Live from Crown Princess, February 7 - 17, Mexican Riviera

[New2cruise2022]

Pics are great and love the descriptions of each one. 

[rocklinmom]

Where did you find the juices that are included with Plus package? I'm guessing in the IC or up in the buffet? 

[amcankid]

There’s a morning Zumba class that’s free everyday a 9 in Club Fushion. So nice to see so many in there starting there day with some good relaxing exercise.  

[jaycruising]

1 hour ago, rocklinmom said:

Where did you find the juices that are included with Plus package? I'm guessing in the IC or up in the buffet? 

There are a few at tides bar under the MUTS screen and a few at coffee and cones. 

[jaycruising]

2 hours ago, amcankid said:

There’s a morning Zumba class that’s free everyday a 9 in Club Fushion. So nice to see so many in there starting there day with some good relaxing exercise.  

That’s awesome, the gym has been pretty busy too!

[jaycruising]

Feb 9 - Sea Day

 

 

Sea days are a little like groundhog day for us, we lay around for a bit, then get up and head to the gym, I do a weight workout and DM goes on the treadmill and bike

 

 

I have to say a workout with Ocean views beats any other workout. 
 

After that we stop at tides bar and grab one of the juices, then we go to the buffet for breakfast. My plate looked much like the one from yesterday.  But I have to say I am pretty disappointed and didn’t enjoy much of anything on my plate. The only thing I enjoyed was the fruit, it tastes really good. The bacon actually left a bad aftertaste. 
 

So after doing a quick change we headed down to the international cafe, because I do love what they serve for breakfast. I got an egg, cheese and broccoli bite. I forgot to take a picture but don’t worry I’ll eat there more. Here are the breakfast offerings at the IC

 

 

 

We were waiting around for arts and crafts but there was next to no seating available in the piazza area so we went up to deck 7 and sat in crooners and played some cards until it was time to go. 
 

Got to crafts and was excited since the had the quilling supplies out, well they changed it last minute and had us make valentines cards, which was essentially putting stickers on a card, not a win in my book!

 

We went by the IC again to get some pics of their lunchtime offerings 

 

The little cakes in the tiny terracotta pots are so cute!

 

 

 

Now we are back in the cabin waiting for our booking in the Sanctuary, it’s 15 Celsius (59 F) so not going to be very warm up there, but I still enjoy it and am going to be watching for whales!

Edited February 9 by jaycruising

[jaycruising]

We also met Discovery Princess this morning and then right at lunchtime we met Carnival Panorama 

[Thrak]

14 hours ago, jaycruising said:

Now we are hanging out in Crooners, enjoying the piano player and a Sailing through Orchards cocktail 

 

My wife discovered this drink on our last cruise(s) and absolutely loved it. She tried it in another venue but only Crooner's made it to suit her. I'm sure she will be ordering it on our upcoming cruise in April.

[jaycruising]

We had booked a couple of loungers in the Sanctuary for the afternoon. Unfortunately for us it wasn’t super warm up there yet, so this is how we looked

 

Lucky for us they serve afternoon tea up there so we enjoyed that

 

I spent the afternoon doing some serious relaxing and catching up on YouTube. 
 

We met our 3rd ship of the day and this time it was the Serenade of the Seas, which is the RC ship that is doing the ultimate world cruise 

 

 

All too soon our afternoon was over and it was time to get fancy for formal night. I had to take a photo of this door, it’s so cute, so many doors are decorated.

 

 We stopped in the lounge for a snack and this bright drink. 

 

We quickly caught a glimpse of the champagne waterfall as we went by.

 

 

As usual we had dinner in the MDR and I enjoyed all of mine. 

 

 

 

I started with the potato soup, minus the chives

 

For my main I had the shrimp, I really enjoy this dish, I just wish it was a bit bigger

 

For dessert I had the brûlée again and it was just as good as last night, I did take some of the sugar off of the top as it was getting a little too sweet. DM and another lady at our table had the crepes and they said they were not good, they said they were more like a corn tortilla then crepe, so they sent them back and went with the brûlée, they were much happier. 
 

Then we headed to Explorer’s, we really like the games and trivia, we were in there for a couple games. In between we would talk about.plans for our next trip!

 

Now we are ending our evening in the wheelhouse bar enjoying a drink and some music

[Scotmay]

On 2/5/2024 at 7:44 PM, SLWalker said:

Looking forward to your live posts.  We sail on the Crown to Hawaii on March 9th.  Anxious to hear if all the bad reviews of the Crown are warranted.  I hope you enjoy your cruise and the warm weather.

We sailed on the Crown from Vancouver to Alaska last September/October. We were very pleased with both the food and entertainment. The weather was dismal at that time, but the food and entertainment were both very good!  She is an older/smaller ship, but as husband is disabled, this made it less tiring for him. One of our best cruises ever!

[Rescue Dog Mom]

On 2/6/2024 at 8:03 AM, memoak said:

Fit the motion lights we just prop up an extra pillow. Problem fixed. We just did this cruise and to us Manzanillo felt like the Mexico we used to know before all the resorts and condos showed up. Had a great lunch at a small eatery 

To get to your lunch did you take a taxi? 

[Rescue Dog Mom]

On 2/7/2024 at 11:32 AM, jaycruising said:

This morning has gone incredibly smooth!  We were climbing the ramp to board the ship at 10:45am.

 

Once on board we headed straight to the Sanctuary to get the afternoons that we want to spend up there. We had our choice and there was only one lady ahead of us!

 

After that we stopped by our cabin to drop off our umbrellas, passports and other items. They aren’t ready so we headed out right away. 
 

Down to deck 7 and we checked into our Muster station.  Then grabbed a seat in Explorers (we were the first) to get our first drink and to watch our safety video. We will just hang out here for the time being until lunch time and we will then go to the main dining room!

Did Princess assign an embarkation time or did you just show up?

[jaycruising]

31 minutes ago, Rescue Dog Mom said:

Did Princess assign an embarkation time or did you just show up?

They just give a time window, ours was from 10:30am - 2:00pm, which is basically what they give everyone 

[memoak]

51 minutes ago, Rescue Dog Mom said:

To get to your lunch did you take a taxi? 

No we walked it is not a real big town

[jaycruising]

Feb 10 - Sea Day

 

 

 

Last night was another time change and I guess I took advantage of that and didn’t wake up until 9:15 this morning!  Quickly got dressed and we headed to the gym for our usual am workout. After went to tides bar to grab our morning juice and then into the buffet area. I grabbed a table while DM went to grab her items. This is where it went a bit sideways, they only had 1 section of the 4 open and there were at least 100 people trying to get breakfast, everyone was in a line and it went to the back of the buffet. So she grabbed a croissant and that was it. We decided to go down to the IC, I love breakfast there!  Got my egg bites, they were a little lose.

 

DM went up and they had just switched to lunch so she got an egg salad sandwich and it had shells in it!  Just wasn’t her day. 
 

Back in our cabin to change and get ready for our day and we go out on the balcony and there is a bird laying there, not sure whether it was dead or alive!

 

I had to find our steward for something else and mentioned the bird, so he came and checked, thought it was dead, so he went and got a towel to pick it up and when he did turns out it was still alive, just stunned. But he took it with him… I don’t know where or what happened to the bird now!  Seriously, can’t make this stuff up!

 

We had booked the sanctuary for the afternoon again and there was finally some sun and warmth up there.

 

Here is the special menu just for the sanctuary 

 

 

We ordered some food, since DM hadn’t really ate, but it was delayed in coming as they also serve tea time up there too!

 

We did end getting our food a little later

 

That was one of the best avocado’s I’ve ever had. 
 

Spent the rest of the afternoon lounging. 

[Thrak]

32 minutes ago, jaycruising said:

Back in our cabin to change and get ready for our day and we go out on the balcony and there is a bird laying there, not sure whether it was dead or alive!

 

On our recent cruise(s) we had a seagull up against the outside of our balcony window. It didn't move for the entire day from early morning until late evening. It had left when we returned in the evening but it was weird to have it there.

[Rescue Dog Mom]

2 hours ago, jaycruising said:

Feb 10 - Sea Day

 

 

 

Last night was another time change and I guess I took advantage of that and didn’t wake up until 9:15 this morning!  Quickly got dressed and we headed to the gym for our usual am workout. After went to tides bar to grab our morning juice and then into the buffet area. I grabbed a table while DM went to grab her items. This is where it went a bit sideways, they only had 1 section of the 4 open and there were at least 100 people trying to get breakfast, everyone was in a line and it went to the back of the buffet. So she grabbed a croissant and that was it. We decided to go down to the IC, I love breakfast there!  Got my egg bites, they were a little lose.

 

DM went up and they had just switched to lunch so she got an egg salad sandwich and it had shells in it!  Just wasn’t her day. 
 

Back in our cabin to change and get ready for our day and we go out on the balcony and there is a bird laying there, not sure whether it was dead or alive!

 

I had to find our steward for something else and mentioned the bird, so he came and checked, thought it was dead, so he went and got a towel to pick it up and when he did turns out it was still alive, just stunned. But he took it with him… I don’t know where or what happened to the bird now!  Seriously, can’t make this stuff up!

 

We had booked the sanctuary for the afternoon again and there was finally some sun and warmth up there.

 

Here is the special menu just for the sanctuary 

 

 

We ordered some food, since DM hadn’t really ate, but it was delayed in coming as they also serve tea time up there too!

 

We did end getting our food a little later

 

That was one of the best avocado’s I’ve ever had. 
 

Spent the rest of the afternoon lounging. 

Thanks for posting these daily events! Question, in the newsletters you’ve posted so far I haven’t seen a big show listed. Is this expected?

[jaycruising]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

On our recent cruise(s) we had a seagull up against the outside of our balcony window. It didn't move for the entire day from early morning until late evening. It had left when we returned in the evening but it was weird to have it there.

Having it there all day would definitely be strange!

 

15 minutes ago, Rescue Dog Mom said:

Thanks for posting these daily events! Question, in the newsletters you’ve posted so far I haven’t seen a big show listed. Is this expected?

There was a production show last night and I know we have two more coming up. 

[Thrak]

34 minutes ago, Rescue Dog Mom said:

Thanks for posting these daily events! Question, in the newsletters you’ve posted so far I haven’t seen a big show listed. Is this expected?

 

13 minutes ago, jaycruising said:

Having it there all day would definitely be strange!

 

There was a production show last night and I know we have two more coming up. 

 

Actually this question made me go back and check the posted Patters and, while I see vocalists I have to agree with @Rescue Dog Mom that I don't see any Production Shows listed. I actually looked in order to take a snip and post it to point out the shows but there really don't seem to be any at all.

 

EDIT: D'Oh! My bad. There is is just like you said. Snip from the Patter in post #40.

 

Edited February 11 by Thrak

[jaycruising]

4 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

 

Actually this question made me go back and check the posted Patters and, while I see vocalists I have to agree with @Rescue Dog Mom that I don't see any Production Shows listed. I actually looked in order to take a snip and post it to point out the shows but there really don't seem to be any at all.

It is at the very bottom of the patter from yesterday 

[jaycruising]

Dinner in the MDR as per usual

 

 

 

I started with the Tom kah gui soup, it was quite good

 

Then I had the scallops, I really enjoyed them, but forgot to take a picture 

 

Nothing was really calling my name for dessert so I skipped it in the MDR, but I did go down to the IC and got the fruit tartlet, it was just ok

 

We have now been hanging out in Explorer’s lounge for almost 3 hours. we started with the majority rules game show, it was pretty good

 

Then music trivia through the decades. And now we are playing Trivia for 100

 

Soon it will be time for bed as we actually get back to land again tomorrow. 

[Rescue Dog Mom]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

 

Actually this question made me go back and check the posted Patters and, while I see vocalists I have to agree with @Rescue Dog Mom that I don't see any Production Shows listed. I actually looked in order to take a snip and post it to point out the shows but there really don't seem to be any at all.

 

EDIT: D'Oh! My bad. There is is just like you said. Snip from the Patter in post #40.

 

Oh!! Good catch! OP let us know if you liked it.

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, Rescue Dog Mom said:

Oh!! Good catch! OP let us know if you liked it.

 

If you check my post I almost immediately corrected my error. Not sure how I missed it in the first place but I did double check my original response.

[jaycruising]

9 hours ago, Rescue Dog Mom said:

Oh!! Good catch! OP let us know if you liked it.

We didn’t attend that show, sweet soul music is on tonight so we may attend that. 
 

6 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

If you check my post I almost immediately corrected my error. Not sure how I missed it in the first place but I did double check my original response.

missed that, thanks!

[jaycruising]

Feb 11 - Puerto Vallarta

 

 

Woke up at what I thought was 6:30 (was actually 7:30, I forgot to change the time on my iPad) when the thrusters started up as we were moving into position in our berth in PV. The captain had warned us yesterday that that would occur. 
 

Saw a bit of sunrise as we were coming into port

 

 

Once I realized the right time (thanks DM) I got up and it was time to get ready. We had booked an independent excursion so we weren’t in a big hurry. 

We had some time to kill before we had to go so went and sat around for a bit

 

We had booked a food tour today via Vallarta Food Tours and we needed to meet them in a park in old town. We made our way through the port buildings and were going to take an Uber, but we were approached by many cab drivers on our way out. The first wanted $30 to get there and I said no thanks. We came across another and he said $20 so we decided to go head. Still would have been less with Uber. 
 

We had to meet our tour guide at the Lazaro Cardenas Park. It took us about 15 minutes to get there. This park might be the coolest park o have ever been too. If you are on the area I highly recommend a visit.