January 27 Discovery Princess - Mexican Riviera Trip Report

[deultgen]

Discovery Princess - January 27 Mexican Riviera – 7 night Trip Report

 

We are in our 50’s and regularly cruise Princess and Celebrity.  We were on this cruise with my parents.

 

Itinerary: We live in Great Falls, Montana and like this itinerary to Western Mexico ports.  On our cruise, the weather was sunny and warm every day until day 6 which was windy and cooler. 

 

Embarkation:  We fly into LAX a day early and stayed at the Sonesta at LAX.  It was fine for the night but nothing special.  It is fun to sit by the pool and watch the planes landing/taking off at LAX.  We arrived at the San Pedro Port about 10:00am and after a short wait, picked up our medallions and then to the “elite waiting room”.  We boarded Discovery about 15 minutes later.  Very easy

 

“The Run” – I think I was about the tenth person to board the ship (after the back-to-back cruisers).  I immediately went to the Sanctuary and was second in line to make reservations for the week. Is there a reason in 2024 that you can not make reservations possible for the Sanctuary pre cruise???

 

Public Areas of the ship:  We have sailed Discovery a couple of times and have always found the ship to be beautiful.  The Piazza is a great gathering space, International café is wonderful, and the clubs/bars looked modern and nice.

 

Cabin D-707:  We were in D707, which is a standard balcony stateroom with an oversized balcony.  For those who would enjoy the large balcony, it’s a valuable room.  As with many Princess standard balcony rooms, I find them small and very basic.  For those who spend a lot of time in their cabin, I would not book a standard balcony room since there is no couch, table, chair, etc.  Personally, we don’t spend a lot of time in the cabin so it does not really bother us.  Our cabin steward was excellent.

 

Cruise Critic Meet and Greet:  I was our organizer for the meet and greet.  We met with “Laura” who was the officer in charge of group events after boarding the ship to set up any details.  She was outstanding.  The meet and greet had about 60 people at it.  People had a chance to interact with others before the event started, introduce themselves once the event began (I wish I would have passed around the microphone), then the Cruise Director introduced the officers.  Finally, the Captain spoke to us for about 10 minutes.  There were about 15 officers attending.  They did not want to take questions, but did want to mingle with those attending.  The Captain and officers stayed for about a half hour and talked personally with everyone who stayed. 

 

Food:  The International Café, slice pizza, and outdoor burgers were excellent as always.  We regularly had breakfast in the main dining room which was well done.  Lunch for us was always in the Sanctuary which we appreciate.  Dinner in the main dining room was fine.  Some nights the menu was better than others.  I find dinner on Princess in the main dining room to be very basic and bland.  The staff in the MDR was excellent. 

 

The Catch by Rudi – We ate dinner at the Catch twice.  I found the menu creative and the food excellent.  If we would have been on the cruise without a group, we likely would have had dinner at the Catch every night. 

 

Entertainment – I though the music groups, comedy, and events we attended were very good. 

 

Technology and Internet:  I found the new “app” easy to use, appreciated being able to find my “shipmates” and the internet to be fast and reliable.

 

The Sanctuary:  In many ways, the Sanctuary is the primary reason we like Princess.  It’s a wonderful place to relax in a very comfortable setting, with good food, excellent service, and great people.  We generally book every afternoon.   The Sanctuary was fully booked every day of our cruise with many on the waiting list.  It always seems odd to me that in 2024 there is not a way to reserve the Sanctuary prior to boarding the cruise, but it’s the system that is in place.

 

Something extra:  We did receive a tour of the Ships Bridge by the Captain  

 

Overall:  An excellent cruise – Pics below – Any questions?

 

 

[LACruiser88]

3 minutes ago, deultgen said:

It always seems odd to me that in 2024 there is not a way to reserve the Sanctuary prior to boarding the cruise

Thank you for taking the time to write a review of your voyage!  We also are big fans of the Sanctuary.  Unfortunately, as it has been explained to us by several HGM's, the space is not large enough to accomodate pre-cruise reservations and they feel that the current system is the best case scenario for the venue.   🤷‍♂️  

[nini]

Lovely review. Maybe we will be on the Discovery someday. I think you may have sold me on the Sanctuary (if I can run up there fast enough).