It feels so nice to sleep-in! Our boarding time wasn’t until 12pm so we had time this morning. Brian woke up at his normal time and literally ran ten miles while my son and I slept in until 9am. Despite being on vacation, the life of a small business owner means I still work on vacation. I prefer to get small things done here and there versus coming back from vacation with a mound of work. Plus some of what I needed to do was time sensitive.
That’s enough work, time for vacation! We requested an Uber that was 1 minute away and stepped outside. After 15 minutes or so, our Uber driver was still sitting at the same spot 1 minute away. Strange. We thought maybe he was doing DoorDash as well and double dipping. It turns out he was eating his lunch. He had turned off Uber or so he thought, but due to spotty reception his request didn’t go through. Our Uber request went through, but he didn’t see it because of the same spotty reception. We had time to kill so it wasn’t an issue at all. We made a quick stop to Walgreens and then off to the port!
The porters took our bags right away and then we headed to the line. The line was absolutely massive. It sounded like they had a delayed start with boarding, but I’m not really sure. Our summer cruise we basically walked right on the ship so this was longer than expected. It looked worse than it was. It took us about 45 minutes from the time we entered the line until the time we stepped on the ship. We had priority boarding so the normal time was probably about an hour. I think priority boarding would normally get you on much faster, but because of the back-up we waited in the normal line awhile before we got to the split where they check for priority.
The check-in process itself was easy. First, we went through security which was your basic x-ray for the bags and a medal detector. Then, we headed to the check-in kiosks which were each manned. My son touched his medallion to the reader and that pulled up all of our information. They checked our passports and were were on our way. No covid-19 tests, no checking vaccine cards. It was easy. We then headed through this fun tunnel with a large video screen with fun underwater animation. Names were popping up on the screen, but our timing was a little off. We didn’t see our names.
First stop, food! We headed to the buffet. The quality of the food was very good, but it was a small selection compared to other ships we’ve been on. It was very similar in my opinion to Disney Cruise Line. We watched the safety videos on our devices while we ate. We each had to do it from the App on our particular devices so that it put a check by us.
Next stop was to the pool, but we made a detour to Camp Discovery! Camp Discovery is where the kid’s club is located and like most cruises, they have an open house on the first day. This is one of the only times adults can check-out the spaces. This was the first time my son has been really excited about a kid’s club. The hallway into the kid’s club has fun wallpaper that makes it look like you’re in the jungle. There are two spaces in the kid’s club. One for 3-7 year olds and another for 8-12 year olds. From the younger kid’s club you can see a giant water table. It was off during the open house, but it’s something that my son will love to play with later. I’m excited that he’s excited for it! He did tell us he would go, but we had to wait right outside. We’ll see how it goes later this week!
Pool time! A 10-night cruise on Princess Cruise Line to the Panama Canal is not a typical destination for a family with a five-year old. I say that because despite it being spring break (well technically my son's break starts next week), there are very few children onboard. In fact, there are very few passengers under the age of 65. We knew that going into this cruise, but I didn’t really think about how that affects our experience. It turns out that most passengers in that demographic don’t use the pool. The pools were all practically empty! Well that’s the reason I thought they were empty. We went to go into the first pool and it was freezing. Polar plunge level freezing…okay maybe not that bad, but cold enough my son and I wouldn’t get in. We swam on the Norwegian Jewel in 50 degree weather while most passengers had coats on, but those pools were warm. Guests told us that some of the other pools were warmer so we decided to check-out the aft. At the back of the ship, is the children’s splash park and another small pool. This pool was warmer, but still not warm enough that I wanted to get in. This pool is also completely shaded which would be nice on a really hot day, but that wasn’t today. Brian and I ended up in loungers next to the splash park while my son ran through it.
I discovered the OceanNow option on the Princess Mobile App. It allows you to order food or drinks and it’s delivered wherever you are. I used the app to order an Espresso Martini for Brian and a Milky Way Martini for me. In theory, I love this! In practice, it would have been so much faster if I’d walk to the bar and ordered drinks there. We do not have the drink package which is pretty atypical for Princess, but because of some perks of being a travel agent, it didn’t make sense for us this time around. Our two drinks were nearly $30, and they were the saddest two drinks when they came out. They were in worn plastic cups filled half-way. I didn’t think I cared about drink presentation, but it turns out that has an impact on the experience. The drinks themselves were strong and despite them looking small in the cups, they were actually pretty big. We enjoyed our drinks as we sailed away from Fort Lauderdale.
We headed back to the room to unpack, shower, and get ready for dinner. We’re on the Caribbean Princess which is an older ship. In most places, it’s not obvious it’s older, but the place you see it is in the size of the cabin. There is huge difference in size between our ocean view balcony on Wonder of the Seas versus the Oceanview balcony on Caribbean Princess. That said, I think our cabin on Norwegian Jewel was smaller than this one. When we first get into really any cabin with all our suitcases, stroller, and backpacks; I think, no way. No way all this stuff is going to fit in here and we’re going to be okay. Yet every time, I unpack the suitcases and find homes for our stuff. This cabin is setup better for hanging items versus drawers. Brian uses an organizer that he pulls out of his suitcase and hangs. It’s then hanging shelves with his clothes. He was unpacked first since he just had to pull his whole contraption out and hang it up. I took longer to hang all my dresses and then find homes for shorts/tops and my son's clothes.
Dinner tonight was at the Palms. We made reservations prior to sailing. Like most first nights on cruises, it was a bit of a wait to actually get in and seated. Despite having an older demographic onboard, Princess really tailors well to families. They have these large interactive screens at pretty much any place you would need to wait. They’re by the elevators and by the entrances to the restaurants. You tap your medallion to them and then you can play games! My son enjoyed showing all the older folk how to utilize this feature of the ship. You can also gamble on them, but we haven’t used that feature. The main dining room was bustling at 6:30pm and the servers were a bit overwhelmed. It took longer than normal for someone to come by, but the service got better throughout our dinner. I’m always a little nervous on a new ship because I’m not sure how they’ll handle food allergies. Princess handles them well! The main server went to get a special allergist server who will handle our food orders no matter where we are on the ship. She said that she has 33 food allergies herself and she totally gets it! She took really good care of us and everything came out beautifully. I ordered the French onion soup, green vegetable risotto, and a lychee rose dessert. My son had a fruit bowl and chicken strips and fries. Brian had ceviche, a shrimp cocktail, more seafood for his main course, and a creme brûlée for dessert. The desserts were artfully crafted, unique, and delicious. Brian didn’t care for my choices though!
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