Holiday Aloha Part 'ekolu on the Golden Princess to Hawaii 12/19/12 to 1/2/13

[Cruisin' Chick]

12 23 12 pg 3

[Cruisin' Chick]

12 23 12 pg 4

[Alli Cruiser]

Patty,

I am really enjoying your review. Sounds like great family time and a nice break for your daughter. I'm going through cruising withdrawals--we cruised often as a family but now our older son is in college, younger son still in high school and scheduling is difficult. My DH is from Sherman Oaks.

 

Linda

[Cruisin' Chick]

Patty,

I am really enjoying your review. Sounds like great family time and a nice break for your daughter. I'm going through cruising withdrawals--we cruised often as a family but now our older son is in college, younger son still in high school and scheduling is difficult. My DH is from Sherman Oaks.

 

Linda

 

A couple of my family members live in Sherman Oaks.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Monday, December 24 -- Hilo

At 7:38am Hawaiian time, per the navigation channel: we were at 19° 47 N/155°13 W, sunrise 6:52am, sunset 5:49pm.

Air temp 68.5°F, barometer 29.9hg steady, 100% humidity, sea temp 78.8°F, the pools were around 87-91°,

Southerly wind, at 13.4kts across the deck, force 4, moderate breeze, moderate sea conditions, partly cloudy

2133.7 nautical miles sailed from Los Angeles.

On our first Hawaiian cruise, we did a waterfalls and windward excursion on Big Island that took us all the way up to the upper NE corner of the island. Last time, we checked out various locations such as Big Island Candies (there’s a window where you can watch the workers make the candy and cookies), went to Prince Kuhio Plaza (Hilo Hatties is a stand alone store on one corner…various stores inside the main part of the mall which seems to be in the shape of an X), took the city bus back to the waterfront where we went to the Farmers Market and some other stores.

This time we decided to take it easy than going here and there. Probably take a taxi to Walmart (when I checked on google maps, I saw that it was close to the Prince Kuhio Plaza so I was thinking of talking my family members into going there too) – rather than taking the bus which doesn’t seem to take a straight line route.

We should have realized that with 100 per cent humidity, it wouldn’t exactly be partly cloudy all day, despite the forecast on the navigation channel. We got off the ship, had our photo taken at the gangway and made our way down to where we were told the shuttles would be.

Then the skies opened. And we had left our umbrellas in our cabin. But we figured there would be just a little rain and that will be it.

Went under the canopy where the store shuttles would be picking up. Stood in the line, but when one official looking woman came by, I asked if this is where the Walmart shuttle would come by. She pointed to another sign and said that’s where to stand. So we stood by that sign, the first in line. The other line was for Hilo Hatties, which I knew would be around the corner from Walmart. Figured that the HH bus wouldn’t be able to fit everyone anyway. Well, two HH buses arrived before the Walmart bus. So we watched those passengers board those buses, all wearing that distinctive shell lei they were just given. One of the HH woman asked if she can give a candy cane to my daughter (sometimes people just give candy and cookies to kids, so I appreciate it when I’m asked first).

Finally a Walmart shuttle pulled up and we got on. The driver was personable, said that the buses usually depart around a quarter to the hour. He said his favorite store Sears was in the Plaza along with other stores we might be interested in. He even suggested where to cross (the same place to do so) to get to Hilo Hatties, turned about to be even closer to the Walmart than I thought.

We walked in and immediately went toward the department my daughter wanted to see. Apparently she likes a brand of cosmetics that is exclusive to Walmart, but our local Walmart hasn’t stocked it in a while, except for gift sets. This Walmart had a section devoted to Hard Candy, so she was a happy camper. I went down a few aisles and grabbed a box of Sudafed. I forgot to also get a box of band aids. The big toe nail on my left foot had split so I was using my supply up.

Then we hit the souvenir aisle. Ran into Laurie from the Cruise Critic group (we were on the same cruise two years ago) there. Then we moved the cart over to the food aisles. Checked out the exotic treats that can’t be found in the typical San Fernando Valley Wally’s.

[Cruisin' Chick]

And let's not forget one of Hawaii's most known export:

 

Hubby wanted to get some decaf soda, but the store appeared to be out of bottles of decaf cola. He placed a 12- pack of cans of Decaf Diet Pepsi into the cart, as well as grapefruit juice (he likes to drink juice before bed). We figured we should be fine Dew wise as I had a couple of two-liters left (I was also drinking lemonade in the afternoon).

Before leaving, I wanted to look at the woman’s aloha wear. They had a nice selection, and I selected two shirts: one sleeveless and one short sleeve that will work for late spring/summer/early fall back home.

We paid for our stuff and then walked outside to discover it was raining harder than when we first got the bus. So we decided not to bother with Hilo Hatties and just go back to the ship.

When we were putting away our booty, I held up a box of tea bags. Hubby said he thought one of us had put it in the cart. The girl said she didn’t as she knew the Horizon had a good selection. Oh, well. It was decaf tea, so someone would use them at home. Hopefully, the person who intended to buy it wasn’t down to the last tea bag at home.

We went to the laundry room and started a load of washing. Somebody came in to do some laundry, including her sneakers. She said they went to the Volcano Park, but with the weather conditions, it wasn’t the best day to see anything there. And certainly not easy to avoid getting muddy. For anyone wondering, there are four sets of washers and dryers. You will need a lot of quarters, but I don’t think you need to do what hubby did and pack a roll of them. Just go to the passenger services desk.

Dinner:

Steamed Cod over Warm Lentil Salad

Grilled Calamari Steak with Champagne Beurre Blanc

Chicken Paillard with Alaskan Ale & Onion Gravy

Kassler-Style Smoked Pork Loin & Sauerkraut

Surf & Turf Petite Filet Mignon & Jumbo Shrimp

(V) Pad Thai

 

Hubby wanted to get some decaf soda, but the store appeared to be out of bottles of decaf cola. He placed a 12- pack of cans of Decaf Diet Pepsi into the cart, as well as grapefruit juice (he likes to drink juice before bed). We figured we should be fine Dew wise as I had a couple of two-liters left (I was also drinking lemonade in the afternoon).

Before leaving, I wanted to look at the woman’s aloha wear. They had a nice selection, and I selected two shirts: one sleeveless and one short sleeve that will work for late spring/summer/early fall back home.

We paid for our stuff and then walked outside to discover it was raining harder than when we first got the bus. So we decided not to bother with Hilo Hatties and just go back to the ship.

When we were putting away our booty, I held up a box of tea bags. Hubby said he thought one of us had put it in the cart. The girl said she didn’t as she knew the Horizon had a good selection. Oh, well. It was decaf tea, so someone would use them at home. Hopefully, the person who intended to buy it wasn’t down to the last tea bag at home.

We went to the laundry room and started a load of washing. Somebody came in to do some laundry, including her sneakers. She said they went to the Volcano Park, but with the weather conditions, it wasn’t the best day to see anything there. And certainly not easy to avoid getting muddy. For anyone wondering, there are four sets of washers and dryers. You will need a lot of quarters, but I don’t think you need to do what hubby did and pack a roll of them. Just go to the passenger services desk.

Dinner:

Steamed Cod over Warm Lentil Salad

Grilled Calamari Steak with Champagne Beurre Blanc

Chicken Paillard with Alaskan Ale & Onion Gravy

Kassler-Style Smoked Pork Loin & Sauerkraut

Surf & Turf Petite Filet Mignon & Jumbo Shrimp

(V) Pad Thai

 

 

 

Creme brulee:

Grilled pineapple with ice cream:

[Cruisin' Chick]

In cabin TV

We noticed that when we watched some of the channels, the ads would get louder to the point if we’re using the tv as white noise to fall asleep, we would need to turn the channel to the bridge cam station to avoid waking up from a sudden switch of volume.

Also any R rated movies would only be shown late at night.

And if you want to do a mini-workout in your cabin, just watch for The Fitness at Sea segments aired mornings on the Golden TV Channel.

Art channel – Goya’s Ghosts, Agony and Ecstasy

Family Movie Channel -- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, The Lorax, Madagascar 3

Princess Movie Channel -- Haywire, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Romance Movie Channel -- Did You Hear about the Morgans?, Pride and Prejudice

Golden TV Channel -- How I Met Your Mother, Mike and Molly, Modern Family, New Girl, and The Love Boat

From the Log of the Cruise

02:00 hrs – Ship’s clocks set back by 1 hour to Greenwich Mean Time -10.

0735 – Full manning on the mooring stations Forward & Aft and both anchors securing lashings were cleared ready for use; 0737 – Starboard side pilot ladder rigged and ready from Deck 4; 0738 -- The local Pilot boarded to assist in the navigation towards the berth; 0751 -- All pre arrival checklist completed; 0751 – Vessel passes harbor break water; 0824 – First line ashore, 0833 -- Gangways rigged and ready for use.

Position: Vessel lying quietly alongside, port side alongside in Hilo, pier #1.

Wind: Southerly force ¾; Sky: Overcast with rain showers; Air temperature: 31.5°/70.7°F; Barometric Pressure: 1014.3Mb

1825 – All pre-departure checklist completed; 1825 All mooring lines let go; 1830 – commenced thrusting off the berth and swing the bow to starboard; 1836 – Swing bow to starboard complete; 1845 -- Vessel exits breakwater; 1850 -- “Full away on passage”, vessel en route towards Lahaina.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Patters for 12/24/12 pg 1

[Cruisin' Chick]

12 24 12 pg 2

[Cruisin' Chick]

Patters 12 24 12 pg 4

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

Oh, here’s a rundown of entertainment onboard on Christmas Eve:

On MUTS: White Christmas, Santa Buddies, Randy Travis Christmas concert film, Arthur’s Christmas, The Avengers.

Also playing: Hope Springs and A Christmas Story in the Vista Lounge.

For you Christmas aficionados, one crew member read “’Twas the night before Christmas” in the Piazza.

The show tonight was “Almost Elton John,” featuring Craig A. Meyer and The Golden Princess Orchestra

[Cruisin' Chick]

Mistyped the last Patter was page 3. Here's page 4:

[antsp]

Hi, Cruisin Chick, can you remember if they had Princess Fear Factor and if so where was it held

[Cruisin' Chick]

Hi, Cruisin Chick, can you remember if they had Princess Fear Factor and if so where was it held

 

I don't remember ever seeing that on this or any of my cruises on Princess.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Tuesday, December 25 – Maui

At 7:10am HST, per the navigation channel: we were at 20°51N/156°40 W

Sunrise 7:00 am, sunset 5:53pm.

Air temp 73.8°F, barometer 29.9hg and falling, humidity 91.0 %, sea temp 78.8°F, the pools were around 93.2, 87.8, 88, 91.4°

NE wind, at 7.9kts across the deck, force 3, breeze, moderate sea conditions, partly cloudy

Distance sailed from LA 2270.5 nautical miles, from Hilo 135.6, to Kauai 180.4

Approaching Maui:

Usually the Golden is in Honolulu on Tuesday, but it was switched with Lahaina for the holiday cruise this time. I guess Princess didn’t want to get complaints that many attractions, especially the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor, will be closed during a port day.

On my first trip there (on one of those three islands in nine days guided tours), I saw much of Maui by air on a helicopter tour. Also we went up to the Haleakalā volcano. The hotel we stayed at had a luau that was fun (Bill Dana was the local regular celebrity there). We didn’t come here on our honeymoon, so it was 15 years before my next visit to this island. That time, we went on a snorkeling excursion during which we saw some male whales fighting for the love of a lady whale. Last time, my daughter said she wanted to see the Lahaina Jodo Buddhist mission. We had taken the bus up to the Cannery Mall and walked to the jodo, which has the largest Buddha east of Japan. Then we returned to the mall, which had a nice assortment of stores. Jumped back on the bus to the Wharf Cinema center and had a late lunch at the Cool Cat Café.

For this cruise, I had done some research and found that some locations in western Maui will be open on Christmas. I went on the Whalers Village website a few months ago, but couldn’t find info about holiday hours. So I asked on its Facebook page if they would be open. Affirmative. Showed the website to the girl, who liked the variety of stores. Hubby was on board. So our plan was to get a taxi to this shopping center.

After breakfast, we returned to the cabin, gathered our stuff and I got the priority tender tickets. We had taken our time as I didn’t want to jump ahead of those with Princess excursions, and headed to the Bernini dining room. The crew member sent us over to the gangway because of our tickets.

Some of the signs in the waiting area by the gangway:

[Cruisin' Chick]

After a little wait, we were granted access to a tender.

 

 

 

The tender driver:

 

View of the Golden from the tender on the way to the pier:

 

Another tender returning to the ship:

[Cruisin' Chick]

After getting on the pier in Lahaina (which translates into “cruel sun”), we looked around for a likely place for the taxis. There are a few options for getting to the resort town of Kā’anapali – the bus (about $2/person, but it can get crowded as we discovered two years before), taxi (about $16), car rental, the Sugar cane Train (which doesn’t run on Christmas).

Couldn’t see any taxis so I guess at that time, there weren’t any hanging around and were in use. I noticed a kiosk by the Wharf Cinema Center and decided to ask the man selling excursions. When he was finally through trying to talk someone into agreeing to a tour on the spot, I got his attention. He got a business card out of his wallet and placed a call. He told us where to stand, but we decided to wait by the curb. When a taxi pulled up, some guy decided to assume it’s his taxi. I didn’t know if this was the one for us so I asked if this was the taxi going to Kā’anapali. The driver never answered my question, just saying “I can fit up to ten” and had opened the back door. I asked again, but he was brusque. I guess he didn’t get that I was asking if he had come for us or he just decided to stop because he saw people at the curb. The driver continued to be saying just get in (apparently he was concerned he would get in trouble for blocking the road) and then he just jumped back in, yelling to go over to the street over there. Hubby said this guy is on drugs. Let the others have his taxi and go back and ask for a name of the driver.

I went back to the kiosk and got the name of the taxi company (the crazy driver wasn’t with that company!). Finally saw a taxi with the A&B sign. Don was the driver and he took us up to Kā’anpali and dropped us at the front entrance to the shopping center. We got his business card and went in.

 

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

It was a nice open-air location. On an upper level, the whale museum, which houses artifacts from Lahaina’s whaling past, unfortunately was closed that day.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

 

 

 

Girl saw a Sephora and wanted to see if it had some limited edition of an item she was coveting (and was sold out at the store back home). The store was closed. Some other stores there were closed (Honolulu cookie company for one), but many were open. Plenty of kiosks. I was looking for a gift for someone so the girl was helping me find some appropriate jewelry. First we stopped at a Häagen Dazs.

I showed great will power by not getting ice cream at 11am. At one point we were talking with the vendor of an ankle bracelet stand. She was interested that we were on a cruise. She said she had booked a cruise on the Paul Gaugin cruise. So we tried to answer her questions about cruising, even though we couldn’t say anything about that cruise line or ship.

We continued on and walked down the path to the beach. Many people staying at the hotels seemed to be at the hotel pools. We had brought our bathing suits, but didn’t step out onto the actual beach.

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

 

 

Kā’anapali is indeed a resort area with many hotels and a golf course. The beach is about four miles long.

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

 

 

 

After a while we turned around and checked out dining venues. One restaurant (the Hula Grill) was closed, but the other one (Leilani’s On the Beach) was open.

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

We continued on, nevertheless, to what seemed to be the Whalers food court. You can get pizza, sandwiches, Subway, McDonald’s, Chinese, and Mexican food here. At the Nikki’s Pizza, The girl got a slice of pizza while hubby got a chicken sandwich for the two of us to share.

Then we did a bit more shopping. The girl noticed that the Pac Sun had started their after Christmas sale so we went in. She found some good deals on a skirt and corduroy pants. We went past the Sephora again and I told my daughter it looked open. Inside she went. We hit a few more stores and decided to see if the museum was open.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

After discovering it wasn’t, we decided to return to Lahaina. I called the taxi company and soon our taxi came. We all agreed it was a charming shopping area. I wouldn’t mind coming here again.

Once back in Lahaina, hubby wanted to check out the Banyan tree, a famous landmark of Lahaina (planted in 1873), which was all decked out with holiday lights. There was some sort of arts and crafts show going on underneath its old branches, which is fitting as Lahaina is known for its galleries.

 

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

Then we walked down one street, but hubby decided to return to the Wharf Cinema Center. We walked around, looking at its bright holiday decorations and decided to call it a day and return to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

 

 

 

When we got back to the cabin and putting away our purchases, hubby went up on deck. He returned shortly and excitedly said there were whales. Our cabin was just steps away from the door leading to the back deck so we got to the rail quickly. He said the whales were very close to the ship, but were now swimming around some smaller ships. The whales were occasionally fantailing. Not a total breach, but every once in a whale, you can see them. Maybe in a way, they knew they had an audience as there were people watching from our deck and probably the other aft decks, and there were those on the sightseeing boats.