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

[judygund]

Beautiful in Maui today, waiting for catamaran excursion. Wonderful. Cruise.

[traveling1969]

I had posted a nice long critique but my creative use of punctuation sabotaged me. Hey, it happens.

 

For example:

 

Little Mary took a walk

Upon the ice to frisk.

Oh what a silly girl she was

her little *.

 

Harry

[traveling1969]

Okay, let's play catch up.

 

We did an excursion in Hilo, the big island of Hawaii with Roberts Hawaii. Part of a four excursion package for $154.

 

We saw all the high points, Volcano National Park, the lava tube, the Macadamia Nut Farm and a few other interesting stops. Here's a hint for future cruisers: buy your macadamia nut products at the farm. We've been pricing them since but that was the best deal by far. Yesterday we toured the coast of Oahu (magnificent!) and today we took a tour of Maui. Lots of interesting things to see with the highlight being a visit to a Hawaiian plantation.

 

The food in the dining room has been uniformly excellent. Our waitstaff are the best; Vladyslav and Esmail. Never a missing note.

 

The seas have been moderate and the temps in the 80's with an occasional low 90.

 

On Oahu we took the local bus to the Hale Koa resort. It's a military resort so we flashed our ID's for a 20 % discount. City buses are $2.50 for a one-way fare but if you show your Medicare card, the fare is only $1. We had a couple Lava Flows (can't remember everything in it but I know there was rum, vodka, cream and strawberry topped with whipped cream). As our waiter would say, Yummy Yummy! We decided to eat light so we shared an order of nachos supreme (Homer Simpson are you out there?). The portion was GARGANTUAN! We tried but we couldn't come close to finishing it. The Barefoot Beach Bar there is also open to the general public. If you get near there, be sure to stop in.

 

Tomorrow we visit Kuaii for our last stop in the Hawaiian archipelago. We will be doing our last Roberts Hawaii tour. Can't wait.

 

Harry

Edited October 25, 2015 by traveling1969

[ccrain]

Now how can you not love a port named Nawilliwilli. The weather is absolutely gorgeous. The sea is basically flat calm. Yesterday was a stellar blue sky day in Lahaina. Slight breeze, lots of surfers out in the waves, tenders were operating smoothly, everybody was smiling. The shaved ice was cold and wonderful.

 

And what a better way to celebrate a 34th wedding anniversary. 34 years ago today Judy and I took the leap of faith together. Never looked back, never had any second thoughts – or at least on my part!

 

Yesterday was Lahaina. Besides walking blisters into the bottom of both of Judy’s pinkie toes, we were headed for Hawaiian Shaved at Ululani's. They have two shops in Lahaina. We always go to the one next to Lahaina Luna’s Café. Same chef and owner at the café as last time. Menu still looks great. We didn’t have lunch as we were saving ourselves for Sabbatini’s last night. But we had to have some great shaved ice. The kind with vanilla ice cream in the bottom, and tropical fruit flavors. It was great.

 

Walking around Lahaina was great. It’s a great place to see the surf, the beach, the people and the huge banyan tree in the center of town. Lots of little shops here and there. Food everywhere. We just love hanging around the area.

 

Dinner last night in Sabbatini’s was the celebration of our 34th and Paul and Elizabeth’s 44th anniversary. It was really good, but probably our last visit to Sabbatini’s as they transition to Share – Curtis Stone’s new restaurant in all of the ships. The Emerald and Ruby are supposed to transition this month, the Crown during the next refurb. We’ve really enjoyed the new menu, but it’s time to transition to a more modern and contemporary menu. Fusion and popups are the new buzzwords. The Salty Dog is a good example. I think Princess will have to

 

Judy just showed up and gave me my anniversary poem, and I just have to share it with all of you:

 

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

I forgot your card

So I hope this will do

 

Anniversaries they come

This ones 34

If we live long enough

Lets do 30 more

 

Till Death Do Us Part

In this life and the next

I’ll find you there

No matter how complex

 

And the reason why

 

Roses are red and violets are blue

Is

They are trying to outshine

Me and You

 

That’s my wife!

 

We are doing a fixed wing tour with Wings Over Kauai. It comes highly recommended on our roll call and on TripAdvisor. We meet the shuttle at Anchor Cove at 12:30. Basically its fixed wing and costs ½ a copter and is twice as long. Looking forward to it.

 

Tonight in the patter is a bunch of stuff. Football is on MUTS, followed by Max. The entertainment headliner is Glenn Smith – a “dynamic entertainer”. Jamie is doing a Movie Invisible challenge trivia tonight, which is a movie scene with the actors photoshopped out. There is a Motown name that song trivia, plus music and dancing.

 

So later everyone!

[XBGuy]

I screwed up for dinner. Gordon Biersch is in the Aloha Tower complex and has a high rating on TripAdvisor, whereas Hooters has a lower rating. So we opted for Gordon Biersch. Big mistake. It was easily the worst food in many moons. Now in all fairness, the place was packed, and packed with at least a dozen groups above 10 covers each. So the wait staff was harried and there was not enough wait staff. The front desk hosts just did not care. Our waitress was nice, but only took our order and brought our check. Nothing in between. The draft beer had a tin can aftertaste, there was Garlic everywhere. The fries were done in low temperature fryer and underdone/very greasy. The salad was just thrown on the plate, very messy. Judy’s vinaigrette had too much garlic in it, the flatbread was undercooked and had too much garlic on it. There was no redeeming features what so ever. We didn’t even finish the food, and that is very rare for me.

 

 

TripAdvisor? Crowd-sourced reviews are pretty unreliable. I guess, though, that they do provide some sort of decision making assistance. OTOH, Hooters does not set the bar very high.

 

In business trips to Honolulu and a couple cruises to HI, I am pretty familiar with the Gordon Biersch at Aloha Tower. On our last cruise my wife and I sat in their patio and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine (Sauvignon Blanc as I recall) with a couple orders of Poke. I know that it is stupid to order wine at a beer place, but we both like wine. My wife does not like beer at all, and one glass a year, pretty much, describes my beer enjoyment. I do not pretend to be expert on Poke, but the mood that afternoon was perfect. So, the Poke was excellent to us. The patio was not particularly crowed and, our service was good. If the patio had been packed, the way you described your experience, I'm sure we would have hated it. However, whenever we next cruise to Honolulu, I can, pretty much, guarantee, that Poke at Gordon Biersch will be on our agenda.

 

Also, I am the guy who loves garlic. (So, I have absolutely no fear of vampires.) There is no recipe that cannot be improved with more garlic. That is one of the reasons that I consider Jacques Pepin to be the greatest chef ever. :D

 

Our culinary differences notwithstanding, cc, I am truly enjoying the reports. Again, thank you, very much.

[caribill]

TripAdvisor? Crowd-sourced reviews are pretty unreliable. I guess, though, that they do provide some sort of decision making assistance. OTOH, Hooters does not set the bar very high.

 

 

Trip Advisors #1 restaurant (out of 110 restaurants) in our city of 98,000 people is ....drum roll.... Shipley's Do-Nuts.

[macusr]

Now how can you not love a port named Nawilliwilli. The weather is absolutely gorgeous. The sea is basically flat calm. Yesterday was a stellar blue sky day in Lahaina. Slight breeze, lots of surfers out in the waves, tenders were operating smoothly, everybody was smiling. The shaved ice was cold and wonderful.

 

And what a better way to celebrate a 34th wedding anniversary. 34 years ago today Judy and I took the leap of faith together. Never looked back, never had any second thoughts – or at least on my part!

 

Yesterday was Lahaina. Besides walking blisters into the bottom of both of Judy’s pinkie toes, we were headed for Hawaiian Shaved at Ululani's. They have two shops in Lahaina. We always go to the one next to Lahaina Luna’s Café. Same chef and owner at the café as last time. Menu still looks great. We didn’t have lunch as we were saving ourselves for Sabbatini’s last night. But we had to have some great shaved ice. The kind with vanilla ice cream in the bottom, and tropical fruit flavors. It was great.

 

Walking around Lahaina was great. It’s a great place to see the surf, the beach, the people and the huge banyan tree in the center of town. Lots of little shops here and there. Food everywhere. We just love hanging around the area.

 

Dinner last night in Sabbatini’s was the celebration of our 34th and Paul and Elizabeth’s 44th anniversary. It was really good, but probably our last visit to Sabbatini’s as they transition to Share – Curtis Stone’s new restaurant in all of the ships. The Emerald and Ruby are supposed to transition this month, the Crown during the next refurb. We’ve really enjoyed the new menu, but it’s time to transition to a more modern and contemporary menu. Fusion and popups are the new buzzwords. The Salty Dog is a good example. I think Princess will have to

 

Judy just showed up and gave me my anniversary poem, and I just have to share it with all of you:

 

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

I forgot your card

So I hope this will do

 

Anniversaries they come

This ones 34

If we live long enough

Lets do 30 more

 

Till Death Do Us Part

In this life and the next

I’ll find you there

No matter how complex

 

And the reason why

 

Roses are red and violets are blue

Is

They are trying to outshine

Me and You

 

That’s my wife!

 

We are doing a fixed wing tour with Wings Over Kauai. It comes highly recommended on our roll call and on TripAdvisor. We meet the shuttle at Anchor Cove at 12:30. Basically its fixed wing and costs ½ a copter and is twice as long. Looking forward to it.

 

Tonight in the patter is a bunch of stuff. Football is on MUTS, followed by Max. The entertainment headliner is Glenn Smith – a “dynamic entertainer”. Jamie is doing a Movie Invisible challenge trivia tonight, which is a movie scene with the actors photoshopped out. There is a Motown name that song trivia, plus music and dancing.

 

So later everyone!

 

Sounds like you had a wonderful anniversary Charles & Judy! Though it won't be on our anniversary next year (as that's in April), we're looking to celebrate our 20th in Hawaii probably in October. As that will be our 1st time in Hawaii going to do a land vacation vs cruise, but still enjoying reading your port posts nevertheless.

[ccrain]

Just got back from a GREAT flightseeing tour with Wings Over Kauai. More in the morning update, but it was a great flight over a beautiful island. Much, much better than a helicopter tour and much easier on Judy's motion sensitivity.

 

highly recommended...

[stargazers]

Yahoo!!! So glad to hear that Betty is out of the hospital!! I hope she feels better SOON!!! David and I spent the weekend on the beach in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego. We sat, watched, and listened to the waves of the Pacific ocean thinking of all our roll call friends currently in the middle of it all. Sounds like the cruise is going well and everyone is having fun! Enjoy your upcoming sea days!

 

Kristy :)

[ar1950]

Just got back from a GREAT flightseeing tour with Wings Over Kauai. More in the morning update, but it was a great flight over a beautiful island. Much, much better than a helicopter tour and much easier on Judy's motion sensitivity.

 

highly recommended...

 

Happy to hear that it was great. Looking forward to the extra info. Just saw a recommendation for Wings Over Kauai on our roll call this morning. Checked it out and canceled our rental car and booked it. We have done helicopters as well and are very pleased to hear that you felt it was better. BTW, thanks for your (and all of the other contributers as well) live from information.

[traveling1969]

Hello again,

 

Had fantastic weather today. We did our last (of four) excursions with Roberts Hawaii today. It was okay but next time we will opt for something a little more detailed. We stuck pretty much to the coast and the highlight for me was visiting the beach where in the movie South Pacific, they did the song "There is nothing like a dame". We saw a giant sea turtle and just enjoyed the wonderful beaches and views.

 

Today is our 46th wedding anniversary. Our waiter at the Elite lounge presented us with a split of champagne. We are kind of low key as far as celebrations are concerned but his gesture was very nice.

 

Now we look forward to 4 sea days before our next stop in American Samoa. The poker gods cursed me with a bad beat earlier but made up for it last night. Joyce is still on the plus side and maybe the slots will continue to be kind to her. No matter though; she enjoys the play and I enjoy the poker so that is what matters.

 

Hope more of our shipmates will find time to post. As Clint said "I'll be back.

 

Harry

[dickinson]

I too wanted to see that beach! Last Feb while on a Hawaii cruise we rented a car in Kauai. I knew the name of the beach but somehow we never saw a sign saying a particular beach was that name. We saw lots of gorgeous scenery and lots of beaches (some had signs with names but many others did not). So, I did "see" the beach but not aware that it was the one.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise. I am following along as we want to go on this itinerary within the next few years.

[ccrain]

Just a slight roll this morning. Not enough to wake you up, just enough to lull you to sleep. Temperature is perfect, coffee is good, pots right-cards calling. Time to write.

 

Kauai is our favorite island. There’s just something different about it. It has a different feel, a different vibe. Maybe it’s the chickens everywhere, or the cattle or the more mature landscape. Just not sure. From the air, it’s gorgeous. We flew Wings Over Kauai. Very, very nice people. We were very lucky in that the other people on our flight cancelled, so we had the entire Caravan to ourselves. Bruce, the owner, was our pilot. We took off on 30, NW, turned right and circled the island clockwise. Got great pictures during a flyover of the Crown at dock. The day was partly cloudy with clouds and rain over the center of the island. The water was pure aqua blue, the coastline just picture perfect rocks and white spray and the green of the trees contrasting with the red of the soil could not be done justice in a photo. We cut inland up Wameia Canyon, saw the Jurassic Park waterfall, flew inland of the Pacific Missile Test Range main base, but cut back out over the ocean just before we go to the northern most telemetry radars sitting on top of one giant cliff.

 

Flew along the Napoli Coast. Saw the trail wind its way through the cliffs, on top of huge sea caves and along knife edge ridges of rock. Broke back over the northern coast over the resorts and golf courses and the locations they filmed Jurassic World. Cut around the NW part of the island, flew a circle around the Fantasy Island waterfall, saw the cattle grazing in almost chartreuse meadows, flew back over the ship and landed back on runway 30. The whole trip was about 70 minutes, at a ground speed of around 90mph. Judy filmed the whole thing with the action cam, and I took about 160+ stills. We also ordered a video of the flight. They had GoPro’s on each wing.

 

This was one of the best value excursions we’ve ever had in Hawaii. Judy did get a little queasy coming around the hills to the NW of the airport. The air was a bit bumpy, but not bad at all. Nothing like the helicopter we took in Juneau in 2001.

 

For the evening we just munched at the Elite Lounge and had a couple of drinks out of the mini-bar. It was chips and guacamole so I was happy. We went to Jamie’s invisible movie trivia and had some fun with him and Carmen. Judy’s knee is acting up, so we did not dance last night at all. It was kind of slow night with everyone pretty tuckered out after a day at Kauai.

 

Today is the first of 4 days at sea to Apia. Tonight is the second formal night. Zumba is at 0900 this morning. Judy will rest her knee. There is a flower lei making workshop for the next 4 days. Signups are this morning. There is an Active Volcano lecture, a vintage aircraft restoration lecture, a forensics lecture and a mysteries of the pacific lecture. So four lectures today. There is bingo, a rainbow bracelet making class, a watercolor class, a Hawaiian market place, an Ukulele class, bar wars with margaritas, elevator roulette, a slot tournament, ballroom class is the Rhumba. See, just nothing going on today!

 

Tonight is Motor City in the theater. We’ve never seen it in the theater, only in Vista. But I do want to see it again, as the performance on the Golden in June was the very best I’ve ever seen. MUTS is tomorrow land, so the preliminary plan is MUTS, then the late showing of Motor City then Jamie has dancing at Skywalkers late tonight. We’ll let Judy’s knees rest as much as possible.

 

Later everyone.

[Sunflowertx]

I am enjoying your cruise. I can just see my DH and I enjoying next year's cruise. I will be letting my cruise specialist from Princess, Mary Reza know!

 

Thank you for taking time to write about your wonderful cruise! Love it!

 

Gilda

[sept10dsm]

This is the cruise of a lifetime! I have often looked at it and wish we could go! Thank you for taking the time to take us all along.

[ccrain]

Gorgeous full moon last night, perfect weather. So romantic. So peaceful, relaxing and just downright enjoyable. How’s everyone doing at home?

 

BTW, the age group on this cruise is relatively younger than I thought it would be. Roundtrip from LA and all that. A lot of active retired. Zumba is packed to the gills in Fusion. I think there are 5 children on this cruise. Now that’s a good number!

 

Yesterday was great. I did Zumba. Judy babied her knees and walked the promenade. Sasha apparently hurt himself yesterday so there will be no Zumba today. So I will run up to the gym later and do a couple of miles on the elliptical.

 

At 1000, the captain made an interesting announcement. Apparently we have several cases of Noro on board. It seems the Crown has been snake bit by Noro over the past couple of years. I seem to recall a lot of Crown/Noro threads on these boards – more so than other ships. Time to step up vigilance.

 

We went to MUTS last night and saw TomorrowLand. Not bad. Much better than I expected. Held my attention and I did not fall asleep. After the movie we did the late showing of Motor City in the theater. We’ve never seen Motor City in the theater before. A little different set of choreography for this venue. Interesting, but I prefer the intimacy of a Vista lounge for that show.

 

After the show we hit skywalker’s to see Paul and Elizabeth. Jamie was doing an ABBA hour and the place was actually pretty busy. Judy still didn’t want to strain her knees, so we headed for bed instead of dancing. Too bad we couldn’t sleep out under the stars. The moon was just absolutely gorgeous off the balcony. It was like one of those Love Boat scenes on the deck with the moon sparkling off the water.

 

With 800+ elites on this cruise it is taking about 3 days for laundry to come back. I should have packed a couple of extra t-shirts and an extra pair of slacks.

 

A couple of interesting notes on French Polynesia. They will be collecting our passports today for our visit into French Polynesia and will be getting them back on November 7. There is also a health questionnaire we have to fill out for our visit to Apia.

 

So the Patter for the day. There are four lectures today. A naturalist lecture on the Pacific, The Mysterious Death of Mickey Thompson, the Wright Brothers – the later years and Maritime Traditions, Customs and Courtesies. There is a paper airplane competition in the Piazza, another fresh flower lei making class, bingo, Ukulele music class, an embroidery class, line dance class, MLB playoffs on MUTS.

 

For tonight we have Glenn Smith, he apparently fell ill and postponed his show from a couple of days ago. The Best of Me is on MUTS. Steve Caouette is in Explorer’s with a new show. Liar’s Club is in Explorer’s, but there is stargazing at the same time. But we have to go to Liar’s Club. Kelvin is funnier than all get out when he Chubbles.

 

Got some more FCCs yesterday. That plus the CCL stock is such a great deal. Already paid for the CCL stock with OBCs. The OBCs from the FCCs are just pure gravy.

 

That’s it from near the South Pacific. Later.

[ccrain]

Updates may be sparse while we are here in the south pacific. I'll try but this morning it was so bad it was charging me time, but not connecting to anything outside the ship. Even the ship LAN was slow...

 

So be patient...

[Cruisiesusie05]

We do appreciate your patience and enjoy your posts very much thank you!

I have actually done a similar cruise Sydney to Los Angeles in 2010 on Sapphire Princess it is up there with my 3 best cruises and I shall never forget the South Pacific especially Bora Bora with Patrick you lucky people. We have special friends on board at the moment so love the live from - Once again thank you so much for all your time and patience :)

[gubby]

Updates may be sparse while we are here in the south pacific. I'll try but this morning it was so bad it was charging me time, but not connecting to anything outside the ship. Even the ship LAN was slow...

 

So be patient...

 

The first think I check in the morning after my e-mail is this thread. Thank you so much for allowing us to enjoy your various adventures. It will be quite important when we do this cruise. We used Wings Over Kauai about 7 years ago and still talk about it with reverence. What wonderful sights we saw. Had one of the photos blown up and printed on canvas. It has place of honour on our living room wall.

[caribill]

Updates may be sparse while we are here in the south pacific. I'll try but this morning it was so bad it was charging me time, but not connecting to anything outside the ship. Even the ship LAN was slow...

 

So be patient...

 

To see if the Internet is functioning without using your minutes, before signing on go to Princess.com which is at no cost. If it does not work, no sense trying to connect with your minutes.

[west coast cruiser]

Gorgeous full moon last night, perfect weather. So romantic. So peaceful, relaxing and just downright enjoyable. How’s everyone doing at home?

 

BTW, the age group on this cruise is relatively younger than I thought it would be. Roundtrip from LA and all that. A lot of active retired. Zumba is packed to the gills in Fusion. I think there are 5 children on this cruise. Now that’s a good number!

 

Yesterday was great. I did Zumba. Judy babied her knees and walked the promenade. Sasha apparently hurt himself yesterday so there will be no Zumba today. So I will run up to the gym later and do a couple of miles on the elliptical.

 

At 1000, the captain made an interesting announcement. Apparently we have several cases of Noro on board. It seems the Crown has been snake bit by Noro over the past couple of years. I seem to recall a lot of Crown/Noro threads on these boards – more so than other ships. Time to step up vigilance.

 

We went to MUTS last night and saw TomorrowLand. Not bad. Much better than I expected. Held my attention and I did not fall asleep. After the movie we did the late showing of Motor City in the theater. We’ve never seen Motor City in the theater before. A little different set of choreography for this venue. Interesting, but I prefer the intimacy of a Vista lounge for that show.

 

After the show we hit skywalker’s to see Paul and Elizabeth. Jamie was doing an ABBA hour and the place was actually pretty busy. Judy still didn’t want to strain her knees, so we headed for bed instead of dancing. Too bad we couldn’t sleep out under the stars. The moon was just absolutely gorgeous off the balcony. It was like one of those Love Boat scenes on the deck with the moon sparkling off the water.

 

With 800+ elites on this cruise it is taking about 3 days for laundry to come back. I should have packed a couple of extra t-shirts and an extra pair of slacks.

 

A couple of interesting notes on French Polynesia. They will be collecting our passports today for our visit into French Polynesia and will be getting them back on November 7. There is also a health questionnaire we have to fill out for our visit to Apia.

 

So the Patter for the day. There are four lectures today. A naturalist lecture on the Pacific, The Mysterious Death of Mickey Thompson, the Wright Brothers – the later years and Maritime Traditions, Customs and Courtesies. There is a paper airplane competition in the Piazza, another fresh flower lei making class, bingo, Ukulele music class, an embroidery class, line dance class, MLB playoffs on MUTS.

 

For tonight we have Glenn Smith, he apparently fell ill and postponed his show from a couple of days ago. The Best of Me is on MUTS. Steve Caouette is in Explorer’s with a new show. Liar’s Club is in Explorer’s, but there is stargazing at the same time. But we have to go to Liar’s Club. Kelvin is funnier than all get out when he Chubbles.

 

Got some more FCCs yesterday. That plus the CCL stock is such a great deal. Already paid for the CCL stock with OBCs. The OBCs from the FCCs are just pure gravy.

 

That’s it from near the South Pacific. Later.

 

I took this cruise on the Sapphire a few years ago and I am reliving that wonderful cruise through your postings. Thank you.

[ccrain]

Absolutely wonderful sea state. It’s not smooth as glass, but it’s the next best thing. And the water is the bluest blue I’ve ever seen. It’s warmer and a bit more humid than HI was. The sea days are great, relaxin, lots to do for those who want to do and lots to don’t for those who don’t.

 

So we tried Salty Dog yesterday, and I need to be straight about it. Big miss. A couple of items were really, really good, but overall, it was simply not worth it. (Much better than Gordon Biersch in Honolulu though.) The single biggest problem? Seasoning (lack of SALT of all things) and execution of the food. It needed salt. It needed spice. It needed a bit more love. The Wheelhouse in the Ruby, Emerald and Crown all have galleys. So those three will have the Salty Dog.

 

For specialty drinks, I tried the Mystery Island Iced Tea. Two of them. Really good. The key was the use of Spiced Rum instead of clear rum. I’d had them like that before and the spiced rum does make a difference.

 

Their pretzel sticks and beer cheese fondue “free” appetizer was pretty good. The meal included another “free” appetizer which was a salad type affair with 3 or 4 different lettuces, some prosciutto, and some parmesan crisps, along with some garlic fries with three different sauces – a homemade catsup, a BBQ sauce and a garlic mayo. Pretty good fries. Much better than others I’ve had, not greasy so they were cooked at the proper temperature.

 

Judy ordered the Calamari Frites, the Grilled Cheese and White Tomato Soup and the Spicy Stout Beef Short Ribs. I had the Ernesto Burger, Charred Asparagus and Toasted Halumi Cheese and the Pale Ale Pork Cheek. Of all the dishes, the Ernesto was easily the best. The tomato soup was good, but everything else suffered from lack of flavor and salt and pepper. The Calamari Frites were actually strips of calamari steaks, battered in a corn meal batter, and deep fried. They needed salt, and they needed a different batter. The cornmeal was crunchy because it did not soak up enough moisture, so it was dry crunchy, not fried crispy crunchy. The calamari was begging for a beer battered tempura fry. Not only that but the Calamari was only served with a mayo based tartar sauce, which Judy can’t eat, and the first batch came out covered in tartar sauce, not just on the side. The beef short ribs were flavorless, needing salt and bit of spice, and so was the pork cheeks as well. The asparagus and halumi cheese was pretty good on its own.

 

I suggested that they raid the Crown Grill gourmet salt shakers. Some of these dishes would have been great with the HI black salt! Dessert was easily the best and it was really good. Judy had the strawberries and cream, while I ordered the Lemon Posset. The strawberries and cream was easily the prettiest dessert I’ve ever seen, with different textures and flavors. The Lemon Posset was fantastic. Like a key lime pie on steroids. Real WOW factor.

 

So Salty Dog issues and suggestions. Put in some normal height tables. The bar height tables are just not that comfortable. Secondly, you need some spice, salt and WOW factor in the food. The burger is good, and it is spiced properly. Switch to a beer battered tempura calamari frites and add some jalapeno flavored black HI salt. The beef and pork cheeks need some concentrated flavor in their braising liquid. Some spice, definitely some salt. Either reduce the price to $15 pp or raise it to $20 and include one specialty drink in the mix. Change out the drink menu. It’s basically the same old princess drinks with a slightly different twist. Go out of the box. Some of the best drinks we’ve had recently are fresh fruit based drinks. How about watermelon-jalapeno margarita? Or a cucumber-jalapeno margarita? With fresh watermelon, fresh cucumber. There is lots of fresh fruit on board. Toss away that canned and bottled stuff and go fresh.

 

I know I’ve been a bit long in this review, but because its negative, I wanted to have a bit more constructive comments. They are trying to adapt to the changing times, and increase revenue to keep cruising prices lower. I’m just hoping that the switch to Curtis Stone’s brand is successful. We’ve tried three celebrity chef restaurants in the past couple of years and have only been disappointed once. Rick Moonen’s and Guy Fieri’s places in Vegas are really, really good, and really, really expensive. Uncle Jacks in Bayshore is fantastic, but the Manhattan location was not very good at all. The guy who designed the Salty Dog menu is supposedly another celebrity chef and for us, it’s not working too well so far.

 

We caught Steve Caouette’s show in Explorer’s last night. Funny guy. He was hitting on all cylinders. He interacts with the audience and goes with the flow. That makes it current and funny. Some comedians follow their scripts right into the ground. Not him. When something didn’t work, he would turn it on himself and go straight back into the audience. It worked and kept everyone involved. Of course his stuff about cruising was some of the funniest stuff. Sort of a no-brainer considering the elevator stories we have to tell.

 

Judy;s knees were doing just fine and we did some dancing to Fusion for a while before Liar’s Club. Liar’s club was hilarious with Kelvin, Jamie and Matais as panelists. Nicole was MCing. Only four words though. They need to schedule Liar’s Club on a non-busy sea night and take their time. It’s just too funny to only get 30 minutes and 4 words….

 

The big thing today is the crossing of the line ceremony this afternoon at 1315. I, apparently, am an alternate and will find out the details at 1000 this morning from Nicole. Either way, it should be lots of fun. Judy is going to video it, and so will the ship’s photographers, I’m sure.

 

No Zumba today. Sasha hurt his Achilles tendon, which is not a good thing. So I’ll have to find alternative endorphin generating activities. Other activities in the patter today are a couple of trivias. Ukulele class, a cooking demonstration class in the theater, a lecture on OJ simpson, a photography class, a lecture on US Airmail and the development of the National Air System, a ribbon lei embroidery class, bingo (over $1925 now), the aforementioned crossing the line ceremony, a volcano lecture, a ghost story lecture and Princess Pop Choir.

 

Tonight is variety showtime with Randy Cabral, “Where in the World”, name that song 80’s, The Grand Seduction on MUTS, Fusion in Explorer’s and nothing in the patter about anything going on in Club Fusion or Skywalkers. Strange.

 

Well, will give you all an update on the crossing of the line ceremony in tomorrow’s update.

 

Later!

[Pam in CA]

Thanks for the review of the Salty Dog. Taste is very subjective and personally, I never add salt when cooking nor after as I generally dislike salty food. Potato chips, French fries and Doritos are the exception. :) They should have had salt shakers on the tables. I wouldn't sit on bar chairs. Way too uncomfortable for me.

[traveling1969]

Hello again from the Crown. This is our fifth cruise on this ship and it is clearly one of our favorites. We love the quiet sea days.

 

Last night at dinner there was a prolonged shudder and we assumed it was the stabilizers but shortly thereafter, the Captain came on to say that there was a problem with one of the engines. Smoke was coming out and it was shut down. They were trying to isolate the problem and we continued on with the remaining four engines. No further update at this time.

 

Saw a few sea birds yesterday and was quite surprised as there is little if any land nearby; just a partially submerged atoll 175 miles away. There are also a few small hitchhiker birds circling the ship. Lots of flying fish but sea life has been largely absent. We're a bit early for whales but we had hoped to see a few strays.

 

This trip, like most of our cruises, has found us dining exclusively in the dining rooms, therefore I can't comment on the food in the Horizon Court but dining room food quality has lived up to our expectations.

 

There will be a small "Crossing the Equator" celebration on deck this afternoon and we will probably attend as it will be our first.

 

Weather has been perfect and we awoke this morning to nearly flat seas. Hope the trend continues.

 

Harry

[kerrydee]

i am enjoying this thread as i have friends on your sailing. they don't read cruise critic. the only thing i will assume they are joining in is Mah Jongg. i told them when and where to go.

thank you, all.