Emerald live from. July 1-6 holiday cruise

[cr8tiv1]

@HaveDogWillTravel Your lollipops have plastic wraps.  Lucky you.  I'm a one and done person.  All I want is a hot fudge sundae (not available on any ship).

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

Good for you!🦄  I'm hoping we get a move over offer on our upcoming cruise on CB around Halloween.  Prices have skyrocketed since we book and available cabins "seems" limited

 

we've taken one move over offer, and had to pass (grrr) on another - the little 3 day on the SKY v2.0

 

We had booked two inside cabins - somewhat strange, questioning why they would need insides?  

[Thrak]

On 7/3/2023 at 10:46 AM, AnyMajorCruiseDude said:

Saw you guys leaving crooners this am, couldn’t catch up!  Have you tried all 52 martinis from the deck of cards i gave you a while back?

Wish they still sold those cards. I once bought two decks but gave one to each of our sons. Thought I would buy another deck for myself but they vanished before that could happen. I did see a deck on eBay a while back but they wanted something like $18 plus $6.50 shipping. Nope. No gonna happen at that price.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

 

We had booked two inside cabins - somewhat strange, questioning why they would need insides?  

Probably because they have overbooked insides 

[mrmarklin]

5 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I haven’t been following the threads about the premium desserts but I did try them on this ship. They take 5-15 minutes to get. They gave me a wooden spoon which failed to be adequate for actually eating all of them except for the one with the cheesecake on top. All the others with cakes and cookies were rock hard. The cakes and other stuff stuck inside were also rock hard and really nasty. I tried them all and did not like any of them. I feel bad for anyone who spends $12 on them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like they were frozen. That’s just wrong. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

Wish they still sold those cards. I once bought two decks but gave one to each of our sons. Thought I would buy another deck for myself but they vanished before that could happen. I did see a deck on eBay a while back but they wanted something like $18 plus $6.50 shipping. Nope. No gonna happen at that price.

I feel really fortunate to have a deck. I’m grateful to @AnyMajorCruiseDudefor gifting me a deck. 

[Thrak]

34 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I feel really fortunate to have a deck. I’m grateful to @AnyMajorCruiseDudefor gifting me a deck. 

 

I have a pic of one of the cards. It's for the Chairman of the Board martini which I often order. The only thing is that they absolutely ruin the recipe by putting 3 Plump Olives in it. No, no, no!!! It's made with Cointreau and requires a twist to be right. Some clod put an olive in mine once - I had ordered it with a twist - but he was a new server so I tried it anyway. Blech. 😝 I sent it back for one the way I had ordered it.

 

Here's the card:

 

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

14 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I have a pic of one of the cards. It's for the Chairman of the Board martini which I often order. The only thing is that they absolutely ruin the recipe by putting 3 Plump Olives in it. No, no, no!!! It's made with Cointreau and requires a twist to be right. Some clod put an olive in mine once - I had ordered it with a twist - but he was a new server so I tried it anyway. Blech. 😝 I sent it back for one the way I had ordered it.

 

Here's the card:

 

 

Agreed! 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

That was a spectacular experience watching the fireworks from our balcony in SF with @CruiseRaider  The fireworks were over the top amazing and then sailing out was gorgeous!  We sailed along the other side of Alcatraz keeping it on our port side instead of the usual starboard side.  I would do this every year. 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by HaveDogWillTravel

[that]

Amazing Fireworks views

sailing 18th time under the Golden Gate

Bridge

AND

now a spouting humpback whale

South of Monterey this

morning.

My Cup Runneth Over

 

[that]

Actually south of Santa Cruz, not Monterey,

oops sleepy heads

Edited July 5, 2023 by that

[CynCyn]

1 hour ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

That was a spectacular experience watching the fireworks from our balcony in SF with @CruiseRaider  The fireworks were over the top amazing and then sailing out was gorgeous!  We sailed along the other side of Alcatraz keeping it on our port side instead of the usual starboard side.  I would do this every year. 

 

 

Sounds amazing! 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

I couldn’t find this itinerary being offered for 2024 or 2025. I asked at the future cruise desk this morning and Princess does not have this currently planned. I will mention in my post cruise survey how much I loved this itinerary and would like to do it again. 
 

Here are the patters for this sailing. I noticed more teens and kids things in the patter. This may be normal for summer cruises. I rarely cruise this time of year. 
 

day 1 San Pedro 

[kstaffen]

REMINDER:
Slot Pull is at 1 pm today. Starboard side of the Gatsby Casino, Deck 6. We will be forward. There'll be a sign. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Day 2 Ensenada 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Day 3 at sea 

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Day 4 San Francisco July 4th🤸🏼‍♂️🎉🍾

 

We had to go thru immigration. We got off at 10 am without any wait. Reboarded at 4 pm with no wait. 
 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Day 5 sea day (packing day 😩) I normally do not like 5 day sailings. For me, packing and driving to LA for 5 days is the same amount of work and effort as for 14 days. On the short cruises I barely get settled in and I’m packing to leave. But last night was so incredible it changed my mind. It was definitely worth every bit of effort to do this. 

[LACruiser88]

7 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

sea day (packing day 😩) I normally do not like 5 day sailings. For me, packing and driving to LA for 5 days is the same amount of work and effort as for 14 days. On the short cruises I barely get settled in and I’m packing to leave. But last night was so incredible it changed my mind. It was definitely worth every bit of effort to do this. 

When we have done short voyages we usually will do them b2b with a longer voyage.

 

Thank you for taking us along!  I'll take over tomorrow with my "Live" thread.  🙂

[HaveDogWillTravel]

2 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

When we have done short voyages we usually will do them b2b with a longer voyage.

 

Thank you for taking us along!  I'll take over tomorrow with my "Live" thread.  🙂

I wanted to do the Hawaii sailing as my b2b but the peaches are late coming in and I really love my canned peaches, frozen peach pies and frozen peach martinis that I put up every year. In fact the apricots were juuuuust starting the day I left. I’m hoping I didn’t lose the crop to the triple digit heat days we had while I was gone. Normally all the apricots & peaches are harvested and put up by now. I’ll be following and making believe I’m with you on that sailing instead of weeding, pruning, harvesting, preserving and sweating in the central California valley!  
 

 

Aldrich at Vines is truly one of the best.  I think I misnamed his assistant bartender in an earlier post. His assistant is Jayson. Pam and Tri in Crooners are also great!  Really a fun spot on the ship. Nino in Good Spirits is a bit quieter but is personable as well. 
All of them are overworked and underpaid. They work very hard to provide a high standard of service. I’m sure you will be well cared for. 

[LACruiser88]

@HaveDogWillTravel  The peaches sound delicious!  I'm fairly certain we know Jayson.  Have a safe drive home!

[1emerald1]

1 hour ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I wanted to do the Hawaii sailing as my b2b but the peaches are late coming in and I really love my canned peaches, frozen peach pies and frozen peach martinis that I put up every year. In fact the apricots were juuuuust starting the day I left. I’m hoping I didn’t lose the crop to the triple digit heat days we had while I was gone. Normally all the apricots & peaches are harvested and put up by now. I’ll be following and making believe I’m with you on that sailing instead of weeding, pruning, harvesting, preserving and sweating in the central California valley!  
 

 

Aldrich at Vines is truly one of the best.  I think I misnamed his assistant bartender in an earlier post. His assistant is Jayson. Pam and Tri in Crooners are also great!  Really a fun spot on the ship. Nino in Good Spirits is a bit quieter but is personable as well. 
All of them are overworked and underpaid. They work very hard to provide a high standard of service. I’m sure you will be well cared for. 

That reminds me of my first pregnancy when one of my cravings was peaches.  I live in SoCal and my husband, and I took a trip up to Tahoe and drove through the fruit trail, if that's the correct terminology. The most delicious peaches I have ever had, and I ate a ton, going up and coming back!

[that]

Whales traveling along Lompoc, Goleta, Santa Barbara

hoping for dolphin pods. 🤞🏻

[HaveDogWillTravel]

We were just on the upper decks and saw a lot of whales spouting and breaching port side. 

[cr8tiv1]

Could you identify what kind of whales they were?  Gray whales don't breach much.  Which direction were they heading?  I would be on the wrong side of the ship....always happens.

 

Sounds like a wonderful cruise.  Fireworks and whales.  Can't get much better than that!

Edited July 6, 2023 by cr8tiv1