Thursday, November 21, 2024

Mexican Riviera Cruise -Reflections

Overall, we enjoyed this cruise, especially when I compared it to the one I took on Princess over 20 years ago. Back then, I heard about the amazing food and entertainment, and was disappointed in both. 

We still found the entertainment lacking, but had fun in a couple of trivia games. There were a couple of things that were not to our taste that we walked out of. That said, ship entertainment isn't really a priority for us, so it didn't impact our overall enjoyment.

This time, I also went with realistic expectations - that the food would be similar to hotel conferences or wedding banquet food. With this perspective, Princess usually met or exceeded my expectations. 
Vegetable tarts in Phyllo 
Steve with Beef Wellington and roasted duck (the duck was dry)
Delicious channa masala 
Watermelon feta salad

In general, the desserts were beautiful but lackluster. 
Loveboat dream

Coconut mousse (the best part was the coconut cookie it is sitting on).

We splurged for the Plus package and felt we got enough value where we didn't feel the need to over indulge to get our money's worth, although we indulged more than we would have without the package. It was nice to have the WiFi and crew gratuities included.

The package included 2 "casual dining" meals
Pizza and a veal pasta at Alfredo's (ok but nothing special)
Sushi lunch (it was delicious but everyone got identical meals and you couldn't customize)

We could also each get 2 giant sundaes every day (we shared 2 total across the entire cruise)
The package also included up to 15 alcoholic drinks (up to $15 each) per day. We averaged 3 each on port days and 4-6 on sea days.
watermelon margarita 
coconut mojito
Tokyo tea

Plus, it also included unlimited specialty coffees (we had several per day), bottles of flat and sparkling water, cans of soda, energy drinks, etc.

I also splurged on the Enclave thermal suite, which I really enjoyed. I would buy it again, provided there is a thermal pool, put probably only for me, since Steve didn't enjoy it as much. 

We also really enjoyed having a balcony (the Majestic doesn't have oceanview rooms), especially to watch sunrises and sunsets. Whether we get balconies in the future will depend on the price.
For this cruise, we enjoyed the balance between port and sea days (no more than 2 sea days in a row), and the chance to relax between port days.

While we went on two excursions/ tours in Cabo, we didn't purchase any of the ship's excursions.

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