The fun continues at Polynesian Cultural Center

Next up for our day long experience was second row seats at the Pageant of the Long Canoes. The spectating crowd is divided up based on where you are sitting into each of the Polynesian countries represented at the center. Our group happened to be Samoa and our group's word to shout was Talofa which is their word for greeting much like Hawaii uses Aloha. Each group had one of the students teaching us the meaning and correct way to say our greetings. Then they held up a large sign with the word whenever it was our turn to shout it out.

Our guide Sesi

The pageant itself featured long flat canoes that fit 6-8 people representing each culture. The story they acted out in their colorful costumes and beautiful dances told of two people who fall in love but are from different cultures. The families don't approve but eventually learn to work together. At one point, one of the canoes rocked so much that it knocked off one of the young men standing on the ends to push the canoe through the water with long sticks. At the end of the pageant, the canoes float closer to the water's edge and they delight in smacking at the water so that it comes up over the wall and splashes the crowd. As we were led away to the next activity by Sesi, she mentioned how relieved we must be not to have been in the splash zone like that family who took up the entire first row. She seemed concerned when I told her the spray was high enough to sprinkle us too but I just laughed it off. It was an unexpected refreshment on this humid day.

Our next visit was to see the statues like the famous ones at Easter Island. We learned that the hats or hair shown on each statue's head was a sign of the person's importance that the statue represented. The taller their hat, the more important they were. Guess Baltimore wasn't the only one who thought of the "Jack it up to Jesus" beehive hairdo.

 This guy was up to my waist in width when I stood next to him.

Note the bald statue on the far right. Sesi laughed when we asked if it meant that the end guy was poor.

Next we were treated to a musical presentation featuring drums, chanting, and the master stylings of the nose flute.

Three guys were requested as volunteers and one of the men had a bit of a language barrier and a tough Korean name to pronounce so they just dubbed him "Mr. Korea."

First the guys were tasked with repeating a series of dance moves. Mr. Korea was the most animated of the group and had everyone rolling with laughter at his energy.

Their next task was to follow along with the pattern the guide played on his drum. Most of the guys did well with this so he added a chant in the microphone to follow the drum pattern.

This guy kept up fairly well. The second guy fared well on the drum pattern:

But when it came to chanting, he decided to do a little freestyle...

...by singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" into the microphone getting everyone in the audience to laugh and bark in response. 

Mr. Korea though channeled Mr. Joe Cool and looked like he was born to be a Polynesian rock star:

Our next stop was to visit a group of students performing loud angry sounding chants along with sharp rhythmic movements and feet stomping. They also demonstrated a routine with rhythm sticks and weighted balls on string.

Sesi then led us to various stations where we could try a routine ourselves using the sticks and the weighted balls on string. Adam and Amy partnered up for the sticks and I paired with Dad. We had to sit facing each other and work out a routine of tapping the bottoms of our two sticks on the ground, then against the other person's sticks, then the two ends of our own sticks together, and finally we had to toss one stick across diagonally to our partner and have them catch it. The process repeats except that the stick tossed the second time is the opposite one. Dad's lack of coordination had me chasing an errant stick a time or two but we soon got the sequence down.

The stringed balls required the same amount of concentration as it took to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. At Sesi's guidance we got the balls spinning at our sides in wide circles and then slowly lowered one hand while bringing the other forward so the balls were spinning away from each other so that it looked like the moving wings of a butterfly. I got the timing down a couple times but each time Sesi tried to praise me for getting it, I'd look up at her and lose my concentration. May have taken a few weighted balls to the gut in the process. They sold the weighted balls in the gift shops so you can always take a set home to practice and impress your friends. Just make sure they and all breakables are a safe distance away first!  

What's a visit to Hawaii without being subjected to, I mean trying the local delicacy known as poi. It's derived from the taro root and is turned into a paste which can then be made into lots of regular foods like the purple colored biscuits we saw at many meals including the dinner buffet. I'll try anything once, as long as it isn't still moving when I go to eat it. I did try poi when our parents took us to Hawaii to see where they lived before we were born. My mom took way too much delight in duping me into trying it. This is one thing I'm not sure even Life Cereal's Mikey would eat. Adam and Amy tried it this time and didn't find it too bad. They did have a water fountain nearby for those who tried it and needed to clear their palate. 

Sesi was impressed at how well Adam and Amy performed when we went to a group hula class next. I told Amy later how Sesi thought Adam had great rhythm in his dancing and Amy busted out laughing. 

We left the group behind for a private tour of the various building replicas and got to try fun games like a javelin throw competing against each other. We also had the option of getting a temporary tattoo that featured symbols signifying your position or job. The tattoos were applied by ink being rolled across a strip with the symbols and then the strip was wrapped around your chosen body part. I believe Amy went with the symbols signifying queen while Adam and I both chose Navigator.

I'm glad I thought to ask Dad to take this picture of my tattoo because it soon would become an unrecognizable mess.

Our last country to visit was Sesi's home of Fiji. We had many laughs thanks to this guy who would turn everything into a joke including explaining how he could put out fire with his bare feet because fire was hot like him. 

He's also the one featured in most of the promotional material for the center. His comedy continued as two young men sat on each side of him to compete in trying to get a fire started. 

It was starting to lightly rain so he told us that we may not get to see "his sons" climb the trees behind the stage only for them to go flying up the tree moments later. It was while we watched this presentation that Sesi ran off and fetched us all ponchos just as the rain started to get heavy. Camera stayed safe under the poncho but alas, my tattoo tried to make a run for it from the rain and my hand and forearm soon looked like the face of someone who didn't think to put on waterproof mascara. 

To be continued...

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.