Our Mexican Riviera
Sapphire Princess Cruise December 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Jerry was awake and stirring around at 5am this morning. We saw one of the cruise ships coming into port about 6am but we were not sure if it was the Sapphire Princess or the Norwegian Star.
We went down and had the breakfast buffet in the restaurant and then walked to the convenience store we had seen last night which was about a block away. We picked up some bottled juice, Mt. Dew and Pepsi before heading back to the hotel to finish packing.
We headed downstairs at 10am to get in line for the shuttle to the port. It is less than five minutes away. They start the shuttle to the port at 10:30am.
Once we were dropped off at the port we were soon on our way to check in. It didn't take any time before we had our cruise card and then were instructed to wait in the lounge. We have a suite on the cruise so we waited in the "Preferred Lounge."
By 11:30am we were walking on the ship and on our way to our cabin. We are in the Tahiti Suite which is aft. We have a really nice size cabin with a nice size balcony. We are going to enjoy this immensely!
Our suite has a jacuzzi bathtub, separate shower stall, wet bar along with the usual. We won't be tripping over each other at all in here.
We met our cabin steward, Jay shortly after we got to our cabin. Jerry told him about our party planned for tomorrow afternoon. He told us to call Room Service today to order the canapes we planned to order for the party now.
Daniela in Room Service said they could not deliver the canapes and wine glasses to our cabin at the time we requested which was at 1:30pm. She said the soonest would be 3pm. I told her the paper states they need six hour notice to get these delievered and I was giving a 24 hour notice. She put me on hold and spoke with her supervisor. When she returned she let me know that they could have them here at 2pm and that was the best they could do. I asked for the wine glasses to be delivered at 1:30pm then so at least we would have those here and in their places before guests started to arrive.
When Jay heard about our ordeal with Room Service he said he would speak to the supervisor.
We went to get some lunch and then explored a little bit of the ship before heading back to our cabin.
Here's some of the ship pictures.
Budd and Carolee joined us on our balcony for the sailaway.
Here's some sailaway pictures.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Jerry and I slept well last night. It was in the 60's all night so it was nice but we didn't sail with our balcony door open as we usually do.
We went for breakfast at Sabatini's. As a suite passenger one of our perks is we can enjoy a wonderful breakfast there. The menu is different from that in the regular dining room.
Today we have the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet in our cabin. We ordered a couple of different canapes and a cheese tray to go along with one of our plates of chocolate covered strawberries and wine glasses.
We went for the Pub Lunch and enjoyed fish and chips and bangors and mash today. Jerry had the fish and I had the bangors which consisted of English sausage and mashed potatoes with onion gravy. It was all very good. Jerry enjoyed a Guinness with his fish and chips.
We had started watching a DVD that we had borrowed before lunch and then finished it up before getting ready for the party. As a suite passenger we have access to a DVD library. We mark our choices and leave in the evening for our cabin steward to pick up and he brings the DVD to us the next morning.
Jerry and I put together the name tags that I had printed for the party before we left home. We had a great turnout. Most everyone brought something or other, wine, water, something to eat. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We ended up with 20 people in our suite. They migrated back and forth from the cabin to the balcony. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
Here are some pictures from the Cruise Critic party.
After the party we relaxed a while and then started getting ready as this was one of our formal nights. We got dressed then headed to get our pictures taken before getting in line for dinner. Our tablemates, Kenley and Lisa were in line in front of us.
We had a nice dinner of beef medallions and perch. The staff came over and sang to Kenley and Lisa as it is their honeymoon.
It has been a long day so we are relaxing in our room tonight, no champagne waterfall for us tonight.
Monday, December 28, 2009
We lollygagged around this morning before heading down for breakfast at Sabatini's. I had forgotten we were to change our clocks up an hour so we were headed to breakfast at 9:45am which is very late for us.
As they were seating us at Sabatini's we noticed the people sitting next to us were from the Cruise Critic and they happen to be in the suite opposite ours on the same deck.
While we were away Jay, our cabin steward got in and cleaned our cabin so we're all set for the day. I gathered up laundry and set it out for Jay before we went down for breakfast. Laundry service is free as a suite passenger.
This is another day at sea and we will have a nice relaxing day. Jerry was pretty worn out last night with the busy days we have had so we think this will be good for him.
I'm enjoying the balcony as we sail. There isn't wind here since we are at the aft of the ship. It is 72 degrees on the balcony at noon.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Friday, January 1, 2010
Jerry woke up in the night not feeling well at all. This went on throughout the night and morning. I talked to Jay and with the symptoms Jerry had he had to call to have our cabin disinfected. Jerry wasn't allowed out of the cabin. He couldn't leave at this point anyway.
The guys came to disinfect the cabin and then left.
The nurse called and spoke with Jerry. She ended up coming to our cabin to check him out. She took his vitals and called the dr as he did have a slight fever. The dr felt she didn't need to see him. The nurse left some electrolyte packets and told Jerry to drink fluids. We were afraid he would get dehydrated.
Jerry couldn't keep the electorlyte's down so we gave it awhile longer. I ordered broth, crackers and jello from room service. He was able to keep down the jello and crackers but didn't try the broth.
The pursor's desk called to let me know that we were to be in Crooner's at 7:20am to be escorted off the ship. Since Jerry is sick they want to keep him away from the other passengers as much as possible. And we were not supposed to put our bags outside the door to be picked up as usual but to hold them in our cabin and take down with us to Crooner's.
About 30 minutes later the pursor's desk called back to tell me someone would come to our cabin at 7am to get us and our baggage and escort us off the ship.
He did start to feel better in the afternoon and when I ordered dinner in he was able to eat a little.
It did take us a very long time to get our dinner from room service. They told me when I ordered it would be 25-35 minutes. After 45 minutes I called, they told me it was out to be delivered. I called again after waiting another 20 minutes and asked for the manager. He tried to find out what was going on but finally said he would personally deliver it to us. I was not a happy camper needless to say!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
We were up early this morning, 5:30am to be ready for our 7am escort. But they came early. The guy was there at 6:20am to take us. We ended up waiting in Crooners until the ship was cleared.
Jerry and I ended up having to maneuver our own bags off the ship, through Immigration and then through Customs. We were the first off the ship.
I had sent an email last night to the company that was to pick us up at the pier and take us to John Wayne Airport. They were to pick us up at 9:30am but I asked that they come at 8am. I could have had them pick us up at 7:30am as we were off the ship before then.
We had a long wait at the airport but luckily Jerry was feeling a lot better today. Our flight isn't till 2:20pm. We could have flown back home on standby but there was no guarantee plus we had used our miles for first class seats and there were no first class seats on the other planes so we decided it was best to wait.