Looking to book Hawaii, first time, need Help.

[Loralu]

:)Wanting to book our first Hawaii Cruise - leaving from the West coast, so 14-15 day. I would like recommendations on EVerything from Cruise line to pre and post Hotel Stay in California, best depart port?, and everything in between.

Our plan is to cruise late this year, between Sept and Jan. There will be 3 of us ladies - ages 47-70, from Michigan.

Cruise line???? Who has the best service? best balcony cabin for views???

Time of year: Would like to see Whales, and have warm temps.

[karatemom2]

Hi Loralu. Since you are planning a round trip cruise from the West Coast you might want to check out the following thread. Lots of good information from those doing round trip cruises. Here is a link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=845446

 

We have done the round trip twice with Princess in December and we are planning a third trip this Christmas. We really like Princess and find the service, food, activities and entertainment to be really excellent. I can see you have been on a number of different lines so you might want to also check out the Hawaii itineraries of some of the other lines to get a good comparison.

 

The best time to see whales would be from late December to early April. We have seen them on our last two trips at the end of December which is considered the early part of the season. I think peak time would be more Jan-March. The weather on the Pacific crossing can be a bit cold and breezy the first day or two going and coming any time of year, but particularly in the winter months you stand a higher chance of cold and rain on the West Coast. We have found that once we get to Hawaii, it warms up and on both of our trips temperatures in the islands have been in the mid to high 70's each day. We did get quite a bit of rain in Hawaii on our last trip, but it wasn't cold or uncomfortable, just very wet! Somehow being wet in Hawaii doesn't seem bad at all.

[Loralu]

Thank you for the information - really appreciate it.

 

We have cruised Princess before - and I am leaning to Golden for this one simply because it meets our needs.

 

Is there a preferred side of the ship for views on Golden? What can you tell me about the balcony cabins?

 

thanks again

[karatemom2]

Thank you for the information - really appreciate it.

 

We have cruised Princess before - and I am leaning to Golden for this one simply because it meets our needs.

 

Is there a preferred side of the ship for views on Golden? What can you tell me about the balcony cabins?

 

thanks again

 

We have only done ocean view or inside, so I can't be much help regarding the balcony cabins. But you might post this question in the Round Trip thread that I linked in my first response. There are a number of people posting there who have either been on or are going on the Golden soon and I'm sure some of them could probably tell you more about the balconies.

 

Also, here is a link to a live post from someone on the current Golden cruise. If you post your question in her thread she might be able to help. She is actually on the ship right now.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=921891

[Sea Hag]

Is there a preferred side of the ship for views on Golden? What can you tell me about the balcony cabins?

 

We're booked on the 12/6 sailing of the Golden. I usually don't care which side of the ship, but for this one I booked Starboard. If the ship follows direction that's shown on the diagrams, that side is looking towards the islands more than port is. They were having some really good pricing on the 12/6 sailing the last few days - so good that I switched our sailing from 2/14/10 to the 12/6/09 sailing. You might want to check it out and see what kind of deal you can get on the one.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

Since you are looking at a balcony cabin I would definitely book one on the caribe deck. It has the largest balconies (9X9), half covered and half uncovered so you can have sun or shade depending on the day. Mini suites have a 9X7 balcony (uncovered) and other balconies are 9X5 (some covered and some uncovered).

 

We're going on the Golden the end of January 2010 and have a BA on the caribe deck because of the larger balconies and 1/2 covered and 1/2 uncovered.

 

Enjoy your cruise!