Paula_MacFan

We disembarked the ship on Saturday, but we did enjoy the whole trip and had a great time. The service was fine and there was plenty of staff. We disembarked in Maui on Sunday around 8am.

We haven't seen any shuttles. We rented a car on Maui and shared a cab to the airport with another couple. Very easy & about $13 total fare. There's a taxi line with an attendant right on the pier who manages the process. In general while planning our cruise I found the specific rental agencies' websites said if they had transportation available at the pier in each port. I'd advise you to look there. Our rental pickup on Maui was very easy. Yesterday & today we are on Kauai and we haven't seen many taxis. It's my understanding there are very few in general here on this island. The only shuttle we've seen here takes you up the road to the shopping center, which is very close & walkable.

We are on board POA right now. I can try to answer any questions. We're not in the Haven so no help there.

I haven't read the whole thread but we are on POA now and appreciate the sandwich bar at the buffet. We've taken lunch off with us for picnic lunches at national parks where no food is available and we have a rental car. I'm fully aware you can't do this at most foreign ports but since we're in the US there's no restrictions.

I think you misunderstood my post. We were on the 3 day pre-cruise land tour, not the post-cruise airport transfer. Hence luggage was not an issue nor were hotels involved other than our cruisetour. We had plenty of time to see everything, essentially spending the whole day at Pearl Harbor.

Not for the USS Arizona tickets. We are on the NCL cruisetour right now and went to Pearl Harbor yesterday. NCL provides entrance ticket to general admission areas but they can't get USS Arizona tickets. It's explained in their excursion page. Also see the National Park Service page with all the info on getting your own tickets. We did that for our tour yesterday in advance. Very easy.

Are you clicking here on 'Travel Summary'? When I open/save my Travel Summary it's a 7-page PDF, and I haven't even booked any excursions yet. That's just the normal boiler-plate stuff I've had on every other Travel Summary. Not sure what you mean about 'very short'.

I always refer to the Travel Summary. Sometimes even when the OBC doesn't show up under the Payment section it will be listed on the Travel Summary. That's also the best way to see everything in one place -- all your promotions, prepaids, OBC, excursions, etc. Plus it's easy to print or save in PDF format.

Not true. We have an upcoming cruise from Southampton and here's a screenshot from our Personalizer options under the Travel tab. We're not using a Princess hotel.

Here's the Daily from 12/25/22 -- see page 4 for dress code. Dec 24-31 Freestyle Daily - Day 2.pdf

We've been to Progreso twice, once on Princess and once on RC, and both were 'one off' itineraries, i.e. not part of a regular, on-going schedule. Both times the excursions were listed later than normal since the port wasn't typically visited by either line regularly. The first time we took a tour to Celestun Biosphere to see the flamingos in their wild nesting areas. The second time we specifically chose the cruise to get to Chichen Itza. That was a long day but totally worth it (to us anyway). The pier is the longest in the world and they have shuttles just to get you from the ship to land. There wasn't much to do at the end of the pier when we were there anyway, you pretty much had to book some sort of tour to do anything. There weren't any beach/bar facilities like you'd find in Cozumel/etc. Maybe things have changed and there are more options now. Hopefully Princess will get some excursion options for you soon. In the meantime I'd probably search out independent vendor options just to see what's available.

Yes

That's the way all our EZ Air flights show up and always have. Never had any problems checking in or boarding.

Glad you had a good time. We leave in 3 weeks. I've read many positive reviews lately elsewhere. Thanks for the report!

We are long-time Princess cruisers but for Hawaii in January 2023 we are doing NCL's Pride of America. We're flying to HNL, doing 4 days pre-cruise on Oahu, then the 7-day POA 4-island itinerary. Every day of the 7 days is in port so there's no sea days (2 ports are overnight stops). While we love Princess, the thought of taking 2+ weeks off work for only 4 days in port just didn't appeal to us. Best of luck with whatever option you chose 🙂

I just called my Princess cruise planner to see about re-faring under the new promotion and the rates were all messed up. Long story short what we had was cheaper than what was showing on the Princess website because even though I selected 'Princess Plus' in the pricing section it wasn't adjusting for it. He made it sound like they are getting lots of calls about this and lots of people are confused/annoyed. I thanked him for his time anyway. Not his fault their system has problems.

Google search result: https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/NCL-AK-Cruisetour-Brochure-May2022-273026.pdf#node-89790 There's a section on meals as well. 31 page PDF with daily schedules and other information from NCL website.

According to some online trip reports the VOG was too heavy and also high winds made it risky to tender.

Recent trip reports from last week say Moderno and LaCucina were open but not for advance reservations.

Log into your account, click the green button 'Add or Modify Flights', then click 'Change Flights' and go through the search process. Nothing will change or cancel your existing flights until you select new ones and get all the way to the end of the process. There will be a red button to acknowledge you are canceling the old ones and rebooking the new one. It's very easy! I do it every single day to check my own existing reservations and have changed several times to get better fares. 🙂

We were able to easily get USS Arizona tickets a few days ago on Reservation.gov. Per the site: Reservations are released daily at 3 p.m. HST in two windows: 24-hours and 8-weeks in advance. So for example on January 1, tickets were released for January 2 and February 26. Tickets are $1. We are leaving in 6 weeks and everyone on our roll call was able to easily get the USS Arizona tickets. There are many reports of people getting on the stand-by line the day of and getting tickets as well. As far as the NCL Hawaii land tour, here is the brochure with all the details including schedule. Hawaiiupdated111014.pdf

https://www.princess.com/html/global/disclaimers/crew-appreciation/ All those prices are on the Princess website.

Depends on what ports you're going to. Are you taking this cruise to actually visit the ports or is the cruise ship the attraction? I personally would never leave tours to chance if I was actually taking the cruise to visit specific ports. Typically port time is limited so why waste time wandering around looking for something to do, when a small amount of basic research in advance could result in a memorable day. As others have stated, trying to find a tour at the last minute for 8 people could be a challenge, and you'll be left with less choices for vendors vs those who booked in advance. If you're just going to some tropical islands and you want to sit on a beach, you can probably find something last minute. Even then I'd do some basic research in advance. But hey, it's your vacation and your money. Do whatever makes you happy.

Have you checked the rental agencies' websites for the shuttle info? We're not renting in Hilo but we are renting in other ports, and port pickup information (or the lack thereof) was listed on their respective websites.

We're going to Hawaii in January and many excursions have been sold out for months. We booked everything early and I'm glad we did.