Planning

Last year, we took our son Ian on his first cruise and he LOVED it!  He was 2 and a half years old at the time, and he spent the next few months talking all about the “crew sip!”  I knew we had to plan another cruise soon.  That cruise was on the Carnival Panorama sailing to the Mexican Riviera out of Long Beach.  There were a lot of benefits to us cruising from California since we live in Phoenix and can drive to the port.  Not only did it save us the cost of airfare, but it let us be more flexible with packing and bringing all of the stuff that comes with traveling with a toddler.  I considered looking into a cruise from Florida for this year’s winter break, but decided to hold off until Ian gets a little older.  The logistics of flying with his car seat, stroller, pack-n-play, diapers, and all his other stuff was daunting and it just made more sense to stick with a cruise out of Southern California.

I looked into the options for Carnival, but I didn’t really want to take the same cruise on the same ship 2 years in a row.  This seemed like a good opportunity to check out a new cruise line since Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and Princess all offered cruises from Los Angeles.  The Royal Caribbean cruise was significantly more expensive than the other two choices, so I ruled it out immediately.  Upon further research, the NCL Joy was a Sunday-Sunday cruise.  Last year, it was very hectic to drive back to Phoenix on the same day we left the ship, and we didn’t even get in the car to start the drive until after noon, so that was one point against NCL.  Also, the port times with NCL weren’t ideal and the NCL cruise was more expensive, so in the end, Princess won the battle.

Here is our itinerary and port schedule:

A few months after I booked the cruise, I discovered something that never occurred to me before.  Did you know that there is no age minimum to join AARP?!  While the organization does focus on services for people over age 50, they allow anyone over age 18 to become a member and take advantage of their rewards and various benefits.  I have known for a while that AARP sells discounted gift cards for Carnival, Princess, and several other cruise lines, but I had no idea that I could take advantage of this discount until now!  They were running a promotion where the 5 year membership fee was reduced from $80 to $45, so $9 per year.  At the same time, Rakuten was offering $20 cash back on 5 year memberships, making it more like $25.  Considering we had only paid the minimum deposit so far for this cruise, the $25 membership fee would more than pay for itself as we would save over $300 using the discounted gift cards to pay off our balance.  It was really a no-brainer to sign up!  I was then able to purchase Princess gift cards at an 8% discount and apply them to our balance due to pay off the cruise.  Unfortunately, just a few weeks after making the final payment, AARP stopped selling Princess gift cards.  I am not sure what the reason was, but I was glad we at least benefited with the discount on this cruise.  Interestingly enough, I checked the AARP website in mid-January for Carnival gift cards, and none were available, but Holland America was still being sold.  I wonder if Carnival Corporation is gradually weaning away from the AARP discounted cards?

In October, I completed the online check in process using the Princess App.  Having the Plus Package, I knew that Jason’s and my medallion would ship to our home for free, but I wasn’t sure how they handled Ian’s medallion.  As a child and as the 3rd passenger in our cabin, he doesn’t have the Plus Package, so I didn’t know if they would charge me $10 to ship Ian’s medallion, or if I would need to pick up just his medallion at the port?  As it turned out, I was able to order Ian’s medallion through the app when I ordered mine and Jason’s, and Princess shipped all 3 medallions together in one package for free.  That was nice of them and it definitely made things easier so I wouldn’t have to wait in line to retrieve Ian’s medallion at the embarkation port.  Exactly 3 weeks before our sail date, I got an email saying our medallions were shipped, and they arrived 1 week later.  As a Princess newbie, I was impressed by the packaging and presentation of the medallions, and I appreciated that they came with a case and lanyard, even though we already bought wearable Airtag bracelet cases.

Disclaimer: This cruise (and subsequently, this review) has a different vibe from our usual vacations.  We had a lot of things happening in our personal/family life in the weeks leading up to this cruise.  I am not going to share the details in this online forum, but I will say that we seriously questioned if we should just cancel this cruise.  I don’t mean to start this review off on a negative note, but I felt it necessary to mention this because this cruise was not like others we have taken.  It became a very low key week where we didn’t do nearly as many things as we usually do on cruises, and we had to make changes to our plans along the way.  I didn’t take as many photos as usual, I forgot to take photos of certain things along the way (which, if you have read my previous reviews, you will know that is out of character for me and I am usually excessively thorough), and while Ian is the subject of several photos, Jason and I are hardly in any photos because we were not in the mood.  As a result, this review will be less detailed and have fewer photos than my prior reviews (roughly half the number of photos from last year’s New Years cruise).  I even questioned if I should bother writing the review at all.  When we returned home, I needed a few weeks to handle these family matters, hence the delay in starting this thread.  In the end, I decided to proceed in writing this review since we did enjoy our first experience with Princess, and I do hope that some of you will find value in my posts.