20/9 to 22/9

Apologies for taking so long to finish off the cruise section of the blog.
I truly didn't have time in Orlando - we were trying to fit our normal 14 days there into 5.....it was busy, busy, busy.

Once we got home on Thursday we just wanted to sleep.  Friday it was hairdressers, sleeping, shopping, laundry, sleeping, finding out our car needs some work (which we can't get done til Monday and means that we couldn't drive down to get Pongo 😢😢), sleeping, laundry, catching up with family & friends, etc., etc., etc.

Below you'll find my posts on the last 3 days of the cruise.

I will be writing an overall review too....... our likes, dislikes (guess what's top of the list 😏) and what was brilliant etc. but I want to get the Florida part of our trip typed up properly first.

We were so busy at the theme parks, I didn't have time to write more than a few words once we got back to our room and I knew (iffy wi-fi at the hotel not withstanding) that I couldn't post them as they were.
I'm going to spend the next couple of days expanding on what I've already written (before I forget what went on) and as soon as I've done that, I'll get back to the CB review (and hopefully I will also have sorted out pics to upload onto the blog so you can see what I've been blabbing about)

In the meantime, thank you all for following us on T's birthday celebration adventure and I'm very grateful to everyone who sent emails via the blog and who tweeted & texted  their support (along with all the lovely comments I got from cruise forum members).
It was great to hear from you all.

Thanks again,

S x❤x❤x❤

Our last 2 and a bit days on board the CB (sob)

20/9 - Cruise Day 016 - Boston, USA (part two)

As you can tell from the start of my last post.....I was a very happy bunny as we arrived in Boston.

Daft as it seems - it was really exciting to wake up knowing that we've sailed across the Atlantic. My mum travelled the route many times when she was a Cunard stewardess in the 50s & 60s and I'm sooooo proud to have (sort of) followed in her footsteps.

It was just as exciting knowing we were back in Boston - isn't it just a lovely city? - we visited for 4 days just over 9 years ago and had a great time - we always said we'd be back...........We wanted to get the most out of our one day visit so before we left the UK, we decided what we'd like to see again and worked out the fastest walking routes so we could fit everything in.  I printed out maps and directions and, miraculously, we didn't forget to take them with us this time (remember, lack of maps meant we missed my namesake's bar wayyyyyyyyyyy back when in Amsterdam?!). .

After we'd done the immigration thingy whatsit (which took about an half hour - I'm very impressed with how Princess sort out the logistics of such a big operation) we hot footed it off the ship and started on "S &T's Best of Boston" walking tour.

Along with another couple, who were following directions to the same place via their phone, we got a bit lost getting to the first venue - not all the streets were sign posted and quite a lot of them didn't even show up on the maps - but us stalwarts never give up and, 35 mins later, we arrived at the Boston Tea Party Museum.

If you haven't been to the museum, you should definitely go.  It was one of the best touristy things we've seen so far and it was well worth paying for .............even if we did pay twice! 

Yes, you've probably guessed it - we may have remembered the maps but we completely forgot to take the online tickets we'd bought before we came away (a whole $49 worth).  Big duhhhhhhh

I wouldn't mind, they were right there in the folder with the maps, printed on bright yellow paper so how we (aka T!!!! 😁) missed them, I'll never know.  Big, big duhhhhhhh.

From start to finish the museum was pure fun (and of course, educational). There's loads of audience participation and the team make sure to include everyone......even if it's only to assign the names of known rebels to each 'audience member'.  T & I were the Bradlee brothers (me - Nathaniel, T - David).  We all learnt how to cheer, boo and raise our arms in a specific 18th century way and, once we'd been given a load of background info, we were then off to make mischief.

(Btw, apparently David had just been released from prison..........I tell ya, I always knew there was something shifty about my hubby 😅).

I won't spoil it by saying exactly what happens** because as well as the tour on the ship, there are a couple of very good gimmicky surprises - but gimmicky or not, it all helped tell the tale and tell it very well too. 

We had such a good time.

After that we walked (following directions from our not so good maps) to the Old South Meeting House (nice but not worth the entry fee), then went to take a few pics of the State House & have a walk around the Beacon Hill area.....such lovely old houses and very pretty narrow streets with higgedly piggedly lampposts stuck in very uneven pavements (sidewalks).  Admittedly, some parts look a bit worn now but strangely, it didn't make the area any less attractive.

We had planned to walk to the Old North Church and then to Boston Harbour for lunch but aching feet and the 80s+ temp (that constitutes a major heatwave where we're from!) put a stop to that.  Instead, we decided to take just one walk to see if a favourite eatery of ours was still in business so we set off for the Back Bay area.

We got a bit lost (nothing new there then!) but, credit where it's due............thanks to me 👌, we eventually found the place we were looking for - the Globe bar/restaurant on Boylston (which is a bit further up the road from 500 Boylston - the building used in the opening credits of Boston Legal) and, just like old times (by that I mean the 3 visits we'd made during our last trip!), we had a couple of beers and a very, very, tasty, tasty lunch.

Sated, we began our walk back to the ship but I decided (a whole 4 minutes after we'd started) that I just couldn't take another step so we hailed a cab & returned to the CB in relative luxury.  As we got back so much earlier than we thought we would, we did what any pair of self respecting, tired, worn out tourists would do...........we had a couple of hours kip.

We were up again at 5pm getting ready to go to L and C's for another sailaway/wine party (along with the other lovely couple from the first sailaway).  Again, it was fab.  L and C's port side room had a fantastic view and we got some super duper shots of the most beautiful Boston sunset.

We all continued having fun at dinner......I must add here (and you probably won't be surprised) that the food wasn't much fun but the company certainly was.  Despite the food (just don't ever have southern chicken, 3 of us did and left it!), the table service was wonderful and the waiters were a real good laugh.  We had a great time.

G and N left just before 10 to go to the late show in the Princess theatre and the rest of us went to Crooners for a nightcap. 

L and C stayed for about an hour but T & I sat up for a while longer having a good chat with another British couple.  

Don (the barman) called it a night around 12:15 and we were duly sent home (in the real world, he'd have kept our car keys & ordered us a cab) to have our penultimate night's sleep on the CB.

**Small spoiler alert...............

Woooo hoooooo, I was a rebel...........I threw the tea overboard.

(Down with taxes is what I say.  Power to the Sons of Liberty! 😜)

21/9 - Cruise Day 017 - At Sea, our final day

After a bit of a lie-in (we got up around 10ish), we finished our packing - I was glad we'd sorted most of it out the other day - we only had a few things to put away.  We left out just what we needed to wear for the evening along with the clothes we'd be wearing for disembarkation tomorrow.

We went up to the Caribe Cafe for our last lunch on board and Oh Boy! had they pulled out all the stops.  It was Mexican Fiesta Day (or something similar sounding) and it was fab-u-licious.  Next to the UBD, it was the best meal we had throughout the whole of the cruise.  Chilli, enchiladas, spicy roast chicken (cooked to perfection), rice, tortillas, bean salad......it just went on and on and on with scrummy yummy gorgeousness and we went on and on eating    

Word must have gotten around - the queue was quite long by the time we got there but by the time we'd finished our meal, the line had more than doubled.  To say it was a hugely popular lunch menu would be an understatement.

After eats we went to sort out our Future Cruise Credits but the office was shut - not wanting to wait around for 45 minutes until it re-opened, we decided to fill out an FCC form and pop it in the drop box (fingers crossed there's no problems with it?!) and then we went for a last walk around the ship.

Despite not doing much, we were a bit tired so we had a quick snooze before getting ready for our final evening aboard the CB.  During our afternoon walk, we'd checked out the dinner menu and didn't really fancy the sound of it (what a shocker, ha ha) so we thought we'd go to the buffet but, when it came time for dinner, we were still quite full from lunch so we ruled that out too.  

Instead, we decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and go to Vines for some tapas & sushi as it would give us chance to say thank you & goodbye to Jack & Cherry (two of the most hard working bar staff on the CB).

Following our light dinner in Vines (yummy), we travelled around the ship saying our goodbyes to everyone who'd made this such a wonderful birthday celebration and ended up in Explorers for our final evening's entertainment.

Mary Ann, L and C joined us for the last ever trivia quiz of the cruise (we were predictably rubbish) and then, after saying goodbye to Mary Ann and doing a lot of goodbye hugging with L and C, we started to make our way to Crooners.....it took us a while to get there - we got stopped by every one of the Explorers' bar staff, they all wanted a goodbye hug too - it was actually quite emotional.....I got a lump in my throat & very teary eyes (good job it was near the end of the night cos it totally ruined my makeup  😅).

After a final drink & farewell in Crooners we trotted off to our room and got ready for our last sleep on board the Caribbean Princess.  

(Wonders will never cease, we actually remembered to set the wake up alarm for 4:30am - we were due to sail past the Statue of Liberty around 5:45...........we just couldn't miss that.)

22/9 - Cruise Day 018 - New York, disembarkation

We were up before the larks and after whizzing down to the IC for a couple of hot drinks, we were ready to wave to Lady Liberty at around 5:30. 

We made our way to one of the top decks - it was cold and very windy but we forgot all that as we sailed under the (Hudson?) bridge - we could see the statue in the distance and it was amazing to watch it getting closer and closer. It really is an iconic sight.

More and more people had started to arrive by now but we managed to get a great speck on deck 16 (port side, near the bow) and stayed there until the ship sailed passed the statue and had started to turn 180 degrees to reverse into Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

We still hadn't drank the half bottle of champers we'd got with our UBD so before we went back to our room, we nipped down to the HC for some orange juice - that meant we could have a bucks fizz on our balcony as we watched a fab sunrise over Manhattan.  

At 8am we had to leave the cabin and I truly welled up - I didn't want to go.  I really didn't want to go.

T sweet talked me out of trying to become a stowaway and, with me still teary-eyed, we walked into the corridor & closed our door one last time (cue dramatic music...... just like you hear in those weepies from the 1930s)........

As we didn't want brekky, once we were out of the room, there wasn't actually that much to do except wait until our colour/number (navy 2) was called to leave the ship.  We stayed on the Promenade Deck for quite some time watching the goings on on the water (Staten Island Ferry etc) and @8:50 we made our way to the casino (our disembarkation meeting point) to sit and wait, and wait, and wait.

Things were running a bit slow so we were delayed getting off the ship (and made even more delayed by me saying goodbye at every stage......bye deck 7, bye casino, bye fave slot machine in the casino, bye CB (repeatedly), bye ganglplank!) but when we eventually got into the terminal, we found our luggage easily enough, got through customs pdq and, in no time at all, were searching out the coach that would be taking us to Newark for our flight to Orlando.

I must say, all the Brooklyn terminal staff were very friendly - nearly every one of them said "Welcome to Brooklyn", it was lovely.  Round of applause for them please.

The journey to the airport was quite uneventful for us - sadly, one couple found that a piece of their luggage had been accidentally taken by someone else who'd gotten off at the previous terminal stop. Once the rest of us had been dropped off, the driver was taking them back to Terminal A to try and sort it out.  I hope they found it.  

(I must have had a premonition or something because at the very first stop, I'd asked T to get off the coach to make sure no one took our cases or if they were taken off - so the driver could get at other luggage - that they were put back on!).

We were sooooooo grateful for the porter/sidewalk check-in clerk (is that what they're called?) who spotted us struggling as we left the coach - he just took over. 

He loaded our cases onto a trolley, got us to the check in desk, checked us in, gave us our luggage tags and boarding passes, told us where to go to get to security and then cheerily waved goodbye to go in search of another clueless couple to help.  What a very nice man (and well worth the tip)  

Well, that's it, with a new destination to get to - via a plane and not a ship - our cruise had definitely come to an end and we were about to start on a different part of our adventure.

We were on our way to Orlando 😁😉😁😉😁