Reflections About the Cruise.. LA to Hawaii January 2013

Post Hawaii to LA Cruise Thoughts
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1. Enjoy the environment there: There were people on the ship that will complain about most everything. It so easy when you are within your own fishbowl to find objection with tiny details that you would not possible think about if you were in your own world back home. A woman complained as we were waiting to get off the ship in Kaui that it was unbelievable that they only opened the laundromats at 8am when people had to clearly iron their shirts and dresses before leaving the ship at 8:30.  Kauli is a jungle type environment and no one was going to care if your garments were ironed.

2. Be a picky eater at the Buffet, There is so many really cool things to eat at the buffet it is tempting to try them all and overeat and fee miserable. Pick just one meat, vegetables if they look good and only one desert at each buffet seating. Drink lots of water.. Beverages are brought to you on Princess ships.. I always asked for two water glasses.

3. Do not rely on the ship to provide you books for your reading addiction. The Golden Princess had a very small library that was only open during a few hours each day. Most of the time the shelves were locked up behind glass doors. The other people on the ship brought the books that they had read from their own home collections and dropped them into a pile in the unlocked regions of the library and others quickly snagged them up to read. This didn't get strated until we were a couple of days into the trip and people had finished their paperbacks that they had brought on. I always had an eye out for Sue and she joins the many others that read the popular paperback books. The library shares the same square footage with the internet cafe. Only 6 upholstered chairs reside in the library portion of the piazza. There were many other places that people could hang out and read on this ship... and they did.

4. The Winter /Spring season is a great time to be in Hawaii. There seemed to be many more vicious storms that lashed out at our rubber necking when we took the trip in November. The end of January to the end of April is the whale season in the islands. It is really the best time to see such wildlife. While we were closer to the humpback whales in Alaska, the Maui Whale adventure was more fun as we saw more whales in a area.

5.Renting a car for a day was really worth it. The excursions that we would have gone on if we had not rented a car would have cost more than the two of us in a rental car in Hawaii. Hawaii is one of our states and renting a car and driving it in the United Sates is really not that hard to do. It gives you independence so that if you want to stop and have a bite to eat somewhere you can. Renting a car will allow you to get out an see more of the country than an excursion. Some of the people on the ship booked their own excursions. They ran into some pretty interesting people and had great experiences as well.  They were British so driving in the US was somewhat problematic for them.

6. If you are an avid TV watcher you may be disappointed. The ship subscribed to a service that takes the best sitcoms off the TV and provides the ship with an edited version that had no comericals. If you were falling a soap or a little known serial you might be out of luck as the Tv in the rooms at Fox and MSNBC and the BBC but no ESPN or any Guiding Light.

7. Work for a happy attitude. There were a great number of people that boarded the ship that fall into the category of curmudgeon. They had waited all their life for a nice trip like this and were ill prepared to take advantage of it. I would like to say that it was only the old men on the ship that faced this attitude. But sadly many of the older women were facing this attitude as well. Some of these old coots would turn down the hand wipes at the food stations. Theses protected everyone, There was always a health person overseeing the hand wipes at the station. Many of the older passengers were disgusted that they had to swipe their hands with a alcohol towelette before each meal. They would wave it off. These people would also walk the ship desks with foul looks on their faces. Some come with preconceived attitudes of how it should be. In the buffet area the people can cut in and out when there is a space. I got told off by an old bitty who thought that the buffet was set up like a mid western cafeteria. Everyone grabs a tray and in lock step action follows the one ahead to each station.  I smiled and did what I wanted to do.

8. Hawaii was hit with the recession like all small towns. It really is a collection of small towns with the exception of Honolulu. People are not quite back up to the economic prowess of a few years ago. Hawaii is much more agricultural than I thought. It is still pretty hang loose.  I drove past huge fields with people working in the field on Kaui and one person had just left his horse across the road from where was working. It had a huge rope connected to its bridle but nothing significant to tie it down. I suppose it was a worker's means of getting home that night.

9. I was amazed at the elevation gain in the drives that we took on the islands. The sides of the volcano are rather steep. When the elevation is gained, the air is much cooler. Grab that sweatshirt. There were only 2 days that shorts felt comfortable on the whole cruise... so too many shorts were packed but you never know. As you can tell from the ship diary, it was not a cruise that had a huge number of days were people were out in the sun..This trip was not a Mexican Rivera kind of voyage.

10. Hawaii was much less commercial than I imagined. People live their lives without hassle. There were no big signs along the roads I drove in Hawaii. There were road access signs to the macadamia nut company and other places of interest but there were no signs advertising cities or businesses within the city in any part of Hawaii that we traveled.

11. I was somewhat amazed that the breakers on the beaches were pretty far away. There were some exceptions but the access to decent water before the waves was pretty interesting. In January there were not that many people in the ocean all together... of course with so many ocean beaches it was pretty spread out.

12. The ship hit its marks on arrival time and departure time with the exception of the initial departure delay. 25 miles an hour 24 hours a day and night will get you a pretty decent distance. On the ship you also realize what it would take to get a sailboat across this stretch of ocean.

13. Important fan type activities can still be maintained while in the middle of the ocean. The division championship was easily broadcasted so that all could see the game in several venues.

14. There seems to be much less of a "sell going on in the ship." The drink hawakers were not so persistent on this cruise. There seemed to be a significant drop in the number of photographers on the ship. So you weren't hounded so much for photos. Even the ports had a low key sense of shopping. On every Alaskan cruise there were the usual Del sol tee shirt outfits that sell the shirts that change color in the sun and the Diamonds International that pitch in going ashore presentations promos for slick sales.  All of that didn't seem to be occurring on this ship. Most of the people on the ship were pretty savvy travelers and this pitch for the tanzanite would fall on deaf ears.

This lack of pitching an up pricing is pretty much gone in the ship experience. People took advantage of the soda cards and the coffee cards, so they became a useful tool rather than a loss of tipped service to the providers.

15. It was nice to see various parts of the islands. The one packing and unpacking allowed for more time to be spent having fun rather than cabin or room chores. The cabins in our category are significantly smaller than a hotel room but they offered the convenience of every night knowing where you would stay.

16. Hawaii in January was very similar to the Central Valley in April regarding temperatures (mid 70's during the daylight hours). Its great to be in either place for comfort in the weather.

17. People will find their own. Passengers will do the work around. When a small group of people decide to eat with people more of their liking.. they found a way to do it with anytime dining. When the books ran out of the poorly operated too small library... people donated books they had already read to anonymous passengers that also put up their walk on books.

18. Overall the evening entertainment is declining. On this ship with 15 nights of potential, their were only 4 song and dance nights with the cruise dancers and singers. The resident live band behind these performances as been replaced with recorded soundtracks. The comedians on the ship were less than spectacular. One or two night stands have become the rule. Almost first run movies have replaced some of the live stange shows of 5 years ago. The venue has changed to smaller cabaret settings for entertainment and much more available in smaller settings.  The piano bar signer has set up a Mitch Miller kind of sing along in one small walk through setting. The older people really liked the ability to sing along with the old favorites that they grew up learning.  The art auctions had fewer painting to sell. Triva in group settings has taken over some of the traditional small nightclub settings. Dancing to the big band sounds are out, but more string quartet venues were available. Elue and the Hawaiian themed music was featured throughout the on deck music venue and the Piazza. Elue gave a concert using all of Don Ho's music. Overall the entertainment package on ship has morphed. In some ways it takes away the need to consume alcohol at every venue and that is pretty much a good thing. I never saw anyone falling down drunk.

19. Overall it was a fantastic value. The cruise fare was $1200 each and our extras on the cruise card purchases, excursion and tips were under $800.  The biggest cost would be taking off work for 2 weeks and not getting paid during that time. As retired folks, that was not an issue. It was also really nice to have a neighbor get a little cash for coming over and loving our cats while we were gone.