Cruise Raider

Just one more note as we received our folio balance this morning. It may appear that our package does not cover the last morning of the cruise if we use it after 6 AM, as we were charged for the two coffees we had at 7:30 AM in the piazza before disembarking. Interesting! I’m going to ask on the post cruise questions on the Princess website.

We are now back home safe and sound! Our last evening onboard was great but even with the balcony door closed and our sound machine on, we did hear the fog horn blowing all night. For some reason, I don’t sleep well on the last night of the cruise so, not blaming the fog horn for keeping me awake. I just noticed it because I wasn’t sleeping very soundly. We had a very leisurely morning finishing up our last minute packing and even had time to go downstairs to the IC and get a cup of coffee and some breakfast. I love the options of the salmon toast, egg and avocado toast and the grilled vegetable toast. There were no egg and ham muffins but there was a ham and cheese sandwich on a ciabatta roll in the case this morning for my DH. We spent a bit of time saying goodbye to the crew members that we’ve grown so fond of over the last two weeks. I also noticed that they signage at the Bistro had been changed to The Catch by Rudi already. The signage at GiGis pizzeria was also updated, as were some of the decorative dividers there. After that, we gathered our bags from our cabin and proceeded to disembark. We were doing carry off as we’ve learned how to just pack in carry on luggage for most cruises, especially if we are flying to our meet our cruise ship. The port of LA uses facial recognition so we were off the ship and through immigration in no time flat. The port agents in LA were all very friendly and informative. We have one favorite that we’ve gotten know, Michelle, and we were so happy to find her at the port on her break. She came over to visit us while we were waiting for our Uber. It was all a very seamless process and we got to the Long Beach airport quite early for our 1:20 PM flight home. I love flying from LGB vs from LAX. We snagged a nice table with an umbrella outside (the wet he was perfect by then .. all the fog had burned off by then) and I proceeded to complete my entire post cruise survey while waiting for our boarding time. It always takes me a couple of hours as I want to recognize all the crew members that contributed to our fabulous experience. My only complaint that I noted was the amount of smoke both inside and coming out of the casino. Once I was done with my survey, we went to grab a burrito from Taco Beach there at the airport so we’d have something to eat when we got home, as our fridge was cleaned out before our 2 week trip. BTW, they make really awesome burritos there. I understand the ship may have docked late in LA but we hadn’t noticed. We were out of our room by 8:30 AM, as required and to the airport and through security before 10:00 AM. I knew we weren’t in any hurry having an afternoon flight, so we didn’t rush. The flight was full but by luck of the draw, we got a row to ourselves. Now, back to our daily chores and appointments after a wonderful trip on the most beautiful Discovery Princess! It really is good to be home!

We went to Sabatini’s for dinner tonight, The service, as with the other specialty restaurants was excellent. We ran into one of our favorite team members from the Royal Princess that has now joined the Discovery Princess as a sommelier. What a treat! The service was amazing. The food was good, especially the appetizers. I must admit that I miss the filet of sole piccata from the old menu. The fish dish they serve now is just so so. My DH ordered the Osso Bucco and said it was just OK. The dishes leading up to the main course were all fabulous, as was the service. To be fair, we are not ‘foodies’! Now that we’ve tried the three main specialty restaurants onboard, I must say that the Crown Grill was our favorite. I’d do Sabatini’s again fir the service alone. If the Catch by Rudi is as good as it was on the Majestic, I’d choose that over everything else.

So, I was having some trouble with my iPad for a couple of days. It turns out it was condensation inside my cover from all the humidity while in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Nothing that a quick cleaning wouldn’t take care of .. so, I’m back with some reports. It is our last full day onboard and it’s been such a great cruise with such a wonderful staff and crew. I have even become to love the firmer beds on this ship. The crew is constantly cleaning and keeping everything in tip top shape. I’ve also learned that the ship will go into dry dock after being in service for 2.5 years. It’s hard to imagine she will need much work as she is pristine! I assume that another year will show some wear and tear, though. We had the privilege to be invited up to the bridge for a tour yesterday. What an absolute treat and I found it to be quite fascinating. I really need to research more about the flags they have onboard. We were allowed to take pictures but no videos. We then attended a meet the Senior Officers event in the theater with a Q&A segment. The Captain’s story is quite impressive. It was informative, light hearted and funny until some guest just went on and on complaining about the elevators. I’m guessing he wanted to brag about how much he knew about elevators .. blah blah blah! Thank goodness the Captain finally cut him off after his rant stating he made his point. It really wasn’t the time or place. We finally made it to the MDR for lunch. They are rolling out the new menus that will be on the Sun Princess. Excuse my poor photography but I just wanted to have something for others to see. Oh my word, it was all so delish! I just loved it and we shared 4 small plates and I main, which was also on the small side. I prefer the smaller portions as it gives us the opportunity to try different things without being wasteful. We met a couple at lunch that was also was on our same B2B. They commented on what a disaster it was on turnaround day for the passengers. So, if you’ve read my previous comment, I guess that is why we received the confections with an apology. I really thought it was handled quite smoothly. Personally, I didn’t care that we boarded along with the Elite passengers. I guess some people were miffed about it, though. BTW, our new room was ready and all our belongings were delivered by the time we were back onboard. It was all well done as far as we were concerned. Also, we usually try to stay in the same cabin for B2B sailings but it couldn’t be done on this one as we booked the second leg just a couple of weeks prior. I wouldn’t hesitate moving cabins between sailings and they handled everything so well for us. After lunch, we went to the Navigator talk in the Vista Lounge from a 3rd officer. It was definitely a day of learning all about cruising from the aspect of the bridge staff. We went to the captains party last night after missing it last week. My DH won a bottle of champagne .. they gave us Gloria Ferrar, which certainly is nice. It was a great party, IMO. we stayed in our seats for Carlos Oscar’s show. The man is absolutely hilarious. Tonight, we are trying Sabatini’s since they’ve come out with their new menu. By the time we cruise on the Discovery again, the Bistro Sur La Mer will be replaced by The Catch by Rudi. I also have heard that O’Malleys may be replacing the Salty Dog GastroPub but that is not in the works just yet. One thing I noticed is that there were so many smokers in the casino on these two cruises. Wow .. it made it difficult to not only gamble but even to enjoy Crooners. I could even smell the smoke down in certain areas the piazza. That’s unfortunate for such a gorgeous ship in every other way. I may be repeating myself but I love that this ship either never had the motion lights by the bathroom / closet or they’ve set it up to be on a switch. It’s so nice to no longer have that feature in our cabin. I don’t know if they will be changing them back on all their ships. It’s good in theory but those lights were just too bright for a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night. We always just take a small and dim battery operated motion light for middle of the night trips. We even use them at home. Since we set our clocks forward for Puerto Vallarta, we will be able to change them back tonight. That gives us our hour back when we need it most tomorrow morning. I like that plan. It’s so much better than the other way around.

The special did end n Oct 31st. Glad we got some future sailings booked. I would love to say hi Alex for you. We saw him last night there for a small plate. hope you are having fun on the Eclipse.

We are currently on the Discovery Princess and asked both at Gigis and at the GastroPub about the charges for young children if they aren’t ordering their own meal. We found out from both GiGi’s and from the GastroPub that if the child does not order their own meal, there would be no charge. Nice!

I will ask the question sometime this week. The portions are really quite large in all the casual dining spots on the Discovery, including GiGi’s, the Salty Dog GastroPub and the Ocean Terrace. The waiters are all super friendly. Even if they have to charge, just order them something small from the a la carte menu to split. But, I will check into getting an answer for you.

I’m not shocked by this and it alone will not make me stop cruising. Look anywhere on land and you will find a hike in prices, at least here in the US. Why would we think that the crew’s compensation should be anything different? My guess is that Princess will make an announcement for a raise in price on the the crew appreciation, gratuities, tips, whatever you’d like to call them, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I also believe the price of the packages will be raised by the New Year.

There are definitely more passengers in costume than earlier today and there is some festivity as far as Halloween but not as in past years. Not sure about the dec’ party but they were conducting instruction on the Thriller video earlier. We went to the market in Mazatlan today to get bags of treats for the crew! They are all so deserving!

Our view this morning while sailing into Mazatlan. does it get any better than this?

Alas, we are in port so no Bloody Mary / mimosa stand set up today. There are also not many Halloween decorations or crew dressed up down here in the piazza. There is a big display and a large Happy Halloween cake up in the buffet, though. I didn’t have my camera so don’t have photos of it. We have been on Halloween cruises for the last two years and the costumes and decor was really festive. I’m not disappointed per we as some religions really don’t like the thought of Halloween. It’s part of my childhood and so think of it as festive rather than a dark holiday.

I don’t believe so but they had it again this morning. Maybe it is something new they will be doing. I will report back when I find out more.

I do love the music venues in the evenings so it never bothers me when a band is paying. We are in Cabo today but staying on the ship enjoying our balcony. The temperature is perfect and this is our view .. it just doesn’t get better than this!

We’ve had some excellent cruise directors but I agree, Duval is right up there with the absolute best. I laughed so hard during his Yes/No game show last night and even on some of his Wake Show interviews. Today, we went to Leo’s Rossi’s show right before the day in Cabo. No tendering for these old knees but the tendering process seems to be running pretty smoothly. We are going to hit a spot on the upper deck in the shade to peek for whales. It’s a bit early in the season for this but someone reported seeing a few this morning. They do have some activities onboard to keep everyone busy while awaiting the tendering process. We aren’t the only ship here and since we aren’t planning on going ashore, we just ordered some food to be delivered to the Salty Dog GastroPub.

We had a fabulous low key day today. We started off with a very slow morning before me heading to the CC meeting in the Take 5 and my DH attending Leo Rossi’s talk. we both had lunch from the buffet with some old and new friends out on the back deck. I love the Indian dishes they make up in the buffet. I was going to hit up the dining room for my traditional first sea day lunch of Chicken Korma but understand they were changing the menu on this sailing and it seemed more inviting to visit with friends and we are glad we did. We did go to the Crown Grill tonight for a most wonderful meal, once again. The food and wine, service and atmosphere were spot on! After dinner, we went to Rock Opera and WOW! I’ve seen this show once or twice last year while on the Discovery and it was excellent back then but even better tonight! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! What an extremely talented group of singers, dancers, musicians and stage crew! We finished our evening at the Yes / No game show and it was absolutely hilarious! All in all, it as another really perfect day at sea! I just have one more comment that we were rather puzzled when getting back to our cabin as there was an apology with some confections from Christine, who is the guest services representative. We thought the in transit process was pretty much seamless and very well done. Maybe some people were annoyed but it never even occurred to us that this was out of the ordinary or something that required an apology from guest services. Perhaps the treats were related to the charges for our specialty coffees and mimosas on turnaround day. Either way, it was unnecessary but most thoughtful and appreciated.

Just for a little additional information, the cut off for the most traveled luncheon was at approx 460 days for this sailing. I believe we are getting close but we are not there just yet.

I never insist on anything, as I am not infallible but can only tell you ‘my understanding’ of what I’ve been told. I did meet the hotel manager at our CC meeting today and would be happy to confirm this information if I run into her today.

Wow! Sometimes, I just shake my head. I really don’t see anything from the crew being done out of malice and generating a complaint! I think the world would be in better shape if the crew for a Princess cruise ran things. They have such patience and tolerance .. we can all learn from them!

I just learned from the food and beverage director that there are no plans for a different venue for Take 5. They are turning the cigar bar into an arcade as they have already done on the Royal. As mentioned before, I also have confirmation that the Bistro will be replaced by the Catch by Rudi in the next few weeks. From having tried that on the Majestic, I strongly recommend trying it if you are on a cruise, you have to try the Catch. It is, by far, the best restaurant I’ve ever tried.

Just now waiting for the Cruise Critic meet and greet here in Take 5 while my DH is nex5 door in the theater attending Leo Rossi’s show. I see they have Churchills is blocked off but Take 5 really doesn’t look as though they are going to close down. Such a wonderful venue. I hope it stays this way.

And from the vegetable carving this morning event.

Headed to the cruise critic meet and greet in a bit but stopped for a coffee in the IC first. Then, I saw a mimosa and Bloody Mary bar set up in the piazza. Such a great idea! I couldn’t resist that because of all the beautiful extras. I am all in when it comes to Bloody Caesar but only if they have horseradish available. So, I went with the Bloody Mary and wow, this kid made one that is so good. It’s half the alcohol and double the spice! Yummmmm I didn’t see any response from crew chat so had to go to the front desk to have my charges removed. Done! Thank you, Melissa. I think those at the front desk have such a challenging job. I saw some lady there having a tizzy fit and nothing they could do would make her happy. Oh well ..

Bravo! I am so happy to hear that. We most cruise not because of the ports of call but because of the amazing crew members. Many become part of our extended family.

We are always so tired on disembarkation and turn around day so headed upstairs early to watch a movie in our cabin. Well, we never made it to even pick out a movie, much less watch one. This mattress is as form as the last one but we are finding it very comfortable. Our pillows are actually better and not crunchy! 😆 We woke up to this beautiful sight outside this morning

I agree wholeheartedly! It oftentimes takes me 2 hours to fill out the survey with thoughtful comments. I mention all the names but it always ends up being much shorter when I complete them in between cruises or at the airport.