cruzin4us

WAIT!!!! I boarded the Diamond Princess on January 6th to Hawaii and headed directly to the MDR and my mouth was a watering for the Avocado and Bay Shrimp Appetizer to be followed by the Salmon. Let Down..... I sat down at the table, the menu was place in front of me and I'm like, "excuse me....but this is the wrong menu for embarkation day. You are supposed to have Avocado and Bay Shrimp and Salmon". The waiter looked at me and said, I'm sorry Mam, but the menu has been changed but fortunately we still have the Chateuabriand of Beef Tenderloin..... Wahhhhh So, I ordered the two new things on the menu: Cold Smoked Salmon and Crayfish Tails and the Trout Amadine. Neither of them were as good as the Avocado and Bay Shrimp Appetizer & the Salmon. For Your Viewing Pleasure

Interesting enough, my go to Princess person for making my reservations said she is now working in a new department. Apparently, they are now going to be selling cruises as well as resort packages for people that want to either extend their stay either before or after their cruise. I said "kind of like the packages they have in Denali on the Alaska cruises?". She said yes, kind of like that. We didn't talk specifics, so I can't offer anything other than I did ask if she was cold calling people, and she said that she hadn't. So......maybe there is some truth to this, but I'm with the rest of you and wouldn't do it unless I made the call to Princess myself.

I heard they are requiring masks and the covid test. Any truth to the masks?

I had the same issue with going from one loyalty level to another. What basically happens is this: The loyalty level on the app (when ordering the Medallion) stays at the same level you were when you booked your cruise. It will not change until you call in. I called the same lady who booked my cruise and she had to refresh the cruise......simple. If you were to book a new cruise today, that cruise would have the correct loyalty level. I tried the chat feature first and that was like talking to my 2 year old grandchild, so you can skip this route. Just call your travel agent, PVP or whatever you call your person and have them refresh your cruise.

I wear them (either capris or long) every day.......Including Formal Nights (the horror). My blouse is usually a tunic (nicer on formal nights).

I've got mixed emotions on this. When I arrive at port and I see my luggage put on the cart with 10-15 other pieces of luggage, I do the quick math....if everyone tipped $5, that equates to $50-$75 for the porter to push the cart inside and unload your luggage....whether he/she does it or someone else. Max time is probably 10 minutes, if that. That equates to a pretty good salary in my book. Then, when I disembark, and I find a porter.....they usually walk my luggage (and me) thru customs and there is typically a wait. Sometimes longer than others. In this instance I have no problem tipping more because they really are doing me a service. Many times, my luggage has been hauled to the Uber line or farther than would be typically expected.....that's worthy of a bigger tip, at least for me anyway.

My husband is the puke color too......I'm glad he has to wear it and not me 🙂

Would I handle someone's luggage for 5 minutes for $5.00? Yup

I'm hoping and a praying this is correct. 3+ hours on the phone is absurd and getting anything fixed is like pulling teeth. Outsourcing the casino bookings is a disaster.

It's all about the laundry for me. Especially if we are on a lengthy cruise or my luggage is limited because we are flying and don't wan't to pay $140 each way for additional bags. The rest of the perks don't mean much to me except for priority tendering which is huge when at a port that requires tendering and there is only a few hours in that specific port.

I attended the Chef's Table Dinner in January on the Diamond. I hadn't planned on attending until our Meet and Greet and they asked if anyone was interested. Thus, I got a "spot" at the table. I received a letter in my room informing me of the time, and the need for closed shoes because we would be going into the galley. Oh, crap......all I had was tennis shoes...... So, that's what I wore. Felt a little stupid because I was wearing a nice outfit, and tennis shoes did not match in any way shape or form. There were a couple of people that had on sandals and they were allowed in the galley. Whether it just wasn't caught, or whether they didn't care, I don't know. For me though, I wore tennis shoes because I wanted to see the galley and didn't want to risk not being able to go.

Today was the bittersweet disembarkation. Happy to get home to see my DH.....sad to leave the ship. I had a wonderful cruise and the food was much better than all my previous Princess cruises post Covid. Disembarkation was a bit of a mess. I was scheduled to get off the ship at 8:45. I wasn't in any hurry so hung out talking with Brian and Rowena for a bit. We worked our way down to deck 5 and the line was circled around the Piazza and thru the art gallery. We decided to just wait until we saw the end of the line because we sure couldn't get to the back with all the people. So, we just sat in the Internet Cafe chatting. About 8:30 (or so) there was an announcement that said "Due to the High Tide disembarkation is going slower than anticipated".....What? We are in SD and the weather is beautiful, it's not windy and we are docked. Made no sense to me. That was until we finally got ready to get off the ship and we saw the gangway. Man, was it steep. Anyone that had luggage with wheels had a difficult time toting in down that steep incline. The crew was helping almost everyone that had luggage. It was crazy, crazy steep. Now I understood the delay. Found my luggage pretty quickly but getting thru the masses of people that were trying to board vs those getting off was an absolute cluster F..... All it would have taken was a big STOP sign for those entering for the pier for the next cruise. For crying out loud, the faster you let us exit, the faster you will get on. I felt like I was in the Drake Passage where to Oceans collide. We couldn't get out, they couldn't get in.......we all just stood deadlocked. DUMB. I didn't have plane to catch but those that did were starting to panic. Don't the new cruisers realize we had a bunch of Covid Cases onboard? The last thing they should be doing is mobbing us that are trying to get off the ship. Crazy morning. Got home, happy to see my DH and 2 cats. Even got the bags unpacked and stuff put away. Cruise: Hawaii is a fun place to go......especially in January when the whales are in Maui. Never witnessed anything like that day (all from the ship). Didn't need to pay for an excursion. Sea Days: You have to like sea days if you want to do the Hawaii cruise as there were 10 of them. The Pacific can be calm or it can be rough. It just depends, some are easy, others you need sea legs. Saw at least 10 injuries due to falling on the rough seas. One was high heel related, 3 related to stairs, and the rest I'm not quite sure how they happened. Saw many on crutches, one with a dislocated elbow that had to be reset (yes, on the cruise), many with casts. So, if you need a walker, a cane or whatever.....don't be shy, use it! Crew: Always happy, cheerful and willing to please. Ship: Shows some wear around the edges (rust), but carpeting is new and the ship is very clean. One of the most comfortable ships I've been on. Food: I'd give it a 9.5/10 for the dining room, 3/10 for the Buffet. You can read my prior posts on the food and you can see a day by day blow of what I consumed. They worked really hard in the MDR and it showed. My issue with the buffet is the items are always cold.....way too cold for my liking. Bidets: I'm mixed on these. Some worked, some didn't. The one in my room worked well and I love the heated seats. The instructions were different from bidet to bidet. Spent a lot of time pressing buttons trying to figure them out just to finally decide I must be using a broken one. So, the one in my room I liked, the others around the ship I finally gave up trying to use them. I've got a few cruises coming up so I do have something to look forward to. Nothing worse that debarking and not having a cruise booked for the future. Mexican Riviera (Discovery) March 4 Alaska (Ruby) May 17 Iceland/Greenland (Island) Aug 9 Scottish Highlands & Wales (Island) Aug 25 S. America / Antarctica Jan 4 Doing these "Lives" are kinda fun if the internet works well. It did this trip, so I posted away. When I have issues, l hate doing these so I can never commit fully. I'm a post as I go, I'm not much good at going back and trying to recreate my cruise. So, thanks for following along on my food extravaganza/cruise.

Ha, and all my clothes are tight. 😵‍💫😁😵‍💫

I was also on a cruise to Hawaii in November (Ruby) and many, many people were coughing….me included. I tested negative 5x for Covid as did most of the others that had the same cough. I believe we all had RSV but I didn’t have a doctor confirm this. It was. 30 day dry cough that was horrible to hear. That’s why I’m doing this cruise. It’s a makeup cruise to myself.

On our Galley Tour the other night we saw how those hard, round crusty rolls are made. So in the first picture you see the man holding the red tray with dough that looks like pizza dough. Then he sticks it in the white machine and then he closed the door of the Fortuna Machine. He then turns it on for about 5 seconds and then pulls out the rolls. It was crazy fast. I mean really fast. Fascinating. And all this time I thought they had about 10 people just making rolls

Funny you should ask… I got to the table and my server if I wanted anything to drink. I about lost it laughing. So, I did get the iced tea followed by Splenda 15 min later 😁

The Last Dinner before I go home and detox from all the food. Wasn’t particularly hungry after our big lunch in Ensenada but I wanted to give my waiters a little something before I leave. Even ordered dessert, like I needed it Kind of a no themed menu tonight. Asian, Moroccan and American Food. Crispy Hand Rolled Vegetables Spring Rolls - They were basic, not bad, not great. Could have been hotter Moroccan Carrot-Chickpea Salad - This was an interesting salad and a good choice. Had some little red currants ) kind of tasted like a pomegranate cranberry combined. It was a nice touch to a salad, it made it fancy when budget cuts are everywhere. Came with choice of dressing. I chose blue cheese but it would be good with oil & vinegar dressing so it would show off the currants. I really enjoyed this salad Herbed Turkey Breast, Thyme Jus - This was a good choice. Super large portion with roasted potatoes and green beans which were buried under the turkey. Arrived hot and the turkey was moist. Comes with cranberry sauce on the side. Really good dinner. Baked Alaska - It doesn’t taste like the days of old, but it’s still baked Alaska so I ordered it. Much smaller than I remember but that’s ok. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it either and I definitely didn’t need it.

I saw one ambulance when we got off the ship but don’t know who or what the cause was of the ambulance.

Had lunch with Brian and Rowena in Ensenada. Yes, Brian ate that whole fish burrito! It turned out to be a beautiful day. We wandered the streets doing some shopping, hitting the Pharmacy and buying some Tequila. It was a fun day and then it’s home tomorrow. Did my packing and my home away from home looks empty 😢

I agree with you, this was brought on by passengers and not picked up in Hawaii. For the first 10 days or so, I didn’t hear or see anyone that looked sick (other than the couple next door to me). They haven’t left their room for 12 days now. My assumption is one of them got it and the other got it a few days later (my assumption only). I’m not a mask wearer but I’m a people avoider. I don’t go to shows or go where there are many people. Even my dinner table is kind of off my itself. Tomorrow I’ll wear one while getting off the ship and in Club Fusion where I’m supposed to wait til they call my group. Time will tell if I was exposed, but so far so good. I’ve seen quite a few people carrying around tissues and coughing. All of which is a big red flag to me. I wasn’t surprised in the least when the Captain made the announcement.