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

[Cruisin' Chick]

Finally, he listened to me and we made our way on foot. It was a long walk, but we did it. Got to the mall and had lunch there.

 

 

 

 

I figured we would get a taxi to the palace (that was what I thought was the plan in the first place). But then hubby suggested we go back to the beach. Now, we didn’t have our bathing suits. This wasn’t our plan. But this is what he wanted to do. So we went to the parking lot and there was a taxi, so we got in. When we got back to the Hawaiian Hilton, the girl said she thought we were going back to the ship to get our bathing suits (as usual, she really wasn’t paying attention). All I could do is shrug as it wasn’t my idea.

 

 

We went to the beach and the girl went off to walk at the edge of the water. Hubby put his stuff down next to me and went off with her. So I was stuck, sitting in the sun (fortunately, I had sunscreen in my purse), thinking “great.”

[Cruisin' Chick]

Then they came back, and hubby wasn’t getting that I wasn’t a happy camper, and we walked along the beach. By now, my sandals had gotten wet, which would be okay, but now they were irritating my feet. After reaching The Royal Hawaiian hotel, they were finished with the beach and we got a cab back to the Aloha Tower Marketplace next to the port.

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

It seems over the years, the ATM has lost its popularity. Two years ago, we were dismayed to see that many of the stores have closed down. Didn’t seem to have really done better since then. The girl went into a candy store and bought a couple of pieces of candy, but was disappointed in the taste and quality. She joined hubby in a nearby coffee shop to get some coffee, while I went into the store across the way and bought some Hawaiian barrettes and jewelry.

 

 

Next to the ATM is the berth for the Star of Honolulu, which is still doing dinner cruises.

 

 

 

We made our way outside and started checking out the stores on that side as well as the kiosks. I told one of the owners that we had purchased a matching aloha set of clothing (shirt for hubby and dress for me) on our honeymoon at a kiosk there.

She said she’s been around that long so we may have bought the clothing from her business. We talked further about the sad state of the ATM. She said it wasn’t really the economy causing the stores to leave, but a change of management a few years ago who apparently was making unwise decisions, possibly trying to sabotage the current stores.

She told us that sadly this whole area was going to be razed soon to be used by a university. This was also going to include the cruise terminal.

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

 

 

 

[/size] With this unfortunate bit of news, we returned to the ship.

[Cruisin' Chick]

don't know what happened there.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Dinner:

 

 

 

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

Art Channel – The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Stolen

Family Movie Channel –Born to Be Wild, Cars 2, Puss ‘N Boots

Princess Movie -- 50/50, Sherlock Holmes – Game of Shadows

Romance Channel -- An Affair to Remember, This Means War

Golden TV Channel – 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, Love Boat

On MUTS—Blue Hawaii, Lilo & Stich, George Michael concert film, Moonrise Kingdom

Other movie: The Bourne Legacy, Ruby Sparks

A tradition on the Hawaiian cruises is The Halau Hula Olana Show in Honolulu. A troupe of dancers of various age groups from a local hula school comes on board for a few hours and performs. We saw the show on our last cruise and highly recommend it, as does most other passengers who have enjoyed these talented youngsters. Usually they perform around 8pm or so, but as that was when we were leaving the port, their shows this day were at 4:30 and 6:30pm instead.

The night’s entertainment included Celebrated Piano Entertainer Bruce Tilden and the Paradise Strings in Concert.

From the Log of the Cruise:

For the passage from Nawiliwili the Pilot remained onboard overnight and then assisted with the arrival at Honolulu; 0637 – Full manning on the mooring stations FWD & AFT and both anchors securing lashings were cleared away ready for use; 0637 – All pre-arrival checks completed; 0643 – Entered Honolulu break waters 0651 – Shell door open for gangways; 0704 00 First line ashore; 0713 – Ships gangways on deck 4 rigged and ready for use.

Position: Vessel starboard side alongside in Honolulu at Aloha Tower Berth Pier 10/11; Wind: Easterly Force 4; Sky: Partly cloudy skies (3/8 cloud coverage); Air temperature:28°C/82.4°F; Barometric Pressure: 016.5 Mb.

1900—All passengers and crew on board; 2003 – All lines gone and all pre-departure checks complete, 2004 –Vessel thrusting off berth 00 2006 Commence swing bow to starboard 200 – Swing complete 2020 – vessel abeam of the breakwater 2030 – “Full away on passage” vessel clear from Honolulu passing through the Kaiwi Channel 2100 – Course of 074° set, vessel en-route towards Ensenada, Mexico.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Patters for 12/27/12 pg 1

 

[Cruisin' Chick]

12/27/12 pg 2

[Cruisin' Chick]

12/27/12 pg 3

[Cruisin' Chick]

12/27/12 pg4

[clueless2]

Is this the company you used for transportation?

 

http://ontime1.com

 

If so did you also use them for transportation FROM the port? If so how did that work out?

 

I need to arrange some transportation to and from LAX for our upcoming Golden cruise.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Is this the company you used for transportation?

 

http://ontime1.com

 

If so did you also use them for transportation FROM the port? If so how did that work out?

 

I need to arrange some transportation to and from LAX for our upcoming Golden cruise.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I used them for both ends from our house and from the port. I had sent out email requests for quotes from many companies. I sorta went "eeny meanie..." from the spreadsheet I created with all the data and called them and got the price confirmed. Then I said I'll do the actual booking online and he said fine. The driver showed up at our house ten minutes early as I said on the first page of this thread. Within the next couple of days I hope to finish posting (we had a major power outage the other day, as well as a couple of days that I haven't been home for much of the days), and I'll mention that the driver for the pickup called me while I was still on the ship waiting for our disembarkation and said he was at the port, so I knew this company hadn't made any mistakes, unlike the company we used two years before.

 

The vehicle they used was more than adequate room-wise for all of our stuff, including a guitar case.

[jbeth]

Seems SO "Wrong"....please call her "Our Daughter" or "Her Name (whatever it is....even a nickname") Seems to taint the entire blog.

[cr8tiv1]

Seems SO "Wrong"....please call her "Our Daughter" or "Her Name (whatever it is....even a nickname") Seems to taint the entire blog.

 

This is just her "style". I don't think a name lessens the quality of her pictures or chronology of events.

 

Great Job! thanks for working so hard to get this up for us. Looking forward to my cruise in a few weeks.

 

Mahalo Nui Loa,

 

Renee (displaced local girl)

[karatemom2]

Seems SO "Wrong"....please call her "Our Daughter" or "Her Name (whatever it is....even a nickname") Seems to taint the entire blog.

 

Seriously? Are you harping on this yet again. If anyone is wrong here it is you with these comments. "The girl" in question here happens to be a great kid and her Mom dotes on her. I know this for a fact as we have cruised with Patty and her family. She chooses not to use her daughter's name and "the girl" is a cute, tongue in cheek reference - a pet name if you will. Your repeated comments on this nickname are way off base.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Seems SO "Wrong"....please call her "Our Daughter" or "Her Name (whatever it is....even a nickname") Seems to taint the entire blog.

 

Jeez, didn't you make a comment about this earlier in this thread? I could also be telling you what city we live in, what school she goes to, etc., but I chose not to. Karatemom and I have been on a cruise together and met each other's kids and spouse, but however we want to address them in our posts is our business. Now back to scanning the Patters, which I think is more of interest to most of the readers of this report.

[antsp]

Jeez' date=' didn't you make a comment about this earlier in this thread? I could also be telling you what city we live in, what school she goes to, etc., but I chose not to. Karatemom and I have been on a cruise together and met each other's kids and spouse, but however we want to address them in our posts is our business. Now back to scanning the Patters, which I think is more of interest to most of the readers of this report.[/quote']

 

Dont stop crusin chick, we are on the Golden in march so your wonderful review and patters is of great interest and use to us.

[Amuse Bouche]

Jeez' date=' didn't you make a comment about this earlier in this thread? I could also be telling you what city we live in, what school she goes to, etc., but I chose not to. Karatemom and I have been on a cruise together and met each other's kids and spouse, but however we want to address them in our posts is our business. Now back to scanning the Patters, which I think is more of interest to most of the readers of this report.[/quote']

 

Yes, yes, yes!! Most of us are right behind you on this!!!!

[CruisinMinnie]

Yes, yes, yes!! Most of us are right behind you on this!!!!

 

Loving your review and pictures! In our family, we have one who is 'the boy'.

[clueless2]

If you think people can be, uh, well, rude on this board you should try hanging out on some college sports boards....

 

btw.. thanks for the info on transportation. I'll probably give them a call this week.

[Cruisin' Chick]

thanks to all of you. Was just dropping in before having to run some errands but planning to be back in a few hours to try to finish this thing. But please don't hesitate to ask questions. Even if I don't know the answer, someone else might.

[tequilasunrise]

Really enjoying your review. Thanks for all the pictures! Your writing style is engaging, and it makes me want to book another cruise (I am elite on Princess so I guess that's not a stretch :rolleyes: but, still...) Your daughter is very pretty. Glad she made some friends. We took our daughters on this cruise and there was a dearth of people their age--but fortunately they did have each other.

 

Looking forward to your next installment, and hearing about New Years!

[greenie082756]

Jeez' date=' didn't you make a comment about this earlier in this thread? I could also be telling you what city we live in, what school she goes to, etc., but I chose not to. Karatemom and I have been on a cruise together and met each other's kids and spouse, but however we want to address them in our posts is our business. Now back to scanning the Patters, which I think is more of interest to most of the readers of this report.[/quote']

Thanks for properly and entertainingly making your response. Please continue posting as I am also enjoying you and your family. I too will be going on the Golden in April - first timer on Princess!

Thanks! :) Teresa

[cr8tiv1]

Thanks Cruisin' Chick. I just posted your link to our thread (February 13, Golden Roll Call). Appreciate all the time you are devoting to Cruise Critic. How's "the girl" doing? Love it!

 

Renee (displaced local girl)