I retired after 27 years working for the same company on March 31, 2022. In order to celebrate, we booked a 15 day Hawaiian Cruise on the Grand Princess, round trip from Los Angeles. We booked our favorite Stateroom, Lido 214
Sine we had done this itinerary three times before, we were more interested in just taking a long cruise than trying to sightsee. It was a good thing as we ran into several challenges, which will be explained later.
We decided to do what we did last trip to the Islands. Book rental cars on Hilo and Kauai. I did research car rentals on Maui (Kahului), however, the Costco site said there was no shuttle service from the port to the airport, so we looked for alternates. I found a Hop On / Hop Off bus tour through Trip Advisor.
Hawaii had just lifted their requirements to be tested for COVID prior to arriving, so we didn’t have to register with the State so were looking forward to celebrating my retirement.
We did all of our pre-cruise registering on the Ocean Medallion app and got our Green Lane and early embarkation time. We arrived at the port around 10:00am and waited until 11:00 before the ship was cleared and they started boarding. We were able to drop our carry-on’s in our stateroom and headed to the Buffet. We were greeted by a staff member who make sure all guests washed their hands. This was the one and only time we saw this happen.
We set sail in the late afternoon and hit the usual rough seas for the first 2 days. Suzi and I both must have a good tolerance for choppy seas as we really never feel queasy, even without medication or a patch. The remainder of the first leg was very relaxing and wonderful. We met a lovely couple from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Len and Honor. We met up with them pretty much every day for breakfast and lunch in the Buffet. We had a lot of laughs! In fact, we put a deposit down on a British Isles cruise that spends a day in Belfast. Looking forward to seeing Len and Honor again.
First port was Hilo. Time to head down to the car rental shuttle, which we did only to find out that Alamo Rental Car was not a sponsor of the shuttle. Humm. For those not familiar… All of the car rental agencies are in the same building at the Hilo Airport. It’s more like a big hut than a building. After talking to the shuttle driver, she agreed to take us to the airport and later return us to the ship for $5.00 each way. This beat a taxi or Uber, so we went with it.
I had reserved a convertible so we got a bright red Mustang. We open the top, applied sunscreen and took a short drive through Downtown Hilo and then took every cutoff to drive along the coast. Gorgeous day. On the last cruise, we rented a convertible, but it rained a majority of the time, so never really got to enjoy going “topless”. This time, we took a leisurely drive up to Akaka Falls before heading back into Hilo. We stopped along the downtown area and walked around a bit before returning the car. Perfect timing as it started to rain as soon as we got to the airport.
Next day was Honolulu. We decided to walk along the beach area about 2.5 miles to Waikiki Beach and back to get in our 12,000 steps. Very hot, but so scenic. Next time, we might look into a rental car or try Touro (Like Air BnB for cars).
Next day was Kauai. This is where things started going really haywire. I had booked another convertible. We walked down to the shuttle area only to find out there was no shuttle… They stopped it due to COVID and never restarted it. Similar to Hilo, the rental cars were all at the airport. Figured it would have cost us about $80.00 for transport on top of an already expensive rental car. I was really looking forward to the beautiful drive to the lava tube known as Spouting Horn, but wasn’t meant to be. Instead, we took the shuttle to Wal Mart and Hilo Hattie’s. Had this been our first trip to Kauai, would have been extremely disappointed but the first rule of cruising is… Just go with the flow.
Next (Last Port) day was Kahului in Maui. Normally, ships anchor off Lahaina and tender in. Lahaina is making enhancements to the port, so we had to dock in this mostly industrial port. This is where I had us booked for the Hop On / Hop Off bus. We had just received confirmation, so we headed to the pickup point. Guess what? No bus. We were told that the bus had not restarted after COVID… Great! So… we walked 2.5 miles to the shopping mall before heading back to the ship. Due to the fact this port is for commerce, you had to follow a fenced in maze to get from the ship to the entrance to the port. Similar to Mazatlán but at least in Mazatlán, they offer a shuttle to get from the ship’s berth to the entrance.
We were supposed to leave Kahului at 6:00pm, however, due to high winds and a narrow entrance, the Captain decided to wait to the winds to calm down before attempting to leave. At around 11:00pm, we headed back to our cabin and I went out to the balcony. We were just starting to move even though the winds hadn’t subsided significantly. Instead, they employed four tugboats, one on each “corner” of the ship. The tugboats were able to keep the Grand Princess centered when exiting the channel. https://youtu.be/hmXtEf4DTVg And we are off for another 5 days at sea, a stop at Ensenada, then home.
We noticed that about halfway through the cruise, our Cruise Director, Steve, went missing. No word, just gone. We started noticing many people starting to cough, sneeze and otherwise show symptoms of being sick. We knew the deck below ours was being used as a quarantine deck as the hall doors were closed with caution tape and warning signs. We heard quite a few people buzzing about a significant number of passengers and crew and been testing positive for COVID and had been moved to Desk 12.
We wore masks anytime we were in a public space, especially the Princess Theater. Unfortunately, we were in a small minority. There were people, obviously sick, out and about and without masks. We’d find ourselves moving from seat to seat to stay away from those people. On the last day, Suzi started feeling sick, so we self quarantined.
Although it was quite obvious there was an outbreak going on, Princess was not very transparent. We feel they should have informed us about the situation and asked us to start wearing masks and sanitizing hands. Instead, it was just the same messaging that mask wearing was “suggested”.
Needless to say, we did not leave the ship in Ensenada. We just kept to ourselves in the room and threw our belongings in the suitcases. As soon as we got home, we tested. Suzi was positive and I was negative. We both got an Rx for Paxlovid which Suzi started immediately. As soon as she finished her 15 pills and started to feel better, I tested positive. It really hit Suzi hard, whereas I just felt like I had a mild cold.
The Veranda Life 