A Day on the Pacific Ocean on the Royal Princess


Brittany and I slept well as the Royal Princess very calmly rocked us through the night. Unfortunately, we were also dealing with a time difference, so we were up a lot earlier than we planned.


It was too early for breakfast in the main dining room, so we got dressed and went to the International Café. This 24-hour coffee shop was one of the most popular places on the ship, with complimentary pastries, sandwiches, quiches, and other goodies. They also had specialty coffees, which were included in our Princess Plus Package.


Brittany chose a breakfast burrito and an iced coffee while I had a peanut butter banana sandwich and a latte. Both really hit the spot and the International Café would become a place we visited frequently during the cruise.


I was very curious about The Sanctuary on the ship and had arranged for us to have a tour of it before it officially opened for the day. The Sanctuary is an adults-only area with a relaxing vibe, a unique light menu, and other opportunities such as massages and chilled towels.


The Sanctuary has an extra charge for a full or half day. We were quite impressed with the facilities, and I found it fairly easy to navigate in my mobility scooter. We made arrangements to give it a try for an afternoon later in the week.

We left there and headed to the Princess Theater for the introductory Naturalist Seminar. I was actually working on a story on naturalist Robert Raincock, and we were generally interested in knowing more about his role on the cruise.


The talk was extremely informative, and the large crowd was equally interested in learning about the cities and wildlife we were going to see over the next week. He also told us, though the chance was slim, we might see the Northern Lights and we could get on a list to be called if they were a possibility any night.


Although these phone calls would be in the middle of the night, he had a lot of people interested, including Brittany. This was the first of daily seminars he would do throughout the cruise.

The three of us went to the Horizon Bistro Buffet to talk more about Rob’s career and the many Princess cruises he’s been a naturalist for throughout the world. (This article, for a major cruise publication, is still in the works.)


We were quite hungry at this point and had lunch at the buffet. There were so many choices it was hard to follow what was where. We each took from a few different options. I have to say we were disappointed, but fortunately it would turn out to be the only meal we felt this way about aboard the Royal Princess.


Rob Raincock went back to work, and I went back to the room to do some social media and rest. Brittany did some exploring on her own, stopping for some tasty tacos at the Trident Grill before coming back to the room later in the afternoon.


It was formal night in the main dining rooms. We had originally agreed to do only one formal night later in the week, but the menu looked very good, and we decided to dress up a little bit and go there anyway. With the freestyle dining and Medallion App, it was just a matter of getting online and booking a table in the Concerto Dining Room for an hour later.


It was a good choice. Dinner was excellent, with appetizers of scallops for Brittany and arancini for me. I chose eggplant meatballs for dinner, and she had the prime rib. Dessert was a chocolate filled cake and cheesecake.


Since we had an early dinner, we had time to check out the Champagne in the Piazza, a tower of champagne glasses for passengers to enjoy on the first formal night.


We then went to the Wheelhouse Bar for  some classic cocktails. I had an old favorite, Dark & Stormy, and Brittany decided to try something new, a Melon Sour, with Matusalem Rum, Malibu Coconut Rum, melon liqueur, lemon, and pineapple.


The drinks were very good, but as much as we tried, we were still exhausted. We had been going since early in the morning and were not yet adjusted to the time difference.

We were up in the room a short time later, getting ready for sleep as we were starting the next day with 6:00 am arrival in Alaska and a busy full day in Juneau.


I was hosted on this trip, but opinions are my own. 


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