Actually we were positively princely getting all dressed up.

After leaving Orlando, we headed to our friends Jen and Elizabeth’s – who we met two years ago in San Francisco.  Thanks for putting us up and it was great to connect again!!

I wrote a variant of the blog entry below for Cruise Critic, so a lot of what I have written will sound more like a review of the ship, tours we went on, etc…  I’m hoping the pictures will add more colour to the things I mention.

Where do I even begin with my thoughts on our first cruise and that being on Royal Princess?  Where Disney appealed to our inner kids, the cruise on Royal Princess appealed to our “adult kid” side, if that makes sense.

Scott and I were completely blown away.  We were already saying, “When do we sign up for the next cruise?”  after 8 hours on the ship.  We know it will more than likely be to Alaska, though admittedly we’d love to do Golden Week in Japan on Diamond Princess but that’s just a bit pricey.

Day 1 – Embarkation & Sea

Firstly – boarding was completely smooth and effortless.  No huge lines, in fact our “non preferred member line” was completely empty relative to the elites that were on board.  Waiting wasn’t that long, and they started boarding early – 11:30am and all staterooms were ready for us to take our belongings to.  Amazing given the stories I’ve heard.

We made our way through the Casino to our elevator and up to our room.

I have to admit, my expectations were set much lower courtesy of Cruise Critic forums about the size of the room and balcony.  When you haven’t cruised before, you don’t know what you’re missing.

We were VERY happy with the size of the room (Balcony), despite having to dance a bit to get around each other.  I had feared that only one of us could fit on the balcony, that’s not the case at all – we fit no problem for both champagne and dipped strawberries; and the Ultimate Breakfast I had booked.  I would have no issue booking the same room again especially if it means saving some money on a future cruise.  We didn’t spend a lot of time in the room anyway preferring to see the sites, sun on the Lido deck, etc…

We made our way up to the Horizon Court which is the main buffet on the ship and then out to Horizon Terrace which is a lovely dining area outside the aft of the ship.  It was so breezy, I have to admit I was losing my peas.  No, I’m not crazy. LOL!

I’ve got two criticisms of Horizon Court/Bistro which others have already mentioned:

• I did find the food a bit cool, however, I also walked around a fair bit trying to find foods to eat and what was being offered.  Still, it was tasty.
• I put myself in the shoes of some of the older folks around me.  It does seem like a long way to walk – especially if you want to go from the Horizon Court to the Patisserie.

The biggest confusing thing about the elevators in the front and aft of the shift, was that all four were not connected to the same up and down buttons.  They were in a 2/2 configuration.  This, I think, is also slowing things down because you get people pressing both the up and down buttons.  For those who are able bodied, those flights of steps are also not too bad for going up and down.  Don’t always rely on the elevators.

After that, we made our way to the Lotus Spa where we booked ourselves for a 4:30pm seaweed wrap couples massage at a VERY nice discount given it was embarkation day.   It was amazing.  We also arranged use of The Enclave which has a Turkish Hamam, wet and dry saunas, aromatherapy showers, a massive hot tub, heated stone beds.  Ahh luxury.

The aromatherapy of the Lotus Spa is quite something too.  Very relaxing and soothing.

Yes, it meant we completely missed our first sail out and the photo opportunities that provides, but we did get the Reflections video, so… 🙂  It’s bittersweet.  The massage has helped to put away the rush of the first three days at WDW and the pain of walking so much.

We did dinner at the Concerto dining room.  Oh my – the desserts.   Really, I kind of felt like Scott and I are at Adult Disneyland right now.  My appetizer was three kinds of melon drizzled with port; a piña colada soup with rum in it served in a cocktail glass with straw, Hawaiian Luau Pork and then the Chocolate Love Boat Dream to top it off.  It was a meal that felt, sinful and wrong, but oh so good.

After we walked around the ship some more, checking out the Karaoke Power Hour, stopping at Facets duty free shop, stopping at the Lido deck to have ice cream and pizza, watch the fountain light show, and then back to Karaoke Power Hour where Scott belted out two songs (awesome) and I did an almost scrag drag version of Madonna’s Material Girl – it had to be seen.

Day 2 – Eleuthera, The Bahamas

Princess has a resort on the island of Eleuthera which is part of The Bahamas called Princess Cays.  The Tender boats from the ship are REALLY cool and pretty quick.  It’s really cool how they just keep going back and forth to the ship like a mini transit system.

While Princess Cays can be fun, and Princess does a BBQ, and there are a lot of activities, you’re not going to learn more about The Bahamas and the people of Eleuthera sunning yourself.  I highly recommend getting out of Princess Cay and exploring the land that is Eleuthera going to Rock Sound and Tarpum Bay:

• The people here are amazing
• The economy is not doing great and Royal Princess was the first ship in 8 months  to visit their port – yes, it’s a seasonal business
• It’s very safe if you’re nervous about that
• If you’re looking for true Bahamian products, you won’t get it at Princess Cays.

We learned heaps about the culture (You mixed up like Conch Salad!), food, customs and the amazing waters of the Caribbean.  You definitely don’t want to miss this tour!

The Ocean Hole was the coolest part of the tour – so many fish, that I had only seen in an aquarium, in their natural habitat.

After the tour, Scott and I headed to Princess Cays and got some key photos and water time.

One last cool thing – they sent a videographer with us and as a result, a bunch of us were on the Reflections channel on the TV and the Reflections DVD sold on board the ship.  You’ll catch Scott and me dancing with the Junkanoo.

That night we had the champagne, roses, and chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our room and enjoyed them before dinner as we saw the sun set.

Before going to dinner we stopped in to see Sylvain, the Future Cruise Consultant and arranged our deposit on a future cruise.  The great thing about Princess is that you don’t have to pick a specific cruise or destination.  You make the deposit, it’s placed in your Circle Savings account, and you book when you want.  If you don’t use it, then you get the money back.  Simple and sweet.

That evening we had dinner with a group of people in the Symphony dining room, finally trying Princess’ famous Fettuccine Alfredo – TASTY!

That night we went to Princess Live for Princess Popstar, Star Trek on MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) where I had my first fix of Cookies and Milk 🙂

Day 3 – Sea Day

We got up, had the “Ultimate Breakfast” on our verandah – which really was too much food, but tasty, headed to the Circle Host meet and greet to pick up our gold pins and passports (YAY!!!!), Cruise Critic Meet Up and Gift Exchange (thanks everyone!!), Cruise Critic Lunch in the Allegro dining room (I like the decor here and the service was impeccable and the food awesome!) and then spent the afternoon on the Lido deck in the pool and hot tub.

I must say Princess@Sea is awesome.  Why carry around your Princess Patter (the daily newsletter of what’s going on) when you can use an iPhone or iPad to see what’s going on?  I hope Princess rolls this out to the rest of the fleet.

We did the first of two wine tastings which was awesome!  Some funny jokes from the staff, but also some good information about the wines we were tasting.  If you’re looking for a stuffy wine tasting experience, this is not the wine tasting event for you.  As someone relatively unrefined when it comes to wine, I really appreciated the wine tasting events.

Tonight was Formal Night.  Scott had on his wedding suit, I had on my kilt with a shirt, vest and jacket.  There were photographers everywhere, and they also had Hallowe’en  things everywhere.

Scott and I ate at Sabatinis that night. Sabatini’s will be at least a two-hour dinner if you go – so you are forewarned.

Scott loved it – having had the antipasto with prosciutto and on crustini (good), seafood and tomato soup (AWESOME!), pasta course (bow tie pasta, parmesan and a tomato sauce), and Strip steak (Scott) and Lobster (Iain).

The service we had at Sabantini’s was awesome.   I will say I was a bit disappointed with the food – the pasta wasn’t cooked properly but it was addressed immediately.  I will call out that the meatballs were awesome.  The lobster with the sauce seemed to cancel each other out so was somewhat tasteless, presentation was great.

Scott loved his steak and it was tasty when I tried some – I’m not a big red meat eater, yet every time I try steak, I keep saying “I need to have this more often”.

I would be willing to try them again, to give them one more chance.

When I arranged the honeymoon, I had listed that we would be celebrating our honeymoon on board and had picked October 31st as our day to celebrate.  In the morning (or the night before – I can’t remember), we received a card saying, and I paraphrase, “Present this to the waiter for a treat”.

They presented us with a chocolate cake and the restaurant staff singing happy honeymoon to us.  A nice cap to a challenging meal.

We then went to get our formal photograph taken at several stations.

While I love and appreciate the photo services, I do have to say they are very expensive.  There were a LOT of photos we returned that we didn’t want that they had printed.  And they do have a full photo lab on board with 4 photo printers, that does use a full proper photo process to print those photos.  Yes, they recycle both the silver and the paper, but it does still create a lot of waste – even if it’s recycled.

Day 4 – Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands

Welcome to the 6 mile by 1 mile island of Grand Turk.  I had no idea what to expect, and of course being who we are, we got off the beaten track and did not stick around the Cruise Terminal.  We actually visited the whole island, learning about what makes these people tick, visiting a church, the main town, passing by parliament, eating conch fritters and visiting where they used to make salt.

The tour stopped at Governor’s Beach which is close to the Cruise Ship Terminal and is home to the Governor of the Turks & Caicos.  I was initially hesitant at going swimming and snorkelling – don’t ask me why, I just wasn’t totally the mood and maybe a bit tired of being in the sun and the bright sunlight, but I decided to go with the flow and I know Scott really wanted to.

WOW!  I’m so glad we did!  I learned a few things

Scott and I are back from our honeymoon and we had an amazing time.  I keep tearing up thinking about how perfect the honeymoon turned out.  Below is the first blog entry I wrote while on Royal Princess.

Wow, what a whirlwind of activity to start our honeymoon.

Scott and I both worked Friday as I had a few things to clean up before I took a week off work and Scott has classes to teach.  We got to the airport around 3:30pm for a 5:50pm departure, spending time in the lounge.

After a three hour flight we were in Fort Lauderdale and very soon after we were in the car heading to Orlando for three night and days at Walt Disney World.

We have to say, MagicBand is awesome.  Your room key, entry to the park, FastPass+, PhotoPass+ and charging to your room – all in a single bracelet that’s not intrusive at all.  It’s really cool being part of a software experiment and being an active tester given MagicBand is still going through testing.

Be sure to customize your band online!

I have to say, I was completely blown away by the level of service we received at the park.  Now, I’ve been to Disneyland in California twice and I recognized the service was excellent both times:

And the time has flown by!  One week since Scott and I tied the knot.  Soon we’re off to British Columbia for the West Coast Reception.

However, Scott and I have had other things on our mind.  Where to go for our honeymoon?  Well, we’ve made our decision. *SQUEE*  We’ve needed a vacation for a few years, and we’re doing this big.

• Firstly, we’re flying in and out of Fort Lauderdale, FL
• We’ll stay overnight near Fort Lauderdale
• We’re going to drive from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and spend three days and two nights at Walt Disney World, staying at the All-Star Music Resort.  They know it’s our first time and our honeymoon. 🙂  Check out the “Magic Your Way” package.
• We’re going to drive back to Fort Lauderdale, stay over night and…
• Jump on Princess Cruise’s newest ship, the Royal Princess (wikipedia), for her 5-day maiden voyage in the Caribbean where we will visit Eleuthera, The Bahamas; and Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos!!!!

Way back when Scott and I first talked about our honeymoon, my first choice was to do a Disney Cruise.  I’ve heard all kinds of good things from several friends who have been on Disney Cruiselines, but looking around, the Caribbean maiden voyage of the Royal Princess really caught my eye.  And I really wanted this to be a special vacation for Scott and me – not just because it’s our honeymoon, but it’s been too long since we’ve been on an honest to goodness vacation, and we need one.

We get the best of both worlds here:

• The magic of Disney – who I challenged, nine years ago, to make me smile for a whole day (At Disneyland in California) – and they did.  I finally get to do this with Scott.
• Cutting the cable to the internet, get some us time, and visiting two countries in the process.  Just what we need.

There are a few things I’m really looking forward to on this trip:

• Disney
  • I’ve already reserved High Tea for us,
  • Visiting the various parks with Scott,
  • If this makes sense – experiencing what it’s like to be at a Resort, which is not really something that Scott and I have done
  • Mice ears!  Should we get groom and groom, bride and bride, or two of both sets?
• Cruise
  • Visiting the islands, and going on excursions we’ve never done before, learning about the local culture
  • Taking courses on board, especially mixology (if there is one) and something hands-on cooking related
  • The meals on board – means I’m going to have to hit the gym big time before hand, and during! LOL!
  • Movies Under the Stars with Scott – with Cookies and Milk served!  *GRIN*
  • The Chef’s Table program
  • Breakfast on our Verandah

Most of all, I’m looking forward to getting away from Toronto for a week with Scott, just the two of us.

View Larger Map

And now, a PSA brought to you by Barkenaked Ladies: