LIVE from the Star Princess; RT SFO to Hawaii - Oct. 6th to 21st

Welcome aboard the Star Princess as we begin our 15 day round trip to Hawaii from San Francisco.

Our nonstop flight on Thursday from FLL reached SFO on time. This was our first experience using Virgin America and we were very satisfied with their seats and interactive tv. If you wanted food or drink you just ordered it “on line”. Our friends Dee and John were waiting for us and we were whisked back to their lovely home to spend the night. Of course we stopped at Trader Joe’s to buy some liquid refreshment to take aboard. This morning’s journey into the port was uneventful and even with the expected crowds for Fleet Week we still had no major delays on the Embarcadero. Perhaps 30 minutes or so, but that’s it.

EMBARKATION DAY SATURDAY 10/6.

Checking in was a breeze. There were about 30 stations open and we were in our cabin before noon. To those who have been wondering about the new limit on wine, all I can say is; “what limit?” Nobody looked to see what we had and I had 5 bottles. Checked bag arrived before muster which was about 3:30. Of course the Blue Angels had their show during Muster. We missed most of it, but did manage to see four planes scooting in and out and around each other. Lots of sailboats to be seen which will delay departure until about 6:00 PM (per Coast Guard.)

Pertinent on board info:

Captain : Todd McBain

Hotel Manager: Emilio Mazzi

Cruise Director: Martyn Moss

Staff Capt: Rikard Lorentzen

Customer Service: Jasper Wolthuis

Maitre d’ Rui Pereira

CC Host: Peter John

FCC: Pippa

Since we were on board so early, we decided to have lunch in the dining room. Open today was Portofino on deck 6. Our luggage was delivered early and we had everything in place before muster. We then went to say hi to the CC host Peter who we know quite well and to get he important stats. No folks, we are not in the top 3. Not even in the top 5. We are #7. I don’t know the figures, was the top three each have over 1000 days. The most traveled luncheon will be on Wednesday, Oct. 10th and the cutoff is 349. I understand that last cruise it was 401. There are 219 Elite, 537 Platinum and 1040 Gold. Platinum and Elite will be having their own cocktail party, while Gold will have their in the theater and be given a drink voucher. Aren’t you guys happy I got all this important stuff out of the way so quickly?

On the “menu” tonight other than the Welcome Aboard Show is My Week with Marilyn in Vista and The Iron Lady on MUTS. Eric Stone is in Crooners and since we do know him will stop by to say hello. Explorer’s has Orphea Quartet and Wheelhouse has Maxman Duo. I’m not familiar with either of these two groups.

It's now wine time and since the internet is working I'll just go and start attacking those 5 bottles. We lose an hour of sleep tonight. See you in the morning.

Thank you Pia, the wine thread is undoubtedly uncorking one or two at this very moment in celebration of your news.

Pia,

Thanks for taking the time for the "live" thread. So glad to hear about the wine! Enjoy:D

Yay! Pia!

So glad you made it to SF safely! And now it is wine o'clock...

Looking forward to reading your posts. Can you getting any dirty on all these rumours floating around? Especially the Internet.

I'll be peeking back frequently to see what is going on aboard the Star!:)

Welcome aboard the Star Princess as we begin our 15 day round trip to Hawaii from San Francisco.

　

Our nonstop flight on Thursday from FLL reached SFO on time. This was our first experience using Virgin America and we were very satisfied with their seats and interactive tv. If you wanted food or drink you just ordered it “on line”. Our friends Dee and John were waiting for us and we were whisked back to their lovely home to spend the night. Of course we stopped at Trader Joe’s to buy some liquid refreshment to take aboard. This morning’s journey into the port was uneventful and even with the expected crowds for Fleet Week we still had no major delays on the Embarcadero. Perhaps 30 minutes or so, but that’s it.

　

EMBARKATION DAY SATURDAY 10/6.

Checking in was a breeze. There were about 30 stations open and we were in our cabin before noon. To those who have been wondering about the new limit on wine, all I can say is; “what limit?” Nobody looked to see what we had and I had 5 bottles. Checked bag arrived before muster which was about 3:30. Of course the Blue Angels had their show during Muster. We missed most of it, but did manage to see four planes scooting in and out and around each other. Lots of sailboats to be seen which will delay departure until about 6:00 PM (per Coast Guard.)

Pertinent on board info:

Captain : Todd McBain

Hotel Manager: Emilio Mazzi

Cruise Director: Martyn Moss

Staff Capt: Rikard Lorentzen

Customer Service: Jasper Wolthuis

Maitre d’ Rui Pereira

CC Host: Peter John

FCC: Pippa

Since we were on board so early, we decided to have lunch in the dining room. Open today was Portofino on deck 6. Our luggage was delivered early and we had everything in place before muster. We then went to say hi to the CC host Peter who we know quite well and to get he important stats. No folks, we are not in the top 3. Not even in the top 5. We are #7. I don’t know the figures, was the top three each have over 1000 days. The most traveled luncheon will be on Wednesday, Oct. 10th and the cutoff is 349. I understand that last cruise it was 401. There are 219 Elite, 537 Platinum and 1040 Gold. Platinum and Elite will be having their own cocktail party, while Gold will have their in the theater and be given a drink voucher. Aren’t you guys happy I got all this important stuff out of the way so quickly?

On the “menu” tonight other than the Welcome Aboard Show is My Week with Marilyn in Vista and The Iron Lady on MUTS. Eric Stone is in Crooners and since we do know him will stop by to say hello. Explorer’s has Orphea Quartet and Wheelhouse has Maxman Duo. I’m not familiar with either of these two groups.

It's now wine time and since the internet is working I'll just go and start attacking those 5 bottles. We lose an hour of sleep tonight. See you in the morning.

Pia Thanks for the live from. My DW and I will be aboard in 29 days. We haven't heard anything about staggered boarding yet, did you have it. We were wondering why the Ship is still there, now we know why. Looking on the Marin web-cam, there are a lot of sailboats out there. Have a great cruise, will be looking forward to your updates. I'm sure it will be as good as your Scandinavian cruise.

Bon Voyage PIA..

Hawaii Cruise with Star Princess

15 Days from/to San Francisco,

Itinerary

Sat 06/10/12 San Francisco / USA 16:00

Sun 07/10/12 At Sea

Mon 08/10/12 At Sea

Tue 09/10/12 At Sea

Wed 10/10/12 At Sea

Thu 11/10/12 Hilo (Hawaii) / USA 08:00 17:00

Fri 12/10/12 Honolulu (Oahu, Hawaii) / USA 07:00 23:00

Sat 13/10/12 Nawiliwili (Kauai, Hawaii) / USA 08:00 17:00

Sun 14/10/12 Lahaina (Maui, Hawaii) / USA 07:00 18:00

Mon 15/10/12 At Sea

Tue 16/10/12 At Sea

Wed 17/10/12 At Sea

Thu 18/10/12 At Sea

Fri 19/10/12 Ensenada / Mexico 16:00 20:00

Sat 20/10/12 At Sea

Sun 21/10/12 San Francisco / USA 07:00

Thanks Pia for all of the info. Have a great cruise and since we board when you get off we will follow your "Live" with great interest.:)

Can't wait to read more. We were on the Star for Mexico right before yours and had a blast. We would have loved to stay on for a b2b to HI. I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through you. :)

Thanks Pia for all of the great info. As we board when you are getting off, we will follow your "Live" with great interest. Have a great cruise!

Bon Voyage and thanks for the good report about the wine!:)

I'm so glad to have some reading material for the next two weeks!

I am wondering if the wine issue will play into effect in 75 days (possibly sailings after Jan 1). The poster indicated she received the information before final payment. The new contract was included with it. So we may not know more until January 1st.

I will be curious if Pia can find out anything more about this from anyone onboard.

I left the Star 1o days ago. I must admit I was green with envy today with all of you getting to see the America's Cup and Blue Angels. Bummer about the muster during the Blue Angels show. It was delayed a bit due to a plane issue with one of the solo planes.

Pia, can you go by Crooners and say hello to Clint, one of the waiters, from Myra and Rose. Clint is a family friend and will soon be finishing his contract on the Star. Hopefully he will make the cut for the Royal staff.

Have a wonderful cruise. We did the Hawaii cruise on the Star earlier this year and it was fantastic.

G'day Pia and Mike.... I am following your antics too! :D

Welcome aboard the Star Princess as we begin our 15 day round trip to Hawaii from San Francisco.

　

Our nonstop flight on Thursday from FLL reached SFO on time. This was our first experience using Virgin America and we were very satisfied with their seats and interactive tv. If you wanted food or drink you just ordered it “on line”. Our friends Dee and John were waiting for us and we were whisked back to their lovely home to spend the night. Of course we stopped at Trader Joe’s to buy some liquid refreshment to take aboard. This morning’s journey into the port was uneventful and even with the expected crowds for Fleet Week we still had no major delays on the Embarcadero. Perhaps 30 minutes or so, but that’s it.

　

EMBARKATION DAY SATURDAY 10/6.

Checking in was a breeze. There were about 30 stations open and we were in our cabin before noon. To those who have been wondering about the new limit on wine, all I can say is; “what limit?” Nobody looked to see what we had and I had 5 bottles. Checked bag arrived before muster which was about 3:30. Of course the Blue Angels had their show during Muster. We missed most of it, but did manage to see four planes scooting in and out and around each other. Lots of sailboats to be seen which will delay departure until about 6:00 PM (per Coast Guard.)

Pertinent on board info:

Captain : Todd McBain

Hotel Manager: Emilio Mazzi

Cruise Director: Martyn Moss

Staff Capt: Rikard Lorentzen

Customer Service: Jasper Wolthuis

Maitre d’ Rui Pereira

CC Host: Peter John

FCC: Pippa

Since we were on board so early, we decided to have lunch in the dining room. Open today was Portofino on deck 6. Our luggage was delivered early and we had everything in place before muster. We then went to say hi to the CC host Peter who we know quite well and to get he important stats. No folks, we are not in the top 3. Not even in the top 5. We are #7. I don’t know the figures, was the top three each have over 1000 days. The most traveled luncheon will be on Wednesday, Oct. 10th and the cutoff is 349. I understand that last cruise it was 401. There are 219 Elite, 537 Platinum and 1040 Gold. Platinum and Elite will be having their own cocktail party, while Gold will have their in the theater and be given a drink voucher. Aren’t you guys happy I got all this important stuff out of the way so quickly?

On the “menu” tonight other than the Welcome Aboard Show is My Week with Marilyn in Vista and The Iron Lady on MUTS. Eric Stone is in Crooners and since we do know him will stop by to say hello. Explorer’s has Orphea Quartet and Wheelhouse has Maxman Duo. I’m not familiar with either of these two groups.

It's now wine time and since the internet is working I'll just go and start attacking those 5 bottles. We lose an hour of sleep tonight. See you in the morning.

Pia I noticed that your having a nice tour of SF bay.

I think we were all waiting for this! It will be interesting to read your live from and Vickie's blog at the same time, for the same cruise...

Love Hawaii and miss it. I am now feverishly trying to figure out how to get back on the Golden or the Sapphire...

Things seem to be improving, slowly but surely, and to celebrate, what better way to do it than on a Princess ship! This would be our fifth cruise to Hawaii, and we never get tired of it!

Have a wonderful cruise!

I thought I had missed the sail out on the cam....They took the the long way around Alcatraz:D

Bon voyage, Pia!

And why are you losing an hour's sleep when you're heading west? Have they moved Hawaii into the Mountain Time zone?

Yay! Another "Live from Hawaii" thread. We leave on our first Hawaii cruise in a little over 2 weeks......I can't get enough! I will be looking forward to each installment. We have done many many many land based vacations to Hawaii, so I am looking forward to hearing about the activities on all of the sea days. Have a great cruise.

I thought I had missed the sail out on the cam....They took the the long way around Alcatraz:D

 

 

 

 

I looked at webmarin.com too and saw nothing, thought I missed her like you. Have never seen any ship go around Alcatraz like that. Except Sea Princess doing donuts in the bay after her drydock.

I am going to follow along, we were on the BVE today! What a beautiful ship! When we got off , I have never seen so many people and the streets were jamed packed today. Have a great time. The food in the dining room was excellent!

It is unusual to go around the other side of Alcatraz. We did it on our first cruise out of San Francisco, but on all the others we have sailed past on the city side of it. Have a wonderful cruise. We will be on the next sailing to Hawaii on the 21st.

Looking forward to your posts Pia. Have a wonderful cruise!

Pia, I was wondering if I would see you at check-in. I was working at the pier today. Too bad they held muster during the Blue Angels.

As far as the delayed and strange sailaway, America's Cup racing was taking place in the normal path until close to 6:00. I don't think they wanted another obstacle in the racecourse. What a gorgeous day in the city today.

HI Pia,

We missed you at our special M&G. Judy's house had a great view of the harbor and the sailaway of the Sapphire Princess today..

Will send you an email with all the info.

Was a wonderful day.

Will be reading away as you sail on. My morning coffee with Pia will have to be at noon, since now you will be behind us in time.

Your Pal G:D