A decent night’s sleep in a much wider bed than of late, but I’m sure the bed is also a fraction longer than the beds on the Sea Princess. A leisurely start to the day, but Paula was woken by the noise from the tender boats being launched. With stomachs still a little on the delicate side, (too much good food, or just too much food?), we had a light breakfast and opted to eat outside on deck 16. It was a fair bit cooler than in the Med, but we coped.
The mad rush for the tenders was starting to ease and on arrival at the assembly point, flashing our black cards, we were simply told to go out with the next group, so we had no number. An Elite status first!
The tenders appear to be a little larger than the Sea/Dawn ships and a slightly better design with no real steps. A fairly steady run to the busy dock. We had no plans and opted to do no more than walk the streets and relax. It warmed up a wee bit, so it was very pleasant and we loved this small town, which we considered to be a cross between the Cornish ports of St Ives and Penzance, with narrow, cobbled, traffic free streets. They cheekily even advertised that they had the World’s best Cornish pasties, though how they justify that is anyone’s guess. There was some sort of carnival on with every other corner having some form of live music, from sax players (who hadn’t started when we arrived), guitarist/singers, a small brass ensemble, with French horn, 2 trombones, 2 trumpets, a Caribbean steel band etc. At one point, we spied what was obviously a jazz band walking through, but we missed them. We managed to catch up with the music organiser who consulted his scheduled and said they’d be outside the Dix-Neuf café at 11:30. So, at about 11:10, we found ourselves in the Dix-Neuf café, where I ordered an overpriced crab baguette and a coffee and Paula had pineapple juice and a scone. Total cost, a whopping £17. We then waited, and waited and about 11:50, the band arrived. Still no music at 12:00, so I asked the leader when they were playing. “12:30…” We wandered off as if we’d stayed at the table any longer, they’d probably have charged us rent.
A lovely place St. Peter Port, with a fair few expensive jewellery shops, presumably catering for the wealthier visitors or rich locals, as this is a tax free island. Not sure that it would be such a good stop if it rained.
Last tender back was 2:15, so we headed back early and it wasn’t a ship’s tender this time, but a large local boat.
After a call to the cabin, we went down to the atrium’s International café for a quiche and a coffee. Now s
had posted or emailed that they no longer honoured the free tea or hot chocolate on a coffee card. We had no problem on the Sea Princess, but the coffee barman clipped the card, claiming that it must be an old one as it didn’t say Royal Princess on the back, and already had several clips. I pointed out that our brand new coffee cards didn’t have Royal Princess on them either, nor had any of the five new cards from the Sea Princess. He wasn’t having it and wrote “Royal Princess” on the back of the card. There is always one Jobsworth around…
Formal night and our first opportunity to see a full production show – “Colours Of The World”. Wow!
If ever there was any real evidence that either the Sun class of ships are way out of date, or the Australian based ship passengers are short changed, (or both) this was it. For a start, there were 17 singers/dancers – 12 day cruise, 4 shows plus tasters. Sea Princess – 10 singers dancers over our 50 days, 3 shows.
Costumes were fantastic - but we have had great costumes on other Princess shows, but it is the backgrounds/scenery where the modern Royal Princess scores so highly. Launched 2013, it has advanced electronics, lights, photographic backgrounds, etc. and has a real ‘Wow factor’. Even the theatre itself has light changes, so what was red/orange last night, was blue tonight. Scene changes are seamless with moving, multicolour, digital photographic backgrounds. Even the musicians’ music stands have a digital display. What hurts though, is that all Princess literature, on board promos, internet clips etc., feature these super modern hi-tech shows, with no disclaimer that it is only on the new ships and that the shows on the Sea Princess, such as our recent shows, may have virtually no scenery or backdrops at all, no platforms that come out of the floor and so on.
As we were still feeling a bit fragile, we opted to skip the dining room altogether and went to the cabin before the David Copperfield Show in the Vista lounge. Much of the material we’d heard before which is a pity, and once again, we got the ‘new shoes from outside the mosque’ joke. David is better than this and hopefully will update his act as he has far more talent than most.
We chatted to a couple from Australia and at the exit, Paula also chatted to Assistant Cruise Director Paul (who recognised us from 2011!) plus DD Lexi and I chatted to David Copperfield - until it was time for his last show. Interesting chat. When he learned I was from Nottingham, he came out straightaway with the true Nottingham greeting of ‘Ay up mi duck’!
We decided that tomorrow, we’d change from the fixed dining to any-time, as we think it will work better for us on this cruise. To do that, we have to inform the Maitre D’.
So ends our first full day on the Royal Princess. I may not be able to keep up with the blog as we are in port almost every day, so bear with me if this is a day or three late.
Oh, an email from brother Malc. He thinks it is probably an intermittent wiring fault.
Ireland tomorrow (Cobh) and we changed our minds more than once, initially intending to catch the train to Cork, but we finally decided on the Princess trip to Waterford and a tour around the working Waterford crystal factory. Danny and Wolfgang (on the Sea Princess) claimed that this was far, far, better than the Princess Murano glass tour and demonstration - and there is no reason to doubt their judgement. We gather that photography isn’t banned either, so I’ll dust off the video camera which hasn’t had much use so far.
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