Crown Princess Transatlantic Cruise Wrap-Up

The end is here. It’s the last sea day of our Rome to Fort Lauderdale Transatlantic Cruise on the Crown Princess. We missed one port because of weather (Toulon, France) but did make it to Livorno, Italy, Barcelona, Spain, Ponta Delgada in the Azores, and had 10 sea days.

Here are some of our highlights and lowlights. We:

• Realized a 12 hour overnight flight from the US to Italy is not for us.
• Found Rome extremely difficult for someone with disabilities.
• Saw the Colosseum from the handy hop-on, hop-off bus.
• Visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 
• Want to return to Barcelona, Spain.
• Were thankful we were able to finally make it to the Azores.
• Experienced the longest patch of the roughest seas we’ve ever had.
• Slept and rested more than we had planned.
• Watched staler TV than planned. 
• Had good conversations with like-minded people.
• Spent lots of one-on-one time with a special crew member.
• Found the Crown Princess in good condition.

And realized 10 sea days on a ship with sucky internet, without an on-demand TV system, and with the same old Princess buffet is probably not a ship for us. While the Crown Princess is a fine ship, I do need high quality internet for work. I’ve fallen behind on my emails (apologies to all those who are still awaiting a reply from me) and I couldn’t post as many pictures as I’d like because of the slow internet and limited minutes. Since most of our meals are eaten at the buffet, choice is important and this ship doesn’t have what we’ve seen on Caribbean Princess and the Royal and Regal Princess. And since I don’t watch TV or movies at home, I also missed having the free on-demand options on this ship.

So what’s next for us? Well, I am ditching the sling and not going to the ER tomorrow. We have too many plans I don’t want to mess with! While we have insurance that would cover if we were to cancel the rest of our trip, we aren’t going to do that. We will instead be heading down to Key Largo for a couple nights. It’s the closest, reasonably-priced lodging we could find for the special sporting event that we’re attending that is being held November 17-18 in the Miami area. Then off for several more days even farther south before making our way back to Fort Lauderdale for another cruise. And yep, I’m blogging all the way.

And waiting until I get home to deal with the shoulder.

See you tomorrow. More new adventures await.

Crown Princess Sea Day

Today I did something I haven’t done in a long time. Play skeeball. Fellow blogger Vickie (from Vickie and Bernie Travel), my hubby, and I went upstairs to the Teen Center to the Young at Heart Hours that I mentioned yesterday. It was quite fun. Thanks for the idea, Vickie!

They also had other activities. It was quite busy with all of us young at heart folks.

But when I was playing I was noticing my shoulder was bothering me even more. Hubby even mentioned that he saw I was rolling the ball differently than I would have before. After our games, I returned to the cabin to grab my backpack so I could go work somewhere other than our inside cabin. Once I got my computer and charger and two bottles of water in it, the backpack was too heavy (it really wasn’t, but it was for me) to get onto my shoulders.

Remember the other night when I was slammed by the bathroom door (among other mishaps that night) during rough seas? While I wrote about it on my blog, I hadn’t given all the details. (Didn’t want to worry folks back at home.) So now I have to mention an important part of the story – the part where my arm got twisted as I tried to keep the door off me and the other part where I heard a pop in my arm. While I’ve been trying to ignore the ramifications of that incident, every day since there has been something problematic with that shoulder. Today it was the backpack I couldn’t get on that shoulder. That shoulder has also made it very difficult to hook a certain undergarment, wash my hair, and push off when getting up out of a chair. It has made it difficult to lift beverages out of the refrigerator and hang up clothes.  And hugging our crew member buddy every night has been taking some very careful, and a bit painful, shoulder maneuvering.

So I wandered off to the Medical Center this afternoon. I dislike doctors almost as much as dentists and only go when I absolutely have no other choice.  One of the first questions the doctor asked me was why it had took me so long to come see her. Because I thought it would get better? was all I could come up with.

Uh, well, no. Clearly she was more concerned about my shoulder than I was. She wanted to know if we were heading home in a couple days. When I said we won’t be home until December 23, she recommended I go to the ER once we get to Ft. Lauderdale and be seen by an orthopedic surgeon. That I need to have a cat scan of the shoulder. That I couldn’t wait that long to have it attended to. She gave me a shot (in the rump, no less!) for inflammation and pain and sent me off with acetaminophen to take until Ft. Lauderdale. And…wait for it…

Put in a sling.

Seriously?  I was almost ready to break down crying. I wanted to explain that we are picking up a rental car in Ft. Lauderdale in two days. That hubby doesn’t drive. That we have a week-long road trip planned. And mention again that hubby doesn’t drive. That this isn’t going to fit in our plans. That I have to carry a backpack on my shoulders because hubby is disabled and he can’t carry luggage or carry-ons. That I’ve lived with pain all my life and I can live with it a bit longer.

But I held it all in. I got fitted for my sling. Got my shot in the rump and box of acetaminophen.  Added $251 to my onboard account for medical services.

And had my chat with security.

When you have an accident anywhere on the ship, whether in the cabin or on the deck or in the dining room, security is called to take a report. When you hear security is called, people think you’ve done something wrong. So it was a bit embarrassing to have a chat with security in the waiting room when others were around. Security also takes photos of where the incident occurred (in my case, the bathroom door). So it was even more embarrassing to have security knocking pounding on my door while shouting security. Folks in nearby cabins even peeked out to see what was going on.

Hubby will be bringing me dinner back to the cabin tonight. I’m in no mood to walk out the door in the sling and attempt to eat with one hand in public. I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself, and a bit confused about what all this means for our next few weeks. All because of a dang bathroom door in rough seas.

I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself with today’s view. My pity party came later.

One more sea day tomorrow. After that I have no idea.

Crown Princess Sea Day

Another sea day gives me another opportunity to discover things about the ship.

• While they don’t have peanut butter cookies at the buffet, they do occasionally have a sign out stating they have them available upon request. Maybe we have a peanut allergy on board? 
• Straws aren’t out either. But you can request those as well.
• If you don’t want to get up early to see the port talks or the enrichment lecturer, the presentations are rebroadcast on the TV. Movies Under the Stars nighttime showings are also shown the next day on TV. 
• Since there are very kids on this sailing, they have opened up the teen center to adults from 2-4. They are calling those times Young at Heart Hours and you can play skeeball, ping pong, foosball, and more. Fun, right?
• In addition to the free pub lunch being offered on some sea days, they’ve also added something they call Curry in a Hurry. It’s was a $12 cover charge and held in the Crown Grill.
• The other day I went to trivia with Bernie from Vickie and Bernie Travel. Oh my goodness, the place was packed. It certainly is a very popular activity on this ship. I’m sure it has to do with the passenger make up on this transatlantic crossing.
• Another thing we’ve noticed on this longer sailing is that it is a quieter cruise. There even has been an abundance of passengers practicing good elevator etiquette. Finally a cruise where the elevators are the place where we haven’t seen obnoxious cruise passenger behavior!

Today was another beautiful day for watching the wake. Just look at the color of the water now.

And just watching the water go by. Beautiful.

What’s up tomorrow? How about another sea day?!

How to Sew a Roll Up Fabric Crayon Holder - Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday and I have a project just for kids this week. (And for adults who like to color with crayons, I guess.)

For this project you will need:

• Main fabric
• Lining fabric
• fusible interfacing
• Double fold bias tape
• Rick rack 
• Elastic ponytail holder
• Button
• Marking pencil
• Pins or Clover Wonder Clips
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Now available in my Etsy store as a digital download with the written step by step directions, color photos, and link to the tutorial video. Click to find out more!

Looking for more quick and easy projects? Check out these ideas!

Otherwise you can just watch the how to video instructions for the homemade fabric roll up crayon storage organizer sewing project here:

Or check out the new video here:

Crown Princess Sea Day

I’ve really tried to give our cabin steward the benefit of the doubt. After coming off a month on the Caribbean Princess where we had the best cabin steward ever, I knew it would be hard for the next steward to come close to meeting Smit’s excellence. But our cabin steward here hasn’t even come close to coming close. We are really flexible people and don’t ask a lot. Just clean our cabin well when we’re ready for it and make sure we have plenty of ice.

I’m a patient person and give people lots of chances. (If you ask my husband I give too many chances.) He might be right. Because lots of chances for this cabin steward isn’t working out so well. There are some things you come to expect on a Princess ship when it comes to your cabin.

You expect your cabin steward to:

• Introduce him/herself. (I’m still waiting for that one.)
• Greet you. (Still waiting on that, too.)
• Supply clean towels. (Ok there.)
• Wipe down counters. (Sorta-kinda happening.) You can tell he doesn’t wipe down the desktop because if he did he would have noticed these exposed wires, don’t you think? I can’t decide whether to wait and see how much longer it takes him to catch it or report it to the Passenger Services Desk.

• Replenish ice. (We didn’t even have an ice bucket for three days. How can you not realize an ice bucket is missing out of a refrigerator, especially when you (are supposed to) refill it daily? The only way we got it was because I left a note. Now that we have the ice bucket, we only are getting ice every other day. What’s up with that?)
• Replenish soap and shampoo. (Needed to leave a note on that same piece of paper I used for the ice bucket note.)
• Makes sure you have a writing utensil and pad of paper to write on. (We had one piece of paper. And used it up when I wrote the note about needing an ice bucket and soap. The paper hasn’t been replaced yet.)
• Vacuum. (Not sure that’s happening.)
• Make beds. (Sloppily, but done.)
• Knock and announce him/herself before entering. (Never. He opens the door first, knocks as he’s walking through the door, and never, ever, has announced himself. If your privacy sign isn’t out, expect him to come in anytime he is on duty.)
• Ask about dinner arrangements so he knows when best to clean the cabin. (Nope. Don’t think he really cares because he barges in whenever he is ready to clean, not when we ask for the cabin to be cleaned.)

So for only the second time in our cruising history, we will not be leaving an additional tip. If we could remove gratuities just for him, we would. But pulling gratuities mean everyone else would suffer, and we wouldn’t want that to happen.

On a more pleasant note, we did have some nice weather earlier this afternoon. Pizza by the pool. Now that’s a vacation.

Off to yet another sea day tomorrow.

Update: Today was our ice delivery day and we came back after dinner and were welcome by nothing other than a half-full bucket of ice. Guess we're in an ice shortage these days. And I also just realized we never received our elite canape ordering card for formal nights. Calling Smit on the Caribbean Princess, where are you when we need you?!