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4cats’s wonderful cruise, with a “carppy” ending

4cats4me

By 4cats4me,
in Princess Cruises

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4cats4me "Live from...." Rare

4cats4me

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We just disembarked the Royal Princess this morning after sailing for 10 Days 

To Mexico.  

Second cruise on the Royal in 6 months, 3rd time on the Royal in the last 18 months, 22nd cruise on Princess.  

 

Medallion embarkation:  From pulling into the parking lot to arrival at our cabin was 20 minutes total.  We arrived at 11:55 am, tapped the Medallion to the reader and off we went as we were pre-registered.  

 

Cabin E108, one of the coveted deluxe extra large obstructed View balconies.  

We had 107 back in April.   We didn’t feel any motion on this trip but had bad motion up there on the last trip.  

 

Room steward. She was wonderful, as are all room stewards we’ve had.  

All out needs were met expeditiously.   We don’t ask for much.  

I would like to note that the shower curtain, as usual, had a horrible mildew stench that just about knocked me out upon opening the bathroom door. This has been the case 90% of the time on Princess.  We always ask for a fresh shower curtain, which is always provided at the first turndown service on night one.  The curtain was smelling moldy on the 8th out of 10 days again.  

Why Princess doesn’t have shower doors like Celebrity and Royal is a mystery to me. 

 

Passengers were comprised of an older, lively demographic that put some of us young’uns to shame.  All I can say is I hope to be just like them when I grow up. 

The energy level on this cruise was something else, so many young-at-heart who loved to dance late into the night.  

 

Cruise director, the wonderful Matt O.  What can I say that hasn’t already been said about him?  He is so much fun and very witty.  

His commentary during the judging of the dance contest last night  had us in stitches.  

We loved the Marriage Game. It was hilarious.  

 

We actually attended a lot of shows this time, a rarity for us.  

Colors of the World was beautiful, Encore fabulous, and Secret Silk made its return last night with the brand new cast of singers and dancers.  

Secret Silk had been shelved for 6 months but reworked and debuted yesterday.  We saw it 18 months ago when it was brand new, and it seemed quite a bit different last night, more productiony and less dialogue, more like a production show and less like a play than last time.  I thought the set was beautiful, and the costumes gorgeous, songs were good, too, and the puppets are cute.   I think if one likes Cirque they will appreciate Secret Silk, but I think this isn’t a lot of people’s cup of tea.  I really enjoyed it.  Maybe 10-20 left partway through the show, but maybe it was past their bedtime, as it was 10:30. Or maybe they hated it.  I liked it, but I am easily amused.  

 

Food.  We never ate in the dining room, as is our tradition, since we love the buffet on this ship so much.  

There’s been some changes in the buffet though, and I wasn’t thrilled.  The usual salad bar was divided up all over the place, which sent me walking round and round to find the balsamic vinegrette. Instead of putting the six salad dressings together they were divided up all over the place. There used to be one special salad, like Caesar, but instead of just having lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and salad dressings in the same place, they would have ranch or French dressing in one section alongside one kind of lettuce, et cet.   Usually O eat a salad at every meal, bit this time it was too much work to find everything.  

Really, it was.  

Then the bread area was tiny, and at each end instead of in the middle, where it used to appear to be abundant.  

 

Also, instead of the many other types of salads like cous cous, feta et cet, instead of being in large containers they were pre plated in some goofy flower pots, or on a little coaster-sized disk.   Maybe they feel the pre-plating will cut down on spreading germs or something.  

 

 Meats were generally very good.  Italian night was kind of disappointing this time, not the usual dishes we usually love.  Also, Brazilian night fell short, too, sadly.  But there was ALWAYS something we enjoyed eating, like the Asian noodle dishes and rice.  Ramen night was fantastic.  

 

Straws> I agree with banning plastic straws, but at an outside  bar we were denied straws altogether for our drinks, one, a huge margarita that was hard to balance and I like to sip it through a straw while it stays on the bar, as I am usually a klutz who spills everything easily.  Bartender told us that straws are now only for slushy drinks.  We told him that we’d been given straws just the night before and he told us that the rule had changed.   He was annoyed with the rule, too, as it is making it very hard on him whenever he refuses to give out a straw.   

 

Ocean Now App.  For fun, we ordered drinks from the app.  The first one is free. 

I ordered while sitting in the atrium near Good Spirits bar.  The app indicated Good Spirits when I ordered.  However, Crooner’s somehow got the order two floors up and the cocktail server from Crooner’s ran up and down the stairs twice looking for us.  Apparently the app indicated that we were sitting in a different part of the atrium.  It took about 30 minutes to get the drink.  

 

Second attempt ordering a drink while sitting in the Vista was successful.  

From placing order to delivery was 5 minutes.  However, the cocktail server 

Indicated that he’d lost the signal or it dropped   

 

Ports of call.  We’ve been to them all before except for Loreto.  The whole trip 

Was hot and muggy.  Loreto is charming.  Tender ride ridiculous.  

It took us 50 minutes to get over there going 2 miles per hour if that?   40 minutes into it we got a speech, “We forgot the stairs.”   People were truly miserable. Not us, but we felt so bad for others who looked like they were going to pass out.  Zero air movement. Finally, some people started yelling at the crew to at least drive in circles or something to get some air in there.  

Curiously, Princess staff were already over there at the dock upon our arrival 

And right there to try to take our pictures with costumed employees dressed like pirates.  Nobody was having it.  I am still trying to figure out what the problem was that day, but we did have a wonderful time when we got there. 

Just walked around, Bought beautiful arts and crafts, drank. Mango margaritas

And ate delicious quesadillas.  

 

Puerto Vallarta. Too hot for us this time so we just went to Walmart and bought souvenirs, and next door to the mall and bought designer handbags.  

 

Manzanillo was “special.”  We did take the shuttle to go shopping, but I had an uneasy feeling there. Lots of police and soldiers with guns, I mean, lots of guns visible like in Acapulco a few years ago.  I am not afraid of guns, but the presence of police and military  at the port and around town just made me feel uncomfortable.  Apparently Manzanillo is at a level 4 on the State Dept website, right up there with Yemen? Looking at future itineraries, it appears that La Paz will be substituted for Manzanillo.  

To put it bluntly, I will never get off the ship in Manzanillo again if the ships ever go there.  Sad, because the people are so kind there.  

 

Cabo just is not our favorite port, but we had an overnight there, so we decided to go explore during the evening time after the sun had set.  Mistake.  

The port area had huge sections that were very dark due to lights that either didn’t work, or weren’t on a timer , but I didn’t feel that it was safe to walk in the pitch dark areas of the port. Only some areas were lit, but many areas were just  

too dark.   

 

MUTS.  3-4 out of 10 days were devoted to  NFL under the sun or stars or whatever.  I don’t recall Princess playing nonstop football games before.  

Sunday, all day, many games listed in the Patter, morning, noon and night.  

Monday night football. 

Thursday night football. 

Maybe even Saturday night football. 

Again, yesterday, Sunday, football all day.  

 

I love listening to MUTS or music videos, or preferably a pool band. 

I grew up watching football, but why couldn’t they show football in the Vista instead of by the pool?  Is this something new for Princess, or has it always been this way?  I can see playing the Super Bowl or the World Series games, but gone are the days of peace and quiet and relaxation by the 

pool.  We went to the other pool one day, but it didn’t have adequate shade areas, which is why we like the MUTS pool, and speaking of MUTS.....

 

our cruise ended on a carppy note this morning LOL after my husband rolled his suitcase through a piece of small doggie poop on deck 7 on the way to the Vista

Lounge.   Another fresh nugget a few feet after that that someone else had stepped in.  There was a little to medium “service” dog onboard that was snapping and growling 

And barking at most everyone everytime I saw him.  

We did alert personnel, as most everyone had to walk that path this morning, but alas, when we were disembarking the one piece poopie was still there.  

 

So, it was truly a “carppy ending” to our cruise.  LOL LOL LOL 

 

Disembarkation.  Walk-off.  Group H ... all groups in the priority lounge were called at the same time at 7:02 and we were driving away by 7:25, and that was after dawdling for 10minutes trying to rearrange the car before our travels.  

 

In closing, we really did have a  GREAT cruise and are booked on the Royal for next April.   

 

 

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4cats4me "Live from...." Rare

4cats4me

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2 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

After your story about the 'carp' I'm glad I have never seen a service dog on any of our several dozen Princess cruises.🙂

 

Disclaimer - I am sure some people with service dogs are more responsible than the one appeared to be on your cruise.

 

There was a very sweet Golden Retreiver onboard, too.   Yes, many responsible service doggies out there for sure.  😀

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Cruise Raider Great Review Rare

Cruise Raider

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We were also booked on that same sailing but transferred our deposit over to the Grand when one of our travel mates thought it would be easier not to fly down to LA.  We had a great cruise on the Grand and visited many of the same ports, just leaving a day earlier.  I agree the heat and humidity was just oppressive, especially in Mazatlan.  I made it to the little port area for about 10 minutes before having to head back to the ship. 

In Puerto Vallarta, we headed to one of the nearby hotels for a most wonderful massage.  We stayed onboard in Cabo as we don't much care for tendering into ports.  

And, we've always gone on a some great excursions in Manzanillo, but didn't plan one this time after having been there several times in the past.  Wow ... I think that was a mistake.  I was not so impressed after this latest visit and especially with the level of safety warnings rising so dramatically in the last couple of years.  

I'm pretty grossed out that someone's service animal was allowed to poop in the hallways.  That's pretty disgusting!! 

Glad the rest of your cruise sounded pretty darned good ... you are spot on about Matt O!  Funniest and most engaging CD on the high seas.  

 

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4cats4me "Live from...." Rare

4cats4me

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E108. Identical to 107 that we had last time.  If you like being in the bow,  this is the place for you. 

No motion this time due to smooth seas.  Amazing! 

Last time the motion was just awful.  

You better have sea legs for this cabin. 

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idahospud

idahospud

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Where we docked in Manzanillo is completely different than where we’ve docked in our half a dozen previous visits on the Grand. Usually we’re at the cruise pier near the sailfish statue but on the Royal we were at the cargo port. Definitely much more of a pain to get to town. Much more military presence at the cargo port, too.

40A04636-48C7-42A2-B107-86B1978880DE.jpeg

99E257CB-E67B-4DEB-98F8-032798F66321.jpeg

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4cats4me "Live from...." Rare

4cats4me

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2 minutes ago, idahospud said:

Where we docked in Manzanillo is completely different than where we’ve docked in our half a dozen previous visits on the Grand. Usually we’re at the cruise pier near the sailfish statue but on the Royal we were at the cargo port. Definitely much more of a pain to get to town. Much more military presence at the cargo port, too.

40A04636-48C7-42A2-B107-86B1978880DE.jpeg

99E257CB-E67B-4DEB-98F8-032798F66321.jpeg

 

That explains it.  I couldn’t recall where we docked in 2016, but it definitely seemed preferable to this.  

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