I recently came back from a cruise! I went on a Princess Cruise from Los Angeles to Catalina Island to Ensenada Mexico and back! I was on the Golden Princess cruise ship. I had a great time and took 403 pictures! Lots of tea adventures!
With that said, this’ll be a two part post. This part I’ll cover the Afternoon Tea event with travel pictures. The second part (coming soon!) will be about how I dealt with bringing my own loose leaf tea.
Princess Cruise Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea was OMG BEST PART OF THE CRUISE for me! My ship had it everyday at 3:30 to 4:30, even on port days. I arrived early as there it appeared very popular.
The tea they were serving? Liptons.. ugg. Yeah, I brought my own tea on my second visit to the event. The tea they served was steeped well – piping hot and not oversteeped.
Afternoon Tea isn’t all about tea. How about the goodies?
The event has someone playing the piano in the back. There were a fleet of waiters wearing a formal outfit complete with white gloves. They were armed with large tea pots carrying tea (Liptons, sigh), mini sandwiches, scones, cakes, tarts, cookies, and fancy pastries. You can eat and drink as much as you want! I went to Afternoon Tea twice, both having different sandwiches and treats.
Oooh, one of the dessert trays! One of each please!
Intern Owl was chosen to cruise with me. Owly wanted to stay with the main tea stash. Intern Owl was happy he fit in the tea mugs on the ship.
The staff at Afternoon Tea were awesome! They brought milk to my Tea-hating Husband. The waiters were very happy to let me take pictures and treated the Oolong Owl Intern very nicely. They even served him treats!
The sucky part about Afternoon Tea felt too close to lunch and dinner. I’d be at dinner not that hungry and after dinner feeling insanely full. I seriously gained some weight, ick!
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Like I said previously, Afternoon Tea was a 1 hour event. What did I do on the rest of the cruise? I had two port days and spent off time wandering the ship drinking tea. I was entertained by the feeling of excess on the cruise. All you can eat Buffet going on from like 6am to midnight. Tasty sit down meals!
The desserts were amazing and I had to order 2 at each meal. My birthday dessert: Black Forest Cake, Creme Brulee and a flowering tea in my Mandala Tea’s Tea Thermos!
How about sitting in a hot tub next to a bar watching a movie on a big screen?
Our ports were Catalina Island and Esenada Mexico. Catalina Island was lots of fun and a pretty little town.
I took a Semi-Submersible Boat to see all the fish in the reef.
Ensenada Mexico had great views as well! This was the sun rise I saw at breakfast.
The tour at La Boufadora was interesting, I loved taking pictures of the water.
I did like the sea days, especially in the morning. I roamed around the ship before breakfast, carrying my tea tumbler and taking pictures of the water.
Finally, the coolest tea shot I took! Look at that lens flare, all picked up from the camera!
Overall, I had a fun cruise and I’d do it again! Maybe eating a little less, I’m totally paying for it now!
