Our cruise started with two full days at sea. Temperatures were a bit cool but the promise of warm weather was within grasp. The days were spent getting to know the ship, catching sunrises, searching for the best spots to get good drinks, and enjoying good food. Here is the sunrise from the first morning.
We stayed in room B749 on the Baja (11th) deck. It is considered a Premium Balcony room. What is really special about the room is that it is an aft facing room and the corner one on the Starboard side so the balcony is bigger and you can kind of peak around the side (although not completely because there is a fire/service stairwell between this room and the side of the ship). Here is a video of the room.
Ships are not yet sailing at full capacity especially this cruise being on the downward trend from the height of the Omicron COVID peak, so the ship was a little quieter than it might normally be. The Captain reported that we had 1,634 passengers on board (about 50 more passengers than the cruise before) with approximately 1,050 crew. Double occupancy for this ship is 3,080 with a normal crew of about 1,200. Here are a few photos from around the ship.
Skywalker's (a lounge on one of the top decks)
The back pool
The buffet
Movies Under the Stars - Everyone was focused on the Super Bowl pre-game show
Seating between the two middle pools
Salty Dog Grill
The Piazza (a three level atrium)
Crooner's Bar
The Promenade
lifeboats
Good Spirits at Sea Bar and the International Cafe
The International Cafe
Vines (wine bar)
Our first at sea day came the last of our COVID tests. All Princess cruises, regardless of length require the COVID test within 2 days prior to embarkation, along with requiring vaccination (with very few exceptions) and requiring masks to be worn while indoors except while eating and drinking. For cruises that were 15 days or longer (such as this one), we also had the COVID test at the port on embarkation day and a third COVID test 2-3 days in. To discourage larger gatherings until after everyone had been tested three times, they did not allow people to sit up at the bars those first three days. You could sit at a table in a bar or lounge. They just didn't want the large group that might gather around the bar so close to the staff.
On Valentine's Day (the second at sea day), the moon turned red just before it dropped below the horizon before the sun rose.
We then went up on a higher deck to get a better look at the sunrise (and ran into my parents walking the jogging track).
A buffet breakfast (with a latte from Coffee & Cones) out on the pool deck where we could continue to watch the sun rise
Throughout the day, there were sightings of dolphins and whales. I caught what I believe is a group of whales not too far off the back of the ship in the morning. By the time I got my camera out, there were further away.
Valentine's Day was our first formal night. I always really enjoy dressing up on cruises and had purchased some new dresses. Unfortunately, the dress I wore this night was almost identical (just different neck line) to the dress worn by a woman at a table next to us at dinner. How embarrassing!! ;)
I woke up to another moon setting. Again it turned red just before it touched the horizon and this morning a small cloud hovered around the horizon and so the moon disappeared a bit quicker than I was expecting.
Then as the sun was arriving we entered the bay where Puerto Vallarta is located. So many Magnificent Frigatebirds followed us in as our wake must have been churning up fish. They flew so close to our balcony that I was able to see them quite up close. The females have a white chest. The males are all dark except for a red pouch on their chest that often isn't visible when they are flying unless they come close enough. I noticed quite a few also had a fully white head which I learned is how they look as juveniles.
There were also quite a few pelicans, sea gulls, and other shore birds hanging out in the harbor.
Brown Pelican
Pilot Boat following the ship in (with a Brown Pelican)
Snowy Egret
Juvenile Brown Pelican (largest), Royal Tern (orange beak in the middle front), Laughing Gulls
Juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird
Royal Tern
The Pilot Boat also played a role in handling the lines, something I had never seen the Pilot boat get involved with.
Female Magnificent Frigatebird
Brown Pelican
The Carnival Panorama then pulled into port after our ship was secure.
Two male Magnificent Frigatebirds fishing
Brown Pelicans
Female Frigatebird
Male Frigatebird
The Pilot Boat coming in ahead of the Carnival Panorama
A juvenile (left), female (middle) and male (right) Magnificent Frigatebird
We were scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. excursion and wanted to have some time to wander a bit beforehand and pick up a couple things we needed at the Walmart across from the pier.
Emerald Princes
A Kingbird we saw as we were waiting for our excursion to start
Our excursion took us for a short walk through the city, then to lunch at an open air restaurant where we had authentic Mexican tacos, then we went to Teatro Vallarta to see the Mayahuel Show and taste Tequila.
First lighthouse of Puerto Vallarta
La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora Guadalupe
Mayahuel Show - Aerials, acrobatics, fire, dance - it was quite the show!
Tequila tasting (to cleanse the pallet between drinks, they had us smell lemon peel, cinnamon stick, and coffee beans plus take a bite of cracker and a drink of water)
The four Tequila's we tasted. The right two are by far the best.
18 year old Tequila - I've never tasted one this good.
Sail away from Puerto Vallarta was really cool to watch from our aft balcony as the ship had to back up before it could pull out and the harbor is very tight so we got very close to the Carnival Panorama.
