Category: Cruise Ships

Honolulu Day 2 and Maui

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The weather on this 2019 Christmas day in Honolulu, Hawaii is overcast and drizzly with mist covering the hills down to the sea. The winds are strong. Strong enough that the ship’s lateral thrusters are being used to hold the ship on the berth and reduce the strain on mooring lines. Out beyond the breakwater waves are rolling ashore relentlessly, probably making west coast surfers overjoyed.

Everyone with whom I have spoken seems to have taken a positive view of the Captain’s decision to skip the Kauai call. I have been to the Port at Nawiliwili numerous times and the entry is difficult under good weather conditions. The harbour entry is narrow requiring a slow right turn into the breakwater opening followed immediately by a left turn and complex rotation of the ship to the berth. It would be nearly impossible to execute in high winds. This is compounded by the fact that the harbour can only be used during daylight hours. Honolulu is a much more desirable place to be marooned.

We spent our first morning in Honolulu by taking the free shuttle to Hilo Hatties at the Ala Moana centre. There was a half hearted search for a muumuu, which failed, followed by a quick trip to the nearby Walmart to pickup our first supply of macadamias and a few other items of opportunity. In past years only the shell lei provided on arrival at the centre was the only credential required to take the return shuttle. This time the lei was required to obtain a return trip ticket from the Hilo Hatties cashier. This assures that everyone actually visits the shop.

Our afternoon found us walking, for about an hour, to the Foster Botanical Garden where we walked for another hour or so. The majority of blooms were done for the season except for the conservatory greenhouse. There were, however, many species of shrubs and trees that aren’t seen in our home region.There were still a number of butterflies in one area of the garden and I managed to get one to pose briefly. Caterpillars were busy gorging on leaves in hopes of becoming butterflies someday. A tiny gecko also posed for us before we left the garden. During a stop at the gift shop we met a local couple and chatted for a while. We have always found locals very friendly. Upon learning that we planned to return to the ship by taxi the couple, Linn and Faye, offered to take us back the pier. I guess strangers are just friends you haven’t yet met.

We sailed on schedule, 17:00, after our extended stay in Honolulu as skies cleared and seas calmed. This morning found us in Maui harbour under sunny skies and nearly calm seas. We joined passengers on a ship’s tender for the trip from our anchorage to the port. It was a beautiful morning to walk the streets of the little village and enjoy the best day of the current trip. We had a tender all to ourselves for a late morning return to the Star Princess. We look forward to smooth seas for our trip and stop at Hilo tomorrow.

There are a few photos from the Foster Gardens in the sidebar.

And now for the rest of the story

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Merry Christmas to all from Honolulu, not Nawiliwili.

This has been the most unique of Hawaii cruises. We have come to expect a bit of rough weather coming out of Los Angeles but this year the expected day or two became three days before we began to get smoother sailing. Well, today we were scheduled to arrive on the berth in Honolulu at 07:00 but because of continued poor sea conditions we were over an hour late. Since our scheduled departure was 23:00 the late arrival was of little consequence.

At noon the captain announced that we were not finished with stormy seas and that tomorrow’s Christmas Day stop in Kauai was cancelled. We are now staying overnight in Honolulu and departing for Mauai on the evening of December 25. Kauai is a daylight only harbour and requires some very precise maneuvering to reach the berth, something which factored into the Captain’s decision.

Now to speculate, Maui harbour is very shallow and we will be at anchor, not at a berth so bad weather could be a problem there. Speculating further, Hilo harbour is no joy to enter even in calm seas. Hmmm.

The long step at sea

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We spent most of this morning waiting but it provided opportunity to chat with other travellers who were also waiting. While waiting for the porter to retrieve our large bags then waiting for our 11:45 bus to arrive at 12:30. All things worked out well and there was no wait at all to check-in and board the Star Princess. By 1:30 we were munching on our traditional boarding day lunch, cheese burgers, and by 3:00 PM all baggage had arrived, been emptied and we were sitting quietly on a hallway floor during the muster drill.

The first four or five days of this cruise are spent crossing a large part of the Pacific Ocean, which, contrary to its name, is not so peaceful. This time, each of the first three nights were progressively more bouncy, making us happy we again chose accommodation in the less affected midship area. Now, as we approach Hawaii, the weather and sea condition is improving minute by minute. I wouldn’t be surprised if the pools were open today, during the heavy weather they turn into wave pools and unsafe to use.

Thus far we have met a number of people with whom we have previously shared this trip. There are also many for whom this is a first experience and others who are experienced travellers. It is easy to meet people on the ship. We share tables with different passengers for each meal and conversation is generally good. We also meet folks in the lounges where the entertainment this time is quite enjoyable. Elua is a duo that perform Hawaiian theme music and drive the Hawaiian cultural experience by their music, teaching lei making, ukulele, and hula. The Gemstones Quartet has been performing very danceable music in the Wheelhouse Bar.

There are, as expected, numerous children, mostly well behaved. Yesterday, with some help, they made a  number of gingerbread houses. They are on display in the Atrium along with other Christmas decorations and there are decorated Christmas trees everywhere.

We are just arriving at Honolulu so I will post without photos and load them later.

Hawaii 2019 (again)

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Star Princess

We are traveling again. Just a reminder that the complete post is not visible in the email. To see the full post and any photo albums you should  click on the Blue “Read The Post” button.

Hawaii Cruise Map

We are once again getting ready to take our private yacht to Hawaii for Christmas and New Year celebrations. We have invited about 2600 of our friends to join us for the 15 day round trip from Los Angeles. We have taken this voyage several times and at least twice aboard this ship. Although we won’t know all of the passengers but there will doubtless be several with whom we have previously shared this voyage. 

The Star Princess was our ship for a 2006 Caribbean cruise and a 2011 cruise from Rome to Venice. She was launched in 2002 and had a minor refit in 2017. Like many cruise lines, Princess appears to have a fondness for ever larger ships. Many of the smaller ships have been given a major refurbishment and a new name with a different cruise line. Golden Princess is next to go to P&O Cruises in 2020 and the Star Princess will follow in 2021, so this will probably be our last cruise aboard Star Princess. Four new large ships are expected to enter service in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025. 

In previous years we have arrived in Los Angeles the day before sailing and stayed at a hotel near the airport. This year we will spend that night in Long Beach for a change. We do this for two reasons. Firstly, because winter air travel can be unpredictable so the extra day allows some time for delays and secondly, because Princess makes luggage handling simple. They take us and luggage from the airport to the hotel then from the hotel to our shipboard stateroom. In Toronto we also stay near the airport on the night before our flight. We have to handle our own luggage at this end.

I have added a few new pages to the site which you should find under the menu item “Ships, Past and Present“. The page “Cruise History” catalogs our cruise history by ship. The page “Ship History” documents the life history of those ships which are no longer sailing under the Princess Cruises brand. The page “Basic Ship Specifications” provides basic data describing the vessels on which we have sailed.

This will serve as journal post number one for this tour. Having done this trip several times it will be hard not to duplicate some photos. I am going to try to provide some new scenes so keep watching. The most recent photos should appear in the sidebar to the right of the post. All of the years photos can be found under the “Photo Gallery” menu in the “Christmas Cruise 2019” page. There is a group of historical photos from our Toronto departures at the end of this post.

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