Caribbean Princess Cruise — Day Seven (7)

Today is the last day of our cruise. Bummer …  It is also Sabbath which makes things a little interesting on a cruise ship as normally we try not to do things that would make people work. A wee bit difficult on a ship as everything needs to run smoothly — from food service to safety. I went to the buffet instead of the dining room today so I could serve myself. But there are still people running around (I can’t expect anything different) trying to meet everyone’s needs.

On this ship, it seems like the staff is just plum tired. You can see it on their faces and sometimes in the way they walk — zombie-like.

Since the ship is at sea today, many activities have been planned. The ones I am looking forward to is the culinary demonstration, the galley tour and ice carving.

The culinary demonstration started in the Princess theatre which seats quite a few people. This is the same place that they have the evening entertainment.

Princess Theatre

The platform was set up so that the maitre’d and head chef could demonstrate how they make an appetizer, entree and dessert in a short amount of time. The assistant cruise director introduced them to us.

Caribbean Ship Assistant Cruise Director

The assistant cruise director was really funny. The relationship he had with the cruise director always reminded me of the relationship between Laurel and Hardy. He was a pretty smart guy though. I think his accent added to the funny ambiance of whatever he did and said. He sounded like he had a southern Irish drawl.

Princess Cruise Maitre'd and Head Chef

The cooking demonstration was light-hearted and the maitre-d made jokes with/at the head chef. One of the things I learned is how to warm an egg to use it in a recipe. Most people leave the eggs out for awhile to get them at room temperature. The maitre’d told us that instead of doing that, boil water, remove it from the stovetop then put your egg in it for one minute. That minute kills all the bacteria and gets the egg at room temperature. Pretty cool, eh? (I guess old’er people can learn new tricks.)

Here is one of the recipes they shared:

Fettuccine Alfredo (Serves 6 portion)

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs Egg Noodles
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 3 ounces butter
  • 3 ounces mascarpone cheese
  • 4 ounces freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Chopped parsley
Directions
  1. Cook the fettuccine in salted water until tender (approximately 7 minutes)
  2. Drain the pasta
  3. Place butter in a pan and let it melt
  4. Add the cream and mascarpone to the butter until it’s all melted together and you have a smooth creamy sauce
  5. Add the pasta to the sauce, toss and maintain the heat
  6. Continue until you have a smooth consistency
  7. Season to taste with ground pepper and salt
  8. Add the grated cheese on top along with the parsley
Note: The recipe which is from the original restaurant called Alfredo in Rome is usually served without turkey or ham.
(Princess Cruise has a cookbook that they were selling. We didn’t buy one but you can look at it by clicking here.)

After the lively demonstration (they made the above pasta as the entree), I followed a large group of people to the galley for the tour. The galley was clean as a whistle!

Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley Staff

The kitchen staff seemed so friendly as we were walking through. They were upbeat and didn’t seem over-worked like some of the other staff did.

Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley

Can you tell I was impressed with this massive galley? How do they keep it so clean?

Caribbean Princess Galley
Caribbean Princess Galley

I thought the eagle was made out of edible food-stuff but it was plastic.

I was really surprised that this ship did not have a midnight buffet. It’s not that I was hungry, but on all the other cruises I have been on they have not only had a midnight buffet but have made it a huge creative event by showing off how to make food look and taste fantastic.

Here are some statistics they shared with us:

  • Average amount of dishes washed daily: 70,000
  • Average amount of glasses washed daily: 21,500
  • Average amount of butter used daily: 400 lbs
  • Average amount of coffee consumed daily: 470 gallons
  • Average amount of sugar consumed daily: 400 lbs
In other words — A LOT!
They also bake their own sweet rolls, croissants, bread sticks, pizza, bread rolls and biscuits. And they have five butchers with 3 assistants and helpers who slice and portion choice selected beef and poultry before sending it to the galley where a team of 12 complete the preparation.

The next event of the day was the ice carving. I was able to get a couple of pictures and an 8 minute video but then my phone died. The video took too long. I was trying to capture the carving from start to finish and with all the other pictures I had in my camera it was simply too much for my memory card. (Note: I am still working on getting the video online.)

Ice Carving on Cruise
Ice Carving on Cruise Ship

Click below if you want to see the video. Normally they have a lot of ice carvings at midnight buffets but this one was done next to the swimming pool.

Our last day on the ship was nice and sunny. We forgot about the rain from the day before.

Because we were heading to the Puerto Rico port tomorrow, we had to have all of our suitcases outside our cabin doors by 7 p.m. this evening. Many a story has been told of people who pack everything, put it outside their door and have nothing to wear the next day. Usually those are the people who have their suitcases out much later than what they suggest.

The next morning (Sunday) when we arrived at port we had about a 2 hour wait after breakfast before we had to go through customs. Back to civilization — also known as “our cell phones work normally now with no extra charge for internet/calls.”

Letters are assigned to different groups on the ship with the people who are catching early flights being let off the ship first. Since we were staying in Puerto Rico for a week, our letter was one of the last ones called.

We filled out a customs form and headed off the ship. I had only bought one t-shirt on the whole trip. I’m not a big shopper.

Our southern Caribbean cruise on the Princess Caribbean ship was now over. I will post pictures of the interior of the ship along with some pictures of the food (although a lot of the food pictures didn’t come out too well because of the dark lighting).

No more chocolates on the bed at night. I guess I’ll have to take another cruise on our 35 year wedding anniversary.

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