Live from the Grand 13 - 27 Feb 2009

[GSDsky]

Thanks everyone for the info about Wayne I assume the stops have heads otherwise I may have to limit myself to 3 rum punches:D

 

 

Andrea

 

 

Waynes serves 2 different Rums....

 

3 drinks from the mild rum and you will be OK for facilities:)

3 drinks from the heavy duty and you won't care if you have to go or not.:o

 

Your Call. LOL

[BarbB]

For those of you that have gone on Wayne's Tour, how easy or difficult was it to get in and out of the water and back on the boat? What kind of ladder does he have? I sometimes have trouble climbing because of bad knees.

Thanks,

Barbara

[Toto2Kansas]

For those of you that have gone on Wayne's Tour, how easy or difficult was it to get in and out of the water and back on the boat? What kind of ladder does he have? I sometimes have trouble climbing because of bad knees.

Thanks,

Barbara

 

Barbara, There is a small ladder on the side, towards the back, of the boat. I won't say this is a real easy climb if you have problems with your knees. BUT, Wayne or his assistant,will help you out if need be.

This is one of those tours that you need to be in pretty good shape as accessiblity is a little bit challenged, as the only way in our out of the water is to climb up and down the small ladder. I wish I had a picture of the ladder, but I checked and I don't, sorry!

[phabric]

We are in regular Balcony C752. I think C753 is exactly the same on the opposite side of the ship. We love it, this is the second time we have had the same cabin.

 

Sarah

 

We will be in C753 in July- Scandinavia. Can you tell me what kind of chairs are on the balcony. Did you tell any noise beside the waves. On the deck plan it shows something white beside the cabin, can you tell me what that is. Can you see anything looking on the side or is it only straight back.

[ocnlvr3]

Burm-ROFL:D

Sky- I'll go for the not caring ones!!!

Since we were hoping for an extra sea day in between those 7 ports I guess missing St. Kitts wouldn't be bad. The last tour missed Grand Turk. I just don't want to miss Wayne's Tour:eek:

 

 

Andrea

[JMUMOM]

Hi Sara - I enjoy reading your live reports. We are going on the Crown Princess for the first time on April 5th with our family. Our friends are on your cruise RIGHT NOW with you. They are Sara and John Dotson. Dark haired lady and distinguised grey haired man. Have you met them? Thanks for all your postings. Enjoy. ;)

[burm]

Burm-ROFL:D

Sky- I'll go for the not caring ones!!!

Since we were hoping for an extra sea day in between those 7 ports I guess missing St. Kitts wouldn't be bad. The last tour missed Grand Turk. I just don't want to miss Wayne's Tour:eek:

 

 

Andrea

 

But I want to ride on the rickety train in St Kitts! Plus I don't want to miss Wayne's tour - or the Daysail Fantasy in St John, or the zip-lining in Barbados, or the tour of Trinidad, or snorkeling in Grand Turk, La Romana or Aruba. Or visiting Curacao.

 

Maybe the sea will be a bit calmer by late March.

[catsdinner]

As you have noticed, we missed St Kitts today due to high winds. It was somewhat disappointing but nice to have a relaxing day at sea as well. We had planned on going to South Friars Beach. I just came down from abour 4hours up on the back deck and it was very nice back there. We are going very slow today. It didn't take long for them to come out with a complete new Patter for the day.

 

The cabin: We have our own private hallway to get into our cabin and at the end of the hallway is an emergency exit. I guess that is what you are seeing as white space on the deck plan. Our cabin steward is Raphael and he is excellent. He will be on for another 3 months so he should still be your cabin steward as well. However,we had the same cabin in October, the cabin steward we had then is still on board but on a different deck. don't know how often they change arround. We have some view of the side of the ship but not a lot. The only sound back here is the wake. Wonderful!

 

JMUM: No haven't met your friends.

 

Wayne's Tour: No heads just the ocean :-) Just a small ladder at the back. We had one person with challenges but she managed to get back on the boat. At the lunch stop there is a dock so no problem there. We had a couple people who decided to stay on the boat rather than get off for the beaches. Lots of rum punch, ginger ale and their local lemon drink which I can attest is really good. I had the fish which was fresh tuna and it was really good. My husband had chicken and he said that was really good as well. The other choice was pork. Apparently the hot sauce on the tables is reallllllllly hot.

 

I didn't arrange the Meet and Greet so don't know how she got the officers to attend. I assume she wrote the address that was already provided with the invitiation.

 

Sarah

[stitchncruiser]

Hi Sarah. Have enjoyed your live reports. We will be on Grand next month. If you have time, I have a question about hot tubs. Are they working properly? On the Golden in Nov, none worked, just warm water without the bubbles. After 4 days we were told that due to a lawsuit where someone sued for getting pneumonia from the hot tubs, they were all turned off and would remain that way. Seemed worse to me to be in a tepid tub with still water. This doesn't ruin our trip, but really missed them after a long shore day. Sorry you missed St Kitts, and hope the rest of your cruise is wonderful. Thanks for any help, Patty

[catsdinner]

Hot tubs are working fine. Some are hotter than others. They are all shut down at midnight to be drained and refilled.

 

Sarah

[ocnlvr3]

Sarah- Do you know if they ever close the roof to the Calypso pool other then when it rains?

 

 

 

Andrea

[sharonziporyn]

:pWhen in April are they going into dry dock?

[stitchncruiser]

thanks a million about the hot tubs. we are so ready for sun and cruising. have a great day, patty

[flgray]

Wanted to ask some questions, please. Can you tell me which deck the adults pool is on?? Also, can the lap pool be used by anyone for free?? Thanks...........

[caribill]

Wanted to ask some questions, please. Can you tell me which deck the adults pool is on?? Also, can the lap pool be used by anyone for free?? Thanks...........

 

 

Anyone can use the Spa lap pool on deck 14.

 

Terrace pool is aft at deck 12.

[rcacace]

Anyone can use the Spa lap pool on deck 14.

 

Terrace pool is aft at deck 12.

 

You sure can. It's available for all passengers, even those that don't utilize the sanctuary & it's usually a much quieter section the of ship. There are only about 10 lounge chairs surrounding the pool edge but there are many others close by just up one flight of stairs to the rear. The pool depth is only about chest high in the middle.

[phabric]

Do you remember if the Hozion Court at a Seafood buffet one night.

[catsdinner]

Hello from St Thomas. Had a wonderful day at Coki Beach. We are docked at Crown Bay and took one of the open air taxies to the beach for $10.00 each. The same fellow came back to get us at 1:30, dropped us off downtown and then picked us up there again. He was a great guy. This trip to St Thomas completely changed my view of the place as on my previous two visits didn't like it here at all. Coki Beach is a nice quiet beach, or it was for the first couple hours we were there, with beautiful soft sand. Lots of fish to see. I didn't snorkle today but others did. One group had a scare as they felt the swell was too strong and had trouble getting back in to the beach. I saw others out there later and they didn't appear to have any trouble so maybe it calmed down. There has been a lot of waves on all the islands this trip due to a cold front that has come in from the North.

 

Now to your questions:

 

Have no idea what is served at the Horizon Court at night. I've never been there for dinner.

 

Calypso Pool: I've never seen the roof open in there since we've been on the ship. Neptunes Reef is the main pool where the music is played and where the MuTs is. Haven't spent any time at the pool near the Sanctuary at all as our cabin is at the other end of the ship. We have spent time at the aft pool though and thoroughly enjoy that one. All the pools are available to everyone at no extra cost.

 

One thing we have taken advantage of this time, unfortunately, is the ice cream in the Horizon Court in the afternoons. I say unfortunately because it is starting to show up on my waist. lol The hamburgers at Neptunes Pool are also excellent.

 

 

Tomorrow is La Romana and we play to head to Bayhibbe Beach.

 

Sarah

[Drews_Cruise]

Are you doing the Bayahibe Beach break through Princess? We have tentatively booked that, (in March) and understand that you go to a resort of some sort. If thats the case, I am very interested to know what resort you actually go to. We have stayed at several of the Bayahibe resorts and loved them all. The beach was wonderful. Have a great day there and I look forward to hearing how tomorrow goes for you. And thanks again for taking to time to let us cruise with you.

[mjt1]

The ONE plug that is in the room is a three-prong plug, correct??

[GSDsky]

I think it was the oasis hotel at Bayahibe Beach.

4 of us had a great time and the host who is in charge of your needs was a blue jay fan and all he did was bring us tray after tray of cold beer to our lounges on the beach. Almost missed the bus back LOL...

Tip is to bring blue jay gifts and YOUR A HERO!

[catsdinner]

Hello from La Romana. We didn't do the Princess Excursion to the beach so don't know what resort they go to. We took a van with 13 people (a little crowded but we made it ok) for $15 a person. Got to the beach in about 20 minutes, rented beach chairs for $6.00 and had a great day. The sand is very soft white sand. The beach chairs are not your ordinary chairs. They have a wood frame and the seat part is braided palm leaves. Quite interesting and amazingly quite comfortable. You can buy beer on the beach for $3.00 for a regular size bottle or $5.00 for a large bottle. Our taxi driver waited for us and brought us back, paid him when we got to the cruise terminal. We were there about 3 1/2 hours.

 

There are two 3 prong plugs at the desk in the cabin.

 

Tonight is our third and final formal night. Can't believe this is almost over and we will have to go back to reality quite soon.

 

The Comedian last night was hilarious. His name is David Aiken and hope he is on for you on the next cruise. The singer Sonya Selbie was quite good as well.

 

Tomorrow is Grand Turk.

 

Sarah

[philly50's]

Catsdinner, I too have enjoyed reading your posts. We'll be on the Grand on March 13 and since we are new to Princess reading about your voyage has helped answer some of our questions. It seems as if you are having a great time, and we plan on doing just that too.

Thanks for taking the time away from your amazing vacation to post.

[rcacace]

The ONE plug that is in the room is a three-prong plug, correct??

 

There's also another one behind the flat screen TV on the shelf.

[tickbite]

My wife and I sure look forward to following your journey on the Grand each day. We board on 3/27 and have learned a great deal about how we want to spend our days thanks to your insight. We really do appreciate your daily posts. Thanks!!!!:)