Report on our Golden cruise - 03-25-06

[TMull]

Our cruise on the Golden Princess on March 25 was our first. We had a great time and would cruise again, but I can’t we have been converted to “cruisers”. Huge thanks to CruiseCritic for all the info I was able to collect here. My wife was amazed at how much planning I had done and my general level of knowledge about the Golden and the stops on our itinerary. Thanks!!!

 

Here’s a quick review of our trip with some observations, comments and things we should have done differently:

 

We arrived in San Juan late Friday night and taxied to the Caribe Hilton. The Hilton was OK, but not as nice as I had expected for the price. We stayed there because I was (foolishly) adamant about having direct beach access for Saturday morning so we could hang out on the beach before boarding the Golden. The beach was just OK, and they do have a nice new workout room, but we should have stayed at El Convento. After seeing it and peeking inside the lobby, it was obvious that El Convento was way cooler and in a better location than the Hilton. What a grand old hotel! Worth the lack of beach without a doubt.

 

We checked out of the Hilton at noon and taxied to the pier. There was lots of activity and the crowd was building, but it only took us about 45 minutes to get from the curb to our stateroom. I think we would have been on board quicker had we arrived before noon rather than around 12:30. We secured our bags, grabbed a quick lunch at Horizon, and left the ship for Old San Juan by 1:30.

 

We almost skipped OSJ to relax on the ship; I’m very glad we didn’t. We walked from the pier to the old fort so do some exploring. As we rounded the last corner on our approach to the fort, we were treated to an amazing sight: hundreds of locals were flying their kites in the brisk wind that blew across the huge lawn in front of the fort. It was vey cool. We quickly toured the fort, which is also amazing, then hoofed back to the ship for a pre dinner snack. I’m so glad we did OSJ. The walk was not easy, but the reward was worth it.

 

Having never been to any of the stops on our cruise, we tired to see as much of each island as possible; shopping, topography/history, and beach. Our first stop was St. Thomas. We toured with Godfrey. They picked us up at the ship at 10 and dropped us downtown for some shopping until 12:45 when we were picked up for some touring. Two hours was plenty of time to see the downtown area and do a little browsing. If you are a hard core shopper, you may want to leave earlier in the morning. Godfrey toured the island, and dropped as at the beach for a few hours. Godfrey Tours were good, but it looked like there were many alternatives that offered similar service and I saw nothing special about Godfrey Tours. One thing in particular that I found annoying was that the driver sat in a cab that was isolated from the open passenger area. It was difficult to communicate while underway. (This was not limited to Godfrey; most tour vehicles were set up this way.)

 

In St. Kitts, we hailed the first available taxi and asked for a tour. Most taxis offer the same sort of tour: downtown, Brimstone, sugar plantation, and beach. I got the feeling that drivers are carefully screened by the local tourism department and you can get a decent tour from just about anyone with half a personality. Marley, a fiftiesh woman, had grown up on the island, and was well educated on the history and people. From the back seat of her Camry, we had direct access to her and we peppered her with questions. We never stumped her and received a thorough education on all things St Kitts. The island was beautiful, and again we got nice tour of St Kitts. The only issue was that that we ran shot of time at the end of the tour (our own fault for getting a late start), and we were only able to spend about 30 minutes at a mediocre beach. We did, however, get to see South Friar’s beach from afar and it looked gorgeous. If we return, we will make sure we have a least a few hours on South Friar.

 

Day 3 was Grenada, probably the most interesting place we stopped. We booked with Mandoo and made sure we were on his bus (not difficult since there was only one bus). He is a wealth of non-stop information. As some have noted, his tour involves a lot of driving. Like the cruise, the “voyage” is as important as the destination. If you ignore the scenery and focus only on the destination, you will not enjoy the tour. Do not take this tour unless you are on Mandoo’s bus. We did not have a chance to shop, but we saw the downtown and had ample time at the beach. We brought our own snacks and skipped lunch which gave us more time on the sand. Great tour, made that way by Mandoo. I would consider spending a week’s vacation at Grenada because it is such an interesting place to visit.

 

Day 4 was Isla Margarite. Since it was a short day, we elected to shop at the kiosks and hit the adjacent beach. Though this is a fairly industrial port in the middle of nowhere (seemingly) they have done a nice job in making it very comfortable. We bought a few things at the kiosks, and relaxed at the beach for a couple of hours. Of the three sections of beach, the first is the nicest; don’t bother walking further.

 

Aruba was day 5. We walked the downtown for shopping, checked out the casino, and jumped on the first tour bus available. The tour wasn’t bad, and we got to see some of the island. The wind was non-stop. We skipped the beach and returned to ship. Aruba had some of the prettiest white sand beaches we saw, but the wind was enough to dissuade us from returning for anything other than a brief visit.

 

Day 6 was at sea. We slept late, ate a leisurely breakfast and arrived on deck at 12:30. The morning tanners were bailing out, so we found a few chairs in less than five minutes.

 

On day 7 we returned to San Juan, and took the Rain Forest tour. This is a good call. Not only did it solve the problems of getting back to the airport and what to do for 5 hours between ship and plane. If you can, take this trip. The tour itself was just OK, but the rain forest was beautiful. This was, incidentally, the only tour we booked through Princess.

 

 

 

General ramblings:

 

 

The biggest asset Princess had to offer was the service. Our cabin steward was awesome. After a couple of nights of Personal Choice Dining, we discovered a section that worked well for us. Great service. Tip your people.

 

Our stateroom was an interior. We took a bump and lost our window. It was worth it; we did not miss the window and saved a lot of money. Our mattress was not great and the carpeting in our room was showing its age. Ask for the egg crate for your mattress. We had no trouble sleeping after running around on the islands all day.

 

I cannot believe Princess does not offer an unlimited internet access package. Buying 30 minute access cards for $10.50 each sucks. I used three of them, but if they had offered an unlimited package for $99 for the week I would have jumped at it. Their loss.

 

The gym on the boat is small and crowded. There is a large spinning/aerobics studio next door that I never saw more than 3 people using. This needs to be reconfigured. I gave up on the gym after 3 days.

 

The deserts were just OK. They looked great, but were a bit of a letdown at first bite.

 

The food in the dining room was good. Not excellent but good. It was what I would expect given the volume of food going out. Of course, wait staff bent over backwards to make us happy.

 

Rent a tux or wear a gown. Formal nights were fun, and the tuxes made it all the more special.

 

Do something with your luggage to make it easy to identify at a glance. A bright colored tag is OK, but bigger is better. I used computer CD’s as luggage tags and found they were not as easy to spot as I had hoped. On the last night, place all your bags in the hall at the same time. This will increase the chance that they will be in the same approximate area in the claim section.

 

Buy the unlimited soda stickers. Even if you aren’t a heavy soda drinker, the sticker is worth it just to avoid signing for each drink.

 

We generally take one warm weather vacation per year. In the future we will probably take it at one of the islands. If we took two vacations, early and late winter, one would be a cruise. The cruise, however, was a great way to check out islands to later vacationing.

 

 

Happy cruising!

[Bob333]

TMull,

 

Thanks for all the info. I have a question regarding the post-cruise tour.

I see that they show airport drop-off at the end of the tour, I guess the question is: "what happens to all your luggage after you claim it?".

 

Is it on the tour bus with you?

Do they send your "checked luggage" to the airport?

 

Just curious, we're considering a post-cruise tour, our plane doesn't leave untill 4:40pm, no need to sit in the airport bar for 5+ hours.

 

Thank you, appreciate any info you have.

[TMull]

The luggage thing was one of the reasons we took the tour; we didn't want to be roaming San Juan with all our stuff before going to the airport!

 

The luggage is trucked to the airport separately. When you exit the pier/customs/immigration, you are met curbside by a few buses and a box truck. The luggage goes in the truck and arrives at the airport shortly before you do. It's really quite painless (other than the joy of searching for your bags once at the pier and then again at the airport).

 

As I said above, next time we will do something to make our luggage easy to identify from a distance - a belt, a flashing light, maybe a beeper - lol

[Bruckner]

I was told by our TA you couldn't get on and off the boat once you were on. We were planning on checking in rather late and touring Old San Juan before check in. Can you get off the boat in San Juan once you board?

[Nancy&Frank]

Yes you can ! Many people do that! C U on the 29th:)

 

Nancy