May 26 – Day 3 – Sailing on the Island Princess

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We started this morning with FREE breakfast in the hotel again, and then scheduled our ride to the cruise port. There is a shuttle bus from the hotel directly to our ship’s terminal, so we paid the fee instead of a taxi that would have gotten us close but about 100 yards away. Anyway, we returned to the room and packed our bags awaiting our noon ride.

We took everything down to the lobby on time and they loaded our bags and we got onto the shuttle. The steps into the van were a little problem, but we persevered and we were on our way. Thinking about it, trying to get us and our luggage into a normal sedan taxi probably would have been crowed anyway.

At the terminal our bags were taken from us by the Princess staff and they guaranteed delivery to our stateroom – no need for us to lug them up the gangway. Janet was able to get a wheelchair ride and that automatically got us to the head of the line and expedited our boarding process. We left the hotel about noon and were in our cabin about 1:30. It is a nice big Mini-suite (D329) and provides more space than a normal cabin. For this long cruise we really wanted the extra space. There is a sofa and an extra chair, two TVs, a larger bathroom with a shower/tub instead of the usual telephone-booth-sized shower, and a larger balcony. It started raining after we were on the ship, but that didn’t affect our boarding.

We met our Cabin Steward (Jerry) and were given a complimentary glass of champagne as a welcome aboard greeting. We also got the usual drinks in our cabin for being Elite status with Princess. That’s not a big deal because we also have the full drink package (up to 15 alcoholic drinks a day – per person). We then headed up to the Horizon Court for a buffet lunch. David messed up and headed us in the wrong direction from our cabin, but we found it eventually although it cost extra steps along the deck. We will NEVER make that mistake again.

There was a Sail Away party on the Lido deck where a lot of people were celebrating the sailing. David got a few pictures but they may not get posted until tomorrow. Anyway, we are underway and have left the US and are heading out into International Waters. Our itinerary includes 3 sea days before we get to Halifax Nova Scotia. Then several more sea days before we get to Iceland. There will be multiple stops in Iceland before the ship heads to England. The end of the first half of our cruise finishes in Southhampton England about June 11. We will stay aboard for more destinations, but those places can be covered in a future posting.

We went to the dining room and had a good dinner. We did not have reservations but sat with 3 other couples in the Anytime Dining. Janet had fried chicken and David had beef stew. Those sound a little plebian, but each was tasty. We also had appetizers and deserts. Then we went back to the cabin to unpack the suitcases which had been delivered just before we left for dinner. We also worked on scheduling reservations for future dinners, but the Princess app is a little weird using the TV remote so it may need a bit more work.

Anyway, we have officially launched our vacation cruise. There is a continuing storm front off the coast of Florida so the sailing is a little bumpy this evening, but not a big problem. We expect to have a good night sleep before we start another fun day tomorrow. Good night.

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