15-day Hawaii on Island Princess

[dawnprincess]

Hi everyone,

 

We are booked on the October 8, 2005 cruise. A question for past passengers...What nights are the 3 formal nights? Specifically is there another formal night after the Hawaii ports on the way back to L.A.? We have a BE balcony cabin (aft) on the Emerald Deck (thanks to the great advice from people on these boards!).

 

Any comments, reviews, or tips would be greatly appreciated!

[ssantow]

We too are booked on the Hawaii cruise, but in December. I have seen some Patters from others that indicate the formal nights may not be the same on each sailing. I have noted that formal nights will be on at sea days. The first is usually on the first full day out of Los Angeles. The second can vary but seems to fall on the last sea day before reaching your first port in Hawaii. The final formal day will be on one of the sea days as you return to Los Angeles.

 

Stan

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

The order of the ports also varies from cruise to cruise.

[johnmik1]

Hi everyone,

 

We are booked on the October 8, 2005 cruise. A question for past passengers...What nights are the 3 formal nights? Specifically is there another formal night after the Hawaii ports on the way back to L.A.? We have a BE balcony cabin (aft) on the Emerald Deck (thanks to the great advice from people on these boards!).

 

Any comments, reviews, or tips would be greatly appreciated!

We were on the 2/3/05 cruise and there was one formal night before Hawaii and two after at the end of the cruise.Bring your warm clothes as it was not the normal bake in the sun cruise.We are back to the Caribbean for fourteen days on Sea Princess next year.We also missed Maui,because of weather, which made it seem that we were at sea forever.I would guess that it will be much warmer in October.Enjoy your cruise!

[Desert Nurse]

I have the patters from the 1/5/05 Hawaii cruise as well as my pictures from the 3/20/05 cruise posted on Webshots at http://community.webshots.com/user/desertnurse. On my cruise we had one formal night going and two coming back.

[dobie]

Cricket, I love your new pic!

[wtevrfltsurbt]

Has anyone stayed in a Dolphin mini? Are there pictures of one somewhere?

We have booked a mini for the March 2006 sailing on the Island Princess and would love to see photos........

Thanks so much!

[dawnprincess]

Thanks everyone! Good advice about temperatures also.

[bzv143]

Dawnprincess:

 

Do tell, what wonderful things have you heard about an aft cabin on Emerald deck? We are booked into the very aft Emerald deck on Island and would love to hear the pros (or cons) of our choice! :rolleyes:

[kryos]

Hi everyone,

 

We are booked on the October 8, 2005 cruise. A question for past passengers...What nights are the 3 formal nights? Specifically is there another formal night after the Hawaii ports on the way back to L.A.? We have a BE balcony cabin (aft) on the Emerald Deck (thanks to the great advice from people on these boards!).

 

Any comments, reviews, or tips would be greatly appreciated!

There are three formal nights. One the second night of the cruise, and then two additional formal nights on the way back from the Islands. I think one was the night after we sailed from Lahaina, and the last one was the last sea day of the cruise (the one right before Ensenada).

 

The last night of the cruise (Ensenada) is very informal. You have to have your bags out of your stateroom by 8:00 p.m. which means that if you want to pack as much clothes in the check in luggage as possible, you wear the same thing to dinner as you plan to wear home the next morning. In short, there were a lot of jeans and tee-shirts in the dining room on that last night ... including the ones I was wearing. :)

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[dawnprincess]

Thanks kryos for the info on formal nights. I sort of assumed that we would be dressing VERY casually on the last night of the cruise, but it's good to know how early the luggage has to be out. We'll start packing the night before so we can enjoy our last day.

 

bzv143- Here's what I've gathered about the aft cabins on Emerald Deck. They are totally covered, so no one can look down from higher decks into your balcony (I doubt that this is a HUGE problem, but even so), but that also means if you get a rainy day, you can still enjoy your balcony protected from the elements. The same goes for giving you protection from the sun. Apparently the balconies on Dolphin deck are 4 x 9 and uncovered. The balconies on Caribe deck are 9 x 9 and half covered and half open, and the aft BE Emerald balconies are supposedly a tiny bit larger than the Caribe deck, but totally protected. (All the balcony cabins are the same size inside, so it's not like the bigger balcony means you give up cabin space.) If you do a search for 'covered balconies' you'll come upon a thread where I gathered most of this information. And if you look at the deck plans on the Princess site and go to Emerald deck, look at the size of the aft balconies compared to the fore balconies -- you can even tell the difference in size on that tiny deck plan!

 

Are you on our sailing??

[rerepunim]

Has anyone stayed in a Dolphin mini? Are there pictures of one somewhere?

We have booked a mini for the March 2006 sailing on the Island Princess and would love to see photos........

Thanks so much!

 

Hola, Was in D616 (Dolphin mini )Alaska last July. We really did not mind the lack of cover, most people were not interested in looking at us when the scenery was so awesome !!! Have booked partially covered balcony (D416)for Hawaii next April.

 

Peace

[dobie]

I was in E625 on the Island last month. The balcony is a lot bigger than the regular balconies. It is completely covered. Our balcony even had one wall that went all the way to the roof. We loved it. I have some pics up of it:

http://community.webshots.com/user/dobiev