questions re fruit and ultimate balcony dinner going to hawaii ect...

[kitegirl]

Hi everyone. Hubby to be wanted to know... when we go to Hawaii on Star next April,

can you buy fresh fruit in port and bring it on the ship? I would like to bring a pineapple back (the ship is Vancouver Hawaii return) but he would like to try some fruit we do not have here to eat while on the ship in our room.. is this allowed?

Also what about drinks... NOT booze.... if you purchase in port can you bring on the ship to drink...

One more... when would be the best day to have ultimate balcony dinner ... I was thinking one of the port days as the weather should be the best while actually in Hawaii rather than on the sea days.... what do you think..

 

I am just so excited for our trip.... someone posted a vid of Star C406 and the room and balcony look amazing... we are in C404...i think... LOL

 

Also if anyone has any more suggestions as to things that are a must see or do on the ship or in port please feel free to share.....

 

Happy Cruising....

[skynight]

Hi everyone. Hubby to be wanted to know... when we go to Hawaii on Star next April,

can you buy fresh fruit in port and bring it on the ship? I would like to bring a pineapple back (the ship is Vancouver Hawaii return) but he would like to try some fruit we do not have here to eat while on the ship in our room.. is this allowed?

Yes, allowed as long as you don't try to disembark with fruit. How do you plan to cut up the fruit. Knives are not allowed on board.

 

Also what about drinks... NOT booze.... if you purchase in port can you bring on the ship to drink...

You can carry as much non-alcoholic beverage on board as you like.

 

One more... when would be the best day to have ultimate balcony dinner ... I was thinking one of the port days as the weather should be the best while actually in Hawaii rather than on the sea days.... what do you think..

It is usually cool with higher seas on the crossing to and from Hawaii. I would say between Hawaiian ports, seas probably calmer, weather warm.

I am just so excited for our trip.... someone posted a vid of Star C406 and the room and balcony look amazing... we are in C404...i think... LOL

 

Also if anyone has any more suggestions as to things that are a must see or do on the ship or in port please feel free to share.....

Take a look at this posting and all the You-Tubes that go with it. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2483844

Happy Cruising....

See above

[Astro Flyer]

I can only add my UBD experience in Hawaii to the comprehensive post by 'sknight'.

 

We enjoyed it during our late evening in Honolulu before the wonderful hula performance led by adult singers & hula by children. We were on a portside (left) balcony & watched the sunset during our dinner.

 

We've visited O'ahu enough that an evening onboard was good for us but maybe not for you.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Astro Flyer

[XBGuy]

Most people like to enjoy the UBD while they are berthed in port. The obvious benefits are that you do not have to concern yourself about high seas, high winds or cold air temperatures.

 

Mrs. XBGuy and I are the contrarians. We like to have the UBD while at sea. In our three experiences the chosen evenings all had high winds and fairly chilly air temperatures.

 

So, we just moved dinner into our room just inside the sliding door. There is plenty of room. We leave the sliding door open so that we can hear the surf and smell the fresh ocean air. Our three Ultimate Just-Inside-the-Balcony Dinners have been three of the highlights of all our Princess cruises.

 

One time, in fact it was on a Hawaii cruise, we did it on a formal night and the servers were completely thrilled that we dressed for the evening to dine in our cabin.

 

Believe me, you will enjoy it on any night your pick.

[kitegirl]

Thanks everyone..

SKKnight.. there are knives in the HC .. a steak knife will do the trick or even a butter knife thats all that is available...

I made a mistake.. our room is C304.... but I am sure will be the same as the one in the vid I saw the other day posted by lakeketchum

 

So glad to hear he can bring fresh fruit on board to eat....

[dtwcal]

We enjoyed our UBD when we were at Lahaina. It was timed for just before sunset as we were sailing away. The whales breaching around the ship, the sunset, the warm breezes, and the amazing dinner made for an evening we will never forget.

 

 

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[cr8tiv1]

Thanks everyone..

SKKnight.. there are knives in the HC .. a steak knife will do the trick or even a butter knife thats all that is available...

I made a mistake.. our room is C304.... but I am sure will be the same as the one in the vid I saw the other day posted by lakeketchum

 

So glad to hear he can bring fresh fruit on board to eat....

 

If you are thinking about using a steak knife (or a butter knife) to cut off the thick rind of a pineapple...be prepared for some disappointments. You may be removing more of the pineapple than you want to. There are all kinds of tricks of the trade to preparing a pineapple and leaving as much of the meat on as possible. A pineapple is ripe if you can pull out a center leaf and it smells good. Sweetest part of a pineapple is the bottom.

 

Eat your fill while on the islands.

 

Hilo - Farmer's Market: there is usually someone there willing to cut off the top of a coconut so you can drink the water. If "he" can find you a really young coconut, the flesh is very soft and wonderful to eat.

 

Honolulu - Go to the Dole Pineapple field in Wahiawa. Fresh pineapple and you know they will pick the very sweetest ones. Pre-cut. Outside, they usually sell already prepared fruits like Papaya.

 

If you can bring it aboard (some say yes and some say no), it is better to have it already cut up for you. Any grocery store will have them in containers. For that matter, the pineapple at the Horizon Court has always been pretty good.

 

I grew up on the islands and only ate the experimental sugar pines. Maui Gold (from Costco and other grocery stores) is the very best of the pineapples. All the other comes from the Philippines and outsources. I am very choosy with my pineapple.

 

Other fruits to try: (many can be found at farmer's markets or downtown Chinatown/HNL)

Lychee

Dragon Eyes (longan)

Dragon Fruit (pink)

Starfruit

Mountain Apple

Breadfruit (not my favorite)

Mango (Hayden if you can find it)

Papaya (very different than Mexican papaya)

Finger bananas

Apple bananas

 

Displaced Local Girl

[Nashna]

We had our UBD at port in St. Thomas as our departure was scheduled for 10:00pm. It was a delightful experience. I truly feel that it is one of the biggest bargains at sea at just $100.00 per couple (plus tips to the waiter and his assistant). We had a few major changes to the menu due to my husband's allergy. Since the dinners are limited to just a few each evening, we reserved ours weeks in advance of our cruise. I did call Room Service when we boarded to confirm the date and time. 24 hours prior to the dinner, we received a call from Room Service to reconfirm the meal time and menu.

[martincath]

I would like to bring a pineapple back (the ship is Vancouver Hawaii return)

AIRS is a very handy resource (and actually quite intuitive to use - search the 'Plain English' name, then choose from a bunch of dropdowns whether it's fresh/dried/canned etc., which continent/country/state etc. and read through the resulting info) for info about what you can bring back - most people have a very skewed and incorrect idea of what's allowed and not when it comes to foodstuffs.

 

To save you time looking it up for just one thing, in case you meant you wanted to bring a pineapple back to Vancouver with you, not just back onto the ship for eating, you can bring in up to 250kg(!) of fresh pineapples from Hawaii for personal consumption without a license (NB: do NOT bring pineapples as gifts for family etc., as that's Distribution not Consumption!)