Sheebah

Not sure what you mean by "lunch" Was that a typo? There was a little noise and vibration from the azipods or the thrusters - not sure which - when we maneuvered on approach to a port or to pick up a pilot, but we didn't find it a problem.

 

 

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I'm sorry. I meant the lounge directly beneath

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Very nice!

Thanks Keith! Looks like you've been on a few Princess cruises yourself!

Fun! I feel like I'm there!

Thank you! I wish we all were!

It’s going to look like all I did today was eat and drink, and I suppose that’s okay! LOL! If you’d like to skip to the vlog to see what we REALLY did, here ya go:

Before morning Zumba,one of my favorite things to do while my husband and son were still sleeping was to head to the coffee shop at the International Café, and have a cappuccino – the staff was so friendly and quick, and I used my coffee card from my last sailing, which lasted me the whole trip:

I scored some yummy sushi at the lunch buffet, which didn’t appear through the rest of the cruise (not that I saw):

I signed up for MaitreD wine tasting and it was WELL worth the $25 or so dollars, with 6 very high quality poors, and decent bite sized appetizers to pair:

One of the highlights of our first Platinum cruise was the nightly invitation to Skywalkers for reduced priced pre-dinner drinks and complimentary appetizers. The appetizers weren’t that exciting, and usually ranged from chips and guac, to cheese and crackers. The drink variety is GREAT, and after ordering the 100% alcohol “Chairman of the board” on the first night (whoa), I transitioned to something milder on night two- the midori flavored “Japanese Slippers” which tasted like it looks- refreshing and sweet!:

Next up, sunny Cabo!

Here's our video of our experience in San Diego aboard the USS Midway, and the lovely sunset Veteran's Day ceremony onboard Star Princess. The sunrise approach in San Diego is so pretty! I still can't believe how silent it was sitting atop the bridge, filming as we glid into the harbor.

I loved seeing the sailors bunks on the Midway, and experiencing the grandeur of the flight deck. We hope to return another day, in cooler weather.

Cool, we were on this cruise also. Loved the port of Loreto.

Looking forward to the rest of your adventure.

 

Theo

Thanks Theo! Love your site!

Sheri

We had an amazing sailing on Star Princess’ 10 night Mexican Riviera and Sea of Cortes itinerary. We will share our daily vlogs, stateroom tour, and loads more videos along the way (some fun tips from officers, how we organize our stateroom). We are also editing a full ship video tour, and will scan and share the menus from all 10 nights as soon as possible.

Living in California, we chose this cruise because it allowed us to unwind beyond the standard 7 night trip to the MR, and experience the ports of Loreto and LaPaz, all without flying.

While we’d been to La Paz before, we were hungry to explore more of the Sea of Cortes, and the brand new experience of Loreto. The ports we visited were San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, La Paz, and Loreto. This ship normally sails Hawaii 15 night itineraries, as well as Alaska, so this was a “one off”. My husband and I sail with our 8 year old son, and he loves to cruise.

We chose cabin A333, a balcony cabin on Aloha Deck and LOVED the convenience of being just one floor down the pool and Horizon Court buffet. Noise was never an issue, though you could hear the dragging of chairs on occasion during daytime hours. The balcony was fully covered, which was nice.

We departed on a Thursday from the port of San Pedro, and our first port stop (San Deigo) was the very next day. Embarkation was pretty smooth, though slow to board due to a special group ahead of us. I was sad to see that Princess no longer offers a lounge for Platinum guests, as this was our first platinum sailing. They do have a reserved seating area, but it quickly became crowded, and there was no water to drink, unless you bought it out of a vending machine. Kind of a bummer. We didn’t take a lot of still photos, but you can see our full embarkation experience in the first vlog. After boarding the ship, my husband set off to film the quiet areas of the ship that he could before the crowds hit. My son and I acquainted with our room, and headed to the Maitre’D station in the dining room to have our 5:30pm dining time moved. This was NO problem, since people were eagerly awaiting that early spot. The maitre D was lovely and moved us to a standing 7:15 table in the anytime dining room, which worked out wonderfully. Day 1 flew by and before we knew it, we were in San Diego!

Our stop in San Diego happened to be on Veteran’s Day, and we planned to visit the USS Midway museum. The sunrise approach into San Diego was quiet and beautiful. You can catch the time lapse in our vlog, later in this post.

To our (pleasant) surprise, the Star Princess docked JUST adjacent to the Midway, and we could watch the parking lot fill with morning employees and special visitors for Veterans Day right from our balcony cabin. It was an unseasonably hot day, about 90 degrees in November, and not a cloud in the sky.

We toured the midway for a few hours, enjoyed the Veteran’s Day celebration on the flight deck, had a greasy lunch onboard, then walked back to the ship to cool off in the pools (it was SO hot!). We caught a glimpse of the Veteran’s Day parade as we walked back to the ship, and it was wonderful to see Veterans out with their families enjoying the San Diego waterfront.

Once back onboard, we went to a moving Veteran's Day ceremony on the pool deck. The officers did SUCH an incredible job of honoring the occasion, and the onboard veterans.

Finally, here is our day 1 vlog covering embarkation, sailaway, and everything in between!

Questions welcome! More to come as fast as I can type and upload images ;-)

We just booked cabin 6346 - an aft wrap and it has rooms above and below.

 

We had 6485 on the Splendor and it was fabulous. From the pics I've seen this looks great too!

did you experience any noise from the lunch below on Splendor 6485?

It'd be fun they said!

 

 

 

If this embed doesn't work, it'll be the first video in my sig :)

 

 

 

Absolutely beautiful!

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I'm a little late to this party!

Thanks To those who gave us a shout out earlier (hi Jim!):

Our Star Princess Sea of Cortes and Mexican Riviera vlogs (still in progress):

Our short Carnival Imagination vlog playlist:

Sheri

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Looking for same info.

 

Also what about the other Cid's in Mazatlan?

Turns out, you can walk in to marina. Not sure about others :-)

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Thanks for sharing.

You bet![emoji41]

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M

Thank you so much for your detailed review! I enjoyed your pictures very much. I have been planning a trip to the West Coast for a while, and I definitely plan on incorporating one of these short cruises into the trip when I go, so thank you for the great insight!

my pleasure! I love your plan. A little cruise, a little land time.

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Sorry this took so long- Here's all 4 nights of dinner and a peek at seaday brunch. I know you wanted the Menu links, so we put them in the video notes:

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Here's all 4 nights of mdr dinner and a peek at seaday brunch- the steak is filet mignon and is FREE! . Menu links in the video notes:

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Here's all 4 nights of dinner and a peek at seaday brunch. Menu links in the video notes:

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Thanks!!!!!

 

 

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My pleasure.[emoji924]

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Thanks... we are in a suite... [emoji7]

 

 

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There should be a hairdryer in the drawer. If you're in a grand suite, this room video should be very similar:

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Question... are there hair dryers in the cabins... started packing and didn't know if I needed to pack mine or not... thanks... 3 more days!!!!

 

 

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No hair dryers and no fridges unless you're in a suite!

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And here are the fun times:

http://www.cruisetipstv.com/carnival-imagination-funtimes-newsletter-download/

Hi everyone,

We finally got all the menus scanned and uploaded. Here ya go for MDR, American Feast, Room service, Alchemy bar and SeaDay brunch:

http://www.cruisetipstv.com/carnival-imagination-menus-download/

Thank You!!! 10 days til we sail!!!!

 

 

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Whohoo! Wishing you good weather!

Hey there,

Just finished this thread with a full overview of the new stuff:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2410876

After dinner, we made the sad walk back to the room to pack up to leave- no!!! Our final towel animal was this sweet heart, which made us a little blue, as we’d loved getting to know our cabin stewards throughout the cruise:

We packed our bags, and hit the sack early, in preparation for a relatively early debarkation. Instead of taking advantage of the 7:15am self-carry which was included with Faster to the fun, we slept in a little and did normal disembarkation, which was SO smooth and timely. We thought it was a nice touch that Donkey, the cruise director was saying goodbye to passengers as they left the ship. That turned a lot of sad faces into smiles.

It was a wonderful cruise, and the ship is incredibly well maintained. The staff and crew are friendly, attentive and have SUCH high energy for a ship that turns over every 3-4 days. While a 4 day jaunt isn’t the most relaxing vacation, we totally recommend it, and would do it again.

Here’s our day 4 vlog:

http://www.cruisetipstv.com/carnival-imagination-day-4-vlog/

And a link to the full ship tour, ICYMI:

Thanks for following along!! Questions welcome.

My plan today needed to include Alchemy Bar, which despite being my favorite of the new 2.0 enhancements, I had not visited on the whole cruise…whaaat?

So, pre-dinner, we headed over and had the pleasure of meeting the amazing alchemist, Michelle, who, as we found out, lives not too far from us in California when she’s not on contract. I always love the lighted menus, and while deciding what to order, we watched her concoct for a while. Tonight was “design your own” martini night, so I filled out the cute little form and requested a gin-grapefruit-lavender mix, which turned out to be fab! You’ll see a lot more of this, and the custom drink I ordered, in the vlog in the next post entry, including video of the drinks being prepared.

The day was flying by, and we headed to the Pride dining room for our last dinner experience. The menus looked okay, but weren’t my favorite from the cruise. The salmon cake and flatbread were GREAT, and are pictured below: