Live from Diamond Princess

[tennisobo]

Cynbar: What excurion did you take to see the whales up close? Thanks!

[calikak]

Hi all! Had a lovely day in Mazatlan, what a lovely city. Absolutely adored the historical area, that cathedral is amazing and not to be missed. My group did the private van excursions, our driver was Andres and was really a nice guy, gave us lots of info and was a good driver.

 

Weather today was yucky for a while but turned gorgeous around 3:45 PM, just in time for some time by the pool. Before that was a pretty tremendous downpour, complete with lightning, amazing to watch!

 

Sorry tennisobo I'd forgotten your question about PV. I think the captain came on the line at about 7:00 ship time/8:00 PV time (PV is the only port on this itinerary where the port time is different than the ship time, PV is an hour ahead) saying people could go ashore, and my cabin mate had a shore excursion that had her meet at the dock at 7:45 ship time/8:45 PV time, I think. So, I'd say an 8:30 (PV time) whale watching trip would be cutting it close. Probably not the news you wanted to hear, but there it is.

 

The captain mentioned yesterday that a lot of ships were rerouting because of the storm. He said that today in PV there were going to be 3 ships, but only one was the ship originally scheduled to be there, the other two weren't scheduled to be there originally and there were two other ships that were originally scheduled to be there that wouldn't be. Then he pointed out that of course the one ship on schedule was Dawn Princess...nice little plug there for how well Princess was coping with the storm even when other lines had to redirect their ships. :D We really haven't hit any seas that were anything too out of the ordinary. It's a bit rough right now, but not any more so than it was when we weren't sailing where the storm had just been.

 

Lynda, there wasn't really a snack bar, and in fact the restaurant is closed after 10PM so if you have an evening flight, be sure to eat before you get to the hotel or be prepared to take a cab to find a restaurant elsewhere. Kind of disappointing. You can't even order room service after 10PM because the restaurant is closed.

 

Yes, Piano Man is still one of the shows, and I think the other is Undercover.

 

Almost forgot: passenger demographic is very very mixed, I'm 30 and there are plenty of people in that 20-35 age range, but also lots of families and lots of older couples. Totally love sitting in the wheelhouse bar before dinner watching the couples dance with each other, it's really wonderful! Wish my DH would dance...

 

I think that's everyone's questions but it's entirely possible I missed one, so please repost it, I'm not ignoring you on purpose! :) Tomorrow is Cabo and my group is planning to go to the Melia resort. Will report back on how it goes if the internet holds up! Have a great night, everyone!

[West Coast]

One other thing I forgot to post about before: Eric Waugh, the artist, is onboard this cruise. They've had him painting things and you can go and watch him. He was also at the art auction yesterday and bought the same Todd White serigraph that is hanging on my living room wall right now, Drink of Her Choice. I wanted to go up and thank him for validating my taste in art, but I didn't have the courage.

 

Ola Beth,

 

Drink of Her Choice is a nice one... I've never seen that at a Princess auction. And of course we all want to know... who got the better 'deal'? You, or Eric ?!?

 

 

And what is Waugh painting onboard? I like some of his figurative pieces... has he mentioned if he plans to do any same-gender?

 

[tennisobo]

Thanks so much, Beth. That was just the information I wanted. There is a later excursion that is from 12:30 to 5:30 PV time. I think you have to be back on the ship at 5:30 ship time. Does that sound like it might be do-able?

 

Thanks again for all your posts. :)

[Cruisin' Chick]

I heard the Vision of the Seas had changed their schedule because of the hurricane. Glad to hear you didn't have any problems, other than lots of rain.

[cynbar]

Cynbar: What excurion did you take to see the whales up close? Thanks!

We did the Zodiac excursion in Cabo -- excellent, the ride was a lot of fun and we saw plenty of whales. Some of them even swam along beside us -- you don't really know how big they are until you see them up close!! We could see whales from the ship, also, but nowhere near as close as on the excursion. It was well worth the cost, we had a great time. We took the earliest tour and there was still time to explore the port.. and see Cabo Wabo, of course.

[calikak]

Hi everyone! Had a grat day in Cabo yesterday. My group went to the Melia Hotel and laid on their Bali beds and played in the ocean. Fantastic resort, great drinks and food. When we arrived, we told the front desk we wanted to use the resort for the day, they said no problem, it's a $35 minimum in food/beverage purchases, but it wasn't actually, we just bought what we bought and it wasn't an issue. The towel situation was a little sketchy, the front desk guy gave us towels if we just left an ID, but the towel guy by the pool wanted a $10 deposit per towel (which was refunded when we left). So YMMV and you might want to bring your towel from the ship just in case. Would happily go back to this resort again, very cruiser-friendly.

 

While we were in Cabo, Dawn Princess was also anchored there, and we saw one other ship sailing around, the Ryndam, and wondered what was up and why it wasn't anchoring. Well, last night Captain Yeoman (who is totally my new favorite captain) said at the Captain's Circle party that he saw the Ryndam trying to anchor but they decided it was too rough to tender. Captain said it might have helped if they hadn't had their stern into the wind. :D Then he said they sailed around a bit more, and when they came back an hour later, there was Dawn Princess, tendering her passengers ashore right where the Ryndam hadn't been able to do it an hour earlier. :D I can imagine if I'd been on the Ryndam I would have been a little annoyed that the Princess ships were able to tender, but we weren't! He also mentioned that one ship had just gone to Catalina and Ensenad and San Diego instead of the ports we went to because of the storm. So, to sum up, Princess seems to have kicked everyone's butts in dealing with the hurricane situation this week.

 

Last night was the lobster dinner and the Baked Alaska parade. Really yummy! I can't remember what tonight's is, I guess the landfall dinner?

 

Westcoast, I think we both paid the same price for that piece, since we just bought it a couple of months ago on Tahitian Princess. I actually got to talk to Eric Waugh last night at the art gallery and complimented him on his taste. He mentioned that he's always admired Todd White's work. I didn't ask him a lot about his work, so I don't have answers to your questions...the pieces he's been painting onboard have been pretty similar to the one you posted. He did say that the one he sold yesterday he said was the first one he's ever painted with the Space Needle. He was talking to someone from Seattle while he painted it, and so he put the Space Needle in, and they mentioned they work for Boeing, so he put in an airplane. :) Of course then the couple from Seattle bought it, smart guy! He's actually very personable guy, nice to meet an artist that accessible.

 

tennis, I think you'll be fine with the later excursion. We had to be back aboard at 5:30 ship time, 6:30 local time, so you should be fine with that schedule. :)

 

Skywalkers was really hopping last night, even the captain was up there tearing it up on the dance floor. Definitely a fun crowd on this sailing, have yet to meet anyone who's a downer (knocking on wood).

 

Am off to enjoy my last day on the sea. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[wizard-of-roz]

The Wheelhouse Bar was our very favorite hangout.....please don't tell me about the "lame" navigation on HAl....after our cruise on NCL, in November, we'll be doing HAL in April.

Right now, my very favorite cruise line is Princess, unless NCL can win me over!!! ;)

[ghgeckos]

calikak,

 

thanks for all of the insights, did you just take a cab or did you take a water taxi to the resort in cabo. We were looking at doing the same in Feb. Also I was reading on line that sabatini's is open for lunch on sea days. Can you confirm this and is it a different menu?

 

thank you

[West Coast]

Beth, thanks for the insight :)

And did you get to have to Tom Turkey tonight???

[Degas]

Oregon Duck..... said that princess offered free internet???Is this true for all their ships???

[critterchick]

Oregon Duck..... said that princess offered free internet???Is this true for all their ships???

 

Once you're Platinum in the Captain's Circle you have free Internet, but only for the Internet cafe computers - if you use your laptop, you have to pay by the minute.

 

Welcome back to land, Beth! Thank you for your updates & insights!

[texasjoe5151]

Scotto97 - Would you be interested in helping a guy get in contact with a cocktail server on the Diamond? May be the love of my life. I just got off 10/21, and she said some things to me that I didn't follow up on (stupid me). I'm just trying to get some contact info to/from her. I'll buy a beer or three.

[survivor]

Hope your last night was a great one. I was wondering if you went home by way of LAX? Looking for disembarktion info. How long did it take you to get off the ship and if you went to LAX how long did security take at the airport? I have read that you need about 2 hours to get thru and was wondering if that was correct. Thanks for all the info on your cruise. Hope you had a safe trip home :)

[texasjoe5151]

It took forever at LAX. I got off the ship quickly (I was in the 2nd group), took the Supershuttle (about 20 min wait), but LAX. Flew 1st class, and they had a guy checking all luggage by opening every suitcase and wiping around the zipper, and then testing the cloth. He was in no great hurry at all. Same for the Xray - I guess we can say they were doing a very thorough job. Got inside the airport secured area about 11:30.

But what I wouldn't give to get in touch with the sweetest girl on ship...

[calikak]

Hi all! Made it safely home after a great cruise. My friend and I were the absolute last two passengers screened off the ship at about 11:50 AM, since our flight wasn't until 5PM. They called a lot of the early groups pretty quickly but then it slowed down a lot and it took them a while to call our color. Went to the airport (LGB, not LAX) and found that Alaska had added an early flight at 2PM (beofre there had only been the 11:00 and the 5:00) and it wasn't even remotely full, so we just hopped on the earlier flight instead of trying to figure out how to spend 4 hours in Long Beach. It was a nice end to a great trip! Let me see if I missed any questions...

 

Westcoast, no, I had the prime rib again, since it was so excellent and the idea of horseradish sounded so good. :)

 

Hi Jean! I'm back on land but still feeling the ocean moving...guess that the downside of never getting seasick, I feel like I'm at sea for two or three days after a cruise. Definitely a fair trade!

 

They did have music by the pool, there was a guy with a guitar and/or a flute, and a trio of guys from Mexico with guitars.

 

I think that's all the questions...hopefully someone will keep posting here from the ship and keep this thread alive and answer more questions from people. Thanks to everyone for reading along with my trip! :)

[lilj1969]

Had a great cruise, same here, still feel the ocean moving. Calikak summed up the cruise really great.

 

Buffet food good, bacon in the morning a must.

 

Had 2nd seating Int. dinning every night wonderful wait staff great great. Our waiter made us laugh, he acted kind of motherly. One night I was so full from snacking all day, So I only order salad and soup, he question me endlessly on what I ate through the day, as to why I did not want dinner, then replied o.k. this time but I better eat my dinner tomorrow:)

 

Shows Piano Man good // Crew talent show a must see great last act // undercover good // Also a guy from Las Vegas on the Piano forgot his name good. We enjoyed all the shows

 

Shore Excurisions

 

PV = Roayal Dolphin Swim // awesome // plus the they opened up the water park for just the us from the cruise ship, only had 3 of the slides open but it was still great * one note they did allow underwater cameras in with you for the dolphin swim even though everything says no cameras they let us bring in our underwater camera, some people were upset because they had left their cameras on ship. i had brought my camera for the water park portion of the trip happy to hear when they announced on the rider over underwater cameras allowed for the dolphin swim part.

 

MTZA = taxi to the gold zone a few hours of shopping and drinking pacifico, took a open air taxi back to ship got caught in the major rain storm, but it's those kind of memories that last a lifetime. Our taxi ride felt more like a boat ride.

 

CABO = Chilaeono Snorkeling on the catarman named TROPICAT, the excursion was great, the snorkling so-so water was a bit rough about half the people got in the water and right back out, no one was complaining the boast ride great the open bar even better plpus plenty of snacks free of charge on board. My son held some bread in his hand given to him by the crew and thought it was great when he looked done a saw what appeared to be hunderds of little silver fish completely covering his hand wating the bread

 

We had a mini-suite dolphin deck great room, did not need the extension cord but we did use a power strip, we had 2 plug-ins over the vanity 3-prong and 2 plpung -ins 3 prong by front door. Over the vanity really close to desk so we needed the power-strip for the large items we had to plug-in.

 

Most of the time we set meeting times on-board, but I had brought some Motorola radios they worked great pretty much everywhere on the ship.

 

Please excuse my spelling trying to put this out fast.

 

Sorry I missed the CC meet and greet @ Skywalkers the Spa had a 4:15 opening I just could not pass-up. I purchased the Thermal Sncturay passs for $70.00 it was great used it everyday the sauna / rain shower / heat beds all awesome

 

Anyhoned did the Diamond 15 day to Hawaii out of L.A. ? I'm thinking about that one now.

 

One more thing I stayed one night opre-cruise Crown Plaza San Pedro clean nice rooms and the shuttle service great, waited about 15 minutes to the harbour and aboput 10 mins back to the hotel. The Park & Sail worked great for me.

[Scotto97]

TEXASJOE5151,

 

What's the cocktail watresses' name? and what do you want me to tell her?

[texasjoe5151]

Scotto97 - I appreciate your willingness to help. I can email the info to you, or post it here if you want. My email is texasjoe5151@yahoo.com This would be great. I'll owe you a beer, and maybe a dinner. Thanks

[texasjoe5151]

Scott -

Did you just send me an email?

[wizard-of-roz]

texasjoe5151: You need a dating service?

[texasjoe5151]

Wizard - Thanks for the offer, but it's not necessary.

[pvmkmyer]

Hope your last night was a great one. I was wondering if you went home by way of LAX? Looking for disembarktion info. How long did it take you to get off the ship and if you went to LAX how long did security take at the airport? I have read that you need about 2 hours to get thru and was wondering if that was correct. Thanks for all the info on your cruise. Hope you had a safe trip home :)

 

LAX is really a matter of timing and which airline you're on. I fly United a lot and have had long waits and short waits. Same with American. I can tell you that the worst lines are always at terminal one, which includes Southwest. It is always out the door and down the sidewalk. United just reorganized their security and it seems to be flowing better than in the past. I would allow at least a full two hours for this airport. Unfortunately it's not much of a place to have to wait. LAX is in severe need of a major facelift, but the politicos can't seem to decide what needs to be done.