Photo Review Grand Princess Thanksgiving Grand Adventure Hawaii 2016

This was our 4th Hawaiian Cruise on Princess. The first 2 were on the Star and the Last 2 were on the Grand. Both Grand cruises had mechanical problems and for those stories you can search the forums for the details. We had a great time on all the Hawaiian cruises we've taken.

We live in a small farming town 2 hours from San Francisco so we drove to the port in the morning and dropped our luggage off around 8:30 am. We then parked the car at the garage on 55 Francisco ST and walked around the Pier 39 area before we embarked on our cruise.

Carousel on Pier 39

Christmas Tree Pier 39

Empty docks where the sea lions lay.

Checked in and waiting to board.

We were in our room by 11:30 and all of our luggage was waiting for us.

Bay Bridge

Sail away Champagne

Port of San Francisco from deck 15.

3 out of 4 of our Hawaiian cruise have left late.

Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge.

First sea day sunrise.

The weather was a little unsettled for most of this trip. It wasn't rough seas just a little bumpy and cloudy most of the way there.

Thanks for posting your review/photos. :)

Thank you for sharing!

Interesting that 3 out of 4 of your Hawaiian cruises have been delayed. Our 1 has been delayed as well.

I'd say it's been my favorite cruise to date!

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Atrium on the Grand.

Wine tasting at Vines. Arnie really knows his wine, don't miss the tasting experience he puts on.

Flying Fish. I took these pictures with a 70-200 on my Canon7D MII from deck 8. We really enjoy watching out for these fish while cruising to Hawaii.

Flying squid. Yes squid really fly. Sorry a little blurry.

Arriving in Hilo.

We went scuba diving but with the recent storms the visibility was little less then normal.

Can you see the turtle?

After dive lunch at Ocean Sushi in Hilo.

Shave Ice

Our score from the Farmer's Market.

Chef's Table. Always start with the champagne.

Lobster and crab margarita with avocado mango and lime.

Quenelle of beef tartar on tortilla cone.

Mini quiche fontina cheese with black truffle and sun dried tomatoes.

Shrimp and scallop cake with balsamic sauce.

Warm potato timbale with caviar and sour cream.

Great photos. The sushi. YUM!!!! The flying fish are much bigger than I thought. Thanks so much for taking the time to post.

Cheers, Denise

What fun More please

Thanks

Thanks for the review.

Very nice photos!

The last post wrapped up the hors d' oeuvres. This was our 8th Chef Table and 2nd time with Joel Directo.

Seafood risotto

Amalfi lemon sorbet, with pineapple slaw and lots of Grey Goose.

Flambe!

Surf and Turf

The Chef's Table never seems to end. You stop eating not when your full but when your too tired to go on. Baked camembert with pine nuts escorted by a port wine reduction, walnut and fig bread.

Bittersweet chocolate mousse with caramel cream and milk chocolate crunch. Lord help me!!!

So after we eat all of this they bring out the petits fours which they happly sent to our cabins for us to enjoy later much later,

Now onto Honolulu. We had a Photography tour with Blue Hawaii Photo tours booked later in the day, so we went walking around Chinatown. First stop is for the gourmet Musubi from Madam Chef.

Aloha Tower.

Fort ST. markets.

Look at those Avocado's!!!!

Fish Market.

One of our favorite places to buy leis is Cindy's Lei & Flower shop. You have to have your fresh lei for formal night Photos.

First stop on the Photo tour was a stream waterfall.

More water pics.

Sadly I don't remember where most of these locations were but if you book a photo tour I'm sure they know where these places are.

We were dodging rain and wind most of the time on this tour but still managed to get decent pictures.

Last stop for our sunset picture. The clouds were photo bombing the sun on this one.

When the photo tour was over we had our guide drop us off at the Ala Moana Mall. We found this great place to eat there called the Shirokiya Japan Village Walk. This is where we had our ramen bowls.

Due to the rough weather our Napali Coast tour was cancelled, so we were able to join some fellow CC'ers on their photo tour with Kauai Photo tours. I didn't have the greatest time on this tour but I was starting to feel under the weather so maybe it was just me.

Our tour guide Levi cracking us young coconuts.

Plate lunch.

Leaving Kauai.

Sunrise at Maui taken from the ship.

Tenders.

Panoramic

It rained most of the time we were in Maui but we still had fun.

On our way to Ensenada one of the tender doors came open while at sea so we had to return to honolulu for repairs and Princess flown everybody home, that was the bad news. The good news was that we got to spend a day and a half in Honolulu before our flight. So I booked a different photo tour with Oahu Photo Tours for a circle island tour. Here is a picture of the tender door sticking down in the water.

There was always somebody on the bridge watching the tender door.

All through the night they watched.

Various pictures around the ship while headed back to Honolulu.

Thank you for sharing your amazing photos.

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Back in Honolulu.

You can see the opening in the ship where the tender door is supposed to be.

Starting to work on it.

This is the rig they used to pull the door back up.

First stop on our Circle island tour was for the sunrise.

Nice photo tour! I feel like I went back to Kauai. Thanks!

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More photo tour fun.

Potty humor

Lunch off the shrimp truck.

The Byodo-In Temple

Temple Koi

Still at the Temple.

Even more Koi.

Chinamans Hat Island

Bayan tree off of the Lost trail

Our last stop was Pipeline to check out the surfers. This was my favorite spot.

Yes I did get slapped by my wife for taking this one. I told her I needed the bikini girl in there for scale. It was so worth it.