Day 15: Cabo San Lucas

Our perfect weather continues, compelling Captain Arma to caution us, in his “welcome back on board” announcement this evening, that it really isn’t always quite this nice for this long on this passage. I just figured it’s payback for that weather we endured on that second Emerald Princess Hawaii cruise. 😉

This was my first view of Cabo this morning as I made my way through the sphere en route to breakfast. 

Life is good :-)

Breakfast gets simpler and simpler every morning, and more like home since I discovered Greek yogurt is an option. However, I have a feeling that it’s not the fat-free Fage Greek yogurt that’s my go-to at home. It’s too darn good dipped in orange and grapefruit segments. 

Nine times out of ten that we walk past the International Cafe en route to our cabin, it’s for window shopping only, but today I spotted a real treat:  mixed nut…somethings. I forgot their exact name. These are a great snack to keep in the cabin since they don’t spoil. Theoretically, of course. They’re also very addictive and didn’t even last all day. I hope they don’t ever offer them again. 

We were in no hurry to go adore today, but when open tender was announced, we layered on the sunscreen and grabbed our Tilley hats and went down to Deck 4 to get on a tender. And waited. And waited. We stood in line for 40 minutes before we actually stepped on to a tender. Maybe they stopped the tender tickets a tad early. I was ready to call it quits when we finally started moving. Apparently they had only one pontoon open at that time. 

Once on shore, it wasn’t nearly as crazy as Cabo can be on busy days. There was just one other ship in port today, Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas. It was actually quite pleasant. We walked around a while and then settled ourselves on the balcony at Wizzies, our favorite place to watch the tender lines. 

G asked if I wanted to start with 2 margaritas. And we laughed and laughed. Um…no

Instead, this was my drink of choice. I’ve pretty much figured out that my reaction yesterday was related to a new med that I’ve started since I last drank on the sunset cruise in Cabo in January. Because I’ve never in my life had that reaction to two margaritas with mostly ice.

We rode to shore on a local tender but a couple of new, sexy yellow Star Princess tenders were also in use.

Someone had a good day deep sea fishing!

I know I’ve said this in the past, but sights like this remind me so much of that children’s classic book, Caps For Sale that my dad used to read to me 60+years ago.

I can’t visit Cabo without ordering fish tacos!

Looking back at Wizzie’s balcony

Finally, the tender line died down, so we paid up and headed out. Once back on the ship, we changed into swimsuits and used the hot tubs in The Dome. I keep forgetting to mention that the inside pool in the dome has not been open most days. The glass divider between the indoor and outdoor pools isn’t functioning.

We were showered and dressed for dinner and back up in The Dome for sail away. The view of the rock formations and El Arco was really beautiful from up there, but as soon as the Star Princess sailed and rounded that cape, we were hit by a huge wind that actually sent furniture sliding across the deck. I thought we’d never get that door to the indoor part of The Dome open, and it was instantly obvious why that is generally closed off while the ship is at sea. 

I really wasn’t very hungry at dinner, after fish tacos just five hours earlier, but the coconut shrimp was a treat, followed by passion fruit sorbet for dessert. 

We had plans to get to the Silent Disco tonight and the Princess Arena 9pm performance, but decided over the sorbet that we simply wanted an early bedtime. I’m trying to get this post finished and published and get to sleep before the 9pm show starts. Otherwise, sleep might be delayed 50 minutes or so. 

Whoops. Too slow. I guess I’ll watch Tia Weston’s Sunday YouTube upload instead. 

Life is still good!

Rex from Shorex!!! Nicest guy at Princess Cruises!!

Day 14: Mazatlan!

This is going to be brief tonight. We had a fantastic, fun day, until I didn’t, and, though I’m feeling better tonight, the afternoon was a bit rough. 

Breakfast in the Sanctuary Restaurant was served from 7am to 9am today (but 7:30am to 9:30am tomorrow…go figure). We ate lightly (they have Greek yogurt, a real plus) and always make sure to include orange and grapefruit segments. We’re both staying well, nary a sniffle, and I give the vitamin C some of the credit. 

We completed our disembarkation paperwork at breakfast (boo, hiss) and I dropped it off at Guest Services afterward. The Port Valet service is also being offered in Seattle, but, with one suitcase each, getting it off the ship and to the airport is not an onerous task. I also reserved an Uber for our transfer from the pier in Seattle to the airport. FYI, the Princess transfers are $44pp. For at least two people, Uber is cheaper. 

We didn’t have firm plans for today, and spent a little time shopping in the terminal before we settled in at the Green Bar in the courtyard. G wanted a beer and I decided to live large and have a margarita which led to a second margarita and…big mistake!  I can have an occasional drink for “very special occasions” and, reaching a port after five consecutive sea days, I thought, qualified. Shorex Rex and friends joined us briefly before going down to the Golden Zone. They invited us to join them, and we appreciated their offer, but, really, these guys need to get away from guests on their limited time off. 

Things started to get very fuzzy very quickly after that.  We have a young man on board who is traveling with his parents and he is always doing the party dances. When he showed up and started doing the Wobble, I asked him to show me the steps (thinking ahead to McGuy’s wedding) and then there’s a pic of me with a provocative balloon hat on and somehow with G’s help I got back to our cabin on the ship where I slept away the rest of the afternoon. 

The beginning of the end

I really was so sick that I wondered briefly if I’d been drugged, but the Green Bar is very reputable. More likely it was an interaction with a prescribed pharmaceutical. Or else I’m just getting old.

I recovered enough to join G at dinner, but when he went to the Princess Arena, I skipped all entertainment tonight and went back to the cabin. There is a deck party tonight; a new party band came on board today and it’s Asian Soul. They were on the Regal Princess with us two years ago and are fantastic. The lead female singer has an incredible voice!

I’ll hear them tomorrow. Right now I just want to sleep. 

Day 13: At Sea

What a fun day this was!  We continue to explore new places or at least do new things in familiar places on this ship. And we continue to always, always enjoy it immensely.  It helps that our weather remains stellar. Not too hot, not humid; it’s much nicer than I’d imagined it would be when we booked this cruise.  I’d pictured a steam room at this time of year.

Somehow we also squeezed in three meals in the Sanctuary Restaurant today. We don’t eat a lot at any one of them, but still…the  transition back to intermittent fasting and two meals a day is going to be a rough one.  To atone, I actually found the fitness center today and biked for 45 minutes. And while I was looking for it (I knew it was on Deck 18, but had to figure out which set of elevators I needed to take to get there - midship), I found the entrance to the Sanctuary Club (Deck 18 aft elevators). 

While wondering around lost, I stepped into the Love by Britto restaurant on Deck 17 aft, and that is one beautiful space. It has expansive views off the back of the ship. I love Britto’s art, have for years, long before Princess had an association with him, so I especially appreciate this decor. 

These charger plates were really pretty!

It took me 12 days to find the fitness center 😉

Not one bit hungry but at least feeling virtuous from my time in the fitness center, I met up with G in the Sanctuary Restaurant where I had some delicious tomato soup, also poured from a pitcher. 

We spent some time around the Lido pools for the first time, listening to the sax music from the SaxWaves Duo. Getting there about 1pm we found several available loungers around the pool, in the sun and shade. That’s largely been true this entire cruise wherever we go, though we do sometimes have to share a lounger for a short while. 

We had a short lie down in the cabin before getting cleaned up for the evening. SaxWaves Duo was playing again on the Wake View Terrace before dinner, and we have really come to love that setting. As for sax music, it’s G’s favorite (his father was a professional saxophonist). That’s why we’re groupies!

We then snuck in the back of the Sanctuary Restaurant and ate a very quick dinner that allowed us to get to the Princess Arena in time to get seats for tonight’s comedy show. We walked in at 6:10pm, 50 minutes early and got the last two seats together in the center section of seats. 

Always a dish of well cooked broccoli with whatever we get for dinner

The audience participation improv section of Doug Funk’s show was harious!!

It was a “2 show night” as guest entertainer Willis White was performing in the Piazza. We settled on a sofa on Deck 9, got a treat from the International Cafe, and waited for his show. I remembered that he had two shows on the Royal…or was it the Emerald…whichever ship we saw him on a few months ago and I was hoping he’d do the same on the Star Princess. We got lucky!

And, finally, I need to mention that Staff Captain Chris told us at the MTG luncheon that this cruise had 500 fewer passengers than normal capacity, which is definitely making the ship seem roomier than it might otherwise be. Add a further 800 kids and it becomes a whole other experience. I would add that putting it in a cold or inclement weather itinerary might snug it up even more.  When I say that there are plenty of empty chairs and loungers…YMMV. 

A few questions/comments I’ve received about our cabin. Yes, it’s small but our inside cabin on the Carnival Jubilee was even smaller and didn’t live nearly as well. Our Star Princess cabin is extremely comfortable.  It even has a third berth which hasn’t been any kind of an issue, except during the first night when the ladder that was stowed up there slid down the wall onto G’s bed. That about gave us a heart attack. Luckily, it didn’t actually hit him, only because the hook end was caught on the side of the frame. But in the middle of the night we were rigging a fix out of a heavy duty twist tie that came off of my curling iron cord. No issues since. 

There is plenty of storage we’re not using, but the hanging clothes space in the closet is rather limited. I’m just using drawers to store most of my clothes and G is using hangers and shelves for his. The live vests are stored in their own narrow closet right next to the cabin door, which keeps them nicely out of the way. 

There is a small bench which serves mostly to accumulate superfluous decorative pillows.

The bathroom, especially the shower and the lighting, is the cabin’s best feature. The shower is large enough to actually dry off before stepping out. It’s going to be tough to go back to a Grand Class shower after this!

Separate shampoo and conditioner products

Tomorrow, we finally reach Mazatlan. I’m happy about that, but am even happier we still have eight days left on this cruise.