I had booked our cruise with Princess for the January 17-31 Hawaii cruise for a variety of reasons: my husband and I wanted to go to Hawaii, we had never been on a cruise together, we live in Los Angeles and didn't have to worry about getting to the embarkation port, and we couldn't beat the deal we got for a balcony stateroom. And, while I had some trepidation about the Golden Princess from some previous posts here, I was still eager to give it a try.

Embarkation was very smooth. We had Karmel Shuttle Service drop us off at the pier and we followed the Princess personnel to check in. We had arrived at 11:00 AM and were on board the ship by 11:30. Everyone was polite and efficient. Our balcony stateroom was enclosed on three sides, which turned out to be a blessing during the trip itself. Our room was very clean and ready for our arrival, even at 11:30. I had read on this site the problem with the Golden Princess' mattresses, but our bed was very comfortable, and we did not need the egg-crate mattress top that many suggest. We enjoyed the food at the Horizon Court buffet as we took a walking tour of the ship before departure. Not as big a ship as I had expected it to be. It only took ten minutes to walk her length. We also knew before hand that the median age of our fellow cruisers would be 70, and that there would only be a handful of children on board. We looked forward to a very quiet cruise, and on that we were not disappointed.

The embarkation party was so subdued, though, that at one point I thought they had called it off altogether. A little bit more enthusiasm from the entertainment staff would have helped with that, but it was no big deal. But the first week out went from subdued to ghostly. The ship struck 20-foot swells nearly the entire way to Hawaii - at night you could hear the ship cut through the waves, followed by a long shudder that ran through the metal hull; very disturbing - and so many people wound up confined to their cabins because of sea sickness that we had the ship pretty much to ourselves. Our own balcony never got wet, though, because of the covering, so we were able to enjoy breakfast and several other meals there during the rough trip to Hawaii. Read more