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?!

Crown Princess Sea Day

The ocean has been really rough for this crossing. During these past few days the open decks, including Promenade, have been closed. The pools have been drained (hot tubs were still full) and the gym has been closed. Seasickness bags have been placed around the ship. Thank goodness these new Princess beds absorb some of the movement at night. Even with the soft beds, sleep has alternated between feeling like you’re on a roller coaster, a see saw, and a merry-go-round.

But now it seems like a new ship. After countless days of the rough seas, things have calmed down. We walked onto the Lido deck today and it finally seemed like a cruise. After being cooped up inside for the past week people are sitting outside, eating outside, and even taking a dip in the now-filled pool. While the wind hasn’t settled down, the sun is out and we even sat by the pool for the first time this whole trip.

So no more rough weather talk today and let’s get to business with some things about the Crown Princess.

• One thing we like with the buffet here is where we can find the silverware. It’s now placed in a basket/holder on the tables, wrapped in the napkins, just like on the Caribbean Princess. It’s much better than having to pick it up in the buffet line (where then you had to carry it and serve your food at the same time) or just placed on the table (where people would sometimes grab just a fork or spoon out and leave an incomplete set). We hope all Princess start going with baskets on the table.

• There has been a shortage of seating in the Piazza/International Café/Vines area. They’ve now been placing extra tables from the dining room into the area during the day to accommodate the additional folks sitting inside. 
  
• Live vests are available by the pools for adult and child use. We saw this back in August on the Caribbean Princess, too. I don’t know if this in a new Princess policy, but I’ll be on the Royal and Grand in the next month so I’ll be able to tell you if I see them there, too.
• On the starboard side of the Lido deck there is a wall that looks like a big huge coloring page. The only thing that would make it cooler would be if they had a basket of colored pencils sitting nearby. How awesome would that be to stand and color in a section of it when you had some extra time?

• I always am interested in where my mini bar items come from. This cruise the mini bar diet Coke is from Denmark.

• We receive notice in the Patter every day about the dress code. It seems to be more strongly worded on this ship than other Princess ships. The wording on this one also includes specialty dining. 
  
• We also received notification in the Patter about not pouring extra shampoo and other liquids down the drain. I didn’t even know that was a thing. 
  
• The exchange fee this trip seemed awfully high. 
  
• I’ve been spoiled with the super speedy and super reliable internet on the Caribbean Princess. Here on the Crown it’s back to the old, medium speed internet. Hence, very few pictures right now. The internet is certainly better than it used to be 5 years ago, but the speed is not great. I’ve already run out of my 250 minutes and have had to tap into hubby’s.
• There are so many repeat passengers there are several Captain’s Circle Cocktail Parties to accommodate everyone, the Platinum/Elite/Suite lounge has been moved to Club Fusion, laundry isn’t returned next day, and even the Elite wine tasting has been divided into multiple times.
• While the TVs are the larger screen TV, they are just fit into the regular TV corner spot. And don’t have the on-demand system.

I think that's plenty for the day. Off to another sea day tomorrow!

Crown Princess Sea Day

Sea Day number I-can't-recall with another slew of busy activities, activities I am not partaking in. I find I’m spending more time nursing a cold and babysitting hubby. I wish I was able to spend more time getting caught up on writing (and blogging) than anything else. It’s kind of why I was looking forward to all these sea days. At home I spend so much time with my sewing and crafting tutorials (and fostering kittens – boy, I love those little babies) that I don’t get a lot of time to write. Plus, with hubby around all the time, needing help with this or that (or bringing me the mail when I’m in the middle of doing a video voiceover), I have lots of starts and stops with my work. But when I’m on a ship, being surrounded by water with nowhere to go, with my meals prepared and bed made, I can dedicate more time being immersed in writing. Except in these rough seas. Concentrating on the words on a screen makes me a bit queasy. So while I would like to say, even on smooth seas, blogging from a cruise ship is a glamorous life, it really isn’t.

What’s a day in the life of a blogger like when on a cruise? It’s work. Think about this – what if you had to write an essay every single day while you were on vacation? And you had to proofread the essay as well as make sure it met the needs of your audience? Some days your audience is fellow cruisers. Some days it is your neighbors who’ve never cruised before. Some days it’s your relatives who are ill and need something to take their mind off their health problems. Some days the audience is you; something may be happening in your life during your travels that you have to process through and you use your blog to do it. And somedays (most days, actually) your audience contains all of those people at the same time. It’s a big audience with a variety of needs.  And wait – you also need to take photos to accompany your essay. Don’t forget to edit the photos, too!

And you only have 20 allotted internet minutes a day to post the essay, upload the photos, pay your bills back home, transfer money, email family and friends, reply to emails from readers who are asking questions, make changes to your travel arrangements, and make necessary phones calls using the wifi network. (FYI – I’m basing the minutes on the free internet allotment for platinum and elite cruisers. None of us want to go over them because the cost of extra minutes is so darn expensive.) 20 minutes with high speed internet? Nope, more like medium speed.

And…you don’t get paid to do any of it. Not only do you not get paid to write that essay and take those photos and deliver worthwhile content to your audience, no one is paying for your vacation either. Sure, there are travel writers who get paid to review hotels and tours and cruise ships, but you’re not one of them. Every penny spent is coming out of your own pocket. You paid for your own hotel rooms and flights and rental cars. You paid for your cruise and your gratuities and drinks and tours. You may or may not have ads on your blog, but even with those you could bring in as little as just a few cents a day. Most days it won’t even cover the cost of dropping off one dollar in an encouraging word money pocket.

So why would someone do it? Why sacrifice time that could be spent with your traveling companions? Why, when all the other travelers are closing their eyes on the bus back from a long day of touring, do you stay awake and tap out words on your phone? Or participate in activities you might not be interested in just so that you can get information and pictures for your readers? Why spend all the time, energy, and effort to write an essay and take pictures for others for free?

Because you know you are in a unique position of being able to share a view of the world of travel that others can’t. You have the willingness to share information through your activities and experiences. Just like teachers who teach to make a difference in the life of a child, you write and blog and to make a difference in the life of a traveler.

Here is where I'd add a totally non-glamorous photo of a certain blogger working in the middle of the night in a closed-down buffet if the internet would have allowed it.

If you know a blogger who has added value to your travels, has made your traveling life easier or more enjoyable, please thank them. I know a couple I’ll be emailing today.