quincytoo

yes and I have

Same here One of our Caribbean Princess cruises had a delayed boarding by a few hours as the ship was returning as a *Hot Ship*.

Totally didn't mind the delay as we knew that the ship would be very clean and it was :)

I loved our bed on the Royal cruise Jan 12-19, most comfortable bed yet on a cruise. :)

We just got off the Royal Jan 19 and I think we watched every Love boat show that was on our TV. As a child I watched Love Boat every Friday night (I think Fantasy Island was on right afterward?).

When I was watching a few weeks ago, I couldn't believe all the adult humour I missed as a child :rolleyes: Julie was ...ummmm...kinda randy :D

One thing I noticed watching Love Boat this last Royal cruise and I commented to Tony, "where were the balcony cabins on the *Love Boat*?

All the scans of the ship I could not see the balcony's.

I talked to my sisterinlaw and she called the direct # and after getting nowhere she said she wished to lodge a complaint. Of course Princess said do not believe everything you read on line but Gail said she wanted reassurance that the price was indeed 25.00 per day.

 

Gail was put through to a person and this person assured her it was 25 and sent her am email stating the same.

 

The email came from ssoderstrom@princesstours.com

 

My sisterinlaw is doing btb on the Royal Feb 16 and Feb 23.

 

Good Luck and have Fun

 

Arlene

Those were NOT the prices we were charged.....it makes me chuckle that HQ can be wrong so often. It will be interesting to see if Royal honours those cheaper prices.

Since the Sanctuary was booked out for our cruise I can't imagine that they will.

Plrase report back after your relative's cruise and let us know.

We just got off the Royal as well, though, and were also definitely charged $20/pp for a half day both times we went. We chose the afternoon sessions, which were 1:30 - 6 pm.

We were on the same cruise as you and chose the same times. I just looked at our folio print out and we were also charged $20 PP which is what I thought it was going to be.

We loved Alfredos and ate there twice on our Jan 12-19 2014 cruise. Actually this day last week I ate their amazing salad and stuffed pasta :(Now I am missing it.

Both nights we just walked in and were seated right away.

We always enjoy sailaway prime rib the first night so I didn't even look at Alfredos that night

Their pizza is amazing too.

I would not ever try to bring hard liquor onto a Princess ship now

If we openly declare it at embarkation will Princess always keep it for us until the end of the cruise?

We want to bring a rather fine single malt from UK for my cousin, but we will be meeting him when we get off our 4 day cruise from SF to Vancouver. It would be tragic to have it destroyed.

Thanks.

That is a very good question and one that I am sure will come up time and time again. We often bring down BC Ice Wine for our friends in the States. Alcohol is something we can't ship out of or into Canada.

Personally I would email Princess and ask them.......stress that the single malt is a gift and ask them the proper protocal.

If they email back saying you can give it to them to hold for the week and they will return it to you then I would print off that email and wrap it around the bottle in case the embarkment staff say no. :D

We have friends cruising out of Los Angeles and had a question…. It is pretty clear that you can bring a bottle of wine on board but has anybody brought a bottle of hard liquor on board in LA? I would think one bottle would not be an issue??

We were just aboard the Royal Princess on Jan 12 and had two bottles of wine (one per each person) on our carry on. They saw the bottles through the scan and searched our carry on.

Mr.QT bought rum and gin on board as we were aware of the new changes.

I enjoyed the wine each night on our balcony as we got ready for supper.

We did buy a bottle of vodka and rum in St.Thomas to take back to Canada and fully expected it to be taken away from us and given back last sea day....we are now enjoying them here in Canada :D

I would not ever try to bring hard liquor onto a Princess ship now

Jodi, how are you? What did you think of the Royal.

Michelle (former - chloedmom)

Michelle :) We had the most relaxing cruise ever :) The internet was slow (which made for lots of relaxing since I couldn't do work via email) that said we LOVED the Royal. Her staff, ports, food and service made for a steller cruise :)

I think I lost my Puerto Vallarta heart and exchanged it for a ST. Maarten heart instead.

I have been off of CC for awhile due to work and when I started uo again realized you had changed your name. I always think of you when drinking a Milky Way Martini.

Hope all is well in your world :)

i was in a suite, recently on the Royal, and they had bottles of shampoo and body wash. There wasnt anything on the walls of the shower. Maybe there are no dispensers in the suites.

That is weird.....we were on your cruise too ( in a mini suite) and we had the Shampoo/cond and body wash bottles in an enclosed ledge on the wall of our shower/bathtub.

I am used to the showers of Princess balconeys and we loved the extra roominess of being in an actual tub to shower.

I said to Tony I didn't miss the shower curtain that always tried to get up close and personal-like in the usual balcony cabins we are use to :eek:

Im platinum, but this sailing I was in a suite. Im pretty sure the elites, platinum and suites are all priority boarding. Im not 100% though. I got to the port around 10:15 and was in the holding area around 10:30. They had us there for quite a while and It didn't matter what time we got there because once we were in the holding area we were all in different places when we lined up again to board.

 

We actually got on board between 12:00 and 12:30. After boarding we went straight to the Sanctuary.

That sounds exactly like us...we could have been sitting next to each other

Hi Thanks for the detailed report.

I have a question about the Sanctuary.

Someone else (who said she was on your sailing) reported that no one was able to book the Sanctuary for the week - that they only had 5 or 6 loungers available for the entire week booking and that all of those had been taken by the previous week's B2B passengers.

She also said they have raised the price to $40/day per lounger. That would be $560 for 2 people for a week. :(

This seems to be different from your experience. :confused:

Any accuracy to any of that? :confused:

 

 

(Oh - and we're in an aft also. Final payment made and hoping for the best. If not, we'll have to deal with it.)

We were on the same cruise as the OP and also loved the cruise.

We did the Santuary the first sea day from 1:30-6:30 and the charge was indeed $20 per person. A full day would have been $40 pp.

That's it.

 

We've had about 8 "day trips" to PV and really considering spending more time. I'm thinking this place is a little "too-budget" to spend a week, but we really liked that part of town (South of the river).

 

Thanks!!

It would be too budget for us too. We have stayed at Playa Los Arcos right on Plas Atlas and LOVED it there until we discovered the joys of renting condos. You get double or triple the space for usually a whole lot less pesos.

We have stayed at Plaza Mar and Vista del Sol about a block up from PLA but still oceanfront.

We've always taken a taxi from the port to Hotel Rosita and ventured out from there. Usually only making it El Burro just over the bridge. After reading Hank and Ine (and others) for several years talking about the bus. last week we gave it a go. It's not about the money, the taxi is only about $8, but more about the mini adventure. These are city buses: rough, jerky, hot when not moving, but lots of folks coming and going.

 

Walk out the terminal and out to the main road and there is a covered bus stop. Wait about 2 seconds and a bus will come by that says "Centro". There were three of us, I gave the driver $2 USD and told him we wanted to go to the flea market (at the river). No problem, grab a seat quick, learned all this from CC. Few blocks from the flea market he gave me a wave and we were off the bus. We walked across the suspension bridge, east a few blocks to Aguacate, down a few blocks to Mariscos Cisneros for a great lunch, then down Basilo Badillo to the beach. Fantastic route! Never been to this part of town but it will be our regular route at least for the next few visits.

 

Walked by a small hotel roughly across the street from Joe Jacks. Looked to have a very "jungly" interior court yard. Any regulars if you know the name I'd appreciate it.

 

By the time we got back to Hotel Rosita we were pretty "damp" so grabbed a taxi w/AC. He charged the tourist price of $10 but that's still a bargain.

The Hotel Posada de Roger?

Budget hotel that gets great reviews by many on the \PV trip advisor forum, we like ocean front condos or hotels so have never stayed there but it looks pretty and very clean \\\\\\\\\;0

Great post, Hank!

After 10 trips to Cabo (only ten days at a time), my bride and I have plane tickets to PV for May. We've only been to PV once (on a cruise) and thought that a change may be in order.

We're staying in old town, and we're both looking forward to a great time.

There is actually a bunch of us PVlovers who love to go to PV in May.

You might want to go onto Trip Advisor Puerto Vallarta forum and inquire about condos, AI's (Mr QT loves them, I don't) and what is happening then. I have met some life long friends through TA and Cruise Critic forums.

May is a great time to go to PV :)

With those arrival and departure times of your ship it sounds a bit complicated. Have a look at this website for the ferry to and from Yelapa:

http://www.yelapa.info/transportationnf1.html

 

Or take a cab ( bus would take up too much of your time) to Boca de Tomatlan and either a ferry or a watercab from there.

Boca itself is also quite nice as also the beach at las animas.

A lot of information on this website by JR: http://vallartainfo.com/beaches.html

and

 

http://vallartainfo.com/puerto-vallarta-transport.html

We went to Yelapa, on a day trip, our last trip down. Sadly we didn't have a great day there (ripped off by the restaurant, poor food, server was very high on drugs, surf was too big to swim) we need to go back to another beach front restaurant and try it again.

That said, we LOVED Boca and once we water taxied back we had a delightful snack and margarita at the last restaurant to the farest right south. We both said, next time we are spending the day at Boca instead.

For a day cruise? Boca is a quicker 2 bus ride back to the cruise ship. I would be worried about being at Yelapa and not getting back.

REALLY???? they make Fresca with sugar ???? It has always been sugar free here and as I am sweet enough and can not have suger I am really glad to know that.

Question..do any other diet pops in Mex. have sugar ??????

They made a diet Fresca as well.

Thanks for the link :)

It pretty much sums up why I need to get back there soon!

One evening, last winter, we were sitting at the Cheeky Monkey having a drink (or two) and saw 2 pirate ships out in the bay. My first thought was that I had too many Margaritas and was seeing double :). But that was the only time we ever spotted both of them from PV.

 

Hank

LOL I have a visual of you and Mrs.Hank...that would so be I and Mr.QT questioning the strength of Troy's lovely drinks, except we would be usually at the Sea Monkey, as it is right below the condo we love :)

Jan/Feb can not come soon enough :)

To get Mexican coke and sprite made with real sugar!

YUM We really love the Mexican Fresca made with cane sugar (here in Canada it is the yucky diet stuff).

We have hit the Walmart on the way back from a cruise day trip to Mismaloya to grab cheap bottles of Cazadores respondo (220 pesos a liter).

From the BBC News, Feb 8, 2013

 

"Police are searching for masked gunmen who raped six Spanish women in a rented beach house near the Mexican holiday resort of Acapulco, after tying up their Spanish male companions. It's a crime that has shocked many who thought they knew Mexico well.

Even in a country where brutality has become the norm, this story hit many people hard."

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21385427

From what I have read on line in the local MX newspapers it is pretty clear that buying drugs on vacation is not a good idea :(

This could have happened anywhere in the world, I am sure it has.

Don't think the average cruiser will ever run into this what so ever,

We live in Puerto Vallarta during much of the winter (am there now) and our biggest (and only) fear are the Margaritas. You see, there is just no telling how strong they might be in various places...with very interesting results :) If I buy a dollar margarita at the Cheeky Monkey or Sea Monkey I have little fear. But last night we were at Tony's Please (a small restaurant popular with those who know) and a single margarita almost put me under the table. And yes, I did fear the walk back to our condo after dinner. After that margarita there was a major danger of falling off the sidewalk!

 

Ok, enough of the truth of living in PV...where the major dangers are truly too much booze and getting hit by a wild bus. Most of the cruise ships that come down the Western Coast of Mexico stop at Cabo and PV...and these two cities are probably a lot safer (crime wise) then your front yard.

 

Hank

And here I thought that the strong margs at Tony's were a urban legend :) YUM...how was dinner? Do you remember?

Sol's Cazadore Margaritas at Cafe Bohemio are always strong, tasty and pack a punch......

Things I fear while visting Puerto Vallarta:

My weight will increase ten fold....the food is soo good

My Liver will protest......Margaritas, Coco Locos, Palomas YUM

Sidewalk curbs....especially dangerous after a few of the above

Ankles swelling......drink lots of water, too much sun and drinks add up

Wow, wait times are nothing like you describe where I live. You have to take a day off?? So you don't have after hours clinics? If I show up about 25 mins early to the after hours clinic, then I am usually close to the front of the line and in and out in a few mins once they open. And I definately don't go for the sniffles!! Haha I dislike going to the doctor way too much to do that...usually it's darn ear infections!

Those wait times are also like nothing that we have here in Victoria. The longest I have waited for in a drop in clinic (we have 2 within 5 mins of each other) is about 20 mins. When I want to see my reg GP I usually have to wait a week or two.

I don't do anything for sniffles, but have had those darn ear

infections :( Nasty things they are.

I recently had some minor hand surgery, saw my GP in Sept for a referral, he said it would take up to a year as he sent me to one of the top hand surgeons in BC, got the call to see the HS in Dec and had the surgery Jan 30. I don't mind that kind of a wait for free.:D

One thing to be aware of when buying meds in Mexico they are not always cheaper then buying them here in Canada or The States.

That said, it is cheaper for me to buy Retinal-A cream.05% and I buy three tubes each vist.

Eat on the ship.

Why would anyone want to eat on the ship while visting the Mexican Rivera? There are so many incredible restaurants and taco stands......you would be missing out on so much

I'll bet on you

I bet on Toto for the win :)

And it makes sense for Princess to do this....

So I am anting and futher betting that no brewed coffee just the punches for speciality coffees will be honoured on the old cards. :)