Royal Princess in Cabo San Lucas, Part I

Hello from a not stormy Cabo San Lucas.

The only photo of Cabo you'll get from us is one taken from the Royal Princess. While the ship is here for an overnighter, there is no way we'll be joining the tender ticket line. What craziness. Despite information posted in the Patter, discussed on the Wake Show, and shown on the portals around the ship, people didn't get it.

We had a few different things going on. 

*We had new passengers who have never sailed before who had no clue we weren't docking. They thought they could just walk off the ship. Didn't have a clue what a water shuttle (the new term for a tender) was. 

*We had other passengers who understood there were water shuttles being used but thought they could just go get on one.

*Experienced passengers thought they should just go to the dining room and get a ticket when they were ready to go ashore.

*Very experienced passengers thought they could just show their Elite cards and get on the next shuttle.

But this ship started handing out tender tickets at 10am for our 1 pm arrival. Much, much earlier than you'll find on the other ships. And Elite passengers went to an entirely different place for their numbered tickets.

It was quite the mess. We were down in International Cafe during the arrival time and watched swarms of guests who had not followed any of the instructions given. It was great people watching for sure, but the poor cruise staff!

Here we are at 3:40 in the afternoon and the ship is on water shuttle group number 92. Yikes. (Update: At 3:50 tickets were no longer needed. So that makes it close to three hours to get everyone who wanted to go ashore outta here.) Yep, we're skipping it to watch the view from our balcony instead. Not sure if we'll make it out tomorrow, but I'm guessing not.

You can find the Patters from this voyage here.

Royal Princess Cabo Cruise Sea Day

We had a smooth ride last night. We were so tired ours eyes were closed not long after dark but not before I saw the Coral Princess alongside us. We've been following her (or she's been following us) since we saw her in Vancouver when we were on the Golden.

She looked much cooler in person than the picture shows.

The night was great for sleeping, and boy we love these new Princess beds. They make us realize we need a new bed at home. But if we had a great bed like this at home I imagine we wouldn't appreciate the ship one as much! We do like this cabin, too. Although again, two TVs and only one TV controller. And (surprise!) I don't get to touch it.

Another thing we like? These new sandwiches at the International Cafe. While I loved my Cuban sandwich, my hubby really, really loved his Italian Brick sandwich. Just look at all that meat! Add in the toasted bread, red peppers, pesto sauce, and cheese? Oh, yum.

We've also noticed the menu continuing to change at the buffet. Many of the signs refer to it as the World Fresh Marketplace. We knew it was coming but it's interesting to see how things have changed in just two weeks.

This morning the buffet had their chocolate breakfast. So. Much. Chocolate.

And the weather? Well, we're making our way to Cabo San Lucas where they are under a tropical storm warning, thanks to TS Narda.

We haven't heard a word about any diversions yet, and based on the weather right now it's surprising there is a storm not far from us.

We're definitely not in Alaska anymore.

Tonight is formal night and even though we have dressy clothes, we'll be heading to the buffet. It's Ramen Station night and hubby can't miss that one.

You can find the Patters from this voyage here.

Maybe see you in Cabo San Lucas tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Royal Princess 5 Day Cabo Cruise

Hello from sunny San Pedro, California.

Here we go with another somewhat quickie cruise, a 5 day with an overnight in Cabo San Lucas. It'll be interesting to see how this quickie compares to the 3 day we just left on the Golden. One thing I already have noticed is the passenger makeup seems to be a bit more on the wilder side on this cruise. Okay, maybe a lot wilder.

Embarkation was not fun. Again, we already had our Medallions and were directed to a very long line to check in. Can we use the Priority line? Nope. It has to be the long Medallion line. Not all of the Medallion check in stations were open so that may have had something to do with the backup.

Next time I'm not going to bring my Medallion and go to the Priority Line instead. It has to be quicker than what we went through today. And the seating areas, particularly in the priority boarding area (where we couldn't even find a seat) were nuts. We sat outside the priority area watching folks with all colors of Medallions crowding the area. And when they did finally open the boarding doors? Oh. My. Gosh. I don't want to experience that again, either.

After much standing around in and out of lines and a bit of sitting, we did get onboard the ship and headed straight to the buffet. 

They handed these out today.

There was a wedding out back on the Horizon Terrace so we had to confine ourselves to one section of the Terrace. No worries as one of the gals we met last time was stationed there. We heard all about the last cruise to Alaska and the one before when the ship had the oil spill in Vancouver. Sounds like the two weeks we were gone from the ship were pretty eventful. The crew is so ready for warm Mexico. 

We again wound up in a mini suite for this cruise as it was another one of the Princess price mistake ones. It's a bummer they don't honor the prices shown on their website, but when they make it up by giving us a mini for an inside price it makes it better.

The cabin is kind of similar to last week's on the Golden, but not quite. I'll get more photos up of this cabin later this week. One thing we did notice is something outside our balcony when we look up.

That's the Seawalk, and yep, people can see us. I think if we tuck close to the door we might be hidden. We'll try it out tomorrow.

Tonight's sunset as seen from our cabin. 

You can find the Patters from this voyage here.

A sea day is up tomorrow.

Golden Princess Mini Suite Cabin

Interested in knowing what a mini suite cabin looks like on a Princess cruise ship? I've got your photos right here. These specific pictures are from the Golden Princess, cabin D326.

If you want to know anything else about cruise ship cabins or have any questions about cruising or Princess Cruises, just ask. 

Golden Princess Repositioning Cruise Wrap-Up

It has been a whole year since we did a short repositioning cruise between Vancouver and some US port. Last time hubby and I told each other they just aren’t worth it. Too short to pack (and unpack) for, services from crew members suffer because they have more of a laisse-faire attitude, and Vancouver is a cruise port difficult to navigate when multiple ships are in port. This time was no different. But this short cruise on the Golden Princess was our best way to see our favorite bartender before he heads to Australia so it was a must-do for us. While I’m certainly glad we were able to spend as much with him as we could, I also know if not for him and a couple other crew we knew it would have been not nearly as enjoyable. We had highs, lows, and some new learnings. You can decide for yourself which category things fall into.

*The Golden Princess is about to be a Princess no more as she will be heading to P&O. (Near the end of next year, I think.) Since the ship isn’t going to be staying in the Princess family, you won’t find the updated MedallionNet WiFi. It’s the same old slow minutes. This cruise it was even shut down for almost 24 hours. (I know, I know, first world problems.)

I know for a fact the crew still had access but passengers did not. Of course, the Internet Manager wouldn’t tell anyone that – just told everyone the entire system was down - but as you know we have folks working on the ship who tell us everything.

*No MedallionNet and no upcoming Ocean Medallion means you’ll find the old mailboxes still outside the cabins.

*No upgrading of food venues also meant the International Café hasn’t changed out their sandwich and salad menu like the Royal Princess did in the last few weeks. Same things we’ve seen for years and tasty either way.

*We had a mini suite cabin somewhat midship on Dolphin deck. The balcony was almost completely uncovered and those above could see us when we were out there.

*While we had two TVs we only had one TV controller to share between the two. You can imagine who was the one in charge of it.

*We I am always interested in where the mini bar items come from. In the past we’ve had Diet Coke from several places around the world. This batch was from Canada and was in French.

*We again found inconsistencies in the level of service the cabin steward provided. Whether it was having to wait for four hours for the cabin to get cleaned, not delivering ice as asked, or the lack of bathroom cleanliness, it’s something we’ve unfortunately seen before. If we had told him we were staying on until Australia I'm sure the service would have been better. And again like in the past, the smoking on the balcony thing was dealt with nonchalantly.

*The tablet Bingo is super-popular. I haven't checked prices in a while, but I did this time.

*Starting this sailing, the Platinum/Elite/Suite Lounge was moved to the Vista Lounge because of the high number of qualifying guests. The time has also been shifted to 4:15-6:15pm. For those interested, here’s the drink list.

 

*We were excited to see the Royal Princess with us in Victoria, but unfortunately they couldn’t dock. They basically did some paperwork showing they visited a foreign port and then went on their way. We also had other Princess ships following us on our way down to San Francisco. We'll meet up with both the Royal and Coral Princess in Los Angeles on Sunday.

*Since this was a short three day cruise, most people were assigned walk-off disembarkation. Us included. With hubby’s limitations we never do walk-off but decided to just go with it. Since we were heading straight to our hotel to drop off our luggage and then to the San Francisco Giants game we figured it might work out better.

Would I sail another three day cruise? Nope. Another sailing on the Golden? Maybe. Still sail on Princess Cruises? You betcha. We love we can visit our friends in their cruise ship homes. Best part of cruising, I think.

One more thing to note…all these opinions are my own and probably things others may not notice. As much as we cruise we can see nuisances in how things are done fleet-wide. Some ships and some departments do things better and some do things worse. But it doesn’t keep us from coming back again and again.

The view out our balcony this morning. Geez, I should be a photographer.