Not Live from the Golden Princess - LA to Sydney

[IECalCruiser]

We had the most traveled of all current Princess cruisers on this cruise.  They had a total of 2,475 days (6.78 years!) at the start of the cruise and will pass 2,500 by the end.  There were a lot of days between them and number 2 at 755 days and number 3 at 687 days.

 

I didn't get all of the statistics but 947 were only doing one of the legs of the cruise so there was close to a 40% turnover in Auckland.  At least surprising to me, there were 602 or more than 20% of the passengers doing this 28 days cruise as there first on Princess.  You think you might want to check out Princess on a shorter cruise first.  I was also a bit surprised that there were only 572 elite on board.  Although of the 810 platinum starting the cruise, 120 became elite at the end of the cruise.

 

That is all I have on the statistics front.

[jefa]

Looking forward to reading more, when you get the time to post.  My very first cruise was on the Star Princess 30 days from SanFran to Sydney - I thought if I was going to cruise at all I might as well start with a long one!

[BerthaButt]

My husband and I are going to do this cruise in Sept 2019 on the Ruby.  How was the flight home?  Did you have any stops?  I'm really dreading the flight home to Sacramento. 

[ckb104]

39 minutes ago, BerthaButt said:

My husband and I are going to do this cruise in Sept 2019 on the Ruby.  How was the flight home?  Did you have any stops?  I'm really dreading the flight home to Sacramento. 

 

My parents just got off this cruise and flew from Sydney to LA, then to Seattle.  The Sydney/LA flight is LONG.  They highly recommend splurging on Business (or First) class if you can afford it.  It will make such a long flight much more comfortable.  Whichever you choose, make sure you get up and move regularly.  

Have fun on the cruise!   Try the ukulele classes.  It sounds like a lot of fun.  😃 

[BerthaButt]

38 minutes ago, ckb104 said:

 

My parents just got off this cruise and flew from Sydney to LA, then to Seattle.  The Sydney/LA flight is LONG.  They highly recommend splurging on Business (or First) class if you can afford it.  It will make such a long flight much more comfortable.  Whichever you choose, make sure you get up and move regularly.  

Have fun on the cruise!   Try the ukulele classes.  It sounds like a lot of fun.  😃 

Thanks for your reply.  Will look into first class.

[Astro Flyer]

Welcome home Brian!  We greatly enjoyed this itinerary in 2009 on the Star but in the other direction to have the long flight to Sydney first & only a drive home from San Pedro.

[bajabirdy]

Hi Brian,

I just stumbled upon this thread as I was looking for something else. I'm so glad I did! We were on the cruise with you and have enjoyed reading your comments made almost-live. Wish we'd known about this while we were aboard, but glad to have found it now. We are currently in Vietnam, and the cruise is but a happy memory. 

Michele 

[IECalCruiser]

On 10/30/2018 at 6:49 AM, BerthaButt said:

My husband and I are going to do this cruise in Sept 2019 on the Ruby.  How was the flight home?  Did you have any stops?  I'm really dreading the flight home to Sacramento. 

I couldn't find a reasonable way to book business/first class all the way from Sydney to LAX so I used AA miles to book Hawaiian's lay-flat business seats from Sydney to Honolulu and United miles to book economy plus seats from Honolulu to LAX.

 

I will have more discussions about our experiences in the Sydney and Honolulu airports later.

 

 

[IECalCruiser]

On 10/30/2018 at 9:00 AM, Astro Flyer said:

Welcome home Brian!  We greatly enjoyed this itinerary in 2009 on the Star but in the other direction to have the long flight to Sydney first & only a drive home from San Pedro.

Thanks for the welcome Frank!  I intentionally booked the trip this was to eliminate jet lag until we were home.  We gradually adjusted for the time change dropping back one hour three times on the way to Hawaii, one hour between French Polynesia and American Samoa and two hours between New Zealand and Sydney.  This way there was no jet lag from a flight from the US to Sydney.  DW and I are still having problems adjusting to the six hour forward time change from Sydney to LAX and are having a hard time falling asleep at night.

[IECalCruiser]

I made notes on the remainder of the cruise after CC become unavailable for the few days.  I will post them for those interested.

[IECalCruiser]

10/08

 

This is the second of our two sea days between Moorea, French Tahiti and Pago Pago, Amerian Samoa.

 

There are only 572 elites on board and laundry turn around has not been an issue. We sent out our last laundry just before dinner two days ago and it was back this morning and that has been typical.

 

The port lecturer, Kay Taylor, is quite good and her lectures on each port have typically run the full hour.  They have been well attended, often with standing room only in the Princess Theater, even the one for Auckland at 8:30 this morning.  She joined the cruise in Hawaii and will continue on through to Sydney.  Her port lectures include a lot of history and they could easily be subtitled "Captain Cook Was Here Before You!"

 

There are about 120 passengers on board who did the 12 day Alaskan cruise RT from LA prior to this cruise. The muster drill must be attended at least once every 30 days so they had to attend another drill today.

Edited October 31, 2018 by IECalCruiser

[XBGuy]

24 minutes ago, IECalCruiser said:

 

There are about 120 passengers on board who did the 12 day Alaskan cruise RT from LA prior to this cruise. The muster drill must be attended at least once every 30 days so they had to attend another drill today.

 

That is a very interesting tidbit that I did not know.  Thanks.

[IECalCruiser]

10/10

 

This is the first of three sea days between Pago Pago and Auckland.

 

We tried to relax today after the busy day in Pago Pago yesterday although we did attend an astronomy lecture and an interview with the Captain in the morning and watched a performance by Holly Frances, one of the two female Princess singers in the afternoon. She gave a very good performance and most of the rest of the cast was there to support her. Her great great uncle was Chick Henderson who had a million seller hit with Begin the Beguine.

 

There was a second Pub Lunch in 12 sea days today but held separately in the Crown Grill as is typical on the Golden. It was the standard first Pub Lunch menu of Fish and Chips, Bangers and Mash, Steak and Kidney Pie, and Ploughman’s Lunch with Bread & Butter Pudding for dessert. There was a line of 20-30 people waiting to get in for almost all of the 90 minute lunch. When the first one was held in the MDR along with the regular lunch there were no lines and it seemed to be a better option.  Update: I talked to the Maitre D' Carlos Serrano Da Rosa later in the cruise an he indicated that "corporate" wants as close to a "real" Pub experience as possible and prefers the Grown Grill.  I refuse to wait in line for the Pub Lunch as it is not that big of a deal.

 

About 6:30 this evening the Captain came on (not usually a good sign) and announced that we were diverting to Tonga for a medical evacuation. After we docked, an ambulance drove up the pier and appeared to actually drive into the ships hold. It then departed down the dock with the passenger. We departed Tonga at approximately 9:00. We should find out tomorrow if there will be any schedule impact. Our prayers are with the ill passenger.  Update: The Captain cranked up the speed to over 22 knots and we made it to Auckland on time.  In addition, we were informed the next day that the passenger was improving.  It was lucky that rather than somewhere in the nowhere of much of the Pacific on this cruise, Tonga was less that an hour cruising time away.

 

The port of Nuku Alofa appeared to be much bigger than I expected and this is a photo at 9:00pm at night.

Edited October 31, 2018 by IECalCruiser

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[BerthaButt]

Thanks for the info.

17 hours ago, IECalCruiser said:

I couldn't find a reasonable way to book business/first class all the way from Sydney to LAX so I used AA miles to book Hawaiian's lay-flat business seats from Sydney to Honolulu and United miles to book economy plus seats from Honolulu to LAX.

 

I will have more discussions about our experiences in the Sydney and Honolulu airports later.

 

 

Thanks for the information.  I'm finding your experiences very informative.