As anyone who cruises regularly, one of the best perks of cruising are meeting new friends. Some friendships last and some don’t but then there are the ones that are extra special. This was the case of Len and Honor Hall. We met in April of 2022 on the Grand Princess during a 16 day Hawaiian Cruise, and as usual, at the Horizon Court Buffet. We happened to meet up for just about every breakfast and lunch.
Len and Honor were from Northern Ireland, about 45 minutes away from Belfast, and when people say Irish people are kind and friendly, they weren’t kidding. The four of us would spend hours at a time just laughing and swapping stories, They were incredible people. We kept in touch with them and hoped we’d meet again.
In 2023, we decided to go on the Regal Princess for a trip around the British Isles and one of the stops was Belfast. We had a video chat with Len and Honor and told them the news and they told us they would meet us at the ship and give us a personal guided tour of the city.
WOW, did they ever! Len found out when the Regal Princess would be in port prior to our arrival. This way he could see exactly where to meet us. On the day we arrived, we disembarked the ship and there they were, 20 yards away from the gangway! We gave them hugs, jumped into their car and headed to the Titanic Center, where Len had already purchased passes. The Titanic Center is awesome and highly recommended.
After the full tour, they drove us to Stormont, which is the equivalent to the Capital Building.
Afterwards, we headed to the Belfast City Hall, where then President Clinton had given a speech.
We walked through downtown to a restaurant for lunch. My attempts to grab the bill failed, so they again treated us.
We took a trip through the part of Belfast where most of “The Troubles” happened. I was under the impression that most of the conflict had ended, but Len took us down one street where there were steel barricades that they still close up and night. Turns out Len had grown up in the area and worked at one of the hospitals where many of the injured were treated.
After the tour, we headed up to Belfast Castle on the other side of Belfast. We could see our ship from within the Castle.
On the way back to the ship, we drove past the old courthouse. The courthouse was on one side of the street and the prison was directly across, interconnected via a tunnel.
As the end of our day neared, Len and Honor took us back the the ship and we said our goodbyes.
We continued to keep in touch, but then we got the news that Len was ill. In one of our last video chats, he said things weren’t looking too good but he was going to fight. After a few months, we got a text from Honor that Len had passed away.
This was our fourth visit to the islands, however far from routine. We started the cruise by meeting Anja, the girlfriend of our buddy and “adopted” British kid , Tony Tromboney, who is one of the Princess Music Managers. Anja is Serbian and part of the Production Staff.
We got unpacked in our balcony stateroom, Lido 254 and looked forward to a nice relaxing time. On night two, we decided to go to the Princess Theater to see “Magic To Do”. We’ve seen it several times, so like to compare the Singers and Dancers.
After the first song or two, I was feeling a bit lightheaded and could barely keep my eyes open. At some point, I shut them. Next thing I know, I was laying in the stairway, the house lights were on and I had several people in my face asking if I could smile and grasp their hands. I could, but was completely unaware of what happened. I looked at my wife, Suzi, and saw she was shaking like a leaf!
Within minutes, I was helped back to my seat and the medical staff arrived. He started to check me out, but I asked if we could move out of the theater so everyone else could get back to their show. I felt good enough so walk out of the theater to a round of applause. They put me in a wheelchair and asked a few questions. I was wondering where Suzi was. She was so shaken, several people helped her, including the Head Of Security, Paul Harris. They ended up putting her in a wheelchair, too.
They took us through the innards of the ship to the Medical Center. They ran blood tests and an EKG and found nothing. They kept us there for a couple of hours. Paul stayed and comforted Suzi and conversed with me.
I was released but they wanted to see me first thing the next morning. We went down and they re-ran all of the test, and again, normal and consistent. Whew!
Although I didn’t remember a thing, Suzi was traumatized. For a few minutes, she thought she lost me. I had no color and would not wake up. She started screaming until people came to my aid and they halted the show.
The funniest part (no, really), was that I made the Facebook group for this cruise. Somebody enquired about the commotion and some one replied, “it was an elderly gentleman…”, well at 63, I’m hardly elderly, although, I did feel it at the time. Regardless, I’ve been fully checked over by my local doctors and they feel it was a combination of dehydration and low blood pressure.
So Anja was working the show and knew there was a medical emergency, just didn’t know it was me. I let Tony know via WhatsApp and he let Anja know.
The rest of the trip was “different”. I had all sorts of crew and passengers stop me and asked how I was. I was fortunate to meet most of the first responders so I could thank them in person.
We had three days at sea for me to rest and relax. In Hilo, we took a shuttle to the Farmers Market and downtown Hilo, walked around a bit, then back to the ship.
The next day / port was Honolulu. We took a shuttle to the Ala Mauna Mall via the Hilo Hattie’s bus. If you haven’t been to Ala Mauna Mall, it’s a great place to hang if you are not a beach person, like us. We’ve been spoiled as we live within 10 miles of the ocean.
The next port was Lahaina. It’s a tender port, so we decided to go ashore with Anja to grab lunch. Even with our Elite status, there was a greater than 1 hour wait (and this was after 2 hours since they started tender operations). We heard from Anja that no crew were allowed off to accommodate guests, so we just decided to stay on board and have lunch with Anja in the buffet.
We had no idea that we would never see Lahaina the same way again. Less than 4 months later, the devastating fire ripped through and destroyed most of the town. Fortunately, we had the pleasure of visiting Lahaina several times.
Next stop, Kauai. Although we had a car rental setup, I decided to rest. Suzi walked down to the local ABC Mart to buy Anja a little stuffed animal.
Time for the return towards the mainland. Five glorious days at sea, then Ensenada. I have no idea why so many people give Ensenada a bad rap. No that the have the pedestrian bridge that takes you to downtown, it’s a nice walk. Sure, the shop vendors are a bit aggressive but a simple “no, gracias” usually works.
Well another wonderful cruise, although way different. Something we hope to never happen again.
This was quite the journey. The cruise, itself was from November 17th, departing from Civitavecchia and arriving at Port Everglades on December 2nd.
Suzi and I decided to fly into Rome several days early, so left from LAX on November 12th and arrived at FCO at noon on the 13th. We took ITA Airways and had a wonderful flight. It was 11 hours but after a couple of movies and a great meal and snacks, we were in Rome!
I had arranged through our hotel, Hotel White, for a car. The driver, Maurizio, was right at baggage claim and off we went. There was a marathon that morning, so we actually got some extra sightseeing in, to get around the closed streets.
The hotel was perfectly located. It was two shorts blocks from Trevi Fountain with many shops, restaurants and, of course, gelato eateries galore. 5 minutes away were the Spanish Steps.
We ate dinner at two restaurants. The Grill and Wine House was literally 10 steps from the entrance to our hotel. I had fish in a parmesan basket one night and Pasta Carbonara the other night. Suzi had Minestrone Soup and roasted potatoes both nights. Here is the fish dish:
The other restaurant we enjoyed was Hosteria Trevi. I had Carbonara one night (Carbonara is my litmus test for Italian Food). The next night, I had Oso Bucco. Suzi had soup and an Omelet / Frittata. Here was my dish:
We did a LOT of walking. Suzi’s fit bit logged about 15,000 steps per day.
Trevi Fountain
Tiber River near the Vatican
Fountain of Neptune
The Forum
Marcello Theater
On November 17th, we arranged for a car to drive us to the hotel where we met the Princess Rep and catch the bus to Civitavecchia. The ride took about 45 minutes and check in was a breeze. We were in Balcony Stateroom Lido 122. Very nicely located as we always try for the Lido Deck.
On our last Mediterranean cruise, back in 2006, we were unable to dock in Livorno. Livorno is normally the port to Pisa and/or Florence. So… we never got there.
After thinking about the time it would take to get to and from Florence compared the the amount of time actually in Florence, we decided to take a tour to Lucca.
About 10 minutes before we set sail from Rome, the Captain announced that due to poor weather conditions, we would not be docking in Livorno… However, Princess was able to secure us a spot in the port of La Spezia. This sent the entire Shorex crew into a frenzy as they had to contact all of the tour providers and redirect them to the new port, in addition to having to void and reprint all excursion tickets. After talking to one of the officers, the Shorex team was up until about 2 am making all the changes. Great job!
Port One – Lucca
Lucca is a city about halfway between the port at La Spezia and Florence. Like many old cities, the historical center is surrounded by a wall.
The journey back to the ship took us through some beautiful country.
Port Two – Genoa
Our second port of call was Genoa. We took a Princess excursion for a walking tour. We walked around the harbor, then into the old city and finally to the main piazza.
Port Three – Ajaccio, France (Island of Corsica)
Our next stop was the Island of Corsica and birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. We boarded a hybrid walking / highlights bus tour. Our first stop was the memorial for Napoleon.
Then we headed West to a beautiful beach area.
In this video, you hear the pebbles clicking together as the waves recede.
Afterwards, we drove back into town for the walking portion of the tour.
And from the Regal Princess.
Leaving Ajaccio
Port Four – Gibraltar
Our fourth stop was to the Rock of Gibraltar. It’s at the southern most part of Spain but part of the United Kingdom. We booked an excursion through Princess and gave us an overview of the town and surrounds before climbing up halfway of the “Rock” to the St. Michael’s Caves. Absolutely stunning. There is an amphitheater inside where they hold concerts. During touring hours, they run a lightshow every 10 minutes, or so. Fascinating!
And, of course, the infamous Apes of Gibralter.
Port Five – Santa Cruz De Tenerife
Next, and last stop before crossing the “pond”, was the Canary Islands, specifically, Tenerife. (Per our tour guide, Nico, it’s pronounces Tene-reef, not Tene-reefa.) We booked a tiur that took us over the Anaga mountain range to the other side of the island, Taganana. This is an extremely narrow, winding, road that sounds much like the Road to Hana in Hawaii.
Road to Taganana
After an included stop at a hillside restaurant, we headed back to Santa Cruz before heading to La Laguna.
Our tour let us have some free time in La Laguna in the city center where there was a thriving Farmers Market.
After returning to the ship, it was time to really relax as we had 7 full days at sea. The crossing was a piece of cake. There were a couple of days in the middle where there were some sizable swells.
We did, however, encounter several beautiful skyscapes along the way.
If you recall, we met several of the Band Members / Entertainers on Cruise # 23. We have stayed in contact with a couple of the crew, especially Tony “Tromboney”. In fact, when he had a layover in L.A. between ships, we took him for a tour of Santa Monica and Hollywood. When we boarded Regal Princess, the house band was performing in the Piazza, so I took a photo of the players and sent it to Tony to see if he recognized anyone. He immediately responded “Ramiro” (Trumpet / Flugelhorn). Tony said “Great Player”. After they finished, I introduced Suzi and I to Ramiro and showed him Tony’s photo.
Again, we found most of the entertainers and guest-facing crew seem to eat on the starboard side in the Horizon Bistro, so that’s where Suzi and I ate all of our meals.
As time went on, we were able to meet quite a few of the house band members, including James, the bassist and Music Manager. One night, James stopped by to say hi and noticed Suzi had a bowl of marinated asparagus. James’s eye lit up and asked where she got it. She told him where in the buffet to find it. He went searching but we noticed he came back empty handed. Suzi went back to the buffet and found the staff had, indeed, removed the asparagus as they were running low. Suzi asked if there was any left, so the staff gladly gave her what they had. She delivered it to James, who was beyond surprised. He said something to the effect of “We’re supposed to make your vacation special, not the other way around!”
A couple of days later, we saw James in the Piazza. He handed Suzi a bag with two stuffed animals and a letter of appreciation for tracking down the asparagus.
Of our 16 Princess Cruises, the entertainment staff was excellent. Gary, Natalie, Oleks, Erica and Jacinta led the activities. The Singers and Dancers were among the best we’ve seen and the house band were incredible. The show headliners are constantly rotated around the fleet. Those that require the band have limited rehearsal time so the band has to learn the music, often by sight-reading and perform like the professionals they are. Kudos to James (Bass / Manager), Ramiro (Trumpet), Jake (Sax), Roman (trombone), Gio (drums – a lefty), Vince (Guitar) and Samuel (Keyboards). During the sea days, a few of the singers were highlighted in matinee concerts. In particular was Sujana Chand. Quite remarkable.
Once we got to Florida, we chose a late disembarkation of 9:30. Due to the number of non-Americans on board, Customs slowed to a crawl. They were prioritizing those that had flights, so we got to stay a bit longer. As it happened, James popped into the Vista Lounge, so we visited with him while the Piano tuner was replacing a string.
We got off the ship around 12:30 and grabbed a transfer to Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood airport to pick up our car, then headed up to our brothers place for 10 days.
All in all a great cruise. Looking forward to #27 in April. Going to Hawaii on the Crown Princess.
Last year, Suzi and I took a Halloween Cruise on the Majestic Princess. We decided to grab a table in the Buffet and ended up sitting next to a few members of the entertainment staff. Suzi and I brought a big bag of Halloween candy to pass out to crew (and any kids on the cruise). We ended up having breakfast and/or lunch with them every day. One of the staff was the trombone player, Tony Tromboney. Since I played trombone in High School, we made a connection.
We have kept in touch with Tony ever since. He had a couple of free days in Los Angeles between ships, so we met Tony at his hotel and took him for a drive around town.
Tony is currently the Music Manager on the Royal Princess, whose homeport is San Francisco. They are doing a California Coastal itinerary and were in San Pedro (Port of Los Angeles) on Friday. Tony was able to get us both Day Passes, so we could actually board the ship, have lunch and visit.
We met Tony outside the cruise terminal and got to go in through the Crew entrance. We “traded” in our Passports for our visitor badges, went through security and onto the ship.
Having had the opportunity on the Ruby Princess to do “The Ultimate Ship Tour”, so knew what to expect. A very utilitarian environment but very clean and well maintained.
Since we were “visitors” and not fare-paying “guests”, Tony was able to show us some of the crew areas, like the Crew Mess.
Officers Mess
And the crew pool at the bow, including the “spare” anchor.
We were able to meet some more of the crew and will, hopefully, see them in the near future.
We were able to go into the Horizon Court Buffet and sat with Tony at one of the high top tables, similar to when we first met on the Majestic one year ago, almost to the day.
4:00 PM… (OK, 16:00 Ships time), it was time to disembark after relaxing in the Piazza and enjoying a hot chocolate from the International Café.
As we traded our passes for out passports, we realized how lucky we were to have met Tony and to have kept in touch.
This was the 7 day Mexican Riviera, round trip from Long Beach, on the Carnival Panorama. Suzi and I were celebrating 2 anniversaries. August 27th was our 31st anniversary since we met and August 29th was our 29th Wedding Anniversary.
The Panorama is a Vista Class ship and is one of our favorite ships of all we’ve sailed on. So many options for dining!
This was purely a getaway vacation. Perfect timing as the week after, the Panorama was interrupted by Hurricane Kay. We drove ourselves to the Long Beach Cruise Terminal by 10:00 AM. Got checked in and onboard by 11:30. Booked the same stateroom as the last trip, Stateroom 9216. Off to the buffet on Lido deck, where I was re-acquainted with my favorite device, the handwashing station. Place your hands in two cylinders and they start to spin and spray jacuzzi temperature soap and water for 12 seconds. Thus, I call it the “Hand Spa”. There are several on the Lido Deck and I’m pretty sure I used all of them.
If you read my previous review of the ship, the other piece of “tech” I like is the elevators. Each elevator is assigned a letter. You select the Deck from the panel in the lobby, then the system will tell you which elevator “letter” to go to. Each member of the party should make a selection so the system can determine how many elevators are needed. Our first journey on the Panorama was after the industry pause, so there were only about 50% of capacity. This time, it was fully booked, so there was a little confusion as Decks 3, 4, 5 and 10 could get rather busy and require more elevators. The only real downside was on disembarkation day. Too many people wanted to self-disembark, us included, that since only 1 person was hitting the button, elevators were far and few between. When they did arrive, many were full. This is the first time we’ve ever chosen to self-debark and may not again.
As expected, the weather was hot and humid. We knew that going in so did not book any excursions. We got off in Puerto Vallarta to walk over to the Mall. We stayed on the ship in Mazatlán and Cabo.
We did not eat in the MDR. Instead, we ate primarily in the buffet. On anniversary night, I splurged and got a pound and a half lobster from the Seafood Shack. We also enjoyed the included lunch from JiJi’s and who can pass up Guy’s Burger Joint or Blue Iguana Café!
We find the buffet a great alternate. I’m a casual guy, always in dress shorts. If a menu posted for the MDR looks really good, we’ll give it a go. The meals offered just didn’t appeal that much to either of us.
A “benefit” of hot and humid weather also brings the chance of a thunderstorm. A few cruises back, we were able to sit on our balcony and watch lightening across Banderas Bay when leaving Puerto Vallarta. What a sight! Fortunately, we were given the same show but a bit further away. Same the the next evening. Wonderful to see Mother Nature in action.
Disembarkation, as stated earlier, was not well organized. The walkway is on Deck 4 Midship. Only those guests whos group was called could go to Deck 4. Good luck getting an elevator. When there was an elevator it was either full or… when it got to Deck 4, it was so congested, you could not exit the elevator, rendering it unavailable for other passengers waiting to go to Deck 3 or 5. Going forward, we will stick with the latest possible disembarkation time and relax on the Lido Deck.
Currently getting ready for the next cruise. We will be flying into Rome where we will staying 4 nights before heading to the Regal Princess for a 15 day journey across the pond to Florida.
I retired after 27 years working for the same company on March 31, 2022. In order to celebrate, we booked a 15 day Hawaiian Cruise on the Grand Princess, round trip from Los Angeles. We booked our favorite Stateroom, Lido 214
Sine we had done this itinerary three times before, we were more interested in just taking a long cruise than trying to sightsee. It was a good thing as we ran into several challenges, which will be explained later.
We decided to do what we did last trip to the Islands. Book rental cars on Hilo and Kauai. I did research car rentals on Maui (Kahului), however, the Costco site said there was no shuttle service from the port to the airport, so we looked for alternates. I found a Hop On / Hop Off bus tour through Trip Advisor.
Hawaii had just lifted their requirements to be tested for COVID prior to arriving, so we didn’t have to register with the State so were looking forward to celebrating my retirement.
We did all of our pre-cruise registering on the Ocean Medallion app and got our Green Lane and early embarkation time. We arrived at the port around 10:00am and waited until 11:00 before the ship was cleared and they started boarding. We were able to drop our carry-on’s in our stateroom and headed to the Buffet. We were greeted by a staff member who make sure all guests washed their hands. This was the one and only time we saw this happen.
We set sail in the late afternoon and hit the usual rough seas for the first 2 days. Suzi and I both must have a good tolerance for choppy seas as we really never feel queasy, even without medication or a patch. The remainder of the first leg was very relaxing and wonderful. We met a lovely couple from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Len and Honor. We met up with them pretty much every day for breakfast and lunch in the Buffet. We had a lot of laughs! In fact, we put a deposit down on a British Isles cruise that spends a day in Belfast. Looking forward to seeing Len and Honor again.
First port was Hilo. Time to head down to the car rental shuttle, which we did only to find out that Alamo Rental Car was not a sponsor of the shuttle. Humm. For those not familiar… All of the car rental agencies are in the same building at the Hilo Airport. It’s more like a big hut than a building. After talking to the shuttle driver, she agreed to take us to the airport and later return us to the ship for $5.00 each way. This beat a taxi or Uber, so we went with it.
I had reserved a convertible so we got a bright red Mustang. We open the top, applied sunscreen and took a short drive through Downtown Hilo and then took every cutoff to drive along the coast. Gorgeous day. On the last cruise, we rented a convertible, but it rained a majority of the time, so never really got to enjoy going “topless”. This time, we took a leisurely drive up to Akaka Falls before heading back into Hilo. We stopped along the downtown area and walked around a bit before returning the car. Perfect timing as it started to rain as soon as we got to the airport.
Next day was Honolulu. We decided to walk along the beach area about 2.5 miles to Waikiki Beach and back to get in our 12,000 steps. Very hot, but so scenic. Next time, we might look into a rental car or try Touro (Like Air BnB for cars).
Next day was Kauai. This is where things started going really haywire. I had booked another convertible. We walked down to the shuttle area only to find out there was no shuttle… They stopped it due to COVID and never restarted it. Similar to Hilo, the rental cars were all at the airport. Figured it would have cost us about $80.00 for transport on top of an already expensive rental car. I was really looking forward to the beautiful drive to the lava tube known as Spouting Horn, but wasn’t meant to be. Instead, we took the shuttle to Wal Mart and Hilo Hattie’s. Had this been our first trip to Kauai, would have been extremely disappointed but the first rule of cruising is… Just go with the flow.
Next (Last Port) day was Kahului in Maui. Normally, ships anchor off Lahaina and tender in. Lahaina is making enhancements to the port, so we had to dock in this mostly industrial port. This is where I had us booked for the Hop On / Hop Off bus. We had just received confirmation, so we headed to the pickup point. Guess what? No bus. We were told that the bus had not restarted after COVID… Great! So… we walked 2.5 miles to the shopping mall before heading back to the ship. Due to the fact this port is for commerce, you had to follow a fenced in maze to get from the ship to the entrance to the port. Similar to Mazatlán but at least in Mazatlán, they offer a shuttle to get from the ship’s berth to the entrance.
We were supposed to leave Kahului at 6:00pm, however, due to high winds and a narrow entrance, the Captain decided to wait to the winds to calm down before attempting to leave. At around 11:00pm, we headed back to our cabin and I went out to the balcony. We were just starting to move even though the winds hadn’t subsided significantly. Instead, they employed four tugboats, one on each “corner” of the ship. The tugboats were able to keep the Grand Princess centered when exiting the channel. https://youtu.be/hmXtEf4DTVg And we are off for another 5 days at sea, a stop at Ensenada, then home.
We noticed that about halfway through the cruise, our Cruise Director, Steve, went missing. No word, just gone. We started noticing many people starting to cough, sneeze and otherwise show symptoms of being sick. We knew the deck below ours was being used as a quarantine deck as the hall doors were closed with caution tape and warning signs. We heard quite a few people buzzing about a significant number of passengers and crew and been testing positive for COVID and had been moved to Desk 12.
We wore masks anytime we were in a public space, especially the Princess Theater. Unfortunately, we were in a small minority. There were people, obviously sick, out and about and without masks. We’d find ourselves moving from seat to seat to stay away from those people. On the last day, Suzi started feeling sick, so we self quarantined.
Although it was quite obvious there was an outbreak going on, Princess was not very transparent. We feel they should have informed us about the situation and asked us to start wearing masks and sanitizing hands. Instead, it was just the same messaging that mask wearing was “suggested”.
Needless to say, we did not leave the ship in Ensenada. We just kept to ourselves in the room and threw our belongings in the suitcases. As soon as we got home, we tested. Suzi was positive and I was negative. We both got an Rx for Paxlovid which Suzi started immediately. As soon as she finished her 15 pills and started to feel better, I tested positive. It really hit Suzi hard, whereas I just felt like I had a mild cold.
7 Day Mexican Riviera on Majestic Princess. Stateroom Lido 210. Round Trip from San Pedro / Port of Los Angeles. October 30 – November 6, 2021.
So nice to be back on a Princess ship. It really didn’t hit until the sail away party when they played a video with Jan Swartz welcoming us back. I have nothing but admiration for her. I feel she handled the pause with heartfelt dignity and respect for her crewmembers.
Had an issue linking my booking to the Medallion app. After several lengthy calls to the Ocean Navigators team, they just could not fix the issue. I could access Suzi’s account, but it would constantly lockup with a white screen. Finally, at 11:00 PM the night before embarkation, I got access to the booking so was able to fill out the health questions. Had to pickup our Medallions at the pier. Having been in the Tech Sector for 30 years, it was very frustrating.
We arrived at about 10:00 AM. Check in was smooth but had to wait a bit in the terminal. They do not offer the most comfortable seats. At 50% capacity, boarding was easy. Our room was ready so we dropped off our carry-ons and proceeded to the World Fresh Marketplace.
We had heard from previous reviews that, unlike the Carnival Panorama we were just on in September, this was either staff served or food was in individual plates. I’m sure all the cruise lines under the Carnival umbrella are trying out different processes to see what works best. We were a bit apprehensive about having the food served by staff. We had this back in 2006 on our Mediterranean cruise. There had been a Norovirus outbreak during the cruise before us, so the Staff was caught off guard.
This time, however, much better managed. The entire staff was more than willing to please. They would usually start out with a small portion but would gladly give you as much as you wanted. They would gladly pick out certain veggies, for example to suit you taste. Very accommodating. They also had single serving plates or ramekins you could pickup on your own.
Everyone followed COVID guidelines without issue. There was a crew member at each entrance to the buffet who would kindly remind you to use one of the handwashing stations as you entered.
The ship set sail the day before Halloween, so the ship’s Piazza was very well decorated.
We brought a little over 750 pieces of Halloween candy with us, mostly for the crew. We made a lot of friends…
Speaking of making friends, on Day 2, Suzi and I found a great spot in the buffet. Due to the reduced capacity, the forward serving stations we not being utilized, so it was very quiet. Turns out, we chose an area where many of the public-facing crew ate. Senior staff, musicians, singers and dancers, etc. Suzi started handing out candy, so we struck up a conversation with some of the entertainment staff. By the end of the cruise, we made some really good friends. We ate most every breakfast and lunch with these people.
I play several instruments, including the trombone back in Jr. High and High School. We struck up a conversation with Tony, the trombone player in the Princess Orchestra, then joined by Pefi, the drummer for the Ocean Blvd band (I also play drums). Then Luke, one of the dancers joined… Next thing we knew, we had Christian, David, another Tony, all congregating pretty much every day until they had to practice or help with excursions, etc.
Tony “Tromboney” offered to comp us to a specialty restaurant. We told him he didn’t have to but he insisted. We had already eaten at Crown Grill, so we decided on the French Bistro. Very good! Thanks Tony!
Turns out Tony was on the Diamond Princess when the world stopped due to COVID. In fact, his folks flew from the UK to Japan and was supposed to join Tony, but…
Tony said it was quite the experience. Through it all, he had nothing but praise for the way Princess had treated them. Fortunately, Tony never got the virus. When they were finally able to disembark, the company made sure they all made it home safely and made sure to keep in touch with them and offered financial assistance. It made us feel good about giving our loyalty to Princess. They care!
Later in the cruise, we met up with Luke, one of the dancers / tablemates. There was a large group getting their picture taken in the Piazza. They borrowed one of the large Stanley bears from one of the shops. Suzi mentioned how much she’d love to get one. I was actually planning on getting one, but the stores were all closed the first few days to restock / remerchandise.
We split up and headed towards the elevator. As the doors started to close, Luke swoops in and hands Suzi a bag with… Stanley! WOW! BEST CREW EVER!
We never set foot in the Main Dining Room (MDR). We did the Bistro and Crown Grill. Both good, but portions were much less than previous visits. We ordered a side of Creamed Spinach at CG. Had, at the most, 3 tablespoons. We asked for a second bowl and it had much less.
The most disappointing meal, portion-wise was at the Bistro. The taste and quality were excellent but… I ordered the seafood bisque. It cam out looking like this:
Quite impressive! The server gently cut off the crust to reveal:
Very disheartening.
The place I found myself eating at almost every day was Chopsticks. I wish all ships offered this option. They server Ramen, Won Ton Soup and a special every day. Delicious!
Our first port was Cabo. No excursions planned but I was in search of my beloved Damiana Liquor. I got hooked on this several trips back and always picked up a bottle or two whenever in Mexico. I ran out during lockdown, so was on a quest. It was available right off the tender dock for $25.00 USD but knew I could get a better price. We walked into downtown and as we were about to give up, we found a place for $17.00 a bottle. I got 4.
Next port was Mazatlán. We just took the tram from the ship to the shops within the port. We have a friend who is from Mazatlán who just had a baby girl, so we picked up a little outfit, then went back on board. Time to have lunch with the crew!
Next stop? Puerto Vallarta. We made our pilgrimage to that authentic Puerto Vallarta institution, Wal-Mart. Hey, at least we are on a cruise ship!
The Production shows were the best. The singers and dancers were terrific. AJ Jamal was the comedian. We’ve seen him on several of the West Coast itineraries and never fails to make us laugh. Even if he tells the same joke, he’s made it current. Lot’s of new material, too.
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the entertainment crew, this was one of our favorite cruises ever.
7 Day Mexican Riviera on Carnival Panorama. Stateroom 9216. Round Trip from the Port of Long Beach. September 18 – 25, 2021
Finally, back where we belong after a very rough year and a half of no cruising. As you’ve read, we have done this itinerary several times, so this post is more about the ship and the experience than about the ports. Due to the pandemic, we did not book any excursions or wander off the ship too much.
We’ve always had a great time but once we got hooked on Princess, we really didn’t look towards any other cruise line. Until now.
Due to the relocation of the Ruby Princess, our Sept 18, 2021 cruise got canceled. Since I already had the time off work, we scrambled to find a replacement.
Since we live in Long Beach, when the Carnival Panorama made its return to sailing, it made all the local news channels. Even Doug Parker from Cruise Radio and Sheri from Cruise Tips TV were there. It was doing the same 7 day itinerary and offered one on Sept 18th. PERFECT and BOOKED!
We made our way to the ship and parked at the cruise terminal parking structure. We arrived about 10:30 as some passengers were still debarking the ship. The staff let us in where we had to show our vaccination cards along with a negative COVID test done two days prior. The COVID test was super easy. Did the Rapid Antigen test at a CVS nearby. The test was self-administered under the watchful eye of the technician. We did the test at 4:00 PM and had the results by 5:00 PM. Negative!!!!
We had heard that all passengers over 12 years old were vaxed and everyone had to show a negative test. Everyone seemed to be following the masking guidelines. A little after 12:00, they started the boarding process. The anticipation was growing.
Walking towards the ship on the gangway was just an incredible feeling. Seeing the crew cheering us as we stepped aboard was phenomenal. One of the first things you notice is how awesome this ship is. As I recall, this ship was only in operation for three months when the pandemic hit, so it was like being on a brand new ship!
Atrium Decor
The Atrium is great! The fluted video screen could keep you mesmerized for hours but too much to do.
After watching Doug Parker’s video on the ship, I was looking forward to the elevators. Yes, I said elevators. You see, on the newer Vista class ships, you select the deck you want from outside the elevator. There are several touch panels that display each deck. You select where you want to go. Each elevator is designated by a letter, so… You want to go to the Lido Deck, simply press Deck 10 Lido and it will tell you which elevator to go to. The letter above each elevator will light up to help you locate which one. Once you board the elevator, your deck is preselected.
What’s really nice, in regards to COVID, if multiple parties all want to go to the Lido Deck, the system will send more elevators, so you are all not trying to cram into one. Just wait and yours will be there soon.
We were able to drop off our carry-on’s before the 1:30 PM designated time. Here is a shot of our stateroom. Spacious and very comfortable.
Stateroom 9216
We headed up to the buffet. This ship, and I assume the other Vista class ships were outfitted with, what I called, Hand Spa’s. Basically, you place each hand into a cylinder and it start spinning with a warm soap solution for 12 seconds. You dry your hands and you are all sanitized and ready to eat. I wanted to bring one of these home!
Due to the reduced capacity, I believe 60%, not all serving stations were being utilized, but it was all self-service (except for the bacon. Rationed and every other day…) Good selection and we found plenty.
The food choices on the Panorama were absolutely phenomenal. We never set foot in the Main Dining Room (MDR). we did, however, take a look at each of the two MDR’s and found them well designed. If it were a longer itinerary, I’m sure we would have tried them.
You have Blue Iguana Café, Guy’s Burger Joint and Guy’s Pig and Anchor. Blue Iguana and Guy’s Burger is included with the base fare. Pig and Anchor is ala carte at dinner time but they do offer an awesome buffet for lunch at no additional cost. Pulled Pork, Chicken, Baked Beans, etc.
Also available for lunch at no extra cost were selections from Cucina Del Capitano and Mongolian Stir-Fry at Ji Ji Asian Kitchen. I did have Pasta for lunch one day and I was impressed.
One of our favorite hangouts was the Havana Bar. Very nicely decorated and generally quiet during the day. They have karaoke, then a really talented Latin Band in the evening.
Havana Bar
If you happen to follow Sheri from Cruise Tips TV, you know that her husband and son always travel together but are usually in the background. In fact, you usually see them in her vlogs and photos from their backsides. They like to keep a low profile and don’t use their names. I can respect that. Sheri is Cruise Tips TV!
So I was waiting for my wife, Suzi, near the Blue Iguana Café and I saw a family of three from the backside and I knew it had to be them. I texted Sheri and sure enough. it WAS them. I think it was day 5 while Suzi and I were having a Pina Colada in the Ocean Plaza that I saw them again, so we said hello and introduced ourselves. She called me one of the OG’s of her YouTube channel. It was nice to meet Mr. Cruise Tips and their son (who shall remain nameless out of respect).
As I said at the top of the article, we did not plan any excursions due to the pandemic. The ship did suffer from a propulsion issue that kept us from attaining top speed, so the itinerary was reversed. Instead of Cabo, Mazatlán, then Puerto Vallarta, we did PV first and Cabo last.
It was very hot and humid in all three ports. In PV, we ventured all the way across the street the PV Shopping Mall. At the entrance, you had to have your temperature taken and had to sanitize your hands. As we were sailing out, we did catch a bit of a rainbow.
Puerto Vallarta Rainbow
In Mazatlán, we took the tram to the port entrance and ventured out for a bit of a walk. The city painted a blue line that you could follow into the downtown area. We never made it all the way due to the heat. We felt safe as there were police or security personnel on every corner. Here we are heading out of the port.
As for Cabo, short stay and didn’t want to hassle with the tender, so stayed on board. Due to my work and scheduled vacation days, we knew we were coming back at the end of October, so didn’t miss anything.
All in all, great trip. Would highly recommend Carnival Panorama to anyone and will definitely sail on her again. The food was great. The comedy in the Punchliner was great. It was just a wonderful cruise and exceeded all expectations.
Long time no blog. I wonder why. Not much has happened, has there? Let’s just say it was a very loooonnnnggg 18 months. We had a back to back (B2B) cruise booked for April, 2020. In fact, we were going to be traveling with two other couples during one of the legs. Canceled.
Per Princess, they were expecting the pause to last until mid May, so we booked Alaska. Canceled. Let’s try Europe for the summer. Canceled. Another B2B for October. Canceled. The only good thing was that Princess offered 150% Future Cruise Credits (FCC) if we kept the money with them. Since we had the cruises budgeted out, we went for the FCC’s.
So not only was the industry shutdown, ships were anchoring off the coast in Long Beach. On one day, we counted 7 ships, mostly Princess. Talk about adding salt into the wound. So close, yet so far. We took weekly drives across town to see ships docked in San Pedro. Sad, but kept the dreams alive that someday, they’d be back.
Finally, with the pause ending in sight, we booked Ruby Princess for Sept. 18th and Majestic Princess for October 30th. Another cancelation… Ruby was being transferred to its new home in San Francisco.
Since I already had time off booked for the week of Sept. 18th, we looked for an alternate on Princess but none we could do in that time frame. We had exactly 14 days before becoming Elite on Princess and 14 days booked, so we really wanted to find a way to make this work. We have a 15 Day Hawaiian cruise booked for April, 2022 and wanted to board as Elite (free laundry) instead of having to wait until our next cruise.
Well, drop back and punt. The Carnival Panorama was sailing out of Long Beach on Sept 18th and going on the same itinerary, so we booked it.
As you might recall, Cruise #19 took us to the same ports but that was on the Carnival Imagination. This was on Royal Princess.
I’m not knocking Carnival, by any means, but #19 was with our brother, sister and two teen boys, so they would have been bored on Princess with no water slide. Us, we like the relaxation of cruising.
So why so soon? Easy answer? We are cruise addicts. That’s what we do. We conjure up reasons to cruise. Now the rationalization behind booking this cruise is…
As of this moment in time, we have three 7 day Princess cruises booked for 2020. That’s 21 sea days. We need 18 sea days to reach Elite. If you do the math, it means that we will reach Elite during our third cruise for the year. As you know, loyalty upgrades don’t happen until you have completed the cruise. So… by taking this 4 day jaunt, we will reach Elite when we get off our second 7 day cruise and will board the third cruise as Elite.
Honestly, Suzi and I aren’t into the whole status thing. No… Want free laundry and a bar setup. We aren’t interested in getting any preferential treatment or think we’re “owed” anything… Just want my damn free laundry. HA HA! I know, I know… It would cost a lot less to pay for laundry than paying for this cruise but… Gotta have an excuse for the addiction.
So while we were enjoying Cruise #20 on the Royal and realized we could become Elite 1 cruise sooner, we booked this 4 day. Generally, we feel that 10 Days is the minimum cruise length, so were glad to get away but thought the time would just fly by. It really didn’t. We had visions of walking into our cabin and seeing disembarkation instructions… We did not.
This was our first ever Forward facing cabin, Lido 103 Starboard. It’s an extended balcony stateroom with obstructed view. It was a very large balcony, but the glass under the railing was nice thick steel. Superman would have had difficulty looking through this. But, all in all, excellent cabin and we’d do it again.
Copyright Meinke Photography
Embarkation using Ocean Medallion was a breeze. We boarded at 11 and our Cabin was ready. Since we had just gotten off the ship in Oct, we knew the layout. Since we booked so close to sailing we got Anytime Dining and were #54 on the wait list for Late Traditional Dining. Since we prefer building a relationship with our waitstaff, we just opted to eat all meals at Horizon Court, which was fine cause I didn’t have to bring long pants and dress shoes…
We recognized quite a few of the staff and several of them recognized us. Matt O was our CD the first cruise. This time it was Marcus. Two totally different personalities but both were present and on top of things. We had seen all production shows but did go to see our favorite comedian, AJ Jamal. Just as funny the second time.
One of the guest lecturers, Leo Rossi, went on tour with several bands including Fleetwood Mac. He had lots of great stories to tell. Really glad we went to those talks in the Princess LIVE! theater.
Woke up the morning of Day 2, walked out on the Veranda and saw…
Copyright Meinke Photography
We booked an excursion to the Wrigley Gardens through Princess for later in the day, so we had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the tender. By now, it was starting to get a bit cloudy and cold. As we started to group together, we found out there were mechanical issues with the tour bus, so it was cancelled. Oh well… We ended up walking all the way from the tender dock to the Casino and back. While we were in line for the tender, it started to sprinkle. By the time we got back to our cabin, it was raining.
The next day was a day at sea. There was something magical about this day. Since Catalina and Ensenada are in close proximity, the ship was doing 2 or 3 knots. Add to that, being over the front of the ship, it was eerily quiet. No wake, no wind.
Copyright Meinke Photography
The last day was Ensenada. Was quite cool stormy-looking but we walked all the way into town and back. I know this is really nothing more than a Jones Act requirement, but I kinda like Ensenada. It’s laid back but it’s comfortable.
And… During the cruise, we got an email from the Upgrade Gods. We found out that for our second cruise of 2020, we are getting upgraded from a standard balcony to a Mini Suite. SWEET! This is Leg Two of a Back To Back, so I called Princess and we were able to upgrade Leg One to a Mini Suite, just not the same one… I’ll check back after any deposits got returned and see if we can book the same room for both legs.
The Veranda Life 