Diamond princess to hawaii

[laur623]

My wife and I are thinking about taking the 15 day hawaian cruise on the Diamond. We have cruised on the her to Alaska and loved the ship. My question is the length of the trip is much longer than we have ever cruised. We have been to Hawaii twice by air and loved every minute. Has anyone taken this cruise and what did you like or dislike. Thanks for your input.

[f-mattox]

Hello laur623, and welcome to cruise-chat;

my wife and I did the cruise you are asking about in April, only on Island Princess. We have also been on Diamond Princess and her sister Sapphire Princes. So the combination of Diamond Princess to Hawaii should be fantastic!

So you love Diamond Princess and you love Hawaii; your concern is the four days over and the five days coming back.
For us, that is exactly why we took this cruise--we both love the long, lazy days at sea. We love to swim, sunbathe, take long walks on deck, eat leisurely meals, read, see a movie, and on and on. But it's not everybody's cup of tea. We heard a few complaints about not enough to do. Well if you are the kind of people that need to be entertained and stimulated every waking minute, you should maybe think twice about a 15 day cruise. But we love it. There are plenty of planned activitioes so you can be as busy as you like--or not.

But we loved every minute of it; and especially the relaxing ones.

Hope this gives you a little insight.

Rick

[BJS]

We also took the cruise on the Island Princess March/April 2007. We took it for the sea days and had a wonderful cruise.

We were kept busy with 2 hours of computer classes each day and reading 3 or 4 books. If it were not for the computer classes we would not have found enough, that interested us, to keep us entertained. Many of the acitivites have now become "old" for us but that is not the cruise lines fault just that we've been there and done that so often. Weather was not warm enough most of the cruise to sit out on deck and use the pools.

We do like the longer cruises but we prefer those with the majority being port days. Personally we would not recommend this cruise for anyone going to see Hawaii because your time is very limited in the ports. It is mainly a cruise to spend days at sea. If the weather and seas are not favorable you may not make more than 2 of the ports thus a 13 day "sea day" cruise. Cruise critic has had many postings from unhappy people that feel they should have been advised that the weather would be cold crossing the Pacific, that the seas could be rough, and that they might not make all of the ports.

[RichC]

We did the Island Princess last December & loved the extra days out to sea. The indoor pool wasn't warm enough for me to swim as the doors were always opening which constantly cooled it off. (It's no big deal for us since we're from Florida & are swimming every day anyways). I suppose the Diamond is the same with the pool temperature. The daily lectures, morning & afternoon walks, constant dining etc. are enough to keep us entertained. I haven't been on the Diamond yet but I'm sure it up to the Princess standards & how wrong can you go with that. Last year we had a balcony & didn't really use it all that much as it was a little cool except at mid day. This year we we'll have an outside cabin.

[f-mattox]

All things being equal, I would take the Diamond or Sapphire over the Island or Coral.

[BJS]

Interesting that we all have ships we prefer and it is nice that there is more than one style to choose from.

For us we'd take the Island (and assume the Coral) over the Diamond (and Sapphire I assume)if the itinerary, price, etc. was equal. Why? We did not care for the seating arrangements on the Diamond. This was before they got rid of the theme restaurants and I'm assuming they made no changes other than that to the dining rooms. We also prefer the smaller size of the Island Princess.

[f-mattox]

BJS, I enjoyed your comments. You made me realize that when stating a preference, it is helpful to give a few reasons for that preference.

First let me say I would go on either Diamond or Island again at the drop of a hat--I love them both; and there are things I like and dislike about both. I like Island's smaller size; actually it's longer but narrower and holds fewer passengers. And to me the dining rooms seemed almost interchangable. But what I really like about Diamond and Sapphire (and the Grand Class ships) is the Terrace pool area at the back, with the bar and the Horizon Court right at hand. Yes, the Island has a pool at the back, but it is tiny and enclosed by a windscreen; and the buffet and grill are all the way forward. The back of Island just seemed dull and unappealing--alomost like wasted space that nobody could quite figure out what to do with.

But just like my sons, I love 'em all--for different reasons.

Rick