Greetings from Star Princess - A Quickie Cruise - 11/16/15

[Working 2 Cruise]

Hello everyone!

 

This is our eleventh Princess cruise. 4 more to go...:)

 

I am traveling with my husband and, for once, my 24-year old son. Embarkation was smooth although getting to the port had its issues. My son lives in Valencia (close to Magic Mountain and a short walk from Princess HQ). In order to pick us up and get to San Pedro, he had to take the dreaded 405... And true to its name, dreadful, it was! It would normally take him less than an hour to pick us up in Gardena and it took him two hours! The 405 is no joke, plan accordingly when having to drive the 405 for the airport and ports.

 

We were in our cabin by 12:20, a lovely Caribe deck balcony, which we snagged as a result of an upsell. Then, we proceeded to lunch in the MDR. The menu was somewhat of a shock, something I had never seen before...

 

One appetizer was offered: Smoked salmon with crayfish. It was delicious, but there were no other choices. Then Fettuccini (sp?) Alfredo; a choice of trout almondine and chateaubriand were offered. All very good. Dessert was chocolate hazelnut souffle. I will say that this menu was far better than the menu on the previous 4-day cruise we took on the Sapphire before she left us (sob!). Definitely no hamburgers on the menu on this one!

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent, as you can imagine, with unpacking, attending the always lovely muster drill, etc. We did manage to make it to the sailaway party. It was cold! :eek: But, as always, fun.

 

Unfortunately for my son, however, the mix of passengers on this cruise skews to older and older passengers. Very few young people on this cruise, but it isn't unexpected as this is during a work week. Alas, I wanted my son to love Princess as much as we do but...

 

The main reason for us to take this "quickie" cruise was for my son to be able to spend time with my husband. My husband has been ill for years and is getting steadily worse. So, in this respect, it is a good thing for them to spend as much time together as possible. We will definitely be heading to the hospital once we return. :(:(

 

Now, I am done with the sad part of this report! I will update you with all the other information and/or responding to questions sometime today or tomorrow. I misplaced my reading glasses and cannot read the Patter very well without them!

 

Until later folks!

[Pam in CA]

Thanks! I board on Friday and according to weather reports, it'll be a lot warmer. Enjoy your cruise. We'll be passing each other in four days.

[srpilo]

I hope you and your's enjoy the rest of your cruise together, time together is priceless

 

Srpilo

[Bimmer09]

Nina good to see you reporting from the high seas!

 

I'm sorry to hear about your husband's health- I so take mine for granted.

I hope this is an amazing cruise for you all and that you can all leave your worries behind for a while.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Norris

[Working 2 Cruise]

Thank you Pam, Norris and Srpilo!

 

It was a beautiful day in Catalina yesterday, although DH and I did not get off the ship...:(

 

For those sailing on the Star, be aware that on both sides of the ship, the carpet is blue! I was telling my son that it was very easy to find which side of the ship your cabin was on... :mad::mad:

 

Food has been consistently very good. I had to speak to the headwaiter because escargot is no longer offered on short cruises... I begged and begged the headwaiter, telling him that I would cry and make a scene if escargots weren't provided! I hope it works. He said that we could possibly have them either tonight or tomorrow night. We shall see.

 

This has certainly been the quietest cruise we have ever been on. As a result, my son has decided he much prefers Carnival. However, he will cruise on Princess again only if I pay for it! :eek:

 

As far as my husband goes, he has been in the cabin about 80% of the time and is not doing very well. He's also very crabby... Then, I will just step out on my Caribe deck balcony and enjoy the sea. He did enjoy the new Mission Impossible movie and, in the middle of the night, was singing "Happy Birthday" to himself! :D:D

 

If there are any questions, please let me know.

 

Until later!

[Working 2 Cruise]

A couple of things I forgot to mention.

 

I had to laugh at Captain Stefano Ravera... Before sailaway, he announced: I am Master and Commander of this ship... :D He repeats this every day! This is a new one for me!

 

One issue I have on this ship is that the hot tubs close at 9:30 p.m. Of course, my son is very upset, and I can understand why. Why do those close so early? This, again, is a new one.

 

This cruise is generally a good one for my husband and I. But for a younger crowd, yawn.... :(

[shredie]

Yes! The carpet thing! That threw me for sure when I saw it. The Star is a beautiful ship. I hope the rest of the cruise is good for all of you.

[freshair8]

Enjoy your cruise! We got off the Star Nov.8th and had a wonderful cruise. Yes, Captain Stefano Ravero does alot of announcements , but , they are good. Lots of info on our cruise, which we appreciate . That was a new one for us too..... Master of the ship..... oh well, each to their own , I guess! Thanks for all the updates!:)

[Bruinboy]

Working ... thanks for posting. We go on the Star in February so always nice to read reports about the ship.

 

I hope you husband starts feeling better. Not a lot of fun having to stay in one's cabin. Sounds like you are making the best of less than perfect situation. And I bet my kids would go on any cruise line if we paid!!!!

[critterchick]

Enjoy your cruise! We got off the Star Nov.8th and had a wonderful cruise. Yes, Captain Stefano Ravero does alot of announcements , but , they are good. Lots of info on our cruise, which we appreciate . That was a new one for us too..... Master of the ship..... oh well, each to their own , I guess! Thanks for all the updates!:)

 

He is the Master of the ship.:) We were on the November 12 cruise and, in spite of some disturbance by a group over 700-800 onboard, really enjoyed Star. Captain Ravero is the most personable and visible Master we've ever seen on a Princess ship. We met him on the second night as he was on his evening rounds and encountered him several times after that. I've never seen that before on Princess.

 

He lost a LOT of points when he made a fairly routine announcement into the cabins on disembarkation day, though. It was 7:00 am.:eek:

[freshair8]

He is the Master of the ship.:) We were on the November 12 cruise and, in spite of some disturbance by a group over 700-800 onboard, really enjoyed Star. Captain Ravero is the most personable and visible Master we've ever seen on a Princess ship. We met him on the second night as he was on his evening rounds and encountered him several times after that. I've never seen that before on Princess.

 

He lost a LOT of points when he made a fairly routine announcement into the cabins on disembarkation day, though. It was 7:00 am.:eek:

 

You are correct.......... we loved the fact that he would announce at what time he would be doing his walkabout and on what deck... that way if you had a question , you could get it answered very quickly. Wish more of the Captains were like him.

[TracieABD]

Hey Nina-

I hope that you are enjoying your cruise! As you know, time is fleeting and you have to take advantage of every opportunity with family. I am touched that you worked so hard to find a way to give your son the gift of time with his dad.

 

The last cruise I had with my mom will remain one of my most treasured membories.

 

Enjoy your cruise and keep us posted!

 

Tracie-Lynn

[Shogun]

Hi working 2 cruise

 

thanks for up date on carpets,

 

folks did not appear to believe me when I said new policy, is same carpet,

 

on some ships it appears that they have replaced out carpets with what ever they had in stock,

 

 

have a fun cruise

 

 

yours Shogun

[cruzhappy88]

He is the Master of the ship.:) We were on the November 12 cruise and, in spite of some disturbance by a group over 700-800 onboard, really enjoyed Star. Captain Ravero is the most personable and visible Master we've ever seen on a Princess ship. We met him on the second night as he was on his evening rounds and encountered him several times after that. I've never seen that before on Princess.

 

He lost a LOT of points when he made a fairly routine announcement into the cabins on disembarkation day, though. It was 7:00 am.:eek:

 

You boarded the Star the day we disembarked. I'm curious, what was the disturbance by the large group about?

 

Also, the MDR lunch that the OP describes was much more limited than the one we had a couple weeks ago. That is interesting, as I didn't think the menus changed that much cruise to cruise.

[cruisehappy001]

A couple of things I forgot to mention.

 

I had to laugh at Captain Stefano Ravera... Before sailaway, he announced: I am Master and Commander of this ship... :D He repeats this every day! This is a new one for me!

 

One issue I have on this ship is that the hot tubs close at 9:30 p.m. Of course, my son is very upset, and I can understand why. Why do those close so early? This, again, is a new one.

 

This cruise is generally a good one for my husband and I. But for a younger crowd, yawn.... :(

 

I hope that you guys have a wonderful cruise and enjoy the family time!

 

Sounds like my kind of Captain... The only Captain that I ever saw while he was out and about and that I interacted with quite a bit was Captain Marco Fortezee who was the Captain of our Emerald Princess TA last fall. He was a great Captain and had a wonderful crew due to his great leadership and management style.

 

One big thorn in my side on Princess has always been the early closing of the Hot Tubs!!! I would freak out at a 9:30 closing time, as I really hate when they would close at 11PM or Midnight! We tend to be night owls, and my Mother has a lot of aches and pains that a good hot tub soak before bed helps out a great deal with. Many times we wanted to go after a movie only to find them closed!

 

I wish that they would at least leave one of the tubs open very late.

 

Happy Cruising! :D

 

Mark

[Working 2 Cruise]

Two of my posts disappeared! Ah the joys of ship internet!

 

We're home, unfortunately.

 

Tracie, I've read your blogs. I can sympathize with you as I lost my mother last year.

 

A few random thoughts. There's a bad smell around the pool area... and on the balcony.... but it was pretty avoidable.

 

Ensenada was a lot of fun with my son. Went to Hussong's and were treated to Mariachis and a lasso demonstration. Great fun!

 

Our waiters were wonderful, Saphon (Thailand) and Jay (Philippines). They were fun and attentive. I did get my escargots! Food was wonderful everywhere, including Horizon Court!

 

As for passengers, yikes! Some of them just would push my husband aside during disembarkation. As he's ill and extremely unsteady on his feet, he fell. He would also get pushed aside to get an elevator! Nuff said!

 

There were 1,000 elite passengers on this voyage.

 

Sky was spectacular, all the stars were out and about. There was a stargazing event but, unfortunately, could not attend.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more later.. It was a great little cruise. I'm very hopeful to be able to do a longer one soon. Cruising really keeps my husband happy and even though he can't do much.

[twincheryl]

Working... We were on the same cruise with you. There did seem to be a large number of rude, "entitled" passengers. Was kind of surprising! We were also on Caribe deck and found the balconies to be bigger than on the other decks... a nice surprise since this was our first cruise on Princess.

[Working 2 Cruise]

Working... We were on the same cruise with you. There did seem to be a large number of rude, "entitled" passengers. Was kind of surprising! We were also on Caribe deck and found the balconies to be bigger than on the other decks... a nice surprise since this was our first cruise on Princess.

 

Those balconies are wonderful! I hope you enjoyed the cruise!

[TracieABD]

Welcome home, Nina! I am glad you had a great cruise!

 

... and shame on those entitled heathens. I would say they were raised by wolves, but that would be an insult to wolves.

[waltd]

Two of my posts disappeared! Ah the joys of ship internet!

 

We're home, unfortunately.

 

Tracie, I've read your blogs. I can sympathize with you as I lost my mother last year.

 

A few random thoughts. There's a bad smell around the pool area... and on the balcony.... but it was pretty avoidable.

 

Ensenada was a lot of fun with my son. Went to Hussong's and were treated to Mariachis and a lasso demonstration. Great fun!

 

Our waiters were wonderful, Saphon (Thailand) and Jay (Philippines). They were fun and attentive. I did get my escargots! Food was wonderful everywhere, including Horizon Court!

 

As for passengers, yikes! Some of them just would push my husband aside during disembarkation. As he's ill and extremely unsteady on his feet, he fell. He would also get pushed aside to get an elevator! Nuff said!

 

There were 1,000 elite passengers on this voyage.

 

Sky was spectacular, all the stars were out and about. There was a stargazing event but, unfortunately, could not attend.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more later.. It was a great little cruise. I'm very hopeful to be able to do a longer one soon. Cruising really keeps my husband happy and even though he can't do much.

 

Nina don't think you missed much on the star gazing. We went to the one on the Ruby a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately they did not turn off the sting of lights that goes all the way across the ship so you really couldn't see the stars as well as I was expecting. Funny but they did turn off other lights. Oh well maybe just that ship. You can save if for your future cruises.

Joe