Sunday – Day at Sea

We wake rested and confused.  During the night Bernie went to the washroom and I could tell he was not sure where the bed was and that he did not have to crawl over the bed to get in like in our old cabin. 

Today we have some housekeeping items to do.  We call to exchange our mini bar.  We actually have a lot of stuff to drink.  A few friends from the last sailing gave us their leftovers – including wine, soda, beer and even Vodka. 

We also have two laundry bag of items to get cleaned.  Bernie needs his suit cleaned and I have some blouses that need cleaning – plus the usual stuff.  Nice to have this perk back and I am sure the laundry won’t take that long to get back as there are not that many Elites on board. 

Next we have to get our wifi cleared up.  For Bernie they see he is in transit as last sailing he was a guest of a guest entertainer but his Captain Circle number followed him (but the benefits don’t) so when he tries to log into the system today to get his wifi free minutes of 150 it is showing that his plan from last cruise has expired and has not cleared for this voyage.  For me the system clearly showed the free 150 minutes as the last voyage I was not connect to my Captain Circle Number so the system sees me as a new joiner.  A visit to the Internet Guru Lew fixes this and by the afternoon Bernie has his 150 minutes. 

People have been asking and I can confirm that when you first log in the system offers Platinum and Elite their free wifi of 150 minutes or you can purchase an unlimited plan for one device (although you an always log out of one device and use a different one) for a discounted rate of 20% off I believe.  But we turned it down as we should be able to manage with the 300 minutes for the 7 days.  Now the next cruise of 28 days it could be tough but they don’t offer an unlimited package as the Star is not ocean ready.  So blogging may slow down on that voyage. 

Next item is we never got our Ocean Medallions as we were unique as we were Guest Entertainers last sailing and this sailing we are guest.  First we went down to the Purser’s desk and asked them as we are the only two guest on board without a medallion.  The woman (who I won’t mention by name) said oh it is not a necessary as it is just a glorified key card.  Well that is technically true right now I thought but probably not a good thing for someone at the front desk to say that.  And that is where it was left – us still without our medallion.  Later we ran into one of the officers we know and they asked how we liked the Medallion and when I explained the situation they went and got us our new medallions.

Last sailing everyone had a blue medallion as they were just rolling it out.  This sailing the medallion colour reflects your loyalty level.  So we have a black one.  The first thing I wanted to do was buy a clip or even a bracelet to put the medallion in.  But the price of the bracelet is too high for my liking at $60 for the silver and $65 for the gold.  But the clip is only $8 and you buy the clip.  I bought the black one.  Not sure if they are only selling the colour that matches your loyalty or not but I bought black.  There are other colours like pink so unless that represents Ruby who knows.  Note there is no elite discount of 10% when you buy things in the photo department, where the accessories are sold.

We are also had to turn in our invite for the Most Travelled Guest Cocktail Party.  Yes it is a cocktail party which we prefer.  It is going to be held on the evening of Puerto Vallarta in Club 6.   We are the 5^th Most Travelled Guest on board this sailing. 

Also during this cruise Bernie celebrates his 750^th day on board Princess but we have been told it will be celebrated on his next sailing.  So when we board the Star it should be noted and we will get the Milestone celebrations then.

So that is all our housekeeping things done.  And mixed throughout those things were lots of different activities. 

Breakfast up in Horizon Court with everyone trying to figure out the buffet.  Remember we have just come off a 49 day voyage where the guest knew the layout and now it is mass confusion but give it a few days and it will be all good.

Then a coffee and some reading and then I joined Matt O in his line dancing in the Atrium along with a lot of other people.  Matt does such a great job and it is so much fun! 

I then went and enjoyed our friend Meghan’s balcony – she has one of those jutted out balconies under the sea walk.  She is on Dolphin deck so she is in a perfect spot.  And we had a lot of room for the two chairs and small table.  I would definitely consider this location in the future.  But it is a Deluxe balcony and I really dislike the couch because of the lack storage.  Much prefer cupboard/drawers instead of a couch. 

Turn Around Day - The Royal Princess in Los Angeles!

Officers on Board

We docked early and we are along side at the pier.  Not at the regular terminal Princess uses but the one right next door.  Sorry can’t recall the number but the one right beside the USS Iowa.  The terminal is a large enclosed structure – like something that would cover a tennis court.  

It works but it is certainly not as nice as the other pier.  Note the Royal is too big for that pier.

Disembarkation was slower than normal because this is the first stop for the Royal in the US since it left Fort Lauderdale February 2.  Heightened inspection and security was in place.  All the crew had to go through Immigration and for some they waited up to three hours to go through.  Plus they still had to do their regular job.

For us we had to change cabins.  Not a difficult procedure but we had to move all our own stuff since we moved from a crew cabin to a passenger cabin. It was easy as we used the crew elevator and up to deck 12.

Although our cabin was not ready yet, we were allowed to put our bags in the closet and left our steward to clean whenever he could (note he too had to go thru immigration). 

At 11:45 we met in Club 6 along with a handful of in transit guest.  I don’t remember the last time there were so few in transit.  In total we were around 38 – and some were guest entertainers and some workers.

We were directed off the ship into the terminal where we had to queue up for immigration.  Sadly the officer stamped our passport.  Normally they do not as we are technically NOT entering the US, we are in transit.  But they did and again another stamp on a blank page is taken up.  Oh well who am I to argue.

We then are directed outside and to the entrance and queue up all again to go thru security.  No liquids!  Then we are directed to a large waiting area where we are among a few thousand.  Of course many people are here waiting to board, even though they were directed to come late as the process would be delayed. 

In all we were off the ship for maybe an hour.  It is a pain that LA is the only port that makes all in transit go thru security again.   I prefer the process in Fort Lauderdale.