Lot's of unfortunate things happened on this cruise. It started with a call from the Captain for an Ophthalmologist or eye doctor to advise the onboard doctor to help with a guest eye injury. Every day seemed to have a new call for Medical Team to report somewhere. Right as we were getting into Hilo, they were paging a man who later they learned went overboard. We were already four hours away when they found out so did not go back to look for him. The Maui and especially Lahaina tragedy understandably made the mood somber. So sad for all they lost.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Arrived at San Pedro port about 11 am. It was real busy with lots of people being dropped off. Hard to find a Porter so I just stood there with some cash raised above my head and the Porter came to me. He said, "That's how you get attention!" Was our first sailing with Princess' new embarkation process with different colored lines. We were Green, meaning we had everything filled out online and had our medallions. I assume most people would be in Green line so I was worried that would be the longest line. I never saw the other lines but ours was no waiting. Walked on the ship within 15 minutes including going through Xray. We went to the Di Vinci dining room for lunch rather than the buffet. It was pretty busy and slow service. Next time, I'll do buffet/lido food.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
MDR menu was pretty good and sometimes excellent. Had lobster two nights. They were small of course (about 5 bites) but good. Many nights there were three or more dishes that I wanted and had a hard time deciding. Deserts were excellent everywhere. The lido soft serve ice cream was great, McDonald's quality. The buffet was just so so. Not bad but not as good as other recent Princess cruises. It had some lunch ethnic themes if you went to the way back area but nothing special going on for dinner. It still had some good dishes for dinner but was lackluster. I think the Princess ship chefs are allowed to create their own menus for the buffet because they are quite different. The Lido Pizza and the Grill never had any wait time. The pizza is always great. I asked the pizza Manager if they would have their White Pizza special of the day on the cruise and he said gruffly, "If we do it would be on the Honolulu port day." I take that to mean he does not want to make it because everyone wants it, i.e. more work for them, however he would consider making it when no one is onboard like on Honolulu day. That was a bad attitude. Maybe Princess allows the cooks too much liberty.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Good seminar speakers. Lots of activities that we mostly did not participate in because we are lazy.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Ship's singers and dancers were good. The orchestra musicians were amazing. Guest performers were decent but not much to remember. I think with cruising going full swing, it is hard to get the best performers.
Children's Programs
Was told there were 600 kids on board. Never saw so many on a Princess cruise. Heard complaints from grumpy people. One guy complained, "I saw kids in the pool, I thought they had to stay in the kid's club." Overall the kids were well behaved. When I saw otherwise on a couple occasions, (like a kid doing a cannonball into the pool next to an elderly lady or a kid climbing over theater seats) the parents were standing there and didn't care, so I blame that on the parents.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Definitely the best set of waiters I have ever had on a ship. We had different waiters every night. Typically, you always have some great ones and some that are just average but this cruise, all were really good and obviously very experienced. Only slow service was during lunch. Dinners were always less than an hour... Room Steward was very personable and proficient. My wife saw and heard (through the door peephole) our neighbor berating our Steward. He was being loud and cruel. I don't know what happened but pretty sure it was the guest who was the problem. Previously I had greeted the neighbor in the hall and he shrugged me off so I had already assumed he was a jerk. Please be nice to the crew!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
I love the "Crown" class of ship. It never seemed crowded. I thought it was sailing with a reduced capacity but asked at Guest Services and he said we were full. Always plenty of deck chairs, probably three times as many as were needed. Unless you went into the buffet at prime time like 12 pm, it wasn't crowded. Easy to get around with lots of neat places to hang out. It was clean as usual, however beware that black soot falls on the back pool decks. If you are there for very long it will hit you and your cloths may get ruined.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Good size room with tons of storage. Could easily hold four people's items so with just two of us we had lots of space. Shower small but have had worse (Island Princess).
Took the free shuttle from the cruise port to Farmer's Market. We wanted a fresh pineapple and bought one for $6 and had it cut up. There were other vendors selling them for $18. Some good prices on souvenir items. Had lunch at Ken's House of Pancakes and I ate the Sumo sized Moco Loco. Hung out at Liliuokalani gardens then walked back to the ship.
Rented a Turo that was pretty close to port and drove to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We had the Super Ambassador tickets. Wow that was a great experience. Stayed until almost the very end of the "Ha" program just leaving before the crowd. Drove back and returned the vehicle and walked 15 minutes to the ship. Got there before 10:30 pm.
Due to the storm, we got into San Pedro a day early so they made us all debark and go through customs. They have facial recognition so you just walked through but the whole process took about 90 minutes then you walked back on the ship. A huge waste of time to make us go through that a day early.
Great review! Sounds like you didn’t get hung up on any issues on the ship and had a wonderful time. Glad you were able to make the most of the changed itinerary too.
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