A fabulous family adventure

Diamond Princess Cruise Review to Hawaii

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 0
Helpful Votes: 7

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Diamond Princess

Sail date: November 18, 2007

Ship: Diamond Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 16 years ago

Review summary

What a great trip! We so enjoyed our time together as a family. It was full of great food, lots of activities, tons of pool time, and hours and hours of just "hanging out" with the family! Both my husband and I work full time, and it was so great to be away from everything, even cell phone service. The kids hung with us most of the time, except for our 17 year old - who found a great group of friends on day one, and was hard to find after that! We mostly hung around the terrace and kid pool at the aft of the ship, and enjoyed the peace and quiet there. Hawaii was great - as always! We rented a car three days out of the five, as I used to live in the islands, and knew my way around. Would highly recommend the Molokini trip (Maui), where we went SNUBA diving, and that was awesome! Great staff and good fun, it was a memorable trip. We took the afternoon tour, which was MUCH less crowded than the morning tour - don't know if that is normal, but it was great for us, TONS of personal service, time and space! We loved the sea days, totally relaxed, and doing whatever you chose. The only downside to me was that the sea days, to and from Hawaii were very cool, gray and not enjoyable outdoors. This was a bummer. Coming from Alaska, we were really looking forward to a TON of great, warm and sunny days. Hawaii was sunny, Ensenada was sunny, and that was it. I didn't know it would be like that. I may have chosen a different cruise if I had known. My best advice: lay everything out on your bed that you WANT to take, when you are packing - try to get it down to the MINIMUM on which you think you can survive for the duration of your trip - then.... take HALF of what you've laid out and DOUBLE your money! I always take too much! You can (and will) buy things that you like, and you tend to wear your favorites, don't burden your trip with TONS of stuff! Have fun, enjoy, and take the line dancing class, I wish I had done that....

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
No real complaints. Food was great - I did wish for some more variety, and I would love to see a few more "kid friendly" foods, my kids (9,11 and 17) found the food to be "too fancy"!

Entertainment

5 out of 5
Very good, didn't take advantage of all that there was available, it wasn't possible! It is amazing that over 2400 people can be on the same ship, and there are no lines!!!!! Amazing!

Children's Programs

3 out of 5
I wish that they had more "outside" time. My kids didn't participate much because they wanted to be in the pools, outside and with us! I wish there were more opportunities for them to see the bridge, galley, tour backstage, time outside in a kids pool area, etc. My kids wanted to be OUTSIDE, and ALL the activities with the kids program were inside.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Very good, met a few grouches, folks who thought that they were better than the rest of us, but most were gracious, friendly and helpful!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Everything was incredible, clean, great service, excellent!

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Great! Service awesome, clean and functional balcony stateroom!

Ports of call

Ensenada, Mexico

3 out of 5
Not much to see here. We took the shuttle for $3 round trip. My advise is to just walk out to the main street, take a left (or right) and look around, no need to take the shuttle, in my opinion.

Honolulu, Oahu

5 out of 5
Hung out at the beach at Waikiki and it was great! Enjoyed an afternoon at the zoo, the kids loved that!

Lahaina, Maui

5 out of 5
Trip to Molokini for the snorkeling was awesome, we also went SNUBA diving, and we would highly recommend that! Great fun - even for the younger ones, my youngest is 9, and she LOVED it!

Hilo, Hawaii

5 out of 5
We rented a car and toured the crater, lava tube and downtown Hilo - it was nice, it is always too short in port.

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

5 out of 5
We rented a car here too, and went to Hapuna Beach - which was great, and I had pre registered my daughter for the dolphin swim at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, which was great! Don't eat there though, service was mediocre and food was worse at the Beach grill.

Nawiliwili, Kauai

5 out of 5
Rented a car and went to Poipu, could have stayed there for a week! Beautiful! My cousin lives there, so we met at the beach, swam, had take out from the grill,and it was great!

Pros: Loved just being "away" from our daily life

Cons: Weather - traveling to and from Hawaii was on the cold side, cloudy and cool.

Recommends Diamond Princess? Yes!

Was this review helpful? 7

2 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

Gwbigdog    2 years ago