An OCD review of Golden/Hawaii-Pictures!!

Golden Princess to Hawaii 3/16/11- 3/30/11

Sigh, we just got back home last night and are super sad :( I felt a little deflated while walking off the ship. It was the most wonderful vacation. Two weeks of relaxation and total awesomeness! So I figured I would post my review since this site has been so amazing and helpful. I kept a travel journal, so it is like a live thread in that regard, but posted when I got home. I will edit it and post it over the next few days with pictures as well (I took about 3,000 pictures). Hope you enjoy! Also, I am happy to attempt to answer questions if I can.

A little bit about us:

Traveling on this cruise are myself, 28 and my husband, 30. We don’t have any kids (yet!) but we have two dogs that we left with my parents to baby sit. We have been on three cruises now, two with Carnival (a Mexican Riviera on Splendor in 2009 and a Caribbean on Freedom in 2010) and our most recent and the subject of this review, Princess to Hawaii 2011.

About my review: I am a bit of a “stream of consciousness” writer in my personal life, so I apologize beforehand if at times I may be hard to follow, with my lack of appropriate punctuation and flitting from one subject to the next. I will attempt to not be so tangential. I will also apologize now for the number of exclamation points that you are bound to see in my review. I am easily excited!

Well, this trip was a bit impulsive for us. We just went on a 7 day Mexican Riviera with Carnival this past September to celebrate the end of my post doctoral fellowship and were not planning another cruise for a bit. We were going to save the 14 day Hawaiian cruise for our 10th anniversary in a year and a half, but it just worked out this way! We found a great deal when I was browsing, so we booked it since the husband has a ton of time off (unfair) and I am in-between jobs right now (so I have lots of time!).

Cruise critics has been a fantastic site for us (especially for me and my lots of free time!). Thank you to all the people who helped answer my questions. I figured I would finally post a review, so maybe it could help others out or just provide some entertainment. I also take a ton of pictures (so many that I get the eye roll from the husband pretty often, and sour expressions when I take his picture too often). So, I hope to post a bunch! I am keeping a daily journal while on the cruise to post after my return. So no live thread from the ship since I have heard using the internet on board can prove to be difficult. (Now that it is after the cruise, I saw the internet cafe closed a number of times because there was no signal. And some friends we made aboard complained about the internet connection being very very slow).

We drove down from the bay area to Orange County two days before the cruise, with our two dogs (Lotus, a 3 year old Weimaraner and Fizzy, a 3 year old Yorkie) in a kennel in the back seat. Smushed up against that kennel was all of our luggage that would not fit in the already packed trunk. My fault, I admit it. My name is Melanie and I am an over packer. Poor dogs. We made fantastic time and only saw one police car! Finally we arrived at my parents house where we planned to stay until Wednesday when we would board the ship. This is the hard part (as I sit at their counter top and write this), having already traveled some, but destined to wait one more day until the cruise! However, I still need to put my luggage tags on my many many bags and plan what I want to wear for the crucial first day tomorrow. We like to buy the embarkation photo. I had wondered if we had a luggage limit, as 14 days is a lot of time to be at sea, but thankfully I found some good information about that on these boards. Apparently you can bring as much stuff as you care to. Or that you can lift. Good thing my husband could lift all the bags, I couldn't pick one of them up.

After dinner at the delicious and healthy Flame Broiler (last healthy meal before the cruise), we made final preparations. We double tagged our luggage (we found the paper tags to be perfectly adequate. They didn't rip at all thru transit to our cabin) and loaded it into the car in preparation for tomorrow morning. Now, the hardest night of all! It is hard to sleep when you are anticipating the next day.

Glad you enjoyed the cruise! Thanks for writing a detailed review (love the OCD)! As you can see, we loved last year's cruise on the Golden so much that we are going again in November. Can't wait for the rest of your review!

Just a test page- figuring out how to post the photos the best way on here...

I vote for the big size. I actually enjoy your writing style...I'm kind of a rambler myself. Looking forward to the review and pictures.

3/16/11

Well, after waking up early to take our dogs on a walk, we are ready to go. My dad nicely drives us to the port. Two separate GPS devices tell us to go the wrong way once we get off the freeway, but finally the men listen to me and follow the clearly labeled signs that have arrows pointing to the cruise terminal. Ha! Take that GPS devices! My usually wrong sense of direction has bested you at last! The port was a fantastically easy process. We arrived at the curb at about 11:10AM, gave our luggage to the porters, and walked into the terminal. After filling out the health survey (yeah, like people are really going to admit to having been sick lately…) we were ushered to an available check in person. There was no line. Our cruise cards were printed and the security check took no time at all. That whole process was under 10 minutes. We were given a number 3 card for boarding and sat down to wait for a bit. There were plenty of seats available. This was a very orderly process and went very smoothly. About 20 minutes later our number was called and we had our embarkation picture taken (we always fall in love with these photos and have to have them. This one was no exception!). This line to walk on board took the longest, but we were still on board by noon.

We headed to our interior room (Aloha 737 on deck 12, it was in the back on the ship) to drop our carry- on luggage off and found the room to be larger than we would have guessed. We always get the interior because it is cheaper. We literally did not spend any time in our room other than to get ready and to sleep. We didn’t even order room service this trip because there were so many things we wanted to do instead. Also, the weather was a little cool, so people with balconies did not use them much. The room felt very open (possibly because there are a lot of mirrors and the closet was open) and seemed to be a much better layout than our carnival cruises. Our room steward was great- he was able to get us extra hangers and a top sheet when we asked. I brought a mesh bag for dirty clothes and hung it on the knob of the closet- it seemed to work well. There were outlet plugs on the desk, behind the TV and under the bed near the nightstand. We didn’t even use out adaptor. The blow-dryer they provide sucks- bring your own. There is a laundry room to use that is never crowded- $1 for wash and $1 for dryer, there are plenty of ironing boards and irons for you to use.

On board was wonderful. As we have only cruised on Carnival before this, that is the only thing I can compare this too. The decorating is much more sedate and not as visually distracting as on Carnival. Some of the crazy color schemes are fun, but I believe the way Princess is set up is much more relaxing. Also, the 2 ships we were on in the Carnival fleet were the same length and approximately the same tonnage as the Golden, but held fewer passengers. Carnival held 3,006 and 3,700 passengers and Golden Princess held 2,600 passengers. I had noticed on board that it felt roomier and I was not constantly bumping into people. I wasn’t surprised to find those figures when I looked them up. Also, out of all the passengers on board, only 98 were under the age of 18. The children on the cruise were generally well behaved and polite (as much as children can be when they are having fun!). The layout was easy and we were able to find our way with no problem (we kept getting lost on Carnival). Now, this is not meant to be a negative review of Carnival, because we loved our cruises with them! But, we are now Princess people. Husband even wants to get a Princess credit card to start accruing points for our next cruise (either Panama Canal or Alaska!).

Indoor pool area (all pools are freshwater- it is wonderful!):

Outdoor main pool area:

Getting started trying to get money's worth of drink package with San Pedro bridge in the background:

Inside the Piazza, the lights change color on that flower looking thing, really pretty:

I vote for the big size. I actually enjoy your writing style...I'm kind of a rambler myself. Looking forward to the review and pictures.

Thanks! I vote for the big size too! This is my first review, so I am just trying to figure things out, but so far so good!

What a great boarding photo! Can't wait to read about your trip. :)

Mahalo and aloha,

Randy & Patti

What a great boarding photo! Can't wait to read about your trip. :)

 

Mahalo and aloha,

Randy & Patti

Thanks! We really liked it too. We joke that the embarkation photo is always our favorite because at that point in time we are both skinny and happy (super excited about the cruise starting and haven't gotten in little tiffs from being together 24/7 and pre- stuffing ourselves).

Golden Princess to Hawaii 3/16/11- 3/30/11

Sigh, we just got back home last night and are super sad :( I felt a little deflated while walking off the ship. It was the most wonderful vacation. Two weeks of relaxation and total awesomeness! So I figured I would post my review since this site has been so amazing and helpful. I kept a travel journal, so it is like a live thread in that regard, but posted when I got home. I will edit it and post it over the next few days with pictures as well (I took about 3,000 pictures). Hope you enjoy! Also, I am happy to attempt to answer questions if I can.

A little bit about us:

Traveling on this cruise are myself, 28 and my husband, 30. We don’t have any kids (yet!) but we have two dogs that we left with my parents to baby sit. We have been on three cruises now, two with Carnival (a Mexican Riviera on Splendor in 2009 and a Caribbean on Freedom in 2010) and our most recent and the subject of this review, Princess to Hawaii 2011.

About my review: I am a bit of a “stream of consciousness” writer in my personal life, so I apologize beforehand if at times I may be hard to follow, with my lack of appropriate punctuation and flitting from one subject to the next. I will attempt to not be so tangential. I will also apologize now for the number of exclamation points that you are bound to see in my review. I am easily excited!

Well, this trip was a bit impulsive for us. We just went on a 7 day Mexican Riviera with Carnival this past September to celebrate the end of my post doctoral fellowship and were not planning another cruise for a bit. We were going to save the 14 day Hawaiian cruise for our 10th anniversary in a year and a half, but it just worked out this way! We found a great deal when I was browsing, so we booked it since the husband has a ton of time off (unfair) and I am in-between jobs right now (so I have lots of time!).

Cruise critics has been a fantastic site for us (especially for me and my lots of free time!). Thank you to all the people who helped answer my questions. I figured I would finally post a review, so maybe it could help others out or just provide some entertainment. I also take a ton of pictures (so many that I get the eye roll from the husband pretty often, and sour expressions when I take his picture too often). So, I hope to post a bunch! I am keeping a daily journal while on the cruise to post after my return. So no live thread from the ship since I have heard using the internet on board can prove to be difficult. (Now that it is after the cruise, I saw the internet cafe closed a number of times because there was no signal. And some friends we made aboard complained about the internet connection being very very slow).

We drove down from the bay area to Orange County two days before the cruise, with our two dogs (Lotus, a 3 year old Weimaraner and Fizzy, a 3 year old Yorkie) in a kennel in the back seat. Smushed up against that kennel was all of our luggage that would not fit in the already packed trunk. My fault, I admit it. My name is Melanie and I am an over packer. Poor dogs. We made fantastic time and only saw one police car! Finally we arrived at my parents house where we planned to stay until Wednesday when we would board the ship. This is the hard part (as I sit at their counter top and write this), having already traveled some, but destined to wait one more day until the cruise! However, I still need to put my luggage tags on my many many bags and plan what I want to wear for the crucial first day tomorrow. We like to buy the embarkation photo. I had wondered if we had a luggage limit, as 14 days is a lot of time to be at sea, but thankfully I found some good information about that on these boards. Apparently you can bring as much stuff as you care to. Or that you can lift. Good thing my husband could lift all the bags, I couldn't pick one of them up.

After dinner at the delicious and healthy Flame Broiler (last healthy meal before the cruise), we made final preparations. We double tagged our luggage (we found the paper tags to be perfectly adequate. They didn't rip at all thru transit to our cabin) and loaded it into the car in preparation for tomorrow morning. Now, the hardest night of all! It is hard to sleep when you are anticipating the next day.

Thanks for the posts--we are going on the Golden 4/13 so really appreciate it.

Our next plan was to grab some lunch, so we headed to the Donatello dining room where we were welcomed and promptly seated with a lovely couple from Southern CA. They were seasoned Princess travelers, but this was their first time doing embarkation day lunch in the MDR. It was relaxing and I am glad we did not do the buffet. The couple we were with said they will always plan on the MDR for lunch from now on.

Lunch day 1 menu:

I got the chickpea and root vegetable soup, beef tenderloin, and Nutella (score!) ice cream. You can tell the ice cream is full fat, because it is so creamy and rich and super tasty! The ice cream on Princess is the best I have had and they have so many different rotating flavors (drool).

Keep posting please, this is bringing back wonderful memories......:D

Husband got the shrimp and avocado salad, bacon burger, and papaya sorbet. The hamburger was huge! You had to squish it down to be able to bite it, but it was super flavorful and spiced just right (the ones you can get at the grill are not the same. You have to try one of these burgers for lunch in the MDR).

After a lovely lunch we did the welcome aboard scavenger hunt thing. They just give you a piece of paper and send you around to various areas to help you get familiarized with the layout of the ship, and then you can submit your form into a drawing to win prizes. While getting our stamps, we found out we had to come back tomorrow to the Hawaiian activities desk at a bit before 9AM to get our flower lei making tickets (they all go within 15 minutes apparently, so we have to go early) and we got some free samples from the Godiva shop (in the piazza, usually around 4-4:15 on sea days). Yum! They did a couple tastings at the shop during the cruise. We checked out the awesome selection at the International café and discussed how much weight we were going to gain!

I said I would gain 12- 15 lbs, but only ended up gaining 7 lbs. I went to the gym every sea day for 1 hour and tried hard not to order double desserts. But, I did eat dessert with lunch and dinner every day. Husband thought he would gain 10 lbs, but only gained about 5lbs. We did a lot better with restraining ourselves this cruise than the last one. On the 7 day Mexican Riviera, I did gain 12 lbs!

Excellent review so far. Really enjoying the photos. We had a fabulous cruise on the Golden in January, and you're helping me relive it.

A bit later we headed to the room and were surprised that all our bags were already there! Very fast service. I continue to be impressed by how well oiled the Princess machine is.

So, we unpacked and while putting my stuff away, I saw what looked like burned holes in some new shorts I had recently purchased. I touched the hole and snapped my hand back quickly as I received a burn. Apparently something probably containing acid leaked onto my luggage and soaked thru to my pants while the luggage was in transit from the porter to the ship. So, I had to throw my pants away. The next day I was wearing a pair of jeans and noticed some burn holes in them too. Embarrassingly enough some of the holes were in the posterior region of my jeans and I had not noticed them the whole day. No other clothes seemed to be affected. Someone told me to complain to Princess, but I didn’t think it was worth it.

Husband got the Ultimate Kids Drink Package. It was about $144 including the 15% gratuity, and it included everything to make him happy. He also got a free Coke sippy mug and bendy straw. This was what he consumed about every day: A combination or 5-6 virgin pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris, strawberry coladas, tropical smoothie blends and about 6-8 diet cokes (I don’t know why he bothers with the diet ones). He was also able to get shakes (either vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate with sprinkles on them), hot chocolate, and any other virgin drink he wanted like the dirty banana (so good! With extra chocolate) or martinis. We don’t drink alcohol, so this was a really good deal for him. I tend to drink water and I brought a 24 pack of Coke Zero for me. I had a sip of a pina colada and it wonderful! They tasted like tropical cream!

We attended the sail away party, but sadly did not win any of the prizes from the scavenger drawing. It was fun to watch the children and elderly dance the Macarena though. Kudos to them for getting up there. This one elderly woman was really going at the dancing, but with a completely serious face and grim line to her mouth like she was in deep concentration trying to follow the moves. Too funny!

We started to sail away and it finally felt like we were going on vacation. Up until then it felt surreal! We took pictures and watched as San Pedro faded away.

Then we were hungry again (hey, don’t judge. We are on a cruise!) and grabbed a couple slices of pepperoni pizza, which was a bit greasy for my tastes, but still good and really cheesy. I have seen many threads on this pizza. It is the thin kind and people kept saying it tastes the same as pizza they had in Italy. Best on the seas? Possibly. They also had a rotation of specialty pizza like Mediterranean and Mexican.

After this we took some time to window shop at the stores- eh. Everything was very overpriced. And apparently I am getting an overpriced necklace or something for my birthday in a couple days because there was a $115 charge to our account from the boutique at the end of the cruise and husband said I would find out what it was for in a few days. There were a couple pendants I thought were cute…

So far a great review. Keep up the good work.. It makes for an enjoyable read..

We did Anytime dining in the Bernini most nights, and it worked really well for us. We are big fans of the flexibility that you have with anytime. And you can always call ahead and book a table at a specific time. We had friends that were able to do this a few hours in advance even. The Donatello didn’t open until 7:30 for Anytime, so we went to Bernini save for 2 nights. We went at about 6:45pm today and only had to wait about 6 minutes to get a 2 top. To share there was no wait. Service was slow, but that is what we expected and we were there for 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I got the crispy fried spring rolls with peanut sauce, prime rib, and side of steamed veggies (which I got every night). They do the same mixture of veggies, but you supposedly can special order for the next night by asking your waiter, like if you want to get a different kind of veggie like spinach. I tried this once at the suggestion of my waiter, but it didn't work out for me! He forgot to submit it I guess.

Great to read. Brings back memories of our cruise to Hawaii last April. Love the pics.

Husband got the fettuccine, prime rib, and barramundi. I had him ask for the parm bowl, but the waiter didn't understand. Later in the cruise I got the alfredo and was able to get the parm bowl.

For dessert I got sugar free chocolate mousse cake, and scoop of hazelnut ice cream.

The cake was gross and dry, but everything else was wonderful and cooked perfectly. It was not my intention to order sugar free anything, but I really had a hankering for chocolate and I don't like coffee in my chocolate (hence not ordering the flourless chocolate cake). Princess tended to have a dearth of chocolate offerings that didn't integrate coffee flavors into them. The sugar free items on Princess were not to my liking (I tried quite a few, but didn't learn my lesson very quickly!). Husband got the passion fruit soufflé and honeydew sorbet.

He kept ordering soufflés at dinner, but they were never really to his liking. The couple next to us (our tables practically touched!) laughed at our amount of food and we talked about how much weight we had gained on our last cruise. We kept running into the 2 couples we met today for the rest of the cruise. One of the best things we experienced was the people we met. Princess passengers are fantastic! We really enjoyed making friends on this cruise, and even got some invites to stay with a few couples in England, which was so sweet! We are for sure going to keep in touch with a number of people that we met on this cruise! (And maybe go on a cruise with them in the future).

I know this is getting a bit food heavy, but I go on a cruise to pig out! Its not all we did though :) I love the food and before I went I wanted to see all the menus. So, I figured I would post them all so others can see them too!

We just made the Welcome Aboard Show, but had to stand in the back of the Princess theatre. Go early to the shows! They fill up quickly, especially in the Vista lounge.

The singers and musical numbers were terrible, but the comedian gave a good pre- show and we got the see the CD and assistant CD. Ours was the last cruise the current dance performers were on until their break, so maybe that could have been why. But, we will not be attending any more musical shows. During this point the ship really started rocking. The captain said winds of 35 MPH and swells 18-20 feet. We tried to open a side door to go outside and were almost blown away! Husband used all his strength to yank the door open and I wouldn’t even go out.

This was not that day, but a much calmer day regarding the wind. Husband loves these crazy hair pictures of me, and there are quite a few of them to laugh over!:

We can really feel the ship moving now, and we both keep trying to even walk in a straight line! Both of us are really tired, so we head back to the room and read the Patter for the next day. It might be hard to get everything in that we want to do! Also, there are a lot of movies to watch on the TV in the cabin, and some newer ones as well. We watched part of the new Alice in Wonderland and husband was excited that ESPN was available. They were also playing March Madness while we were on board, but not all the games. And sometimes there was an airing delay. We are to set our clocks back one hour tonight, and tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day! I was hoping that there would be corned beef on the menu for tomorrow's dinner, but I guess they don't change the menu like that.

Love your review! Now I'm regretting that we didn't order all the foods

that you've pictured!

What is the punchline on your hubby's shirt that starts: "What? I can't

hear you over the ..."

I would like to know . LOL

It sounds like you guys certainly enjoyed your cruise immensely:D

Love your review! Now I'm regretting that we didn't order all the foods

that you've pictured!

 

What is the punchline on your hubby's shirt that starts: "What? I can't

hear you over the ..."

I would like to know . LOL

 

It sounds like you guys certainly enjoyed your cruise immensely:D

Well, I guess you will just have to go on another cruise! Poor you! We had a wonderful time and can't wait to do another cruise, or even the same one again. We met some people that were staying on to do a B2B on the same cruise and were so jealous.

His shirt says "What? I can't hear you over the sound of my own awesomeness!" Its a bit lame, I know... but he likes it. :rolleyes:

3/17/11

St. Patrick's Day today, so the ship was decorated in green. Most passanger were wearing festive colors and some even wore funny Shamrock head bands and such!

Last night husband complained he could not sleep because of the dipping and rolling of the ship. We are crossing open water, so there is more movement than our previous cruises. The movement was so bad at night our drawers kept sliding open! I thought it was fine (except for the drawer noise, which we fixed by placing bags in front of them) and I never get sea sick. I enjoyed the rolling at night- like being rocked to sleep. Also, there is much debate over the firmness of the beds. The bed was very firm, but I thought they were wonderful, as I prefer a firm bed, but husband did not like it at all. He kept wishing for our home bed, which sags in the middle so that he rolls right smack dab in the middle of it. So this bed was a nice thing for me! I got to have my own portion of bed! Finally some room! We did request a top sheet and extra hangers from the room steward.

I was up at 7AM, and we headed to the gym. There were a couple people in line for machines, but most other equipment was available (weights, arm and leg machines). There were only a couple bikes, about 6 ellipticals, and about 10 treadmills. So, its pretty small but the machines are in great shape. There is a drinking fountain and towels available, as well as antibacterial wipes for the machines. The cardio machines have TVs on them, but no plugs for headphones… so that was strange. The class area is small and open to the rest of the gym, so it can get a bit loud. But they have various classes like spinning and yoga. I only waited about 10-15 minutes for an elliptical, this seems to be the time of day the gym is most crowded. The workout was interesting because of all the rolling- I had to hang on for dear life! It would have been impossible to run on a treadmill, but walking was possible if you hang onto the rails. Husband left early (he couldn’t handle it) and went to take a shower. He related that an elderly gentleman knocked on our door and thought it was his room. He was confused and kept trying to give husband his number to find out where he belonged. At first it sounded like husband just turned him away, so I was mad at him! But I guess he ended up getting our room steward to help the man find his way to his room.

After I got back we headed for the International Café because husband was hungry, but I couldn’t eat yet so soon after working out. He got a blueberry Danish, chocolate croissant, and jelly filled donut with some OJ.

Then we went to the Hawaiian activities desk to pick up our tickets for the free flower lei making. They have three classes on the sea days on the way to Hawaii (for orchid making) and limit participants to 50 people per class (but they never collected our ticket in the actual class). So, we were advised to get there before 9AM as they run out quickly. We got there at 8:45 AM and there were already about 20 people in line, but we got a ticket for when we wanted. You can pick which day you want, which was nice. On the way back they will have three classes for ribbon lei making and you get your ticket the first sea day after Maui.

Closed pool, happened frequently the first few days. But, it was cold so not too many people wanted to use it anyways:

You can't tell from the above picture, but the pool had rolling waves that splashed over the side. pople were getting wet just from being near it. Below is some of the water that made it all the way over the side:

I am enjoying your review and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

It's too late now but there are jacks for headphones on the Golden's cardio machines. They're hard to find but are under the display...you kind of have to find it by touch or bend down to locate it. It's been the same on every Princess ship we've sailed & hopefully you can locate it on your next cruise. How's that for another reason to cruise??? You need to research it & to confirm that I'm not as they say in Hawaiian...LOLO! :p

I'm really enjoying your detailed experiences...it makes me ready for another cruise...in May. :D

Op;

Thanks so much for your review. I very much enjoy reading it. We did this cruise last month and absolutely loved it. So much so, that we're doing it again in March of 2013 on the Sapphire.....:):):)

Bob