MarkBearSF

2 hours ago, 1stin71 said:

Oh man, Mark.....you must have missed the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo!

Remember Bo Derek in the movie "10" with Dudley Moore and the famous love-making

scene to the rythm of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero"?

All filmed there!

You can get a day-pass to use the facilities and buffet at the resort, if they still

do it. 

Mind you, not that the OP is going there anyways....I think theirs is a 7-day sailing.

But thought I would point it out, just as an FYI.

 

Thanks.

A member of our group has been trying to contact them in vain. Our TA is looking into it.

Cabo - Tender to Marina. A short walk from there to the town. Not very historic. (The nearby town of San Jose is more historic - tour, bus, or other transportation needed). The top thing to do is take a boat to El Arco (the Arch) which is at the tip of the peninsula, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific. Many of the boats that do this trip have glass bottoms which are fun, and many include a stop at a nearby beach. Generally, it's cheaper to make your own plans when you get to the Marina than to pay the surplus for a Princess Excursion for the same boat. 

Mazatlan - as others have mentioned, the old town is very walkable from the pier. There is a "blue line" to help you and many expats stationed around to answer questions. The Public Market and the Church are the main sights here, if I recall. Afterwards, I highly recommend taking one of the special Mazatlan "Pulmonias" (which are sort of a hybrid jeep/golf cart) along the Malecon to the Golden Zone for lunch.

Puerto Vallarta - the most walkable thing is the giant Walmart across the street from the pier. (Don't laugh, great deals on vanilla and gifts and souvenirs) The walking-around part is the old town (Zona Romantica) and the Malecon (shoreline road). However you will want to take a cab or Uber for the short distance. You could also take a city bus, but since a bridge is out right now, not all the buses go the usual route. (Note, if you take a cab, the ones right at the pier, inside the gate are almost twice as expensive as the regular cabs, although they won't tell you that. Go outside the fence and you'll find plenty of cabbies with nice new cars. Negotiate the price in advance.)

Manznillo. There is nothing. Stay on the ship or take a tour to the Tortoise Sanctuary and Salt Museum.

That's my take. 

42 minutes ago, bigeagle12 said:

So, this is CCL stock and is good for OBC’s on Princess, Holland, and Carnival?

Yes

 

On 12/8/2021 at 12:19 PM, mcrcruiser said:

Ever since the stores  being robbed  by thugs  ,we have placed the city of San Francisco  on the do not travel list  . It is a shame of what  has happened to a once beautiful city  .  We wanted to plan a  Alaska  cruise on Ruby Princess ;but ,now will wait to see if   the  authorities  clean up the crime & drug  needles 

There is no way I would park my car for a  10 day cruise & feel it was safe .  We can hope one day SF will return to it's former   good self 

Sorry to hear that. There's no reason for you to have done so. (I live in SF).
Our crime rate is low and lower probably from when you remember its "former good self."

But you'll believe what you see on Fox News, so nothing I say will make a difference. Enjoy your cruise from higher crime rate cities like Miami.

7 hours ago, rdsqrl said:

 I absolute hated the times I had to do Anytime -- the same boring starter conversations every single night with a rotating group of people who never became anything more than strangers -- it was nightmarish.  If Princess can't figure out a way to recreate the TD experience of same cohort at the same table for those of us who want it, I may have to reconsider my loyalty and jump ship to Cunard or HAL

I don't know about HAL, but reports from Cunard are that they have TD for first seating, but after that (7:30 or so?) it's all flexible dining, with no TD second seating. (Supposedly they request you make reservations for your preferred time, but in actuality, it meant people lining-up when they wanted to go in)

Took a little more than 2 weeks (there was Thanksgiving involved). 
Longer than the 2 days it used to, but it went through fine with no extra calls or issues. 

1 hour ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

First 3 sea days. Well loved and crinkled Patters for you @MarkBearSF

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

For what it's worth, it appears that testing is NOT available in San Francisco. 
I thought I'd check it out and went to the site - you must register as a patient before scheduling. When I finally got to the scheduling step SF was not one of the locations offered.

19 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Hardly ethical there, but I also realize a guest could own the stock already and sell it after getting OBC posted but before sailing.  

For years, they had a requirement that the statement be from no more than 60 days prior to departure, which lessened the window for the post-OBC sale, but certainly wouldn't eliminate it. I notice that's no longer the case.

That was our experience on a 5 day to Cabo out of SF on the Grand in January 2019, just before the shutdown. I was hugely disappointed as we had a regular daily group on the 10 day Mexico on the Grand in December 2018.

Fingers crossed for January. (Luckily, we'll be part of a group of 8, but we still enjoy them.)
Especially on a cruise like this with so many sea days, having the regular GLBT get-together helped make it a regular daily event in our daily plans. 

Hi Mark from Seattle. I'm Mark from SF.
We won't be on your cruise, but will be cruising that itinerary on Jan 6.  Please report (to the Princess board?) with any comments and suggestions.

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

A friend and I sailed QE on a round-Britain cruise ex Southampton in 2016. We turned up twice for the LGBT Meet in the Commodore Club but it appeared that we were the only ones who did...

I have sailed on many P&O cruises over many years and never seen a meet advertised. Sailed once on Thomson/Marella and there wasn't one. Saga and Fred Olsen would probably never do them as they have an elderly and conservative passenger demographic.

Must be a Brit thing. (Although your countrymen were well represented on crossings) Our experience has been primarily on the QM2 mostly crossings, but also US-based cruises. It was a big deal. (Going waaaay back, I recall a busy FOD on the QE2 in 1989 to Hawaii, but an almost empty one on a W Med QE2 cruise out of Southampton in 2008.)

...and yeah, probably not a Saga thing, (although it should be)

An interesting story about "Friends of Dorothy"

During one of the recurring gay purges in the 80s, an investigator came upon the term. And spawned a multi-million dollar wasted search to find this secretive lesbian, Dorothy, who they were sure was a the center of this "gay ring."

They never found Dorothy.

On 8/29/2021 at 10:52 AM, CrankyOldGuy said:

I was going to say this, haven't seen this term used on a cruise in over a decade.

Yup. Even Cunard has changed their terminology. 

...and there is a longstanding dispute as to the source of the FoD term. It is not necessarily a reference to Judy Garland.

On 8/28/2021 at 10:18 AM, Britboys said:

Regardless of what it is called, think yourselves lucky that American-based lines routinely hold and advertise such meet-ups. British-based lines, even the largest, never do...

Cunard is famous for very well-attended nightly LBTQ Get-togethers (formerly called FOD). On our QM2 trips, 20-35 people will regularly show up every evening at 5:00 in the Commodore Club.

I don't know about P&O (or Thompson or Saga).

We're going on a Ruby Princess cruise out of SF that stops in Manzanillo (and Cabo, PV and Mazatlan). One member of our group is thinking about organizing a trip to a resort called Las Hadas outside of Manzanillo. Does anyone have any experience with this place - or alternatives for a Manzanillo area resort.

We'll be aboard along with our "Logical Family" (thank you, Armistead Maupin). We're a group of eight bears, mostly in our 50s and 60s.

• We're Mark & Steve, who are the "gay parents" and have organized the cruise.
  Also on board
• KillerBob (Bob), Rick, and Jeff - KillerBob is a tattoo artist and graphic designer. They live in the South of Market area.
• Bob and Steve - Tech bears, Bob's from SF, Steve lives in San Leandro
• G (Geoff) - the youngest. From Denver. 

We'll be in a MiniSuite with KillerBob/Rick/Jeff on one side and Bob & Steve on the other. (We'll have the Steward open up the balconies to each other). G will be in a "Batchelor pad" in an oceanview cabin off the Piazza (through the "room with the collection of decorative pieces for sale at auction").

Hope to meet you on board!

Could someone post a Princess Patter for a sea day?  I'm organizing a family group on the January 6 SF Mexico Cruise and there are some newbies who were asking about daily (and nightly) activities. 

Also for anyone who has done or is doing the Mexico cruise, do you recall the Gala Evenings (My default guess is the second and second-to-last night, if they're sea days - which they are)

Thanks all. Glad to hear that the Wheelhouse is pretty much as it was. We may do the bistro after a long port day with drinks rather than deal with the full MDR dinner. (Husband does NOT like buffets) 

Yeah, mostly familiar with Grand & Star, so yes, I noticed the swap of Crown Grill & Wheelhouse (and Sabatini's move to Deck 16). Also the reformatting of the Vista Lounge to Club Fusion.

Looking forward to a great trip!

 

...oh and one more that I forgot to mention.  On the topic of martinis, I noticed that the Sabatini's beverage menu features a drink using my favorite gin for martinis, Tanqueray 10, which is rare to find in a bar. Does anyone know if it's stocked in other bars. And how is Adagio as a bar? (rather than just somewhere you wait for your table in Sabatini's)

We'll be on the Ruby Princess for a Mexico cruise in two months and I have questions...
1) Are the self-service laundry rooms open?
2) What is the atmosphere of the Wheelhouse during SD Bistro hours? On past cruises on the Grand/Golden/Star sisters, our usual hangout was the Wheelhouse. For pre-dinner martinis and often for scotches later in the evening as we enjoyed the band and dancing (others dancing - not a dancer here). With the introduction of the Salty Dog Bistro, is it no longer operating as a bar? What is the atmosphere?
3) Related to that, the Wheelhouse was typically the site of the LGBT get-togethers. Have you noticed if they are still doing them (and where?)

3 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Are you talking about self-debarkation?

You CAN do that. But also for the first group that is not self-debark - along with the first shuttle busses.

Not booked yet, but we have the Jan 6 Mexico itinerary penciled-in. (Depends on what my oncologist says in a couple of weeks). We've enjoyed that itinerary before, on the Grand Princess in 2018. We'll take a Pulmonia (I just discovered they're named for "Heart Attack" aka Pulmonary, in Spanish) to Pancho's in the Golden Zone for Coconut Shrimp, hit Walmart in PV for vanilla and souvenirs and have lunch next to the river, under the bridge at the River Cafe. And stay on the ship for Manzanillo (nothing really appealing) and Cabo (difficult for my husband to navigate the tender, and we've done multiple times before). Fingers crossed.

On 10/29/2021 at 3:38 PM, atobols said:

Just in case you're still looking for a testing site, I wanted to mention something.  I work in health services at an East Bay school.  We've been directing everyone to City Health for their testing.  The test results have been coming back in less than 12 hours.  

I'll have to file that one away for answers to posts here and on "social media." Right at San Francisco Center downtown near Nordstrom and Bloomingdales! (You could even take a historic streetcar from there down Market St and the Embarcadero to the pier)

...Personally, I live in the city and Kaiser drive-thru PCR testing has consistently had results in 20 hours or so. So with planning, I'll be fine (but will remember that site if we run into problems).

Bon Voyage,  trbarton!