Lessons learned, love shared: Golden Princess to Hawaii 3/27/13

[terrific_surprise]

When I returned to the room at about 8:30, room service had just brought us two bowls of fruit!

 

On embarkation day, a little card had been placed in our room offering to provide us with a bowl of fruit, so I had filled it out and turned it in. The fruit had never arrived, but we shrugged it off. The next day (our first sea day) another little card had been placed in our room, so I filled it out again and turned it in, assuming that the first card had somehow gotten lost. We didn't consider it a necessity to have fruit in our room, but if it was being offered, we would certainly accept it.

 

When we had returned from the buffet after watching the sunrise on the morning of our second sea day, I had noticed many silver bowls of fruit on a tray in the hall. Apparently whoever handled the fruit on our cruise was way behind (and I suspect that unintentional duplicate orders like ours made their job even worse). In any case, on the evening of our second sea day, we now had two bowls of fruit (with a slightly different selection, because of the different choices I had made on the two cards) in our room.

 

Terri was finally starting to feel a little hungry, so I went back out to the International Cafe to get a tuna sandwich for her, along with a strawberry meringue dessert. When I approached the Piazza, what appeared to be an acrobatic dance act was being presented to a captivated crowd. Cruise Director Gavin Chandler greeted me as I came down the stairs in the Piazza, then stood nearby as we both watched the rest of the act. The female dancer left the center of the Piazza just as (what appeared to be) two costumed people suddenly tumbled in (appearing as if they were wrestling each other). At the end of this unique dance the costume was thrown back to reveal ONE person inside!

The "wrestling" we had seemed to witness was actually created by the dancer tumbling through the room, with the lower half of his body appearing to be one person and the top half of his body appearing to be another person.

 

I hadn't paid any attention to this act in the Princess Patter that day, but later I looked to see what it was called: "World-class adagio duo Alexander and Evgenia." I later learned that "adagio" is "a ballet duet by a man and woman or a mixed trio displaying difficult feats of balance, lifting, or spinning." I would have enjoyed watching the whole act if it had been scheduled again on the cruise.

 

The "Marriage Match" game show was set to begin at 9:30 pm. This was something that Terri had wanted to be a part of, as she was somehow eagerly anticipating the opportunity to bask in the light of our embarrassment by revealing hidden details of our private lives (and, as is the tendency of the game, to likely entertain the audience by butting heads as we disagreed about those details). If she had not been too seasick to participate, I would have consented to the game for her sake, but I would have been wanting to crawl under a table the entire time.

 

Instead, I was able to stand anonymously in the shadows of the room watching the beginning of the game so that I could tell my wife who was chosen to be contestants. We didn't know any of them, but the contestants were newlyweds from Los Angeles, a couple from British Columbia who had been married for almost 20 years, and a third couple who had been married for 40 years. I didn't stay long enough to find out how much they embarrassed each other, but I felt a mixture of relief (for me) and disappointment (for my wife) as I went back to the room.

 

We had once again missed the opportunity to experience Elua in person that day; on the morning's Wake Show, Dave had instructed viewers to "check your Patters" to see where they would be performing, but their only musical event (other than ukulele class and hula class) was some steel guitar music from Dave in the Piazza, which conflicted with our late traditional dining time.

 

This had been a challenging day to cruise through, but I was trying to keep myself in "cruise mode" (just going with the flow), and not be stressed about any events we were missing. And above all, to remember "it is well."

 

More photos of our second sea day on the Golden Princess can be viewed at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94965522@N02/sets/72157633290023585/

[terrific_surprise]

Finally at about 10 pm that night, over 48 hours after we had sailed away from Los Angeles, the Internet began working. I had ordered a 240 minute Internet package on the phone with Princess from the port building on embarkation day, but for the first day the ship's Internet department had no record of my order. I could have ordered the same 240 minute Internet package after embarkation and I would have been credited with the same free minutes, so ordering it by phone actually complicated things unnecessarily (although if I had ordered further in advance that may not have been the case).

 

My most important Internet task was to notify our bank that my wife's card had apparently been lost. Unfortunately the bank's website was extremely slow, so I gave up trying to access it. Accessing "Gmail" was also difficult. But the Cruise Critic website loaded pretty quickly, so I was able to easily post an update to those who had been reading my other thread (I had written the update off-line).

 

At 5 am the next morning, I tried to access the Internet again from the wireless connection in our room, and it worked flawlessly as I checked email, accessed our bank account, and spent a few minutes here on Cruise Critic. I was able to verify that no fraudulent charges had occurred on our account and to notify the bank of Terri's lost card, so I was relieved to know that we wouldn't be experiencing any more unexpected financial problems.

 

Having 240 minutes of Internet access on a 14 day cruise seemed to me to be about right: an average of over 20 minutes per day (considering the fact that on several of the port days I would be able to access the Internet independently of the ship's connection). I usually access the Internet for hours every day, but a 240 minute package turned out to be much more than I needed for this cruise. Our days were so full of activities that accessing the Internet was rarely more than a quick footnote for the day.

Edited August 21, 2013 by terrific_surprise
added link to what I posted on CC that night

[terrific_surprise]

By the time the sun rose on our third sea day on the Golden Princess, the sea was much calmer, so we looked forward to a much more pleasant day. We wouldn't be disappointed.

 

I'm sure that it enhanced our enjoyment of the day to know that we were now over half way to Hawaii (and that, presumably, the worst part of the trip was behind us).

 

After completing some Internet tasks, I enjoyed an orange and a kiwi from the fruit bowls we had received the night before. I had some difficulty peeling the fruit, wishing that they provided a knife with the fruit bowl. I didn't realize until after I had finished eating the fruit that there was a knife in the bowl -- I hadn't noticed it because it was hidden inside a napkin!

 

After some quiet time in the room, we headed to the buffet at about 7:30 am, still trying to give our stomachs a gentle start to the day.

 

Soon we returned back to our room to watch the Wake Show. We were surprised to see that a disembarkation survey form had been placed in our box. (I guess it's good that the staff was planning so far ahead, but we definitely didn't want to be thinking about disembarkation yet.)

 

Terri decided that she wanted to make another kukui nut lei, so we headed back out of our room at about 9 am. But on our way to the Wheelhouse Bar for the lei-making session, we decided to spend some time in the gift shop. Terri bought some shirts, a lanyard, and an imitation Hawaiian flower for her hair. I was surprised to see a Titanic sticker book for sale there. (If we brought our kids on a cruise, I don't think we would want them to be thinking about the Titanic!)

 

Instead of making a full-length lei, Terri decided to use the one lei kit to make a kukui nut bracelet and a short lei.

 

After a few minutes, I excused myself from the lei-making session, going next door to the Explorer's Lounge to try to catch part of a lecture on photography.

 

But I had to return back to the Wheelhouse Bar soon for our second ukulele lesson. Due to the popularity of the ukulele classes, all further ukulele classes were restricted to those who had registered at one of the introductory classes. There were more class participants than ukuleles, so people had to share ukuleles with each other. Dave congratulated the class for the "aloha" we demonstrated by being willing to share. Our chord work began to get more challenging with the D7 chord (which required placing a finger across all four strings) and the song Tiny Bubbles.

 

"...So here's to the golden moon

And here's to the silver sea

And mostly here's a toast to you and me...."

 

As part of the ukulele class, we were all provided with little song books (including chords for all of the songs we would be practicing and several additional songs). A chord fingering chart made it easy to see at a glance how to play each chord.

 

After ukulele class, we decided to try the special "International Buffet" which had been setup that day for lunch on the Lido Deck. While I have no complaints about the quality of the food, it didn't seem very "international," with menu items like potato salad, cole slaw, sliders and pasta. Maybe they should have called it a "picnic lunch buffet."

 

Nearby on the Lido Deck, we would soon watch as a large block of ice was quickly and skillfully transformed into a beautiful (albeit temporary) sculpture.

 

We had watched most of the ice carving demonstration on the Movies Under the Stars screen, because too many people were crowded around the ice block.

 

But the most important reason for us to be on the Lido Deck was set to begin at 1 pm: Elua would be performing! This time we made sure that we wouldn't miss out, getting there early to find two nearby chairs so that we could have "front row seats" as we prepared to experience their act in person for the first time.

[Mekamax]

Very much enjoying your review! :)

[terrific_surprise]

Having purchased three Elua CDs by mail from Dave Soreff weeks before the cruise, we were already very familiar with many Elua songs before we first heard Dave and Leialoha sing together in person.

 

Watching their live act was much more than just an experience of seeing these highly anticipated songs come to life. Their music seemed to flow freely (at times it seemed almost effortlessly) from the depth of their souls as their faces lit up, while Leialoha's movements added another level of meaning. There's something mesmerizing about being around people who really enjoy what they are doing (and who are good at it), and this was certainly the case when Elua performed their music.

 

The experience for us was made even more special by the knowledge that Dave and Leialoha function as a husband-and-wife team, as my wife and I do. For us that just seemed to enhance the romantic feeling of it all.

 

Early in the set, Leialoha invited Linda, a passenger who happened to be a native of the island of Kauaʻi, to perform a hula to the song Hanalei Moon. Like Elua's music, Linda's hula motions seemed to flow out of her soul, as an expression of what it meant to her to be a native Hawaiian.

 

The weather on the Lido Deck that afternoon was comfortable in the sunlight, but a bit too cold in the shade (I even heard Leialoha say that she was too cold). But people have varying temperature sensitivities, as evidenced by the fact that some were wearing jackets and sweaters while others wore (it seemed) as little as they could get away with.

 

Some of Elua's songs (such as White Sandy Beach) were so beautiful and serene that they brought tears to my eyes. On other songs, such as Hasegawa General Store, Dave and Leialoha just let loose and had a good time.

 

Most of Elua's songs for this set were Hawaiian (or at least hapa-haole), but Dave did mix things up a bit by throwing in some Elvis with "Don't Be Cruel."

 

At about 1:50, we knew that we needed to somehow tear ourselves away from the Elua concert. We had tickets for the orchid lei-making class at 2 pm, and we didn't want to be late.

 

Just then Leialoha encouraged everybody to come out on the deck to do a

hula to the Hukilau Song.

 

Terri had special childhood memories of doing a hula to the Hukilau Song, so we couldn't leave just yet. As the Hukilau Song ended, we hurried down to Sabatini's on the Promenade Deck, hoping that we would be there in time to make our orchid leis.

 

Three video excerpts from Elua's set can be seen at the links in the highlighted text above. Dave Soreff gave me permission to include some brief video excerpts in my review. In case you missed the video links, here they are again:

 

• Hula to Hanalei Moon
  
• Hasegawa General Store
  
• Hula to the Hukilau Song
  

Edited August 21, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[aSiAnRiCk]

Nice report, thank you. Looking forward to read the rest!

[terrific_surprise]

We were glad that we made it to Sabatini's just in time for our orchid lei making class, because some people who came late to the class were turned away!

 

The CD staff provided us with a a set of orchids (I think there were about 20), a string with a long needle attached, and a little bag containing the beads to go between the flowers. We were warned that if we lost any of the beads they would not be replaced, but we were tempted to dump the beads out on the table because getting them out of the bag one by one was not easy.

 

We were also warned that our leis would soon wilt and that we would not be allowed to bring them off the ship, but we could extend their life a little if we put them in the refrigerator. But so many of life's most beautiful moments (like sunsets and rainbows) are fleeting, so we looked forward to enjoying their beauty even if only for a short time.

 

In about 30 minutes our leis were complete and we were on our way back to our room to rest briefly before our 3:15 Princess Pop Choir rehearsal. Marahscalh seemed a bit frustrated that we didn't have a good enough handle on Oh What a Night and Waterloo to move on to the next song, so we heard a lot of "do it again" that day. A few new members had joined us and a few others had left, so that created difficulties for the choreography. It seemed like every day Marahscalh needed to rearrange us because we weren't lining up right due to the varying numbers of people in the group.

 

When the Princess Pop Choir rehearsal was over, we needed to hurry straight down to the Vista Lounge, where Leialoha was leading another hula class. This time her class focused upon hula 'auana, the modern form of hula. Like Dave's ukulele classes, Leialoha's hula classes were not only fun, but also serious. When Leialoha talked about hula, it was obvious that it really mattered to her that her class members understood the significance of what they were doing.

 

On this day the class worked on the most beautiful hula song (to me), Hawaiian Lullaby, a song I had first heard on one of Elua's CDs in the weeks before the cruise.

 

Where I live, there are rainbows

With life in the laughter of morning and starry nights

 

 

Where I live, there are rainbows

And flowers full of colors and birds filled with song

 

First, Leialoha taught the motions to Hawaiian Lullaby without music then, she added the music, while continuing to coach the class through the motions.

 

Next, Leialoha taught the class the hula motions for Little Grass Shack.

 

After hula class, Terri was ready for a little refreshment, so we stopped by the International Cafe, where we enjoyed a shrimp quiche (for me) and potato soup (for her).

 

By this time I had come to expect amazingly fast service from the beverage servers in the Piazza, but for some reason on this day it took a long time for the server to take our order and a long time for the drink to arrive. (I doubt that the server was the problem, because the server we had that day was the same one who was usually so fast.) But we weren't concerned about the delay; we had time to just relax and wait. Eventually, Terri's drink (a "nojito" or a virgin mojito, with mint leaves) arrived.

[caribill]

The original Hasegawa General Store as it looked before it burned down in 1990.

 

 

 

A souvenir bumper sticker

 

[terrific_surprise]

The original Hasegawa General Store as it looked before it burned down in 1990.

 

A souvenir bumper sticker

 

Thanks for the pictures, caribill. We never made it the Hasegawa General Store or Hana (too far from Lahaina) but if we did I'll bet Terri would want one of those bumper stickers (she loves horses).

[cr8tiv1]

If anyone thinks the 15 day cruise to Hawaii has too many sea days....with nothing to do, they should be following your thread. I was exhausted going over and running around the 4 islands. I looked forward to the return 4 sea days to just relax. Of course, that really didn't happen either (with rehearsals and all). Thanks for the details and glad that Terri started to feel better.

[tequilasunrise]

Enjoying your review, thanks for posting! That trip to Hawaii can be unpredictable, ours was pretty rough too. But still, there is so much fun to have! Glad you are able to look at the bright side and enjoy your cruise.

 

Happy Birthday to your wife!:)

[terrific_surprise]

We had missed out on a number of shows since the beginning of the cruise, so we decided to go to a magic show at 7 pm, just before our 7:45 dinner time.

 

On the way out of our room, we encountered our room steward, so I asked him if he could put some ice in our ice bucket (the ice had been missing for a couple of days). While our steward was always friendly, the service at times seemed a bit below what we had expected. I didn't fault the steward for it, though. It seemed to me that he was overworked, as I noticed throughout the cruise that he seemed to be responsible for about 20 rooms, including the Grand Suite (adjacent to our room at the end of the hallway).

 

As we walked toward the Princess Theater, CD Gavin Chandler greeted us again, seeming again to recognize us. (I wonder if he made all of the passengers feel as special as he made us feel, or if for some reason he really did notice us more than others.)

 

I didn't have high expectations for the magic show (Alexander Magic). We have seen plenty of magic shows over the years (along with countless card tricks our kids have learned) so by now I'm pretty jaded about slight-of-hand. Nevertheless, I was actually quite impressed with this show. His biggest trick involved somehow passing through a large mirror. He seemed to have just the right balance of humor and illusion, and I even found his card tricks to be interesting.

 

All of our tablemates were at dinner this time, so we had another pleasant evening of conversation.

Head waiter Albuquerque (at the center of the above photo) stopped by to talk for quite a while, explaining that the reason for the ship's difficulties the past few days was not the seas, but the wind. (The cruise log we received at the end seems to confirm his point in relation to the wind on the first sea day; but according to the log, the seas were in fact rough on the second sea day.)

 

"Today," one of our tablemates said with pleasure, "it has been like gliding across a mill pond." I agreed (even though I'm not exactly sure what a mill pond is, it seemed like a calm description).

 

The appetizer I selected from the dinner menu was tomato carpaccio with Pacific northwestern-style crab cake:

 

For my entree, I continued to gravitate toward seafood by selecting seared diver scallops:

 

I topped off the meal with a pecan butterscotch tart:

 

(I had to get used to a little good-natured ribbing from our tablemates regarding my need to take pictures of our food, so I tried to make my food shots quick, which sometimes resulted in somewhat blurry photos.)

 

After a long, satisfying day of cruising and conversation, we were content to just head back to the comfort of our room.

 

You can see more photos (and videos) of what happened on our third sea day at:

Edited August 22, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[faymuiheng]

I just have two things to say...

 

Your blog here is well written, and brings me back daily..:D

 

Also I think your wife Terri is CUTE.. ha ha...

 

you guys look like you had a Grand time...

 

_waiting for the next installment.....:p

[terrific_surprise]

I just have two things to say...

 

Your blog here is well written, and brings me back daily..:D

 

Also I think your wife Terri is CUTE.. ha ha...

 

you guys look like you had a Grand time...

 

_waiting for the next installment.....:p

 

Thanks for the kind comments, faymuiheng!

 

There's more than one way :rolleyes: to take your "cute" characterization of Terri... but I think they are all true. :p

 

I like this quote from Natalie Portman: "Cute is when a person's personality shines through their looks. Like in the way they walk, every time you see them you just want to run up and hug them."

[terrific_surprise]

When I realized (over a year before the cruise began) that we would be away from home for Easter (or, as we prefer to call it, Resurrection Sunday), I wasn't happy. As Christians, the celebration of Christ's resurrection is the most important holiday of the year for us -- and we want to make it significant not only for ourselves but also for our children. But there was no way around it: if I intended to take my wife on the cruise to Hawaii on her 50th birthday, we would be on the ship for Easter.

 

Before leaving home, we planned some special Easter activities with our six youngest children to help make up for the fact that we wouldn't be with them for this important day. But we were still prepared to experience a less-than-ideal "Resurrection Sunday" ourselves.

 

After a slightly bumpy night, I woke at about 6:30 am Easter morning, being somewhat confused about the time. ("Are we supposed to set our clocks back?") Eventually my confusion was settled when I realized that the phone in the room displays the current time.

 

The usual blue banner at the top of the Princess Patter was replaced with purple, along with a "Happy Springtime" graphic. It also contained a brief but informative article about the significance of Easter.

 

When we turned on the Wake Show, Deputy CD Marahscalh greeted us with "Happy Resurrection Sunday!" (That should have tipped us off to what we would soon be experiencing.) When Marahscalh said something on the show about an activity called "adventure ducks" that was set to begin that day, CD Gavin said "adventure ducks? Never heard of that." I hadn't heard of it either, but I found it amusing that the CD hadn't heard of one of the events scheduled for the day. (But Marahscalh had been on the Golden Princess for months, while Gavin had just recently boarded, so it shouldn't have been surprising that the CD was out of the loop on some activities.)

 

On our way down to the Explorers Lounge, where the interdenominational Easter service was set to begin at 8:30, we passed by the Vista Lounge, where a Catholic priest was in the midst of leading an Easter Sunday Mass service. I noticed that the room seemed to be filled to capacity, and was pleasantly surprised to see so many Catholics celebrating their faith onboard.

 

Although the interdenominational service had not yet started, the Explorers Lounge was already almost full, but we were able to find some seats in the back. Others eventually had to stand in the nearby passageway to participate in the service.

 

Soon Deputy CD Marahscalh stood up to make a few introductory comments, and it became clear that he would not only be leading the singing, but he would also be delivering the sermon. By this time we were quite familiar with Marahscalh, of course, having participated with him daily in the Princess Pop Star practices. "Sure, the guy can sing..." I said to myself, "but can he preach?" I was disappointed that our Easter service wouldn't be led by a "real pastor," but I tried to focus on the reason we were gathered together: to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (For the time being, the fact that in just 24 hours we would be in Hawaii was not on our minds.)

 

When Marahscalh began his sermon, it quickly became obvious that he wasn't just functioning as a stand-in for a "real pastor." We learned that he had labored for many long hours over a sleepless night to prepare this sermon, having such a passion for delivering the best possible message. Marahscalh's calm, heartfelt words of conviction were more powerful than any shouting or pulpit-pounding could have been, as he asked us to consider how the resurrection of Jesus is impacting our lives today.

 

Much of what he shared was very personal: he spoke thoughtfully about being the youngest of 13 children and being influenced by people he met in the Baptist church as a child.

 

Many of his most important attributes today, Marahscalh explained, trace back to people who influenced him decades ago. He challenged us to consider how we are influencing others around us -- including the people we encounter on the cruise -- asking "whose do people say that you are? In 40 years, will people be hearing of Jesus from those who have been influenced by you?"

 

Admitting that some people tell him that he has missed his calling (that he should have been a preacher), Marahscalh insisted that he believes he has found his true calling by working on cruise ships.

 

The song service consisted of traditional hymns, with none of the contemporary worship music to which we have become accustomed. But given the varied religious backgrounds of those who attended the service, traditional hymns were the best choice (and they brought back memories of the church where my wife and I met). Some lifted their hands in praise, but everybody seemed to be singing songs like "He Lives!" with all of their hearts, and when the service was still going strong even after an hour, nobody seemed to mind.

 

Having listened to (and forgotten) dozens of Easter sermons over my lifetime, I never anticipated that I would experience the most memorable Easter sermon of my life on a cruise ship.

Edited August 23, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[terrific_surprise]

After the church service was over, we headed up to the Horizon Court buffet for breakfast, where I had the opportunity to rethink another preconceived notion. We usually had a hard time finding a table at the buffet, but this time it was even busier than usual. Finally we had to share a table with another couple. When we introduced ourselves, the husband responded by telling us his name was "Alien." At first we thought he was joking, but then he showed us his driver's license! (Apparently where he comes from the name "Alien" is not considered to be quite so unusual.) He didn't seem to mind our expressions of surprise, as he seemed to be used to having to explain his name to people. Alien and his wife both seemed to be quite down-to-earth and friendly, and we enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them over breakfast.

 

Although our children were thousands of miles away, we couldn't help but take a few minutes after breakfast to look at the Easter activities for children going on in the Piazza.

 

 

At 11:05, we arrived at the Wheelhouse Bar, ready for the next ukulele class. Although we were ten minutes early, all of the ukuleles were already taken! Thankfully, we knew that this would be the last class where we would experience a shortage of ukuleles, because Dave Soreff had already explained that many class participants typically buy a ukulele for themselves in Hawaii. Dave took some time out of the class to give us pointers on what to look for in a good ukulele -- the instrument itself may be small, but the range of price (and quality) is quite wide.

 

After ukulele class, we stopped by our room, only to see that it still had not been serviced even though we had put a "please make up room" card on the door some four hours earlier. However, it wasn't a big problem, because we weren't ready to spend much time in the room yet anyway.

 

We went to the pastry buffet by the pool, filling our plates with sweets (including two types of chocolate fondue).

 

Real fruit smoothies were also being made near the end of the buffet, available as part of the UKP drink package. This was the first time we realized that smoothie stations like this were available on the cruise. As far as I could tell, they were never announced, but typically were setup in conjunction with the special lunch buffets by the Calypso pool. (If smoothies were available anywhere else, I never noticed them.)

 

But after our plates were full of sweets (some of which were melting), we realized that we wanted to eat some "real food" first before we ate these desserts. So we picked up some pizza, then we went to the nearby Trident Grill.

 

I ordered a chicken burger, while Terri ordered a veggie burger (the same type of veggie burger she had ordered on embarkation day, which tasted to me like a potato patty). For some reason the veggie burger took much longer to fix than the other burgers; Terri had to wait at the counter while several others passed her by.

 

As we were having our fill of pastries and sweets, little did Terri realize that she would soon wish that she had saved more room.

 

Soon we heard someone announce "if you want to have pool games, you'll have to get into the pool!" But it looked like everybody was too cold to get into the pool.

 

We didn't wait to see if the pool games ever happened, because we needed to hurry down to the Vista Lounge to attend Elua's class on how to "Eat and Speak Hawaiian." As we already knew from the ukulele and hula classes, Dave and Leialoha are quite serious about Hawaiian culture, but never too serious to have fun.

In the above photo, Dave and Leialoha teach the meaning of the word "Pau"... but our day was far from pau (finished).

 

Although I had already found myself needing to let go of some of my preconceived notions that day, we were about to have an experience where my preconceived notions would be proven to be right on target (to Terri's dismay).

Edited August 24, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[blazerjan]

I just have to ask .... why were you so surprised to see so many Catholics celebrating Easter Mass on board the ship? Easter is one of the holiest times for the Catholic community just like it is for other religions. Did you think because they are on vacation that Catholics put their beliefs on hold? I'm sorry but I for one was offended by your comment.

[terrific_surprise]

I just have to ask .... why were you so surprised to see so many Catholics celebrating Easter Mass on board the ship? Easter is one of the holiest times for the Catholic community just like it is for other religions. Did you think because they are on vacation that Catholics put their beliefs on hold? I'm sorry but I for one was offended by your comment.

 

I was also surprised to see so many Christians at the "interdenominational" service, so I certainly didn't mean to single out Catholics, blazerjan. We have many Catholic friends and are quite aware that they take their faith quite seriously (many of our friends attend Mass daily).

 

I guess for me, my "surprise" at seeing the interest in the church service relates back to our 2010 cruise on the Sapphire Princess when it seemed that the only Sunday church service on board was not well attended. It was held in Club Fusion (which corresponds to the location of Vista Lounge on the Golden) and Terri and I arrived late (partly because it was our first morning onboard and we were still finding our way around, but partly because we were just being too lazy on a Sunday morning). When we arrived, we saw just a few people there, and the service was ending. I believe that it just lasted 20 minutes, and seemed to me to be a mere token observance. :( (But who am I to criticize, when I couldn't even get there on time?) :rolleyes:

 

When I realized that Easter would occur during our cruise, I remember wondering if there would even be any Easter service at all onboard. Again, it was a foolish question.

 

One of the main points of my review is my own foolishness at times (such as my stupidity in being disappointed to see that Marahscalh would be preaching, and my realization that Alien was a nice, friendly, normal guy). I hope others can learn from my foolishness above to show more respect toward Catholics.

Edited August 24, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[blazerjan]

Thanks for the explanation... all is well. I am enjoying your review very much!!

[Love.II.Cruise]

We are enjoying your review. This brings back great memories for us. We got married on a Hawaiian Princess cruise and we really want to go back!

[caribill]

 

 

I ordered a chicken burger, while Terri ordered a veggie burger. For some reason the veggie burger took much longer to fix than the other burgers.

 

Because of relatively low demand, Veggie burgers are usually only made when ordered and thus take more time to be ready.

[terrific_surprise]

We went to the pastry buffet by the pool, filling our plates with sweets (including two types of chocolate fondue).

 

I just finished reading this segment of my review to Terri, and thought that a clarification was in order. Although I frequently say things like "filling our plates," my plate was typically much more full than hers. :o Even when her plate may appear to be full in photos, she often would offer a significant amount of her food to me, saying "it's just not worth the calories" (but knowing that I hate to see food go to waste). Although I tried to keep her satisfied, :o she made a point to remind me that she actually lost weight on this cruise!

 

I had originally intended for us to write this review together, as a way of reliving the cruise, but the logistics of collaborating on a review were too difficult (with too many interruptions in our lives). :mad: That's part of what caused the delay in posting this review. In any case, keep in mind that what I post here is my perspective on what happened, and that there may often be another side to the story. :rolleyes:

 

In any case, she said that she has been enjoying having me read the review to her, because she she had already forgotten many of these things that happened.

Edited August 24, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[terrific_surprise]

Because of relatively low demand, Veggie burgers are usually only made when ordered and thus take more time to be ready.

 

That makes sense. As I wrote this the thought also occurred to me that maybe the veggie patties are frozen until cooking while perhaps the hamburger and chicken are allowed to thaw first (due, as you pointed out, to higher demand).

[terrific_surprise]

We are enjoying your review. This brings back great memories for us. We got married on a Hawaiian Princess cruise and we really want to go back!

 

Wow, I wouldn't have expected our cruise experience to compare to a honeymoon cruise to Hawaii. Honeymoon memories are priceless; if I were you that's definitely something I would want to do again! (We have tried to revisit several spots from our honeymoon over the years.)

 

This makes me think of some special honeymooners we encountered on this cruise. Although I have already mentioned them above (without explaining that they were on their honeymoon) I'm not going to say more in case they wouldn't want me to.

 

I'm glad that this helps rekindle such special memories. :)

[Love.II.Cruise]

Wow, I wouldn't have expected our cruise experience to compare to a honeymoon cruise to Hawaii. Honeymoon memories are priceless; if I were you that's definitely something I would want to do again! (We have tried to revisit several spots from our honeymoon over the years.)

 

This makes me think of some special honeymooners we encountered on this cruise. Although I have already mentioned them above (without explaining that they were on their honeymoon) I'm not going to say more in case they wouldn't want me to.

 

I'm glad that this helps rekindle such special memories. :)

 

HAHA - you really made me laugh (and here is why)! My dear husband (DH) and I were engaged on Sapphire Princess - he proposed on the first formal night, which turned out to be Christmas Eve on an Australian cruise.

 

We made a handshake on something... he wanted to decide where we would wed, with me deciding the honeymoon location. I was very hesitant to this idea since we had family spread out across two countries. However, in the end, I agreed! He chose Hawaii to get married and I chose Tahiti for our honeymoon!

 

To make a long story short, we got married on a Hawaiian Princess cruise that was already booked by our family (it was roundtrip 15 night out of LA). 1.5 years later we did our honeymoon in Tahiti (cruise plus land trip)! It was beautiful and will always have a special place in our hearts.

 

However, we want to go back to Hawaii and Tahiti in the future - we just haven't done it yet.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Love.II.Cruise