Hawaiian Cruise

[Oakman58]

Spreading my wings.  My wife and I mostly cruise with NCL but after doing an Alaskan cruise with Holland a couple of years ago we decided it was time to try other lines again.  Before we got hooked on NCL we had cruised with RCL and Carnival.

We had been looking at various cruise lines for a Hawaiian cruise and discovered we could book a 16 day roundtrip Hawaiian cruise with Princess from San Diego and it was considerably cheaper than a 7 day Pride of America cruise with NCL.  Also, the Princess cruise offered a $100 onboard credit and I also discovered that as a military veteran Princess offers additional onboard credit.  Booking with Princess was a no-brainer for me.

With so many sea days, this should be an interesting experience for us.  I’m hoping the Diamond Princess has some interesting daytime activities on sea days.  We’ve never been on a Princess cruise so we’re looking forward to this completely new experience.

[Crystabel]

Do some research on the Diamond Princess. You’ll be able to find photos of the ship and information on the different venues. One thing we like about Princess during long voyages is the self service laundry. As far as I know, none of the other main cruise lines offer that. 

Edited May 21, 2022 by Crystabel

[JF - retired RRT]

Usually, on Hawaiian cruises there are "Ambassadors" who provide entertainment (think singing, hula, ukulele), enrichment lectures and craft classes (some fees, some free). Ukulele lessons, hula lessons were part of it pre-pandemic...now who knows.

It's a great way to spend 15-16 days at sea.

[roxievegas]

The sea days can be a lot when you have five or six in a row.  Bring plenty of reading materials or games so you can break up your day when the ship offers nothing of interest to you.  Eat, sleep and pray all day long

[skynight]

Princess usually has the Hawaiian Ambassador program on the Hawaii itineraries. This includes uke lessons, hula lessons, Hawaiian entertainment as well as Hawaiian crafts(fee). Look for it. For the uke lessons arrive early on the first day offered up early as spots and ukes go fast. If you have your own uke bring it along. No musical prior musical experience required. As the Diamond Princess is new to this itinerary the ship may not have the supplies for the uke lessons.

Expect non tropical days the first few days crossing and tropical once the ship crosses the Tropic of Cancer. 

Edited May 21, 2022 by skynight

[miagirl]

2 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

We had been looking at various cruise lines for a Hawaiian cruise and discovered we could book a 16 day roundtrip Hawaiian cruise with Princess from San Diego and it was considerably cheaper than a 7 day Pride of America cruise with NCL.  Also, the Princess cruise offered a $100 onboard credit and I also discovered that as a military veteran Princess offers additional onboard credit.  Booking with Princess was a no-brainer for me.

 

Oakman, be sure to join the roll call.  I'm on the October 23 sailing out of SD.  I'm so happy to have a Princess ship home ported in San Diego again!  it's been years.

[Bwana Tom]

My wife and I just booking the Diamond Princess departing San Diego on Jan. 6, 2023 and we are looking forward to it. We haven't been on the Diamond before, but it looks like a unique ship. It was originally designed for Japan and Asia, but Covid hindered that plan. 

We are long time cruisers with Princess. We have tried other lines, but keep coming back to Princess. It is a bit laid back as compared to many of the other lines with that average age probably in the high 60s or early 70s. Not a lot of drunks and unruly teenagers on board usually.

One thing you might consider is the purchase of 100 shares of Carnival Corp. stock. Princess is part of the Carnival Corp. If you did that you would get an additional $250 OBC on this cruise. And possibly best of all the stock is really cheap at this particular time ($13.XX/share). Because this subject has been covered previously on this board I won't get into the procedures of getting the credit, but it is a fairly easy process.

Well to Princess. 

[NownZen]

We have done the LA to Hawaii cruise twice. The second time (in January 2022) was because of the activities on the at sea days. If they are doing the Hawaiian Ambassador program there will be uke and hula lessons. In addition there are port lectures, enrichment lectures (a nice set on Route 66, another on the change in shipping, another on birds, etc), music in the Atrium, dance lessons, movies under the stars, ping pong, and crafts among other things. The Princess Patter one day listed 120 activities during that day.

We were so busy we never got to our books and never got a nap. A nice activity was to spend time watching the ocean and how it changed with wind, sun, clouds and direction. The trip out had a tail wind so the waves hit the front of the ship differently than on the way back with a head wind.

 

We would begin our day by circling the activities we wanted to go to and eliminating the overlaps that we were going to have to miss. We never did get to Alfredo's pizzeria or to the Vines wine bar. Next trip.

Great fun. We felt a bit odd in repeating a cruise but we met someone who had done this cruise four times and then another couple who had done it seven times.

Diamond Princess is a nice ship. We were on it for three weeks in Japan just before Covid hit.

[RSS from SF]

12 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

Before we got hooked on NCL we had cruised with RCL and Carnival.

. . . .

With so many sea days, this should be an interesting experience for us.  I’m hoping the Diamond Princess has some interesting daytime activities on sea days.  We’ve never been on a Princess cruise so we’re looking forward to this completely new experience.

---

Please note that Diamond Princess does not have a 24-hour-a-day eatery outside of room service. All other Princess ships currently sailing Hawaii round-trip from the West Coast (Los Angeles/San Francisco/Vancouver) do.

 

I know this would not matter to most people, but I consider this because I am an extreme night owl*.  When cruising -- especially when the itinerary includes many sea days -- I prefer a ship with at least one eatery available 24 hours a day outside of room service.

 

Pre-COVID, one thing NCL/RCL/Carnival/Princess had in common was:  24 hour a day eateries available outside of room service, on most of their ships in their fleet.  Pre-COVID, the exceptions I am aware of were:

• RCL's four Radiance-class and four Vision-class ships;
• Princess' Diamond Princess and Island Princess (of the ships still in the fleet).

-- In these early post-COVID times, I know some Princess' International Cafes closed late night (some still not 24 hours yet), and Carnival has started closing all pizza eateries from 3am to 8am (hopefully just temporarily).

 

---

* When not cruising I usually don't sleep until after 4 or 5 AM.  On a ship I don't necessarily eat at 3 or 4 AM, but I enjoy having a place outside of my cabin [especially if my spouse is sleeping] where I can hang out at a table near others and drink coffee and read/plan/etc.

---

Edited May 22, 2022 by RSS from SF

[cr8tiv1]

The Diamond Princess is new to the Hawaii Itinerary.  You are correct, dollar:cruise days is a much better ratio than NCL Hawaii.  I will be the first to admit that NCL has a better itinerary, but I did not like my experience onboard.

 

Being that the Diamond is not a regular to the Hawaii run, she may not have Cultural Ambassadors on board.  Right now, there are only two sets.  Elua *Leialoha and Tiki Dave* usually do the Los Angeles run and Rowena and Brian do the San Francisco run.  I can finally compare the two and definitely have my favorite.  The Ruby's last few cruises out of San Francisco had one person (female) who did music in the Piazza but I did not see any listings for hula classes or ukulele sessions.

 

Your sea days will be filled with enrichment lectures that include port talks, maybe a naturalist, maybe a lecturer.  On my most recent, we had two excellent speakers.  Sharon, a Hawaii National Park Ranger and Gary, a history teacher who took us on a 4 day journey on Route 66.  One of the best and always my favorite.

 

I have not been on the Diamond, but she is a Grand Class ship which I would prefer to the Royal Class.  Whole different thread.  The Sapphire and the Crown will be doing the cruises out of Los Angeles.  I've heard that the Royal is also making a run (of which this would be the last choice for me).

 

There are free and paid activities.  The free ones are run by the Cruise Director Staff.  It includes ribbon lei making and fresh orchid lei.  Hula and ukulele are also free.  Your Cultural Ambassadors may have more specialized activities for a small supply fee.  

 

 

[Oakman58]

12 hours ago, Bwana Tom said:

One thing you might consider is the purchase of 100 shares of Carnival Corp. stock. Princess is part of the Carnival Corp. If you did that you would get an additional $250 OBC on this cruise. And possibly best of all the stock is really cheap at this particular time ($13.XX/share). Because this subject has been covered previously on this board I won't get into the procedures of getting the credit, but it is a fairly easy process.

Well to Princess. 

 

I opened a brokerage account to do just that.  We actually have three cruises booked under the Carnival umbrella, Carnival Glory in Sep, Diamond Princess in January, and Holland Eurodam in June '23.

[that]

5 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

 

Being that the Diamond is not a regular to the Hawaii run, she may not have Cultural Ambassadors on board.  Right now, there are only two sets.  Elua *Leialoha and Tiki Dave* usually do the Los Angeles run and Rowena and Brian do the San Francisco run.  I can finally compare the two and definitely have my favorite. 

Which is your favorite?

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

9 hours ago, that said:

Which is your favorite?

 

 

 

I prefer @Elua (Tiki Dave and Leialoha).  Brian was a masterful ukulele player, but his classes did not match my learning style. I am not an accomplished ukulele strummer, but can hold my own.  

 

Rowena dances more hula during her Piazza sets, but watching Leialoha is poetry in motion.  

 

Listening to ELUA during musical sets was so enjoyable.   Tiki Dave is very versatile with his instruments and technology.  

 

It is all a personal preference. Each couple have their followers.

[that]

Just now, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I prefer @Elua (Tiki Dave and Leialoha).  Brian was a masterful ukulele player, but his classes did not match my learning style. I am not an accomplished ukulele strummer, but can hold my own.  

 

Rowena dances more hula during her Piazza sets, but watching Leialoha is poetry in motion.  

 

Listening to ELUA during musical sets was so enjoyable.   Tiki Dave is very versatile with his instruments and technology.  

 

It is all a personal preference. Each couple have their followers.

First enjoyed ELUA over Christmas/New Years on the Diamond Princess 2007-2008 roundtrip from LA

 

 

 

Aloha and Bon Voyage in January to Oakman58 on the Beautiful Diamond Princess

such a wonderful cruise to Hawaii roundtrip from San Diego

[Thrak]

We have never had ELUA but have sailed with Brian and Rowena. I was quite surprised one evening (in Wheelhouse on Emerald Princess) by the excellent rendition of Santana's Samba Pa Ti on a 5 string electric ukulele. Not Hawaiian music but very well done and certainly not something I had expected to hear on a ukulele.

 

Note: We were already aware that ukulele is versatile as we attended a Jake Shimabukuro concert in a local venue a few years back.

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

We have never had ELUA but have sailed with Brian and Rowena. I was quite surprised one evening (in Wheelhouse on Emerald Princess) by the excellent rendition of Santana's Samba Pa Ti on a 5 string electric ukulele. Not Hawaiian music but very well done and certainly not something I had expected to hear on a ukulele.

 

Note: We were already aware that ukulele is versatile as we attended a Jake Shimabukuro concert in a local venue a few years back.

 

When Brian plays and sings, he reminds me of the late Gabby Pahinui.  It's all a matter of personal taste and who was on your first Hawaiian Cruise. Regardless, the Hawaii cruise is one of my favorites....and I am a local girl.

[Oakman58]

My sister and her husband have decided to join us on this cruise.  Now I have to hope she doesn't realize it was the Diamond Princess that had the horrible experience with the Corona Virus (Covid-19).  If she finds out she would probably cancel the cruise, she is funny that way and a Nervous Nellie to the extreme.

 

I did purchase 100 share of Carnival stock so I will be requesting the onboard credit which I think for this cruise would be $250.

[cr8tiv1]

Yes, Shareholder's OBC for Hawaii cruise is $250/non-refundable.  Good for excursions, specialty restaurants/once on board. casino play/charges, etc.  Many ways to use the funds.  

 

I hope. you did a refer a new passenger BEFORE she booked her cruise.

[Moondogy]

1 hour ago, Oakman58 said:

My sister and her husband have decided to join us on this cruise.  Now I have to hope she doesn't realize it was the Diamond Princess that had the horrible experience with the Corona Virus (Covid-19).  If she finds out she would probably cancel the cruise, she is funny that way and a Nervous Nellie to the extreme.

 

I did purchase 100 share of Carnival stock so I will be requesting the onboard credit which I think for this cruise would be $250.

First, thank you for your service. As cr8tiv1 stated the CCL stocks OBC is non refundable, your military OBC is refundable. And anytime you use OBC they take from non refundable first. 🙂

[Bwana Tom]

4 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

My sister and her husband have decided to join us on this cruise.  Now I have to hope she doesn't realize it was the Diamond Princess that had the horrible experience with the Corona Virus (Covid-19).  If she finds out she would probably cancel the cruise, she is funny that way and a Nervous Nellie to the extreme.

 

I did purchase 100 share of Carnival stock so I will be requesting the onboard credit which I think for this cruise would be $250.

The way I think about the Diamond it is likely the safest ship in the fleet. The staff will likely do an even better job keeping every surface extra clean because of the previous event.

Great job getting your stock. Not only are you getting the OBC, but you’re supporting Princess when they need it the most.

Maybe we’ll see you aboard.

Tom & Donna

[Oakman58]

5 hours ago, Moondogy said:

First, thank you for your service. As cr8tiv1 stated the CCL stocks OBC is non refundable, your military OBC is refundable. And anytime you use OBC they take from non refundable first. 🙂

 

I'm surprised the veterans OBC is refundable, not that it matters we spend every penny of OBC when we get it.

[tawlaw1526]

Oakman58, Welcome to Princess.   My husband and I have sailed several times on many of the major cruise lines and once we sailed on Princess for the first time, we were hooked.  It’s been 14 years and 28 Princess cruises now and have no desire to go back to any other cruise line.  
 

I have one piece of advice, once you’re on board, find time to attend Afternoon Tea time.   It is such a wonderful experience and the food is very good.