My hubby and I (both 30-ish) just got home from a great cruise on the Golden Princess! We booked this cruise to celebrate our first anniversary since we had such a good time on the Caribbean Princess on our honeymoon. We chose a Mexican Riviera cruise because I had never been to Mexico and we live in Oregon which made for a short plane ride to the port in LA. We chose the Golden instead of the Dawn because it seemed very similar to the Caribbean Princess. The itinerary included stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. We booked a BA balcony stateroom on the Lido deck.

We took an Alaska Airlines flight to LA from Portland, OR on the morning of embarkation (Saturday, 4/26/08). I love Alaska Airlines, never had any problems in the past and this trip was smooth as well. They recently partnered with Jones Soda and are now serving Jones' cane sugar sweetened (no high fructose corn syrup!) cola and lemon-lime sodas as well as diet cola and diet cream soda. We arrived at LAX at 10:30 am, claimed our bags and took at taxi to the port of Los Angeles (Long Beach). The Taxi ride was quick and easy and cost $55 plus tip. We dropped our bags off with the porters and went right in to the cruise terminal. There was no line so we got checked in and got our cruise cards super fast, but then had to go to a waiting room since they were not quite ready to board. We did some people watching and our number (group 4) was called after about 20 minutes. We dropped our carry on bags in our stateroom and were in the pool by 12:30 pm. Always pack your swimsuit in your carry on - we had the pool to ourselves! After a short swim and a few minutes in the hot tub we picked up a few slices of pizza by the pool and headed back to our room to change. The pizza was New York style with just a bit of char. Yum!

After a quick shower and change we were off to look around. The Golden Princess is very similar to the Caribbean Princess so it was very easy to find our way around. When we got back to our stateroom our luggage had arrived so we spent a few minutes putting things away before deciding on a nap. We woke up to the announcement for our muster drill at about 3 pm and got ready for that. Muster drill went well and fairly quickly and after putting our lifejackets away, we got ready for sail away and dinner. After watching our departure from LA, we headed down for dinner. We had dinner in the Donatello dining room on Fiesta deck 6 (as we did most nights). For dinner tonight I had the Spring Roll appetizer and Smoked Virginia Ham with Cranberry Gravy, it was delicious! My hubby also had the Spring Rolls followed by the Aged Prime Rib which he proclaimed to be melt in your mouth good. After dinner, we went back to the room and watched a bit of TV while we digested, then went to the Welcome Aboard Show in the Princess Theater. There was a song and dance act followed by a short comedy show by Steve Moris. He is a guitar playing comedian and was pretty funny, not the best, but worth watching. Read more