Cruise Raider

Leo Rossi was on the crew for Fleetwood Mac but also worked for many other bands, such as The Beach Boys, and other singers. I assume you will love attending his his talks. Princess really excels with daytime entertainment! It’s possible that they didn’t do so prior to the CoVid lockdowns but now, there are so many things constantly going on that it’s hard to pick what you want to do. Their theme cruises are all super fun! And there is always quiet places to relax and just read a book if that is more your style. Earlier this year, we were on a Celebrity cruise. We were kind of bored! We came back to Princess and haven’t looked on other lines ever since.

i noticed that there was a smoking area on deck 7 towards the aft of the ship. I am thinking that was the starboard side of the ship. There is smoking always on one side of the casino but you are supposed to be playing to smoke in there. The gaming area isn’t split up that well on this ship, though. I’m not sure about the upper decks as we haven’t been up there as of yet.

Just came from the interview of Al Jardine by Leo Rossi. I tell you, Princess has really done such a fabulous job with the entertainment and enrichment, especially since the restart. This event was very special to all that were old enough to see The Beach Boys perform in person. Waht a great event to attend.

We have seen it since they are filling the ships to capacity again. As mentioned, I think I got bad information that it would be open for lunch today as I see another event scheduled for there on Journeyview. When they do have it, the menu and pricing is the same as the dinner menu and only held on sea days. It’s great for those of us that love to eat our larger meal in the middle of the day, it’s perfect. But thankfully, we were able to get a pan early reservation for the crown grill for tonight. The Captains Circle party is at 7 PM and Spotlight Bar is the show tonight at 7:30 PM. So, I think we may need to skip the Captains Circle party. There are really a lot of great events and activities happening all day onboard. We will just have to stay onboard and do what we missed this week. 😆

The Pub Lunch has British menu that includes fish and chips (sometimes it is shrimp and chips), Bangers and Mash, Shepherds Pie, a curry dish, ploughmans lunch (don’t know what that is) and bread pudding for dessert. They also are serving split pea soup from what I’ve heard. They always served mushy peas with the fish and chips and while it is a favorite of mine, a lot of people do not like them.

i thought so, too but evidently not. And it looks like maybe I was given bad info on the Crown Grill being open. We just had a light lunch of edamame beans and sushi for lunch. Wow, was that ever great. We both loved it! Off to the show soon.

So, I see they are having the Crab Shack in the Salty Dog GastroPub today and being run by the fine staff from the Bistro Sur La Mer. I see they have a few guests already dining in there .. it is about 11:30 AM. I heard they are also having lunch in the Crown Grill but we will go for dinner instead because we want to see the Leo Rossi and Al Jardin show at 1:30 this afternoon so don’t want to be late. I also just had room service for breakfast about an hour ago.

Yesterday was a wonderful day again in the City of San Francisco. We took a was down to Pier 39, just to get some exercise and walk off some calories from the delicious pizza we had at GiGis. We wanted a nice window seat in the Salty Dog GastroPub for sail away, so we decided to have dinner there. BTW, we met with another CC member, WallyJ. It was so wonderful to meet him and hopefully, we will get the opportunity to visit with him again today. I also saw a seal or sea lion pop right out if the water like Flipper .. so graceful! The seagulls and pelicans were flying by wildly once the engines started. Wow, all such beautiful sights to see! I had to film the crossing under the bridge because I never tire of that experience. At the GastroPub, I wanted to order something different this time I and got the mushroom dish with a Scotch Egg and the Calamari. Wow, those were two great choices. It wasn’t super crowded so we took our time for dinner until we were well out to sea. Knowing we really wanted to stay up for Leo Rossi’s show at 9:30 PM, as we missed it the previous night, we wanted to keep ourselves entertained and not go upstairs for a nap. 😆 So, we decided to spend a little time in the casino. I’d have never really was a gambling this cruise was as the casino floor was packed. I nabbed one of the machines that became available. Unfortunately, it was on the smoking side and there were so many smokers in there. Nevertheless, I had fun and actually broke even. We stopped in to the Future Cruise Office to see if there were any new specials added to the list for booking while onboard. No, I think we booked them all already .. all other ones out of San Francisco anyway! Now, time to watch the comedian/impressionist, Jeff Berghart, in the Princess theater. Oh my goodness, that man was absolutely fall down hilarious! Some of his jokes might be lost on a younger crowd .. ones that didn’t grow up watching Carol Burnett. But we laughed until there were tears in our eyes. The theater had a fairly good sized crowd but there were still seats near the side aisles. We kept ourselves entertained long enough to make it to Leo Rossi’s show. Yes! I’m so glad we did! We have seen Leo and all his shows several times but he doesn’t work off a script so each show, something different is presented. His show last night, Divas 1, was quite good. You can tell he puts a lot of hard work into his shows. We sat amongst friends, including Leo’s sister and bride, who are also such sweethearts! I noticed that Al Jardin was there, as was Kimberly Locke, etc. As mentioned above, I’m growing fond of the mattresses and the even the crunchy pillows. 😆 I slept like a rock last night. Not on a rock but like a rock! Here is 9:00 AM and I’m just having a lazy morning! Tonight is formal night and we prefer to go to the crown grill tonight. I’m just assuming this but it looks like reservations for the specialty restaurants are not always showing as available on the app. The restaurant manager at GiGis, Lawrence, called to make reservations for me. He said I would hear back from them. While we were at the Slaty Dog, the bartender, Allan told me I had a phone call. Lo and Behold, it was Grace and she confirmed our reservation at 5 PM for four. I really do love the convenience of the medallion. Today, they have the pub lunch in the MDR. We may try to get in there as it’s always a favorite of ours. Al Jardin, one of the original Beach Boys, will also have his talk with Leo this afternoon in the theater. I haven’t looked much further it think that there may be another production show tonight. If it’s Spotlight Bar, I have to be sure to go see that, too. The skies are cloudy but the temperature is pleasant and the seas are quite calm.

Honestly, I’m kind of starting to really like the mattresses and they are totally different from what we sleep on at home and also what we normally find on any other Princess ship. Even the pillows seem to have softened up but I think I’m just getting used to them, is all.

As for wine lovers, there are some decent choices available under the premier package, especially the reds. The good Chardonnay’s are not available at all the bars, though. I do like the Stags Leap Hands of Time Chardonnay, which they serve in the MDR. The Grirch Hills Merlot is quite delightful and can be found at most bars, though. For coffee lovers, the specialty coffees are not as good as the ones served on the Majestic, but much better than the espresso based drinks we had on the Ruby recently. They may be playing with the quantities of coffee used for each cup.

If any of my fellow passengers on this cruise that happen to be reading along with this thread, be sure you watch the Wake Show segment this morning where Duvaul, the Cruise Director, is interviewing the sommelier. I laughed so hard there were tears in my eyes! That man is so darned funny! I also learned that there are some entertainment directors from other ships that joined in with corporate to create some new theme nights and theme cruises. It is always so fun to have new experiences to look forward to.

I really think the mattresses on Princess are pretty consistent and the best in the cruise industry, however, the Discovery does have different mattresses than the other Princess ship’s we’ve been on. I believe it was because the ship was supplied with whatever mattresses they could find in bulk during the supply chain issues. When we first sailed on her, it was back in April of 2022. I recall seeing hundreds of freighters dotting the entire port of LA area. I’ve read somewhere that most mattresses are locally made, though so it may be more of a workforce issue. Either way, we are thinking about getting a firmer mattress at home next time it needs a replacement. We are both doing pretty well on this bed.

So, just to add … One of our friends was invited to the 360° experience yesterday. Not so sure of the backstory to this but while she was sitting in the Piazza with our group, she was approached by one of the team members for the dinner to tell her she was selected to attend. We had all thought she won this as part of the Princess Prizes. I think that was around 4:20 PM and if she wanted to go, she had to meet in a certain location in 15 minutes. They won’t disclose the location of the dining area and I forgot to ask her where it was held. The cost ended up being $149 pp. She wanted to try it so, she quickly went up to change her outfit. We met up with her last night afterwards and asked her how she enjoyed her dinner. She said it was probably not something she’d do again. She felt rushed through each course. we’ve done the wine makers dinner with her in the past and she so thoroughly enjoyed that. I know she’s also was thinking about doing the Chefs Table. Neither of us can eat such a large meal that late at night so, we passed on looking into doing it again. The Winemakers dinner went up from $40 pp to $120 pp in the past several months so that did destroy any interest I might have in it. We’ve also gone to the Super Tuscany dinner in Sabatini’s the past and have not heard anything about that recently. I checked into the Crown Grill possibly serving lunch one day. One of the bar managers thought maybe they would but we only have one more sea day and they explained they wouldn’t be doing it on this sailing. Lunch would be the best option for us so hopefully that will happen on the next sailing. I would like to report that I think the premier package has better value for us now than before. We used to upgrade for the better wines but now that casual dining is included, it makes cruising even that much more enjoyable. I love being able to pop into one of the casual dining restaurants whenever I am hungry to get a bite to eat. Anytime dining used to be like that as well but not so much now. We’ve had some great meals and service in the MDR in the past but don’t see us wanting dinner there so much anymore. Lunch is one meal I still like in the MDR. We had such great service there the first day. Prathamesh and Sudesh are both fantastic waiters here on the Discovery. Leo Rossi’s Knights of Rock shows have been fantastic. We were so tired that we missed going to his show last night. They’ve rescheduled him to do nighttime shows and he does draw larger crowds now. However, for us, our body clocks say 9:30 PM may be a little late for us to attend a show. Anyway, I understand he will be onboard the Discovery until January so if you have an upcoming cruise on the Discovery, you may want to check out his talks.

The crunchy pillow makes so much sense to me. I’m actually liking the mattress the more I sleep on it. I suppose I could make it down to the Ross store today to get my own pillow. I never made it out and about yesterday. But, even with that, I was so tired, the pillows are doing the trick.

Fabulous photo!

I am so sorry that we haven’t gone and probably go to the MDR on this sailing. We have the premier package and we are loving our options for the casual dining. I tried to make a reservation on the app in order to see the menus and was unable to do so. For lunch, we went to GiGi’s and it was fabulous! The place was packed, which was surprising as we were in port. Then, tonight, we tried the Ocean Terrace and had the waiter pick what he thought we might like. We explained we were sushi novices. He did a great job in choosing what we might like. The epservice was spectacular! Next time we go, we will order just the edamame and California rolls with the wasabi and ginger. Oh my goodness, that was all so good!

Thank you so much! And yes, for us, Long Beach is the only way to go to Los Angeles! The Uber X was $33 plus tip and the Uber XL was $44 plus tip. We have paid a lot more at various times. This was kind of early in the day but thought that was a great deal, even with a 25% tip, it was so worth the cost. We’ve paid $150 to get home from a cruise out of San Francisco several weeks ago where it used to be half that price. Well .. inflation has hit us in the Bay Area with a vengeance.

It’s going to be such a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco today! Our neighbors headed out of the Ruby yesterday and they said it was raining.

Pillows are such a personal thing. If I hadn’t been so very happy with the pillows on all my past Princess cruises, I would have thought to bring my own. I sleep with a down pillow at home, which pack very nicely. But, since we always try to pack in just carry on luggage, we keep the extras we bring down to a minimum. BTW, we boarded around 11:00 AM on Saturday and they let us know it was fine to just drop off our luggage in our cabin.

They are way too hard for me. You can request either feather or hypoallergenic pillows. It may just be very stiff pillow protectors that are being used but they are all very firm. We have some friends traveling with us and they all seem to say the same thing. We have to move rooms for the next leg of the cruise and will see if those pillows are any better.

Glad you got that charge taken care of. It can add up! Luckily, we haven’t been experiencing that so far on this ship. Anyone that knows me well knows how much I absolutely hate wasting food. Thus, less is better for when we order. However, when we go to the specialty or causal restaurants, that’s sometimes hard to do. I just had the best fish leftover from last night’s meal. I’m one that doesn’t mind cold food and we live on leftovers. The fridge is doing a great job at keeping everything pretty cold. This is interesting and something I have never noticed before. Someone mentioned putting a towel over the cabinet that houses the fridge. This cabinet has vents on the side and I do believe it helps keep the fridge colder. We went through Take Five the first day onboard and on our way to the theater. I see 6-8 slot machines in there towards on the side away from the bar area but they were turned off. It is wide open and have dropped by for a cold drink at the bar on the way to the theater. It doesn’t look like there are any plans of closing it, although, we’ve never seen anybody sitting in there. That is so surprising, as it is a gorgeous venue. I will try to get an answer from someone in the know and see if they have future plans for it.

After a foggy night it is going to be a beautiful day in the City by the Bay today!

This was on our desk in the cabin when we first arrived onboard. I’m going to have to get up there for some chicken wings one day.

My poor room steward tried so hard to find a pillow I like. None of them are like we have had on any other ship, which is why I stopped bringing my own pillow. I’m dealing with it, though. I may ask him for another duvet .. they are nice and fluffy! The bed is definitely more firm than the beds on the Ruby, Majestic, Royal, Emerald .. but they really aren’t bothering either of us.

I forgot to mention that while we were in the piazza with a friend of ours yesterday, one of the officers found our friend’s location through the medallion. He came to tell her she won one of the Princess Prizes. Someone was just asking me how you are notified if you missed it while on your door panel. I honestly didn’t know and then that happened. So, a question answered for me, too. I love that the Discovery Princess provides great stemware for nice wines and champagne throughout the ship. I asked the bar steward in the piazza for a real coffee cup and he gets it! From then on, that all I needed to ask and only the one time .. all of my drinks have come in a nice glass. Beyond that, the reason we’ve been impressed with no erroneous charges on our folio with having the premier package is that we recently cruised on the Majestic Princess. The cruise was absolutely excellent in so many ways and the Majestic is our favorite ship with such an amazing crew. The extra charges kept showing up on our bill from time to time, even though what we ordered was covered under the premier package. We were even charged corkage in a bottle of wine we bought onboard and it was charged after we disembarked so I didn’t catch it in time to have it removed while we were still onboard. We just passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to San Francisco! I will never ever ever tire of that amazing sight even though we live very nearby! My wish is that Princess will put a Royal class ship back in San Francisco soon! I already miss the Royal now she was sent to Australia.