Live From Discovery New Year's Cruise 12/28 - 1/7/22 10 day Sea of Cortez and Mexican Riviera

[loge23]

11 hours ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

The Langmeil Valley Floor Shiraz is quite good. They have it at Crooner's and some other bars by the glaas. They have my favorite Italian wine, Amaroni, at the Crown Grill Bar by the glass. Grgich Hills Estate is always good. They have his Merlot by the glass at the Crown Grill Bar. Grgrich is the winemaker that made one of the wines that won "The Judgement of Paris" that put Napa on the map in the 1970s. He played a cameo role in the movie "Bottle Shock".

Cruisers to Dubrovnik, Croatia should try the Plavic Mali wines there. Croatia is where Mike Grigich is originally from and heavily influenced his wine-making skills. I recommend the excellent D'Vino Wine Bar in Dubrovnik, just off the main pedestrian walk through the old town there. Cheers!

[nini]

5 hours ago, seagunthera said:

Thank you for this little treasure trove of info (I forgot to add Grgrich to my list of regulars while dining in CC)! As to the wine tasting, I've attended several in the past but have yet to sign up for Sunday.  I have the Premier Package and am left wondering if the wine tasting is worth the cost of admission? 

 

I attended a wine tasting on the Grand in September and really did not think it was worth it. However, it was something to do and the people who hosted it were fairly entertaining.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

3 hours ago, nini said:

 

I attended a wine tasting on the Grand in September and really did not think it was worth it. However, it was something to do and the people who hosted it were fairly entertaining.

Some are good and some are not so good, even on Princess. I think we went to 3 on our prior TransAtlantic cruise on the Princess Sky. One of them was a Silverado Winery Blending Class. They gave us 4 different 100% pure varietals, not blends. They showed us how to blend them together to create our own blends. At the end they gave us certificates for a free wine tasting at the Silverado Viineyards & WInery, which we took advantage of when we were in Napa.  One of the other wine tasting events were all low end wines. Like you said, that one was entertaining, but not the best of wines.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

7 hours ago, loge23 said:

Cruisers to Dubrovnik, Croatia should try the Plavic Mali wines there. Croatia is where Mike Grigich is originally from and heavily influenced his wine-making skills. I recommend the excellent D'Vino Wine Bar in Dubrovnik, just off the main pedestrian walk through the old town there. Cheers!

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll be sure to keep that in mind if we ever get to Croatia, which hopefully we will someday. 

[CruiseRookieSteve]

8 hours ago, seagunthera said:

Thank you for this little treasure trove of info (I forgot to add Grgrich to my list of regulars while dining in CC)! As to the wine tasting, I've attended several in the past but have yet to sign up for Sunday.  I have the Premier Package and am left wondering if the wine tasting is worth the cost of admission? 

We have the Premier also, which I don't think covers the cost of the wine tasting event. Maybe qualifies for a 25% discount if anything. But at $25 per person, I'm not expecting any high end wines. But they often tend to be educational and entertaining, even if they don't serve the best of wines. We usually attend whatever wine or spirit tastings are offered on cruises (except the ones at the shops), even though we are not into mixed drinks or cocktails. We like our spirits neat or on the rocks. We used to like the Martini flights and Mule flights on Carnival. But we were on the Carnival Panorama just a few weeks ago and they seem to have eliminated those. 

[CruiseRookieSteve]

9 hours ago, seagunthera said:

They no longer serve in the theater. 

It didn't really make sense to try to deliver drinks in the main theater, though I'm a bit surprised there is no bar or servers (or drink holders) in the theater as on many other cruise lines.

[iamaqt2]

Day 3: Lazy sea day

 

 

 

Today we had almost nothing planned and had rented loungers in the Sanctuary for half the day in the afternoon. Breakfast was room service on the balcony.  Fruit plate and muffin breakfast sandwich with a latte.  Other than a couple of small hitches the app has worked extremely well for ordering drinks and occasionally food.

After cleaning up, headed down to the Theater for day 2 of Leo Rossi's Enrichment series.  Another fantastic presentation on his time with Fleetwood Mac.

Afterward came back to our room to get ready for our afternoon in the Sanctuary and to do lunch up there . 
Having never done the Sanctuary before, I wasn't sure what to expect other than a higher level of dedicated service and a nice quiet relaxation space.  It's definitely a beautiful space, but it was quite funny to hear the Lido pool music heavy bass spilling in over the new age zen they were playing.

The servers were quick to offer a menu and service, but like everywhere else on the ship, the actual delivery left a lot to be desired. 

 

 

We ordered 2 salted watermelon margaritas and our lunch.  The server informed us it would be about 20 minutes for lunch but they'd get started on our drinks right away.  After 30 minutes of waiting we asked about our drinks and they apologized and said the bar was very busy.  We got our drinks after 40 minutes and our lunch after an hour.  So even if you pay a premium for service, don't expect it to be any better.

Lunch was very tasty though.  Got chicken salad, citrus plate, salmon and avocado, honey almonds and chili edamame.
Around 3 pm saw some whales and dolphins from the bow and then the servers came around with afternoon tea.  Finger sandwiches and small desserts.

 

 

 

 

Nothing on the main dining room menu appealed to us, so we decided to have dinner at Gigi's. 

 

 

Understaffing here was heavily apparent.  Uncleared tables, slow service, and one passenger started clearing tables and the maitre d about lost it when she told him he was understaffed.  He ran her off, while I silently agreed with her and stared at the vacant dirty table next to me my whole meal.  It was like that when we were seated til we finished our dinner

After dinner we attended the Living Room Battle Game show which was a lot of fun and audience interactive.  Arrrrrmondo MC'd and was very funny.

Afterwards went to listen to AJ Clarke the piano entertainer in Crooners. Very hard to get a seat anywhere once entertaiment has begun.  He was very good, but we left early to get good seats in the Vista Lounge to see the late night Enrichment Presentation Fleetwood Mac the Lost Concert.

Called it a night.

[startedwithamouse]

16 minutes ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

It didn't really make sense to try to deliver drinks in the main theater, though I'm a bit surprised there is no bar or servers (or drink holders) in the theater as on many other cruise lines.

They used to always serve in the theater.  Do other cruise lines currently do this?

[startedwithamouse]

32 minutes ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

One of them was a Silverado Winery Blending Class. They gave us 4 different 100% pure varietals, not blends. They showed us how to blend them together to create our own blends. At the end they gave us certificates for a free wine tasting at the Silverado Viineyards & WInery, which we took advantage of when we were in Napa. 

 

We've done the Silverado blending several times, and loved each one. Well, well, WELL worth the cost. A lot of fun too

[julie3fan]

On 12/30/2022 at 1:10 AM, julie3fan said:

I always leave good, honest feedback on my post-cruise survey, and try to downplay any negatives (which are rare), presuming they were just "one of those things".  However, there was a little form left in my cabin last night, asking what my first impressions of the cruise are so far.  I hadn't planned on filling it out, but this evening I thought, they asked so they must want to know.  I wrote about how lunch today in the MDR took about 1½ hours, and that it took over ½ hour to get a drink in the Elite & Platinum Lounge, when I had gotten there right when they opened at 4:30. 

 

I wouldn't normally comment on one incident or the other, but both in one day, coupled with slower than normal dinner services our first 2 nights, prompted me to fill their form out.  I understand staffing issues, and generally don't complain to management, and I hope my comments do some good.

 

On a good note, the food has been really good, the staff is friendly, and we're meeting some really nice people.

 

Now, like @iamaqt2, I have to compliment Princess on the way they handled my critique of the service issues.  When we went to the Elite lounge tonight, a supervisor approached me and thanked me for my feedback, and to offer further apologies.  The apology felt heartfelt and thorough.  She arranged to have a bottle of prosecco delivered to our cabin to make up for the prior evening.  Unexpected and unnecessary, but I felt valued.

 

Then at dinner tonight, one of the dining room supervisors approached me and again thanked me for my comments, and apologized for the situation.  I'd like to think changes will be made to speed things up.

 

I truly feel that Princess is listening to us, and I would urge each and every one of you to leave honest, straight forward feedback on the post cruise survey.  If areas of concern aren't being brought to their attention, it's difficult for them to address the situations.

[iamaqt2]

Day 4. Loreto, Mexico
New Year's Eve.

 

 

Got Breakfast in the buffet then headed down to the Vista Lounge to pick up tender tickets. Waited about 10 minutes til our number was called.
Very smooth tendering process, it looked like 4 lifeboats were running.  Weather was beautiful and water was smooth as glass.  Took about 15 minutes to shuttle over.

 

Loreto is a very small walkable town.  Decorated with tinsel and holiday decorations for New Year's. 

 

 

Checked out the tree lined pedestrian walkway near the mission and settled on having the local specialty of Chocolate Clams for lunch. 

 

 

 

Did a little booth shopping then headed back to ship around 2:30.  Line to queue for tenders was long, but moved fairly quickly.  Relaxed on the Lido for a bit and took a dip.  The pool was almost as warm as the hot tubs and not refreshing at all.

It was time to get cleaned up for the evening festivities,  and then headed down to Good Spirits for pre-dinner drinks and to show off how fantastic we looked. 😉

The New Year's Eve dinner Gala menu looked fantastic.

 

We ordered the Warm Cheese, beef carpaccio, shrimp and saffron bisque and the oxtail consomme for starters.  Both of us ordered the surf and turf medium rare and I also asked for appetizer size of the truffle risotto.  Our server brought everyone in our section 2 lobsters unasked and told us not to tell the other diners.

 

 

 

 

The risotto came out full sized but that's ok, because it was the best thing that landed on the table and my husband and I ate all of it.

We skipped dessert as service had been painfully slow and we wanted to catch Jeffrey Allen doing his Elton John tribute. We've seen him before and he's just bloody fantastic.

 

Now we were told that people celebrate New Year's two ways on the ship. The traditional way in the Piazza, or one heck of a party up on the pool deck!

I want to party!  It's New Year's Eve!! Princess had provided party hats and headbands, placed festive banners all over the ship, and really got everyone in a great celebration mood to ring in the New Year! There was an ice sculpture of 20  22 & 23 on the pool deck and at the stroke of midnight they pushed 22 in the pool and slid 23 up to 20.

 

 

 

Everyone was singing and dancing and I stayed up til the music ended and they moved it inside, then called it a night because while the spirit was still willing, the old bones said ¡No Mas!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[LACruiser88]

Today we attended the MTG Luncheon.  As usual this was the best meal of the cruise and the service was fantastic. 

 

All of the senior officers were present but did not sit with the guests.  Last month on the Regal the officers sat with the guests at all three of the luncheons we attended.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

Anyone go to the wine tasting? I thought it was pretty good, but a bit rapid fire with 6 wines in 30 minutes. Usually they go a bit slower and take up the full 60 minutes allocated to the event.

[XBGuy]

6 minutes ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

Anyone go to the wine tasting? I thought it was pretty good, but a bit rapid fire with 6 wines in 30 minutes. Usually they go a bit slower and take up the full 60 minutes allocated to the event.

 

Although I can't read the labels, those appear to be more than respectable wines.  Even without being able to read the label, I would be happy to attend just to taste whatever that Shafer is.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

25 minutes ago, XBGuy said:

 

Although I can't read the labels, those appear to be more than respectable wines.  Even without being able to read the label, I would be happy to attend just to taste whatever that Shafer is.

If you click on the inage I think you can read the labels. It is a 7MB image.

[LawDog61]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

Today we attended the MTG Luncheon.  As usual this was the best meal of the cruise and the service was fantastic. 

 

All of the senior officers were present but did not sit with the guests.  Last month on the Regal the officers sat with the guests at all three of the luncheons we attended.

What was the number of days cut-off for MTG?

[CruiseRookieSteve]

32 minutes ago, XBGuy said:

 

Although I can't read the labels, those appear to be more than respectable wines.  Even without being able to read the label, I would be happy to attend just to taste whatever that Shafer is.

I just found on my mobile phone I can click on the image in Cruise Critic, then click again on the image it brings up, and then have a full resolution image that I can expand with 2 fingers enough to clearly read the labels.

[LACruiser88]

22 minutes ago, LawDog61 said:

What was the number of days cut-off for MTG?

585 days...

[Purple Gallinule]

On 12/30/2022 at 4:25 PM, seagunthera said:

I'm not quite sure how I feel about him yet...

We have cruised with Arrrrrrrrrrrrmando! and he is a lot of fun.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

Found the bar with the widest selection of wine by the glass AND spirits, including premium: Good Spirits! My wife and I have been avoiding Good Spirits as we are not into mixed drinks but they also have an excellent selection of wines and spirits.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

On 12/31/2022 at 4:28 PM, startedwithamouse said:

 

We've done the Silverado blending several times, and loved each one. Well, well, WELL worth the cost. A lot of fun too

All of the best wines on this ship by the glass can be found at: Good Spirits Bar!

[nini]

4 hours ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

Anyone go to the wine tasting? I thought it was pretty good, but a bit rapid fire with 6 wines in 30 minutes. Usually they go a bit slower and take up the full 60 minutes allocated to the event.

 

When I attended on the Grand, it was at least an hour.

[nini]

44 minutes ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

Found the bar with the widest selection of wine by the glass AND spirits, including premium: Good Spirits! My wife and I have been avoiding Good Spirits as we are not into mixed drinks but they also have an excellent selection of wines and spirits.

We loved Good Spirits on the Grand.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

1 hour ago, nini said:

 

When I attended on the Grand, it was at least an hour.

We've been at many wine tastings on Princess as well as other cruise lines. I remember from other ones on Princess that I've usually been impatient. Like I finished that taste of wine, let's get onto the next. Not this time! I couldn't keep up. They were going through each glass in just 5 minutes each. Getting near the end of the tasting I still had some wine left in every glass as well as many of the samples of paired food they had given us. I had to rush through all my unfinished wine and food samples in the last 5 minutes as I didn't want to leave any of it behind. They had allocated a full hour to the event, but they raced through it this time in just 30 minutes. Though, I do have to admit I had my Wine-Searcher App open and was trying to research the retail prices, comments, etc., of each of the wines while we were tasting them. So that did slow me down a bit. But when they take the full hour allocated to the event, I usually have enough time to do that research during the wine tasting.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

A lot of my photos and comments from December 31, 2022, the day and New Years Eve on this cruise can be found at: http://www.cruiserookies.com/photos/2022/12/2022l31a/

Don't bother to click on any photos for a larger image or the slide show. The full size images have not uploaded properly as I don't think the ship's internet can handle so many large images. I'll have to wait to get home to upload those. I also haven't uploaded the videos yet but will do so once I get home if not sooner. I think I missed announcing the photos and comments that I posted the day before. You can see those by just going to the above link and clicking on "<<PREVIOUS PAGE"