Bettyboop66

Welcome to cruising!!! I hope that your family loves it as much as my family and I do. One of my favorite excursions EVER has been the whale watcing in Juneau. It's been 15 years since that one and MANY excursions later, and still ranks up towards the top. We were lucky enough to have a mom and calf following our tour boat and the calf was playing in the wake from the boat, it was so much fun to watch. I agree with another poster that mentioned the "Princess Patter". Make sure to always read it, great information. Also, layering your clothing is a must, and be prepared for rain. Hope you have a great time, make sure to post what you thought after you get back. Happy cruising!!!

Did you eat differently at all or splurged on cruise food? I think my problem is salty foods and ship water combined.

Do you think the gel is necessary? Or just brushing should help too?

I would love to tell you that I watch what I eat on a cruise but that would be such a lie that lightning would strike me dead:) . I don't eat all day everyday but I figure I'm on vacatoin so I do splurge. I wish I could say for sure if just brushing would work but I've never cut it out all together. Maybe someone else can answer that part. Hope this helps.

After reading more posts on this thread I thought I'd give another update on my use of the brushing. Just back from a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. Used the brush morning and night every day, used the arnica gel almost everytime. I will admit, sometimes in the morning I was in a hurry so I'd skip the gel, but NEVER skipped the actual brushing. I drink the ships water, and alcohol and had very minimal swelling. Usually just a bit by the end of a busy port day, but by morning it was all gone. Hope this helps:)

Thanks for the answers. It looks like we'll be giving the hoppa on hoppa off a try in Hilo. I don't think we're going to get to snorkle but I'm sure whatever we do we'll have a great time while we're there. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks so much for the ideas. I'm going to give those stores a call and see what I can figure out. Maybe even see if I can lighten my luggage up a little so that I can bring some snorkling gear with me.

You might want to recheck your guide book on Hawaii (I hope you have at least one). Hilo is not known for its beaches. At least that's from my research in the past.

Thanks, we do have a few guide books, I know that there are better islands for this, We really enjoyed going in Maui, but this cruise we have some other things we're doing and I read a few good reviews online about Richardson Beach. I know it won't be the best snorkling but I thought it would be better than nothing, and give us something to do while there. We've been to VNP and don't really want to go again. Thanks again for your help!!

I'm leaving next Sunday for a 15 day cruise to Hawaii and I have a few questions about Hilo.

Has anyone done the Hoppa on Hoppa Off bus lately? If so, how was it? Did you have to wait a long time for buses at the different spots? I've seen reviews here, but they all seem older.

Looking to maybe go to Richardson Beach in Hilo, I've read some pretty good reviews and thought we might give it a try. Do they have snorkle equipment rental there? Is there anywhere close to the port in Hilo where we might be able to buy the equipment? My luggage already weighs too much to bring any with us:).

Or if anyone has a good ides of other places to snorkle in Hilo that would be easy to get to, it's about the only island where we'll have time to do this.

Looking forward to reading your post, we'll be on the Ruby heading to Hawaii on the 15th:)

We've stayed twice at the Crowne Plaze and have been pleased both times. Very close to lots of places to eat, and close to the pier as well. We've eaten breakfast both times at Grinder's. Nothing fancy, but very good food and excellent service. Only about a 10 minute walk. 511 S Harbor Blvd. is the address.

I miss them also!! It was just like being back on the ship, well almost......

My husband and I did this tour in 2012, and have booked it again for our cruise in November. It's not a typical luau as far as the entertainment, but the food and drinks were amazing!! Very well run, and the show was very good as well. We really enjoyed it.

Thanks so much. We will check when we board.

I want to make sure that I'm reading this right about the free 50mb of data. You can go to the internet café and sign up and receive this for free without purchasing any other package at that time. And this is one free package per cabin. Then buy a package later if you need it? We will be on a 15 day cruise (first time with Disney) next year and will want to be able to check emails. Thanks so much for the information, I just love Cruise Critic!!

Be aware that certain other boards are owned and operated by travel agents who highly restrict what can and cannot be posted. And guess what area of discussion is most restricted? They allow discussion of those agencies that may operate out of "big box" stores or belong to nationwide automobile clubs (so it doesn't appear that discussion of agencies is disallowed)' date=' but not of agencies that they consider to be serious competitors. And the main thing that cannot be posted is any criticism of their agency although heaps of praise is welcomed.

 

While the other boards may be busier, this one is far more fair and balanced. (personal opinion only). Also, check out your cruise date on social media sites.[/quote']

 

Thanks, I get most of my information about cruising here on Cruise Critic. I'm always amazed at how fast I can get an answer to almost any question I have about almost anything. Gotta love that!!

I love these forums so you'll find lots of great info. Our next cruise is on Royal Caribbean so I just bounced over here to DCL check out what was going on. When I was researching the DCL there's also another great forum at disboards.com (they also have a non-DCL thread so I've been hanging out there too. Not to plug another site but you might find some different stuff there too.

Thanks for the tip about the other board. I will absolutely give it a look. We've cruised many times but never Disney, so I'm excitted to try a new line.

Thank you both so much, we booked our cruise tonight!! It's not until next year, we already have a Princess cruise booked for later this year. So I am going to be spending a lot of time on the Disney boards learning the tips and tricks for cruising Disney. Thanks again!!!

Thank you so much for the quick response. We're looking to book tonight and I feel better about our cabin choice now.

My husband and I are looking at trying our first Disney cruise. I had a question about connecting staterooms. We don't need ones that connect but the cabins that we are looking at are connecting staterooms. We've sailed in one of these in the past on the Pride of America and we heard lots of noise from the other room. Even if someone was coughing we heard it. We are looking at the Disney Wonder and will be sailing from San Diego through the Panama Canal, so we would like to be low on the ship and in the middle in case of rough seas, so we really want don't want to pick a different location but wondering about the noise. Thanks for any advice that you all have.

Anita, thank you again for your helpful information! I'm going to watch the videos this weekend. And think some more about the compression socks. Betty

Anita I really enjoyed reading both of your posts. I'm thinking of getting some of the compression socks for my next cruise. I've tried the dry brushing with the arnica gel and had pretty good results. I don't think I'd really want to wear the socks during the day, can you sleep in them? Thanks for all the information.

We were on the Ruby when I had the Volcano, it's on the kids menu. Hope you can try it next time you're cruising

The reason that we want to do this trip again is because my husband really didn't get to enjoy it since he was driving. We have done other things on Maui on other cruises and had a great time. This is something he wants to experience without having to be the one driving. And with a tour guide we might even learn something new about Maui.

I'm sure that he is right about picking the ship tour since we are limited to our time there.

Thanks everyone for your help

I did a little research on the private tours, and from what I read our time in this port was going to be a problem, but this was before my husband said he'd rather just stick with the cruise line excursion. Hopefully someone will have gone on the excursion and give me a review. We've booked it, but I would still love to hear more about it.

I don't know anything about Princess lines or their excursions since we are big DCL fans, but I do know Maui fairly well and I would recommend Valley Isle Tours for a RTH tour. Happy planning! :)

Thanks for the recommendation, my husband is very nervous about booking tours with independent operators. I'm sure that they do a great job, I have read about them before on CC, and everything I've read has been great. But he likes the security of booking with Princess so if anything goes wrong we aren't stuck. Thanks again!!

My DH and I are going on the Ruby Princess to Hawaii and I'm wondering if anyone has ever taken the Road to Hana tour that the ship offers? We have rented a car before and drove this ourselves but he was busy watching the curves so he didn't get to enjoy the scenery as much as I did. Thanks for the help.