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

Thank you for posting your review. I'm looking forward to more.

Thanks for the report.

Hi Ken, just checked out your Ruby March 10 cruise, Man, great photos. The photo of you eating Spam, reminds me of having a late dinner (10:30pm) up in the Horizon Court with our Hawaiian Ambassadors, Brian & Rowena. They had the Chef cook up his Spam, along with his two kinds of Poki and white rice he got in Hilo. Two nights they had Spam cooked up for their dinner and it was the Portuguese Sausage Spam flavor. Good stuff.

It is the last night before the cruise, so we plan to go somewhere we can get a bill for food, since that will not happen again for a while. We like the variety of food choices in the Bay. They are much more varied than what we have back home, and tonight will be Korean night.

We make the drive across the Richmond Bridge to a little place in El Cerrito called Gangnam Tofu. If you are looking for some good Korean food, this is the place.

Gangnam Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken

Tofu spicy soup

Seafood pancake

Our stomaches full, we make our last minute preparations for the trip to the ship in the morning.

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The date for the cruise has finally arrived. I was awake early, checking the web cams for the arrival of the Grand. The ship tracker gave the position as it made it's way under the Golden Gate Bridge and headed to Pier 27. The ships lights were are as it made the turn to back in to the pier.

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Mark, the Korean food looks wonderful. You sure the two of you ate all that? Love you photos and keep the review coming. Thanks Stan

Mark, the Korean food looks wonderful. You sure the two of you ate all that? Love you photos and keep the review coming. Thanks Stan

Stan,

We had to share with my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Grandson is just learning to use chop sticks, something Susan could never master. [emoji846]

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Since we were staying with our son in the North Bay Area, we caught the 11:20 ferry from Sausalito to the Ferry Terminal in San Fransisco. We were dragging our two 40 pound spinner suitcases, plus a carry-on bag. The only struggle, was to carry them up one deck on the ferry. In Sausalito, you board on the lower deck and disembark on the second deck.

Today was "Opening Day on the Bay" which marks the official start of the San Francisco boating season, so we were treated to front row seats to the parade of boats, as well as water views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz as the ferry made it's way to the Ferry Terminal.

Leaving Sausalito on the ferry

And we pass by the Grand, awaiting our arrival.

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Mark, still following along, love your review and pictures. Stan, glad you had the chance to check out my pictures from Hawaii. Some folks would never try spam, I don't have a problem with it at all. Love the different flavors.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

The Sausalito ferry is a short 30 minute ride to the Ferry Terminal in San Fransisco, so we arrive at 11:50.

From there, it is about a 3/4 mile walk up the Embarcadero to pier 27.

We were walking into a strong wind, but it was an easy, level walk that got us to the ship check-in by 12:20.

Check-in went very fast to get our cruise cards, but then we had to wait about 25 minutes for our group to be called to board the ship. By 1:00, we already have our lunch from the Horizon Court.

All in all, check-in was fast and smooth, but there appeared to be gaps in the line as they called groups to board. It could have been a little faster, but it wasn't that long of a wait, and the terminal did have wifi.

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We headed to check out our cabin and drop off our carry-on bag, and we're surprised to find our bags had already been delivered less than an hour after boarding the ship. This was probably the fastest we have ever got our bags.

Our cabin is a Caribe Deck (deck 10) balcony, just aft of the rear staircase and elevators. Caribe deck has the large, half covered and half uncovered balcony, so you do have areas of privacy on the balcony. The deck below (deck 9) is completely uncovered, and you could see everything on them when standing at the rail. The balconies above us were half the size of ours, and could look down on our uncovered part. Our balcony had two loungers with foot rests, and a table.

There must have been a sale on carpet and furnishings, because everything here looked eerily similar to our cabin on the Coral Princess we had three years ago.

Grand

Coral

There may be a few boring cabin shots and info in the next couple of posts now, but some of this may be helpful to new cruisers, so that is who it is intended for. Feel free to skip ahead. But before I get to that, we can play "one of these things doesn't belong" with the photo below. Can you spot it?

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Mark, I'll bite! NO people in the photo. That's looking forward in the Calypso Reef & Pool, toward the Coffee & Cone Bar.

Mark, I'll bite! NO people in the photo. That's looking forward in the Calypso Reef & Pool, toward the Coffee & Cone Bar.

Hint

Enlarge it, and look on the roof.

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Perhaps it was dropped by a birdie [emoji33]

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Maybe someone can't deal with missing all those par 2's.

It was there the entire cruise. I wonder if they had someone retrieve it before the Alaska cruise?

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So, maybe time for a couple more posts about the balcony cabin this afternoon. Aside from being almost a clone of our cabin on the Coral, the closet space, and the bath on the Grand was even smaller.

We probably overpacked a little, but we were going to be gone for two weeks and we planned to do laundry for our workout clothes a couple times during the trip. In addition to our workout clothes and smart casual clothes, we also had a tux, tux shirts, three formal gowns, and 10 pair of shoes packed in our two bags. I know, 10 pair of shoes!!! But two pair were flip flops, so maybe they really are not shoes. Then there were a pair for my tux, a pair for smart casual, and a pair of running shoes. DW had to have a pair for each of her gowns, running shoes and a pair for smart casual. The closet floor space was not large enough for 10 pair without stacking them.

There were about 20 hangers in the closet, so we had enough, but only because we packed all our formal clothes with their hangers. Still, all of our clothes fit there and on the shelves. We did see some couples that had four large suitcases, so unless they had suites with large closets, I don't know where they would find room for that much.

The room safe was large enough for a iPad, but it would not be large enough for a laptop. The bath sink area had three shelves that would hold everything we needed, and it appeared if you brought a night light, the wall plug would work without the light switch being on. I had a battery operated magnetic light that I brought and attached to the door this time.

The shower with the patented clingy curtain was typically cramped.

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Perhaps it was dropped by a birdie [emoji33]

 

 

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Good one! Lol

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There is, of course, a lack of plugs for all the things you need to plug in or charge. There are two by the desk, and they are so close together, a wide charger will overlap both.

There was an open slot in the outlet for the tv, and this was a convenient place to charge our iPhones, iPads and Fitbits using the belkin. Some we talked to this cruise had extension cords confiscated, but we have never had a problem with this adapter.

Our muster station was the Vista Lounge. Princess still requires you to get your life vest from the cabin and drag it to the muster station and put it on. Some other cruise lines abandoned the requirement to bring your life vest, because of people tripping over dragging straps. Perhaps it is time for Princess to follow that lead.

Embarkation day is when you typically receive a ton of paper in your cabin. Shore excursions for every port, upsell specials, and the first of the Patters will appear. Here are the beverage, and specialty dining costs that were in our cabin.

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We had taken a tour of the spa and fitness center. I know some like to plan for massages and other treatments, so here are some of the current costs from our cruise.

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After the 3:30 muster drill, it was time for a couple photos from the ship before heading to dinner.

Coit tower in the Telegraph Hill Section

Port sign

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We thought we may get a chance to see the ship sail out beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, since it was due to sail at 4:00. However, sailing was delayed until 6:00.

We had an early 5:30 seating in the Botticelli Dining Room. We had requested a table for 8, and found that Princess had given us a table for 6. Before our first two table mates got to our table, we heard them tell the waiter "We requested a table for two. We don't want to sit there." So the waiter pointed them in the direction of a line to wait to see if they could get a two top.

So now, the next couple comes in, and they say "We requested a table for two. We are not vey happy." What a way to start out. Maybe it was us. But they decided to stay there instead of going to the long line with people unhappy with their tables.

Tonight's menu had prime rib, so to choice for both of us was easy.

Done just right at medium rare, and very tasty. Here were the other choices for the evening.

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Im really enjoying your posts! Husband and I are going to Hawaii on the Grand in November so Im reading as much as I can about it. Looking forward to seeing the daily schedules so I know what the sea days are like. Thanks for doing this!

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Im really enjoying your posts! Husband and I are going to Hawaii on the Grand in November so Im reading as much as I can about it. Looking forward to seeing the daily schedules so I know what the sea days are like. Thanks for doing this!

 

 

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Thanks for following along. I hope you find something useful from the posts. It may take a while to get through all 15 days, since I am just finishing up day 1.

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So speaking of Daily Schedules, here is the Embarkation Day Schedule. It gives you the itinerary, nightly dress code, entertainment highlights, as well as the activities for today.

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The Patters always include special inserts, so since they are shopping related, this may be the only day I post the inserts, unless someone wants to see them.

These were included the first day.

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