Day 4-Island Princess

During the night we passed by Cabo San Lucas, which was to be our first stop today. Instead we will stop in Manzanillo tomorrow. We plan to get off and walk around with our friends since we could not book the only tour we wanted. It is very humid, not sure of the temperature at the moment in the morning but it is warm, not hot yet. We had a light lunch in the Horizon Café and I stood in a loooonnnggg line for the Mexican buffet on deck and got guacamole and a few other things and brought them back to the cabin where John was waiting. As the day progress it got warmer and we spent most of the afternoon in our cabin watching a movie. June I think you are wise to take this trip the opposite way from Florida as I don’t think it will be so humid at that time of year. Anyway, the movie was Capt. Phillips, even though we saw it long ago we enjoyed it since it has been a long time. Around 5 Stuart stopped by and he called Darlene and we had a glass of wine in our cabin. Always nice to visit with friends. They wondered what happen to us at as we were scheduled to go to the wine tasting this afternoon. We simply forgot and when we remembered after the movie we had missed half of it. I would say I prepared and looked nice for dinner but that was not the case. After Stuart and Darlene left we went out on our balcony and enjoyed the calm seas and slight winds. My hair and humidity do not mix well so I have the “fly away” look that no one really tries for and impossible to rectify in a few minutes! Another lovely dinner with friends. After dinner we had everyone over for a crème de menthe in our cabin…contraband we brought on board. Tomorrow Manzanillo. 

Day 3-Island Princess

What a lazy day. For some reason I had no energy today and we did almost nothing. I forced myself to walk and we had lunch in the dining room. After lunch John took the netbook down to see if they could help us post the blog, that was useless. I cut and copied the blog over to Blogger to post it but the photos don’t show. I guess that’s the best I will do on this trip. It is something about reading the IP address.  I really don’t know. We skipped our invite to some 4p event for Platinum members and just went to dinner at 7:30p. We actually got seated very close to on time tonight. Another enjoyable dinner with friends. We skipped the comedian show tonight and went back to our room, watched some TV and drifted off to sleep. It was much warmer today and humid as well.

Day 1-San Francisco-Island Princess

Steven and Saira came bright and early at our request to take us to the train. The train was on time and our trip to San Francisco was uneventful, The transfer to the bus in Emeryville was quick and easy and we arrived to the Ferry building in no time at all. There was a huge farmers market there, not sure it is there every day but the fruit and veggies looked amazing. We continued on walking to Pier 27 because there were no taxis in sight. I thought there should be a taxi stand of sorts by the ferry building but we didn’t see one, nor did we ask. The weather was lovely so we walked the short distance, just over a mile. They were allowing people onboard already, I think it was around noon. That process went quite quickly. However, when they screened luggage and you had your allowed 2 bottles of wine, you are pulled over and required to remove it from your luggage for inspection. John suspected they want to be sure it is really wine and not hard liquor. I wonder how long they will continue this and turn people off. As far as customer service it seems to me it would be better to not allow any wine at all than to make people stand in yet another line for what is “allowed” onboard. I will add that there were just two people sitting at a table trying to inspect these bottles. Of course there were people who had too many bottles so they had to fill out paper work to charge them the corkage of $15 per bottle. They remained in the same line so it was very slow moving. That was the only slow part of boarding. Once onboard we worked on the dinner reservation since George was not able to secure it this morning. This too is a process. There is a number to call and it should be simple but of course no one answers the phone. John tried the entire time I unpacked. Finally we called customer service and complained, they somehow put us through and we secured our 7:30p dinner reservation for 8 people. We went upstairs for a quick bite to eat, bought a wine package (card to be delivered ton our cabin in 1 hour) and went back to our cabin to see if John’s suitcase was there yet. It wasn’t but we did have a note to go and retrieve it as it was locked and they wanted to look in it. I put 2 bottles of tonic water in it, I guess that’s what caused the concern.  By the time we unpacked that Stuart & Darlene dropped by for a glass of wine. We chatted for a bit and then Muster for all of us who boarded in SF. Soon it is sail away time! We met by the Lido Bar not taking into consideration that the music was so loud we really couldn’t visit. We met Stuart’s brother Eric and his wife Kathe. We all ordered a drink and watched as we left the city and headed for our pass under the Golden Gate. As always it is very windy but it was not cold and we had great views.  It’s always a thrill to me. We took lots of photos and after we were well past the bridge our group dispersed and made the plan to meet at the Bordeaux Dinning Room at 7:30p. We had an invitation to join the Elite group from 5-7p daily for Cocktails and Hors d’Oeuvres daily. It is a little misleading since they only offer one cocktail at a reduced price of $5. John, Tawny, and I went to take a look, they had guacamole, which Tawny was hungry for. In addition to the guacamole they had a lovely cheese platter, olives, rolls, breadsticks, and a few other things. We tried again for the internet but it was not to be. So we went back to the cabin to freshen up and pick up our wine card. Darn, the card isn’t there so we called on it, several times. Finally we got the card moments before we had to leave for dinner. Upon arrival to the Bordeaux Dinning Room it was somewhat of a fiasco. One would think it would be organized for this cruise since they have been sailing for 3 days now from Vancouver, BC. So in order to find out what to do I got in line and John went up to the front to ask the process. Nothing is posted. We were told since we had a reservation we should go to the starboard side at our appointed time and we would be seated. One by one our companions arrived so we worked our way through the crowd standing around and finally made it to the starboard door. They didn’t seem to know what we were there for but then told us we came though the wrong door, we should have been on the port side! We shifted over to the port side once inside the door since by now it was past our reservation time. Only to be questioned again why we were here! The gentleman in charge seems to be very excitable and shouting at the waiters. I guess in order to get us out of his way were were seated. The table we were taken to had nothing on it except napkins. The waiter and assistant (Rolando and Orlando respectively) were very nice. The rushed and had our table set very quickly even if the wine glasses were warm. The dinner was nice, the service was good once we were seated. We are bushed tonight and shortly after everyone was done eating we headed back to our cabin. We turn the clocks forward one hour tonight so we are more than ready to get to sleep.

Ferry Building Farmers Market

Pier 27

Our Group

George, Sharon, John

Darlene, Eric, Kathe, Tawny, Stuart

Day 2-Island Princess

We slept in then walked the Promenade Deck for awhile. This is the only deck you can walk all they way around on without changing levels. After the walking we really didn’t have time to eat before the port talk on Manzanillo, which was ok. There is only one excursion we are interested in and it is booked so I guess we’ll just get off the ship and walk around. I worked on our blog and tried to post it to no avail. Tonight is formal night but before our dinner at 7:30p Stuart and Darlene invited us over for a glass of wine. Then there was the 7p champagne and the 7:45p welcome from the captain, which of course we missed the captain due to dinner. Again tonight we waited, even longer, until 7:50p to be seated. Our table was set and we had the same waiters but it was very slow. We did make it to the show just before it started at 9:45p. The show started out pretty well but then they had obscure music with then dancing so it didn’t end strong.

Itinerary - East Bound Full Transit Panama Canal

 

All set for cruising!!!

Island Princess Web Cam

Our friends G&T are on their way out of Vancouver, BC at this time. Can’t wait to meet up with them along with S&D on Saturday.  You can see the view from the Island Princess Web Cam if you are interested: 

Click on this for the Island Princess Web Cam

No Cabo San Lucas

Today in a round about way we discovered that our cruise will not be stopping in Cabo. This isn’t a big surprise from what we have heard about the damage incurred with the visit from Hurricane Odile. Instead we will be stopping in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. I think my friend June and I stopped there one time when we cruised. I could be wrong since I am going from memory. There aren’t any excursions up on the website yet so we’ll see how it works out.

Manzanillo

“Moveover”

We got this “Moveover” offer from Princess today. It would be a pretty tempting offer if we weren’t meeting friends onboard and so eager to depart!

Island Princess sailing 9/27/14-15 nights sailing.

IMPORTANT NOTICES

Princess is extending a special offer to guests booked on the September 27, 2014 Island Princess sailing. Move to an alternative sailing and receive: * 100% of cruise fare back (as refundable onboard credit). * Free Upgrade to a private Mini-Suite stateroom. * Air change fees covered up to $150 per person (Princess Air protected) Alternative Sailings include: * Island Princess 15-day cruise from Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale Nov 11,2014 * Star Princess 15-day Hawaii cruise roundtrip from San Francisco Nov 24,2014 * Other dates available. Please call to inquire. We look forward to hearing from you.  Please act quickly as this offer will be accepted on a first come, first-served basis. Thank you for your attention to this notification.

Scored a Balcony!!!

Thanks to Todd Elliott at Cruise Vacation Outlet we will now have a balcony for our upcoming cruise! Couldn’t be happier. Todd has always worked hard for us to get what we want and at a good price. I LOVE to have fresh air when cruising. I will go in any cabin I get mind you, but a balcony really enhances the experience for me. Our cabin will be C414, even got this midship! Leaving in 8 days!

Stateroom Number: C414   Type: Premium Balcony

Category: B1    Location: Midship
Deck: 10 (Caribe)    Bath Type: Shower
Total Size: 248 sq. ft.    Includes Balcony of 64 sq. ft.

Full Itinerary

I made the train reservations today, only $56.10 for both of us one-way on the train to the Ferry Building in San Francisco! By the time one gets to the airport early, flies, transfer to BART schlepping our luggage all the way, with final arrival at the Ferry Building, I actually think the train might be faster and definitely much more economical! 

Leave home September 27, depart by train at 6:50a arrive at Ferry Building at 11:20a. Take taxi to ship, board ship, begin enjoying things!

                         ITINERARY FOR THIS BOOKING

DATE                 DESTINATION                                   TIME

Sat 09/27/14      Depart                                                 4pm              SFO CRUISE TERMINAL PIER 27

Sun 09/28/14     At Sea

Mon 09/29/14    At Sea

Tue 09/30/14     Cabo San Lucas, Mexico               7:00am-4:00pm

Wed 10/01/14    At Sea

Thu 10/02/14     At Sea

Fri 10/03/14       At Sea

Sat 10/04/14     San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua         7:00am-6:00pm

Sun 10/05/14    Puntarenas, Costa Rica                 7:00am-7:00pm

Mon 10/06/14    At Sea

Tue 10/07/14     Panama Canal, Panama                5:00am-4:30pm

Wed 10/08/14    Cartagena, Colombia                     8:00am-2:00pm

Thu 10/09/14     Aruba                                             1:00pm-7:00pm

Fri 10/10/14       At Sea

Sat 10/11/14      At Sea

Sun 10/12/14     Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 7:00am

Flights Home: October 12, 2014 Schedule on American Airlines:  Depart MIA 2:00p-LAX 4:42 Depart LAX 8pm Home to FAT 8:55p