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Embarkation was amazingly fast. For anyone who sails on Princess in a Mini-Suite, please remember that any sign that says "For Elite, Captain Circle and Suite Only" refers to you. Mini-suites are not advertised on the sign, but they do refer to mini-suites, family suites and full size suites so do NOT pass up the opportunity to skip ahead of the lines - you will regret it. We got off the bus, filled out our form and were on the ship within 10 minutes.
Our stateroom steward, Dario, was absolutely amazing. He called us by name in the halls after our first encounter and was very interested in our trip. He was friendly and always willing to help with any situation. When our bathroom light started to flicker, we asked if he could have it fixed by dinner - it was fixed within a few minutes, saying that it's not something we would put-up with at home so we shouldn't have to put-up with it until dinner on the ship. Our steward was the best steward we've had on any ship.
Next we had the opportunity to actually explore the ship. Because we have been on this ship before, we got to see things we had missed the previous time. Our first sailing on this ship was 2 cruises after a huge noro-virus outbreak took over and they were stripping off paint and using bleach and other sanitizers on everything. This time, everything was immaculately clean with staff on hand to point you in the right direction and to make sure before serving yourself at the buffet that you used the hand sanitizer. Staff would assist you in finding a seat in the full dining area and tables were cleaned almost immediately after you left to prepare for the next hungry cruiser. The International cafe knew us from day 1, so he would have our regular plate of food ready for us and would always offer us fresh-out-of-the-oven food when we would walk by.
The pools were usually crowded, but when it came time for the pool events, the staff would get everyone out of the pool so the participants could play. Water volleyball was extremely fun, PLAYERS BEWARE, the shallow end of the pool is 5'2", but the water runs over the top lip so it's more like 5'5", if you're like me and only 5'0" please be advised that you will be treading water for the entire game which in our case lasted between 1 hour and 1.5 hours.
Our dinner waitresses were the best pair we have ever had. Usually we get 1 good and 1 so-so waiter, but this time they were both willing to talk with us, serve us professionally and joke around with our table, making the dinner twice as enjoyable.
The only bad occurrence we had was the transfer to the airport. Once we disembarked the ship, we pulled out our tickets and began looking for the guide... who wasn't there. So, we had to ask about 6 different people to show us where we needed to go because the people who were suppose to be directing us were hiding behind the buses taking a smoke break. Then instead of taking us to the airport, the driver made us wait close to an hour before he would drive us.
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