Vette Gal

My husband and I took this holiday cruise in 2014 and we will be on this cruise again next week. We loved it in 2014 and are looking forward to this coming cruise.

 

You will love the holiday ambience on this holiday cruise. There are Christmas trees and holiday decorations everywhere on the ship.

 

Your time on each of the islands will be short. But you can always go back via plane and stay awhile.

 

We rented cars on each of the islands and did our own thing. We are lucky to have a Hawaiian travel agent who helped us decide how to spend our time wisely.

 

ENJOY!!!

Including all of the waiting: waiting for the cruise date to get here, waiting at the hotel the night before, waiting in line to check in (I also enjoy interacting with the person doing the check-in), and waiting in the line as we actually board. My anticipation builds until I want to pop! I feel like a little girl anticipating Christmas.

 

We enjoy all the activities involved with waiting because it's all colored with the knowledge that we'll soon be on the ship.

 

Then it's finally time and we're off on our advdenture.

 

I just LOVE crusing!

 

I feel exactly the same.

 

We have only cruised 3 times but I absolutely love it. I feel so privileged to be able to afford such a wonderful vacation experience.

 

We have a Hawaii cruise booked for this December and I am so exited already.

 

Today, we were in Long Beach and we saw the Crown Princess in port in San Pedro. Just seeing her has got me ready to pack and go. Unfortunately, I still have quite a bit of time to wait.

Hi Vette Gal,

 

Your posting suggests that in December 2016 there is a cruise you've booked that FIRST calls at Ensenada then sails on to Hawaii. I cannot find it on the Princess web site. Please help. Many thanks, MSBERLINER.

 

Here are the details of that cruise:

 

From Los Angeles, California to Los Angeles, California

Dec 20, 2016 to Jan 04, 2017

Star Princess

15 Days

Voyage 9701

We did a San Francisco to Hawaii Christmas & New Years trip in 2014. Our first full day was a sea day and the following day we were in Ensenada. I do not remember having to go through customs when we arrived in Hilo.

 

We are doing the L.A. to Hawaii Christmas & New Years trip this year again. I just checked our itinerary. Our first full day will be in Ensenada.

 

I am happy to get Ensenada out of the way because we don't care for Ensenada.

Does anyone know which ship Phoenix Rising is currently on?

We loved them when we were on the Star for Christmas & New Year's cruise to Hawaii in 2014.

I would gladly have waited for 2 hours to get on a cruise TODAY. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow.

 

I am just happy that we have a cruise booked and we only have another 254 days to wait until we get to board.

 

I always try to see my glass as half full.

I receive lots of emails and quite a few snail mail promotions as well. Yesterday, I received 3 emails from Princess. Today, there was 1 email. Earlier this week I received a snail mail promotion. The frequency of the emails and snail mail promotions does not seem to have anything to do with whether or not we have a cruise booked or not.

Alex, the Deputy Cruise Director is awesome – seems to be everywhere.

 

We were on the cruise to Hawaii right before you got on. Alex was super!!! He is really outgoing and great at his job. Both he and Dave Cole were terrific cruise directors.

DH and I just returned yesterday from a 15 day cruise to Hawaii.

 

The ship was beautifully decorated with numerous Christmas trees, wreaths, etc. There was a giant Santa's sleigh with reindeer displayed with lots of gingerbread houses in the Piazza. We also took several small items to decorate our cabin. I used magnets to secure a couple of cut-out decorations to the walls of the cabin and to secure a lovely red bow to our cabin door.

 

There were a number of festivities planned for children. Including Santa Claus visiting on Christmas Day.

 

There was a real party atmosphere on New Year's Eve. There was a giant balloon drop at midnight in the Piazza.

 

All of the staff made it a point to say "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" throughout the voyage.

 

It was a super voyage and we had a great time.

My husband and I were on this wonderful cruise. For us, the only bad part was having to disembark.

We were lucky to have had a great porter who got our luggage out of our car in the rain. I did tip him but he did not even elicit a tip in any way. He was super polite and courteous despite the rain.

And all through the house.... :)

 

What's your "night before cruising" ritual/plan/tradition?

 

 

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Tonight DH and I are headed to San Francisco for our cruise tomorrow.

 

We don't have any rituals. It depends where our port is.

We will be boarding the lovely lady on Friday. We are looking forward to our cruise to Hawaii.

Upgrades are not common, in spite of the stories on this thread.

 

DH and I will be on our third Princess cruise in Dec. We have received an upgrade on each of these cruises. The only upgrade that was a good one was the first cruise. We have gotten our original cabin back on the other two cruises.

 

Each time, our TA called me immediately and advised us as to whether it was a good upgrade or not. Between our TA and this forum, we have a pretty good handle on which upgrades to accept.

 

BTW - Thank you to everyone on this forum for all of the knowledge that we have gained.

[quote name='Ryndam2002']I think this is it! Here is the URL for the OP and others: [url]www.55francisco.com[/url][/QUOTE]


[quote name='trbarton'][FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Black"]Use this link to see all of the options: [url]http://sf-port.org/index.aspx?page=353[/url]

Tom:) [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

Thank you to each of you regarding the parking.

Damn those scales. They can have a way of ruining the memory of some vacations.

We know of a number of people who had problems with their toilets. We did not hear of any problems with the toilets leaking into the dining rooms.

 

Unfortunately, stuff happens. DH and I live in what we believe to be a beautiful house, however, occasionally we have also had plumbing problems. It happens.

We are schedule to embark from pier 27 in December.

Can anyone advise us as to where the best long term parking is?

Hey... Are the cookies even good?

 

 

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The cookies are way TOO GOOD!!!

DH and I were on the CB in June. No bed bug bites.

 

I was concerned before the cruise as I had read a number of threads about the CB not being in very good shape. I am quite happy to report that she is a beautiful ship. We had a super time and had no complaints.

If you use Thrifty, you can pick up at the airport and return to just outside Port Everglades. They provide shuttles to the ships.

 

DH and I rented from Thrifty last month and had great service. When we arrived in Florida, we rented from the airport and returned the car to the Thrifty outside of Port Everglades. They shuttled us to the port. After our Caribbean cruise, we reversed the process. They do not charge an extra fee for renting at the airport and returning at their Port Everglades location. There is no extra charge for the reverse either.

DH and I were in A636 in June. The cabin was great. We were between the laundry room and the aft elevators. We were quite happy with this cabin and loved the location.

 

Enjoy.

DH and I were on her last month to the Eastern Caribbean. We had a super time. We loved everything from the food to the entertainment to our lovely balcony stateroom. Our cruise arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale early at 1 am on Saturday morning to allow some repairs to be done, however, this did not impact our night in the least.

 

We would not hesitate to book another cruise on the CB.

I had the same problem several months ago. I called Princess and they fixed it immediately. They initially tried to tell me that the problem was with my computer. I told them that the problem was occurring on all 3 of my computers. Five minutes later the problem was fixed.

We just purchased our tickets about 2 weeks ago for this December. Our TA advised us to purchase well in advance since the tickets sell out very quickly.

 

I am sorry to hear that they have changed the process.

I just rebooked my Dec. cruise under this promo. It is for new bookings only, however, my travel agent called Princess and was able to keep my stateroom.

 

Please be aware that this promo has non-refundable and non-transferable deposits.