Valentine's Day 2023

 We had a great start to the day with a champagne breakfast on your balcony. It was an extra charge. We just happened to time it right as we were sailing out of Ensenada. The room service waiter did such a nice job setting it with a table cloth. We were dressed, but we put on our robes for fun and a little extra warmth. 

Ensenada, Mexico

 

Yesterday was Ensenada day!!   After a light breakfast, we sat at our favorite table at the Mix Bar while Angie attended to some emails. The ship docked about 11AM and an ambulance was there to take the guest who needed blood to the hospital.  Hopefully they got the medical attention they needed.  At about Noon they announced that the gangway was open for anyone who wanted to get off the ship.  They had been able to plan some limited excursions for those that wanted them.  I think a lot of guests wanted to just set their feet on solid land after almost six sea days. We had an all day excursion planned for 2/14, the original day we  were supposed to dock in Ensenada.  That of course was cancelled because we docked so late on 2/13.  We didn't book another and stayed on the ship.

 

Super Bowl at Sea

 

Yesterday was all about the Super Bowl!!   Earlier in the cruise we had decided to purchase special seating and food for the game.  All the seating was in the tiers above the pool area they use for Movies Under The Stars, which is usually the place where the show films at night. We checked in at 12:30 and were able to select our table. We chose one that was right in the center with a great view of the screen.

 

It included an assortment of food and two buckets of beer (I think ten cans in total).  Plus specialty cocktails.  They had an Arizona Mule which was Grey Goose, Lemongrass syrup and ginger beer.  And then a red tropical punch which was dark rum, Malibu (coconut rum) with fresh watermelon juice. I think that was to represent the Chiefs.   They must have had one for the Eagles but I never saw it being served. 

We had two dedicated bar waiters who couldn't do enough for you.  As soon as you were almost done with one beer, they were ready to hand you another!!  Food options were potato chips, popcorn, loaded fries and then traditional stadium food.  I wanted to start with some wings so I placed an order.  What they brought was a huge platter of every food they were offering.  Since the table was for up to four people, the huge platter had four cheeseburgers, four hot dogs plus wings and jalapeno poppers. 

So much food!!   We ate the wings, poppers, two burgers and one hot dog.   All very tasty. 

The sun peaked out for most of the first half so it stayed relatively warm.  And they had provided blankets and headbands. But as halftime approached, we needed more and more layers of blankets.  Good thing we had enough blankets for four people. Angie eventually needed to go to the cabin for more reinforcements and added a robe!!!  The people around us were very impressed with her creativity.  

Once the game ended, we headed back to the cabin to regroup for the evening as it was 6PM ship time.  The ship was still rocking quite a bit and we weren't interested in dealing with that in the main dining room.  We we had another snack dinner with some tapas from Vines plus minestrone soup from International Cafe.  We listened to Elua who are the two Hawaiian ambassadors onboard and also a singing duo.  They finished at 8:45 and knowing the ship was going ahead one more hour to match West Coast time, it would be an early night.

I had reported earlier that there was a medical emergency onboard with a guest requiring blood. The guest was stabilized but the captain was still making faster progress to Ensenada to get that person to a hospital.  Yesterday he announced we'd be in Ensenada a day earlier than scheduled. So we expect to dock at 1PM today instead of 9AM tomorrow.  We had a wine tasting excursion that ended up being cancelled.  So we'll stay onboard today.  Angie has some filming to finish and other work.  We will stay overnight in Ensenada and then depart for the San Pedro port in LA tomorrow about 9AM.  Will still arrive as scheduled on Wednesday morning, 2/15.  Then we prepare for the next leg of this west coast adventure.

Sea Days

 Most Sea Days, we get up. I work for a while. Glenn and I head to the buffet and the grab a table by the Mixx outside bar. We play games or I continue to work. We usually have pizza or the grill for lunch. We head down to the cabin for a nap. In the evening, we visit the Vines to see our favorite crew member - Bien. We head to happy hour at Club Fusion to see Gusti and usually end the night playing the games in the Explorers' Lounge. 

Glenn gives a full update of yesterday: 

Almost Maui

 

Yesterday morning we anchored off Maui near the port of Lahaina. We had planned a whale watching excursion. We were up at 7AM to get the earliest tender boat possible. Unfortunately, the weather had different plans. The captain made an announcement at 7:30 that our call to this port would be cancelled. While it was decent weather in the morning, the conditions would be deteriorating and make it unsafe to operate the tenders. So that was a disappointing start to the day. But when life gives you lemons?

Since we were up anyway, we had an early breakfast (Beef Tapas!!). And then we started curating our own whale watching excursion from the ship. We were able to see many spouts off the port side aft. So we headed to our port side balcony with both sets of binoculars!! And we saw so many whales. Lots of tails!! 

 

About an hour later the captain pulled up the anchor and we started making our way to Ensenada. As we were leaving, Angie saw what she thought was a windsurfer that was having trouble staying afloat. After a minute or so she realized that it was not a kite surfer at all. It was a humpback who was breaching on its side and showing us it's fin!! Kind of a wave goodbye from Maui. So while the morning didn't go as planned, the whales we saw were certainly magnificent!

 

We also didn't realize how tired we were from three very full days in port. So we stayed in our cabin most of the day and napped. About 11AM I went and got us some slices of pizza. The special one was the Princess pizza with fresh tomatoes and spicy sausage!! Later at about 3PM we went to the buffet for what they called "Tea Time". Princess does have a more formal sit down tea time every day at 3 in one of the main dining rooms. But we were just in the mood to grab some small bites. We were very impressed by the selection. In addition to the usual tea time snacks such as scones with cream and jam, they had several hot options such as fried fish, an Indian vegetarian dish, stir fried beef and of course chicken nuggets. Plus a great salad bar and tuna, egg and chicken salad with fresh rolls. I had a salad with a big dollop of chicken salad. Probably more like chicken salad with some greens!!

 Today is the second of six sea days until we get to Ensenada. The seas were a bit bumpy overnight. Lots of creaking in our cabin. But the sun is out now and the seas looks calmer. Definitely some more outside time today.

Kauai, Hawaii

 

We had a great day in Kauai. We hired a Tours by Locals guide -Kate. She greeted us with leis and we headed off into the island. We stopped at a gorgeous waterfall.

 

She took us to a great local deli to grab a picnic of Hawaiian foods: Huli Huli chicken, ahi tuna poke, pork, octopus, and malasadas. We also had the purple sweet potatoes - ube. Malasadas are Portuguese donuts. Ours were made from turo.

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Today was essentially two different excursions.  We started the day by being picked up for our private tour of downtown Honolulu  including the famous statue of King Kamehameha.  

Crown Princess Sea Day #4

 By Glenn 

Yesterday was the final sea day before we stop in Hilo. Even though we had partly cloudy skies, it was still warm enough to enjoy out on the open deck. After a quick breakfast (they had Beef Tapas again), we got our table at the Mix Bar. Angie had some work to do and I checked in on my blogs. Then we played another game of Quirkle. I was doing pretty well and thought I was on my way to my first victory but then Angie had six Quirkles in a row and beat me by 20 points.  

Crown Princess Sea Day #3

 by Glenn

Yesterday was our fourth of five sea days before the port of Hilo.  The weather was absolutely perfect, around 25°C with mostly sunny skies.  It was definitely a day we'd enjoy as much outdoor time as possible.  After a quick breakfast in Horizon Court, we made our way to one of our favorite spots on this class of ship, the Mix Bar.   This bar has plenty of shaded outdoor seating, larger tables and is close by all the quick service food venues for when you need a snack.  A perfect place to stay all day, relax, read or play games. 

Crown Princess Sea Day #2

by Glenn 

Yesterday was another sea day as we continued our way to the port of Hilo where we will be on Sunday. Breakfast was again in the Horizon Court buffet where they had another Filipino favorite: Beef Tapas!! This is marinated beef with spices. Also delicious over fried rice with an egg. After breakfast we headed to the Piazza for a cooking demonstration. It was more like an advertisement for the steakhouse and Italian speciality restaurants onboard. But still entertaining.  

In addition to this cruise sailing during the Super Bowl, Valentine's Day will also be celebrated. They were offering a special "champagne" breakfast brought to your cabin on that morning for $45/cabin. Sounded fun so we signed up for that. They'll contact us later to confirm our menu choices and time of delivery.  

After the cooking demo, we felt like a morning cocktail so has a couple of Bloody Marys at the Good Spirits bar. Princess uses an organic mix called Tres Agaves which is the best one I have ever had. The regular spice level is perfect for me but you can always kick it up a notch. Then it was time for an enrichment talk from one of our onboard Hawaiian ambassadors Time Dave. Yes - that is what we wants to be called. He has been having talks every sea day on the ports we'll be seeing. Yesterday was focused on Oahu where Honolulu and the Pearl Harbor museum is located. It was helpful to see a layout of the island. 

Then it was lunchtime again in the dining room. I had a delicious "Mexican" soup which was more like a minestrone. Tasty, but it didn't scream out with Mexican flavors. Also had a very unremarkable Parmesan Chicken, a dish which would have been better as a completely different dish. The pistachio ice cream was amazing, chock full of real pistachio. A rarity for most pistachio ice cream. 

We still seemed to be adapting to the time change so we're in need of a little nap. So that's what we did for a couple of hours. After that, Angie had some work to finish. I got ready for dinner and joined some of my trivia team for the 4PM game. We came within a point of winning and lost to our nemesis team!! Did you know who wrote the music for Sonic The Hedgehog 3 video game? The choices are John Williams, Michael Jackson, Elton John or Flavor Flav. Answer below.  

It was then time for our Happy Hour. The hot item tonight was a mozzarella bite with tomato. The crab cake was better. After that was time for some Hawaiian music and dancing. We sat in the Vines bar and our favorite bartender Bian brought us over some glasses of thar French Sauvignon Blanc!! So sweet of him. He also brought us some tapas which had a delicious meatball!

 The multi talented Tike Dave played a steel guitar and a regular guitar. Several Hawaiian classic as well as some "pop" songs played in a Hawaiian style. So many dancers. Tiki Dave's wife has been holding hula classes and their were several people who apparently had been to these classes. They looked good doing the line dances.  

We had a little bit of time before dinner so went to a "Where in the world" trivia. It was a combination of photos, silhouettes and facts where you had to guess the country. Dinner was very good. I had a vegetable korma and a cowboy steak.  

A little later, I decided to try my luck and audition for Voice of the Ocean. Princess partners with the TV show and has a similar singing competition. I sang one of my staple songs "Ring of Fire". There were some very talented singers. I'll find out tonight if I make it to the next round. (Angie here - the audience was terrible. They took their job as "judges" way too seriously. No clapping along. No cheering. It was annoying.) 

After that we participated in a new type of trivia called Music Connection. Each question consisted of three songs. They'd play a portion of each one and you had to guess the connection. Some were easier, such as movies from films. Or number one hits. But other connections were that the songs were all sung in the same key or the same tempo. Very creative and fun. Even though we shows up late and missed a few questions, we tied for the win, but lost the tiebreaker. I didn't know Elvis has 114 top 40 hits. Seems like a lot!!  

We decided to hear the piano player in Crooners. We showed up and he was finishing his set for the night. So we had a nightcap and called it an evening. It was 11:15PM - the latest we had stayed up so far. Our usual bedtime has been about 9PM or earlier.  

We have some great weather today. It's sunny today and about 25°C with a slight wind. Perfect weather to be outside by the pool.  

And the answer is: Michael Jackson

Crown Princess Sea Day #1

by Glenn 

 For yesterday's sea day, we had an early breakfast in Horizon Court which is the ship's buffet. As with most Princess ships, they had some Filipino items including Pork Tocino. This is pork that has been marinated with vinegar and spices. The texture is almost like the boneless spareribs served at some Asian restaurants - but usually with a bit more flavor and bite from the vinegar. These weren't the best version I have ever had. They need a bit more vinegar flavor. But it was a very good breakfast, especially over garlic fried rice with fried eggs on top.

Angie went to get a pedicure and a manicure and then had some work to do so I walked around the ship a little bit. We've sailed on this same ship before and been on many of her sister ships so the layout is very familiar. It is like coming home. It was nice to see she had been updated since our first sailing many years ago. I found a seat at the Explorer Lounge to get ready for 10AM trivia and ordered a Bloody Mary via the OceanNow app. That app is like having room service anywhere you are on the ship.

Explorers Lounge is one of my favorite lounges on any class of ship. It is a large space with varied seating and lots of little smaller areas. On prior ships, we always sat in one particular spot and it was no different this morning. I found the couch!! I was planning to play alone but I met Jim who was also going to be playing alone so we teamed up. Angie was able to join us about midway. Our score of 14 out of 20 wasn't going to cut it. The winning team had 18.

Lunch was in the main dining room where they had one of my favorite dishes Chicken Korma. It was as good as I remembered. Warm spices in a rich gravy with basmati rice!! Just what I needed.

After lunch, Angie had more work to complete on her latest video and got a hair cut. There was some afternoon rock and roll trivia which I attended. They had a good selection of songs. They'd play a song and you got one point for the song and another if you knew the artist. Some easy and some more obscure. Usually in these types trivia, they only play a portion of the song. And certainly not any parts that include the title. That wasn't the case for this trivia. So almost everyone should have got the title right on all fifteen questions. Some of the artists were trickier. A perfect score would have been 30 points. I got 23. One team got 30 although it was suspicious. One of the songs was Blue Suede Shoes and I am certain it was the Elvis version. But the answer was Carl Perkins. So this other team must have been a Carl Perkins fan. I think there were shenanigans!! Of course, the winner gets life changing prize and it is all in fun.

The menu for the main dining room wasn't to our taste so instead we went to the Princess Captain's Circle Happy Hour in Club Fusion and had some crab cakes, veggies and cheese and crackers. Then we went to Vines the wine bar and had more of that great French Sauvignon Blanc with some tapas. The shrimp wrapped with bacon was very tasty. Afterwards we went back to Club Fusion to listen to the party band play some hits from the seventies. They had a rock and roll set later but we were going to call it another early night.

Crown Princess Embarkation

We had an easy flight into LAX. Our luggage arrived quickly and our Blacklane driver was great. We stayed at the Residence Inn Long Beach Downtown. The hotel was nice, but the location is terrible. Only one restaurant within walking distance. The restaurant had very good Mexican food. We had great tacos and guacamole for lunch and then took a salad and quesadilla to go to reheat for dinner. We just chilled at the hotel for the afternoon.