Crown Princess Hawaii - 15 Feb to 2 Mar - Trip Prep & Live

[spingal]

11 hours ago, arctickitty said:

We were out of our cabins.  We waited in a public area like the paperwork said. Are you saying people should just magically know to go to their meeting areas several hours before their meeting times?

You didn’t indicate you were out of your cabin; I even said I didn’t know where you were waiting.

 

You left Ensenada early and were docked before 9am; that meant disembarkation would be soon than they told you.  Every cruise I have been on we have breakfast and then head to our disembarkation lounge.  Many times we are called before our time.  That helps the cruise line and the crew when the ship is cleared earlier by allowing them more time to prepare for the next cruise.  So no I never said you should “magically” know.  Sorry I mentioned anything.

Edited March 3, 2023 by spingal

[arctickitty]

6 hours ago, Bettyboop66 said:

That food looks pretty good……….I hope that it was!!

I wish it was…but it was one of our least favorite meals of the trip.  The lamb pops were wonderful.  The veggies and apps except for the mashed potatoes and the goat cheese salad weren’t very good; I wound up eating way too many mashed potatoes and paid for it.

[arctickitty]

Now we have reached the time when I go back through my photos and notes and start telling you more of the story.

 

 

 

This is how I kept entertained on the plane.

 

 

[arctickitty]

We arrived in San Pedro much later than we’d expected and were tired and hungry enough we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant.

 

 

We had calamari, garlic fries, and a California bowl that was served on a plate.  The avocado was great; everything else was adequate.  The garlic was raw and plentiful.  Not necessarily the best combo.

 

 

[Bettyboop66]

4 hours ago, arctickitty said:

I wish it was…but it was one of our least favorite meals of the trip.  The lamb pops were wonderful.  The veggies and apps except for the mashed potatoes and the goat cheese salad weren’t very good; I wound up eating way too many mashed potatoes and paid for it.

That stinks………

[arctickitty]

I’d stayed in Long Beach before, so I’d hoped we’d be able to explore San Pedro a bit.

 

 

We were too tired from having spent the night in the Fairbanks airport, but I did talk Special Someone into joining me for a quick evening walk.

[arctickitty]

San Pedro Doubletree included a free shuttle to the pier.  When we arrived, that had been their first question.  They had one spot each on two 10am shuttles so that’s what they signed us up for.

 

The shuttle process was very organized and they sorted everyone based on their list and checked us off on their clipboard.  Two people on my list were late so we waited for them.  Even such, it was 10:13 by the time I got dropped off at the cruise terminal.  The thing that took us the longest was that Special Someone found some money on the sidewalk and we stood in the spot he found it to see if the person who lost it would come back looking for it.  None such luck for that person.  We agreed we’d add that money to our tip fund.

 

Once inside, I mixed up my colors and aid we were blue not green but we were green but then the agent said to go in blue anyway because it was faster.  Everything was so fast we were assigned group 3 to wait, my first time being assigned to a group to wait to board.

 

 

 

They started calling back to back and elite etc boarding just before 11 and we were onboard by 11:15, the earliest I’ve ever boarded.  We both noticed throughout the day what a jumpstart on our exploration that gave us.

 

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

I'm liking your epilogue as much as your live.  Thank you.

[arctickitty]

Welcome back!

[arctickitty]

The little paper they gave us in the cruise terminal said we would be welcome to drop our carry-ons in our cabin so we walked through the “art” gallery to our Plaza deck interior room.

 

This was when our medallions didn’t work so we decided to get started on coffee instead but the barista was getting the wrong names and sent us to Guest Services where we found out we’d been upgraded to a Riviera deck balcony.

 

 

So we had to go up and see our balcony!

 

Compared to the open-air balconies below us, we liked our covered balcony better for the increased privacy and the shade (and protection from rain!) that it afforded.

 

 

[arctickitty]

And since we’d started drinking (coffee) we figured it was time to start eating.  Tacos is Special Someone’s favorite food so first stop I led us up to the Salty Dog Grill.

 

This day and others a crew member took our order in person and then gave us a buzzer.  We were then free to wander while we waited.  No standing in line.  Great system!

 

 

We got both of the tacos, the chicken and the sweet potato and enjoyed them both.  Together they were an excellent balance of food groups as well as textures and flavors.  If you’re not sure how you feel about a sweet potato taco, go ahead and try it!

 

 

We also availed ourselves of the green Tabasco sauce, as we did often in the days to come when I found out that Special Someone likes to put it on his pizza.

 

 

(This phot shows right side up when I view it.  I edited it to be upside down to see if that would fix it but it’s still topsy turvey).

 

 

 

Finally, we started in on Perrier.  I probably drank my weight in Perrier on this cruise just because I could.  It’s my preferred readily available sparkling water and it was so wonderful to have it absolutely whenever I wanted it.  (For comparison, at home, I’ve been nursing the same case for 1 or 2 years).  Most of the bartenders eventually learned that I’m not civilized and would just drink it straight from the bottle most of the time but the glass with ice and lime or lemon was the definition of flair IMHO.

[arctickitty]

 

Success!  Happy green bottles!

[arctickitty]

Next we went to visit the Sanctuary.  For a decade I’ve read detailed accounts of The Sanctuary and since we had a generous amount of OBC credit this cruise, booking a half day is something we considered.

 

 

We watched a bunch of videos on YouTube and Special Someone thought he’d like to try it.  I thought he’d like taking a nap there.  On Carnival we’d enjoyed their free Sanctuary and had taken a few outdoor naps there.  I also thought we’d enjoy Afternoon Tea in the Sanctuary but was conflicted because of ukelele and hula classes being held in the afternoon.

 

 

Once we found out about our free balcony we pretty much figured there was no point in paying for the Sanctuary but wanted to see it anyway.  

 

 

When we walked in, I immediately liked the environment.  In the bright sun it’s so peaceful.  You get natural light but not direct sunlight.  It felt so calm and cozy in there.  

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Sanctuary menu and citrus and cucumber water for you:
 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Next we ordered our first boozey drink of the cruise.  I picked the 24K Gold Margarita and we started to get a feel for how the bar stewards prefer if they take your order (not the bartender) and then come find you.

 

 

In most cases this was the system that worked best for ordering drinks.  We found that if we ordered a drink via OceanNow they would generally cancel the order because they didn’t know where we were.  But if we ordered from a bar steward in person they could then use the medallion to find us if we wandered around (I am always wandering around as my leg doesn’t like me to sit still).  With the exception of Good Spirits (where ordering a drink is part of the show) and Adagio (where it’s very quiet) we found that ordering directly from the bartender slowed down their work flow because they have to pause bartending to push one million buttons into their end of the same app and once we learned this we would try to order from stewards instead.  While we’re on this topic, once I discovered that the bar stewards have to push the same one million buttons into OceanNow that you do, I stopped feeling bad about ordering via room service.  

 

 

Anyway, we enjoyed the 24K Gold Margarita and our cruise was off to a fantastic start!

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

What a score.  I love plaza deck cabins...but would not turn down a balcony, if it were free. And to boot....for 15 days to Hawaii.  Love it.

[arctickitty]

My default mode on a cruise ship is ABW, always be wandering.  Being in possession of Princess Plus for the first time did interfere with that at times, but one of my favorite things about cruising continues to be wandering around the ship.

 

 

 

This was the chapel and one of the pools.  Four or five of the pools were drained at the start of the cruise.  I thought we’d be clever and have our swim gear handy (mine was on) for an embarkation day swim, but that did not happen.

 

[arctickitty]

Next it was time for our first snacks from the International Cafe.  This was Special Someone’s first Princess Cruise and I’d told him I thought he’d love the IC and he was immediately impressed.  
 

 

We tried a Brie sandwich.  I didn’t realize you could ask for it to be toasted, which would have been better, but it was nice to see they weren’t affected by the Brie shortage.

 

 

Special Someone loves beets and tried this salad.  I didn’t like it but he did.

[arctickitty]

Whilst in the IC, we checked out the Vines menu.  I thought we’d visit Vines a lot and we planned to follow the advice to take wine from Vines to the MDR but we got so caught up in the excitement at Good Spirits and lured by the romance of Adagio that we largely forgot to walk across the piazza to Vines very much until the end of the cruise when I was very helpfully reminded to do so by some of the readers and posters of this thread!  
 

Thank you!

 

 

[arctickitty]

Here is the laundry menu from while we were onboard.

 

 

It was helpful that I’d seen a copy someone else had posted because we realized that the onboard dry cleaning prices was less than we’d pay locally (and easier, too!) and I guessed based on suggested formal night schedules that we’d have time to get it sent out and back.  This turned out to be true.  Special Someone packed up his dry cleaning (clothes he hadn’t worn since our last cruise) as soon as we got our luggage (which wasn’t very soon) and I ordered pickup via OceanNow in the medallion app the first morning.

[arctickitty]

Here is the Vines menu from the app.  At various venues throughout the ship they have QR codes to bring up the digital bar menus.  I tried to screenshot these for you all to show what drinks are offered where.  Keep in mind they aren’t necessarily 100% accurate as there were shortages of different items and most bars could make many more drinks than were on their menus.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

And here is the Tradewinds Bar menu from deck 16.  There were so many of what I called the beach bars I had a hard time keeping track of which one was which.  

[arctickitty]

Logically, we continued wandering.  It was so delightful to be on the ship so early when it wasn’t very full yet (not that it ever felt crowded).

 

 

This was one of the aft hallway doors on our Riviera deck and something I came to love about the Riviera deck.  It was so quick to get outside!  None of this funny business about feeling stuck indoors ever.  Very often I would walk to this door to then walk to whatever point I wanted to be.

 

 

Our second drink on board was the Ultimate Cooler and it was very sweet.

[SleepyBunny]

20 minutes ago, arctickitty said:

And here is the Tradewinds Bar menu from deck 16.  There were so many of what I called the beach bars I had a hard time keeping track of which one was which.  

Thank you SO MUCH for the details - I am very glad to be able to budget my own "drinks allowance" for my upcoming trip!

 

Also - what on Earth make the Salted Watermelon Margarita cost $18 😳 ?!?

[SleepyBunny]

25 minutes ago, arctickitty said:

And here is the Tradewinds Bar menu from deck 16.  There were so many of what I called the beach bars I had a hard time keeping track of which one was which.  

I should also note that the Pina Colada on Celebrity was $10 in January 2023.  Quite happy to see very reasonable prices here.