Crown Princess Transatlantic Cruise, Embarkation Day

When we got out of the car at the port today I only had one thing to say to my hubby. 

I didn't know we were driving on the Autobahn. 

Our driver, the one the Princess rep at the hotel recommended, was a speed demon. At one point I glanced at the speedometer and saw he was driving 150 kilometers per hour. I do believe that equates to around 90 miles an hour. And he spent most of the time on his cell phone. And for a while it was raining hard. But we made it to the port with no injuries to us, any pedestrians or animals, and no vehicle damage. So I guess it was a good day. 

And now I can say hello from the Crown Princess!  We have two weeks ahead of us on the ship. 

Our Itinerary

Embarkation was super fast. Pull up to the port, hand off the luggage, walk into the new terminal, go through security, head to check in and board the ship.

Beautiful view from the ship.

We had a Superman ship nearby.

There are 800 in transit passengers so the lines were short, the buffet was relatively empty, and muster drill seating was plentiful.

Speaking of muster, they dismisssed the rows one by one. We've seen that on some but not all of the other Princess ships. But this one was a bit strange. Usually when ships dismiss row by row disabled passengers are allowed to leave first. Not here. Disabled passengers were the last to be dismisssd. Hubby and I were the very last ones allowed to leave the theater. I'm not sure how that will work in a real emergency. And yet again at this muster drill we had people on their phones and tablets during the entire drill. Guess some folks just won't take it seriously until someone gets hurt. Muster personnel try to stop them but finally give up. We've also already seen someone vaping on deck with no concern from the crew. Like so many things, rules aren't really rules but merely suggestions.

A couple other things of note...
There is no Elite line at the Passenger Services Desk. Probably too many this cruise. My card wouldn't work so I was in that wonderfully long line. Also, the evening Platinum/Elite/Suite lounge has been moved to Club Fusion to handle the extra Elite load.

There are more kids on this cruise than I thought there would be. Maybe I am noticing them more because they are loud. We had a screamer at Passenger Sevices and a crier in the buffet.

Guess who I ran into at the buffet? None other than Vickie from Vickie and Bernie Travel. Nice to see her right off the bat.

I won't be posting the Princess Patters this time around as we have several sea days and a limited number of Internet minutes. Need the officers? Here ya go:

Pictures will also be few and far between as well until we get some good on-land internet. I'll add pictures back in as I go along.

Right now we're sitting on Promenade deck waiting to push off. What do we have on tap tomorrow? How about the Leaning Tower of Pisa?! See you then!