HaveDogWillTravel

Thank you for this clear explanation of the fuel savings. I’ll add that more time at sea is more time that the casino and shops are open (in most cases). Saving money on fuel and making money in casino & shops makes my stocks worth more.

@suzyed“many as you want with the exception of "canned" soda which is not included in the package.” My experience this year. Feb 2023 on Royal, April 2023 Sapphire & July 2023 Emerald all included cans of soda both walking up to the bar and ordering on the ap. I will also add that bartenders will cut you off as needed in their professional opinion. They will also “charge you tomorrow for a burger today” if you get my drift.

The 5 day sailing just before this one had around the same number of blue cruisers and roughly the same # of elite. I put out my free laundry for my steward before dinner and it came back by 5 pm the next day. Even embarkation day. I love fewer elite on board for that. Obviously Princess is attracting lots of new cruisers. Good for my stock 🙂.

@LACruiser88 as you know I just got off the Emerald today. It was the first cruise where I never used MDR for dinner. We had 2 breakfasts and 1 lunch (first sea day chicken korma day-it was the best we’ve ever had…there were at least 10 toppings!) in MDR. The rest was IC, upper deck grills, room service (the garden salad and chef’s salads were really nicely done on this ship) and lite dinners in the buffet. I never thought I’d be a buffet person but I really enjoyed how fast and easy it was! I don’t eat much at dinner and I always found a great protein fresh and hot. The lamb last night was outstanding btw. Tender and cooked to perfection. Thanks for posting the buffet schedule I wish they had done for us! Bon voyage tell Aldrin Jacqueline and Adam miss him already!

We ordered one of the specialty pizzas. Twice. Last night after fireworks and today at 11:30 am. Last night’s order never came . Today’s took 1 hour 6 minutes to come. It is made by the deck 15 slice crew. That explains why our pizza never came last night. They closer at 11pm but the ap still let us order.

We were off point conception. I unfortunately did not have my binoculars. In Alaska they never leave my neck. They were heading north. DH and I were just talking about them and we’re leaning towards humpbacks. They were quite “playful”. And we’ve often seen that behavior by humpbacks in this area.

We were just on the upper decks and saw a lot of whales spouting and breaching port side.

I wanted to do the Hawaii sailing as my b2b but the peaches are late coming in and I really love my canned peaches, frozen peach pies and frozen peach martinis that I put up every year. In fact the apricots were juuuuust starting the day I left. I’m hoping I didn’t lose the crop to the triple digit heat days we had while I was gone. Normally all the apricots & peaches are harvested and put up by now. I’ll be following and making believe I’m with you on that sailing instead of weeding, pruning, harvesting, preserving and sweating in the central California valley! Aldrich at Vines is truly one of the best. I think I misnamed his assistant bartender in an earlier post. His assistant is Jayson. Pam and Tri in Crooners are also great! Really a fun spot on the ship. Nino in Good Spirits is a bit quieter but is personable as well. All of them are overworked and underpaid. They work very hard to provide a high standard of service. I’m sure you will be well cared for.

Day 5 sea day (packing day 😩) I normally do not like 5 day sailings. For me, packing and driving to LA for 5 days is the same amount of work and effort as for 14 days. On the short cruises I barely get settled in and I’m packing to leave. But last night was so incredible it changed my mind. It was definitely worth every bit of effort to do this.

Day 4 San Francisco July 4th🤸🏼‍♂️🎉🍾 We had to go thru immigration. We got off at 10 am without any wait. Reboarded at 4 pm with no wait.

Day 3 at sea

Day 2 Ensenada

I couldn’t find this itinerary being offered for 2024 or 2025. I asked at the future cruise desk this morning and Princess does not have this currently planned. I will mention in my post cruise survey how much I loved this itinerary and would like to do it again. Here are the patters for this sailing. I noticed more teens and kids things in the patter. This may be normal for summer cruises. I rarely cruise this time of year. day 1 San Pedro

That was a spectacular experience watching the fireworks from our balcony in SF with @CruiseRaider The fireworks were over the top amazing and then sailing out was gorgeous! We sailed along the other side of Alcatraz keeping it on our port side instead of the usual starboard side. I would do this every year.

Agreed!

I feel really fortunate to have a deck. I’m grateful to @AnyMajorCruiseDudefor gifting me a deck.

Sorry those are now collectible items. No more on any ship I’ve been on since I earned mine in Jan 2022 I asked was told yes!

Good Spirits menu

I haven’t been following the threads about the premium desserts but I did try them on this ship. They take 5-15 minutes to get. They gave me a wooden spoon which failed to be adequate for actually eating all of them except for the one with the cheesecake on top. All the others with cakes and cookies were rock hard. The cakes and other stuff stuck inside were also rock hard and really nasty. I tried them all and did not like any of them. I feel bad for anyone who spends $12 on them.

My DH came up with the idea of playing Officer Board Bingo our Jan 29 sailing this year. The rules are still in flux but the basic idea is to take picture of the officers board when you get on the ship. Then get pictures of yourself with the officers as you see them out and about on board. Pictures with them at meet and greets, elite lounge, Captain circle party or any other function (like champagne waterfall…..) where they are a captive audience don’t count. This is how my DH sees the rules: The Captain & the top row are all 4 stripe officers, the next row are all 3 stripe, then 2 stripe and bottom row is 1 stripe. Getting bingo across is self evident. Getting bingo vertically is a bit different. The Staff Captain completes the first 2 columns, the Hotel General Manager completes columns 2, 3 & 4 while the Chief Engineer Officer completes columns 4 & 5. The Captain is a wild card and can replace any of those 3 to complete any column or any row. As soon as you get bingo you’d post the pictures giving it to you. If no one does then at the end you’d post your pics with the time stamps and tally your points. In the case of no bingo the winner is determined by points and then by time stamp as to who got their last officer the fastest. All the 4 stripe officers are worth 4 points all the 3 stripe officers are worth 3 points and so on. If two or more people tie on points whoever did it faster wins. Probably the roll call is the best place to play this game. Anyway that’s the gist of it and anyone can change the rules to suit themselves or the roll call group they are in.

I asked Lisa Honeyball the guest services currently on the Emerald at our meet & greet yesterday, she said the suite concierge for this ship is still in transition. She said there will be one but did not give an exact date. I asked what the concierge’s hours woukd be and thus was unknown. I asked about the free waters and beers you get on Royal class and the officers’ laughed and I did not get an answer.

Lol now I remember you! Yes I love those cards. Thank you again for them. Have not tried them all yet.

Yes those are the only options for room service. Of course slice has a very good cheese pie. Just not as good as Alfredo’s. No they do not. Slice will have the standard cheese pie, pepperoni pie and a different special daily.

I agree about Leo Rossi’s talk. We thoroughly enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next one today. I wonder if all the ships’ have this new pizza offering for room service. I’m sad to see the price go up so much but even sadder that they only have what I would call weird choices. I’d like a cheese pie please for room service. I am not a fan of these options.

Let’s connect at the meet and greet tomorrow. 10:30 wheelhouse