Silver Sweethearts

What we have done with both Regent and Silversea is have them purchase a few cases of our favorite CA wine and then send it to our cruise ship and debit our OBC account. You don't have to worry about getting it to the ship safe and sound and uses up some OBC. At least it works for us...

Our daughter is a quadriplegic and has cruised with us since she was six (she is now in her early 50's), so believe us when we say compatibility is of utmost importance. Do not go in cold with this. Have potential candidates come to stay for a weekend or days to see if they compliment each other and "click".

Quite possibly they do not have a class/classes finalized for that time yet and do not want to promise and publish anything now.

It appears that submissions to the Hawaii posts - at least about Maui - are getting less and less. Agree? Disagree? Any thoughts in either direction? Mahalo.

As we noted earlier, Kahului is a port town that is commercial and light industrial in nature with no need for upscale restaurants or food and shopping even remotely close to Mama's Fish House. Wailea would be a much better area to look for that, but do consider you would have to arrange transportation.

When Lahaina was devastated we heard its residents asking for a time to try and heal as best they could, and we want to give them their space. For that reason we personally cannot recommend going back to Lahaina now. Central Maui may not be as interesting as Lahaina was, but it obviously is closer to your ship.. A rental car might be nice, but you really don't have the time to make it worthwhile. You can walk to Maui Mall and/or Queen Ka'ahumanu Center. Not exciting or anything resort-ish, but it shows you a bit of life away from the resorts.

To narrow things down a bit, what would be your idea of "walking distance" from the ship?

You might want to double-check the information you have on the above places. Maui Nui (not Nut) Botanical Gardens has a self-guided tour for $10.00 per person. The Sugar Museum is closed weekends, as is Bailey House. The MACC does have exhibits that change off and on in the gallery there, but most events are in the evening in the theater. Renting a car for those places seems a waste.

If you happen to be on HAL's Koningsdam in Maui next February, you may want to check Cruise Critic records from earlier this year when they did the same cruise. The whale watch was spelled out in great detail on their roll call. Valuable information about transportation, UBER, public bus, etc.. Do check it out.

Do remember that the tours are only offered November through April.

Good advice. Maui - as with all of Hawaii actually - is expensive and tours costly. If you don't have some activities in mind already, don't feel that exploring every island in depth is a must. We have often enjoyed the relative peace and quiet of the ship while the other guests were ashore.

We are fortunate enough to sail with high end lines when we travel, and many times it is the staff who solicits us about what we would like from on or off the menu and not us soliciting them. We are truly interested in their suggestions, and being on smaller ships allows us not to be rushed and to listen to what the staff has to say. Then, too, we have to be honest enough to certainly realize being in a named suite helps.

If you are on a luxury line, this is one of those things that you have your butler handle.

Perhaps we are missing something here, as it sounds like you had no intention of having dinner with them but felt is was OK to lead them on.

Don't you think "Dinner is mandatory" sounds a bit demanding and doesn't exactly set the tone for a relaxing meal?