A Little Water Taxi Talk

I enjoy the Water Taxi when I am in Ft. Lauderdale.  Maybe it's because I just like being on any kind of boat.  But I find it to be kind of fun.  On Sunday following my Royal Princess ship inspection I had time on my hands and knew that I didn't want to spend the entire day at my hotel.  As much as I enjoyed the location of the hotel and my balcony, I was growing tired of it after nearly a week.  So, during the week when I attended a Hello Sunny seminar a few ladies from the Water Taxi office also were there and they gave me a pass to spend a day on the Water Taxi.  So, I decided to take advantage of it.  By the way, in case you were wondering Hello Sunny is the Ft. Lauderdale tourism website and has a wealth of information if you are planning to visit the area.

One of the really nice things about the Ft. Lauderdale Hilton Marina is it's location.  It is within walking distance to the Broward County Convention Center where Cruise3Sixty took place.  You can stand in the parking lot and see which ships are in port and just steps from the parking lot is Stop 5 for the Water Taxi service.  Stop 5 also happens to be the place where you go if you are interested in taking the Water Taxi to Hollywood.  It's a handy stop to be near.  It turned out that I could leave my room and walk down the sidewalk along the water and not even have to go through the lobby or walk across the parking lot to get to the Water Taxi stop.  This is a pretty handy thing.

There was a charter for Cruise3Sixty participants.  But I didn't get signed up for it since I initially had a conflict on my schedule.  I was really kind of glad about that since after a week, I was getting kind of tired of having all of my time so structured.  In the last couple of years, I have become accustomed to working according to my own schedule and being on someone elses schedule for a week was starting to get to me. So, as I arrived at Stop 5 to get on the Water Taxi, all the Cruise3Sixty people were also arriving for their charter.  They were given beer and wine along with Hello Sunny beach bags as they boarded.  I don't know where they were taken but I know that they were gone for about 3 hours since I saw them later that day as they returned to Stop 5.  At the time, I was just enjoying my ride watching all the other passengers, listening to the commentary and enjoying the sun and the breeze.  I think I made the entire circuit 3 times.  I didn't go to Hollywood since again, you have to change boats to do that and it's about two and a half hours round trip.  I just stayed in Ft. Lauderdale.

Either it is acceptable to carry beer with you and drink on the Water Taxi or there were some very bold passengers on my boat.  Because several of them drank the whole time they were on board.  One lady was actually carrying a cooler and when she finished a beer, she opened the cooler, got another one out and started drinking it.  It certainly seems to be acceptable for the other boaters to drink and drive their boats since boats were pulling out in front of our Water Taxi constantly.  The driver of our boat was sort of like I am when people pull out in front of me in Dallas traffic. He would throw both of his hands up in the air and say something like "Why don't ya enjoy another beer, buddy!"

I had been on the Water Taxi once before, but it wasn't a warm and sunny day.  It was a little overcast and cool and I think it might have been a Friday.  But let me tell you that you see some interesting things on an 85 degree sunny Sunday afternoon.  First of all, the most fascinating thing I saw was the "Redneck Riviera" that our tour guide pointed out each time we went by.  This is an area in the river where there is a sandbar so the water is very shallow.  On pretty weekends, lots of local people with boats go to this spot and anchor and spend the day partying.

Redneck Riviera

So, it looked a little something like that on Sunday afternoon.  I think that was where a lot of the boaters who were indulging were either headed to or coming from.  Shortly after I got on the Water Taxi, both my camera battery and my cell phone battery died.  So, I have very few pictures to show you of my day spent on this most relaxing mode of transportation.  But this is what I got.  As you ride around on the Water Taxi, your tour guide tells you what various properties are worth, what properties recently sold for and who owns what.  He does the same with the yachts that you pass.  So, by the end of your journey, you are either impressed or disgusted with the excess of money being thrown away in Ft. Lauderdale.  Usually, if you ask who owns a specific yacht he can tell you.

However, the blue one pictured below, The Mytique, was a mystery to him.  It had just sailed in that morning and he had no idea who it belonged to.  As you can see in the photo the uniformed crew were just getting her settled into port when I took the picture.  She was docked at my hotel.  So I decided to see if I could dig up any information on the old tub.  Here's what I found out.  She is a charter, so you're in luck.  You can charter this little beauty for the week.  She runs out of the The Bahamas and for a mere $125,000 a week, you can spend your vacation yachting like the rich and the famous.

The Mystique

She was built in 1988 and refit in 2013 and the inside is just as beautiful as the outside according to the photos on the website.  She cruises at 22 knots and has 5 cabins sleeping 10 individuals.  So, maybe you and 9 of your closest friends can chip in together and pay $12,500 each to charter her for the week. Of course, it is customary to tip your crew when your week is over..... and 20% of $125,000 is going to come to $25,000, so then your portion of the tip will come to about $2,500.  So for a measly $15,000 you could spend a week on this beauty experiencing all that she has to offer.  I think, I'll just stick with the Water Taxi, but thanks.

The ships above are some of the cruise ships that were in port last Sunday as I was boarding the Water Taxi.  They cram a lot of ships into port here on just about any given day.  You can spend a week on one of those ships considerably cheaper than on The Mystique or on Pegasus V whose name is pictured below the photo of the Water Taxi below.  Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the entire Pegasus V but this was just about the time that both my camera battery and my cell phone battery died simultaneously.  I can tell you that Pegasus V is owned by a construction guy.  I'm thinking that he probably builds something slightly pricier than a 3bdrm/2bth/wbfp in the suburbs.

The yacht cost $200,000,000.  No that's not a typo there really are 8 zeros in that price.  He charters her for a little extra money on the side.  So, for a mere $600,000 a week you and 11 of your closest friends could charter this little beauty in the winter in the Caribbean.  But if you want to charter her in the Mediterranean in the summer, you're looking at a $1,250,000 price tag for the week.  She carries a crew of 26.  That's almost 2.2 crew members per passenger.  Talk about having your every need met....

It just makes me wonder who has a million dollars to charter a boat for a week and why aren't they my friend?  And if you have a million dollars to spend on something like this for a single week, do you think to yourself, Wow, that's kinda steep! or are you just like, Eh, what else am I going to do with that money?
Because I could think of a LOT better ways to spend a million bucks!

Sorry, I kind of got off track.  Probably if you are reading my blog about the Water Taxi, you aren't really in the market for chartering a yacht in the Mediterranean this summer anyway.  I hope you have had a productive week.  Have a terrific weekend and think of me as I finish up my taxes. Ugh!

Holland America is All Class!

Good morning Travelers! Today we are going to go over the Zuiderdam ship inspection.  I must say that this was the absolute BEST ship inspection of my week.  I loved everything about this ship.  Currently, I am just thinking about how I can get my parents to do a Panama Canal cruise on this ship.  Mom and Dad want to do a Panama Canal cruise and Dad doesn't want to go from coast to coast, but he wants to experience the locks.  So after talking to the wonderful Holland America business development manager (BDM) who shared lunch with us, I think the cruise that Holland America does to the Panama Canal but not going all the way through is what they want.  Also, I know that Mom and Dad will totally enjoy the amenities that HAL has to offer.

First, I'll have to tell you that I only made it out onto the Lido deck for just a few minutes and only got to see the pool.  However, I am quite certain that you'll find all the necessities that any worthy Lido deck must offer, but on a less ostentatious scale.  Holland America or as they like to call themselves HAL, is a much more refined and sophisticated cruise line.  You won't see any ziplines or rock climbing walls on board because that's simply not who they are.  What you will see is luxury at it's finest.  Imagine being Kate Winslet in The Titanic and that is what you will get on HAL... minus the big iceberg.

Even while we waited for the ship to clear, we didn't do so in some dirty room full of people waiting to board the ship for the sailing that was leaving that afternoon.  We were taken to a quiet clean waiting area where the local BDM explained the process of clearing the ship and told us about what we could expect to see and do once we were on board.  As soon as someone gave us the all clear signal, Barbara and the other BDM's who joined her, quickly passed out lists of cabins that we were invited to visit so that we could see the different types of cabins HAL had to offer.  I was particularly excited about this since I have clients booked on this ship in August for an Alaskan cruise.

Before I go any further, I should say that the two previous ships that I inspected while in Ft. Lauderdale carried significantly more passengers that the Zuiderdam and I think that really effects the ship inspection experience.  So, while I sing the praises of this ship, keep in mind that in the case of Oasis, RCI was turning around roughly 5,000 passengers and on Royal Princess they were turning around 3,000 passengers.  This ship only had to disembark 1,800 guests prior to our arrival.  They only had to clean up after 1,800 people and they only had another 1,800 set to board and with a 2:1 guest to crew ratio, they were ahead of the game.  Generally with such a low guest to crew ratio, you are getting into true luxury cruising territory with prices that match.  But I can tell you that HAL is very well priced especially when you consider the product. So without further ado, let's tour the ship, shall we?

Since we had a list of cabins to visit and guests would be boarding by the time we completed our lunch we all rushed to the cabins to get a look around before they were closed to us.  The first few cabins that we visited were suites and they had all the amenities that you would expect a suite to have including bathtubs rather than postage stamp sized showers and nice large balconies that you could move around on.  I was particularly interested in this ships balconies since she spends part of her year in Alaska and Holland America is the authority on Alaskan cruising.  I will say that their balconies do not disappoint.  They were in good repair and well furnished, I am happy to say.  Nothing bothers me more than to go to my room on a cruise ship and find that the furniture on my balcony is old plastic outdoor furniture that is coming apart and is rusting in the parts that are metal.  When you see that you just wonder how well the rest of the ship was taken care of.

The room pictured here is a small suite with a very nice

Suite balcony

 balcony.  It was hard to get photos of all the nooks and crannies of the rooms since there were usually 4 or 5 other travel agents in the room at the same time. If you've ever spent much time on a cruise ship, you know that there are no cabins big enough to accommodate that many people who are all in a hurry and have a purpose in mind. So I did the best I could. They seemed to have a red theme going on the ship, with lots of red furnishings and carpet which dates it a little in my opinion. But otherwise, it was all very tasteful and by far the most well kept 12 year old ship I have been on.

 While the suites were nice to see, I don't currently have any clients booked in one and I do have clients booked in a balcony on this very ship, so I was anxious to see one for myself rather than just relying on someone else's photos.  So, after snapping a few shots in a couple of different suites, I was off to see the balcony cabin they had listed for us.

Another suite balcony... and it is sweet!  You knew I had to say it, right?

The room that we got to see was a few floors above the one where my guests are booked, but should be identical otherwise.  It, like all cruise ship cabins, was short on space but is adequate for a couple of people who get along well.  And getting along well with your travel partner is always key when cruising.  After all, who wants to be stuck in a 150 square foot space for a week or so with someone you can barely tolerate? On an Alaskan cruise this becomes even more important since it might be too cold at times to just go up on deck to get away.

Bathtub in balcony room

This cabin, like the suites had a bathtub which was a very nice surprise to me. I've heard tales of cruise ship cabins with bathtubs but I must say that until now I thought they were nothing but myths since I had never seen one myself except in high priced suites. A girl could actually shave her legs in this bathroom with no need to head down to the medical facilities afterward for stitches!

The small but very adequate Veranda cabin on board Zuiderdam.

Sorry, I couldn't get a better shot of the balcony, but I will tell you that there are two chairs out there and there is a little bit of room to move around.  It will be a very pleasant way to watch the glaciers and mountains go by in Alaska.  Additionally, it looks to be well protected from the wind, so that with a light jacket it will make for some excellent glacier viewing.

Our next stop on the cabin tour was a very pleasant surprise for me. We were given access to a wheel chair accessible cabin and I was thrilled to be able to get several photos of the amenities provided.  The first thing you'll notice is the awkward picture below of the big door.  But I had a reason for posting this photo.  It shows how big the bathroom door is on this cabin which enables a wheel chair to roll into the bathroom. Also, there is no step up into the bathroom on this cabin like other cruise ship cabins have.  Again, this allows wheel chair accessibility.  But the best thing is the rails in the bathroom and the roll in shower with a seat.  Since this is the only ship in which I have seen an accessible room, I can't tell you if it is typical of all cruise ships.  But I was very impressed with this.

The large photo below shows the space in the cabin itself which allows for a wheel chair to move around.  These beds are separated simply because that is what the guest who has reserved this room requested.  But this room could just as easily have had 1 large bed, as well.

Following the wheel chair accessible room, we made our way to the final category of cabin we were scheduled to see which was an inside cabin.  Once again, I was impressed.  How could I possibly be impressed by an inside cabin, you might ask.  Well, my reaction was based on the size of the cabin.  Now granted this was a quad, but still, it had more room in it than the balconies.

All in all, I was very impressed with the cabins on this ship.  Perhaps the suites weren't as opulent as suites I've seen on Royal Caribbean, but the balconies, oceanview and inside cabins were much more well appointed than what I am accustomed to seeing on a cruise ship and in reality, those are the ones most people are going to experience anyway.  So, in my opinion, they are the most important ones.

You can see above the bed in the photo of the inside quad cabin a big metal box.  That is actually a sleeping berth that the cabin steward would lower each evening when he turns down the beds.  Additionally, the seating area in this cabin nicely accommodates four so that people don't have to sit on the bed when in the cabin. Of course there is no bathtub in the bathroom, but you can't have everything, right?

Wheel Chair accessible cabin

Inside Quad Cabin

Following the tour of cabins, we went to the dining room where we were scheduled to have lunch.  The dining room was nice because it wasn't just a big open room, but there were walls and large columns that allowed the room to be sectioned off so that it felt like a lot of smaller dining rooms.  I liked that.  The ceilings had the huge brass flowers on them that looked like some sort of sunflower.  It was all kind of quirky and I liked it.  On the other ships that we visited during the week, we were sort of left on our own while we ate.  So, we all talked about what we had seen so far, but there was no one available to really answer our questions.  HAL, however, had a representative sitting at each table during our lunch.  I was fortunate enough to sit at a table with Barbara Farenwald, the BDM who had greeted us before our ship inspection began earlier in the day. Barbara was gracious, knowledgeable and as helpful as she could be in answering all of our questions and ensuring that we had a fabulous dining experience.

The ceiling in the dining room

 For my appetizer, I chose scallops. I am a sucker for lamb and since they had rack of lamb there was never any question as to what I would have for my entree.  Finally, for dessert, they served a crunchy fruit Napolean. The crunch part was the hard white chocolate that topped it along with the dark chocolate spear that laid over top of it.  Someone on my Facebook page commented that the portions looked kind of skimpy to which I will say that it was lunch, so the portion sizes were kind of perfect for the time of day in my opinion.  Also, if you want more, it is a cruise ship, so all you ever have to do is say so and they will bring you another complete meal if you want it.

I once sat across from a table on a ship where a very large man was seated each evening.  I don't mean he was overweight, he was just a large man. He looked like a former offensive lineman or something.  Each night at dinner, he looked through his menu and then ordered two complete meals. Two appetizers, two entrees and two desserts.  One night during the cruise, he enjoyed his selection so much that he actually had them bring out even more of it.  The waiter never blinked an eye.  He just kept bringing food to the man.  You've gotta love that about a cruise ship.

If you've been following my blog all week, you have seen some great looking meals pictured but I guarantee that you haven't seen a finer looking table service. The china was beautiful and the silver wear was actually SILVER wear and not just stainless steel.  Barbara pointed out to us that if you order room service, you will get the same china and silver wear sent to your room.  At Holland America, they apparently don't skimp.

Following lunch we still had time left so we were turned loose again and told what time to disembark.  So, I went out on my own and took as many photos as I could.  There are lots of really cool places on board this ship in which I think you could probably get away from everybody.  They also had lots of meeting rooms available.  In one, they had sewing machines set up. I'm pretty sure that they had a sewing group coming on board and the sewing machines were sent there ahead of time so that they could use them.  I doubt that there is a meeting room full of sewing machines on board during each cruise. But I could be wrong....

This is their internet room. As you can see, they have a lot of computers on board so that the wait time for a desktop is minimal.  I've been on ships that carried over 3,000 people and not seen this many computers in their internet room.

 If you are looking for experiences, look no further than Holland America.  They have an entire venue dedicated to culinary demonstrations which in some cases can even include passenger participation.  I think a cooking demonstration in the room pictured below would be about 1 million times better than the one I experienced on my last cruise that was in the theater and could only be seen on the movie screen because you were so far away from the stage.

 Of course there is a nice casino and bars for every mood.  The bar below is a piano bar that looked like my kind of place.  I don't think I got a photo of it, but I also found a screening room where they run movies daily.  The seats in there looked very comfy. The ships theater also had some comfortable looking chairs. I sat in one of them just to be sure they were as comfy as they looked and you'll be happy to know that they were.  Never let it be said that I wasn't willing to go the extra mile for you.

 Finally, my last stop was up on the Lido deck where I only had a minute or two to walk past the pool and snap a few photos before I ran back down stairs to disembark.  I must say that the pool bar, was very nice and the Polar Bear statue in the pool area will be a nice touch during an Alaskan cruise.

I'm so happy that I was able to end my ship inspections with the Zuiderdam.  It was just a lovely ship and I feel like a cruise with Holland America would be an amazing experience.

 If you are interested in learning about Holland America's itineraries, call or email me.  I'd love to get you on board this beautiful ship! Have a terrific pre-Friday!

Royal Princess Ship Inspection

Good morning travelers....  I'm baaaaa-aaack!!!!  Ft. Lauderdale was amazing.  Okay, I have to admit.  I'm actually writing this blog in Ft. Lauderdale sitting at the pool bar of my hotel while waiting for my ride to the airport.  Here's a photo of what I am forced to endure while working.  Hey, it's a tough life but these are the sacrifices I make for you guys. Someone's got to do this, right?  So, since I finished my last ship inspection on Monday at 1:45 pm and my flight didn't leave until 8:15 pm, there was no point in suffering or just sitting around doing nothing.  So, I wrote a weeks worth of blogs for you, my faithful follower, while I waited.

In case you missed yesterday's blog, (which I finished writing a few minutes ago) we discussed my rushed ship inspection on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. Again, I will say that the rushed inspection was not the fault of Royal Caribbean, but my inspection mate who only sells high end luxury cruises and therefore, had no interest in spending time on a moderately priced cruise ship. Also, I don't fault her at all, if I could make a living only selling high end luxury cruises, I wouldn't want to waste my time else where either.

With all of that said, on Saturday once I had a ship inspection under my belt, I felt that I could go out on my own for my Princess ship inspection.  This particular tour was on board Royal Princess the newest and most luxurious ship in the Princess fleet.  You might recognize the name of this ship simply because The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton is the godmother and christened the ship as her last official act prior to the birth of Prince George last fall.  On board they have this beautiful display case containing the dress she wore for the event and the broken champagne bottle.  In case you were wondering the dress seems to have been linen from what I could tell through the glass display case. Also, it is TINY.  Based on that dress if she weighed more than 85 lbs at 8 months pregnant,  I would be amazed. I'm pretty sure that my left thigh weighed more than she did at the end of her pregnancy.

Travel agents waiting for the ship to clear.

Anyway, we were on board the Royal Princess.  We had to wait about 30 minutes to allow the ship to clear. Federal law does not allow anyone to board a cruise ship (even visitors or workers) until all passengers from the previous cruise have disembarked.  So, if you are a cruise ship straggler, be aware that you are probably being cussed each time you finally manage to leave a ship. If that doesn't bother you, then good for you.  But I would like to think that those people holding things up just didn't know that they were affecting others.  When we finally got on board, they turned us loose and just told us what time to meet in the dining room for lunch. We had almost an hour before lunch, so I decided to start on the Lido deck and work from there to see all that I could in the time I had.

Before we go any further, I feel that I should tell you that Carnival owns the following:  Carnival, Princess, Costa, Holland America, Cunard, Seabourn and they go in that order from least luxurious and expensive to most luxurious and expensive. I would equate Princess along the lines of Royal Caribbean in price and luxury level. As far as Princess goes, this is their finest ship currently.  They have a new ship coming out soon, the Regal Princess the sister ship of Royal which will be close to identical to Royal.  This was a lovely ship with some amazing features that anyone who enjoys luxury and being pampered would find wonderful.

Believe it or not this is a pool bar on the Lido Deck. Sweet, huh?

As with all Princess ships, they feature Movies Under the Stars, but the movie screen on this particular ship is apparently bigger and better than the others.  The pools are nice and about what you would expect.  I think that in the upper decks the thing I found the most wonderful was Horizons, which is the Princess name for the buffet. Hot and cold food areas were sectioned off.  Deserts and salads were away from other buffet items.  Many things were under glass. After having been on a Princess ship recently the week following a minor norovirus outbreak I think this is probably Princess' answer to concerns over germs.

The cruising industry is continually faced with publicity concerning norovirus outbreaks when the reality is that norovirus occurs everywhere in day to day life and no one pays attention to it.  However, if it occurs on a ship, it is treated as though the plague has broken out. So cruiselines are taking more and more action to insure that passengers are protected in every way possible.  After all, the last thing you want to have happen while you are on a vacation of a lifetime is to come down with a stomach bug.

The big Movie Under The Stars screen in the pool area.

The sports deck is very nice and has lots of outdoor running and walking space for my marathon friends. I can tell you from experience that running on board a ship is harder than running around White Rock.  I don't know why, but it is.  So this might help you in your post cruse workouts.  Here's my theory regarding that, you run in an oval.  So during half the run you are running the same way the ship is sailing. During that time, with each step you take, you are going further than a step taken on land. I mean, seriously, if you are traveling at 20 knots and you are running, then you're probably running at 22 knots (that's 25 mph!!!). That's some serious running, my friends! (Okay, I don't want to hear from any of you scientific types.  I know my theory has flaws, but I'm still working on it.) Anyway, on that sports deck you will also find this state of the art fitness center with a studio for pilates, zumba and such.  There's something for everyone.

One of the things I visited on the Lido deck was the Seawalk.  I'm not generally afraid of heights.  But I must say that it freaked me out a little.  It goes out over the water and the floor is glass.  So, the net affect is that you feel like you are walking on air a few hundred feet above the waters surface.  This photo was taken while the ship was docked obviously, so you can see the cement dock below me which I think screwed with my mind more than walking above water.  After all, water would be softer than cement if the glass suddenly broke, right?  The photo below is what it looks like as you are walking through if you don't look down.

Between running to the public venues I was able to sneak into a few cabins.  We weren't invited to visit the cabins, but the doors were open while the cabin stewards were preparing them so I snuck in and took a few photos.  I think you will agree that while small, they are pretty darn nice. Most of the cabin stewards were very friendly and helpful even though I was interrupting their work as they prepared for passengers. One of the cabin stewards did grumble a little bit when I got in his way, but I just acted like I didn't hear him.  And then smiled and thanked him as I left the cabin.  The cabin below looks very much like the one I had on board Caribbean Princess except that the TV was above the fridge rather than mounted on the wall.

This is a normal balcony room.  Very small with no real room to sit.  The only chair blocks the balcony

To the left is the bathroom for that balcony room.  The shower is the size of a postage stamp and you can ALMOST turn around in it without injury to yourself. Below you will see the much more comfortable Deluxe Balcony. That sofa folds out into another bed. So if you are going to have three people or more in the room and you wanted a balcony you would need this.  Also, if you would like to be able to turn around in your room, this one would probably be a little more up your alley.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that this room also had a bathtub (pictured above on the right) in the bathroom.  Talk about luxury!!!!

After all of that, I started working my way down to the dining room we had been told to meet in for lunch.  But on my way, I ran into a few other areas of interest.  I came across some seating areas and bars including the Crown Grill and Wheelhouse Bar.  In the Wheelhouse Bar, I found the most amazing wine tasting area pictured below.  I had to post a photo on Facebook while I stood there to show my travel buddy what she and I might consider a cruising mecca of sorts. She said it brought a tear to her eye.  That's me in the tasting room down to the right.

When I finally made it to lunch, I must say that I was very impressed by the dining room and the meal.  First of all, there are several dining rooms and although I didn't get to the others, this one was fairly small. Not the huge dining rooms that I have grown accustomed to on ships.  It was more like a dining room in a large restaurant.  On most ships the dining room can be 2 or 3 stories tall and hold hundreds of tables. This one was one level and probably had 30 or 40 tables.  But again there were several dining rooms on the ship where you could have assigned dining.  We were seated at tables surrounding a beautiful table which was set apart.  We were later told that it was the Chef's Table.  Guests who wish to, can dine at this table for a fee where they will be joined by the Chef who will go over each course of the meal with them and the maitre 'd.  I have seen a chef's table on a Royal Caribbean ship before and it was in a separate room so that others couldn't observe and listen to what was going on.  So I was surprised that this one was in the middle of the room.  Then the maitre 'd came around and told us that they were about to close the curtain and sure enough a beautiful beaded curtain enclosed the entire table.  Apparently once all the diners are seated, they close it off to the rest of the dining room so that the chef can address the diners who have paid to sit there.  It was really amazing.  If you chose to pay for this experience, your wine is included in the price as well as a cookbook autographed by the chef.  It was a little over $100 and I think it would be totally worth the price.

On board the Royal Princess my meal consisted of Cold Smoked Salmon and Sauteed Crawfish Tails followed by Chateaubriand of Beef Tenderloin with Milky Chocolate-Hazelnut Souffle for dessert.  It was all delicious.  Princess served wine with our meal which was very nice and the entire dining experience was wonderful.








Following lunch there was a little time left to visit a few other areas.  One interesting note, I went to the ladies room after lunch and was pleasantly surprised by the public wheel chair accessible area.  Basically, behind an automated door within the ladies room was a separate self contained wheel chair accessible restroom that a lot of businesses on land would do well to emulate.  Those photos are below all the food photos.

I would really love to sail on this ship.  I think that if you are into any sort of luxury you would enjoy being on board this ship. Best of all, you can cruise this ship at a very affordable price. I took so many more photos of other public areas of the ship that I'm just going to post them randomly below.  If you have questions about what you are looking at, just let me know.

On board wedding chapel

Inside Sabatini's a specialty dining option.

Looking up at the Seawalk from the dock