November 12, 2005....7 Night Eastern...Who Else?

Hello everyone! :wave:

What about cruising Hawaii for the reunion?

Finally some cooler weather here in CA. We've had two days of 100'!!! :sunny: :sunny: :sunny:
 
4campers said:
Hello everyone! :wave:

What about cruising Hawaii for the reunion?

Finally some cooler weather here in CA. We've had two days of 100'!!! :sunny: :sunny: :sunny:


i've never understood the appeal of cruising hawaii-i enjoyed every minute i spent on land there and can't imagine just getting a day or a portion of a day at any location. but if someone else has done it and enjoyed it please explain how it works-do they get into the ports earlier and stay later than on other cruises (on maui all the best excursions left at the crack of dawn, or entailed a loooooooong drive up to hana)? do they hit any special places that one might not if doing a land/air package?
 
Hi everyone --- we are back and had a truely Magical time on the first double-dip cruise to Costa Maya, Cozumel and Castaway Cay.......Thanks to those of you who posted and lurked on the DD scoop thread and live thread. There are some good trip reports already. I have posted some, more to come, but here is a summary...

Day 1 - We had a meet at a seafood resturant in New Symrna Beach - luckily the fires were out. It was great to see some of the posters we had never met....and then stayed for a beer and watched the dolphin round up fish....

Day 2 - At the Port - check-in has gotten better than in November. We were the 5th car, not the 1st this time....and boarded right after first classers made it on the ship around 12. We had to rush to book Palo's. There were so many returning cruisers 1300, that all the brunch ressies were taken by 3:00 am 90 days out.....Then we switched Palo's dinner so it was not the night before the dive. As we were there early, it all worked out but I heard there were not enough seats for all cruisers at the Brunch this time. The nonto Parrot Cay for those wonderful shrimp before the Sail-Away. We were on deck 4 with the banner for Garry....who is going through a rough time. And time to unpack, change for the show....some great talent this trip, and diner in AP. Went to Match Your Mate and one of our posters was selected....Shall I say, I hear the video is making the rounds on the thread...hee hee.....

Day 3 - Our first stop to CC - we had booked Seahorse snorkel but it was cancelled....we had also booked for the second CC day, so we were not disappoined. the weather was beautiful, The seas calm, calm, calm, all trip....smooth as silk....Anyway we snorkeled at the Family Lagoon - much better than in November after the storms, lots and lots of fish. Had a recovery brew at the Bar, met familiar bartenders, ate at Cookies....And yes, they have improved the food....more snorkeling, back on board to change for Palo's dinner......And Palo's did not disappoint.....The show was the ventriliquest and she was hysterical!

Day 4 - Sea Day - Up early - hum, why????Ducky Williams, one of the last remaining Disney illusrators in the old ways provided a performance.....and I won STITCH!!!!!! He authographed a charcoal drawing...It was our Palo's brunch day.....Memorial Day as well.....we had beer tasting in the pm....missed Johnny but Jez was good and formal night in Lumeire's. Golden Mickey's still as neat as ever....

Day 5 - Costa Maya - a great trip to the ruins...we booked through Native Choice ont he island. I posted a detailed report on the live thread. But the ruins were very interesting and impressive. It was my first time to see any Mexican ruins so while this might be smaller in height, they were still very interesting. The guide made it all the more so. And we went to a Mayan family for lunch afterards. Highly recommended, so if anyone wants more info, let me know. Oh yes, back to port, with one hour left for shopping and then to the show and dinner. Twice Charmed was the show that night. Too tired for any adult entertainment after dinner. Dinner back at AP. Many of the table mates had chosen that night for Palo. It was our first choice but we gave it up because of diving....

Day 6 - THE LONG AWAITED DIVE OF THE COZUMEL WALL - Oh WOW - oh WOW - oh - WOW ---- we had t tender (long post about that on the live thread). Not much of a problem when you consider what the residents went rhough with Wilma....And our dive boat was near-by - the divemaster was so great. Professional, knowledgeable - we did 3 dives (nitrox) the first 90 feet of the wall and the blue void to the east - hypnotic. The water was clear, the coral magnificant and the fish abundant. The second a 60 foot reef dive and the third a 30 foot reef dive (or thre abouts). Sam took pictures, I am still too new for that on this dive......We rested on the beach between dives. We made it back to shore with less than an hour before the last tender left so no shopping or cervezas on Coz. for us. We did not bring lunch so we snacked at the remains of the members buffet, washed suits and missed the movie - the wild. Dinner was in PC and a good time had by all.....

Day 7 - Another Day at sea - Up early for a spa treatment, the frangipani and hair braid, another showing by Duckey - not so lucky for me this time, but I have STITCH.....lunch at Topsiders, can you believe I am full!!!!! Wine tasting as I missed it in November, no pins.....and beer tasting, fun...we had black and tans on the house afterwards, and the show was Disney Dreams, I still cried.....dinner in Lumieres.

Day 8 - Castaway Cay - Seahorse Snorkel went off on schedule and the reef was abundant with smaller fish. The storms wrecked the coral, but still pretty....and we enjoyed the day. We thought of making it to the adult beach for lunch and heard the menu was very much enhanced, but we enjoyed our lazt day. Back on board, time to start packing. Did not start soon enough as we missed Pub Night - oh well.....but the farewell show, sad, but talent good, and out last dinner with the table mates was back in AP....

Day 9 - sob, sob, sniff.......time to leave and say good-by to all our Disney friends.......

We did rebook on board but wil change the days to 2008. We are taking a cruise to Alaska on DVC points, that is, if I remember to book it....

More later, esp. about the Hawaii but not this am...

Have a Great Day....
 
barkley said:
i've never understood the appeal of cruising hawaii-i enjoyed every minute i spent on land there and can't imagine just getting a day or a portion of a day at any location. but if someone else has done it and enjoyed it please explain how it works-do they get into the ports earlier and stay later than on other cruises (on maui all the best excursions left at the crack of dawn, or entailed a loooooooong drive up to hana)? do they hit any special places that one might not if doing a land/air package?


Actually with the new interisland Hawaii sailings with NCL, you get 2 full days in Maui and Kauai. So basically you have 2 days to do what you want and just get back on the ship to sleep and eat. It's perfect for people who want to see more of Hawaii but don't want to spend their trip packing and unpacking as they island hop from place to place. It also is more economical for a family since food is included - and we all know how much food is in Hawaii!
 

Chip&Dale&Fun....thanks so much for the time and effort you take to post GREAT trip reports and all the sidebars! :goodvibes

I am VERY interested in a Hawaii cruise, as well......where the heck does it leave from? LA? San Diego? You would think I would know living here in the West!

Jessica, tell us more! Who has the best sailing to Hawaii? :confused3

Novmeber 2007 will be our pick and to where? Wasn't necessarily thinking a cruise but as I have reseached MANY OTHER OPTIONS (we love the all inclusive thing! :thumbsup2 ), a cruise looks better and better! :teeth:

I am swiftly changing our request for the APL rotation for our upcoming Nov cruise cause I have since learned form the first Double Dippers that if you go PLA (our fav!), your character breakfast for late seating is at 9:45 AM on the second and last day of CC! :guilty: Can't imagine a worse thing! I refuse to do that! pirate:

Thanks again, Irene, for your insight! :disrocks:
 
well the concept of having 2 days at a couple of islands sounds more appealing-so let us know what kind of deal we could get for a group with hawaii. november 2007 also sounds good to us-i realy like cruising in november, and if we have moved by then (which will be likely) november is a great time for us to plan a trip towards the west coast and add some time to visit the then "distant relatives: :teeth:, it also tends to be a good time for taking the kids out of school-between vet's day and thanksgiving the teachers seem to be a bit more accommodating (and as far as work goes-since most want the bulk of their time in december it's not usualy a problem). so where do these cruises take off from? i know there are some hawaii cruises that take off from san francisco (which would be great despite whereever we will be living-easy to get a hotel with transportation to the port at a non crazy price).

dd was a souvineer from a november vacation to hawaii in 1993-so the idea of another november trip brings back some fond memories. i also recall that the weather was great-plenty warm but a cool shower that broke the heat each afternoon.

chip&dale&fun-dh has not yet read your posting but i gave him a preview-so now he's dying to go to cozumel! but unless there are some good totaly inclusive resorts (with great kid's programs) i don't see us going any time in the near future!

speaking of which-has anyone done any of the inclusive family resorts anywhere? i would like some idea of which ones are worth looking at for a year or so from now. they appeal to me as cruising does-in that everything is taken care of and i don't have to deal with much in the way of details.

not much else up here-with the exception of my mini van spending an extended vacation at the dealership. i decided that the one "treat" (read on to see how domesticated and boring i am :rotfl: ) i would give myself once we sold the house was to have it detailed in and out (ya know-get all the kid crumbs and capri sun stains out of the interior). well...they initaly (over the phone) said one day, but once they saw it started working on it...tomorrow will be day 3!!!! i think the guy is sorry he gave me a price quote before he saw it :rolleyes: other than that i ran to disnurse's favorite "walmart" tonite and grabbed some planters to transplant my pre-move veggie plants into-i am determined to no longer pay close to $3 for one bell pepper!!!! likely (if we run true to the last few years) i will be canning japanese eggplants, tomatos and the like come 2 months from now-but at least i wont be complaining about the winter prices of the same.

take care all, if anyone is heading towards northern california this summer let us know-we would love the opportunity to see ya'll face to face again.
 
NCL is our only choice for a 7 night Hawaii trip. The ships are American flagged so you do not have to make that one stop in a foreign port (Jones Act) - which allows you the entire trip to be dedicated to Hawaii! Roughly, for a family of 4 in November of 07, the cost would be $2930 interior, $3246 ocean view, and $4428 balcony. Of course you still have to add the airfare to that - and that is not a group rate. Just an estimate! These were also rates based on the week of Thanksgiving - if we go one week earlier it may be a bit less as well.
 
PrincessHaleysMom said:
NCL is our only choice for a 7 night Hawaii trip. The ships are American flagged so you do not have to make that one stop in a foreign port (Jones Act) - which allows you the entire trip to be dedicated to Hawaii! Roughly, for a family of 4 in November of 07, the cost would be $2930 interior, $3246 ocean view, and $4428 balcony. Of course you still have to add the airfare to that - and that is not a group rate. Just an estimate! These were also rates based on the week of Thanksgiving - if we go one week earlier it may be a bit less as well.


what if we go around the time of our "maiden voyage"-nov 12th or the week after thanksgiving? any better rates? how many people would we have to book to get a group rate-and any idea what range of price reduction with that?

does ncl allow groups of 4 to book a balcony room (hal did'nt for our alaska cruise unless you bumped up several levals to an overpriced suite).

what island does this go out of (my internet search earlier showed that none depart from san franciso as i hoped)? what is the itinerary?

you've got me aching to enjoy anticipating a major vacation-so let me know.
 
You guys are killing me with this talk! We have a snowball's chance in hell (yes, I know it will be sensored) of scraping enough money together to cruise in '07, but I am stoked! Maybe I can get a discount by running the bilge pump or something?
 
awol - you will be able to go - don't you know some other people who want to go too? If you get enough friends and family to go, the cruise line lets one go free.

Barkely - this cruise is round trip Honolulu - since it's only 7 nights, it can't depart from CA - it takes 5 days just to cross over there!
I can hold whatever kind of group space I want - they let me have anything.
 
PrincessHaleysMom said:
awol - you will be able to go - don't you know some other people who want to go too? If you get enough friends and family to go, the cruise line lets one go free.

Barkely - this cruise is round trip Honolulu - since it's only 7 nights, it can't depart from CA - it takes 5 days just to cross over there!
I can hold whatever kind of group space I want - they let me have anything.


i would'nt mind having 5 days at sea, of course my spa bill would end up being more than the entire group's cost of traveling :teeth: :teeth: so do group rates get any break on the airline tickets you can buy with a cruise package? i've honestly never bought ours to include it-always found a better deal just hitting the airline websites.

the idea of no foreign ports is very appealing as well-i hate that one morning on the disney boats getting everyone up at the crack of dawn for the immigration people :crazy:
 
So let me get this straight.......we fly to Oahu....from the west coast I know ranges from $650-700 round trip. Not too bad.

Then you get on a ship and travel between the islands? Can you give an example of the itinerary?

Sounds so fun! Save your pennies NOW!

:cool1: :cheer2:

We can only afford this because it is so far away! :rotfl2:
Come on, YOU CAN DO IT! :rolleyes:
 
OK - I tried to post earlier and it got zapped! :furious:
I have details - I'm holding space - just for fun. I don't think I should post it here in case "Big Brother" is watching.... it's not like me to want to get in any sort of trouble! :p
Send me a PM if you are interested - if you already have my email address send me an email. I will then send out all the gory details. The best part is the deposit is peanuts. We have over a year to hold various fundraisers to make enough money to be able to pull this off! :teeth:
 
I definitely could co-erse some more poeple to come.....heck, in the last month I have gotten two other families to join us on our upcoming DCL Double Dip cruise! :thumbsup2

I just checked....you can get to Oahu for even cheaper if purchased WAY far in advance and it seemd that Hawaiin Air is the cheapest and most reliable way to get there. Check out of Portland, OR too......sometimes cheaper and better times than out of SF or LA.

Tell us more! Tell us more, Jessica! :cheer2:
 
sacramento has direct flights to the islands as well-and it's such a dream of a small airport to go out of.
 
Send me your email addresses - I will send you the details!

How come air is more expensive to HNL from the west coast than it is from here (ATL)? We would have to go to the West Coast for a day or 2 - no way in heck am I flying for 11 hours with my bundle of energy. Besides - we really enjoyed San Francisco and San Diego - we'd like to go stay a few days.
 
.......Aifare is expensive to Hawaii any way you look at it and so I am convinced that the east coasters and midwesterners HAVE to be given a chance to be able to afford it! They make the airfare doable just so you can go (non west coasters!).

I agree, Sacramento airport is a breeze! So is our little po-dunk airport, Redmond, Oregon.....aka "Robert's Air Field".....aka "RDM". :teeth:

I may sound stupid here......what does NAL stand for? Are they good ships? Good food? Good kids stuff? The all-important water slide? :confused3

Jessica, I have sent you a PM with my email address. :thumbsup2
 
Chris- you can get from Pheonix to Honolulu CHEAPER than I can get it cause Pheonix is such a major hub......and they WANT YOU TO FLY TO HAWAII!

BTW, is it hot enough down there for you? :sunny:
My folks will be driving up this way next week to spend the summer here. They have to leave their air conditioning on and humidifier so their furniture won't melt! :rolleyes:
 
Can I just tell you once again that the "cruise meets" thread for my upcoming DCL cruise PALES IN COMPARISON to this thread?

I mean it is PALER THAN PALE! :crazy2: I have stopped posting altogether but still "lurk". I think they know I am still out there.....everyonce and again, they say, "for those of you who are lurking and don't wish to post anymore....." :smooth:

They are a HUGE group of DISers who will have t-shirts and buttons....maybe even wristbands too! It will be quite amusing to sit back and :listen: be elusive cause they don' t know what I look like. :smooth:

Just don't jive with these folks for some reason. :confused3

You people, on the otherhand, are pretty cool. :wave:
 
OOOPS! Just realized that it is NCL, not NAL!

Ha! That is how dumb I am when it comes to the cruise industry!
Now, I get it! Norweigen Cruise Line! :goodvibes
Are they any good?

Do you really want me to go on a tail spin now and research for days and days on the Internet on what they have to offer? :confused3

They do Hawaii and that is a start. ;)
Didn't we have one of their ships parked next to the Magic in St Maarten?
The Magic looked way better!

But, is it all really about looks?
Does size matter?
Is bigger really better?

Okay...I will stop and go drink my wine somewhere else besides at the keyboard. :badpc:
 


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