Day 7 - Victoria, Canada on Discovery Princess
Apologies for the delay in posting our daily cruise blogs. The WiFi/Internet in Alaska is virtually non-existent, so it is taking much longer than usual.
Every cruise, unfortunately, must come to an end. Our week aboard Discovery Princess will end tomorrow when we disembark in Seattle. Today, we are sailing to Victoria, Canada. We are not scheduled to arrive at Victoria until 5pm, so most of the day today is like a day at sea. As you can see in the photo below, the waters are as smooth as glass this morning.
This morning I have planned to visit The Enclave, a Thermal Suite located inside Lotus Spa on Deck 5 forward. The Enclave is available to any guest willing to pay the hefty $49 per day fee. A better value is to purchase the week-long package for $149. I arrived at Lotus Spa around 10am to access the Enclave. I was given an access card, like a key card, to get into to the secured area.
A spa employee pointed me in the direction of The Enclave, but did not walk me there nor ‘introduce’ me to the thermal suite. I walked through the secure door using my access card, carrying my swimming trunks and t-shirt, and began looking for the changing room. I could see the spa area, but no changing rooms. I found another spa employee and asked him about the changing room and he walked me back out of The Enclave and showed me that the changing rooms are outside of The Enclave. Actually, I walked right past them!
Inside the changing rooms, there are lockers, showers, and a restroom. Each locker is outfitted with a complimentary robe and slippers. I placed all of my clothing into a locker and closed the door to the locker. It immediately locked and I could not re-open it. I guess I just assumed that my Medallion or the key card I was given at the front desk would have been required to lock/unlock the locker, but neither one would. I asked the attendant who was there cleaning the changing room and he said someone would come from the front desk to unlock the locker. I am not sure if this is standard practice, or perhaps I did something wrong. Nevertheless, I did not need access to my locker right then, so I proceeded to the spa area.
It appears that The Enclave is designed to accommodate 12 guests at a time. I say this because there are only 12 relaxation beds. Eight of the beds surround the Thallasotherapy pool. The pool is large and well designed and could easily accommodate six guests at the same time.
The relaxation beds are heated and there are plenty of plush towels available to cover them. A table is provided between the beds for your small personal items, or a glass of ice water.
Heated relaxation beds at The Enclave
There is a steam room (Hammam) that is large enough to hold six to eight guests at a time. The steam here is very intense and it is one of the best steam rooms I have experienced on a cruise ship.
There is also a dry sauna (Laconium) which, again, can comfortably hold six to eight guests. The sauna is well designed and I found the heat to be at a good level. There is also a “Caldarium” which is billed as a mild steam room that I did not try. I think this room is more of an aromatherapy experience.
Excellent dry sauna
I enjoyed my time in The Enclave and found it to be one of the nicer thermal suites I have visited on a cruise ship. Actually, it is smaller than I expected it to be for such a large ship, but I guess the $49/day price keeps the large crowds away.
This afternoon, we have once again reserved two loungers at The Sanctuary. I am planning to do a separate review video of The Sanctuary soon which I will post to our YouTube channel. We have always felt like The Sanctuary is one of the best features of a Princess ship. We received a bottle of champagne as a bon voyage gift and decided to take it with us to enjoy at The Sanctuary today. We were surprised that there were only a couple of other people here when we arrived. Once we got into our loungers, it became obvious why.
Even though the seas are calm today, the ship is bucking some very strong, and cold winds, and these winds are swirling throughout The Sanctuary enough to make it quite uncomfortable. We could only endure about 15 minutes of the wind before we decided to take our bottle of champagne back to our stateroom balcony to enjoy. Fortunately, the wind on our balcony was not nearly as strong as it was at The Sanctuary.
As we left our stateroom this evening for dinner, we stopped Joey, our stateroom attendant, in the hallway to thank him for his attentive service during this cruise. Joey was always available if we needed him for any request (note: he removed his mask for this photo). He is a very hard worker.
Joey, our stateroom attendant
We thought that one last visit to the Elite Lounge was a good idea before our dinner at Crown Grill tonight. The Elite Lounge is for Platinum and Elite Captain’s Circle guests and is held each afternoon in Take Five lounge on Deck 6 forward. I think we were the only ones to show up today for the Elite Lounge (perhaps everyone is packing for the trip home?). They have a beautiful buffet of hors d'oeuvres set up for guests to enjoy. Because we are now docked in Victoria, Canada, Canadian Customs has some weird rules regarding bar service and the bar at Take Five is closed as a result. However, our waiter is able to go to another bar on the ship to get our cocktails. That is just strange.
Elite Lounge for Platinum Captain’s Circle
We arrive at Crown Grill for our 7pm reservation and get a nice table for two. Our waitress offers to take our picture before dinner.
At Crown Grill
Crown Grill is Princess Cruises’ premium specialty steak house and dinner here is always something special. The cost to dine here is $29 per person. The atmosphere is very upscale and the menu is the same every day. The menu is pretty “meat forward”, but there is something on the menu for everyone to enjoy. I always seem to end up ordering the 16oz bone-in Rib-Eye steak, or what they call a “chop”. You will have to wait for my Princess Dining Review video for all the details on our Crown Grill experience. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the notification bell!
16oz Bone-In Rib-Eye
After dinner, we head back to our stateroom to place our large duffel bag outside for collection. It is a stark reminder that this is our last night aboard Discovery Princess. We have really enjoyed our week aboard this beautiful new ship and are looking forward to our next adventure with Princess Cruises.
