Sunday, January 25, 2015

We arrive on the Grand

January 24th continues,
After our walk we returned to our beautiful room and we relaxed. I blogged and Ken surfed on the TV.
When it was time to leave we caller a porter and he arrived to take our suitcases to the waiting area. We discovered much to our surprise that the little liquor shop across from the hotel had opened and wasn’t out of business after all. Ken went across to the shop and got us a bottle of wine to have in our room. Soon the shuttle arrived and we were on out way. I was surprised to see that the port was only about 5 minutes away straight down the hill. It would have been a very lo9ng 5 minutes if we were walking it and pulling suitcases. But the shuttle was included in our hotel cost which was a very good thing. Princess employees met our shuttle and soon our bags were on their way to the ship and we were on our way to check in. That went very smoothly and our preferred boarding got us to very short lines and soon we were enjoying a coffee and an oatmeal cook. About 5 minutes later we saw Greg and he suggested that we join him and Jeannie. We had a great visit and Ken and I were introduced to their friends and lots of laughing and visiting and conversation ensued. Before long we were headed for the ship. Being preferred we were the first passengers allowed to board. That black card does come in handy.
We found our room with no problem, on the bed was a coffee card from Kim, she is a gem. We stashed things in the safe and headed to dinner. We had lunch in the Da Vinci dining room. We opted to sit with others and surprisingly Greg and Jeanie were put at out table as well. One gentleman at the table, I think his name was Ron, anyway this was cruise number 101 for him. We know Greg and Jeannie also have around or over 100 cruises. The other person was Betty who was also a solo traveler and from the way the conversation went she was also a very experienced cruiser. Our 30 cruises was not even worth mentioning. The food was fabulous and the conversation was great. It feels good to be back with Princess.
After lunch we went our separate ways after we checked out the center of the ship. I looked into some of the shops. I planned to buy a new hoodies with the anniversary logo on it. But I don’t like the color they have at all. I may just not buy one .
. Ken explored the ship and I came back to the stateroom. Our luggage had arrived so I unpacked and I decorated our door. I also took pictures of the room which I will post later.
Ken came back and he unpacked and we got ready for dinner. We are in the Botticelli dining room at a table for six. It is not next to a window but it isn’t that far away. It is a table for six but it will probably have 5 people. There is a couple and the brother of the man seems to be travelling alone. We don’t know the details yet.
Our waiter is very nice and very efficient, Juan Carlos is his name. There doesn’t seem to be an assistant waiter. We bought a nice bottle of French wine which we will enjoy for a couple of nights.
Ken had steak and I had Bass. As usual it was wonderful and perfectly done. We had a great time visiting with our tablemates. It seems we have lucked out again. They seem to be very nice and I am certain we will make new friend before this voyage is over. They are from Arizona by way of Ohio.
After dinner we went to the Princess Theatre for the welcome aboard show. We haven’t taken that in for the past few cruises but we were glad that we did last evening. The performers were amazing. I can go into that later.
After the show we planned to go for special coffee but we changed our minds and went back to our rooms and called it a night. It had been a very busy day and we were ready to sleep.
I will try to post pictures later!!

Sunday is a sea day.

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