After much debating, which goes along with just about every trip in my house, we decided to go on Princess Cruises' Crown Princess over New Year's week, sailing her 7 night Mexican Rivera itinerary out of Los Angeles. The ports we would be visiting were Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán & Cabo San Lucas, along with three sea days.
This is not my first time on Princess, I have been sailing with them since 1980 and as a whole they did not disappoint me again. Even though it was a holiday sailing and the ship was at capacity the Crown Princess handled the crowds well. But if you are not used to sailing during busy holiday times, and dealing with a full ship with plenty of children it could be a shock to your system.
Embarkation: Princess Cruises is now doing "progressive check in" based on what deck your cabin is located. So no need to show up really early unless you like to sit and wait. Relatively smooth considering we were probably sailing with every extra berth filled. One of the "Princess Pluses" is when you get on the ship your stateroom is ready and you can drop off your carry on instead of lugging it around with you.
Staterooms: We had a balcony and an interior across the hall for the kids on the Caribe Deck(Deck 10) aft. Our stateroom steward, Jobert did a fine job, even dealing with a cabin of teenage boys that wanted to sleep in! Princess stateroom's are functional with enough storage space. Big thumbs up for the queen size pillows.
Food: Well this is a subjective subject, so take this for what it is worth and we only went to the main dining room for dinner. I enjoy Princess's dining room food, and was happy with what I ordered, usually taking our waiter's suggestions. Had traditional dining at 6 and Alberto & Noel took great care of us, poor Noel was kept busy keeping sodas coming for my sons and the 2 boys at the next table. We are fairly simple breakfast eaters, so the buffet worked well for us and lunch usually meant grabbing some of the best pizza at sea and a salad. The International Café in the Piazza is open 24 hours and has breakfast & light lunch/dinner items along with sweet treats.
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| Piazza |
Entertainment: Princess gets some of the funniest family friendly comedians I have ever heard. Princess sticks with traditional production shows, the Motown tribute really showcased the talented singers. The solo shows, featuring a tribute to Billy Joel and a magician were worth going to see. The 2nd show of the evening is the best to go to as it isn't as crowded. New Years' Eve there were two main party areas, pool deck and the Piazza. We went to the pool deck party and the best thing was no one had to worry about driving home after midnight.
Ports & Excursions: Princess excursions were excellent. The snorkel trip to the Marieta Island, off Puerto Vallarta gave us bonus whale watching, excellent snorkeling, blue footed booby sightings and a chance to swim to the hidden beach
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| swimming to the hidden beach |
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| El Arco de Cabo San Lucas |
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| Church of San Jose, Copala |
Disembarkation: Since I made arrangements for a private transfer and we only had 3 bags, we signed up for express walk off. This is where you take your own bags off the ship and are the first ones off. I made this decision for several reasons, I like getting off asap, we can handle our own luggage and being a holiday cruise the airport would likely be crowded. Well, the express walk off, due to the number of locals on the ship was way more than was expected and with only 4 U.S. Customs officials working the line did get backed up. There are a few things that I noticed that Princess could have done to ease the congestion, but with a full ship and not enough Customs workers people would have still had to wait.
In conclusion, it was a successful New Year's trip, no problems with flights, weather was good in Mexico, and everyone had fun.
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