We arrived early to board the Crown Princess for our South Pacific cruise and were on the ship within 30 minutes. Great job Princess!
I’ll share just a few Crown Princess facts: capacity is 3,080 guests and there are 1,200 crew. Although this is an older ship built in 2006, it was completely refurbished in 2018. There are 14 dining and restaurant options, 8 bars, 6 pools and splash pads, 7 spas and a host of other amenities. Plenty to keep us busy for the next 31 days.
Exploring the ship and setting sail on our South Pacific Cruise
We spent the first few hours having lunch and navigating around the ship. It will be our new home way from home. Here is the ship’s itinerary for our journey and a few photos.
As beautiful as the day began, fog set in very quickly. Sailing away underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, we could hardly see it above us.
Our first port is Los Angeles. The port for Los Angeles is actually in San Pedro. We docked next to the Battleship USS Iowa. This retired warship is now a maritime museum you can visit. We’ve visited L.A. many times, so we just stayed on the ship. This gave us a chance to get our bearings, work out and plan for the 5 sea days before we port in Hawaii.
Day 1 at sea
I’m always reporting on Danny’s exploits, so it’s now time to share one of mine. Sea day 1 of 5, sailing away from the California coast, we entered the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean. After breakfast, I decided on a workout before party time begins. The waters were a bit rough and the swells deep. The gym is high up on deck 16 at the very front of the ship. On the treadmill, I felt like I was walking sideways from the swells. The ocean in the wall of windows in front of me was constantly moving up and down.
Very quickly I realized I was going to be seasick. So I immediately went to my room and lost my breakfast 🤮. Unfortunately, I was seasick the entire day and couldn’t eat or drink anything. What a waste of my drink package! I didn’t know if I could manage another 4 days like today.
Days 2-5 at sea
Thankfully, after lots of meds and sleep I managed to get my ”sea legs” and on Day 2 returned to feeling normal. The calm seas also helped a lot. Lesson learned to take your meds if you’re prone to sea sickness, even if you don’t think you’ll need them. The rest of our days at sea were spent with entertainment, activities, eating, drinking and even doing laundry. Yes, there are laundromats on board should you need them.
There are lots of activities scheduled all day long, so there’s plenty to do if you choose. I missed the champagne fountain on sea day 1 that contained a tower of 325 glasses. I’m not sure how many bottles of champagne it took to fill up all the glasses, but I’m thankful Danny didn’t risk taking a glass. I have visions of hundreds of glasses crashing down like dominoes. Finally, does anyone else find it odd there are always multiple plates in front of Danny at dinner…main courses and especially desserts?
Champagne on our balcony. Our view for all 5 sea days. I can say that I’ve never seen water this blue before. It’s beautiful. The captain reported this morning that the sea below us is 18,000-20,000 feet deep.
Arriving in Honolulu at Sunrise
It’s a long day in Honolulu from 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. We arrived just as the sun came up.
Pearl Harbor & the USS Arizona Memorial
First stop in Honolulu is to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. You can self-tour the Harbor, visitor’s center and museum at no cost, but you do need to reserve boat tickets well in advance, as this is the only way to get to the actual Memorial. Tickets tend to sell out months ahead of time, but they do release any cancelled tickets one day prior to the visit. The boat tickets are $1 as of this posting and the boats are operated by the US Navy. Once at the Memorial you will view the submerged remains of the battleship visible beneath the water. The attack by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 killed 1,177 on the Arizona alone. The remains of most of the sailors and marines killed are still entombed on board. One interesting fact about the wreckage is that it still continues to leak oil. The ship originally held 1.5 million gallons of fuel when hit. Known as “black tears”, 5-9 quarts of oil leak daily from the wreckage, even after 70+ years.
Always time for a bit of shopping
Our Uber driver over to the Memorial mentioned a local swap meet we should visit about a 5 minute walk from the Memorial. We strolled around and grabbed lunch but it was a very hot day. So we grabbed another Uber and headed out to our favorite store…Costco. I’ll post separately about our trip to Costco like I have previously when we visited Costco Canada and Costco France.
Walking around Honolulu to visit Iolani Palace
Walking through Chinatown on the way to Iolani Palace is next on the agenda. The palace, completed in 1882, served as the royal residence for King Kalākaua and his sister and successor, Queen Liliʻuokalani who then ruled the Hawaiian Kingdom. The monarchy lasted until 1893. Today, this gated palace is the only Royal Residence in the USA. Across the street is the Hawaii Supreme Court with the King’s statue out front.
The Kawaiahao Church (1836-1842) continues to use the Hawaiian language for parts of the service. It is also the oldest church on Oahu, but was under some maintenance today. We arrived back at the ship in downtown Honolulu exhausted after a very long day of walking almost 8 miles.
Since we didn’t leave port until 11:00 p.m., we enjoyed a great view of the skyline from our balcony.
Kahului, Maui
Unfortunately, the Lahaina fire destroyed our original destination so we came to Kahului instead. We were still tired from yesterday, so we made this stop an easy day. Just across from port was a shopping center, so we walked around for a couple hours and then went back to the ship for lunch and cocktails. There wasn’t much to do near the port, but that will probably change over time as it will take years for Lahaina to recover.
I hope you enjoyed part 1 of our amazing 31-day Cruise in the South Pacific — Hawaii. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been aboard the ship 10 days already. Up next is 5 more sea days and then part 2 of our cruise Moorea and Tahiti in French Polynesia.
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