Let the Islands Come To You ... Cruise Journal

[TreasureQuest]

TreasureQuest Thank you for answering our question. We have bought 4 Hawaii Books...........yet we keep referring to Let the Islands Come to You! We sail next week....

 

That's a very high compliment. Thank you so very much. You made my evening.

 

I wish you a safe trip and many wonderful, treasured memory-making experiences.

 

Aloha!

 

As for me, I'm back to researching my next cruise. I'll be ready to book as soon as the ship I choose posts it's 2010 summer itinerary for Alaska. And it's almost time to pay my deposit for our big family outing next May to one of those multi-bedroom ocean-front beach houses in the Outer Banks.

[Louise45]

Thanks for the review, it makes my planning easier for our cruise in April. I have 2 questions. First how do I make the reservation for dinner when we arrive the first day? And you said you ate breakfast in the Gold Rush Saloon, is it free? If anyone has a menu please let me know. This is making me more excited!

[cjnky]

What a WONDERFUL review you've given us!! Definitely a help for our upcoming Feb. cruise. I've made soooo many notes from your review, that I'd sure be happy to repay - if you need help with AK, feel free to send me a pm because we sure had a fabulous trip there last year. MANY THANKS for posting this!

[TreasureQuest]

What a WONDERFUL review you've given us!! Definitely a help for our upcoming Feb. cruise. I've made soooo many notes from your review, that I'd sure be happy to repay - if you need help with AK, feel free to send me a pm because we sure had a fabulous trip there last year. MANY THANKS for posting this!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed my write-up. I had a lot of fun doing it. This gave the the chance to experience the trip all over again.

 

We were talking about the trip again this evening over dinner and my DD told me again that it is unquestionably the most fantastic trip she's ever taken. (And this kid has been to Disney World, Cape Cod, the Outerbanks and three other cruises. She says the snorkling was better than the Caribbean and the chance to go surfing was ever more fun than cave tubing in Belize and swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel.) And then she gave me a ration of grief about the missed opportunity to see the Iolani Palace. She would have preferred that over Pearl Harbor. I told her that one was for me. I waited 38 years to visit the Arizona and I wanted to do that early in the trip, lest something happen that prevented us from doing it post-cruise. Besides, it gives her something to do when she goes back (and I'm sure that someday she will.)

 

Thanks for the review, it makes my planning easier for our cruise in April. I have 2 questions. First how do I make the reservation for dinner when we arrive the first day? And you said you ate breakfast in the Gold Rush Saloon, is it free? If anyone has a menu please let me know. This is making me more excited!

 

Actually, we didn't do any dinner reservations ahead of time. For us, we decided to interpret that "freestyle dining" meant that when we are ready to eat, we head for a dining room. The only night that resulted in a wait was formal night, but having been forwarned on the boards beforehand, we expected it. So it was no big deal.

 

As for eating in the Gold Rush, it's right next to the Aloha Buffet. We would collect our food in the buffet and then walk into the adjoining Saloon and take one of the empty tables. You know, it's funny, but it was really kind of weird for us to be surrounded by the ambiance of the rough and tumble Alaskan Gold Rush decor when outside the windows was the lush greenery of Hawaii. After all, we had cancelled an Alaska cruise and replaced it with the Hawaiian cruise!

[emste]

What a great review. It took me a few days to read (during some free time at work!). We just booked our Hawaiian cruise for August 09 on POA. Have you posted pictures? I would love to see some. Our crew consists of my husband, myself, three children (16,7,5) nephew (17) and my in-laws. We are so excited and I took notes from your post of things to see and do. Also, just wanted to let you know did the Alaskan cruise in July and it was the best vacation we have ever been on. Even the kids can't wait to go back. It is definetly a not to miss vacation! Enjoy!

[coilover88]

I am so glad this thread bumped back to the top. I missed it somehow when it started.

What a great review! We went last December and had a similar experience. We had to book for this year as well. We just felt it was going to take a second trip to get the proper sampling of the islands.

Research, homework, and planning are the keys along with the kind of attitude TreasureQuest took with them. CC is a big part of that process!

May all of your adventures be as rewarding as this one!!

[GinandAl]

Are you sure your not a writer??!! :confused: LOL What a wonderful writer you are, I enjoyed your trip report so much. I am anxious for our trip, but after reading your review this morning (almost 2 hrs.!) I am beyond excited!!

 

I won't be able to do alot of the stuff you and your DD did, since I am going with my DMIL who turns 80 this month! (don't tell her I told you her age!) She is in pretty good shape/health, but somewhat limited as far as walking, but I know it will be a wonderful time!! :)

 

We just made reservations for this cruise on Nov. 15th and leave Dec. 5th!! :D

Edited November 21, 2008 by GinandAl

[TreasureQuest]

Are you sure your not a writer??!! :confused: LOL What a wonderful writer you are, I enjoyed your trip report so much. I am anxious for our trip, but after reading your review this morning (almost 2 hrs.!) I am beyond excited!!

 

I won't be able to do alot of the stuff you and your DD did, since I am going with my DMIL who turns 80 this month! (don't tell her I told you her age!) She is in pretty good shape/health, but somewhat limited as far as walking, but I know it will be a wonderful time!! :)

 

We just made reservations for this cruise on Nov. 15th and leave Dec. 5th!! :D

 

I write for fun ... not for profit (sigh!). So I can't be considered a writer. Although, I wrote a book once about my Ex and produced two copies -- one for each of our two kids. It was great therapy!

 

I envy you your upcoming trip. Of all the trips we went on, this is the one my DD and I have at the top of our list of treasured memories. We just keep coming back to it. I caught her thumbing through the photo album this afternoon -- smiling. A month from now, you'll be sitting under your Christmas tree, slipping your photos into your album and smiling, too.

 

 

Note to emste: I didn't post pictures on a public website. I just put them out on Snapfish for the family to drool over.

[vbgivens]

Now, THIS is a trip review!!!!! ;)

 

LOVE the details - this is the way I wrote up my review for CC of our cruise to Alaska.

 

I am printing this out for my file as I am getting a group together to go in 2010 -- not too early to plan at all! Your info is fabulous -- will be better than any guide book -- I love first hand reports!

 

Thank you so very much for taking time to share.

 

Sounds like you and your daughter have a wonderful relationship - this will be a memory etched in both of your brains for ever and ever and one she will enjoy passing down to her children and grandchildren -- "Well, I remember the day your grandmother and I put on grass skirts and leis and........." :) SO many wonderful moments here!!!!

 

Thank you for the details -- I appreciate those who do report certain excursions were 'enjoyable' - but actually living it thru your description gives us all so much more info to figure out if it is something we might enjoy for ourselves.

 

You must be a teacher -- or an author - you have such a gift for being descriptive and write with such organized thought while making it FUN!

 

I can't wait till the next installment!

 

 

Diddo! You are a great story teller!

[TreasureQuest]

I haven't logged in for about a month. Wow! People are still reading this journal! Amazing.

 

My DD and I still keep sharing our special memories of this trip with each other. I have a feeling this is going to be the one trip she will always place at the top of the list when she looks back over all the stuff she once did together with mom. I was amazed recently to hear her telling me about how much fun it was to climb Diamond Head. She has somehow sorted through all the memories of that event and she has chosen to pitch any memory of her initial dismay and surliness ... and she's decided that the memories worth keeping are the people we met en route, the longing attention focused on her little portable fan, the satisfaction of making it to the top and the beautiful view we were rewarded with.

[MAMATAMA]

I would not have noticed any errors as the reading was entertaining and informative... Thank you so much, do you have any photos that you could also post, I am sure they will be as lovely as your tales.

 

Thanks again,

Doe

[missaud]

Yes, people are still reading your review! I for one have just finished it a second time. We will be going on our cruise in May after having to cancel a cruise to Hawaii on 3 other occasions. The first being when the Independance cancelled all cruises because of bankruptcy and the other 2 because of schedule conflicts with business. I really like to plan ahead, which sometimes can be a problem LOL Thank you so much for all the work you did in writing your review. It is wonderful to read! What you did on your trip has helped me a lot in deciding what to do. You really should consider making your photos public on snapfish. It would be great to see them. Again - Thank you!!!

[mississauga]

What a wonderful read! I could not leave my computer until I had read to the end of your postings. How lucky am I to have stumbled upon your thread.

We're planning a land vacation to Maui in May so thought I would go to the ports of call to read up on what others had to say about Maui. Boy, what a surprise I got when I opened your thread. I took this similar cruise ( on the M.S. Patriot ) back in 2001 for my 25th anniversary and it was so nostalgic reading about your adventures on the POA and the Hawaiian Islands. We also honeymooned in Oahu for 2 weeks back in 1976 so your pre and post cruise also brought back great memories.

Thank you, thank you....it was like reading a good book that you could not put down until you read it from cover to cover.

Did you post this on the NCL board? I for one would never have thought to come to the Port of Calls to read up on a cruise on the POA. There are so many negative postings out there about NCLA that this thread would certainly give people a different view.

[TyrnaD]

This is such a great review! I thoroughly enjoyed it and made lots of notes for our upcoming cruise. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with us! I agree with everyone who has complimented your writing as well, very nicely done and it enhanced the review greatly!

[TreasureQuest]

Thank you for all the complimentary notes. This narrative was truly a labor of love. I wanted to be sure I forever captured for myself the impressions that I had of the trip. And I had to do that while it was still fresh in my mind.

 

I didn't post it in the review section because I've never seen one this long over there and I suspect it would have hit a max file size limitation and failed to load.

 

This isn't the first time I written an extensive narrative journal of a trip, but it is the first time I posted one. I noted the other reviews that have been written as multiple posts to a given thread that others have done and I decided that was the most likely way I could upload the whole thing.

 

As for posting pictures, I simply can't. My daughter appears in so many of them and I can hardly post her picture on the web when I'm always cautioning her to be careful what she posts in her social networking sites.

 

But close your eyes and you can see it all just as we did -- countless varieties of palm trees, standing in sunshine gazing at the nearby lush mountains that have gathered murky clouds about themselves, curious patterns frozen in the cooled lava under your feet, majestic jagged cliffs rising at the edge of the sea with the occasional sliver of water cascading down a shadowed crevice, the glittering evening lights spilling down the mountainside wherever civilization has touched the land, and the unforgetable, mezmerizing swirl of water as it passes along the side of your ship 80 feet below your balcony. Trust your imagination and you can conjure up the things we felt -- the delicious moment when you walk across the sand and your feet sink down several inches in the dry sand, the even better moment when you get to the water's edge and you walk along the cool elastic surface, the massive punch of the surf as it tosses you about at the water's edge, the feel of the cool floral lei around your neck and its scent that lightly curls around you, and the wonderful combination of the feel of the breeze on deck with the swish of the passing water below as the ship is underway. Can there be a better escape from reality? Yes, I know it's only temporary -- but for that period of time that we were vacationing on that ship and in that paradise we could pretend we were truly free of worries, free from care and free to indulge ourselves in whatever whim we had.

 

My daughter and I had that wonderful experience and I hope that those of you who read this will manage to have experiences that have a deep and lasting effect on you as well.

Edited February 1, 2009 by TreasureQuest

[TreasureQuest]

OK. I'm yielding to pressure from a friend who's seen my pictures and pointed out that my DD isn't in all of them. Here's a few shots ... and of course the first one has to be of an island approaching off the port bow.

[TreasureQuest]

And then there's incompariably beautiful Kauii.

[furluvcats]

My family and I leave Wed for a 14 day r/t from LA cruise to Hawaii. I have spent today reading what you've written instead of packing, lol...thank you for sharing your amazing quest with us! I can visualize so many of the places we are going now...thanks.

[TreasureQuest]

What happened to my thread? I went back 349 pages to the time of the last post and it wasn't there. No wonder the person who asked me about it couldn't find it. If I hadn't saved the link in a word doc, I would have never been able to retrieve it.

[mississauga]

What happened to my thread? I went back 349 pages to the time of the last post and it wasn't there. No wonder the person who asked me about it couldn't find it. If I hadn't saved the link in a word doc, I would have never been able to retrieve it.

 

Has Cruise Critic perhaps re-formatted the boards since the last posting? I got the link in my email because I had it set for "instant email notification" when you posted today. At the top, it's says Port of Calls > Hawaii and I can't find that now on the Ports of Call board:confused::confused:

[mississauga]

Has Cruise Critic perhaps re-formatted the boards since the last posting? I got the link in my email because I had it set for "instant email notification" when you posted today. At the top, it's says Port of Calls > Hawaii and I can't find that now on the Ports of Call board:confused::confused:

 

 

Ignore my last post. I just found it under Hawaii rather than going to North American ports first. Even though Hawaii is port of the US, it has its own HEADING too. LOL

Edited April 25, 2010 by mississauga

[kwbound]

I'm glad this review was bumped up today. We are sailing on the POA in October, and I appreciate all of the details and information you provided...like about the brownie sundae! That's the first I've heard of that being available on ship. We'll definitely check that out, and the In the Bag game.

 

Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

 

Donna

[CruisingGoddess]

What happened to my thread? I went back 349 pages to the time of the last post and it wasn't there. No wonder the person who asked me about it couldn't find it. If I hadn't saved the link in a word doc, I would have never been able to retrieve it.

 

LOL! What do you mean what happened to it? Someone last posted in it over 1 year ago. Do you expect it to stay on the front page forever? ;)

[Love2CruiseMore]

Treasurequest...WOW! What a treasure this review is. At the end of June I will also be taking this cruise with my DD who is 14, but my DH and DS (12) will also be tagging along. I was beginning to think that this cruise really is made up of the "nearly dead" and the "newly wed" as so few posts refer to having their kids aboard and if they do mention the kids not much of the review is from the kids point of view. I really enjoyed hearing about your daughter! My daughter and I are also looking forward to the lei making classes and I am so looking forward to making all the memories! I am more of a photo journalist in the way of preserving memories, but you have inspired me to keep a travel journal of my own!:) Mahalo, Mahalo, Mahalo!

[Cruise_More_Often]

Treasurequet, I am so glad you found your wonderful review. I happened onto it last night, late, and read up to day one of Kauai before I absolutely had to quit and go to bed. I can hardly wait until my lunch hour so I can pull it back up and spend some more time reading it.

 

Honestly, I have never read a trip journal so complete. I literally felt I was there with you driving up to the summit of Haleakala, walking through the lava tubes with your little feminine flashlights, attending the lei-making and hula-dancing classes. I have loved every minute of this thread!!!! I commend you.

 

PS, I think we should keep this thread near the top of the page always. I cannot believe how much help it has been to me in my planning and how many people will miss it if it gets way back down.