The American Family Goerss: Princess Cruise for the Holidays

This was our first time on a Princess cruise, and since our last two cruises have been with Disney, our bar was set pretty high. When I tried to explain to the girls that we were going on a Princess cruise, Elena wanted to know which princesses were going to be on it. Obviously, the main draw was the itinerary, but the ships themselves get good reviews, so I was optimistic, and we weren't disappointed. Nothing is as good as Disney, but the Princess food was good as was the service, and the girls enjoyed the kids club, so as far as I'm concerned it was a success. We all agreed that one of our favorite parts of every day was hanging out a Crooner's to listen to live music and have drinks before dinner.

It was also a great place for photos when everyone was in their dinner best.

We opted to do the set dinner time at 6:30 each night, which means we had the same table and the same wait staff, which was nice because we got to know them. Of course, it also meant that Elena got special treats like a tinfoil ice skater on her own special plate.

It was also nice because no matter whether or not we had all spent the day together, we knew we were always going to have a couple hours together in the evening.

I figured Vivian would make friends in the kids club, because she always does, but I was a little worried about Elena, because she was in a different age group than Vivian, and when we had tried that on Royal Caribbean, she had refused to stay. I give major props to the Princess counselors, because not only did Elena stay, she couldn't wait to go back whenever we took her out for a break. She even figured out how to draw the Princess logo for her sailor's hat.

The kids club was open from 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10, so we would feed the girls breakfast, drop them off, pick them up for lunch, drop them off again, pick them up at 5, clean them up, and then go to drinks and dinner. It was a nice schedule. For lunch we would sometimes do the buffet, and sometimes do sit down lunch. On the best Antarctica day, we got the girls some food at the buffet and brought them up to the sun deck where Jeff and I had found a place to be close to the outdoors and stay warm.

Jeff got some great pictures of them with the Antarctica background.

On the really rough sea days, we decided it would be safer not to try the walking around the buffet restaurant with plates full of food, so we retreated to the sit down lunch option which was on a lower deck and in the middle of the ship, which made for less motion. We got a seat near the window one time, and as a bonus every so often one of the big waves would come and splash against it, adventure dining!

Our fabulous travel agent gifted us a dinner at the specialty Italian restaurant, Sabatini, so we tried that out one night.

We were practically the only table in the restaurant. The service was great, but we didn't think the food was anything special. In fact, we all agreed we had just as good, if not better food in the main dining room, so we stuck with our regular table for the rest of the cruise.

About half way through the cruise we also discovered that even though they advertise afternoon tea in the sit down dining areas, they also put out some pretty heavy snacks at 3:30 on the buffet deck, including scones with cream and jam. It's probably good we didn't know about it at first, because breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner is a bit excessive on a daily basis. Still, it was a fun bonus treat, and we'd grab a scone or two plus some chips for the girls as a snack when they got out of the kids club at 5. Of course, everyone's favorite snack was the honey roasted peanuts at Crooner's

In the main dining room, the girls were in love with kids spaghetti, although Vivian would occasionally branch out if there was a steak on the menu.

Jeff made a thorough study of the desserts on offer.

I was thrilled that they had lobster twice, and on Christmas eve I had some delicious scallops. Jeff and I also went to a couple wine tastings which was fun. The best was the first one which was a bit more expensive, but had nice canapes to go with the wine.

We also got to do some celebrating while we were on board. First up was the welcome champagne tower, which they did on the second night, since the first night was a bit too bumpy.

It was pretty cool to watch them fill it, but I have no idea how they take it apart afterwards. One of the other passengers who was watching said he's seen the whole thing come crashing down before on another cruise, yikes!

The second night of the cruise was also the first night of Hanukkah, so the girls got dressed up in blue and white and we went to the service they were having before dinner.

It turned out not to be a full blown service, just a couple prayers, some songs, and then some Hanukkah type food. The girls decided they liked the challah and apple sauce, but the potato pancakes were broiled instead of fried which was a bit disappointing. Still, it was probably better that way, since we didn't spoil our appetites.

Two nights later was Christmas Eve, and while we were sitting at Crooners some of the staff came around with lyrics to Christmas carols. Mom and the girls walked over to the stairs to look down into the atrium and join in the singing.

We had a great Christmas Even sunset, and woke up to Christmas in the Drake Passage.

We had been in the Falkland Islands for December 24th, and Santa must have known that we would fall in love with the penguins, because we each got a different species in our stocking.

The girls also got the things they had especially been asking for, nesting dolls for Elena and Kraft Mac and Cheese for Vivian.

Jeff got a cool wine bottle stopper, shaped like a whale and made out of recycled glass.

We had been worried about how rough the Drake Passage would be, but we ended up having a pretty smooth ride.

My Christmas present enjoyed the view.

They had an event for the kids where they could get pictures with Santa and get a present, so we took the girls down for that.

More penguins!

I didn't really want to get a picture of the girls with Santa, because his "helpers" were wearing little jackets, high heels, and no pants. Not exactly kid appropriate. The girls had a fun day playing with their friends in the kids club, and then we got dressed up for Christmas dinner.

Elena insisted on bringing her new nesting dolls to Crooner's and high jinks ensued.

Jeff raised the bar, and of course, the girls followed him.

We also managed to get some more formal pictures.

We were entering Antarctic waters, so there was no more plastic or paper napkins for a while. Instead, the girls got spoons with their smoothies.

I was a little disappointed with Christmas dinner, because the Princess website said they would serve goose, but there was no goose on the menu. Still, the food was good, and no one went hungry.

One of our other favorite things about the cruise was the lectures they had during the sea days. There were three lecturers on board, one from the U.S. and two from Great Britain. The gave talks on the animals and the history of Antarctica. The captain also gave a talk explaining the ship's itinerary, which was really cool. The lectures were where we learned about the Beaufort scale and came to a better understanding of why we didn't dock in Montevideo with Beaufort 11 winds.

One naturalist showed us a picture of a penguin porpoising, but also reassured us that it was a practically impossible shot to get.

Then he told us that there used to be giant penguins, which totally blew my mind.

We also enjoyed the lectures that focused on the history of Antarctic exploration and the race to the South Pole.

This was probably my favorite slide from one of the later lectures.

Even if we didn't feel like doing much of anything, we still had a nice room to hang out in, and Jeff brought lots of movies for us to enjoy.

And if we wanted to stay out after dinner, there were lots of fun things to choose from. Vivian (big surprise) got into the karaoke evenings, so we had some fun with that too.

Our final celebration on the cruise was New Year's Eve. We didn't manage to stay up until midnight, but they had fun headgear for us in the dining room, and we sailed by some incredible hanging glaciers, so it was a great way to finish 2019 and start 2020.