Bimmer09 Christmas Cruise to Mexico on the Diamond

[Bimmer09]

13 hours ago, mchell810 said:

 

Glad you gave feedback on that tender situation.  I can't believe no one from the ship thought: "This is dangerous we should do something."

 

In any case, seems like you had a lovely day in Loretto and Carol's lunch tacos looked great!

 

Indeed we did have a lovely day/few hours in Loreto. Colorful and friendly vibe there. Very relaxing.

I spend a bit of time on the Princess Surveys after the cruise and give credit where it is due and  call out any failings. Of our 18 cruises all but 5 were on Princess hence the Elite perks but there have been cutbacks in food quality (provisioning) which we thought was a strong point before. They've had to hire a lot of new staff, some of whom don't look happy at the amount of work they have to do or aren't getting the training they need to enjoy the work more.

We are used to bantering with the staff at meals (like in the Siwa and Sadudee video) but have had many cruises where we bonded with the dining staff and asked for the same team at each dinner. On this cruise the dining staff were rather perfunctory and the personality was muted. They are perhaps stressed by having so many inexperienced staff to train. One Philippines server expressed that to us when probed. We didn't request any particular waiters this trip.

Princess will always be in our mix of lines- we are already looking at the new Sun Princess out of curiosity  but our next cruise is on X and we are always looking at Azamara for their overnights.

Disappointed with the food on some occasions Carol even said we should "Look at Oceania" but there's more to a cruise line than claiming "best food at sea" as a Trade Mark. Some of the luxury lines even boast of being "6 star". Our amps go up to 11...

Norris

[GeorgesGal]

On 1/2/2023 at 6:18 PM, XBGuy said:

 

Very interesting story, @GeorgesGal.  Are you claiming the $1.  😉

 

 

 

 

Thank you XBGuy!  Since it costs too much to send it by mail, may I ask that you donate it to a charity of your choice?

[loge23]

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

They've had to hire a lot of new staff, some of whom don't look happy at the amount of work they have to do or aren't getting the training they need to enjoy the work more.

We are used to bantering with the staff at meals (like in the Siwa and Sadudee video) but have had many cruises where we bonded with the dining staff and asked for the same team at each dinner. On this cruise the dining staff were rather perfunctory and the personality was muted. They are perhaps stressed by having so many inexperienced staff to train. One Philippines server expressed that to us when probed. We didn't request any particular waiters this trip.

 

 

We noticed this on the Regal in Nov. as well, although we did find a regular duo in the MDR that we liked. But staffing, or the lack thereof, is a common gripe on these boards lately. On our cruise, it was apparent that they were woefully short-staffed. They even had to close the Symphony DR Kitchen because they (according to staff) couldn't staff it properly. That meant the over-worked waiters and Asst. waiters had to use the back stairs to the kitchen on 6 to get all the orders. Just what they needed.

Another thing we noticed was the staff's general inability to understand or speak English. This we never noticed before. Clearly, English isn't the majority of the staff's first language, but I recall staff members telling us, years ago, that the ability to properly speak and understand English was imperative to getting hired onboard. I guess the shortage of available help has changed that requirement. We're not sticklers for speaking English - heck, I grew up in Brooklyn so I have my own unique dialect anyway, but the lack of this ability was very noticeable on our last cruise. Ordering room service became a kind of fun entertainment in seeing what we ordered versus what showed up!

But why is the staffing such a problem? Is it just a residual problem from the lockdown? Or is it a bigger problem? So many mega-ships are on line now and that must surely strain the available labor pool. Some staffers on the Regal intimated to us that they are increasingly picky about what ship they will work now. Poor management on a particular vessel gets around quickly amongst crews and the red flag goes up. Apparently, the Royal is on some crew members Bad List list now because of abusive management (allegedly). We asked about some favorite crew members from past cruises - the vets onboard know everyone! We heard more than a few times that "that person doesn't work on cruise ships anymore". Maybe they get enough funds from the cruise gigs to start up a little business in their home countries, or they just find reasonable alternatives at home instead of leaving everything for a few months to work almost non-stop at sea.  Maybe some found these reasonable alternatives while the ships were out of service for so long. Either way, it's a problem for cruise lines these days.

Happy Cruising all!

 

 

 

[XBGuy]

1 hour ago, GeorgesGal said:

Thank you XBGuy!  Since it costs too much to send it by mail, may I ask that you donate it to a charity of your choice?

 

DONE!!!

 

I bumped it up, a bit, and sent $50 to Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen.  😁

[Deck Chair Queen]

23 hours ago, Walt fan said:

Mariachis and a Mission! Two things I truly love here in San Antonio. We have some beautiful Missions. I glad you and Carol had a good walk there. Can't wait to see your lunch! 

Touring at Christmas had the bonus of the beautiful church decorations for the holiday, and some gorgeous nativity scenes. 

[Bimmer09]

Our guide led us on a short walk-to visit a flea market. I didn't see any fleas and we could have used some. One of our party had to have her picture taken  with the Police.

 

 

Back to the bus and on through some back streets. Our next stop-not mentioned in the synopsis of the tour was 45 minutes of shopping in a pottery store. I've been to cameo stores and leather stores in Italy where the guide can pick up some extra cash by delivering stooges by the busload.

This store was special in a couple of ways though-no cameras allowed (top secret soup bowls) and they had  what I presumed was the makings of a Nativity Display but what at the moment looked like  a trash dump (called fly-tipping in the U.K)

 

 

Get your pottery here

 

 

Everyone except Carol got off the bus, myself bringing up the rear. As I got closer to the store the guide got in front of me to remind me "no cameras". My response was "Oh I ain't going in there!

I was going to sit on a low wall and smoke in the shade. Indeed after 45 minutes 8 of the 17 in the store came out carrying bags of pottery so Jose would have got his kick-back. I let Princess know on the survey that I disapproved of forced shopping during a tour. The pottery in the window looked like that which you can find in Home Goods or such.

 

 

[Bimmer09]

Our Third "Highlight" was down at the seafront-the Malecon where we had "45 minutes for lunch" before heading back to the ship. Jose warned us as we drove to only order fish tacos as anything else would take longer to cook and eat in 45 minutes. I'm more of a look at the menu, discuss, have a beer or two, people watch etc than a "quick I need two fish tacos to go!!" kind of guy.  This 45 minutes and the previous pottery 45 minutes could have become 90 minutes for a relaxing  memorable lunch on the Malecon. We took a walk over the busy road to the sea.

 

 

 

 

A La Paz landmark sculpture

 

 

 

We relaxed for our 45 minutes, by the sea, enjoying the refreshing breeze. The went back to where the bus was supposed to meet us again. And waited 20 minutes as it was late.

I had bought a fridge magnet in one of the stalls over there and made it back across the street.

 

[Bimmer09]

Back to the Diamond

 

Have you ever noticed that the closer you get to something the bigger it appears, even though you know it has probably stayed the same size all the while?

 

We walk through the small terminal building 

 

 

Gasp! It's GIGANTIC!!

 

 

 

 There were lots of passengers on the dock enjoying drinks in these shady tents before boarding. I could wait until I got to deck 15. On the way to the ship Carol said something she had never said before-"Let's go to the Buffet on 14".  We did just that.

 

I went out the back after walking through the Horizon Court and not seeing anything that appealed and found a table in the shade. All the shade tables had leftovers on them but I managed to flag down a waiter and ask them to clear the table so Carol could eat.

She enjoyed every bite and proclaimed the food "very good".  Well done Horizon Court!

Afterwards I took up my place up in Tradewinds and later Churchill's. This is the beautiful lobby outside of Churchill's-nice decor. 

 

[Deck Chair Queen]

1 hour ago, Bimmer09 said:

 

We relaxed for our 45 minutes, by the sea, enjoying the refreshing breeze. The went back to where the bus was supposed to meet us again. And waited 20 minutes as it was late.

 

 

Another highlight for me (and one of the reasons I chose this excursion) came next. We went to a small but excellent museum featuring the history of the region including its famous cave paintings (photos of course but also some poached fragments). All the exhibits are in Spanish so having a knowledgeable tour guide and a small group really helped. On the way back to the ship I was amazed by the cardon cactus forest. They grow to over seventy feet. The desert adjoining the ocean was unique for me. Ask Norris to post a photo. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Deck Chair Queen

[arizonaperson]

Bimmer09-  I believe the highlights tour description in LaPaz does explain that you will stop at a pottery shop. I think you did the right thing ,if you weren’t interested in pottery ,skip going in.  I don’t think the tour guide or the bus driver held anybody hostage and told you cruisers they had to go into the pottery shop like you sort of described.( forced shopping)  From your description more people went into the pottery shop then did not .The tour description says that you will have a guided walking tour on the Malecon with a description of the sculptures ,doesn’t seem like you did that ,but you’ve got some great photos .  I agree that you probably should complain to the tour desk onboard that the description was not what you thought it was. They (tour description online)also doesn’t describe stopping for 45 minutes to get tacos ,but with a 40 minute drive each way to and from the ship and a tour in between, I would think most people would be hungry to stop for something for lunch .

Edited January 7, 2023 by arizonaperson

[L11]

10 hours ago, Bimmer09 said:

Some of the luxury lines even boast of being "6 star". Our amps go up to 11...

You remind me a bit of my husband with the Spinal Tap reference. We have several amps in our music room and he replaced every single knob with aftermarket knobs that "go to 11". Sigh.

 

Linda

[Bimmer09]

10 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

Bimmer09-  I believe the highlights tour description in LaPaz does explain that you will stop at a pottery shop. I think you did the right thing ,if you weren’t interested in pottery ,skip going in.  I don’t think the tour guide or the bus driver held anybody hostage and told you cruisers they had to go into the pottery shop like you sort of described.( forced shopping)  From your description more people went into the pottery shop then did not .The tour description says that you will have a guided walking tour on the Malecon with a description of the sculptures ,doesn’t seem like you did that ,but you’ve got some great photos .  I agree that you probably should complain to the tour desk onboard that the description was not what you thought it was. They (tour description online)also doesn’t describe stopping for 45 minutes to get tacos ,but with a 40 minute drive each way to and from the ship and a tour in between, I would think most people would be hungry to stop for something for lunch .

Thanks arizonaperson. I checked the tour on Princess just now. In the overview it says we'll have free time for shopping on the Malecon (30 minutes). In the details tab it mentions a pottery shop stop of 30 minutes (with 15 minutes free time) with no photo restrictions. It wasn't on the Malecon but a back street. The pile of trash outside the pottery shop isn't listed as one of the sights we'll see so maybe they should include that.

A guided tour the statues wasn't offered.

Carol enjoyed the museum visit but I left after 10 minutes or so and sat outside in the sun. The guide was talking about Pirates and I don't even go to those Johnny Depp movies. I think pirates were "rum coves" with awful dentistry and hygiene and poor ambassadors for Britain. I did enjoy the visit to the Mission and the walk along the Malecon.

Norris

Edited January 7, 2023 by Bimmer09
spelling

[Bimmer09]

Dinner December 23

 

 

 

Then we both had veal scallopini which was good

 

We ate late and after a fresh sea air stroll on Promenade deck we hit the hay (two bales of which had been requested of our room steward whose name was Noy-an abbreviation of Pionono)

We had an excursion in the morning in Cabo San Lucas, a tendering port.

[Bimmer09]

La Paz patters

 

[Bimmer09]

 

While Carol is having a Room Service breakfast delivered I am on deck and taking pics of Cabo San Lucas now that we are anchored. An officer who greets me each morning in the smoking section tells me he is going to open access to the top of the bridge if I want to take photos from there.

 

 

I walked to the roof of the bridge

 

 

 

The Sanctuary is behind me. The gym is underneath it.

 

 

Note to self: there's a spare anchor should I need it

 

 

Damned pirates are everywhere!

 

Good looking beaches

 

 

Tenders are already wet

 

 

No clouds and the sun is like a searchlight. Could be a hot one...

 

 

[Jasperdo]

One of the things I don't like about the ship's shore excursions is that they almost always go to a "kick back" store. But I put up with that because the rest of the tour is usually quite interesting. In La Paz we didn't take a shore excursion, though. We just took the free shuttle that went to the downtown bus depot and explored on our own.

Edited January 7, 2023 by Jasperdo

[ddeprez]

On 12/30/2022 at 7:22 PM, Bimmer09 said:

 

CHAOS!

We arrived in our Lyft at the Broadway Pier at 10.30 a.m and waited at a traffic light. Through the metal gates I could see a long line of people with their luggage. Yikes! I could see trucks among the melee next to the ship. The only thing that was missing was some emergency vehicles with sirens and lights.  Oh- here they come! An ambulance and a fire truck came speeding up and joined the commotion on the dock. Someone in need of attention. Our car drove in to the mess before us but progress was slow. He drove us to the end of the line which snaked down the dock almost the length of the ship and then curled back on itself at the terminal. We joined the line and nudged our luggage along, inch by inch, minute by minute for the next 50 minutes.

 

it's a narrow confined dock space with 53 ft trailers, tour buses, taxis and friends dropping off friends and their luggage. I saw only two dockers collecting the bags. I tipped one so that my luggage might stay dry and make it to the DP as opposed to Holland America's Koningsdam at the dock adjacent. The man was earning his tips that day.

 

Once we reached the terminal and showed our Medallions we are in Princess' hands and things moved very swiftly indeed. A quick boarding photo in front of a green screen and we were walking up the gangway.

At the end of the gangway on deck 7 there were half a dozen young Princess staff ladies jumping up and down and singing at the top of their lungs something about "Welcome Back, we've missed you!". Great energy and a fine rousing welcome! 

 

Carol's mission was to find our cabin and Clorox the Bejesus out of it. Mine was to make a beeline to the Sanctuary and push aside brusquely any old ladies in my way. Mexico-warm weather-sanctuary fever!

I was breathless by the time I rushed there with my carry-on and 18 pounds of cameras. Two seats booked for the week!

 

All I had to do now was give First Aid to the several battered old ladies littering my way up to deck 16.

Then my first beer on my Beverage Package!

 

Norris

Thanks for all the info, Norris! We'll be on the same cruise in 3 weeks! Did you find you utilized the Sanctuary very much on this cruise?  Not sure if its worth it if the weather is iffy? Also, are there covered areas? (any other pics you can share?) My DH prefers to stay out of the sun, and I like the sun so it's always a fun time to try and find an area that offers both!   We've most recently been sailing with NCL, and have booked the Thermal Suite on those ships, but what little I can find about the Thermal Suite package on this ship doesn't seem comparable.

[Bimmer09]

1 minute ago, ddeprez said:

Thanks for all the info, Norris! We'll be on the same cruise in 3 weeks! Did you find you utilized the Sanctuary very much on this cruise?  Not sure if its worth it if the weather is iffy? Also, are there covered areas? (any other pics you can share?) My DH prefers to stay out of the sun, and I like the sun so it's always a fun time to try and find an area that offers both!   We've most recently been sailing with NCL, and have booked the Thermal Suite on those ships, but what little I can find about the Thermal Suite package on this ship doesn't seem comparable.

 We didn't use the Sanctuary after the first couple of days getting chilled up there and agreed that we wouldn't book it  again for a whole week. Luckily we weren't charged for the days we didn't use it. In future if the weather is warm we will book an afternoon or two and if it is sold out we will suck it up and use our balcony. It was warm in the ports but cool at sea doing 20 knots.  There were only 6 loungers occupied and the Stewards died of boredom. Lesson learned. Our loungers were not in the sun but covered by the canvas roof. We avoid the sun.

Hope this helps.

Norris

[ddeprez]

13 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

 We didn't use the Sanctuary after the first couple of days getting chilled up there and agreed that we wouldn't book it  again for a whole week. Luckily we weren't charged for the days we didn't use it. In future if the weather is warm we will book an afternoon or two and if it is sold out we will suck it up and use our balcony. It was warm in the ports but cool at sea doing 20 knots.  There were only 6 loungers occupied and the Stewards died of boredom. Lesson learned. Our loungers were not in the sun but covered by the canvas roof. We avoid the sun.

Hope this helps.

Norris

Thank you, Norris!  I was concerned booking that given the cooler weather. One more question...did you use the Lotus Pool area at all or the Conservatory? We were on this ship way back in 2008 for an Alaskan cruise, and did use the conservatory then. We were often the only ones in there in the evenings, I think everyone else had gone to bed!!   We've also used the Lotus pool area on other Princess ships, and found it to be a nice area to hang out at. Hoping the same will hold true here...

[Bimmer09]

2 hours ago, ddeprez said:

Thank you, Norris!  I was concerned booking that given the cooler weather. One more question...did you use the Lotus Pool area at all or the Conservatory? We were on this ship way back in 2008 for an Alaskan cruise, and did use the conservatory then. We were often the only ones in there in the evenings, I think everyone else had gone to bed!!   We've also used the Lotus pool area on other Princess ships, and found it to be a nice area to hang out at. Hoping the same will hold true here...

I asked Carol about the Lotus pool-she only ever saw people in the hot tubs, not in the pool. I visited the Conservatory Pool each morning for coffee 6 a.m to 7a.m and there was just the same Japanese couple in the hot tub and swimming lengths. I didn't pass through later in the day so can't comment further. I imagine during the hours of 6 to 8 p.m when people are dining you could have it to yourself.

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Whale-watching tour/coastal cruise

Meet-up was in the Princess Theater at 9.15 and from there we marched to the midship elevators and took the stairs down to 4 to tender. Oops! "The Tender has broken down folks- please go to the forward elevators." Off we trudged back up to deck 5 then forward and down again. There was a working tender and I got to sit up on top so that I could take a photo of the ship as we departed.

 

 

10 minutes and we are waking off in Cabo. We muster on the dock before being led over to our whale boat on another dock. A double deck boat with some shade on top (yes, please!) and non -stop watered down tropical drinks. We sat at the back.

 

 

Local tenders are supplementing the ship's boats

 

 

I took this pic as I like the Sammy Hagar Van Halen band

 

 

We went to sea/see whales

 

 

 

Koningsdam has joined us at anchor

 

 

[Bimmer09]

People are already heading for the harder to reach beaches

 

 

A rock that looks like a whale with a rock on its head

 

 

 

The Pacific Ocean is glimpsed on the other side of this pretty beach

 

 

 

We have the sea to ourselves- just us and all the other boats. I tell the captain-watch out for the rock!

He thanks me but says he's already noticed it.

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

 

 

We turn a corner, out of sight of the city. Here we expect to see whales!

 

 

I haven't watched my video yet but sure hope there is a whale on it for I have no pictures. Here's the problem-this is not Aulk Bay in Juneau where the whales are lining up to show you their stuff and there are so many humpbacks you can't capture them all.  This is more like "whale glimpsing" as they lift their backsides (bums in British) to dive and by the time you've seen where they are....they were.

The guide , peering ahead into the blue waters, can flat-out lie "Ladies and gentlemen , 11 o'clock on the starboard bow-a whale playing a saxopho...oh! too bad, he's gone!" and you couldn't challenge him on it. I've seen one surface strumming a banjo but saxophone-really? So you have to scan the horizon and be quick. I saw some blowholes exhaling, a bit of a dorsal fin and a tail disappear.

But it was a nice day on the water, drinking cold fruity drinks.

[arizonaperson]

Bimmer09- Great pictures.

While you are still on board tell the shore excursion desk that your LaPaz tour was not as described. Show them the description and talk to a shore excursion manager. Make them do something for you. I totally agree with you on the description ,that’s unfortunate.  Under the princess.com shore excursion there is a customer review section and there is only three reviews for that tour and 2 out of 3  are not good reviews. 

[Bimmer09]

5 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

Bimmer09- Great pictures.

While you are still on board tell the shore excursion desk that your LaPaz tour was not as described. Show them the description and talk to a shore excursion manager. Make them do something for you. I totally agree with you on the description ,that’s unfortunate.  Under the princess.com shore excursion there is a customer review section and there is only three reviews for that tour and 2 out of 3  are not good reviews. 

Thanks- I didn't check any reviews but now I will. I'm not onboard though- I left the ship on December 27th in San Diego.

Norris