It was great!, and loong!, and fun!, and very cool!, and loooong.
We decided to take this cruise as a way to kill two birds with one stone. We wanted to stop at a couple of South Pacific Islands after our stay in New Zealand, and we had to get to San Francisco somehow, so why not a cruise? We googled a couple of possibilities and ended up with a cruise on the Grand Princess. We didn’t know it at the time, but Princess is the chill cruise line. Other cruise companies cater to families with children or science or an even older crowd than inhabited the Grand Princess, where the average age was around 70.
This particular route had island stops in Suva, Fiji, Tahiti (Papeete) French Polynesia, Moorea, French Polynesia and Honolulu, Hawaii on the way to our final stop in San Francisco. Shore days were connected by with what they call “sea days”, where the only thing you can see in any direction is the beautiful blue Pacific Ocean. The Pacific is really big…….so traveling between stops required a lot of time: a total of 15 sea days on this 22 day trip.
What do you do on the sea days you ask? The entertainment staff did an amazing job of scheduling activities for the passengers. The daily schedule included roughly 3 things per hour. Talent shows included fellow passengers as well as staff. The culinary staff offered workshops on napkin folding and cocktail making. If you felt like losing money to the cruise ship there was a casino. If you didn’t like any of the organized offerings you could work out in a fairly decent gym, take spin classes or get personal coaching from a fitness instructor. When you needed a little pampering you could go to the on-board spa and have your nails done or get a massage.
And then of course, there was the food. We gave the food an 8 out of 10 because it was consistently good. The buffet line had a lot of variety, was rarely messy and the food was attractively presented. The specialty restaurants had delish food ~ both Italian and Steakhouse offerings. The regular dining rooms had good menus that were made even better when we figured out how to get a loaded baked potato with every meal if we wanted.
The 22 day cruise tends to go fairly quickly with all of that food, booze and entertainment, broken up with a couple of trips to the on-board laundromat and the daily sunset happy hour from the top deck.
We struggled sometimes with the some of our random dinner companions. We made reservations at a shared table several times, which means they pair you with other random people who also ask for a shared table. Generally, we all gave it a good shot, and usually it was fun. But sometimes you just don’t mesh with random people. The difference on the ship is that you definitely should be nice because you’re probably going to see them on deck at some point the next day.
We were probably some of the least travelled people on board ~ most of the people we met had been on the boat since Sydney and were on their 2nd or 3rd cruise of the year. One couple we met were on their 31st cruise! We met a couple from the United Kingdom who are traveling the world by bicycle and were taking the boat to Vancouver where they will begin their trek towards South America! Interestingly, some people travel by ship full-time and some even use the cruising life as a waterborne assisted living home because the health care is great, the food and entertainment is plentiful and someone would eventually notice if you didn’t leave your room.
We were lucky to have a LGBTQ+ group on board that hosted a happy hour every night (included on the official listing of things to do), which was cool. It was nice to have common ground with people and ask them all the stupid first time cruiser questions we didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone else.
Given all the things we’ve listed above, we were surprised to struggle with the “sameness” of the sea days, with the inability to go somewhere else and do something. Yes, there was plenty to do if you wanted to be around people and put out energy to be social, and being the introverts we are that was just sometimes not in the cards for either of us. Our schedule for the last year has been anything but stationary……so even though the boat was moving we sometimes felt like we were standing still…..marking time until we got to the next island.
The islands and shore excursions were amazing. Our favorite stop was Moorea, French Polynesia. Just wow ~ the water really IS that beautiful and clear.
All in all it was a relaxing, entertaining and cost effective way to visit the South Pacific. Would we visit the South Pacific on a cruise ship again? Probably not ~ next time we’ll do a small boat excursion or just fly between islands like normal people. Would we take another cruise? Maybe as we get a little older and have more mobility issues. The cruise is an easily accessible way to continue to travel as long as you’re able to push a walker.
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