Just Back from the Dawn Princess

[wldcats98]

I just arrived home after a week on the Mexican Riveria with the Dawn Princess. If you have any questions about the ship or excursions just let me know.

[nw2this]

If you went to the beaches, did you see many people in the water at the ports?

[duckygirl]

Did you hear of any great beaches to go to that were not part of a ship excursion?

[wldcats98]

Went to the beach in every port...Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. One not to miss is Lover's Beach in Cabo. Once you get to port you can get a water taxi out to this private little beach and enjoy. Was really dissapointed with the exercusions in Mazatlan. They all take you to Stone Island and make you use the beach there. Place was full of cruise ship tours. As for other beach trips we always had one to two other cruise ships with us. Never felt like there were a ton of people.

 

Don't miss the excursion to Las Caletas!!! The best beach and lunch tour in Puerto Vallarta. In fact they also added a dinner excursion to our tour options once we got on the boat. Tried to get on but filled up in minutes. This place is heaven!!

[readytogo2]

Thanks for your thread. I was wondering what kind of dining you had and how was it? Also, was embarkation and debarkation any better than it used to be?

[victory2020]

I've erad on CC that Princess is starting to open the dining room on embarkation day. Did you notice that on the Dawn?

[snowman]

What time did you board? How were the lines?

[SueCruz]

I want to schedule a 10AM (local time) tour, but there has been some confusion as to whether or not the ship was on local time.

 

What time did you arrive in PV? Was that local time? How long did it take to debark?

 

Were ther plenty of taxis?

[Cozzette2]

On the Dawn they alert you the night before to change your clocks so when you arrive the ship is on port time. I was so nervous about the whole time change thing and it was never a question.

We liked stone Island but we arrived early and grabbed a table at Victors and sat under a shaded area most of the day. I thought it was a very cool location and the shrimp at Victor's is really good. Although we were looking for some wave runners to rent the one we did see was being repaired but they did have buggy boards.

After we left Stone Island we hired a taxi for an hour to drive us around before heading back to the ship.

Lover's Beach is nice but the surf on the Pacific side can be really rough and there is no Bano's.

Kris

[wldcats98]

I've erad on CC that Princess is starting to open the dining room on embarkation day. Did you notice that on the Dawn?

 

When I arrived at the terminal I was told that the dining room was open along with Horizon court.

[wldcats98]

What time did you board? How were the lines?

 

We arrived at the terminal at 2pm and walked right on. No lines!

[wldcats98]

Thanks for your thread. I was wondering what kind of dining you had and how was it? Also, was embarkation and debarkation any better than it used to be?

Embarkment was a breeze but debarkation was a NIGHTMARE!!!!!! We choose to do the express where you carried off your own luggage. Was told from other boards that this was quick and easy. WRONG!!! We went down to the purser desk and registered for this and was told that we were in group 3 and meet at 8:15 in the dining room. We went downstairs at 8:00 and was greeted with a mess!!! Everyone was standing around with no clue what was going on. The crew would tell you different things...they were confused too. Finally at 8:15 they opened the door to the dining room and expected us to jam all of our luggage in there. So much for the group thing.....we all just jammed in there. At 8:30 they told us that we could leave and it was a mad dash to get out. People were pushing and running each other over with their luggage. There has to be a better way!!! Then they only had one elevator so my husband grabbed his luggage and mine and carried down the stairs.

[wldcats98]

I want to schedule a 10AM (local time) tour, but there has been some confusion as to whether or not the ship was on local time.

 

What time did you arrive in PV? Was that local time? How long did it take to debark?

 

Were ther plenty of taxis?

 

 

We arrived at PV at 8am their time. Our tour was at 11 so we just walked off the ship. No lines that I every saw. As far as water taxis I really didn't see any. I don't know where they would be.

[readytogo2]

Thanks for your response, I'm sorry that your express debarkation was such a nightmare. I guess that made up my mind for the express walk-off. Hope the old method improved

Embarkment was a breeze but debarkation was a NIGHTMARE!!!!!! We choose to do the express where you carried off your own luggage. Was told from other boards that this was quick and easy. WRONG!!! We went down to the purser desk and registered for this and was told that we were in group 3 and meet at 8:15 in the dining room. We went downstairs at 8:00 and was greeted with a mess!!! Everyone was standing around with no clue what was going on. The crew would tell you different things...they were confused too. Finally at 8:15 they opened the door to the dining room and expected us to jam all of our luggage in there. So much for the group thing.....we all just jammed in there. At 8:30 they told us that we could leave and it was a mad dash to get out. People were pushing and running each other over with their luggage. There has to be a better way!!! Then they only had one elevator so my husband grabbed his luggage and mine and carried down the stairs.

[Smiley76]

I had a few questions about the atmosphere. I'm leaving this sunday on the dawn (so excited!!) with 5 other people. We're all in our mid 20's. I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance that my age group will fit in and have fun on this boat, lol. I keep hearing from others (mainly carnival travellers) that princess has an older crowd- which is totally fine by us, we make friends w/ everybody :) But I just wanted a little reassurance that there will be activities for our age group- how about night time and poolside activities? (we do enjoy drinking and dancing- in a responsible, but fun way :) Thanks so much!

[addicted to cruising]

to bad that there was such caos with debarkment....we did self with Carnival last summer for the first time and it went pretty well when you figure 3,000 folks are exiting a ship in a few hrs time. After the handicap folks they instructed us to depart...we didnt have to meet anywhere. We just headed down the normal route. With luggage in hand it does crowd the area pretty bad so it was alittle more difficult to motor along. We were one of the later folks to get in line but as we moved along they then started calling by deck.

 

Give feedback to Princess....it just doesnt make sence to have to go tell them you are doing self assist and then be hearded to an area. I leave on the Dawn in a few weeks and was going to do this again...guess I will ask how they do it before I commit.

 

thanks for the info

[want2cruiseagain]

Too bad about your disembarkation. We did NCL express and it was a breeze. Just something about leaving your luggage outside overnight doesn't sit well with me (even if there is nothing but clothes in it).

 

I am curious too about the age range. We are mid 50's and I read that there is not much nightlife on the Dawn. Not that we are big are partying, but we like a lively group.

[snowman]

Thanks for taking the time to post. I am curious about the beds. Are they new or do we need to get the foam eggs?

[AZAaronBoy]

I had a few questions about the atmosphere. I'm leaving this sunday on the dawn (so excited!!) with 5 other people. We're all in our mid 20's. I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance that my age group will fit in and have fun on this boat, lol. I keep hearing from others (mainly carnival travellers) that princess has an older crowd- which is totally fine by us, we make friends w/ everybody :) But I just wanted a little reassurance that there will be activities for our age group- how about night time and poolside activities? (we do enjoy drinking and dancing- in a responsible, but fun way :) Thanks so much!

 

I was on from 02/24 to 03/02 and it was a mostly older crowd. There were some people that made it to the disco at night but mostly crew. The crew was expecting the crowd to get younger as it got closer to the spring break weeks.

 

If your group is the type that can make their own fun you will be fine.

[wldcats98]

I had a few questions about the atmosphere. I'm leaving this sunday on the dawn (so excited!!) with 5 other people. We're all in our mid 20's. I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance that my age group will fit in and have fun on this boat, lol. I keep hearing from others (mainly carnival travellers) that princess has an older crowd- which is totally fine by us, we make friends w/ everybody :) But I just wanted a little reassurance that there will be activities for our age group- how about night time and poolside activities? (we do enjoy drinking and dancing- in a responsible, but fun way :) Thanks so much![/quo

 

since you are leaving during spring break one would think that there will be more people your age. So I don't think you will have a problem. When I went to the club at 9 it was mostly crew....watch out some of those guys have a reputation for going after the young single girls. As for pool activities they only had one day of activities while I was on board. I hope that you have fun....

[want2cruiseagain]

When you say older, do you mean 50+, 60+, 70+?

[wldcats98]

When you say older, do you mean 50+, 60+, 70+?

By older I mean the majority of our passengers were late 50's, 60's and 70's!! I felt total out of it and I can get along with pretty much anybody.

[want2cruiseagain]

On roll call for our cruise, there is one who is in her 40's. Any families?

[caribill]

By older I mean the majority of our passengers were late 50's, 60's and 70's!!

 

 

Gee, in the Princess brochure pictures it looks as if the average passenger age is about 35.

[Roses2]

Princess is known as a mainstream cruise line for adults. It caters to all ages from children through to octogenarians. In general, Princess cruisers tend not to be the rowdy group grope crowd.

 

Many of us Platinum and Elite cruisers opt for Princess for that kind of cruise experience.

 

The party cruise line is Carnival. It caters to a much younger, noiser, night acvtivity oriented crowd.