10 day Mexican Riviera on the Dawn Princess Jan 2006. Posted by two experienced senior cruisers. We booked our own air and transfers both being significantly cheaper than the cruise lines. A word of praise here for Rollies Airport Shuttle from San Francisco Airport and return from the Pier. This is painless, prompt, courteous and inexpensive, booking on the net $52.00 return for two.
Embarkation and disembarkation were very good, being Platinum members sure helps, we were on board before 12 noon, eating lunch in the Horizon Court with its typical frenzied clientele. Most other meals were taken in the dining room at a more leisurely pace and better quality food, nicely served. Despite recent cut-backs, we got the impression that the food on this trip was a tad better than usual Princess fare and the service throughout was efficient, friendly and almost all the food was served hot!!! The only jarring note is the propensity of the servers to compete openly for recognition, presumably for promotional purposes, by referring to the term "Excellent" which is to be used on the critique circulated prior to the end of the voyage. Incidentally this is a poor method of assessment since, rather than a numeric rating there are only "Excellent", "Good", "Fair", "Poor" categories. In my opinion very few things are "Excellent" but many are "Very Good", or "nine out of ten". Entertainment on the ship was not something to rave about, so much so that we attended only parts of shows, but that may be just our take of things. We do like to dance though and that, for two seniors, was more difficult to find on this ship, despite the fact that there were two bands in the Wheelhouse Bar. They however played a lot of music more appropriate to the Disco, were frequently flat, and ill-prepared for the trip. Perhaps they had just come aboard and were practicing on us. Fortunately we were saved by Christophe, the pianist, whose electronically augmented, excellent piano playing in the Atrium, just before dinner, filled the bill perfectly.
Talking about dinner, we are fusspots and will not dine with fellow passengers who do not dress according to the dining room dress code, and there are more and more of those!! There is no excuse, but staff persistently allow, yes, even shorts, in to dinner. A comment on it merely elicits a shrug. Either enforce the code or forget it.