Hawaii Cruise Reviews

Our first cruise in several years and we were so pleased with everything. Food was great. First run movies all day long. Food was very good. Excursions were well organized. No complaints. The new beds are SUPER comfy!

Overall the my wife and I had a wonderful Cruise to Hawaii. The staff was friendly and professional.The casual eating was not staffed properly and many time we had to get our own drinks and more than a couple of times open tables did not have silverware and had to ask for some (which took longer than it should have), or retrieve it ourselves.

My consultant was Fantastic in assisting me in setting up the cruise.   The cruise itself was very good in going to 4 islands in Hawaii---ship ran out of sour cream and parmesan cheese.  One big issues were the over abundant of wheelchairs, walkers and motorized scooters on board. Slowed everything down.  Been on 43 cruises and never have i seen soon many before on cruises --that were slowing things down and taking up way too much room everywhere.  Many many others shared the same opinion---found out from the future cruise specialist that it was due to sailing in and out of LA---that they were not having to fly to get on board.  My server Orlando was outstanding!  Shows were mostly good and entertaining.  Crown Grill was great. My traditional late seating dining table new friends too were great.  us transfer back to LAX was a disaster Not so much for me but for many others).  Princess decided to load the bus with guests from all airlines vs just a single airline like they have done in past.  Driver unloaded all luggage at the first airline terminal at airport and expected everyone else to walk to their airline terminal

The staff was excellent.  The food, breakfast was below any other cruise line that we have taken.  COFFEE, that was just horrible.  Hot water.  In order to get a cup of coffee, we had to buy it.  When I was getting my food at the buffet, one of the kitchen staff dropped sauce which came all over floor counter and all over me.  The only thing they were interested in was to clean the floor and counter.  Only one person came over to me and handed me a rag.  NO ONE ELSE helped me.  Accidents happen but this was ridiculous.

i have taken about eight prior cruises and I would highly recommend the Ruby Princess.  All staff cannot do enough for you and their great attitudes is a testament to the excellent Princess line.  The Ruby's beauty is exceptional.  There are plenty of activities at sea:  ukulele lessons, Hawaiian dance, pop choir, The Voice competition, fun games, and as much quiet time as you like.  The food is consistently good. We ate at the Crab Shack one night, well worth the $20.  The bucket of crab legs, shrimp and more seemed endless!!

The shows were amazing.  You have to get to the theatre quite early to get seats.  That is the only slight negative, but there are many fun activities and other shows going on at the same time.

A-plus

Bought this trip for my wife for her 50th birthday. This was not what I had in mind. I did a lot of research and thought this cruise would be what we have wanted to do. We were very excited about trip getting all line up for excursions and what we could do on ship for 5 days of cruising and Hawaii islands for 6 days. The day before cruise got a call from my emergency contact say she thought our ship may be delayed a day. Called ncl trying to get info and all they could tell me was it was delayed and need to be there the next day. After 4 hours on the phone the day before leaving was call tomorrow because ncl was closed. Got up at 5am to make sure to get them before getting on plane at 9am for San Francisco. Were told we would be comped  for any motel fees and would be credited for one day of cruising. Thought that's ok we can make that work. Spent night in San Francisco and had good time. Next day was told to be at ship after 1:30 pm but would not boarding until 3pm. We arrived at 2:30 to get in line and got in line. Line was moving. We were middle of line. Got inside and all hell broke loose. There was no direction, people screaming at each other, people were frustrated with no direction from anyone. Almost got into a fight with one guy because he told my wife to get the hell out of the line if we did not have a number. Trying to figure out what he meant. Long story short finally figured out they were calling numbers to check in but no one knew where to get them. After 20 min of craziness. We were to sit down and wait for a # be handed out and they would not hand any out until we were sitting down and quiet (Felt like I was in grade school). After 3 1/2 hours of sitting there and them shoving water and cookies down us we finally made it on the ship. We were in the last group of 20 people. We get checked in and go to our room and our card key did not work. Had to get in line for another hour with other people so we could get in our room. Barely had enough time to grab a drink and head out to see us go under the golden gate bridge. Thought then the worst was behind us. Had 4 days of cruising over to Hawaii. A lot of stuff was shut down including the spa, had the deck to the front of the boat, sport court, shuffle board. Thought we would try relaxing out on the decks that were open but all you heard for 4 days was grinding on the ship and if you sat outside you would look down on you and your drink or food and you would find paint chips and metal fragments. We learned to sit outside with hand over drinks. Spent the extra money on a balcony suite to watch ocean from our room and sleep with door open to listen to ocean. All ways great when you are on vacation to get woken up at usually 6-7am and one mourning they were painting and moving ladders around at 4am. Made It to Hawaii and things were alittle better once we could get off the ship. Went on some great excursions that we found on our own. Going through ncl was a lot more expensive. Getting on and off boat was very easy but some of the people that work on docks were very rude. The food was good and the specialty dining was very good ( definitely worth paying the extra money for). Finally everything was opened up by the last night. It gave us something to do the last night  to explore the ship. Overall I understand the work ( not happy with it especially when you pay $5000 to have fun) but even then the crew seemed very unorganized about a lot of stuff. Even when our tv went on the blink. It got fixed right away but they called 5 days later to check on it. Also had a girl when we got on with all the problems, took our room # down and would check on us to see if everything was ok. Never got that call either. Heard from a lot of people that said they have been on this cruise before and was not one of ncl best. Also when we disembarked there was suppose to be some instructions on when to get off and baggage instructions. We did not get that and when I went to see about what needed to be done the customer service lady was very rude and said everyone received one, you must have did something with yours. They did give us $199.98 dollars each back but nonrefundable ship credit, and 50% off our next cruise but needs to be used in a years time. Usually cruise with carnival cruise line in the past and never had any trouble and this was our first ncl cruise. Trying to figure out if I want to waste another 50% to try again.

We did not have a memorable time on this cruise.  The Grand Princess is in dire need of repairs and replacement of furniture throughout the ship.  Our air-conditioning in the cabin did not work properly for 5 days.  Even though maintenance people came to "repair it" 3 times, it still didn't cool the room properly.  We had the temperature at the lowest setting and it was warm in the cabin.  We sat down on a loveseat in the Explorer's Lounge one night and we felt like we "fell into a hole."  It was like we were sitting on the floor it was so low.  We had a difficult time getting out of that loveseat.  The weather was stormy when we left San Francisco and the ship was "rocking & rolling" from the waves.  We returned to our cabin after a show to retire for the evening and we noticed that the door to the balcony was open.  We thought the cabin steward had left it open.  I closed it and after a minute or so, it slid open as the ship "rolled" in one direction.  I went and closed it again.  Well, a minute or so later it did it again.  This time I checked the lock and it didn't work.  We called maintenance and someone came up in a short time to look at it.  He could not fix it and called in 2 other men.  They could not fix it either and called another maintenance worker.  He came and "said" he fixed it.  This happened around 10:45 PM.   The sliding door seemed to stay closed and we went to bed.  Shortly after our breakfast was delivered to our room in the morning, the door slid open again.  We reported it to the maintenance department and the lock was replaced.  We wondered how long it had been broken and why weren't things like this checked periodically.  The food on this ship/cruise was awful.   We have been on 15 Princess cruises and this was the first time we ever had such a bad experience with the food.  The food on the dining room menu was not up to what we experienced on past Princess cruises so we ate in the buffet.  Well, the food there wasn't any better.  The selections were awful and looked like "slop" in their serving dishes.  Mac & Cheese was offered EVERY AFTERNOON AND EVENING.  I was looking for pasta with Alfredo sauce like we had on the Island Princess in Jan. when we went to the Panama Canal.  The food on that cruise WAS THE BEST EVER.  The chef on the Grand should take lessons from the chef on the Island.  Our cruise was during Lent and we do not eat meat on Friday's during Lent.  Well, apparently the chef was not aware of this and only had 1 fish selection on Fridays of this cruise.  On another week day there were 2 or 3 fish selections.  There were a lot of Asian passengers on this cruise and it seemed (to me anyway) that the menu was catered to them.  The salad bar was terrible.  There were only a choice of 6 toppings.  Some nights there were 8.  On the Island Princess there must have been 12.  The lettuce was just plain Iceberg, no Romaine at all.  There was another bowl of mixed greens.  We look forward to the wonderful meals on Princess but this cruise was the worst.  We sailed with my husband's brother and his wife and they have sailed with Princess twice as much as we have.  They were not happy with the food either.

The entertainment was very good on this cruise.  We especially liked the magic acts.

We were Elite level on this cruise and was very happy to have the mini-bar stocked and have the laundry service for FREE.  We had a thought about the mini-bar.  We know that Princess offers 4, 5, 7, and 8 day cruises.  There are also 10-day cruises and longer.  We understand that the mini-bar is only stocked once on any cruise.  This seems a bit unbalance to us.  How do passengers on a 5 day cruise get their mini-bar stocked once and a person on a 15-day cruise (like ourselves) get their mini-bar stocked once?  What do passengers on cruises for longer than 15 days do?  They only get their mini-bar stocked once?  We know that people book back to back cruises so they get their mini-bar stocked at the start of each cruise.  This just seems unbalanced.  It takes passengers many days and cruises to reach Elite status.  It would be nice to reward these passengers that sail on cruises lasting 10 days or more to have the mini-bar restocked mid way through the cruise.  I can't imagine passengers going on a world cruise and only having their mini-bar stocked once.

Food was good, customer service could have been better. The cruise was clean and noticed staff cleaned regularly.  Bars closed too early, smoking sections not cleaned regularly, pools were closed even though the ocean wasn't rough. There was no communication about when pools would open. 

The demarkation in Maui could have been better organized. 

Overall it was good, but not likely I will cruise with Princess again. 

I found the ship to be hard to navigate. We were in a handicap room and assigned dining on the opposite end of the ship! I have sailed on the Royal Caribbean 3 times and found myself comparing the two.

The room was clean. Our dining waiter was slow but friendly unlike other staff on the ship who did their job but did not appear to be happy or friendly.  Would have liked a 6:00 dining hour instead of 5:30. Enjoyed the movies shown on the deck. Would have liked the hot tub to be in a more private space. Shows were not good except for The Voice. Need to improve the variety of shows. Excursions we chose were great! Variety of foods in the Horizon needed to be improved. Princess paled when compared to the Royal Caribbean. Probably would not choose this cruise line again.

Excellent entertainment, food, and service.  Only downfall, it was impossible to get into the lounge shows unless you arrived 2 hours early to get a table.  Great cruise though.

Anytime Dinning - Was poor because we had to wait 30-45 min to be seated.  The tables for 2 were actually so close together they were tables for 4 or 6.

Food - Was ok, but nothing to write home about.

Room - Was good, needed re-do.

Service- Was overall very good.  One night in dinning room had a 1 hour dinner, waiter was overwhelmed by the number of tables he had. Cut backs(?)  The guests at the tables on either side of us both left early, couldn't wait any longer.

Entertainment - Good to Very good.

Ship - Older, in definite need of re-do. 

Photo Gallery - Overpriced.

Specialty Dinning- Great, Crown Grill was excellent.

Ports - Excellent

Tender to Island - Poor- Had to wait 45 min in line to get tender back to ship. No regard for elderly or handicapped.

Embarkation - Easy

Debarkation - A real cluster, NO crew to supervise - everyone for themselves.

Lounges - All well worn, some furniture was filthy.

Next cruise will be Royal Caribbean.

Loved touring the islands the shore excursions were great. My dinning eperiences were just fair. I have cruised 18 times before on various other lines I found the staff at the main dinning rooms to be lacking. it varied from who was taking your order, some were fine and most others laking in some way. Much was attention to detail. I had no complaints with the food.

This was our first cruise, and while we knew up front that it wasn't going to be cheap, the costs that added up were beyond our expectations. But let me first say a few things about the things that worked. 

1. Our cabin, although small, worked just fine and I really appreciated how quiet it was, how well everything worked, the generous amount of sturdy storage, and a bathroom that worked well, too. Our cabin steward was outstanding. 

2. The food program was generally very excellent and only at one meal did our servers get all the orders mixed up, and were very confused by everything. At all the other meals, we had more than enough to eat, were served by friendly and competent servers, and we ate tasty, well-prepared food. 

3.  The entertainment progdram was fine - we enjoyed several of the shows, but found that there were not many options if we didn't want to hang around the bars and drink all night. And the price of drinks was excessive.  And I resent having a generous tip taken out of every drink order and then being asked (subtly, of course) to provide yet an additional tip.  

4.  Charging $29.95 for Internet access a day is simply outrageous gouging. Everyone needs and uses internet these days....it's like having toilet paper....we take it for granted. If you're going to do that, build it into the overall charge....don't nickel and dime (or ten-dollar) us to death.  As it turned out, we found we ddin't need it after all....we were close enough to coverage on all of the islands that there were few times that we were outside of phone and Internet service. But, it would have helped to have it seamlessly. 

5.  I know,  you're probably going to say that it was in the fine print of our contract, but it was quite a surprise to find a $13.50 gratuity surcharge tacked on to our accounts when the cruise was almost over. Come on folks...pay your staff a living wage and let us tip as the service requires. So, we don't see the cooks and the dishwashers, etc.........they're not involved in customer service.  Then it's YOUR responsibility to pay them enough without asking us to do it at the last minute. 

6. And please, shut off the music sometimes!  By the third day, when I'd get up early...way before sunrise, to walk around deck 6, I could not escape the ukuleles! As a matter of fact, there were few places in the ship where one could go to get a little pease and quiet other than our cabin.....and in some places, the music was so loud and raucous, we simply turned around and left. 

7.  So.....my wife and I...who've traveled and lived in many I parts of the world, will probably NOT be taking another cruise with you again.......it was a real education, but Norwegian is just a big money making machine....and we can do far better designing a vacation ourselves and saving a ton of money in the process.  

We had a great time. The staff this cruise was fun, polite and entertaining. Our steward was exceptional, she kept out room looking great, and we came back to a new animal every evening. The staff was attentive to our needs and wants. Great vacation.  We seen so many whales on our excursion, in Maui. 

We have been on numerous (over 25) cruises and although we enjoyed the Itinerary, we were very disappointed in the ship.  The rooms were very small with very little closet space.  The couches were so worn they looked dirty and we did not want to sit on it.  The towels had holes in them.  The carpet was worn.  For what we paid for this trip I truly expected more. We went to the specialty restaurants and they were all good except the Italian restaurant.    Food needed to be sent back twice - cold and dried out.  They did comp us for this meal but we were celebrating our 45th Wedding Anniversary so you can imagine our disappointment.   

This is our first NCL Cruise - I think it will be our last.

Embarkations was out of control - we stood for 3 hours to board the ship.  They could have served coffee and been a little more honest about what was going on.

Too many priority boarders, of which we were none.

Wait staffs were the best part.........well trained, friendly and fun to be around both in DaVinci Dining Room and in Sabatini's.

We loved our suite..................very relaxing.  Too bad the weather was so cold that we could not sit out on our deck and enjoy it, but twice.  Always wet, too.  Our cabin steward was great.

Purser's office was no help anytime we needed them.  No notice ahead of things going on.  We would hear about it the day of or not at all.

Just does not compare to Holland America.

Rough seas on crossing but Hawaii was great.  Loved the food and entertainment. bought beverage package it was well worth it. The excursions were well organized and very informational.  Had acupuncture treatments, they really helped with my pain. 

Do you want a Real Vacation? Well The Grand Princess 15 day Hawaiian Cruise is THE Place!  Balcony, a room with a view! Cabin Sterward,Totally Awesome! Food,Excellent. CREW/STAFF, AMAZING!  In work, kindness and compassion! Talent as well! CLEAN! Entertainment Great! I was Spoiled. Home now, where Are My People? 😉

Warning: it's long.

TL;DR - if you went to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate your last birthday, if you're still raving about your stay at the Cleveland Marriott, if you can't move because you're too old or too fat, then this cruise is for you!

This was my first cruise . While I was prepared to encounter a lot of older passengers, as there were many sea days, I had no idea that there would be so many morbidly obese people on board. Not the agent or the cruise line's fault, just shocking. I think I'd be interested in a more active itinerary and entertainment, but the selection of this cruise wasn't done by me in the first place (I joined friends who had already booked). 

It seems as though the cruise attempts to imply luxury, but can't help being stuck firmly in the grasp of its middle-class clientele. My expectations were (perhaps unreasonably) closer to Michelin Star, yet I felt more Ruth's Chris than French Laundry. Fine if your previous luxury escapades have been limited to Cheesecake Factory and the Cleveland Marriott, but a bit of a letdown for those who more regularly patronize Manresa and the Mandarin Oriental. I felt at times as though I were trapped inside of Disneyland--attention was paid to every detail, but I was sentenced to endlessly endure the mediocrity of the masses.

Facilities were generally very well maintained. I enjoyed the wood paneled Wheelhouse lounge, and spent endless hours inside the Vines wine bar. Service was, across the board, outstanding and delightful. Traditional dining was a lovely opportunity to forge lasting relationships with both tablemates and service staff and by-and-large, the food was done quite well considering the volumes and storage constraints. I’ve rarely observed such detailed attention to traditional French culinary technique, so finding perfectly tournéed potatoes on my plate brought be back to my culinary school days. Outstanding staff included Mark and Jermone, our late-seating servers in the Boticcelli dining room, Jenny and Romil in the Crooner’s lounge, and Bon in the Vines wine bar.

Specialty restaurants were adequate, but not the outstanding experience that I was expecting. Steakhouse steaks were choice, not prime, and somewhat flaccid. The wine tasting event was not hosted by a certified Sommelier, but by someone who had “once worked as a hotel sommelier”. Information imparted during the wine tasting was rudimentary at best, and factually incorrect at times. The special Fondue dinner featured quite watery fondue, which was explained as a reaction to passengers complaining about cheese that was too thick at the previous event. Formal dinners featured special entrées and of course you could always order as many dishes as you liked. They were even accommodating in letting me compose my own combination of proteins and veggies from the menu card (as I’ve mentioned, the service was outstanding). If getting as many lobster tails as you like is your idea of luxury, then you’ll relish the experience.

The biggest disappointment was The Sanctuary, an adult-only retreat at the front of the ship. It’s touted as an opportunity to “escape completely to this plush, outdoor spa-inspired setting with signature beverages, light meals, massages, attentive service and relaxing personal entertainment.” Our experience was quite different. As The Sanctuary is located quite close to the main pool area, it was impossible to escape the afternoon games and activities amplified over speakers so as to generate maximum excitement, or the ongoing “Movies Under the Stars®” (which was not limited to when the stars were out). As a result, we were constantly assaulted with all manner of shouting, cheering, dialogue and explosions. In addition, it took over 90 minutes to receive our first drink order (after waiting nearly an hour for a server to appear), and over 2 hours for food and the promised and very necessary noise-canceling headsets. Apparently, although noise cancellation and relaxing music are both advertised and definitely necessary, the mp3 players are kept several decks below and inconvenient to access. Even once the mp3 player arrived, the headset was shorted and suffered from poor sound quality. As we politely brought these deficiencies to the attention of the staff, they made every attempt to make amends. Our service was escalated three times, to increasingly senior staff, but even they couldn’t compensate for broken electronics and over-amplified activities by the pool. By-and-large, not worth the added cost ($40pp). We spent the following afternoon relaxing by the small adults-only pool at the stern, where we found better service and more peace. Kudos to the service team for trying, except for the initial giggly Japanese woman who would nod and say ‘yes’ even though it became apparent that she didn’t even understand what we were asking, and who didn’t make her first appearance for 45 minutes and then only sparsely and occasionally thereafter. 

The unlimited drinks option was key, as it includes many of the other added-cost items such as barista coffee drinks and soft drinks. We easily consumed more than the $50/day cost, considering that each coffee drink ran ~$4 in the am, a couple of sodas at lunch were ~$3 ea, mai tais at the pool were ~$8, a glass of wine before dinner ran ~$8-$10, and we receive 40% off of full bottles of wine, complimentary sparkling water bottles at dinner, and free bottles of water for excursions. 

All-in-all, I appreciated the opportunity to disconnect and relax in a way that I’ve never been able to before. I suspect, however, if I ever go on another cruise I will choose one that more closely fits my demographic.

Having cruised in the Grand Princess twice before, the ship was showing its age. Other than that the cruise was delightful; service was excellent, food was excellent and the customer service personnel very helpful. The temperature on the ship everywhere was maintained at a very cool level, for which we were not prepared, and found this uncomfortable. The stateroom staff and the wait personnel on the dining rooms were all very polite, courteous and helpful.