Cruiseing on the Golden Princess to Hawaii?

Question

Tell me everything I should know please!!! All the people who have gone before, any inside info would to great. We are goion on the 14day cruise out of LA in April. Traveling with 2 adults and 4 kids (7,8,14,16)

Thanks so much in advance!

Answer 1

Funny thing, I am going on the same ship to Hawaii this October from LA. Same cruise. I have been on 8 cruises with Princess and 2 times on the Golden. Lets see, inside tips are; at 3pm every day, you can get free ice cream in the buffet court. If you are a big coffee lover, you can get a coffee card on day 1 from the pastrycoffee bar on like deck 5 or maybe it is deck 6. Anyways, you can get lattes or esespressos for  free. Of course you do have to buy the card. Lastly if they have high tea in the afternoon, this is really worth going to. No dress up is necessary, but it is a very classy affair. The last tip is when you are able to book your shore excursions (about 120 days or less before the trip), go ahead and book them as many sell out way before the cruise starts. You can always cancel them as long as you do so 2 days before the excursion. Lastly, I like to go to cruise critic and then to roll call and talk to people that will be on the same cruise as I will. Do this up to about 6 months in advance. Just look for your ship and the day it is sailing. You can e-mail if you wish for more specspecificuestions.

Answer 2

These cruises have four sea days between California and the islands of Hawaii, so bring your ipods, and appetite. on these days you are pretty much stuck at sea, hence the name "sea day". The three main restaurants, named after Bernini, Donatello, and Canaletto, offer both traditional reserved tables at two sittings and restaurant-style seating where at dinner passengers may request a table between 5:30 pm and midnight. Some passengers come aboard with specific dining reservations, then decide to switch to open seating part way into the cruise. Some confusion and a wait may result at peak hours between 7:30 and 8:30 pm. At Sabatini's, the multicourse Italian tasting menu includes eight antipasti, pizza, minestrone, salad, three pastas, a choice of six entrees, and four desserts. Reservations are required, and the $15 extra charge is well worth the outlay. The Desert Rose, a walk-through lunch and dinner venue, has a southwestern Tex-Mex design and food such as tequila chicken fajitas, white-bean enchilada and chili and cumin-rubbed catfish, four tasty courses for an $8 moderate charge. Casual and low-key, it's worth a return visit. High up on Lido Deck 14, Horizon Court is open 24 hours, and late at night a section becomes a wait-served bistro, a feature on all Princess ships. The pool area has a grill for hamburgers and hot dogs and a second counter for pizza by the slice. Sundaes and scoops of ice cream come with land-side prices.Three entertainment lounges include the two-level Princess Theater for the lavish shows, the smaller Vista Showlounge for singers, comedians and lecturers and Explorers, featuring a band playing amidst Egyptian, Moroccan and wild animals of the jungle tropical decor. Clubby and sedate, the dark-paneled Wheelhouse Bar is a pre-dinner gathering place enveloped in maritime art, ship models and photographs, an attractive collection touting the company's 172-year history trading to the British Empire, carrying immigrants, colonial servants, travelers, and troops and offering leisurely cruises. Other public spaces include the vast Atlantis Casino, attractive open-plan lounge bars facing the atrium, and of course, that high-up perch in the sky. Skywalkers, a lofty lounge ensconced within a tubular glass pod suspended 155 ft above the foaming wake, provides a quiet lounge during the day and a pulsating disco at night. By swiveling 180 degrees, you can see the entire length of the Golden Princess stretching away toward the horizon. A travelator (a moving walkway) slopes upward from the deck below. One of four widely separated main pools, helping to distribute the masses of sun worshippers, is positioned under an all-weather retractable glass roof and a second features a mildly strong current to pretend one is swimming mightily against. Three have flanking whirlpools, social centers for all ages all day and into the night. The large-windowed spa is sited forward on Sun Deck 15 and offers aerobics, steam rooms, saunas, massage, a beauty parlor, and the full range of treatments, plus a moderate-size gym. Some say it could be larger. For active out-of-doors types, there is a golf simulator, 9-hole miniature golf course, paddle tennis court, basketball and volleyball. Constitutional walkers can completely circumnavigate the ship from the pointy end to the flat transom. For circumnavigators, at the forward end of the Promenade Deck, steps lead up to Emerald Deck and a covered walkway located below the mooring deck. By standing at the very bow, you can be the first to arrive in port, and the first to leave.

The Internet Center has 25 computers. An art gallery hosts auctions, and the huge high-tech, virtual-reality game room, Voyage of Discovery, creatively entertains the young and young at heart. Children, numbering in the hundreds during holidays, have excellent age-specific programs throughout the day. Harder-to-please teenagers have their own area called Off Limits, a private disco lounge, a patch of open deck and small spa. The British captain renews vows and marries passengers in a wedding chapel As with the entire Princess fleet, the ship's doctors are linked to shoreside hospitals, and in the case of the Golden Princess, to the University of Texas Medical Center with onboard facilities to send digital x-rays, live videos and voice communication for immediate assistance.

Of the 1,300 earth-tone paneled and light-hued cabins, 710 have private verandas, and outside rooms with balconies measure 215 to 255 sq ft. Standard outside cabins measure 165 to 210 sq ft and inside rooms 160. The lounge sections have only a desk-***-vanity and chair and, curiously, no room for a sofa. The tiered balcony design allows those above to lord over their neighbors dwelling below. All cabins have refrigerators, TVs that bring in CNN, ESPN, TNT, and the BBC. Standard appointments are phones, safes, hair dryers, cloth robes, and adequate storage in open closets. The 25 suites and 180 mini-suites have sitting areas with sofa beds, two TVs, and tubs, with whirlpools added to the full suite accommodations. Many cabins on Emerald Deck 8 have views blocked by lifeboats, and these are marked on the plans. Among the cabins, 28 (18 outside and 10 inside) are wheelchair-accessible.

The Golden Princess offers a big-ship cruise for those who want their conveyance to be a destination at least equal to the ports of call. But megaship size does not necessarily mean being part of the crowd. Passengers are well distributed, and quiet retreats may be found all over the ship.

Answer 3

Here you go,you asked for it:





Golden Princess

ship's features are three formal dining rooms, three state-of-the-art show lounges, a world-class art collection, a variety of pools, a nine-hole putting course, a kid's video game arcade, and more than 700 balcony staterooms.

Golden Princess Facts

Date Launched: 05/16/2001

Registry: Great Britain

Officers: Italian

Crew: International

Complement: 1100

Gross Tons: 109000.0

Length (ft.): 935

Beam (ft.): 118

Passengers: 2600

Stability Rating: Excellent

Dinner Seatings: 2

Dress Code: Traditional

Room Service: Yes

Tipping: $9 per person per day, 15% automatically added to bar checks

Outdoor Pools: 4

Indoor Pools: 0

Jacuzzis: 9

Fitness Center

Spa

Beauty Salon

Showroom

Bars/Lounges: 17

Casino

Shops

Library

Child Program

Self-service Laundry

Elevators: 14

Suites: 208

Outside Doubles: 938

Inside Doubles: 362

Singles Cabins: 0

Singles Surcharge: 150 - 200%

Verandah Cabins: 710

Activities

    * Daily scheduled activities organized by cruise staff

    * Shopping galleria with dutyfree shop, drug store, jewelry shop, Princess logo items

    * Destination & shopping lectures and shore excursions

    * Full service Lotus Spa with oceanview massage & aromatherapy rooms, beauty salon

    * Fully equipped oceanview gymnasium with "Cruisercise" health & fitness program and health juice bar

    * Acres of open and protected decks for swimming, sunning and viewing

    * Three-laps-to-a-mile promenade deck

    * Neptune's Reef and Pool with simulated coral reefs and beach areas

    * Lap Pool with a current to swim against

    * Calypso Reef and Pool with Crystal Dome for all weather swimming

    * 9 Whirlpool Spas to soak your cares away

    * Deck sports include shuffleboard, deck chess, jogging track, paddle tennis and ping-pong

    * Princess Links computerized golf center with nine-hole putting green for the golf enthusiast

    * Voyages of Discovery virtual reality center with games, rides and golf simulators

    * Limelight Studio with blue screen video

Dining

24 hr room service

    * Donatello, Canaletto and Bernini dining rooms serving sit-down breakfast, lunch and dinner

    * Sabatini's Trattoria for Italian meals of pizza, pasta and tiramasu

    * The Desert Rose is the first Southwestern restaurant at sea, featuring everything from margaritas to quesadillas

    * Outdoor and pool-side Prego Pizzeria serves up freshly baked slices

    * Horizon Court offers 24-hour breakfast & lunch buffets and sit-down, casual dinners

    * Trident Grill serves burgers and bites outdoors by the pool

    * Promenade Lounge & Bar serving special wines and caviar on ice

    * Meet at the Lobby Bar for cocktails with new found friends

    * Center Court Bar, Oasis Bar, Tradewinds Bar, Outrigger Bar, Calypso Bar, The Mermaid's Tail Bar serving cocktails up on deck and poolside

    * Sundaes ice cream bar for sweet creations

    * Daily afternoon tea

    * 24-hour room service with hot & cold entrees

Entertainment

    * Princess Theater with 36-foot proscenium arch stage and perfect-viewing seating for Broadway-style musicals

    * Vista Lounge with Las Vegas-style nightclub revue

    * Intimate Explorers offering cabaret club performances

    * 13,500 square-foot Atlantis Casino with slots, blackjack, craps, roulette, Caribbean stud, the largest at sea

    * Skywalkers is a fabulous observatory by day and a stunning nightclub at night, suspended 15 decks above the sea

    * Golden Plaza atrium with comfy chairs, live music and inviting bar, the perfect spot for meeting friends and people watching

    * Relax amidst nautical memorabilia and cocktails in the Wheelhouse Bar

    * Players Sports Bar with live broadcasts