Our voyage to the Paradise of the Pacific.
Why fly to The Aloha State when you can cruuuuuiise there?
We scored another great deal from Princess so we decided to sail to Hawaii from Seattle on a 16 day voyage. This itinerary may not be for everyone, as 10 of those days are spent at sea! Five days to the islands then five days back.
And because of the Jones Act regulations, we stopped in Victoria, Canada on our way back. (Hawaii cruises from California tend to stop in Ensenada, Mexico to follow this American law.)
Sea Days
The sea days on this voyage were not dissimilar from other sea days I’ve droned on about before, so I’m not going to share much detail on that. However, we did try something new!
We signed up to learn to play the ukulele. What a sweet sound that stringed instrument emits… but not when we’re strumming it! After a few days we were able to roughly play Happy Birthday To You. By Day 3 my fingertips were sore and we gave up. What fun to take on a new challenge though! Those that stuck with it the classes, performed a short concert in the showroom.
We also sat in many of the naturalist lectures and one Hawaiian language class. We learned about flying fish, sharks around Hawaii, and birds. Princess offers a jam-packed schedule of enrichment activities.
The TV in our cabin also caught our attention on NFL Sundays and other days. We watched something new! Have you ever watched Australian football before?? That game is wild! And we also started watching a fabulous show called White Lotus which is set in Hawaii. Quite the immersive television experience…
This cruise was the first time that I’ve experienced slight seas all the way to Hawaii. While walking the promenade deck we could hear the hissing foam, but the waves were small. Such a treat after the 20+ foot swells we had on the Japan crossing. Though we did encounter some cloudy weather and larger swells as we approached the Pacific Northwest toward the end of the voyage.
But let’s talk about the good stuff…
The Islands
The Big Island of Hawaii
The first ports of call were on my favorite island. I love the chill vibes on this low-key slice of paradise. In fact, we could just barely make out the outline of Maui and the Big Island during sunset on the fifth sea day.
Kona
The ship dropped anchor in the early morning at the Kailua-Kona harbor. Like the thousands of other passengers onboard, we were eager to explore land. We were on one of the first water shuttles to shore and explored the area on foot. We covered nine miles!
We walked south with the beach as our destination for the day. Our path included several stops along the way.
Coffee, tacos, shopping, and poke.
After four hours we finally made it to our goal: Magic Sands Beach. It was a stunning stretch of sand with big aqua waves crashing down on the shore.
After swimming, we hopped on one of the free buses around Kona to head back toward downtown. Here’s a video of what it’s like to ride the bus there.
Not all neighborhoods in Kona are pretty and eventually we found ourselves walking around an industrial zone. To our delight, Corey spotted a brewery, Ola, that he had on his sightseeing list so we grabbed some tasters and rested our feet. They have excellent craft beer and hard seltzers. We then walked to Kona Brewing for a pint.
Kona probably has a greater number of shops than residents, so we bought a few things at Ross and ABC before reboarding the ship.
Hilo
The original cruise itinerary included Lahaina, Maui, but the tragic wildfires forced a change in plans. Hilo is not my favorite Hawaiian city but we still had a good time walking into and around town. Our morning included a walk through Liliuokalani Park and a stop for fresh poke with an amazing island view.
In the afternoon we visited a busy farmers market, and swimming at Carlsmith Beach Park. Like Kona, Hilo also offers a free bus program which makes it easy to move around the city.
We were really hoping to share the lagoon with turtles but we spotted none that day. We still had a great time hanging out on the rocks and splashing around. There are several concrete walkways and ladders into the sea which makes it easier to get in and out of the water.
Oahu
Honolulu – The big pineapple.
This was our splurge day and we rented a car through Hui – an island based car sharing program. The pick up was just steps from the cruise terminal and we zipped over to Pearl Harbor first. It was crowded with lots of cruise passengers as we spent about four hours exploring the exhibits and films, the Walk of Remembrance, and the memorial bridge over the USS Arizona. We thought this was a nice complement to similar WWII museums or exhibits that we viewed in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia, all of which were affected by the war.
We had prebooked our time for the USS Arizona memorial, and the process was smooth and simple. No more need to head over early morning to obtain boat tickets, although standby tickets are still an option.
There are three other sites at Pearl Harbor that require separate admission fees, which may be of interest to those more passionate for aerospace or submarines.
From there we grabbed Hawaiian lunch from Fatboy’s on our way to the North Shore.
It did not take that long to reach our next destination, Polo Beach. A fairly quiet beach with big flakes of sand that were hard to scrub off later. You know the kind of sand that attaches to your skin like it’s connected with super glue!
After a few hours of relaxing, we drove around the coast to catch the sun fall at Sunset Beach Park. Such a picture-perfect place for a romantic sunset watch.
As night settled in we cruised down to Honolulu for dinner and nighttime cruising through Waikiki. As we approached the jam-packed sidewalks we rolled the windows down and let the salty, warm air and thumping street noises fill the car.
There’s not much beach scene to see at night but it was a Corey’s first time in Oahu so we tried to see as much as possible. We ate so many good meals in Hawaii and dinner was pretty good! Tuna steak wrap and mixed-meat rice plate.
Kauai
Nawiliwili
Our final port was on the Garden Isle, a place I have visited many times with my family and when I worked on ships. Corey has also visited Kauai with me and my parents so we stayed close to the port. There is a great beach, Kalapaki, just a 10 minute walk away.
We frolicked in the water, tanned on the shore, and had a nice lunch at a family favorite, Duke’s Barefoot Bar. After we reboarded the ship in the afternoon we enjoyed the sail-away from the best place on the ship: the aft deck!
We got to see Kauai slowly fade away into the clouds. They say that you never say goodbye in Hawaiian, instead it is a hui hou kakou (until we meet again) but I’m pretty sure aloha also means farewell. Aloha to a wonderful trip to Hawaii!
Final thoughts on this cruise experience
Princess has been a favorite for us. Especially after sailing on the Royal class and two cruises on their newest ship, Discovery. Crown Princess is in the smaller, older Grand class and it was just fine. But newer ships are just nicer!
They have made some recent changes that we don’t like. Princess has pushed guests into ordering from their unreliable app. After setting up the expectation that everything can be handled via the app (room amenities, anywhere food/drink deliveries, etc.), Princess now requires a $15 “setup” fee for any guests who have not purchased a WiFi/drinks package for the cruise. Calling guest services to circumvent the app will levy a $5 charge per phone order. Stupidly this includes free items like a bucket of ice or bathrobes.
This feels like a nickel-and-dime charge for something that should be included with the cruise experience, an experience that already includes a lot of up-charging.
We did not let these absurd business decisions ruin our Hawaii holiday, so we fetched our own ice and did not succumb to laziness.
Overall, we still really like Princess and would recommend their cruise line to others. In fact, if you’re interested in booking a cruise with Princess, reach out to Melissa. She makes the booking process so easy!