Lessons learned, love shared: Golden Princess to Hawaii 3/27/13

My apology ,Tim,

for misspelling Terri's name.

I should have checked that.

I am used to writing my cousin's name which is spelled Terry.

My maiden name could be pronounced several ways and I understand your feeling when her name is not spelled correctly.

As a newcomer to the Princess forum,I thought its'purpose was to give information or pose questions about the cruises.

You seem to have quite a following on CC.

Have you considered writing a blog or as someone suggested creating a web site as a venue for your writing?

Perhaps you could tie in your family life and present ministry experiences on such communication forums. Just a thought!

Your thoughtful ideas for surprising Terri and the gift of the charms for her bracelet may inspire other spouses and significant others to be thoughtful as well. Most of us could benefit from that.

My apology ,Tim,

for misspelling Terri's name....

 

No problem. :) I just used that "mad" face on my reply to you because I thought that would be funny. People often misspell her name, and many of our friends sometimes even accidentally call me "Terry." (I always say in reply that I take that as a compliment.) Although I know that the name "Terry" is androgynous, to me the name "Terry" seems masculine while "Terri" just seems so very feminine (my sincere apologies to any female "Terrys" out there). :o

 

As a newcomer to the Princess forum,I thought its'purpose was to give information or pose questions about the cruises....

 

You thought right! I have taken some liberties with this Princess forum, and appreciate the indulgence of the CC moderators who have allowed me to do so. I don't fault you for asking questions.

 

I hope you stay around in spite of this experience. I know that it's no fun being snarked at, but people here are generally friendly.

 

Tim

Edited January 23, 2014 by terrific_surprise

Although our children are very precious to us, we do have our share of heartbreaking family difficulties. For example, during the time of our Golden Princess cruise to Hawaii, we had been somewhat estranged from two of our adult children. While all of our six adult children have at times fiercely asserted their independence from us, we are glad that we have lived long enough now to see beauty flourishing where some of our deepest wounds once were.

 

A couple of weeks after returning from the cruise (a few days before our 28th anniversary) one of our adult children brought us news we had been dreading, and for the next several months their situation was heavy on our hearts, at times overshadowing our cruise memories. Terri sometimes collapsed in tears, praying to find a way to work out our problems with our children, but I usually remained stoic, often too busy to provide the emotional support Terri needed.

 

Several weeks after our anniversary, we received an unexpected call from one of our other adult children, urgently pleading to be rescued from a bad situation in Los Angeles. Eager for any possible opportunity at reconciliation, we loaded up our four youngest children and hurried toward the freeway.

 

After the "rescue," I mentioned to Terri in a passing comment that the evening show at the Fanfare Fountains would be starting in 30 minutes. Although we were about 30 minutes away from the port, Terri seemed eager for the opportunity to inject some pleasant memories in the midst of this difficult day. It was dusk when we arrived at the fountains, giving us an opportunity to see the golden streams of water against the backdrop of the setting sun.

 

Golden Fanfare Fountains by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

No ship was in port, but of course we couldn't visit the fountains without picturing the Golden Princess there. This was the first time that the children had ever seen the Fanfare Fountains, but they had long ago become familiar with the songs the fountains play through the CD Terri had been listening to in the year before the cruise.

 

Children look at Fanfare Fountains by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

I wish I could say that this was a romantic time for us, but our family problems were still weighing us down. I do think that being at the fountains lifted Terri's spirits, but I remained stoic. Although we soon hurried back toward home, I was glad that we finally had an opportunity to let our children get a small glimpse of this special place which was such an important part of our "cruise" experience.

Edited January 25, 2014 by terrific_surprise

Throughout our stressful summer months, as Terri and I worked together to accomplish ministry goals which once seemed impossible, our cruise memories continued to be rekindled by the happy little things I have previously mentioned here (such as hearing ukulele music around our home).

 

While sorting through our overwhelming array of cruise photos and videos and beginning to post some of them online in preparation for writing this review, I often discussed cruise memories with Terri, asking her to recall the (sometimes unpleasant) feelings she experienced in the early days of the cruise.

 

The kids would often help to rekindle our memories by wearing clothes we bought them in Hawaii. In addition to our pre-cruise CDs from the Fanfare Fountains and Elua, occasionally a significant song would play on the radio or in a store, bringing back cruise memories and putting a twinkle in Terri's eye. A midsummer email from Elua was also a nice surprise, bringing us some new Hawaiian music to enjoy.

 

Before the cruise we hadn't considered the taste of ginger to be particularly appealing. But having frequently used ginger (in various forms) during the cruise to overcome seasickness, we continued enjoying ginger candy from time to time after the cruise. We even make it a point now to always eat some ginger when we see it at a buffet, and the (now-pleasant) taste of ginger always brings back memories of the cruise.

 

Taking advantage of our kids' Six Flags passes to visit Magic Mountain various times over the summer, we considered several times driving the extra hour down to the port again, sometimes knowing that a ship had come in. We usually didn't make the trip, but it was never far from our hearts and minds.

 

And throughout the summer, our Maui plumeria plant continued to grow and eventually bloom, adding Hawaiian beauty and fragrance to our home.

 

Oh, and one more thing... after Terri read the pre-cruise thread I posted here on CC, she began using a new term of affection for me: "DH."

Edited January 25, 2014 by terrific_surprise

Thanks for the continued posts. It is great to follow along as your journey continues.

 

Occassionally I will go to San Francisco to see a ship which is in port. Even better if I can do a Princess Bon Voyage Experience, but that takes some arrangement in advance. Always fun to see the excited people waiting to board, or watch as they step ashore for a day of fun in SF.

I'll get back to our story (which will pick up in August of last year), but first I need to fast forward to what happened a couple of days ago.

 

In the early morning hours, the feelings I was experiencing (I know, I know, TMI) suddenly inspired me with an idea for the new Princess Cruises "Come Back New" ad campaign. From my perspective, the ads they have released so far miss the mark regarding both the cruising experience and the new Come Back New slogan.

 

For the past several years, I have often been irritated by seeing churches produce slick ad campaigns to promote their ministries, featuring faces of people whom you know never sat in their pews or listened to their sermons. I have always thought that if a ministry is really touching people's lives, they should be able to share real stories, not something that was dreamed up in a Chicago skyscraper. In any thriving church, there should be countless compelling testimonies, but for some reason they usually choose not to share them widely.

 

In the same way, a cruise line has a real impact on real people, so why not focus on real world stories of real people? (I do of course realize that the Princess blog shares such real stories, but the ad campaign doesn't seem to reflect that.)

 

And, by the way, do you really "come back new" after a cruise? It seems to me that the post-cruise-blues are quite common (and we experienced that problem after our first two cruises). Nevertheless, after our cruise to Hawaii, I felt like Terri really did "come back new," as best dramatized by the way she danced with the fountains. So I came up with a crazy idea: why not use her story to promote the new slogan?

 

Within just a few minutes, as I laid in bed with nothing but my imagination to write upon, this ad materialized inside my mind. It isn't a polished presentation, but it should give you some idea of the unfulfilled potential for the Come Back New campaign.

 

I may be treading on thin ice here, so if Princess Cruises launches some kind of objection against me, my video may not stay on YouTube for long. (From my experience with YouTube, they would likely side with the corporation against me if there is any dispute.)

 

So, if you wish to get a 30 second glimpse of Terri's "Come Back New" experience, take a look at the video below:

 

Hopefully at least those of you who followed our story will enjoy it. After all of your months of perusing my long-winded posts, I thought it might be nice to give you a 30 second summation.

Edited January 28, 2014 by terrific_surprise

You are missing your "other" calling in life. Great job in creating a new Princess ad. (15 years does sound like fifty.) anyway of submitting it to Princess?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

OMG Tim I had tears in my eyes!! This is really good and so professional.

 

 

Virginia

LOVE IT!!! Awesome job, Tim. Hello, out there... is anyone from Princess taking note here??

You are missing your "other" calling in life. Great job in creating a new Princess ad. (15 years does sound like fifty.) anyway of submitting it to Princess?

 

How very fitting for the first response to come from our favorite Hawaiian in Hawaii! (And for the second response to also come from a former Oahu resident!)

 

I haven't checked into submitting it to Princess. I guess I'm afraid that if they don't like it, they would ask me to delete it. So at least for a few days I think I will just let my CC friends enjoy it.

 

By the way, I forgot to mention that I also felt in making this ad that the itinerary should be part of the ad, and I wanted to (briefly of course) highlight the Princess onboard Hawaiian experience. Perhaps at least if enough of you like this they might consider making some new ads that include these elements.

 

Tim

Edited January 28, 2014 by terrific_surprise

Tim and Terri, I have followed both of your threads and have enjoyed totally enjoyed them. It is in fact because of your story that I was actually able to get my husband to go on not 1 but 3 Princess cruises last year and we are getting ready to board the Sapphire Princes next month. Thank you so much for all the hours of work you put into and the enjoyment that you have given us with these 2 threads.

I enjoyed your little 30 second spot that you had and I think you should send it to Princess Cruises and see if they would use it on their weekly emails that they send out.

 

I hope some day to get to meet you and Terri, I feel after reading these posts that we already know you and have a great connection with you.

 

Hope you have a great day,

Gerry (yes I know another one of those names that can go for either sex. This time it is female, husbands mane is Tom)

I think that is a great idea, but whether the cruise industry will think that, that is another thought.

 

Once again, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everthing you have written.

Love the video. Princess should definitely think about using it or at least something like it. Very nice, and well done!!

 

Love both your threads.

Loved the video and you posts. We are going on the Golden Princess in April to Hawaii and the South Pacific. Reading your thread adds to my anticipation of the cruise. Thanks for sharing.

Not to be contrary, but as someone who has worked in advertising (and public relations) before becoming a mommy goddess (even though I often write press releases pro bono for whatever school my daughter is attending), but I would be not too quick to judge Princess (or any other cruiseline) for not taking Tim up on his offer. (while at my first agency job, I carpooled with a co-worker and her husband, who was some mucky muck-- maybe the advertising VP-- at Sitmar, and at the second agency I worked, Princess was a client, even though I only worked on that account for a short while and on the senior citizens' print campaign)

 

Ad agencies use professional talent for many reasons: they're more likely to take direction better and in fewer takes than an untrained person. Time is money especially when those behind the camera are union. If children are involved, there's special rules concerning them, which often involve time. And the talent needs to belong to SAG-AFTRA. I didn't really work much with the broadcast side, but I do remember a problem or two when a client didn't understand this.

 

When my girl was in elementary school, one of my fellow PTA board members got a freebie cruise on Princess with her then-husband as they were professional models. Someplace I may still have the mailer with their faces in various poses. Again, models are useful because they know the ropes and don't waste everyone's time (and since some of the shots -- you know, the smiling couple on the deck looking out into the ocean -- are outside, the shot must be obtained while weather conditions are right). This is true whether it's a brochure, a mailer, or a commercial.

 

Now, Princess has been using a lot of passenger testimonials for their promotions in the last few years (memories, favorite ports, etc.). One member of CC (who's also a Facebook friend of mine) had her story used last year. So it wouldn't be far fetched if Tim or anyone else keep looking out for these -- make sure you're getting emails from the cruise line.

Tim and Terri, I have followed both of your threads and have enjoyed totally enjoyed them. It is in fact because of your story that I was actually able to get my husband to go on not 1 but 3 Princess cruises last year and we are getting ready to board the Sapphire Princes next month. Thank you so much for all the hours of work you put into and the enjoyment that you have given us with these 2 threads.

I enjoyed your little 30 second spot that you had and I think you should send it to Princess Cruises and see if they would use it on their weekly emails that they send out.

 

I hope some day to get to meet you and Terri, I feel after reading these posts that we already know you and have a great connection with you.

 

Hope you have a great day,

Gerry (yes I know another one of those names that can go for either sex. This time it is female, husbands mane is Tom)

 

Gerry,

 

I'm very glad to know that my story helped your husband decide to go on those cruises with you (I know that we husbands can sometimes be hard to get through to). It would be so great to get to meet you!

 

Although we enjoyed our time on the Golden Princess so much, I think Terri and I will always have a special place in our hearts for the Sapphire Princess, our first Princess cruise ship. We hope that we will have a chance to say goodbye to her one more time before she sails off to Asia.

 

Tim

Loved following your story. Your video was great!

Not to be contrary' date=' but as someone who has worked in advertising (and public relations) before becoming a mommy goddess (even though I often write press releases pro bono for whatever school my daughter is attending), but I would be not too quick to judge Princess (or any other cruiseline) for not taking Tim up on his offer....

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I don't think you're being contrary, Patty. I appreciate the balance you provide. ;)

 

When I put together that video I knew that in its current form it wouldn't be professional enough for Princess to broadcast. Unfortunately I don't have access to professional equipment. I primarily thought it would be fun to share with our CC friends, and I am glad to see that it was well received. :)

 

But I did hope that by sharing it, Princess might catch wind of it and might perhaps consider tweaking their current campaign. Of course I'm sure that their current ads were carefully targeted with focus groups, etc., and the CC crowd likely wouldn't match their targeting. But I couldn't resist contributing my 2 cents.

 

Actually, making the video was kind of a throwback for us. Many decades ago, before we were even married, Terri and I used to make radio commercials together. :D If you ever traveled through central California in the early 80's perhaps you heard our young voices as you flipped across the radio dial. (But sometimes we had much more fun on those old ads, some of which were quite corny.)

 

I realize now that I was a bit too hasty in posting our "Come Back New" video. I had recorded Terri's voice at the end of a very long day when she was about to fall asleep, and when she heard the final version (after I had already posted it on CC) she said her voice sounds too tired and she wants to re-record it. She also thinks that her line "giving me the energy to face new challenges" should happen when she is dancing with the fountains. So with her prompting I may make an updated version before trying to see how to pass it along to someone at Princess.

 

Tim

Edited January 29, 2014 by terrific_surprise

A couple of days after I finally posted my first entry on this review thread, we decided to take a family trip. Very early on the morning of August 6, while it was still dark, we loaded our six youngest children in our van, heading toward Northern California to visit my elderly mother and our oldest son's family. But before those visits, we decided to use our kids' Six Flags passes at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. There were just enough coupons (in the coupon booklets which were provided with the passes) to enable the rest of us to get in free too.

 

Family at Discovery Kingdom by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

An additional coupon in the booklets provided a discount on swimming with dolphins. Terri had expressed an interest in swimming with the dolphins at Sea Life Park on Oahu, so I suggested that she use the Discovery Kingdom dolphin coupon. Eventually we decided that it would be better to return a few weeks later (on a day when another free entry coupon would be available), hoping that our son and grandson could join us for the experience. (Unfortunately, other events conflicted with our plans to return to Northern California, so Terri never swam with the dolphins.)

 

Terri's dolphin experience that day was limited to watching some dolphin shows (which were so impressive we sometimes re-watched the same show).

 

Dolphin Show by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

When we realized that the walrus scenes from the Hawaii-based movie 50 First Dates were filmed at Discovery Kingdom, it felt for a few minutes like we had finally made it to Sea Life Park on Oahu.

 

But the highlight of Terri's Discovery Kingdom day was the butterfly house (which has nothing to do with our cruise, but I know that she would interject this if she were authoring this post).

 

As we returned home after brief visits with my mother, our son and "daughter-in-love," and their two precious children, my thoughts turned toward our next big event later that week: our upcoming anniversary.

 

Now, you may recall that our wedding anniversary had happened over three months earlier. But every year we also celebrate the anniversary of the day I proposed to Terri (August 9, 1984), and I had plans for that anniversary -- plans which happened to relate to a cruise ship!

Edited January 30, 2014 by terrific_surprise

Whenever possible, we have tried to go to Yosemite on our August 9 engagement anniversary (because Yosemite was where I asked Terri to marry me), but when I noticed that the Sea Princess would be arriving at the Port of Los Angeles on Saturday August 10, it wasn't hard to decide what to do. When I shared my idea with Terri, she agreed without any hesitation, seeming excited to visit the port (while knowing full well that we would once again be sleeping in our van).

 

So on Friday afternoon, August 9, we drove down to San Pedro, parking our van on the public street adjacent to the little free parking lot near the Fanfare Fountains, with a view of the channel where the ship would sail in the next morning. (The street in this area does not seem to have any parking restrictions, and with no other vehicles competing for the parking, we decided that it would be a good place to park for the night.) As the now-familiar dancing fountains welcomed us back with a song, we caught glimpses of a rainbow in the fountain mist.

 

Rainbow at Fanfare Fountains by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

Soon the Pacific Electric Railway Red Car arrived at the station adjacent to the fountains. With the evening fountain show about 90 minutes away, we decided to take a ride down to the Acapulco restaurant for dinner. I took two dollars ($1 per person) out of my wallet to pay the Red Car conductor, but he told me to put my money away, explaining that the Red Car was free for the rest of the summer! As the Red Car headed south, we noticed some pamphlets promoting a free waterfront concert later that month, so we talked about bringing our kids back to San Pedro before the end of the summer so that they could enjoy the concert and ride the Red Car with us (but in the end we didn't fulfill those plans).

 

The Sixth Street Red Car station (which is the station closest to Acapulco) was closed due to the construction of the Downtown Promenade watercut, so we had to get off at the Ports O' Call station instead. When the conductor told us what times the Red Car would be coming through on its way back to the fountains, we knew that we wouldn't have enough time for dinner before the evening fountain show.

 

So instead of going to the restaurant, we decided to walk across the parking lot to the Ports O' Call shops, knowing that we would need to return to the Red Car station in a little less than an hour.

 

We had passed through Ports O' Call several times on our previous visits to San Pedro, but this was the first time we had actually taken the time to try to visit any of the shops. It took us a couple of minutes before we realized that to find our way to most of the shops we would need to walk around to an inner courtyard.

 

But with the time approaching 7 pm, many of the shops were already closed, and few people were around. The main activity taking place seemed to be some kind of Spanish karaoke at a waterfront restaurant.

 

Soon we found a little shop which was offering two pairs of sunglasses for ten dollars. Terri found some sunglasses which would fit over her prescription glasses and then she found another pair she thought one of our sons would like. By the time we finished browsing through the little store and paying for the sunglasses, it was already time to leave Ports O' Call.

 

We ran back across the parking lot, worried that we might be too late to catch the Red Car. But we actually had a few minutes to catch our breath before the Red Car returned.

 

The sun was setting as we arrived back at the Fanfare Fountains. Some vendors were selling some tempting food and souvenirs near the fountains. We were hungry, but everything there seemed too expensive to us. Besides, we wanted to save our appetites for a nice dinner at Acapulco.

 

Soon the evening fountain show began, featuring some of the familiar songs which had now become so special to us (songs which in some cases, such as Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, had seemed very strange to Terri when she first heard them on the CD I had given her on her 49th birthday).

 

Why don't I have any pictures to accompany these beautiful memories? That's a good question. I could only find a few phone photos of our time there, but I'm sure I must have had another camera with me. Someday I will probably find an SD card with pictures that will fill in some of the blanks from that weekend, but I decided to give up on hoping that I might find the missing pictures and stop delaying the story.

 

We had to pull ourselves away from the evening fountain show a little early because the final Red Car was leaving the station heading toward Acapulco. We could have stayed until the end of the show and driven our van to the restaurant, but I didn't want us to drive in case we might decide to have a special drink with dinner to celebrate our engagement anniversary. (But as it happened, we didn't drink anything that might have impaired our driving. In fact, I think we both just drank water.)

 

Taking our time at Acapulco, we relaxed and enjoyed our meal while a mariachi group entertained the customers. By the time we left, we had probably been there for about two hours.

 

We knew that the Red Car wouldn't be running that late, but a leisurely 20 minute walk in the comfortable air provided us with an opportunity to see a few more things I had looked forward to sharing with Terri, such at the walkway's large engraved circle which explains how Los Angeles Harbor was once known as the Bay of Smokes. I thought that this might be an "aha" moment for Terri, as it helped to explain a mysterious clue I had given her many months earlier about the "Bay of Smokes," but any thoughts of that clue had long ago vanished from Terri's mind. After just a fleeting moment of disappointment, I realized that her lack of memory in this case was for the best. The point of the pre-cruise clues had been to help build Terri's sense of anticipation toward an exciting adventure, not to burden Terri's mind by making her ponder each clue like a riddle. So even though some of these silly clues may not have really mattered, they served their purpose. Even if she forgot some of them, I think they made the journey just a little more interesting.

 

Soon we were back at the fountains, and at our van. As I had done several times before, I moved the back seats in the van to make a comfortable place to lay. Terri found the bed I made to be quite comfortable, sleeping soundly even though the vendors next to the fountains continued making noise until at least 2 in the morning.

 

We went to sleep anticipating the excitement of waking up to catch our first glimpse of a new Princess cruise ship, a ship that was in a different class from any of the ships we had previously seen, a ship that was in the midst of a world tour! In addition, I had learned another exciting fact on CC: Elua would be boarding the ship for the next leg of the tour to Hawaii. Although we knew that we wouldn't be seeing Elua, somehow knowing that they would be boarding the ship the next day made it seem that much more exciting (and caused Terri to ponder the possibilities of becoming a stowaway).

Edited January 31, 2014 by terrific_surprise

Based upon our previous experiences I expected the Sea Princess to pass the Angel's Gate Lighthouse and the breakwater at about 5:45 am on August 10. Waking up in our van just before 5 am, I went to the Princess website to check the webcam for the Sea Princess, expecting to see the horizontal glow of the lights of Los Angeles on the horizon. The unexpected sight of the Vincent Thomas Bridge on the webcam shocked me -- the ship was coming in early!

 

I quickly woke Terri up and we ran out to see the ship, which was already turning the corner toward the dock.

 

Sea Princess arrives by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

It was good that we had decided to park that night so close to the World Cruise Center -- we didn't need to walk far.

 

Terri watches Sea Princess sail in by Terrific_surprise, on Flickr

 

We immediately noticed that the Sea Princess was much smaller than the other Princess ships we had seen (Sapphire, Star, and Golden). Lacking the tiered balconies of the larger ships, it appeared more sleek and shiny as it quietly sailed in, its hull reflecting on the smooth waters of the channel on that cloudy morning.

 

I had originally intended for us to have breakfast in San Pedro and, later in the day, give Terri an opportunity to discover some more interesting places nearby (including at least one which had been featured in an unfulfilled photo clue I had given her before the Hawaii cruise). But a less romantic reality quickly hit me: if we got on the freeway immediately, we could beat the rush hour traffic. If we lingered for even an hour, we could expect our drive to be much more difficult.

 

So we didn't even finish watching the Sea Princess dock, instead hurrying away from the port and finding some non-cruise-related ways to enjoy the rest of our Saturday. By the time the Sea Princess continued its world tour by sailing on toward Hawaii with the bonus of Elua's Hawaiiana, we were many miles away.

 

Terri could experience that unfulfilled San Pedro clue on another day. But of course a future return to San Pedro was by that point a foregone conclusion -- preferably on a day when we could see another Princess ship sailing in under the stars, and (if only in our dreams) prepare to board the ship.

Edited January 31, 2014 by terrific_surprise

During the next few weeks after our early morning glimpse of the Sea Princess, Terri and I continued to relive the early days of our cruise to Hawaii, discussing what happened each day of the cruise as I prepared to write the various posts on this thread. Our cruise memories were on my mind virtually every day, and often even in my dreams, as I tried to mentally resurrect the memories from my photos and notes. It became an obsession which threatened to outdo the extreme pre-cruise obsession I had experienced over the previous year.

 

(At this point my review will begin to loop back upon itself like Back to the Future II, as I redescribe some things that I have already mentioned previously. I hope it's not too confusing. But as you will see, there are are very interesting points I skipped over on the first lap.)

 

On September 7, Renee (CC's cr8tiv1, whose knowledge of her Hawaiian homeland had helped me so much before our cruise) learned in post #125 of this thread that during our visit to Hilo we didn't buy a coconut leaf bowl at Rainbow Falls (because we assumed that we would not be allowed to bring it back). In response, Renee generously offered to give us a coconut leaf bowl from Hilo! (Being a "displaced local girl," Renee also happened to mention to me that she herself had learned how to make a coconut leaf bowl in her youth.)

 

Although I think Renee and I both enjoyed our online friendship, we had both been wary of online communication, not wanting to give up our privacy by revealing our full names or primary email addresses.

 

But to accept Renee's offer of the coconut leaf bowl, we would need to arrange a time to meet face to face, and what better way to meet than to have another Bon Voyage Experience visiting a ship?!

 

Our February 16, 2013, BVE on the Sapphire Princess had undoubtedly been the highlight of our pre-cruise experience, so it was quite appealing to think of another BVE on another ship. As I understood the BVE rules, if we booked a cruise within 90 days after the BVE, the $39 (per person) we paid for the BVE would be credited toward the future cruise.

 

But in September, when Renee first suggested that we meet, I was amazed by what I saw when I logged onto my Princess account: the credit for our February BVE still appeared, some four months after it should have expired! According to the website, our February BVE credit would expire on 12/31/2013. I still don't know if there was some reason that Princess gave us so much grace with this credit, but I definitely appreciated their unmerited favor. (As you might notice, I hate to miss out on a good deal.)

 

Was the prospect of going on another cruise so soon just a pipedream, or could it actually become our reality?

Edited February 1, 2014 by terrific_surprise

I had booked the February Bon Voyage Experience with absolutely no intention of using the credit for a cruise, focusing upon it only as an opportunity to reveal the coming cruise surprise to Terri. On that score, it had been worth every penny, as you can see from this old post and subsequent posts from almost a year ago. (Actually, when I booked the BVE I had tried to see if the $39 credits could have been applied to our Hawaii cruise, but I was told that BVE credits cannot be applied to a cruise which has already been booked.) When I realized in the autumn that the February BVE credit was somehow still available, I began to frequently ponder the possibility of using our existing $100 Future Cruise Deposits to book another cruise before the end of the year.

 

Although at that point it had only been about six months since the end of our Hawaii cruise, we had been dealing with some significant struggles in our family and ministry during those six months. In addition to some unthinkably stressful days before our daughter's wedding in September, a few weeks later one of our unmarried sons announced that his girlfriend was pregnant. While our ministry focus for decades has been helping others experience grace in the midst of such inconvenient pregnancies, Terri and I were embarking upon a new journey by dealing with this personally as parents (and grandparents) for the first time.

 

Nevertheless, we were impressed by the mature manner in which the parents of our new unexpected grandchild took responsibility for their situation. Thankfully, the baby's parents' immediate response was to love and protect the tiny child they saw on the ultrasound screen, and we were glad to join with them in this important task. Terri lives her life as an open book (while I am typically much less candid), so with our son's consent, she made no effort to hide these circumstances from others, even openly talking about it in public. That opened us up to some significant public criticism at the peak of a protracted high profile ministry-related struggle. In some circles, Terri and I became a laughingstock.

 

I might not have shared all of this here had I not been asked earlier in this thread whether we are now welcoming a new member to our family, but it does seem to us to relate to the bigger picture of our cruise story. We were definitely ready to "escape completely" again, if we could find the right opportunity.

 

But how far could we go on $139? As if they were reading my mind, Princess would soon provide an astounding answer I would have never imagined.

Edited February 2, 2014 by terrific_surprise

A couple of weeks after Renee's September CC post where she first offered us a Hilo coconut leaf bowl, she informed me that she was booking another cruise to Hawaii, November 20 on the Star Princess -- a cruise that would feature the music of Elua! So as we tried to coordinate our schedules to arrange for a meeting, the prospect of having a Bon Voyage Experience at the start of an Elua cruise to Hawaii seemed much more appealing than the other options.

 

When I told Terri about Renee's suggestion, Terri responded excitedly "let's do it -- but not just for the day -- let's go all the way back to Hawaii!" I don't think she was kidding. (I had to throw a wet blanket on her enthusiasm by reminding her how much the cruise would cost.)

 

Although I had hoped that we would be able to book the November 20 BVE the moment Renee first mentioned it, for several weeks I wasn't sure if we would be free that day because of our other responsibilities.

 

I also delayed booking the November 20 BVE because I wanted to first make sure that we wouldn't miss the opportunity to use our February BVE credit. I assumed that Princess would not allow credits from two different BVEs to be used at the same time. So I felt that I first needed to book a cruise using the February BVE credit, waiting until after I booked the cruise to book the November 20 BVE.

 

But could we really afford another cruise? The concept of taking more than one cruise in a year was previously unthinkable to us, but somehow another cruise now seemed much more within reach than I had imagined it could have been so soon.

 

During the 18 months preceding our cruise to Hawaii, I had developed the habit of saving for the cruise. One month at a time, what had once seemed like an unbearably high cruise cost slowly melted away (with some price drops helping along the way). I had intended to stop that habit after our cruise to Hawaii, but the habit became hard to break. Our Hawaii cruise experience had taught me that few things in life are more valuable than investing in the opportunity to spend time focusing upon my relationship with my wife, so every month I continued to put away a little money which came in from a side job, keeping these funds in a separate account from the account we use for our family expenses.

 

Before our Hawaii cruise I had somehow kept this special cruise account secret from Terri, but after the cruise I strongly felt that it was time to stop keeping secrets from her. Some secrets are of course necessary when you are planning a surprise, but as I had been planning the Hawaii cruise, I had felt at times like I was beginning to tread on thin ice by having a secret bank account, along with other secrets including my private correspondence with another woman! I feared that in spite of my good intentions, these secrets could at some point undermine the trust that is so essential to a good marriage (my fears were fueled by my sad recollection of how Terri's trust in me had plummeted about a year before I began planning the cruise because of a different secret I had confessed to her relating to a huge financial loss we had suffered because of a horrible situation in our extended family). Thankfully, my fears were never realized, as Terri never in any way seemed bothered by any of my cruise-related secrets (though she did have some fun kidding me a few times about keeping secrets from her).

 

I did have to pay a price for revealing the secret bank account, however. When our family bank account was too low for certain extra expenses (such as sending some of our boys to a camp), it became necessary to dip into the cruise funds. Nevertheless, by October we still had put away enough funds that we could begin to realistically consider giving in to the temptation of booking a short cruise.

 

Then in mid-October, Princess Cruises surprised everybody by announcing their previously unheard of "100% back" cruises, making the temptation become irresistible, especially when some of the "free" cruises were on the Golden Princess. At one point the prices became so low that we could have booked an inside room for $149, just $10 more than our prepaid deposit and BVE credit (not including taxes and port fees). So I wrote Terri a little note asking her if she would like to go on a $10 cruise. I put the note in one of the leftover golden envelopes I had given to her before (and during) the cruise. To sweeten the deal even more, I enclosed a $10 bill.

 

At that point, the November 4 Golden Princess getaway cruise seemed to work best for us. I called Princess and almost booked a cabin, but another idea stopped me (in spite of the warning from the Princess agent that the cruise was selling very fast): maybe we should book it through a travel agent we had met on the cruise to Hawaii. I didn't expect to get any special bonus by booking through the travel agent, but just thought that it would be good to work through a friend.

 

Unfortunately, Terri and I had communication problems with that travel agent, and with each other. Terri had previously been the one who corresponded with the travel agent, so I thought that Terri was going to make the arrangements with the travel agent, while Terri thought that I was going to deal with it. Because of other circumstances, the travel agent was slow in responding, and before we could book the cruise, it was sold out (fulfilling the Princess agent's warning). Even worse, no more 100% back cruises were available. The promotion was over.

 

(As I'm sure that many of you know well, I could have booked the cruise with Princess and then transferred it to the travel agent. That was a sad lesson to learn.)

 

Terri couldn't hide her frustration when I broke the news to her. I didn't blame her for being upset; I shared her frustration.

Unfortunately, Terri and I had communication problems with that travel agent, and with each other. Terri had previously been the one who corresponded with the travel agent, so I thought that Terri was going to make the arrangements with the travel agent, while Terri thought that I was going to deal with it. Because of other circumstances, the travel agent was slow in responding, and before we could book the cruise, it was sold out (fulfilling the Princess agent's warning). Even worse, no more 100% back cruises were available. The promotion was over.

 

 

How awful! I was hoping for another Hawaiian review from you. Hang in there. You will make it back to Hawaii. I hope we do as well.

Edited February 4, 2014 by melody hounddog