Princess Star Hawaii

[Cocoreef]

I have a 15 day cruise booked next January from LA to Hawaii on the Princess Star. Can anyone who has taken this trip that time of year tell me what to expect weather wise?  Also comments about Princess Star and entertainment, food, etc would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

[skynight]

8 hours ago, Cocoreef said:

I have a 15 day cruise booked next January from LA to Hawaii on the Princess Star. Can anyone who has taken this trip that time of year tell me what to expect weather wise?  Also comments about Princess Star and entertainment, food, etc would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

Prepare for cool weather and choppy seas both coming and going. It's more normal in the open Pacific than smooth sailing and hot temperatures. Bring a jacket or sweatshirt for on ship. There probably will not be lots of sitting around the pool time. Think indoor activities while at sea. Hawaii will be tropical, but prepare for rain.

Tiki Dave told us that he and Leialoha, expect to be on board the Star Princess as the Hawaiian ambassadors offering progressive ukulele and hula instruction, craft making and providing Hawaiian themed entertainment. Tiki Dave will also have Hawaiian enrichment port talks in the morning. Additionally a naturalist and a lecturer may be on board giving talks. There will be production shows in the theater and guest entertainers such as comics, singers, instrumentalists in both the theater and the Vista Lounge. There will be lots of trivia, all the normal evening game shows like the marriage game and others, probably some theme nights, karaoke, live music and dancing in lounges around the ship, and more. Don't forget bingo. They have it every sea day, and the casino will be open to accept your donations. The casino is closed for the four days while in Hawaiian waters.

Food, very subjective, what you may consider sub par, others consider good. But, you will be hard pressed not to gain some weight.

Note: the Star has an indoor pool.

Edited March 28, 2019 by skynight

[drjpreston]

My DW and I have done this twice in January and will again next January for our 50th Anniversary.  As stated above.  The first couple of days out and last couple of days has been cool with rough seas on both of our trips.  Plenty of indoor activity for us for those days.  We did not take advantage but the hot tubes were being used and not effected by the weather.  Others still wore a jacket and found a chair to read outside in the afternoons.  We still enjoyed MUTS.   The crew provided us blankets and popcorn. 

As we got closer to Hawaii the weather got warmer.  We have been fortunate and have had great short sleeve weather on each of our trips once we reached Hawaii.  I think I remember a little sunburn each time on the top of my head due to lack of hair. LOL.  I do not recall needing a jacket in Encenada. 

 

[BarbinMich]

In the past we've rented a condo on Kauai and/or Maui in January.  Weather was always great!

[XBGuy]

In January 2016 we were on the Golden Princess for the Los Angeles-HI R/T.

 

The day before embarkation I received e-mails and text messages from Princess requesting that we delay arrival at the port until after 2:00 pm.  The Golden Princess was doing the same itinerary prior to ours and had encountered heavy weather (fringe of a hurricane) on it's return from Hawaii.  As a result, its arrival into Los Angeles was expected to be delayed by several hours.

 

The next day I checked the Princess web site before 8:00 am, and, from the Golden Princess' web cam, I could see that the ship was docked at San Pedro.  We had no problem boarding around noon.

 

On departure the captain made an announcement that in order to skirt the dregs of that hurricane, we would be sailing more westerly than normal and, then, make a sharp left turn to the south.  We arrived on time in Hilo.  I don't remember much about the first sea days other that it was not particularly bumpy.  So, we did, in fact, avoid any of the bad effects of that storm.  

 

Chatting with various restaurant servers, it sounded like their job was very difficult on the inbound leg of that previous cruise.  It sounded like it was pretty hard to poor coffee into a cup or wine into a glass that was setting on a moving table.

I remember that the weather in Hawaii was quite pleasant.  I don't recall any rain in any of the ports.

 

I will say that the whale watching was outstanding.  As we were leaving Kauai a mother and a calf swam next to us for a while.  At the Maui stop my wife did not go into Lahaina, at all.  She spent the entire day on our balcony with her binoculars watching whales.  Apparently, many of them were quite frisky.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Expect big waves in January.  That's when the biggest swells hit the Hawaiian islands.  Weather should be very nice on departing (cool, possible rain) but once you get closer to the islands, it should warm up quite a bit.  Rain still possible though but January is pretty dry compared to other months there.

Edited March 28, 2019 by DrivesLikeMario

[gjkov]

Can we expect the same kind of weather and seas for the same itinerary in November?

[Desert Cruizers]

We just finished the March 11th sailing on the Emerald and had the roughest seas the first night I had ever experienced. Weather was good but nights cool for sitting out to watch the movies, many bundled up so would think January would be even colder at night. Once arriving at the ports weather very good.