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LittleMissMagic's 17-Day ~Pacific Princess~ Panama Canal **PHOTO REVIEW**

LittleMissMagic

By LittleMissMagic,
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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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Hello, friends!

 

I apologize for leaving you guys on the first day - midterms and personal life caught up to me, and I haven't had time to update the blog or this thread.

 

But if you're up tonight, you're in for a treat - I'm going to marathon update for as long as I can! Take me back to Pacific Princess!!! :)

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dforeigner

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Hello, friends!

 

I apologize for leaving you guys on the first day - midterms and personal life caught up to me, and I haven't had time to update the blog or this thread.

 

But if you're up tonight, you're in for a treat - I'm going to marathon update for as long as I can! Take me back to Pacific Princess!!! :)

 

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

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December 18 - At Sea

 

Rachel was suffering from "early risers' syndrome" and was finding it impossible to sleep in, so she left the room early that morning to read on the pool deck. She was amused by all of the intense speed walkers around the walking track on the 10th deck. I'll note now that even though it's small (13 laps for one nautical mile), it's much more efficient than other ships which have the track surrounded by deck chairs. This way, it's continuous circulation, and you can run or walk at any time of the day without worrying about people's chairs intruding on the track or slow people in swimsuits getting in your way.

 

I, on the other hand, still had not quite adjusted my sleeping schedule from post-final-review-recovery (when you go to bed at 3 AM and wake up at noon).

 

Since we had 17 days on the ship, we didn't feel like we were in a rush to get out and do something. The first day of our cruise last year ended up being a recovery day for us, too, but it was nice to be able to take our time doing things, relax a little, and not worry about missing out (plus, it was a small ship, so what were we really missing out on?). We were boring and spent a good bit of our day in our stateroom watching movies and The Love Boat.

 

 

We were also pleased to learn that our balcony was easily accessible. I had read stories about the forward balcony doors being difficult to open, but we didn't have a problem. The Pacific Ocean was peaceful, so it was enjoyable to spend time out on the balcony with a light breeze.

 

 

Rachel and I did venture out with Mom to go to afternoon tea in the Club Restaurant (3:30-4:30 PM daily) which was nice, though we never returned. But they had lots of little decorated cookies to try.

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

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Tonight was the first of three formal nights, the Welcome Aboard Champagne Waterfall Party (in the past, it's been the Captain's Champagne Waterfall Party). This was also a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Princess Cruises - what a great year to sail! (I'm really great at hitting anniversaries - I visited Disneyland for the 50th Anniversary, I was in Genoa during the 40th Anniversary of the Villa, at Clemson during the 100th Anniversary of Clemson Architecture, Disneyland again for the 60th Anniversary, now I'm at UCLA for the 50th Anniversary of Architecture, and I just hit the 50th anniversary of Princess Cruises - if you want to enjoy some high-dollar celebrations, stick with me!)

 

Speaking of the anniversary, our family just missed the 50th Anniversary Love Boat Cruise. When we embarked in San Pedro, the cast of the Love Boat was disembarking. We talked to a lot of cruise members about the anniversary cruise and meeting the cast, and they said that they were all on for the entire 17 days.

 

Since we had plenty of time to get ready, we decided not to wait around for the free champagne, and got the party started at the Casino Bar for cocktails and music with Chico & Dawn.

 

24773466829_d091afd021_b.jpg

Chico by Victoria Shingleton, on Flickr

 

It's out of focus and the stamp is off-center, but Princess is celebrating 50 with chocolate.

 

 

The free champagne is pretty terrible, actually. But it's free. Noting its horrible taste, I opted for the mimosa to help make it a little easier to go down. Our first night of really socializing on the ship, and I wanted a little buzz.

 

 

The champagne waterfall was held in the lobby which is a small space and pretty cramped, especially since there were also two photo spots set up. The people watching isn't as easy as on a larger ship when you can grab a spot along the railing on an upper level and look down below.

 

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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Here we made our first friends - Ray and Carol from England. The good thing about a small ship is that you see the same people over and over, so once you meet someone, you'll definitely bump into them again.

 

More champagne? No new glass, take it straight from the bottle!

 

 

They ran out of champagne, so we headed back to the casino bar to kill some more time before dinner. It was here that we met "our bartenders" - EJ and Reggie. If you've sailed Pacific Princess lately, I'm sure you know these two because they are so friendly and fun! EJ noticed our last name, Shingleton, and started singing, "All the Shingle ladies, all the Shingle ladies!" We told her about our Instagram caption from departure day - "Shingle bells, Shingle bells, Shingle all the way!"

 

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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Tonight, the dining room served the 50th Anniversary Menu. The always available menu items were also an alternative. But for the sake of the celebration, I had to go with the special menu. The menu progresses through the decades of Princess Cruises, culminating with the 2010s and chocolate.

 

 

First course, the Duck Terrine, Apricot Preserves and Porcini Mushroom Cappuccino Soup. Uhm... Duck Terrine is not my thing. It's a texture issue. But the soup was alright to me (remember, I'm no foodie. I don't even really like food, so never take my food critique as "expert" because I am not someone who loves food).

 

 

The Panache of Greens, Balsamic and Walnut Vinaigrette -

 

 

Ossobuco Agnolotti -

 

 

Intermezzo, Blueberry Mojito Sorbet

 

 

Malabar Peppered Beef Tournedos. I love beef, so this was a heck yes for me.

 

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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They offered an after dinner drink tonight. I do not remember the name, but it had rainbow sprinkles which is a definite yes for me.

 

Carnival was very pushy on my Breeze cruise with the special after dinner drinks (really the only cruise I've been on where they came to my table every night to sell us a special drink). Princess did this only a few times - maybe only twice the entire cruise. I like having the option of a special drink, but I don't like it shoved in my face every night, so I think Princess is doing a much better job than its sister line with that.

 

 

Dessert was the Chocolate Raspberry Mousse with Vanilla Crème Brulée and Crunchy Shortbread. It's part of the new "Chocolate Journeys" collaboration with chocolatier Norman Love. They actually alternate this dessert with the Moist Chocolate Dome with Raspberry Crème Brulée and Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse every other sailing. For a 17 day cruise, you'd think we could get both.

 

Again, I had a texture issue. Rachel had an issue with the red around the heart looking too much like blood. Her response to its appearance was, "Eww, that's so gross!"

 

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LittleMissMagic

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Dad and I went to the show tonight. It was musical entertainer, Glenn Smith, with "Best of Las Vegas". He's a Vegas performer, so he's a pretty entertaining musician, but we were tired and couldn't make it through the entire show because Dad kept falling asleep and snoring.

 

 

I came back to Christmas decorations on our stateroom mailbox. We had these on Island Princess back in 2012, but did not get decorations on Royal Princess in 2013. I was really glad to see their return, especially since I hadn't packed any decorations of my own (shocking for me, I know, but I had 17 days to pack for and no room for extras like that!).

 

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December 19 - At Sea

 

Again, Rachel was an early riser and was out and about the ship before me. She signed mom and I up for the Ladies' Pamper Party that afternoon. I got up in search of breakfast and ran into Rachel on the pool deck. We decided to do the $500 Treasure Hunt which was due at 11 AM. It took all of ten minutes to walk around the ship collecting stamps from each venue.

 

So at 11:15, we headed to the Cabaret Lounge to see if we'd win the drawing. We didn't win anything, and it was a little frustrating because this huge family of teenagers from the LA area kept winning everything, and there were also two husband and wife winning pairs - how weird is that? Clearly, they did not shake up the bowl before the drawing if husband and wife were winning back-to-back.

 

Rachel wanted to play Bingo, so Dad bought her a pack of cards. Princess has paper Bingo cards that you just cross out the number with a pen or pencil - not the punch-in kind. I was also glad to see that there were no electronic bingo cards because I don't trust those things. I am skeptical of them and don't understand how they don't provide better odds or an unfair advantage (maybe they do, and that's why they cost more). Also, what's the fun of Bingo if you can't find your own numbers to mark?

 

Bingo was led by Michael and Dylan, two of the dancers. The really cool thing about this ship is that the dancers all played several roles. They were in the production shows at night, but they also led Bingo, line dancing, water volleyball, arts and crafts, and greeted guests going to the shows. You saw them all over the ship interacting with guests (we learned later that part of their job is conversing with passengers). It felt very Love Boat and I enjoyed it.

 

Michael was very energetic and cracked a lot of corny Bingo jokes which I laughed at loudly and a little too late. First round of Bingo is a straight row, anywhere. And... Rachel won! We didn't see it at first, and so Rachel called it late - "Bingo?" Michael gave us a hard time throughout the rest of the game about how just like we call Bingo late, we get the jokes three seconds behind.

 

The grand prize in the first game of the day was..... $50. Of course, she'd win the smallest prize. Remember how I said Dad bought the Bingo card? Well, that was an important note because throughout the rest of the cruise, Dad would argue that he actually bought the Bingo card, so really it was his winning card, even though Rachel was the one holding the cards (okay, Dad, you kinda won, congrats). He also kept pushing that Rachel split the winnings with me since I helped cross out the numbers (it's okay, Dad, really). So if Rachel were to have paid Dad back for the Bingo card and then split her winnings with me, she would have come out with... $12? Forget that. Keep your $50 bill, Rachel, you earned it!

 

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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That afternoon, Rachel, Mom, and I went to the Ladies Pamper(aka Rub-Lotion-on-Your-Face) Party in the Pacific Lounge at 1PM. There was a bit of a scheduling issue because the Princess Pop Choir Rehearsal was also scheduled for the Pacific Lounge at 1PM, so there were several random guys (lots of guys in pop choir, I guess) who came in very confused as to what was going on.

 

The pamper party was led by the Lotus Spa Manager, Margarita from Macedonia. She wanted us to do the treatment on half of our faces so that we could tell he difference... but forget that, most of us wanted full facials. Only some women in the front listened to her before/after instructions. Margarita would speak about the importance of using different creams for different parts of the face (she recommended a cream for face and neck and a separate cream for eyes) and told us how to apply while her assistants came around and gave us pretty generous squirts of the products.

 

At first I was hesitant to rub this strange stuff on my face because I didn't want to break out... but then decided screw it, I'll try this out for the trip report, and rubbed the lotion all over my face. Spoiler alert: I didn't break out.

 

I was worried this "party" would just be one big sales pitch, but Margarita actually didn't push at all on selling the product, which was so nice. She didn't say the brand name over and over, and simply told us what we were using, not the cost or the label. And at the end of the party, she passed out $40-off certificates to the spa. But she ran out of certificates, so Rachel and I only got one to share between the two of us. We were told that we could both get the discount, though, just to let them know when we booked.

 

When Rachel and I headed to the gym that evening (small gym with the hottest trainer, by the way, mmmmm that man was good-looking), we stopped in the Lotus Spa first to book our massages. I opted for the Chocolate Indulgence Body Treatment, while Rachel, who hates the smell of chocolate, went with the Elemis Aroma Spa Seaweed Massage.

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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With all of the champagne and 50th anniversary formal night happenings, I forgot to update you all on our rude table neighbor situation!

 

So Dad had tried to go to the dining room to change our table number since we were really bothered by our neighbors (well, I was actually entertained by them, but everyone else in my family wanted to move), but just missed the person he needed to talk to. So the second night of dinner (formal night), we went to the dining room and.... new neighbors sitting at their table! Our rude old neighbors must have gone to the and asked for a switch themselves. I hope they enjoyed their new atmosphere - I'm sure that it couldn't have been worse than having to look at us for 17 days!

 

Tonight, I was so hungry that I forgot to photograph my appetizer. Oops.

 

I think this is Dad's Pan-Seared Red Snapper -

 

 

I went with the Home-Style option, again, and got the jerked chicken with rice and red beans. I'm telling you, Home-Style is where it's at!

 

 

And dessert, our favorite, Key Lime Pie!!!

 

 

I can't remember if it was Mom or Rachel who also ordered the Warm Chocolate Fudge Cookie (sounds good) to try.... but we learned that Princess does not make good cookies. Ewwwwww so dry and tasteless, even covered in that chocolate sauce!

 

 

After dinner, we decided to stay out for once. We headed to the Casino Bar, but EJ told us that the real deal was Happy Hour (9-10 PM nightly) in the Pacific Lounge.

 

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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December 20 - Cabo San Lucas

 

Land ho!!!!

 

 

After over two days at sea, we awoke in the port of beautiful Cabo San Lucas.

 

What do you see there, Boyd?

 

 

Cabo San Lucas is a tender port, but tendering on Pacific Princess was never a problem. We never had to grab a tender ticket (only meet our tour group in the Cabaret Lounge on days we booked tours through the ship), and there was hardly a wait for the tender boat - how spoiled we were!

 

 

As soon as we exited the secure area of tender, we were bombarded by sales people, yelling at us to choose their tour. Mom was overwhelmed and scurried away. I don't know what it says about me, but I kind of liked the attention and remember smiling at different people like, "Why should I choose you?" But I didn't get to have the big fight-for-me battle I wanted, as Dad quickly chose one man who approached us and did not yell.

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LittleMissMagic "Live from...." Rare

LittleMissMagic

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We were seated on Mr. Pinguin, and met our friendly tour guide whose name escapes me at the moment... but he was awesome. We had the entire boat for just the four of us!

 

 

Our first stop was at this beach to pick up a short-term hitch hiker who needed a lift to work.

 

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Dive Boats! I haven't been diving in over a year - time for Rachel to get her certification so Ill have a buddy!

 

 

Here's the beach where we dropped off our hitch hiker -

 

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Lover's Beach -

 

 

Got an up-close look of these rocks which are SO COOL!

 

 

See the rock? Our guide called it "Scooby Doo"!

 

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Our guide was a very experienced boat driver. He got us up close inside this rock and never touched the boat to the wall.

 

 

There it is, El Arco!

 

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LittleMissMagic

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We saw lots of seals, too.

 

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LittleMissMagic

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Okay, I'm seeing this a little more now that I study the photo, but our guide was telling us that from the other side, the Scooby Doo rock is a hitch hiking boy holding up a thumb. I can kind of make out a thumb and fist.

 

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After a wonderful cruise around El Arco and the rock formations of Cabo, we were dropped off at Medano Beach.

 

 

Mr. Pinguin would be back to pick us up. I don't remember the exact time we requested, but all-aboard was scheduled for 1:00 PM, so we only had a short time in Cabo.

 

 

We walked just a little ways down the beach and found Cabo Villlas Beach Resort which had rows of cushioned chairs. We asked how much for chair rentals, and were told that chairs were free, they just asked that we purchase food and drinks from them - easy peasy! We ordered two buckets of beer and a plate of nachos, which if I remember correctly came to around $25 - which is an extremely good deal, especially considering chairs included.

 

 

Dad was oblivious and walked into my picture here on his way to grab a beer.

 

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Cabo Villas had nice, clean restroom facilities just a short walk from the beach, by the restaurant which overlooks the beach from above.

 

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Perhaps because we were there early in the morning, the beach wasn't too crowded. Maybe it also looked like a private club, so other cruise passengers (remember, small ship, so I recognize them already) who I saw walking by decided to either keep going or just lay their towels in the sand, rather than inquiring about the chairs here. Which is why I find it important to tell you know that if you ever find yourself at Medano Beach in Cabo, Club Villas is wonderful and a great deal, too.

 

I also want to commend the staff for being excellent. Everyone I spoke to was very friendly and welcoming. Rachel asked a waiter for the wifi password, and he gave it to her, then came back to check that it was working. I also overheard one of the younger staff members talking to a young man who I believe was a guest of the resort and was on the last day of his vacation. They were talking about a girl here that he was trying to get with, and just like on Pacific Princess, it felt so Love Boat. We're in an age where personal interaction between guests and employees is becoming more and more rare, likely because it's frowned upon due to scandals which get blown up in the media, but I think that's really unfortunate. This vacation made me really appreciate personal interactions with crew. I hope that, though not nearly as common as it used to be, that this is something that never becomes extinct.

 

 

So Dad wasn't paying attention and remembered that our boat was "Pinguin", but not "Mr. Pinguin". So he saw the boat "Ms. Pinguin" and made us get up. I told him that wasn't our boat, but he didn't believe me. Sure enough, not our guide. Then came Pinguin II. "Oh, here it is!" "No, Dad, we're on Mr. Pinguin."

 

You've probably picked up on this now, considering how it's been two months since the cruise and I am writing this live and in incredible detail, but I have a ridiculously good memory. Never tell me something that you don't want me to remember, because I'll never forget it.

 

 

Rachel is a collector, and one of the things that she collects is shot glasses from all of the places she travels. She has a huge collection. So we went into the market to find her a shot glass. I think this is odd because it goes against our personalities of her being the extrovert and me being the introvert, but Rachel doesn't like being harassed by salespeople (well, really who does?) or bargaining, and I quite enjoy it. So she was moving through the shops quickly, trying not to have to talk to anyone, while I stopped at the shop of whoever wanted my attention the most and entertained them with my interests. I talked a guy down from $7 to $3 on a shooter which I really liked, and I remembered I had a bit of cash in my wallet, so I felt like I had to buy it for myself.

 

Then I ran into Dad who had bought himself a long-sleeve white tee with a shark on it. I love sharks. They are my favorite sea animal (sorry, dolphin-lovers... I understand that they're awesome, I just dig all of the flipping and chattering). So I wanted the same shirt - who cares if we're twinsies? Dad destroys all of his shirts in a matter of months, anyway, so I might never see him wear it again. "That'll be $15." "$15! How about $12 since I'm smaller and my shirt has less material?" "No, $15." "What about $12 since I'm prettier?" "No, $15." This guy does not negotiate. But I wanted the shirt, so I coughed up the $15. (I was thinking, $3 less, who really cares? But the same went for me - $3 more, I don't really care. It's petty but entertainment, really.)

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