Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Live from the Aloha Tribe on the Star

PunkiC

By PunkiC,
in Princess Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

PunkiC

PunkiC

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day Nine—Hilo

We arrived at a very overcast, cool Hilo. By the time the ship was cleared by customs, it was pouring down rain so we took our time getting ready and eating breakfast. The couple that we sat with at breakfast told us that a guy had died in the Amalfi dining room the night before. We had heard them call the code “Alpha” during dinner but had no idea why, but now we know. According to our breakfast mates he was in his 90s, which really isn’t a bad way to go. When DH was riding in the elevator with the ship’s doctor, the doctor mentioned that people die on ships far more often than one might think.

While I was playing around with my ukulele in the cabin after breakfast, the G string came off and it was apparent that it was irreparable—the hole in that thingy at the bottom, I think it is called a bridge, was broken and just would not hold a string any more. L Oh well, stuff happens.

Fortunately there is a good ukulele shop in Hilo so, as soon, as the rain stopped, we decided to head into town and get a new ukulele for me. On the way off the ship, we ran into our old neighbors who had just returned from buying a new tenor ukulele in town and they offered to sell us their old concert ukulele, including the case, for a very reasonable price.

When we got down to the dock we decided to take the Hoppa On Hoppa Off shuttle for $15 per person all day long. It was pretty cool. They took us to the Japanese Garden, which is really lovely, and then past the statue of King Kamehameha and then out to Rainbow Falls where this stranger too a really fabulous picture of us by the falls. I was impressed with his photographic abilities..

After running all over the island and seeing the sites we decided to go downtown to the Hilo Guitar and Ukulele shop where I bought a new ukulele and a song book, and DH decided he would just buy our friend’s used one.

At the recommendation of some friends at home, we stopped into the Pesto Restaurant. I had a glass of wine and DH had a free range Maui beef burger which he said was great. The place smelled fabulously of garlic.

On the way back to the ship, we remembered that we had forgotten to make dinner reservations, so that is the first thing we did upon our arrival. DH then called our friends and arranged to buy their old ukulele. After he got back with his new instrument, we had a great time practicing our ukuleles and laughing our heads off. We did “Pearly Shells” “Tiny Bubbles” “You are my Sunshine” and “Tom Dooley” at least a thousand times each to peals of laughter. This really is a lot of fun. It makes me sad that we didn’t play ukulele when the kids were little as I think they would have liked it a lot. Of course, it is possible that future invitations we receive might include a specific request to leave our ukuleles at home. J

There was no band in The Wheelhouse as we headed down to dinner so we stopped and had a few dances in Explorers along the way to the dining room. Fresh Power is a pretty good dance band. I am laughing at myself right now as when I checked their name, I realized that is said Fresh Power, and not Fresh Powderas I had previously been calling them. I guess you can see what I am longing to do when we get back home.

While we were at our late dinner seating, the Captain came on the intercom and announced that someone had been seriously injured and that we would have to either return to Hilo to take them to the hospital, or prepare for a helicopter evacuation. Since it was quite late, I was happy when they decided to just return to the port. When they do a helicopter evacuation, they clear the top few floors midships and that would have meant dragging a lot of people out of bed. I was hoping to stay up to watch the tender disembarkation, but I feel asleep. When I woke up, it was about 2:45 am and we had 4G cell service and we could still see the lights of Hilo aft of the ship. I do hope that passenger will be OK.

Elua was playing in Crooners after dinner so we stopped and listened for a while and even danced a few dances in the hallway. Leialoha told us the story of how they had met on line and fallen in love and lived happily ever after. I thought that was pretty cool. When they finished their set, we went back down to The Wheelhouse and danced another set there before we went up to our cabin and crashed.

The Captain said our return to Hilo would not affect our arrival time in Ensenada.

Notes to responders:

Waimea’s Mom: The collection of the corkage fee at ports has been pretty sketch and hit and miss. My best advice is to be prepared to pay it and then be joyfully surprised if you don’t have to. So far we have had more misses than hits. J

Dchip: Don’t be surprised to find us on your cruise. We are liking this so much that we might just come back again sometime this winter.

Kahlua Girl: The shop where I got the dresses was just to the left of one of the ABC’s that is just beyond the museum houses. Captain Jack’s is just on the other side of the park, closer to the banyan tree and ship up on the second floor. There are dozens and dozens of shops where one can buy sundresses all along Front Street.

SunLakesBob: You just have no sympathy. J If you are thinking of taking ukulele classes, which I highly recommend, you will save yourself a lot of time waiting in lines if you buy a ukulele before you leave home. Even I you get a cheap one and decide you like it and want to move on the something better while you are in Hawaii, it is still worthwhile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Caribensun

Caribensun

Posted
Posted

Hello, Glad you are having a great time and weather.

What is the name of music store you went to in Hilo?

Does the Hop off/on bus go to Walmart and Farmers Market too?

I do not remember seeing or hearing of this bus last year.

You should join our cruise in Feb.

Aloha, Seadeck2

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KruzPrincess

KruzPrincess

Posted
Posted

Aloha

 

Tonight is the second formal night and the Captain's Circle party. I didn't bring any dressy clothes, so I'm walking around and getting the "eye". LOL. I had surgery a few weeks back and needed to pack light. The formal clothes is what got left behind. They are playing Christmas music in the piazza tonight. Nice.

 

Speaking of the holidays, they put a new channel on the TV last night. You can watch flames in a fireplace. I love it. Very relaxing.

 

Last night, a passenger had a serious injury after we left Hilo. I haven't heard specifics on the injury, but we had to turn around and go back to Hilo. For a bit we were unsure if they would have the Coast Guard airlift him or if we'd go all the way back. In the end, we went back and they took him into port on a tender where an ambulance was waiting. The doctor spoke to him this morning in the hospital and he's doing well. They were flying in a specialist for surgery today. It sounds like he'll be fine, but I'm sure it was scary. My thoughts are with him. On my last cruise, we had to have someone airlifted off the ship. It was a crew member.

 

Has anyone noticed changes in the MDR menus? Tonight, they have grilled lobster and crab cake. They also have halibut and chateaubriand. No beef Wellington. Maybe we'll have the regular lobster on the last formal night???

 

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that I finally saw snow in the piazza during the Champagne waterfall. Pretty fun.

 

Today was the Walk for the Cure. I stopped by and made my donation.

 

That's all. I know there's stuff I mean to tell you and can never remember when I'm on the computer.

 

Later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PunkiC

PunkiC

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day Ten—Back at Sea

Ah, we are finally heading back and have the sun on our deck in the morning. I don’ t know if we are going faster than usual (trying to make up time) or if it is just windier than it was on the way over. In any event it is a warm wind and we are loving it.

Today is Saturday and it is formal night. We received an invitation for the 5:00 Captain’s Party, but that is too early for us as we have Hula at 4:00 and have to get ready. We switched to the 7:00 party and made dinner reservations for 7:30. That should work.

Since we have acquired new ukuleles, our plan was to donate our old ones to the ukulele stash on the ship, but when we got down DH started talking with this guy who didn’t have one so he gave it to him. The guy was pretty happy.

We won the Wake Show question of the day again and this time we got an electric personal fan that goes around your neck. The other day we won a passport cover with places for credit cards as well. I probably won’t use it as we keep our travel credit cards in a little (credit card sized) plastic case that we got from Cruise Specialists and only use our passport card when we go ashore.

We are having some decent sized rollers today so we are getting a fair amount of ship action, for those who really like the feeling of being at sea. The Captain announced that the Senior Doctor had spoken with the passenger who was transferred to the hospital in Hilo during the night and learned that they expect full recovery. Evidentially they need to fly in a specialist who will be operating this afternoon.

Ukulele was taught today by Dave from Elua and we learned a lot more chords and techniques. We began practicing “Aloha Oe” which is one of the songs that we will be playing in the show if we elect to play ukulele instead of dancing hula. Decisions, decisions. Each day it all gets a little easier and I am very happy with our progress to date. This is really fun. J

This losing an hour every night, however, is for the birds. By the time we finished lunch, we were both ready for a nap to hold us over until Hula time.

Hula today was in Explorers and we have now gone through all of the songs we will perform at the show at least once. DH and our friends are all leaning toward doing Hula for the show, but we still have not made a final decision. I would be happy doing either Ukulele or Hula.

We accidentally left our “Do Not Disturb” sing on the door when we were practicing our Ukuleles in our room so they couldn’t deliver our formal night canapés and had to call them back for a redelivery. When they arrived, they were mostly meat, which I don’t eat, but I didn’t have the heart to call them back again. DH loved them, but I missed my caviar.

The Captain’s party was quite nice and we really enjoyed the dancing to The Janos Quartet in the Vista Lounge and saw quite a few really good dancers whom we had not previously seen in The Wheelhouse. The most travelled passenger had something like 1,950 days, which is over 5 years on the ship. Wow! We had met the second most travelled passengers earlier in the week and they were doing this Hawaii cruise a total of four times, back-to-back. I love this cruise but don’t think I would want to do it more than once (maybe twice) in a row. The party ran a little longer that we had thought it would so we were a little late to dinner, a condition was augmented by the fact that we couldn’t resist a dance in the Piazza with Elua.

They had lobster for dinner but I had ordered halibut that turned out to be awful—totally overcooked and as dry as cardboard. I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t bother to send it back or order anything else. Oh well, sometimes that happens.

The Princess orchestra was playing in The Wheelhouse and we danced until I dropped. Those of you who are dancers are going to love this cruise.

The ship action increased as we headed east and there were a couple of times that dancing (and even walking) got a bit tricky.

Notes to responders:

seadeck2: The guitar store we went to in Hilo is called Hilo Guitar and it is right next to the Farmer’s Market. Walmart has a free shuttle, as does Hilo Hattie, but neither goes downtown. There was a free shuttle that goes to the Farmer’s Market downtown, but it ended at 11:00 a.m. and I don’t believe it goes anywhere else. We were happy with the Hoppa On/Hoppa Off as it took us to everything we wanted to see and was reasonably priced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Woobstr112G "Live from...." Rare

Woobstr112G

Posted
Posted (edited)
Day Ten—Back at Sea

Ah, we are finally heading back and have the sun on our deck in the morning. I don’ t know if we are going faster than usual (trying to make up time) or if it is just windier than it was on the way over. In any event it is a warm wind and we are loving it.

Today is Saturday and it is formal night. We received an invitation for the 5:00 Captain’s Party, but that is too early for us as we have Hula at 4:00 and have to get ready. We switched to the 7:00 party and made dinner reservations for 7:30. That should work.

Since we have acquired new ukuleles, our plan was to donate our old ones to the ukulele stash on the ship, but when we got down DH started talking with this guy who didn’t have one so he gave it to him. The guy was pretty happy.

We won the Wake Show question of the day again and this time we got an electric personal fan that goes around your neck. The other day we won a passport cover with places for credit cards as well. I probably won’t use it as we keep our travel credit cards in a little (credit card sized) plastic case that we got from Cruise Specialists and only use our passport card when we go ashore.

We are having some decent sized rollers today so we are getting a fair amount of ship action, for those who really like the feeling of being at sea. The Captain announced that the Senior Doctor had spoken with the passenger who was transferred to the hospital in Hilo during the night and learned that they expect full recovery. Evidentially they need to fly in a specialist who will be operating this afternoon.

Ukulele was taught today by Dave from Elua and we learned a lot more chords and techniques. We began practicing “Aloha Oe” which is one of the songs that we will be playing in the show if we elect to play ukulele instead of dancing hula. Decisions, decisions. Each day it all gets a little easier and I am very happy with our progress to date. This is really fun. J

This losing an hour every night, however, is for the birds. By the time we finished lunch, we were both ready for a nap to hold us over until Hula time.

Hula today was in Explorers and we have now gone through all of the songs we will perform at the show at least once. DH and our friends are all leaning toward doing Hula for the show, but we still have not made a final decision. I would be happy doing either Ukulele or Hula.

We accidentally left our “Do Not Disturb” sing on the door when we were practicing our Ukuleles in our room so they couldn’t deliver our formal night canapés and had to call them back for a redelivery. When they arrived, they were mostly meat, which I don’t eat, but I didn’t have the heart to call them back again. DH loved them, but I missed my caviar.

The Captain’s party was quite nice and we really enjoyed the dancing to The Janos Quartet in the Vista Lounge and saw quite a few really good dancers whom we had not previously seen in The Wheelhouse. The most travelled passenger had something like 1,950 days, which is over 5 years on the ship. Wow! We had met the second most travelled passengers earlier in the week and they were doing this Hawaii cruise a total of four times, back-to-back. I love this cruise but don’t think I would want to do it more than once (maybe twice) in a row. The party ran a little longer that we had thought it would so we were a little late to dinner, a condition was augmented by the fact that we couldn’t resist a dance in the Piazza with Elua.

They had lobster for dinner but I had ordered halibut that turned out to be awful—totally overcooked and as dry as cardboard. I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t bother to send it back or order anything else. Oh well, sometimes that happens.

The Princess orchestra was playing in The Wheelhouse and we danced until I dropped. Those of you who are dancers are going to love this cruise.

The ship action increased as we headed east and there were a couple of times that dancing (and even walking) got a bit tricky.

 

Enjoy your day at sea.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited by Woobstr112G
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Waimea'sMom

Waimea'sMom

Posted
Posted

I just want to chime in to second the recommendations on the ukulele lessons. I have taken this itinerary a number of times and back in 2008 I first took the uke classes from Dave and David. My mom ended up buying me an ukulele when we got into Hawaii. I now have seven ukuleles (as you can see in my avatar), and I am a moderator on the largest ukulele forum on the internet. But this was where I caught the bug.

 

The hula classes are great fun as well, and my mom and I always attend those. She always wants us to do hula so I usually do, but twice I did pick ukulele in the show.

 

PunkiC - it has been great fun reading this, as I am taking this cruise again next month. Now, I just have to decide which ukulele to take with me. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Solara

Solara

Posted
Posted

Great news about all the dancing on the ship. Only hope it last until March since we don't sail till the 20th!

 

You said in Hilo you took the Hoppa On Hoppa Off to the Japanese Gardens & Rainbow Falls. Where else did it go to?? Also did it take you downtown & then back to the ship too?

 

Thanks for all you great info.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PunkiC

PunkiC

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Day Eleven—Return Day Two at Sea

The Hawaiian word of the day is “holo holo” which means to go. I will try to remember post them all from now on. We haven’t seen any rainbows yet on our return trip. Last year it seems like one popped up every 15 minutes or so.

For some strange reason, not all of the answers from the box for the Question of the Day got turned into the Cruise Director. They only had four answers and mine wasn’t one of them. L Too bad because they gave prizes to all of the entries with right answers and mine was right.

DH did the early stretch class, but I slept in until almost 9:00 a.m. I needed that.

David Cole taught the ukulele class and I was again struck how good it is to have two different teachers, they teach very differently and that is really good for the students. If you ever have a chance to take a Hawaii cruise with both Dave Cole and Elua, jump at it. They each do a great job on their own, but together they are amazing.

For some reason, the hula class was a lot more crowded today. It will be interesting to see how many actually participate in the show. From now on, our classes will just be rehearsal sessions. The big show is on Wednesday before we get into Ensenada.

Speaking of Ensenada, does anyone know if there are independent tours to the wineries? We are having our Champagne Breakfast on our deck that morning at 8:30 a.m. (gift from our lovely travel agent) and don’t want to feel rushed to make the Princess tour but would like to check out the wineries, or at least one winery. If not, I guest we can always go eat Mexican food, and practice my Spanish. J

I do practice with one of the lovely waitresses in The Wheelhouse. It was funny that when we went into the Captain’s Party, she automatically brought four glasses of Merlot and put them on our table while we were on the dance floor. When we saw her later in The Wheelhouse, she smiled and asked if we like her special surprise.

It is not often that we make it up to Skywalkers for the Elite canapé thing, but we were in the elevator with some folks who were heading up there so we joined them for a bit. There is so little time in a day and so much to do that we just can’t do everything. Maybe that is why so many people are doing this cruise twice or even up to four times, one right after the other.

We had dinner with our old neighbors at a table for four, just so we could catch up on each other, the kids, and the neighborhood. They still own their house, around the block, but have been renting it out for the past 14 years, since they retired.

The rest of the evening (both before and after dinner) consisted of dancing, dancing, dancing. We dance every night until we are too tired to keep going so I am hoping that is helping my legs get stronger for skiing when we get back home.

Notes to responders:

Waiamea’s Mom, I forgot to answer an old question you asked—yes they do have a Princess Pop Choir on the cruise.

SunLakesBob: We have not yet tried The Crab Shack, but we are thinking about it. I do like crab.

Casavaha: I am sorry, but I don’t know which dining room was open for lunch on embarkation day. We didn’t get on board until it was almost time for muster.

caribill: Thanks for posting the link for the Hoppa On Hoppa Off bus route. I think it is interesting that their website is actually http://www.hop-onhop-offhilobus.com/Route-Map-.html as they clearly are not affiliated with the Hop-On Hop-Off buses that we see around the world. I figured that that was why they called themselves Hoppa On Hoppa Off, to avoid a law suite for infringement.

Edited by PunkiC
Link to comment
Share on other sites
greenie082756

greenie082756

Posted
Posted
Thanks to the both of you for threading this "live". We did the Golden in April 2013. Your story is bringing back warm memories-which are helpful as I look out the window at 12" of snow here in New Hampshire. Happy sailing

 

Garry

 

Yes, fond memories..thank you.:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruisin Oldies

Cruisin Oldies

Posted
Posted

I want to also thank both of you for posting "live" from the Star Princess. It is fun to see things through someone else's eyes. It's been some time since we were on the cruise but we sure had a great time. I agree, sailing with both ELUA and David Cole is the best. We also enjoyed having ukulele lessons from 2 different instructors although we have been on with all of them before. They are the ones that got us started playing the ukulele and going to local Jams. I'd say that made a definite change in our lives. Last time we were on the Star was over Halloween about 6 weeks ago, or so. They put on a creepy haunted house you could walk through and so much more. Hope someone posts live over the Christmas Cruise. (Maybe you could just stay on since you've done such a good job posting?)

 

Cruisin Oldies

Link to comment
Share on other sites
anteaters

anteaters

Posted
Posted

Hi! We'll be doing this Hawaiian cruise in about a month and it is such fun reading about it now. Thanks for the great information. I have been learning from others' questions and have a few of my own. Are people swimming in any of the pools and if so, is there one pool that is heated? Also, a lot of dancing has been mentioned, but is there line dancing also? And, has anyone gone to that beach that is included as a stop on the Hoppa On, Hoppa Off bus and if so, could a nice day in Hilo be just using that bus, getting off at a few of the stops, and then laying/swimming on that beach? Thanks for any/all answers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Solara

Solara

Posted
Posted
Thanks' date=' Donna. I hope we have Dave Cole and Elua on the Grand next November. Can't imagine going to Hawaii without them. Have a great cruise.[/quote']Thanks Eileen, We have done Hawaii 3 times, twice with David Cole & Elua & once with just David Cole. I think this time we will just have Elua.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
PunkiC

PunkiC

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day Twelve—Getting Closer to the End

It is a bit cool and there is quite a bit of ship action, which we love, but there is still intermittent sunshine. I ended up pinning my underwear to the deck chair to dry in the sun so it wouldn’t blow away. J We are finally done with time changes, Praise the Lord. It is fun getting those hours on the way over, but really painful when it comes time to give them back.

This was a pretty typical sea day for us with stretch, breakfast, and Ukulele classes, followed by lunch. I think we will be good enough on the ukulele to play in the concert, but DH really wants to do the Hula in the show, so Hula it is.

After lunch we went back to our cabin and checked our Facebook to find that our beautiful daughter’s new CD had just won the NPR Album of the Year award. J How very cool is that? We are so proud of her as she and her partner have worked really hard to write and produce these songs and the new album. Her band is called “The Blow” and the CD is also called “The Blow”. This is very exciting news for all of us and, needless to say, we were bursting with pride on our way to and at Hula class. I am sure people will become tired of our bragging, but we can’t help ourselves.

Following Hula class we went down to the piazza where they were filming the Wake Show for tomorrow. It was quite a Donnybrook. They were supposed to have free drinks to give away but somehow the bar didn’t get the word so they had to stop filming and round up some free drinks. It was, however, all good fun and when they finally got the free drinks, David Cole and Elua sang together, along with the audience. I think it will turn out OK.

Later I went to the Veterans Meeting in Explorers—they served free champagne for that. The Master of Ceremonies must have thought I was too young and cute to be a veteran as he tried to pass over me for the countdown. Fortunately he was just an Army guy and no match for a United States Marine, so I was able to grab the microphone and join the countdown. J Being a US Marine was probably the smartest thing I have ever done (other than picking my DH). They paid for my undergrad and law school and let me buy my first house on the GI bill, zero down. It was a good gig all around.

Where does the time go on the ship? We didn’t even have time for our very hysterical jam session in our cabin before it was time to go up Skywalkers for canapés. It’s always fun to meet new people and see old friends at the Elite party, but we don’t often make it up there.

All of our dancing this evening was in the Piazza with Elua which we enjoy tremendously, despite the terrazzo floor. Tonight we learned that Elua had started their Princess gigs playing as a dance band in The Wheelhouse. It was I believe about six years ago when they hooked up with David Cole and started putting together the Hawaiian immersion experience. A bunch of us ended up dancing Hula together in the Piazza. It was so much fun. I am ready to book again next year but neither Elua nor David Cole knows which ship they will be on. I sure hope they are together. This really is a kick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lovely assistant

lovely assistant

Posted
Posted

Brag away. She worked hard to get to this point (and parents earned a few brags) congrats!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Do you have any info on the Shore-X department (crew etc.) Also, who is this David Cole everyone is talking about. We board Friday.

 

BTW just listened to your daughters music on NPR stream. Amazing!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...