shonandsuzie

We did a super fast tour of some main highlights. We were trying to see as much as possible before it was totally dark. Which at this time of year was like 5:30-ish. My favorite of the things that we saw in San Diego was the Mount Soledad Memorial. It was touching.

 

 

This is where my husband and I got married (and we only live about a mile away)!

Oh wow. That would be a beautiful wedding. Next time we'll stop by for coffee--- or wine!

What an awesome review!! I love that you two are smiling and having fun in each and every picture!! And I also love that you guys are not only fellow Michiganders, but fellow Sparty fans as well!!

Thanks for your great review! Fellow Michigander here (GO GREEN!). We're planning on booking this same cruise for this year and so I came on to look for some reviews. Was great to find yours! Again, thanks for all the work, I know reviews aren't easy.

Yay!!!!! Because Spartans are the most fun! Go Green!!!!!!!

Nice!

Thank you everyone for the compliments! We always read reviews before our cruises to add to the excitement and get good tips. We're glad to share!

Great review. :) Thanks for taking the time. :D Loved your last sunrise or sunset photo.

Thank you!! Wish I was there again now! :)

Awesome review. I want a do-over or do again.

Me too, me too!!

Hello,

 

Thank you for the thorough review. We are thinking about this cruise for next year. Wondering which side of the ship to book a cabin on to have the best island views while cruising?

 

Thanks in Advance.

I don't think it mattered because it seemed like the views were outstanding no matter where we were on the ship looking out.

But our view was fantastic every day. We were portside. Midship.

Thanks for your review... I'm getting so excited for our trip in October!

 

Couple questions:

 

• which nights were your formal nights?
  
• how formal/informal were passengers dressed on those nights?
  

Thanks :)

I can't remember which nights. I'm sorry. There were quite a few who went all out for formal night. Lots of semi-formal too though.

I really want to take my wife on a cruise like this for our 20th anniversary in a couple of years. She LOVES sea days and we've never been on vaca for more than 9 days.

 

And, looks like you two and my wife and I will be on the same cruise this coming April on the Conquest! Would love to hear more about Hawaii!

For sure!! Are you on the roll call?

Great review.

I found Hawaii to be much the same as you.

I always tell people, when I got off the ship in Honolulu it could have been Detroit. Cell phones, transit buses, horns honking and masses of business people. We did the Cultural Center and had to drive 2.5 hours from the pier to get to the lush of Hawaii.

Also my favourite island was Kauai!

Thanks for taking the time to write and post this!

It was a fun read and made my cold wintery morning go by much quicker.

Safe Travels.

Chass

Thank you. I understand how the cold is... Yuck.

Your wish is granted. I just uploaded the FunTimes from our cruise to my Dropbox for anyone who would like a copy :)

 

Here's the link -> https://goo.gl/dXrXTt

 

P.S. - You don't have to log in to get the files, just close the login box when it shows up.

Thanks Deb! Awesome!

There could have been more choices in activities each day. I am not sure how much participation they would have had but it would have been fun to have more options in the early afternoons. Usually there was 1 thing that we were kind of interested in but many times on our cruises we feel like there are "so many choices and so little time". We were never over booked this cruise, in a not so good way - if that makes sense. Some things are hard to describe and I wish I had taken a picture of one of the daily schedules to show what I mean. It's just unusual to have so few things that we are interested in seeing or doing each day of a cruise. And as I said, I enjoy just being but for those who like to do more, there wasn't enough to do.

So summing up our Journey cruise to Hawaii....

FABULOUS!! and WOW!!

A lot of frequent cruisers on board

Great cruisecritic roll call group!!

Not enough daily activities on sea days

Journey = Same thing as a regular cruise

Wish I was on one now!!

.... And we'd be glad to answer any questions or hunt down any of our pictures for any of you that would like.

So, how many sea days are too many sea days? I could never have too many sea days. Shon on the other hand was maxed out at 3 in a row. He felt like he needed something else to do by then. (Even the dancing didn't hold him over ;)) I am so content on the ocean. I can sit and look out at the waves and nothingness forever, I think. The idea of all of those nautical miles between me and anything I "have to" do..... pure bliss.

On our sea days, we really enjoyed our cruise director, Chloe. She was so approachable and exciting every time we ran into her--- which was a lot because she also stayed visible during our whole cruise. Many times, a cruise director doesn't make much difference to me. There have been a few times where we really liked the cruise directors but generally, it's neither here nor there. On a cruise with this many sea days, it is paramount that the cruise director be excellent. Chloe did not always have the easiest audience (picture lots of grumbling entitled people looking for reasons to be mad...) but she stayed cheerful and kept trying to involve everyone in the activities and shows. I loved her (and her hugs!) and we took lots of selfies with her for the selfie contest she held. She came to our roll call get together and really participated. She did not just stand at the front and then skip out. She talked to us individually and tried to get to know our personalities. She also was a lively leader

for the deck parties! One of our best memories is her on her stomach doing push ups after hours of dancing!

Awesome! Plus we had the best roll call group ever!

True!!!!!

And we all almost got super paid at the slot pulls.

I plan to finish this review today. I have lots to talk about for the rest of the sea days!

I love your review! You two look like a lot of fun!

 

Question: Did the Marriott on Kauai charge you a fee for a day pass? If so, how much? We'll be there in May on the Legend and think that this would be our best option for Kauai.

 

Thanks bunches!

Sorry. We didn't get a day pass because the trolley driver told us we could just walk behind and go for free. The beach is public. If we planned to use the pool area we would have gotten a pass and if we go back we will for sure.

Have fun! :)

 

 

 

I've been following your review with interest. We took this cruises in October. If you ever have some time, and want to see Hilo and another view of the cruise, check out our "photo album" below.

OUR 2015 HAWAIIAN CRUISE

That is super cool! I love the format you did it in. I do not have a flicker account but maybe I should get one. so that I can be creative like that, too.

Thanks for sharing!

Such a nice review. Enjoying your unique descriptions and your great pictures. Very nice looking coupe.

 

Can't wait for the rest :)

Hey! Just noticed you are cruising with us on the Conquest in April! :)

Love this!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you! :)

We had a view of the port and the funny view of people running to the ship at the last minute. This time, the ladies who were late took their sweet time walking back. Everyone on our side of the ship was leaning out of the balconies laughing and clapping for them.

As we sailed away, there was a beautiful scene as local people took off rowing themselves.

So onward we go to 4 more sea days and a stop in Ensenada, This cruise felt like it would last forever....... and that was so awesome!!!

Final Port, Hilo...

Well, I'm embarrassed to say we skipped this port. The ship stopped. It looked appealing. But we were tired. Maybe if we had planned an excursion in advance we would have had the gumption to get off the ship but we hadn't. We did not feel like figuring anything out. Initially, we planned to do a tour and see volcanoes here. Next time we will.

But what we did do was explore the near empty ship in detail. It was fun!

Our view of Hilo

We have been on 2 Hawaii cruises in the past 2 years (not Carnival), and in addition to the lectures there were 4 Hawaiian ladies on board giving hula and ukulele lessons, lei making, jewelry making, and cooking demos. Can't imagine you didn't have some of this............

?? That sounds interesting but :confused:

Our next stop was Kona-Kailua..

This port was tendered so we would have to get on the little boats and ferry over to the island. This was the best benefit of the priority status. We were able to get straight onto the tender boat without waiting in the line other passengers were waiting in. So we bopped out and off to the island. This we had researched and knew we wanted to get on a trolley that picked you up at the port and then stopped along the strip at different points of interest. This one was not free but there was much more to it than just a quick lift to the shops. I believe it was $30/pp for the whole day. The driver recommended we got all the way to the end beach and then when we get picked up, stop at the stops along the way.

The "beach" was not what we are used to. They said its a great surfer hang out due to the waves. There were huge rocks and lots of fish and other scary sea life all around. There was gravel instead of the sand that we life. Im glad I saw it and experienced it but we didnt want to hang out for any amount of time. So we took the next trolley- they were there every 5 minutes or so it seems. We stopped along the way back to see things and try real Kona coffee. It was pretty fun.

During this day, we were finding that we were a little worn out. Hitting all of these new islands in a row without a day in between was tiring. Our brains were maxed out on new cool sites and information and our muscles were tired too. But have no fear, we continued having fun and paid for it later!

And this was hilarious to our 7 year old when we got home:

Kauai (told you I loved it here):

Eventually, we left the resort and went shopping. We found our trinkets and some cold liquid and decided to walk back to the ship. It was like 1/4 of a mile. When we got to check into the port area, there were pet chickens standing in the way. That cracked me up!

More Kauai and the Marriott Resort:

On to Kauai--- My favorite

Again, the welcome center was not the most welcoming and when we docked I felt like I was working at the shipyard but beyond that... W.O.W.!!! I love Kauai. I love the weather, I love the free trolley's from port. I love the little shopping strips. I love the resort right at the port. I love the water and mountains and I just love this port of call!

When I went out on our balcony for coffee that morning, I wasn't impressed. Then, these cute trolleys started lining up in the parking lot at my feet. People were getting on and going somewhere and then the trolleys would be right back. So I knew "something" was close. I told Shon and we grabbed Cece and Gary, got ready and set out for our easier day of adventure. When you exit the ship here, you go through another warehouse and then out to the lot. The trolleys are lined up. Some say Kmart (no thanks) some say beach (maybe) and some say shops and beach (yessir!). We jumped on that the guide was awesome. He told us a little about the area and explained he layout of the souvenir shops and how to get to the beach and resort behind them. Yippee! This is my kind of port. Easy peasy!

We walked through some shops but decided to hit the resort and beach area first so we wouldn't have to lug bags with us. The area was not crowded but there were lots of people around. There were little pubs and dives and shops and cute stuff. We followed the directions that the trolley driver gave us and there paradise was. The Marriott Kauai Resort. I would go to this resort for a week. It was peaceful and pretty and fancy enough without being pretentious. I loves all of the beautiful flowers around and the grass that seperated the sand from the cement. The rest speaks for itself.

We arrived...

In the welcome center warehouse:

On the trolley:

Paradise: