LIVE from Discovery Princess Mexican Riviera from LA 2/3-2/10 2024

[DiRonT]

5 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

My wife often orders ice cream for dessert in MDR and gets a glass of Amaretto as well. She then pours the Amaretto over the ice cream. It's quite good. I've tried it with Drambuie but it's not nearly as good as it sounded. I wonder if Cointreau would be good over ice cream. Perhaps I'll give that at try in April. 😉

Mmm - kahlua works well also.

[suzyed]

5 hours ago, Stosh68 said:

So the new app thinks I’m a child.  While my wife agrees, I’m locked out of ordering adult drinks via the app.  Front desk sent me to the medallion desk to fix it and they told me they’ve seen it quite often and had to submit tickets to app support.  

I had the same thing happen. I went on chat and they got it fixed.  Now they just think I have a White medallion with a blue Seawitch on it.

 

[Thrak]

35 minutes ago, DiRonT said:

Mmm - kahlua works well also.

 

Yep. She does that as well. It's amazing that other people at the table seem to find it "unusual" and have apparently never thought of it themselves.

[Thrak]

39 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

Time to start the evening. The Take Five and a Manhattan at Take Five. For all you bourbon drinkers the best onboard is Russell's Reserve 10 so that's what's in my Manhattan. 

 

Sooooo... Apparently the drink on the left is called a Take Five like the venue? What's in it?

[sonomaphil]

4 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Sooooo... Apparently the drink on the left is called a Take Five like the venue? What's in it?

Gin, elderflower liquor, lemon and Pinot Noir float.  

Edited February 6 by sonomaphil

[Thrak]

7 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

Gin, elderflower liquor, lemon and Pinot Noir float.  

 

Hmmm... Looks better than it sounds. I have no idea what elderflower liquor tastes like but gin with a Pinot float sounds "odd" to me at best. What did you think of the drink? I'm guessing it's meant to be drank in layers...???

Edited February 6 by Thrak

[jwattle]

17 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Yep. She does that as well. It's amazing that other people at the table seem to find it "unusual" and have apparently never thought of it themselves.

Baileys and kahlua over ice cream are lovely as well ❤️

 

[sonomaphil]

5 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Hmmm... Looks better than it sounds. I have no idea what elderflower liquor tastes like but gin with a Pinot float sounds "odd" to me at best. What did you think of the drink? I'm guessing it's meant to be drank in layers...???

My wife loved it. The elderflower liquor goes by the name brand St. Germain.  It's floral and sweet syrupy.  

[Stosh68]

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I'm wondering if anybody has ever ordered one with the mini bottle of booze stuck in it as was shown in the original pics posted online. I haven't seen a picture posted by anybody showing they had ordered one that way and I wonder if that is really an option and, if so, if it is included in the price. I thought it seemed odd that they showed them with bottles of liquor stuck in the top.

I have on the Regal last November.  My recollection is that it counted as one of drink package drinks. 
 

Not a premier dessert hater, it was alright but messy.  My go to is a banana split. 

[Thrak]

1 minute ago, Stosh68 said:

I have on the Regal last November.  My recollection is that it counted as one of drink package drinks. 
 

Not a premier dessert hater, it was alright but messy.  My go to is a banana split. 

 

At a cost of only $10 it would definitely be covered by the Plus package.

[Stosh68]

25 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Yep. She does that as well. It's amazing that other people at the table seem to find it "unusual" and have apparently never thought of it themselves.

Had an interesting interaction with the waiter in Sababatini’s last night about something similar.  
 

Asked if I wanted coffee.  I said yes, with a shot of something in it.  If been offered this in the MDR many times, but waiter seemed confused and asked if I meant cream.   I said Irish Cream sounds great.  
 

Got regular coffee with a container of milk.

 

Oh well, I’ll make up for it with another salted watermelon margarita.  

[suzyed]

On 2/4/2024 at 3:42 PM, nini said:

 

I guess we wonder how that group (those who shall not be named) were able to make that happen with the officers.

Pretty simple really...make out invitations to all the "main" officers and staff and either give to the Captains Circle host or deliver to Guest Services.  We have always had officers at our M&Gs.

[suzyed]

11 minutes ago, Stosh68 said:

Had an interesting interaction with the waiter in Sababatini’s last night about something similar.  
 

Asked if I wanted coffee.  I said yes, with a shot of something in it.  If been offered this in the MDR many times, but waiter seemed confused and asked if I meant cream.   I said Irish Cream sounds great.  
 

Got regular coffee with a container of milk.

 

Oh well, I’ll make up for it with another salted watermelon margarita.  

Try asking for whatever "shot" you want on the side.  That's what DH does (usually Sambuca) and they will bring it with the coffee and you just pour it in yourself.  I like Bailey's with mine. 

[victory2020]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

My wife often orders ice cream for dessert in MDR and gets a glass of Amaretto as well. She then pours the Amaretto over the ice cream. It's quite good. I've tried it with Drambuie but it's not nearly as good as it sounded. I wonder if Cointreau would be good over ice cream. Perhaps I'll give that at try in April. 😉

I get a shot of kahlua, baileys, etc & mix it with the soft serve

[sonomaphil]

Good morning from Mazatlan.

[sonomaphil]

Mazatlan is a real working port, not just a cruise port. 

[sonomaphil]

Today is an all day Sanctuary day!

[paccruzer14]

On 2/2/2024 at 1:16 PM, sonomaphil said:

Happy Groundhog Day everyone and welcome to the LIVE aboard the Discovery Princess Mexican Riviera cruise, round trip out of Los Angeles February 3-10, 2024!  This first post comes to you right before we head out for our drive to Southern California.  

 

This is Princess cruise 21 for us, first on Discovery and first cruise since we did the full transit Panama Canal cruise on Emerald in January 2023.   We had two other Princess cruises scheduled for 2023 but, you know, life happens.  I did a live thread on the Emerald cruise and looking back it’s lots of pics of the ship, food and drinks!  So if that interests you follow along! We’ve sailed this route twice before but have not done it since 2007 on the dearly departed Golden Princess. 

 

We ended up opting to drive to LA rather than fly because the return flights were outrageously expensive on 2/10.  We live in Las Vegas and as you may know there is some small gathering scheduled here in Vegas on 2/11, I believe it is called the Super Bowl.  Flights between LA and Vegas on a Saturday are usually $50 or so but on 2/10 they are crazy priced unless we wait until late night or have stops.  Flying to Oakland to go to Vegas from LA is just silly.    

 

We’ll leave Vegas about 3:30 today and split the 5 hour or so trip into two, spending the night at the Hilton Garden Inn Victorville CA.  Sure we could have gone all the way to the port but have you ever driven in LA about 7 PM on a Friday night? We can’t leave earlier as my wife is at work! It’s about 3 hours to Victorville leaving about 1:30 to 2 hour drive this morning.   Victorville is pleasant enough and is chain restaurant heaven so we'll have dinner somewhere.  

 

My wife and I are very casual cruisers, we don’t make big plans for any day and just do what we want.  No excursions scheduled, we might not even get off the ship in Cabo.  Have you ever stayed onboard when everyone else leaves the ship?  It’s glorious!  We have a Deluxe Balcony and the Premier package.  We plan on eating at Catch twice as the menu sounds so good.  Nothing against Crown Grill. We've eaten there many times and do like it a lot. We’re not fans of Sabatini's.  

 

More to come! 
 

Thanks for sharing, can't wait to hear the rest of your travel story.

[sonomaphil]

The Sanctuary is turning wair listed people away at the door and yet there are only 8 people in here!

[MsSoCalCruiser]

8 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

The Sanctuary is turning wair listed people away at the door and yet there are only 8 people in here!

There may only be eight people in the sanctuary, but they probably have sold all of the chairs.

[sonomaphil]

26 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

There may only be eight people in the sanctuary, but they probably have sold all of the chairs.

I'm sure of that but what a waste of money. 

[sonomaphil]

Interestingly I noticed that the 360 dining experience is available to book for this evening as it was last night.  We would not do this dining gimmick ourselves but I thought it was so popular you couldn't get reservations. Guess I fell for the propaganda.

[sonomaphil]

Usually when I post pics of food it's virtually moments after it's served, I try to keep the "Live" almost live.  But last night I did not post anything because I wanted to enjoy dinner at The Catch by Rudi.  I have lots of pics and will post them shortly.  

Let me say this about The Catch right away, it was the best meal I've ever had on a Princess ship. Now, this restaurant may not be for everyone.  This is NOT the place to go if you're one of those cruisers who has to do everything and wants to have dinner in 35 minutes.  Dinner took 2+ hours for our 7:20 reservation and it's supposed to take that long.  It's not the precooked meals like in the main dining room.  Everything is cooked to order.  There are three courses plus a welcome glass of champagne, an amuse bouche and chocolates to complete the meal.  It is mostly seafood but Steak Frites is on the menu as is Steak and Lobster. 

My wife had the Tail of Citrus for the appetizer which is a marinated lobster tail and for her main, Shiitake Crusted Halibut.  For dessert she had the Handcrafted Palate, a cheese plate.  I had the Seafaring Stew cioppino and then the Sole a la Minute, dover sole filleted tableside.  My dessert was the Mozart Berry Composition, a berry souffle.  

Everything was delicious and there was not one dish I would not order again.  In fact, we're going again on the final evening.  Service was spot on, it's clear only the best of the best work in this restaurant.  No issues with ordering drinks as Bellini's Bar is the service bar.  

Pics next.  
 

Edited February 6 by sonomaphil

[sonomaphil]

The Catch by Rudi---Welcome glass of champagne and Amuse Bouche

[sonomaphil]

The Catch by Rudi--Seafaring Stew cioppino