The Held Family Princess Mexican Riviera Cruise - April 2004

Princess Cruises- Diamond Princess

April 24- May 1, 2004

Cast: Mark-60, Annie-59, Joe-45, Darren -34, Keith-31, Jeremy-30, Rachael-30, Jane -30

This was a family cruise we took with our adult children and their spouses and friends. Mark and Annie have been on 9 previous cruises on Princess, Windstar, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian Caribbean lines.

EMBARKATION: We all met up on the ship on embarkation day. Mark and Annie stayed at the Marina Hotel in San Pedro the night before the cruise. The hotel was quite adequate and had a free shuttle to the cruise ship approximately 10 minutes away. We booked the hotel independently but many people on the cruise stayed there. The room was $125/night and included breakfast. There was a very nice restaurant at the hotel and a few others not far away. Internet access was available on the room TV for a $10 charge for unlimited usage.

At the embarkation terminal in San Pedro, porters quickly took your luggage to the ship. Check in was scheduled for 12 noon. Our party of 8 arrived about 11:30 am and waited in an air-conditioned comfortable waiting area with sofas and chairs to sit on. Check in started shortly before noon, with little or no waiting in line. My understanding was that people who arrived later had brief waits in line before boarding. TIP: All of us pre-registered online and that sped up the check in process a lot. It took less than 5 minutes per couple to check in.

THE SHIP:

The ship was quite similar in layout to the Grand Princess and the Golden Princess, which we had previously traveled aboard. The differences were minor and included more restaurants, larger internet rooms, a miniature gold course and Club Fusion (an all-purpose room at the back of the ship). Like the other large Princess ships, there were many bars, the Princess theater for shows, 5 specialty restaurants, the main dining room, Skywalkers (the disco that stayed open until 4:00am!), a large gym and spa, jogging track, Club Fusion (a night club), and many swimming pools and Jacuzzi spas. The ship was easy to get around after a day or so of orienting. There were laundromats on every deck. This ship also had a cyber golf center, basketball and volleyball courts and a conservatory. The ship holds approximately 3,000 passengers, but because the ship is so large you rarely feel crowoded.

OUR ROOMS:

Annie and Mark had an outside balcony room and the other three couples had inside cabins directly across the hall. That made it easy to coordinate activities. All the room were adequate in size, but I would recommend an outside balcony room to see the arrival and departures of the ports and the feeling of more space and light. We were all on Caribe deck, which was right in the middle of the ship. This made it easy to get everywhere and also minimized the amount of motion from the ship. The others had inside cabins of similar size but had no windows, which made a few of them feel a bit closed in. TIP: Go for an outside cabin and a balcony if you can afford the higher rate. Mid-ship rooms have the least motion.

DINING:

On the Diamond Princess you have many dining options. One can choose traditional dining in the International Dining Room. Early seating is 6:00pm and late seating at 8:30pm. One can also make reservations for any of the 5 specialty dining rooms (Pacific Moon, Sante Fe, Sterling, Vivaldi or Sabatini's) by calling from your room and booking a reservation for the time of your choice depending on availability. Each of the specialty restaurants specializes in a different kind of food. The main dining room, however, includes items from the specialty restaurants as well, so you never need to leave the main dining room to sample everything. TIP: Make your reservations for the specialty dining rooms when you first get on the ship. You'll have more time choices and availability.

Dining is also always available at the Horizon Court (a huge buffet) and also room service is available. During the day there is an all day Pizza bar and an all day Hamburger/ Hot Dog bar by the pools.

On the Lido deck is also an ice cream shop called Sundaes, but you'll have to pay extra for ice cream there.

TIP: Skip the ice cream. There is plenty of FREE food and desserts!

We chose traditional dining with the late seating in the main dining room. The food was great and it included the items from the various specialty restaurants on different nights. One night featured Italian food, another Asian, another Mexican etc. in addition to the usual menu items. Each night there was a choice of at least 5 entrees along with choices of appetizers, soups, salads, desserts, etc. We had a round table for eight that made conversation very easy.

We ate breakfast each morning at the Horizon Court and lunches on the ship were often from the Pizza or Hamburger bars or the Horizon Court. The food at breakfast and lunch wasn't as good as the dinners, but still quite adequate. Each afternoon at sea , we also went for "tea" which included small sandwiches, pastries and tea or coffee.

LOTUS SPA:

The Lotus Spa is like many land-based spas. They offer everything from massages to pedicures to haircuts to body wraps. These items are pricey, but a great way to pamper yourself. We all got massages and the women got manicures and pedicures. It's a very nice, elegant facility with attentive personnel. All kinds of beauty salon procedures are available. However, beware they will try to sell you cosmetic products. TIP: Enjoy the massages, but give a polite "no" to the sales pitch for products. They are WAY overpriced and of marginal effectiveness.

GYMNASIUM:

The gym is quite large and rarely crowded (everyone is eating!). There are many treadmills, stairmasters, and other aerobic machines. There are televisions in front of each treadmill and throughout the gym. There is also a wide range of free weights and weight machines. There is a group exercise room with scheduled classes for aerobics, step, yoga, body bump etc. Personal trainers are also available. In addition to the gym, there is a jogging track around the ship and also basketball hoops, paddle tennis and volleyball. TIP: Check the schedule for the times of the exercise classes. They are usually in the mornings on the "at sea" days.

PORTS AND EXCURSIONS:

Our ports were Puerto Vallarata, Mazatlan and Cabo san Lucas. There were many many, many excursions available in all three ports. Again, we found it beneficial to pre-book our excursions from the Princess web site. Excursions can be booked onboard as well; however, some of the more popular ones, like swimming with the dolphins may be filled by that time. Our group was quite adventurous and signed up for the more physically challenging excursions. In Puerto Vallarta, half the group did a Jungle Canopy excursion, which involved traversing by cables to various platforms above the jungle. It was very safe but requires being in good shape and having a taste for adventure. The other half of our group did a five mile hike in the mountains outside of the city. The hike was quite challenging and mostly uphill. It ended with wading across a stream before ending with lunch. In Mazatlan, we all went to a working ranch about an hour outside of the city and did horse back riding, swimming, and lunch. It was very relaxing, beautiful and a nice break from the usual tourist stuff in Mazatlan. In Cabo san Lucas, some of us went deep sea fishing and caught some large tuna! The rest went shopping. The deep sea fishing trip leaves early in the morning and last about half a day. Although our excursions were quite active, there are many that just involve a bus tour, shopping or visiting historic sights. TIP: Book your excursions online early to be sure to get the ones you want.

ENTERTAINMENT:

The entertainment was typical cruise fare based on our earlier cruises. The big musical shows were every night in the Princess Theater. There was typically an early show about 8:00pm and a late show about 10:30pm. The shows were musicals with lots of singing and dancing and very entertaining. Club Fusion at the back of the ship hosted late comics, a "Princess Idol" competition (my son competed but lost), a 50's/60's night and various individual singers. The bars and lounges all had bands of various sorts every night and plenty of dancing or just easy listening. The disco, called Skywalkers, played rock music from about 11:00pm until 4:00am every night. It's mostly a younger crowd, very loud and lots of dancing. We thought the nicest lounge was the Wheelhouse Bar and we met there for cocktails every evening before dinner. Easy listening music and a great atmosphere. TIP: If you want to get the best seats for the big shows you need to finish dinner early enough to get to the Princess Theater at least 20 minutes before show time.

DISEMBARKATION:

Disembarkation went very smoothly. People with earlier flights were disembarked first ( approximately 8:00am) in order to make flights back home. Everyone was off the ship by 10:00am. A shuttle bus to LAX was available for $25 per person. There were also plenty of cabs available. A cab ride to LAX was about $45.

OTHER:

The ship has a large casino, but we didn't frequent it very much. It does get very crowded late at night after the shows have ended. There was lots of internet access available in the two internet cafes (a large internet room and also in the library). There was never a wait to use a computer. High speed internet access was 35 cents per minute. There were approximately 40 computers available on board. If you bring your own computer, wireless internet was available in the main atrium area. The ship also has a wedding chapel and several couples got married onboard. There is also a cigar bar (Churchill's), a writing room, a future cruises desk, cyber golf and a large photo gallery. There were also frequent art auctions, bingo games, and cooking demonstrations. TIP: Check out the entire ship when you first get onboard so you don't miss out on all that is available. There is so much to do! It's also essential to read the Princess Patter every day to not miss anything.

SUMMARY:

We had an overall wonderful experience. Princess is currently our favorite cruise line. The ship, the food and the entertainment were all very satisfactory and typical of what we've had on other Princess cruises. Most things went very smoothly. The ports were nothing special and all very similar but some interesting excursions are available. We would recommend this cruise to couples and families of all ages. We plan to take Princess to Alaska next year. Bon Voyage! Rating: **** 4 stars out of 5.