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Taster Cruise Diary – Day 3

Caribe Cafe on Crown Princess

Day 3 – Our day at sea on board Crown Princess

 
On Day 3 of our Sampler Cruise with Princess Cruises, the Crown Princess was at sea, giving us a good chance to relax and check out the different areas of the ship.

A relaxing morning

In an effort to counteract all the eating and drinking we missed breakfast and instead tried a Pilates Class in the gym where the trainer, Monika from Slovakia, took us through our stretches and core strength exercises.

Afterwards I attended a talk in the Princess Theatre, about the things to see on Guernsey where we will be arriving tomorrow. Although I have visited the island before I got some useful tips, such as the public bus that takes you right around the island for only £2. The morning was sunny so we enjoyed sitting on our balcony and tried out the room service for a cup of mid-morning coffee.

Exploring the ship

Venturing out to explore the ship we found that the main pool areas on the Lido deck were packed with guests watching the football game on the Movies under the Stars big screen fuelled by slices of pizza and ice cream. We decided that the quieter Outrigger pool area at the back of the ship was more our style and found a sunny spot to sit for a while watching the wake of the ship. Rather than brave the busy Horizon court self service buffet we had a light lunch in the Botticelli dining room, one of the three restaurants named after the Old Masters.

Although with over 3000 guests, the Crown Princess is a large and busy ship, we soon became expert in discovering the quieter lounges where you could sit and relax, such as the Skywalker’s nightclub which is a normal lounge in the day and the Adagio lounge, both at the back of the ship.
 
Time for afternoon tea

At 4pm we decided to try the afternoon tea in the Da Vinci dining room, sharing a large table with other passengers. One of the fun parts of the cruise, is chatting to other guests at meal times, most of whom had been on many different cruises. We sat next to a couple who had spent their honeymoon last year on a 20 night cruise and were now back for this short cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The waiters were dressed up in dinner suits, with white gloves to bring around the silver trays of cream cakes and elegant sandwiches.

In an effort to work off a few more calories before the formal evening ahead, we headed back up to the gym and spent 30 minutes on the treadmill, although I only lost a meagre 250 calories, according to the reading on the machine.

Formal night and dinner at Sabbatini’s

It was time to change into our black tie and cocktail dress ready for dinner, which we had booked at the Italian restaurant Sabbatini’s, one of the two premium restaurants on board. We stopped to watch the champagne waterfall being filled in the Piazza before enjoying our delicious dinner of artichoke soufflé, a trio of lobster for me, with tender steak for Guy, followed by lemon tart. After coffee we were off to the Princess Theatre to see the evening show aptly named “Destination Anywhere” with song and dance routines that transported us from the glitz of Las Vegas, to the dark alleys of Victorian London, to the orange sunset of Africa. Heading back to the cabin we watched the expert ballroom dancers, Julian and Carlisa in the Piazza treating us to a passionate tango. Finally we retired to bed in our stateroom finishing the day with room service of a glass of milk and a cookie, ready for tomorrow’s visit to Guernsey.
HC_Taster Cruise Day 3 at

A day at sea on the Crown Princess:  Champagne fountain in the Piazza – formal dinner at the Italian Restaurant Sabbatini’s  – Destination Everywhere Show
Heather Cowper

Our guest author, Heather Cowper writes at Heatheronhertravels.com about inspirational travel destinations, bringing you stories, photos, videos and podcasts from Europe and around the world. You can also connect with Heather on her Twitter page @heathercowper and on her Facebook page

Heather’s 4 night European Sampler Cruise was hosted by Princess Cruises who offer cruises to European and Worldwide cruises to allow you to explore fascinating destinations and escape completely on board their elegant and spacious ships.

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