Live from the Aloha Tribe on the Star

[SunLakesBob]

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.

 

Thank you for such great information. It will help us in planning our cruise.

[TracieABD]

I had an absolutely enchanted cruise on the Star last February. What made it so special was the crew. They were the happiest batch I have ever encountered!:) I hope it is the same for you!

[Pstcrik]

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

 

 

Thanks Kruzprincess I see you have posted it separately.

[Ellipooh]

Really appreciating the two-fer live postings, thank you for taking the time. I'll be following your trip with a great deal of interest as we look forward to our Hawaii cruise in just four months!

[seamanfs]

We loved the Star to Hawaii on Nov 5th!! The crew were very friendly and our room steward, Darwin, took wonderful care of us too. Can't say enough good things about the ship and staff. Beautiful trip. Miss it like crazy and waiting for Feb 17th to board the Emerald!!

[casavaha]

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.

 

Were you on the Star or Golden last year? The band was so bad in the Wheelhouse that

we ended up dancing in Crooners Lounge to the music of Bruce Tilden. The cruise director

had no sympathy with us. Looking forward to dancing to this group on Dec. 20. Thanks

for the info. Greg

[senior lady]

Star is one of my favourite ships.:D

[PunkiC]

Were you on the Star or Golden last year? The band was so bad in the Wheelhouse that we ended up dancing in Crooners Lounge to the music of Bruce Tilden. The cruise director had no sympathy with us. Looking forward to dancing to this group on Dec. 20. Thanks

Yes, casavaha, we were on the Golden last year and the dancing was pretty dismal. Was your cruise director a woman named Sammy, or something like that? She obviously was clueless about dancing--she didn't even allow dancing at the elite party with the great orchestra. Needless to say, she got very bad reviews from the dance crowd. :p

Day Three—Lots of Pacific Ocean.

The only thing I have heard about the wine packages (as told to me by a dinner mate) is that you can get a cheap package for $161 and that includes 7 bottles of wine that cost $29 or less, but you still have to pay a 15% gratuity on top of that, bringing the cost up to $26.45 per bottle. Not such a good deal really, especially if you can get really good wine on land for $4.00 or so, as you can in California, if you know what you are doing. In Italy and Portugal we were getting excellent wines for only 2 Euros and that was mostly by guessing because we were not familiar with the wines there.

We really like being on the sunny side of the ship, but on a round-trip Hawaii cruise you have to have one leg in the sun and one in the shade. We chose the Starboard side for this cruise so we would be able to enjoy the sun on our balcony on the way back, after we had warmed up in Hawaii. Since we had to scrape frost off our car to drive to the airport on Wednesday, we figured we could handle the shade for the westbound portion of the cruise.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the Noordam was that they had large bath sheets—so much nicer than the little Princess bath towels. Finally (this is our 26th Princess cruise) it dawned on me that I could use the pool towel as a bath sheet. Duh, I guess I am a little slow. Oh I also forgot to mention that our steward delivered robes to our room yesterday afternoon, so we now have Princess waffle robes to enjoy. We wear them quite lot when we are in our cabin.

Today was a very lazy day with a very slow morning—no Zumba and no gym. Of course, the three things that I really wanted to do—1. Take bridge lessons, 2. Take ukulele lessons, and 3. take ballroom dance lessons, were all scheduled for exactly the same time. Bummer. Ukulele class, which was taught today by David Cole today, won out, and I must say that we learned a lot today. Using our jerry-rigged picks helped a lot and, as a group, we mastered (well sort of mastered) “Tiny Bubbles”. I can see where, in two weeks, we will be ready for a recital. I think it is very helpful to have two different teachers as we learn thing from two different perspectives.

After ukulele class, we went down to the $10 sale, but there was nothing that appealed to either of us. We then stopped by the library to turn in our answer to the Wake Show question and grab the daily Sudoku which I really enjoy. I try to learn as much as I can and do lots of puzzles as I believe it keeps my brain exercised. I am currently studying, ukulele, hula and Spanish which isn’t too bad for an old lady. J

We had a quick bite to eat for lunch (I still haven’t had any carbs except for wine and two bites of Princess Dream) so I am feeling pretty proud of myself. Lunch was followed by Hula lessons taught by Leialoha of Elua (which, by the way, means “two”). Today we did one ancient hula and one modern hula. There were quite a few men in the class and they all seemed to have a ba

Edited December 8, 2013 by PunkiC

[PunkiC]

I don't know what happened with the programming on your quote, casavaha, but for some reason it got messed up and it wouldn't let me change it. Oh well, I think everybody understands what you mean.

Mea culpa.

[reedprincess]

 

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

 

Aloha.

 

Any details you can offer about this, more in depth? Your post about it on the Princess boards, while informative, left a lot of questions being asked - was wondering if you had a chance to clear any of them up, i.e: does everyone in the cabin have to purchase? For duration of the cruise? Does it basically include everything under $10 (sodas, bottled water, mocktails, milkshakes, cocktails, any type liquor under 10, etc). And is the 15% added to the $49 day cost?

We sail next, and have always liked the packages on Celebrity and RCI, would probably be good for us if the Star package was similar. Especially with all the sea days.

 

Per KruzPrincess on another thread:

"All Inclusive Beverage Package - says first time offered.

 

$49 per person, per day.

Package includes any individual beverage below $10.

A 15% gratuity will be added.

Bottled wines under $100 available at 40% discount.

Select beverages only available in certain locations.

 

Doesn't include mini-bar items, in-room service, beverages over $10 and a couple other stipulations.

ONLY AVAILABLE ON DAYS 1 AND 2.

It says only available on the Star Princess, so it may be a test event."

Edited December 8, 2013 by reedprincess

[PunkiC]

Oops, looks like my Day Three post got truncated. I don't know what happened.

In any event, here is the end of it:

We had a quick bite to eat for lunch (I still haven’t had any carbs except for wine and two bites of Princess Dream) so I am feeling pretty proud of myself. Lunch was followed by Hula lessons taught by Leialoha of Elua (which, by the way, means “two”). Today we did one ancient hula and one modern hula. There were quite a few men in the class and they all seemed to have a ball. When it comes time for the recital, we will have to pick whether we want to be in the hula section, or play ukuleles. We did pick up a tuner in the ship store and that is very helpful for keeping our ukuleles in tune, along with a fake hibiscus for my hair. We had bought ukuleles on e-bay before we left and carried them on the airplane with us and that sure makes it easier in class because you don’t have to wait in line to get an instrument every day. When we get to Honolulu, we will get some real picks so we don’t have to use old cut-up cards any more.

Tonight is formal night, and I must say the DH looked very dapper in his tux with a purple self-tied bow-tie and his fresh flower lei that he made on Friday. We had kept in the fridge so it looked pretty good when we started out, but after a hard night of dancing it was starting to look pretty wilted. We danced one set before dinner, then went up to Skywalkers for the Elite Happy Hour, then went back down for a bit more dancing, until it was time for the Captain’s Champagne Tower thing. While hanging out watching the festivities we ran into Ken and Anthony who had hosted the Meet and Greet and ended up having dinner with them and four other folks from the Meet and Greet. Fun time.

We got in one more round of dancing before we too wilted and decided it was time to go to bed and enjoy the extra hour of sleep we will get tonight. J

So ends another wonderful day on The Star!

[SunLakesBob]

Any details you can offer about this, more in depth? Your post about it on the Princess boards, while informative, left a lot of questions being asked - was wondering if you had a chance to clear any of them up, i.e: does everyone in the cabin have to purchase? For duration of the cruise? Does it basically include everything under $10 (sodas, bottled water, mocktails, milkshakes, cocktails, any type liquor under 10, etc). And is the 15% added to the $49 day cost?

We sail next, and have always liked the packages on Celebrity and RCI, would probably be good for us if the Star package was similar. Especially with all the sea days.

 

Per KruzPrincess on another thread:

"All Inclusive Beverage Package - says first time offered.

 

$49 per person, per day.

Package includes any individual beverage below $10.

A 15% gratuity will be added.

Bottled wines under $100 available at 40% discount.

Select beverages only available in certain locations.

 

Doesn't include mini-bar items, in-room service, beverages over $10 and a couple other stipulations.

ONLY AVAILABLE ON DAYS 1 AND 2.

It says only available on the Star Princess, so it may be a test event."

 

That is some significant drinking my normal

bottle water 3.50

2 coffees 10.00

1 drink 7.00

1 glass wine 7.00

 

That is 27.50 per day

 

If I add 2 more drinks per day another 14.00 put me ta 41.40 WOW! I won't know my name!:cool:

[reedprincess]

That is some significant drinking my normal

bottle water 3.50

2 coffees 10.00

1 drink 7.00

1 glass wine 7.00

 

That is 27.50 per day

 

If I add 2 more drinks per day another 14.00 put me ta 41.40 WOW! I won't know my name!:cool:

 

I'm not sure whether you are commenting on what our drinking habits may be, or just for your own - whatever. Apparently, it wouldn't be a good fit for you. It could be for us, as we apparently have different drinking habits than yourself; for instance, we don't drink coffee, but we do down 2-3 liters of water a day, so our water bill would be significantly different. Nor do we drink wine, but do have a pre-dinner cocktail, drink with dinner, drink at the show if we go, maybe drink by the pool on a sea day, and we both drink liquor that is higher end/expensive such as Grand Marnier, Campari, etc. - with so many sea days on this trip, I can see where it would come in handy, especially with water, soda, etc included. Hence, trying to find out more info. It's not a problem either way - we'll be on-board in less than 2 weeks, and can find out for ourselves then.

[SunLakesBob]

I'm not sure whether you are commenting on what our drinking habits may be, or just for your own - whatever. Apparently, it wouldn't be a good fit for you. It could be for us, as we apparently have different drinking habits than yourself; for instance, we don't drink coffee, but we do down 2-3 liters of water a day, so our water bill would be significantly different. Nor do we drink wine, but do have a pre-dinner cocktail, drink with dinner, drink at the show if we go, maybe drink by the pool on a sea day, and we both drink liquor that is higher end/expensive such as Grand Marnier, Campari, etc. - with so many sea days on this trip, I can see where it would come in handy, especially with water, soda, etc included. Hence, trying to find out more info. It's not a problem either way - we'll be on-board in less than 2 weeks, and can find out for ourselves then.

 

 

Sorry if I offended anyone. I was just talking my own drinking habits and that it would not be a fit for me. Again, sorry to all.

[reedprincess]

Sorry if I offended anyone. I was just talking my own drinking habits and that it would not be a fit for me. Again, sorry to all.

 

No worries, we all have different drinking habits - wasn't sure what you were commenting on with your earlier post, yours or others. Either way - makes no difference, we each enjoy our cruises and lives differently! As noted, the package doesn't seem as if it would be a good fit for you - that's cool. For others, like ourselves, it may be a good fit - depends on the particulars.

Either way - enjoy your future cruises - we are counting our days till Star Princess for the holidays! We're not actually escaping any winter weather (obviously) just looking to enjoy a different tropical locale! Have a great holiday season!

[caribill]

we do down 2-3 liters of water a day, so our water bill would be significantly different.

 

So far it has not been posted that bottled water is included in the Princess package.

[KruzPrincess]

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

 

I posted the info in separate thread because I knew it would interest more people than just those reading this thread.

[KruzPrincess]

Computers are slow, slow, slow today.

 

I posted more about the drink package on that thread. I hope that helps.

 

Football lovers will love it on this cruise. So far, we had Thursday Night Football, NCAA Arizona game on Saturday and 3 NFL games today. I suspect we'll have Monday Night Football tomorrow. Four out of five days. Personally, I prefer movies.

 

Lots of activities. Lei making, ukelele, hula, how to tie a sarong, fruit carving, as well as all the regular things. Movies on MUTS, TV and in the Princess theater.

 

Art auctioneer told everyone the Princess owned art will be off-loaded in Honolulu and the new art vendor will be on for the second half of the cruise.

 

Elua has a popular heirloom lei making class and they sell already made products. I think I might go to the class tomorrow. Also, had another orchid lei class today. You need tickets for these and I don't get going early enough for that. Needlecrafters get together in Crooners daily to do their thing.

 

Yesterday was Asian (Princess calls in Oriental) theme in the buffet for lunch. They had 3 dishes. I ate a late breakfast, so I didn't partake. Today was Latino these day and it wasn't really Mexican food. More South American. I just had salad and guac. The line for hot food was too long.

 

Last night was formal night and I watched the Champagne waterfall. It's nice with all the Christmas decorations. The decorations went up in Los Angeles, by the way. Lovely.

 

That's it. Nice cruise except for the bird that remains on my balcony. I'm too sad to go out there. I called for someone to come and do something again. :(

[reedprincess]

So far it has not been posted that bottled water is included in the Princess package.

 

Yes, it has. Every drink up to $10, including water, sodas, mocktails, booze, etc. Cleared up in the package drink thread. Thanks though.

Edited December 9, 2013 by reedprincess

[reedprincess]

Computers are slow, slow, slow today.

 

I posted more about the drink package on that thread. I hope that helps. Yes, it did, thanks a million!

Football lovers will love it on this cruise. So far, we had Thursday Night Football, NCAA Arizona game on Saturday and 3 NFL games today. I suspect we'll have Monday Night Football tomorrow. Four out of five days. Personally, I prefer movies. Sounds perfect - love watching football on MUTS! Movies are great too - football only happens a few days a week. :p

 

Lots of activities. Lei making, ukelele, hula, how to tie a sarong, fruit carving, as well as all the regular things. Movies on MUTS, TV and in the Princess theater.

 

Art auctioneer told everyone the Princess owned art will be off-loaded in Honolulu and the new art vendor will be on for the second half of the cruise.

 

Elua has a popular heirloom lei making class and they sell already made products. I think I might go to the class tomorrow. Also, had another orchid lei class today. You need tickets for these and I don't get going early enough for that. Needlecrafters get together in Crooners daily to do their thing.

 

Yesterday was Asian (Princess calls in Oriental) theme in the buffet for lunch. They had 3 dishes. I ate a late breakfast, so I didn't partake. Today was Latino these day and it wasn't really Mexican food. More South American. I just had salad and guac. The line for hot food was too long.

 

Last night was formal night and I watched the Champagne waterfall. It's nice with all the Christmas decorations. The decorations went up in Los Angeles, by the way. Lovely.

 

That's it. Nice cruise except for the bird that remains on my balcony. I'm too sad to go out there. I called for someone to come and do something again. :(

Thanks again for the ongoing updates KruzPrincess - greatly appreciated! One other question (this one from hubby) - are either of the bands from the Caribbean? Just curious - not like we won't find out in a bit ourselves! Thanks again!! Have a fabulous time!!!

[PunkiC]

Day Four—Halfway to Hawaii!

It turns out to be a good thing that we chose the starboard side as so far there hasn’t been enough sun to enjoy. The weather, however, is still pleasant so it is very nice to be out on the deck. Today is the first day I have been able to dry our hand laundry outside. I like how the clothes smell when they are dried in the fresh air, and love how they smell when they are dried in the fresh air and sunshine. Hopefully it will be sunny on the way back. J

DH did get up bright and early and go to stretch class but said it wasn’t very crowded today. I prefer to stretch in our cabin. The Zumba classes on the other hand are totally packed with people pouring out into every area of the Vista Lounge.

Sadly, there is no priest on board so there is no Sunday Mass. That is one thing that we really do like on HAL. I believe they also have a priest on board most Cunard ships.

As soon as DH finished his shower, our toilet quit working. When we headed up to breakfast, we learned that all of the toilets on our end of our deck quit working. Ooops. Fortunately our cabin is right by the stairs on Aloha, so it is a quick run up to the bathroom by the HC. I ran into an engineering officer in the hall who told me they were working on it. By the time we got back from breakfast everything was fixed. Hurray. Working toilets are so nice.

The ukulele class for the day was taught by Elua Dave and we reviewed “Tiny Bubbles” and learned “You Are My Sunshine”. Every day it gets a little easier. Today a friend from class brought me the chords to “Happy Birthday” so by the time we get to my brother-in-law’s birthday party upon our return, we will be able to surprise him with a song. J

Today, Sunday, is packed with lots of football games on the big screen. DH is happy that he can watch lots of football, and ran right up to the pool after lunch to watch the Seahawks play whatever team they are playing—they lost. He will still take his hula lessons which he really seems to enjoy.

Hula class was late in the afternoon today but lots and lots of fun. Leiahola certainly has a beautiful voice and is very good teacher. We won’t have another hula class until we head back from Hawaii, but we feel pretty good about our progress on the song “Where I Live There Are Rainbows” which is one of the songs we will perform, in the event we decide to be in the hula section rather than the ukulele section for the recital. Hula feels like it is very good for the upper arms, shoulders and thighs. Maybe I can Hula myself into good skiing condition. What a concept.

We went down and checked our Future Cruise Credits and found that we each have two FCCs left so we may or may not buy more. Then, on the other hand, since we don’t have any Princess cruises booked for a while we probably should, just to make sure we are covered if some great bargains come along. You never want to run short of Future Cruise Credits. We are thinking about joining some friends for a cruise from Vancouver to San Francisco, spending one night in SFO, and then cruising back again to Vancouver, via Nanaimo and Victoria. That is a nice little cruise.

We had another fun night of dancing, first in The Wheelhouse and then, when they took a break, down in the Piazza to Elua who really do play some good dance music. It is more difficult dancing on the tile, but there were a lot of people up and dancing and they were all pretty accomplished dancers.

After dancing, we had dinner at a table for ten with some other folks from The Aloha Tribe, including Ken, Anthony, Martha, Nancy and Melissa, and other folks whose names I can’t remember at the moment. My memory is becoming so porous as I get older. ;) We had a wonderful time and were the last folks to leave the dining room, which is always a good sign.

Dancing another set with The Janos Quartet finished the evening for us. I think those of you who are dancers are going to enjoy them as they really do try to meets their dancers’ needs.

So far, this has been a wonderful cruise.

[SunLakesBob]

I hope that there will be a priest for the Holiday Cruise. A couple of years ago there wasn't. The CD did a non-denominational service. It was nice. HAL appears to always have a priest.

[PunkiC]

Woo Hoo, we now have 4G cell service! I missed it at sea. :-)

[PunkiC]

Day Five—Almost to Hawaii

This morning we could really feel Hawaii in the air. The tropics are so special. I bless our forefathers who had the foresight to acquire both Hawaii and Alaska in our country. Both states dramatically enhance the quality, diversity and beauty of our amazing country.

We do have flea or some sort of bug in our cabin that joined us in San Pedro. I don’t think it paid a proper fare. Hopefully, it will jump ship in Honolulu because it is really annoying.

This morning the Zumba was held on the Lido Deck, and was even more packed than usual.

DH came back soaking with sweat. Even though we get free laundry, I have to wash out his workout clothes every day, along with my lingerie which I would never entrust to a laundry.

We are becoming totally immersed in Hawaiian culture on this cruise and are loving it--can’t wait until we actually get to Hawaii once again. Our ukulele class today was taught by Dave Cole, our CD and it was very difficult. He took us through most of the major chords (the hard part) and we also learned “Amazing Grace” and “Silent Night” (the fun part) and had a tutorial on where to get the best deal on ukuleles in Hawaii. We also learned that almost all ukuleles are made in China.

They are serving a lot of cauliflower and cheese dishes in the Horizon Court which is just fine with me. I love the taste and they are very good for people on low carb diets. That would be me. J

After lunch we attended a presentation by Elua called “Eat and Speak Hawaiian”. It was fun learning the Hawaiian words but quite honestly, there wasn’t much in the way of Hawaiian food that appealed to me. I think I could live a long time without ever eating SPAM or poi. Fortunately, these days, there are lots of choices for food almost everywhere we travel.

The movie “Hawaii” is being shown on TV several times a day. I first read the book when I was 16 and was totally fascinated. I read it again when we came back to Hawaii for our 25th wedding anniversary and then a couple of years ago on another trip to the islands. I really prefer the book to the movie--movies never really capture the whole story. While I rested and watched the last half of Hawaii, DH went to another presentation on volcanoes and the solar system. When he came back for an afternoon nap and I returned from a walk around the ship, we watched the first half of the movie “Hawaii”. I don’t know how much of it is true, but over 50 years ago the book formed my basic understanding of Hawaii so that is pretty much what I believe. Michener’s books are usually pretty well researched so I would imagine that there is a good amount of truth in the book and movie.

While we have anytime dining, we usually make reservations for dinner, which eliminates waiting time when we go to dinner. Tonight our reservations were for 7:03 p.m. so we danced in The Wheelhouse prior to dinner and enjoyed chatting with ship friends. We ended up at a table for 6 and all of our table mates were very interesting. After dinner we went back the The Wheelhouse and danced another couple of sets. They did have big band music in Explorers but it looked crowded and we were happy dancing to The Wheelhouse band.

Tomorrow, Honolulu! J

[melody hounddog]

Hi PunkiC!

 

I am really enjoying your review and can't wait to board the Star next week.

 

I am interesting in reading the book you spoke of, Hawaii. I checked on Amazon. Is the author James A. Michener?

 

Thanks!