Our 9 night cruise was comprised of almost 5 days at sea. I say almost since the first “day” the ship didn’t set sail until around 5pm-ish, and our last “day” was spent shoving all of our belongings back into their suitcases and waiting around for our given cabin color to be called in order to disembark. I won’t bore you with details about every second of each day at sea, because let’s be honest, I don’t remember the least bit. Here I will highlight some of the more note-worthy activities in pictures.
- tour of our ship, the Caribbean Princess. I know this isn’t an activity per say, but I wanted to document some photos of the actual ship.
our room
back of the ship featuring a pool, 2 hot tubs, and large movie screen
glass elevator which I absolutely loved
what Princess calls “The Sanctuary” – too bad we didn’t take advantage of this adults-only area
- Princess Cruises offers “Movies under the Stars”, where they show a popular motion picture on a large screen overlooking the pool area. We laid out one night cuddling in blankets with popcorn and ice cream in hand. Movies run all throughout the day as well.
- My sister and I seemed to be two of the few 20-somethings on the cruise traveling with parents, so we found ourselves at the ship’s club at night people watching, admiring strangers dresses, and watching way too many over-40’s make utter fools of themselves on the dance floor. We somehow became of interest to the waitors at the club, bringing hollywood iced teas (WAY too strong) and dos equis’ to our table. We surprisingly ran into them everyday thereafter, which was rather entertaining to say the least, yet semi-awkward.
- The abundance of food everywhere for every meal was overwhelming. Loads of pastries, fruit, eggs, bagels, etc for breakfast, pizza and burger bar poolside for lunch as well as a whole array of selections at the buffet, and all you can eat dinners at our anytime dining restaurants. We were also lucky enough to dine at Sabatini’s at no extra cost, the ship’s Italian restaurant (perk of booking through American Express). Here we sampled every appetizer the restaurant had to offer, and then continued on with another 3 courses, then finished our meal indulging in finely-made desserts. Sorry in advance if you get hungry looking at the pictures!
and now the desserts…
And that was only our first dinner! Can you imagine many calories we must have consumed during the entire 9-night cruise? Now you understand why so many people go home after a cruise and are unable to zipper their pants. The abundance of food EVERYWHERE on a ship makes it so hard for people to restrain themselves, and we often indulge in foods we are too guilty to eat at home. When you’re on vacation, it’s ok to treat yourself. To find a happy medium between sweets and healthy foods, check out this article on how to not gain weight on a cruise.
- Martin Kaye sang/played at the piano bar a few nights after dinner, and we were lucky enough to catch some of his songs. His style is hard to pinpoint- kind of a mixture of jazz, pop, and funk. He is an amazing entertainer and impressive pianist, singing and dancing while atop the piano, getting an audience of all ages involved. If you happen to upon the same cruise as him, be sure to check out his socks while playing (he wore one white sock and one red sock). To learn more about him and sample some of his work, check out his website HERE. Listen to my favorite song of his here: About You.
- We met the Captain of the ship during the first (of two) formal nights. Thanks for getting us back home safely! I love admiring all the ladies’ dresses during formal nights, and gawking at those who go so far out to even get their hair done on the ship [since mostly everyone is laying back relaxing in bathing suits around the pool all day].
- The ship offered a galley tour, so of course my family was beyond eager to check it out. It was actually very interesting to see the “behind-the-scenes” workings of the kitchen. How they manage to make enough food for all 3,100 passengers is unbelievable. And like I said earlier, those on cruises eat ALOT! The chefs must use their imagination to create dishes with only specified foods. If you see watermelon soup on the menu for dinner one night, realize that there was probably an abundance of left-over watermelons from dessert the night before.
Here we are with one of the main chefs:
I’m not positive what this book was made out of, possibly just boring cake, but I love how they decorated it.
Statue of Liberty made entirely out of cheese. Yes, cheese. I understand that cheese can be molded to perfection, but they must use the perfect consistency of wet and dry cheese so the statue does not crumble or melt.
So that concludes my extra-long post of memories from our days at sea.
I just love this picture of my sister and I enjoying some after dinner drinks in the room, so I can’t end this post without sharing:
Hope you enjoyed! 🙂
I've never been on a cruise. Yours looks like soo much fun!
thanks! it was a blast! i would advise you to go on one!