Live from Discovery Princess for Oct 21-Nov 4

[Cruise Raider]

We booked a B2B on the Discovery Princess for this week and next week.  The first leg is heading from Los Angeles north as far as San Francisco and then back down the coast and next week, they will be headed down to Mexico.  
 

We took a flight into Long Beach yesterday morning on Southwest Airlines with a friend that book the first leg of this cruise rather last minute.  I love the airport experience of Long Beach so much more than LAX.  Our friend quickly retrieved her checked luggage, we ordered an Uber and we’re on our way to the pier in San Pedro.  Once we got there, we waited in line under the tent for about 90 minutes,  I always book a flight that has another flight afterwards just to make sure we don’t miss the ship, so the rather lengthy wait was on me.  But, I’d rather be safe than sorry.  
Check in for the green lane or the blue lane was really quick and easy.  There was no differentiation for priority checking but there was a seating area for elite status passengers awaiting boarding once security and check in procedures were completed.  

We were on our way out to sea without any delays yesterday around 4 PM after a wonderful embarkation lunch in the Skagway dining room.

The Discovery:  

We have cruised on this ship 4 times in the past.  I just love the Royal class ships and all the choices for dining outside the MDR!  Some people really enjoy the wrap around promenade deck, which the Royal class ships don’t have but, to me, I don’t care about this feature in the very least.  
On this cruise, the ship is not filled to capacity but it still has over 3000 onboard, so it does seem full but not overly crowded.  
we’ve not had trouble finding seats for any of the events we’ve attended or at any of the areas we’ve grabbed a bite to eat.  

What others have mentioned about the mattresses not being the same as on other Princess ships seems to be true.  The mattress in our cabin, although more so on the overly firm side, is really not bothering either of us however, the pillows are just not great.  Bless the heart of our room steward that really tried to find a suitable pillow for me.  I don’t remember the pillows being this form from our previous cruises on this ship.  There’s just no soft ones to be found.  
 

The ship is in great shape!  Everything is tastefully decorated and nothing seems to be in disrepair. There are USB ports in the past of the bedside lamps, however, our devices take USB-C.  But I thought I’d mention it anyway in case it helps others.  
It is fabulous those motion sensitive lights have either been removed or never installed on this ship. I seriously cannot remember if they had those lights a few months ago when we last cruised on this ship.  
 

What is so impressive to me is that we aren’t being overcharged for anything so far.  We upgraded to the premier package while onboard and our folio only reflects the charges that we should see.  I know this isn’t any thing that should be out of the ordinary but nevertheless, it’s so no refreshing not having to go to guest services to have erroneous charges removed from our bill.  
 

We’ve dated at the GastroPub last night, always a favorite for me, and at the Bistro Sur La Mer tonight.  Neither venue was too crowded and the service was absolutely wonderful at both places.  In fact, the service throughout the ship has been great!  The food at the Bistro Sur La Mer was fabulous and portions were not over the top huge!  I really love that.  I understand that The Catch By Rudi will be replacing the Bistro on November 11th or thereabouts.  
 

We’ve really enjoyed the entertainment so far.  Miguel Washington, the comedian that has performed so far, is hilarious without being vulgar!  Bravo!  
Leo Rossi has given a couple of talks and is always a must see in our book! 
 

We are really enjoying everything onboard (save the extra firm pillows) so far!  The service has been outstanding as has the entertainment.  
Tje food and drink is also quite good.  


 

 

 

 

[Carnevale]

We’re also on this sailing but just for this week and echo the comments by @Cruise Raider  The main exception is that we have eaten either in IC (for breakfast  - excellent food) but our lunch, afternoon tea and dinners in the MDR haven’t been great.  The food has been mediocre at best and bad as well as cold at times.  This has never been our experience on Princess before so is a surprise. There are some very good musicians onboard however the volume in the Piazza has been excessive which has made it too hard to stay in that area which is disappointing.  We too have found the ship to be great and our bed good but it isn’t the wonderful Princess beds we’ve had on other ships.  And it would be great if they had some other pillows as we don’t like the ones we have either.  Like other Princess ships the staff are amazing.

[PacnGoNow]

15 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

We’re also on this sailing but just for this week and echo the comments by @Cruise Raider  The main exception is that we have eaten either in IC (for breakfast  - excellent food) but our lunch, afternoon tea and dinners in the MDR haven’t been great.  The food has been mediocre at best and bad as well as cold at times.  This has never been our experience on Princess before so is a surprise. There are some very good musicians onboard however the volume in the Piazza has been excessive which has made it too hard to stay in that area which is disappointing.  We too have found the ship to be great and our bed good but it isn’t the wonderful Princess beds we’ve had on other ships.  And it would be great if they had some other pillows as we don’t like the ones we have either.  Like other Princess ships the staff are amazing.

We had similar problems with the sound In the huge piazza on the Enchanted and asked the sound guy to lower the volume in the piazza area.  It did help a little. Otherwise, it was difficult to have a conversation.

 

The mics for the bands and singers were extremely loud.  As well as the games.

Edited October 23, 2023 by PacnGoNow

[Carnevale]

The Piazza is a difficult venue.  There’s little to dampen the sound so it gets loud easily and there are too many other venues close by with nothing to stop or diminish sound carry over.  We asked for the volume to be turned down a little but nothing was done. It’s good it worked for @PacnGoNow. We are finding it impossible to have a conversation in Good Spirits when the musicians are playing without having to almost yell which really has a negative impact on our enjoyment of that area.  Thankfully we can escape to the bar at the Crown Grill but then we have to miss out on opportunities to dance.

[New2cruise2022]

@Cruise Raider We will be on the Discover in Feb 2024. Also with the Premier package. Would love to hear your experiences with the unlimited casual dining benefit. There isn’t a lot of first hand experience explained so would love to hear your take. Totally understand if you are too busy enjoying your cruise to respond! Happy cruising.
 

How often you did you dine with the unlimited casual dining? At what restaurants? Did you have to stick to the pre fixe menu? Was any of the included casual dining available for takeout or through Ocean Now? Can you stop by for a quick bite at Ocean Terrace?

[Cruise Raider]

7 hours ago, New2cruise2022 said:

@Cruise Raider We will be on the Discover in Feb 2024. Also with the Premier package. Would love to hear your experiences with the unlimited casual dining benefit. There isn’t a lot of first hand experience explained so would love to hear your take. Totally understand if you are too busy enjoying your cruise to respond! Happy cruising.
 

How often you did you dine with the unlimited casual dining? At what restaurants? Did you have to stick to the pre fixe menu? Was any of the included casual dining available for takeout or through Ocean Now? Can you stop by for a quick bite at Ocean Terrace?

We have eaten at the Salty Dog and we each ordered two small plates.  The waiter recommended the charred asparagus and it was delish.  I also love the chicken sandwich with the sweet potato fries.  The chicken was good and hot but the fries were a bit cold.  My DH had the Lobster Mac and cheese and said it was really good.  He also ordered the chicken sandwich, which proved to be way too much food. One of our friends had the calamari and it looked really good.  Another friend had the burger and she asked if they had any gluten free buns but they don’t.  Anyway, nobody wanted dessert as the two small plates were more than enough.  The service was fantastic.  
So, back to your point, we weren’t charged anything on our bill for the meal with the premier package.  We will be trying GiGis later on today and probably go check out the sushi sometime this week.  if you don’t have the package, you can always order a la carte items in each of these venues.  I will report back on the other casual dining spots throughout the week.  I can honestly say, we probably won’t visit the MDR much as we love getting the premier package and just popping into the casual dining spots at whatever time we like.  

I missed going to the MDR for lunch as there was a talk I walked to attend in the Vista Lounge.  By the time we got out, we were a bit hungry so we just ordered salads on the app to be delivered to the piazza.  A couple of friends joined us there.  The salads were a great size, not too much and not too little.  Everything was very fresh and arrived in less than 10 minutes of ordering it.  

Last night, we had dinner at the Bistro Sur La Mer and I really liked it.  It wasn’t as good as The Catch on the Majestic because I don’t think any place I’ve ever eaten is as good as The Catch.  Sadly, we won’t be onboard by the time they change out to the new restaurant.  
But, the service was also fantastic in this venue.  I actually like that venue’s current location as I can hear the music from the piazza but it’s not overwhelmingly loud to the point we couldn’t hold a conversation at a reasonable tone.  I thought the same about eating at the Salty Dog.  
 

 

[New2cruise2022]

3 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

We have eaten at the Salty Dog and we each ordered two small plates.  The waiter recommended the charred asparagus and it was delish.  I also love the chicken sandwich with the sweet potato fries.  The chicken was good and hot but the fries were a bit cold.  My DH had the Lobster Mac and cheese and said it was really good.  He also ordered the chicken sandwich, which proved to be way too much food. One of our friends had the calamari and it looked really good.  Another friend had the burger and she asked if they had any gluten free buns but they don’t.  Anyway, nobody wanted dessert as the two small plates were more than enough.  The service was fantastic.  
So, back to your point, we weren’t charged anything on our bill for the meal with the premier package.  We will be trying GiGis later on today and probably go check out the sushi sometime this week.  if you don’t have the package, you can always order a la carte items in each of these venues.  I will report back on the other casual dining spots throughout the week.  I can honestly say, we probably won’t visit the MDR much as we love getting the premier package and just popping into the casual dining spots at whatever time we like.  

I missed going to the MDR for lunch as there was a talk I walked to attend in the Vista Lounge.  By the time we got out, we were a bit hungry so we just ordered salads on the app to be delivered to the piazza.  A couple of friends joined us there.  The salads were a great size, not too much and not too little.  Everything was very fresh and arrived in less than 10 minutes of ordering it.  

Last night, we had dinner at the Bistro Sur La Mer and I really liked it.  It wasn’t as good as The Catch on the Majestic because I don’t think any place I’ve ever eaten is as good as The Catch.  Sadly, we won’t be onboard by the time they change out to the new restaurant.  
But, the service was also fantastic in this venue.  I actually like that venue’s current location as I can hear the music from the piazza but it’s not overwhelmingly loud to the point we couldn’t hold a conversation at a reasonable tone.  I thought the same about eating at the Salty Dog.  
 

 

Thank you so much! You are a great writer. Good details and really provide a feel for your experience. I appreciate you sharing and will stay tuned for more. 

[LACruiser88]

We have had issues with the Princess pillows in the past.  For many years now we have been bringing our own pillows.

 

I hope you get pillows that you like!  🙂

[Cruise Raider]

I forgot to mention that while we were in the piazza with a friend of ours yesterday, one of the officers found our friend’s location through the medallion.  He came to tell her she won one of the Princess Prizes.  
Someone was just asking me how you are notified if you missed it while on your door panel.  I honestly didn’t know and then that happened.  So, a question answered for me, too.  
 

I love that the Discovery Princess provides great stemware for nice wines and champagne throughout the ship.  I asked the bar steward in the piazza for a real coffee cup and he gets it!  From then on, that all I needed to ask and only the one time .. all of my drinks have come in a nice glass.  
 

Beyond that, the reason we’ve been impressed with no erroneous charges on our folio with having the premier package is that we recently cruised on the Majestic Princess.  The cruise was absolutely excellent in so many ways and the Majestic is our favorite ship with such an amazing crew.  The extra charges kept showing up on our bill from time to time, even though what we ordered was covered under the premier package.  We were even charged corkage in a bottle of wine we bought onboard and it was charged after we disembarked so I didn’t catch it in time to have it removed while we were still onboard.  
 

We just passed under the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to San Francisco!  I will never ever ever tire of that amazing sight even though we live very nearby!  
My wish is that Princess will put a Royal class ship back in San Francisco soon!  I already miss the Royal now she was sent to Australia.  
 

 

 

 

[Cruise Raider]

22 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We have had issues with the Princess pillows in the past.  For many years now we have been bringing our own pillows.

 

I hope you get pillows that you like!  🙂

My poor room steward tried so hard to find a pillow I like.  None of them are like we have had on any other ship, which is why I stopped bringing my own pillow.  I’m dealing with it, though.  I may ask him for another duvet .. they are nice and fluffy!  
The bed is definitely more firm than the beds on the Ruby, Majestic, Royal, Emerald ..

but they really aren’t bothering either of us. 

 

[Cruise Raider]

 

This was on our desk in the cabin when we first arrived onboard.  I’m going to have to get up there for some chicken wings one day.  
 

 

[Cruise Raider]

After a foggy night it is going to be a beautiful day in the City by the Bay today!  

[lx200gps]

SUPERB write up, thanks very much. We were on her the week of Oct 7-14 and can certainly agree about many of your points, particularly the mattresses in our Mini, the sound in the Piazza etc. Q: what is the current state of Take 5? On our sailing, it was closed due to the setup for a gambling tournament. We'll be back on her in early Feb, and we will be very unhappy if Take 5, our go-to place for peace and quiet on sea days, is still closed off.

 

Re your comment about no erroneous charges, keep a close eye on your account on a daily basis. We also had the Premier package but did have an erroneous charge. I had booked and paid for a specialty restaurant reservation pre-cruise, and we used our two free diners from the package. Sure enough, we were incorrectly charged for one dinner for two. Assuming it was an honest mistake, I headed down to Guest Services to have the charge removed, a simple job I've done many times before on other sailings. The CSR went into some long winded explanation of why the charge was correct which made no sense to me despite my half dozen courses in accounting and finance in university ;o(  Fortunately, his supervisor just happened to overhear the conversation, walked up to the computer screen he was using, took one quick look at our account, apologized profusely for the error and fixed it on the spot.

[tjcletzgo]

42 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We have had issues with the Princess pillows in the past.  For many years now we have been bringing our own pillows.

 

I hope you get pillows that you like!  🙂

Are the pillows too hard or too soft?

[Cruise Raider]

32 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

SUPERB write up, thanks very much. We were on her the week of Oct 7-14 and can certainly agree about many of your points, particularly the mattresses in our Mini, the sound in the Piazza etc. Q: what is the current state of Take 5? On our sailing, it was closed due to the setup for a gambling tournament. We'll be back on her in early Feb, and we will be very unhappy if Take 5, our go-to place for peace and quiet on sea days, is still closed off.

 

Re your comment about no erroneous charges, keep a close eye on your account on a daily basis. We also had the Premier package but did have an erroneous charge. I had booked and paid for a specialty restaurant reservation pre-cruise, and we used our two free diners from the package. Sure enough, we were incorrectly charged for one dinner for two. Assuming it was an honest mistake, I headed down to Guest Services to have the charge removed, a simple job I've done many times before on other sailings. The CSR went into some long winded explanation of why the charge was correct which made no sense to me despite my half dozen courses in accounting and finance in university ;o(  Fortunately, his supervisor just happened to overhear the conversation, walked up to the computer screen he was using, took one quick look at our account, apologized profusely for the error and fixed it on the spot.

Glad you got that charge taken care of.  It can add up!  Luckily, we haven’t been experiencing that so far on this ship.  
Anyone that knows me well knows how much I absolutely hate wasting food.  Thus, less is better for when we order.  However, when we go to the specialty or causal restaurants, that’s sometimes hard to do.  I just had the best fish leftover from last night’s meal.  I’m one that doesn’t mind cold food and we live on leftovers.  The fridge is doing a great job at keeping everything pretty cold.  
This is interesting and something I have never noticed before. Someone mentioned putting a towel over the cabinet that houses the fridge.  This cabinet has vents on the side and I do believe it helps keep the fridge colder.  

 

We went through Take Five the first day onboard and on our way to the theater.  I see 6-8 slot machines in there towards on the side away from the bar area but they were turned off.  It is wide open and have dropped by for a cold drink at the bar on the way to the theater.  It doesn’t look like there are any plans of closing it, although, we’ve never seen anybody sitting in there.  That is so surprising, as it is a gorgeous venue.  
I will try to get an answer from someone in the know and see if they have future plans for it.  

 

[LACruiser88]

32 minutes ago, tjcletzgo said:

Are the pillows too hard or too soft?

We find them too soft.  At home we sleep with firm "My Pillow's."  We always bring along standard size "My Pillow's" regardless of where we are traveling.

 

They come vacuum sealed and pack nicely.  We put them in the dryer for 10 minutes and they are good to go.  We frequently leave them on the ship if our bags are full.

[Cruise Raider]

37 minutes ago, tjcletzgo said:

Are the pillows too hard or too soft?

They are way too hard for me.  You can request either feather or hypoallergenic pillows.  It may just be very stiff pillow protectors that are being used but they are all very firm.  We have some friends traveling with us and they all seem to say the same thing.  We have to move rooms for the next leg of the cruise and will see if those pillows are any better.  
 

[Cruise Raider]

2 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We find them too soft.  At home we sleep with firm "My Pillow's."  We always bring along standard size "My Pillow's" regardless of where we are traveling.

 

They come vacuum sealed and pack nicely.  We put them in the dryer for 10 minutes and they are good to go.  We frequently leave them on the ship if our bags are full.

Pillows are such a personal thing.  If I hadn’t been so very happy with the pillows on all my past Princess cruises, I would have thought to bring my own.  I sleep with a down pillow at home, which pack very nicely.  But, since we always try to pack in just carry on luggage, we keep the extras we bring down to a minimum.  
 

BTW, we boarded around 11:00 AM on Saturday and they let us know it was fine to just drop off our luggage in our cabin.  
 

 

[Cruise Raider]

It’s going to be such a beautiful sunny day in San Francisco today!  Our neighbors headed out of the Ruby yesterday and they said it was raining.  

[PescadoAmarillo]

10 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

What is so impressive to me is that we aren’t being overcharged for anything so far.  

High praise indeed! 😉

 

We have recently discovered Long Beach as an alternative to LAX for cruises out of San Pedro. Do you recall how much the Uber cost?  Enjoy your cruise!  May softer pillows be in your future. 

[Cruise Craig]

If you get the oppertunity I would love to see pics of the MDR menus. Thank you so much for the updates I'm on the Nov 11th sailing so this is super helpful.

 

Just Right Pillows for all.

 

Thanks!

[LawDog61]

Thanks for posting the live on board.  I am following with great interest as we have a couple of Discovery cruises coming up ( a costal and a Hawaii).  I know the Discover well, as we mostly sail local port (I.e. Pedro) and we  really do enjoy her.  
I didn’t think I would like Royal Class ships as much as the Older smaller Grand class ——but I do 😄

I always bring my own pillows with me. Thanks again for posting!

[Host CJSKIDS]

Thanks for doing another great live from.  Looks like an amazing cruise so far, love the pictures.  Enjoy the rest of the sailing and looking forward to reading all about it.

[1emerald1]

3 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Glad you got that charge taken care of.  It can add up!  Luckily, we haven’t been experiencing that so far on this ship.  
Anyone that knows me well knows how much I absolutely hate wasting food.  Thus, less is better for when we order.  However, when we go to the specialty or causal restaurants, that’s sometimes hard to do.  I just had the best fish leftover from last night’s meal.  I’m one that doesn’t mind cold food and we live on leftovers.  The fridge is doing a great job at keeping everything pretty cold.  
This is interesting and something I have never noticed before. Someone mentioned putting a towel over the cabinet that houses the fridge.  This cabinet has vents on the side and I do believe it helps keep the fridge colder.  

 

We went through Take Five the first day onboard and on our way to the theater.  I see 6-8 slot machines in there towards on the side away from the bar area but they were turned off.  It is wide open and have dropped by for a cold drink at the bar on the way to the theater.  It doesn’t look like there are any plans of closing it, although, we’ve never seen anybody sitting in there.  That is so surprising, as it is a gorgeous venue.  
I will try to get an answer from someone in the know and see if they have future plans for it.  

 

Have you heard anything about Take Five being converted into an arcade? I sincerely hope not.

[lx200gps]

We were on her two weeks ago and I was VERY worried about this as well, as Take 5 was completely sealed off when we were aboard and we had no access for the entire week.  I was told that on our cruise it was closed off for prep work/hardware installation for a gambling tournament the following week (i.e. last week), but that once the tournament is over, it was to be restored to normal operation. The few views I had inside showed a bunch of slot machines being installed. The OP here reports that this week some slot machines are still installed but Take 5 is open and operating.