Today’s the day when we bid farewell to the Queen Mary before boarding our cruise ship, the Discovery Princess, to begin our 7-day journey along the Mexican coast. And how excited we were to start the journey!
Before we made our way, however, we spent a little more time on the Queen Mary, starting first with enjoying the ship’s breakfast at the Promenade Cafe. The breakfast was, well, fine. It was your standard buffet-style breakfast with the various morning staples served in heated, rectangular, metal trays: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and so on. I was feeling particularly dehydrated, so all the salty food was somewhat unappetizing, so I elected to eat mostly fresh fruit to help rehydrate.
Afterwards we checked out another area of the ship that featured a museum-style exhibit, The Cunard Story, a thorough history of the over 150 ocean liners built by Cunard over 175 years. In addition to reading about the company’s rich history, there were many historical artifacts on display, including a wall-sized alarm indicator panel, built solidly of wood with three large indicator panels displaying maps of the decks of the ship with small lights that would illuminate to inform the crew of alarm statuses. Also on display were various officers’ uniforms, firefighting equipment, and a separate display case about the synagogue on board, built to help welcome people of the Jewish faith who were fleeing Germany.
We also allowed ourselves one more walk along the sun deck to soak up the warm, southern Californian sun; admired the Carnival Panorama, docked nearby and viewable from the aft of the Queen Mary; enjoyed a brief conversation with a woman who reminded me of an aged Jolene Blalock, and who kindly took a photo of Matt and me in our matching Princess cruise t-shirts that Matt got us, complete with our names emblazoned on the front (it was so ridiculous, and so much fun to wear!); and a visit to the gift shop where I bought some magnets (I always buy magnets when I’m on vacation) and a Christmas ornament, and Matt a pin and a cap.
And before we knew it, we were packed and heading out to the Discovery Princess to begin our voyage. It was so, so exciting as we pulled into port, cars circling through, our home for the next seven days emerging grand and imposing from the berth, our driver weirdly not listening to us to let us off, necessitating another circle through the port, extending the anticipation to board. As we got out of our car, baggage handlers were ready to greet us, take our bags, and send us on our way. Lorraine happened to be our baggage handler, and she was super friendly and excited for us to begin our cruise. We tipped her $15, and we did seem to notice our bags were delivered quite quickly to our cabin.
After making our way through an expansive warehouse-style building and before we stepped onto the gangway to board the ship, we were invited to have our photo taken in front of a green screen, the background later to be filled with images of the ship’s interior and exterior and the Arch of Cabo, a giant rock formation at one of our ports of call. It was so much fun to pose for the camera while also enjoying an early taste of how our Princess medallions will work throughout the cruise. Worn like a watch or around your neck like a locket, the medallions seem to function similarly to an Apple tag: tracking your location; logging your payments for drinks, souvenirs, dinners, spa packages, and so on; and unlocking your cabin as you approach your door. A photo of yourself is linked to the medallion (a photo uploaded earlier on your own via the app) so that all Princess staff can identify you on their tablet as you approach them. And so that’s how the photographer was able to upload our photos with such ease to our Princess app. Such a slick operation!
Once we got aboard, Matt and I wanted to begin our celebrations without delay, so we wasted no time heading to the Lido deck on deck 16, a deck where you can enjoy easy access to three different pool areas and several options for bars and quick bites to eat. We first stopped at the bar by the Sky Pool, the largest of the three pool areas, this one complete with two pools of considerable size spanning an impressive length (but not necessarily a remarkable depth), open to the exhilarating sea air, hot tubs standing prepared, enthusiastically bubbling on a mezzanine deck above, the whole deck abuzz with smiling, excited travelers at the start of a really memorable trip. I had a classic mojito to start and Matt ordered a drink soon to become his favorite: a dirty banana (a kind of banana milkshake with rum).
Noting that this section of the deck was perhaps a bit too busy for us, we headed all the way aft to the Wake View bar, where the ship was much less busy, and where the second of the three pool areas was, this pool situated immediately at the very end of the ship. One of my reservations about going on a cruise was finding quieter spaces away from people, but my fears were alleviated when we discovered this part of this ship. While at the Wake View bar, Matt and I first enjoyed some glasses of champagne, and then for our third round I had a piña colada and Matt tried a surprisingly tasty mocktail called strawberries on fire, a Rob Floyd signature recipe, a refreshingly exhilarating drink, enlivened with tiny slices of jalapeños to pack just enough of a wallop.
We continued exploring more of the ship, an infectious energy of elated travelers invigorating the atmosphere of the ship with a celebration of laughter and glee, encountering Mich along the way, who worked at the ship’s spa. She persuaded us to sign up for a package valued at $200 per person, so we could enjoy the Enclave in the spa as much as we wanted while we were on our cruise. I’ll write more about the Enclave in the next post, but, in short, I highly recommend splurging on this purchase. Also during these explorations, we discovered the Retreat Pool on deck 17, larger than the Wake View pool but smaller than the Sky Pool, and reserved only for adults. Because this was another quieter part of the ship, we found ourselves revisiting this area more than once.
Embarkation time was soon upon us, so we headed aft again so we could wave goodbye to land. While there weren’t crowds and crowds of people seeing us off as you might have expected one hundred years ago, it was still such a delight to see the ship slowly move away from land and make its way to the open sea. Once we were firmly at sea, we spent a little bit of time on our cabin’s balcony, and what a treat it was to have a balcony! We initially reserved an internal cabin with no access to windows, and I was a little worried that I would feel a little claustrophobic. So, we decided to bid on an upgrade—a feature Princess allows—and our bid won, so we were upgraded to a cabin with an obstructed balcony: essentially, there was a lifeboat directly parallel to our balcony, preventing us from looking all the way down the sea below, but which still provided us with gorgeous vistas of the expansive sea.
As part of the spa package we bought, we were automatically entered into a raffle, so we headed to the Princess Live Theatre on deck 5 to see if we won anything. While we left empty handed, it was here where we met Mike and Sonny, another gay couple, who we fast became friends with. I wanted to add their phone numbers to my phone upon our first encounter, but it would take until tomorrow for us to make that overture.
The palpable excitement on the ship continued unabated as we explored the ship a little more, zigzagging through the casino—slot machines lighting up with gaudy aplomb, a cacophony of garish arpeggiations inducing earaches, the choking smoke of cancer victims puffing sickly from leathery faces staring, dead, into a vortex of misfortune—and onwards past the piazza—a giant, open area similar to a rotunda adorned with four, wide spiral staircases at each corner, glimmering gold, three open decks of glitzy glam and glimmering lights, enlivened by live jazz, a flute leading with pizazz—until it was time to get ready for our first meal onboard the ship!
We elected to use one of our two specialty meals (as a part of the package we bought) on our first night at sea, choosing the Crown Grill for some surf and turf. We had a whole five course meal, starting with a bread course (a kind of round loaf, quartered, and almost imperceptibly cheesy); a salad (I didn’t take very good notes and have no memory of this); scallops, caviar, herb beurre blanc (I remember eating this but seem to remember it being unremarkable); and lobster tails for us both, a porterhouse for me, and a filet mignon for Matt (could’ve been hotter and more flavorful).
As we were feeling underwhelmed by our meal, we overheard a couple next to us similarly feeling unimpressed, escalating their displeasure by raising protestations with the manager about the service and the food, waiting 35 minutes, apparently, for their meals to arrive cold. Matt and I both agreed: while the ambiance of the Crown Grill was elegant and romantic, our servers smartly dressed and knowledgeable (although the choruses of waiters breaking out to sing “Happy Birthday” a few times to tables of victims during our meal as if in some kind of Chuck E. Cheese diminished the reputation a bit), the actual food left much to be desired. We left hoping this wasn’t a portent of things to come. (We did get dessert, a creme brulee cheesecake for Matt and a chocolate mousse trifle for me, but I barely remember this.)
And with a full day behind us, we retired back to our cabin for the evening, eagerly looking forward to a fantastic time on this ridiculous ship, despite the miss on dinner for the evening, looking forward to special, special moments to come!
Stray tips:
- If you’re cruising with Princess, make sure to print off baggage handling labels they provide via the Princess app, and staple them to your bags the morning you head to the ship.
- Also make sure to check your Princess app several days in advance of your departure to make sure you uploaded all the various required documents to streamline the process as you board the ship.
- Also also make sure to put on your Princess medallion before you even arrive at the port, so you’re ready for an expedient boarding process.
- We opted to purchase the Princess premiere package, which included so much: two speciality meals; up to 15 free drinks per day; free wi-fi; photo package; free casual dining; and so much more. You can read about the packages on their website, and I highly recommend the splurge.
- You also need to check in at your muster station (you’ll find instructions for this in your cabin) and also watch a safety video, which you can complete and log on your cabin’s television. Do this as soon as you can so it’s done and you don’t have to worry about it. (We completed ours after exploring deck 16.) Note that the ship won’t leave port until everyone completes these two steps.
- Generally avoid the elevators if you can, especially during peak meal times. Matt and I elected to use the stairs almost exclusively, even if it meant climbing several decks. We joked that the exercise helped prepare us for our zipline excursion later in our trip.
- I’ll have a whole, er, boatload of unpacking tips next post.