Day 3 on the cruise - Still in Maui

Today while Adam and Amy were off first thing in the morning for their NCL excursion, Molokini Crater and Turtle Snorkel, we had booked the "Best of Maui" tour through Roberts Hawaii after finding nearly all positive recommendations for this company from past cruisers. Roberts uses shuttle buses that fit at most 25 people. It's so much nicer when you can get not only cheaper than what NCL charges but because of your small group, you can move in and out of places a lot more efficiently. Roberts Hawaii frequently works with cruise ship passengers and has a whole section of their website dedicated to choosing your ship name and sailing date so it can only give you tour choices that fit into your port time. We felt completely safe and never even came close to being late back to the ship.

Our tour didn't start until 9:30AM requiring a meeting on the pier so we set our alarm this morning for plenty of time to enjoy breakfast in Cagney's for suite guests. One slight hiccup this morning as I went into my little powder room when I woke up this morning and discovered standing water on the floor and a pile of suds covering the grate in the corner by the toilet. Reminded me of those self cleaning bathrooms our guide in San Francisco told us about. I showed the mess to Dad and we left a message for our room steward Boni.

You can just make out the edge of the water if you look at the start of the first full tile stepping in from the doorway.

Cagney's breakfast was a lot like the suite breakfast on my first RCL cruise that used their specialty restaurant Giovanni's since that ship didn't have the suites only restaurant like Oasis of the Seas. You do have to check in with your cabin number at the front podium so they know you are truly a suite (or Platinum) cruiser. It was a nice touch on Princess though when they would remember you after the first day or two and would not only welcome you in without having to wait at the podium but also would remember little things like your preference for coffee and/or juice. That's only a minor observation in service level, having to do so each time this trip only took 30 seconds. On our Celebrity cruise that had its own separate restaurant just for suites (no loyalty level perk included), I watched a few cruisers being turned away including one older woman on a scooter who would have run me over in her haste to leave in a huff if I hadn't anticipated her reaction and moved to stand against the wall.

RCL and now NCL had a self service buffet setup for mostly what you'd find in the buffet or in a continental breakfast in a nice hotel. Here's where you grab any pastries, fruit, cereal, yogurt etc. that you might want instead of or in addition to the hot items that you order from the waiter off the menu. Dad noticed that no bagels were out with the breads and our waiter informed us that they are kept in back to be requested since they require toasting. The butter and cream cheese to put on them however was out on the buffet. The crew was great about replenishing buffet items and someone was always nearby if you had questions. My only critique is the lack of signage next to the buffet items. Nothing to say what each pastry was for example or what it might contain. There was a small sign in the corner that said "These products may contain nuts" so at least there was that.

There was a bowl of fruit with bananas and oranges and apples off to the side of this cereal display.

Just past the fruit and yogurt cups in that last picture is little measured out servings of cream cheese and butter.

One of the waiters we came to really know and like in Cagney's was Sid. You could tell on days when we didn't get Sid that things just didn't run as efficiently. He had a lot of questions about Baltimore as his sister and her family are working nearby so we had some nice chats. Neither of us drink coffee and both enjoy orange juice in the mornings so it was nice to see large glasses of orange juice be brought out. Princess uses these little glasses for anything but water and I always feel so dainty drinking them. When I'm dining in a place with a never changing menu, I like to try each dish over the course of the cruise if I can. Today's choice was Tahitian Vanilla Challah French Toast, a mouthful to say but unfortunately not a mouthful to eat because it came swimming and saturated in the Berry Coulis and I could only stand 1 or 2 bites. Dad got the Waffle and Fresh Berries and it looked much more appetizing. Never got to try the Waffle myself unfortunately.

After breakfast we returned to the cabin and retrieved our things for the tour. No issue or wait getting back off the ship to meet our tour. We only had about 16 people so there was plenty of room to stretch out on the bus.

Disclaimer: This picture was taken when we were the first to return to the bus and were waiting on everyone else. We didn't have the whole bus to ourselves like this picture might imply. We did have one woman on the tour who used a walker with a seat. In transit, the walker folded up and our driver laid it across the unused back seat. Either he or the woman's son got the walker at each stop and she was able to clear the few steps in and out of the bus on her own.

Our driver wanted everyone to feel like family and said to call him cousin Joe. Our first stop was to the Iao Needle, a site of a famous battle. Lots of people ventured up to the little cottage on top of the hill but I only wandered about halfway to see the creek and mountains before my knee started bothering me.

Where these people are walking is just past where the buses let you off. That little rooftop peeking out the center of that group of trees is the little house you can walk up to visit.

Unfortunately, the bathroom facilities were closed for repair and our guide had to direct everyone to the port a potties at the bottom of the circular driveway/parking lot. We were the first people back to the bus so we got to have a nice chat with cousin Joe. He told us that they keep pushing for the restrooms to be fixed but they keep getting put off. We couldn't believe it when Joe told us that those bathrooms had been closed for repairs for the last 10 years! Joe had started off parking the bus at the top of the hill but soon we were joined by NCL's Iao Needle/Best of Maui tour featuring 3 large motorcoaches. We got a personal ride as he moved our bus down to the bottom of the hill to get out of their way.

You didn't have to walk far to see the actual Iao Needle mountain landmark. It's that tall thing in the center of this picture that looks like a grass covered brick oven/chimney. Plenty of beautiful scenery to see without walking far.

Next stop was to the Maui Tropical Plantation where we were given raffle style tear off tickets for a scheduled tram ride. We had about 90 minutes to kill before the tram tour so some of our group went to the side window for snacks like ice cream at the little café. Dad got a kick out of seeing gas pumps at a few of the parking spaces.

If you're squeamish about things with many legs, be careful about standing too close to the bushes outside the café's outdoor seating. Something told me to turn around and we were treated to a show of this guy catching some prey in his web:

Everyone else headed into the gift shop including us where we checked out the various collectibles and snack/gift items. Can't decide if you want to try Spam or Macadamia Nuts? Have no fear, try Spam flavored Macadamia Nuts!

If we didn't still have a few hours in the sun ahead of us, I was tempted to buy some of the packages from the Hawaii Fudge Company like the Smoreos (not a typo) flavor or the Unbirthday cake flavor.

We got a bottle of water to share and then hung out in the back pavilion near where you line up for the tram.

The tram was pretty comfortable ride with plenty of room to sit without being squished. We drove the path around the plantation while our driver pointed out all the different crops while speaking through a microphone headset.

Who lives in a pineapple top buried in the ground? 

Not part of our tour but you can sign up to zip line with a company that uses the plantation to house their lines:

My what big breadfruit you have:

When we approached the stage, our driver hopped out and had everyone gather around the stage. She then did a very thorough demonstration of the various parts of a coconut, what to look for when selecting a coconut, and how to husk one. Back on the tram we completed the tour with commentary on the rest of the crops they grow.

Our next stop in the tour was to the Maui Ocean Center. Admission was included with the tour and the manager came onboard our bus to give us a rundown of what we'd see. After that we were given time to explore on our own with a time and place to meet back. Some of our tour group had only booked the package that included everything but the Maui Ocean Center so after the bulk of us were let into the center, our driver took the remaining 3 couples back to the ship. We never noticed that there was a separate version of this same tour but looking back at the list I see how the other one is called Iao Valley & Maui Tropical Plantation Tram. Both start at the same time but the other one ends two hours earlier and is $30 cheaper per person. Dad and I agreed that we would not have wanted to do the other version because we really wanted to have come to this Maui Ocean Center.

We walked through two buildings on the property that feature large tanks where you can watch tons of fish of every color, shape, and size along with various information within each exhibit.

There's an open air space in between with a tide/touch pool and a turtle lagoon.

A starfish you can touch in the tide pool.

The best views of the turtle lagoon are down the stairs where there is a glass window on the side and you can see them swimming under the water. Ever see a turtle asking for a high five? Or is it high fin?

One of the best features is a walkthrough tunnel they've dubbed as the "Shark Tunnel." You could spend hours watching fish, stingrays, and sharks swim all around you. Now this is a different perspective of a stingray than I experienced back in May.

There was also a small playground off on the side of the open area so this place is majorly family friendly.  There is no provided lunch on this tour so by now we were ready for a snack and checked out the Reef Café. Dad got ice cream and I got a smoothie.

Dad was shocked when the bill for two items ended up being around $9 even more so when he saw that my smoothie was over half the bill at $5 and change. As part of the ban plastic straws conservation movement, they'd switched to using cardboard straws in their drinks and it was tough to get the thick smoothie up the straw. Eventually switched to scooping it up with a spoon.

We ended our time at the center with the obligatory visit to the gift shop and made it back to the meeting point in plenty of time. Almost everyone else did as well except for the one family with a child who'd gone to the other front entrance to wait. This tour was a good mix of activities and sights that could appeal to everyone.

Coming back from seeing aquatic animals and we return to this creature in our cabin.

Back on the ship right around the estimated 3:30PM time promised on the company's website if not a bit before, Dad and I decided to pop into Cadillac Diner for a snack and drink since we had an earlier dinner reservation at Cagney's steakhouse tonight. We were seated quickly and waited on relatively quickly. An interesting touch I noticed both here and in lounges is that crew have a system for letting other crew members know that this passenger or table has been tended to. In the lounge one evening even though I'd said no thank you to the bar waitress' offer, she still put a napkin on the table next to me. Usually only seen that as preparation for them to bring something you did order. In the Cadillac Diner, instead of taking away the menus like the other restaurants once you order, they tell you to turn your menus face down to show other wait staff that you've been helped. We asked about the loaded fries appetizer and if it was big enough to share and the waiter pointed out a neighboring table who'd ordered it assuring us that it was plenty big enough.

We also each ordered a milkshake, Dad his usual chocolate while I went with orange creamsicle. There's options on the menu for themed milkshake flavors but you can also request your own combinations from the ingredients. Dad likes to joke that the only things Subway ever comes up with as a featured sub will always only come from the ingredients they have on hand all the time. Same idea here - they have a set of ingredients to fit their milkshake flavors and you can choose one of those or make your own with any combination of the ingredients.

The food in Cadillac Diner is free but the milkshakes are $4.50 each and they added a $1.80 gratuity plus 37 cents tax. Dad didn't care for his milkshake and mine was way too sweet. We ate about 1/3rd of the loaded fries as it was only okay tasting.

After our snack, Dad went down to guest services to get a printout of our statement thus far. It's easier for him to see things on paper than the multiple pages of entries on a TV screen. Together we matched up the charges on our account with the ones we expected but we were confused by one that instead of listing the charge by category, it was just a bunch of gibberish in the title. Guest services couldn't figure out what that code meant either and sent us to ask the shore excursion desk. The shore excursion desk crew member looks up our account on the computer and asks if we are taking care of the charges for another cabin. We tell him that we are covering the charges for cabin 10008 and he then reveals that the code means someone in 10008 used the interactive TV in the cabin to order an excursion. Hence the gibberish for a title. We are thinking it's Adam and Amy changing their plans or found something else they wanted to try and were ready to accept it until the crew member reveals that it's a booking for two tickets to the NCL ship tour on debarkation day to Pearl Harbor. This was very irritating as we'd explained before the trip that NCL was sold out of that tour and we had to book independently with Roberts Hawaii.

Back in the cabin, we found that the bathroom had been cleaned along with the rest of the cabin but why it happened still remains a mystery. When we happened to reference it as part of a conversation with Spencer later, he had no knowledge of what we'd discovered and insisted on getting maintenance to check it out. Don't know if they ever did but we never had water or suds on the floor again. We also found that Thomas the concierge had left his calling card with our latest round of canapes.

The next time we saw Adam and Amy was when we headed to join them at Cagney's Steakhouse for dinner and found them sitting in the lounge nearby finally having met our butler Spencer. We asked about the tour charge and Amy nonchalantly responded with "Yeah of course we booked it. We didn't see it on the TV's calendar." None of the stuff I knew we had booked was showing up on our calendar page on the TV either. What baffled me the most was that even after we'd explained why we had to book this way prior to the cruise, they didn't even think to ask us why it wasn't showing up or even consider booking tickets for all four of us! Spencer tried to ease Amy's concern by assuring her that Roberts Hawaii was a very reputable company and provided a great tour with no issue getting to the airport. Amy mentioned having to head down to the desk and cancel their booking after dinner but Spencer offered to take care of that for them.

Tonight was technically formal night or what NCL refers to as "Norwegian's Night Out." Dressing up is totally optional and from what I can tell, the only difference is that they had photographers out with backdrops for those who wanted to take professional photos while all dressed up. We headed in to our 2nd of the 3 included specialty dining reservations and were seated and tended to quickly. A ship photographer wandered around offering to take pictures of everyone at each table. We always turn down the photos during meal times as they never turn out good but Adam and Amy were willing to pose for a couple photos. The photographer moved to stand behind me to take their picture and as he snapped a couple shots, he'd call out directions for Adam and Amy to look or tilt their faces a certain way. Typical photographer posing until I hear him correct Amy responding to his suggestion to turn their face slightly by saying that he meant that direction for "the gal in glasses." Hmm, between the two of them only Adam had on glasses and he sports a full beard! One of the other things I've never seen done on a cruise ship is that the photographer actually rushed off to print everyone's photo and bring it back for them to decide whether they wanted to buy it all before we finished dinner. Usually it requires a day of wait and then you go to the photo gallery and search the groups of photos on the displays. Adam and Amy thought the pictures turned out horribly and handed them back to the photographer.

For dinner I started off with the Chilled Colossal Shrimp Trio and Caesar salad.

Now I see where they got their big shrimp for the lunchtime Cesar salad.

For an entrée I had been thinking about getting a big steak but at the last minute was attracted to the menu item they called "Fisherman's Platter" which seems to differ based on which ship you're currently on. I tried to do a google search for the exact wording of what this dish included but apparently there are multiple versions across NCL's fleet. I do recall it mentioning shrimp, scallops, calamari, and barramundi. Barramundi is a fish I'd seen frequently on menus but never tried so I was glad to try something new. What showed up was a plate with a cup of some sauce in the center surrounded by 2 grilled shrimp, 3 scallops, and the barramundi that looked like a smushed small rack of ribs. Whatever happened to the calamari? Did the poor squid up and wiggle off the plate?

Unfortunately my enjoyment of seafood once again trumped my chance to have the rare occasion of a plate sized steak. The shrimp and scallops were tasty and the barramundi was a little salty but tasty too. For all I know that's how barramundi is always supposed to taste. Should have just went with my gut from the start.

A plus however was my new trend of trying anything truffle and fry related, a combination as pleasing to this palette as chocolate and peanut butter or shrimp and pasta. I don't know what it is about steak houses and truffle fries but I could have made an entrée out of just them. Unfortunately by the time they came, I'd polished off 90% of my small catch of the day Fisherman's Platter (yes I'm from the land of Old Bay and crab cakes so my standards are high but that was pretty lacking) and was feeling pretty full.

In between courses, another member of the wait staff came by to clean our table of crumbs. He was still working when as part of our conversation, Amy recalled how Adam once still insisted on going to a football game despite having a fever. The young man cleaning our table remarked "My man" and we all laughed. Amy asked him where he was from and we all nodded in understanding when he replied that he's from Houston, TX and knows the love of football.

While we had asked our waiter at the start of our meal to see if we can be finished in time to go to the Not-So-Newlywed Game Show in the Mardi Gras lounge at 7:30PM, service slowed a bit near the end and soon after our desserts came, everyone but Dad took a couple bites and rushed to the lounge to get seats. Dad chose to stay behind and enjoy all of his chocolate cake and take care of our receipt for the dinner.

The seven layer cake was rich and tasty. Definitely could have been shared.

Rest assured, the game show was shown later on the cabin TVs so it probably would have come in handy when we found ourselves repeatedly bored and heading to bed for lack of anything to do after dinner. It also caused us to notice that the "Games at sea highlight reel" they frequently ran on the cabin TV channel showed games we never saw them offer. Would have given us a lot more to do in the evenings if they had. The middle couple had actually brought the people that work for them on this cruise (where do I get that kind of a boss?) and it was funny watching them get uncomfortable having to answer the usual suggestive questions with all of their employees watching in the audience. Never underestimate the older couples in your lives either. Their answers during this game always run the gamut of old fashioned saccharin sweet to outright bluntness. Some of the Newlywed games I've seen on cruises should come with a prize of therapy for what your family cruising with you might learn about grandma and grandpa.