An OCD review of Golden/Hawaii-Pictures!!

[kath00]

Too funny! Glad you have a great cruise to look forward to! You know, if Princess wanted to send me on a bunch of cruises, I would be more than happy to write them up! Wouldn't that be the life...

 

Hmmm. I will have to keep that best of both worlds in mind for the future. That does sound like a good idea! Some couple time, then some family time as well. And then you set your kids up to advance to the next cruising status much sooner- they could be getting perks before they graduate college depending on how often you take them! We ran into a 14 year old who was already on his 4th cruise- he was taking it all in stride. Lucky kid.

 

So true! We met a kid on our last RCCL cruise (Mariner) who was on her 8th sailing! She was only 9 years old. Sheesh! She'll be elite before she turns 15. :)

 

Katherine

[PescadoAmarillo]

Lanie, just read through your review and loved every word and photo!! Sounds like you had a wonderful time (with your darling outlook, how could you not?). Thanks for showing me the Waimea Canyon I've never seen (rained both times I've been there). And the funniest thing is that we have stayed in that cabin on that ship! I showed the cabin pic to DH...deja vu.

[partymaker]

Did you get off the ship in Ensenada???

[Cruisin' Chick]

I have to agree with this!

 

I especially enjoy your pics of the menus and your meal choices. I see Princess is still heavy on the seafood, with at least two seafood choices for dinner every night (:(). Not that I have ever starved on a cruise, but Princess is the only line I never gain weight on because there is so much seafood on the menu....

 

It is too bad you had to tender in Maui - we sailed on NCL and docked and were there overnight, which was nice - we rented a car and kept it at the pier for the day and a half we were in port to maximize what we could see. That was the only advantage with sailing on NCL - everything else sucked in comparison (ship, food, cabins, service).

 

And you are bringing back memories of ABC - I think we came home with almost a suit case of souveniers from ABC!

 

I don't eat seafood at all (and am allergic to some or all shellfish) so it does cut down on my choices when there's several seafood items (not just entrees, but also appetizers). My hubby likes seafood, but he has said he thinks there's too much emphasis, too.

 

The chicken looked pretty good too- but that burger really was amazing. I just had a little bit of sticker shock! We had a coupon that I had printed off one of the many travel sites I looked at (buy 2 burgers, get a brownie sundae for free), but I was not very hungry so we didn't use it.

 

I remember from your review that you had mentioned going to a Dojo- that is pretty neat there is one in Maui! I loved your review BTW! It got me really excited for my cruise and I was trying to read eveything I could on the cruise as it got nearer and nearer!

 

For health reasons, I had to cut out beef out of my diet, so I usually just have chicken. I did have some duck and pheasant on the ship, though. And a cheeseburger in Honolulu when the order taker at the food court thought my "plain chicken burger" was a "plain cheeseburger." Wasn't even that good.

 

My daughter was complaining before the cruise that her father was going to decide what we were going to do in each port. So I gave her the brochures I got from one of the Hawaiian websites and let her pick out some places, and then we'll talk her dad into some of them. So we caught that shuttle bus that you took all the way up to the beach/Whaler's Village, but got off at the Cannery mall stop, and then walked down to the dojo, which was at the end of a street. Overlooking the ocean. You're not supposed to go in unless worshipping. But there were things to look at outside such as the largest bell. We also found a dojo in Hilo by mistake (walking by to find the candy factory).

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!

 

That's why it's wonderful when us obsessive or detailed minded people write up reviews. One can always skip a paragraph not of interest. But the future cruisers (or ones trying to see if this is one to consider) can find info to help them.

 

I couldn't find any written guide in the deskbook about the TV programming. I almost asked the cabin steward if he could track down something for me as I found trying to figure it out by that one channel to be a real hassle. I remember there was one in my cabin for our previous Hawaiian cruise.

[hermajestylanie]

Thank you so much for doing this review with pictures. My husband and I did this cruise Oct./Nov. 2009 and we are doing it again same this this year. We loved all the sea days. I think your room was close to the room we had. We were on the Aloha deck on the back in a porthole room. I believe it was A749. Nice quiet location but the rocking the first night or two was wild. We almost always get a balcony on a cruise but the price difference between inside and balcony on a Hawaii cruise is crazy. The difference could mean an extra cruise.

I love your pictures. Brings back so many memories. The menu looks the same as what we had. We don't eat seafood so some nights it was not an easy choice for us but hey, it's a ship, there is food somewhere. We didn't starve. Our favorite night was Italian night. They made some lemon kind of drink and if you bought the little cute glass for 4.95, they kept refilling. It was so good but we aren't drinkers so we finally had to say, "no thanks" on more refills. Did they still do that? I believe it was on the way back.

Sounds like you had a great time and I can't wait to read some more. Thanks again! Pam

 

I remember seeing that on Italian night! So, I guess they still do it. Something like Limoncello I think? Italian night was good. I don't do seafood either, but always found somthing that sounded delightful! And the only night we skipped the MDR was French night.

 

Thanks for reading!

[hermajestylanie]

Lanie,

Thanks for taking the time to do such a wonderful review. It brought back great memories from a year ago for me. Of course, the food pictures didn't help with my post-cruise low carb diet plans...I've given up watching Food Channel and reading cookbooks....but those photos and descriptions just got me salivating.

 

Thanks again!!!:D

 

It is so hard to go back to "normal food" after a cruise!

[hermajestylanie]

So true! We met a kid on our last RCCL cruise (Mariner) who was on her 8th sailing! She was only 9 years old. Sheesh! She'll be elite before she turns 15. :)

 

Katherine

 

 

Why oh why couldn't my parents have taken me cruising! Jealous of that kid...

[DesrtDrmr]

We last cruised to Hawaii in 2005 on the Island. We had a great time, loved everything, and couldn't wait to go again. It has taken a while, but we are going again next year on the Golden. (The Star has been our favorite ship so far, followed by the Island). Thank you so much for posting your review..........it sounds like the itinerary will be very similar to our last Hawaiian cruise, but you have posted so many different things, and so many wonderful pictures, that we can hardly WAIT for the next year to go by!

I agree with everyone who said you should be doing this for a living.............it has been absolutely the BEST cruise review I have EVER read, bar none!

By the way, the law enforcement people in our family eat almost nothing and work out all the time.......just to stay in shape......how the heck is your husband, and you, too, able to eat and drink all that wonderful stuff without gaining? I think I gained at least 25 lbs just reading!!!!! :)

It was great to read a HAPPY trip review............thanks again!

[hermajestylanie]

Lanie, just read through your review and loved every word and photo!! Sounds like you had a wonderful time (with your darling outlook, how could you not?). Thanks for showing me the Waimea Canyon I've never seen (rained both times I've been there). And the funniest thing is that we have stayed in that cabin on that ship! I showed the cabin pic to DH...deja vu.

 

 

Same cabin, how funny! It wasnt bad, right?

 

Sorry that the canyon acted up for your trips, it was one of the highlights of ours and was just stunning. We took many many pictures there. But the saying goes try and try again, right?!

[hermajestylanie]

Did you get off the ship in Ensenada???

 

 

We did get off since we had never been before, but we didn't stay out for long. Many passangers just sklipped this altogether. I wanted to go to the blowhole, but husband was tired. Next time maybe!

[hermajestylanie]

We last cruised to Hawaii in 2005 on the Island. We had a great time, loved everything, and couldn't wait to go again. It has taken a while, but we are going again next year on the Golden. (The Star has been our favorite ship so far, followed by the Island). Thank you so much for posting your review..........it sounds like the itinerary will be very similar to our last Hawaiian cruise, but you have posted so many different things, and so many wonderful pictures, that we can hardly WAIT for the next year to go by!

I agree with everyone who said you should be doing this for a living.............it has been absolutely the BEST cruise review I have EVER read, bar none!

By the way, the law enforcement people in our family eat almost nothing and work out all the time.......just to stay in shape......how the heck is your husband, and you, too, able to eat and drink all that wonderful stuff without gaining? I think I gained at least 25 lbs just reading!!!!! :)

It was great to read a HAPPY trip review............thanks again!

 

 

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying and maybe it will help you plan for your upcoming vacation! It is hard waiting for those cruises, right?

 

I don't know how husband doesn't gain. He never works out, but eats badly! I work out all the time just so I can eat cakes and such once and a while. We don't eat like that in the pictures all the time, I save it for vacations. I tend to be a really healthy eater, and a really boring eater too (chicken and vegetables mostly).

[hermajestylanie]

3/25/11- Sea day

As soon as we left Maui the boat started rocking again. As per the Captain, we are having 7-12 foot swells. The ship rocked all night, which I find to be soothing; however, someone’s cabin near us had a closet door open or something because we heard squeaking and banging all night long. I brought earplugs thankfully and they worked well, but kept rubbing on my pillow. Husband found his annoying and took them out during the night. I mentioned it to the room steward in the morning because he asked how I slept and now I don’t hear the squeak anymore. That was literally the only noise we heard from our room the whole trip, even though we were right under the buffet area. It was great. We set our clocks forward last night. Because of this and four full days of land activities, we slept in. We need to recuperate! Thankfully there are a bunch of sea days to let us relax on our way back. We just saw so many things we wanted to do on the ship that at times we were running from activity to activity (sam on land too)! I guess we should just pace ourselves next time and realize that we could always do another Hawaii cruise.

At 10am we went to get our ticket for the ribbon lei making class, which is free. There was not a long line like there was for the first orchid class because I believe most people forgot, but they do put it in the Patter. We ate a quick light breakfast in the buffet before we went outside to check the conditions.

It is windy outside (35 mph) and a little cold (70?). The pool was closed this morning and it had large waves in it that were spraying everyone. The morning trivia was packed like I have never seen it! And the questions were hard. Hmm. I seem to be saying that a lot! Maybe they are not hard, maybe it is us! Well, we got 13/20. We spent some time afterwards strategizing with our team for the boat building competition. We are starting on our cardboard swords and flags for the ship. Apparently husband may also have to wear a Speedo for his costume

Intense cardboard sword preparation:

 

 

 

They had a little sale upstairs and we bought Hawaii port shirts, 2 for $20 from the piazza. We didn’t get one from Hilo so we got matching shirts that say Hilo and Princess. They also were selling hats.

We picked up a trivia paper, which we did at lunch. We are kind of dragging today…just really tired. Not many pictures today, sorry! We had ukulele again today as it is a sea day, and took our new purchase. Our uke was sooo out of tune! But we learned some new chords today. I think it was worth buying the uke. I have seen that a lot of people have done the same, but have purchased much fancier ones. Some people have ukes that I saw in the stores that cost upwards of $500! Tuning was a nightmare with 50 people all playing at once, but they give you time to start learning how to do it in the class. Husband could not do it, and I had trouble with our new uke because it was so far gone.

 

 

Lunch was at the MDR at 12:45 today, a table for 2 would have been a 20 minute wait so we shared.

 

It was a nice table group, we talked about Panama Canal and Alaska cruises. They sound so great! Appetizer was salad with blue cheese dressing. I ordered the teriyaki chicken and substituted a side of veggies for the rice.

Husband got bacon cheeseburger with fries and a banana split sundae.

[kath00]

Well, you've inspired me and I may be doing either a "live from" or at least a blog for our B2B Coastal/Alaska cruise in May. Watch the website (we leave May 7th) so that you can see what Alaska is like on the Golden!

 

We've never been to Hawaii (via ship anyway) but we've done Alaska on Princess and it's spectacular! Should be on your bucket list, esp if you can before kids! ;)

 

Kath

[hermajestylanie]

Lunch was really good- I would get the stirfry again. And those MDR hamburgers are really spectacular.

 

 

Saw these delicious looking treats before lunch in the International Cafe, so I saved myself for one of those after lunch. Glad I did. PB and chocolate are beautiful companions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went up to the main pool area to check out the weather and it was windy and pretty cold. The pool was open, but usable only if you like surfing! They had the obligatory margarita competition out by the main open pool area. We went back to the room to start making our cardboard swords and to draw pirate flags for our upcoming competition.

MUTS for tonight is Secretariat and Date Night. Julie and Julia and Nanny McPhee 2 are on the TV movie channels. Many nights it was just too cold for me to stay out and watch MUTS. We only did a couple and I tried to do a couple more, but had to leave partway thru. Maybe if I had thermals, a bigger blanket, and a large cup of hot chocolate...

I went to the gym at 3pm since I slept in earlier. The gym was deserted. Husband watched Night and Day on MUTS out on the main deck while I was at the gym.

We went to trivia and got 13/20 again. There were some bizarre questions today. I am so tired of the capital cities and geography questions! We made plans to have dinner with our trivia friends tonight. At the International Café we grabbed some grilled veggies and greek salad. They were pretty good, would have them again. The International Cafe is great- I can't imagine the ship without it. It has been really handy for a snack becasue it is so centrally located. And it is nice that it is in the Piazza so you don't have to go all the way up to the buffet for a snack.

 

 

Tonight is the second formal night. We got dressed and stopped by a few photos. We are still trying to win some photos. Some of them are really bad backgrounds, but why not? Cross my fingers.

We went to the Donatello for dinner at 7:45 and had no wait for a table for 4. The menu was the Chef’s Diner tonight, and there was nothing that I liked on there.

For the appetizer I got the butter lettuce salad with blue cheese dressing and we all got the palate cleanser sorbet. Oh, none of us liked the sorbet. I could not eat it.

Husband got the goat cheese soufflé for appetizer, which was really good.

[hermajestylanie]

So I got the always available beef with grilled zucchini, and a side of steamed vegetable. It was nice. Always perfectly cooked!

For the main course he got the rack of lamb. Which he proclaimed as good, but it was so tiny! He wished he had also ordered something else.

 

We both got the ménage a trois dessert, one was not to my liking as it had coffee in the chocolate. The others were good though. We also split some toffee ice cream, which was wonderful of course!

Dinner was nice and we had speedy service. Our friends have the same waiter everyday becasue they like her and I can see why! Afterward we went to the Marriage Show in the Explorer’s Lounge. It is like the Newlywed show on TV. Husband likes to be the center of attention, so he signed us up to participate. They were looking for a couple who had been married 5 years or fewer for the newlywed couple, 5-20 years for the middle couple, and 20+ years for the older married couple. There were a few newlyweds who signed up, but I guess we were the only middle married couple that signed up, even though I told him not to do it! I was panicking when he came back to tell me we were the only couple who signed up. So, they picked the newlywed couple out of a hat and then just called our names to come up. The older married couple were the only ones in that category too. So much for being able to just watch the show! So the women were ushered outside while the men were asked questions about us and vice versa. Husband got a couple easy questions wrong! But we were spot on with some other ones- practically verbatim in some of our stories. The older couple was sooo funny! We knew them from sitting next to them during one of our first dinners and from seeing them all over the ship. So, it was fun they were up there with us too. When asked about her husband’s most annoying trait, she said it was re-organizing the dishwasher after she loads it! The woman from the newlywed couple I believe was drunk, and they had only been married for 12 days. The older couple had been married for 46 years. Well, the newlyweds won and we got second. Apparently that is always how it goes! And now there are thousands of people that know my bra size. Jeesh.

We did get a prize though, a nice princess tote bag with a box of caramel macadamia nuts and bottle of champagne. It was really funny and the assistant CD Eric was really great as the host. We think he is fast on his way to becoming a CD himself. The days feel like they are flying by so quickly now! It feels like we just barely left the San Pedro port.

[hermajestylanie]

Well, you've inspired me and I may be doing either a "live from" or at least a blog for our B2B Coastal/Alaska cruise in May. Watch the website (we leave May 7th) so that you can see what Alaska is like on the Golden!

 

We've never been to Hawaii (via ship anyway) but we've done Alaska on Princess and it's spectacular! Should be on your bucket list, esp if you can before kids! ;)

 

Kath

 

 

I will be on the look out for that! Would love to read it. We really would like to do an Alaska cruise- they just sound wonderful. A waiter on the Golden said to try for around June, as that tends to be the warmest?

 

Happy cruising!

[hermajestylanie]

3/26/11- Sea Day

I went to the gym at 7:30AM this morning and it was not crowded at all. And it is not crowded the rest of the cruise either. Everyone has literally given up! It is nice to not have to wait at all for anything I want to use. I get a pretty good workout these last few sea days! I rushed back to the room to get ready after my workout. It looked like really great weather from what I saw thru the window at the gym, so I plan on getting some outside time today. The seas are also less rough today. We finished our boat preparations for the scrapheap challenge while getting ready and headed up for some breakfast. We grabbed a quick bite, it was a bit windy outside and a little cool.

I took my breakfast down to the International Cafe and husband got 2 chocolate croissants.

I had a bite and they were not as good as I thought they would be. I grabbed the new trivia for the day near the library and we headed to our morning trivia game where we scored 14/20. They tried something new and used a theme of color today, so all the answers were a color. We really like Kelly who does the trivia most often. She is pretty fun and has a great bubbly personality.

 

Then we headed to ukulele class. We decided not to do the show at the end of the cruise, so this might be our last day in class as the next few classes will be dedicated to rehearsing for the show. It is getting easier and easier to play.

After class we went to lunch at the buffet.

There was a beef rollup thing and pan fried chicken, salad, some tempura veggies, and a pear peach crumble. It was nothing special. I could not eat the beef because it was hard and dry.

Husband got some shrimp salad, sandwich, and mashed potaotes.

There has been a paucity of chocolate desserts that don’t have coffee in them. I am feeling the need for some nice pure chocolate. Instead we got this. I don't remember what it was:

[hermajestylanie]

As we were eating it suddenly started raining. We saw throngs of people running away from the open deck areas. That was pretty funny. But even funnier was all the people sitting right next to us lounging in the coveead areas jump up and run out to their hogged chairs to grab their stuff. You can;t tell very well from the pictures, but these people were running out to their chairs for their stuff after it had been sitting out there for hours!

After lunch we went to our friend’s room to do a quick dress rehearsal for the scrapheap challenge. Jan had made some costumes for us, so we dressed and got busy drawing funny tattoos on each other.

Another guy got stuck with the Speedo! I wore my bikini under my outfit to “show some skin,” but apparently it wasn’t enough so Jan gave my costume shirt a hearty rip down the front! Husband was a giant ham in the skit and was near uncontrollable with all the attention he was getting. We took the boat up to the covered pool for the competition and found out there were only three total entries!

The mighty boat:

The other two contenders used a tray for the base of their boat. One floated well and passed the test; it easily carried the 6 pack back and forth in the pool. The other boat just let the cans slip off. Our floated well and easily passed the test. We also acted out our parts while Jan read the poem to the crowd. We won by a large margin and got gold medals! And the beer the ship carried.

This was actually really fun and I am glad we were invited to do it. Otherwise we never would have. Basically you just have to make something to carry the beer in the pool. You don't have to dress up, it just helps with the judging.

We finished in time for my ribbon lei making class. I got frustrated early trying to make it, but husband was good at it. So he did his real quick and gave it to me so that we could leave and go get in the hot tub.

It was cold out so we went to the covered area, but one hot tub was closed and the other had about 6 kids splashing in it, so that was a no go. Instead we grabbed a chicken Panini and some grilled veggies form the International Cafe, as well as a key lime tart (oh thats what that last dessert I posted was!) and a cookie for husband. We headed to the Explorer’s Lounge to see Passenger Feud, but it didn’t seem that fun so we went to piazza to watch a comedy dance duo Alfred and Seymore.

They were really funny and kept trying to engage people walking by. One woman walking by didn’t want to participate and so she took off her hearing aid, pointed to it, and said she couldn’t hear them! The crowd was roaring! They performed for 30 minutes as a pre-show to the full show they are doing tomorrow. Husband had about 4 more peanut butter cookies by this time.

Afternoon trivia in the lounge went poorly; a disappointing 10/20. Finally we went to the hot tub on deck 16 in the back of the ship. One hot tub was ice cold and the other was only lukewarm. With the breeze we were soon freezing, so we ran back to the room and hurriedly washed off for dinner.

[hermajestylanie]

We got to dinner around 6:30PM and there was a long line and a wait even for a shared table. They were doing the Chef’s Table, so much of the area was being used for that. We waited 30 minutes for a table, but we ended up getting a 2 top.

 

Ram, our waiter, was super efficient and we were served rapidly. I got the fruit cup with macadamia nuts and beef broth soup to start with:

 

The nut cup was an interesting combination of flavors.

 

I got the prime rib with veggies for my entrée.

I know this is a high fat dish, my my piece was especially fatty. But still good, it just took a bit more work!

Husband got cream of garlic soup and raved about it.

[hermajestylanie]

He then got lamb and scallops for his entrée.

Neither one of us can understand why lamb is usually paired with mint and mint jelly. Those little sprinkles on the meat are mint flakes. I went to scoop up some lima beans from his plate and was meet with a minty surprise!

For dessert I got a love boat dream with chocolate fudge ice cream. You ask for one scoop and one scoop only, but they always give you two! I also ordered the passion fruit sugar free cake for us to share. The ice cream was so good and fudgy- it satisfied my chocolate craving well. The cake was just nasty. The fake passion fruit taste was too strong and citrusy, while the cake was really really dry.

 

 

Husband had a sundae for dessert.

Diner was good and we went to the comedy show ventriloquist. Ugh. Not the worst, but not the best. Some people were falling off their seats laughing though, which I could not understand. I found him very predictable with material that had been done to death. So, not very enjoyable for us. Then we went to the magician show with Alexander. Yikes, yikes, yikes. He was a bit pompous and soooo cheesy, with tired jokes and really lame music. I could not even bring myself to do a courtesy laugh. His assistant was really cute though, she was much better than him. But, ugh. By this time I was tired, so I went back to the room. Husband watched Pearl Harbor for a bit on TV before bed. Another time change is set for tonight. We plan on sleeping in tomorrow, so I will go to the gym later in the day and try another hot tub this time. Maybe the adult only area, some people said it was good there. It is not covered, but has taller side walls, so that may help with the wind a little bit.

[Cruizer Bill]

Lanie,

You are making me SO HUNGRY showing all the pictures of yummy food! I need to lose some weight after my last cruise!

Thanks for the great report!

Bill :)

[Astro Flyer]

I'm trying to be good before our May cruise so I can fully enjoy the dining options. Everytime I view your great photos & read your descriptions my stomach begins to growl & wants that food in your photos right now! :p

[hermajestylanie]

I'm trying to be good before our May cruise so I can fully enjoy the dining options. Everytime I view your great photos & read your descriptions my stomach begins to growl & wants that food in your photos right now! :p

 

I found it hard to look at the reviews with food pictures before my cruise too! But you just can't stop, right? I was good up until about 2 days before the cruise and then I couldn't hold out any longer. It was on!

 

It is not long until May though. You will be indulging very soon! Happy dining!

[Astro Flyer]

I found it hard to look at the reviews with food pictures before my cruise too! But you just can't stop, right? I was good up until about 2 days before the cruise and then I couldn't hold out any longer. It was on!

 

It is not long until May though. You will be indulging very soon! Happy dining!

It's definitely a test of my willpower! ;)

 

You probably found the gym uncrowded heading home because by then nearly all of us are weak & take advantage of the food options more often. We generally have late traditional dining & find the gym's treadmills available for an hour by arriving between 5pm & 6pm. Our hope is that by jump starting our metabolism it will help when we eat dinner. That plus walking a lot around the ship (no elevators) & in port seems to minimize our weight gain...something REALLY necessary on longer cruises.

 

Being Italian my biggest weakness is a side of pasta at dinner & I try to avoid as many deserts...just my trade off. Although if they made Cannolli like my Aunt Marie...I couldn't resist it! :D

[ladydee55]

Thanks! We really liked it too. We joke that the embarkation photo is always our favorite because at that point in time we are both skinny and happy (super excited about the cruise starting and haven't gotten in little tiffs from being together 24/7 and pre- stuffing ourselves).

I am enjoy your cruise experience. Your my kind of lady with the first cruise picture we are the same, Happy and excited and have not gotten on each others nerves yet. My husband and I are counting down the days