Holiday Aloha on the Golden Princess 12/22/10 to 1/5/11

[Cruisin' Chick]

12/22/10, Continued:

 

At 7pm we went to Remix to register the girl for the program. The parents and kids were shown a movie about the Princess kids’ program. The teen area on the bottom level is separated into rooms with a music player/screen and tables, a computer room, an area where the kids can talk.

Then we went back to the Horizon for dinner. I had a chicken breast, corn on the cob, pasta, a salad, a pineapple wedge and a raspberry rum roll up for dessert.

Here's the Sailaway Dinner menu for the main dining rooms.

 

The entrees were Pan-Fried Barramundi Picada, Cajun Spiced Crawfish Crockpot with Blacked Mussels and Tomatoes, Hawaiian Luau Pork with Apricot Drippings, Slow-Roasted Five-Star Prime Rib of Beef, Slow-Cooked Texas Chili with Sour Cream, Moroccan Vegetable Ragout with Pita Bread and Red Oak Leaf Salad.

About the time we were eating dinner, around 8:30pm,the Golden Princess finally sailed off toward Hilo.

The first day’s Patters listed the dress code for each of the 14 nights for dinner on page 2, as well as the entertainment highlights for the entire cruise.

On this first day, the MUTS selections include: Hawaii Above & Beneath, Stevie Wonder: Live at Last, Despicable Me. Many of the movies shown onboard could be scene on the in-cabin TV and in screenings in the Vista Lounge (Deck 7 aft) and the Princess Theater (Deck 6 & 7 Forward) in some sort of rotation. Playing in the evening in the Vista was a movie I never heard of, Princess Ka’iulani, about the last princess of Hawaii. We saw it in our cabin some nights later – a very interesting look at how the US annexed Hawaii and Ka’iulani’s crusade to prevent this.

The show in the Princess Theater was “One Night Only,” but we didn’t go see it.

Besides the “Golden Princess musicians in the early afternoon, other performers that day in the Piazza included Dave Soreff (who’s one half of Elua). Usually you can also catch the group Passion playing in the Explorer’s Lounge or Piazza at night.

During the day, we had cloudy skies and lots of showers.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Thursday, December 23, 2010 – Day at Sea

 

Went to the Hawaiian activities Desk (deck 6 forward), which is next to the Shore Excursions Desk to get my ticket for the Orchid Lei-Making class. This class, as well as the Ribbon Lei-Making Class, are free. The Heirloom Lei-Making classes do have a charge. I remember there was a materials charge five years ago to make a lei. The lei-making classes are considered part of the Scholarship@Sea program.

Speaking of the shore excursions, I checked out the screen on which the excursions were posted with the sold out ones were highlighted. Many weren’t highlighted.

Today’s special station in the HC was Stir Fry. These stations would be outside on the pool deck, right by the entrance of the buffet. We had chicken burgers from the grill and I added some stir fried veggies from the station. We couldn’t find a free table so we ate our lunch on the bench by the pool.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I noticed that the Calypso pool (the one under the retractable roof) was closed. You can see the carpet dryers all around too. In the Neptune pool, the waves were crashing. The teens didn’t seem to mind.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet in the Wheelhouse bar. Everyone in turn said their name, screen name, where they’re from, etc. Laurie, Mary, and their families were going next door to the Explorers for trivia, so I went with them.

[Cruisin' Chick]

More from the meet and greet:

http://inlinethumb24.webshots.com/44311/2382813060103777938S200x200Q85.jpg

[Cruisin' Chick]

When I got back to the cabin, our girl mentioned how some senior citizens were rude to her (one of them was riding her about her hair in the face). At dinner in the Bernini dining room, one of the women at our table also mentioned being surprised at how many rude passengers there are. She pointed out that they were mostly senior citizens – her age group. (after dinner, when hubby and I were listening to Elua performing, she came over and indicated one couple dancing and said the tall woman there was one of the ones who was particularly rude).

 

Had the Love Boat Dream. Never saw it on the menu during my last cruise and it was a D’oh moment when I discovered after the cruise that it’s “always available.” So this time, my first dinner in the main dining room, that was my dessert.

(I think this is a lunch menu, but the photo turned out to be blurry:)

Love Boat Dream:

Elua in the Piazza:

[Cruisin' Chick]

This is the first cruise that I don’t have late traditional dining. That’s because we had booked this cruise so late. I had put us on the waitlist, but apparently we didn’t clear it, and I didn’t feel like standing in line to see the maitre’d on the first day of the cruise to see if we could get an assigned table. There are three main dining rooms: The Canaletto which is Deck 6 Aft, has two seatings: 5:45pm (first seating) and 8pm (second seating); the Bernini, Deck 5 Midship, has anytime dining from 5:30 to 10pm; the Donatello, Deck 6 midship, has a 5:30pm first seating, and after 7:30 is available for anytime. The Donatello is also where you can have a sit-down lunch. That’s an open seating, so when you arrive, you are escorted to an available table. Other options for lunch/dinner, besides the MDR and the HC, are the Trident Grill and the Prego Pizzeria that are open from 11:30am to 11pm. There’s also Sabatini’s, Deck 7 midship, and the Crown Grill, Deck 6 forward, which are open from 6pm to 11 pm and have a cover charge. On some days, there would be a British-style pub lunch in the Crown Grill that was complimentary.

Another new option on many of the ships is the International Café that offers specialty coffees, panini’s, pastries and other treats from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. For the most part, only the coffees have a charge.

We saw the show Stardust, singing and dancing to the songs of the 40s and 50s. Enjoyable. The girl said she saw the juggler Mark Angelo. She also saw the movie Salt on the MUTS.

We were watching a movie Rebound that starred Catherine Zeta-Jones. I had never heard of this movie, but entertaining, but R-rated.

It was definitely swaying on the ship overnight. Kept feeling like I was in a constant earthquake.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Friday, December 24, 2010 – Day at Sea

 

I went to the “holiday store at sea” but didn’t see anything I wanted to spend money on. Things like watches, purses, jewelry, and the like.

During our lunch in the Horizon court, we heard a PA asking if anyone has a donor card and is “0 negative” to please come down to the Infirmary due to a medical crisis. Never heard about the resolution, but heard a few days later that someone did leave the ship with pneumonia.

As we did on many of the sea days, we ate at the Horizon Court for lunch.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Hubby spent much of the afternoon playing guitar. Sometimes other passengers will sit down while waiting for bingo to begin. Sometimes, they will sit to listen.

 

Then we checked out the officers singing carols in the Piazza. During that time, the “snow” started falling. Not easy to get a photo of the snow, though.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Early that evening, the maitred’s staff started building the champagne waterfall. Didn’t stick around for the complimentary champagne. This was the beginning for the Captain’s Welcome Aboard party.

[Cruisin' Chick]

It was the first formal night. I decided to wear a red dress because it was Christmas Eve.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Tonight the menu was for the British Isles dinner, which included: Chicken, Tandori Prawns, Dramibouri Soufflé.

 

We joined our trivia friends for Shout Out for the Movies (trivia) at 9:30pm.

 

Some of the other Christmas activities for the holiday: appearances by Santa, Christmas Fun Fair, gingerbread house making decorating competition, as well as a reading of “‘T’was the night Before Christmas,” and the screenings of holiday movies: “White Christmas,” “Four Christmases,” “Elf.”

 

We had temps in the 60s during the day with moderate seas. We did have some "rough" seas a little after midnight, per the navigation channel.

[Jasperdo]

Thank you for this very entertaining review. I'm especially enjoying the photos. My wife and I were on the sailing right after yours. I recognize some of the crew members.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Saturday, December 25 – Day at Sea

 

This was a sleep in kind of day. But we eventually got up and went to the gym and worked out. Hubby on the bike, me on the treadmill.

 

While I was doing some stretches in the Aerobics Studio, one of the trainers was giving a seminar on “How to Increase Your Metabolism.” While eavesdropping, I learned all the various ways I could be unhealthy.

We ate grilled chicken sandwiches at the outside pool area. There’s a hand sanitizer machine both at the Trident Grill and at the Pizzeria.

By now, the weather was nice enough to walk around outside on deck 7/8.

[Cruisin' Chick]

There were still touches of Christmas all around. Santa met the kids and any other passengers in the Piazza, but our girl decided to stay in the cabin for the morning. Later on, Dave from Elua joined the regular quintet in the Piazza to provide some musical entertainment.

 

When we returned to our cabin, we noticed a blue Princess tote bag on one of the beds. We’ve never received one of those before. Passengers certainly made use of them, carrying them on the ship and out in port. Great idea as they should be inexpensive to make in large numbers, but look at the publicity!

[Cruisin' Chick]

That’s night dinner was, of course, Christmas dinner. I think this was the night we sat with an interesting couple from Las Vegas.

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

Entertainment on board:

Princess is certainly known for its variety of entertainment onboard. The Golden Princess has two major venues for its shows: the two-level Princess Theater and the Vista Lounge. During our cruise, the following shows were featured in the Princess Theater: Stardust, Caliente and the brand new British Invasion (a look at the British musical acts that have entertained us from the 60s on up). The first night entertainment featured “One Night Only” featuring the Golden Princess Signers & Dancers, as well as the comedy act of Alfred & Seymour. There were also the Crew Show (crew members strut their stuff), the Halau Hula Olana Show (a Hawaiian dance troupe, that is internationally known, comes on board in Honolulu on every sailing – a must see), and a slew of variety acts: hypnotist Joshua Seth, Glenn Smith, Don Ware, vocal impressionist Finis Henderson, harmonica virtuoso Bernie Fields, and comedian Martin Lewis.

In the more intimate Vista Lounge were the production shows Words & Music and Motor City (another must per many passengers). There were also performances by comedian Mark Angelo, comedian team Alfred & Seymour, comedian Noodles Levenstein, ventriloquist Don Bryan. On the last night, the kids put on their talent show, followed by the finals of Princess Pop Star. While the voting was tabulated, the Hula and Ukulele masters took to the stage and performed.

The Explorer’s Lounge was used for the trivia matches as well as game shows and some of the parties. Usually there was a morning and afternoon trivia match. There was also “Shout Out for the Movies” and a 70s Music trivia match as was as the Battle of the Sexes with teams of women and men, testing their trivia knowledge. Game shows were Liar’s Club and Love & Marriage. Theme parties included Country & Western Party, That 70s Party, 50’s Sock Hop. Also the Princess Pop Star Heats, Ballroom Blitz Showcase.

There were variety and musical acts in the Piazza. Elua, a musical duo that provide much of the Hawaiian touches onboard, often performed, as did a soul group Passion, Krzysztof & the Rubin Café Quintet. The Duo Alia performed a body balancing act on some days.

A group called Nexus often performed in the Wheelhouse Bar. David Moore took requests in the Promenade Lounge. The Skywalker’s Nightclub held many of the parties. And Island Night was renamed The Ultimate Deck Party, featuring Passion.

The temperatures got up into the high 60s during the day. The seas were pretty stable, about slight to moderate.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Sunday, December 26, 2010 – Day at Sea

 

Lots of bingo onboard (didn't join in as I'm not lucky)

 

Any passengers who wanted to take part in the Princess Pop Choir (Princess’s answer to the show Glee) showed up in the Vista Lounge for their first rehearsal. While hubby was playing his guitar in the little corner nearby, I listened to the singers as well to him. Among the songs they’ve practiced: “Oh, What a Night,” “Waterloo,” “It’s Not Unusual,” and “We are the Champions.”

Later on in the cruise, they performed in the Piazza.

 

When we stopped in the Horizon Court for lunch, I noticed one sign indicated “layered pasta.” Oh, course, lasagna.

[Cruisin' Chick]

My lei making class was today so at the time indicated on my ticket, I headed for Sabatini’s, Deck 7 aft while my husband relaxed with his guitar again. On the tables, there were groupings of orchids and a long needle that was threaded with a long thread. The crew member teaching the class told us to first make sure we each had 20 orchids and then carefully remove the stem from each one. Then we would take one orchid at a time and push the needle through the bottom and pull through the top. When we have used each flower, we were to check to make sure each end leftover was about the same length. Then she went around and help tie our leis around our neck. She told us the leis should last for a couple of days if we stashed them in our cabin fridges.

 

Later on, met up with my daughter, who was wondering when and where was afternoon tea. It was about that time so we headed for the Donatello dining room. We were seated with two women. One of the women was telling me about a British couple who had been able to get here in time for the cruise. They had left England and found their way to deGaulle airport in Paris. She herself had an adventure trying to get to the port. She had booked a shuttle to pick her and a friend up from Palm Desert. At some point, she saw a sign for Oceanside. She pointed out to the driver that they were way south of their destination. Turned out the driver thought they were going to San Diego! He turned and went north, without an apology. Fortunately, they had padded their time schedule. I told her about what had happened to us on Wednesday.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Princess dinner:

 

I had the prickly pear and the duck. We were seated with a couple from Oregon and a couple from Canada. Very nice people. The man next to me said he had been a teacher of special ed kids as well as coaching kids athletic teams. Now that he's retired, he and his wife have been going on many cruises. With no kid of their own, they're spending their inheritance on themselves. At one point he mentioned he had been at the "most traveled luncheon." But he said it without any boastful tone. His wife was wonderfully wacky (she had the pear too, I remember). She was sitting in front of me at one of the shows -- apparently he prefers the casino and she prefers the shows.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We joined our trivia team and took part in the 70s Multi Media Quiz, which was trivia about 70s music. We won! Our friends were nice enough to give us three of the tote bags that were given away as prizes.

[Cruisin' Chick]

On the in-cabin TV:

Besides the “from the bridge” channel (which rotated among the captain’s log, the navigator’s log, the weather info), the bridge cam channel, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, BBC World News, ESPN, there were programmed channels split among topics:

Art (shows and movies about art, How to Steal a Million, Pollack, Agony & the Ecstasy, Girl with a Pearl Earring),

Romance (movies),

Casino (demos about various games, movies such as Oceans 11, The Sting, The Cooler, Casino Royale),

Golden “TV” (sit coms such as 30 Rock, The Office {the US version}q, Three and a Half Men, Everyone Loves Raymond, Inside the Actor’s Studio),

Discovery (travel and nature),

Family Movies (How to Train Your Dragon, The Spy Next Door, The Karate Kid, Marmaduke Shrek Returns: Forever After, Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, Princess and the Frog, Ramona & Beezus, Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

Also the Leonard Maltin Movies Channel (one special that we watched was called Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg which documented the story of one woman writer from the early days of television), and the Princess Movie Channel.

Other movies included The Ghost Writer, The Green Zone, The Bounty Hunter , My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sabrina (the original one), Everyboy’s Fine, Invictus, 5 Minutes of Heaven, Bedtime Stories, 50 First Dates, Avatar, Blind Date, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, You’ve got Mail, Miami Vice, It Happened in Vegas, 27 Dresses, Maverick, , The Blind Side, It’s Complicated, Ondine, Rounders, Alice in Wonderland, Eclipse, Flipped, Grown Ups, 500 Days of Summer, An Affair to Remember, Entrapment, The Imaginum of Dr. Parnassus, The Young Victoria, Shutter Island, Definitely, Maybe, When in Rome, What Woman Want, An Education, Leap year, Nine, Back Up Plan, Working Girl, Goya’s Ghosts, Julie and Julia

The BBC station also showed British shows such as The Office (the British version, of course), Fawlty Towers, and other sit coms. On one channel in the morning, the cruise director and assistant CD would put on The Wake Show. They would go through this day in history, give the answer to the trivia question of the day (apparently you can go online someplace to get the question and then submit your answer to win a prize). Then they summarize the activities and entertainment for the day.

Between the shows on the programmed channels would be Princess promos. For everything from the various martinis available to spa treatments to the special dining venues. After a day or two, you can also view video that was taped the day before for the Reflections DVD. I didn’t buy the DVD, even though I did get on it for a segment shot on the second to the last day of the cruise (more about that later).

Yes, I know many people don’t go on a cruise to watch the in-cabin TV, but I love watching movies so I usually catch some on all of my cruises. We watched parts of some movies (so I know there’s some movies I want to Netflix’ now: 50 First Days was very charming, Avatar in bits and pieces pretty confusing. Missed the beginning of Oceans 11. Caught only a bit of Blind Date. Saw a few parts of other movies that I’ve seen before: Despicable Me, Toy Store 3, Alice in Wonderland, Working Girl, Julie and Julia.

We really enjoyed The Spy next Door and The Karate Kid (both with Jackie Chan, who I don’t think I’ve seen in a movie, but liked his performances in these), The Blind Side (I’ve seen it but hubby hadn’t, and he gave it a thumbs up).

[Cruisin' Chick]

Monday, December 27, 2010 – Hilo, Hawaii

 

We were now in our first port, Hilo, which is an old sugar town. From our cabin, we were able to see the shrouded slopes of Mauna Kea. On the windward side of the Big Island, Hilo tends to get a lot of rain. Hilo is the seat of government on the Big Island and the site of the University of Hawaii's Hilo campus.

 

This area was hit hard by tsunamis in 1946 and 1960.

Early in the morning, the view from our cabin:

[Cruisin' Chick]

We had breakfast in the Horizon Court and then returned to our cabin to brush our brush and make sure we had what we needed to leave the ship (photo IDs, sunglasses, my maps, etc.)

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

 

When we got off the ship, we walked through the terminal building which had various tables for vendors (flowers, jewelry, hats, etc.). We followed the directions to the pedestrian path, and then walked down the main street, and then up Hwy 11 to Piilani Street. We were going to try to find the Big Island Candies, which is a factory/store that was one of the locales on the girl’s list.

 

Unfortunately, there’s no sidewalks, so we were gingerly walking on the dirt, which had broken glass scattered about here and there. We ran into an elderly man who was searching the ground for marbles that apparently someone had thrown out onto the dirt there. He wanted to collect them to pass on to his grandkids. So we looked around for marbles too and handed whatever we could find to him. While looking down, my hubby found a ring, that had a tiny gem (when he passed by a jewelry store that day, he asked about it, and was told it was worth between $10 to $20).

 

I was going by the map on the guide given by the ship, but I didn’t know at first that it was too simple a map. It had indicated that you can get to Hinano St. from Piilani, but the streets didn’t actually meet. So when we turned south, I had my family walking on the wrong street.

Before we figured out that out, we saw an interesting sight: the Hilo Hooganji mission, 457 Manono St. This Buddhist temple celebrated its centennial a few years ago.