An OCD review of Golden/Hawaii-Pictures!!

[STEVENJAN]

Thank you! That is so sweet! I had thought about tailoring it down a bit, but then I remembered how I wanted to know any and everything I could about the cruise before I left and figured that people could skip over what they were not interested in. At least some people would be like me and want to know EVERYTHING!

 

And about the movies and such, I swiped the little TV guide from the room (it is just a printed little phamplet, no date, it just says 14 nights Hawaiian cruise), so if anybody is interested in what plays on TV, I can tell you!

 

You need to take a quick cruise on the Sea Princess so we know what to expect :)

[hermajestylanie]

You need to take a quick cruise on the Sea Princess so we know what to expect :)

 

 

Haha! Too funny. :D

[hermajestylanie]

3/27/11

The time change made us both groggy. We woke up around 830 ish and lay in bed for a bit because we couldn’t get moving today. We got ready quickly and I ran up to get some breakfast while husband continued to stay in bed. I brought my plate back down to the room and husband freaked and thought I was the room steward coming in! I think he was about half asleep when he heard the door open. We were dragging so badly that we were almost late for trivia, but thankfully our team was waiting for us with saved seats. We only got 10/20, but the high score was only 15/20 so we didn’t feel so bad.

From here we went to grab our library trivia and chatted with the couple from the marriage game show. They are too funny! We really enjoy them. I saw some good desserts in the International Cafe, so I grabbed a swiss chocolate roll:

and husband had tiramisu because people had said it was good. Mine tasted like those swiss roll cakes they sell in the boxes, only more chocolaty and decadent.

 

Husband grabbed a couple freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookies. They looked a bit over done to me…

From here we went to MUTS to watch Lilo & Stitch and to jump in the hot tub! Husband grabbed a couple pepperoni pizza slices and I went to the buffet. The special buffet today was Lebanese food out on the covered deck area. I skipped that and went for the main area where I got honey glazed chicken with pineapple, bbq chicken, salad, cole slaw, and tried the chicken corn chowder.

Their chowders are water based, so not the best. The cole slaw is wonderful! But overall I am not impressed with the buffet food. It is ok… But some of this stuff does not keep well under a heat lamp. I don’t like the buffet much.

We got in the hot tub in front of the MUTS screen and it was nice and hot- finally perfection! Toward the end of the movie it started sprinkling heavily and people freaked out, running away like a little water was going to melt them! We stayed in the hot tub to finish movie and then left for the piazza.

In the piazza they were doing “Peer Factor” and husband signed up for it (he loves the attention!) I would not do it. They put boxing gloves on a couple of the guys and then started like they were going to have them box. i knew this wouldn't happed due to liability issues, but the guy facing off against my husband was totally going to throw a punch. Husband said they did not warn the contestents that they were going to fake out the auidence.

 

 

 

They then explained the real game and. So, the contestents put on boxing gloves and then put on as many pairs of boxers as he could in a specific period of time. He only got 3 and a half, but his competition only got one, so he won.

His team was tied with the other team until the last event, dancing with the Princess dancers. The other team did a back flip and splits, so they won instead. But, husband got a t shirt and a silver medal for competing. It was pretty funny to watch- there was quite a crowd gathered. The newlywed from the other night was on the competition team and she kept falling down all over the place. I kept hearing a collective “ohhh” or gasp from the crowd as they were watching her. She did the splits and almost fell over and cracked her head. Eric, the assistant CD, was hosting and said to the crowd “Almost thought we had a lawsuit there folks.” Some people like to party hard on cruises I guess!

I ditched husband after this to go to the gym, it was about 2:10, and it was lovely and not crowded at all. As I walked by the Louts spa and adult pool to the gym, I noticed the adult pool hot tub was pretty packed. Husband went to play poker and lost $50, but then our friend took him to play the blackjack tournament and he won it- $500 and another t shirt. He is happy about that and may play again tomorrow. We went for trivia together and got 16/20, the winning team got 18. Maybe we are getting better! After trivia we went as a team to the British pub trivia next door and I didn’t know any of the answers! They were all British questions after all! We just mainly went to support our English friends. They were serving beef canapés during the game, which husband and the English people liked.

[hermajestylanie]

It was Italian Night and we went to dinner at 6:15PM; no wait at all for a 2 top.

 

I ordered the salad with bacon and pine nuts and vegetable minestrone.

 

 

My entrée was beef pot roast, Italian food is not my favorite. The pot roast was middle of the road, fatty but tender like it was slow cooked.

Husband got the special garlic pasta with tomato sauce

[hermajestylanie]

And he got the shrimp scampi and the veal for entree, but the waiter forgot the veal.

This was the first time a waiter forgot something, so we were not upset. Husband decided it was not a big deal and ended up not saying anything. When we were on Carnival, the waiters forgot our orders all the time! I special ordered some steamed zucchini for the next night since I was getting tired of the same blend of steamed vegetables that I get even night. So, the waiter said just to give my room number and tell whoever I have tomorrow that I have a special order. Fool proof, right?

 

For dessert we split the honey walnut ice cream and I got the love boat again. It is a handy chocolate standby.

The ice cream was an interesting flavor combination. Not the best, but it was not horrible either.

Husband got crepes with vanilla ice cream, custard, and apple stuffing. The meal was decent overall with quick service.

 

 

We went to wait in line at the Vista Lounge to see Alfred and Seymour, a comedy dance duo. The line outside the lounge at 7:40 went almost to the end of the picture area and the show was not due to start until 8:30. When the early show let out, the line finally started to move. People from the first show stayed behind in the lounge to see it again, after they had run to fill in the middle section of the lounge. So, a bunch of people stayed who had already seen the show so they could watch the exact same show they had just seen. This is a major flaw that Princess has. They don’t let their most popular performers use the larger Princess Theatre. Instead, they let the magician perform there while people are standing in the back of the Princess lounge trying to see a show. I don’t understand this. This is one thing I complained about on the survey that princess sent after the cruise. While in line we played a game I brought with us; trivia fact or crap. The people in front of and behind us were so entertained that they joined in, and it was pretty fun. It’s also fun because I win! The show was great- easily the best show that Princess offers. It was insanely packed, people stuffed like sardines. I feel a little bad for the staff that go around taking drink orders… there are a lot of people and it is really hard for them to get the drinks to the middle of the rows.

After the show we stopped by music trivia with David Moore; my gosh it was hard. I only knew like one. We went upstairs to change into swimsuits and headed out to MUTS to watch the movie in the hot tub. The movie for the night was The Next Three Days. It started at 10pm, and all the MUTS seats had been rained on. it was pretty cold out and the wind was blowing. No fun. Husband got in the hot tub, and I decided to forgo that experience and get a snack. I finally was able to procure some brie from the buffet, as every time I had seen them put it out, some woman would come along and put ALL of it on her plate! Was there a brie shortage somewhere I hadn’t heard about? The sugar free chocolate cake was pretty good and there was some fried veggies. After my snack I could not stay outside, it was too cold. So, I left and went back to the room to read for a bit. Tomorrow is the last formal night.

[jlcruiser]

Wow, where shall I start? It took me several days to read your review. We are going on the same cruise April 13, 2011. Less than 10 days. Your review was like a real time blog from the ship, and the pictures were just like being there.

I hope you don't mind, but I copied and pasted some of your food ideas into a word document. Now when we dine, we can choose our food items more intelligently.

A lot of times the wording of the menu doesn't come close to the actual item.

You and husband sound a lot like us. I love taking food pictures, we hiked up to Diamond Head, went snorkeling in Maui, lost the trivia contests, came in second in sodoku, and wife doesn't really like meat.

It is too bad the magician wasn't any good, because that is my hobby. The last time we went on this cruise to Hawaii, we had a good one. I think his name was Gitano?

Thanks for all you hard work, and if Princess is reading this thread, which I think they are, they should pay you for it.

Have great future sailings always,

George & Jeanie

[dr__dawggy]

Double Wow!!!!!!!!

 

We are sailing on the Golden to Alaska on 5/28. I have been searching for information about whether the ship shows its age or has been kept up to date, quality of food and a hundred other details. Your photo journal has answered virtually all of our questions, other than which excursions to take.....

 

I will add Cruise Critic Reviewer to my short list of "professions" where I intentionally seek out individuals who are OCD---Accountant and Tax Preparer, Airline Pilot, Surgeon, and,now Cruise Critic Reviewer.

 

Mil gracias!!!!!!

Edited April 4, 2011 by dr__dawggy

[hermajestylanie]

Wow, where shall I start? It took me several days to read your review. We are going on the same cruise April 13, 2011. Less than 10 days. Your review was like a real time blog from the ship, and the pictures were just like being there.

I hope you don't mind, but I copied and pasted some of your food ideas into a word document. Now when we dine, we can choose our food items more intelligently.

A lot of times the wording of the menu doesn't come close to the actual item.

You and husband sound a lot like us. I love taking food pictures, we hiked up to Diamond Head, went snorkeling in Maui, lost the trivia contests, came in second in sodoku, and wife doesn't really like meat.

It is too bad the magician wasn't any good, because that is my hobby. The last time we went on this cruise to Hawaii, we had a good one. I think his name was Gitano?

Thanks for all you hard work, and if Princess is reading this thread, which I think they are, they should pay you for it.

Have great future sailings always,

George & Jeanie

 

You are right! The menu is not necessarily a direct reflection of what gets brought to the table! I remember more than once saying to myself "Hmmm. Interesting" when the plates were brought out. Not that what I saw was bad; just completely not what I would have expected from the menu description. One of the most interesting things was seeing how small the fillet mignon and lamb from the Chef's dinner were (order two!).

 

Although the magician was not to my liking, they had plenty of other good shows. Maybe you could get up on stage and perform!

 

I hope you guys have a wonderful time on your cruise! And I love your avatar picture! Happy sailing...

[hermajestylanie]

Double Wow!!!!!!!!

 

We are sailing on the Golden to Alaska on 5/28. I have been searching for information about whether the ship shows its age or has been kept up to date, quality of food and a hundred other details. Your photo journal has answered virtually all of our questions, other than which excursions to take.....

 

I will add Cruise Critic Reviewer to my short list of "professions" where I intentionally seek out individuals who are OCD---Accountant and Tax Preparer, Airline Pilot, Surgeon, and,now Cruise Critic Reviewer.

 

Mil gracias!!!!!!

 

 

Funny! But you have to be a bit OCD to get thru graduate school... And it certainly translates to eveything else I do!

 

 

Glad to have offered some help. You might want to check out the Hawaii Ports section on CC for some recommendations on excursions- there is a lot of info on there, but it makes for a lot of reading! I made a giant spreadsheet of activities from those threads before I decided on what to do.

 

Hope you have a fantastic cruise!

[upwarduk]

I may have missed pictures of Honolulu, Hawaii and the other islands- do you have a link to them. All I see ( on my i-pod touch) is pictures of food.

 

I will be on Century in just under a year, so am interested in ideas for trips ashore.

Is there a must see ----I will then be 70, so no snokelling, just sightseeing!

[hermajestylanie]

I may have missed pictures of Honolulu, Hawaii and the other islands- do you have a link to them. All I see ( on my i-pod touch) is pictures of food.

 

I will be on Century in just under a year, so am interested in ideas for trips ashore.

Is there a must see ----I will then be 70, so no snokelling, just sightseeing!

 

 

Post #113 starts the pictures of Hilo, and progresses to the other islands, but there are pictures of food interspersed in there as well! We ate a lot!

From what I heard other people did who didn't like snorkeling/beach days:

I believe the most popular thing to do on Oahu is to visit Pearl Harbor- it is really interesting to see, but you have to get there really early to get a ticket. There are many options on Oahu- bus tours, visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center, luaus... We enjoyed hiking to Diamond Head- the views are stunning.

On Hilo I think the thing to do is Volcano National Park. All the ships have an option to buy a tour to do this I believe. We went thru a private company.

On Kauai most people say that a helicopter tour is not to be missed- the island is beautiful! This tour was more than we wanted to spend, and I believe it only lasts about 45 minutes or so. Another must do activity is to see the na Pali coast on this island. You go out on a boat to ss the sheer cliffs. I have read a lot on how beautiful it is. We were going to do a Na Pali snorkeling tour, but waters are rough in the winter and it is not very good for snorkeling during this time. Instead, we rented a car and drove to Waimea Canyon, which has breathtaking views.

Maui during this time is full of whales, so that is a neat experience to get out on a boat to see them. The town is also quaint and there are tour of that available. Many people will recommend the road to Hana- a drive where you can see beaches, waterfalls, scenery...

Hope that help, otherwise there is a lot of information if you go to the Hawaii Ports section on CC. Happy cruising!

[hermajestylanie]

Funny! But you have to be a bit OCD to get thru graduate school... And it certainly translates to eveything else I do!

 

 

Glad to have offered some help. You might want to check out the Hawaii Ports section on CC for some recommendations on excursions- there is a lot of info on there, but it makes for a lot of reading! I made a giant spreadsheet of activities from those threads before I decided on what to do.

 

Hope you have a fantastic cruise!

 

 

Whoops! I mean Alaska Port thread! The Hawaii ones were helpful to me (obviously) but there are the same discussionsons on the Alaska Port threads for excursions and such as well.

[wilfros]

Just wanted to get your attention!!

 

We were booked on the cruise just before you (LA-HAWAII-LA departing March2nd) and had to cancel as the couple we were to cruise with encountered their own fight against Cancer.

 

Thus we went on a week long cruise with Carnival to tide us over until next year when, again, we will try to go on this cruise.

 

You make it sound so great. This is the first complete review I have seen about this itinerary and have read it with great interest.

 

Thank you very much for getting our excitement up a whole year before we can actually go on the voyage.

 

Great Review.

[Princess Patches]

Thanks for all the work you put into your review. I felt like I was on the cruise with you! It was very fun to read. The best review I have read in ages!

[MTJSR]

Fantastic job on this review and photo diary. I too did a live from during my Hawaii trip. I thought I covered all the little nuances well, but you are making mine look amateur. You have allowed me to relive my trip from a year ago and I thank you for that. Princess should name you salesperson of the year, I think they will see a spike in bookings after you are done here.:D

[hermajestylanie]

Just wanted to get your attention!!

 

We were booked on the cruise just before you (LA-HAWAII-LA departing March2nd) and had to cancel as the couple we were to cruise with encountered their own fight against Cancer.

 

Thus we went on a week long cruise with Carnival to tide us over until next year when, again, we will try to go on this cruise.

 

You make it sound so great. This is the first complete review I have seen about this itinerary and have read it with great interest.

 

Thank you very much for getting our excitement up a whole year before we can actually go on the voyage.

 

Great Review.

 

So mean! :mad: Ha, just kidding, the title made me laugh! I am so sorry to hear about your fellow cruisers- I hope that everything is going well for them. The cruise was really great... I want to go back soooo bad! Hope your cruise was great. Happy future cruising!

[hermajestylanie]

Fantastic job on this review and photo diary. I too did a live from during my Hawaii trip. I thought I covered all the little nuances well, but you are making mine look amateur. You have allowed me to relive my trip from a year ago and I thank you for that. Princess should name you salesperson of the year, I think they will see a spike in bookings after you are done here.:D

 

 

Aw, thanks! Everybody includes their own details beased on what they do on the cruise, so no 2 reviews are alike; that's what make them all so fun to read!

 

I know I am addicted to this site and read tons fo reviews!

[hermajestylanie]

3/28/11- Sea Day

Woke up early today- we are trying not to let the time changes get the best of us. I went to the gym at 7:30AM and it was deserted, just the way I like it. Looking outside the weather looked mostly clear, with some sun and a little wind. As I went back to the room, I saw they had decorated my door as we had picked that day to celebrate my birthday kind of.

After the gym we went to get our library trivia and stop by the International Café. The chocolate fondant doughnut was not very sweet, but husband liked it. We went to the 75% off sale in the Bernini. Same old stuff, but there were some cute little pendent necklaces this time with whale tails and starfish. We didn’t buy anything though. We headed to trivia and there were a good number of people there. We won! Success! We got 18/20 and tied with another team, but we won the tie breaker and got our gold medals! Finally!

After trivia the girls planned to meet later for some drinks and we went upstairs to the pool deck. The special lunch thing today was the pastry event.

We saw them setting up the tables for the pastry extravaganza in the covered pool area near the buffet.

They certainly can make some pretty looking desserts!

Needless to say we stuffed ourselves silly.

[hermajestylanie]

I decided to go all out the last three days and pig out (to get my money’s worth!) and because I have been pretty good so far.

 

Completly drool worthy!

 

All bets are off now. There was marzipan covered cheesecake with little mice on top, coconut cake with spun sugar on top, chocolate cake (was like fudge and totally the best one there), yucky chocolate cake that I think was chocolate walnut? It was dry and gross. There was meringue cake which was fluffy and light, strawberry shortcake, coconut cream cake, a sacher torte, pineapple cake, and a table of sugar free mouse type cakes. Overall is was a sugar feast!

We ran back to the piazza to watch Alfred and Seymour do a little 15 minute show, which of course was good. The do draw quite a large crowd. We talked with them for a bit and apparently princess won’t give them the big theatre to perform the show in, they have to use the vista lounge. That’s silly- they over pack that venue while the magician can’t come close to filling the theatre. They said to be sure to write in to princess to let them know. They also said they will be in a movie coming out with Ice T, so that should help increase their status. They are really nice guys.

Since we had very much over indulged, I felt super sick. So, I had to eat some real food and had lunch. Husband just got a bunch of sugared drinks. They do a good job on the adobe chicken and I also had some alfredo zucchini, veggie salad, and a hazelnut torte (delicious).

During lunchtime there was a chipping contest into the pool that we watched and husband signed up for. It was pretty fun. They set up hula hoops in the pool and assigned different point values. This was an event for the Princess Olympics, but anyone could do it too.

[hermajestylanie]

We ran out of time to get in the hot tub, but went to see the live recording for the daily morning show.

It was fun to watch the CD and assistant CD. I answered a trivia question right and got pulled as the winner- but, I just got a silly little key chain.

After this we swung by the Wii archery (also Princess Olympics) and then met some people for some drinks at the promenade bar. I got a virgin dirty banana (chocolate cream, banana, ice, whipped cream) which was sooooo good! They also make a normal version with alcohol too. This is a must for those who are like me and addicted to chocolate! I also got a tropical martini and this one that tasted like and orange Julius.

 

The men played charades and won- they got medals and key chains (nicer than mine).

We saw Alfred and Seymour in the hall and they stood for pictures with us (while we used three cameras).

Husband saw us women folk taking pictures with them and he left his Charades game to come over and make sure they knew we were all “taken.” He was just being funny though. The guys said “Yikes, you a big boy, Ben Afleck, we might just run away from you!” husband is 6 feet 2 inches, while both of these guys must have been about 5 feet 4 inches, shorter than me. They make lots of jokes about their height!

I had been trying to go to tea time all cruise long, but husband hates it. I am not the biggest fan of tea, but I sure do like those scones. I found out from a friend that they also put scones and little tea treats up in the buffet during tea time. So, I figured I would just do this instead of making husband go to the tea time. So I ran up to the buffet to get my stuff. Along with the scones they have clotted cream, jams, and bananas in this thick caramel sauce. It was wonderful!

Then it was time for afternoon trivia. We got 13/20 and came in second; the winning team got 14.

 

They had some balloons set up in the Piazza area for some celebration tonight:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the hot tub for a bit while husband snacked on cheese. It was nice in the enclosed pool area.

[hermajestylanie]

We then got ready for dinner. After getting dressed up for formal night, we stopped by to take some pictures - we are still trying to win photos. But, we never did. We ended up buying a few though and it looks like a bunch of other people did as well. The last couple days the photo area was really crowded!

When we got to the Bernini MDR there were 4 or 5 duos in front of us at 6:58PM. The waiters then came out with candles for the baked Alaska parade. During this time they stopped seating and it lasted forever! Literally at least 80-100 people walked out of the dining room, having finished with their meal over the next 10 minutes and NO ONE was seated for 30 more minutes. Finally they started to seat people who had beepers, but made the line wait. I couldn’t understand why they did not give out beepers to us so we wouldn’t have to keep standing there. We were finally seated at 7:45PM. They certainly were unorganized tonight because of the parade. We sat at a 6 top, it was a sedate table. I also found out the waiter from yesterday apparently did not put in my special zucchini order. I kept trying to explain to my waiter if they did not have the zucchini to just give me normal steamed vegetables and that was totally fine with me, but he kept cutting me off and wouldn’t let me talk! I just wanted to say one little sentence to basically not worry about it and bring me whatever, but he had on his defensive hat and thought I was trying to complain I guess. I didn’t complain at all, I thought it was fine, but it took forever to get him to allow me to say that! I guess there must be a lot of people who do complain? I don’t know. I like to think that we are really easy at dinner…

So I ordered the cream of tomato soup (again, not cream based, but water). It was not my favorite. I also got the asparagus in hollandaise sauce with bacon. That was really good. They do a good job with their veggies. And they sure do a hollandaise sauce right!

Then I got the braised short ribs in red wine sauce. They were tender and pretty good, but a quarter of it was fat.

[hermajestylanie]

Husband got the peach smoothie soup with apricot,

the lobster with prawns,

and the pheasant.

He liked it all. He compared the soup consistency to baby food, but he likes baby food grossly enough. When they brought out the lobster, the waiter de-shelled it for him. The waiter clearly saw I had been taking pictures of the food, but didn’t let me take a picture of the lobster before he started digging into it. Then, he put the de- shelled lobster on husband’s pheasant plate and threw out the side dishes of rice and veggies from the lobster plate without asking husband if he wanted them. We couldn’t even stop him, he was so quick. Husband did want the rice, but it was too late. I was completely befuddled by the dinner service tonight. It was completely bizarre. Later I heard that because of the Alaska parade they were running behind and felt very pressured and rushed. Being that we had not had any problems like this before, I think I tend to believe that assessment.

I got the baked Alaska for dessert and it was delicious.

 

 

 

They called it something strange on the menu like the bomb diplomate, so I had to ask what it was. Well, I am stuffed and feel like I am about to pop open my dress from being so full. We are going to hear David Moore play and then go to the passenger joke night. The MUTS for tonight is Red. Well, the joke night was a bust. It had the capacity to be a really fun event, but only three people signed up and it was pretty painful! I couldn’t think of any on the spot or I would have gone up. After the jokes, we hung out with friends and then went to bed. There is another time change, so we were tired.

[dr__dawggy]

Funny! But you have to be a bit OCD to get thru graduate school... And it certainly translates to eveything else I do!

 

 

Glad to have offered some help. You might want to check out the Hawaii Ports section on CC for some recommendations on excursions- there is a lot of info on there, but it makes for a lot of reading! I made a giant spreadsheet of activities from those threads before I decided on what to do.

 

 

Hope you have a fantastic cruise!

 

I am a university prof who is retiring at the end of this semester. Two of my grad students are set to defend tomorrow. I hope they are obsessing right now as they prepare to be grilled by their theses committees....As chair of their committee there is only so much I can do to rescue them if they get into trouble....

 

:)

[Adventures ahead]

I'm glad that you're posting mostly pictures of food. That's leaves other things up to our imaginations and for a surprise. Anyway, I'm OCD about reading your thread! Never read anything like it.

 

I marvel at your memory. How often do you make notes?! I always plan to keep a journal but, alas, all that fresh air, food and fun, not to mention a full glass of wine... well, it doesn't happen.:(

 

However, I must say I do fear for husband's cholesterol! He may want to get blood work done when he gets home :D! Naw, that would take the fun out of it!

Edited April 4, 2011 by Adventures ahead

[hermajestylanie]

I am a university prof who is retiring at the end of this semester. Two of my grad students are set to defend tomorrow. I hope they are obsessing right now as they prepare to be grilled by their theses committees....As chair of their committee there is only so much I can do to rescue them if they get into trouble....

 

:)

 

 

Very stressful for them, and you too I am sure! But congrats on the soon to be retirement! Well deserved I am sure, and now you can cruise anytime you like!