Our group of six rallied at the front door of the hotel around noon for the quick ride to the port. The check-in and boarding process was quite efficient and we were on board the Caribbean Princess and having lunch before we knew it. Next we settled into our very nice, spacious mini suites …three in a row on deck nine… before exploring the ship and getting ready for dinner. We chose ‘anytime dining’ and mozied down to the dining room around 6:00 eager to begin devouring our individual shares of the approximately 110 tons [tons!] of food brought on board for the trip. An Irish comedian, William Caulfield, was the featured entertainment that night. After the show I headed back to the room while the others explored the shops and put a few quarters in the slots. Dan ended the night up $18.75. Before turning out the light we set our watches ahead an hour.

About Princess Cruise Line

• 2015 marks its 50th anniversary [with no shortage of logo merchandise highlighting its Seawitch logo in the gift shop].
• Princess Pacific hosted The Love Boat TV series back in the 70s. No surprise to find an entire channel dedicated to Love Boat episodes. We were all avid viewers back in the day, by the way.
• Ships have been christened by Hollywood royalty [Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Olivia de Havilland, Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal], Olympic gold medalists [Jamie Sale and David Pelletier], TV celebs [Martha Stewart and the Bachelorette’s Trista and Ryan], as well as the likes of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• In the late 90s the first wedding chapel debuted and Princess became the first cruise line where captains could legally marry couples at sea.

Our first full day was at sea. Hettie and Ronnie were up in time for what Cleone calls a Big Boy Breakfast. Walter and Cleone had a light breakfast and Dan and I slept through the first meal of the day surfacing around 11:00. We rallied for a light lunch but went straight back to the room for a Dramamine gum chaser. As soon as my stomach settled I took a Dramamine pill and was fine from then on. Dan stuck with the gum. By gum I mean The Same Piece of gum. More on that later. Come to find out Cleone left the salon looking for Dramamine before her nail appointment even started and Hettie spent the entire day in her room due to rough seas. Walter and Ronnie were iron-men and made it through with no help from the first aid kit.

We enjoyed our first of three formal nights. My dinner was fabulous: mushroom soup and pate for a starter; veal ravioli followed by blueberry sorbet to cleanse our delicate, yeah right, pallets; and then the main course which for me was turbot that melted in my mouth. A signature dessert topped it off: heart shaped chocolate mousse sitting on a heart shaped shortbread cookie with raspberry sauce in a mini-well on top. Sadly Hettie and Ronnie were unable to join us for dinner.

The entertainment was as good as the meal. It was a song and dance review titled Do You Wanna Dance which sounded a bit hokey, but it was wonderful. Bollywood, Spanish, 60s American, Irish, and others were rolled into a fast moving, energetic, and fun show. Although we all felt well, we headed back to our rooms for an early night so we’d be in top shape for the next day…our first day in port.

OK, more about Dan’s gum. He was reluctant to give it up because a) he had such great faith in it and b) we had no more. So he chewed it from 2:00 in the afternoon until dinner at 6:00. Then he somehow tucked it between his gum and cheek during dinner, pried it out with a toothpick after dinner, and enjoyed it again until lights out at 11:00. A miracle on the high seas.

Fun fact about the Caribbean Princess

• There is a crew of 1,100 specialized in seeing to our every need.
• The ship was built in Italy [2001-2004] and is registered in Bermuda.
• It is 946.8 feet long and 118 feet wide.