Star Princess Review
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I will start my review with this: A cruise was not my first choice. I was convinced by my husband whose dream it was to take a trans-ocean cruise. He talked me into this 15 day cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii by getting me to think positively and he actually had me excited. We had been on 2 cruises in the past which I did not much enjoy but at least the food was decent, the entertainment was good and I did not get sick.
The embarkation was very organized and quite efficient . I was expecting something like a cattle call but I was impressed. Once we got on we headed straight for the Horizons Court, which is the buffet on the Lido deck on the 14th floor. The line up was long, but was to be expected seeing that it was embarkation. The food, however, was lukewarm and less than mediocre. Thinking it was a fluke, we carried on. Our room was tiny, but we cheaped out so what can you do. When my 5'11" husband took a shower and dropped his soap, he couldn't pick it up---that's how small the shower was. But again, we took an inside stateroom at the lower prices so it is what it is. "We're not going to spend much time in our stateroom so who cares"---my words. Which are haunting me now.
The decor of the ship wasn't as nice, in our opinion, compared to the other ships we had been on (Carnival Spirit and the Norwegian). They had a glass elevator you couldn't see through (what's the point?). All the restaurants had the same menu (really?) and the line ups were long unless you made a reservation. The piazza only had a few tables if we wanted to sit that we had to either wait for and luck into. The shows were standing room only so we always went 45 minutes early and waited. I went to the fitness center but all the treadmills were taken and after waiting for 10 minutes, I left and decided to walk the mile around the ship instead. The classes were overcrowded---I wanted to learn the hula but after the first class where I couldn't even stretch my hands out because of all the people I stopped going. However, the Hawaiin ambassador Rowena Vasquez was a bright spot on the cruise. And her husband Brian entertained us with his singing and ukelele, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Bohemian Trio, the violinists and Cellist were awesome.
Cabin Review
Interior
Never cheap out and get an inside room. Splurge, because the rooms are tiny, claustrophobic, you can't see outside and never know if it's night or day, and the showers are ridiculously small (and I'm 5'1" 115 lbs)
Port Reviews
Kauai
You can take a shuttle bus to Harbor Mall and then walk across the street to the ocean. Chickens running around everywhere. The hop on hop off shuttles are great. The ice cream store in the Harbor Mall is very good and the proprietor is very friendly
Maui
There was a lady from the Senior Centre selling leis with plumeria for $5---best deal ever and then the banyon tree park was amazing---loved it. The area where the tender dropped us off was basically a shopping district but we did visit the old prison which was a cool point of interest. If I was feeling better, I would have liked to have spent more time exploring.