Diamond Princess - 15 day Hawaii cruise - November 3 to 18, 2007

Background: This was our 6th Princess cruise and 1st to Hawaii. We have visited Hawaii many, many times so excursions were not high on our list of things to do as we had our favorite places to go to.

Embarkation: Flew in from Oakland and took the Princess transfer. No problem finding the "greeter" in the baggage area. Usual problem where had to wait till a bus arrived as well as enough people to fill it. Flight landed around 11 a.m., transfer around 12:15, in cruise terminal around 12:45. Lines were long and even though had priority with Platinum level, still waited for some time. On board around 1:30. Lots of "challenged" elderlies on cruise with walkers, wheelchairs and larks. LA terminal is not the greatest but they could do a lot better using the method used on our Baltic cruise. There, we were batched into groups, given numbers and a seating area to wait in. Then groups were called up in order so you didn't have to spend time standing in a long line. Cabin: We went financially challenged on this cruise and had an inside cabin on Caribe deck. Inside is better arranged since no balcony door to deal with so has a much nicer and larger desk and drawer setup and therefore more useable room. Showers were the normal wash the walls and curtain as the ship rocks and look out for flooding the floor. Dining Room: Diamond Princess has 5 dining rooms. Essentially though, they cut two large rooms on most ships in two on the 5th and 6th deck and named them Vivaldi and Savoy on the 5th and Pacific Moon and Santa Fe on the 6th. The International dining room in the aft 5th deck is one large for fixed seating as well as the 6:00 seating in the Savoy. The other 3 rooms and 8 p.m. on in the Savoy were for anytime dining. We started our "anytime" in the Pacific Moon but had very slow service so then tried the Santa Fe where we had better luck and excellent service from Rui and Ernesto. So from then on we fixed a regular reservation time of 8 p.m. at their station. Note that as you leave the dining room, you can ask the host/hostess to reserve the same time and table for the next day. Food was very good per normal but meat quality seems to be slipping as I seem to recall tastier and tender cuts. Same for lobster. We had two nights of lobster but in both cases, it came with either fish or shrimp where in the past lobster was served by itself. Had frog legs, venison. rabbit and buffalo meat offered also. All and all, food was good. Read more