An OCD review of Golden/Hawaii-Pictures!!

[sandyj55]

I am loving your review of the Golden!! We are going Jan 18, 2011 and you are giving me such good insite as what to expect. Last time I was in Hawaii was 1978 so I'm sure lots of things have changed. The pictures of the food makes my mouth water!!! Thanks for taking the time to let us enjoy your cruise with you.

[RickEk]

I am loving your review of the Golden!! We are going Jan 18, 2011 and you are giving me such good insite as what to expect. Last time I was in Hawaii was 1978 so I'm sure lots of things have changed. The pictures of the food makes my mouth water!!! Thanks for taking the time to let us enjoy your cruise with you.

 

I know you mean 2012... otherwise you missed your boat! :p

[crusinpeg]

This is by far one of the best reviews I have ever come accross!! I love the food pictures, it brings back memories of things I 've had ..and after seeing the pictures things that I will definately have to have on our next cruise.!! We cruised Hawaii on RCCL back in 2003 and are thinking of doing in again on Princess and after reading your review I think we will definately look into the Golden. Again great review...keep it coming!

 

Crusinpeg

[tequilasunrise]

Thanks for the review and especially for the pictures...I am greatly enjoying it!

[hermajestylanie]

Here's some of my snow in the Piazza photos (I think this was the only time it "snowed" on our cruise) when the crew members sang carols. If you look closely' date=' you may be able to see the snow:

 

 

 

And here's from the Champagne Waterfall. This is a staple on every Princess ship, on one of the formal nights. I think the only times they don't build one may be on the really short one or two night cruises.

 

 

 

And here's a shot of my daughter (age 8 on that cruise) on our first Hawaiian cruise five years ago, "pouring" champagne.

 

 

 

Oh, thanks! I can see the snow! That is really cool of them to do. We missed the waterfall on our cruise- I saw them start to set it up, but we went in to have dinner. That is really cute of your daughter and neat that they let her help pour!

[hermajestylanie]

Also I noticed you mentioned how some people were sneaking sandwiches to take off the ship. I can't remember if it was mentioned in the Patters in December' date=' but I do know it was emphasized on our 2005 cruise not to take off food into the ports. In Hawaii, they are very concerned about their agriculture (just like we are in California). And purses and backpacks were searched. Some Caribbean ports also have this rule.

 

I usually pack Power Bars and Zone Bars to put in my purse for any port time munchie attacks. As long as your food is prepackaged and unopened, there usually isn't a problem. Water and soda bottles are okay too.[/quote']

 

 

That is what we ended up doing- just taking pre-packaged foods. I am a big rule person. I wasn't really paying attention, but I don't remember them making a big announcement about not taking food, though I do know they don't want you to take it ashore with you. They were not checking bags though.

[hermajestylanie]

I don't know why but I couldn't find the pictures of the glasses being stacked. I guess we didn't take pictures of it. Doesn't make sense though.

 

 

Thanks for looking though!

[hermajestylanie]

I am loving your review of the Golden!! We are going Jan 18, 2011 and you are giving me such good insite as what to expect. Last time I was in Hawaii was 1978 so I'm sure lots of things have changed. The pictures of the food makes my mouth water!!! Thanks for taking the time to let us enjoy your cruise with you.

 

 

You are most welcome! Have a great time on your cruise!

[hermajestylanie]

This is by far one of the best reviews I have ever come accross!! I love the food pictures, it brings back memories of things I 've had ..and after seeing the pictures things that I will definately have to have on our next cruise.!! We cruised Hawaii on RCCL back in 2003 and are thinking of doing in again on Princess and after reading your review I think we will definately look into the Golden. Again great review...keep it coming!

 

Crusinpeg

 

 

Well, the Golden was just wonderful. I would very much recommend it!

[hermajestylanie]

I know there is much debate about the Pincess beds, but I loved them! My bed sucks! It is so hard to get a good night's sleep since I have been off the ship. I think the rolling really helped me sleep too. Good thing I am not working right now! I would be draggin at work... And it gives me time to finish posting my review!

[partymaker]

Really enjoying your review...it is fabulous. We are sailing on the Golden in two weeks on April 13th......your posts are terrific!!! How was the Crown Grill...what did you order...I was hoping for pictures of that dinner. Can't wait to read more..........

[hermajestylanie]

Really enjoying your review...it is fabulous. We are sailing on the Golden in two weeks on April 13th......your posts are terrific!!! How was the Crown Grill...what did you order...I was hoping for pictures of that dinner. Can't wait to read more..........

 

CG was fabulous! See post numbers 71, and 73-74 for some mouth watering pictures! The fillet mignon was my favorite- it was tender and flovorful, while husband liked the porterhouse best. It was literllay just falling apart when poked with a fork. It was very tender and not too fatty. We each got 2 entrees, why not? You can order as much as you like! And we ordered 3 desserts between up. It was a fantastic dinner, so if you like steakhouses, go!

[hermajestylanie]

3/22/11- Oahu

Wow, husband only had one mocktail today. It is a record, but we were off ship all day too! We woke up early and had a quick breakfast. We have discovered English bacon is dang good, and this is coming from someone who only eats pork in the form of American bacon. It makes sense that they carry the English bacon, as there are so many passengers that are English on board. Husband wants to know if we can get it in the US, but we have only seen Canadian bacon and it is not the same. We had breakfast at the buffet again. I still don’t really like that they bring your drinks- it really makes it slower, unless you don’t care if you have liquid with breakfast. The buffet gets a bit crowded, especially around the toaster as everyone has to wait for their items to be done.

I had been to Oahu twice before and did the typical tourist things like Pearl Harbor, North Shore, Dole Pineapple Plantation, Polynesian Cultural Center, LDS Temple, waterfall hike, and a luau. All of those things were wonderful! But, I kind of wanted to do something I had not done before. However, husband had never been before, so i thought we should do some of the normal things for him, but he was content to let me plan everything, as long as he didn’t have to do it!

So, we had to meet at 7:50 AM for our hike to Diamond Head.

We booked thru Princess for convenience. We exited the ship and it was sprinkling, so they were not taking photos on the gangway. We took a large van, which was full with 11 people for the hike. Usually when you book with the ship there are a lot of people on it and they cram you all into a large tour bus. But, this was nice. I guess it was not very popular. We ran into some of our CC friends on the van, which was fun. So, like I said, it was raining when we left the ship and I cursed myself that I did not buy a rain poncho I saw yesterday at the orchid place. I couldn’t find one at home for some reason. Once on the van we drove thru the city to get to the hike, it was a pretty drive. The tour operator was pretty great. He carried water for everyone in his pack and also provided rain ponchos, which was good for me. He was also knowledgeable and friendly. Since it was raining and windy, the guide said he had never seen Diamond Head with so few people in the 50 or so trips he has made there. I guess we lucked out.

It started raining again, and thankfully he provided me with a poncho.

Sexy...

As soon as I put it on the rain stopped but the wind was incredible. We took many stops to accommodate the various paces of the group. I believe I was the only one not sweating- husband was dripping and the tour guide was not doing much better. There were many jokes about my resting heart rate, but I work out a lot! And I love to hike! There was a part of the hike with a lot of stairs.

I became superstitious about taking off poncho, like it may start raining again, but the wind made it noisy and the guide said he was afraid I would flap away in the wind. It finally got a bit warm and the sun came out. The views were great!

I took lots of pictures, or course!

[hermajestylanie]

It was pretty windy up there. Here is yet another hair picture... I have a collection:

The views were just wonderful though:

We also had to pass thru a military bunker to come out on the top:

All the way up here and you can tell how clear the water is in Hawaii. Those dark spots are reef:

I used the main camera and husband used our unserwater camera becasue he wanted to take picture too. I guess he felt left out. There ended up being a lot of pictures of my backside, but he managed to get one that I really liked:

On the way back down we saw a lot of people going up, as the weather had cleared a bit. Back to the ship after the hike, the guide was nice enough to drop some people off at Waikiki. At the ship we walked to the Aloha Tower and went up the elevator for some nice view of the city.

Then we went into the shopping center right by the ship to search for some trash to buy. I saw a couple cute hair flowers at 3 for $5 and some Hawaii shirts. We went to the ukulele shop recommended by Dave onboard. And, we bought a ukulele, case, and tuner for $65, which is a great deal. The instrument was the same type as the ship uses. We dropped our stuff off back on the ship and got our stuff ready for the rest of the day. We did lunch in the MDR at about 12:02, and were only one of three tables in there for the first 30 minutes. I am cheap, so I like to go back to the ship for lunch and dinner if it is feasible.

[partymaker]

Laine...your pictures are so great...you should put all of this into a book. On our last cruise to the Med. last May we bought the 100 page book on the ship and we love the finished product. It was only $59.00 and it was so frantastic that we ordered 2 additional copies for our kids. Shutterfly and Costco also do similar versions. Then, you would be able to keep your memories forever!

[hermajestylanie]

Lunch was good, but not the best, it was at about the level of Chili's today. Now, I like Chili's, but I am not hard to please. It is just a useful comparison:

I had the chicken tortilla soup and a bbq beef sandwich.

 

Potato fries were super good! Much better than the ones from the grill. I have not cared for the soups that I have ordere on Princess, but some people love them.

Husband got the bbq wings, and he refused to use his hands to eat them. The waiter made fun of him. He said “If you go out to the city right now to Hooters, you won’t see any of our staff using utensils to eat their wings!” So, apparently all the cruise staff heads on out to Hooters when they hit the shore. Hmmm.

Husband also got the spare ribs, with this delicious cole slaw that had golden raisins in it. Best slaw I have ever had and I have been to numerous bbq places in various states. The ribs were really quite fatty, but tasted ok overall.

[Mycruises62]

Great review. Please get the review coming and pictures too.

We are sailing on the Golden in Nov to Hawaii

[hermajestylanie]

Dessert was chocolate ice cream. It was called something strange, so I asked about it and the waiter said it had ribbons of chocolate in it. Being addicted to chocolate, I said that sounds good, but it turned out to be ribbons of orange. Citrus and chocolate are a bad combo in my mind.

Husband got chocolate pecan pie and butterscotch ice cream. He did not like the chocolate ganache on the pie, but I thought it was great, so we switched. And I actually like the pie, though I am usually not a pie person. It had big chunks of pecans and not too much goop in there, just a nice light coating of some brown sugar mixture. Nice how that works out sometimes.

 

After lunch we headed out and caught a bus to Waikiki. It is $2.50 pp, exact change only. You can catch the bus if you walk down the main road past the Aloha Center, about 100 feet past the information desk. You should wait for the express bus, no matter what anyone tells you. It took forever to get there. And we had to transfer at the Ala Moana shopping center. At the beach we laid out a bit.

It was crowded and the sun kept hiding; it was also very windy.

I kept getting cold, but husband thought it was perfect.

The water was super cold, but eventually I got in for snorkeling.

It literally takes me about 20 minutes to get in. The water is cold, and I have a habit of putting my feet in, then running when I see a wave. Husband took lots of embarassing pictures of me and this is the only one I will share. We both bought our own snorkeling gear (finally) for this trip. For only $40-$50, you can get a really decent set with short fin, mask, and snorkel. Ours came in a little carrying case that you can sling across your back. We also got the special kind of snorkel that doesn’t allow water to get in it. They worked pretty well and the seal on the masks is fantastic! I also really liked the shorter type fins versus the longer ones.

[Cruisin Oldies]

Loving the reviews and pictures. It brings back great memories that I'd already forgotten about. When we went Hubby bought a uke, bag, & tuner at Hilo Guitars and Ukulele in downtown Hilo that was said to be good. They were great. Even though he'd only had a couple of those beginner classes they let him play with everything. Did you get your uke at the shop in the Aloha shopping area? We went in there and got a book on chords but they weren't that friendly compared to the Hilo store. That ukulele playing is addictive, isn't it? I ordered one for myself last month so I could see if I'll be able to play it when we go April 13th with all the family. Okay, I find I can do great if I only need a C or C7 cord. (For those who don't play, they only use 1 finger) After that things get scrambled. Thanks for the posts.

 

Cruisin Oldies:)

[hermajestylanie]

Well, the reef in Waikiki is super near the surface and the shore. The water was a bit rough because of the wind and storm, so I scraped my leg on the coral and husband scraped his leg and foot too. There were some fish out there, but the water was only moderately clear. It took me forever to adjust to the water temperature, but it was not a great spot in these conditions.

This is about what you will see out there, when you are not bumping your leg on the coral:

 

 

 

Too bad that Hanauma Bay is closed on Tuesdays- we really wanted to go there. After disastrous snorkeling, we spent a couple more hours here just laying out to dry a bit and to relax. It sprinkled on and off with periods of the sun poking thru. There was also a high school volleyball team that came to practice on the beach behind us. How cool is that to have as a sport you can play in high school? Beach volleyball!

The suset was really pretty:

 

 

 

 

 

We took a little walk on the beach to a jetty

and then headed out to The International Market for some shopping.

We stopped at a few ABC stores on the way- they are literally every block, sometimes two a block. We picked up some gifts for my parents as a thank you for watching our dogs. The macadamia nuts are reasonably priced and we also got some cheap tourist shirts and key chains. If you spend $100 at any ABC store (just keep your receipts, it doesn’t matter what island they are from) you get a free gift of a mug, calendar, or shopping bag. At the shopping center I haggled and got pretty flower bracelet. Just beware that the shops closer to the street try to charge more and won’t haggle as much- try the back first! Husband found a Honolulu cop shirt he liked, so we had to get him that (he’s a cop).

[hermajestylanie]

And he made me take his picture in front of the Waikiki police station as we passed it too.

 

There are a lot of upper end stores in this area as well, so if you are looking for some hard core shopping, you will be able to find it here as well. Our guide from this morning said that Japanese women used to come to the area to do major shopping, that is why there are a lot of expensive name brand stores in the area. After shopping we walked a bit to find a bus to get back to the ship. It was about 8pm when we got back to the ship and we hurried to change for dinner. As we got to the dining room at about 8:30, we had no wait for a table for two! Usually we do dinner between 6 and 6:30, but we can get a table to share with no wait. For a two top the wait is usually estimated at about 20 minutes. Service was really quick today (probably because they we trying to get everyone out so they could clean up for the night!) and our waiter was great. The dining room was pretty deserted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the salad with ranch dressing and husband got the Hawaiian style sushi:

 

 

 

 

 

We both got the rib eye:

 

 

[hermajestylanie]

And he also got the Salmon steak:

 

 

 

 

 

The rib eye was a bit tough...

 

 

 

For dessert:

 

 

 

 

 

Dessert was this semi frozen banana parfait thing with toffee. It was really really good with concentrated fresh banana flavor. Husband got a vanilla sundae with caramel and butterscotch (they load on the sauces) and also an orange soufflé. He didn’t like his soufflé (again), so he had some of my dessert too.

 

 

 

 

[legalwife]

I am soooo enjoying your review. Thanks for all your time to do it.

 

I do have one question. We are sailing on the Golden for our first Princess. We are very near the Vista Lounge. Do you have any idea how late the shows usually run? Like do they have midnight comedians and such? Wondering how late we could possibly hear noise, although we are thinking positive.

 

Just preparing ourselves... :)

[hermajestylanie]

After dinner they had the Ultimate Deck Party up near the MUTS screen as we were sailing away from Honolulu. They do some really nice food carvings. I guess they employ two people that do all of the decorative carving for the entire ship. One of the activities they had on deck was a game of musical chairs, but instead of chair, they used men! They picked a bunch of women and had them grab a man when the music stopped. It got pretty crazy, but the men loved it! There was also a special food buffet with Hawaiian things like coconut shrimp, pot stickers, pulled pork, chicken kebobs, spring rolls, pork ribs, chicken wings, pineapple cake, coconut cake, strawberry shortcake, chocolate dipped bananas, and fruit.

Pineapple cake:

I know we just ate, but I had to try the desserts! Everything seemed pretty good.

When we got back to our room, we found a notice that they had cancelled our Maui excursion. We were supposed to go snorkeling at the Molokini Crater and Turtle Bay. We were very sad! We don’t know what we will do now on Maui, I had not done much other research because we were set on this snorkeling excursion, so we will have to think about it. We seem to have a snorkeling curse. Our first cruise there was a storm that churned up all the water, making visibility bad, so we could not snorkel. Our second cruise we tried to snorkel, but the water was cold! As soon as we got out to the fish, there were all these tiny jellyfish that kept stinging us, so we had to go back in. Then in Honolulu the coral attacked us! Snorkeling just never works out for us.

Oh, the morning shows that the CD Dave does on the TV are pretty good. He and Eric, the assistant CD are funny guys.

[hermajestylanie]

Laine...your pictures are so great...you should put all of this into a book. On our last cruise to the Med. last May we bought the 100 page book on the ship and we love the finished product. It was only $59.00 and it was so frantastic that we ordered 2 additional copies for our kids. Shutterfly and Costco also do similar versions. Then, you would be able to keep your memories forever!

 

 

Thanks! That is a good idea. We bought some formal pictures on the cruise, so we got that scrapbook thing for free. I haven't started doing it yet, but I hope to be able to include a bunch of our pictures in that. But, I will probably need a bigger book! I really did take 3,000 pictures!