California Coast Cruise at Sea

As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved the water. I grew up spending my summers at different lakes and now I feel more at home than ever living by the beach. One of my favorite parts about going on a cruise is waking up on that first morning to nothing by still waters (and breakfast in bed but I’ll get to that!). Bennett and I recently embarked on a California Coast Cruise aboard the Royal Princess and it was nothing short of a dream.

I’ve been on other cruises before and always had a key card to get into the room. This time was SO different because of the new OceanMedallion feature on board. The OceanMedallion is a small pendant that stays with you (mine clicked into a super cute gold bracelet!) and unlocks all the things. This allowed for so many different perks throughout our trip like ordering food or drinks virtually anywhere, learning about all the shows and events onboard, reserving dining and experiences, high speed internet while out at sea, and so much more. One of things that stood out to me was how much time was saved by utilizing this feature which left us with more time to relax and enjoy our trip together.

On this trip, we stopped in San Francisco, Monterrey, San Diego, Ensenada, leaving us with two fun days at sea. The first day at sea was super relaxing because we started it off with a couples massage at the Lotus Spa (11/10 experience). We ended up getting drinks in the Sanctuary- a quiet and secluded adults-only area. We used my OceanMedallion to order our cocktails which ended up being delivered just minutes after we placed our order (I was shocked when I saw my Pina Colada on its way to me). We ended up relaxing and checking out the hot tub before happy hour. This area was so serene and it felt like we were the only people on the ship.

One of my favorite moments of the trip was waking up in San Francisco. The view from our stateroom was unbelievable and we could see downtown plus the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Right as the sun was coming up, we went outside to take some photos and it was magical. After taking in the great views from the top deck we went back to the room and got breakfast from the Concierge Lounge (which by the way, was my heaven).

We started off our second day at sea with a champagne breakfast (IN BED!) We had picked out everything we wanted the night before on the OceanMedallion app. Bennett was reading me the choices and it was never-ending. We had bagels and lox (my fave) and different pastries (because vacation) and so much more. We ended up taking some of it out onto the balcony because it was so pretty outside.

That afternoon we went to the Concerto Dining Room because we heard about the lunch menu they had and it sounded perfect to me. No exaggeration, this was the best stuffed pepper I’ve ever had. We got a few dishes to share but that was hands down one of my favorite meals on the entire trip. We had a table by the window and it felt super secluded and special. I love that there are so many different kinds of places to eat and we were able to see all of our options at a glance on the app.

Later than evening, we had a reservation at The Crab Shack which was only happening on that night. Throughout the week we made a few friends and we all ended up going together. I remember crying-laughing so much on this particular night and we all had the best time. Almost every night on board, we went and got ice cream after dinner and stood by the fountains (which was accompanied by cute big band music).

At the end of our San Diego day, we watched the sunset before dinner and it was gorgeous (as usual!). Another fun thing about the OceanMedallion app is that you can schedule activities and set reminders. This came in handy if we wanted to go to a show since there’s so many fun activities to choose from, it was easy to keep everything organized!

For our last night on board, we grabbed cocktails at Crooner’s and watched the mariachi band play in the atrium. This was actually one of our favorite things to do before dinner each night because there was always fun something happnning in this area. Bonus: the Lemon Drops were 100% up my alley.

This trip was not only so much fun every single day, but relaxing in every way I can think of. The days at sea were so customizable and every meal was perfect (we were really into the food…as to be expected!). I loved being able to map out our experiences on the OceanMedallion app and see what was ahead for our port days. I can’t wait to share photos from our excursions!

This post is sponsored by Princess Cruises.