Oct 6

Oct 6 Majestic Princess Pre-Cruise

When we were invited on a 3-day press trip with Princess Cruises, we were excited to have the opportunity to be back on Princess. However, we do not normally do 2-3-day press trips. There are a couple of reasons for this. There is no way we can thoroughly cover a ship, especially one this large, in 2 or 3 days. It takes 7-to-10 days to thoroughly cover a ship like this. However, we are coming out of a pandemic and any opportunity to sail with Princess is better than none at all.

Pre-Cruise in Los Angeles

Princess arranged for us to stay one night in San Pedro prior to embarking Majestic Princess at the Port of Los Angeles. Our flight on American Airlines was delayed, of course, but we did eventually arrive at LAX where a driver met us at baggage claim to transport us to our hotel. We arrived at the Crowne Plaza at around 3pm.

The Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor is in serious need of a refresh. Much of the furniture in our room was damaged, USB ports did not function and the bathroom looked like something out of the 1960s. I know because I was around in the 1960s! The room was dark and sort of depressing and the bed was way too soft.

I wondered why Princess would use such a property for its guests, but after some research, I found that the next closest hotel to the Port of Los Angeles is 17 miles away. Since we are supposed to be pierside at 9am, it would be difficult to get to the port with L.A. traffic by 9am.

We did walk down the street to a local pub for dinner and the food was quite good.

It is now Wednesday morning when I am writing this blog entry and at 8:45 we are supposed to meet our representative from Princess in the hotel lobby for the transfer to the ship. We were instructed to book a ride on the shuttle at the hotel but, upon check-in, we were informed that the shuttle is no longer in use. So, we shall see how this works out.

Oh, and just in case you watched my video (below), there was nobody at LAX checking to see if we had completed the online form required by the city of Los Angeles. to travel there.