We woke up to glorious sunshine into the cabin.

The obstructed view is really very minimal as you can see from the photos. Moni & I had slept really good as we usually do when at sea.

Sunrise as seen through the obstructed view

Cruise day 2, at Sea

Day 1281 – September 3rd, 2017

Oil rigs in the distance as we make our way towards Scotland

Today’s events are always printed up and delivered to the cabin the evening before which allows you to plan the day ahead.

Princess Pater for today

Princess patter day 2

Princess patter day 2 continued

Breakfast at the Horizon buffet

Was great, with excellent choice. Once again great beverage service and not a messy table in sight, just fabulous. Take a look at this selection…

Breakfast items from the buffet in Horizon court Crown Princess

Breakfast items from the buffet Crown Princess

And there’s more

Horizon court breakfast items on Crown Princess

And not to forget juice & beverage served tableside.

Drinks table service at breakfast in Horizon court

A visit to the gym for Moni, setting good intentions for the cruise… spoiler alert it didn’t last 🙂

Walking out on deck we bump into Osvaldo. I have followed Osvaldo for many months on Facebook Princess page (now he has his own page) and have had many questions answered by him and fellow passengers.

Meeting Osvaldo whom I’ve followed for some time

We had a chat and it was nice to be recognised even though we had never met before. Next up it was time for a coffee.

Coffee at the International Cafe on Crown Princess

The International Cafe on the Crown Princess is open 24/7 and you can get something to eat and drink here all the time.

Macchiato from IC on Crown Princess

All included in the cruise fare except for speciality coffee like espresso cappuccino etc. These will be charged to your account. You can buy a coffee card that has credit for 15 drinks and costs $35. We have been drinking macchiato of late and these are $2.01 including tax so 15 of these doesn’t make it much of a saving, however, if you drink a minimum of a latte each time, then for example at $2.50 plus tax this would give you a saving. Here is the coffee menu from September 2017.

Coffee & Tea menu on Crown Princess 2017

Back to the coffee, the verdict…

Our macchiato was excellent and so was the cappuccino which we tried later in the cruise.

Odyssey note; the cappuccino is more like a flat white in Australia than a proper cappuccino topped with chocolate powder.

The food display has a good variety of salads and pies, quiches, sandwiches, soup etc. plus a selection of sweets and cheese also at different times of the day.

International Cafe food selection on Crown Princess 2017

Finding a place to sit in the International Cafe is your biggest challenge. Every day no matter what time, except for 3 in the morning (more on that later) it was busy. Some people just sat and read for ages here, many cruisers got takeaway coffee which is probably a good thing or it could have been worse.

International Cafe in the Atrium on Crown Princess

Table service was also a challenge and sometimes you could wait a considerable amount of time.

They put extra tables & chairs in the atrium area to accommodate the huge amount of people but no extra staff! Plus the tables do take up a lot of the walkway and are not so relaxing to sit there.

After a decent lunch from the buffet, we enjoyed the warm weather out on deck before trying out the afternoon tea in the Botticelli dining room.

Enjoying time on deck

Afternoon tea on Crown Princess

This is a table service afternoon tea experience also included in the cruise fare.

Table service afternoon tea on Crown Princess

Various mini sandwiches, cakes & pastries, scones jam & cream with tea of which you can have as much as you want. This was on between 3 and 4 pm. At our table we got talking to the other guests and mentioned about our dinner table neighbours not being ideal, someone mentioned the same thing and had asked to change and have any time dining.

They were accommodated without any hassle and suggested that we ask, so we did. The maitre’d instructed the hostess to change this for us and within 30 seconds it was done, a quick sticker on the cruise card.

xx

A few rounds of the promenade deck was called for to get some exercise after those scones. The nice thing about this promenade on deck 7 is that you can walk all around the ship. You do need to climb a few steps at the front which brings you to deck 8 around the bow and then back down the other side.

As close to the wake as you can get

Pre-dinner wine at Vines on Crown Princess

We had a pre-dinner wine in the Vines wine bar opposite the International Cafe. Here and only here, do they serve wine in Riedel glassware. This was our favourite place to enjoy a glass or two of wine. Unfortunately, you can’t take the glass into the dining room, you need to pour the wine into the standard thick hospitality glass. Marlon the barman was forever chasing passengers with their wine glasses as they walked off.

Wine & sushi in Vines on Crown Princess

You can have a selection of tapas or sushi with your wine from 5 pm. Like all ships, you certainly won’t go hungry.

Anytime dining on Crown Princess

Our first attempt at anytime dining tonight and after waiting in line for 10 minutes, around 7 pm we were escorted to a table where we joined two other couples for dinner. We had a fabulous evening with lots of fun and conversation. Needless to say, we never returned to our original table or dining room.

Odyssey note; we saw people queuing up at 5 pm for dinner and even though it is anytime dining, expect to have to wait for a while, especially if wanting a table for two or a specific group. Joining a table was generally not a problem and we were always seated within a few minutes.

Tonight’s menu and the meals we enjoyed…

Dinner menu from Crown Princess

Meals from dinner main dining room on Crown Princess

We didn’t eat too much for dinner, I wonder why… breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea, sushi & wine then dinner …maybe that’s why.

We missed a show last night as we were at the Movie under the stars but tonight was a comedian and we heard that he was pretty funny from some other guests.

Awaiting the start of a comedy show in Explores lounge

The show was funny for sure and we had a good laugh. That was it for today folks.