It's the most wonderful time of the year...Embarkation Day!

Anyone else picture Kermit waving his arms and throwing his head back screaming in excitement when embarkation day finally arrives?

Even though we didn't have to meet back with Adam and Amy and head over to the meeting point at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Bus Terminal until 11:45AM, we decided it wasn't worth seeking out breakfast. We packed up the last few things after getting ready this morning and moved our checked bags over by the door. While we didn't really get up early, it still was a lot of nervous energy trying to kill time. We ended up finding the original Harry Potter movie on TV and got so engrossed watching it that a little part of me didn't want to leave before it was over. Even though we'd seen the movies multiple times by now. I don't recall exactly what time the bellman made it to our room but it was still well before we planned to go meet Adam and Amy around 11:20AM not sure how long it would take us to walk to the bus terminal. All we had to do was point out which of our bags we wanted taken and they handled everything. 

One note I forgot to include about last night is that we had stopped by the concierge desk the night before on our way back to the room and inquired as to where this box was that the check in literature said we were supposed to drop our room keys and towel cards into in the vicinity of the front desk lobby. The woman working the desk offered to process our check out right then and there informing us that we simply had to leave our cards in the room for their staff to pick up after we've left. We've stayed in hotels where you drop your key at the front desk as you leave and ones where you can check out on your room's TV and then leave the card in the room so this seemed a bit backwards to have to return them to a designated drop off box. 

So once we were finally ready to leave, I put back together our little check in packet of room keys and towel cards and left it front and center on the dresser so they'd notice it. A quick triple check to make sure we didn't forget anything and down the elevator we went to the lobby to meet Adam and Amy. One thing I found interesting about the elevators in our tower's lobby is that often times we'd walk up from being elsewhere on the grounds and one of the elevators would already be called and sitting open at the lobby. Way to spoil us before heading to cruise ship elevator life!

Adam and Amy were already down in the lobby waiting on us. Amy was a little concerned that the bellman hadn't been by their room before they headed down here to collect their luggage. It didn't help when she asked us and we had to tell her our luggage was picked up fairly quickly. After a bit of who is following who random wandering around the resort, we finally came across the bus terminal. There was a lot of people hanging out in this area and the staff had to repeatedly double check the people who were lining up because they only wanted those on the current shuttle bus to line up. We sought out a group of benches off to the side as it had been raining off and on this morning and we wanted to stay under cover. We were one of the last buses to be called and once we got in line, the staff came down the line double checking our cruise cabin numbers, hotel room numbers and confirmed how many pieces of luggage we had left for the bellman to make sure it matched the number they logged as being picked up and sent to the ship. Amy felt a lot better when they told her the right number of bags they'd picked up from their room. 

The bus ride was short and sweet and we only needed to show the letter NCL gave us at the hotel and our passports once entering the terminal. Once through security we asked about the suite check in area and were led to a small room off to the side. In the main space where there were multiple rows of chairs, they also had the embarkation photo backdrop set up and a couple Hawaiian dancers with loud music performing for the crowd. We were stopped at the door to the suite check in as at that moment the concierge, Thomas Meier, was leading the latest suite passengers onto the ship. We were kept outside of the room until he returned a few minutes later to greet us. When he heard that one of our suites was an owner's suite, he asked Dad and I to choose our included 3 bottles of wine for the cabin. All previous suite stays and all I read from other NCL suite cruisers have had the concierge contact them a week or two prior to the cruise to ask about choosing wines etc. It was a little off putting to not be contacted beforehand but since our main decision was wine choices, we didn't care as much. In fact when Thomas asked us, we simply deferred to Adam and Amy to pick their favorite kinds. No issue from the fact that technically they were in the penthouse suite and didn't get wine bottles included. 

We also got yet another lei bestowed upon us, flower ones for the ladies, and small conch shell ones for the guys instead of the kukui nut ones we'd gotten before now. We were then let into the suite check in room and each cabin's worth of people sat in front of one of the 2 check in ladies' desks and took all of 5 minutes to show our passports and be given our cruise cards. We then were invited to enjoy the small selection of drink dispensers and snacks. We'd only really sat for a couple minutes with drinks before Thomas decided that enough of a group had filled the small space and we were ready to be led on board. As many other cruisers reported, you are led right past the embarkation photo backdrop when the concierge escorts you on so if you really want that photo, make sure you have them stop as they pass by. Once at the first true entrance to the ship where you get your card scanned for the first time as "onboard" Thomas left us to return to the check in. 

All four of us stepped up to scan our card at the first available podium only to find that none of our cards worked. We had to get each of our cards run through a device by the security officer standing at the other podium that negated them and spend our first few moments on board at Guest Services having new cards printed. There was no special line at Guest Services for suite guests like Princess has so we had a bit of a wait. Adam and Amy got their cards replaced first and the man working the counter was super apologetic that he had to go fetch the new cards from a printer across the way because the one nearby wasn't working. A very accommodating and patient female crew member who was assigned to escorting suite guests up to Cagney's Steakhouse for lunch took Adam and Amy up with a promise to return right away for us. Dad and I decided to split up and conquer and he headed 10 feet over to make specialty dinner reservations for the four of us (our booking included 3 specialty dining dinners) while I got both our cruise cards reprinted. Now that I look back on it, I was never questioned as to why I was asking for a new cruise card for someone who wasn't technically present. You would think for security purposes someone would question why I as one person was handing over two cards? I suppose since I wasn't asking for a new photo to be linked and it was the same cabin number, they didn't care. They did have a crew member checking on the people in line to see if they could provide a quick answer to any questions and thin out the line. That's how I found out that people who had come up behind me in line also needed to have their cards reprinted. Guess it wasn't only just the suite check in that messed up.

Once we both accomplished our first tasks, it took only a minute of searching the crowd before we spotted our escort returning to bring us up to Cagney's Steakhouse. Once there we found Adam and Amy amongst a handful of people being kept in the lounge just outside the restaurant as they were staggering the crowd and we had to wait for our party to be called. As soon as we sat down with Adam and Amy, we were given a sales pitch from the spa reps offering a $100 thermal spa pass that gave access to the loungers, steam rooms, and spa showers and was good for unlimited use the whole week. Adam and Amy opted to go for that deal and signed up on the spot. Dad and I are not normally spa people so we declined. Dad was hoping I'd want to join them especially as Amy was so into checking out the various spa treatments for sale that he insisted we stop by the spa later that day to listen to the whole rundown of their offerings. Pretty much same as every other cruise ship spa offers. I tried to make light of having to listen to the spiel by asking if the bamboo massage included being beaten with the sticks. Without missing a beat, the woman from the spa replied "Only if you're bad."

This Cagney's lunch menu was only available for suite guests and the highest level of Latitudes members. One such cruiser got very upset when the front podium tried to turn him away because they didn't have his name on the list of suite guests. It was straightened out and he was profusely apologized to when Thomas got involved. This lunch menu never changed so if you couldn't decide between two things and didn't want to eat both then, you could always go back and have the other thing next time. Or on the other hand, if you really liked something you could have it again. Unlike most other cruise lines with suite only restaurants, Cagney's was open for lunch on port days from 12PM-2PM. They'd have to be in this case since every day was a port day.

We didn't have to wait too long for our party to be called into Cagney's and got seated at a table for four. Is it wrong that I secretly delighted in how this trip we wouldn't be stuck in little two top tables jammed in next to everyone else or along a rail? The restaurant was pretty busy but we kept ourselves entertained by trying to get the NCL app to work on our respective phones. One of us would get part of it to work but then the same steps wouldn't work for the other people who had a different style phone. Eventually we stumbled upon how to have wi-fi access set to get the app to show you the daily schedule. It took some getting used to when it came to using our phones because this is one of the first cruises we could just go on cellular whenever we wanted internet and never paid for any internet package. I did have more problems on this ship than any other getting Facebook messenger to work as that is how I usually keep in touch back home. Facebook itself and email worked just fine.

We ended up sailing the week before NCL announced new options for beverage packages as usually Hawaiian law prevents them from offering anything other than a soda package. I'm a little surprised that Adam and Amy didn't bother getting the package as they drank soda frequently all week. Dad and I found that except for the soda we had included in our suite, we drank a lot of water even though it wasn't super hot out. At lunch Dad went with the Santa Fe Flatbread and enjoyed it while I went for the Caesar Salad (this was during that brief respite where Romaine lettuce wasn't the devil on the recall list) with shrimp added. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shrimp was not little baby shrimp like you'd see on a salad bar but the real full size grilled shrimp. I'm a little surprised that for a steak house lunch, none of the options under the entrées list was an actual steak. Several seafood choices, 1 vegetarian option, 1 veal dish, 1 pork chop, and 1 chicken choice. 

Shrimp in this picture were as big as they appear

For my entrée I went with the Brie' Burger and asked for it to be cooked medium well. Bet you can guess how this turned out! When my burger arrived it was more on the medium side and it took a while to catch our waiter to report it. His response was to take the plate back to redo it and I leaned back to let him lift the plate from the table. He held up the plate in front of my face and told me to take off the little bowl of French fries from the plate so that I can have "something to keep me busy while I wait for the burger." Dad thought the comment was hilarious but both Amy and I found it to be rude. I'm not a child who needs a coloring mat or tablet to keep me from throwing a tantrum in a restaurant. By the time our waiter returned with my burger, everyone else had finished their food and been brought dessert. The one time we're not the ones sitting waiting after finishing our food because the wait staff wait until everyone at your table is ready to move on to the next course. Though not listed on the menu, Amy asked for and received a dish of vanilla ice cream. The burger this time was cooked properly. Everyone was ready to leave and go see our cabins so I turned down the waiter's offer to bring me dessert now.

Whereas on Princess they have rooms ready regardless of cabin category when you board and on RCL where our Star Class status let us into our rooms early, NCL follows Carnival and the rest of RCL in preventing you from going to cabins until they are announced as open in the early afternoon. By now we'd killed enough time that rooms were open. We bid goodbye to Adam and Amy with plans to meet again for our first specialty dinner tonight in Teppanyaki. I'm a super planner that does tons of research looking at reviews, pictures, and videos about the ship and the cabins we'd booked before the trip. One of the most unique things about NCL cabins is their feature of putting the toilet area of the bathroom in its own little cubby with a door blocking it off from the rest of the bathroom. Personally that then didn't make sense to me with the way the see through glass panel on the side of the shower was because the panel cutout was past where the door to the toilet cubby goes. Not so private toilet time when anyone can hop in the shower and peek in and vice versa. Of course if you've got people popping in to peek at you while you're in your cabin's bathroom in the first place, you may want to rethink your travel companions. Our cabin though had the extra unique feature of having no door on the toilet cubby space. We could pick out the frame and the stopper on the wall indicating that there should have been a door there. We found out later when we returned to the room post dinner to find our steward Bonifacio doing turn down service that a previous cruiser had broken the door and the new one hadn't arrived yet. When we remarked how surprising it was to have the cabin still in service without a bathroom door, Bonifacio (who instructed us to call him Boni) pointed out that we still had use of the small powder room which did have a working door. He did laugh heartily when I asked how much of a hurry you had to be in to end up breaking the door to the toilet.

The way the cabin is set up, the main bathroom takes up 1/3rd of the cabin's interior space. The bed and bench in front of it take up so much space in the bedroom, if someone is sitting on that bench, you can't squeeze by the bed and go out the door back into the living room. We spent a lot of time this week cutting through the bathroom. There is a full closeable and lockable door to the main bathroom from the entryway/living room but from the bedroom, it's only a curtain to be pulled across where the bedroom meets the small walk in closet/dressing area. Why there is not a curtain to cover the doorway between the dressing area and the bathroom I don't know. If you're not traveling with family you may want to work out a system of who gets bathroom and dressing room space when.

There is a connecting door between our suite, 10002 and Adam and Amy's penthouse suite 10008 which is why we chose these two cabins but we opted to keep that inner door locked for privacy. We were told when we asked before the cruise that no balcony partitions can be opened like most other ships when you know the people in the neighboring cabin. As with probably most connecting rooms anywhere though, noise travels and we often heard Adam and Amy talking in their cabin. We turned down a few offers to bid for an upgrade because it meant losing the connecting rooms. That and they wanted another $750 per person as the minimum bid. Hmm, split up our cabins or buy 2 excursions? We'd really been looking forward to having a cabin with a hot tub on the balcony. Some RCL Star Class suites have hot tubs (like the ones you'd see in someone's backyard) and our Celebrity suite cabin had one that looked more like a bathtub on the balcony so we never used it. Not only was this hot tub more like the size of a dunk tank in height with just a small step to get in and out but when we'd use it, it would either start to drain right after we got in after taking 25 minutes to fill or would constantly buzz trying to drain that last bit when we were done. We are not tiny people but while there's room for a few people on the bench inside the hot tub, there wasn't really much room for our two sets of legs and feet in the center well because of the design of the mechanics within the well. 

Still to come in today's report - Muster drill, Teppanyaki dinner, and meeting our butler! Also stay tuned for a photo walkthrough of our cabin. I didn't intrude in order to take pictures in Adam and Amy's cabin but you can find a great video tour of their cabin filmed by a previous cruiser on YouTube.

A day of rest before it's go go go on the cruise

Despite Dad's attempts to find yet another tour to fill this last day before our cruise, we managed to keep it a lazy day. Tonight is the "free" night that was included in our cruise package from NCL and thankfully we didn't have to change rooms. We did stop by the NCL Hospitality desk to make sure they had our room numbers listed correctly for luggage pickup the next morning.

Once we'd slept in a little, Dad and I decided to venture out for some breakfast and first visited the Tropics Bar & Grill. We were greeted with the news that it would be a 20 minute wait. Dad's never a fan of waiting so off we headed at the hostess' suggestion to the CJ's New York Style Delicatessen/Restaurant. Yes, we came all the way to Hawaii and ate at the New York Style Deli. I found it interesting that at this deli, they had copies of the menu in multiple languages in takeout style brochures. The menu we were given when we chose to sit outside to eat was completely in English though. This deli had tables inside and outside and was already fairly busy. We chose to sit outside to avoid another wait and unfortunately got seated at the table furthest away from the building. While there was an overhang for shade, we couldn't look to our right because of the sun and could feel the right side of our bodies getting burnt. At one point I switched to the chair that was more covered at our four top table saving the lobster look on one side of my face but instead I could feel my right leg cooking as if only it was under a heat lamp. I turned my original chair to face out into the sun so that the back of the chair was blocking the sun from my leg. We considered switching to the table that was totally in the shade but by the time we could ask it of our waitress, she'd seated someone else there.

This was our first experience with moments when the birds do more than just wander into your open air lobby. They routinely would not only wander around your feet underneath the tables but would also swoop up onto recently vacated tables in hopes of scraps. It ceases to become cute or comical when those birds decide that they don't want to bother waiting for you to leave the table first and literally started divebombing us. Dodgeball flashbacks turn into Dodge bird when you see a winged white creature flying at your head only to pull up and fly off after you've ducked. No pun intended. An employee from the neighboring eatery came out to clean their outdoor tables and took offence at the group of birds huddled around the scraps on the ground. She stomped at them and shooed them away with her dish towel which of course only sent now angrier birds in our direction. Unfortunately as the deli got busier, our service got slower so it was quite the multitasking effort to eat while bobbing and weaving bird attacks.

While this place calls itself a New York Style Deli, there was still a few Hawaiian food influences to the menu. In the mood for pancakes - go for the macadamia nut and coconut flavored pancakes. Want something a little fancier - go for the Kalua Pig version of Eggs Benedict.

Both Dad and I decided to try the New York Steak and Eggs. It includes 3 eggs made your way of choice, a strip style steak, a starchy side, and a bread side. Dad went with an omelet while I got my personal favorite of fried eggs. I was pleased to see that my steak came out as I requested and the eggs were just runny enough to drag the steak through the yolk. It was a lot to eat and I forced myself to even take bites of the country fries and bagel so I could try everything.

I rarely get the chance to go swimming at home so I love when I get the chance on vacation. I couldn't wait to return to the room after breakfast to get changed and go use one of the pools. However, we discovered upon returning that the maid service hadn't been by at all even though we spotted them a few doors down when we left for breakfast. We changed into our swimsuits and found the towel alcove to turn in our two cards provided at check in for two towels. Honestly, I probably would have gotten more coverage and drying ability from bringing down the ones in our room. We took our towels to the nearest pool which wasn't too busy and added our towels to loungers right in front. It was nice and shady at this pool but as we laid there relaxing, it soon became overpopulated with kids. We decided to seek out the bigger pool by the Rainbow tower and while the other pool was overcome with splashing kids, this place was overcome with sunbathers. We had to walk across the muddy spaces lining the far back row of loungers to find two of the few remaining seats.

Soon it was too bright and warm for us to stick around so we headed down to check out the beach which was just a short walk away from this pool. Adam and Amy had mentioned their plans to visit the beach when we crossed paths after breakfast (they'd opted to wait for the grill) so we headed over to see if we could join them. While we didn't find them we did find a beach that had lots of little shells or rocks and dense sand so it was a precarious walk to the water's edge. Dad was ready to bail as he'd been fine relaxing in the room reading if we weren't trying to give the maid time to do our room still. I was determined to at least say I'd been in the ocean so I walked a little bit into the water and let it wash over my ankles for a few minutes. There was a foot washing area near where the path meets the start of the sand so we stopped to rinse our feet and flip flops. Got our feet fairly clean but alas, it's also not comfortable when you have to put your feet back into now soaking wet flip flops. We stopped at the Rainbow pool's towel stand to return our towels as you can pick them up or return them to any pool's towel stand. Make sure you get them to give back your towel cards though or you can't get towels a future time and most importantly, they will charge you if the cards aren't left with your keys when you check out.

When we returned to the room now another hour later, the room still had not been cleaned. Dad found the maid cleaning a room at the end of the hall and made her jump in fright because she turned around after having the vacuum running and was shocked to see him standing at the door. He apologized and asked if she'd do our room next. She agreed and off we went to sit in the lobby to stay out of her way. Adam wandered through to get his book and told us about them now lounging at the first pool we visited. After a while, Dad decided to head upstairs while I joined Adam and Amy. They told me that after finding the same result at the beach, they'd tried to rent bikes but were told they weren't allowed to ride them around the resort. They didn't feel comfortable riding them around an unfamiliar city.

After we chatted for a while we decided it was time for lunch and returned to our rooms to change back into regular clothes. Since Dad and I had both had a large breakfast we suggested heading down to Round Table Pizza next door to the deli for a simple lunch. This restaurant only had tables on the inside but kept the doors at both ends wide open for airflow. After having my own issues in the room, I felt for the mother whose child started throwing a fit because Mom couldn't get the wi-fi to work in order for her daughter to watch videos while they waited. Adam and Amy opted for a discounted personal pan pizza each under the Lunch Specials list while Dad and I split a medium pepperoni pizza. Service was fairly good, especially since we were waited on for the most part by the manager. We couldn't finish our pizza so Adam happily took the leftovers. Not a bad lunch for four at $48.

Only downside was the return of the birds. It wouldn't have been so bad since they had a straight shot in and out with the long rectangular shaped dining room at this venue. However, the manager had come over to check on our table just as a bird comes flying through. He swats at the bird smacking it's backside with his order pad. The bird was currently passing over our table in an attempt to get away so in response to having its bum smacked, it unleashed a direct hit of what used to be its breakfast onto our table. My efforts to point it out to the rest of my family and the manager went unnoticed so I just quickly covered the area with our spare napkins. If I hadn't already been too full to finish, I would certainly have been done with my meal now.

During lunch, Amy mentioned how they'd picked up a matching Hawaiian dress and shirt for them to wear as a couple and it renewed Dad's interest to get his own Hawaiian shirt. As we left lunch, we popped into the nearby shop on the property called Tropical Wear. Amy found herself another dress and I helped Dad find a deep blue colored shirt that featured cars, trucks, and surfboards. He loves his new shirt and got lots of compliments from the crew on the ship. The saleslady in the shop was very persistent and even tried to get me to buy a dress to match Dad's shirt. I repeatedly declined but she was so happy with the sale she did get from us that she gave me a hair clip with a plastic molded flower glued to it. I'd noticed these for sale in nearly every shop we visited on this trip. I ended up putting the clip on my backpack as a zipper pull. Unfortunately I didn't think it would survive the flights home so I left it behind at the end of the cruise.

A friend messaged me to ask where I've traveled to after seeing my Facebook post about San Francisco. Here's the picture I sent him as my response:

We went our separate ways after shopping and Dad and I returned to the room to relax. Come dinnertime, we headed back to try Tropics Bar & Grill but there was not only a big roped off crowd for a private event on the lawn by the Rainbow pool but that roped off area butted right up against the line of people waiting for the grill that snaked all the way off the patio and down the walkway. Instead we headed back to CJ's and got an inside table. While we waited, we could hear the Friday night evening fireworks display we'd been told about on the first night. It sounded deafening when you were inside the restaurant but we could see the resulting flashes through the open windows. I went with a simple grilled cheese while Dad ordered the patty melt.

Our waiter came over at one point to explain that Dad's patty melt was taking a little longer to be sure it was cooked right. Once we both got our food, Dad cut into his patty melt and I noticed a little more pink than I thought there should be. He didn't seem to mind so I didn't push the issue. Once we were done eating he revealed that he'd put aside 1/3 of his patty melt because not only was one part a little pink but there were other parts that were still actually raw! He claimed he didn't want to upset me by making a fuss so we just considered ourselves grateful to be leaving tomorrow and paid the bill.

To have our bags picked up in our room by NCL the next morning for transferring to the ship, we had to have them packed and sitting by the door inside our room by 10AM the next morning. The letter promised they'd be able to use a key to retrieve the bags and we didn't need to present. After dinner we headed back to the room and began the process of repacking and making sure nothing was left behind. We each grabbed showers and curled up in our beds to watch TV drowning out the wedding reception being held on the lawn outside.

Traveling to all the lands of Polynesia in one day brings a lot of jet lag

Once our shuttle driver got us all to the Polynesian Cultural Center, he showed us how to recognize the place he was letting us off because it would also be our place to return to the shuttle at the end of the night. Fair warning, find some sort of recognizable marker in the area as you go in because it looks a whole lot different when it's dark, crowded, and you're tired from the long day. He asked that we stay gathered in the shade right as we walked in so he could go off and pick up our tickets. He handed out the tickets to us and the others who'd bought the regular ambassador packages first and we were able to leave once we got our tickets.

Our Super Ambassador experience started off well with a red carpet greeting. I noticed that each group got a different color set of kukui nut leis to wear based on our package status. We got tan colored leis but I admired the black and white marbled ones given to the other group. I considered buying one in the gift shops while there but then I thought about how I'd probably never wear it again. Those leading each group to the waiting area (benches and some water carafes) were great and soon the groups were introduced to their guides and led out of the room. While people with the other packages were formed into small groups to travel the center together, our foursome had a personal guide of our own named Sesi from Fiji. She is so greatly admired by her co-workers that we couldn't go far without another of the college students working there telling us that we got the best guide and how fondly they thought of Sesi. During the day we got to learn more about Sesi and the program the Polynesian Cultural Center provides for the local Brigham Young University students. They provide for everything the students need for living in Hawaii and going to school while they are working at the center. Sesi was also shocked to learn that it's only my brother and I in our family as she's one of eight children in her family and that's considered to be a small family back in Fiji. One trait I found pleasantly unique was that she was the only tour guide I've ever had that offered to not only hold your bags during bathroom stops but even offered to continue carrying Amy's backpack throughout the tour. At one point the poor girl was laden down with 3 bags and 2 heavy duty cameras on neck straps. I also appreciated Sesi's consideration of fetching me a chair when she noticed I didn't have a lot of space left on the end of the bench row. She also ran and brought us ponchos as the rain moved in for our last presentation which was on benches with no cover except for the stage.

Everyone's first stop on the tour was to pose for a group photo with some "costumed" employees. At dinner that night, each group was given the opportunity to purchase that photo. I believe Sesi posed the query to Adam and Amy and they turned her down. We didn't plan on purchasing the photo either but it would have been nice to ask each of us or at least Dad since he'd made the reservation.

For the most part, each presentation or activity space we were led to had either no one else there yet or there was cards reserving our spots on the first couple benches. A couple times we'd be led to the next thing only to find that there wasn't cards for us (but for other names) or enough cards for the four seats we needed but Sesi quickly bustled around to find us acceptable spots even if it meant splitting up our group.

Our first stop was an almost private presentation by a young man from Samoa who showed us how they prepare breadfruit over a fire pit dug into the ground into a tasty baked bread pudding style treat. Adam had stepped away to use the restroom and was disappointed that no one saved him any samples.

Our next stop was into a small pavilion where we took our reserved seats in an almost full set of benches. Groups that came after us had to stand in the doorway to watch the presentation. After a musical number performed mostly on bongo drums, several students came out to serve as models as the host explained either their clothing origin and significance or about the tools that were shown. They also provided examples of traditional dances and encouraged each gender in the audience to stand and try the moves of their gender's representative on the stage.

The host asked for two ladies and one guy to volunteer and no one was really willing. They ended up picking people from the audience to make them come up. Each "volunteer" got to don their own grass skirt style costume and competed in a dance off for audience applause. The winner turned out to be the one male, a young teenager from Utah who really played to the crowd when given the chance to freestyle dance.

Those who came up on stage got to walk away with a headpiece made of flowers and vines and it was funny hearing the gasps of surprise in the crowd. "Wait, what? We could have gotten something if we'd come up on stage?" The host even joked about the reaction and encouraged everyone to be more willing to volunteer at the other presentations.

We were led through the various structures set up so that we could see a representation of what a home would be like in each country. We learned a lot about status not only as far as royalty but also status in each family when it comes to who would be allowed to use certain doors in the home or whether your bed had lots of bamboo mats for padding or very few. It was interesting to learn all the little details like how you could tell a queen's home by the small shells or stones in each corner of the posts.

There were a handful of little stands throughout the center to purchase drinks and/or snacks plus a couple places where they provided a water fountain or dispenser. With this private tour we had no issues stopping momentarily to rehydrate or visit the restroom.

To be continued - Next up, the Pageant of the Long Canoes, bald statues, and lots of twirling fire!

Getting our culture on in Oahu

A great educational experience for the whole family when visiting Honolulu is to tour the Polynesian Cultural Center. Today, we booked an essentially full day package (12PM to 9PM) from the center known as the Super Ambassador Luau Package and then added their Circle Island Tour of Oahu for the morning. We had originally booked this combo tour for our 2nd full day in Hawaii but decided it was better to put a day of free time in between the all day tour and when we jump right into non stop port visits on the ship.

Since the Circle Island Tour of Oahu portion takes 3 hours to traverse the island, we had to be up at their arranged meeting spot (across the street from the flagpole on the main boulevard after leaving the resort property) within an hour of the sun rising. That meant meeting up with the rest of the family around 6:45AM in the Diamond Head Tower lobby. Dad and I got downstairs first so he fought the crowd at Starbucks to bring back a bottle of water and a muffin for each of us. Breakfast on the go today. A and A joined us shortly thereafter, turning down our offers to split the muffins. We somewhat easily found our way up to the main boulevard but got turned around when we saw what looked like a bunch of tour guides standing around. We asked them about the Polynesian Cultural Center pickup and they pointed out the crowd gathered on the other side of the resort entrance. Turns out this is where most every tour you can think to book picks up their guests staying at the Hilton. We joined the crowd and stood waiting through tons of buses for sightseeing, parasailing, snorkeling, and turtle encounter tours coming and going. Reminded me of a cruise ship port excursion tour where everyone gathers in one place merely organized by trying to stay huddled next to the person holding your tour name on a sign. Eventually all the tour names get called to head out and the crowd thins.

During the wait, we discovered that a couple ladies vacationing together had also booked the Polynesian Cultural Center and when it seemed to be taking a while for our bus to show, they called the center to inquire. Soon after, we noticed them heading around the corner behind the bushes lining the road and when we followed it was revealed that our shuttle bus had pulled into that side parking lot and was waiting for us. Not sure how long they were there but it would have been helpful to have the driver peek around the bushes to call out for us. Once we gave our name to the driver, he recognized us as the only ones in the group to book the biggest package and gave us the front row shuttle seats on each side. Didn't realize that was on purpose until the end of our day when we came back and found signs on the seats saying reserved for us. He did make a few references during the trip that we'd booked the Super Ambassador package saying things like "except for you guys in the front row who get blah blah blah instead." Nice to know as he was simply trying to convey to everyone what their day at the center would be like but it was a little embarrassing to be singled out so much.

During the drive to the North Shore itself, we visited several lookout spots where the driver let us off for photos. The tour details list these places we were scheduled to visit but looking at my pictures, I couldn't tell you which photo went with which place:

• Diamond Head & Blackpoint Lookout
• Kahala & Hanauma Bay Lookout
• Halona Blow Hole and Makapu'u light house
• Pali Lookout – (historical site of the last battle for Oahu)
• North Shore beaches (stop at Sunset Beach)

It's a rare sighting of the khaki shorts sunglass triplets! Or perhaps you know them as my dad, my sister in law A, and my brother A.

Shortly before we got to the Polynesian Cultural Center itself, our tour made a stop at the Dole Plantation. You can tour the grounds, eat in the café or one of the food booths set up (including the famous Dole Whip), or simply get lost in the multiple displays of products in the gift shop. We were given a time to be back and everyone from the bus scattered to do as they pleased. I accomplished the amazing feat of getting to the ladies room before a line managed to form!

 

All four of us checked out the gift shop, A and A wandering off to seek out potential gifts to bring home and of course I sought out unique treats to try. A ended up buying the popular multicolored "candied" popcorn I saw in most every gift shop on this trip and shared some with us. It tasted just like caramel popcorn except in multiple bright colors like red, green, and purple. Dad picked out some chocolate covered macadamia clusters and I found tons of what looked like sour licorice strips in varying flavors. There was plenty of sugary treats to appeal to any taste buds whether you liked taffy, hard candy, dried fruit, or gummies. I picked up a package of lychee flavored strips and pineapple flavored strips and was surprised to see that they both had the exact same ingredient list. None of those ingredients were lychee or pineapple! I ended up buying the lychee strips and they tasted like a slightly less sweet cherry. Definitely left my fingers covered in the sticky coating so back I went to fight the bathroom crowd to wash my hands.

On our receipt from the gift shop, it shows we were charged an extra 5 cents each (coded as ".05 Refund Dep") for the two soda bottles we selected from the cooler. Each soda was already overpriced at $2.95 but that's pretty decent considering average price hikes in any gift shop plus the normally high prices due to being in Hawaii. Dad's little six piece pack of clusters cost $5.95 and my Lychee Sour Belts were $7.25. I didn't eat much out of the pack so it was nice that the bag was resealable. I snacked on them later in the hotel room and eventually tossed the rest before we checked out. The final charge on our receipt was a 15 cents plastic bag fee but I don't recall ever actually getting a bag since we took our drinks and snacks right out to a table on the porch to eat. I stowed the resealable Lychee pack in my backpack that I carried around all day.

Next up - we become Ambassadors and get transported to the many cultures of Polynesia!

Our first evening at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

Once we felt settled and rehydrated, Dad and I set out to wander the grounds in order to kill time before dinner. We visited the ABC store for some snacks to keep in the room. Once back in the room we made reservations for the four of us at Bali Steak and Seafood and confirmed that there was no dress code short of no bathing suits. I'm so used to switching from shorts to slacks at least before heading to dinner on cruises that it felt weird to not have to change here. We met up with Adam and Amy in the lobby and after a couple wrong twists and turns, found our way to the restaurant. It turns out you need to climb stairs to the 2nd level of that particular area to access the restaurant. I noticed some areas of the property were either without handicap access or they had signs posted saying you'd have to go to some other area and use the access there to get up to the right level and then come all the way back to where you started. We checked in for our reservation and they had us sit out in a sort of waiting room area until we were called to our table. Isn't that the point of a reservation is to have your table ready to sit at when you arrived? They encouraged us to enjoy a drink while we waited and Adam offered to head to the bar for all of us. Adam and Amy both wanted sodas but Dad and I planned to stick with the ice water we knew would be on the table with our dinner. We got called to the table before Adam even finished at the bar and he ended up getting us glasses of ice water when he got their sodas. The wait staff did a decent job keeping drinks refilled but our waitress took a brief leave of absence it seems mid meal and we had to ask another employee to find her.

Click here to view the menu for Bali Steak and Seafood

Both Dad and I ordered steaks but I chose the "Certified Angus Filet" whereas Dad went with a larger cut. I ordered my steak as I always do, medium well, and not only does it look like someone took a cookie cutter circle out of my steak and brought me the cutter's contents as the sole item on the plate but it sat in a small pool of deep pink colored juices. Having any bit of pink left in my meat is a pet peeve of mine but I've gotten more lenient over the years when some were just below the level I asked for and turned out to taste better than it would have had it been cooked all the way. So when I saw this pool of pinkish juices I didn't speak up in order to give it a chance. Sure enough, once cut into, this steak was definitely barely medium and nowhere near medium well.

Disclaimer: Between the dark night sky and the dimly lit restaurant, my camera flash focused on the bright white of the plate making it nearly impossible to see the pink juice. Those brown specks are not part of the plate design though.

I thought the steak would be significantly bigger than this so I only ordered the Truffle Potato Tots as a side. I love the Truffle French fries in Princess Cruise Line's Crown Grill specialty restaurant so I'm always going to try similar versions on other menus in my travels. 

The menu describes the dish as having boschetto tartufo and prosciutto but except for the melted cheese holding the container in place on the plate, I wouldn't have guessed either was in this dish. That's a banana leaf keeping the top contents from spilling out the side. Despite that, I really enjoyed these potato tots and felt they were comparable to the truffle French fries. The only major critique I have for these is that they were super fried and crispy almost to the point of being hard to crunch and chew. I'm particular about not only presentation and taste but also texture when I try new foods. I did end up swiping a scoop full of Dad's mashed potatoes as all sides came served family style. I kept trying to offer the rest of the tots to everyone else at the table but we were all stuffed by then.

With plans for an early morning and a long day tomorrow, we decided on a meeting time for tomorrow's tour and headed back to our separate hotel rooms to turn in for the night.

Goodbye San Francisco - Hello Honolulu!

We'd been a bit undecided about whether to book any form of transport to get from the Holiday Inn Express Fisherman's Wharf to SFO prior to this trip but once in San Francisco, we decided to rebook the same private car company who'd picked us up at the airport the first night. We were so glad we did as traffic trying to get to SFO around 8AM for our 10AM flight was horrendous. If we'd relied on grabbing a random taxi, I can only imagine what that fare would look like! We did get there for our United flight in plenty of time and for a change, I had no "random" issues going through TSA pre-check. This flight though did not have the entertainment screens in the seat backs and we still couldn't get the app the flight attendants told us to use to work. Somehow though I was able to play a game on my tablet that usually requires an internet connection without my tablet ever showing as connected to the wi-fi. Surprisingly for our one flight where we couldn't get bulkhead or pod style seats, it wasn't as bad as I expected. We did have meal service and I pretty much spent the entire time playing the multiple games or reading my latest e-book on my tablet. Loading a ton of card, puzzle, and board games on my tablet pre-cruise several trips ago was one of the best preparations for a trip I've ever done. Dad's even played my games with me when he gets too restless on these longer flights. You could tell that we were headed to Hawaii though since our warm cookie offering near the end of the flight to SFO was regular chocolate chip. This time, it was chocolate chip with macadamia nut. Dad insisted I accept the one offered to me so that he could have two.

Flight landed safely and we got our bags quickly. It is a bit of a walk in Honolulu's airport to get to where you meet your arranged rides. There was a few people there to help you find which mode of transfer you had booked. At the recommendation of many people on Cruise Critic and the Facebook group for fans of the Pride of America, we booked Dang's limo service. Adam and Amy were coming in on a later flight arriving about 2-3 hours after us on Delta (of course since they're coming from Atlanta) so we booked with the same company to pick them up when their flight arrived too. We saw a black limo parked outside and inquired as to whether that was our ride but the driver said Dang's limo service uses white limos and so they aren't here yet. We waited a bit and then finally called the company to let them know we were ready and waiting. A white limo pulled up shortly thereafter and it was a little off putting that the driver didn't bother to even get out of the limo to check whether we were the ones waiting for him. At this point, we were one of the only ones still sitting there. We walked over and confirmed he was meant for us and then watched him force our two large pieces of luggage into the tiny trunk. There was tons of room inside since there was only two of us to put any of the luggage on the seats but the driver wouldn't even consider it. Finally we convinced him to at least put the carry on bag on the seat next to us and he forced the trunk closed around our other two suitcases. There was at least 20 pieces of glassware in this limo but there wasn't even water in any of them. We spent the ride trying to ignore the constant sound of glass rattling while Dad pointed out the landmarks he remembered from when he lived on Oahu. Wish we could have had some conversation with the driver or some sort of local info or advice.

When we booked this cruise, one of the included perks was a free hotel stay the night before the cruise. Back in early summer, we learned that NCL was switching hotels to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. We knew we wanted to book extra days ahead of that included night so we could tour Honolulu but when we reached out to NCL for any answers to our planning questions, we were told "You booked with a travel agent, don't ask us, ask them!" Great customer service there NCL. Instead of giving me an answer I know you would have had that would have taken 5 minutes, you insist that I reach out to my travel agent which could take a couple days of playing email or phone tag.

I tried reaching out to Hilton through their customer service online but they said they had no way of confirming whether we had the right Hilton hotel NCL planned to use. Next step was to call the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort and they confirmed that NCL would be using them. However, they couldn't tell what type of room or area of the resort (think small city) we'd be booked in for that one night as according to the woman I talked to, NCL doesn't send them over the list of rooms they'll need until at least a week before needing them. I asked if it was possible to ensure that we wouldn't have to pack up and move rooms if we booked these extra nights and was told that the only option would be to list our "request" in the special notes section when making the reservation for those other nights online. Knowing that NCL would surely go for the cheapest most basic room option (known as Resort View in anything other than Ali'i or Rainbow towers) I used Retailmenot.com's newer cash back feature to book through Hilton's website while logged in as Dad's Hilton Honors account. I booked a 2 queen bed resort view room for Dad and I but when I went to book a single king size bed resort view room for Adam and Amy, they were now all sold out. We ended up having to book a 2 queen bed room for them as well. The resort offered the chance to get a food/drink discount coupon for use on the property if you shared to a friend's email that you'd booked with them.

Unfortunately, the resort is such a busy place, they make any public transportation park just inside the entrance whereas personal cars can pull up to the top of the driveway to unload. We retrieved our luggage, bid goodbye to our limo driver, and followed his directions to go up the hill to the open air lobby to check in. They had separate check in desks for those who'd completed digital check in, those with Hilton Honors, and one for basically everybody else. We managed to arrive right around the 3PM check in time so even the Hilton Honors line we got into was long. Dad didn't want me to check in digitally because he'd hoped we'd be able to upgrade our rooms at the desk. They did have employees walking up and down the lines making sure everyone was in the right line. Our line moved the slowest and once it was our turn, we realized that it was because of the less than stellar employee assigned to our desk. She went to look up our booking on her computer and just kept staring at the screen like she was hypnotized. She'd type or move the mouse around every once in a while and mumble something about things being messed up. Dad mentioned wanting to upgrade and she said it was possible but then still put us in the resort view rooms we booked. We asked about being able to check in for Adam and Amy since the room was booked under Dad's name as the primary person and I would not have been surprised to see smoke start coming out of her ears trying to figure out how to do that. She confirmed that she was able to check us all in and gave us a little brochure packet that held our room keys, towel cards, vouchers for DVD rentals, vouchers for our free bottles of water as Hilton Honors members, and our included internet password on a sticker. She showed us on a map of the resort how to find the NCL desk (just around the corner to the right of the check in desk past the first few shops) and directed us both to the bellman and the concierge desk where we could turn in our free water bottle vouchers. We confirmed that we'd be able to stay in these same rooms for the entire time up until the cruise.

Our next step after 45 minutes of waiting for this check in agent's head to start rotating 360 degrees and spewing pea soup, was to head over to the bellman's podium. They called for someone right away and we decided to trust them with our carry on bag as well. Relieved of that burden, we soon realized that while we'd checked in for everyone, the employee only gave us the room key packet for our own room. When we returned to her to point that out, she was shocked to think we'd have wanted their keys too. No we just thought we'd save them the trouble of waiting in line to check in only to have them wait in line to pick up their keys. I'm curious as to whether she would have let us even check in for Adam and Amy if we hadn't booked Dad as the primary name on both rooms. Now with two room packets, we headed over to the concierge desk and cashed in everyone's vouchers for water bottles. Since our large request finished off the current box the small water bottles come in, we asked to have the box to carry the bottles to our room. We had both been assigned rooms in Diamond Head Tower but on different floors. Each tower's lobby has a ceiling obviously but the doorways to leave the lobby are completely open to the elements as was most of the businesses on the property. Good for airflow, bad for avoiding birds who have learned that where there are lots of people, there is lots of dropped crumbs. The birds have also learned to become quite aggressive as employees constantly try and shoo them away by any means necessary.

We stood by the bellman's desk trying to figure out the map the agent had given us to find Diamond Head tower. A bellman took pity on our confused selves and asked if we planned to drive there when we mentioned looking for the tower. We said no and he redirected us to the short walkway from the lobby to the towers. The map makes everything look so far apart but our trek was really only a 5 minute walk in the opposite direction from the front desk and along a path that winds past the smaller pool and field where they host hula classes and morning yoga. It doesn't take too long to get your bearings once you learn how to get to all the main places but you'd definitely need at least a week of staying there to check out everything on the property. I left Dad to relax in the room while I sought out the NCL hospitality desk where we'd been instructed to visit and pick up our transfer information and extra luggage tags. While it turns out there were many ship transfers running every 15 minutes on embarkation day, we'd been assigned the 11:45AM time slot with a bag pickup from our hotel room by 11AM.

We reached out to Adam once we had arrived in our hotel room and told them that we'd checked in for them and to come find us upon arrival to get their keys. It turns out Dang's limo service had sent an SUV for them which was for the best as they'd brought 6 pieces of luggage. When they arrived at the hotel, they left their checked luggage with the bellman and had been given a card to call them when they knew what room to bring the luggage to. After knocking on the wrong door at first, they finally called us and asked what our correct room number was. They had flown over in the Delta One pod style seats and found it a much more comfortable but still long flight. We went over our plans for our time in Honolulu and settled on a time to meet up for dinner at the steak and seafood restaurant at the resort known as Bali Steak & Seafood once everyone got settled in their rooms. Once Adam and Amy got to their room, they weren't happy that it wasn't a king size bed and complained to the front desk about switching rooms. They were immediately put into a king size bed room a couple floors down from their original room so I'm not sure why it wouldn't let me book that in the first place for them.

The shower did have a solid long hand rail and a showerhead that could be raised, lowered, pivoted, or even taken down off and used as a handheld.

I often will rely on hotel or cruise ship provided toiletries (hey they're free!) and these from the Anuenue shop on property worked really well.

Our little wet bar area just outside the bathroom. That cabinet under the sink held the mini fridge. We only ever kept our water bottles in there but it worked fine. We did have to lay them on their sides to fit as the fridge was mostly stacked shelves. It won't fit any wine bottles or larger water/soda bottles standing up. It stayed cold well enough that I'd have felt safe keeping any perishable snacks or to go meals in there. Our hotel lobby had a "sundries" style shop with basic convenience store items as well as souvenirs. There is also the infamous ABC store a short walk past the lobby. They told each customer to keep our receipts because we could win some trinket if we spent at least $100 in their store alone by the end of our stay.

I may just be a little cruise ship spoiled. I instinctively checked that wicker wrapped ice bucket in hopes that they'd left us ice as we downed several glasses of ice water trying to cool down that first day.

We ended up in a connecting room. Never been a fan of connecting rooms when you don't know the people in the other room. We could hear their TV on occasion and their "lively discussion" on the balcony sounded so close I had to pop out and see if our balconies were connected. Thankfully the wall between our two rooms extends out to the balcony railing so there is at least some visual privacy.

The closet was on the other side of the wall where the shower sits in the bathroom. We did use the safe and at one point ending up searching the room for a pack of Dad's meds only to discover that he'd had it in his pocket along with his wallet so when he pulled out his wallet to put it back in the safe, he'd put his meds in the safe too. The closet was tough to use though because there was just barely enough space to walk between it and the bed to get into bed. The sliding door only provided as much room to reach in as shown. Dad hung up the few dressier clothes he'd brought but all I bothered doing was hanging up my jeans when I switched to wearing shorts.

There's a PlayStation in the center cabinet below the TV so that's how you play any games or DVDs you may choose to rent with your provided cards. For the balcony, the sheer curtain is fully drawn across so you'd still get plenty of natural light. There's an outlet on the side of the desk, one by the nightstand between the two beds, and one close to the floor on the wall outside the bathroom. We used that one for charging my camera battery mostly. 

Dad found it funny that we had just three pillows each.

It's the great return of the CPAP machine! We did switch beds after the first night because Dad was used to how the machine's cords lay while he's sleeping when he sleeps on the left side of the bed at home. We found out later that Adam and Amy spent a good bit of their time before we met for dinner scouring the resort and neighboring area for distilled water to put in their CPAP machines. They came up empty and settled for the same bottled water Dad had been using all along. Side note: this was our first time traveling with a CPAP machine prompting the need for a full extra suitcase as a carry on. Usually we just have our medications, phones, and tablets in a laptop carrying bag and my camera in its own carrying bag. Dad was surprised that TSA had no issue with the machine when they scanned our bags.

A funny story about that small black alarm clock/ipod dock on the nightstand - When we arrived to the room for the first time, that clock was not even plugged in. To reach the plug (Dad used the one on the lamp base for his CPAP) meant for the clock, you'd have to move the bed out from the wall. We called down to the front desk to ask that someone come in and set our clock before leaving for our tour the 2nd day. I like to be able to see what time it is when I wake up in the middle of the night so this first night I kept my watch facing me on the nightstand. When we came back we found that the clock had been plugged in and was working but it had been set for a different time zone! Thanks to the included internet Dad looked up the clock model's instruction manual on his tablet and then got thoroughly confused because we couldn't see any reset button on the clock in order to follow the instructions in the manual. Turns out, the hotel had screwed on a back panel that only covered the missing reset button to keep their customers from changing the clock. Dad dug out his Leatherman tool (yes it always goes in checked luggage) and used it to unscrew the panel, reset the clock, and screwed the panel back in place.

Not too shabby a view from our balcony if you just looked to the left instead of straight out.

My own birds eye view of the hula class from our 10th floor room:

The rooms may have been the most basic option to book but they met almost all of our needs for a place to rest, clean up, and relax in between activities. Aside from having to walk through an open breezeway in the dark after a rainy day to get to the opposite end of our floor to reach the ice machine, I only have 3 complaints about our time in these rooms. 1 - maid service didn't get to our room till 1PM. Not an issue when we were gone from 6:45AM until 10PM the first full day. More of an issue the 2nd day when we wanted to be able to come back after our breakfast and wanderings to relax before heading down to the beach and pool.  2 - Yes, it is a resort so like a cruise ship, just because you want to go to bed that doesn't mean that the scheduled activities for everyone else stops. Despite keeping our balcony door closed (also to keep those attacking birds out of our room) and the two layers of curtains (one sheer, one solid) pulled across, we could still hear the loud music into the late night hours.

3 - The last and most bothersome issue, we had ants in our room! Dad kept saying "That's Hawaii for you!" but it grossed me out. I first started noticing them in our bathroom sink and bar sink. They'd disappear for a bit after housekeeping had been there but would soon return. Then we'd find them crawling across the bathroom floor or walls which led to crawling across the desk and eventually the bed as they'd get transferred by our movements in the room. I recalled one such reviewer who'd commented on finding ants in his room and the front desk's response was "and your point is?" At one point I got a little body powder spilled onto the sink while getting dressed and threw some extra on there on purpose to keep the ants repelled away. Made a minor dent in the issue until housekeeping came back for their next visit.

Hard to tell in a still photo but those little black dots in the center of the photo are two of the many ants we spotted in our room.