Live from the Golden Princess (Hawaii, 10/10/12)

[2 to cruise]

[quote name='jrobinso']Thank you. I will call the DINE line as soon as we board and then keep our fingers crossed that we are selected. Everyone who reports on it has wonderful things to say about it. The Panama Canal has been my favorite cruise to date.! Hoping our cruise in Wednesday will be as great! Have fun in November.....we'll keep the lights on for you![/quote]


You are very welcome! I called the DINE line the minute we stepped into our cabin. When we returned from dinner that evening, we had a message to report to one of the dining rooms the next morning. We paid for the dinner and were asked if we had any food allergies. It was scheduled for a few days later and as I said, it was awesome!

I can only imagine how excited you must be today getting ready to go. We can hardly wait to be on the ship again. Like you, we have made several land trips to the Islands over the years. The cruise is a very nice change.

We did the Panama Canal cruise a few years back, was just the partial transit. Would love to see the round trip again, but do not see that in the Cruise Atlas.

Again, enjoy your cruise!

[mistshar]

[quote=Cruisin' Chick;35813211]Pia's thread from the Star: [URL]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1718281[/URL][/quote]

Thank you very much for the links. I have read most of them and they have been very helpful. It sounds like there are a lot of things that would interest my DH. So if we can find a reasonably priced cruise, we may go for it. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii.

[cruiserjanet]

Last night was the final formal. One of my friends had 2 helpings of escargot. He probably would have had more but showed some restraint. LOL! I had the lobster and the chocolate hazelnut soufflé which they specially prepared for our table. Our friends had never had it before and they are now hooked on it.

Today is the tough day mentally since it is our last day. As I mentioned in a previous post, we had the BEST wait staff, head waiter and cabin steward. I had decided to look at our cabin steward's duties in a more positive light instead of negative (like he missed the wash cloths two days, which is really not a big deal) and got to see what he really does do for us, which is a lot. One example is how he cleans the balcony windows every day. I never noticed that before, along with other little things. So he is getting a fat tip from us.

I will now say that we had suite C750 so if anyone has any questions about that room, please ask me.

Our friends have also enjoyed this trip. We were supposed to have been on the CB with them in 2007 but he ended up in the hospital a week before having unexpected surgery so they were unable to join us on that cruise. So this cruise has been a long time coming for us since we had never traveled together before. There are more details but we will definitely be going on another cruise with them.

I will be online again later. Time to go take care of some paperwork and packing. Boo!

[caribill]

[quote name='2 to cruise']
We did the Panama Canal cruise a few years back, was just the partial transit. Would love to see the round trip again, but do not see that in the Cruise Atlas.

[/quote]

Coral Princess has 18 round trip PC cruises October 2013-April 2014 and 3 in March of 2013.

Island Princess has 3 round trip PC cruises November 2013-January 2014 and 5 during February-April 2013.

[Sitmar Lady]

The Cruise Blues! I know them all too well but it sounds like you have had a fabulous cruise and I personally want to thank you SO VERY MUCH for keeping us all in the loop. You've added to my pre-cruise excitement and I am on rapid countdown now for my November Hawaiian sailing! :D


[quote name='cruiserjanet']Last night was the final formal. One of my friends had 2 helpings of escargot. He probably would have had more but showed some restraint. LOL! I had the lobster and the chocolate hazelnut soufflé which they specially prepared for our table. Our friends had never had it before and they are now hooked on it.

Today is the tough day mentally since it is our last day. As I mentioned in a previous post, we had the BEST wait staff, head waiter and cabin steward. I had decided to look at our cabin steward's duties in a more positive light instead of negative (like he missed the wash cloths two days, which is really not a big deal) and got to see what he really does do for us, which is a lot. One example is how he cleans the balcony windows every day. I never noticed that before, along with other little things. So he is getting a fat tip from us.

I will now say that we had suite C750 so if anyone has any questions about that room, please ask me.

Our friends have also enjoyed this trip. We were supposed to have been on the CB with them in 2007 but he ended up in the hospital a week before having unexpected surgery so they were unable to join us on that cruise. So this cruise has been a long time coming for us since we had never traveled together before. There are more details but we will definitely be going on another cruise with them.

I will be online again later. Time to go take care of some paperwork and packing. Boo![/quote]

[jrobinso]

Coral Princess has 18 round trip PC cruises October 2013-April 2014 and 3 in March of 2013.

 

Island Princess has 3 round trip PC cruises November 2013-January 2014 and 5 during February-April 2013.

 

I think the round trip Panama Canal she was referring to was the 19 day LA-LA cruise. The ship turns around in Gatun Lake so you basically see all but the last locks twice. Nice cruise with lots of interesting Mexico ports (like Hualtuco). It may be that the itinerary isn't offered because of the problems in Mexico. My favorite cruise so far.

[jrobinso]

Last night was the final formal. One of my friends had 2 helpings of escargot. He probably would have had more but showed some restraint. LOL! I had the lobster and the chocolate hazelnut soufflé which they specially prepared for our table. Our friends had never had it before and they are now hooked on it.

 

Today is the tough day mentally since it is our last day. As I mentioned in a previous post, we had the BEST wait staff, head waiter and cabin steward. I had decided to look at our cabin steward's duties in a more positive light instead of negative (like he missed the wash cloths two days, which is really not a big deal) and got to see what he really does do for us, which is a lot. One example is how he cleans the balcony windows every day. I never noticed that before, along with other little things. So he is getting a fat tip from us.

 

I will now say that we had suite C750 so if anyone has any questions about that room, please ask me.

 

Our friends have also enjoyed this trip. We were supposed to have been on the CB with them in 2007 but he ended up in the hospital a week before having unexpected surgery so they were unable to join us on that cruise. So this cruise has been a long time coming for us since we had never traveled together before. There are more details but we will definitely be going on another cruise with them.

 

I will be online again later. Time to go take care of some paperwork and packing. Boo!

 

Thanks again, Janet. I am hoping our cruise is as great as yours was. Would love to hear your last few thoughts and suggestions of the cruise if you get back online tonight. Guess I need to finish my packing, too. Have a safe trip home.

[2 to cruise]

Coral Princess has 18 round trip PC cruises October 2013-April 2014 and 3 in March of 2013.

 

Island Princess has 3 round trip PC cruises November 2013-January 2014 and 5 during February-April 2013.

 

 

Sorry, guess I wasn't very clear on that. I meant round trip from LA to LA.

[frediver]

A bit off the wall here but o well:

We often think about a Hawaii cruise, we both like Sea Days but:

Time on each island just seems to be to limited, what is the major

draw for you, anyone?

No one offers it but it seems to me that 2 full days at each port

would actually allow you to relax and see the area rather than

get off-power shop/activity- re-board and cruise to the next port.

We like cruising, we love Hawaii but are just not sure on how the two

really go together.

[2 to cruise]

I think the round trip Panama Canal she was referring to was the 19 day LA-LA cruise. The ship turns around in Gatun Lake so you basically see all but the last locks twice. Nice cruise with lots of interesting Mexico ports (like Hualtuco). It may be that the itinerary isn't offered because of the problems in Mexico. My favorite cruise so far.

 

 

Thanks for the clarification - yes that is what I meant, round trip LA to LA. Hope they bring it back at some time.

[jrobinso]

A bit off the wall here but o well:

We often think about a Hawaii cruise, we both like Sea Days but:

Time on each island just seems to be to limited, what is the major

draw for you, anyone?

No one offers it but it seems to me that 2 full days at each port

would actually allow you to relax and see the area rather than

get off-power shop/activity- re-board and cruise to the next port.

We like cruising, we love Hawaii but are just not sure on how the two

really go together.

 

I am with you on that thought frediver. I have family on Maui and Oahu ( including a 6 year old granddaughter) so we have made more land based trips to Hawaii than we can count. However, we want to try something a little bit different this time. I love sea days, but I haven't had this many in a row before. I guess for us we are looking forward to the cruise experience more than the Hawaii travel. For us personally we aren't thinking of this as a Hawaiian vacation so much as we are thinking of it as a 2 week cruise. Sorry if that doesn't make sense. I guess we will see in 24 hours. We may never do this cruise again, but since we are local and there isn't any flying involved we thought we would give it a try. I'll let you know!

[frediver]

I will be looking forward to your after cruise report, we have the same issues you do, family, home etc.

To bad you can't get off and stay a while then re-board, Hawaii seems like an excellent area for a land

cruise package like offered for Alaska. With Real Estate and Resorts suffering in the current economic conditions it might be a perfect time for a Cruise line to test the waters.

 

I often wonder why more port time (overnite's) are not offered? Where does the ship make more money,

tied up at anchor/dock or underway? I would think more time in port would offer a better bottom line.

[cruiserjanet]

Jrobinso, one suggestion is to take in as much as you can visually and take as many pictures as you can, even if you think it will be silly because you never know when it will be your last cruise.

 

We are leaving Ensenada as I type this. It was beautiful pulling into port today albeit cold and windy. The sunset was beautiful but we were having dinner. I did get pictures of it and they came out good even through a dirty window.

 

It is so sad to see this cruise come to an end but yet at the same time, it is time to get back home. We have had the best time. I will post again when I put some pictures in the link that is in my signature.

 

Thank you all for taking the time to read this thread. I've enjoyed sharing with you.

[Lorabelle]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us! We'll be on the Golden in a few weeks and I have a couple of questions.

 

Has the Golden been "blessed" with the new balcony furniture yet? Also do they have the pillowtop mattresses? Debating about whether to take our memory foam topper or not. Those old mattresses are just too hard to manage for a two week stretch.

 

Thanks!

[Cruisin' Chick]

A bit off the wall here but o well:

We often think about a Hawaii cruise, we both like Sea Days but:

Time on each island just seems to be to limited, what is the major

draw for you, anyone?

No one offers it but it seems to me that 2 full days at each port

would actually allow you to relax and see the area rather than

get off-power shop/activity- re-board and cruise to the next port.

We like cruising, we love Hawaii but are just not sure on how the two

really go together.

 

We've done this cruise twice so far (perhaps a third is in the works;)) and it's my favorite itinerary. And here's why I like this one: it's a Hawaiian experience even before you get to Hawaii. You can learn to hula, make leis, play ukes. You can listen to beautiful Hawaiian melodies (on the Golden as that's the ship Elua is on currently). The menus usually have one item that's tropical-inspired. There's cultural talks about the islands --some given by a Hawaiian native.

 

Before those cruises, I've been on two land trips (one, an expensive tour -- three islands in eight days, and the other one was my honeymoon on Oahu and Kauai) so that's when I saw a lot of the sights. But our family did do some sightseeing on our two cruises, but it was all about having a relaxing time of the seas, with Hawaii as the bonus.

 

One day, I'll like to do another land trip to Kona, as that's the port we missed on my first cruise (and then Princess dropped that port). And I suggested to my teen that one day she can return for a land trip and see some of the sights that are easily to see when staying there. The one variation I wouldn't try is the 7-day cruise around the islands. I know that there's overnights. But to me, it's basically using the ship as a hotel. And it won't have that Hawaiian experience unless off the ship.

[cruiserjanet]

Lorabelle, our friends had a mini and they had the new balcony furniture. They had an egg crate topper on their mattress and said it felt comfy.

 

Been home and unpacked. Getting food (not cooking until this weekend) and will start to go through the several thousand pictures that our friends and us took. Fortunately we can do that from our comfy couch.

[cruiserjanet]

Patty, we would like to do a land vacay to Hawaii as well. So beautiful there and not enough time. Started to get excited when we saw that future Hawaii cruises will be 15 days. Thought they were adding Kona back in. Nope. A full day in Ensenada.

[caribill]

Started to get excited when we saw that future Hawaii cruises will be 15 days. Thought they were adding Kona back in. Nope. A full day in Ensenada.

 

And second prize is two days in Ensenada.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Patty, we would like to do a land vacay to Hawaii as well. So beautiful there and not enough time. Started to get excited when we saw that future Hawaii cruises will be 15 days. Thought they were adding Kona back in. Nope. A full day in Ensenada.

 

And second prize is two days in Ensenada.

 

When I first heard Princess was returning to the 15-day cruises, I was salivating...and then, I checked the Princess site and discovered it was just to add time to the return to the West Coast. Just wish the pro-PVSA lobby wasn't so strong as it would be nice to skip Ensenada. Oh, well, most of us treat it as a stationary sea day anyway. Didn't go off the ship last time and won't next time.

 

Can't wait to check out your latest crop of photos.

[cruiserjanet]

Lorabelle, our friends had a mini and their balcony furniture looked new and is nice looking. They had the egg crate topper in their mattress and said their bed was comfy. We always request an egg crate when we cruise.

[Busters Mom]

Lorabelle, our friends had a mini and their balcony furniture looked new and is nice looking. They had the egg crate topper in their mattress and said their bed was comfy. We always request an egg crate when we cruise.

Now you tell me Janet. Our bed was so hard. My back still hurts. Wish they also had a husband snore diffuser.

[RNGALNG]

Due to the randomness of the mattress dilemma, I called my TA yesterday to have her add it to my personalizer. I want to make sure I have a soft bed and not a bad back on my cruise this winter. I am ready. Just need 64 more days to pass. . .

[cruiserjanet]

Husband snore diffuser. That's funny. My DH uses a CPAP and still snores. He said I did and loudly on this cruise one night. Guess the bed was that comfy and I was that tired. LOL!

[RetiredNTraveling]

I will now say that we had suite C750 so if anyone has any questions about that room, please ask me.

 

Do you happen to have any pictures of the cabin and deck?? We are considering booking it for a future cruise. Pro's & Con's Please!!!