SiliconCruiser

Roberts Tours is the largest tour operator on the islands. They also contract with Princess for many of their excursions, which are often abbreviated versions of tours that Roberts offer. They're also the company that is contracted to provide local transit services for many of the Hawaiian municipalities. If you can walk a couple of blocks from the pier, you can take the local bus (Da Bus) to Pearl. Get a day pass so that you can also stop off at Iolani Palace on the way back (Steve and Dano aren't there. 😉) You can also go the other direction to Waikiki if you want (on the same day pass.) Be sure to check out the National Park Service site about making reservations for the Arizona Memorial (no charge other than a dollar for the processing. I have a friend who lives in the Waikiki area and has never owned a car in the 10 or so years that he has been there. People even go to Costco and then get on Da Bus with their box of purchases (you'll see that coming back from Pearl.)

Your cruise history and status will have this credited as two separate cruises. Cabin availability for your 14 day b2b would have to be a single cabin that is available on both legs of the cruise. Your first embarkation would be like any other cruise. The disembarkation/embarkation would be with all the other passengers that are also on the b2b. You'll probably be the last group off (before the walk off the Covid cases) and you'll be walked off the ship as a group and go to a holding area at the terminal and walked back on the ship (no security, just get off the ship so that they can say the ship is empty.) If you choose to leave the ship during that day, you'll be given a transit card so that you don't have to go through all the other stuff, and you'll just go back on the ship when you return, but you will have to go through security. This was our last cruise in December 2019 before the world came to a halt.

We have only had TD once, years ago on our first Princess cruise. Even with Anytime Dining we often ended up with the same table and same wait staff. The same thing happened in July with DMW, we eventually ended up with the same table and wait staff including one night when we arrived an hour later than normal. There was a greeter that just diverted us to that table regardless of where the host/hostesses had told to seat us.

Why? I'm only posting based upon real life experiences. Sorry if your web based beliefs are different.

I put my spirits in plastic bottles so that there will not be any scrutiny. I have never encountered an obstacle, but those who like to quote Google and other website information will most likely differ.

How about ... when you reach a certain loyalty level, Princess stop trying to sell you worthless merchandise, and less than honest sales pitches from the contractors that they have on board along with the ones that they have at the cruise ports. Even better if they would stop trying to sell you something every time you turned around on the ship. I was fortunate to have been warned of this before my first Princess cruise, but since I had worked in consumer protection I found their pitches laughable. But then I realized that there were probably passengers who were falling victim to them.

We were on an Alaskan cruise in the middle of summer break. While Carnival's Princess and Holland America brands tend to focus their marketing towards an older (that they also presume to be more gullible) demographic, we saw quite a few multi-generational families on this cruise. There was this Chinese-American family of 8 or 10 that sat at the table across from us every night. With their menu selections, there was always a plate of white rice, along with a bottle of red wine and a glass of brown stuff (presumably cognac) for grandpa. Something very strange about the setup though; in addition to additional gratuities that were provided to the wait staff, they started to buy drinks and share their wine with the wait-staff as well. I had to presume that they were told to accept and consume the drinks since they did so openly at the table while toasting their benefactors. And at least on one night the head waiter also joined them. Money talks! Sorry for straying away from your question, but in the middle of summer in Alaska there are a number of younger families on board, which is probably a good alternative to Carnival's other brand Carnival, which tends to appeal to a younger 'party' crowd.

And you base this on what?

The Plus package requires that at least two people in a cabin participate. So each person is required to consume about 3 alcoholic beverages per 24 hour day to break even, or up to 15 drinks per person per day. My DW does not consume alcohol, and she will not let me consume her share. So bollocks to that scheme. It might be better for me to visit that gathering with Friends of Bill W. and Doctor Bob (yeah, i know that is not how it is listed in the Patter.)

They'll get you on the cheapest flights, convenience not being a factor. Probably on flights that you would not book for yourself, but they'll be cheap.

Sorry, could help but think of the hurricane challenges that they're facing right now ...

We don't buy the Plus. My DW doesn't drink, and she won't let me drink her share ... 🤣 So the setup will help along with the 750 ml that I bring on board. We already get Priority Boarding, ahead of PES, so if we use our status, we have to board later. Never had a problem with tendering except in Cabo San Lucas where they contract with local motorized row boat operators in addition to using their own lifeboat/tenders. (Then there was the clown (Princess crew member) who thought he could put 300 people into a tender (that's what they're rated for evacuation purposes.)

Of course you can. If it is locally made, as are many of the Asian style jerky it may be made is small quantities for local distribution. There used to be places in San Francisco's Chinatown that did that, don't know if any are still around (anywhere in the City.) Oddly enough, Costco (!), is starting to stock items from the SoCal Asian communities.

It will really depend upon your connection. If your cell phone is capable of wi-fi calling, you may be able to use your phone as you normally would, and it will probably be better than using a third-party app (though I do find Google Voice handy as an alternative, and they have great foreign rates if you need to call outside of North America.) Being close to the equator, you might get very good reception.

There are a lot of folks who get confused when I tell them I was involved with social media (for pay) many years before Al Gore invented the Internet.

It's the Princess Plus package ... 😂 Ti many martoonis ...😄

You can share the access with anyone you choose to. We bought the 4 device package because it would cost us $10/Day either way, and we each connected two devices.

Wow, if this had been posted in one of the Facebook Princess group it would have been responded to by a bunch of naysayers parroting the Princess website about alcoholic beverage policies. Also the same experience from a few threads on this site as well. Indeed the responses have been more in line with actual experiences that others have found. So ... I'll add mine. Aside from the embarkation ports I have never had any one express any concern about liquids brought back on board unless they were blatantly brought back in a liquor store gift bag with the packaging prominently displayed. Generally bottles (or cans) brought back in backpacks or carry-on luggage are not challenged at all. On our second cruise many years ago, we had met someone for lunch in Shanghai (very elaborate lunch, I'm afraid I know how much the tab was (4 figures in USD.) Our host ordered this bottle of rice whiskey (probably also very expensive) and he and I only consumed a little bit of it. Long story short, he insisted that I take the remainder with us. Fearing that the bottle might attract attention (remember this was only our second cruise,) I dumped the contents from a water bottle into a bowl and poured the clear liquid into the water bottle and put it in the bottle carrier of a backpack. No one even blinked. (took me forever to consume it though, give than it is around 130 proof and does not appeal to the Western palette.)

Understood, but Princess definitions are often left to the discretion of their crew members (including security) and English is not always their primary language.

That looks a lot like a Black and Decker kettle that I had about 10 years ago. I'm sure it would be confiscated if I tried to bring it on board myself.

Might want to take a look at their updated page (Sept. 14) Looks like cruises out of LA are requiring testing now. https://www.princess.com/plan/cruise-with-confidence/cruise-health/vaccine-testing-requirements/

Your cruise includes Ensenada, so the portion of that would be applicable would be "Voyages Departing from the United States, United Kingdom & Europe" The message that you received would be consistent with the information on the web site. Not sure what the rest of the message you received might entail. According to the Princess guidelines, anyone over the age of 5 would require testing if they are not fully vaccinated.

I used to always bring a tux for formal night, but I started to feel out of place. So I switched to a suit, then to a blazer/dress shirt/tie/slacks, then I stopped wearing the tie, and on our next cruises I may just wear a dress shirt and jeans, or polo shirt with slacks, I'll probably bring a tie, but don't know if I'll wear it. The only thing is that the tux was only being used for cruises; guess it will spend a lot of time in the closet.

The tap water on the ships is salt water, straight from the sea! That being said ... ships have desalination plants that convert salt water into potable drinking water (much the same as it does in Middle Eastern countries.) The water that comes out of the tap from a cruise ship is probably as clean (maybe more so) than the water out of your tap at home. While there will be some that will say they find tastes that do not suit their palettes, it is most likely cleaner than the bottled water that you pay for on the ship, or the stuff that gets delivered to your home or office.

I didn't know that pizza purist were from New York ...