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.
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.
10 Day Mexican Riviera / Sea Of Cortez on Royal Princess. Stateroom Lido 234. Round Trip from San Pedro / Port of Los Angeles.
Although we have done this itinerary before, this had four “firsts”. 1. Our first cruise with Ocean Medallion. (Cruise #18 had Medallion Net internet.) 2. Our first cruise on a Royal Class ship. 3. An overnight in Cabo San Lucas 4. Visit to Manzanillo
As expected, our medallions arrived about 3 weeks before the cruise in a really elegant looking box. We just went with the included lanyard. I downloaded the Medallion App and completed the pre-embarkation steps.
We arrived at the Port of Los Angeles and got a close parking spot. Curb to boarding was maybe 20 minutes, tops. Princess does post a list of preferred boarding times but we always show up early. For a 4:00 PM sailing, we’ll try to arrive by 10:30 AM. Princess “suggests” 1:30 PM. That’s where you will find the lines. The Stateroom was ready at 11:00 so we dropped off our carry on.
Off to the Horizon Court and Bistro. Heard a lot about it and was excited to see it. But first… Sea View! You know, that arched platform with plexiglass flooring that seems to freak alotta people out? Had to try it out. Never missed the opportunity to walk over it during the entire time.
Really impressed with the Horizon Bistro and Court. So much more open than the other Princess ships with less crowding.
One of our chief complaints with Princess recently is that there weren’t enough staff to turn over the tables quickly or provide drink service. Not this time. We really never had a problem finding a table, even on sea days. There seemed to be a lot more choices and variety than we were used to on prior cruises.
Before Muster drill, we went to the Princess Theater for an overview of Ocean Medallion. Glad we went. Our Cruise Director, Matt O (O’Brien) told us that while they were still testing things out, if you ordered a drink through the smartphone app, the first drink was free! Yes, FREE! We both jumped on that.
Another nice option was “always on internet”. We experienced this on Cruise #19 on Carnival. As Platinum Level, we get 250 free minutes each but you have to constantly log in and out. For a discounted amount, we could upgrade to always on. $120.00 for up to 4 devices (we had 3) and it was very fast. So convenient.
Really liked having Ocean Medallion. No more fumbling around for a key card to unlock the stateroom door. Need to see where Suzi is? Just go to the portal by an elevator, click Ship Mates, tap your medallion, and there she was.
The one thing we really noticed was how long the Royal is. When you are on Deck 7 and look down the corridor on the Starboard side, it appears to be endless. As for the overall layout, very similar to other Princess ships. Piazza on 5 and Atrium on 6 and 7.
The casino was nice but packed with machine banks at weird angles that made it difficult to move around. It was also the warmest of all the venues. Warm as in uncomfortably warm.
My only real complaint is… There is no outside grand promenade where you can walk around the entire perimeter of the ship. I really missed that. There are four separate outdoor areas on Deck 7 Midship and Aft but it’s not the same. When I think cruising, I see people walking along the promenade. I really hope that Princess rethinks this in the future.
Another design issue I thought would get to me was the size of the standard balcony. I saw a lot of reviews knocking it, but I really didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Noticeably smaller? Yes. Irritatingly smaller? No.
As always, we got a stateroom on the Lido Deck, L234. It was not considered an obstructed view room, however, there is quite an overhang from Deck 17.
Really liked the stateroom. And…. Two electrical outlets!!!!!!! Also two in the bathroom! Seemed the layout made it a bit more cramped than Grand Class ships but it was fine.
Like I said earlier, the ship is LONG. The Port of Los Angeles is one of the largest ports in the world but not large enough for a Royal Class ship to turn around in. The Primary Cruise Terminal requires a bit of maneuvering to get in and out of. Doable for a Grand Class Ship but not possible for Royal. So, they use the Terminal directly on the main channel in front of the USS Iowa. They head in when docking, then go out tail first. Kinda weird looking.
Now, I’m not sure whether the Royal has much better stabilization that Grand Class, or if the sea was just unusually calm, but this was the smoothest of all 20 cruises. (Fourth with this similar itinerary.)
Day two was our first full day was at sea. Very relaxing. On day three, we pulled into Cabo San Lucas around 1:00 PM. HOT and HUMID! We, and most others, did not get off the ship. There was also a Disney Ship anchored, so probably just as well.
On day four, we knew we had until 5:30 for last tender, so we took our time, got on a tender and sweated our way to the marina. No Cabo Wabo, no walk to the Paradiso Mall, just a short walk around the marina and through the shops. Especially those with A/C.
Day five was Loreto. It’s our favorite port on this itinerary just because it’s so quaint. Not a lot to do but stroll up and down the pedestrian street. The city hasn’t lost it’s charm.
Day six was another sea day and another time to order drinks using the Ocean Medallion App. So cool.
Day seven was Puerto Vallarta. We’ve done all of the excursions we’re interested in so we decided to pretend to be part of the crew and went to Wal-Mart… Yes, Wal-Mart. Still really hot and humid so didn’t mind not spending a lot of time outside.
The highlight of the entire trip happened as we left Puerto Vallarta. Suzi and I sat out on our balcony and watched a thunderstorm developing on the other side of Banderas Bay. We sat out for at least two and half hours… Next thing we knew, it was way past our traditional seating meal time. Worth every minute.
Day eight was Manzanillo. Had never been so booked the City Tour and Shopping. It’s very hard to describe Manzanillo. It’s very tropical looking. Mountains on three sides… But economically, very depressed. Now there was a hurricane that came through 15 days prior so hard to tell if a lot of windows got blown out from houses or whether the houses just don’t have windows.
The first stop was to downtown. Lots of shops, so we had 20 minutes to get a good sense of the area. Lot’s of kids that seemed very happy… They probably don’t know any better.
We took a drive into the more affluent areas where all of the 5 star resorts are before heading back into town and stopping by a restaurant on the beach for a drink before returning to the ship.
Days nine and ten were sea days. Perfect. We prefer itineraries where the last day is a sea day. Two is even better. We eat breakfast, then head to the cabin and pack. Get it over and done with and enjoy the day.
Now, more about the ship. Entertainment was really good! This itinerary had two sets of singers and dancers. We happened to catch the very last performance of the show, Encore, by this particular cast. Matt O introduced all cast members by name and said that, except for one of the male singers, this cast had all met 9 months prior to begin rehearsals and have been performing together for the past 7 months. It was a moving tribute… Literally.
Our favorite entertainer was AJ Jamal. We haven’t laughed as loud or as often since catching a Steve Moris Show. If AJ is performing on your cruise, GO!!!! No cussing (which we’re not opposed to when appropriate) just funny!
Another hilarious show was a takeoff on Dancing With The Stars. They got 3 male and 3 female passengers and paired them up with 6 crew members. Engineers, to waitstaff and even the gal that dishes out the soft serve ice cream. It was so much fun!
On the very last evening, they introduced the new cast at a performance of the latest Stephen Schwartz production, The Secret Silk. As always, the Production Crew and sets are absolutely phenomenal.
So of course we had to meet with Carol, the Future Cruise Director, and decided we should go ahead and book a little 4 day Catalina / Ensenada cruise in December, 2019. This will be our first time in a froward-facing stateroom, Lido 103. Can’t wait.
You see, we are getting close to Elite Status. If everything pans out for 2020, we’ll hit Elite in the middle of a cruise. As you know, it doesn’t count until you’ve completed the cruise. This way, we’ll start that cruise on Elite. Makes perfect sense. Right?
The Veranda Life 