An OCD review of Golden/Hawaii-Pictures!!

[hermajestylanie]

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!

 

 

Thanks! I usually took some notes just before bed, but it was hard because I was so tired by that time. Sometimes I would quickly jot some things down while we went back to the room to change, and I have all the Patters with me as well! The hard part was going back thru the word document to put everything into coherent sentences because I used very short hand! I could not even imagine doing a live thread, that seems like it would take so much time away from the cruise.

[hermajestylanie]

3/29/11

We woke up early at 7am and I headed to the deserted gym for my last workout onboard. At this point I believed I had gained 10-12 lbs so far even with the work outs (but it was only about 7. However, there have been more pounds since then….). From the gym I started to see land as we approached Ensenada.

It was dreary looking outside, though it was still early. However, it was forecasted to be about 80. After I got back to the room we headed to the MDR for breakfast. We feel it takes up too much of our day to do breakfast in the MDR, and usually just stick to the MDR for dinner and the occasional lunch. But, I had read on CC that it was James Beard French toast day, but it wasn’t. They said they could make it for us, so we went in and ordered. But in the end they brought out normal French toast.

It was fine because I don’t eat it in the buffet because it is soggy, but it was really good freshly made. I also had cinnamon apples which were wonderful!

And the hazelnut pastry,chocolate chip muffin, and cheese apricot Danish were pretty good as well.

After breakfast I tried to get a new trivia sheet from the library, but they recycled a previous one. We hung out in the piazza for a while to chat with people and then headed to trivia where we got 13/20. After trivia we went to the room to pack a little bit (so sad!) and get ready for Ensenada. The cruise is almost over!

Trying not to think about it, we went to play ping pong with friends for awhile up in the covered pool area. The weather looked like it was improving and getting sunnier out. Best of all, we were invited to stay with some new friends in England if we can make it out that way!

[hermajestylanie]

Today’s special buffet was Mexican (fitting).

 

I thought this guy was pretty cool:

 

 

They had a burrito station with chicken or beef, and all the fixings. And they also had chips and delicious deep fried cheese stuffed jalapeño peppers- yum! I also swung by the buffet for some potato salad and a deep fried mozzarella sandwich. It was crusted with panko or something and was wonderful!

Split my plate with husband who was playing ping pong again and we stopped by the International café for some fresh baked peanut butter cookies.

One funny thing we saw near the International Café was a man dropped his pastry on the floor and a server bent to pick it up and throw it away for him. He got a little loud and said “What, you don’t think I can eat that?” She kept trying to explain that he could get a new one right from the café a couple feet away and that she would throw this one away, but he was pretty insistent that he wanted to eat that one! See, and people think that cruisers waste food!

[hermajestylanie]

We went up on deck to watch the ship approach the port-

I thought it was pretty. Many people have such negative reactions to the Mexican ports.

there are a bunch of sea lions that bark at our arrival and swim out to meet the ship.

There are a ton on land and in the water- reminds me of SF! We disembarked and head to the shuttle that takes you to the little downtown area.

Some local scenery- Giant gold colored heads!

It is $2 to town and $1 back, about a 5 minute drive in a comfortable shuttle. Town was only a few blocks of shops and some fairly nice looking restaurants that I didn’t’ expect to see. If you turn down the street one way it is much more deserted.

The other way there were more shops and there were children selling gum and people asking for hand outs. There were people on the street inviting you to spend money in their stores, but they were not pushy like in Cabo, but much more respectful and spoke English very well.

[hermajestylanie]

We bought 2 souvenir t shirts and a lovely stained glass butterfly from this fantastic shop where they make them on the premise. They were beautiful.

We finished walking down the street and saw some men trying to sell three week old puppies. These little guys had just barely opened their eyes and looked sick. It was awful. We did not end up going to the blowhole, as it was a 30 minute drive outside of town. To get there is only $15 pp for a narrated tour and includes the drive there and back with time for shopping at the market. There is a flea market there where you can bargain for souvenirs. Husband decided he didn’t want to go though, and most people stayed on the ship or walked around town for a few hours. It was nice, but we went back to the ship early. If I went back I would either go to the blowhole or do something like horseback riding or 4 wheeling.

 

 

Back on board we went to the trivia game and there were a surprising number of people there. We teamed up with 2 of our team and won again!!! We got 15/20 to tie, and then I got the last tie breaker right!

The sun was out so we wanted to take advantage of that and lay out. We changed into suits and tried to get out in the sun, but it had clouded over a bit and there was now a cool breeze. So we grabbed a cheeseburger to split as the pizza place had no power and turned us away. The hamburger was ok, not nearly as good as the ones in the MDR for lunch and we also grabbed a chocolate cookie, cake, and a scone. Yum.

We moved to the indoor area where it was warmer and I got in the hot tub. The pool was warm, and actually 7 feet deep.

And of course my favorite thing about Princess: all the water is freshwater. No saltwater. It makes it much more enjoyable. We had a nice relaxing time and I read by the pool for awhile while husband played ping pong with friends. He finally won a game (which I think is still debatable…) and they started playing doubles.

 

 

 

 

 

We also ran into Alfred and Seymour again and husband wanted a picture of them with him in it too. Since they are nice guys, we got one. The shorter one stood on the step to make himself look taller.

 

 

[hermajestylanie]

Dinner was at 6:45PM and we didn’t have to wait for a 2 top. They took us up to Donatella for a table and we were finished with dinner in less than an hour. This has been our record so far, it was very quick!

 

 

I had the fettuccini with parmesan bowl and grilled veggie salad to start with.

My NY strip steak was a bit over cooked (I always ask for medium, but it was well), but good.

 

Husband had feta and watermelon salad to start with (both of these things separate are good, but I didn't care for them togehter. It was strange) and he also had the steak.

For desserts

[hermajestylanie]

I had the semi frozen cookie parfait with chocolate sauce- super good!

Husband had the floating islands. It is meringue that tasted like marshmallow floating in vanilla and caramel. He didn’t really like it very much, but I thought it was great. The Princess meringue is my favorite meringue.

Dinner was great, and we swiped some more freshly made peanut butter cookies and went to the room to finish packing. It is a tight pack- our luggage was pretty full when we came, but it is much worse now. Thankfully I had a couple extra tote bags, so I was able to carry those off. We opened the door to put the luggage in the hallway and our steward saw and took it right away. The room feels empty and lonely now! We also had to take the hangers down from the rod to prevent them from knocking together and keeping us up.

There was a special night trivia at 9:30PM this evening that we went to, as it will be our last one of the cruise. We didn’t finish with a bang, as we only got 11/20, but we were in the double digits as a team the whole cruise! I got one more virgin dirty banana, husband had ordered me an extra large one with extra chocolate as big as my head! The cruise overall was fantastic- best ever. And the people we met really made it that much more for us- they were so great!

At almost 11pm (when the food places close), we realized that we wanted some pizza once more, so we ran up the stairs to the pizza parlor and got there just in time!

They had a special Mexican pizza with chorizo and avocado.

 

We stayed up late chatting with people and saying our goodbyes. The hallways were completely empty by the time we went back to the room. It is time for reality to set back in tomorrow.

[hermajestylanie]

3/30/11- Last Moments!

Of course we woke up early to get everything ready for our departure. We got ready, packed everything up and went to breakfast. The buffet was really crowded. We grabbed some food, and I decided to have some waffles today. I got a fresh one right off the griddle and it was great! And so cute, shaped like little wheels.

My last minute pig out. Ah, cheese danish:

The waiters completely ignored us for drinks (which is why I don’t like this system) and we had to ask three different waiters to finally get something, and then they were the wrong order (I just wanted water, I got OJ instead). I guess they were all done with this group of passangers and already thinking about the next group! After breakfast we grabbed our carry offs and met in the Princess Theatre. On the way there we passed the International Cafe, which is open on disembarkation day. I could not resist, so I got a chocolate crossaint and an apple doughnut. Yep, that is a bite in the doughnut:

Our luggage was tagged numbers 3 and 4, so our meeting time was 9AM. Disembarkation was easy and it wasn’t crazy at all, like we have experienced on Carnival. However, I experienced burning jealousy for those on the B2B cruise right then! Oh, the negative feelings! We walked out of the theatre to the gangway when our group was called and there was a porter waiting to help get our luggage, which was set up in large numbered rooms.

I kept looking longingly behind me, as if I could just rush back in without anyone noticing. We considered hiding in a bathroom at one time.... Just kidding!

It was a lot to go thru to find our luggage, but we got it all with no problems. My dad was waiting to pick us up and we loaded our luggage and took off. Traffic was fine and we picked up our dogs from my parent’s house and headed back to SF. We hit a lot of traffic thru LA and it was stop and go for awhile, even though we didn’t leave until about 11:30AM. After that it was pretty smooth sailing (except for the dog whining) and we got back to our place exhausted, with only had enough energy to bring our luggage in and unceremoniously dump it on the floor.

And then I started posting my review, which let me pretend like I was back on the cruise for a few days, and now I am feeling the let down again! Well, it was good while it lasted, and now I must torture myself by reading other people's reviews. Anyone know any really good reviews out there right now for me to read? I like picture, or course!

 

 

 

Well, its been fun. Overall, I am sure you know by now that we had a wonderful time. Sure, there were snags, but that is life! You roll with the punches and make the best of the situation. Don't let anything ruin your vacation for you! We were lucky enough to barely have any snags, so for that we are thankful. And as a whole, the staff was wonderful, the cultural program cannot be beat, the other passangers were the best, and the food keeps me dreaming about it still! Thank you for all of the positive comments. If anyone would like to know anything else that I haven't mentioned, or any more information about something, please let me know and I will try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities- I did a lot of research before I went! I do have all my Patters, but I know they have been posted on a couple of other reviews, and so they are available. Take care and happy cruising! Hope to see some of you out there!

[joanh]

Thanks for taking me on a trip down memory lane! We did this cruise last March (2010) and it was a great itinerary- loved the sea days! This year we did the complete opposite and did a port-intensive Caribbean on the Grand Princess in January- the same itinerary will not be offered after her refit- so we are glad we did it. Now we are not sure what to try next! Decisions, decisions!

[MVMom&Dad]

Lanie, Thank you for your review. I was on the cruise before you, March 2-16 and I felt just like you at the end so sad when it was over but then I found your review and it perked me right up. As I read your last posting I felt sad once again. I hope someday to meet you on a future cruise !:)

[Mycruises62]

Thank you very much for a graet review, you did a great job.

I looked forward to reading it when I was home and when I was at work.

I would grad a sandwich and go back to my office and close the door and read it durning lunch.

 

looking forward to my cruise 11.23.2011.

[hermajestylanie]

Thanks for taking me on a trip down memory lane! We did this cruise last March (2010) and it was a great itinerary- loved the sea days! This year we did the complete opposite and did a port-intensive Caribbean on the Grand Princess in January- the same itinerary will not be offered after her refit- so we are glad we did it. Now we are not sure what to try next! Decisions, decisions!

 

 

Those decisions are hard! We love the seas days, and I think the Hawaii cruise has the best of both worlds- a good number of wonderful ports and sea days before and after for optimal relaxation!

 

Happy decision making!

[bogeydi]

I did the same thing today - found your review on my lunch hour at work. Been reading it this evening. Just finished - whew! Awesome review. We are on the Golden next March to Hawaii - now after reading your review I want to go tomorrow! My DH and I are like the couple you heard about who will be bringing our own golf clubs and golfing on all the islands. We too are best friends and have been married 25+ years. Our good friends are going on the cruise with us and I can't wait to tell them about this review. We all love Princess too. Going on our first Carnival cruise next Fall. Anyway, thank you again for all the detail and pix!

[ASeaPrincess1]

It's over?????:(

[hermajestylanie]

Lanie, Thank you for your review. I was on the cruise before you, March 2-16 and I felt just like you at the end so sad when it was over but then I found your review and it perked me right up. As I read your last posting I felt sad once again. I hope someday to meet you on a future cruise !:)

 

 

See what these cruises do to us! It is an emotional rollercoaster! I can see why people sometimes do B2B2B cruises now. Thanks for reading! Happy cruising!

[hermajestylanie]

Thank you very much for a graet review, you did a great job.

I looked forward to reading it when I was home and when I was at work.

I would grad a sandwich and go back to my office and close the door and read it durning lunch.

 

looking forward to my cruise 11.23.2011.

 

Thanks! Happy to provide you with some lunchtime entertainment! Have fun on your next cruise!

[hermajestylanie]

I did the same thing today - found your review on my lunch hour at work. Been reading it this evening. Just finished - whew! Awesome review. We are on the Golden next March to Hawaii - now after reading your review I want to go tomorrow! My DH and I are like the couple you heard about who will be bringing our own golf clubs and golfing on all the islands. We too are best friends and have been married 25+ years. Our good friends are going on the cruise with us and I can't wait to tell them about this review. We all love Princess too. Going on our first Carnival cruise next Fall. Anyway, thank you again for all the detail and pix!

 

 

All the way till next March! That is a hard one. Happy golfing! Sounds like you will have a great time. Husband will be jealous- that is his dream! (I don't golf!)

 

Have you been on Carnival before? We like it too, how could you not like cruising? But it is just sooo different from Princess.

[hermajestylanie]

It's over?????:(

 

Yes! :(:(:( Husband has been following my thread as well (mainly to check what I am writing about him- I'm on to you husband!) and just now read the last page. Since I got all sappy in my ramblings he ran over to me all sarcastically and said "oh, are you so sad?" Well yes. Yes I am. It is sad, becasuse now it is really over! And we don't even have another cruise planned.

 

What do people do to get over the post-cruise let down?

[bogeydi]

All the way till next March! That is a hard one. Happy golfing! Sounds like you will have a great time. Husband will be jealous- that is his dream! (I don't golf!)

 

Have you been on Carnival before? We like it too, how could you not like cruising? But it is just sooo different from Princess.

 

Never been on a Carnival ship. Glad to hear you liked it. I'm sure we willo too - even if we're in our 50's/60's. As you said - what cruise could be so bad? We have the same type of attitude - any cruise beats staying home doing housework!

[bogeydi]

What do people do to get over the post-cruise let down?

 

Plan the next one! :D

[kath00]

Plan the next one! :D

 

Exactly. We are now "throwing in" the Coastal cruises and the Mexico cruises on the Sapphire in between the real biggies. It tides us over well! :D

 

Katherine

[laraja]

Hi Melanie!

 

Boy, you weren't kidding on the Roll Call when you said you took lots of food pictures!!

 

And then I started posting my review, which let me pretend like I was back on the cruise for a few days, and now I am feeling the let down again! Well, it was good while it lasted, and now I must torture myself by reading other people's reviews. Anyone know any really good reviews out there right now for me to read? I like picture, or course!

 

Great review!! I've been re-living those two weeks through your posts and, now that you're done, I suppose I am too :(.

 

For a good review with lots of pics (reminds me of yours, actually), try searching the forum for one that begins, "Island Hopping in the Eastern Caribbean..." written by Hollybelle. It's an oldie (May 2010), but a goodie!

 

Sorry I didn't get the chance to meet you and Tyler at the M&G

[ASeaPrincess1]

What do people do to get over the post-cruise let down?

Book another one!! ASAP!

 

Exactly. We are now "throwing in" the Coastal cruises and the Mexico cruises on the Sapphire in between the real biggies. It tides us over well! :D

 

Katherine

Yep....

Boy, are we addicted to this or what????

 

O.T.....Our boss decided to paint our break room. Or, rather, have it painted. One of my co-workers is an artist, and is painting a mural on one wall.

It has the beginnings of palm trees, a hammock and an ocean.

I told him I wanted a CRUISE SHIP painted...RIGHT THERE!

And someone joked that he should paint me on it making a gesture to all my colleagues.........:D....waving, of course!

I have a reputation........:eek:....for cruising, that is!;)

[STEVENJAN]

Yes! :(:(:( Husband has been following my thread as well (mainly to check what I am writing about him- I'm on to you husband!) and just now read the last page. Since I got all sappy in my ramblings he ran over to me all sarcastically and said "oh, are you so sad?" Well yes. Yes I am. It is sad, becasuse now it is really over! And we don't even have another cruise planned.

 

What do people do to get over the post-cruise let down?

 

You know what they say when you fall off of a horse, you get back on.

Start looking for deals and for itineraries you would like.

Just down the street there is a trip to Alaska. Panama?

 

By the way what I liked about your review, was that you didn't sugar coat it (except desserts) but you didn't bog down in the negatives. Roll with the punches and stick to the positives and any cruise is going to be wonderful. Thanks again Melanie, Steve

P.S. we'll see you out there...where ever.

[laraja]

Yes! :(:(:( Husband has been following my thread as well (mainly to check what I am writing about him- I'm on to you husband!) and just now read the last page. Since I got all sappy in my ramblings he ran over to me all sarcastically and said "oh, are you so sad?" Well yes. Yes I am. It is sad, becasuse now it is really over! And we don't even have another cruise planned.

 

What do people do to get over the post-cruise let down?

After your experience trying to get your stick aboard, I'm surprised he didn't say, "Do you want to go back to Hawaii on the next sailing? Well too bad, you can't!" ;)

 

I'm with the majority here...I've started planning the next one. :D