Ocean Princess Honolulu to Sydney 1Mar to 29 Mar

[rugbypopsie]

I won’t go over the usual...I think that has been done many times..so I will confine this to a pencil sketch of my thoughts.

Itinerary

Fantastic...27 nights 12 sea days Honolulu to Sydney. The major Hawaiian Islands Kauai, Maui, Hilo , then Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahitii, Moorea and Bora Bora again, on Pago Pago, Apia in the Samoan Islands, Tonga, Auckland and final Tauranga both in NZ. I could not be more enthusiastic about the itinerary. Beautiful Islands, and we enjoyed perfect weather so we got to enjoy them thoroughly. Highlights...hard to choose but the small private tour we took in Bora Bora which involved snorkelling and with sharks and stingrays...great. Do a small tour its not as good with a big group. We repeated this on Moorea but the action in Bora Bora was better. Moorea is stunningly beautiful too. The whales in Maui performed beside the ship and were all over the harbour. Tauranga rated highly with everybody and the Hobbit tour was popular. I think the balance of ports to sea days was perfect...but then I like sea days!

Ship

Gorgeous, still in pretty good nick...showing slight signs of wear here and there but lovely, uncrowded, no queues anywhere always a quiet spot.

Crew

Again great, I love the Princess approach, this was a very laid back cruise and the staff, friendly and engaging! Service was good everywhere. Cabin Steward Dennis wonderful, he was the Scarlet Pimpernell...hardly saw him but he had the cabin in order in a flash, never had to wait or ask for anything!

Food

OK now we get to the "nitty gritty" to be honest its a bit hit and miss, some nights beautiful spoilt for choice, other nights no so much. Food generally tepid and often overcooked. Did not try the steakhouse but Sabatinis was nice, unfortunately our lobster was overcooked and we could not face waiting for another but the staff attitude to our gentle comments that it wasn't the best..could not have been o responded better. No defensiveness, genuine apology and heck the free bottle of wine helped!

Buffet was fine...not always great a lot of repetition of the food but fine and no queues or problems getting a table.

Other stuff.

Cruise card...I needed to have mine changed 6 times!!!! It ceased to work intermittently and without reason, one ,minute it did then it didn't then it did again...drove me crazy, so did the explanations from the pursers desk...I am not a moron. I know magnets affect magnetic strips...and I still had problems after eliminating all possible sources...AAGH.

Cabin BD Balcony midships starboard...perfect location very little movement and very convenient to everything...6053 highly recommended.

Entertainment

Bit like the food, hit and miss. The principal singers Goldy Lamoy and her partner were very very good, the production shows also better than OK, the hypnotist Kellie Karl Ugh!, the vocal entertainer and pianist Sherry White cringe worthy to an Australian, she is apparently an Australian and very talented pianist but her attempts at engaging with the audiance in a totally over the top Australian accent unbelieveably cheesy! However quite a few in the audience seemed to enjoy it. CD's hmm...not a fan of the "come on down style of the first or the terribly posh of the second the deputy CD Simon Reeve was great as usual and he did a show one night showing off his not inconsiderable vocal talents. The activities were the usual, the lectures on navigation and the history of cruising were popular, also dancing lessons, zumba, bridge, trivia etc.

Bingo...pretty tight with prizes...top prices for blackout within limited numbers was $1200 other prizes 75, 125 and 200 only 4 games per session. Casino machines set to lousy for me anyway. Some people doing well at the tables.

Overall

I really enjoyed our four weeks onboard…it is a very beautiful ship. Nice size, a little lacking in the variety of onboard entertainment but of course it’s a small ship. The staff etc. were totally fantastic..the itinerary was wonderful, weather perfect, cabin location perfect. The cutbacks in food quality show up from time to time but not so much as to affect our overall enjoyment..let’s face it no one starves on a cruise ship…there is always more food than anyone no matter how picky can find something. Highly recommended cruise ..some passengers were going all the way to Rome. This back to back from Honolulu to Papaette then Tahitii Sydney was enough for me but I would consider doing another sector at another time maybe Singapore to Rome would suit Aussies.

 

Happy to answer any questions

 

Sue

[DrivesLikeMario]

Thanks for the review. Although I love the small ships, I'm not sure I could do that long of a cruise on one. Good to hear your take on things though, thanks.

[Murrumbeena]

Thanks for the review.

[stki]

Welcome home Sue,

 

Thanks for the review. How does the experience compare to the big ships. There are lots of interesting itinerarys on the smaller ships that we would like to try.

 

Will have to try & catch up soon

 

Cheers

 

Tanya

[rugbypopsie]

Thanks Tanya, you know I love the Diamond Princess, but the Ocean is a lovely size for a port intensive itinerary...when you have been out and about a lot, dinner and then fall into bed was pretty much all we were looking for with the occasional show. Next cruise is the Celebrity Solstice...looking forward to that, then a sampler on the Voyager...biggest we have been on, then back to really little on the tiny V to A ship. I like them all and for different reasons. The best points of the little ones I think is the friendliness you really get to know your fellow cruisers, and its nice not to be stuck in a container port...the mid ship size combine ease of getting around with a bit more choice for dining and entertainment and then the big girls just have you spoilt for choice in terms of venues for dining and entertainment as well as onboard activities.

 

Its all good!

 

Sue

[kuldalai]

Great review which concurs pretty well with our 28 days on OP last October from Rome to Singapore .

 

Princess need to watch their penny pinching, it is showing up and frequent regular passengers notice . Princess are at risk of spoiling the ship for a ha pence of tar, and losing pax through purile cost saving that really annoys pax.

 

Pity the poor souls currently on OP Sydney - Singapore - Rome the heat in the Middle East is scorching at this time of the year . At least the air-con works well on OP .

[sagittarius]

Loved your review,despite making me quite envious as those destinations are on my list! As have just got off Pacific Princess, did segment 2 of her world cruise, I realise just how much I love these smaller ships.

Have not gone on one of the huge ships as although am sure would love all the variety of places would never be able to decide where to go!!! (Indecisive is my middle name!) And not sure how I would feel about being among several thousands of people at wherever we visited.

Will post review shortly but we had best food I've had on recent princess cruise, although we did meet the "tonight I want several mains" and a couple of nights felt disappointed with offerings.

Entertainment was mostly good too.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review

[Cruiserkenn]

I saw your ship in Kauai, from the deck of the Sapphire:) We were both docked there, together, at the same time. What a place! I watched you pull out, ahead of us, too. What a great time this was.

 

Thanks for mentioning the show put on by the humpback whales in Maui. They put on a spectacular show for us, too. Anyone wanting to see whales should not miss Maui during the winter months.

 

Thanks so much for your great review.

 

Aloha and mahalo :)

 

PS - thanks for mentioning the Hobbit tour! I had wondered if there is such a thing. How great!

[srpilo]

Really appreciate you checking back in and sharing your review

 

 

 

Thanks

Srpilo

[rugbypopsie]

One relatively minor issue that may be of concern to others was the hair shampoo. I have always used the complimentary shampoo without problems...this time...blood red itchy and inflamed eyes. Took a few days of experimentation to work out what was causing the problem and it was the shampoo. Just be aware and take a backup shampoo just in case...or you may look like an extra out of a vampire movie...

 

 

Sue

[cruisemom42]

Hi Sue, I recognize you from the V2A threads.

 

I'm considering booking a Black Seas cruise on Ocean Princess for 2014. I've never been on one of Princess's small ships, but since sailing with V2A and Swan Hellenic, I've vowed not to sail on large ships again.

 

How would you compare Ocean Princess with the Aegean Odyssey, for example, in terms of food, public areas and cabins? I realize the OP won't have the same kind of enrichment program.

[rugbypopsie]

Hi Sue, I recognize you from the V2A threads.

 

I'm considering booking a Black Seas cruise on Ocean Princess for 2014. I've never been on one of Princess's small ships, but since sailing with V2A and Swan Hellenic, I've vowed not to sail on large ships again.

 

How would you compare Ocean Princess with the Aegean Odyssey, for example, in terms of food, public areas and cabins? I realize the OP won't have the same kind of enrichment program.

 

Email me and I will tell you all about it!

 

Sue

[mhimb]

One relatively minor issue that may be of concern to others was the hair shampoo. I have always used the complimentary shampoo without problems...this time...blood red itchy and inflamed eyes.

 

Sue

 

Interesting! We were on this cruise also, and my wife came down with this also. I'll let her know about the shampoo.