FishinChris

What an awesome trip!  You really need a cruise just to relax from the land vacation. We’re planning on doing something similar in the near future with a trip to Paris and the UK.   We recently returned from a 2 week trip to Scotland that was land based.  I could post a review of it in the ports of call section if anyone would be interested. Thanks for your review!

12 hours ago, Retired Educator said:

A quick question...

On many of our other Princess cruises we have found the made to order Belgian waffles available at breakfast from the ice cream station outside by the pool.  It was usually posted in the patter on the back page.

Are they offering that on the Grand this cruise?  It was always a well kept secret the first day or so until people saw them coming into the buffet...then the lines became unbelievable...

Another 3 days for us to wait.  

The waffles are now served in the Horizon Court at the desert station. 

Really digging the dual review going on, I would like to see more reviews like this.

Thank you for your review.  Really nice photos.

Great photos!  Thanks for your review. 

They let you in the building at 10:30 and start boarding around 11:00.  Our room is usually not ready but the room steward has no problem with dropping your carry on luggage in the room.  

Really nice picture review.  Very inspiring on your DIY excursions, I’ve never been impressed with any of the ships excursions. 

Where's the pictures?  Glad you had a good time thanks for the review.

We took the British Isle cruise with the Dublin overnight in 2017, it was fabulous.  We’re contemplating taking the same cruise in 2020.  There is a link to my photo review in my signature below.  Cheers!

Take lots of pictures!  

16 hours ago, XBGuy said:

 

 

We enjoyed multiple dinners in the specialty restaurants.  SHARE was outstanding--we had three dinners, there--and Crown Grill was, well, Crown Grill--better than the dining room.

 

 

We finally were able to go to SHARE on the first night, very impressed. The portion size of the plates was just right and the food was delicious.  I always feel overstuffed at the other specialty restaurants or maybe it’s just the wine.  

10 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

thanks for taking your time to do this.  We are going on this itinerary on the Grand on March 20th, just after she becomes spanking brand new after her long drydock in Oregon.  Am looking forward to relaxing and just enjoying myself aboard.

 

Pooh

Glad you enjoyed the review. 

17 hours ago, chinita415 said:

Thanks for the review! We are in the Bay Area and thought about getting on the ship in SF. But we opted to fly to LA for our upcoming sailing on the Royal over spring break. 

 

We were in PV over Semana Santa on a land based vacation and are excited to go back even for a day.  We plan to just walk around and eat, hoping to find some of our favorites from the last weeklong visit. We were at the Cathedral on Palm Sunday and it was very festive. I still have Virgin of Guadalupe made with palm leaves from there.

 

We have a toddler and granny in a wheelchair so won't be doing much else at Cabo and Mazatlan except the beach resort day pass. I want my water baby to swim since she won't be able to on the ship.

 

5 more weeks!

Your going to have a great time!

On 3/5/2019 at 3:01 PM, Cruise Raider said:

 

It was years ago ... probably back in the early 80's.  Plus, we stayed there so it took many many meals there to get sick.  I have a feeling it was the oysters or maybe the lettuce.  I think you're probably safer now than way back then.  The ice didn't even come out of a machine at the time ... they delivered it via trucks in big blocks.  

I was sick for quite some time afterwards, though before I finally starting feeling better again.  

 

We were planning on eating some authentic Mexican food on our first trip to Mazatlan 12 years ago.   The walking tour we were on stopped at a very authentic market and after seeing the how the food was presented, we decided to only eat On the ship.  

1 hour ago, Mummo said:

Why am I just getting this now? Super job! Great photos. Was I on the same cruise?  😵

Yep we were on the same cruise.  

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Thanks for the review.  We'll be doing this one for the upmteenth time in the fall but it's always good to get current information.  

I have to ask you, if you'd be so kind to answer, we've done the Stone Island tour before and while it was ok, the area and restaurant they took us to was really decapitated.  Even the lounge chairs they provided were all broken down and the restaurant looked filthy.  I was worried about eating anything over there and though the had an open bar, bottled beer was the only thing I was comfortable to drink.  (To be fair, I had gotten very ill from food poisoning in Mazatlan back in the 80's ... so am a more than a little gun shy)  Anyway, the area they took us to had nearby half emptied pool that was full of algea sludge surrounded by dead plants.  I didn't recognize any of this from your photos.  What was the resort they used for your tour and would you consider it a nice place?  Did you happen upon any of those things I mentioned?  I'd like to go back and experience it again as I love the beach area over there ... but only if they take us to a decent place.  

They took us to a restaurant on the beach.  It was very clean and I didn’t see a swimming pool at all. My advice would be to stick to the mango margaritas. 

On 2/24/2019 at 8:39 PM, Lucky TGO said:

Thanks for sharing I love the photos! One of the masks photos looks just like my uncle Frank. 😳 😁

The Captain of The Rowboat,

Tony

 

Yes I see many family members in these mask. 

On 2/17/2019 at 11:50 AM, EMS8 said:

Nice review Chris.  You take very good pictures.  Thanks.

On 2/17/2019 at 12:53 PM, Kenosha Cruiser said:

Thanks for sharing your photos on the Grand Princess, well done!

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

 

Thanks for your kind comments. 

First Princess cruise was on the Sapphire Princess, Mexican Riviera 2008.  It was our wedding cruise, we were married by the captain.  He gave us sage advice on our marriage by telling us to drink heavily.  Just celebrated our 10th anniversary, so it must be good advice to follow.

8 minutes ago, Kenosha Cruiser said:

 

We already decided on the day of the dead make up and costumes. We did a trial run this past Halloween. Here we are below. This will be our third Halloween cruise, so much fun!!!

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

 

Very Nice!  Have a great time.

We were headed back to San Francisco after our last port and spent the rest of our cruise doing absolutely nothing, it was great.  The ship was decorated for Christmas, but I did not have any Santa sightings.  Being an early riser we were up and on deck 17 for cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge at 5:45 am.  The cruise was fantastic and will be doing it again.  I hope you enjoyed my photos.  Please let me know what you think.  Our next vacation is not a cruise but 2 weeks in the Scottish Highlands.  Thanks for reading my review.  Cheers!

2 minutes ago, Kenosha Cruiser said:

Fantastic photo review! We're heading to the Mexican Riviera in October on the Royal Princess (Halloween cruise). Hope you have more pictures to come, we will be following along.

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

We were on a Halloween cruise on the Golden a few years ago.  Very fun, don't forget your costume.

Cabo San Lucas.   We had originally booked a scuba diving excursion but switched it to a whale watching trip instead.  We saw whales, dolphins, and manta rays.  I didn't take any pictures worth sharing but it was a fun short trip.  Afterwords we had lunch on shore with a few delicious blue margaritas and walked through the merchant areas.

Would you like a happy song? 

Mazatlan, We booked the Stone Island Estuary Cruise through Princess.  This excursion was very enjoyable, it started with a bird watching boat cruise and then a tractor ride through a sesame seed and coconut farm and miles of beach to a resort area.  We were provided a nice shrimp lunch at the resort area and added many of their world famous mango margaritas to our meal.  After our meal and happy song we wandered the beach, some people went for a swim.