We arrived at PE around 10:30, dropped off our luggage and joined a very long line. We were excited for this trip, life had slapped us around pretty hard over the last two years and we needed a Princess cruise bad. Wait, what? Medallions are no longer shipped? Gigi's is no longer free? There's a fee for room service? You now have to pay for Ocean Now? The last time we sailed Plus it was an additional $40 pp pd, now it is $60? And what the heck is Premier? I quickly figured everything out (thanks to all the amazing contributors on this site) and we opted for Plus just so we could have the same things that used to be included. Due to life intervening, I had not been on CC for a very long time, so imagine my surprise when I logged in and found the changes that had occurred since we last sailed. I'm not going to sugar coat it, we were pretty apprehensive about sailing on a ship sailing at full capacity. That voyage was the first one where masks could finally be removed. We felt pure exhilaration as we walked onto the ship accompanied by the applause and cheers of the staff. Fast forward to March 2022 and we again were on a half filled ship, but this time due to Covid precautions. That was pretty surreal to say the least, most of the staff were walking around with a glazed look in their eyes, so unsure of what their future would hold.

In 2020 we were on the Sky which was sailing at about 50% capacity (folks were cancelling out of fear), when Jan Swartz came on our cabin television screens and told us that Princess was closing shop. The last two cruises we took were in March, 2020 and March, 2022, the glory days of Covid. So here we were, 20 months later, taking almost the same trip on the same ship. To make a long story short, the powers that be at Princess came through for us and we were given a generous credit to use towards another voyage. I did a pretty extensive live from the Enchanted last year, and those who followed might remember that Steve slipped and hurt his ankle on the second day and was pretty much hobbled for the rest of the trip. Except for the one time we went to Alaska, we really do only cruise for the ship experience and to relax by literally 'getting away from it all'. We don't cruise more than once a year and because we live close to Port Everglades, we usually just choose a Caribbean itinerary.

Although we've been exclusively cruising Princess since 2009, this was only our 11th cruise on the line.

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