Just back from the Golden

[Bettyboop66]

Just wanted to let everyone know what a beautiful ship the Golden Princess is. All the wonderful things that I read about her before the cruise were so true. Two of the most useful tips I learned on this board about the ship were, different color carpet on opposite sides of the ship, and the special Drink of the Day sticker. Great reduced prices on the DOD with the first purchase of the special drink. Any questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

Betty

[Watermanfunari]

Hi, Glad you had a great time and liked the ship so much. We will be on her in about 5 weeks. We will have the repo cruise so it might be a bit different, but I just wanted to ask, What nights were the Formal nights? And did they have Island night also? and what night was that? Like I said, it might be different, I would call Princess but the people there do not know either.

 

Thanks

[blambition]

I'm sailing in the next two weeks. How was the boarding experience? Is it still taking hours to get on the ship?We are also wondering what time to have a car service pick us up after the cruise.

 

Anything you could tell me about the cruise I would love to hear like what you might recommend in the ports and did you eat in the specialty restaurants. Also how did you find the food in general? Sorry to ask so many questions but I have been hoping to have someone post after a New England cruise.

Thanks!

[mringenoldus]

I'd love to hear about your recommendations and comments on the ports. We sail Oct. 15.

[makeup face]

Who was the Captain and Cruise Director??? :D

[Bettyboop66]

IMHO the food on the Golden was great. We tried for the first time the Desert Rose, AKA Sterling Steakhouse, it was the best steak I have ever had. I would recommend it to anyone. As for the captain, I don't remember, I'll ask my DH and let you know. The cruise director left absolutely NO impression on any of us. He was never out and about, however, Frankie the Assistant cruise director was EXCELLENT. Search hime out, he was great. Boarding was so easy, we arrived at the pier around 10:00, and were onboard by 11:30 at the latest. I think ir was actually a little earlier. As far as the tours, we did mostly site seeing, we did however do teh whale watch in Bar Harbor, if you don't mind standing for approx. 3 1/2 hours, they don't have nearly enought seats for the number of passengers onboard, it was O.K. Not as good as Alaska, but good. The seas were VERY rough on this excursion, so be prepared for anything. I'm pretty sure the fromal nights were Sunday and Thursday. Hope this helps you'll love the ship.

[Afloat]

We sailed on the Golden 9/3-10. Please see my review under member reviews. It took us two hours to board the ship. We arrived at 12:45 p.m. There were only two x-ray machines for 2600 passengers. Suggest you arrive earlier so you can get on board and enjoy the ship.

 

Sabatini's -excellent. Desert Rose-fair.

 

Shore excursions:

 

Halifax-Peggy's Cove Costal Drive- well worth $39. Had afternoon free to walk on Harbour Walk near the pier. Excellent lunch (lobster roll, blueberry pie) at Murphy's on the Water

 

St. John- took Wonders of Bay Of Fundy. Not even close to worth $94 pp. To see reversing falls, catch a cab at pier- fee is $7 CDN each way. Consult tide tables. Try to time your visit to low tide-rapids at their best, flowing normally or high tide-will see revere flow. If you go at slack tide, you will see nothing but flat water.

 

Ate lunch at Billy's Seafood at King's Square-good food

 

 

 

Bar Harbor- Hired a minivan from At Your Service Taxi Co. $50/ hour no matter how many people. Best to pair up with someone. You design the tour. Spent 2 1/2 hours toruing Acadia Nat'l Park at our pace. Stopped where we wanted and for as long as we wanted.

 

Lunch-West St. Cafe-awesome food. $19.95 special-chowder, lobster, blueberry pie. May look crowded but they are very efficient.

 

 

 

Boston-Took Duck tour-lots of fun. Lunch at Ned Devine's in Faneuil Hall/ Quincy Market. Then crossed street and walked to Italian North End to see Paul Revere Statue and Old North Church and have a cannoli at Mike's Pastry. Shared a cab back to pier ($6 per couple) as compared to $8 pp. for shuttle bus.

 

Newport-Shore ex- Vanderbilt's Newport- saw the Breakers and Marble House-very wothwhile. Two mansions were enough for us. Restaurant's in town-nothing special. Suggest you have lunch on ship as you have to pack to disembark next day.

 

Hope this helps and hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

[RnR_Girl76]

The different colored carpet has definitely helped me remember what side of the ship me and my friend stay on especially during some of those late nights.

[love2cruiseseattle]

How is the entertainment on the Golden? In the main theater as well as other lounge shows?

 

Was getting off of the ship at the end of the cruise a smooth process. This is our first Princess cruise, RCCL were what we have cruised in the past. They have you wait in lounge areas and then call colors.

 

Thank you for any information you can provide.

[Afloat]

Comedian Kevin Hughes did three shows in the theatre. He was very funny and clever. Don't miss. Soprano Phillipa Healy in the Vista Lounge had an incredible voice. Reminded us of Charlotte Church. Illusionist Gaetano and juggler Joby were only fair.

 

Disembarkation went smoothly. They wanted us out of our cabin by 7 am. We had brerakfast and vacated cabin by 7:45 am. Waited in explorer's lounge until 9:30 a.m. We did not have a flight to catch.

[blambition]

Afloat would you suggest we have the shuttle company meet us at 10am? I have to give them a time and they say they will stay for 10 minutes which I find a little disturbing. Thanks for the info.

 

It looks like we will be sailing a little too early to see the leaves change since the web sites I have checked say there isn't much change yet. I am so excited about this cruise as I've wanted to do this itinerary for years.

[blambition]

Afloat I know you suggested we arrive earlier than you did. Do you have any idea how early they start the boarding since I believe they say 1pm. We are going in the day prior so we could get there whenever. We are going to try and do something after breakfast in NY before going over to the pier but I don't really know what we would have time to do and we will have the night before.

[Afloat]

They start the embarkation procedure at 1 pm. I would suggest arriving by noon. You'll have to wait an hour, but hopefully you'll be near the head of the line.

 

As far as a shuttle meeting you. Are you talking about disembarkation? Princess offers express disembarkation if you can carry your luggage off. You get off earlier. We had too much luggage. If you are catching a flight, they disembarked passengers by flight time and airport. For people not flying they disembarked by deck. I would contact the shuttle company and tell them you can only give an approximate time. I would tell them that you will call them on your cell phone when you have a more exact time (you'll get an idea that morning) or even call when you are told to disembark. You'll have to claim your luggage and proceed through customs which all together takes about 10-15 minutes.

 

Enjoy the cruise!!!!!

[Afloat]

Blambition- I don't know if you are interested in seeing a Broadway show Friday night. You can use web site for playbill.com. Shows such as Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Mama Mia and Fiddler on the Roof that have been playing for a while and might have seats.

[10XCRUISE]

On Saturday 9/10 we parked our car on the pier at 10:25 am. We walked into our cabin at 11:15 am. Now that's what I call fast.........

[blambition]

Afloat I was referring to disembarkation. I will give the shuttle company the 10:00 am time and then tell them we will call to confirm like you suggested on the morning of arrival. We don't fly out until 4:30 on our return flight. As you can tell we will have all the time in the world. Since there is really no place to stow our luggage I guess we will just have a very long lunch at the airport.

 

After the input I have received I plan on arriving around noon for check-in. We are platinum members so we can use that line for check-in although I don't know if it will help. I know they also have a lounge to wait in for disembarkation.

 

We sail next Friday and I'm counting the days!!!

Thanks for the info on the plays we might look into that.

[makeup face]

I am getting so excited :D :D

 

Did anyone check out the Skywalkers Nightclub???

 

Bettyboop66 ....I'll make a point to seek out Frankie :)

 

 

Afloat.... my sister and I plan to have lunch at Billy's Seafood. Anything you suggest we really should try ;)

Seems like embarkation could go either way....fast or slow:eek:

Think I'll try to get to the port between 11:00 to noon.

[Afloat]

Makeup face-my wife and I had lobster rolls at Billy's seafood which were delcious. The New England clkam chowder was good but thinner then we are used to.

 

Have a great cruise.

[Bettyboop66]

makeup face,

It should be pretty easy to find Frankie, he reminded me of Gilligan, and when I told him this we both had a nice laugh. We did go to Skywalkers a couple of times, not very crowded either night, but a very nice place. Dont go there looking for conversation, very loud.

Enjoy your cruise!!!

[suedon]

We just got back from the Golden. Embarkation went very fast. Our plane landed at LGA at 11:00am and we took a cab to the pier. We were in our cabin by noon. They seemed to have solved a lot of the problems they had a couple of weeks ago. For instance, immigration in Bar Harbor was very fast. We did express disembarkation (carried off our own luggage) and were off the ship by 8:45am. I called a car service and they were there by 9:20. We then took a 2 hour tour of New York that ended back at LGA.

I agree with Bettyboop--Frankie was great. The cruise staff were lots of fun too. We had lots of fun playing Trivia and won some nice prizes. They had a really good band, Onlyne, playing nightly in the Explorers lounge.

I agree with Afloat's assessment of the entertainment. The Illusionist said it was his last show so hopefully you'll have someone better:)

[makeup face]

suedon.....how was the weather??? I'll start packing this weekend...any tips:confused:

[Coral]

We just got back from the Golden. Embarkation went very fast. Our plane landed at LGA at 11:00am and we took a cab to the pier. We were in our cabin by noon. They seemed to have solved a lot of the problems they had a couple of weeks ago. For instance, immigration in Bar Harbor was very fast. We did express disembarkation (carried off our own luggage) and were off the ship by 8:45am.)

 

Thanks for your info. We are doing this tour in reverse order with Halifax being our last port - so we will have to do immigration/customs in NYC when we disembark.

[mtjlr]

Betty: We will be on the Golden in January. Can you tell me how the Drink of the Day works with the sticker and reduced prices on future drinks. Thanks for any info.

[spongerob]

Betty, it's good of you to mention Frankie. He's a great guy and very helpful.

[lkmamom]

Frankie, for those of you who do not know, is the present asst cruise director of the Golden. Our family was impressed with all of the cruise staff but I will never forget one kindness that I saw Frankie showing another passenger. He was actually walking around the Horizon Court buffet with her holding her plate and helping her because she was having some problems.I thought that to take the time to do that with all of the other things going onboard was so thoughtful.Each and every one of that cruise staff this summer on our July 21 sailing, was so kind and friendly to our family and our cruise critic group. We will never forget their kindness.:D

Linda