Live from Crown Princess, February 7 - 17, Mexican Riviera

[jaycruising]

Well, since there are already 2 lives from the Mexican Riviera I feel like I might as well add a third!

 

Since I really enjoyed doing a semi live from on our canal transit cruise last year, I’ve decided to do it again on our upcoming 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise. I will follow the same format I did on the last one of semi live updates, including patters, menus and food pictures. And then will finish up with some photos from my big camera and overall impressions.  Also, please feel free to ask questions and I’ll try and answer as best I can. 

 

While this isn’t my dream cruise, it is a nice break that I am really looking forward to. The past 6 months have been rough and work hasn’t been so fun and I knew I would need a break sooner than later from both work and winter. Except Winter just showed up here in west / central Canada, and she came in like a beast. We had a brown Christmas and temperatures on the plus side, it was so crazy. 

 

We didn’t want to go to the east coast either to start this vacation off, so we did look for a west coast departure. We also didn’t want to do the Hawaii crossing. We have been there a number of times and love it as a land vacation so felt like one day on island would be a tease. I really wanted to go on Discovery, as we have almost exclusively sailed on older ships, and while I don’t mind them, I really wanted to see something new, but we also don’t want to do just a 7 day cruise, and booking a b2b on discovery was going to cost more then the budget allowed.  So, back on Crown Princess we go for 10 days. 

 

This trip as usual for cruises is me (Jay) and my DM (B). We travel really well together and like to get away at least once or twice a year together. 

 

In 2022 we did a 7 day coastal on Crown and it was fine, but there are moments of apprehension as there are so many complaints about Crown, but we are pretty easy going and are just looking forward to the break. We sail out of San Francisco and I’m really looking forward to that, love SF. We are flying in tomorrow and have one night before we board. We are planning a bit of an explore and will bring you along, This will be my 3rd visit to SF and DM’s second and there is still a ton to see. 

 

After boarding we have 3 sea days and then we are in Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Cabo and then 2 full sea days on our return. Then we have another night in SF before we head home.  In PV we have booked a private excursion. In Manzanillo we don’t have anything booked, nothing looked to appealing so we will just see what looks interesting in port. And my grandpa built an on shore grain terminal there before he retired and I would like to try and find that as they made many trips there. In Mazatlan and Cabo we have excursions booked through the ship.  We might do a couple afternoons in the Sanctuary, we like the relaxing vibe up there, and my ginger skin needs all the protection it can get from the Sun.

 

My bags are mostly packed and ready to go, aside from the items that I will need in the morning. I have my Uber booked to pick me up bright and early to head to the airport to meet DM. 
 

The jigsaw puzzle that is packing, pretty sure I will never get to the carry on only packing crew!

 

Here are a couple of my must haves!

 

And if you aren’t aware there are motion detector lights under the nightstands and in the closet, so I bring some painters tape wrapped around a marker to cover those sensors. 

 

Looking forward to starting this adventure tomorrow (I’m so tired), and will bring you along. 

 

[SLWalker]

Looking forward to your live posts.  We sail on the Crown to Hawaii on March 9th.  Anxious to hear if all the bad reviews of the Crown are warranted.  I hope you enjoy your cruise and the warm weather.

[memoak]

12 hours ago, jaycruising said:

Well, since there are already 2 lives from the Mexican Riviera I feel like I might as well add a third!

 

Since I really enjoyed doing a semi live from on our canal transit cruise last year, I’ve decided to do it again on our upcoming 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise. I will follow the same format I did on the last one of semi live updates, including patters, menus and food pictures. And then will finish up with some photos from my big camera and overall impressions.  Also, please feel free to ask questions and I’ll try and answer as best I can. 

 

While this isn’t my dream cruise, it is a nice break that I am really looking forward to. The past 6 months have been rough and work hasn’t been so fun and I knew I would need a break sooner than later from both work and winter. Except Winter just showed up here in west / central Canada, and she came in like a beast. We had a brown Christmas and temperatures on the plus side, it was so crazy. 

 

We didn’t want to go to the east coast either to start this vacation off, so we did look for a west coast departure. We also didn’t want to do the Hawaii crossing. We have been there a number of times and love it as a land vacation so felt like one day on island would be a tease. I really wanted to go on Discovery, as we have almost exclusively sailed on older ships, and while I don’t mind them, I really wanted to see something new, but we also don’t want to do just a 7 day cruise, and booking a b2b on discovery was going to cost more then the budget allowed.  So, back on Crown Princess we go for 10 days. 

 

This trip as usual for cruises is me (Jay) and my DM (B). We travel really well together and like to get away at least once or twice a year together. 

 

In 2022 we did a 7 day coastal on Crown and it was fine, but there are moments of apprehension as there are so many complaints about Crown, but we are pretty easy going and are just looking forward to the break. We sail out of San Francisco and I’m really looking forward to that, love SF. We are flying in tomorrow and have one night before we board. We are planning a bit of an explore and will bring you along, This will be my 3rd visit to SF and DM’s second and there is still a ton to see. 

 

After boarding we have 3 sea days and then we are in Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan, Cabo and then 2 full sea days on our return. Then we have another night in SF before we head home.  In PV we have booked a private excursion. In Manzanillo we don’t have anything booked, nothing looked to appealing so we will just see what looks interesting in port. And my grandpa built an on shore grain terminal there before he retired and I would like to try and find that as they made many trips there. In Mazatlan and Cabo we have excursions booked through the ship.  We might do a couple afternoons in the Sanctuary, we like the relaxing vibe up there, and my ginger skin needs all the protection it can get from the Sun.

 

My bags are mostly packed and ready to go, aside from the items that I will need in the morning. I have my Uber booked to pick me up bright and early to head to the airport to meet DM. 
 

The jigsaw puzzle that is packing, pretty sure I will never get to the carry on only packing crew!

 

Here are a couple of my must haves!

 

And if you aren’t aware there are motion detector lights under the nightstands and in the closet, so I bring some painters tape wrapped around a marker to cover those sensors. 

 

Looking forward to starting this adventure tomorrow (I’m so tired), and will bring you along. 

 

Fit the motion lights we just prop up an extra pillow. Problem fixed. We just did this cruise and to us Manzanillo felt like the Mexico we used to know before all the resorts and condos showed up. Had a great lunch at a small eatery 

[jaycruising]

6 minutes ago, memoak said:

Fit the motion lights we just prop up an extra pillow. Problem fixed. We just did this cruise and to us Manzanillo felt like the Mexico we used to know before all the resorts and condos showed up. Had a great lunch at a small eatery 

We did the pillow thing on our first cruise, but no way to do the one in the closet!  Good to know about Manzanillo!

[jaycruising]

I hate when I have to be up early for something, I sleep terribly the night before and last night was no different, up every 2 hours and of course sleeping soundly when my alarm went off. Finished packing my last minute items, quickly went out and shovelled the little bit of snow received overnight. Checked and my Uber driver was on the way!

 

did have to contend with some rush hour traffic but quickly made it to the airport. Thanks to my Nexus card I quickly made it through security and US customs. Up the escalator and found my DM, who had flown in earlier from Saskatoon. We had a little catch up and then some breakfast before our 3 hour flight to SFO, we are scheduled to arrive just after 1pm. 
 

I hope everyone travelling today arrives at their location safely!

Edited February 6 by jaycruising

[jaycruising]

 

This was our view leaving Calgary, we were about 30 minutes late leaving, as the plane had to be de-iced. But we made up for it in the air and arrived as scheduled at 3pm. However, it took 35 minutes to get off the plane, they directed us to the wrong gate when we landed, so they had to push us back and move us over. 
 

But we made it

 

We had quite a home to baggage, and we got turned around, on a good note bags were already arriving.   We took an Uber to our hotel, we are staying at the Hyatt Centric, down by Fisherman’s Wharf, seems nice so far, and it’s close to the port. Seems I messed up this reservation and only booked for 1, so they had us in a king room, so much for using the travel services at work ☹️. The lady checking us in was great and did find us a room with 2 beds. 
 

Now to rest for a bit and then go explore!

 

[jaycruising]

After getting settled in the hotel it as time to go ride the cable cars, we walked about 4-5 blocks over, originally we were going to catch it a block or two up from the turntable, but we waited and waited and none came, so we walked down to the turntable and got in line, good thing we did the line was long and we likely wouldn’t have gotten on. 

 

 

I have previously been on them, but DM had not, so we wanted to make sure we could. 
 

we didn’t get to ride all the way up to Union Square as there was an issue with the cable up there, so people had to bus half the way. We just got on another cable car and headed back down. 

 

 

after we got off the Cable car we started making our way towards Pier 39. 
 

 

I loved these boats!

 

Edited February 7 by jaycruising

[AZjohn]

Glad you got one good day of weather in😊.

Tomorrow is a different story and hope you brought your umbrella.

 

Look forward to checking in on your cruise. Ours isn’t until April.

 

Cheers

[jaycruising]

5 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

Glad you got one good day of weather in😊.

Tomorrow is a different story and hope you brought your umbrella.

 

Look forward to checking in on your cruise. Ours isn’t until April.

 

Cheers

Today was very lovely, blue skies!  And yes the umbrella came along!

[jaycruising]

UGH! I just wrote this whole post and it didn’t go through!  Let’s try again

 

I love these streetcars so much, they are so photogenic!

 

Here are a couple photos I took in 2022 when we were here

 

 

We we had booked dinner at the Crab House on Pier 39.  We shared this platter and the fries

 

 

It was okay, not great, I wouldn’t likely return or recommend. 
 

Our view however was great!

 

After dinner we decided to go downstairs to get a crepe and we got strawberry and chocolate, it was great and I will likely return and totally recommend. 

 

We then made our way back to the hotel, first to warm up and second to relax, we have had a long day and tomorrow is CRUISE DAY!

 

Queen Victoria is currently sitting at Pier 27, but she is supposed to move overnight so the Crown can make its way in!

 

That is it for today, I will be back tomorrow with getting ready and embarkation!

 

Edited February 7 by jaycruising

[jaycruising]

 

Had a nice relaxing morning in the hotel, booked a Lyft to pick us up at 10 and he arrived a few minutes early. Took about 15 minutes to get to Pier 27. Dropped our bags with the porters and were able to make our way straight in

 

We are waiting to go through security and they just opened it up. 

[jaycruising]

This morning has gone incredibly smooth!  We were climbing the ramp to board the ship at 10:45am.

 

Once on board we headed straight to the Sanctuary to get the afternoons that we want to spend up there. We had our choice and there was only one lady ahead of us!

 

After that we stopped by our cabin to drop off our umbrellas, passports and other items. They aren’t ready so we headed out right away. 
 

Down to deck 7 and we checked into our Muster station.  Then grabbed a seat in Explorers (we were the first) to get our first drink and to watch our safety video. We will just hang out here for the time being until lunch time and we will then go to the main dining room!

[jaycruising]

Lunch was served in Botticelli dining room today

 

 

I started with the avocado and bay shrimp to start

 

For my main I had the salmon, it was cooked perfectly 

 

And for dessert it has to be the Orange soufflé, this is the only meal that it is served. 

 

We haven’t heard the announcement about cabins yet!

[jaycruising]

The sun has peaked out!

 

While out on the deck we could see them loading the ship with all the goodies we are going to eat and drink, it’s quite the process. 
 

 

 

Diet Coke anyone?

 

 

Seems we missed the announcement, the cabins are ready and as we got to ours, our luggage is all there. Time to unpack and really get this vacation started!

[Cruise Raider]

Bon voyage and have a great trip!  
 

[jaycruising]

Here is our patter for today

 

 

They have added extra outlets on the desk!

 

 

Almost time to sailaway!

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, jaycruising said:

Here is our patter for today

 

 

They have added extra outlets on the desk!

 

 

Almost time to sailaway!

I love where they installed those new ports.  They are in perfect positioning to the beds.  

[jaycruising]

We started out sailaway on deck 16, there were quite a few people out and the entertainment team were great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wind has picked up quite a bit and was really started to hurt my ears, so we didn’t stay for long. 

[New2cruise2022]

Great pics! Bon voyage. Thanks for bringing us along. 

[jaycruising]

Of course I didn’t want to miss sailaway from San Francisco, there is too much to see, so we headed down to deck 7 where it is a little more sheltered. 
 

 

Alcatraz!

 

 

 

City views!

 

 

And of course under the bridge!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Then I had to get a wake view, I love the wake view!

 

 

 

After sailing under the bridge we headed into Club Fusion to our first ever lounge experience. We just made platinum so had to check it out. 

[New2cruise2022]

12 minutes ago, jaycruising said:

Of course I didn’t want to miss sailaway from San Francisco, there is too much to see, so we headed down to deck 7 where it is a little more sheltered. 
 

 

Alcatraz!

 

 

 

City views!

 

 

And of course under the bridge!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Then I had to get a wake view, I love the wake view!

 

 

 

After sailing under the bridge we headed into Club Fusion to our first ever lounge experience. We just made platinum so had to check it out. 

These pictures are so great! Thanks for sharing and well done!

[jaycruising]

44 minutes ago, New2cruise2022 said:

These pictures are so great! Thanks for sharing and well done!

Thank you! I love sharing!

[jaycruising]

Dinner tonight was booked in Da Vinci, only a couple people ahead of us and we were quickly shown to our shared table. We had great table mates tonight.  We have met a lot of great people on this ship already. 
 

 

 

 

I started with the shrimp, they were just ok

 

Tobights menu isn’t my favourite, but lucky for me there is always fettuccine to fall back on. 
 

 

I was going to skip dessert, but then realized that they had a lemon one!  I went with the sugar free lemon pie (even though that is not what the online menu says). It was SO GOOD. 
 

We were done dinner in just over 1.5 hours, all was good. 
 

The seas are a rocking, everyone looks like they have taken advantage of the drink package while walking down the hall. DM has been known to suffer a bit from sea sickness, so she went back to the cabin to lay down. I on the other hand do not feel any effects, in fact I kind of like it. So I went and changed my shoes and headed down to Explorer’s lounge to watch the strikeout game. 
 

 

If not familiar they play a song and then give you a couple of years and you need to pick the side for what year it was released. They keep playing until one person is left standing. 
 

I am probably going to head to the cabin shortly, I have been awake since 5 and can’t wait to climb into the comfy Princess bed!

[jaycruising]

Feb 8 - Sea Day

 

 

 

This was a beautiful view to see when I peaked outside to check the weather. 

 

We set our clocks forward an hour last night, so we weren’t quite sure what time it was. But we slept pretty well and it was 7:15 according to my clock, so really 8:15. We laid around for a bit, then got dressed and headed to the gym for our morning workouts. 
 

 

 

It’s tough to do any balance exercise with the ship rocking and rolling!

 

After our workout we headed to the buffet, and that was a bit of a mess, they only have one side open and it felt like half the people on the ship wanted breakfast at the same time as us. I also find the seating area to be quite small, so finding a table was tricky!

 

I wanted to try some of the fruit drinks that are available on the plus package, and had to head to a couple places before I found it, it was ok but tasted a bit watery. 
 

 

 

[jaycruising]

We had a pretty lazy afternoon, the weather still isn’t really warm enough to enjoy too much outdoors, so we grabbed a deck of cards and spent a couple hours playing card in Crooners

 

We did sample a few cocktails… this is the Dunes, it’s actually quite refreshing 

 

At 3 we headed to the Da Vinci dining room for tea time. I forgot to take pictures as we were having such a great conversation with our table mates! So much so they almost kicked us out… they cleared the entire table!  Back to the cabin for a bit to chill out and next thing you know it’s time to get ready for dinner. It’s true what they say, I just came to eat! 😊

 

 

 

I started with the scallops and shrimp, it was not what I was expecting, and it only had 3 pieces of passion fruit. 

 

then it was time for the fruit soup, love them!

 

For my main I had the pork chop and it was fantastic, maybe one of the best mains I’ve had on Princess in a while, I highly recommend!

 

For dessert I had the pineapple brûlée and it was good, but missing the Madeline, I was ok with it!

 

After dinner we headed to Explorer’s for the Yes No game show, I love this one, it usually makes me laugh a lot and tonight was no exception

 

 

Now we are hanging out in Crooners, enjoying the piano player and a Sailing through Orchards cocktail 

 

Im not sure how much longer I am going to last, I am hitting the day 3 off of work crash.