Here is no hiding the fact that for the past year Margo and I have returned to the days of travel of past years. COVID put a big dent in our plans that saw us, like so many other families, putting on hold any idea about leaving our home. But eventually, we all began accepting that the global pandemic that hit us so hard was waning and that seeing the sights was becoming popular once again.
We spent Christmas and the New Year 2022 – 2023 sailing
out of the east coast, but this time, it was my birthday cruise that saw us
sailing out of the west coast. With the exception of the time spent housebound
between 2020 and 2022, every second year Margo and I have taken this particular
Princess cruise to Hawaii. Leaving from San Pedro’s Port of Los Angeles,
circling the Hawaiian Islands before heading back to the port via Ensenada,
Mexico, it has become a 15 days change of pace. Yes, we still devote many hours
to working but fortunately remote work has become the norm for many of us.
This time my Birthday happened to be right after we completed all of our NonStop Insider digital magazine tasks, were about to finish commitments for the community magazine The Connection and had the next four week’s tasks planned and ready to be tackled no matter where we happened to be; all we needed was a decent WiFi, and we had that!
Boarding the Crown Princess didn’t go exactly to plan. Technology
adaptation had seen Princess embellish the Medallion Class of sailing (which
now means everyone) following the recent introduction of a wearable RFID ”medallion”
fastened to a lanyard or inserted into a tailor-made watch band. It was the
presence of this RFID that saw every flat screen on the ship congratulating me each
time I passed by.
The Crown Princess isn’t one of the larger ships of the
Princess Line. The Majestic Princess is almost half as big again and the yet to
be launched Sun Princess almost twice as big. Even so, walking out of your
cabin and looking down the aisle, you swear you could see the curvature of the
earth. A thousand feet long is still a long way. Whereas our Christmas cruise
had been on the much smaller Seabourn Sojourn, the comparison couldn’t be more
ridiculous. There was only a couple of occasions that we were tempted into
walking the length of the ship’s corridor to tackle the stairs at the end of
the floor.
However there is something about being on a vessel as large as this after being on one so much smaller and that is the noise level. Certainly the Crown Princess provided many nooks and crannies to hide out in, but 24 x 7 there was something going on and for almost every other passenger the level of enthusiasm to engage in boisterous exchanges seemed endless. Early morning rises seemed to do the trick but the menu was somewhat limited. Making the International Café – the local coffee shop and patisserie, our go to establishment each and every morning, was simply a continuation of what we had been doing on Princess cruises for a very long time.
For those travelers familiar with the Princess Plaza
layout, we always gravitated to the Vines wine bar where there was a single
porthole fronted by just one table for two. While we didn’t always manage to
score this location most mornings we did and it helped make the start of the
day passable. But only just, as it seemed the cruise director arrived shortly
after we did to turn the Plaza into entertainment for all and sundry. At full
volume! Ahhh; the expectations for peace and quiet do not extend to the lower
decks.
We only made it to the buffet served in the Horizon on the upper deck once or twice and that was to partake in eggs and sausage as an alternate to our usual donuts and croissants. No matter where the day started, we seemed to always gravitate to the Crooners Bar late morning for a Bloody Mary for Margo and a simple Mimosa for myself. This part of the ship became almost enjoyable with the crowd assembling along the bar becoming familiar faces in no time at all. What does that say about us? Appears that there are more than a handful of cruisers that look for similar friendly hangouts as we seem to want to do!
Margo and I do not cruise to enjoy the entertainment. We no longer cruise to enjoy the destinations as more often than not we don’t even check the itinerary. Taking the same cruise over and over again brings with it an element of ho-hum – not in an obnoxious way but more or less as a way of saying “if you enjoy shore excursions then certainly, go for it!” – but the Med, the Caribbean and the Tasman have been crossed, circled and for all purposes revealed their best side such that on non-sailing days we get the run of the ship. Mostly!
We have business acquaintances that are partway
through a 150 day around the world cruise on our Seabourn Sojourn. Stepping
onto the ship the very day we stepped off had us misty-eyed and somewhat jealous of the opportunity that such a cruise afforded those passengers. Maybe in
a few years? Perhaps not quite yet, as the dream would be to actually take a
true vacation; continuing to work remotely on any cruise line represents a
level of disruption that makes any semblance of being able to truly relax
nothing more than a wishful dream.
On shore days including those where the ship
overnighted the absence of passengers was not only a relief but an opportunity
to walk out onto the Promenade deck to take in the early evening. On this
voyage there was one opportunity to do just that and in it was a reminder of
yet again one more instant where expectations simply didn’t materialize. For
every cruise we have taken since December 2018, not one sailing stuck to the
itinerary. Not one!
We have missed Wineglass Bay in Tasmania and sailing
through Milford Sound. South Pacific? Samoa proved to be out of reach! Alaska? Glacier
Bay and Victoria Island were a no go just as Hurricane Fiona gave us no
opportunity to visit Prince Edward Island! Aruba? Costa Rica? No go and even
Seabourn had to scrub a visit to the eastern side of one Caribbean Island in
favor of the shelter provided on the western side. Expectations truly dashed?
Not really. After all these years we have learnt to roll with the punches. Or should I say, happily ridden the many ocean swells we have encountered.
When it comes to life at sea and the expectations you
have as the ship leaves home port there is unquestionably a time needed to make
adjustments, put the concerns and issues encountered ashore to one side and to
begin the process of unwinding and just relaxing. Margo and I rarely sign up
for week long cruises preferring instead those voyages of two plus weeks. This
is simply because experience has taught us that the first week is simply the
time needed to adjust. Put this down to tried and true expectation setting but
it has proved to be correct each and every time we stop onboard.
What we really liked about this latest Princess cruise was that WiFi worked well for us this time around and the level of service couldn’t be faulted. I am writing about you Pearl, hostess at the Crown Grill, Sarah, hostess at Sabatini, Bosco at Crooners and Jeffrey at the International Café. These became important contacts for us as we elected not to dine in any of the main dining rooms preferring instead to dine in the specialty restaurants each and every night. There was enough variety juggling our time between the Crown Grill and Sabatini to make each visit memorable.
Working remotely
has taken on a variety of meanings. Whether your contribution comes from time
spent in a café bent over a laptop, a more formal régime spent in a home office
or from a desk looking out over the ocean it matters little these days. Devoid
of most distractions that cause us to stray when in familiar surroundings,
working remotely from a ship has considerable upside and one where increasingly
I am finding my time better spent there than anywhere else.
Not for Margo or
me are the distractions of evening shows and movies under the stars, ports of
call, a flutter on the blackjack table or the many variations of bingo and card
games, but rather, the quiet time we could spend together. It was my birthday
cruise after all and there was little that Princess could contribute that would
make our time any better. Expectations?
Yes,
frustrations to kick off the cruise but once past that ominous first week it was
nothing but smooth sailing and an opportunity to finish those assignments that
are part of my daily routine, wherever I happened to be. As for next cruise?
There is a couple in the works but about those voyages, it is best that we
leave them to a future post. And next time, Princess may just be ready with our
medallions!
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