Hawaii Star Princess Questions 15 nights

[Love.II.Cruise]

1. What nights were your formal nights?

 

2. For the ukulele classes, did they have left handed ukulele's to learn on?

 

3. Does Princess sell ukulele's from Hawaii?

 

4. Do they now have the chocolate fondue?

 

5. Lastly, what was the highlight of your trip? :)

 

Thanks!

[Cruisin' Chick]

1. What nights were your formal nights?

 

2. For the ukulele classes, did they have left handed ukulele's to learn on?

 

3. Does Princess sell ukulele's from Hawaii?

 

4. Do they now have the chocolate fondue?

 

5. Lastly, what was the highlight of your trip? :)

 

Thanks!

 

My last two cruises were on the Golden on the Hawaiian itinerary (and before that, the Island going to Hawaii) in 2010/11 and 2012/13, but ukuleles weren't sold on board. But I would imagine you can ask Dave (if you're lucky to have Elua on your cruise) or whoever else is teaching the class for suggestions for places to shop for ukes in the Islands (we actually bought our s in a music store here in LA).

 

As for chocolate fondue, not sure if that's part of the chocolate promotion that's going on, so hopefully someone who's been on a recent Princess cruise can let you know.

 

There's so much to like about this itinerary, but our three Hawaiian cruises were during the holidays. For us, two of the formal nights were on Christmas/or/Christmas Day and on New Years Eve. But I imagine on your cruise the formal nights will be on sea days, with at least one on the way to Hawaii and one after Hawaii.

[cr8tiv1]

I can not speak for the Star since they will not have Dave Cole or ELUA. In the past, you "reserved" a ukulele for the lessons. It would be relatively easy to have them restring the ukulele for a left hander.

 

Yes, they do sell ukuleles in the gift shops, but they are pretty rinky-dink. I would wait until you port in Hilo. Downtown should have a really good store. That's where Dave Cole and Dave (ELUA) make their purchases. If you ask anyone in Hilo, I am sure they will point you in the right direction. I believe it is Hilo Guitars but not positive. Google them.

 

Haven't seen a chocolate fondue yet.

 

Hawaii has so much to offer for everyone and their tastes. It all depends on what you want to see and do. I go for the food, but that is because I grew up on Oahu and travel "home" frequently.

 

Enjoy the planning...it's going to be a lot of fun.

[Fargo55]

We just returned from this cruise. Three formal nights. Ukulele lessons so popular they did 2 sessions. Final performance took up the entire Princess stage.

Beware SF port worst experience we have ever had. It would have to be one heck of a cruise deal to get us back to SF port for any reason. Fun cruise limited entertainment, best we saw was provided by a non Princess entertainer who was an Elvis impersonator and the programs provided by the passengers.

 

All in all we enjoyed the cruise with the Hawaii themed activities.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Thank you very much for the responses so far. Dave Cole is supposed to be our Cruise Director, but we won't have Elua.

[Jasperdo]

Thank you very much for the responses so far. Dave Cole is supposed to be our Cruise Director, but we won't have Elua.

David Cole plays a mean ukulele. He'll be doing the lessons and will let you know the best places to buy them on the islands.

 

[satxdiver]

I have sailed out of SF twice now both the old terminal (warehouse) and the new fancy terminal. I have also sailed twice out of SP and their not so converted warehouses. I take exception to the comment about SF. I love SF and highly prefer that port over SP. There is so much to do and see in SF. When i was working I would go to SF area (silicon valley) many times each year to work and loved it. Hawaii out of SF is on my list of cruises to do. I find sea days to be relaxing so I imagine that cruise will be fun.

[tml1230]

we did the star 15 days to hawaii in late november….we had a GREAT trip…there were 3 formal nights. we are not ukuklares so can't help you there…

we did a non princess tour with circle island tours in honolulu which was outstanding and priced very well..the other islands we rented cars for the day…all easy and went very smooth.

this was our 2nd hawaii cruise, last one out of LA…..like poster above,for a port of embarkation i will take SF ANY day ….

 

PS: star has a great crab shack specialty restaurant

 

have a safe trip and enjoy

[Cruiserkenn]

The Humpback whales off of Maui are amazing! You can see them from the ship when anchored off of Lahaina. What a sight!

 

Enjoy!

[timetravler]

Just returned from a 15 day Hawaii cruise on the Star Princess. David Cole was our CD and yes he was fab. But he is leaving the Star at the end of January and going to the Grand. If the Grand has both Cole and Eula then I would go on the Grand. One mention about the port in SF. It was a nightmare all because of the porters(longshoremen) and their attitude. Many complaints were given to the port authority including a letter written by me. Somehow I want to believe that from now on the port of SF will improve and be fantastic. But we shall see. BTW sailing under the Golden Gate bridge is special. Too bad we missed seeing it this time as we did not sail until 11pm.:mad:

[Pam in CA]

BTW sailing under the Golden Gate bridge is special. Too bad we missed seeing it this time as we did not sail until 11pm.:mad:

Even if you sail during the day, you can practically miss it. On my cruise on the Island a couple of years ago, it was foggy and misty so all we saw was a bit of the bridge although we were able to see the bottom of the bridge as we passed under it. :) You just never know.

[helenb]

We were on the recent Star holiday cruise and my husband took ukelele lessons. He said they were easily able to tune the ukeleles for left-handed use.

 

FWIW, the luggage handler problems we had on our cruise seem to have disappeared. The people who left on the Star Mexican cruise on January 3 reported very fast luggage delivery. I am hoping that during the 2 weeks we were sailing, Princess had words with the appropriate authorities and cleared up any issues with the longshoremen.

[RetiredNTraveling]

1. What nights were your formal nights?

Our Formal Nights were: 3rd, 10th & 13th, but we were on a 14 Day cruise.)

 

2. For the ukulele classes, did they have left handed ukulele's to learn on?

Question? Why can't you just restring the ukulele and play it left-handed?

 

3. Does Princess sell ukulele's from Hawaii?

Yes!

 

4. Do they now have the chocolate fondue?

 

5. Lastly, what was the highlight of your trip? :)

Maui and the Whale watching tour! Also, Wings Over Kauai at NAWILIWILI! This was really fantastic!

 

Thanks!

 

Honestly, there wasn't a bad day in the entire cruise! You will love it!

[Northender]

The Humpback whales off of Maui are amazing! You can see them from the ship when anchored off of Lahaina. What a sight!

 

Enjoy!

 

Thanks for that info.:)

 

Thank you very much for the responses so far. Dave Cole is supposed to be our Cruise Director' date=' but we won't have Elua.[/quote']

 

We will have Eula on our April 29th cruise.:D:):D

[Love.II.Cruise]

Thanks for all the replies! We leave tomorrow for San Francisco at 7am! We are looking forward to 4 wonderful nights in San Francisco before this wonderful cruise. :)

[cruiselvr1]

I have sailed out of SF twice now both the old terminal (warehouse) and the new fancy terminal. I have also sailed twice out of SP and their not so converted warehouses. I take exception to the comment about SF. I love SF and highly prefer that port over SP. There is so much to do and see in SF. When i was working I would go to SF area (silicon valley) many times each year to work and loved it. Hawaii out of SF is on my list of cruises to do. I find sea days to be relaxing so I imagine that cruise will be fun.

As a N Cal resident, SF is one of the worst ports. Even after saying that we are going to Mexico in November from SF. We took the Star to Hawaii two years ago, and just loved her.

Edited January 9, 2015 by cruiselvr1
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[SheriffJoe]

I have sailed out of SF twice now both the old terminal (warehouse) and the new fancy terminal. I have also sailed twice out of SP and their not so converted warehouses. I take exception to the comment about SF. I love SF and highly prefer that port over SP. There is so much to do and see in SF. When i was working I would go to SF area (silicon valley) many times each year to work and loved it. Hawaii out of SF is on my list of cruises to do. I find sea days to be relaxing so I imagine that cruise will be fun.

 

You wouldn't be so high on SFO departures if you would have had your luggage PURPOSELY dumped in the bay like so many lately have....not to mention the nasty and threatening attitude of the longshoremen....frankly I am surprised there haven't been all out brawls between pax and longshoreman but I guess the longshoremen know the average age of the pax is a bit old to stand up physically to their threats....

[Cruiserkenn]

You wouldn't be so high on SFO departures if you would have had your luggage PURPOSELY dumped in the bay like so many lately have....not to mention the nasty and threatening attitude of the longshoremen....frankly I am surprised there haven't been all out brawls between pax and longshoreman but I guess the longshoremen know the average age of the pax is a bit old to stand up physically to their threats....

 

Thanks for your comments. I thought maybe things would be better, in San Francisco, with the new terminal. Gosh, I guess not.

 

Thanks for telling the truth.

[iceleven]

We cruised out of SF in November (new pier) and it was a breeze. Easy drive right into the port and off and away from the Embarcadero traffic. The porters were kind, respectful, and thankful for the $5 tip we always offer for the two bags we drop off at the curb.

 

The ONE bad experience that was talked about here recently on the boards was a one-time event and due to their most inappropriate way of making a point with their union. Taking it out on the passengers was plain and simple bullying. I surely wouldn't call San Francisco a bad port just because of that one event. Yes, there are times when there are delays due to bad weather, late flights, immigrations, etc, but that can happen (and does) at all ports.

 

I've cruised out of SF many times yet the one time we had a delayed departure I actually was surprised at just how much more beautiful the city was at night and to see the often ignored Bay Bridge all lit up was much more exciting (for me) than going under the Golden Gate Bridge. Even the crew were out on the deck taking photos and ooohing and aaahing at the city scape at night. I've cruised out of Pedro Port and it has nothing on SF other than easy and cheaper parking.