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LIVE! Crown Princess Hawaii/South Pacific 10/17 - 11/14

traveling1969

By traveling1969,
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Bruinboy

Bruinboy

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Great thread. I may have to put this on my future cruise list. I was born in Hilo and we go back to the islands just about every year for a couple of weeks of R & R. Charles, good choice of Wings over Kauai. We took that with friends this past May. Great crew and inspiring views. DW and I love Kauai.

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traveling1969

traveling1969

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Good morning from the Crown. Had a great nights sleep as the ship was rocking gently and lulled us into a deep sleep. Joyce is off to a lecture on the big Island of Hawaii while I have been enjoying a good book: "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham.

 

Used our nearly empty coffee card from our last Princess cruise to get a couple lattes from the international cafe. We are trading in our mini-bar set-up for two coffee cards and they should be delivered later today.

 

We received a notice that due to the large number of Elites on board, laundry turn around will be around 72 hours.

 

Joyce is back from the lecture and we're heading off the dining room for lunch. We rarely eat in the Horizon court. Just something special about being served in style and for us it's better than being presented with so many delicious choices in the buffet. Always seems to result in OVERindulgence.

 

Noon announcement over the PA so we'll head to Da Vinci dining room. We're being paced by a Carnival ship off our starboard side. They are also headed to Hawaii so the race is on! More later.

 

Harry

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osofish2

osofish2

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Same ship, October 20, 2016

 

Bon voyage all!!! We are on this 2016 cruise, and love this thread, so thank you. Our Princess travel representative is on your cruise also, so we are very jealous of you all. Looking forward to your reports.

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ccrain

ccrain

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I love this thread!!! This is my dream cruise!! :D:D:D

 

Look forward to reading all of the posts!

 

Charles, how did you snag that much time off of work? What is your secret!?

 

I want to be retired right now, but they 'need' me. So I negotiated a little side deal. I wouldn't leave quite yet. Unfortunately my sense of duty interferes with my vacation plans now and then. We've cancelled two cruises this year and one next year because of work conflicts, but basically whenever they quit paying me, I'm on a ship and if they try if I get really ticked off, we might just up and leave for 6 months.

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ccrain

ccrain

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Sea was not too rough yesterday. You could feel it. Judy had her two hour beauty nap that helped a bit as well. Zumba was very energetic. It was nice for once not to have a machine for an instructor! Sasha was actually human! He got tired toward the end – as did we all! But a very nice wakeup call. Met Rowena Vasquez at Zumba. She is half of Brian and Rowena, the HI cultural duo on the ship. She is just like Leialoha and Lokelina from the other two duos. Very, very friendly, outgoing and a lot of fun – basically nuts! Brian, her husband, unlike Kimo (from Makani-E) and Dave (from Elua), is Hawaiian with a little Samoan warrior thrown in – an imposing figure at first, but just a big friendly teddy bear! Rowena’s hula is a bit different. Leialoha is very traditional hula. Lokelina mainly traditional with a few differences. Rowena has expanded hula to include a few modern moves and interpretations. Very nice. My only regret is apparently Princess has determined that they will not be with us for the entire cruise. They are getting off in HI. Not sure if we are having any cultural entertainment on the way to Samoa or Tahiti. We shall she.

 

Oh, a Salty Dog update. According to Kelvin on the morning show this morning. You can use the wheelhouse as just a bar and not pay the cover charge. Did not know that yesterday. So we will have to check out the music in the wheelhouse and see what the situation is.

 

Judy just came down from finding her some Konji for breakfast. She loves this stuff. I, on the other hand, stick with the faux egg mcmuffin from the IC.

 

As elite we get 500 minutes free on this 28 day cruise, but they offered a 200 minute upgrade for $40. So I opted to get more minutes just in case I needed it. Judy gets her 500 minutes as well.

 

Computer note – I brought my new Surface Pro 3 on this cruise. And I brought the wireless display adapter. It does hook up to the TV, but the playback is choppy and pixelated. Unwatchable. I wonder if its just the monitor that can’t handle the frame rate from the computer – or the computer. Not sure, so we are watching ripped movies on just the tablet.

 

So after Zumba we basically chilled. Lunch was pizza and burgers! They are still running the 50 year anniversary daily pizza specials. Yesterday was the truffle mushroom pizza. So popular it goes within minutes of coming out of the oven, so I had to settle for Pepperoni and Margarita.

 

Dancing was really funny yesterday. We went to see Brian and Rowena in the Piazza at 1700. Then hit explorer for some canned dance music. They were having substantial technical problems with speakers and sound systems. To top it off, the music playlist was not set on Random, so we were treated to a very typical 5 tangos, 5 cha cha, etc. Somehow this got fixed during the set and it was a pretty good mix of ballroom dance music. So we danced for a few hours until the Tritone Duo came on in Fusion. We listened to them for a few minutes before heading to dinner.

 

Last night was Italian night in the MDR. Paul and Elizabeth have late seating in order to be with Catalina, a waitress in the MDR that they, and us, have known for years. We’ve sailed together with her and her husband, Erno, for at least 3 cruises over the past several years. It was great seeing a friendly face! Anyway, even though we have anytime, they snuck us in to their table, to enjoy Italian night together. It was really good. Judy had the head waiter cooked Penne. I had the eggplant parmigiana – not as good as I remember it. I think it needed a bit more time under the Salamander to cook the eggplant and crust the cheese more, but it was still tasty. I had the braised beef. Oh that was so good. Judy was very happy with her pasta and almost ordered another bowl, but held herself back.

So the Patter for the day:

 

Zumba is back at 0900 this morning in Fusion. We will be there. Today is the holiday at sea store today. Fruit and Vegetable Carving in the Piazza. Ribbon Lei class, the shopping spotlight port talk show. Hula class, Ukelele class, line dance class, hula dance class, a lecture on Oahu and one on Volcano. They are doing Princess Pop Choir as well.

 

Tonight is the first formal night, and the highlight is the premier of Magic to Do, the new show. Really looking forward to it. Paul and Elizabeth actually had a preview of it during the last cruise. They had a special showing. Big Eyes is on MUTS tonight. Majority Rules game show is also on tonight.

 

Lots to do, not enough time to do it in.

 

Later!

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spingal

spingal

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I want to be retired right now, but they 'need' me. So I negotiated a little side deal. I wouldn't leave quite yet. Unfortunately my sense of duty interferes with my vacation plans now and then. We've cancelled two cruises this year and one next year because of work conflicts, but basically whenever they quit paying me, I'm on a ship and if they try if I get really ticked off, we might just up and leave for 6 months.

 

That is awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing. :D:D

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traveling1969

traveling1969

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Just got back from the Meet and Greet. It was nice to put some faces with the names. It was held in the Wheelhouse Bar and with over 300 signed up, I had my doubts but while it was crowded, it was manageable. The waitstaff came around dispensing samples of Salty Dog fare. We tried the lobster mac, the cheeseburger slider and the beets. Loved the mac and slider and Joyce said the beets were good as well.

 

Dinner last night was another delight. Seems to us that the food is as good as ever and everything we have tried, breakfast (eggs benedict) lunch (seafood fritto misto and dinner (Italian night last night; veal scallopini and penne) has been very good.

 

Tonight is the new show, Magic To Do, and we will probably take it in. We don't usually do many shows but this one promises to be a winner. Joyce scooped a few bucks in the casino last night and I held my own at Texas Hold 'em.

 

Seas were a bit bumpy the first two days but not bad today. Temps have been in the low 70's. Tonight is the first formal night and also on tap is the Captain's welcome champagne waterfall. We'll be there and will enjoy a glass of bubbly with the master of the vessel.

 

So long for now.

 

Harry

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kerrydee

kerrydee

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Just got back from the Meet and Greet. It was nice to put some faces with the names. It was held in the Wheelhouse Bar and with over 300 signed up, I had my doubts but while it was crowded, it was manageable. The waitstaff came around dispensing samples of Salty Dog fare. We tried the lobster mac, the cheeseburger slider and the beets. Loved the mac and slider and Joyce said the beets were good as well.

 

Dinner last night was another delight. Seems to us that the food is as good as ever and everything we have tried, breakfast (eggs benedict) lunch (seafood fritto misto and dinner (Italian night last night; veal scallopini and penne) has been very good.

 

Tonight is the new show, Magic To Do, and we will probably take it in. We don't usually do many shows but this one promises to be a winner. Joyce scooped a few bucks in the casino last night and I held my own at Texas Hold 'em.

 

Seas were a bit bumpy the first two days but not bad today. Temps have been in the low 70's. Tonight is the first formal night and also on tap is the Captain's welcome champagne waterfall. We'll be there and will enjoy a glass of bubbly with the master of the vessel.

 

So long for now.

 

Harry

 

did you guys all get the notice that the hours for Pago Pago on the 31st have changed? i have friends on your sailing, and got the notice after they left saturday. instead of 10-7 it is now 7-5.

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ccrain

ccrain

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CCrain:

Loving your updates (was on this cruise last year)

 

Question: I just bought the Surface Pro also to take on my cruises. When you download movies to it, can you watch them without Internet?

(Like you can on the Kindle Fire)

 

I don't know. For that reason I ripped all of them from the original DVD into the SD card.

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ccrain

ccrain

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did you guys all get the notice that the hours for Pago Pago on the 31st have changed? i have friends on your sailing, and got the notice after they left saturday. instead of 10-7 it is now 7-5.

 

We're doing $2 beach that day - which is actually $5 beach now...

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ccrain

ccrain

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Beautiful sea state. We have slept like babies for the past 3 nights. Very, very rare. Temperature is near perfect. Yesterday morning I had to step out on the balcony to see if we were actually moving. This morning, same thing. Yesterday’s blog post was a little short. We had a bunch of fellow CC people show up to the coffee klatch and ended up discussing lots of stuff, so I got distracted.

 

Zumba was great yesterday. Nicole joined Sasha and it was a lot of fun watching her try to follow Sasha from right behind him. A different note about this Zumba. It’s in Fusion, but Sasha doesn’t use the stage. He uses the VIP area between the stage and the sound booth. That way the camera is not blocked by people in the front row and we can see his feet. Brilliant idea! They need to do this in all the Club Fusion Zumba locations. We of course, have our traditional spots in fusion on the starboard side with a view of three video screens.

 

Lunch at the HC was good and kind of interesting. The food was pretty good. The cold salads are my favorite. Judy loved the roasted chicken. Because we sat in Café Caribe, we noticed that there was an Asian Buffet on the menu at noon. That meant sushi, or at least Princess’ version of it. And by the way, specialty buffet items are listed on the back page of the patter. Whether dinners or lunches. We just didn’t notice it before heading to lunch. Strange configuration of Caribe. People entered on the Port side and went all the way around, exiting on the starboard side exit. We’ve typically seen Caribe configured as an entry on each side, each side mirroring the content of the other, and exiting out the aft area. The line was very, very long. Judy wanted her sushi, so we waited for the line to ebb. And waited, and waited. It was 12:20 before we could see the end of the line. And then, when Judy went through, there was no Nigiri with smoked salmon or shrimp. Not that they were out. There just wasn’t any. Only rolls with faux crab or fish and vegetable. We’ll have to wait until Vines or the Elite lounge sushi to get some Nigiri.

 

Yesterday’s highlight was the CC M&G. It was very well attended and we finally got to say hello to those people that have put a lot of time and effort into organizing tours. Unfortunately, Mike, the one person we’d like to thank the most, had to cancel the cruise on Saturday morning just prior to boarding. (He and his wife are in our thoughts and prayers.) Mike set up the Shutterfly cruise website and has been updating the information daily, keeping everyone up to speed on the roll call, and just making this one of the most anticipated and prepared cruise for a lot of people.

 

BTW, a lot of people ask me why Judy and I cruise so much. ‘No regrets’. In 2004, on our 3rd cruise on the Island to Panama, we were waiting for a tender in Grand Cayman. An older couple was there. She was in a wheelchair and he just wasn’t there mentally at all. I promised Judy then and there that we were going to see the world while we could so that, god forbid, something happened to either of us, we would have no regrets, no woulda, shoulda, coulda, that we could look back on our life together and smile.

 

Got a chance to speak to some of the tour coordinators and hopefully we can get Paul and Elizabeth on a couple of them. They hadn’t planned anything past HI, but we’re on CC group tours exclusively on this cruise. A new first for us.

 

Kelvin, Matt, the Matre De, the Food and Beverage manager, the hotel general manager and the customer relations director all showed up. The Captain didn’t make it while we were there. Not sure if he showed up or not. The Wheelhouse took this opportunity to show off the Salty Dog menu with little tastes of the menu items like little sliders, mac and cheese, and other little bites of the food. We have to try it at least once on this cruise. We’ve already signed up for Crown Grill, Crab Shack, an UBD for the four of us and Sabbatini’s.

 

I talked to Neville (Matre De) about the new Chef’s Table corporate rule. No allergies, no disabilities, period. No exceptions. Judy has a mayonnaise ‘allergy’. Not really an allergy, just a reaction to any egg/oil emulsion. Even though we’ve been to many prior Chef’s table, not any more. Someone, somewhere, must have had a reaction or something. Avoidance of corporate liability takes precedence over everything except stock price.

 

Got a chance to talk to Matais. And yes, he remembers Ally from our June cruise on the Grand. (Jeez her head is going to swell.) Talked to Kelvin a bit as well. Big corporate re-org on the entertainment staff. Apparently the Deputy CD position will be transitioned to an ‘Entertainment Director’. A position that will be completely behind the scenes and all paperwork related. They are testing it out on the Crown in latter part of November. So in relation to the aforementioned ‘stock price’, this shift may have plusses and minuses, but knowing corporate ‘accounting’ people well, there has to be a positive cost savings or cost deferral related to this re-organization. I mean, I know the Deputy is relegated to a lot of paperwork as training for becoming a CD. But the CD is the keeper of the schedule and a well organized CD that is conscious of passenger wants and desires in relation to schedule is invaluable.

 

Case in point. On the Ruby last year we had JJ Ulrich as our CD. Based on a prior experience, he was not our favorite CD and we actually were worried. But as in our first cruise impressions with Tim Donovan, JJ came through in spades by changing up the schedule on all three cruises. He did not stick to the standard schedule and I noticed, and we appreciated, those efforts a lot. Two lessons learned. First cruise impressions can be unfair and CDs are real persons, not androids, and have individual strengths and weaknesses.

 

As promised to Rowena, I delivered Judy to Hula class personally, then hotfooted it to the room for a NAP! Unfortunately, couldn’t nap at all. We did do the Elite Lounge in Fusion. Judy really likes the smoked salmon and toast points.

 

We have to be careful about dancing on this cruise. Judy underwent PRP on her knees this summer. She has a torn meniscus. So she has to be careful about stairs, twisting, turns. Her knee was a bit twingy last night, so we stuck to waltzes, rhumbas and night clubs.

 

So now for the most controversial part of today’s blog. We went to see Magic to Do last night. So let’s get it out front right now – ho hum. There, I said it. Unlike Colors of the World, where we stayed for the next show, I struggled to stay awake during this show. Judy did like it better than I did, but I just could not get into it. There was a partial standing O at the end, so apparently some other people liked it. The costumes were great, the live music fantastic, but the vocals, choreography and story line were just ok. Maybe I’m just getting persnickety in my old age. I had the same reaction to Michael Jackson’s O in Vegas early in the year. I guess what really bothered me was this continual reference to the producer/creator. He even had a cameo video in the middle of the show. Yes, he did Wicked. Yada, yada, yada. Let’s move on. You are only as good as your current action item. Not to take away from the performers, there was some really standout individual efforts that were noticeable, but the whole product just did not jibe, and that lies with the producer/creator, not the performers.

 

So with that out of the way, let’s turn to today’s patter and the plan for the day. No Zumba today. That means a trip to the gym. Without a lot of dancing, I have to keep those clothes from shrinking in the salt air. There are a couple of lectures that look pretty good today. Ships and Legends of the Sea, The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor are two that I would like to see. They have a Hawaiian outpost sale this morning. The captain is giving a lecture in Fusion this morning. There is a British Pub Lunch in Crown Grill today. Line dance, hula and ballroom classes. Ukulele class, pop choir, bingo, a spelling bee, Princess Ryder’s Cup and a couple of trivias.

 

Tonight we have a choice. Judy would like to see Into the Woods on MUTS, but AJ Jamal has a full show in the theater. There is also some stargazing in the Sanctuary tonight. But it’s been overcast so I’m not sure if it’ll go off or not. Brian is doing Santana on the Ukulele in the wheelhouse at 2200 – now that ought to be interesting.

 

So that’s it from the Crown. E’ya all later...

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XBGuy

XBGuy

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I am interested in taking this cruise, someday. So, I am posting here in order to get the e-mails when updates are posted.

 

I truly hope that everybody has a great adventure, and I look forward to reading your reports. :)

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gubby

gubby

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Great informative post ccrain. I am commenting because I hope to be doing this cruise next year or in 2017 and want to learn as much as I can about it. This is after I followed the entire 2 parts of the thread leading up to your embarkation. So much helpful information. I am truly sorry to hear that Mike was unable to embark. I hope that he and his wife are okay. What a great disappointment they must be feeling.

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Sunflowertx

Sunflowertx

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I am really enjoying reading all about this cruise! I wanted to take this cruise, but when the prices started coming down, I had already booked a cruise on the Ruby Princess to Hawaii. I hope we will be on board next Oct. 20th.

 

Thank you for allowing me to dream! It is almost like I am with y'all!:D

 

Hope you have a great trip!:)

 

Gilda

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traveling1969

traveling1969

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Hello again,

 

Lots to report on so let's get to it.

 

Yesterdays dinner was the 50th Anniversary dinner. We had seen some less-than favorable reviews and I must beg to differ. It was superb in our opinion. We started with the duck terrine/porcini mushroom cappuccino soup. This was a paired appetizer and was delightful. Next we opted for the ossobuco raviolis and they were really delicious. A blueberry mojito sorbet to cleanse the palate then on to the main. For our main we both opted for the Malabar peppered beef tornedos with roasted onion tart. I asked for mashed potatoes on the side as the onion tart is not my favorite but I tried a few bites and it was not too onioney for my taste. Our waiter was kind enough and knowledgeable enough to tell us that the other option, the turbot had a tendency to taste "fishy" so we stuck to the beef. No "fishy fish" for us. We chose a nice Malbec to accompany and it was very good as well. For dessert, we had the chocolate raspberry mousse.

 

We did attend the Captains welcome champagne waterfall. For those purists who poo poo the champagne served, please post elsewhere. If you want Veuve Cliquot you'll just have to pay extra for it. We had a few glasses and as a special treat, the waiters brought out chocolate truffles on a stick. Wow, they were to die for.

 

The show was the new review Magic to do. It was a visual spectacular. Lots of great illusions, singing and dancing but no real "story". Still, we enjoyed it very much.

 

Today we had a very light breakfast delivered from room service; croissants, juice and coffee. After that, Joyce headed off to her third hula class. She's really enjoying it but says that it's not for the faint of heart; really quite a workout. I watched a bit of the baseball playoffs then took in a movie (Birdman with Michael Keaton). I guess Hollywood has passed us by. I was prepared for a great movie and was disappointed at what passes for entertainment these days. Not my cup off tea.

 

Were on our way to dinner and if I can stay awake, I'll sing a song or two at karaoke.

 

The Captain came on the speakers and informed us of a hurricane in our path but so far no itinerary changes.

 

The report from home is 4 inches of SNOW!!!. Who cares, we're cruising. More later.

 

Harry

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rdsqrl

rdsqrl

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That hurricane would be Olaf. I saw it on the news this evening. It is not expected to affect the Hawaiian Islands, lucky for you guys. But still, I would keep an eye on it.

No way I'd be keeping an eye on it. That's what they pay the captain big bucks for. Nothing I can do about it anyway. I'd be enjoying my cruise without a care in the world.

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