I don’t know about you, but a major motivation for us to get the vaccine was the insatiable need to start traveling again! As I mentioned in a previous post, we booked our first cruise the day we got our first dose of the vaccine! Unfortunately for us, that cruise was cancelled. But that wasn’t going to stop us. In fact, we ended up booking a cruise out of California…and were THRILLED that our son, Alex, was going to travel with us!

We booked a 7-day cruise with Princess Cruises on board the Majestic Princess from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riveria.

We sailed from this port when we took our Panama Canal Cruise, so we knew that the port was not technically in Los Angeles. The port is actually San Pedro, which is near Long Beach. If you have ever been to Los Angeles, you know that traffic can be a nightmare. Knowing all of this was helpful because we chose to fly into John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. It is a smaller airport and easier to navigate to the area from this location.

Since we travel from Alaska, we always have to factor in a few days cushion into our travel plans. You never know if the little planes will fly due to inclement weather…or sometimes, the ferries break down. When we booked our trip initially, we needed to have our Covid tests within 3 days of our cruise embarkation. We scheduled our tests to be administered in Skagway right before we were scheduled to leave town.

And then…we received the email saying that tests were now being required two days before embarkation. This was going to be tricky. We were scheduled to fly into Seattle for the day. So, we cancelled our tests in Skagway and made appointments in Seattle. But now, this meant we needed to rent a car too…because the testing site was not near the airport (or the areas we were going to visit via public transport). No problem…if it means we can travel…we will make it work.

I know some people don’t want to deal with the “hassle”, but honestly despite my big travel mistake that caused a delay in our travel…it was all a really easy process. Our REWARD for getting tested: we got to enjoy a week on a cruise ship!

We arrived in Long Beach the night before we left on the cruise. We did not want to chance missing our ship! I highly recommend doing this! We stayed at the Long Beach Renaissance Hotel. It was a centrally located to shopping, dining, and entertainment…and even better, it is only a 6 mile trip to the cruise terminal. Extra bonus…just minutes away was this beautiful view of the Queen Mary!

Across the street from the hotel, there were several food trucks set up in the evening. We decided to stop to get some drinks from one of the trucks. This is when we discovered Inglorious Funnels; an entire truck featuring decadent funnel cakes. How in the world could we just buy a drink? After much contemplation, we chose the one featuring Nutella (OF COURSE)! We were happy to stumble upon this truck. It was a delicious treat that we didn’t even know we wanted!

The next morning, we headed for the port. Since we sailed on the Caribbean Princess before the world shut down, we knew what to expect with the Medallion App. However, it would not allow me to upload our health documents on the app before we arrived. It was no big deal though; we were able to show our documents when we arrived.

With the exception of the chaos of the porters taking bags, the check in was relatively smooth. The system froze up during the check in process. However, we were assisted quickly and efficiently. We were on board in no time!

First stop - we grabbed a vacation drink before we explored the ship.

The Majestic Princess is a beautiful ship…and I am sure that even after spending a week on board, there were probably areas we never even discovered! Here are some of areas we enjoyed!

We also made sure to enjoy plenty of desserts while on board! I know the Baked Alaska is a highly debated dessert…but I just LOVE it! It is part of the cruising tradition AND it tastes yummy!

Is there anyone else who can’t ever decide which dessert to chose, so you get two? We each ordered our primary choice…and then I would order a second for us to all share…and try! Why not, right?

And let’s not forget the soft serve ice cream station. A great mid day snack…before dinner snack…or anytime snack. Yes, please! Alex and I always go for the cone…but George is a bowl kind of guy. Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments!

It would be a shame if I didn’t mention one of our favorite places on board the ship - Alfredo’s Pizzeria!!!! We enjoyed many late night meals here…and Alex may have ordered some to the room too! By far, THE best pizza on any cruise ship!

Cruise ships sunsets are always a special treat!

We were also super lucky to be upgraded to a balcony room after our first night. The picture on the left is our room when we boarded. The picture on the right is our room after our first night. We are so thankful to be treated so well on Princess. The staff is always top notch!

Before traveling, we wondered if the post-pandemic changes would be really noticeable onboard. What we experienced is that it was very easy to adapt to new protocols; it did not affect the quality of our vacation at all!

Here are a few takeaways from our first cruise on board the Majestic Princess following the restart of cruising.

Masks

Coming from a town that is very conscientious about wearing masks everywhere, we really did not think life on board would be much different than our everyday life at home. We expected to wear masks when we were in close proximity to other people on board. People did wear masks when necessary. On board, it is expected that you will wear masks while you are inside at shows, activities, and common spaces like hallways and elevators. In some areas where social distancing was possible, this seemed to be a little more relaxed.

Masks were not required in outdoor spaces.

***I can imagine that if you live in an area where mask wearing is not as common place, it might be more difficult to deal with this part of life on board. ***

Passenger Capacity

Our sailing was at 52% capacity. It was actually really nice to have less people on board. I have never really had a desire to go on the Mega ships because the thought of all those people on board is overwhelming to a girl who now lives in a small town!

There was plenty of space at trivia. Getting dinner reservations last minute was never a problem. Finding a seat at the shows was never a challenge. I know it is not ideal for Princess to make money, but it was not something I would ever complain about!

Buffets

Because of the lower capacity, they did not have both sides of the buffet open because it was not necessary. They were able to serve all the food in one section of the World Fresh Marketplace. The buffet had all of the items you would come to expect on a cruise.

There were some items that were offered as grab and go items, such as smoothies, plated desserts, and cheese plates. The main difference is that most items were served to you by the culinary staff. Again, this is not something that I thought was a bad change. You can still get as much as you want, but there are not thousands of people spreading germs via the utensils.

Entertainment

There seemed to be plenty of space in all of the venues that were hosting activities. Personally, we did not go to many shows in the theater on this particular cruise. However, the shows that we did attend had plenty of seats available.

We did notice that trivia had a lot less participants than all of our previous cruises. This should have meant better odds for us…but we still only won one time!

Zumba was scheduled outside most of the time (which also meant that masks were not required for that activity). If you are a fan of Karaoke, you will be disappointed to know that this is one of the activities that has gone away for now. For the most part, there were plenty of activities and entertainment to keep you as busy as you wanted to be!

Elevators

From my past experiences, people always seem to love crowding the elevators on cruises. There were signs posted at the entrance of each elevator asking for no more than one family or 6 guests on board the elevator at a time. For the most part, people paid attention to this rule…but you know there are always a few who feel that the rules don’t apply to them. Don’t be that person.

Ports

Since we work in a port town, we had some insight as to the freedom that we would experience while ashore. Princess did not give any restrictions to what we could do while visiting the ports. We traveled freely, just as we always do when traveling on a cruise ship.

We don’t tend to book excursions through the cruise because we like the freedom to explore on our own! This was the case for us on this trip too. When we were searching for a van tour, we did request not to be grouped with other passengers in order to maintain a safe distance. They were happy to accommodate…and it was nice not to be crammed into a van or bus with a big group of people. We essentially got private tours both times we decided to do this…and we made sure to tip accordingly.

Overall, the majority of passengers were vaccinated, they had ALL been tested for Covid, and they ALL wanted to be on board just as much as we did. The crew was exceptional, as always! Overall, it was so nice to be back on board and traveling freely. None of the changes on board affected the memories we made with our family!

We hope to see you on board again soon!

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It Finally Happened: Our Return to Cruising