Mini live from Grand Princess Sea of Cortez, February 3, return from Travis

[Desert Cruisers]

On 2/7/2022 at 5:46 AM, jondfk said:

Okay, a second trip to the desk received a more confident sounding “1600”.  Prior figure given was 1700 so that probably gives you a general sense, if I hear anything different, I’ll report again.

 

On 2/7/2022 at 1:27 PM, rowdylibrarian said:

 

I'm on the next sailing on 2/28, and my Princess person said that they were just about at their set capacity of 65%, so that would be 1,690 passengers out of their passenger capacity of 2,600. 🙂

Hope that they will be adding crew for your sailing.  The staff is stretched quite thin. There is changeover in staff on turnaround day. However, sometimes the authorities do not allow new crew to go immediately from quarantine (deck 12) to work so there is understaffing in some areas. An on-board Princess person told us that they are also having trouble getting qualified staff in certain departments.  

[jondfk]

Last night was Italian night in the MDR, always my favorite meal, perhaps it’s the long time since we last went, perhaps the low pax count, whatever the reason the food was spectacular.  Prosciutto and melon, often a small slice of dry meat - not this time a luscious  mound of seemingly fresh carved meat.  Veal piccata was quite lovely, not dry or overcooked.  A genuinely lovely meal, well prepared, well paced and well served.

 

Sea day today so there’s a lunch menu to post.

 

 

[Desert Cruisers]

Food opinions are very subjective.  Ate in MDR on Italian night last cruise. Food was awful. Eggplant parmigiana was inedible. I grew up on USA East Coast in an Italian neighborhood so I know good Italian cooking. 
 

We ate in Sabatini’s last night. One of the better Sabatini’s meals that we have had in a long time. 

[gmcwalker]

Hi I will be on the 2/28/22 Grand on the same itinerary. I am wondering if the Aft Terrace pool is/was open during your cruise as it is by the Covid Aloha Deck 12.

Thanks.

[SLC1954]

39 minutes ago, gmcwalker said:

Hi I will be on the 2/28/22 Grand on the same itinerary. I am wondering if the Aft Terrace pool is/was open during your cruise as it is by the Covid Aloha Deck 12.

Thanks.

Yes, the pool is open.  There is signage on the doors to the Aloha deck to “do not enter. “ You can access the terrace pool deck from Lido. Not crowded at all.

[Coral]

20 hours ago, Desert Cruisers said:

Food opinions are very subjective.  Ate in MDR on Italian night last cruise. Food was awful. Eggplant parmigiana was inedible. I grew up on USA East Coast in an Italian neighborhood so I know good Italian cooking. 
 

We ate in Sabatini’s last night. One of the better Sabatini’s meals that we have had in a long time. 

My Mom was Italian and cooked Italian all the time (felt like daily at times). For the most part I do like Princess's pastas but have never really liked their eggplant parmesan. I don't think their turkey/chicken parmesan is that great either. I used to love the carbonara served in the dining room but this last cruise - it wasn't that great either. While service was exceptional - the food was a let down. The menus had been dumbed down. Though - I did not starve by any means and gained weight on the cruise.

 

The only food that I really looked forward to on Italian night was a salad with pine nuts and grated cheese (often spinach but it later changed to spring mix). That was missing on my last cruise.

 

I wanted to go to Sabatini's but didn't. Glad it was great.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Coral

[jondfk]

Nothing particularly new to report for yesterday, after a great Italian night dinner (yup, that’s my opinion) in the MDR, last night was just okay.  Pork dumplings were good, nothing else memorable.

 

Today is Puerto Vallarta been there a thousand times, but folks seem excited long lines early at IC, just tying up now.  For us, a good day to relax in the Sanctuary.

 

Here are the day 8 patter and menu for this evening.

 

 

[jondfk]

I need to correct an earlier comment.  I previously said some crew had not been off the ship since joining many months ago.  Today I learned this is not correct, to clarify, the last opportunity for any crew to go ashore was December 24th, no shore leave the past 6 weeks.  Prior to that, some, in very limited numbers were allowed ashore in accordance with local restrictions.

 

today the crew are very excited as quite many are being allowed ashore in Vallarta.  There was a crew drill prior which had them counting the seconds until being allowed out.  The primary destination is … Walmart.

[OccasionalSanta]

On 2/8/2022 at 11:21 AM, OccasionalSanta said:

Good suggestion.  I was able to catch the headwaiter at Sabatini's yesterday before they opened. He was able to find me an opening tonight. 

As a follow up... had a wonderful dinner at Sabatini's after we left Loreto. As we were one of the last parties in the dining room, the head waiter came over and chatted for a while. He said there had been 6 no-shows the night before and 5 on that day. One of them was considerate enough to call and cancel, but the rest just blew it off. 

[OccasionalSanta]

A question for others on board.  I have found the app to be extremely slow.  Now this could be one of 3 things.

 

1. My phone (my wife's phone is  a little better, but not much)

2. The app itself

3. The wifi

 

I did not purchase an internet package,  so I'm curious as to what people's experience with internet has been on this cruise

[smbt1]

2 hours ago, jondfk said:

I need to correct an earlier comment.  I previously said some crew had not been off the ship since joining many months ago.  Today I learned this is not correct, to clarify, the last opportunity for any crew to go ashore was December 24th, no shore leave the past 6 weeks.  Prior to that, some, in very limited numbers were allowed ashore in accordance with local restrictions.

 

today the crew are very excited as quite many are being allowed ashore in Vallarta.  There was a crew drill prior which had them counting the seconds until being allowed out.  The primary destination is … Walmart.

When we were on the last cruise on the Grand to Hawaii, we asked our steward and a couple of other crew members if we could pick up anything for them on shore, since they could not leave the ship.  They were far more appreciative of the things we picked up for them (mostly Nescafe coffee and creamer was requested) than any tips we have given in the past.

[Desert Cruisers]

1 hour ago, OccasionalSanta said:

As a follow up... had a wonderful dinner at Sabatini's after we left Loreto. As we were one of the last parties in the dining room, the head waiter came over and chatted for a while. He said there had been 6 no-shows the night before and 5 on that day. One of them was considerate enough to call and cancel, but the rest just blew it off. 

We also ate there Loreto evening. Head waiter also told us the same thing. A real pity since there were people on the waiting list. After our 7:30 reservation, only 3 other parties were seated. Lovely evening  with good service and without a lot of people who never got taught “restaurant voice”.

 

Something that we have noticed on this sailing - maybe it’s an unfortunate consequence of the Princess Plus package plus cheap drinks in port - is the number of people who are “3 sheets to the wind”.  We have noticed this in the MDR as well as in the Princess Theatre. 

[Desert Cruisers]

1 hour ago, OccasionalSanta said:

A question for others on board.  I have found the app to be extremely slow.  Now this could be one of 3 things.

 

1. My phone (my wife's phone is  a little better, but not much)

2. The app itself

3. The wifi

 

I did not purchase an internet package,  so I'm curious as to what people's experience with internet has been on this cruise

Yes, the app is slow at times while the  WiFi has been pretty good. We’ve streamed Zoom meetings.  The app has had problems such as the coffee counter not working. 

[memoak]

37 minutes ago, Desert Cruisers said:

We also ate there Loreto evening. Head waiter also told us the same thing. A real pity since there were people on the waiting list. After our 7:30 reservation, only 3 other parties were seated. Lovely evening  with good service and without a lot of people who never got taught “restaurant voice”.

 

Something that we have noticed on this sailing - maybe it’s an unfortunate consequence of the Princess Plus package plus cheap drinks in port - is the number of people who are “3 sheets to the wind”.  We have noticed this in the MDR as well as in the Princess Theatre. 

I have been watching people pass out for 30 years on cruises. With or without drink packages. Remember when the drink package was unlimited ?  

[jondfk]

5 hours ago, OccasionalSanta said:

A question for others on board.  I have found the app to be extremely slow.  Now this could be one of 3 things.

 

1. My phone (my wife's phone is  a little better, but not much)

2. The app itself

3. The wifi

 

I did not purchase an internet package,  so I'm curious as to what people's experience with internet has been on this cruise

I’m using a 5 year old iPad Pro for Wi-Fi with acceptable results most everywhere on the ship.  Haven’t streamed any long video but a number of YouTube shorts with good results.  I carry a ~3 year old iPod touch with the app on it, only for this purpose (meaning I don’t have an internet package for it).  Medallion ordering works great with either though I’ve not really stress tested, a drink here or there, haven’t ordered food or the like.  App speed varies, really sucks in the MDR, too many users I suppose.

 

on one occasion my iPad basically froze in the app.  A cold restart solved the problem.

[Coral]

6 hours ago, jondfk said:

I need to correct an earlier comment.  I previously said some crew had not been off the ship since joining many months ago.  Today I learned this is not correct, to clarify, the last opportunity for any crew to go ashore was December 24th, no shore leave the past 6 weeks.  Prior to that, some, in very limited numbers were allowed ashore in accordance with local restrictions.

 

today the crew are very excited as quite many are being allowed ashore in Vallarta.  There was a crew drill prior which had them counting the seconds until being allowed out.  The primary destination is … Walmart.

We were on the Grand Dec 20th-30th. I had several shop employees on one tour and dancers/singers (entertainment) on another tour in Cabo which was after Christmas. Also - several crew (room stewards and waitstaff) went off the ship on Dec 26th when we overnighted in Cabo. I don't know if they got off the ship in San Diego after that.

 

I wonder if the restrictions came after that.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Coral

[Syracusefan44]

The crew was able to leave the ship today!!  Many picked items up at Walmart in Puerto Vallarta.

[cr8tiv1]

Crew was restricted on last Grand Voyage to Hawaii.

[jondfk]

Sad news, luggage tags arrived last night!

 

sea day today, patters and menus follow.

 

 

[heathriel]

On an interesting note, the Marriage Match game last night was the weirdest I've seen in my 25+ years of cruising. Not sure what it was -- the energy was just really off. The crowd wasn't into it at all, the questions didn't lead to funny answers (just weird ones), and it was overall strange.

 

Steve, the cruise director, did what he could to salvage, but it was just odd.

[back to the islands]

Was there a deck party any night? On Enchanted at Christmas we had one on night 6. Hoping we have one on the next Baja cruise.

[jondfk]

Here are the final day patter and menus.  I’ll been working on a looong summary post with I’ll add once we disembark.  
 

 

[Coral]

Thanks for the "live thread". Thoroughly enjoyed it!

[jwattle]

3 hours ago, jondfk said:

Here are the final day patter and menus.  I’ll been working on a looong summary post with I’ll add once we disembark.  
 

 

Thank you so much for taking us along with you! Your "live from" was brilliantly well-rounded and fun to keep up with!🥂

[heathriel]

On 2/11/2022 at 3:20 PM, back to the islands said:

Was there a deck party any night? On Enchanted at Christmas we had one on night 6. Hoping we have one on the next Baja cruise.

There was the sail-away party, but other than that its been just MUTS (and only like 5 people there). Pretty dead up top from what I've seen after 8pm.

Edited February 12, 2022 by heathriel