LIVE from the Diamond to Hawaii

[JWJs]

<<Benny - I want a blow by blow of how they get big old Diamond Princess into the tiny port of Nawiliwili. Enjoy your cruise!>>

 

As Capt. Tony Y said, "We got her in so I'm assuming we'll get her out." It was fun to watch her sail out from our balcony.

 

You are so right about the tiny port of Nawiliwili. Very exciting to enter and exit that dogleg port. We were on the 12/18/07 Diamond. No problem with the Diamond getting into the port of Nawiliwili but getting out in the afternoon was a different story. I think we had to leave by 5 or spend the night per the captain. Anyway...it never was a major problem getting out that day but you sure wonder how they did it without having a melt down. The wind was gusting hard and the water was choppy. We saw people on the shore watching as we sailed out of that dogleg port with the narrow entry/exit channel. I took a video from the ship and would like to see one taken from the shore.

[sailinsal]

So great to hear from you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I have been with your thread for this cruise forever, as Linda from NONTL was with me the week before you sailed! Wondered about the rental of a small motorcycle? Have you done that? Hope the weather is cooperating as the news was talking of the floods in Hawaii and rain all this week,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,how is it? The ship looked wonderful at dockside last Friday as I dropped Linda off....................my trip to Hawaii is on Golden Oct. 29th this year.....................so I need all the tips you have. Enjoy the next days in PARADISE.................aloha for now, sailinsal

[expectthebest]

If you want to enhance your cruise and make it special...take a visit to crooners bar on the diamond..the bartenders are Jigs and Beverly and they are amazing. Beverly does bar tricks and keeps you entertained....tell them Mark and Melissa said hello!!! we were on dec 3rd to the 18th it was amazing...also make sure you try some shave ice in the islands......its the best...good luck

[TorontoTL]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the good cruise wishes. This has thus far been one of out best cruises ever. I love the way the itinerary plays out with the "forced relaxation" (how hard it that huh?), then the port intensive 5 days. Nawiliwili was great, although much too short. We did rent a car and drove up to the north coast where the road ends and started the hike. However, mud and time restraints ended our hike. Regardless it was fun and the views were wonderful.:D Brian they get the Diamond in and out of Nawiliwili quite gracefully actually, I was quite impressed, no new dents in the hull :p Honolulu was a wonderful day, we did the Diamond Head hike for wonderful views, great snorkelling at Hamauma Bay, walked along Waikiki Beach and enjoyed the shops. Today we were in Lahaina and walked to Ka'anapoli Beach and back to Lahaina for some shopping. Maui is nice and the hotel area is very impressive. We probably should have rented a car again but didn't feel like driving everyday.

 

Again, we couldn't be happier with the food, service and entertainment onboard. I have to say that having had the "new" menu on the Crown last year and comparing it to the "old" menus on the Diamond now, that the salads and salad dressings are better from what I can recall on the "old" menus.

 

Anyhow, I better get to dinner, don't want to lose any of my gained weight :D .

[Bucky3]

Very much enjoying your posts of my favorite cruise! We've done this cruise three times and I can hardly wait for the next time although we have nothing definitely planned at this point. May calm seas follow you home. Aloha!

[TorontoTL]

We have completed our cruise around the Hawian Islands. This has been one of the best cruises we have done to date. I really cannot think of any substantial criticisms of this cruise. The weather was great for Kona, Hilo however was rainy as it usually is. We are on our first return sea day and the ship is strangely quiet today. On one in the dining room for breakfast compared to normal. The atrium is also strangely quiet as well. Tonight is the second formal night and we have the third one on Valentine's day. We also have the world premier of Bonneville onboard this cruise as well.

[spingal]

We have completed our cruise around the Hawian Islands. This has been one of the best cruises we have done to date. I really cannot think of any substantial criticisms of this cruise. The weather was great for Kona, Hilo however was rainy as it usually is. We are on our first return sea day and the ship is strangely quiet today. On one in the dining room for breakfast compared to normal. The atrium is also strangely quiet as well. Tonight is the second formal night and we have the third one on Valentine's day. We also have the world premier of Bonneville onboard this cruise as well.

 

Benny,

 

Thanks so much for all of your posts!!! I agree that the Hawaii cruise is one of the best. I am doing it for the third time in April. Last time I went was on the 10/4/07 sailing. We were soooo lucky. We had bright blue skies and zero rain in Hilo. I hope our luck holds out for this trip.

 

I assume Bonneville is a new show? If so, that is great news. Let us know what you think of it. I have seen all of the older shows multiple times so it will be awesome to see something new.

 

Hope your seas are calm on the way back to LA. :D

[spingal]

HI SpinGal, I notice you're going back on 4/1, you must hate roll calls by now but maybe you'll stop by and say hi??

 

I can't wait to hear more from the Live From the Diamond!

 

Hi there!! Originally was planning a Panama Canal cruise in April and then decided to return to Hawaii again. So that is why I have not checked out the roll call yet!

[TorontoTL]

Hi Jamie, we were supposed to join you on your last cruise to Hawaii, however, back problems my partner was having for the past year caused us to change our plans. Bonneville is a new movie set to be in theatres on Feb 28th I believe. It was cool seeing an unreleased movie while on a cruise.:D I think we all felt lucky to have the privilege.

 

We had a pretty uneventful return home with very sunny skies and reasonable seas. It was truly one of the best cruises I have been on to date and I wouldn't hesitate to do a repeat of this itinerary. The whole cruise was only spoiled by a very very bad disembarkation that was caused by poor communications of delays due to US customs delays.

 

I would be happy to try to answer questions about the Diamond and what I have seen of Hawaii if anyone has any that I can answer. I would like to reiterate that the Diamond had some of the friendliest crews we have encountered to date. The food was generally very good to excellent and we felt that the dessert/pastry chefs on the Diamond were the best of all the Princess Cruises we have encountered. We ate far too much dessert every night as a result of trying more than one dessert each evening because they were all so good. I had dessert on this cruise that I thought was terrible in the past and loved it.

[spingal]

Welcome home Benny!!! I am so glad you enjoyed your cruise. :D

 

Thanks for the information about the show. Since it is not a new production show, we will just have time to do other things in the evenings.

 

Who is the current captain and CD for the Diamond? I am not sure if they are the same as the ones we had in October.

 

Sorry to hear about disembarkation. :eek: I noticed that the Golden was also in LA yesterday so maybe that held things up? San Pedro is such a bad place to disembark to begin with......even when there is only one ship in port. I sure wish they could learn a few lessons from the Fort Lauderdale. How delayed was the process?

[Pia1913]

Welcome home Benny!!! I am so glad you enjoyed your cruise. :D

 

Thanks for the information about the show. Since it is not a new production show, we will just have time to do other things in the evenings.

 

Who is the current captain and CD for the Diamond? I am not sure if they are the same as the ones we had in October.

 

Sorry to hear about disembarkation. :eek: I noticed that the Golden was also in LA yesterday so maybe that held things up? San Pedro is such a bad place to disembark to begin with......even when there is only one ship in port. I sure wish they could learn a few lessons from the Fort Lauderdale. How delayed was the process?

 

Hi Jamie:

 

Will be looking forward to reading your LIVE from the Diamond. It was a great cruise, wasn't it, albeit my DH mishap.

 

Pia

[moxie99]

Ken and I made it into Maine about 11 p.m. eastern time last night - drove home and were in the house before 2:30 a.m. I have to agree with Benny, the cruise was excellent and the Diamond was in beautiful form. The only bad about the whole trip was getting off - what a mess - but it's over and a fading memory as we remember all the fun parts of our cruise.

[FritzG]

I've been waiting to see some reviews from the Feb.1 trip to see if they improved the disembarkation at all. I can't believe they appear not to have changed a thing from the last cruise. We too disembarked the day you got on board, and it was horrible. The lines wound through and around the atrium, and there was no crew in sight except for the few on Deck 5 looking up at us and doing nothing. Doesn't anyone listen to the comments made by passengers? It's an awful way to end a fabulous trip.

[cruzinchris]

Hello, Benny!

You were on the Diamond at the same time that DH and I were on the Emerald Princess. Sounds like you had a fabulous voyage as did we (I've already posted a review on this board).

 

No trip to Toronto for us this year as we've seen most of the current offerings by the National Ballet of Canada but we will be seeing American Ballet Theatre in Chicago in April.

 

Hope all is well with you and Fabian. Best wishes to your folks, too.

Chris

[TorontoTL]

Hello, Benny!

You were on the Diamond at the same time that DH and I were on the Emerald Princess. Sounds like you had a fabulous voyage as did we (I've already posted a review on this board).

 

No trip to Toronto for us this year as we've seen most of the current offerings by the National Ballet of Canada but we will be seeing American Ballet Theatre in Chicago in April.

 

Hope all is well with you and Fabian. Best wishes to your folks, too.

Chris

 

Hey Chris, great review on the Emerald. We are considering a 10 day southern Caribbean cruise on the Emerald next year! Good to hear that you had a great cruise too.

[TorontoTL]

Welcome home Benny!!! I am so glad you enjoyed your cruise. :D

 

Thanks for the information about the show. Since it is not a new production show, we will just have time to do other things in the evenings.

 

Who is the current captain and CD for the Diamond? I am not sure if they are the same as the ones we had in October.

 

Sorry to hear about disembarkation. :eek: I noticed that the Golden was also in LA yesterday so maybe that held things up? San Pedro is such a bad place to disembark to begin with......even when there is only one ship in port. I sure wish they could learn a few lessons from the Fort Lauderdale. How delayed was the process?

 

The current Captain is Tony Yeomans. He is a nice guy, we met him on a couple of occasions and he is quite funny and friendly. The disembarkation process was extremely delayed and the organization of it was extremely poor, I have to say that it was truly the worst of all my cruises ever. Many many people were angry and saying that they would never cruise with Princess again as a result of the disembarkation, it was THAT bad. Despite that, I have to say again that the cruise itself was wonderful and I will not let the disembarkation fiasco ruin the memories of my 15 days aboard the Diamond. I hope they work on that and that it is better for the future cruises.

[TorontoTL]

Ken and I made it into Maine about 11 p.m. eastern time last night - drove home and were in the house before 2:30 a.m. I have to agree with Benny, the cruise was excellent and the Diamond was in beautiful form. The only bad about the whole trip was getting off - what a mess - but it's over and a fading memory as we remember all the fun parts of our cruise.

 

Faye, it was a pleasure meeting both you and Ken. Glad you made it home safely. I hope you can forget the disembarkation and have only the good memories of the cruise. Please don't let it prevent you from booking another Princess cruise, I have to say that disembarkation is usually something that goes very very smoothly, I have NEVER had a disembarkation go that poorly in the nine cruises I've done with Princess.

[TorontoTL]

Thank you for the current information. If you can, we would really like to know how it goes at the two tender ports. We have missed ports of call before because of high seas.

We will be boarding next. Hope all you guys have a great time.

 

Cheers,

Don

 

I guess we were lucky Don because we had no problems with any of the ports of call. The tendering went extremely smoothly. We arrived at Explorer's Lounge and received tender tickets and went down to the tenders immediately without a wait. Despite the waves the tenders made it to each of the two tender ports, Lahaina and Kona.

[Colo Cruiser]

I enjoyed talking to Capt Yoemans, he is quite a character. :D

[spingal]

The current Captain is Tony Yeomans. He is a nice guy, we met him on a couple of occasions and he is quite funny and friendly. The disembarkation process was extremely delayed and the organization of it was extremely poor, I have to say that it was truly the worst of all my cruises ever. Many many people were angry and saying that they would never cruise with Princess again as a result of the disembarkation, it was THAT bad. Despite that, I have to say again that the cruise itself was wonderful and I will not let the disembarkation fiasco ruin the memories of my 15 days aboard the Diamond. I hope they work on that and that it is better for the future cruises.

 

Thanks Benny - Captain Yeomans was on board in October too. Is Lee Childers still the CD?

 

So the new disembarkation procedures aren't implemented yet on the Diamond? It sounds like it was the old mess of everyone congregating on stairways and in the atrium? :confused:

[spingal]

Hi Jamie:

 

Will be looking forward to reading your LIVE from the Diamond. It was a great cruise, wasn't it, albeit my DH mishap.

 

Pia

 

You got it!!!!!!!!!!! And our Diamond Princess cruise was great! :D

[browneyes274]

Is Lee Childers still the CD?

 

 

Someone named Dan is the CD for our April cruise. I don't know his last name but he popped in on our roll call and said hello.

[flamingo3]

Hi! We were on the cruise with Benny and Faye. Paul and I agree -- it was a wonderful cruise. I'd love to do it again.

 

David Cole was our CD but he is leaving the ship after the current cruise for a 6-month vacation. He was excellent and has added a lot of Hawaiian activities.

 

Disembarking was a nightmare but I wouldn't let it stop me from taking another Princess cruise. The days at sea were wonderful. I loved the ukelele lessons! The ports were great and only wish we had more time at each port.

 

To whoever is going soon -- Enjoy and have a fabulous time!

 

Susan

 

P.S. Hi Benny! Hi Faye!

[spingal]

Hi! We were on the cruise with Benny and Faye. Paul and I agree -- it was a wonderful cruise. I'd love to do it again.

 

David Cole was our CD but he is leaving the ship after the current cruise for a 6-month vacation. He was excellent and has added a lot of Hawaiian activities.

 

Disembarking was a nightmare but I wouldn't let it stop me from taking another Princess cruise. The days at sea were wonderful. I loved the ukelele lessons! The ports were great and only wish we had more time at each port.

 

To whoever is going soon -- Enjoy and have a fabulous time!

 

Susan

 

P.S. Hi Benny! Hi Faye!

 

Susan,

 

What were the issues with disembarkation? Has Princess implemented the new disembarkation procedures?

 

So glad you had an amazing time!! I can't wait to go back -- 6 weeks from tomorrow! :D

[spingal]

Someone named Dan is the CD for our April cruise. I don't know his last name but he popped in on our roll call and said hello.

 

I still have not made it over there!!! I will check it out. Thanks!