28-Day South Pacific - Round Trip From LA 03/30 to 04/27/2018

[Micahs Grandad]

We were on the same cruise.... LOVE all the sea days, got lots of relaxing and reading in, some days were slow activity wise but enjoyable.

 

My biggest complaint was crowded shows ... you had to get there 45-1 hour early or you did not get a seat ����. Many frustrated and angry passengers

 

Just home from a 28 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise ... the speakers were not up to par... the first 14 days it was a “car guy” so not much interest for the women and the last 14 days a forensic scientist.. we were excited about that, but his lectures were wayyyy to advanced and complicated and he was very disorganized and repetitive ..( and I’m a nurse) lots of DNA info... he hyped solving the Jon Benet Ramsey case for days, then in the end would not reveal his opinion due to liability issues:mad:

 

We have enjoyed the lecturers. Forensic scientist should understand the knowledge base of his audience and speak accordingly. Why hype solving a case and than not reveal opinion.

[Woobstr112G]

OP;

 

Thank you for taking the time to report on your recently completed cruise. I was suppose to be boarding the day you got off in Los Angeles but had to cancel awhile ago due to medical issues. You cruise is one that is on my bucket list for years. I will be retiring next March (hopefully) and look forward to doing this one someday. For me it's all about Sea Days.

Thanks again for posting.....:):):)

 

Bob

[roxievegas]

When I rebooked from a Balcony to Inside we lost the sip n sail- which we do not drink (very rarely) so we did not care. I was trying to get a balcony at a better price and hoped that by taking an inside I would be offered an upgrade for a cost that was acceptable to me. Some of the other passengers were offered upgrade at a cost that was equal to what I paid without any offer. By waiting for the prices to come down, when I moved back up to the balcony, we got no bennies, but saved $3000 from what we had started out booking. With that $3,000 savings, we paid for gratuities, excursions, Crown Grill, The Vine, coffee cards, and extra tip money to cabin attendant and servce crew in the dining room. I think the lowest I saw for the Balcony was 4199pp (+$195 ). I really wanted a mini suite, but the lowest that I saw for that was $7599pp.

[gwhitti]

When I rebooked from a Balcony to Inside we lost the sip n sail- which we do not drink (very rarely) so we did not care. I was trying to get a balcony at a better price and hoped that by taking an inside I would be offered an upgrade for a cost that was acceptable to me. Some of the other passengers were offered upgrade at a cost that was equal to what I paid without any offer. By waiting for the prices to come down, when I moved back up to the balcony, we got no bennies, but saved $3000 from what we had started out booking. With that $3,000 savings, we paid for gratuities, excursions, Crown Grill, The Vine, coffee cards, and extra tip money to cabin attendant and servce crew in the dining room. I think the lowest I saw for the Balcony was 4199pp (+$195 ). I really wanted a mini suite, but the lowest that I saw for that was $7599pp.

 

 

Thank you for the detailed reply. It was very helpful.

Can you rebook to a different cabin/price after final payment? If so, how does that work?

[Thrak]

Thank you for the detailed reply. It was very helpful.

Can you rebook to a different cabin/price after final payment? If so, how does that work?

 

We changed cabins after final payment. An aft Caribe balcony opened up and I moved from our aft Baja balcony cabin to that one. I didn't ask for anything other than the cabin change and it didn't affect our Sip and Sail promo in any way. The Caribe cabin was going for less than I had paid for the Baja cabin but, as I said, I didn't ask for any kind of OBC or price adjustment. I was just happy to keep the promo and move to the cabin with the larger balcony.

[PrincessLuver]

My biggest complaint was crowded shows ... you had to get there 45-1 hour early or you did not get a seat ����. Many frustrated and angry passengers

 

This seems to be a major problem on all Princess ships we have been on... we are just off the Regal and almost every night you had to be there 45 minutes early for the 8:00 show to get a seat. Their theaters are not that large and they really need more entertainment options to spread the people throughout different venues to ease over crowding....:cool:

[gwhitti]

We changed cabins after final payment. An aft Caribe balcony opened up and I moved from our aft Baja balcony cabin to that one. I didn't ask for anything other than the cabin change and it didn't affect our Sip and Sail promo in any way. The Caribe cabin was going for less than I had paid for the Baja cabin but, as I said, I didn't ask for any kind of OBC or price adjustment. I was just happy to keep the promo and move to the cabin with the larger balcony.

 

 

Thank you. This was very helpful.

[dfields1814]

I went on this cruise the first time it was offered. I agree the 8 to 9 sea days is a bit much. It was the only cruise I could not wait to disembark and I generally enjoy sea days. My idea is to reverse the order and do the 8 seas day first and get them out of the way.

 

Why was Apia cancelled?

 

I spent time in Tahiti Moorea and Samoa in the early 70's. I kept comparing the islands now to what they were like then. That was a big problem for in that they have lost a lot of their charm and exoticness over the years, especially Tahiti. But even so I still enjoyed the ports.

 

I would recommend renting a car on Hawaii and visiting the volcano park on your own. That way you can drive the road that takes to to the ocean through a lava field. We did the same in Oahu driving to the north beach.

 

The average age was older, very much older. I was in my early 60's and I was baby. The oldest person I met was 104 and he had two men looking out for him. They were in their mid 80's To get a seat for the early show you had to be there at least 40 minutes early. For the Tahitian dancers they brought on board you had to be there an hour ahead. The late show was a little better than. half filled. After 10:00 PM the ship felt like a ghost ship.

[Thrak]

I went on this cruise the first time it was offered. I agree the 8 to 9 sea days is a bit much. It was the only cruise I could not wait to disembark and I generally enjoy sea days. My idea is to reverse the order and do the 8 seas day first and get them out of the way.

 

Why was Apia cancelled?

 

I spent time in Tahiti Moorea and Samoa in the early 70's. I kept comparing the islands now to what they were like then. That was a big problem for in that they have lost a lot of their charm and exoticness over the years, especially Tahiti. But even so I still enjoyed the ports.

 

I would recommend renting a car on Hawaii and visiting the volcano park on your own. That way you can drive the road that takes to to the ocean through a lava field. We did the same in Oahu driving to the north beach.

 

The average age was older, very much older. I was in my early 60's and I was baby. The oldest person I met was 104 and he had two men looking out for him. They were in their mid 80's To get a seat for the early show you had to be there at least 40 minutes early. For the Tahitian dancers they brought on board you had to be there an hour ahead. The late show was a little better than. half filled. After 10:00 PM the ship felt like a ghost ship.

 

Apia was cancelled due to ongoing work in the port. It was known to Princess well in advance but they continued to include it in the listed itinerary. They did give everybody $50 OBC as a consolation and added Kona as an additional port in Hawaii.

 

Renting a car in Hawaii is a great way to go. We did that on our first trip. In fact we rented a car at all the Hawaiian ports on that trip. We did the tour of the Arizona for (almost) free and had the car for the rest of the day. Princess wanted something like $98 per person for the Arizona tour. Instead we got advance tickets for $1 each so we had a guaranteed time, spent less than $98 to rent the car, and the three of us had a great day. On the 28 day cruise we didn't have our disabled son with us and took the HoHo buses. Very easy and inexpensive and we had a great time.

 

While we enjoyed this cruise immensely I have to agree the above highlighted points. We are also in our 60's and I was told a number of times how young I am. The cruisers were great though. I didn't have a problem at all with the older crowd. We had a really great group on this cruise. They didn't act much older than we are either except for your point about everybody going to bed by 10:00 PM. Each night I went up to check out Skywalker's - usually around 11:30 when Wheelhouse closed. :o For the first two weeks of the cruise I would find 4 crew members and there would be just me as the only passenger. They were calling the manager and asking to close by midnight every night as there was no business. Finally, the last week of the cruise - those 8 straight sea days - there would be people in Skywalker's at night. Sometimes there were as many as 20 or so. Not exactly a huge crowd but definitely an improvement on the earlier part of the cruise.

[Papa Yoda]

We were on this cruise too, loved the sea days! Spent loads of time on our aft balcony, sheltered and serene, we had the ship to ourselves. Loved the crew and the food was better than recent Princess experience. The cruisers were by and large nice but there was a larger than usual fraction of thoughtlessly rude folks. First time I ever got cussed out for holding an elevator door for folks getting on. We thought the long wait in the heat to board may have got us off on a bad foot - and maybe the mood improved - or maybe not.

 

We got the same bad Apia info. Even though by the time of Thrak's cruise it was publicized that Apia's pier construction wouldn't be done until well after our voyage, some on our roll call felt bamboozled by the failure to notify before final payment, can't say I fault them too much. We got an extra day in Bora Bora which suited us just fine.

 

There was the one death on board and the couple who got off in Pago Pago may be the lady who broke her leg slipping on a wet (slimy & steep) sidewalk -- it was a very bad break -- not compound but not looking good.

[Gold Mine Gal]

Following as we hope to do this cruise next year. Thanks for the review.

 

 

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[RetiredNTraveling]

This was a great review and it was so much fun to read. It was really nice to see several of our fellow cruisers from the Oct 2017 Cruise posting.

There isn't a day that goes by without thinking about the great time and fantastic people who we were so fortunate enough to meet. Just want to say Hi to Paul929207 & Thrak!

There was a lot of effort by our Coordinators into getting the island tours put together. If we are fortunate enough to take this cruise again,we can only hope that there are enough people who are willing to volunteer to take on the challenge of working up the tours.

Just Mike ;p;p

[brockmom]

I went on this cruise the first time it was offered. I agree the 8 to 9 sea days is a bit much. It was the only cruise I could not wait to disembark and I generally enjoy sea days. My idea is to reverse the order and do the 8 seas day first and get them out of the way.

 

Why was Apia cancelled?

 

I spent time in Tahiti Moorea and Samoa in the early 70's. I kept comparing the islands now to what they were like then. That was a big problem for in that they have lost a lot of their charm and exoticness over the years, especially Tahiti. But even so I still enjoyed the ports.

 

I would recommend renting a car on Hawaii and visiting the volcano park on your own. That way you can drive the road that takes to to the ocean through a lava field. We did the same in Oahu driving to the north beach.

 

The average age was older, very much older. I was in my early 60's and I was baby. The oldest person I met was 104 and he had two men looking out for him. They were in their mid 80's To get a seat for the early show you had to be there at least 40 minutes early. For the Tahitian dancers they brought on board you had to be there an hour ahead. The late show was a little better than. half filled. After 10:00 PM the ship felt like a ghost ship.

 

 

 

Really enjoying reading this, we are on the Star March 30/19 . One quick question please.....when you say early show is full...is that the 7 o’clock show or the 9 o’clock?

Thank you

Brockmom

 

 

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[roxievegas]

there are two shows normally. But looking at the patters I checked to see the times and on Tuesday, April 3rd - they only had one show at 8:30 pm - a Magic to Do. On another day they had two shows one at 8:00 pm and then 10:00 pm. The first show is always busy and everyone complained about the long lines or no seating if you did not get there one hour early. If you can stay up late, then do the second show. You need to check the patter each day to see what is going to be showing and the times.

[hillslife]

On our cruise, seating was so bad they shortened the shows and for production shows made three shows 630, 800 and 10 PM... that helped but 8p was always over filled

[Thrak]

On our last two cruises we just gave in and went early. We got a drink and tried to go early enough to have seating with the railing in front of us so there was a nice spot to put the drink. Then we just relaxed (well... as much as one can relax in those seats) and read until showtime. It's not ideal but it worked. Of course there were a lot of folks who went early in order to actually get a seat and that, in turn, contributes to the issue of people showing up on time for the show and finding limited seating.

[bobby3334]

With regard to show times in general there was a golden age several years ago that lasted only a year or so when there were 3 shows: 7, 830, and 10. You could go in 5 minutes before and find a very nice seat. I asked the cruise director why they had gone back to two. The answer was someone in the head office (who likely had never been on a ship) had all count the #s and horror none was jammed with standing room only which they saw as an indicator that passengers would think they were no good so they ordered that they return to the two shows with standing room only. Mike

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[Thrak]

This was a great review and it was so much fun to read. It was really nice to see several of our fellow cruisers from the Oct 2017 Cruise posting.

There isn't a day that goes by without thinking about the great time and fantastic people who we were so fortunate enough to meet. Just want to say Hi to Paul929207 & Thrak!

There was a lot of effort by our Coordinators into getting the island tours put together. If we are fortunate enough to take this cruise again,we can only hope that there are enough people who are willing to volunteer to take on the challenge of working up the tours.

Just Mike ;p;p

 

Hey there, Mike. Hope you and Miss Betty are doing well. Hope you haven't been "lost at sea in shark infested waters for a while". :D We truly enjoyed meeting you on the cruise and also appreciated your work setting up the Shutterfly site for the roll call. Hope to sail with you again one of these days.

[Papa Yoda]

Towards the end of this March cruise they did add a 3rd show from time to time. We also heard there were 2 hour waits. We only went to the Crew Show.

 

On the Ships tour, the Entertainment Technical Director said it became really bad with Anytime Dining with the majority trying for one show time.

 

PS: the chair's left arm wood trim lifts up and has a lift out table for your drinks.

[Shmoo here]

Towards the end of this March cruise they did add a 3rd show from time to time. We also heard there were 2 hour waits. We only went to the Crew Show.

 

On the Ships tour, the Entertainment Technical Director said it became really bad with Anytime Dining with the majority trying for one show time.

 

PS: the chair's left arm wood trim lifts up and has a lift out table for your drinks.

Hmm.... I thought the table was in the right arm.... (does it vary by ship?) On the Star it was on the right.

[Thrak]

Towards the end of this March cruise they did add a 3rd show from time to time. We also heard there were 2 hour waits. We only went to the Crew Show.

 

On the Ships tour, the Entertainment Technical Director said it became really bad with Anytime Dining with the majority trying for one show time.

 

PS: the chair's left arm wood trim lifts up and has a lift out table for your drinks.

 

If you are shaped like many of us that little table is a bit of a tight fit... :o

[caribill]

On our cruise, seating was so bad they shortened the shows and for production shows made three shows 630, 800 and 10 PM... that helped but 8p was always over filled

 

Several years ago they shortened most shows to about 35 minutes. Are you saying they shortened them even more for your cruise?

[caribill]

 

PS: the chair's left arm wood trim lifts up and has a lift out table for your drinks.

 

Hmm.... I thought the table was in the right arm.... (does it vary by ship?) On the Star it was on the right.

 

It is on the right.

 

Except on the Royal class which does not have that feature at all.

[Papa Yoda]

Hmm.... I thought the table was in the right arm.... (does it vary by ship?) On the Star it was on the right.

 

 

Could be since I started by looking in the right side arm, but it was in the left one - Emerald Princess lowest level Port side. So maybe it is a side to side thing....