Good Morning from the PACIFIC PRINCESS

[Seal]

Thanks for posting --really enjoying reading this--seems strange to look at the pictures knowing it won't be all that long and we'll be there--you know, your picture of the balcony with a lounge against the wall of the balcony next door doesn't really look smaller than the Tahitian--By the way have you held a meet and greet yet--and did you have it in your cabin ?? Hope you have a smooth crossing--have you ever noticed the sparks coming from the smoke stacks at night??? after I discovered them and questioned some crew members who I thought might know if this was normal--apparently only occasionaly-- now--you gotta go out and look tonight--probably nothng--sure hope nothing--just makes you keep looking with the red embers flying around--

 

Have a great night

 

Nancy:D

[Times Prince]

First chance I have had to post live from our cruise (been busy with port days since we boarded). We are sailing south from Hilo towards Tahiti and Christmas Island.

The ship is wonderful, and our OS suite (6088) is breathtaking. The added features, such as cocktails in the evening and Sabatinis breakfast each morning really add to this experience.

Wow, that's a great cruise, probably our best ever, and our tablemates had gotten upgraded to the OS (can you believe it!) Is Sammi still the CD?

 

Christmas Island - if you get some extra time, take a walk down the beach to the left of the pier going toward the scrap yard. When we did it we stopped and noticed the beach was moving! it was covered with little hermit crabs on a migration. I hope you can see some of them at this time of year - it was majical.

 

Bob

[Starshine95123]

Thanks for sharing them.

[mississauga]

Toto, thanks for taking us on your cruise with you and for sharing your photos with us.

 

Looking forward to more of your postings.

[mii]

Hi Toto and thanks for taking us on your cruise. We were on the pacific Princess a few years ago and it is a nice ship although we did her in Alaska. You two have a wonderful time which I know you will and thanks again for the "Live" from.

 

Marilyn

[Clutterlady]

Thanks for showing us your OS cabin....WOW!

[paradiseken]

This is a great thread Toto. Thanks for the pics and commentary. I am most interested in the Pacific Princess as my wife and I will be on it for 107 days starting January 27, 2010, for the World Cruise. Would really appreciate it if you could get a shot or two of a BC balcony room, deck 7, as that is where we will stay. If it is not too much trouble, that is. The cost of a suite for us was prohibitive for a cruise this long. Thanks Toto. I will be following your posts faithfully. Have a great cruise!!!

[paul929207]

This is a great thread Toto. Thanks for the pics and commentary. I am most interested in the Pacific Princess as my wife and I will be on it for 107 days starting January 27, 2010, for the World Cruise. Would really appreciate it if you could get a shot or two of a BC balcony room, deck 7, as that is where we will stay. If it is not too much trouble, that is. The cost of a suite for us was prohibitive for a cruise this long. Thanks Toto. I will be following your posts faithfully. Have a great cruise!!!

In case you are interested, the CD for the WC will be JJ King and the assistant CD will be Frankie.

[paradiseken]

Thanks Paul. That is good to know. Have a great day!

[Druke I]

Keep those reports coming, Toto. An enjoyable read. I'm a big fan of the R class ships, both with Princess and Oceania Cruise Line. Haven't tried the ones with Azamara Cruises yet.

 

 

You are incorrigible, Toto. A couple of weeks ago, you said you were going to use "course" instead of "coarse" when using the phrase "of course", and now you are slipping into those old habits again.

[WeBeGone]

Thanks Sue - photos are great. You guys have a wonderful time!

[vette]

Hi Toto,

 

Thanks for the great posts and wonderful pictures. You have me drooling with the suite pictures. Alas, we will only be in a balcony room. But we can also enjoy the warm breezes and blue waters.

 

Does you time seem to be going by fast? It seems to me that time is flying by. Did they stop at Christmas Island or just "scenic" cruise by?

 

Vette

[California Native]

Wow, that's a great cruise, probably our best ever, and our tablemates had gotten upgraded to the OS (can you believe it!) Is Sammi still the CD?

 

 

Bob

 

 

Hi Bob...

I had Sammi on the 6/11 Alaska cruise on the Pacific she left midway through and was heading to the Dawn Princess

to get it ready for the world cruise and was very excited about that

K

[California Native]

. Haven't tried the ones with Azamara Cruises yet.

.

 

 

Hi Druke and anyone else that might be interested in this....

Next year in Oct/Nov my DH and I will doing a B2B on Azamara for 24 days.

I just love the small ships

I'm going to do an extensive comparison of AZ to Princess R ships for everyone...during and after our sailing along with pictures

[California Native]

In case you are interested, the CD for the WC will be JJ King and the assistant CD will be Frankie.

 

Love Frankie!!!!!!!

Did you every see the picture I have of him from our crossing the line ceremony???

[houch]

Thanks, Toto, for sharing pics of your suite. It is the only chance I will ever get to see one. However I will be next to one on our Holy Land cruise in Nov on the Royal in an aft balcony on deck 6 and I am excited about that, first aft!

[tequilasunrise]

Thanks for the Live!! This is an intinerary we are rarely treated to :)

 

Oh, and much as we appreciate your donations keeping our cruise prices down, I hope your luck turns for the good in the casino!!! ;-)

 

Have a great cruise!

[pretenda]

Thanks for posting the photo's Sue, the suite looks wonderful. Wishing you both a great time. We're looking forward to the next few chapters.:)

Glenda and Tony

[Toto2Kansas]

Wow, that's a great cruise, probably our best ever, and our tablemates had gotten upgraded to the OS (can you believe it!) Is Sammi still the CD?

 

Christmas Island - if you get some extra time, take a walk down the beach to the left of the pier going toward the scrap yard. When we did it we stopped and noticed the beach was moving! it was covered with little hermit crabs on a migration. I hope you can see some of them at this time of year - it was majical.

 

Bob

 

Bob, Sammi is no longer the CD and I forget what the CD's name is now. Will have to check on that for you (shows you how much attention I have paid to other than the waiter's names lol).

Although we have visited Christmas Island in the past, afraid Princess is no longer stopping there. We have a 'cruise by' only this trip, unfortunately. I had emailed Princess several times trying to find out why, but never actually received a response to that question. If stopping, we like to prepare and take along a large bag of school supplies, as well as treats for the children, so it was important that we find out before that last port in Hawaii. So, tomorrow we will just be watching as we sail by.........although we would love to tender in again.

[Toto2Kansas]

Keep those reports coming, Toto. An enjoyable read. I'm a big fan of the R class ships, both with Princess and Oceania Cruise Line. Haven't tried the ones with Azamara Cruises yet.

 

 

You are incorrigible, Toto. A couple of weeks ago, you said you were going to use "course" instead of "coarse" when using the phrase "of course", and now you are slipping into those old habits again.

 

I warned you, slip ups are going to happen after all these years of using the wrong form of the word. lol I have been trying to type the reports in another program just to take care of that problem, but I slipped up again. Will try very hard to reprogram that word in my memory. ;)

[Toto2Kansas]

Good Morning, from a perfect day two (out of five) at sea. The sun is shining, the seas are finally calm, and hopefully those onboard that have been quite seasick will find this day more agreeable to them.

As I spoke with many passengers in the casino yesterday afternoon (yes, the casino was much kinder to me then the first night it was open), I was amazed there were many passengers very disappointed in what the ship has to offer. Some were actually counting the minutes until it was time to leave the ship and fly home. It still amazes me that no research at all is done by some on the size of the ships they book and what they have to offer onboard. Small ships aren’t for everyone, and those that need entertained 24/7 with something to do, just do not enjoy them at all.

DH is watching the football game on TV and says he just has to remember to watch sports, you have to check in the AM because of the time difference.

We are just back from a lovely light breakfast at Sabatinis of mixed berries, vanilla latte and English muffin. Trying to limit breakfast this AM as the most traveled luncheon is right at noon today and it usually has some wonderful offerings that I don’t want to miss. They (Joel and Marco) in Sabatinis kept trying to feed me more and more, although I tried to explain that I needed to save room for the ‘luncheon’, they didn’t think I was eating enough. (I still think they want to roll me off the ship at the end of 21 days if I ate the way they requested).

I will now tell you two stories of what we encountered onboard, the first irritating at the time, but the last was quite funny (but you would have had to have been here to see the humor in it I think).

We boarded the ship in Honolulu and ‘of course’ (;))found our ice bucket in the frig. Added our soda and wine and items that needed chilled (yes, we received two mini bar set ups for this sailing and will again for the next. Just as Princess advertised), and didn’t open it again for 36 hours. We reached in for something cold to drink and you could have cooked a turkey in that thing. We checked the settings, all were set correctly, so we reported it to the room stewardess to be repaired or replaced. Three days went by, still hot in the frig, and the room stewardess had reported it three times now. Finally a maintenance man comes in at 7:30 in the evening to tell us it will take time to cool? (like 36 hours wasn’t long enough). Next morning, still more like an oven then a frig. I went down to the purser’s desk and reported it directly to them. Amazing that in one hour, a new frig was put in while we were at lunch. Problem solved, and persistence paid off in the end.

And now, for the funny one, you would have had to been here to appreciate. Yesterday morning, we went to our balcony to enjoy our morning coffee. Just sitting at the table enjoying the views as the ship rocked and rolled. All of a sudden, the sprinklers on the balcony put out a shower that was the strength of the shower in the bathroom. We moved away quickly as it continued off and on depending on the rocking of the ship. We reported it to our room stewardess and she called and reported it immediately. A maintenance man came shortly afterward to tell us this was normal as the ship rocked????? (little did he know that our business at home is ‘fire protection equipment maintenance’). As my DH tried to explain to him this was not normal, he kept insisting. So, we figured the water in the pipe would surely drain out sooner or later, unless they had a leak in the system. It took all I had to keep my husband from investigating this further and trying to do something about it himself. :( It seemed to get a bit better as the afternoon went on.

Since we had not planned to attend formal night, we ordered dinner served on our balcony. We had moved the table away from the sprinkler and waited for our dinner to be delivered.

Our room stewardess had cleaned all the glass on our balcony earlier in the day, and our views were perfect from inside. Just before dinner was delivered, DH (minus his glasses I might add) came to join me on the balcony, and walked directly into the sliding glass door. At first I thought he was joking until I saw the blood running down his forehead. She did an excellent job of cleaning that glass I might add. LOL It doesn’t sound funny I am sure, but DH is very hard headed (he could probably say the same thing about me) and although he was bleeding, a cold towel and a little ice took care of it in minutes. He only has a small goose egg to show for it. So he then walked past the coffee table and knocked my can of pepsi (half full) onto the floor. I needed to get this guy fed and put to bed before he killed himself today.

Right about that time, it began to rain, so we quickly moved the table back away from the railing (thinking the sprinkler was repaired). As we are sitting down for dinner, the sprinklers exploded again and water was everywhere. The balcony was soaked, we were soaked, and thankfully our dinner was still covered so it didn’t get as wet as we did, and we took it inside.

Again, a trip down to the purser’s desk to report the problem, as the room stewardess said she had even informed her supervisor of the problem and it was not happening in any aft suite but ours.

It was funny as we sat in the very corner of our balcony after dinner, away from the rain, and keeping as far away from those sprinkler heads as possible, enjoying the sounds of the wake with our little battery operated candles. Not the most romantic of dinners either of us had ever had. I think we will try again another day to see if we can’t get it right next time.

So, if you can picture us sitting at our dining table in our suite, both wet from top to bottom, having dinner and laughing at our misfortune, then you can understand why getting upset about this was silly, but getting a good laugh about it was the best way to handle it. There is always tomorrow to get this right.

This morning there is a workman outside our suite door, tearing out ceiling tiles and draining the pipes hooked to our balcony sprinkler. But not to worry, DH told me that the pipe does not usually contain water unless the valve is released during an emergency, so draining the pipe will not limit the fire protection we have on our balcony, just in case.

 

Now, time for me to go and enjoy the rest of the morning, and I will report back later after the ‘most traveled’ passenger luncheon if I have time.

 

Not a lot to report on sea days except little stories here and there.

For those still reading this ‘live report’, thanks for joining us. Hopefully as we reach French Polynesia, I can post some great pictures of the islands and excursions we have planned. The first will be with Patrick on Bora Bora for an all day tour, 4 X 4, snorkeling and a Motu Island Picnic.

 

Signing off from somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean about two thirds of the way to Christmas Island from Hilo.

[GSDsky]

Having had the pleasure I would have loved to have been there for that hmmm clean glass episode.

I hope there are pictures being posted?

[Colo Cruiser]

Good Morning.

 

Goodness I hope he is not too sore after that! I can just imagine, we all have those sort of days. Glad its safety glass. :eek:

That is so bizzare about the sprinkler. I would not have been as amused after the 3rd or 4th time though. Hope they get it drained.

Enjoy the luncheon. :)

[mississauga]

Wow, you and your DH are such good sports. If these 2 incidents had happened to some others, they would have reported that it ruined their cruise. Glad you were able to laugh about it and your DH is ok.

 

Keep enjoying!

[davidnsteph]

Thanks for your live thread from the Pacific. We had a great time in these ports when we cruised from Papeete to Honolulu 2 years ago on the Tahitian. We felt fortunate to visit Christmas Island. This was a rustic paradise. We took a local bus from the port to the Captain Cook resort in the middle of the island. It wasn't a 5-star resort, but the beach was scenic. We did see the beach "move" there, with plenty of small hermit crabs moving around. It was very interesting to watch the local residents going about their daily routines, and the children in their classrooms with the windows wide open.

 

Bora Bora is also a very special place, especially out on the water between the motus. Looking forward to reading more.:)

 

David