LIVE From the Crown Princess - 10-day Southern Caribbean - Dec 7, 2019

[CanadianBurger]

Hello Everyone, and welcome to another instalment of my LIVE From... photo blogs.

 

This December it's a 10-day Southern Caribbean Medley on the Crown Princess, visiting Princess Cays, St. Thomas, Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, and Curaçao. 

 

Dominica looks a little up in the air at the moment. There were violent demonstrations ahead of the general elections there, and the Prime Minister on Thursday said he suspended all cruise ship visits. We'll see if things settle down before we get there. No word from Princess about the matter; indeed when I called they knew nothing about it.

 

Our flights from Toronto were a little disrupted yesterday due to the snowstorm in Toronto. We were supposed to connect through Washington on United, but the Toronto-Washington flight was delayed 90 minutes, which would have blown our connection, so the 1K desk quickly rerouted us to a flight connecting in Chicago instead. Even though this one was also late leaving Toronto, we had just enough time to make the connection, and so did our bags!

 

As usual, we're staying at the Residence Inn in Dania Beach. It's close to both the airport and cruise port, and while it's nothing fancy, it's a great hotel for one night, especially since we're only here for about 10 hours.

 

We're about to head off to Port Everglades now. The Sky Princess has Terminal 2 (of course), the Carnival Magic is at 4, so we're relegated to Terminal 21.

Surprisingly, this will our first medallion cruise, so I'm really looking forward to it. The increased internet speeds should definitely help with posting photos.

 

See everyone soon!

 

Steve.

[CanadianBurger]

Smooth sailing this morning. A beautiful sunny day in Florida. I dropped my wife at the port about 10:15. Then I returned the rental car to the Alamo location on Eller Drive. You can return National and Enterprise cars there too. Quick shuttle ride, and I was back at the port by 10:30. No wait at all at security. Right through, and up into the queue that said “Ocean Ready”. Again no wait. Our medallions and accessories were waiting for us. After a quick check in to verify passports matched the uploaded ones, we were off to the Elite Lounge.

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2019 by CanadianBurger

[CanadianBurger]

The fellow checking us in mentioned that Princess will soon be able to send Medallions to Canada, the UK, and Australia. He couldn’t give me a more specific timeline other than “soon”. 

 

[CanadianBurger]

Boarding was very smooth. We were on board just before 11am. Second people on through the forward gangway.

 

These are the panels next to the cabin doors (not my cabin...)

[CanadianBurger]

We have a standard Caribe balcony. I see they’ve removed the chair, so there’s only the desk chair left. 
 

[CanadianBurger]

We like the larger Caribe balcony, and the fact that it’s half covered, half uncovered. 
 

[CanadianBurger]

The minibar was already waiting for us our stateroom. 

[CanadianBurger]

First stop: welcome aboard drinks at Crooners. 
 

[CanadianBurger]

Today’s Patter

[RMMariner]

Great update. Thanks

[CanadianBurger]

International Cafe offerings...
 

[CanadianBurger]

MDR Lunch...
 

[Britter16]

Tell Jesse and Neal that Deb and Gary said hi. We were on in Nov. If you meet Sydney and Dylan in Vines and Francisco in international cafe say hi for us too. Your comments and pictures are so helpful, thanks for the time and effort it takes.

[CanadianBurger]

Decorations and Christmas entertainment

 

[mellon1]

Great review.  Thanks for taking the time.  We are going in 2020 for 30 days on the Crown.  We are not putting the app on our phones and were told we can just pick them up at the pier.  Was there a long line for that?  Did they take your photo, etc.?  We were told there would not be a problem by our travel agent.  A little nervous.  Are you staying in the Sanctuary?  Wondering if the furniture is still the good cushions and traditional furniture they have had.  We will be following you.  Thanks again for posting and enjoy your cruise.

[CanadianBurger]

6 minutes ago, mellon1 said:

Great review.  Thanks for taking the time.  We are going in 2020 for 30 days on the Crown.  We are not putting the app on our phones and were told we can just pick them up at the pier.  Was there a long line for that?  Did they take your photo, etc.?  We were told there would not be a problem by our travel agent.  A little nervous.  Are you staying in the Sanctuary?  Wondering if the furniture is still the good cushions and traditional furniture they have had.  We will be following you.  Thanks again for posting and enjoy your cruise.

We had to pick up our medallions at the pier, but we were already Ocean Ready from uploading everything through the app. No wait. Not sure about others. We do have two half-days booked at the Sanctuary so stay tuned. 

[mellon1]

2 minutes ago, CanadianBurger said:

We had to pick up our medallions at the pier, but we were already Ocean Ready from uploading everything through the app. No wait. Not sure about others. We do have two half-days booked at the Sanctuary so stay tuned. 

Thanks!  If Wvrok, he goes by V, is up there tell him Mary said hello and we'll see him on 1/26!

[CanadianBurger]

Nice shot of the Sky as we were leaving.

[CanadianBurger]

Sailaway party

 

[CanadianBurger]

I would call this pretty impressive for a ship at sea...

[Guest arowe6]

Waving to you from the jetty. 
 

Andrew 

[CanadianBurger]

Medallion accessory area on Lido

 

[CRLess]

Have a great trip!  Give Carmen in the International Cafe a GIANT hug for me!

[SiliconCruiser]

Thanks.  We're getting on the Regal tomorrow.  But it doesn't look much different than when we boarded the Island earlier this year at FLL (except that we know that the experience on the Regal will be more pleasant.)

 

[Colo Cruiser]

Bon Voyage Steve!