Crown Princess Hawaii - 15 Feb to 2 Mar - Trip Prep & Live

[memoak]

14 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I am disappointed as I watched the bridge cam.  We are getting battered in California.  It's cold....didn't break 60 today.  And there you are, having a warm and wonderful time in Lahaina.  Looking forward to hearing how your last port day went.  

 

Glad I didn't read about your rescue on your hike up Diamond Head.  At least twice a month, some senior has to be airlifted out.  

60 is a heat wave. Can’t even get to 30 here in Oregon. The 11 inches of snow from Wednesday hasn’t even started to melt

[cr8tiv1]

21 minutes ago, milogurd said:

Yes, there is no Costco in Hilo, but there is one in Kona on the Big Island.

 

Agree, but that ia full day's drive/visit to the other side of the island.  It's FAR (in kama'aina driving mind).  Not enough time for a cruise passenger to make it over and back.  Same if the ship docks in Lahaina.  Best to wait for Oahu (4), or Kauai (1).  

 

We have most of the major chains, including Olive Gardens, Chick-fil-A, and Target.  Costco and Sam's Club gas is cheaper than California...go figure.  

 

 

[arctickitty]

Alfie recommended we ride out to Kaanapali.  
 

He said to ride out Front Street and stay on the left side of the highway for a few hundred yards before picking up the path along the coast.

 

We did just that and the path curved and wound along the coast through a series of public beach parks.  Lots of great spots very close to Lahaina!

 

As Alfie told us, Hyatt is the first resort you reach. You can continue on paths to the left if you walk you bike or you can beer right and keep riding.  He told us that Sheraton was the last one and we could snorkel and jump off a cliff there.

 

Just because he said “jump off a cliff” I felt that I had to go do this.

[cr8tiv1]

@arctickittyI absolutely love your adventurous mind set.  Your thread is a very refreshing tour of Hawaii through the eyes of someone who enjoys all that nature has to offer in the islands.  

[Happiest when cruising]

16 hours ago, mikjr said:

Every Island has a Hilo Hatties... it's the Walmart of the Hawaiian Islands!!  AND, they have Walmarts and Costco also on every Island

 

 

27 minutes ago, milogurd said:

Yes, there is no Costco in Hilo, but there is one in Kona on the Big Island.

Can someone explain Hilo Hattie’s to me? I looked online and it just looks like it sells their own clothing line and a few other non essential items. It doesn’t look like a Walmart or Costco. 

[arctickitty]

12 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

 

Can someone explain Hilo Hattie’s to me? I looked online and it just looks like it sells their own clothing line and a few other non essential items. It doesn’t look like a Walmart or Costco. 

@Happiestwhencruising because of this thread when we were hiding from the midday sun in Lahaina at one of the malls, I said, let’s go in Hilo Hattie’s to see what it is.  I’ve been to Hawaii by air from Alaska 5 times before and had never been in one.  It is a store where you can get your matchy-matchy Aloha wear, aka men’s Aloha shirts that match women’s Aloha dresses.  The majority of the store was clothes.  They had a variety of other souvenirs, macadamia nuts, coffee, leis, etc.  I think the comparison to Wal-Mart is that it’s one stop shopping for souvenirs and Aloha wear but it’s not artisan goods.  For example, the don’t have coffee or Mac nuts from my favorite farm on the Big Island; they just have products from bigger producers.

[Happiest when cruising]

14 minutes ago, arctickitty said:

@Happiestwhencruising because of this thread when we were hiding from the midday sun in Lahaina at one of the malls, I said, let’s go in Hilo Hattie’s to see what it is.  I’ve been to Hawaii by air from Alaska 5 times before and had never been in one.  It is a store where you can get your matchy-matchy Aloha wear, aka men’s Aloha shirts that match women’s Aloha dresses.  The majority of the store was clothes.  They had a variety of other souvenirs, macadamia nuts, coffee, leis, etc.  I think the comparison to Wal-Mart is that it’s one stop shopping for souvenirs and Aloha wear but it’s not artisan goods.  For example, the don’t have coffee or Mac nuts from my favorite farm on the Big Island; they just have products from bigger producers.

Thanks so much for the explanation. I think we’ll find something else to do when we visit in April. I’m just not sure what. 
Maybe bike rentals…I’ll wait to hear how the rest of your day went, first. lol I haven’t ridden a bike since I was a kid and I’m scared of riding on roads. 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Happiest when cruising

[arctickitty]

At the Sheraton, I found a parking lot that wound around and snaked up hill.  I led us up all the circles up and up and up just so we could ride down it.

 

Special Someone misunderstood Alfie’s directions and we kept going through some timeshares or condos or “cottages” or whatever people would like to call them.    I didn’t want to get wet at 10:30 so we kept riding.  We explored some of the resort roads (so much traffic!) and tried to get to the main road which took us up and down and around and lots of dead ends before we found the highway and got on it.  It has a very narrow strip on the sides designated for cyclists.  I really enjoyed it!  At least before we hit the highway I found all 7 of the gears on my bike.

 

After the big loopy hotel hill I’d said “my bike says 7 speeds but I only found 3.”

 

Special Someone said “You have to crank it all the way.”

 

I said the equivalent of “duh” wondering how dumb he thought I was and sped off.  I guess I was angry enough because I magically found the rest of the gears.

 

We biked on the highway as far as the Avis-Budget rental cars.  I pulled off there for us to discuss next steps and because we’d been riding downhill for a very long time so it meant we’d have to ride back up to return to Lahaina so I wanted us to determine how low we wanted to go.  Special Someone was hungry so he wanted to go back to eat Alfie’s favorite tacos.  I didn’t want to eat yet s we compromised on a coffee shop Alfie recommended, Cafe Cafe.

 

 

 

 

[NIkkiGR]

1 hour ago, arctickitty said:

Tender tickets were superfluous yesterday morning.  

 

We had Grouper and were told to expect it  9-9:30 am.  We therefore took it easy in the morning and slept in.  I had to work hard at this and managed to stay asleep until 6:24.  They flew through calling the groups and Grouper was called by 8am.  It seemed like they eventually repeated group names.  We tried to hustle up which for a buttercup like me means we got to the tender around 8:30. 

 

We wandered around Lahaina without a plan until I asked Special Someone, “Did you research bikes here?”

 

(He loves riding).

 

I thought he said “Oh” but I think he actually said no, but moments later he was on the phone and then we were on our way to pick up bikes for the day.

 

Alfie met us and set us up with 7 speed cruisers.  

You now need tender tickets.? How does one go about getting those?

[arctickitty]

6 minutes ago, NIkkiGR said:

You now need tender tickets.? How does one go about getting those?

They said you needed them but we never showed ours because they didn’t ask for them.  
 

They gave them out the night before starting at 6:30pm in the Captain Circle host’s office.  
 

I think we could have shown up for a tender at 7am like I wanted because I don’t think most of the people with 7am tickets bothered to get up that early.

[arctickitty]

The up, up, up on the highway back to Lahaina wasn’t bad at all and in fact I found it to be a lot of fun.  We could ride faster on the highway than on the beach path because we weren’t dodging pedestrians.  Although we did get passed by more serious cyclists on road bikes.  You know, the kind in spandex suits.

 

I swore I sweated my body weight out and I was grateful for my water tube.  There is a pouch in my backpack and the tube goes over my shoulder and I can suck it whenever I want, which in the heat is basically all the time.  I can then refill the pouch from my insulated water bottles and have a cool supply.

 

We chilled out with a cold brew and a green smoothie in Cafe Cafe and then tooled over to the food truck park housing Tacos y Mariscos las Islitas.  When we’d talked tacos with Alfie, I’d asked about Ono Tacos and he said that Ono used to be the best but now Tacos y Mariscos was better.  There are a lot of food truck parks in Lahaina; great places for local bites!

 

 

Upon arrival I saw that Paya was also in the same park and I’d wanted us to have a fruit bowl there so I told Special Someone he could choose the tacos as long as he saved us room for a fruit bowl.  Then he told me what he wanted to order and even though I told him he could pick, he immediately knew I didn’t approve of the order.  We went round in circles a bunch until I said fine just save us room for - fruit bowl.

 

 

[NIkkiGR]

3 minutes ago, arctickitty said:

They said you needed them but we never showed ours because they didn’t ask for them.  
 

They gave them out the night before starting at 6:30pm in the Captain Circle host’s office.  
 

I think we could have shown up for a tender at 7am like I wanted because I don’t think most of the people with 7am tickets bothered to get up that early.

Thank you. We are on the Crown in 3 weeks, 28 days Hawaii. South Pacific. I have been really enjoying your live. We are going to walk to Baby Beach & stop by the big Buddha there. Do tell about the place for fish tacos, which are my favourite. 

[arctickitty]

24 minutes ago, Happiest when cruising said:

Thanks so much for the explanation. I think we’ll find something else to do when we visit in April. I’m just not sure what. 
Maybe bike rentals…I’ll wait to hear how the rest of your day went, first. lol I haven’t ridden a bike since I was a kid and I’m scared of riding on roads. 

@Happiest when cruising 

 

There are tons of bike rental places in Lahaina.  If you haven’t been on a bike much, a lot of the places have e bikes, which would help you get up the hills.  You can have a really nice ride with only that short section on the highway to get to the beach path.  From what Alfie said, I think most people do that ride and do it just once, not like what we did…more to come but it’s time for Dancersize.

[arctickitty]

2 hours ago, NIkkiGR said:

Thank you. We are on the Crown in 3 weeks, 28 days Hawaii. South Pacific. I have been really enjoying your live. We are going to walk to Baby Beach & stop by the big Buddha there. Do tell about the place for fish tacos, which are my favourite. 

 

@NIkkiGR sounds like tons of fun! If you scroll up a bit, the food pics and info about Tacos y Mariscos is just above.  Since the theme of the day was the blindly trust Alfie, we got birria as well as the fish and he was correct that their birria is amazing.  I think I have more food truck pics in queue.

[arctickitty]

On 2/22/2023 at 1:31 PM, RRFan said:

Sorry for barging in on your live thread, but considering booking the Crown for HI in April and wanted to get a status report on the ship's shape.  I read where she was supposed to go into dry dock in Oct '22.  Can you report on any changes to configurations or if the ship is in pretty good shape?  I know the Crown was having bad propulsion problems and I believe some sewage blockages last summer.  Hopefully that is all fixed up now.  Thanks for any info someone may can report!! 

Hi @RRFan and welcome aboard!  I kept feeling like a question had been lost in the sea here.

 

I haven’t sailed on Crown before so I don’t know what is different from before and after the dry dock, but I can report on a few things.

 

Firstly, I would say that yes, there are some ongoing sewage issues.  When our lost luggage was being searched for we spent a chunk of time at Guest Services and chatted with the lovely agent who was helping us.  He told us that the reason we had been upgraded was that our original room on the Plaza deck had flooded two cruises ago and hadn’t been fixed yet.

 

We do smell sewage stink periodically, especially indoors on deck 7, usually right at the Wheelhouse Bar or the entrance to Wheelhouse.  A few times we’ve smelt sewage on our balcony.  This morning our steward asked if our toilet flushes and he said others in the section are not.

 

As far as the condition of the ship, it seems pretty typical to me, being about 98% or so lovely with some evidence of wear and tear here and there.  There’s a water stain towards the ceiling of our room, but I’ve touched it a few times and it hasn’t been wet, so that’s good enough for me.  The outside of the ship has a lot of rust staining.

 

I have not seen or heard of any issues with propulsion.

[travelin.sisters]

6 hours ago, tutumomickey said:

Need help from my CC friends. Starting to pack for my upcoming Hawaii cruise. Wondering how many days out of and back into California it is cool and how cold is it? Thanks. Know I can't pack all shorts but do not want to overpack cold weather gear.

 

depending on what you are used to it can range from pants & long sleeves to winter coat cold, I have seen all...for me (SoCal 'girl' with MN winter experience) I pretty much do fine with a t-shirt if I am just walking from elevator to buffet, but if I am sitting outside I will want a medium weight sweatshirt...ususally it is the first & last 2-3 days that it is coolish...we are boarding on the 2nd when the ship brings @arctickitty & special someone back & I will try to remember to post temps on my live

[sunviking90]

Sounds like a great day in Maui! What a great idea to rent bikes! We have never thought of that and DH especially loves riding. (He has the spandex, lol). I guess because we are used to land vacations on Maui with a car, we just automatically thought to Uber somewhere or rent a car when in a cruise. Next time we cruise to Hawaii, I’ll suggest that to him and he’ll be thrilled!

[arctickitty]

2 hours ago, sunviking90 said:

Sounds like a great day in Maui! What a great idea to rent bikes! We have never thought of that and DH especially loves riding. (He has the spandex, lol). I guess because we are used to land vacations on Maui with a car, we just automatically thought to Uber somewhere or rent a car when in a cruise. Next time we cruise to Hawaii, I’ll suggest that to him and he’ll be thrilled!

@Sunviking90 it was tons of fun.  You could ride way more intensely than we did or take it much slower.  You can reach some nice looking snorkeling areas with just a few miles of riding.

 

Special Someone may have acquired the spandex while he was away but I haven’t seen the full getup yet.  I’ve been resistant to it because I have to wear all the compression so I’m like what’s the point?

[arctickitty]

 Where were we?  Oh, that’s right.  About to eat tacos in Lahaina.  

 

This food truck park had Thai, Filipino, fruit, poke, and some others, but everyone was eating at Tacos y Mariscos las Isletas.   
 

 

The chips were fresh and delicious.  The red salsa was hotter but both were yummy and they told us to ask for more if we needed it (we did).  I thought we’d get fish and shrimp tacos but Alfie said his favorite was birria and since the theme of the day was to blindly trust some guy we met online, we compromised and got fish and birria.  Special Someone also wanted a California Burrito, which I didn’t know was a thing, and I thought it would be wayyyyy too much food but remember, I said, fine, just make sure we have enough room for a fruit bowl.

 

 

Haha.  Not.

 

The tacos were incredible.  The burrito was yummy but the tacos were better.  Get the tacos.  Special Someone was impressed how packed they were; much bigger than typical little street tacos.

 

By the time we got done with all that, fruit was not even something we could think about.  Special Someone sensed I still needed more of a break from the sun so we went to one of the malls and wandered around without a plan.  The Friends of the Library have a little bookstore, which is cool.  We went in Hilo Hattie’s and ABC to see what they were and also went in a bunch of stores looking for cuff links but didn’t find any.  I’d never been in stores like Abercrombie before and we came out and I said blech, everything is beige in there, it’s too perfect.  (The search for cuff links has been happening because most of Special Someone’s stuff is in storage from him moving before he went away for work and he has no idea where they are.). Probably covered buried in a snow drift.  We also went to Foodland to get some aloe for my sunburn, success.

 

I still felt half dead from the heat and eating too much but Special Someone wanted to get back in the saddle so I gave it a shot and immediately felt better.  We rode back to Kaanapali the same way at first, Front Street to the highway to the beach path but when we got to the Hyatt we took the right fork and got on the Hyatt’s beach front path (not allowed to ride the bikes there, Alfie told us to walk them).  Goodness Gracious have I never seen a resort like this before.  I don’t know how to describe it but it was like this place was all pumped up on steroids it was so fancy and intense.  I’ve never stayed in a resort but have walked their grounds from time to time but I just hadn’t ever seen one like this.  If I wasn’t self conscious I would have walked around with my jaw dropped and my mouth hanging wide open.  It made the Marriott in Nawiliwili seem tame by comparison.  

 

 

 

We had a bird detour at one point and watched a cattle egret eat a lizard.  That was pretty amazing; it was only about 2 feet away from me when it did that.  I am sorry to report that I didn’t take any pictures of the lizard meal except in my mind.  (Later I looked in my bird book and we understood why these birds aren’t afraid of lawn mowers: they eat the bugs that landscapers turn up!  We’d seen one in Honolulu unphased by a riding lawnmower and thought it was strange for a bird to be comfortable with such noise.  In Kaanapali we’d seen one literally following around a man using a weed whacker and I’d thought wow, what a fearless bird, but now I get it.  

 

 

What a hungry bird.

 

 

When we got to the Sheraton, we started looking for Black Rock so I could jump off a cliff.  It wasn’t obvious how to get there and we took a lot of wrong turns and went in a lot of places we probably weren’t supposed to be, but we eventually found the beach that led to Black Rock.  I saw it and while it wasn’t very big or very physically imposing, I wasn’t too enthused with the idea of jumping off a cliff anymore because, quite frankly, I don’t want to die.  I used to have a debilitating fear of falling and getting hurt and falling is still my #1 fear in life but I’ve been purposely working on it for a few years and making myself do things that force me to push past it, but once we got to the beach, Special Someone noted the time.  I said, I think we can make it, but he thought we’d be cutting it too close and didn’t have enough time.  I started to think it through and then agreed we didn’t have enough time!  So I was off the hook!  Without having to say I was too scared!  Or saying I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to be wet for the return ride and standing in line for the tender.

 

Well, what a tender line!  We returned our bikes at 4:30 and walked around a bit and went to look at the tender line and it was down the street and wrapped around and back up again.  So, as it turned out, we would have had plenty of time for me to jump off that cliff, but I was glad I hadn’t because my compression would have been wet for that entire wait in line.  They seem to still work when they’re wet, especially if I wear several of my layers, but they don’t work as well and then also they’re not quick dry, so that would have been a very, very long time to stay wet on dry land.  Anyway we did like the others and went and sat under the banyan tree and listened to people argue about whether it was one tree or many.  We eventually got in line.  A lot of people on board were cranky about how long it took to load, but there’s a simple solution to this problem: if everyone got on went to the farthest seats and sat down, things would go much more quickly.  But nope, people like to spread out and pick their seats and leave the last 4 people to climb over them like we did.  It’s ok, we’re limber enough.  And then the crew started loading mobility scooters and the passengers started getting really cranky.  And then the crew started loading some of the shoreside gear like the mats and signs and some of the passengers got incredibly cranky.  It was a lovely if bumpier ride ashore.  Back at the ship, the cranky passengers had to wait for the crew to unload all the gear and scooters and then they got a titch pushy but then I heard an “ooooh” like “ooh and ahh” and I looked and saw a whale.  So I sat my butt down and looked out the window and saw a mama and baby out doing their thing and I had a wonderful time watching them.  It was about 6:30pm when we made it aboard.

 

[arctickitty]

 

I’m sure that no one but me is aware that we’re not following my usual posting pattern of me posting just the highlights during the trip and then telling the stories afterwards.

 

This is because I really dropped the ball on my journal this trip and I’m worried that I’m going to forget everything that I didn’t write down.  We felt like having a rest day today so whenever there’s been open time, I’ve been writing up Maui before I forget it.

 

Here’s some more cattle egret footage from Kaanapali.

[arctickitty]

I think I’ve forgotten to tell you about how we got the bikes we rented in Lahaina.

 

I think I did tell you we met some guy (Alfie) at his house and got them from his driveway.

 

A good ways into our ride, I was enjoying myself so much that I asked Special Someone how he found and selected the bike rental place he chose.  We’d seen dozens of rental bikes lined up at different companies after we’d picked up our bikes.  So how did he find the guy with a garage?

 

Special Someone: I clicked on it

 

Me: You clicked on it?

 

Special Someone: Yeah, I clicked on it

 

Me: What’s our bike rental called

 

Special Someone: Beat Any Price Rentals

 

Me: You’re joking me

 

Special Someone: no I’m not

 

Me: there’s no way, you’ve got to be kidding me

 

Special Someone: no, I’m serious, that’s what it’s called

 

Me: you rented our bikes from “Beat Any Price Rentals?”  (I take off his sunglasses to see if his eyes are truthful)

 

Special Someone: here, I’ll show you the receipt:

 

Me: (peers at Square receipt on his phone) reads: Square receipt from Beat Any Price Rentals.  Wow that’s crazy.

 

Folks, 10/10 recommend.

 

https://www.beatanypricerentals.com

 

 

 

[KLM3164]

1 hour ago, arctickitty said:

We went in Hilo Hattie’s and ABC

Lucky you! These are my 2 favorite stores when visiting Hawaii. Also love Blue Ginger for clothing.

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, KLM3164 said:

Lucky you! These are my 2 favorite stores when visiting Hawaii. Also love Blue Ginger for clothing.

 

Really?  Not doubting you. Blue Ginger and Jams are good local stores.  And then there is Reyn's.  

 

I go to Hilo Hatties fo rmy free shell necklace.  Accumulated many through the years.  DId you know....they have them "marked".  Tour bus/walk in tourist/Kama'aina (not going to buy anything).  

 

ABC / All Blocks Covered.  They are one of the few places that you can buy small liquor bottles.  

 

@arctickitty  Thanks for supporting the local businessman.  Very creative and quite an entrepreneur.  

Edited February 25, 2023 by cr8tiv1

[NIkkiGR]

23 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Really?  Not doubting you. Blue Ginger and Jams are good local stores.  And then there is Reyn's.  

 

I go to Hilo Hatties fo rmy free shell necklace.  Accumulated many through the years.  DId you know....they have them "marked".  Tour bus/walk in tourist/Kama'aina (not going to buy anything).  

 

ABC / All Blocks Covered.  They are one of the few places that you can buy small liquor bottles.  

 

@arctickitty  Thanks for supporting the local businessman.  Very creative and quite an entrepreneur.  

In 1988 we were told ABC means “ Always Bring Cash” 🙂

[KLM3164]

@cr8tiv1I’m not familiar with Jams or Reyn’s. Do they have stores on Kauai? Next trip over is in May and I’ll check them out. 

 

I usually refuse the shell necklace at HH as I know it will just end up in the garbage can at the end of the trip.