4. Second sea day - Life on board

There was a spectacular sunrise on our second sea day. Skies are cloudless, the sea is smooth/slight and it’s a pleasant 18C.

We’ve got to know the ship a little better now. It’s a departure from other Princess ships that we have sailed on as gone is the oak panelling and traditional fixtures, fittings and furniture in the bars, restaurants and lounges and in comes glass, steel and chrome. But it seems to work well and a number of the artworks and murals are very pleasant on the eye.

There is a glass floored walkway that stretches out over the sea….not for those of a nervous disposition but wonderful views looking straight down. 

The main atrium is the centre of activity with several eateries including a sushi bar, French Bistro, pizza station, international cafe serving sandwiches, coffee and cake and an “authentic” Italian gelato kiosk. Authentic or not, the ice cream is to die for. 

Disappointingly, it is not possible to walk around the ship on the promenade deck, but only from one end to the other and not around the bow or stern. (Two days in and I’m already using technical terms….impressive I know!) So, for exercise it’s easier to walk the jogging track on one of the upper sun decks. Another disappointment is that there are no bars or lounges on the upper decks…a shame because it’s nice to sit in a quiet space with a sea view and read, or watch the other shipping sail past.

The cabin is very comfortable, although the duvet that has been provided is more suited to winter Norwegian fjord cruising rather than the Mediterranean in autumn.

Deck 9 has been cordoned off completely…we assume for emergency quarantine and sick bay purposes should the worst come to the worst.

Anyone who has sailed with Princess will know that they are pushing their Medallion app. Everything can be done using the app from reserving tables in restaurants to checking out the daily activities to ordering food and drinks. Sounds good in principle, but I strongly suspect it was rolled out without proper testing just so Princess could say how technologically advanced they were.

It can be used via the stateroom television but only if you like watching a little circle going around accompanied by the word “buffering”. It works more smoothly on the iPad but when we tried booking dinner reservations kept coming up with “an error occurred” message, whether the reservation be for today, tomorrow or next week. A visit to the help desk revealed that the error message means everything is already booked up. So, there is no point trying to use it…it doesn’t even say when available slots are, so we just turn up at the dining room when we are ready and get a table anyway. Again, we suspect that the app dinner reservations are only accepting bookings for two people….those who just turn up are asked if they mind sharing ( we don’t mind at all, it’s usually interesting who you meet.)

Regarding using the app for food and drink orders, you must be careful. We heard a story today where a guest went into one of the bars and ordered a margarita through the app. Ten minutes later, a large slice of pizza appeared and he had to say no, he wanted a margarita drink, not a magherita pizza!

The Medallion app system also includes the medallion itself…about the size of a 50p and it replaces the old fashioned cruise card. However, it means that the crew know where you are so, for example the room steward knows you are not in your room so it’s free to be cleaned. You can order a drink using the app and medallion and the waiter can bring it to you wherever you are on the ship. So, not only is Google tracking you via your mobile phone, Bill Gates tracking you via the microchip injected when we had our Covid jabs, but now the board of Carnival Corporation can track your every move as well.

Mask wearing. Hmmmmmm. I know that we are living in exceptional times and as such, exceptional measures are required. But some of them on the ship seem to be illogical and even counterproductive. We all have to wear masks when moving around indoors….that makes perfect sense and is adhered to by everyone. It’s the mask wearing when seated that doesn’t make sense (to me anyway).

Example number one. 300 people sit in the theatre wearing a face mask for an hour while the show is on. However, only 4 people are allowed in the lift to go up one or two floors and which takes 30 seconds.

Example number two. You can sit for two hours with total strangers in the restaurant eating dinner and no mask required (obviously). However you can’t sit with your spouse in a nearly empty lounge for 5 minutes without both of you having to wear a mask.

Example number three. It is “mandatory” to wear a mask when having a drink in a bar, the rule being pull down mask, take a sip, pull it up again. And yet there are signs around the ship saying don’t touch your face or nose or mouth and resanitise hands after removing your mask. Coupled with previous health advice about not fiddling constantly with your mask the whole thing is somewhat illogical. It seems that the greater majority of guests agree with me and have abandoned this mandatory requirement already.

(Again, there is some speculation that this requirement is because Princess are panicking a little as the ship is due to return to the USA after our voyage and the CDC is going to sanction them unless every possible safeguard, even the ones that make no sense, are not adhered to. We also know that this mandatory rules was brought in mid way through the ships last voyage so it’s likely something has happened in order to cause such a knee jerk reaction.)

We are due to arrive in Cadiz tomorrow (Monday).