Grand Princess 10-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise - Photo Review - Jan 9-19th, 2016

Hi fellow cruisers!

Mrs. Winks and I are back from California - fresh off a 10-Day cruise aboard the Grand Princess.

We had a great time, embarking from a new port, San Francisco - Pier 27, and enjoyed a fairly new itinerary for us. I say fairly new, because we’ve sailed the Mexican Riviera once before… back in 2009, out of Los Angeles, for a 7-Day Sapphire Princess voyage. But that was a while ago. The stone arch at Cabo San Lucas has since collapsed and the Princess line has added another port to this classic itinerary. So we were curious to see what new adventures Mexico’s west coast had to offer. (And as habitual Caribbean cruisers know all too well, there are just so many times you can moor in St. Maarten or St. Thomas before getting itchy for a new port experience).

So a few months ago, Mrs. Winks launched one of her take-no-prisoners cruise investigations and identified a fantastic post-holiday deal down the Baja Peninsula on an itinerary “The Love Boat” show made famous: with Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas (and now their younger, scrappy little step-brother, Manzanillo) as ports.

Taking a 10-day cruise offers its own set of challenges (just trying to stay within the airline’s 50 lb weight limitation for checked baggage is herculean enough) but not being a couple that backs down from a challenge, we decided to complicate matters even further by adding a 6-hour cross-country flight to the equation… which, in January, necessitates booking an extra day or two at the front-end in case of one of those pesky superstorms decides to wallop the northeast, which is where Mrs. Winks and I reside.

Fortunately, we both had carry-over days from our jobs to burn and friends in San Francisco who we could depend on for entertainment for our two days stay prior to embarkation. So challenge on!

My biggest hurdle was trying to stay under the 50 lb baggage limit. It was a 10-day cruise, after all, and accounting for both the travel and weather insurance days, we were looking at almost 14 total days "on the road".

Mrs. Winks assured me that Princess provided laundry rooms for passengers, so we could refresh our unmentionables... But how was I going to get all my other vacation necessities on board? As you can see, I'm not exactly a light packer.

That said, the baggage weight didn’t end up being an issue after all. The TSA agents at airport security were surprisingly helpful when it came to choosing what to declutter from my admittedly ambitious packing job... and after their robust interrogation techniques and strip search, I emerged with a new admiration for the art of packing light and still managed to score a cup of coffee before boarding our 6:50 am, non-stop, JetBlue flight from JFK to SFO. But note to self: next time, just leave the curling irons at home!

Pre-cruise, we stayed at the Marriot Courtyard Fisherman’s Wharf. This was kind of a silly choice because, as New Yorkers, we would never dream of booking a hotel in, say, Times Square. It’s just too mobbed with tourists. But that's essentially what we did in San Fran - as Fisherman's Wharf is just as tourist centric as Times Sqaure. And it's true, our friends grimaced when they heard about our accomodations. But the fact was, we hadn’t rented a car so we wanted to be in walking distance of all the sights we typically mock tourists for wanting to be close to. And we wanted to check out the actual pier (#27) that The Grand would slide into Saturday, so our tourist centric location made sense - even if the Courtyard itself was kind of a dump.

So despite the very damp and cold weather (40 and 50s), we enjoyed our exploratory walks past the unending line of souvenir purveyors and chains stores along The Embarcadero. The food was great and the sights crazy!

We know most readers want us to just skip all the pre-cruise rigmarole and jump right into the action packed embarkation process, but we’d be quite remiss if we didn’t mention our thrilling day adventure out to Point Reyes National Seashore on Friday. Point Reyes is a prominent land mass sticking out from the west coast of California’s Marin County. It’s known for its numerous hiking trails and opportunities to bird, whale watch and view elephant seals. Our main objective was to have lunch in Inverness, a spit of a town near the park entrance where we’d have access to wi-fi as Mrs. Winks needed to handle a last minute emergency work meeting, and then head out to the remote lighthouse that’s perched 300 steps down a rocky cliff side overlooking the mighty Pacific.

Meet Beno (see picture below – and it’s pronounced Bean-oh). We’ve been friends since high school and you’ll be seeing more of him tomorrow when he joins us for the Bon Voyage Experience on The Grand. But for today, he served as our gracious and informative tour guide, picking us up from the Marriott and taking us up along a scenic coastal route, past surprisingly pastoral lands that reminded both Mrs. Winks and I of the rolling hills of Ireland, and out to the dramatically situated Point Reyes Lighthouse. It was a raw and overcast day. The lighthouse fog horn was blaring. We got to see ring tailed hawks, coyotes, elk and elephant seals. And all in all, it was a stunning experience, (not the California we were used to seeing) and a terrific day trip we can recommend if you’re ever in the area.

Climbing up the 300 steps from the lighthouse to the cliff top was way more taxing than descending them, that’s for sure, and we had to applaud the volunteer docents who make the climb several times a day.

After the lighthouse visit, we swung over to Chimney Rock where elephant seal births had been reported earlier in the day. True enough, once we got to the overlook, two park rangers let us use their telescope to get a close up view of the newborn seal pups down on the rocky beach below. Incredible site. Elephant seals are as loud as they are large, and it’s mesmerizing to see them socially interact (which, like with humans, is mostly a lot of grunting and moaning and jockeying for turf!)

Back on the drive home, we firmed up plans with Beno to meet at Pier 27 the next morning at 11am. He had successfully signed up for Princess’s Bon Voyage Experience about a week prior and would be joining us for lunch (and some lounge hopping) prior to sail away.

Beno made the smart choice of by-passing Friday evening rush hour traffic and dropped us off at the Bay Ferry where we took an uneventful half hour ride back to the city. Once outside of the Ferry Building, we simply picked up street car service along the Embarcadero (which we rode for free because the tram’s cash machine was on the fritz) - getting dropped off about a block from our hotel.

Even though the weather wasn’t cooperative, we very much enjoyed our two days in Fog City. We got to stop in at In-and-Out Burger to remind ourselves how bad it is for us and checked out the city as it prepares to host Super Bowl 50, as you can see the Ferry Building is decked-out for already.

Next Up: The cruise… finally! We’ll cover the bumpy embarkation process, the Bon Voyage Experience, Our first impressions of the ship, Our cabin (spoiler alert; aft facing suite) and what it’s like to spend three consecutive days at sea - with your spouse! Along the way we’ll post the Princess Patters and dining room menus. Plus plenty of pictures and rambling exploits of our assorted hijinks. So, if you’d like to come along, be sure to subscribe to this thread.

I can't wait to see our cruise from your perspective. I get to relive it all over again. :D

Enjoyed part 1 very much. Looking forward to more! We will be on the Grand in May, any suggestions on good places to be for Sailaway under the Golden Gate?

Thanks

Looking forward to the rest of your review, very well written.

I feel like I was right there with you. Probably because I was.:D Can't wait to read more of your review. DH and I had an outstanding cruise, so I'm hoping that you did too.

Looking forward to your review! Subscribed!!

snow bunny

Nice! :)

I feel like I was right there with you. Probably because I was.:D Can't wait to read more of your review. DH and I had an outstanding cruise, so I'm hoping that you did too.

My wife and I were on the same cruise as well, I saw you several times partybarbie:)

Brian

My wife and I were on the same cruise as well, I saw you several times partybarbie:)

 

Brian

Next time please come up and say "hi". I have glaucoma, so sometimes in really bright light or low light I have trouble seeing people, even people I know.:)

P.S. Hope I was behaving myself ;).

We've stayed at the Marriott and I agree, not the best, but location is good for Fisherman's Wharf.

Excellent sharing of your travels and I am looking forward to your further exploits.

We were not on this cruise but were on Summit the same week as you and Mrs. Winks in October. Loved your review of that cruise and looking forward to what your experience was on this itinerary/ship as we are eying this one for possibly next year!

Hope you had a blast and didn't get home to too much snow from this last storm! We in upstate had next to nothing but looked like downstate was getting it pretty bad!

Next time please come up and say "hi". I have glaucoma, so sometimes in really bright light or low light I have trouble seeing people, even people I know.:)

 

P.S. Hope I was behaving myself ;).

I'll never tell, but will certainly say hi next time around.

Brian

Looking forward to the rest of the review, especially about Manzanillo.

Enjoying the photos too, but I have to say, an In-N-Out outside of Southern California is just plain wrong. 😎

A great start to your trip review! I'll be on the Grand in July and am looking forward to reading more about her!

More, pretty please!

Excellent start to the review. Wonderful photos. Can't wait for more!

Looking forward to the rest of the review. We were on December 30 to Jan 9th just before you.

When did the Arch collapse in Cabo? It was intact in October. When the ship shifts with the current it does seem like the Arch is no longer there.

Yay!! I've been eagerly awaiting your review since you graciously uploaded the patters and indicated you'd be doing a review. I'm thrilled that you're doing a photo review. Thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us!! It gets me so excited for our September sailing of this itinerary!

Yay! Can't wait to read your review!!

Loving the review so far! :D

Wonderful review so far. Looking forward to the rest. Your photography is great.

So happy you enjoyed Point Reyes. It is one of our favorite spots in this area.

We will be boarding the Grand a week from today. Love her and sailing from our home port!!

Cheers, Denise

When did the Arch collapse in Cabo? It was intact in October. When the ship shifts with the current it does seem like the Arch is no longer there.

It's still there.

Whew!

We'll be taking this exact cruise on the Grand next December, so I am looking forward to reading the rest of your review!