travelin.sisters

I finally have my laptop plugged in & connected to the internet so hopefully my photos will download & I can start posting yesterday's stuff (last cruise they never would because the internet was so bad, but seems better this cruise)...in the mean time here is a snack to keep you from passing out from hunger (it is delicious)

Crown 3/3/23

we are talking Princess so that would be a definite, unequivocal....maybe

The Stanleys are glad to be back on board & on their way back to Hawai'i on the Crown...now they just need someone to take them exploring!

Crown Princess

thanks so. much!

the bears are ready to go out & kick up their heels (do bears have heels?)...they thought this was a wonderful day & don't know what my problem is...

Today was not the calmest, most relaxed start to a cruise & I'm pretty much wiped out, so today's posts will have to wait until mañana. We are on the boat, finally headed out toward Hawai'i (just about past Catalina), mostly unpacked (still one bag untouched & trying to mock me but I am too tired to care), half decorated, ship half explored, fully well fed & ready to fall asleep to the very gentle rocking of the ship. More photos, stories & whatnot to come...for tonight I will say, you know you are on your way to Hawai'i when you walk out of dinner to the wonderful sound of Tiki Dave & Leialoha (@Elua) performing Island Style!

15 day Hawai'i from LA has 3...often days 4, 10 & 13 but that can vary & may not be the same for SF sailings...once the journey view is available, look for Formal Photos on the schedule & those night should be formal dinners

MDR lunch is the thing that makes me feel like the cruising has started, but I was already prepared that it would not happen as the Crown did not do it on the last cruise (same itinerary) so I was planning on looking, but ready for it not to happen...now boarding does not start until 2 & MDRs only go from 12 to 1:30 so being on the ship will have to be the way I feel the cruise has started. Oh & thank you...we think Koa (the pupper) is gorgeous too!

ok this looks like someone has spent too long looking at pinterest & is creating a party for a pre-teen that is about to go sadly wrong

Pre-cruise Last Day Stuff & Weather So, I thought, foolishly it seems, that I only had two things left to do today (neither of which are done yet at 11pm). I was going to set up my new tablet so I could take it instead of my laptop on the cruise & create a pattern for the embroidery I need to do on the quilt we need to finish on the cruise. After several late & short nights recently, I did one of my favorite things & slept late. Then, ‘wasted’ a little time here on CC, where I discovered that there might be a delay for our ship arriving back to town tomorrow morning. First the Crown tried to stop briefly without allowing passengers off the ship to do the necessary paperwork for a foreign stop & try to go around the storm but after docking the decision was made to stay in port & passengers were told they would not be docking until 9am instead of 6am. After checking for any notification from Princess that our boarding would be delayed (there was none), it was time to run out for some last-minute errands & stop by the TA to finalize our next booking (my sissy decided while we were out dropping off the puppy that it was time to take her youngest granddaughters on a cruise). While I was out, I stopped to take some photos of the wild seas. This winter has been a crazy one in California, but I thought there was nothing left to worry about in the forecast for our cruise; tomorrow was forecast for sun & warmer & today didn’t seem like much…however…I forgot to look at the marine forecast which was gale force winds! It was definitely blowing hard while I was out taking these. After a nice visit with my TA (who also had no notice that our departure might be delayed) which included a conversation about how helpful CC is & some last-minute purchases, it was home to get to my day's projects. Three or so hours of unexpected family things to deal with later, it was time for dinner & the projects were still untouched. There was also still no notice that our ship was delayed but the ship’s cam & cruisemapper showed her still in Ensenada! A little after 7pm I finally received an email from Princess that our boarding would be delayed by 3 hours. I understand that they couldn’t tell us definitely when boarding would begin until they had all the information, but I also think it would have been helpful for people to have a heads up that there would be some kind of delay & that further info would be coming as it was available. I think there will be any number of people who couldn’t change their transportation & will be stuck at the port outside in the cold for hours. I never did receive a text about this even though I am signed up for text updates. It seems like the plan is to wait in Ensenada until the gale force winds start to abate around midnight before sailing. The latest from the ship is that the captain has announced that they may leave before midnight depending on Coast Guard approval & they expect heavy seas when they do sail. As hard as this is for those boarding tomorrow, it is much worse for many who have to totally redo their travel arrangements in order to return home. Hoping & praying the Crown & her passengers & crew have a safe & relatively uneventful trip back home. I think that’s it until I see she has arrived on the bridge cam or cruise mapper tomorrow & go out to check how things are at the port. Maybe I can still get my projects for today done today? But whatever else, tomorrow we cruise... update at 11:15 the Crown is finally moving! List of my posts in this LIVE: Introduction~post 1 Pre-cruise: packing~post 10 Pre-cruise: booking & trip prep~post 29 Pre-cruise: last day stuff & weather~post 44

we were actually on Baja also (moved from our favorite Aloha location when they decided to have an entire deck for isolation)--it was definitely an interesting cruise!

one of the many wonderful things about cruising...I need to travel with someone who I can spend time together with happily but who will also be able/willing to go separate directions at times...too much togetherness is crazymaking!

can you imagine how hard it would be if he were trying to override your plans with his instead of wisely realizing how good you are at this & letting you do it? sounds like you have figured out how it works best for you in those 42 years!

yes January 2022...first cruise into the islands after the pause

thank you for sharing this...it is so much easier to scroll through the whole schedule (too bad you can't bookmark in it anymore but still a great thing for people to konw)

yes there is a patter (some ships you apparently have to ask, although you can do that in the pre-registration) but all three that we were on last year it was delivered nightly...it is much shorter than previously, just one page double sided with hours that things are open & the daily schedule, no sales ads or interesting articles about the crew, ports or other passengers

hope to do a tour of the ship tomorrow depending on when we actually get to board but if I forget to answer your questions after we've been on a few days, please don't hesitate to ask again

...one of the lovely things about cruising is that we can make it what we want...I am a planner & want all the info I can get, others like to just take a leap & see what good things come...most I imagine are somewhere in the middle...if we were all the same, in life or on a cruise, how boring it would be

here they (Captain Stanley Bear, Ruby Princess Stanley Bear & Baby Brother Stanley Bear) are, ready to board (about 3 weeks early)

Pre-cruise Booking & Trip Prep I often book cruises shortly after they become available as it makes it easy to get the rooms we want & sometimes it is the best price/perks combination. Our TA is very good about refaring if the price goes down & in the past this has been an easy process. This cruise I booked much later than usual as I was waiting on the end of the year Christmas sailings. I do dream of someday doing a Christmas cruise to Hawai’i but it was not to be with this year’s offerings so we booked this. I do feel bad for our TA this past year…she has worked so hard to get the rooms. deals & rates we wanted. For this cruise, like always I picked out the rooms we wanted, mid-aft (less walking for BIL) Aloha (because it makes us smile when the elevator says Aloha as we arrive to our deck) balcony with an inside across the hall. For some reason neither the TA nor her Princess person could see the rooms I had chosen as available nor anything in that section. On my web page I saw lots of possibilities, but it took until the next day before they could get us something that worked. This has seemed to be a pattern, what used to be easy has gotten harder & harder when dealing with Princess this past year. It was working well when cruising first opened back up, but as more & more people are returning it has gotten more difficult to do what was once simple. It seems to take her calling multiple times until she finds the person who knows what to do. Anyway, my wonderful TA finally got us booked & the planning could begin. First step was to book the excursion to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu. When I did my first cruise to Hawai’i in 2019, the one thing from my land-based visit with my parents about 50 years ago that I most wanted to do again was the PCC. Unfortunately, I did not realize that they were not open on Sundays & that was when we were there. Next, I booked the excursion when we were scheduled for Oahu on our Hawai’i, Tahiti & Samoa cruise in 2020, but that never sailed. When sailing resumed, we booked for Jan 2022, carefully picking a cruise that did not dock in Honolulu on Sunday & booked the excursion…but when cruises were finally allowed back to the islands (we were the very first one) they had to stop in Honolulu first so they changed our itinerary & we docked on…a Sunday! Finally, I think we will be going to the PCC in a week! We booked some other excursions which I will talk about when we get there. Ordered a package of water bottles each (no beverage package this trip) & a coffee card for BIL (it is still showing on his travel summary, but we will see tomorrow if he gets it or not). This is our 4th cruise with the Medallion App so that went pretty smoothly except they messed my sister’s account before our last cruise (the computer changed her birth date) & she still can’t sign in to her account, she has to use her booking number to access it which is a pain because who remembers booking numbers. I got my medallion in the mail at no charge (I ordered before the changes) but they did not receive theirs, perhaps because the computer this time changed the date of birth on her passport (which had been right & she had been green earlier) & she was blue again? Not really a problem, they are fast & easy to pick up (at least at our port). The one sad part of cruising is saying goodbye to the fuzzy person. However, she gets to go on her own “dude ranch” adventure & hang out with her uncle. We took advantage of a break in the unusually stormy February we have been having to take Koa (named for the beautiful Hawai’ian wood often used in ‘ukuleles–it means brave, fearless, warrior & she is definitely a warrior princess) for her vacation. \ List of my posts in this LIVE: Introduction~post 1 Pre-cruise: packing~post 10 Pre-cruise: booking & trip prep~post 29

...I figured that the OP could do a search for it as easily as I could & it was sufficient to let them know that it was out there with a lot of information...if someone wants to find & post it for them that would be beyond kind...

our cruise to Maui (we docked at Kahului, not Lahaina) last Jan people were charged taxes on alcoholic beverages but not the other ports & no, you are probably never in international waters

there is a very active, current thread about the new dining room menus that would provide a lot of info on this for you...