It’s just that that type of shopping is not our thing. We prefer the unique cultures, sights, sounds and smells of each place we visit. I don’t enjoy Diamonds International Row and Tanzanite Alley. I can find those stores in Juneau, Cozumel and Philipsburg. We all longed for something different. So it all fell into place that the French side is where we would likely find what we were looking for. But where to go? After a great deal of internet research, we had our answer.

 

To be continued…

[JimmyVWine]

Day Four (Continued)

 

In a post earlier in this thread, Norris stated that he was anxious to hear about our trip up to Grand Case. Alas, that was not to be. The French side of St. Martin does indeed carry with it the reputation of being the Culinary capitol of the region, and the seemingly endless options of restaurants in Grand Case are largely the reason why. So, knowing that we were to have but a single day on the island, and in actuality, mere hours, there would be just one meal for us, and it had to be good. No…great. Like a whirling dervish, I set out on the Cruise Critic forums for the port discussions, the Cruise Critic port summary pages, Chowhound, TripAdvisor, Zagat, and every other source possible to assist me in putting together my “Top 10” places to dine in St. Martin. From there, narrowing it down to one would be the hard part. Or so one would think. Indeed, I did compile my list, and of the Top 10 places that intrigued me, eight were in Grand Case and two were in Marigot. This made perfect sense as one of my best friends vacations in St. Martin fairly regularly and they dine almost exclusively in Grand Case. Now came the task of deciding which restaurant to pick.

 

Naturally, I started at the top of the list with Number 1. “Closed for Lunch”. How about Number 2? “Closed for Lunch”. I skipped Number 3, as it was in Marigot and had by now concluded that Grand Case was the place to be. Number 4? “Closed for Lunch”. And on and on. Somewhat dejected, I went back to Number 3. “Open for Lunch”. Was this the winner? Did it make sense to go to Marigot instead? To answer this question, I needed to determine if my other needs could be met there. Would we be away from the crowds? Could we do some shopping that wasn’t anchored by Diamonds International and/or Senor Frogs? Could my daughter find her “I want to look like Bridget Bardot or Sophia Loren on the Riviera” hat? Apparently, yes, yes and yes. We certainly wouldn’t be alone in Marigot, but solitude was never the goal. But from all reports, Marigot does not look like Front Street in Philipsburg. And there was plenty of shopping that ranged from an open air market of locally made and sourced goods and wares to an upscale mall. All within easy walking distance of Restaurant Number 3. Seemed like a no brainer. Marigot it would be. Sorry, Norris.

 

One of the first things that caught my attention during my research was the existence of the Marigot Market. I live for the sights, smells, colors, cultures and personalities of the Caribbean. And here is how St. Martin’s official website described the Market:

 

Marigot market is best described as a melting pot of colours, smells and lively hustle and bustle.

Stalls manned by locals selling fruit and vegetables, spices, local meats and fresh fish caught that day are housed under a mass of open Creole huts along the water front.

In 2006, as part of a series of events for black history week, a splendid fresco commemorating female market sellers, was painted by an artist from St. Martin on a wall opposite the market.

Marigot's market also boasts around a hundred craft stands manned by locals and foreigners, spread out in a small arena or in kiosks. Here, creators, artists or simply vendors lay out their wares every day of the week except Sunday.

 

Additional sources proclaimed that much or most of the items offered for sale were made on the island and not imported from Asia. This is exactly the type of thing that I was looking for. And it just so happens that the Market abuts the transportation center where taxis drop off and pick up passengers. And it happened to be two blocks from the West Indies Mall, an indoor, high-end mall of French style boutiques. And it happens to sit at the foot of Fort Louis, a preserved fortress built in the late 1780s—surely worth a look. And finally, it was about 4 blocks from Marina Port Royal, a picturesque horseshoe of a marina that was surrounded by more shops and restaurants, including the one I had zeroed in on for lunch. Armed with this research, we ate our usual breakfast on the balcony and headed down to Deck 4 to search out a taxi to take us to Marigot. This is quite easy to do, as Dock Maarten, (seriously…that is what it is called) has a transportation center of its own immediately after you walk out of the gated security checkpoint. You will find orange/rust colored roofed structures where vans, buses, excursion vehicles and taxis are waiting to take passengers to their desired locations. And popular locations such as Marigot and Orient Beach have their own, clearly marked lines. So we got in the “Marigot” line and soon were heading out of Philipsburg with another couple from a different ship. $10 (U.S.) per person got us to the transportation center in Marigot, mere steps from the Market. That looked like a good place to begin our day.

 

One of the reasons that I quoted in full the passage from the St. Martin website was that it no doubt conjured up an image in your mind of what the Market would be like. I know that it did for me. Well, let me tell you that the description does not do it justice. The moment we walked in, we were confronted by a series of tables holding every spice imaginable. The aroma was unbelievable. I wanted two of everything. Soon, we were roaming around and it became very clear that my daughter was going to find the “Bridget Bardot/Sophia Loren On The Riviera” hat. So I left the girls to hunt for the perfect specimen while I walked around on a photo safari. Here is just a sample of the shapes and colors that were blowing in the warm breeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything about the place whispered: “You’re in the Caribbean”. The Creole tones of the voices. The wafting aroma of tropical spices. The colorful dresses. You couldn’t have sanded off the smile that was on my face. And yes, my daughter found her hat. And a pair of pearl earrings handmade by the guy who was selling them. Money in his pocket and not some “in every port” conglomerate. Success.

 

To be continued…

Edited April 29, 2015 by JimmyVWine

[JimmyVWine]

Day Four (Continued)

 

As promised by the St. Martin website, immediately across from the Market was a mural painting on the side of a building. One panel paid homage to the women of the Market…

 

 

…and the other panel depicted the men who fish the local waters.

 

 

Nearby is a public restroom if the need arises. And next to that is this brightly painted art studio.

 

 

 

And above it all, standing sentinel, is Fort Louis looking every bit as if it had been built at the time we were drafting our Constitution. With the French flag flying overhead, I could not help but recall the scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the English Knights are tautned by the French soldiers in the castle.

 

“Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time! “

 

 

There is a pathway (rustic and fairly steep) by which you can walk up to the fort that starts just behind the Mall of the West Indies. But it was hot and the girls didn’t feel like doing their Caribbean Mountain Goat impersonation, so we headed to the mall is instead of where the maul was.

 

Lots of good (and pricey) shopping at this mall. My daughter found a cute dress that was a relative bargain that she wanted to wear on the second formal night. The first formal night presented as a far more casual affair than the ones we had enjoyed in the past. It is sometimes reported here that “few men wear tuxedos”, and just as often that is shouted down as being untrue. Well, on this cruise, it was the case that tuxedos were hovering around 10% without all precincts reporting. But enough for this network to call it. We saw jeans and open collared shirts. Sport coats and no ties. Sport coats with ties. Suits in pastel colors. Suits in light colors. Suits in dark colors. And a few tuxedos. My daughter decided that she would opt for a dress that looked very nice, but did not rise to the level of a gown. While the Holy Grail may have resided in the French castle above, her Holy Grail was a dress from a French boutique that cost less than $250. She succeeded. But the quest to find shoes to go with it was a complete failure. Not that I shop for women’s shoes all that often, (if at all), I can tell you that I was shell-shocked by the prices I saw. Wow! Existing shoes would have to do. And they did.

 

All shopped out, it was time to walk to lunch at the Marina. My report of that meal will be posted in the next post. Maybe tomorrow, with any luck.

[partybarbie]

Can't wait to hear more. We will be in St. Martin (via the Emerald Princess) in October. The shopping sounds wonderful, so I'm hoping the lunch is too.:D If it's not good, then thank you in advance for letting us know that too.;)

[JimmyVWine]

Day Four (Continued)

 

We headed toward the marina by way of Rue de la Liberté, having read that this was one of the main drags for cute boutiques--just in case the song of some other shopping Siren proved irresistible. It is an interesting street. In another time, in another place, one might feel as if one had wandered into a sketchy neighborhood. But despite the outward appearance, the chipped and faded facades house the likes of Vuitton, Cartier and Chanel. An eclectic row of stores, to be sure. But hunger overwhelmed luxe goods, so we continued on to the Marina in search of our restaurant of choice, “Le Tropicana”. Belying its name, there is more here than merely orange juice. It currently holds the title of “#1 of 67 Restaurants in Marigot” on TripAdvisor, and came highly recommended by the good folks over on the Chowhound boards. And while I have not eaten at the other 66 restaurants in Marigot so as to be able to draw a comparison, I can, without hesitation, recommend Tropicana as a pleasant, comfortable and delicious place to enjoy lunch while visiting Marigot. The entrance to the Marina was a bit hard to spot at first. If walking down Rue de la Liberté from the direction of the West Indies Mall, Transportation Center or outdoor Market, you will want to be on the left side of the street. An archway opens up to a short alley leading to the marina. There, you will find Tropicana, some beachwear shops, and a number of other restaurants, all surrounding the water with impressive yachts and sailboats.

 

Tropicana is not fancy or formal, and for a lunch while roaming through Marigot, who would want fancy or formal. It appears to be a family run operation, as what seemed to be a husband-and-wife-team ran the whole show. There is outdoor seating, but even the indoor seating places you next to doorways that are wide open to the marina. There is no escaping the nautical vibe of the marina, and that is a good thing. The welcome was warm and inviting, and while business is conducted mostly in French (due to the fact that 75% of the diners were locals), English is most welcomed and the staff (of two) are more than fluent and accommodating. As one would expect, the menu is in French with English subtitles. Specials will be described in person by your server. The menu features several entrée sized salads that would easily comprise a meal in themselves, but can be ordered as “half portions” as starters. That is what we did. I had a field green salad with baked goat cheese, and the fromage was divine. Again, we are not talking about elegant cuisine here. Just really fresh ingredients handled in a loving way that makes French cuisine so appealing. The girls each had a salad of their own, one a Caesar and one a Nicoise. For my main, I had Penne with in a Lobster Cream Sauce with Lobster, Shrimp and Scallops. Heaven. But heavy. Not in a bad way. Just in a way that made it clear that this had to be my primary meal of the day, and I was fine with that. My wife had a Salmon dish that was the special of the day, and my daughter had a second appetizer as her main dish—Escargot in Puff Pastry. That was the winning dish. Often times a dish with puff pastry features pastry that is a mere afterthought. Here, were it not for the delectable snails in a rich, fragrant sauce, the pastry would have been the star of the show. My one bite had me seriously contemplating an order of my own for dessert. However, my friend who vacations in St. Martin suggested that we head to a place called Sarafina’s for our afternoon espresso and desserts. So we called a surrender at Tropicana, took a lap around the marina, and bid our hosts at Tropicana a fond adieu, fully satisfied and thankful that my toilsome research had paid dividends.

 

Before leaving the restaurant, I asked our server for a recommendation for a wine shop as I wanted to re-supply our cabin, perhaps with a couple bottles of Rosé from Provence. Seemed like the kind of town where this could be done. She gave me the name of a place (Le Gout du Vin) that was just down the street, and very close to Sarafina’s where we wanted to go for our coffees. Sarafina’s is on the corner of Boulevard de France and Rue de l’Anguille, while the wine shop was just down a ways on l’Anguille. Seemed like a plan. We hit up Sarafina’s first and as promised, we found a half-outdoor bakery/coffee shop with outdoor seating and kind, helpful service. The pastry shelves were like the International Café on steroids. Do not go there on an empty stomach. When we were finished there, we headed to the wine shop but ran into a bit of an issue. Many of the guidebooks and websites that I had consulted regarding Marigot cautioned that many shops and boutiques close for the French version of a siesta around 12:00pm or 1:00pm for a couple of hours. To this point, with the Market, the West Indies Mall and Sarafina’s, we had seen no evidence of that. While at the Mall, I was careful to check the posted hours on each storefront and was relieved to find no mention of mid-day closings. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case with Le Gout du Vin. It looked like a wonderful wine shop and a quick visit to its website will show you what I mean. http://french-wines-west-indies.grands-vins-de-france.eu/saint_martin_retail_shop/saint_martin_retail_shop.html

 

I am certain that it would have satisfied all my needs and more were it not for the fact that it followed the convention of shuttering its doors from 1:00-3:00. We didn’t have that much time to wait, as I wanted to leave a little time for us to do a quick visit to Philipsburg and walk from there back to Dock Maarten. But for those who are interested in finding a wine shop in St. Martin, know that a fine one does exist. But take note of the operating hours.

 

The walk from the depressingly darkened doors of Dionysus to the Transportation Center was short, and once there, we found a gentleman who asked us where we were headed. Once we told him, we were ushered to a waiting taxi van to be driven back to the ship. But instead of heading directly back, we opted to be left off at the Courthouse in Philipsburg which serves as both an historic site and a midpoint for the shopping to be done there. Despite the fact that we intended to stay clear of the 15,000 cruise ship passengers for the day, we still wanted to see what Philipsburg was all about. So for $10 per person, and about 25 minutes in travel time, we made our way from Marigot to downtown Philipsburg. We were dropped off as promised at the Courthouse, where I took this shot:

 

 

We strolled a bit along Front Street, picking up a few knick-knacks and souvenirs. No serious shopping. It came to a point where we needed to decide if we would: a) walk back to the ship; b) take a cab back to Dock Maarten; or c) reverse course and head in the opposite direction to take the water taxi back to the Dock. We walked from Front Street to the Boardwalk (which lines the shore) so as to get our bearings on how far things were from us. Then we voted. At first, there was a three way tie, and no white smoke rose from the chimney signaling resolution. My daughter wanted to take the water taxi and my wife was leaning toward a taxi. The ships appeared to be distant, and perhaps we had walked enough for the day. Here is a shot of the ships from the Boardwalk I downtown Philipsburg.

 

 

 

My daughter, upon seeing the lovely waterfront, changed her vote to “walking”, so away we went. Here is a picture of the Boardwalk along the waterfront. (Although I wonder why it is not called “Boardwaalk”. And shouldn’t the sandwich store be “Subwaay”?)

 

 

 

And another, closer view of the ships.

 

 

 

It is about a 15-20 minute walk back to the ships when done at a leisurely pace. We made some stops along the way to take in the sights and sounds and take some pictures. Oh yeah! I almost forgot about the hat. Finding the “Bridget Bardot/Sophia Loren on the Riviera” hat was our first order of the day. How did she do?

 

 

 

The balance of the day to be continued in another post.

[JimmyVWine]

Day Four (continued)

 

Just as we approached the fenced in secure area of the port, we spied “Sang’s Super Center” off to the left, advertising groceries, and duty free liquor and wine. We figured we would pop in to see if we could find any decent bottles of Rosé. Success. I picked up one bottle for $18 (that would cost about $23 back home), and a bottle for $14 (that would have cost $17 back home). Now, the trick was to see if I could get them on board and into the cabin. There are weekly threads here about wine allowances and bringing wine on board at the port of departure, and oftentimes it is asked: “But what about at ports of call?” Well, in the interest of research, I figured that I would play this right down the middle to see what would happen. I was prepared for either success in the form of taking them to my cabin free of charge; success in the form of taking them to my cabin after paying $15 each for them; failure in the form of having the bottles stored for me until departure; or, failure in the form of having the bottles confiscated and destroyed, (to the extent that “consumed by the security team and other crew members” meant “destroyed). We placed our bottles in our shopping bag that held the dress and other items that we had picked up during the day, including a bottle of habanero hot sauce and Christmas ornaments. The bottles were not “hidden” beyond that degree, other than them being placed in paper bags by the grocery store clerk. We knew that we would be placing the bag through the x-ray machine on the ship, and we didn’t want to make it look like we were trying to hide anything, or get away with anything. Whatever the outcome, we could live with it. Now, don’t take this as gospel that the procedure we encountered is “the norm”, or can be replicated in other ports, or perhaps even replicated in St. Maarten. But the end result was that our bag went through the x-ray machine without so much as a whisper by the security folks. We collected our bag and made our way up from Gala Deck (where nothing gala seems to every happen), up to Plaza Deck (where gala events seem to happen with regularity, such as Champagne Towers and Balloon Drops.)

 

After dropping off our booty and freshening up, we decided to find a nice spot up on deck for the anticipated 5:30 Sailaway. Oddly, things started to get a bit complicated and frustrating here. The crew was setting up for the Love Boat Disco Deck Party, and part of “setting up” meant taking down. As in, taking down all the lounge chairs from the Calypso Pool area. If you think it is difficult to find a lounge chair around the pools under normal circumstances, try finding one when 60% of them have been taken out of service. OK. Here’s another idea. Let’s go up to Skywalkers where we have enjoyed many a sailaway before. So we did. As we walked up the ramp, we could tell that there was a private event underway, but it seemed quiet enough, so we went all the way in. Then I remembered that this was likely the Elite Happy Hour. Nevertheless, there were only about a dozen people up there, sitting in about three groups of four, and there were plenty of unoccupied space. Perhaps no one would mind if we took our place in a quiet corner away from the bar and food. No dice. We were soon approached by a server who asked to see our cruise cards, and when it became apparent that we were “Ordinary”, we were told that this was a private event. Rules are rules, so we did not protest or complain, and simply went on our way. But my wife was none too pleased that a large venue could be taken out of service to the passengers for sailaway viewing if only a dozen people were going to be there, and over half the lounge chairs had been stacked up on the decks. There really wasn’t any comfortable place for us to bide our time and still get the view that we wanted. So we roamed around for a bit and finally found two unused lounge chairs on the Sun Deck in the smoking area. Far from perfect, but as long as we were upwind from the smoke fumes, it wasn’t bad. The girls hung out there for a while and I stood at the rail a bit further down checking out the Independence of the Seas. The people on that ship had a fun time waving and communicating with the people on our ship, making this sort of a “Sailaway party in stereo.”

 

Soon it became time to check to see if the ice bucket had cooled down our Rosé enough to drink it on the balcony, so we headed down that way. The parade of ships began as we enjoyed the beginning of a sunset view.

 

 

The direction of the sun’s path made it apparent that the Fantasy would block the “money shot” of the setting sun unless we moved soon.

 

 

As if on cue, we began to back out of the dock, clearing the way for a full-on view of a gorgeous Caribbean sunset. It remains my firm belief that one cannot have had a bad day of one can look at this toward the end of it. The flock of birds must enjoy this as much as I do, because they danced in the glow of the last light of day with guiltless joy.

 

 

 

We bid goodnight to the sun with a toast of fine wine.

 

 

 

One lone bird chases the final rays.

 

 

 

This is one of the things I Iove most about being in the Caribbean. Whether one is alone, with family, or with 15,000 other cruisers on an island, this moment cannot be taken away. Maria Von Trapp had her own list of favorite things, but for me, my lyric would be:

 

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Caribbean sunsets where no one needs mittens

 

Dinner time came, and still fully satisfied from lunch, we headed to the Island Dining Room at 7:15 for “Italian Night”, a night that we usually skip in favor of a Specialty Dining Room. But we didn’t want to overdo our gluttony, and instead opted for the MDR fare. It wasn’t bad, and given our other meals of the day, we did not long for anything more. My wife and I each had Veal Saltimbocca, a dish we prepare at home with some frequency. Mine is better, but here, I didn’t have to make it or clean up.

 

After dinner we all went to Club Fusion for Music Trivia. My daughter and I figured that we could make a pretty good team, with me holding down “The Beatles through U2” and she taking the lead on “Katy Perry/Pit Bull/Adele/Drake”. And we did well. 27.5 points and the winning score was 29. (We were awarded half a point for answering “The Jackson 5” as the singers of “Rockin’ Robin’” when in fact the song was actually released as a Michael Jackson single.) Our “Beatles through Drake” strategy worked well, but we were sorely lacking in the “Lennon Sisters through Bill Haley” era. The team that won had 7 members on it. We were just three, and to be honest, my wife was a deer in the headlights on this one.

 

My daughter then took her leave to join her friends and my wife and I moved over to Explorer’s Lounge to listen to Kieron Cox perform requests. All in all, a really nice day. St. Maarten/St. Martin did prove to be a port well worth a stop. While I wouldn’t pass on an opportunity to cruise there again, I would hope that my next visit would be for a more extended stay so that I could do damage up in the Grand Case area for dinners. But by no means was this anything other than a great day with my family.

 

Day Five (St Thomas) to follow, but perhaps not until this weekend.