The Grand Hawaiian Adventure. A trip report with Patters, Menus, Elvis, and ...

That's right, $200 p/p[emoji15]

How was the BBQ? Worth $100??:rolleyes:

How was the BBQ? Worth $100??:rolleyes:

The BBQ was okay, but definitely not worth $100. Fortunately, they did provide cheap champagne and beer, so I could continue the alcohol treatment of my leg.

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Mark, at Maui, is the Baby Beach and Lahaina both within walking distance from the pier?

Thanks in part to your excellent report, we have booked the Grand Hawaii cruise in December!

Pam

Mark, at Maui, is the Baby Beach and Lahaina both within walking distance from the pier?

Thanks in part to your excellent report, we have booked the Grand Hawaii cruise in December!

Pam

The tender dock is at Lahaina. When you get off the tender, the Pioneer Inn will be straight ahead. To the right of it is the banyan tree. To the left of the tender dock is the hauola stone.

To get to baby beach, you would go left and follow Front Street for about 6 blocks to get to the beach access road. When you get to Kenui Street, you will run out of sidewalk and need to walk along the road shoulder to the access road. You can see the points on the map below.

Enjoy

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Back on the ship in Hilo, we are ready for a good meal at anytime dining. Here is the menu for tonight.

I had the Kona Shrimp, Duck, and the Grand Mariner Soufflé.

We finished our evening with Showtime with Ric Steele as the ship sailed and we left Hawaii in our wake. Next port - Ensenada

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Tuesday, May 2

The seas are 4.9 feet this morning, the same as they were a couple of days last week. This is our first sea day after leaving Hilo and setting course to Ensenada. At 7:30 a.m. the ship tracker on the tv says we are at latitude 20°59.75'N and longitude 151°15.49'W. We are traveling at 19.0 kts., are 227.5 miles from Hilo, and we have 1,969.3 miles to go to Ensenada. The temperature would reach 75 degrees today at sea.

There are no shopping guides, other than the same old stuff for sale on the ship. The Patters list the activities for today.

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Last night, we lost one of the hours we gained on the way over, as we set our clocks ahead by one hour. Today is a relaxing pool day for us, plus a chance to get a little laundry done. It appears lots of people had the same idea about laundry, since all the laundromats were busy.

Lots of people are enjoying the sun around the Neptune pool.

We spent our time at the Calypso Pool to keep out of the sun. We just try to not bake and peel anymore. They were having a golf chipping into the Calypso Pool, so you had to watch for flying golf balls when you were swimming. We saw a mother scoop up and move her young kids who were in the line of fire.

Prego is a nice place for a quick piece of pizza at the pool.

The pizza here is not as good as the pizza at Alfredo's on deck 5, but it is a shorter walk when at the pool.

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This is the second formal night, and the menu says we will finally get some lobster tail.

DW had the crawfish appetizer. It looked a little too crunchy for my taste, plus, it had a claw missing.

I had the rum pineapple appetizer.

DW said no more food photos tonight, so you will just have to imagine the beef tenderloin and lobster tail meals. Yum.

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DW said no more food photos tonight, so you will just have to imagine the beef tenderloin and lobster tail meals. Yum.

 

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Just curious, how was the Louisiana Style Crab Cake? Any crab in it?

Just curious, how was the Louisiana Style Crab Cake? Any crab in it?

Yes, they did have crab in it. I am not usually a crab cake person, but is was not bad.

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The British Invasion Production show by the Princess Singers and Dancers was fantastic. It was standing room only in the theatre for those who arrived less than 15 minutes before show time.

We headed up to the Explorer's lounge after the show to watch, and cast our votes for the first auditions for the Voice of the Ocean. Of course, Elvis was trying to make his comeback with his audition tonight.

It is a Hawaiian cruise, Elvis made three movies in Hawaii with many Hawaiian themed songs. So what does he choose for his song? The Battle Hymn of the Republic. How do they even have that in the karaoke play list? Granted, he did a good rendition of it, but the competition was just too fierce tonight. There were some very talented singers among the passengers, so I guess Elvis has some work to do to mount a comeback tour.

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Wednesday, May 3

The seas are 4.9 feet this morning, the same as they were yesterday, but will drop to 2 feet by 9:30. This is our second sea day after leaving Hilo and setting course to Ensenada. At 6:30 a.m. the ship tracker on the tv says we are at latitude 23°22.44'N and longitude 143°48.21'W. we are traveling at 19.4 kts., are 665.2 miles from Hilo, and we have 1,531.9 miles to go to Ensenada. We have 2,049.4 miles to travel yet to San Francisco. The temperature is starting to drop and will make a high of 71 today.

Here are the Patters for today.

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Are you able to order two lobster & crab entrees per person? I don't think one will fill up DH.

Are you able to order two lobster & crab entrees per person? I don't think one will fill up DH.

You can order as many as you want. The waiter usually offers to get you another lobster after you finish the first one.

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What is a morning at sea, without checking out the sea condition.

Today, we had another relaxing morning at the pool. Princess had their Hawaiian Marketplace set up so people could get their shopping fix. It looks like they had plenty that needed their fix.

We both had hotdogs and fries from the Trident Grill while at the pool.

And, we listened to Xtasea playing poolside.

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We met up in the afternoon with a few of our CC roll call members for a second pub crawl/poker run. We extended it into a mini slot pull after the poker hand, and before you knew it, the afternoon was over. It was a lot of fun.

Tonight was surf and turf on the menu.

We returned once again to the anytime dining and had six new table mates tonight. We went to the comedy show with Scott Wyler, and it was SRO again. We saw him a couple of years ago on the Coral. He has been doing comedy on Princess ships for 16 years.

After the show, we rushed back to the Explorer's lounge for the Pub comedy show with the Princess singers and dancers, and then the second audition for the Voice of the Seas show. Tonight, they drew the eight finalists. Two of them were ones we voted for in the first and second rounds, but I don't know how a couple of them got any votes.

So now the finalists are set to receive some practice and pointers in preparation for the show in a few nights.

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Thursday, May 4

The seas are 4.9 feet this morning, the same as they were yesterday. This is our third sea day after leaving Hilo and setting course to Ensenada. At 7:50 a.m. the ship tracker on the tv says we are at latitude 25°55.30'N and longitude 135°40.74'W. We are traveling at 19.0 kts., are now 1,134.2 miles from Hilo, and we have 1,063.3 miles to go to Ensenada. We have 1,580.7 miles to travel yet to San Francisco. We are about as far from land as you can get. The temperature is starting to cool, and it will reach 66 today.

The sky was brilliant this morning. I especially liked the effect of the rays through the clouds.

Less than a half hour later, the clouds were gone and the sky was a bright blue.

The chairs on the Promenade deck are empty before 8:00 a.m.

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These are the Patters for May 4th, our 3rd sea day back from Hawaii. May the 4th be with you.[emoji849]

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You've reminded me of the packing issue with a Hawaiian cruise

There's the weather when you leave from Departure port, 3 (?) days of cooler weather going and coming back from Hawaii, and a cooler day coming back from Ensenada.

I find I need summer and winter clothes for a 15 day cruise to Hawaii

I'll be checking out your Patters more closely to properly plan my outfits.

Thank you

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You've reminded me of the packing issue with a Hawaiian cruise

There's the weather when you leave from Departure port, 3 (?) days of cooler weather going and coming back from Hawaii, and a cooler day coming back from Ensenada.

 

I find I need summer and winter clothes for a 15 day cruise to Hawaii

 

I'll be checking out your Patters more closely to properly plan my outfits.

 

Thank you

 

 

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When I get to the end of the report, I will post the captains log of the trip. It has the temperatures for the days during our cruise. But you are right, you need to plan for some cool days when you leave and get back. Some of the dining rooms can be cool also.

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When I get to the end of the report, I will post the captains log of the trip. It has the temperatures for the days during our cruise. But you are right, you need to plan for some cool days when you leave and get back. Some of the dining rooms can be cool also.

 

 

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Thanks for taking the time to post your experience! It's been great to follow!

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Thank you for this detailed review! We are doing this itinerary in April 2018, our first time to Hawaii.

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After a little time at the Calypso Pool this morning, we decided to get some pizza for lunch. If you like a good pizza, Alfredo's on deck 5 is the place to go. Sometimes, we would pick up a salad next door at the International Cafe and carry it in to eat while we waited for the pizza to be made.

Today, we would have the capricciosa.

We finished our late lunch, then headed up to the One5 lounge for the afternoon karaoke.

The Princess singers and dancers performed a Beatles Moments show in the Piazza before supper. The staircase and railing spots on decks 6 and 7 usually get crowded for these shows, as well as the lounge seating on deck 5.

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The menu for tonight has a good veal scalopinni.

We didn't try any of the alternate dining venues on this cruise, but here is a sample of what the Crown Grill had to offer.

Tonight's shows for us would be the magic show with Alex Ramon in the Vista Lounge and then on to see Cheaza perform her Whitney Houston tribute show in the Princess theatre.

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Friday, Cinco de mayo

The seas are 4.9 feet this morning, the same as they were yesterday. This is our fourth sea day after leaving Hilo and setting course to Ensenada. At 6:45 a.m. the ship tracker on the tv says we are at latitude 28°23.55'N and longitude 127°36.83'W. We are traveling at 18.8 kts., are now 1,588.6 miles from Hilo, and we have 609.4 miles to go to Ensenada. We have 1,126.9 miles to travel yet to San Francisco.

Today is the Day of the Dead celebration, and the Piazza is decorated with skull mask banners that have replaced the Hawaiian banners.

The sky is cloudy this morning, and the temperature will only get to 64 today. The seas will get progressively rougher through the day.

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