PaperSniper4

Or SuperShuttle which probably would cost less.

Thanks, good point. I believe I have used those in other airports and it worked out well. Thanks for the reminder..........:o

Well, my wife and I booked the cruise today. Looking forward to those sea days; always our most favorite activity! I spent most of my first 8 years on Oahu where my dad was stationed with the Navy. I also spend some time there while I was in the Navy. I am retired now. My wife Kathy and I love to cruise and travel in general. Looking forward to seeing the Grand, a ship on which we have not sailed, although we have sailed on her sister ships.

We are flying out from Memphis. We will probably fly out the day before and stay in a hotel near the ship. So we'd love to hear from anyone about the hotels, transportation to/from the ship, etc. I understand Princess offers airport-ship-airport transfers for $58, which is a great price I think, but if we stay at a hotel I suppose we'll have to use a cab.

Looking forward to another wonderful ocean voyage.

PS - I was naval aviation, not the ship-Navy; otherwise I might be sick of ships!:cool:

Too early, but I know Dave (Elua) has requested the Ruby after the first of the year.

We are booked on the Ruby in Feb, so we are hoping to finally see them.:)

 

Patti

Well dang! I would really like to see Elua again. Dave is a great singer and uke instructor, and I counted him as a friend when we sailed in the past. We sailed on the Golden Princess twice before and he and Leialoha were on board both times. But this time we figured we'd do the cruise a little different, and elected to sail on the Grand Princess out of San Fran. Haven't seen SF in several years, and never sailed under the Golden Gate. Oh well, I'm sure Princess will have similar activities scheduled for the Grand in April 2016.

That's the plan anyway - I need to call my TA and book the cruise!:cool:

Doug

Aloha Gang!

We are sorry we will not be joining you on this fabulous itinerary. We understand Brian & Rowena Vasquez will be onboard from October 17th until October 23rd. They will be conducting the Hawaiian program until the ship gets to Honolulu. Enjoy! They're beautiful people and Brian's 'ukulele playing is phenomenal!

Aloha, Lokelina & Kimo

Makani E

This is an old thread, but I'm not having much luck finding the answer to this elsewhere, even though it's still a long way off:

In April 2016, does anyone know who the cruise director will be, and who will be doing the uke/lei/hula lessons on the Grand Princess (2 April 2016 sailing)?

This will be our third Hawaii cruise; the other two were on the Golden out of San Pedro. David Cole and Elua were on both and we had a terrific and entertaining time. I doubt we'll be lucky enough to have them this time, but it would be great!

Thanks!

Grab the Caribe deck balcony! ;)

I believe I will, sir! You must be surface Navy? I was Naval Air for 27 years - retired in 1994.:cool:

Long Answer, Port and Starboard cabins, not aft cabins.

Caribe Deck has cats. BE, B2 and BD. The balcony size is 9'x9' half covered half uncovered.

Baja Deck has cats. BA, BB, BD, BE. The Balcony size is 9'x5' covered.

 

Almost all cabins have the same interiors, but there are a few cabins that have a slight difference. The difference is noted in red when you look at the cabin in the on line deck plans. Cabin B429 is an example.

 

Princess always has the option to upgrade you to a higher cat. cabin. It is much less likely if you have your booking marked 'no upgrade.' This is mentioned because you could select a BD cabin on the Caribe Deck with the large balcony and Princess could upgrade you a cat BA, BB, BC on Lido, Aloha or Baja Decks with the smaller balconies, or to one of the aft facing B4 cabins.

Hope this explanation helps.

Yes, that is very, very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to reply.:cool:

Yeah, we always mark our cabin "no upgrade" when we book, as the cruise line's idea of an upgrade is often not what we consider an upgrade. Very good advice!

I apologize, but could not find this information using the Search function.....

I understand the balconies on the Grand Princess Caribe deck are larger than those on many(/most/all?) other decks. I am specifically comparing the BE, BD, B2 category cabins on the Carib deck.

The price for a balcony cabin on the Caribe deck and Baja decks appears to be the same or close, but can anyone verify the balconies on the Baja deck are the larger size as are those on the Caribe deck? I just don't trust my TA to answer this question, but I know the good people here can!:cool:

Thanks y'all.

Doug

Thank you all very much!:D

We have sailed on the Ruby and Golden Princess and enjoyed the larger balconies on their Caribe deck. We have the choice next time of sailing on the Star or Grand Princess. Can anyone please verify the Star also has the larger balconies as the Golden and Ruby?

Thanks.:cool:

OP sailed on NCL Jewel last year, before Dream. Maybe they have coffee makers. EM

You are correct.....how'd you know that?:confused:

I'm really looking forward to my cruise on Magic next year, but admit that I will miss the coffee maker we had in our cabin with NCL. Much more convenient than waiting for room service to arrive or even going to the Lido deck to get coffee to bring back.

We were on the NCL Jewel last March. Yeah, I liked that coffee maker also, but it's not a big deal. Just about everything else is more important than that coffee maker in the cabin. On every other ship on which we've sailed going up to the lido for two insulated cups is my morning task. We are very early risers and find that the "room service" delivery time isn't precise enough for us.....besides, some days we're up at 0400, others it might be 0600. The walk to the lido or the coffee maker makes life a little easier......but heck, we're still on a cruise ship!:cool:

Oh my, oh my, color me embarrassed!:o

We took two cruises last year, one on the Dream, one on the NCL Jewel. I'd forgotten until my wife reminded me it was the Jewel, not the Dream, that had a coffee maker in the cabin. I feel like an idiot!:eek:

Someone mentioned a carafe. I never thought of that before, and will check that out. We are getting ready to book a cruise next winter on the Dream (not the Jewel!) so I now am reminded which has the coffee maker in the room. I was surprised that the Jewel had one, as none of their other two ships on which we've sailed (Spirit, Star) had them, and of course no CCL, RCI, Princess has had them either.

My embarrassing question just shows you what you young folk will be doing when you reach my age!:eek:

We sailed on the Dream last year. Had a balcony cabin on deck 8 or 9. The cabin had a coffee maker. Can anyone verify that the cove cabins also have a coffee maker. I thought I'd never use the one last year, but actually used it quite a few times.

Thanks.

:cool:

just came off the dream saturday,

 

I booked a 8b balcony cabin. Didn't like it at all because the lanai on the dream is a few decks down.

 

I like to sit out there at night and have a drink, just me and the ocean, or maybe my ipod. I find this very relaxing. I also like to sleep with the balcony door open and listen to the sounds of the waves.

 

Impossible on the dream however

 

the lanai sends tons of light into the cabin, also drunks come out of the casino or club hooting and hollering like people do at 3-4am when the club closes and they are drunk. Also, instead of looking down directly on the water you see this deck.

 

I would book the cove balcony, its cheaper and doesn't have any of these issues. My friends were booked in a 7c and I loved it and was jealous of them. We spent all our time hanging out in there room.

I echo your statements. We also chose a higher priced balcony cabin and all we saw outside was noisy kids in the hot tub. Next time it's a cover cabin or a different ship!

This was NOT true for us. We were on the Sunshine over thanksgiving 2014 and purchased a two collectable knives in Roatan. One was small, 2 inches and the other was a larger knife 6 inches. Both were in hand carved leather cases with mahogany wood accents, hence the collectable part. our packages were scanned when we came back on board and the larger knife was taken out of the case and we were given the case back. They did not even let the knife on the boat. We were told we could go return it (it was too late to do that) or they would throw it out. so we lost the knife but were allowed to keep the smaller one.

CCL's web site prohibits knives with a blade over 4 inches, and I am assuming your larger knife had a 6 inch blade. Hence you could not bring it on board even to have them "store" it for you until the end of the cruise. That was a shame; I've seen those knives with the wooden handles are they are nice looking.

Others wanting to pick up a larger knife can ask if the shop can to ship the knife back to a home address. That might not be possible or legal, I do not know.

Doug

Knives can be a hit or miss thing. Federal law prohibits carrying Gravity Knives and Switchblades, no exception. In the past any type of blade would be seized if you attempted to board a plan. If you pack on carry a knife you should have to expect that it may be termed contraband and seized, hopefully to be returned at the end of the cruise.

 

One question, wouldn't one knife be sufficient?

I'm familiar with the laws pertaining to the two types of knives you mention. I don't even have any interest in them. I don't fly to my cruise origination port, so confiscation of any knife I had in my carry on bag or person is not a concern of mine.

However, should the cruise line attempt to confiscate a knife which is NOT prohibited by their own regulations, I'd raise a big stink! Returned later or not. :cool:

Why more than the one knife you ask? No one knife does everything I need: corkscrew, scissors, general purpose cutting tool. The Swiss Army "Camper <?>" knife I bring in my checked shaving kit comes closest, lacking only scissors, but it's much too big and bulky to carry around in my pocket. I suppose I could get by with the tiny Swiss Army "Classic", but its blade is a little small and weak for some tasks, like cutting or peeling a lime, apple, etc. Besides, the small pocket knives I bring have much sharper blades than the Classic, and do a better job and are easier and safer to manipulate because they are just a bit larger.

Doug

You can not take and use a knife of any sort on to the ship. You can't even bring scissors and no this is not a guess, I work at a cruise port.

Joke right? Remember you're dealing with experienced cruisers on this forum.....:cool:

When my family went on our last cruise my DH forgot he had his small pocket knife in his pocket and started to panic but the security guard joked with us and said "we aren't royal Caribbean, you can bring it on board." As far as I know he always had it in his pocket when we left the ship and never had any problems getting on or off with it. I think you should be fine.

Interesting. From that comment I'd assume RCI's regulations on pocket knives must be stricter. I've not sailed on RCI for years, but probably will in the next couple of years just for variation. I'll be sure to check their rules carefully. Thanks.

You must not be from Hampton Roads. Someone is shot every day.

Hey guys....pocket knife.....reboarding the ship; remember?:cool:

I carry a locking blade under 3 inches in my back pack, never a problem, it is my pill cutter.

Thanks. Yeah, I forgot about using the knife if I have to split some pills.

I keep a pocket knife in my backpack and it goes through the scanner w/o a problem. My pocket knife is under 3" non locking.

Thanks. What I would take ashore is identical, so I anticipate no problems. Thanks for the reply.

You would not want to know what I carry concealed in my home state. :D

Well, me too, but that's a different topic and sure to make this thread go off on a tangent quickly!;)

Doug

all we need is 3000 people on board with a knife in their pocket

No sure what you mean....all we need for what?

I take my pocket knife on board and on shore without a issue, it's a Yankee thing. :D

Thanks. Looking at your signature you have cruised a lot also, so your comment is appreciated!

Question though: what size pocket knife? Mine will be a Spyderco Dragonfly 2 or a Byrd Robin 2; both of which have a lockable blade just under 2.5 inches. I do not anticipate a problem, but it's always good to hear from someone who has experience. I have left my knife on board several times when I wished later I'd had it with me.

Doug

If they should decided to detain it, it will be tagged for you and you can reclaim it before debarkation. EM

Well yes, but that's not my concern. I use the knife while on board, and would also like to have that option ashore. I'm not worried about not getting the knife back as I only take an inexpensive pocket knife on the cruises.

Doug