ReneeFLL’s Semi-Live Review B2B Ovation TP & NZ Oct 9th - Nov 9th

[ReneeFLL]

2 hours ago, AlohaLivin said:

I am soooo jealous, cruising to NZ and a start by staying at our favorite hotel Hale Koa! I will follow along (completely green the entire time!). I’ve always thought I could not live through the flight to AU/NZ and hope to win the lottery one day to be able to sail there and back somehow from the east coast of the U.S. via a very long route 😂

We love the Hale Koa. The first 2 trips we flew business class and the flight was easy. The seats reclined to a flat position in your own cubby hole and I went to sleep. This time we are in premium economy class so we’ll see how that goes. Business class was very expensive this time.

 

2 hours ago, jmh2006 said:

Late to the party but all caught up!  What a amazing itinerary you have.  So glad to be following along and living vicariously through you. 😀

Thanks for coming along.

[ReneeFLL]

26 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Well, just for that! 

They keep getting better and better. Anyone else? 🤣  When were you there?

[Merion_Mom]

2 hours ago, AlohaLivin said:

I am soooo jealous, cruising to NZ and a start by staying at our favorite hotel Hale Koa! I will follow along (completely green the entire time!). I’ve always thought I could not live through the flight to AU/NZ and hope to win the lottery one day to be able to sail there and back somehow from the east coast of the U.S. via a very long route 😂

 

I felt as you do, so I flew to Sydney and "cruised all the way back".  Australia - New Zealand - Transpacific - Hawaii - Alaska - Alaska.  (flew home from Vancouver).  I didn't document it on CC, but I did on FB.  Drop me an email if you want the link.  🙂 

[Coralc]

13 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

🤣  When were you there?

 

2012. 😀

[#55worktoplay]

Oh so glad to have found this. Thanks for doing a almost live. 
 

I don’t think I will ever make it on a journey like this , I hate flying!  I will enjoy travelling virtually with you.

 

Enjoy!

[ReneeFLL]

18 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

I felt as you do, so I flew to Sydney and "cruised all the way back".  Australia - New Zealand - Transpacific - Hawaii - Alaska - Alaska.  (flew home from Vancouver).  I didn't document it on CC, but I did on FB.  Drop me an email if you want the link.  🙂 

We wanted to continue on, but Mike didn't have that much extra vacation time so we stayed in Honolulu for 7 days. I think I sent you the picture of you on Patrick's boat as we were going up to the island for lunch.

[ReneeFLL]

16 minutes ago, Coralc said:

 

2012. 😀

Time for another one. 🥂

 

9 minutes ago, #55worktoplay said:

Oh so glad to have found this. Thanks for doing a almost live. 
 

I don’t think I will ever make it on a journey like this , I hate flying!  I will enjoy travelling virtually with you.

 

Enjoy!

Thanks for coming along.

[AlohaLivin]

41 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

We love the Hale Koa. The first 2 trips we flew business class and the flight was easy. The seats reclined to a flat position in your own cubby hole and I went to sleep. This time we are in premium economy class so we’ll see how that goes. Business class was very expensive this time.

We did the Delta One our first time, my legs were even too long to that seat BUT it was surely the way to go. I would likely need Ambien or more to get through it otherwise. Fares have been crazy lately, so I would be with you in main cabin.

 

32 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

felt as you do, so I flew to Sydney and "cruised all the way back".  Australia - New Zealand - Transpacific - Hawaii - Alaska - Alaska.  (flew home from Vancouver).  I didn't document it on CC, but I did on FB.  Drop me an email if you want the link.  🙂 

Yes, would love the link! I need to start planning now. DH is half Hawaiian, but there is also some Māori close in and so NZ is on the short list for us. 

[Merion_Mom]

48 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

We wanted to continue on, but Mike didn't have that much extra vacation time so we stayed in Honolulu for 7 days. I think I sent you the picture of you on Patrick's boat as we were going up to the island for lunch.

 

Was it this one?

 

[perfect match]

I’m loving this, and you’re just getting started! Thank you!

[sgmn]

22 hours ago, ReneeFLL said:

Thanks, hope you enjoy it. Have you been here before?

No, never down under. Would love to go, maybe one day ...

[ReneeFLL]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Was it this one?

 

That looks like it. I only had one.

[A&L_Ont]

10 hours ago, ownedbypets said:

My first thought was the yoga instructor in Couples Retreat but Along came Polly is a good one too! 

Strangely enough, along came Polly was on last night. 😂 

[2chiefs]

12 hours ago, AlohaLivin said:

I am soooo jealous, cruising to NZ and a start by staying at our favorite hotel Hale Koa! I will follow along (completely green the entire time!). I’ve always thought I could not live through the flight to AU/NZ and hope to win the lottery one day to be able to sail there and back somehow from the east coast of the U.S. via a very long route 😂

We love the Hale Koa too but we haven't been there since before they built the second tower.

Sallie and I married in Honolulu in 1989 on Pale.

 

We did see the Hale Koa when we attended a Luau there on our Hawaii cruise in 2017. We stayed at a Hilton property however due to Hilton points that I had built up before retirement.

[LouChamp]

For those that stay at the Hale Koa Mahalo for your service.  The rebuild over the past few years has been spectacular and well deserved for those that put their loves on the line for our great country! 

[AlohaLivin]

1 hour ago, 2chiefs said:

We love the Hale Koa too but we haven't been there since before they built the second tower.

Sallie and I married in Honolulu in 1989 on Pale.

 

We did see the Hale Koa when we attended a Luau there on our Hawaii cruise in 2017. We stayed at a Hilton property however due to Hilton points that I had built up before retirement.

Got to use those points, I can totally understand that. We were at Hale Koa in 2017, we were in the older tower but in one of those high floor huge corner rooms on the ocean side and it was just perfect. While I envy @ReneeFLLbeing able to visit again, I am happy for her also as it is a special place!

[RM]

We have this cruise booked in reverse in 2024. Can't wait to come along with you. 

[Luckynana]

Following!  What a great trip!!!!!!!

[cruiselvr04]

Following.  We are booked for Australia and NZ in 2024.  B3B now and 45 nights. We wanted to do the circumnavigation and stay for the TP back but it would be over 70 days and then insurance becomes more of a problem. (Steve is working on it. ) Instead we’re leaning toward a B4B on Brilliance which would take us to NZ twice like yours but would cover the north and south.  I’m interested to hear your experience there. I don’t think an economy flight for 17 hours is realistic so due to expense we want to stay a while. We did consider leg #2 of the world cruise but we want to see more of Australia.  

[ReneeFLL]

We rented a car for the next 2 days. We did some shopping and drove up Diamond Head. Once we got to as far up as we could we found out you had to have reservations to park in the crater area. We found out the reservations is something they started this May. There was some parking right outside the Kahala tunnel, but it was full. 

 

While walking in the Moana Shopping Mall we came across a Tommy Bahama store. Saw some cool embroidered shirts by the entrance. I told Mike he needed one, but he didn't think so. He has a habit of not spending much on himself. I said fine with me, but I'll pick it out myself. That got him interested because as far as I was concerned we were buying one. I really liked them. The sales lady said you couldn't buy them anywhere else, but I googled and that's not true. I hate it when sales people lie just to get you to buy something. That didn't have anything to do with if we were buying one or not. There were 2 that were in the top 2 choices. Anyone want to guess which one we ended up with? 😄

 

 

 

 

Statue of Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikoholh Kahanamoku known as Duke Kahanamoku the famous surfer. I definitely never want to write my full name if it was that long. 😳

 

 

[Coralc]

Wow! You photographed all of those shirts? I was guessing the life ring. (But gray is boring) So probably, "Drinks Well With Others" 😛

 

You're lucky. Bill was a Purchasing Manager and has some sort of shopping gene, that I failed to inherit. 😀

Edited October 17, 2022 by Coralc

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, ReneeFLL said:

There were 2 that were in the top 2 choices. Anyone want to guess which one we ended up with? 😄

I probably would have picked the “Island Time” one. 
 

Last time we were in Honolulu, we hiked from the Duke statue, up through the tunnel, to the top of Diamond Head, then back to Duke’s for some Hula Pie.  Hope you got to have some while you were there. 

[Coralc]

5 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

I probably would have picked the “Island Time” one. 
 

Last time we were in Honolulu, we hiked from the Duke statue, up through the tunnel, to the top of Diamond Head, then back to Duke’s for some Hula Pie.  Hope you got to have some while you were there. 

 

We walked a whole block and a half from our hotel (the Ilema) to Duke's on the beach. Down Duke's alley. You are much better walkers than we are. 

[ReneeFLL]

18 hours ago, LouChamp said:

For those that stay at the Hale Koa Mahalo for your service.  The rebuild over the past few years has been spectacular and well deserved for those that put their loves on the line for our great country! 

Thanks. It has really changed.

 

16 hours ago, AlohaLivin said:

Got to use those points, I can totally understand that. We were at Hale Koa in 2017, we were in the older tower but in one of those high floor huge corner rooms on the ocean side and it was just perfect. While I envy @ReneeFLLbeing able to visit again, I am happy for her also as it is a special place!

Thanks. I hope one day you can do the TP as you would like to.

[ReneeFLL]

3 hours ago, Coralc said:

Wow! You photographed all of those shirts? I was guessing the life ring. (But gray is boring) So probably, "Drinks Well With Others" 😛

 

You're lucky. Bill was a Purchasing Manager and has some sort of shopping gene, that I failed to inherit. 😀

It was the life ring. It's more blue than what it looks like in the first picture. We also liked the black one, but he has plenty of black shirts. One thing I don't like is the length and he's not a short person.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, h20skibum said:

I probably would have picked the “Island Time” one. 
 

Last time we were in Honolulu, we hiked from the Duke statue, up through the tunnel, to the top of Diamond Head, then back to Duke’s for some Hula Pie.  Hope you got to have some while you were there. 

I made a note of it because of the talk on Dani's thread, but I forgot about it. 😞  I'm sure it would have tasted good. Wished I could walk as far as you, but I would have died especially in the heat. The Island Time was in third place and the Tiki Time was last. 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by ReneeFLL