princess_blue

As far as food goes on gala night from my experience on HAL, there really isn't a step up in terms of food except maybe for the lobster on one of those nights.

Thanks for sharing your experience and sorry to hear. We will be on this ship later in February. Slightly off topic, but could you provide some more details on the port stops, particularly Thailand (Laem Chabang) and Vietnam(Phu My)? Just wondering since a couple of those ports are far from the city center in the middle of nowhere and wanted to know if you prebooked transportation or used the ship excursions. Thank you

How do you get these offers? Do they come in an email? Or does it pop up somewhere on the Holland website? Just curious, thank you

I have always brought a stanley thermos packed in a bag or backpack no problem at all in northern europe, hawaii, alaska, or panama.

The only time bags were searched upon leaving the ship was in Cabo, but even then the customs folks weren't looking that hard.

yes it is and I believe they had it for 2 nights on the 7 day sailings

Hi, are you referring to the cabins on fiesta deck 6? If so, my mom was booked in one of the those cabins, and the category was OC. They are a bit more modern than the original rooms and come with the better lighting. Beds are placed against the wall and there is a huge window. It is the same size as the windows you see in the dining rooms. The ceiling height is also taller, but my mom said the AC unit was louder than normal. The shower was more or less the same; I think the shower head was swivel-based, but was not height adjustable or handheld.

Hope that helps. thanks and have a great cruise!

Hi Princess Blue...

Just a question about the ship if you don't mind. I am booked on the 12/10 sailing (if it actually is sailing on 12/10). How are the pillows onboard. I have seen it greatly vary amongst different Princess ships. One time on the Caribbean Princess, they gave us pillows that were like slates of rock. I asked for something softer .. maybe feather ... OMG ... my room steward looked at me like I was nuts. I don't like that far from the pier and although I am traveling light (again, if we are a go) but might be worth it to take a pillow if they are horrible. It sounds like such a minor thing after what you've all been through ... but your response would be most appreciated!!

Hi, I stayed on the Emerald deck in an oceanview room. I am not much of a pillow expert, but I would say the pillows were on the soft side. I had a twin bed configuration so each bed had two pillows. Sometimes I would sleep without the pillows and use them to prop up my knees to ease pressure off my bad back, but I would say the pillows weren't very supportive. As for the bed, I can definitely say it is bit on the soft side or perhaps "moderate to heavily used". Hope that helps. Thanks

I am one of the passengers that disembarked in Honolulu and opted to fly back to sfo. I don't really have anything to complain about other than the disappointment of not getting to see the other islands. For me, it was more of a personal preference as we had already experienced quite a few sea days on our way there and experienced most of the onboard food and entertainment. I can understand other people complaining if they are currently working and it took quite some time to acquire the paid time off at work only to find out the 15 night cruise they signed up for only visited Honolulu.

I think Princess did an excellent job with keeping the passengers happy. I enjoyed my stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki and had no issues with the booked flight out of Hawaii.

Here are a couple of poor quality photos (my apologies) of the view from the balcony of the hotel room just after sunset and after sunset with the grand princess departing in the background.

Some interesting stories here in this thread...I guess I will share one here. I won't name the cruise line since the incident is under NDA.

The story starts in the dining room when a passenger sees something that another passenger was wearing something that was considered rude or inappropriate. The article in question wasn't anything offensive in and of itself and is something that is worn by many people everyday. So the passenger flags a waiter down and requests that the waiter remedy the situation by having the offending passenger remove the article. So the waiter walks over to the other passenger and politely asks the passenger to remove the article. I'm not sure what was said, but the passenger did not remove the article. Once again the initiating passenger flags the waiter down and makes the request again. This time, the waiter went over and forcibly removed the article off the passenger.

When it was all said and done, the cruise line fully compensated the 'rude' passenger and more.