Another Flamingo back in Nest from Pride of Aloha

[cheddarcheeseball]

Those pink lawn Flamingos crack me up. There is someone in our town who goes around placing about 10-20 tacky pink lawn Flamingos on unsuspecting neighbors lawns. I don't know how they go about choosing their victims, but occasionally, you'll drive around town and see these Flamingos all over someone's front lawn, then they'll be gone the next day and show up on another lawn. It's a big mystery as to who is the culprit(s), but it's pretty funny!:D

[MOMofONE]

Hi Marilyn! Keeping you in my prayers.
LOVED the photos, especially sunset in Lahaina! It will probably be a good week before I can get to my digital pics but will have my film back from developing tomorrow.
Hope to have my review posted by Saturday. Carrie will hopefully post a mini review to give kid's perspective. Anyone else posting a detailed review?
Looked for Lisa's (or was that Stacey's?) but have not seen it - hope those 5 pages weren't gobbled up in cyberspace!
Love - Tina

[marilynbn]

Tina we also want to plan a land-based trip to Hawaii to see more and really get the feel of the islands. I never even heard anyone speak pidgen! I think we would like to return to O'ahu, Maui and Kauai. I want to do more snorkeling though also in Kona at Kealakekua Bay and see those spinner dolphins. That reminds me Deb...how was Sarah's dolphin encounter? Worth the money??

Lisa the trip at Thanksgiving sounds great but we really loved our balcony and with an even smaller room...I don't think so. What itinerary are you doing? We still want to try and do that Disney cruise we had planned for Janurary. I am just sick that I had to give up our reservation to get our deposit money back. Today that same room is nearly $1000 more! We had gotten a great deal by booking that while still on board the Disney Ship this past Jan. But actually right now nothing is affordable to us. Marilyn

[stacybnca]

Ok, someone please tell me how to post a review...apparantly I am too slow to figure it out!

Stacy

[MOMofONE]

Stacy - I have not yet utilized this feature myself but it appears:
Click on "Reviews" from menu below Cruise Critic logo at main screen (not this board screen, you have to backto your CC opening page).
At reviews site, On left, you'll see "Submit yur review" and you nedd to select PoA from pull down menu. Then you have to fill in particulars like screen name etc. - I'm assuming the text screen for review will pull up after you submit.
My review will be about 6-7 pages so think I will need to post on NCL board then later do a summary at the review site.
Hope this helps!
And I HAVE to know - how many souvenir glasses and monkey heads DID you haul home anyhow? I told my husband I was going to beg some off of you for Carrie's "Survivor Hawaii" party and he threatended to leave me stranded in Honolulu! LOL
Tina

[stacybnca]

Tina,

Thanks for the info...I'll try it later!

2 monkey heads, 4 clear plastic glasses in a "V" shape, 2 colored daquiri style classes and 2 actual glass wine glasses with the NCLA sign and the flag. Not to mention the 2 from Hard rock cafe!

Dave keeps wondering when they are gonna come fill up his monkey head! Despite what all these other posts say, he misses the service!!

Stacy

[MOMofONE]

Marilyn - we too are a LONG way from our next vacation of any sort. Remember my rule? : I am not allowed to even look at travel options until this Hawaii adventure is paid off!
A friend is leaving to tour Utah and some mid west parks like Grand Canyon so since we considered that before we booked the PoA, I will be interested to hear how that worked for her. My husband and I don't do the pilot/co-pilot thing too well. He admittedly is not the excellent co-pilot that I am and I admittedly am not the patient driver that he is. (though ask Ed about my skills tailing a crazy flamingo with multiple U turns involved! LOL)
So we are talking about 2006-7 for Hawaii and I agree that Maui & Kauai would be top of our list. We didn't get to see much of the Big Island with our little port time so that is a consideration as well. Hey, I don't DO small vacations so maybe a week on each?
Of course, we would love to work in a stop to visit all of the CA Mingos - much of California still to see as well.
Having only 2 cruises under my belt, I a can already declare that I wouldn't do another unless it was at least 10 days - 12 days flew by once we were port hopping. Some of the Southern Caribbean offerings look SO tempting with port days spread between islands.
Well, at least I know a good travel agent regardless of our next adventure! :)
Love Tina

[Jeconk]

Nancy: If you were up walking the halls at 6:30 a.m., then we probably passed because there certainly weren't too many out at that time!! I'm sure I said hi to some you because I said hi to almost everyone I met in the halls and most people said hi as well. For the most part, it was quite a friendly group of people throughout the ship!

[Aloha 5]

Aloha,
Just thought i would add a few things that we thought about the ship.
We met online about 8 weeks before sailing and I found the CC and Flamingo group there, we had a great time with these wonderful people from all over the States.We live in pennsylvania and met another family from there . The thought of better treatment crossed my mind a few times because I felt the crew knew who we were, but all thoughts of better treatment vanished as my anniversary dinner became a disaster.
Yes, we were invited to cocktail parties and had nightly goodies delievered to our room, but this was our 4th sailing with NCL and I thought that had something more to do with it than being a Flamingo.
Jane, our first sailing on the SKY was also 18years ogo in 1986 on our Honeymoon, wonder if you were on the same sailing???
Our experiences were that the food and long lines were terrible, not the sort of treatment we were used to, from NCL.
The speciality resturants were good, if you didn't mind spending the extra $.
I personally think we paid alot and should not be nickled and dimed to death.
The kids programs left alot to be desired as our children ages 9, 10, 11 had nothing to do at kids korner, Thank God for all the other kids, my kids made friends with.They made their own fun.
No midnight buffet was a disappointment, as we always had at least two good nights of grazing before bed on other ships.
Over all our family had a good time with eachother, and made alot of new friends. i don't think I would had enjoyed bombs raining down on us in a tunnel in the UK as mentioned earlier.
My Hubby and his group of friends made their own fun as well, they played poker, and had a great time.We has two adjoining rooms on the 10 floor outside w/ balconies. We were right down the hall from Stacy and her family.
The room Stewards were amazing and our room was always set up nicely and was always clean, we had two nights where we asked it be set-up for friends visiting for cocktails and it was always ready with clean glasses and extra ice, we ordered goodies off room service as munchies and they were always there and kept cool. We also packed a pack of festive party lights and hung them over our balcony door with tape ( bring an extension cord) as there is only one outlet, it help add to the party atmosphere.
All, in all its really what you make it. I now know never to book on a new ship for its first few sailings, i would wait a few months til all the bugs are worked out.
Hawaii was amazing and am glad we had the chance to experience it. I also heard the Royal Carribean had a nice itinerary sailing from Mexico to Hawaii, I would look into that trip the next time.
Maholo and Aloha
Margie

[gardencat]

[QUOTE] Over all our family had a good time with eachother, and made alot of new friends. i don't think I would had enjoyed bombs raining down on us in a tunnel in the UK as mentioned earlier.
[/QUOTE]
I didn't mean that you would have enjoyed the bombs rainning down on you, but that you probably would have made the best of it, and might even have made some new friends!
I'm not suggesting that this cruise was the equivalent of being caught in a bombing blitz, just that some people have the ability to make the best of just about anything. Just because they manage to find some fun in a situation it doesn't necessarily mean that the service, accomodations etc. were at a high or even acceptable level. (Considering the price that most paid for this cruise.)

Glad you enjoyed Hawaii. Might you consider a land vacation there next time?

[ncdebe]

One thing that I thought was a really nice touch: Our room service breakfasts ALWAYS had WARM danish on it! It was so nice to wake up to!