Seven Days at Sea with a Princess - Part One.

The Caribbean Princess in, where else, the Caribbean.

Cruise T minus 7 days.

As I start this next post, I'm quite excited about the possibility truly getting away from all the stresses that have been plaguing me over the past couple of weeks.  My wife and I are going on a cruise.  We are not taking a Disney Cruise as you might suspect from previous posts of mine but with the cruise lines that we with which we have always had wonderful luck.  Since we spend much of our time cruising with my parents, and since their favorite cruise line is Princess we will be taking the Caribbean Princess for a 7 night cruise of the western Caribbean.  We booked our December cruise in March and have been counting the days till we leave from Houston to explore the waters off of Central America.  I am certain that what ever happens it won't be boring and there will be plenty of stuff to talk about, even when we are at sea and there are no shore excursions to discuss.  This cruise came about after talking with my folks about a cruise to the UK from which they had just recently returned.  The UK cruise had included my sister and her husband. We, at the time, were unable to go for various reasons. We have, however, taken cruises with them to the Caribbean and Hawaii.  My sister and her Hubby had been on both those cruises as well.  This will be the first cruise for us with out my sister and brother in law, but my parents who really love cruises couldn't resist the urge to come with us.

Cruise T minus 6 days.

On previous cruises, We have always had a balcony.  I love sitting on the balcony with coffee in the morning and watch the ocean go by.  There is something satisfying, for want of a better word, about being so far from land you can't see it.  I think the gentle rolling motion of the ship is very relaxing and the peacefulness of watching the sea roll by is hard to match. We again booked a balcony stateroom that was pretty high up on the ship.  Just a week or so ago we found out that we had been upgraded to a much better cabin lower in the ship.  The cabin has at least twice the balcony that our previous cabin had.  I can imagine hours of reading and watching the sea roll by sipping on coffee. With each passing mile away from the coast I will feel more relaxed.  In the past, we have quickly snapped up opportunities to eat at the Chef's table.  The resulting meal is lots of fun.  Canopies and appetizers were served in the ships galleys. I am always amazed how much wonderful food the chefs and cooks on the ship can provide from these clean and modern facilities.  I kinda feel the Chefs like to try to out do each other with this meal.  The last Chef's Table the kitchen team served veal, beef and pork tenderloins hanging from what looked like ancient instruments of battle.  Of course, there was lobster and wine and all kinds of good things to eat.  The only real issue was,  There was way way too much food.  It was impossible to focus and savor a single menu item when it would be followed to something a more spectacular.  The evening was wonderful, and sometime we will enjoy the Chefs table again, but maybe not this time.   If you want the Chef's table, reservations are on a first come, first serve basis and you should make those reservations as soon as you find you cabin on the ship.

Cruise T minus 1 Day.

I just got back from a business trip that took me to Voorhees New Jersey to move a network up to another office.  The work went well and I returned without delay having finished our laundry list of tasks to get the site ready for their move next week.  I got back to my house and discovered that Snow is predicted for the Day we leave to Houston to board the Cruise ship.  Of course, that makes me worry about the flight and if it would be canceled.  Hopefully the Snow will not be the 4 to 6 inches that the weather men are predicting.  The Bags are packed. At least my bag is packed. My wife will have hers packed by the time we are scheduled to leave to Indy to catch our plane.  My wife has procured lodging for us tonight at the Residence Inn near the airport.  This makes me happy because we will be in Indy early tomorrow and won't have to fight the weather to get to the airport no matter how much snow we get.  Since my parents are going on the cruise with us so we booked a two bedroom suite at the hotel.  We will leave our car parked at the hotel while we are on the cruise. Parking fees are expensive at the airport and saving the hour and a half travel time to the airport will make our wake up time a little less nasty.  My parents will come to our house which is on the way to Indy for them and park in our garage.  We will drive to Indy this evening when they get to the house.  I am very excited about getting to ship.

 Embarkation Day:

United Regional Jet, I'm glad it was only a couple of hours flight

Who would have thought that the very first day of our cruise would have been so problematic.  We got out of bed at 4:00 am.  You have read it correctly, we got up at 4:00 am to catch our  flight from Indianapolis to Houston. Snow had fallen from the sky most of the night but the roads were not too bad yet and we got to the airport in plenty of time to check in and catch our plane.  Our flight was full of passengers, all eager to get to Houston, but in spite of that, we boarded normally and were settled into our seats and we were pushed off from the gate pretty close to on time.  Of course, while we were not at the gate anymore, that didn't mean our fight left on time.  We spent an hour on the tarmac getting the plane deiced before departure.  We didn't wait long for the trunk to show up but even so, you would be surprised how long it takes to coat even a little plane like our commuter jet with deicer. All in all, we were about an hour late leaving the airport but, since i was already worried about the snow keeping us from flying I was grateful to leave when we did.  The snow was starting to pile up on the Runways and Taxi ways of the airport.

Our flight arrived in Houston without incident. But of course, things didn't go perfectly at the Houston Airport either.  We waited for our luggage at the baggage claim and three of the four bags that our little group had checked arrived right a way.  We continued to wait and wait and wait for our last piece and it still didn't arrive.  By this time,  My father, who needed a wheel chair to get through the airports was being taken care of by a fellow from Disney Cruise lines of all things.  The Princess representatives were off getting other people registered for the bus trip to the Cruise terminal.  Upon investigation, we were told that the reason why our bag wasn't on the carousel  was the distance from the gate to the Baggage claim and that we should be patient and our bag would arrive soon.  After another 20 minutes of waiting, and 40 minutes of no new bags appearing on the belt, We ask the United representative again about it.  We gave her our claim check and soon discovered that our bag was at an entirely different gate entirely. One of our suitcases had taken an earlier flight to Houston and was at the baggage claim office at gate C.  Hmmmmmm.  By this time, the representatives from Princess had returned so we packed up our little group. My wife pushed the baggage cart, I pulled the carry on that my mother had taken and Tom, the Disney Cruise representative pushed my dad and we followed the Princess representative to the United Baggage claim office in concourse C.  We were a merry little troupe that took up two of the cars of the little tram that went form concourse to concourse below the airport in Houston.  When we arrived, the Clerk at the baggage claim office found our bag in seconds and we worked our way up to the ground transportation area of the concourse C, where we would board the bus for the cruise terminal. Tom, our trusty Disney Representative stuck with us the whole time.  The two Princess folks got us registered for the bus ride to the terminal and we loaded our luggage onto the trunk that would take our stuff to the ship for us.  As an aside,  I have always thought Disney among ,if not, the best service people on earth.  I will be sure to write Disney Cruise lines a note commending the wonder help their guy gave us when, quite frankly, he didn't have to.  It really made the whole day for me.

Cruise Terminal At Houston.  New and Clean.

The bus ride to the Port of Houston Cruise terminal was, pretty much, uneventful if not a little long. We were surprised to see people streaming out of the Cruise terminal instead of into it.  For those of you that have not done a cruise, the check-in procedure is not all that different that when you check-in with an airline before you go on a flight.  Because my parents have done many cruises, we were able to bypass some of the lines and check in quickly, However, there was a bit of bad news waiting for us at the Terminal.  The Port of Houston had been closed most of the night due to fog and the ship had just got into the terminal about just an hour before we had arrived at the Terminal.  Princess had send us an email informing us of the delayed arrival for the ship but, of course, we were in an aircraft and couldn't get emails on our phones.  The staff said that we wouldn't be able to board the ship anytime soon so they had arranged to have a bus take people to the near by Kemah Board walk.  My wife and I were pretty hungry and my parents were kind of tired so while we chose to take the bus to Kemah to get a bite to eat, my parents decided to camp out at the cruise terminal.  We promised we would bring them some food upon our return.
The bus ride to Kemah was only about 10 to 15 minutes, and, the place looked pretty cool.  There were carnival rides and a roller coaster that we could have ridden.  We were hungry, however, because the restaurant we where we were going to eat breakfast was understaffed and couldn't get our order to us in time for us to make our flight. So my wife and I proceeded with great alacrity to the restaurant we had chosen for lunch.  Upon recommendations of the staff at the terminal, we chose the Saltgrass Steak house for our luncheon.  Whether it was the quality of the food or the fact we were pretty hungry i'm not sure, but the food was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the Pork Tacos and the Brisket Sandwich we ordered.  The Crab and avocado stack appetizer amazed us as well.  We ordered a burger for my father and a chicken sandwich for my mom.  The restaurant was kind enough to wrap the sandwiches in foil.  They also put the cold stuff in a different container than the sandwiches so the hot chicken and burger would stay hot and the cold lettuce and tomatoes would stay cold.  I was really impressed by the service and the food.  We boarded the bus and took my parents their food which was still pretty hot and they ate with great relish.  Then, a surprising thing happened.  Hours before we expected to board the ship, The cruise line announced that they were ready for boarding.

The Atrium Aboard ship were gorgeous.

At last, We were aboard the Cruise ship.  In what seemed to be no time at all our luggage joined us outside our state room.  This is a very nice service that Princess and most cruise lines offer to take your luggage from the airport directly to your state room.  Of course, you have to remember that if there are things you can't do with out, like certain medicines and maybe even a change of clothes, you might want to pack a carry on bag.  Our upgraded balcony was very nice and spacious and the state room was very much like to which we were accustom.  The rooms are not big but the bed is nice and there is room to sit in a chair.   I'm a big guy and, well the shower is pretty cramped for me. But I managed to use it fine and was able to keep clean. The toilets on a Princess cruise ship, or the head to use the nautical term, are kinda strange.  They make a great whooshing sucking sound when you flush them.  I would never want to be sitting on one when it was flushed.   The bathroom as a whole looked like it was a installed as a single section that had been plumbed into the ship.  There was plenty of storage for our clothes and a safe in the room for our passports and valuables.  My wife and I had been in one of these cabins for 15 days before when we cruised to Hawai'i so I was never really uncomfortable in the cabin.  The bed was a queen size bed that consisted of two twin beds pushed together with a sort of patch between them. I never really could feel the patch but mom and dad said they could. I did however see where the two beds had been joined and connected together.  The bed was hard, but it was comfortable and along with the motion of the ship, it was easy to drift off to sleep.  In fact, since we had an early morning getting to the plane, one of the first things we did was take a nap.

Finally on the Balcony on Embarkation day.

After our nap It was time to get up and explore the ship a little. We got out and found our dining room where we were scheduled for the early seating for our meal and looked at the shops in the atrium.  The shops were closed because of Princess' policy that keeps the shops on the ship closed while in port.  Once underway they would open and offer up lots of different merchandise that we could buy.  All of the stuff on the ship was duty free which is an advantage if you are looking for a bargain.  My mom has purchased a great deal of jewelry from the shops aboard ship and Princess has targeted her.  She receives discounts in the jewelry store above and beyond the 10 percent that she gets from her Platinum rewards status.  On embarkation day she got an additional 10 percent and low and behold, a new set of ear rings appeared on her ears the very next day.  We spend some time in the atrium that afternoon having a drink.  My wife and I had a New Orleans Hurricane. I need to stop and take a moment to describe this drink.  It was sort of the same color as a Hurricane and it had rum in it, but that is about all it had in common with the Hurricanes I have had on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.  This drink was a frozen concoction with lots of crushed ice... the glass was two thirds full of crushed ice.  Regular hurricanes are fruit punch (or something like that) and run with ice cubes.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the drink, but technically speaking, it wasn't a hurricane.

Cruise Veterans will know that before the ship can get too much under way,  the passengers are required to
do what princess charmingly calls, a muster drill.  This drill requires that all passengers proceed to their predetermined muster station with their life vests to receive some training on how to use the vests and receive other safety information.  The drill only lasts about 20 minutes from beginning to end, so it doesn't take a lot of time out of your day.  However, because the ship was late getting into port so princess was late getting all the passengers on board and therefore the crew was late casting off the ship thus making us late doing the muster drill.  Technicality, the drill is suppose to be done before or just as the ship is leaving port.  Anyway, because everything was late, our dinner seating was changed to anytime seating between 5:00 and 10:00 with the dining room closed during the drill which they scheduled to be over by 6:45.  We decided to wait till after the muster drill to eat. We went to the muster drill and learned how to use the life preservers. I didn't know it at the time but I would be spending quite a bit of time in our muster station which was the Wheel House bar in the aft portion of deck 7 on our ship.  One thing that I have noticed about the names of the Restaurants and Facilities on the ship is they tend to have the same names from ship to ship.  The Wheel House bar, which was our muster station, existed on the Crown Princess along with the Coral Dining room where we took our meals.  These ships were the same class with a few modifications to the structure.  The Caribbean Princess had a Lounge that was suspended above the family pool near the stern of the ship.  Skywalker Nightclub was the place we first met for the Princess Pop choir that I participated in.  More on that later.

The Coral Dining room.  Where we took our Dinner meal.

After the Muster Drill we settled into our table for Dinner.  Because of our late departure, the staff decided to have dinner as open seating for the first night rather than our standard chosen time of 5:30 so we didn't eat at our normal table that first night.  We settled into a delicious meal.  I chose the Bacardi Snapper Ceviche.  This was a delicious appetizer of red snapper that had been acid cooked in lime juice with essentially a mojito poured over it.  Delicious and refreshing the bit of avocado added to the creaminess of the dish.  I think I'm going to try to make this on my own since I have know of a fish market that usually has good snapper.  For the soup course I ordered a mushroom soup that had tarragon.  This was probably my least favorite dish of the cruise.  Somewhere along the lines I missed out on noticing the part where tarragon was in the soup.  Tarragon is not my favorite herb and this had lots of tarragon. For the entree I had a piece of Filet of beef.  It was good and tender and the sauce was tasty.  At the end of the day, it needed a bit of salt and pepper to make it taste right.  The theme of food being a little under seasoned continued through out the cruise.  Of course, I'm sure that my palette was not the target palette of the chef as he had to shoot for a happy medium that would be good for everyone. For desert they offered a passion fruit souffle.  I really like souffle and this one didn't disappoint me.  While we where eating we noticed the that ship was, at last, underway and we were cruising for Cozumel, the first port of call for our cruise.  While we have had what I have come to call "Tippy Shippy" on every cruise, the rocking of the ship is much more relaxing that it is alarming.  That night, due to the gently rocking of the ship and the early morning of our flight, we slept long and well on our first night at sea.

Disney's Food Glorious Food part 3.

I've spent some time in this blog talking about the Signature restaurants at Disney.  By all means these are some of the best restaurants around.  But they all are pretty costly with regards to both Disney dining plan credits and real cash money.  Fear not! there are places that don't charge quite so much for their food.  Of course, the food at Disney is expensive everywhere but there are lower cost options than the Signature Dining Restaurants that we have so far spent most of our time discussing.  In this post I hope to spend some time talking about some of the wonderful buffets that are offered for a single dining credit.  You have to eat well, no matter what kind of budget you are on, because Disney takes a lot of strength to explore.

Hollywood and Vine.  A great place to eat before Fantasmic!

As you can see by my profile photo, I'm a pretty big guy.  You know that I'm going to know were to get great food and where the best stuff is hiding.  One of the best buffets at Disney world can be found at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Disney's Hollywood Studios. Our first trip to Hollywood and Vine was in the year 2000.  Disney was celebrating the new millennium and my parents were gracious enough to take my wife, kids and me to Disney World. A long time had passed since my wife and I had visited in 1985.  Two parks had opened and the dining choices had exploded. Hollywood studios was among the new parks to open during our absence from the parks. Fantasmic opened in Hollywood studios in Disney World on October 15, 1998. The show was only open for a couple years when we went in 2000.  Disney offers a dining package with Fantasmic and to my mind, booking a dinner package is a great way to go.  Not only do you get great seats to the show, but you get to eat at a great Disney restaurant.  For the 2000 trip we made our reservations at Hollywood and Vine.  Our trip was in October so the crowds were not at their maximum but there were plenty of people there and so when we got hungry early and arrived a little early for our reservations, we still had a wait to get into the restaurant.  This didn't bother me because we were, after all, early.  We still got to our table earlier than our reservations and sat down to a wide and varied buffet of meats and seafood.  veggies and casseroles were all over the buffet with a carving station of prime rib and Turkey i think it was.  The food was constantly replenished and was hot and delicious.  One of the features of this and every Disney Buffet is a special section just for kids.

Clams, Crab and Shrimp.. Oh My!

My family, being from the Midwest, was intrigued by the possibility of a clam bake.  Disney offers its own version of a clam bake at the Beach and Yacht resort in the Epcot area of Disney World.  Cape May has a buffet restaurant that serves a couple of purposes.  In the morning the restaurant one of the many places that young and old alike can interface with some of Disney's beloved characters.  Specifically, Beach Goofy makes his appearance along with many of his friends while kids and adults munch on scrambled eggs,  Mickey waffles and other assorted breakfast offerings.     I must admit that I haven't been to Cape May Cafe for breakfast but our family did go there for dinner.  The dinner buffet at Cape may was billed as a clam bake and true enough there were clams on the buffet, along with crab legs,  Peal and Eat shrimp and other seafood delights.  Cape May also offers a carving station and a desert bar that is full of cakes and pies. We ate at Cape Mays in 2000 and haven't returned since.  The food there was good and plentiful but the size of the clams left me a little underwhelmed.  We just haven't seen the need to eat there since though I'm sure the place has changed over the 13 years that we haven't been there.

The food is good.. the Characters are better.

A better place, in my opinion for a Character Dinner is located in the Contemporary Resort near the Magic
Kingdom.  Chef Mickey's is THE place for breakfast in all the Disney parks.  Located in the atrium in the Contemporary resort near the Monorail,  Chef Mickeys serves hundreds of guests every day.  Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy are all dressed in the Chef's coats and are out among the diners constantly. The food is typical Disney breakfast buffet fair.  Menu items include scrambled eggs, pancakes, Mickey Waffles, along with assorted breakfast meats.  Hash brown potatoes with gravy on them are one of my favorite things to eat at the breakfast buffet. Included on the buffet are various fresh fruits and a number of breakfast casseroles. Most of the food is designed to taste good along with staying well for a period of time on a buffet.  I think there was a chef there making the Mickey waffles to order.  Waffles tend to get cold fast and are not nearly as good when they loose their crisp texture.  But while the food is good, it really isn't the best I have ever tasted and, of course, the infamous Disney bacon is included as part of the buffet.  What makes Chef Mickey the place for breakfast for young and old alike is the character interaction.  Almost every one of the classic Disney characters make an appearance.  Goofy, one of my favorite Disney characters, is there.  Minnie and Mickey are both there of course. Donald, Chip and Dale wander through the dining room and Pluto makes his appearance as well.  Each character goes around the dining room and spend as much time as needed at each table.  Squeals of delight come from kids as their favorite comes to the table.  The characters don't talk.  I mean how could they, but they still communicate with every one there.  Then, periodically through out the day, the characters parade through the restaurant to music.  Diners are encouraged to take their napkins and spin them over their heads as the characters march through greeting everyone they see.  The staff is always willing to take a moment to get your picture with your favorite characters.  The amazing training for the Disney staff shines through again.  Everyone is thoughtful and caring I really believe that the people that work there care about the visitor's comfort and enjoyment.

Before Finding Nemo, lets have a bite here.

As you may have already figured out,  My family is awfully fond of a dinner and a show.  Now i'm not sure that they do this anymore, but it wasn't so long ago when you could book a meal and get preferred seating to the Finding Nemo, the Musical in the Animal Kingdom.  Since we are always looking for ways to tweak our Disney experience we snapped up the opportunity and made reservations at the Tusker House in Harambe Village near the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction. The Tusker House is a large African Themed buffet with tons of dishes with their flavor origins in Asia and Africa.  Pork and Chicken were featured here with salmon available for seafood lovers.  Curries and Tofu dishes were on the buffet as well.  The flavors are unexpected and definitely different from what I am use to.  The port loin was roasted with a coffee rub/glaze that was not unpleasant and the curries were spicy and, to this untrained pallet, authentic in flavor.  The deserts feature many different tropical fruits included a passion fruit tart that was lovely.  More familiar fare was available as well.  What could be more american than chocolate chunk Cookies or Turtle Brownies.  I think my favorite dish on the buffet may have been the breads.  Tusker House serves a cracker bread with sesame seeds that i loved to dip into the wonderful chutneys and jellies that were offered.  After the meal we saw one of my favorite shows at Disney.  I really love Pixar movies and one of my favorites is Finding Nemo.  The movie included some music which Disney has taken and expanded into a 30 minute musical telling the story.  The condensed story is quite complete I might add, of Nemo and his dads search for him.  But, I think I'll save that for another post.

Boma's is Famous throughout Disney as one of the best buffets.

The last of the buffets that i want to talk about is the Famous Boma, Flavors of Africa.  I had heard a lot about this restaurant and really wanted to try it.  I liked the flavors of the dishes served at the Tusker house and was anxious to try what Boma had to offer.  All in all the food was good, but maybe not as great as I expected it to be.  The Highlights of the meal were the Crab soup which was unexpected it texture and flavor,  The Ribs, which I though were rich and tasty and the Zebra Domes for desert.  My mother in law was fond of the watermelon rind salad  and I enjoyed the couscous as well.  At one of the carving station was a whole pork shoulder.  Unfortunately, I thought it a little dry and while I'm all about the pig most of the time, this one wasn't as good as I hoped.  One of the big desert sensations that many people raved over is served at Boma's.  The Zebra Dome is almost a truffle that includes Espresso, Kahlua and heavy cream covered in white chocolate with milk chocolate stripes.  Don't get me wrong, the desert is good.  I just found it wanting when compared to the hype that we have seen in many of the food blogs and restaurant reviews.   Had I not read the reviews I would have probably said it was very good and worth getting a second piece but it wasn't the best desert I had eaten in Disney world.  At the end of the day, I would give Boma an B+ to an A-, and while I enjoyed my meal there, I've done it now and it will be a while before I need to go back.

Generally, Disney does a great job with buffets.  The weaknesses are probably all attributable to the inherent weaknesses in all buffets.  Because the Disney folks keep the fresh food coming out to the buffets and don't let any one dish sit unattended for long, most of the pitfalls of buffet eating are avoided.  The best part of any buffet is the amount of choice diners get and the speed at which they can get their food.  All in all, the Disney buffets are a good value at a single dining credit per person and fill a niche.  There is so much to do at Disney that, Unless that is what you are setting out to do, dining can take a significant hunk out of your day.  I like to eat,  so the dining is as much of the experience as riding the Rock and Roller Coaster but a good buffet is nice when you are in a bit of a hurry.