93yearsyoung

I was 3 1/2 or so, maybe 4. I remember having to get dressed in my best clothes every night for dinner. And I remember the pool. My biggest memory was the arrival in Honolulu. There was a big crowd there, a band was playing and everyone seemed as happy as can be so I was happy too.

Yes there are taxis, but don't use Viator. They don't have any tours, they are just a reseller. FInd the underlying company and book direct.

Not many resorts on the South Shore. Maybe the Kahala Resort, Halekulani, Royal Hawaiian or Hilton Hawaiian Village. The only places I'd stay at the Hilton are the Rainbow Tower or Ali'i Tower.

My first time on a ship was when ocean liners weren't a vacation, they were a necessity. In 1933 we took the SS Monterey from California to Honolulu. Three of my four grandparents had been born in the Territory of Hawaii and two of the four still lived there. That 1933 trip the first of many on Matson Lines for the next 30 years. I didn't fly to Hawaii until 1959. My last ocean voyage to Hawaii (in the old era) was on the President Roosevelt in 1969 or 1970. I wouldn't sail to Hawaii again until 2009 or so, when we took a HAL roundtrip from San Diego. We've done the Princess LA roundtrip three times now with a fourth upcoming in about 50 days.

The TS Restaurants are a chain, albeit a small one and we really like them. We go to Duke's Huntington Beach and Jake's Del Mar a good bit, and now Duke's in La Jolla too since it opened.

Any shuttle or ride share is likely to be very expensive, because the odds of a return fare are highly unlikely.

I'd say late September to mid November and May to mid June. We avoid school vacations unless we are taking the great-grandkids.

Duke's is nothing close to a tiki bar, but that link on tiki bars on Kauai called Keoki's Paradise a tiki bar and it is not either. They are both TS Restaurant Group restaurants along with Hula Grill (Maui & Oahu), Leilani's and Kimo's (Maui), Duke's (Waikiki, Maui, Kauai, Malibu, La Jolla and Huntington Beach). They all have a Hawaiian theme, but are not tiki bars. Tikis Grill and Bar in Waikiki is another Hawaiian themed restaurant that isn't a tiki bar. Having an Eiffel Tower doesn't make it France, otherwise they'd be speaking French in Las Vegas.

And here I am wondering where Grand Theft Auto, Ontario is 🤣

Tiki Iniki is Todd Rundgren's place. Never been to Skull & Crown because it just didn't seem that interesting. There are just too many other places in Honolulu we like to go to. We go to La Mariana out of nostalgia once in awhile. It was there when my husband was stationed at Pearl, but ironically we never went in those days. Our cocktail places of choice back then were the House Without A Key and the The Banyan Courtyard. We went to the Banyan Courtyard every Sunday to watch Webley Edwards broadcast Hawaii Calls. Those two spots feel more like old Hawaii/real Hawaii to me. We are sure to visit the House Without A Key during our upcoming cruise.

Does Princess have slots like from Vegas, Wheel of Fortune and Mega Millions?

It is the Medallion, which is one reason the Medallion kind of creeps me out. It seems like a Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov book come to life.

I've only used the modern LA subways a few times, but I found them much cleaner than NYC subways. There is probably very little traffic between Union Station and the Cruise Port (traffic mean people wanting to go from one to the other) that a dedicated shuttle would surely be a money loser.

Everyone is entitled to their own idea of what a tiki bar is, but I think La Mariana is the last tiki bar in Hawaii. I would not call any of the TS Restaurants "tiki bars", they are Hawaiian or tropical themed restaurants. Todd Rundgren's restaurant on Kauai is nice and fun but is in no way a tiki bar.

We never discuss "how far" in So Cal, we always refer to "how long" (as in timewise) and our answer differ depending on time of day, day of week and sometimes time of year. The Embassy Suites LAX is fine. The DoubleTree San Pedro is fine. Frankly I'd rather use the Embassy Suites free shuttle at LAX and order an Uber to the hotel the next morning than having to hassle with the Uber set up at LAX to get to the DoubleTree San Pedro. Using Uber at LAX requires a shuttle ride to a secondary location, which is a hassle.

We don't stay at the Crowne Plaza when we cruise from San Pedro because we live so close, but we do go to San Pedro once a month to meet friends who live in Palos Verdes for lunch and the Green Onion, close to the CP is one of our regulars.

Hopefully you are not flying in the day of the cruise. So many cancellations and delays these days.

No shuttle, but if you don't have much luggage you could take the Blue Line subway to its end in Long Beach, then uber or lyft from there.

We are scheduled for our 5th Hawaii round trip from the West Coast upcoming. We love sea days obviously. When you have 5 consecutive sea days going to Hawaii or 7 consecutive doing a South Seas or Asia trip, it is very different from 2 consecutive sea days in the Caribbean or Europe. On sea days like Hawaii or South Pacific you develop a rhythm and they are never boring. There is lots to do and yet still very relaxing. When we were younger we loved the new port or new island every day cruises, but now we love our sea days on longer cruises.

As long as you aren't waiting 10 minutes for the limo. The wheelchair handlers only have so much time for each person.

Anything but those two hotels.

Good move. There are some wonderful restaurants near by.

Definitely fly into SNA over LAX. LAX is a terrible airport. Newport Beach, Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach are nothing at all like Los Angeles. They are incredible beach communities.

The PCC is a great place, very entertaining and the dinner show terrific. I don't know if the Hale Koa Hotel has restarted their luau, but it is the one we usually go to. We've been to the Hilton's (before it was on top of a parking garage) and Royal Hawaiian's (both before and after the remodel) and Germains's (decades ago). Hale Koa is the only one we'd go back to. We have not tried the "new" ones (meaning anything new in the last 20 years).

LGB is 15 miles from San Pedro, LAX is 20 miles from San Pedro. So I would expect Uber to be cheaper, but that is not the reason I'd choose LGB over LAX. It is because LGB is far less irritating than LAX.