jrobinso

Since this is your first visit to Hawaii I would recommend staying on Oahu (Waikiki) for a week, like you planned. Lots to see and do on the island of Oahu. Then instead of heading to Maui take a cruise on POA. This will give you a good overview of the other islands. Personally, Maui is not my favorite island. All of the islands have a little something different to offer and taking flights inter island can be expensive and time consuming.

When I do a land vacation to Hawaii now I usually just go to Oahu (son and granddaughter live there). But, it is nice to occasionally take the Princess cruise out of LA and quickly visit the other islands.

What a great review. Planning our 2nd Hawaii cruise 10/18 . After reading your review I wish we were going sooner.

Your friends may have been on a difference excursion. We did one several years ago where you visited with some of the pups and went on a short "sledding" trip through the forest. If your excursion is on a glacier there will be ice and snow. Have fun.

No umbrellas in the suites on Golden. We were in a Window Suite on ther 7/21 Alaska cruise.

Going to Bar Harbor for the first time on Regal in October. Thank you BruceMuzz for the information.

If Bar Harbor is like most tender ports passengers with Princess organized excursions will be "staged" at the theater and then escorted off the ship on the first tenders (depending on excursion start time). If you are Elite you should be able to get a priority boarding ticket for the tenders.

Thank you for posting. We board in 8 days.

Thank you for posting. Great photos.

What a shame. I sure hope they get it worked out in the next 10 days. We board on the 21st. Wish I could learn to pack lighter so I could just carry my luggage aboard.

We leave a cash tip.

What you and your husband just experienced was extremely traumatic. It will take time to recover from the stress of the event. As a retired RN with lots of cardiac experience I can tell you that there are many people that you see everyday with pacemakers and implanted defibrillators getting on with their normal lives. Trust your cardiologist.

We board Golden in July so I am excited about your trip report. Have a great cruise!

Princess has a number of gifts that you can prepurchased. Go to the Princess website and you will find the gift brochure as well as the form you fax to purchase the gift. One of the gifts you can prepurchase is OBC. You may be able to do this over the phone. I'm not sure how far in advance you must do this, so the sooner the better. Try and estimate how much you will be spending on extras then send yourself a gift of OBC for that amount.

I see that you live in NJ. Dress for NJ fall temps. Like others have said dress in layers and you will be fine. No need to dress like you do for a NJ winter and no reason for snow shoes. If you have a day of scenic cruising near glaciers it will be chilly. Bring a pair of gloves, warm hat, long sleeved shirts, jeans, jacket, poncho or rain jacket (no bathing suit needed on Alaskan cruises...atleast not for us!!!)If your cruise stops in Victoria it will probably be warm enough to wear shorts and a tee shirt. Alaska cruises are pretty informal during the day.

As for tipping we always tip the operators of our excursions.

Thank you BillB48.

What excursion are you planning... as some easily run over their estimated times? I think the earliest you would be off the ship is 9AM to begin your tour and that would be under the quickest of circumstances. As you might expect the 5PM ship arrival at Colon is on the late side of what would be a "normal" arrival time. I think you would probably tender off the ship somewhere between 9 and 10 with the tour concluding at the pier in Colon around 3 ish. There is a shopping mall associated with the pier and it is safe to explore the mall shops. Of course there are many things that can interfere with the scheduling of the timing of events at the Canal, so it is always possible everything could go south... and in the case of the Canal even north:D!

Thank you. We have booked the Gatun lake cruise Gatun locks and Embera. The Personalizer lists the excursion as 5 hours departing at 7am. Sounds like that departure time may be an error.

I saw your question over on the Canal board... here is what I wrote over there:

 

What excursion are you planning... as some easily run over their estimated times? I think the earliest you would be off the ship is 9AM to begin your tour and that would be under the quickest of circumstances. As you might expect the 5PM ship arrival at Colon is on the late side of what would be a "normal" arrival time. I think you would probably tender off the ship somewhere between 9 and 10 with the tour concluding at the pier in Colon around 3 ish. There is a shopping mall associated with the pier and it is safe to explore the mall shops. Of course there are many things that can interfere with the scheduling of the timing of events at the Canal, so it is always possible everything could go south... and in the case of the Canal even north:D!

Excursions were just released last night, so Princess may need to tweak the departure times on them. I am interested in the Gatun Lake cruise and locks and Embera. It is listed as a 5 hour excursion departing at 7am. If the 7 am departure time is incorrect by a few hours that would mean a more reasonable wait to reboard.

Thanks for your insight.

I am doing a 10 day Panama Canal cruise October.(Coral Princess) If you book a ship sponsored excursion you will exit the ship in Gatun Lake, do your excursion , and then reboard the ship in Colon. My question is what do you do to kill time until the ship returns to pick you up? The excursion we are interested in lasts 5 hours and returns around noon. It looks like our ship arrives in Colon at 5pm. If you have done this I would appreciate your input.

Thank so much.

We stayed on the ship and it anchored in Colon at about 300pm.

That is great news. 5 hours is a long time to just hang out around shops and restaurants. 3 hours I can handle.

I am looking at excursions for our 10 day Panama Canal cruise in October. The excursion I am interested in lasts 5 hours and is completed about noon. The ship (Coral) returns to Colon at 5pm (according to the itinerary) . What is there for us to do until we can reboard the ship at 5?

Thank you.

I guess it really depends on how much of a gambler you are. If you are certain you want this specific sailing in a balcony cabin you should book right now and then carefully watch the prices. If prices drop call your TA and have them get the lower price. They can do this for you as long as you haven't passed the date of final payment. I suppose you could check and see if there are lots of open cabins and if you are feeling lucky cancel your cabin right before final payment and wait for a better deal. Now if you would be okay with an inside or ocean view cabin or if your date is flexible you can wait it out. I will tell you that on our 10 Panama in October prices have gone up . Suites are sold out and mini suites nearly gone.

Best of luck for whatever you decide. I'm not much of a gambler, so I always take the sure thing and make sure I get the cabin I want. I do watch rates and call when they go down.

You can arrange for a SuperShuttle and do self-assist to get off the ship. The ride to SFO is about 30-45 minutes depending on the traffic. If it's a weekday to the airport expect at least 45 minutes. If it's a weekend less time. SuperShuttle would be less expensive than taking a taxi. Make sure you get a SuperShuttle that takes you directly to the airport. Don't get on one that has to pick up extra passengers here and there across San Francisco. Be sure to tell SuperShuttle when your flight leaves. We've done this in the past - however, we parked our car at a hotel for free and got the SuperShuttle at the airport.

Thank you. I'll give Supershuttle a call. We are in a suite, so I am hoping we can ask for an early time to disembark. I am an overpacker so there is no way we could do self assist after a 10 day Alaskan cruise.

Are taxis out front waiting? We have an early (11:30) flight out of SFO so I am worried about using Princess transportation. (Cma2008 we are on the same cruise). Other suggestions?

I'm a big kid (60) and would also like to live on a cruise ship! Lovely pictures.

Me too! Adorable pictures.

Thank you for the great review. We will be doing the same cruise in October. Good information.

Well it is lunchtime in Nashville (not too many cruise ships docked at the moment..ha!) we would be sitting with our kindles by the covered pool eating lunch from the buffet. No doubt our conversation would include where we would eat dinner (specialty, MDR or buffet) and looking at the Patter for the drink of the day.