XBGuy

Very interesting story, @GeorgesGal. Are you claiming the $1. 😉

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??? "Four Cheese, Vege, and Double Pepperoni" aounds like three choices. Is the fouth choice "no pizza?"

Land of Fajitas? Fajitas are Tex-Mex. I would not be surprised if you could order fajitas in a restaurant in Mexico, but I would bet $1 that it would be a restaurant is visited by a lot of Ameican tourists. Apologies for my puntiliousness. I am enjoying your reports.

I would imagine that it had to do with port traffic schedules,

Well, the clicking thing did not really work on my PC. I could magnify, but the labels were still illegible. I went to the Shafer site and looked at their offerings. From the bottle shape, and the position of some of the verbiage on the label, I think that wine in your tasting was the Red Shoulder Ranch Cardonnay. Certainly a very good wine, but I would have been over the moon if it had been the Relentless Syrah. The phone idea was better, but still not good enough for my eyes. Thanks,

Although I can't read the labels, those appear to be more than respectable wines. Even without being able to read the label, I would be happy to attend just to taste whatever that Shafer is.

We often leave unfinished wine on the table for staff. I once made that same statement on another Cruise Critic conversation, and somebody came back asking, "Do you do that instead of leaving a cash tip?" NO!

I don't thinks so. She does not make her own pastry. She uses frozen puff pastry. So, the unsalted butter was not critical for that. She does make her own duxelles. I was successful at grabbing mushrooms at Trader Joe's, yesterday.

Wishing all Dailyites a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. A few days ago Mrs. XBGuy decided that NYE would be a good time to make Beef Wellington. LUCKY ME! I really enjoy Cabernet Sauvignon with beef (and lamb), and, so, guess what we will be drinking along with some bubbly, tonight. I am so humbled by that display that @ottahand7 posted, yesterday. I think I would like to follow her around and help myself to the dregs left on the table, There was, easily, a glass left in that Yuckem bottle. Yesterday, I was dispatched to Trader Joe's with a list. I was surprised that they did not have unsalted butter. I asked a clerk and he thought there was a shortage. ?????? On the way home I stopped at a convenient Walmart. and they, also, were completely out of unsalted butter. Mrs. XBGuy was surprised by this. She had not heard of an unsalted butter shortage. She felt that a spike in demand this time of year would be expected because of all the holiday baking that is happening, but, again, that would have been expected. Holiday baking season happens every year. Well, after my coffee and bagel this morning I dropped by the Albertson's market, and they have plenty of unsalted butter. Crisis averted. Oh, yes, we will have black-eyed peas, tomorrow.

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WOW!!!!

A few years ago we took our first cruise on the Royal Princess--a nice 14-day Los Angeles-Alaska round-tripper. We were pretty excited about being able to order Oysters on the Half-Shell at the Ocean Terrace seafood bar. It took a couple days for us to get to it, but we found seats at a table and settled in. I ordered a bottle of Albarino, which I noticed is not currently offered on the Discovery Princess ☹️, and Mrs. XBGuy asked the server where their oysters were from. "Texas" I quickly thought to myself, "This is September. September has a 'R' in it." No dice. Mrs. XBGuy is very leery of Gulf oysters. Apologies to readers who enjoy Gulf oysters. She could not believe that Texas oysters were being served on a West Coast cruise. We found something else to order, and very much enjoyed our wine. The Ocean Terrace is a very nice venue. We were also able to enjoy Alaska oysters in Ketchikan and Skagway. We are big fans of the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. I am really sorry that @iamaqt2 and her husband encountered their difficulty.

I really don't think that Crown Grill is an option. I would suggest that if you have two vouchers for specialty dining, you consider making reservations for two evenings at Sabatini's,

I'm glad to hear that report. Either Princess has upgraded their policy, or the Hotel Manager on the Emerald Princess has installed his own policy. Yup, that would do it. 😉

Thank you to @LACruiser88 for jumping in. On our only visit (so far) to Loreto we took the Princess sponsored excursion to the clam bake fiesta. Walking around afterward, I did see a couple small family-type places as @LACruiser88 reported that looked pretty attractive, and I was looking forward to checking one out this trip, Yes, @iamaqt2we did have the Chocolate Clams at the fiesta. I ate quite a few of the clams. This lady and I kept taking our table's communal platter back for refills. In all honesty, while I enjoy most shellfish, these were a touch bland. However, we had a prepared sauce on the table that, when added to the the clams, made them terrific. There was plenty of food at the fiesta, and I enjoyed all of it. However, the Ugly American will not be denied. I heard more than one comment to the effect that "I can get better Mexican food back home."

A tip to future Princess cruises using the self-service laundry rooms. Yes, the dryers do seem to be slow. When using the dryer at home, I always clean the lint filter before starting a load. On our very first Princess cruise, I took a load of laundry to one of the self-service facilities. When I pulled the lint filter out of the dryer I could not believe the amount of lint that was trapped on it. There was no way that air could flow through it. Your laundry may still not dry as fast as you would like--similar to the "watched pot never boils" phenomenon--but cleaning that lint filter will help.

I am looking forward to following this conversation. We were booked on this cruise. December 28 is Mrs. XBGuy's birthday, and, so, we thought this cruise would make it special. However, a domestic situation arose, and we had to cancel shortly before final payment. That may have worked out for somebody, because it opened up a nice aft-facing suite for somebody. 😁 We took a similar itinerary in 2018 and were, especially, looking forward to returning to Loreto. Happily, I will be able to revisit vicariously, thanks to you fine people.

AI don't know why I am giving away my secrets, but this has worked for me every time. Go to Sabatini's (the sooner, the better), and introduce yourself to the headwaiter. Presumably, you met him on your previous visit. Explain that you enjoyed your dinner there and would like to book another, but have been unable to do so. Obviously, you have the Crown Grill reservation on the 27th, but, otherwise, be flexible about day and time. On Tuesday as you are leaving Crown Grill, make sure you stop off and gush to the headwaiter about how much you enjoyed the meal, and how you would like to come back. A handshake from your husband will not hurt.

That's a terrific story Master Chief. The LaVerne campus is very nice. It is not unlike an eastern college integrated into the community. Pepperdine is, of course, also a beautiful campus. In Malibu? Overlooking the Pacific? What would you expect? A lot of my college classmates were military vets studying engineering. Many of them were electronic techs who had been trained in the military and were employed at one of the many defense industry facilities here in SoCal. As a math major I had to take a year of Physics. I was OK with the lecture portion, but the lab portion almost did me in--especially, E&M. I would struggle to set up my equipment, but could not get results. So, I'd walk over to Pat Francomano's station or Jack McGuire's station to see how they'd set up their equipment. It worked. I could get pretty Lissajous figures on my oscilloscope. It was close, but I did survive physics.

I know LaVerne. It's no more than 10 miles from the XBGuys' adobe. We also know some people who earned their Ph.D.s from LaVerne and one friend who was an anthropology (I think) professor there.

Apologies to the rest of the continent, but it is fairly warm and toasty in SoCal, today. In 1971 I was awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematics by the California State College at Fullerton. I did not know there was a "Mathematics Day" until about 30 minutes ago. I'll be darned. Yes, Isaac Newton "invented" calculus, However, it is possible that Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently also did so--or, maybe. Leibniz stole Newton's work. I saw a thing on "Nova" a few years ago that late in his life, Greek mathematician Archimedes was contemplating the infinitesimal. It is not hard to imagine that if had lived, he would have "invented" calculus two millennia before the Newton/Leibniz spat. For a combination of reasons, we are having "Christmas Dinner" today. To me, pairing wine with turkey is difficult. The Internet Wine Geek wisdom is that you go with a Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is, probably, my least favorite red wine. However, I do keep my hand in it. So, I am going with this one It gets better, though. Mrs. XBGuy also bought some pears and some blue-veined cheese for our dessert. I am pretty sure that Roquefort cheese was invented in France to pair with Sauternes wine. So, who am I to argue?

Yes, I recall that @JamieLogical reported that two other ships were anchored at Cabo San Lucas along with them. Presumably, the available local tenders were engaged by the Carnival Miracle or the NCL Joy, and none were available for the Emerald Princess. The puzzling thing is why Emerald Princess used only four of their craft. The only answer I can come up with, and this is purely speculative, is that they were restricted by the harbor in order to control traffic.

This is where the sea lions hang out sunning themselves, After docking you should be able to walk to the end of your ship and get lots of pictures.

The backed up situation with the tendering that @JamieLogical reported at Cabo San Lucas is disappointing and must have been frustrating for the passengers. I have visited Cabo San Lucas several times and have never experienced anything like that--and, yes, our ship was anchored along with one or two other cruise ships. Typically, our ship engaged local tenders to facilitate the transfer of passengers. I have learned that these local tenders are faster and can carry more passengers than the orange covered rescue craft that the ship carries. My guess is that in the on the day of @JamieLogical's visit the local tenders were all engaged by the other cruise ships that were in port that day, and, so, the Emerald Princess had to rely on their own slower, smaller craft.