Day of Delirium #85 - Maui Day 1

I forgot just a little bit about our Embarkation Day. When we arrived at our room we had some letters waiting for us. I had letters from the Head Chef and from the Officer of Guest Services in regards to me requiring gluten free food. I also had a letter from the Excursion group for our lunch in Maui which told me there would be gluten free options available for me. But my favorite letter was from the Excursion group for our Luau in Kauai. They gave me a copy of the recipes for all of the food at the Luau so I would know exactly what I could and could not eat at the Luau. I will wait until that post to tell you my favorite item from that menu :)


Ok onto Maui Day 1:

We went to sleep with our curtain open in hopes of seeing the sunrise and we were not disappointed especially since we woke up at 5:30 am again :)

After watching our first Hawaiian sunrise on the ship we were off to have a delicious breakfast and get ready for our first excursion. We had three options for our first excursion: one that was 4 hours long, one that was 6 hours long and one that was 8 hours long. We really wanted the 4 hour excursion but it was sold out when we went to sign up, so we went with the 6 hour one and in the end were happy with that one since it added the Maui Ocean Center (aquarium) and that had great reviews. Also I have been to so many aquariums across the country that we thought it would be neat to compare this one.

We met our tour group and our driver Klaus and off we went to the Iao Valley first. This is considered a must see according to our tour books and it was quite beautiful. It is a historic site also and we had a gorgeous day to visit. They warn that the climb is long and difficult but really it was not bad at all. My Mom could not do it but I had no issue and it was worth the climb.

Then it was back on the bus and off to the Maui Tropical Plantation. Mom and I really enjoyed this stop. It was so beautiful and we learned lots about Maui on the tram tour of the plantation. They work very hard to maintain Hawaiian culture and local growings on the plantation and their restaurant serves only items grown on the plantation. They mentioned the current special was Macadamia pie so we hoped that it would be on our lunch menu there - alas it was not :( We also learned all about the sugar cane business that exists on Maui and how they burn the crop in order to harvest it. FYI - This information came back to us again on our next Maui excursion in dramatic form (next post).

 
We had lunch on the plantation and basically I could eat everything available but the bread for the sandwiches. The best part... the soup they served was made specifically for me to eat. It was cream of broccoli with bacon (which is one of my favorites) and they made it with cornstarch instead of flour. I thanked them numerous times for the kindness.

One of the highlights of lunch was we ate with one of the audience participants from the comedy show from the night before. The reason for the highlight? This guy stole the show from the comedian and he did it all on his own. He was not prompted and had no idea he would be part of the show. We loved him when we saw him in the show so it was fun to hear about it from him during lunch. The best part of his skit... he was supposed to sing the Cowardly Lion song from Wizard of Oz and when he got to the microphone, he sang The Love Boat instead. We laughed forever on that one.

Then it was time to move on to our last stop and after a short drive we arrived at the Maui Ocean Center.

 Do you see the heart shapes in the jelly fish?

Mom and I sat by this tank for a long time and were mesmerized.

It was dark, cool and they played the most ethereal music here. Just perfect.

In comparison to the many aquariums I have been to this one is quite gorgeous. It is easy to get around and there are many educational stops throughout. There are lots of different species and it helps you learn alot about Hawaii - Maui in particular of course. I highly recommend a stop here if you are into aquariums as it is one of the best in my opinion.

My overall opinion on our day in Maui was that I loved what we did but if I had to do it again I might choose the 8 hour Road to Hana tour as you see more of Maui the island than the tourist stops on Maui - BUT don't get me wrong I did love the stops we did see.

Then it was time to get back to the ship. When we got back to our room, this greeted us on our bed...

Sooo cute.

We had another yummy (gluten free without asking) dinner at the buffet and then we went to see the Aloha Hula Show. It was very informative and beautifully danced. We really enjoyed the show. Then we headed to bed since we needed to be up at 2:30am the next day for our Sunrise over Maui excursion!

Next post: The moving Sunrise of Maui excursion plus a surprise!!

Day of Delirium #84 - Embarkation Day

We woke up at 5:30 am, not because we had to but because we couldn't sleep any more. To our bodies it was 11:30 am and we were just up. So we got up and leisurely got ourselves ready for our day.

First we headed down to check in for the boat at the hotel - HUGE time saver! They go over all your paperwork and take your pictures for your key cards that you receive at the pier. And while there we received our gorgeous fresh flower leis.

Our Marriott balcony - city view one way

Our Marriott balcony - ocean view the other way

Then we went out for a walk around Waikiki. It was wonderful! We crossed the street to the beach and I was blown away by the water, the sky, the sand and the people. Just amazing.

We even walked to a small organic eatery that had gluten free items, so we picked up some bread for the boat, just in case.

I definitely want to come back to Waikiki and spend some time there. And the Marriott is where I would stay. There is shopping, eating, a pool and a beach all within steps of each other. It truly does not get better than that for me.


Then it was time to head to the boat!!!! We had a transfer from the hotel to the pier through NCL so we loaded the bus with our carry ons only along with a bus load of other cruisers and headed out.

 There she is: Pride of America as viewed from the bus on our way to their pier.

Another benefit of staying at the Marriott is your have your own special check in lines at the pier. We missed the first one but inside after the pictures,

 He looked like the Rock so I made sure to get in his line. *fans self*

we had a nice short, quick line that had us on the boat in 20 minutes.

Welcome aboard! We've been expecting you... The Love Boat... ooops sorry ;)

And then on to our room....

looking in from just past the closet inside the main door.

to DangrMomma's right, our left was a sofa (pull out bed for a 3rd person) and table.

 This would be to DangrMomma's left and our right from the pic above.

A TV that played a few channels, most showing ship topics. 

But there was a desk, a hair dryer, a mini-bar/fridge and storage.

 Our balcony - highly recommend spending the money for it. WELL WORTH IT!!!

Who knew that such a tiny bathroom would need two pictures :)

There actually was tons of room in there.

Great water pressure in the shower and tons of storage.

 Our beds - pretty comfy actually.

And all the way to the back of the pic to our left was the HUGE closet with tons of storage in it. 

More than enough hangers and lots of baskets/shelves/drawers/hooks/floor space to hold all our stuff.

And suitcases fit right under the beds with tons of space left over.

Coffee maker, ice (that they fill each day) and storage for all our food we brought back each day.

It wasn't huge BUT once we out all our stuff away we had no problems moving around and the shower was great actually. The room had all the little touches Mom and I like when we stay somewhere and there was more the enough space for all our clothes and things - we even had an empty drawer and tons of space in the bathroom left over! Room 9596 come highly recommended! Middle of the boat, near the elevators, port side (watch all the sunrises), clean and quiet.

My only complaint and there is nothing we could do about it - our neighbor was a smoker and they are allowed to smoke on the balcony. So if he were out there when we were, the smoke blew right on to our balcony. Nothing at all we could do but luckily we had many times when he wasn't around. Still would get a balcony every time :)

Mom and I headed out to eat at the buffet (where I had carved chicken and mashed potatoes mmmmmm - no gluten worries so far) and while we were out, Mom's luggage showed up. Then when we went to walk around the ship a little, my luggage showed up. For us, it worked because it meant just one person was unpacking at a time and the other could stay out of the way. It was perfect.

Then it was time to pull away from the dock and head into the sunset. With a loud blast of the ship's horn we were on our way! We were headed out to sea and to our next island Maui!!

Next up - Maui Day 1

Day of Delirium #83 - Going to Hawaii

Sung in my best Will Smith voice to the tune of Going to Miami ;)

I decided I will post each day of my trip as a blog entry. I will try to post some pictures but I really want to get them all on a site that you can then go to at your leisure and look at them.

I can say that this trip was spectacular and that Hawaii is everything I thought it would be and more. The flights were perfect, the ship was amazing, each excursion was wonderful and seeing TrueBldTwilight/HonoluluGirl-Suz was the icing on the cake.


So to begin:

Friday 5-13-11:

Mom arrived at my house at 7am and we were headed out the door at 7:15am - a world record for me :) I was actually fully packed and ready to go when she arrived - I don't think that has ever happened before.

We drove to the Philadelphia airport and promptly pulled into the wrong parking garage and had to go all the way out and back around in order to get the right garage. I won't lie, I panicked. I thought it wasn't the best start to the trip but then I also thought that will be the worst it will be... and guess what ... it turned out to be true (for the most part lol).

Arrived at US Airways first class line and within 5 minutes we were checked in and ready for security. I love the first class line :) And we were lucky with weight as my bag was 48 pounds OH MY!! Security was nothing, no pat down, no xray, just a regular walk through so we were good to go.

Plane boarded and left right on time and Mom and I spent a good portion of the first flight (Philly to Phoenix) chatting about Hawaii until finally she read her book and I read some FanFiction. We arrived in Phoenix on time and immediately went to the next gate and boarded the plane to Hawaii. Those of you on Twitter when this happened might have seen that we were on the oldest plane I had been on in a long.... ooops since Forks last year. This plane still had ashtrays in the seat arms and in the bathroom. I was in shock and we just laughed.

 Dangrdafne and DangrMomma on the plane

Our movies for the Phoenix to Honolulu portion of the flight were True Grit (which I did not want to see) and the third Narnia movie. I watched True Grit and all I will say about it is that the girl was amazing! I really enjoyed watching her in the movie other than that ... meh. The Narnia movie passed the time but I slept through apparently the important part because I have no idea what was happening when I woke up - oh well lol :)

Then we started to descend. I was so excited. I couldn't wait to see Hawaii from our plane and it delivered. It was almost like we were landing in a different country or something. In fact, when we driving to the hotel we seemed surprised to see American places LOL!

We started to walk to baggage claim and were shocked when we had to go outside to get to the other terminal and it was like a hidden garden IN the airport.

It was gorgeous and so Hawaii. Got our luggage and went to get the shuttle bus for the hotels. We chose to be cheap and go the bus route instead of a taxi - note for next time and for everyone else, spend the money and get a taxi! I thought we would get to see the sunset from our hotel... has anyone ever watched the Chevy Chase Vacation movies with the Griswold's?? Well that is what happened to us. After the 4th trip around the SAME section of Honolulu, I started to laugh and cry 1) because I was exhausted at the point, 2) because we were definitely NOT seeing the sunset and 3) because we were the Griswold's. THEN when the man behind us suddenly woke up and realized he missed his hotel... we went around a FIFTH time!! We were in hysterics. Needless to say we did NOT see the sunset that night.

We finally arrived at the Marriott Waikiki, the last ones to get off the bus. It hotel was stunning to say the least. The lobby is open air and it was just gorgeous. Flowers and trees everywhere and the nicest people working at the desk. We got our room and were thrilled to get in and find we had a balcony. It was a gorgeous room with the comfiest beds. The best part, the hotel is connected to Norwegian Cruise Lines so on the TV we could watch a channel all about the excursions that are available on the cruise. Now we had already picked all ours but it was cool to see what we would be doing.

Oh and as we flipped through the channels I stopped on the Weather Channel and said "I've been there." My Mom was confused but looked up and I said "I have been there, that's LaPush Baby." (told you I was exhausted) It indeed was LaPush. It was that photography show with Peter Lik and he was in Washington State at Forks, Hoh Forest and LaPush! He also ended up having one of the murals on the boat too I later found out.

I do highly recommend this hotel just as it is and definitely recommend it if you are going on the cruise. It was a great place to stay and being connected to the cruise line had many benefits.

Next up - embarkation day for the cruise...