News & Expert Advice

Hawaii cruise…Aloha now means goodbye. And some lessons learned!

Hi cruisers! Well, my small-group Hawaii cruise is now but a memory. Overall the trip was fine, but here are a few major things I learned (proof that even super-experienced travellers don’t know everything…not that I ever claim to).

1. Dining advice. Unless you 100% trust your travel agent, double-check on group arrangements like dining with both him/her and the cruise line before traveling. Our agent dropped the ball on this, and It only took 24 hours for our ship’s maitre’d to sort our table out, but that’s undue stress I didn’t want onboard.
2. Never skip a show. While onboard entertainment is hit and miss, and we weren’t crazy about one of the performers in week one, the cruise director said “you do not want to miss Hollywood legend Pearl Kaufman,” a pianist, during the second week. Indeed, she was the best entertainment of the whole cruise. Absolutely phenomenal. She’s quite elderly, but plays and entertains beautifully–she was the pianist on nearly every movie soundtrack you can think of, including Dr. Zhivago.
3. Upgraded service levels have surprise benefits. If you book a cabin in Celebrity’s “concierge class,” you’ll be given priority tickets for ports where tendering is required, allowing you to go ashore as you please.
4. Make a list of traveling group. If you’re traveling with a group, make a list of cabin numbers for everyone immediately upon boarding.
5. Finding space at the gym. On a busy cruise, go to the gym during the lunch hour. The gym on our ship was insanely busy during the mornings–the time my partner and I like to go. But we found that, true to form, cruise passengers are rarely late for a meal, which meant the gym was fairly deserted after noon.

Those are just a few thoughts. More to come!

–Randall