JamieLogical's Live from the Enchanted Princess 5/4

[doghog]

Just now, JamieLogical said:

 

This was in the MDR, not the buffet. As others have suggested, I may try building my own next time, but if they are willing to accommodate build-your-own, why not list that on the menu?!?!?

Agree and why we asked. 

[JamieLogical]

25 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

He could have either sat at a table nearby and taken his food with him when it arrived or told them what he was going to do and they would have worked it out.

 

Hmmnm, are you sure they weren't fish fingers?  They didn't have any chicken fingers last week in the kid's section even though they kind of looked like chicken.  I asked one of the crew behind the buffet and he confirmed they were indeed fish.  Kind of surprising.

 

Yes, that's the way all but one of the tournaments I've participated in on Princess ships have worked.  At least it was only one minute and not three or longer, those are really painful.  The beating the heck out of the buttons strategy helps to get the most spins but basically if someone gets the high paying win on a single spin that's the winner regardless of the number of spins.  In other words being lucky enough to sit at the right machine.  The one time it wasn't like that was in Australia pre-Covid.  I think they figured out that it was much easier physically to set a time limit and give people X number of spins in 3 minutes.  My first round I was still attacking the buttons and was done in 2 minutes.  I qualified for the finals and took my time (and won!).  I think that's much better way to do it.

 

They were definitely chicken finger. One was okay, but the other had "chunky chewy" bits that were super gross and hard to bite through.

[doghog]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

They were definitely chicken finger. One was okay, but the other had "chunky chewy" bits that were super gross and hard to bite through.

The breading (no chicken) that has formed into weird shapes that is in the bottom of the fryer basket. 😁 I believe Kentucky Fried Chicken calls them Chicken Nuggets. 😂

[555]

3 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

This was in the MDR, not the buffet. As others have suggested, I may try building my own next time, but if they are willing to accommodate build-your-own, why not list that on the menu?!?!?

Not having a "build it yourself" omelet in the DR would really surprise me as well. 

We don't normally eat in the DR for breakfast as it just takes to long. 

[JamieLogical]

10 minutes ago, 555 said:

Not having a "build it yourself" omelet in the DR would really surprise me as well. 

We don't normally eat in the DR for breakfast as it just takes to long. 

 

Well this was a port day where we didn't plan to actually get off the ship, so we were in no hurry. On port day, the breakfast buffets on cruise ships are always complete insanity!

[Wishing on a star]

I think I have seen video of the 'chicken strips'...  UGGHHHH.

I would hate to have my kid wanting to eat those for the duration of a cruise!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

52 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

I would hate to have my kid wanting to eat those for the duration of a cruise!

inasmuch as my kid loves chicken fingers, he doesn't want to eat them on a cruise. He tried a couple of times on different lines, but every time they just weren't to his liking. Oh, and the lack of honey mustard...

Edited May 7 by Itchy&Scratchy

[jinpasco]

For many of the reasons you mentioned ,we travel with zip lock bags. First night we go on a scavenger hunt and get extra silverware, sugar, fresh fruit and yes, cookies. Remember when Princess used to have those chocolate chocolate chip ones at the IC . I hope they bring those back. We have had room service with no spoon for coffee, no sugar and once, no silverware at all. So we stock our own early on. Then when we order coffee and creamer, we hope they at least get that right.

Enjoy your cruise, loving your posts.Thank you

[carrieholden]

How is the pianist in Crooners?  Anthony Michael?  Is it a sing a long type piano performance? 

[Wishing on a star]

3 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

inasmuch as my kid loves chicken fingers, he doesn't want to eat them on a cruise. He tried a couple of times on different lines, but every time they just weren't to his liking. Oh, and the lack of honey mustard...

I just posted a similar comment on another current thread...  If there is something like that you really want... ( a particular sweetener in that case ) bring it!!!!  

 

Honey mustard, Your favorite soft drink, sweetener,  hot sauce....  Hey....  cruise happy!!!!

But it doesn't sound like honey mustard would help these 'chicken' fingers.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

5 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

But it doesn't sound like honey mustard would help these 'chicken' fingers.

indeed it wouldn't. 🙂

Edited May 7 by Itchy&Scratchy

[kywildcatfanone]

1 hour ago, Wishing on a star said:

Honey mustard, Your favorite soft drink, sweetener,  hot sauce....  Hey....  cruise happy!!!!

We bring our own coffee creamer

[JamieLogical]

I am honestly not picky enough about brands of artificial sweetener to bring my own. I can make due with whatever. But I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a cruise line to provide SOME brand of artificial sweetener with coffee... I think it is ridiculous that I would have to bring my own if I am not picky.

[Wishing on a star]

Definitely agree!

I have to admit, I can be picky.

Edited May 7 by Wishing on a star

[avonlady6390]

For a late night snack I go to the International cafe it's open 24 hrs and has breakfast items in the morning and small sandwiches quiche soup and pastry if there is no cookies out just ask they usually have them in the back my favorite is peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies should be available.

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday morning was a disaster. Clocks had fallen back again so we were up well before our room services was scheduled to arrive between 6:30 and 7:00. We checked our excursion tickets again to make sure we knew where we had to be when: Theater at 7:45. While we waited for our room service, my husband went ahead and jumped in the shower while I began typing up my blog, figuring I wouldn’t have time to finish and post it until later in the day.

 

Once my husband was done with his shower, he worked on putting on all his sunscreen and packing up his satchel for our trip onshore. I was showered and dressed quickly and got my own sunscreen on and we headed out a few minutes early. As my husband was grabbing our excursion tickets, he noticed there were three. The was one for someone in M102 in there. We were going to try to find M102 to knock and try to give them their missing ticket, but ran into our room steward in the hall right away and gave the ticket to him instead so he could deliver it and we wouldn’t be late.

 

We got in line for the little table outside of the theater where they were handing out the colored, numbered stickers. There were only a few people ahead of us, so it moved quickly. But when we handed the crew member our tickets, he immediately looked alarmed. Our tickets had the number 7 printed at the top and I could see the tickets he was handing out were for 17 and 18! Then he pointed out that our tickets said we were supposed to have met up at 6:40. We were an hour late! 

 

We immediately figured out what happened. The other person’s ticket we had received was for a different excursion, which met in the theater at 7:45 and THAT was the ticket we had looked at when checking what time we needed to be where! It was a total gut punch.

 

We rushed over to the Excursions Desk to see if anything could be done. We had to wait what seemed like an eternity behind someone who was purchasing and excursion. When we got up to the crewmember, she said there was only one excursion left with two seats on it. Some kind of 2-hour river cruise. Nothing else that went to the ruins. That one was meeting up in the 5th deck dining room at 9:00. She was very unsympathetic to our cause. She made it seem like we were just complete idiots and had somehow missed our excursion due to the time change (remember, clocks moved BACK! If anything we would have been an hour “early” and actually made it to our excursion on time if we hadn’t moved our clocks!). She said she couldn’t give a refund for the missed excursion and all she could do was swap it to this river cruise and we had to decide now because there was a line behind us. So was accepted the swap and walked over to the International Cafe to just sit down, process, and catch our breaths.

 

I was honestly a little overwhelmed. If there is one thing I am VERY bad at, it is coping when solid plans get thrown off. If I don’t have a plan, I am fine with going with the flow, but if I have a concrete plan and it falls apart, I fall apart too. I was really really sad to miss seeing the ruins. We talked over whether we really wanted to bother with this river cruise thing and decided that my husband would go back to the Excursions desk and see if he could get this excursion swapped with one that went to ruins in Costa Maya instead.

 

I was sad to not set foot in Belize, since I have never been there before, but with a 45-minute tender both ways and no real idea of what the port area would be like, we decided to skip it and get changed back into our normal cruise clothes. I went ahead and finished typing up my blog while we were back in the room and then we grabbed our games and headed down to Good Spirits for some drinks and gaming.

 

When I went up to the bar to get our first round of drinks, I asked whether the bartender could make us something like a mimosa but stronger (we were both really missing our mimosa blossoms from MSC). She suggested a Bellini, but I don’t like peach, so then she made us something that was just Chambord and Champagne. It was really really good.

 

We had several of those and played games and discussed what we would do for lunch and dinner. We decided to drop our stuff back off at the room before scavenging for lunch. Our plan was to go up and check out the menu at Salty Dog Grill to see if there was anything that was speaking to me, but they didn’t have the pulled pork sandwich they had had on the Emerald and I wasn’t really wanting a burger or hot dog. We then went over and walked the full lap around the buffet to see if there was anything there we wanted and, again, nothing was calling my name. So we decided to head down to Gigi’s and share a pizza and get some tiramisu.

 

We stopped at Bellini’s Bar first to pick up some drinks, since the drink menu inside of Gigi’s is limited. The bartender overheard me saying I wanted something to go with pizza and he offered to make me something special. He called it a Sorento Sunset and it was delicious! We took our drinks over to Gigi’s and enjoyed some antipasto and split a pepperoni pizza. When it came time for dessert, we contemplated splitting the tiramisu but opted to get one each and I am glad we did as we each ended up eating more than half of the little jar. Had we split it, we both would have ended up with less than we wanted.

 

After lunch, it was, of course, time to nap. And after napping it was, of course, time for coffee. We both finished our naps and headed down for coffee together this time. I stopped by International Cafe to get my cup of coffee and then over to Good Spirits for my shot of Bailey’s and then we set up a game to play again. Once again, Good Spirits and the whole piazza really began to fill up as more people came back onboard from Belize.

 

At 4:00, we moved over to Crown Grill bar for a while and played another game and then I really wanted to get to Take Five when they opened at 5:00 since I had missed out on going there the previous night. Our MDR reservation was for 6:00. Bahn, my bartender from the other night was there setting up, though they didn’t quite look open yet and we were the only passengers. We went ahead and sat down and chatted while Bahn set up and I ordered a Strawberry Fields. It was so good that after his first drink, my husband ordered one as well. I tried two more drinks, one of which I drank there and one of which I took with me to the MDR.

 

In the MDR, it was Princess’ chance to redeem themselves. If you read my blog from my one and only other Princess sailing on the Emerald, you will know that one of my most disappointing experiences on that ship was when we went to dinner in the MDR on the night they were serving a goat cheese souffle, which had always been one of my favorite items on Celebrity cruises. But on Princess, they served me the completely wrong dish and I didn’t realize it until it was too late, having already eaten the cauliflower and cheese casserole thing they served me instead.

 

Well, this time I actually received the gout cheese souffle and it was pretty good. Not as good as the one on Celebrity and not as good as the baked goat cheese at Butcher’s Cut on MSC, but still good. The real star of the show was actually the vol-au-vent appetizer, which was delicious! I also got the Love Boat Dream for dessert, which is always reliably tasty.

 

Near the end of our dinner, a woman was seated next to us who was waiting on a friend and we got to chatting a bit. This was her very first cruise! It was her friend’s third cruise and she had dragged her along. She was having a wonderful time and is probably a cruiser for life now. I told her about Cruise Critic and she brought it up on her phone, so I am sure she will be spending lots of time here in the future researching cruises and hopefully posting some stuff of her own, eventually.

 

After dinner, we made a couple of attempts at seeking out entertainment. There was a piano player/singer in Crooners that was decent, but we just weren’t really in the frame of mind for it. Then we tried to see a comedian in the Vista Lounge (a different guy from the ones we saw on embarkation night), but it was standing room only in there. We ended up coming back to the room for a bit before my casino-ing and my husband decided he really just wanted to call it a night, so he got some cookies and french fries from the buffet and brought them back to the room and watched Alien. I headed to the casino for a little bit then up to Slice for some pizza and then back to the room to watch some of the movies with him before I fell asleep.

 

I was really glad we salvaged the day. I do need to go over our folios a bit more closely to make sure everything is right with our excursions. The one we ended up booking in Costa Maya was more expensive than the one in Belize and I want to make sure we were only charged the difference.

 

You get a bonus drinks list today because I forgot to post my drink log from Monday when I posted my blog yesterday!

 

5/6

 

1x Mimosa from Medallion App

2x Mimosa from Good Spirits 

2x Floradora from Crown Grill Bar

1x Raspberry Romance from Bellini's

1x Rossini from Sabatini’s

3x Clover Breeze from O’Malley's

 

5/7

 

3x Prosecco & Chambord from Good Spirits 

2x Sorento Sunset from Bellini's 

1x Americano w/ Bailey's from Good Spirits 

1x Vodka & Gingerale from Good Spirits 

1x Florida from Crown Grill Bar

1x Strawberry Fields from Take Five 

1x Cubano Amore from Take Five

1x Ella Fitzgerald from Take Five

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by JamieLogical

[kamelia]

SO glad to see Troy's still an entertainer on Princess Cruises!  Thanks for posting that picture!

[jinpasco]

Jamie, if you get bored of trying  new drinks , if you like.peppermint....could you ask for a mint choc.martini. We had a bartender on the Sky at  the Princess Live Bar that made these perfectly. No other cruise line has replicated it. I usually wind up with a choc martini with mint added. Gross.  These were clear and the glass was decorated with Hershey's stripes and mint springs.I am hoping when we are on this ship in July it will be the same. Thanks for " helping". Mary

[spethstation]

On 5/7/2024 at 1:52 AM, gizfish said:

How comfortable or uncomfortable is the bed.  My past experience is princess is worst then rccl then msc with ncl regular rooms and haven more comfortable than any other bed anywhere other than my own.  I'm hoping princess is better now?

The bed on my last cruise on the Caribbean was the most comfortable cruise bed I've ever slept in!

[doghog]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

IMO and my wifes, bummer Princess did away with the orginal Princess Love Boat Dream. Sooo much better than the current one. 

 

 

Edited May 8 by doghog

[PATRLR]

<delete>

Edited May 8 by PATRLR

[JamieLogical]

33 minutes ago, doghog said:

IMO and my wifes, bummer Princess did away with the orginal Princess Love Boat Dream. Sooo much better than the current one. 

 

 

 

Guess I should be glad I never had the original so I can't be disappointed with the current version. I do like the current version version much.

[doghog]

9 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Guess I should be glad I never had the original so I can't be disappointed with the current version. I do like the current version version much.

 We like the current version also, but... Glad we got to enjoy the orginal version over the years. Maybe I ate too many. Nah! 😁

[Host CJSKIDS]

On 5/7/2024 at 12:02 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

They were definitely chicken finger. One was okay, but the other had "chunky chewy" bits that were super gross and hard to bite through.

 the same chicken fingers that they had at the platinum/elite event one night?!  I was surprised to see that's what was being offered.