cruise vacation | R. Doug Wicker — Author

Nawiliwili, Kauai

Today begins a series on a 28-day Pacific cruise aboard the Crown Princess that took place from October 17 to November 14, 2015. Along the way we’ll be making port on nine islands. Those ports are Hilo, Honolulu, Lahaina, and Nawiliwili in the Hawai’ian Islands; Apia on the island of Samoa; Fagatogo, the port serving nearby Pago Pago on American Samoa; and the French Polynesian ports of Bora Bora, Mo’orea, and Papeete in the Society Islands.

For today’s article I have chosen one photo from each island as a sort of preview of things to come for this rather long series. I hope the following pictures enough to come back for the highlights from each island port of call.

The “Big Island” of Hawai’i:

Liliuokalani Gardens and Park, Hilo, Hawai’i

Oahu:

Diamond Head, Honolulu, Oahu

Maui:

Lahaina, Maui

Kauai:

Nawiliwili Beach Park, Kauai

Samoa:

Samoa Cultural Village, Apia, Samoa

American Samoa:

Samoan Tree Carving, Fagatogo, American Samoa

Bora Bora:

Maohi Nui Tour, Bora Bora

Mo’orea:

Mou’a Roa (a.k.a. Bali Hai), Mo’orea

Papeete:

Papeete, Tahiti

Cruising the West Coast Aboard the Sapphire Princess

If it appeared that last week’s blogs were a bit canned, there’s a good reason. They were. I wrote them a week in advance and scheduled them for automatic posting because I was headed out of town.

Friday after work we loaded onto a flight to Los Angeles. Saturday found us aboard Princess Cruises’ recently refurbished Sapphire Princess. This was our second voyage aboard this particular ship, with the previous cruise taking place in May of 2009 for a Costco Wine Cruise. Alas, this cruise had little to do with wine and a lot to do with nonstop sightseeing — San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island, San Diego, and a trip to Mexico’s Northern Baja Peninsula and the quaint little town of Ensenada.

I must say that she’s a handsome ship.

Sapphire Princess

One of the first things I sensed upon boarding was the unnerving realization that either the crew lists to port or the ship lists to starboard:

The Crew Lists to Port

And if that realization weren’t startling enough, we then stumbled upon the Black Box (which are never black, by the way).

The Orange “Black Box”

At any rate, the retrofit that the Sapphire Princess underwent earlier this year really shows in the ship’s interior, most notable in the massive three-story Piazza.