abbydancer2003

CrownDecember Day 2 The clocks went back last night (first of two, but we have to give them back after Hawaii. So after a good night sleep, I woke up around 9:20, but wait, the clocks went back so it was 8:20. We decided not to bother to try to get to breakfast, so Glen took a shower and I did this mornings Wordle. Eventually we decided to go to the IC for coffee and a pastry. To our surprise, we found a table immediately, and a server came over soon after. We ordered some coffee, and pastries. The very nice server came back with the coffee, but said the pastries have to be self services (ie we have to get them). Glen wanted a bran muffin and I thought I wanted a cherry danish, that is until I saw they had cinnamon rolls and monkey bread behind the counter, not on display. So I got his muffin and I switched to monkey bread. We enjoyed our coffee and pastry, but Glen thought the coffee should have not be in to-go cups. Turns out that was OK, because when he was finished we decided to go to Skywalkers, and read, and I wasn’t done with my coffee. So I took it. I stopped at the room to pick up my laptop and my kindle and met Glen there. We stayed until the Cruise critic meetup started. Glen took my stuff back and then came back up for part of the meetup. That was very nice, and well run. A few of the officers showed up, and said a few words, although the beverage manager, did recite all the packages that were available. Other than that, it was nice, and I hung around until noon and met Glen back in the room. We hung out there for a bit and then decided to go to lunch in the dining room. There was a fairly long line, but we decided to wait, because we were afraid that the buffet would be a zoo. We waited about a half hour, but during the wait we got into a nice conversation with the people behind us, so when we got to the front we agreed to share a table. We joined 3 other people at a large table, but it was very nice. Turns out of the 3, one was solo and the other two were a mother and daughter who are both active on Cruse Critic. I had the tomato and mozzarella appetizer (without the anchovies that it comes with), followed by the cheesesteak. Glen ordered the chicken korma, which features a visit from the assistant waiter with a tray of condiments. With them, it’s quite good, Today, they delivered the korma, but the condiment tray didn’t follow. We asked the waiter, and he said they were looking for it (huh?). He then brings a plate with raisins, almonds and onions. Apparently the raisins and almonds are left from oatmeal. The headwaiter shows up with some jalapeño, but that’s it. Very odd, since we know they had it in September. Other than the korma, the lunch was nice and the conversation good. After lunch we headed back upstairs. We noticed a banging noise pretty constantly since morning, so I headed out to investigate. I went down to the promenade deck, and walked forward to where it went to the emerald deck. From there, I could see a couple of people working on a lifeboat. I tried to get their attention, to see when they’d be done, but I couldn’t. So I went to guest services, which seemed a little less chaotic than yesterday. I asked how long it would go on, and the guy had no clue, but did say to call if it continued. On my way back to the room, I ran in to Carol on her way to the gym. She said they’d gone to the buffet and it wasn’t bad, so we’ll do that from now on I think. I miss club class lunch. We worked out tonight’s schedule, Today is Friday, so I planned to go to Friday night services. It’s usually at 5, but today it was at 4 for Hanukah. At 4 I headed to the chapel. Usually at these things there are between 5-20 people. Today there were over 50. It was very nice, and I was back in the room by about 4:40. We watched a bit of news, and then around 5:30 decided to go the elite lounge. Our plan was to go there for a bit, and then meet Carol and Eric at the Wheelhouse where the duo was supposed to play. We sat down next to one of the cruise critic folk and chatted with them for a bit. At about 5:50 we took our drinks over to the wheelhouse. At 6, it didn’t look like anyone was going to start playing anytime soon. Carol and Eric arrived soon after 6, and we talked about going to the Champagne waterfall, but it didn’t particularly interest any of us. I mentioned that the lounge was still open so went there. It was about 6:10, and I thought maybe they closed at 6:30, even though the patter said 7. We got there around 6:15, and had a second round of snacks. At about 6:30 I noticed that they were shutting down half the buffet (there are two sides). The worker explained they pack up one half at 6:30 but the other half at 7. (They are duplicate). That was good to know. Our next activity was Motown trivia. We headed to explorers for it. The staff member explained that he’d play 20 seconds of a song, and we had to provide the title and artist. Eric knows this stuff very well, and the biggest issue was the size of the answer sheet. I suggested next time we have one of those, we use two score sheets. Midway through, between questions, I said something about Tears of a Clown. That was the next one they did. Total coincidence. We got all 20 artists, but missed one title due to a similar sounding song. However it was good enough to win. We won 4 princess bags (now Glen and I have 3) and a water bottle that Eric wanted. From there we went to dinner. It was around 8 at this time, and there was a short line. It only took a few minutes and we were seated at a corner table by a window. I did get pictures of tonights menu: I started with the pineapple slice (very good) and had the shredded port with boo chow and rice. For dessert, I had a banana toffee semi frozen bar. It was quite good. We wanted to be out in time for the 9:30 show. It was a singer named Peter Cutler. He does a bit of humor, singing and a bit of tap as well. It was pretty good, although Jayne Curry, who was on the X Silhouette with us, does do a better job of that sort of show. But we did enjoy it. Following that, we headed to the Wheelhouse where the duo, Cel and Tito, were playing. They do a pretty decent mix of songs that were danceable and a few that weren’t. We stayed for about 30 minutes and then headed up to the room. I tried to check email, but apparently my web mail needs a better connection than I have. Oh well. We watched a bit of our binge show and went to bed. We decided we would set the alarm for 8 to go to breakfast. Another nice day in the books.

I was on the on the eclipse twice last summer. I went twice. Chateaybriand for two was good. Veal for 1 was so so.

Really? Even when the say limit 30 on the Elite benefits card? And did they charge you for the extras? And you're not yet Zenith right? Thanks

Because we're fine eating late, the other value to Elite+ for us is the specialty discount. And on our 2 12 day cruises, with 3 days before and 4 after additional days, the 8 bags of laundry will be welcome. Especially since they limit the number of items.

Hi all. The internet is in and out, so if you don't hear from me that's why. It seems that it's worst on my email, and I'm trying to do some pictures, but that might be difficult. Here goes boarding day: CrownDecember Day 1 We decided to get up at 8:30, in time to grab some breakfast before our 10 am ride to the ship. At 8:30, we switched it to 9, since I’d been up most of the night (I have no idea why). As a result, we didn’t have a lot of time for breakfast. We went to the lounge and had coffee, and pastries, and then finished packing up. Our driver arrived right on time, but Glen had a phone call he had to take, so it was about 10:10 by the time we left. We arrived at the pier around 10:40 and dropped our bags with a porter. We then got quickly checked in, and headed to the elite lounge to wait. We’re traveling with our friends Carol & Eric and I didn’t see them. I knew they were supposed to be there before us, since they’d taken a 10 am shuttle from a local hotel. After a few texts back and forth, we found each other, and waited until about 11:10 to board. We found our rooms, dropped our stuff and headed to the theater to sign off on our muster station. We hadn’t been in the room rea. Iy so we decided to watch the drill on our phones. Glen was able to do it successfully, but non of us were.able to get it to load, except Glen. While he watched his, the rest of us headed to the medallion help desk. The very nice young lady there had us log out and log back in, and that helped. So we watched the safety videos, and we set to sail. About 1:15 we decided to get lunch. The Crown doesn’t open their dining room for lunch on embarkation day, so it was the buffet. We got there and it was very crowded. We found a seat in the Caribe Cafe (back) section, and then went to get food. The food area was a zoo, so I asked a crew member if the other side was open. She said it was, but just as crowded. Oh well. I got an assortment of things, and joined the rest for lunch. Following lunch, we went to the International Cafe for coffee. There was no seating in the IC area, so we sat over in Vines, and enjoyed our coffees. It was around 3pm by this time, so Carol & Eric decided to go unpack (they don’t check luggage). We went to our room and hopefully we too could unpack. Alas, it was not to be. No bags. I made the mistake of looking at my Find My for my air tag, and it showed my bag on the street across from the terminal. Yikes! I decided to go to guest services and ask, since usually we have luggage by this time. Guest Services was a zoo. There was no sign of any sort of line, and there were people all over the place. What happened to the line markers that they used to have? When someone came to help me, I asked, and he said, yeah the could improve. They did reassure me that all luggage would be boarded, and if there was a problem with boarding it, I would be notified. So back to the room until it was time to go to the first Cruise Critic meetup. We were all concerned about the number of people that would be at the Outrigger bar, but when I got there, there were only a few people besides us. It was nice meeting the CC people. After a while, Glen, Carol and Eric showed up. I looked at my Find my again, and the bag was now showing as in the terminal. Glen and Carol went back down to get something, and when he came back, I said it was back on the street and he said no, it was in the room. His bag, however was still not there. We stayed and chatted for a while, and Glen said now it showed his bag near his camera, in the room. Eventually he went down, and I followed. Bag still not there, so at around 6, Glen went the Guest Services. They told him they were having problems and it was taking a long time, and he should wait. I wa a little hungry, so I headed to the elite lounge, which on this cruise is in Club Fusion (guess there are a lot more Elite and Platinum than in September). I grabbed some food, and sat at a table. No server even came by. There was a gentleman making the rounds, but he ignored me too. Eventually Glen joined me and soon after Vanessa, the Loyalty manager came by. She remembered us from September, so we had a nice chat with here until the lounge closed. We’d agreed to meet Carol & Eric at 7:for our 7:20 reservation (I did a standing reservation at 7:20). I went to the dining room, since it was one floor down, so headed over. There was a line almost to tope of the stairs. I was told it was the reservation line, so I got in it. Glen came back a couple of minutes later, and joined me. It moved quickly, and we were scanned it just about at 7 pm. By 7:05 we were seated at a table for 4. Our serving team was friendly and efficient. I wanted to start with a greek salad, but they said I couldn’t get it without onion, so I started with the Princess Favorite Romaine and Kale Caeser salad, with just romaine (that they could do). It was good. For my entree, I had the Luaua pork with beans. It was quite good, and I finished with banana’s foster, also from the Princess Favorites. Our dinner was timed so that we could make 8:30 “Trivia for 100”. It was a new take on trivia, The score sheet looked like a single Jeopardy board, The staff did point out that it looked like a board from a game show they couldn’t name. Categories were sports, this date in history, celebrities, landmarks and science. It was an interesting way to do it, because after each question a runner had to go to the stage to get their answers checked. We finished about middle of the pack. From there we went straight to the show, which was a comedian. Patrick Maliha. He was decently funny. The cruise director is Olivia, and she introduced him. From there it back to Explorers for a music game show. They’d play part of a song and then stop it and we’d have 3 choices for next lyrics. We didn’t do well at all. We decided to call it a night, but apparently Eric usually has a late night snack. I had a little acid reflux, so I decided a bit of food would help so Glen and Carol went up to the rooms, and we headed to the Buffet. It was closed, but the IC is 24 hours. So we went down there, I grabbed some water and a piece of cake, and Eric grabbed a sandwich. After that, it was back to the room. The TV had the first two seasons of “The Good Fight”, a sequel to the “The Good Wife”, starring the incomparable Christine Baranski (fun fact - she was married, until his death - to Matthew Cowles, who played baddie Billy Clyde Tuggle on All My Children for years). So we decided to watch the premiere, and see if we liked it because it could take us through most of the cruise I think. It was quite engaging, so we watched the second episode. After that, getting on 1 am, I decided to take a shower, and realized we still didn’t have robes (I use them, Glen doesn’t). Just for grins, I went to the app and ordered a robe and some masks for Glen. No sign of any one, and order said delivered. So I tried again, same thing. I tried a third time, but gave up, and went to take my shower. Apparently, while I was in the shower, the order arrived, so Glen dropped the robe in the bathroom. After that, sleep. I’d been up most of the night before, so it was very welcome.

Thanks. I was kidding. Yesterday the boarding group disappeared completely. Didn’t matter, all they asked was green or blue. We said elite and went to that line. On the ship by 11:20 or so

Thanks. On the whole it was easy - considering the time, as you say, remarkably so. The airport was very crowded though. Premiere check in and TSA precheck helped a lot. All those years of business travel back in the day pays off sometimes.

Crown Day 0 I debated for a while doing a live from on this 15 day RT LA Hawaii cruise, but decided earlier today to go for it. It’s a holiday cruise so might be interesting, and also it gives me a chance to hone my skills at keeping good notes for posting. I mostly do Celebrity, but I’ve done a few Princess, so here we go … Our adventure started today, when at 1pm, after locking up the house, turning off the heater and running the dishwasher, we drove over to my mom’s house (4 miles away) to leave the. car. We live in a condo, and Glen (DH) parks outside, so he feels mom’s is a bit safer. We met our driver there (a friendly guy who does airport driving) around 1:30 and headed up to the airport. We got there around 2:15 for our 4:10 flight, and quickly got our bags checked and got through security. We were at the United Club by about 2:30. We had about an hour, so had some snacks and drinks. At about 3:30 we got the text that it was boarding time, so we headed over to the gate. By the time we got there they were boarding group 3, and we’re group 1, so getting one was quick. The flight was uneventful and mercifully short, since there was a small child kicking my seat through much of the flight. I was a little annoyed anyway, since I was in 9F, and as of 2 days ago I was in 8F and Glen was in 8D. United sent a text yesterday that there was an equipment change and I was in 9F and Glen in 11C. Not sure how that happened. We got our luggage and then headed to the hotel waiting area. To our delight, the Renaissance shuttle was there. So from deplaning to in our room it was about 45 minutes. We watched the news for a while, and then decided to go over to Marriott nearby for dinner. They have a steakhouse, a casual eatery and Hanger 21 (whatever) which is a sports bar and mid range restaurant. We both had a side salad and a French dip with pork belly. Glen opted for French fries and I had potato chips. I liked the chips, but the sandwich was only so so. We took the leftover chips back to our room. We picked out a movie and are now watching the Dark Crystal. Probably bed afterwards and then onward with our cruise.

I wonder if I should email them asking why, when I picked boarding group A for my cruise tomorrow it switched itself to D three days ago? Of course I have my transportation arranged so I'm just going when I arranged to go. Last cruise it moved me from the green lane to the blue lane for no good reason (actually I think it unlinked the credit card - found that when I went to the casino and it made me go to guest services to relink)

My first Princess cruise was in 1998, I think Princess was owned by P&O at that time. The experience was certainly not what it is now, and not in a good way. On the other hand, I paid about the same back then as I did in 2007 on my 6th Princess cruise (same number of nights). I was in a better room on the 2007 cruise. So maybe market pressure has led them to reduce the experience (not gonna argue there) maybe because they can't charge as much. Or it's the CCL culture. I do miss the head waiter cooking pasta in the dining room.

Yes, I know all that. My point was that in general they were US based. And they bought Sitmar. Although, I suppose, you can make the same comment when RCI bought Celebrity. Remember, CCL corp is not exactly Carnival cruise line. Hopefully Princess won't become Carnival because they have, for us in California, some very useful itineraries that Celebrity (which we like a lot better) doesn't.

Maybe it's because Princess has always. been US based, whereas Celebrity began as a Greek line. I have an eight or so inch extension cord that I use that gives me use of both outlets on the desk, because it's very annoying how close they are. I feel your pain.

I'll do a casual live from. I'll probably start it tonight. Stay tuned.

For travel between LAX and San Pedro we just prebook a car company. It's pretty reasonable and no surge pricing.

Welcome to Princess. I was going to offer, that if your internet isn't great, I can answer general questions about Princess. I'm heading to LA tomorrow to the Crown on Thursday, so if you want me to post a particular menu picture, I can try to do that. By the way, when DH and I were in Aqua this summer, (usually in Sky suites) his big complaint was the lack of storage compared to Princess. We love having the closet as I can use my suitcase on the floor for some storage of my laundry bag, etc. To each his own. Have a wonderful trip, in any case.

Great review. By the way, Celebrity always uses Crown Bay. I think it's contractual thing.

The ship would just need a leg that's LA or San Diego to Ft. Lauderdale, as those follow the law. The ship will stop along the coast of South America (Columbia), or the ABC islands and it would have been fine.

Let's see LA to Ft. Lauderdale is generally around 15 days. Vancouver to LA is 3. We have a Miami to NY booked, and there are 2sea days to the ABCs, then 4 days back, so let's say 2-3 days ft. Lauderdale to NY, and 1 more to Boston. So about 20-23 days, with a few ports on the canal transit.

Looked like paper dolls, but maybe that's just me.

Yup, everyone tends to do NB in the spring, and SB in the fall. That said, my point was to finish in Vancouver, it's only in the fall, generally. (I'm sure there may be occasional exceptions). We do a lot of these, almost always on Princess. We do like Celebrity better, but there are far fewer short flight options.

One note is that about the only time they run coastals from LA to Vancouver is in the fall, when they move the ships to Alaska. I've seen a few RT from San Francisco that stop there. I do hope X keeps a ship on the west coast. We're on the Solstice is February, and I'm happy to have a 1 hour flight.

Back in the day, Princess used to bring in couples who were ballroom dancers to teach the classes. I'm a ballroom dancer, and while I think they do a decent job with the patterns, it's clear that's all they know, ie no technique, but technique is mostly not necessary in these classes.

Thanks for doing this, and it sounds like the cruise was great. I'm on the Beyond in 2024, so enjoying reading this.

If I want a west coast get away, with, as you say, little or no air travel, I'm pretty much on Princess which, from October-April has a few ships in LA. I too wish there were more choices.

Here we go with disembarkation day ... yup! It is going to be finished. First, the sad view from our balcony today. Miami at dawn. Silhouette day 15 Disembarkation day. Sad, as always. Because of the constant time changes we were up early, and packed and ready to go by about 7:45. I looked We decided to go straight to the lounge. There were lots of people lined up in the hall, going back about 2/3 of the way to the aft specialty restaurants. We went into the lounge and it was very crowded but we were able to find seats.Soon after, they started calling self disembarkation, and the concierges started leading some people out. Steve and Judy had an early flight just before noon, so they left soon after we arrived. We said our good byes. They’d called a few early tags, and the concierges escorted those with airport transfers out, when at about 8:45 they announced a hold on disembarkation because of crowds in the terminal. Someone said that there were 4 ships in, including the Allure of the Sea and a Disney ship, so we could be in for a very crowded airport. I started chatting with Christina and her mom. Her sister Teresa had gone off with the transfer group. At some point I went out and wandered to the back. There wasn’t much of a line, but the Tuscan Grill, for Elite was completely full and overflow in Q’sine. I thought about getting coffee there, since the Retreat Lounge just had Americano’s but I didn’t. I went back to the lounge. Cristina told me that it took over an hour for her sister to get on her bus. A further announcement came that they weren’t disembarking yet, but Al Baccio was still open. At that point, around 9:15, I decided to to try to find my AA record locator. However by then, the internet accounts had been disabled, and I didn’t have the number. (I couldn’t find it online the night before). The staff offered to check us in, but without the locator there was nothing they could do. So we sat. They started calling numbers again, but it was still slow going. At about 9:45 Kristina’s dad was there to pick them up, so I said good bye to them. By about 10:20, we were almost the only people there, so we decided, that since we were within 4 hours of our flight we should leave. Tajana escorted us out, as far as the gangway entrance. We bid her goodbye, “clocked” out and walked down the pretty empty gangway. However, once we arrived in the terminal there was a long line in the hallway. I left Glen and walked to the front, it was quite a long walk. I told the guys that our flight left in 3.5 hours, and he said we’d be fine. Apparently they were holding people at the top of the elevator. He said he didn’t think it would even take an hour. At that point I called American to see about protecting onto the next flight. The agent was friendly, but said they didn’t do that, There was only one business class seat on that, so we decided to stay where were were. She did give me the reservation number so I checked us in while in line. For about 25 minutes, the line didn’t move. Then it moved a fair amount, and we were much closer. About 15 minutes after that it moved. Another 15 minutes later, it moved and the guy stopped it with us first in line. He remembered me, so he let us go. (The people in front of us were locals and had offered to let us go ahead, but I didn’t think that would make much of a difference. I appreciated the offer) We arrived in luggage claim, and there was a line there once people had their luggage. It went almost to the bottom of the escalator. So I got in it and asked a porter where we might find our luggage. He said, because we were in a suite, claim 1. So I sent Glen for it and waited in line. About 10 minutes later he came back with time (I was in line between claim 2 and 3, so it was a bit of a hike for him. He told me he’d used his air tag to find them. We chatted with the people ahead of us. Turns out she was on the roll call. So it was nice to meet her. The line went to the end of the hall and then made a U turn on the other side, leading to customs. They were also holding people midway to allow clearance for porters, and were letting a batch of people through at a time. Eventually we got to customs, and because we were US citizens, we were cleared to enter and talk to an agent using a tablet to check us through. He scanned our passports and we were out the door, approximately 90 minutes after leaving the ship. It was about 11:55 and we found the cab line. There were only about 6 couples ahead of us, so we decided to cab to the airport. It took only about 10 minutes to clear that line, and we arrived at the airport just under two hours before our flight. We took our bags to the business class area, got them checked, and got our KTN (known traveler number) added, so we had TSA pre check. That took about 10 minutes and we got to the gate (long walk) with enough time to grab some lunch. Our flight left on time at 2:15 and was on time to LA at 5pm. We’re here for two days, and then will board the Discovery Princess for a 5 day cruise to Cabo and back. I will not be blogging it. In conclusion, this was an outstanding cruise. We made lots of new friends, and I’d go back to any of the ports in a heartbeat. The ship was nice, the staff great. I may or may not blog the Crown Princess to Hawaii over Xmas, but I definitely will be back in February for the Solstice to the Mexican riviera.