MTJSR

Hi, the ferry building is a 30 minute walk approx from pier 35. I think I would try this, take the princess shuttle to the pier, drop your bags at the porter and then grab a cab and go to Safeway or Trader Joes. Let the cab take the stress out of getting back and forth. They will of course wait while you run into the store. Question, you are not planning to pay a potential 15 dollar corkage for Traders 2 buk chuk are you? :eek: :DHave a great cruise!

Love the pics! Thank you very much for posting those! :)

 

We had a great time down there on Star last year. Nice to see that Walmart fixed their sign. I laughed so hard when it just said Walma.

 

lol, glad you liked em. We only got as far as Sam's and bought a soda in the food court. Next time Walma-rt!

How did you like the ports of call? We were thinking about doing this cruise in 2015

 

Puerto Vallerta was very nice, we were there on Christmas day and I thought everything would be closed but the opposite was true. This port is a good walk around port, we having been here before only ventured around the port area flea market and then across the street to Sam's Club. Lots of shore excursions here that you can sign up for. Port is nice, Sierra Madre mountains in the background and hotels and beaches in the foreground.

 

Cabo San Lucas is very nice for water activities. Next time I think I will rent a sea-do and bomb around the open bay and cool off. Weather was hot and the port area was nice, but very aggressive selling by the local tour operators made for a gauntlet style walking tour.

 

Ensenada is a short port stop, tours seem to focus on the local wine growing efforts. I walk the pier and call it good!

 

The ride both directions was very smooth, hard to tell we were on a ship. Very nice cruise, enjoy!

 

BTW, it was fun meeting calbabe & MTJSR! :)

 

 

Well thank you very much! I felt the same way, it was nice meeting you and your family and of course being neighbors on Caribe.

 

I did a picture post a bit ago. I don't ever remember seeing onboard Christmas photos posted before. Thought some might find them interesting.

 

At some point we will cross paths again and I look forward to it. Mark

Hi all, just home from the Sapphire Christmas cruise to Mexico. In a nutshell review, the cruise was very good overall. food was standard average and the staff was excellent. Weather was fantastic the entire time. Ship was loaded to the max and near 500 kids onboard. The Sapphire absorbs very well and parenting has gotten better I suppose :D but I never once felt like any kids were out of control. Here are random pictures taken over the week, unfiltered and there may be duplicates. Enjoy!

 

 

http://s871.photobucket.com/user/mtjsr/slideshow/Mexico%202013%20Christmas%20Cruise

 

sorry folks, just a test post with a pic

Just a thought about (tongue in cheek) groups that effect venues, etc. I want to be advised when there are more than 50 walkers, scooters and wheel chairs expected. Now we can all relax, after being fully informed!

:confused: After a page and a half, I am still not 100 percent sure what, when, where or why the Grand is going for 10 days.:D

A short story for you, and I feel this is why Dave and company actually do make or break a cruise. We sailed the Golden to Hawaii and my aunt coordinated the Cruise Critic meet and greet. From the minute we stepped onboard, the feel we got from the cruise staff was that they were there to have fun, not an act, just genuine-we love what we do attitude. Dave and his sidekick Asst CD (dark haired chunky fellow-sorry) had fun funny entertaining wake shows every morning, not dull read the card and try to be clever wake shows.

 

Dave was visible everywhere and very comfortable in his environment. One day, did a live wake show in the Vista lounge and showed his ukelele and singing talents also having ELUA the onboard Hawaiian culture couple that are the epicenter of Hawaiian onboard activities and music, join him for a sing along. Good fun!

 

Towards the end of the cruise, my cabin phone rang and it was Dave Cole asking if our family would meet with the Captain and discuss the quality of our cruise with his staff. Good move in my opinion, hear it right from the horses mouths before we publish a review online and Princess looses a chance to repair any wrongs. We had no issues and offered an honest report in return.

 

As I type this thou, I'm not sure I like telling people ahead of time that they will enjoy this Cruise Director or that Cruise Director. Now the very critical spotlight is on that person, will the CD live up to someone's pumped up expectations?

Thank you for taking the time to post pics and describe your adventure. I was just in Ensenada too but only jumped into the little dock store for a minute.

BTW, that is the normal embarkation day lunch menu. On all the cruises where we were able to make it to the MDR for lunch on embarkation day, that was the menu.

 

Interesting...I have never ate lunch in the MDR on embarkation day, too scared I'll be denied entry and have that be how I remember the whole trip:D I of course assumed it was a BVE menu because we were all in one area of the main dinning room and everyone got that same little menu. CruzinLiz says her family did the BVE from the San Pedro port. Others have thought they don't offer it from San Pedro because it wasn't available on their cruise. Wonder what the deal is?

Very interesting. Sounds fun. :) Wonder if the Bon Voyage Experience participants cry when they have to get off the ship like I always do when my cruise is over.

Actually it was kinda weird coming off the ship, I had almost settled in like I was going on a cruise. The dockside staff were looking at us, probably wondering why passengers were walking off the ship.

 

1. ALL of the staff in San Francisco are employed by a shore handling company...not "half". They are not all travel agents "moonlighting", they come from all walks of life and several were in other transportation jobs.

 

 

What I said was:

 

(fyi, about half the Princess reps in San Francisco are made up of local travel agents, who moonlight for the cruise lines and have uniforms for each line they serve) I know they work for METRO, I never said otherwise. One of the Princess reps told me exactly what I wrote.

It is my understanding that your parents should have been allowed to board at the same time that you did.

Yes that is true, unfortunatly the Princess reps didn't seem to know that little detail, they were told to follow their platinum /elite group to the boarding area where they thought they were boarding before us. They ended up in a waiting area upstairs as we were boarding from below. It really didn't seem to us that Princess had fully trained the terminal personnel on the BVE, we ended up coaching some when it seemed they were clueless.

My parents boarded the Sea Princess yesterday Aug 18th, in San Francisco and My Aunt and I joined them by taking the Bon Voyage Experience. We arrived around 10:30 at the pier for our 11 am boarding time. The security at the terminal door seemed to have no clue what the BVE was and after scratching their heads, let us proceed thru. We were instructed to wait in the Elite/Platinum seating area till the Princess reps arrived to process passengers. Once set up, we were ushered to the front desk to be processed. One word of caution, bring your passport. Even though you are not sailing anywhere, their computer terminals need to scan a passport to identify you. I did not have mine so it took a supervisor to override what the Princess rep thought she had to do to let me board. (fyi, about half the Princess reps in San Francisco are made up of local travel agents, who moonlight for the cruise lines and have uniforms for each line they serve) We were then ushered to the special needs waiting area where the Future Cruise Sales person would come and escort us onboard. About 15 minutes later he came and took us to the security scanners and the photographer area for a souvenir boarding photo. We boarded thru a different entry door (perhaps the crew door) then the passengers did. We were then offered a tour of the ship, which was optional. We however decided to wait in the atrium for my parents to board, approx 10 minutes later. The 4 course lunch that is included, is in the main dinning room between 12 and 1:30 only. To my surprise, you are not offered the normal lunch menu, you are given a special BVE menu that has only 2 entree selections available. Salmon or Chateaubriand. Lunch starts with a shrimp and cantaloupe platter (quite good) then a pasta dish (good) and the main course next (very good) with a lemon soufflé desert to close out the meal (very good) Wine is included as well. After lunch we toured the ship and their cabin. FYI, You must be off the ship by 3pm. If you don't want to eat in the main dinning room, you are free to eat the pizza, burgers, hot dogs or go to the Horizon court. I highly recommend the BVE if you have to option to try it. A final heads up, you must be signed up at least 7 days prior to sailing for the Homeland Security process to be completed. Enjoy!

We had Dave Cole as our CD on the Golden to Hawaii. What I observed was a guy who was thoroughly comfortable doing what he does. No forced niceness, no over acting, nothing fake period. This guy just owns the Golden and the Hawaii program, is his baby. It just works! I have no idea how he does on the one week Alaska cruises but on the Hawaii run, he shines.

Or the dockside workers/security personnel in Hilo requested a change.

I found this on the Princess website under "Onboard Experience"Although rare, on certain itineraries environmental regulations relating to the consumption of water may impact the operating hours of the launderettes. These restrictions, when applicable will be posted in the Princess Patter. Doesn't help now, but they certainly should warn everyone prior sailing that laundry access may be limited on this cruise.

I will add that you can get waffles from the ice cream counter at breakfast time just outside the Horizon Court. The breakfast menu in the dinning room seems limited, but get creative, they will make most any type of omelet you can imagine or any combinations. They will walk around with trays of pastries in the dinning room too. Keep an eye open for the cookie cart being pushed around the pool area during the afternoons. You will want to watch for the special food being offered outside the Horizon Court on some days, examples are special pastas, oriental/sushi buffet or exotic chef creations depending on their whim. Have a great trip!

Fantastic job on this review and photo diary. I too did a live from during my Hawaii trip. I thought I covered all the little nuances well, but you are making mine look amateur. You have allowed me to relive my trip from a year ago and I thank you for that. Princess should name you salesperson of the year, I think they will see a spike in bookings after you are done here.:D

Going to the luau at the Polynesian Center is an all day tiring affair. We preferred the one in Kauai which included a trip down river to the Fern Garden..

 

http://www.princess.com/find/excursion/exDetails.page?tourCode=LIH-102&t=H

 

It certainly is not a drive thru luau:D but at least you will get to see half the island.

Yes we were. Our group did Randy's tour in Hilo and we did the Pearl Harbor tour with the lunch at the officers barracks in Oahu. They loved Randy's tour (I didn't go) and we all loved the Oahu tour. Very very informative and covers lots of things. The Golden is awesome, crew was fantastic and the Hawaiian couple Dave and LeiAloha (ELUA) really make the trip special. Enjoy!

Take the Polynesian Cultural Center tour thru Princess and one is included in the show. Seems to be the most popular way to get in a luau while on Oahu. Have a great trip, we sure did.

We had a slot pull on the Golden and our group loaded the entire pool amount into one machine and we pulled until that sum was exhausted. We never touched the credits, which were cashed out and everyone ended up with a dollar in the end. It was fun but went very very fast. We all just stared at each other like "is that it" and went our separate ways. Since that is a real possibility, maybe make some kind of a progressive reinvest with some/all winnings into a larger possible payout on a different machine (within reason of course) and make the slot pull last more than 5 minutes. just a thought!

I believe ELUA are husband and wife ..... David (not Cole) and Leialoha.

 

I have heard dave (ELUA) call his wife both Leialoha and Faline (sp?) She was born in Hawaii and he in Texas (i hope I remember that right) and together they are everything Hawaii.

 

David Cole the Cruise Director, is a walking treasure chest of good island information and gives the port talks for each stop. This trio is why we did not hesitate to book this trip again.