Live From the Golden Princess Oct 15th-29th and beyond?

[Bucky3]

Thanks SO MUCH for taking us along on your wonderful cruise! Makes us wish we had this one scheduled again even though we have done it several times! It is our favorite! Aloha to all of you disembarking and embarking today! We look forward to more live posts.

[cruznliz]

We were on this cruise also! We're home in Southern California now, knee deep in laundry. I took notes during the cruise of all the wonderful things we did. I will truly try to type it up and post it all tomorrow. If anyone has specific questions, let us know! ;)

[MSUcruisers]

We were on this cruise also! We're home in Southern California now, knee deep in laundry. I took notes during the cruise of all the wonderful things we did. I will truly try to type it up and post it all tomorrow. If anyone has specific questions, let us know! ;)

 

I'll be looking forward to your review. Thanks in advance from a 2/4/09 Golden Princess cruiser!

[Cruiser from MS]

Thanks to both of you for your reviews during the cruise. I enjoyed them very much. I now have some insight on what to expect next March on our cruise. I could not help but laugh when you said how much luggage came with and how much you are leaving with. Funny thing that happens to me on every cruise. I will definitely inform my husband that I am not the only one... Thanks to both of you for taking the time to do this during your cruise. Now I can hardly wait for my cruise.:)

[teachergal29]

We were on this cruise also! We're home in Southern California now, knee deep in laundry. I took notes during the cruise of all the wonderful things we did. I will truly try to type it up and post it all tomorrow. If anyone has specific questions, let us know! ;)

 

Welcome home and thanks to all the live posters and to you for your upcoming thoughts.

I was wondering if anyone in your CC group on this cruise was in a full suite. I am interested in some of the perks that are now being implemented on all the ships with the new arrival of the Ruby. I am looking forward to our cruise on Dec. 24th and wanted to know about complimentary wifi for suite guest. I know that we get internet in the cafe already as a suite perk. Just wanted to know about bringing my own laptop. Also if the Sabatini breakfast for suite guest is being offered yet.

Thanks for any insight.:)

[Joy_K]

Thanks to those that started and contributed to this thread, and thought I would post a few thoughts to keep it going.

 

We are live from the 3rd sailing of the season and will try to give a few updates during our sailing to keep this thread going. I will probably post a few times, but most likely will not take time to read comments or answer questions until we return home. The night before we cruised we stayed at the San Pedro Doubletree booked through Priceline for $84.39 total with tax. When we checked into the hotel around 6 pm the only shuttle available was at 10 am or 1 pm so we signed up for the 10 am one. We had arrived in LA 2 days early (1st night in Hollywood) and had an Enterprise rental car since they have a San Pedro office (on 6th St adjacent to the Crowne Plaza). We had decided to return the rental car as soon as the Enterprise office opened at 8 am because the last time we sailed out of San Pedro it was a 2 ½ hour nightmare returning the car at 11 am to an understaffed office. After returning the car, Enterprise gave us a ride back to the Doubletree. Took less than 10 minutes to return the car this time!!! Doubletree shuttle running right on schedule and by 10:10 we were in the embarkation lounge waiting for Princess to start checking passengers in which they did at 10:25. Got checked in immediately and waited in the Preferred lounge until they started letting people on the ship at 11:35. The security screeners were not questioning anyone and no problem with the 6 bottles of wine in carry-on bag. We were in our cabin in no time. We are in a minisuite for the first time. We normally pick a balcony on either the Caribe or Lido deck. Our mini is on Emerald deck aft because we wanted a covered one. It is very spacious and we have drawers left over without anything in them.

 

Once onboard we knew we wanted to sign up for the Chef’s Table, lei making for me, and ukulele classes for DH. No one was answering the DINE line which you call for dining reservations. Asked at dining room about Chef’s table and were told the matre’d would be in Sabitinis at 1:30 taking names and for the lei and ukulele classes we had to wait until 2 pm and sign up at the Activities Desk on deck 7. This was listed in the Patters and no one was there earlier. No problem getting on any of the list at the designated time. We are supposed to get a call today about the Chefs table. So lesson here is to check the Patters. Another thing to note was no lunch was being served in the dining rooms. We usually don’t even check and just go to the buffet, but this time I went to both anytime dining rooms looking for someone to put us on the list for the Chef’s table.

 

We had a good turnout at sailaway at our designated meeting place. Today (Thurs) we have a second get together planned. On our roll call we had decided to meet in the Wheelhouse UNLESS there was one listed in the Patters since we had read on the previous sailing that there was. As far as I know, no one on our sailing asked the CD to host one. He is very aware of CruiseCritic and automatically does this every sailing. It is scheduled for 11 am in Skywalkers lounge.

 

Had dinner last night in the Bernini dining room. We always pick anytime dining, and “shop around” until we find wait staff we enjoy and then make reservations in their area for the rest of the cruise. We are going to try the other anytime dining room tonight. We are real easy going so we have a wait and see attitude on dining staff but having read previous reviews, it may be a long time finding “our guys.”

 

I am writing this on our laptop as I find time in my cabin, so I haven’t been to a hotspot yet to post and will add a little more. I have been to the fresh flower lei class this morning at 9:30 that I registered for yesterday. There are 4 classes for on our sailing, 2 on the sea days going to Hawaii and 2 on the way back. Also available are 2 woven ribbon lei classes and 2 Ti Leaf Lei Classes. You can sign up for no more than 2 classes. My orchid lei turned out beautiful and have had several people ask me if I made it. DH has been to his first ukulele class and really enjoyed it. There will be 4 one hour beginner classes on the way and 4 intermediate classes on the way back.

 

We went to Skywalkers for the cruise critic get together and had a pretty good turnout. One person from the CD’s staff was there for a little while, but no complimentary drinks or bartender.

 

Note: Just copied and pasted this from owrd after taking 20 minutes to log on and pages to load:eek: Definately slow internet connection. Hope this posts!

[Kruizer]

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! What a great report. Looking forward to your future posts.

Judie :D

[donscomp]

Welcome home and thanks to all the live posters and to you for your upcoming thoughts.

I was wondering if anyone in your CC group on this cruise was in a full suite. I am interested in some of the perks that are now being implemented on all the ships with the new arrival of the Ruby. I am looking forward to our cruise on Dec. 24th and wanted to know about complimentary wifi for suite guest. I know that we get internet in the cafe already as a suite perk. Just wanted to know about bringing my own laptop. Also if the Sabatini breakfast for suite guest is being offered yet.

Thanks for any insight.:)

 

I am sure someone will answer who had a full suite on board. But just our .02. I am pretty sure the wi-fi and Internet mins are combined now. This would be nice as we had the free internet when we went on Diamond but the wi-fi was .75 per min. But again, I THINK it has been combined and I hope after she goes to dry dock you will be able to get it in cabin. But who knows. Even with the pay wi-fi I was able to pre write emails and even have everything ready to upload to my server and posted to the website from the ship.

 

We LOVED that you could order off the main menu in room. Full breakfast, and dinners off the main menu and all. Something you can not do in other cabins. We always ate on the balcony. Just not main dining room people.

 

We also enjoyed the DVD Library. Just checked a box. And the DVD was there after the cabin was cleaned.

 

We dont cruise a lot so when we do. We get a suite. LOVE the aft of the ship.

 

I know we didnt answer all the questions but again. I am PRETTY sure they combined the Net mins. We also have the Verizon card for the laptop and when around the islands and at port. That thing would kick in and we would have dsl speed. 384 to 768 depending. And even if it didnt kick into broadband and went National. It was still WAY faster than the ships internet. Learned one thing. You have to have patience for sure. :)

[dobie]

Hi Joy!! Nice to hear from you again....

 

A few more random thoughts:

 

On Kauai we walked to the beach next to the ship (you can take a free shuttle as well). We rented lounge chairs and umbrellas from the first vendor...they are blue and white and blue umbrellas. The cost is $14 an hour or $35 for the day for 2 chairs and an umbrella. The beach is nice for swimming, and several folks were renting the stand up paddle boat thingees and kayaks. The ABC store there has reasonably priced wine.

 

In Ensenada we actually got off of the ship, but not till around 3. We took the shuttle downtown ($2 per person), and had lunch and a couple of beers in the Pueblo Cafe. It is right on the main drag, just before Papas and Beer. We had carne asada tacos, which came with rice and beans and wonderful guacamole, and chips and salsa, and 2 beers apiece. The total was $18 American. We shared the tacos. The restaurant was very nice, and had clean modern bathrooms!!

 

Our room steward added to our towel menagerie.....an elephant, which he placed on the window sill behind the curtains, so when we opened the curtains in the morning, there he was!!! He was a great room steward, I miss him already. His name was Tito, we were on Emerald Deck, don't know if you have him as well, Joy.

 

Disembarkation was painless for us, we had Red 1 luggage tags as we had an 11:40 AM flight. I spoke to the Captains Circle gal, and she got my mom the same tags and told us to bring her with us to the Elite departure lounge, which we did. We were to meet at 7:30. By about 7:45 we were told we could get off. Only problem was that once we disembarked we had to stand outside on the concrete walkway for almost an hour....I guess they jumped the gun letting us off, and then decided the luggage wasn't ready, so we all waited outside. That was OK, tho, the weather was nice and we were in the shade. They brought out some chairs for those with canes and wheelchairs. When we finally got to go through customs,, they just waved us all through. Never looked at a passport. Porters were in very short supply (we only saw 2). So we schlepped our stuff and Mom's to the SuperShuttle, where we had reservations. The SuperShuttle is only $14 pp each way, and there are only 7 or 8 folks on each van, so is convenient and economical. We were through security and waiting at the gate by about 9:45...helped that Mom had a wheelchair so the gal got us through security pretty quickly.

 

For us the highlights of the cruise were our traditional dining...our waitstaff and head waiter were marvelous. The head waiter (Vinny) made my mom a special antipasto tray for her birthday, stopped and chatted every night...and our waitstaff were 2 wonderful young people who couldn't do enough to please us. She always had cheese plates on the table when we got there, he always had my husband's iced tea at his place, she always made sure my meat was rare, she brought extra desserts every night "to try", and they generally made us very very happy. The food was great, no complaints there, it got much better after the first night. Our room steward was another high.

 

The lows were the attitudes of some of the crew members (including the cruise director's staff). The gal who showed up for our CC meeting showed up 10 minutes late, looked like she had just rolled out of bed, no makeup, hair not combed, pretty disheveled, and said "Gee, they told me I didn't have to worry about this, nobody would show up. What is this about anyway? Are you a computer group?" The gal running the Susan Komen foundation walk the same thing, massive disinterest, and she didn't care if there were hats or not or how far you walked or anything. The gal doing a golf chipping thing....not a single smile. They seemed as though they were told what to do, they were doing it, but they weren't prepared and had no skills in smiling and being energetic. We'd be at the Calypso pool, have something to eat at our chairs, put our plate on the little side table and it would be hours before somebody would clear it. The pool attendants and Horizon Court staff would all be lined up against the wall visiting. I had a great time, don't get me wrong, but the attitudes of some of the staff really got to me. One day I counted how many times staff members walked by my empty plate before I finally gave up and moved it myself. (For the record, 24 times)

 

There sure seemed to be a LOT of activities in the Patter.....you could be busy all of the time. They did an "Amazing Race" thing the last day that looked like folks were having fun. We watched several of them coming through the Calypso pool looking for a clue (hint: they threw a medal in the pool that had to be retrieved, most of the folks had some kids fish them out, but one guy dived in in his full clothes).

 

I'm off to get some dinner....stopped at Costco and got a chicken.....oh how the mighty have fallen.....

[CwazeAndCwaze]

 

I'm off to get some dinner....stopped at Costco and got a chicken.....oh how the mighty have fallen.....

 

Laughing my big fat heinie off!!!!

[cruznliz]

My husband and I were on the Oct. 15 – 29, 2008 Golden Princess cruise to Hawaii. We are Princess enthusiasts and this cruise “exceeded our expectations”! Embarkation was speedy. Only lag was in the line for security. After being on the Monarch of the Seas in August, our inside cabin on the Golden looked huge. We were a bit alarmed to see our cabin shared a wall with a Laundromat (not the way the deck plan showed it), but amazingly we never heard a sound from the machines or the patrons.

 

One major tip: they keep the temperature onboard fairly chilly. I was cold every day. I had brought Capri’s, and it was too cool to wear them until we got to the islands. The Princess Theatre and the dining room were consistently cold.

 

I think Princess has done the Hawaii run for a number of years now and they are really getting good at it. (This was our 3rd Hawaii cruise with Princess). The lei making and ukulele lessons are very popular. They have a Hawaiian Activities Desk on Deck 7 near the Internet Café. Unfortunately it was only open from 9:00 to 10:00 AM the first few days of the cruise. Not sure if it was open on Embarkation Day.

If lei making and ukulele are important to you, try and get in line early.

 

The main speaker was Hawaii Bob (Basso). We’ve heard him before. He is pretty good on Hawaiian history, etc. The Cruise Director David Cole (call me Dave) also spoke on each port. The port talks were informative for last minute ideas of things to do.

 

We found the food to be quite good. Maybe not the best we’ve had on Princess, but very good none the less. We had Anytime Dining and we are easy to please. They have GREAT cookies in Horizon Court all day and evening. They alternate between chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter. All excellent. They also have hot puddings or crumbles in Horizon Court that are excellent. (Rice pudding, bread pudding, etc.)

 

The shows were excellent. They were “Words and Music”, “Caliente”, “Cinematastic” and “Motor City”. We enjoyed Caliente and Cinematastic the most. We had seen the others before. They had 13 dancers and 4 soloists. They were very good! They also had many early shows at 7:00 PM.

 

There are 3 formal nights. One before the islands and 2 on the way home. There are Captain’s cocktail parties (free drinks) on the first formal night and the last formal night from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. As someone else mentioned, it was kind of a madhouse. No where to sit. We were able to snag a waiter for drinks fairly easily though. (We were by the Purser’s Desk on Deck 6).

 

I don’t want anyone to think we watched a lot of TV, but we ordinarily got back to the cabin fairly early and watch whatever was on the TV. We saw 12 movies and 10 partial movies! Princess now has “The Romance Channel”, “The Family Channel” and the “Hawaii Channel”. THUMBS UP! They also show “Love Boat” reruns with commercials to buy “Season I” at the boutique!

 

The islands were great and the weather matched! No rain!! We only did ship shore excursions in Hilo. DH did the hike at the volcano and I did the Botanical Garden. We both took about 80 pictures and thought the tours were excellent. In Honolulu we walked to the palace and then had lunch in Chinatown. In Kauai we took the shuttle to Wal Mart and Anchor Cove for shopping. In Lahaina we walked a lot of the town. As I said before we had been to all the ports before.

 

Can’t think of anymore at the moment. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. I’m still knee deep in laundry and I have to return to work tomorrow, but I’ll be around on CC of course.

 

 

 

P.S. Also picked up a Costco chicken today!!

[dobie]

I got to work yesterday.....and today as well! The cruise seems like a distant memory....

[Kruizer]

I got to work yesterday.....and today as well! The cruise seems like a distant memory....

 

 

Doesn't work always have a way of messing up the good stuff? :rolleyes:

 

Judie

[sassyredhat]

Thanks for all the good info. We will be first time Princess cruisers on this cruise in 2010.

 

We've done 2 other Hawaii cruises, but with HAL. This gives me an idea of how things are with Princess.

 

Pat

[Joy_K]

It is a little after 11 am onboard. I just walked throughout the ship on the way to the internet cafe. There are major Halloween decorations out and the Patters is full of Halloween activities today and tonight. The wedding chapel is being turned into a haunted house, haunted gingerbread house making competition, costume parade.............you get the picture. The atrium has lots of carved pumpkins on display, black and orange balloons everywhere and spiderwebs/spiders all around too. Very festive.

 

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that we are having a pretty smooth sailing. One of the TV channels give the sea conditions. So far in the mornings they have reported slight seas with 1 1/2 - 4 ft waves. I usually look in the morning and not later in the day. Last night I did notice a little rocking, but so far smooth seas for us. It is finally warming up some. Yesterday was overcast, some rain, and cool. This morning is sunny and noticebly warmer.

 

Found out about the Chef's table this morning. They had enough people sign up for 3 dinners. There are 10 from our roll call that will be participating in the first one on the 2nd.

[CA Oceanfront]

We, too, were on the Oct 15 sailing. Great time!! The link below is to the Princess Patters, Specialty Restaurant Menus, and some other interesting stuff that I've posted on Webshots. Most of them are there, although I have yet to upload all of them. Hope they're helpful. BTW, the Chef's Table was a definite highlight!! We also did the Ultimate Balcony Dinner (wonderful as usual), the Maitre D' wine tasting (very informative...top notch canapes and even a sip of Opus One @ $169 per bottle!!), Sabatini's & Desert Rose. Couldn't ask for smoother seas or a better CD & Headwaiter (Vincenzo). Enjoy!

http://community.webshots.com/album/568379615TBHpEX?vhost=community

[dobie]

Hey, we had Vinny, too....we were in Canaletto late seating table 284. Where were you located? He was a funny guy, treated my mom like royalty every night and brought special stuff for her birthday.

 

Joy, which Love Boat is playing on the TV? We had the Charo one for 6 days, then the one with Scott Baio and Kristy McNichol the rest of the time!! I think I could have memorized the dialogue! Let us know about the Chef's Table...

[CA Oceanfront]

We were a late-seating table of 6 in the corner (#263). Vincenzo is absolutely a people person. He represents Princess extraordinarily well, as he should after some 32 years on cruise ships. He totally changed my preconception about headwaiters. He will be a tough act to follow, but I have a feeling that our Azamara cruise in January may measure up favorably.

[MSUcruisers]

We, too, were on the Oct 15 sailing. Great time!! The link below is to the Princess Patters, Specialty Restaurant Menus, and some other interesting stuff that I've posted on Webshots. Most of them are there, although I have yet to upload all of them. Hope they're helpful. BTW, the Chef's Table was a definite highlight!! We also did the Ultimate Balcony Dinner (wonderful as usual), the Maitre D' wine tasting (very informative...top notch canapes and even a sip of Opus One @ $169 per bottle!!), Sabatini's & Desert Rose. Couldn't ask for smoother seas or a better CD & Headwaiter (Vincenzo). Enjoy!

http://community.webshots.com/album/568379615TBHpEX?vhost=community

 

Thanks for the Princess Patters. I noticed you circled line dancing. How would these classes be for an intermediate line dancer? Also, do you know if there is a charge for the fitness classes? A cost wasn't mentioned in the Patters for these classes, but there is a charge for the photography ones.

[CA Oceanfront]

The line dancing classes were designed primarily for beginners, and were held on the floor of the deck 5 Atrium, so it got real crowded, with people spilling all the way to the elevator area. IMHO, it was too crowded to really get into the dancing, but it was always well attended nonetheless.

 

My wife tried one of the stretch classes, but I guess it was way too elementary for her liking, so she dropped out halfway through. My best guess is that if there was no price mentioned in the Patter, then there was probably no charge, although there has always seemed to be a charge in the past for a class like Pilates or Spinning. BTW, if you're much taller than 6'2" (I'm 6'4"), the ceiling is too low for the elliptical machines, unless you're willing too hunch over a bit. Bummer! But the treadmills work fine for taller people, and there are more of them a anyway.

[MSUcruisers]

Thanks, Shangri-La for answering!

[teachergal29]

I am sure someone will answer who had a full suite on board. But just our .02. I am pretty sure the wi-fi and Internet mins are combined now. This would be nice as we had the free internet when we went on Diamond but the wi-fi was .75 per min. But again, I THINK it has been combined and I hope after she goes to dry dock you will be able to get it in cabin. But who knows. Even with the pay wi-fi I was able to pre write emails and even have everything ready to upload to my server and posted to the website from the ship.

 

We LOVED that you could order off the main menu in room. Full breakfast, and dinners off the main menu and all. Something you can not do in other cabins. We always ate on the balcony. Just not main dining room people.

 

We also enjoyed the DVD Library. Just checked a box. And the DVD was there after the cabin was cleaned.

 

We dont cruise a lot so when we do. We get a suite. LOVE the aft of the ship.

 

I know we didnt answer all the questions but again. I am PRETTY sure they combined the Net mins. We also have the Verizon card for the laptop and when around the islands and at port. That thing would kick in and we would have dsl speed. 384 to 768 depending. And even if it didnt kick into broadband and went National. It was still WAY faster than the ships internet. Learned one thing. You have to have patience for sure. :)

 

Thanks so much for trying to answer my questions about the wifi. I guess I'm trying to get a feel for what new suite perks that have been added due to the sailing of the Ruby Princess in Nov. I've even read about full suite passengers getting to eat breakfast in Sabatini's along with others. I have seen your great pictures of your aft suite, D736, on the Diamond, I believe. We have the same cabin on the Golden this holiday season. Just really "hungry" for all the latest info about any suite perks that I will be getting that are not already on the main Princess website. This is the first time we have gotten a full suite with Princess. I'll try checking into the Verizon wifi card. I just want to make sure that it will be worth "slepping" my laptop onboard for the 2 weeks we'll be sailing to Hawaii.

[CA Oceanfront]

Teachergal29,

 

Donscomp is correct regarding the combining of wifi and internet minutes. Our friends were in a suite and, if I understood correctly, they had unlimited internet, which included wifi (since they brought their laptop). As platinum members, my wife and I each had $100 credits towards the internet packages (which again included wifi access), so we were each able to purchase 280 minutes (including the 30-minute first day purchase bonus) for a net cost of zero. By doing most of our email offline on our MacBook, we ended up using less than half of our minutes. The wifi signal was available in most public areas such as the Atrium and Horizon Court, but, unfortunately, it was not available in the Bernini dining room on the last morning, which served as the Platinum/Elite debarkation lounge.

 

Marty

[donscomp]

Thanks so much for trying to answer my questions about the wifi. I guess I'm trying to get a feel for what new suite perks that have been added due to the sailing of the Ruby Princess in Nov. I've even read about full suite passengers getting to eat breakfast in Sabatini's along with others. I have seen your great pictures of your aft suite, D736, on the Diamond, I believe. We have the same cabin on the Golden this holiday season. Just really "hungry" for all the latest info about any suite perks that I will be getting that are not already on the main Princess website. This is the first time we have gotten a full suite with Princess. I'll try checking into the Verizon wifi card. I just want to make sure that it will be worth "slepping" my laptop onboard for the 2 weeks we'll be sailing to Hawaii.

 

Myself? I would and will bring it. The verizon card IS 59.00 unlimited data access per month. IF you have a cellphone with Verizon. Pricy I know but we use it alot while out in the RV. But it was REAL nice to have around the islands. Pretty much built that site you were on from the cruise. But even without having the card? It is nice to have your laptop for uploading pics off the cameras and pre writting emails and all.

[Joy_K]

Thought I would give another quick update. I forgot to mention on my first one about the fog. We had unbelievable fog on the first or second night and the captain kept blowing the fog horn. This was the first time in 10 cruises that we have experienced that much fog :)

 

Yesterday seas were moderate (4-8 ft) whick made it hard to walk straight. It was a gentle rolling, so heard of no one sick, but none the less was quite big waves. TV is reporting moderate again today, but it is really very smooth sailing today. Weather is warming up every day and yesterday was the first day there was a crowd out by the pools.

 

Other than the first night, we have had good wait staff in the dining room.

 

Can't remember which episode of Love Boat is on, but it has been the same one since we boarded.

 

Entertainment has been hit and miss. Only one show (comedian) that we really enojyed. The daytime Hawaii Bob port talks are wonderful. We usually are not the type to go to this type of event, but we will be at every one he gives for the duration of the cruise. He has such wonderful stories! This is the best entertainment on the ship.

 

Chef's Table tonight, so will report back on that later. We arrive in Hilo tomorrow.

 

One guy from our roll call got into the Survivor challenge so we hope he does well. The CD has arranged another get together for us today, this time with drinks after one of our fellow cruisemates talked to him about it.