4x4bob

OK. This will be our 2nd trip down there. La Paz and Loreto are quaint little towns that are fun to just walk around in, find a outdoor cafe and order a beer and nachos and watch the world walk past. Our last trip we kept bumping into the Ship paid walking tour, like I said Little Towns. Had to wait for them to clear the area so I could take photos my self. Bob

I am easy to spot. I am 4 foot tall, 4 foot around with a long white beard hanging down and I always wear a tall pointed hat with narrow brim. And I will be carrying a Nikon camera with a 300mm lens that I have modified to mount wheels on the end of lens so I can roll it around. If I see you on a roll call I will be sure to notify you that I will be on that ship also. Our next trip is Sea of Cortez in January 2023. Then if I can pick up enough aluminum cans in the park, maybe Hawaii later in the year. And you think you have a corner on the market for being Cheapo. 😁 Bob

Before our may cruise this year I followed instructions and ordered the Medallion along with a black wrist band to hold it. When they came I inserted the Medallion into the band and tried to snap the lock. Had to pull hard to stretch the band to get it to lock. It would have fit a small child comfortably. Then when I pulled down the sleeve of my shirt to cover it my thumb bumped the Medallion in the holder and it tilted sideways. ????? Took band off and inserted the Medallion again. Then lightly poked it with my finger and it tilted once again. One more time. Off with band, insert Medallion and back on wrist. This time I thumped my hand down the table and once again it tilted. Then I saw a You Tube video by Don who reports on cruising. He lost his Medallion our of his wrist band while on a tour. So, on the cruise the I used the Lanyard around my neck and dropped the Medallion down inside my shirt so it would not fall into the soup while eating or something. Bob

On our May 2022 cruise on Discovery to Alaska there were about 250 Bears on board which of course was not announced a head of the cruise. Mainly they kept to them selves, just folks having fun on a cruise. The interesting part for me was.....They were middle age to older men wearing beards. Guess what? That profile fit me which made my wife laugh a lot at some of the looks I received from time to time. Bob

I really enjoyed your trip report and photos. In the future if both of us are on the same ship I would like to meet with you. So, If I see someone taking photos on the fantail of the ship early in the morning to catch the sunrise or late in the afternoon to catch the sunset that I believe is you I will walk up and say Hello. Such as, Hello are your the HarryFat1? However if I have guessed wrong I can imagine how the conversation will kinda go down hill at that point. Any way looking forward to your next trip report Bob

Yes, good idea. Right next to Diamond International stores which draws in lots of customers. Bob

Or, we started taping our paper tags years ago. So, we continue to do so as part of our family cruising tradition. As for being Frugal, If I wanted to purchase plastic holders I would just go to the local park and collect a bag full of aluminum cans and cash them in to make the purchase to prevent an impact on my multi thousand dollar cruise. Bob

Just to offer another method. I print out the tag at home, fold them, and then cover both sides with clear packing tape. Then punch a hole in both ends of the tag. When adding the tags to the bag, normally at the cruise port hotel before going to the port, I then attach them with a plastic wire tie. If you use this method you must bring with you a nail clipper or something to cut the wire tie off later. The packing tape water proofs the tag just in case it is raining and the bag handlers let the baggage carts sit out in the rain for awhile. Bob

Welcome back. I am sure that the cadre of your CC followers are very happy to be back reading your posts and looking at your Photos. I sure hope your wife responded well to her son leaving the family nest to go off to college. When our daughter went off to college we drove her down to Southern California and helped her load her Stuff into her College Dorm room then she came back out to the car to say good-by. As she walked back to the Dorm my wife looked like I had just sold her into Indentured Servitude or something. Then after paying for 5 years for the College Deans Mansion on the hill, his Royal Royce and his Yacht, I kinda wished that I had explored that Servitude idea. You know, find a good Jeweler that could have taught her how to split diamonds or something.

Ref the Casino on a Princess ship. If you visit several times you just may receive Casino perks for your next Princess cruise. My Wife and her sister are big casino players and both receive different level Casino Perks depending on how much they visit and the length of the next cruise. Bob

Harry: I do not want to hi-jack your excellent thread describing your trip report. However, I do want to share with you the history of Buffet Coffee on a cruise ship. Back in the day of Christopher C. and his small wooden ships with sails that was going to find the new land the storage hold on those ships were very small so they could not store much firewood for a trip that was going to take months and months and and months. So, the crew being what sailors are who wanted their morning cup of coffee put their heads together to come up with a solution. They determined that dried goat droppings burned well as a fuel and did not take up much storage space and did not weigh very much. So they acquired several bags full of the fuel and stored it on the ship. Each morning the quarter master would lay some bricks on the wooden deck and start a small fire with the goat fuel to boil water to make coffee. During the brewing process the smoke from the fire imparted into the coffee a unique flavor. Tradition has it that down through the ages ship board coffee maintained the same flavor as the coffee that was offered to the crew on that ship. So, you doubt what I am reporting? Then next time you are on a ship go up to the buffet and ask for a cup of black coffee. Wait until it cools then take a sip. Then lets see if you finish the cup or sit it down on a table and go down to deck 5 to the International Cafe and order a cup of fresh brewed coffee. Signing off Bob

I came to this party late so all of the drink trays were empty and each of the available snacks had one bite taken out of each one. Also, I am not a bean counter and further more I do not eat beans out of extreme consideration for those around me. I rolled through all 13 pages with great interest and much enjoyment. From the very good photos provided by the OP, who is an avowed cheapo, he is using the highly modified cigar box camera with manual shutter release and finger twist spindles to advance the roll of 127 film. 😁 I would tip my hat to the OP for his effort, but the glare off from my shinny blond hair is often blinding to those around me. So, I just offer much thanks for the OP's contributions. Bob

Another very happy Princess customer. We received the dreaded letter from Princess. Dear valued customer we just cancelled your cruise and are offering 3 choices which none appealed to us. So, we called our PVP, yes it took 3 days to make contact, because she was swamped with phone calls. When contact was made, we signed up for another cruise in Jan. 2023. We were concerned that we would loose the perks and OBC that we had stacked up on the cancelled cruise. However, all transferred to the new cruise. Then a few days later a price drop was posted and back to our PVP we went. She adjusted our account to the new level without a problem. 😁 Bob

I really, really, really hope your cruise goes off without a hitch. You want to know why? I am on her the 29 Jan, 2023. 😀

Just did a 3 person cabin check again. A few opened up in Ocean view. The rest remain unavailable. Bob

OK, I will give that a try to see what happens. Bob

We were one of the lucky ones that received the infamous cruise cancellation letter from Princess for our Nov Cruise on the Diamond. So, we jumped on a Jan 29 2023 cruise to the same destinations on the Diamond. Just for fun yesterday I checked to see how many cabins have sold. Out of 1,337 available, I counted 303 sold. Then I looked at the chart I had made as I collected the data. The Balcony Cabins are selling the best with 201 sold out of 240. The next best is Mini Suite's with 46 sold out of 112. Then here are a bunch of cabins listed as Not Available??? Ocean View: Aft, Mid Aft, and Mid Ship. Ocean View Prem: Aft, Mid Aft, Mid Forward. Forward decks 5-8 Sold out. A few available on decks 10 and 11. Balcony Prem: Mid Ship, Forward. Mini Suite: Mid Ship. Vista Suite: Deck 10. Premium Suite: Aft, Mid Aft, and Mid ship. Pent House Suite: Aft, Mid Aft, and Forward. This really surprised me. Has anyone else ever seen anything like this? Bob

Depending on ship and crew. 1st time I had knock on door the last night and was handed my bottle with tag on it. 2nd time. Last night I walked back to the cabin to find my bottle sitting on the deck outside the cabin door. Was lucky it was still there. Bob

Here is something else to consider about the "Free Wine Tasting" as a perk. Did the ship just come back into service after being at dock for 1-2 years during the Covid upraising? Was the Wine Bin kept under temperature control or was the temp allowed to raise up above 70 degrees for a extended period of time, causing the wine to cook? Then something else that I think about wine on a ship that moves about while out on the ocean. You know, up and down, side to side and back and forth causing the wine in the bottle to slosh around. Something I would not even consider for my wine cellar at home. Then for the scheduled wine tasting event I am sure that the staff will reach down and grab the oldest bottles that have been on the ship awhile to give away at the event. Bob

I totally agree with OP on checking our account. Pre Covid we went to the Pub Lunch and placed our order. The waitress delivered what I ordered and brought the wrong order to my wife. Then delivered the two beers that we had ordered and returned with the correct order for my wife. About 5 minutes later the waitress came back and started to set down 7 more drinks. Um, pardon me, but we did not order those drinks and she took them away. Next day we checked our account and was not surprised to find that we had been charged for those 7 drinks. 😬 It took 3 trips to the passenger service desk to get those drinks erased from our account. 1st day at desk. We will have to check on this. 2nd day. Checked account still there. Back to desk. We are still checking. 3rd day. Checked account. Back to desk. Who do I have to talk to? I want this resolved now. The charges were removed. If that had been a short cruise or we had not checked the account we would have come home with them charged to us. As others have said, it was not the cost but the principle of the matter. Bob

I can not say enough happy things about our CVP. She has given us excellent service over the years. When we got hit with the infamous John Padgett letter cancelling our November Cruise we reviewed the 3 offers and did not find any that were acceptable to us. We reached out to our CVP. For the first time it took us 3 days to make contact. She explained that she had a week worth of backlog on phones calls and the pile was just getting deeper because other people were also scrambling for replacement cruises. We signed up for a January 2023 cruise with her at that time. Along came a price drop and we called her again. Call went right through this time. In the middle of the call the line went dead. She then called us back on her personal cell phone to explain what had happen and that she would contact us again when power was restored in her area. As I said, very happy customers here.😁 Bob

To expand on what Caribill said about hailing a cab. When we were there you could not call on your cell phone to request a cab. You had to find one parked at a cab rank at a major hotel or business. Other then that you would have to stand on the edge of the street waving you arm around like you were trying to get up to flight speed as cabs drove past. Or...Like John Wick hold up a gold coin. Bob

Same thing happened to me. After we received the dreaded letter from Princess that Our November cruise was canceled we jumped on a Jan 2023 cruise on the Diamond for the same destination that we lost. So, it was a hot triple digit day one day and I could not work outside so I started to up date Ocean Ready for the new cruise. The Wife Unit came along and asked me what I was doing and I proudly told her that I am being Pro-Active and getting Ocean Ready loaded for our Jan cruise. She looked at my phone and said, well Mr Pro-Active you are reloading on the cancelled Nov cruise. Then I did the same thing, cancelled and reloaded. The Wife then told me not to go near the Dinner reservations because she had to jump through several hoops to get them set the way she wanted and did not want me to erase what she did. Got to keep telling our selves, dealing with Princess is part of the adventure, right? Bob

A few years ago the Cruise was my Birthday Gift to the Wife. And, she did get a card in the stateroom telling her to give it to the waiter at Dinner which she did. After Dinner, after Desert, after coffee no cake appeared. Then three nights later two waiters made a big point of talking to the Wife. She looked over at me and I just gave out with my most evil smile. She nodded her head. This was secret message that we would not be dropping any extra envelopes in the MDR on the last night. Bob

Thank you for your report. That was sad to hear. If they were still in business and we got back up there I would have gone again. Bob