Sea Day #1.
This was a day to relax. We had nothing to do and nowhere to go. So we stayed in bed and had a late breakfast. After exploring the ship a little, it was time for lunch in the main dining room. And that is where we shared a table with two ladies who went to college together.
Often, it is quicker and easier to get a table in the main dining room when one is willing to share a table with others. This is something I tend to do on most of my cruises, as it allows me to meet with new people and learn new things. This time, RQS and I were able to share some of our Eastern Canada / New England cruise experiences with others who had an interest in the itinerary.
After lunch, we decided to rest a while before dressing up for dinner. RQS made a stop at the ice cream station on the lido deck where she got a specialty dessert for us to split. (Getting these desserts is a perk we are entitled to in our cruise package.) It was yummy, but not something I’d have every day.
Soon enough, it was time for us to get dressed for the evening. Unlike one extremely formal cruise line I want to take soon, I didn’t need a “Dinner Suit” for formal night. Princess is happy when women get dressed in nice dresses, and the men get dressed in a blazer, shirt & tie with a pair of dress slacks. This would be the first time we got dressed up since our last cruise, and we enjoyed it.
Dinner in the specialty dining restaurant (the steak house) was good. But one thing marred it a little. The place was understaffed, and it took a while for service to get started. When it did, it was up to the level met by the complimentary restaurants on the ship. RQS was impressed, as it was a consistently higher level of service than NCL has on its ships. Yet, both of us agreed that NCL’s steak house had the better quality steak.
So how would we rate the ship so far in this cruise? Princess has better quality service. There are not as many attempts to upsell the cruiser extra products and services to make money. We both prefer NCL’s buffet, but prefer Princess’s main dining rooms. We are not as happy with Princess’s Medallion experience as we’d like, as the App doesn’t carry all the information one might need from the daily Princess Patter (such as times restaurants are open), but it is something I’d like to see implemented on other cruise lines.
After dinner, we met up with a couple of people at the lounge. We had a nice chat, although the band was playing too loud for comfort. I wonder - is the band playing loud because the older demographic of the cruisers imply hearing troubles? Who knows? But I’d have loved to have chatted in an area less noisy. At least, I was able to use my louder male voice for conversation.
