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Live from the Aloha Tribe on the Star

PunkiC

By PunkiC,
in Princess Cruises

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Day One, Embarkation

It was a cool, but very sunny Thursday in SoCal—a lovely day to start a cruise to Hawaii.

We had flown down Wednesday afternoon, had dinner with in-laws, and spent the night near Disneyland. So, by the time we got up, dressed, did some nostalgia touring in Santa Ana (where I had lived in the early 60s), and found a Trader Joe’s to buy a case of our favorite Vinas Chilenas Reserva Merlot, it was almost 2:00 p.m. The clerk didn’t think they had a case in stock, but I prayed as he went back to check and, lo and behold, he found one. J We first drove directly to the ship to drop off our large suitcase and the wine and then, as is our habit, we turned in the Enterprise rental car, that we had picked up at the Long Beach airport, at the Double Tree in San Pedro, and hitched a ride on the Double Tree shuttle to the ship.

The driver commented that we were very smart to have waited until later in the day as the entire morning had been a zoo with long lines of people waiting for the shuttles to the ship. When we got to the ship there were virtually no lines at all and boarding went very, very fast. There again, the Princess agents and security people commented on how lucky we were to have waited and avoided the crowds.

As soon as we boarded we unpacked our carry-ons, switched out our mini-bar offerings, got our extra pillows and asked for robes. The steward said that all the robes were in the laundry and that he couldn’t get us one until the morning and that was fine with us. Our cabin is on Aloha, near the rear stairwell, which is our favorite location. The only new thing we noticed in the cabin is that they have installed shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel dispensers in the shower which I really like. By the time we unpacked, the muster signal sounded so we grabbed our life jackets and headed down to the Vista lounge for the drill. We just recently returned from a HAL Atlantic crossing and I much prefer the Princess method of holding muster inside, to the HAL method of holding it on the deck, standing underneath one’s life raft. I also noticed that people are much quieter and pay much closer attention when they are sitting down.

Following muster I went directly to the Purser’s desk, got my cruise card punched and printed out our account information to see how much on-board credit we had received. I always check it early on so I can loosely plan how we will spend it. By he time I got back to the cabin our large suitcase had arrived so we unpacked that and then headed up to the Horizon Court for lunch—a very late, very light, lunch. Our case of wine still had not arrived at our cabin.

We rested for a couple of hours in our cabin and watched a movie and the delayed sail-away from our cabin balcony. It was after dark by the time we left the dock, but I have no idea what caused the delay

Tonight we were disinclined to go to the dining room so we just went up to the HC for a quick bite before heading down to the Wheelhouse for some dancing. As soon as we entered the Wheelhouse we ran into Elua who remembered us from our 2012 Hawaii cruise. As we were chatting with them, some old neighbors from Seattle came in and greeted us, so that was a nice surprise. We have daughter who are the same age and they said that they had heard through the daughter grapevine that we were cruising to Hawaii this week, but didn’t know if we would be on the same ship. I wonder if we will run into anyone else we know. On our last HAL cruise an old vendor had a cabin right down the hall from us. It was really nice to see him.

The band in The Wheelhouse is really quite good, playing a good variety of nice dance music. There seem to be quite a few fairly accomplished dancers on board which we like. We always seem to make friends with the dancers on all the ships we sail, some of whom have become real-life friends with whom we have taken many cruises over the years. Dancing was a little bit of a challenge as, once we left the dock, we started experiencing a good bit of rocking and rolling. It was still lots of fun dancing and I believe we danced almost every dance in the set before we decided it was time to go to bed. I had broken my ankle in July and wasn’t able to dance too much on our HAL cruise so it was really fun to enjoy dancing almost every dance, including the faster swing songs.

We still haven’t hooked up with our case of wine, but we did receive a call from the Purser’s desk telling us that they would call us back in the morning and make arrangements for its delivery. We realize that we will be paying a corkage fee on 10 of the bottles and that’s fine. At least we will have wine we know we like.

Edited by PunkiC
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reedprincess

reedprincess

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Thanks for doing a "live from" - we always enjoy them, and we are onboard on the next sailing, so updates on the ship and entertainment on-board are great!

Former Santa Ana kid myself (although in the 70s) - will be doing a nostalgia drive through after the cruise myself, on our way to San Diego.

Have a wonderful time!!!

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KruzPrincess

KruzPrincess

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I am on the Star Princess going to Hawaii, too. I usually do a live thread, but I'll just add on to Punki's thread. I was upgraded to a full suite and it's great. I suspect I'll be enjoying life in my cabin and on my balcony more than ever. I went to Sabatini's last night for my free specialty restaurant visit. The waiter recommended veal and it was wonderful.

 

Captain is Todd McBain. CD is David Cole. Elua is onboard. Entertainment includes David Klinkenberg, Heather Sullivan, Mike Marino, Rick Thomas, Michelle Van Ree, British Invasion, Stardust, etc.

 

Movies are Wolverine, World War Z, Dispicable Me 2, Man of Steel, Now You See Me, Oblivion, Jobs, Red 2, Star Trek Into Darkness, Great Gatsby, Lone Ranger, The Way, Way Back and White House Down. Plus a lot of football, I'm sure.

 

There is a brand new all inclusive drink package available. I will make a separate post about that.

 

Aloha.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Day Day Two, Meet and Greet, Gift Exchange and out to Sea.

Thank you so much, KruzPrincess, for chiming in, and very hearty congratulations on your fabulous upgrade. Lucky you! I hope other folks on the ship join in and share their input. It’s good to get lots of different points of view.

It was pretty rocky during the night, but I must have been sleeping like a log because I didn’t even hear them deliver the morning coffee. By the time my alarm went off, DH was already up in the gym stretching.

After breakfast, we went up to the Meet and Greet and the gift exchange. We finally talked the organizer into allowing gift stealing, which makes it a lot more fun, and, when we were finished, he agreed and even said he wished there had been a lot more stealing. Good way to start our cruise. The Aloha Tribe is a very good group and I hope we see more of them during the next couple of weeks.

Next on the agenda was the ukulele introductory class. The introductory class was given twice today—first at 11:15 by Dave of Elua and then again at 1:30 p.m. by Dave Cole our Cruise Director. This was a first-time experience for both DH and me playing ukulele, and we enjoyed it quite a lot. Unfortunately my arthritis is so bad in my index finger that I had to use my thumb to strum. When we got back to the cabin, I found an old plastic card and cut it up to make some picks so I can play more easily. The ukulele classes are very popular and the entire Wheelhouse was totally packed for the 11:15 a.m. class. I don’t know how many showed up for the later class. It will be curious tomorrow to see how many go on to the progressive classes. We learned four chords (C, C7, F and G7 today) and I am thinking that by the time we get back we will be able to play Jingle Bells, and maybe even Happy Birthday, as we will be attending a birthday party in Seal Beach the night we arrive back into San Pedro.

We had lunch in the HC and then had to rush down to the fresh flower lei class. Everybody wants a lei, so even if you have a lei ticket, if you are 5 minutes late, they give your space away to someone else. We shared a table with two other ladies and it was lots of fun. DH had told me in the morning that he wasn’t interested in the class, but then when he went down to get me tickets at 9:00 a.m., he came back with two tickets for the same time and said that if I was going to do it, he may as well do it too. J He is so funny. Now we have fresh flower leis to wear to dinner tonight. We may stand by for future classes.

Merengue classes were on our list at 3:15, but we decided we were too tired for Merengue and took a nap instead. I don’t know why they don’t schedule “Nap Time” in the Pitter Patter. Napping is one of the nicest thing one can do on a cruise.

Our nap totally refreshed us for dinner so we decided to go to the MDR. We have anytime dining because we like meeting as many people as possible so we always request a table for 8 every night. All 6 of our table mates tonight were very nice. If we do that every night, we will have dined with a total of 84 different people. That will be fun.

We aren’t really into shows, but we love to dance so, after dinner we went to The Wheelhouse where we danced another entire set. I am happy to report that I am growing stronger and have more endurance each day. When The Wheelhouse band went on a break, we decided to head over to Explorers and found that the band in that venue was every bit as good as the band in The Wheelhouse. Lucky us. After a bunch of dances, culminating with a very fast version of “Rock Around the Clock” we decided to pack it in and go to bed.

When we got in bed, we discovered that they were playing old episodes of “The Love Boat” which we totally love, love, love. I used to watch that show and dream that someday I would be able to go to sea, and here I am, loving every minute of it! J We are so very blessed.

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SunLakesBob

SunLakesBob

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PunkiC - it is so nice to see folks who are so thankful for such great experiences. We are all blessed to be able to do great cruises as this. We can't wait for our holiday cruise, when you get back so keep the ship in good shape. Thank you for your "live updates"

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Things I forgot to say.

We got a call from the passengers’ services desk in the morning, explaining the new wine policy and informing us of the corkage fee that we would have to pay on ten of the twelve bottles in our case. After advising that paying the corkage fee was fine with us, the agent said she would send up the case with a receipt. It arrived about 10 minutes later, complete with the rope that DH had used to tie it up, carefully tucked in the case. The agent did mention that since it was a very high-quality line, they had carefully untied it and saved it for us for next trip. Ten of the bottles had a label attached that read “Corkage Paid”. J You will find, melody hounddog that the process goes quite smoothly. Just remember to take another bottle in your carry-on if you want a bottle to take to dinner the first night.

Casavaha, the band in The Wheelhouse is The Janos Quartet and they are good and play very nice dance music. The band in Explorers is Fresh Powder, which is more of a party band, playing stuff like “Elvira” but also playing some decent dance music. We are happy with the combination. The band on this cruise last year only played endless jazz riffs which were totally worthless as dance music. Everybody was complaining to the purser’s desk but the Cruise Director was clueless about dance music so it did no good. We made our opinion know loud and clear in our evaluation. This year is soooo much better.

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KruzPrincess

KruzPrincess

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Having an excellent time on the Star Princess.

 

This morning I went to my first breakfast at Sabatini's. Had a lovely egg white omelet. Service was superb. It really is a nice perk. I'm not much of a morning eater, so I don't know if I'll go again, but I had to try it.

 

Today is the $10 sale in the Portofino dining room. I didn't expect to buy anything, but I ended up getting some nice scarves that I'll give as thank you gifts to some people I do business with. I think they ladies will like them.

 

They have the Crab Shack on the Star Princess and they will be having it on the 8th and 9th. $20 per person and it's located in an area of the Horizon Court. I think I'm going to make a reservation.

 

Today is pub lunch as well as an Asian theme buffet in the HC buffet. Now tha I ate a late breakfast I probably won't do either.

 

Dave Cole and the the deputy CD he does the Wake Show with are very funny together. I'm sorry that I can't think the the DCD's name right now. Hate that. It's funny, though, but I love Dave Cole.

 

Yesterday, I forgot to mention our Cruise Critic M&G. Met lots of nice folks. I want to thank Anthony and Ken for doing such a great job at organizing and doing the gift exchange. I didn't participate in the gift exchange, but it looked like people had fun with it.

 

Oh, wanted to mention dinner in the Horizon Court. I went for salad last night and noticed something new. They have had "no salt" selections. They had two items, fish and carrots, which I tasted and they were good. Also, they had 5 vegetarian items all grouped together. Virginia ham was on the carving block.

 

Tomorrow, I'll try to make notes about all the things I'm forgetting to tell you. Everything is really good on the Star, though. Staff has been super.

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Pstcrik

Pstcrik

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Having an excellent time on the Star Princess.

 

This morning I went to my first breakfast at Sabatini's. Had a lovely egg white omelet. Service was superb. It really is a nice perk. I'm not much of a morning eater, so I don't know if I'll go again, but I had to try it.

 

Today is the $10 sale in the Portofino dining room. I didn't expect to buy anything, but I ended up getting some nice scarves that I'll give as thank you gifts to some people I do business with. I think they ladies will like them.

 

They have the Crab Shack on the Star Princess and they will be having it on the 8th and 9th. $20 per person and it's located in an area of the Horizon Court. I think I'm going to make a reservation.

 

Today is pub lunch as well as an Asian theme buffet in the HC buffet. Now tha I ate a late breakfast I probably won't do either.

 

Dave Cole and the the deputy CD he does the Wake Show with are very funny together. I'm sorry that I can't think the the DCD's name right now. Hate that. It's funny, though, but I love Dave Cole.

 

Yesterday, I forgot to mention our Cruise Critic M&G. Met lots of nice folks. I want to thank Anthony and Ken for doing such a great job at organizing and doing the gift exchange. I didn't participate in the gift exchange, but it looked like people had fun with it.

 

Oh, wanted to mention dinner in the Horizon Court. I went for salad last night and noticed something new. They have had "no salt" selections. They had two items, fish and carrots, which I tasted and they were good. Also, they had 5 vegetarian items all grouped together. Virginia ham was on the carving block.

 

Tomorrow, I'll try to make notes about all the things I'm forgetting to tell you. Everything is really good on the Star, though. Staff has been super.

 

 

Many thanks for the Live Info but dont forget when you can to fill us in on the new drink package you mentioned the other day that Princess was trying out. Very Interested in that as to if it is worthwhile. Thanks again

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