Princess Cruises California Coast Aboard The Crown Princess

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Day 2 of our California Coast Cruise aboard the Crown Princess started off with a relaxing morning sleeping in… well as much as you can on Easter morning with a five-year-old. As we all woke up, I was once again reminded how wonderful it is to be able to sail on a holiday cruise, and I am so thankful that we were hosted for this adventure!

The little one was very excited for all the Easter Bunny fun, so we all decided to get up and get ready and then head out for some breakfast… after the girls opened their Easter baskets of course!

We headed to the Horizon Court Buffet for some traditional breakfast foods.

Meals at the buffet are quick, easy and very tasty. We had eggs three ways, scrambled, fried and in an omelet. There were waffles, fresh fruit, roasted potatoes, hash browns and much more. The food was hot and constantly being replenished. The buffet was busy, but there were a lot of tables all throughout the rooms around it. You can pick what you like and plate it, and then take it wherever you like to enjoy it.

You all know I’m germaphobic, so you can only imagine how happy I was to see hand sanitizer all throughout the ship, and they even have someone standing right at the entrance of the buffet making sure everyone uses it! They also have all the kids wash their hands right when they enter the kids clubs and they remind them not to put their hands on their faces too. There were so many health precautions being taken that put my mind at rest. Other suggestions we learned for cruise ship health and safety were to only use the bathroom in your state room unless it’s not an option and then you can use the public ones. Having a five-year-old that suddenly has to go out of nowhere, we ended up using the public restroom within the first 24 hours. They were very clean and set up, so you didn’t have to touch much of the restroom when you were in it.

After breakfast the 12 and 5-year-olds went to the kids clubs.

The teen stayed with us choosing to take a nap and then meet up for coffee with friends. Pete and I went back to the room to get some work done, but first, we stopped at the Internet Cafe to get our service started. Within five minutes we were up and going and back on the internet. Princess offers many different packages based on minutes… and I’m happy to share that the internet speed is quite good. You can login after purchasing a package on your personal device or you can use one of the computers in the Computer Cafe.

Then it was lunch time.

We ate at the Da Vinci Dining Room for lunch, and we had a lovely meal. The desserts were our favorite today, and we all split these three! There was practically no wait, and we were seated very quickly. This is also where they have afternoon tea… which is on our list to enjoy later this week!

After lunch, I did some more exploring and visited the shops.

I haven’t made any big purchases yet, but I did buy some lanyards for the kids. Your room key is also your pass to get into different areas of the ship (kids clubs), a charge card (to your account) and more, so we didn’t want the girls to lose theirs.

After buying the lanyards, we took our cards to the Front Desk, and they punched holes in them. You can bring your own lanyards too… but we thought the Princess Cruises ones were a good keepsake that we can bring on our next cruise too!

And I looked in on the Gatsby Casino…

Then it was time for the Easter Family Fun Fair!

There was an Easter Bunny, face painting, glitter tattoos, an Easter Egg hunt and crafts, plus even more stations. I would totally cruise on a holiday again knowing how special they make these days… especially for the kids!

We split up after the Easter fun and the Little One, and my oldest went with me to get a mocktail and pizza while Pete and our middle daughter headed to the gym. They are both CrossFitters who don’t like to miss a workout, so they created their own for this trip. They had tried to go in the morning, but it was too busy so they tried an off time of late afternoon and they had no problem getting to use all the machines. I would recommend mid afternoon through the end of the day if you were visiting. I’ve heard it’s also empty on port days, and we will be trying that out… I’ll let you know how it goes! We are also hoping to visit the fitness track soon too!

All this exercise talk made me hungry, and we had taken our own advice and made a reservation for an early meal at the Michelangelo Dining Room so that the girls could go back to the kid clubs. Each day we get the Princess Patter, and it has all the days activities. So, we’ve started planning ahead a bit, and when the girls saw the fun activities, they almost didn’t want to eat dinner with us for fear that they would miss any fun in the clubs. We compromised on an early meal so they could get right back.

Before we left for dinner, we found these delicious bites waiting for us…

In the dining room, we had a couple of favorites from the night before and some new dishes.

Since my oldest is vegan, we have the pleasure of speaking with the Head Waiter who then works with the Chef to make her meals. They also do this with other dietary restrictions,  like gluten free and allergies. They are very accommodating, and she has LOVED everything they have served her. Lunch was a veggie burger and dinner the first night was a creative pasta dish. At dinner tonight she was hoping to have the same pasta from last night, but we were told the chef was making her something special. She was a bit disappointed right up until the moment that she saw what she was going to be eating… grilled tofu with a tomato reduction served with fresh cooked veggies.

She ordered two plates of it, and this kid never eats that much! She already has plans to have that, or another one of the Chef’s surprise creations again! Here are the rest of our formal night dinner pictures…

When dining with kids we’ve been learning that it’s best to get them a snack in the late afternoon so that they are not starving when it’s dinner time. The meals are served in an elegant and relaxing manner, so they take some time. They are also multi-course servings, so they are better enjoyed without kids that are desperately hungry. The more casual dining options are much quicker if that works better for you and your party.

After dinner, we checked the kids back into the kids clubs and Pete, and I went and had a cup of coffee.

The coffee bar next to the International Cafe makes a really good cup of joe! Pete had a cup of regular coffee, and I had a decaf mocha. We were able to order some soy milk ahead of time before we cruised, and they have it in the coffee bar, so our daughter has had some coffee too! There are little bistro tables all over this area, and they are perfect for relaxing and enjoying the evening!

Before we knew it, we had to head back to the kids club area and take the kids back to the room.

When we got there, they were just finishing up a dance party in one room (the five-year old’s), and the middle daughter was still hanging out with some new friends! The teen club goes until 2 am and our oldest is still going strong in there. I can hear music and laughing so I know she is having fun too!

Tomorrow we dock in San Francisco, and I am so excited to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge and be in the city that we love! We have been trying to visit and tour Alcatraz the past few times we have visited, and it’s always been sold out, but this time we were able to get tickets so we will be visiting and learning all about this famous jail!

I’ll be back tomorrow with day 3 of our California Coast Tour!

Whats your favorite thing to do in San Francisco?

PS. See our complete Crown Princess, Princess Cruises Review and Detailed Daily Posts Here.