LIVE: Geoherb's solo Island Princess cruise, June 4-14, 2024 (Halifax, Boston, Norfolk, Charleston)

[pompeii]

19 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

They are the Lavazza coffee dispensers. A friend said the coffee was very strong.

 

You are the best!  That is terrific news, it means I don't have to bring my Starbucks Via!

[ksm77]

I am very much enjoying your posts. My DH & I will be on the Island beginning on July 5th.  I am sorry your room was flooded.  You seem to be making the best of it.  I was beginning to be worried about the condition of the ship, because of all the bad reviews I had been reading.  You posts have made me feel better about the ship even though there have been some issues.  We are elite also and love Princess.

 

 

 

Edited June 12 by ksm77

[cr8tiv1]

I, too, am enjoying your "live".  Thank you for bringing us along in real time.  Feels like we are right there with you.  Love your positive attitude regarding the events happening on the Island.  

 

If you run into anyone from "Alfredos", would you please ask if other ships would be doing this pop-up.  How hard would it be to do it in Sabatini's????????  Really love Alfredos which are very limited on Grand Class ships.  Yes.....Grand Princess has one.

[startedwithamouse]

46 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I, too, am enjoying your "live".  Thank you for bringing us along in real time.  Feels like we are right there with you.  Love your positive attitude regarding the events happening on the Island.  

 

If you run into anyone from "Alfredos", would you please ask if other ships would be doing this pop-up.  How hard would it be to do it in Sabatini's????????  Really love Alfredos which are very limited on Grand Class ships.  Yes.....Grand Princess has one.

We went to Alfredo's on Sapphire Princess, and the food was just so-so. 

[geoherb]

Alfredo's today was very good. I ate with one of my trivia teammates. We had not planned on eating together, but she came in and joined me after I had already ordered. They serve the salad right away. My pizza was cooked perfectly. I had one with artichoke hearts and ham. They left off the black olives as I requested. My pizza had the right amount of char. Unfortunately for my teammate, her pizza was slightly underdone. She did not bother to send it back. The tiramisu was great.

 

I took a nice nap after lunch and carpet bowling. I woke up in time for afternoon trivia. We did well, placing just one point behind the two teams that tied for first. 

 

Tonight was our second formal night. Even fewer men were dressed in tuxedos and suits. The escargot were delicious as always. I had a shrimp and "crab" bisque. The crab was surimi. My surf and turf main course was delicious. My mini filet mignon was nice and thick and cooked perfectly rare. My tablemates who ordered the surf and turn had thin pieces of steak, but they wanted theirs medium. One tablemate joked that he did not order shrimp--pointing out that the lobster tail was on the small side.

 

The Disco (Blame It on the Boogie) show was full of energy. I hate that they lip sync so much instead of singing live. 

 

Last night's comedian, Don Friesen, did an 18+ show at 10:30. I enjoyed it a lot more than last night. He was not that mature in his language or topics.

[geoherb]

I was waiting for Godot this morning. My television turns on, but it's only on the Princess channel--Jeff Corwin programs. I called guest services. The crew member said someone would be up to look at it. Four hours later, no one has come.

 

 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

34 minutes ago, geoherb said:

I was waiting for Godot this morning. My television turns on, but it's only on the Princess channel--Jeff Corwin programs. I called guest services. The crew member said someone would be up to look at it. Four hours later, no one has come.

 

 

Well, that’s not good. 

[geoherb]

3 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Well, that’s not good. 

 

When I used the Crew Chat feature, the crew member reset my TV remotely. It's working fine now. It took just a few minutes. I'm not sure why the person I spoke with on the phone did not try that solution first.

[phabric]

On one of my cruise, we missed checking in at the medallion station.  Later when we tried to change the tv channel from the Muster Drill, we could not so I called to 

Guest Services and they were able to fix the problem remotely.

Edited June 12 by phabric

[geoherb]

Here is today's Patter. There's not much going on while we're in Charleston. 

[geoherb]

I had a nice walking tour of Charleston on my own. We visited here for several nights a decade ago. I enjoyed touring the South Carolina Historical Society Museum. I ate a biscuit at Callie's Hot Little Biscuit at the Charleston City Market. One of the visitor info reps recommended lunch at a couple of places. Unfortunately, Hank's, his top recommendation, isn't open for lunch. Fleet Landing, right beside the pier, was too crowded when I stopped. I did not want to wait half an hour, so I came back to the ship.

 

[geoherb]

And here are the photos from lunch at Alfredo's at Sabatini's yesterday.

 

 

[tothemall&beyond]

On 6/4/2024 at 1:58 PM, geoherb said:

My minibar items were all in the refrigerator: 4 Dewar's White Label scotch, 2 Smirnoff vodka, 2 New Amsterdam gin, and 2 each of Diet Coke, Perrier, Coke, tonic water, and Carlsberg pilsner. The beers are in cans instead of bottles.

If you only got a total of 18 items, you were shorted by 2 items. Supposed to be 10 non-alcohol, 8 hard liquor and 2 beers. They've been doing that a lot lately and just hope that people don't call them out on it. We did - on two cruises this past year! Called Room Service and they brought us the correct quantities.

[tothemall&beyond]

9 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Well, that’s not good. 

You're far too patient and nice about things.

[tothemall&beyond]

On 6/9/2024 at 5:06 PM, geoherb said:

 

Broken water pipes. I don't know why so many are going out on the same cruise. Thankfully, they're pipes for clean water and not sewage or waste water.

It was a real problem on our 32 night South Pacific cruise on Sapphire in April/May. Water pipes bursting everywhere - including one in the ceiling of the storage room adjacent to our cabin. Took them nearly 2 weeks to fully fix and to resolve the mildew/mold from the wet carpeting both in the storage room and hallway. Ship was sold out - and the only two cabins they could offer us were not acceptable due to poor locations - so we had to live with the mildew odor until they ultimately replaced the carpeting. And then they gave us very healthy FCC's for what we went through and for our patience. You should definitely ask to speak with the Guest Relations Manager and ask for compensation for what you've gone through.

[geoherb]

4 hours ago, tothemall&beyond said:

It was a real problem on our 32 night South Pacific cruise on Sapphire in April/May. Water pipes bursting everywhere - including one in the ceiling of the storage room adjacent to our cabin. Took them nearly 2 weeks to fully fix and to resolve the mildew/mold from the wet carpeting both in the storage room and hallway. Ship was sold out - and the only two cabins they could offer us were not acceptable due to poor locations - so we had to live with the mildew odor until they ultimately replaced the carpeting. And then they gave us very healthy FCC's for what we went through and for our patience. You should definitely ask to speak with the Guest Relations Manager and ask for compensation for what you've gone through.

 

I spoke to someone at guest services and received some compensation. It's a token amount of OBC. I'm still amazed that no one in upper management has reached out to me since the incident. 

[geoherb]

Here is today's Patter. There are lot of activities. Sabatini's is open for lunch as Alfredo's one last time for those with Plus who have not had both of their casual dining experiences. The Bayou Cafe is open for lunch as the Crab Shack. Several people on the Facebook group mentioned being misled about it. They were told it was casual dining as well. I don't know if any of them managed to get the charge dropped.

 

The waiters were hyping the culinary demonstration and galley tour at dinner last night. It's always a fun show. I may skip morning trivia to go to it. Once again, they have a lot of activities I want to go to happening at the same time and large swaths of the schedule without anything that interests me.

 

I've noticed they have repeated the movies shown on MUTS. This afternoon, they're showing The Color Purple. It was on one night this week. Yesterday afternoon, they repeated Dungeons and Dragons. 

 

 

[geoherb]

The outside Promenade Deck is closed this morning. I managed to walk a couple of miles inside. The crew member on Crew Chat said it's due to high winds. They don't see that high to me from my balcony, and the crew members that are painting and otherwise working outside don't seem to be affected by them.

[NewPennCruiser]

You brought up something I apparently was not aware of, Crab Shack is not considered one of the casual dining options if you have Plus?  I always thought it was although we have not attended that lunch.

[geoherb]

19 minutes ago, NewPennCruiser said:

You brought up something I apparently was not aware of, Crab Shack is not considered one of the casual dining options if you have Plus?  I always thought it was although we have not attended that lunch.

 

No. The price for the Crab Shack is $39 per person plus gratuity. People with Premier can go there for one of their two specialty dining options. 

[NewPennCruiser]

6 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

No. The price for the Crab Shack is $39 per person plus gratuity. People with Premier can go there for one of their two specialty dining options. 

Good to know..,,, thanks.  Very bad assumption on my part.

[Leosmom]

Geoherb, thanks so much for posting live.  We are boarding tomorrow and can’t wait.  Have you heard where you will be disembarking?  I hope it’s still Brooklyn.

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, NewPennCruiser said:

You brought up something I apparently was not aware of, Crab Shack is not considered one of the casual dining options if you have Plus?  I always thought it was although we have not attended that lunch.

 

Crab Shack for $39 is not to be confused with Steamers on some ships.  Steamers and Planks are casual dining venues.  Have not experienced either, but have read that Steamers is not worth the effort.  A friend of mine tried Crab Shack and said the same.

[geoherb]

1 hour ago, Leosmom said:

Geoherb, thanks so much for posting live.  We are boarding tomorrow and can’t wait.  Have you heard where you will be disembarking?  I hope it’s still Brooklyn.

 

We were told it was Brooklyn. That's the odds-on favorite.

[geoherb]

We were delayed leaving Charleston yesterday evening. I thought maybe an excursion was late getting back. Today at lunch, one of my tablemates told us that a crew member had jumped ship there. Immigration authorities were on the ship and did not release it to leave on time. The tablemate said another crew member jumped ship in Halifax as well.