just back from Diamond Hawaii

[Dena]

:) THis was our best cruise yet. And one of our best vacations yet.

 

I'd like to share some observations both positive and negative - although for us the negatives were minor, for others they may not be.

 

Dining: We had Anytime Dining and never waited for a table. We received a table for two just for the asking for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the past, I've said Princess beef is not very good. It was on this trip. And it was always prepared as ordered. I'm proud to say I lost 5 pounds on this cruise because I skipped the bread and flour based desserts and enjoyed fresh ripe fruits and salads. All the seafood was very good as well. We did not have one bad meal. I will tell you that I tasted the room service cookie and brownie - niether one was even close to being woth the calories. The ice cream and sorbet were good and the fruit (unlike my last Princess cruise) was perfectly ripe, sweet, and delicious. I also walked several laps on the promenad each day and took the stairs.

 

Fellow passengers: DH is in his mid-fifties and the average passenger was 20 years older. I'm around 40. There were very, very, few people younger than me on this ship. I saw 5 young children, 2 teenagers, and 4 college age people. By 10:55 pm the bars were basically empty. Now, I don't go the bars on the ship, but I checked these places twice as part of my evening walking routine just so I could report back to you. Skywalkers had 2 couples on the dance floor at 11 pm one night and 1 couple on the dance floor at 11 pm another night. Club fusion rarely had more than 6 - 10 people at this time as did Wheelhouse. I had no problem with the age of the other passengers. It may have slowed down the tendering a little bit. Other than that, I found no negative here. Several times we joined people we had met earlier for dinner and although they were easily old enough to be our parents we had wonderful meals because of common interests. I would not have enjoyed a cruise with a lot of young misbehaving children. There were many very elderly people - lots of wheelchairs, walkers and electric scooters. Lots. This gives me hope that if ever I am in that position I'll still be able to enjoy cruising.

 

more in next post...

[Colo Cruiser]

Welcome back and thanks for the thoughts. :)

[JWJs]

Dena ~ thanks for posting and welcome home!

We are on the 12/18 Diamond and will be most interested in every detail that you are so kind to post.

Glad to hear the beef was good...some posts by others indicated the beef was not so good.

Excellent for you...losing 5 pounds and not gaining!

Looking forward to hearing more about your Diamond/Hawaii cruise.

[kirbyrox]

thx for the post...

 

but it kinda making me not wanna do the RT Hawaii out of L.A..

because of the age difference.

 

i guess its the 10 day island hop for me...

 

thats to bad i love the san pedro port! so easy!

[Daniel1313]

My wife and I are cruising in Mid March to Hawaii. I actually am looking forward to an older crowd. We are both in our early 40's. Every other cruise we have gone on, there are so many teenagers and early 20's that are rowdy. I am looking forward to a older crowd.... My wife and I love older people..... They have a lot of good stories to share...