Thursday, August 16, 2018

Caribbean Princess - Day 8 (Ft. Lauderdale)

Caribbean Princess
Day 8 - Fort Lauderdale (Disembarkation)
June 9, 2018


So waking up at around 6:30AM was no picnic as we are late sleepers, but it was time to leave the ship. We made sure that we left nothing behind, luggage was already out the night before and on the pier to grab before we went through customs, and headed out to get something to eat with the rest of our baggage.

The Morning Video & Saying Goodbye:


When it comes to disembarking the ship, you can usually set this up the night before and decide if you want to "walk off" with all of your luggage and/or leave it out the night before so that you don't have to "lug" it off yourself.  I found that to be much easier to let them do it for me.  We already prearranged our transfer back to the hotel with the hotel and prepaid them so getting off the ship was a breeze as usual.  I never had any problems with that, however, I had to trek JC's luggage as he was still injured with his foot and could not do much with the luggage.  I got the porter to help us as well so that was a little easier for me.  Got my exercise it though!  LOL.

Once we got back to the hotel, it was easy going home as we only had a 5 hour ride back.  We were both still tired but we made it home.

I found a few things that might help you better decide if this is a ship you want to cruise on. Take a look at these:

Daily Schedule

Shopping Spotlight & Port Guides

Shore Excursions

Princess Extras


NOTE:  By the way, just in case you want to know how much JC's medical bill was?  $600!  Thank goodness for trip insurance!  This is why I tell all my clients to get it!  I was reimbursed 100%!

Thank you for reading our journey on the Caribbean Princess!  I hope you enjoyed it. 

 When you are ready to book your cruise, call Maraloha Travel, LLC.  We look forward to hearing from you!
Stay tuned for more adventures with Maraloha Travel, LLC!

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you.

Don't forget to follow us on  Facebook and Twitter 
LIVE feed!

#maralohatvl, #dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun  
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Caribbean Princess - Day 7 (Sea Day)

Caribbean Princess
Day 7 - Sea Day
June 8, 2018


Last day on the ship.. can't believe the time went so fast however, I am not surprised though. Been on enough ships to realize that nothing lasts forever, but the fun can always continue on another!

Usually the last day of the cruise, the shops and activities seem to explode for the day.  They shops always have their "discounted" sale in order to entice cruisers to shop for loved ones or for themselves and take advantage of the pricing and duty free shops. JC was resting as he was just exhausted from walking around Cozumel with his foot so he decided to sleep in most of the day.  I ventured out to see what was going on and maybe get a few things for the family or friends at home.

As I am walking into one of the shops, who do I see? The captain!  I told him that I was looking forward to seeing him at the cocktail party but he did not show up.  He stated that "I wasn't there?"  I said no but I am sure that you were very busy taking care of all the passengers on the ship, and navigating us in safe waters.  Of course he agreed and I didn't want to embarrass him either, but really?

After that they had some interesting pictures on display and celebrated "Shark Week" on the ship.   I am really not into the "shark week" thing so I went to get something to eat and relax a little bit.

Afterwards, I went to check in on JC and started packing our bags so that the steward can get them ready when we disembark the ship.  I enjoyed a little of the sunset and JC and I decided to go see our favorite bartender "Nevelle" before it was time to call it a night.  To our surprise, the ship was ALIVE!! Go figure! The last night of the cruise the casino, Skywalker Lounge and every place else was jumping!  What happened to the last few days? LOL!

I played a little ProPoker with my new found buddies, saying our goodbyes and headed to bed.

Until tomorrow......Miami! 
Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you. Tune in for Day 8 of our cruise on the Caribbean Princess!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter LIVE feed!

#maralohatvl, #dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Caribbean Princess - Day 6 (Cozumel)


Caribbean Princess
Day 6 - Cozumel
June 7, 2018



The ship arrived in Cozumel at 8AM and everyone was ready to disembark the ship. JC and I woke up at 9AM and started to get ready to go ashore. Before we do, we at least needed a little something to eat to get our energy back. 


At around 10:30AM, we disembarked the ship and went to the shops. Because of his fractured toe, we could not do any shore excursion but only walk to try and find some gifts for friends and family back home. Of course, you have to stop at one of our favorite places Caraloha. The pricing for the stocks and t-shirts are reasonable and cheaper than in Roatan. These socks are a must have along with the shirts. The port itself was different than my last visit. Each cruise ship has a unique port location they dock at. I had never been to this one though and much has changed since then. Once you get off the ship you have to go through the long slue of a shops with a variety of different kinds of things you can get, for example liquor, t-shirts, etc. After that, you have the Three Amigos, Margaritaville, and/or Fat Tuesday bars where most go to drink and party. 

     

Don’t forget to go to the passport office to get your passport stamped. Very friendly and always air conditioned! A major plus since it was 86 degrees and very humid. 

  

The locals within the shopping port always will try to sell you something but make sure you stick to the shops the cruise line sends you to for quality goods. The others will definitely RIP you off. 

After walking around, having a couple of drinks at Fat Tuesday and some photo time, we headed back to the ship for some rest before the evening. 

I don't know if I had mentioned this in earlier posts about this cruise but on this cruise we had a group called "The Santa's."  Very interesting as they had over 120 Santa Clauses and Mrs. Clauses on the ship, taking pictures, interacting with everyone on the ship, and just having "a jolly old time."  (No punt intended).

We headed to the casino, which is were we mostly spent our time because everything else was closed early, and had a few drinks before retiring for the evening.  I know!  Boring....


Until tomorrow.... Sea Day!

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you. Tune in for Day 7 of our cruise on the Caribbean Princess!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter LIVE feed!

#maralohatvl, #dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Caribbean Princess - Day 5 (Belize)

Caribbean Princess
Day 5 - Belize
June 6, 2018



With not much that we can do because of JC’s injury, we slept in for a little bit. We went ashore to just be able to get off the ship and went to get our passport stamped. 


      

Yes folks! If you are on a cruise ship and would like your passport stamped for each port, you just ask one of the local police and they will let you know where the office is to be able to do so. Here is the one in Belize…… 


The only place we did not get, or actually forgot to get our stamp, is Grand Cayman.


After just a lazy day ashore, back on board we went to relax and rest JC’s foot. We also watched the crew do their emergency lifeboat drills which was interesting to see.  The emergency lifeboat drill is done in order for the crew to be able to use them effectively and safely in an emergency, it is essential that the crew members of a ship are trained and have practiced filling and lowering lifeboats.

Now since I have Elite status on this cruise, we had a choice of some canopies to be delivered to our stateroom. However, all the choices either had fish or eggs. Both of which I am allergic to and JC is allergic to Fish. I called room service and they are able to accommodate with some chocolates if you ask for them. 






Another quiet night again and not that exciting….

Until tomorrow.......Cozumel!

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you. Tune in for Day 6 of our cruise on the Caribbean Princess!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter LIVE feed!

#maralohatvl, #dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Princess Cruise - Day 4 (Roatan)

Caribbean Princess
Day 4 - Roatan
June 5, 2018




This was a not so good day.  In the middle of the night, JC turned to get out of the bed to go to the bathroom and slammed his pinky toe, dead on into the wall! He was in pain and thought he might have sprained it but it was not swollen or bruised. We waited until the morning and he could not walk on it as it was too painful, again with no swelling.  This was weird no?  So we called 911 to have them bring up a wheelchair to bring him to the medical center as he could not walk on it.


As we go down to the medical center, they did the normal review of his foot and at first, didn’t want to take an x-ray. However, I told them to do so as I didn’t want to take the chance that it was broken and not know. The nurses and the doctor were very nice and really took care of JC. The doctor examined him, took x-rays and found out that he fractured his toe! The fracture was in a diagonal and still intact. That was the good news. Bad news is that it would take 4-6 weeks to heal. With that said, the doctor gave him pain medicine, ibuprofen, and crutches. There is not much you can do for something like this but only to bound the toes together as to not further injure it. In addition to the crutches and not knowing how his walking capabilities would be, I also requested a wheelchair. I had to cancel our shore excursion which was disappointing, and find other ways for us to get around the ports.
Because the wheelchair was rented through the cruise line, you could not use it off shore. It was very difficult to find accessibility offshore or for Princess staff to help in any way to accomplish this. JC was a trooper and trekked through it and wrapped his toes. We were able to walk off the ship, walk to just the shops, and get back on board while I carried his crutches, just in case he needed them. Although we really wanted to be able to do some shore excursions, any kind of walking would have further risked injuring his foot and I just didn’t feel comfortable in doing that.

So we went back to the cabin and rested for a while. Again, this was a very different cruise than an Norwegian or Royal Caribbean Cruise. This was a relaxing cruise and not one where everyone is partying all the time.  In one way, that is disappointing as we are night people and love the night life and entertainment.  On the other hand, you didn't feel pressured to be anywhere or do anything and that was a bit relieving in some way. But geez!!!…. I felt that this was more of a dead ship than even a lively one.  Everything closed so early!

We got up later and got something to eat.  Then off to explore the ship some more as most people were in bed.  Even the casino closed early so we had to call it an early night.  Bummer....

Until tomorrow….Belize!

Please feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you. Tune in for Day 5 of our cruise on the Caribbean Princess!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter LIVE feed!

#maralohatvl, #dedicatedtravelagent, #WeExist, #cruises, #vacation, #fun
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)