ebonniekins

More Kauai and the Marriott Resort:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The up to the minute weather report was one of my favorite photos!! Love it!

Well, that was anticlimactic so we decided to go find a waterfall to walk through. Our GPS said there was something super cool close by. So off we go....

It didn't take too long really and we saw the zoo and a college (can you imagine going to class in HAWAII???) and some interesting neighborhoods and then the sign said waterfall this way>>> So we went up a winding road to the top and--- hmmm. Not what we were expecting. A small office with maps to walk through nature and yes, there is a waterfall miles in. But in the secretary's words, "not a big one". No thank you! I had on white. It was a bad plan. We hadn't researched. Just no. So Shon ventured off alone determined to do the thing we came this far for. Gary and Cece went to do the shorter nature trail. I sat on a bench and played Candy Crush on my phone. OK?! And at this point I hated Honolulu or Oahu or wherever the heck I was! When Gary and Cece came back, we laughed- alot- in the car's air conditioning and ventured out to save Shon (who I was sure was eaten by snakes!). SHon was exhausted but he did see a lot of amazing things and a WATERFALL!!! Yay! I was so happy to find him alive though.

 

 

 

 

 

YAY Shon!

Boo Susie!!

YAY Shon!

LOL

After several lovely drinks, we called a Uber and headed back to the ship. Uber worked really well in Hawaii. They are literally instant and the people we met driving them were so cool and friendly. Our trip back to the ship was a quick 20 minutes and we went inside to get rested and ready for the luau.

 

Our roll call was awesome! And one member, Deb, put together this luau. She arranged the whole thing for the group and even reserved a big bus to take us all. In the end we had like 80 people in our luau group. We are so thankful for her!!!!

 

The bus picked us up right at the spot where regular cruiseship excursions were leaving from. The drive from the port to the luau was probably 45 minutes. We saw so much that we wished we had more time to explore. The little town where we went was adorable. It was a walkable village with lots of super cute shops. You could have spent a whole day right there. But when we drove up to our destination, Wow! It was dreamy. This was all-inclusive and prepaid. It was $115 a person, I think.

 

We were greeted with cocktails by beautiful women and handsome men dressed in grass skirts. They led us to our tables and gave us a quick tour. It was perfect. The set up was; tables surrounding a grass stage, the waterfront in front of us, cultural stations along a path so you could stop and learn about things that interested you, and a buffet and bar behind us. The waitstaff brought us drinks and appetizers and made sure we were comfortable. Very attentive.

 

During dinner there was the luau show. The sun set as we sat there. There were fire torches. It was just beautiful. We were there for hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See those smiles and seeing you guys with Cece and Gary makes me miss you even more!!

Some may say we are crazy for this but we flew out of DTW on Thanksgiving morning for this cruise. We left work, the cold and the holiday drama behind and went to find something much more fun to do! Actually, our flight on the holiday was perfect because the airport was empty. Security had absolutely no lines for us. And if that's not enough, alcohol was FREE!!! on our flight (Southwest Airlines) due to the holiday. The travel day is super long going from Michigan to California so we really were pretty exhausted (and buzzed....) by the time we arrived at LAX.

 

 

 

 

 

We met some of our cruise friends, CeCe and Gary, who were also on this cruise at the airport and shared a rental car to Long Beach. We all stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach for 2 nights pre-cruise, which was perfect. When we got to Long Beach, we searched for dinner (not an easy task since many of the restaurants were closed for the holiday, btw). After dinner, we had no energy left in our bodies so we went straight back to the hotel and fell asleep before our heads hit the pillows good.

 

I highly recommend this hotel. It's surrounded by things within walking distance to see and do. Even the aquarium in right next door. We requested a room facing the cruise ships but once we were in the hotel, we noticed that the opposite side had a beautiful beach view that would have been perfect, too. This hotel's pool area is beautiful and I wish we had spent more time lounging out there during our stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent Friday going down to San Diego, which was also on our list of places we really wanted to see. Luckily, Gary and Cece are originally from the area so they were excellent tour guides.

OMG Why didn't you guys tell me you were staying at the Hyatt?!! I stay there every year for my tradeshow in Long Beach and could have definitely hooked you up. Even better if my girl Cynthia was working at the Starbucks there I would have made sure she took extra special care of you guys just because!! Grrr!!! Now I am really now liking this post.

Now that some of our post vacation depression has lifted (and Shon finally uploaded tons of vacation pictures from his i-phone for me) it's time to share Shon and Suzie's fabulous Hawaiian journey cruise vacation details. This will likely be a long review because the trip was amazing! and long!! and the aforementioned tons of pictures that we took.

 

About Us:

We are Shon and Suzie from Michigan. We've been on a lot of cruises and we're not totally loyal to any cruise line. We just like good deals, good people, good ships and good itineraries. We are super laid back, pretty silly and although we've been together forever, we're in love like we just met. ;):)

 

 

About the Cruise:

This was our DREAM cruise. 15 days on Carnival Miracle from Long Beach, CA to Hawaii and back. Our sailing was November 28- December 13, 2015.

 

 

(TBC)

I just read the first post and I am already hating it!! LOL! I love you both tons.

Last year on the Carnival Liberty, there was a man that was dressed as a baby the entire time. He had a bonnet and cute dress that he had to wear all day ( yes he changed every day for those that wondered) and he even dressed up in "formal baby wear" for elegant nights. He even had a bottle and all. I kept hearing different versions of why he was dressed like that. One was that he lost a bet or that he would receive $5000 at the end of the cruise if he went through with it. Their was someone with him on the cruise to make sure he went through with it. All in all he appeared to have a good time throughout the entire cruise. I will say that when we docked back in Miami, I saw him for the first time in regular clothes he looked relieved but I will say that the images of him in baby clothes were forever burned in my head.

My head is spinning from all the wonderful information that everyone has posted. Now I know exactly what I need to do to make my arraignments for my St. John getaway in a little over a week. Thanks again everyone!

Truly a message in a bottle type of story! Very nice indeed. Great things happen to great people. Your kindness is going to be returned to you 100 time over.

Here are a couple of pictures from my cabin. Loved my room!

I was in a 1A on the Splendor (cabin 2217) this past week and it was great. The only drawback was the noise from the Anchor. WOW! A little loud in port days but otherwise it was a great room. Very spacious as it had 1 single twin bed and 1 convertable sofa. Being as I was travelling as a single, it was GREAT! Not sure I can ever really go back to having a roommate :)