AlohaPride

We are considering just taking a umbrella stroller and a baby carrier when we travel in January as well as possibly a child safety vest for $135.00 instead of a car seat/booster seat we saw on Amazon. My son will be 15 months old.

 

Did any of you bother taking car seats with you on your cruises with the strollers or did everything work out without car seats with the children?

Our kids are 7, 5, and 3 and we always bring their car seats. This trip we have two bubblebums for the oldest and will bring our 3 year old's Diono.

Thanks so much for the update!! Have a wonderful cruise!

Another large earthquake just happened. Three large earthquakes in the Pacific in one day. My emergency text messages have been going off all day!

That was fast! :D

 

I did get one email like that when we went to the Far East. I had been looking at that tour provider on Tripadvisor, too, but getting an unsolicited email put me off. I did reply - "thanks, but no thanks". We eventually did go on his tour - but someone else organized it. It was one of the best tours of the cruise, so you never know!

 

It is kind of weird, though, when you think you are talking privately with others on your roll call, to know some is watching!:eek:

I know the internet is public, but didn't think anyone would take the time to remove all the spaces. Oh well. I'll report it as spam to google and be done with it.

What's weird, is I'm going to Alaska, not the Far East ROFL. I wish.

Do you always have an email address in your posts? I occasionally include one in a post, but I opened a gmail account for that, because I figured if I started getting unsolicited emails, I could just cancel the gmail address and open another with a different name, and not worry about it.

I've had it in my siggy for years with spaces so companies can't just cut and copy. I guess that's not good enough anymore. Sigh.

I received an email to "Amsterdam Cruisers" and visits to Turkey with prices for tons of different sore excursions. Am I alone in this?

Here is the body of the email:

Dear Holland America Cruisers

 

Have a great day from TURKEY PORTS OF CALL

 

We have the honor you offer you a private family trip (shore excursions) in Turkey

 

If you are visiting Istanbul for the first time. We will be happy to offer you the tour below

 

Regarding Istanbul: we would recommend you

Istanbul Old City Tour (Full day tour)

http://turkeyportsofcall.com/Istanbul-CityTour.html

The tour price per family 375 USD

 

Inclusions:

Pick up services from your port or hotel & return

All transfers by a private air-conditioned vehicle

Private licensed authorized tour guide

Entry fees to the historical sites

All taxes & service charge

Exclusions:

Any extras not mentioned in the itinerary

Lunch during tours

Tipping for driver / guide, etc

 

Regarding kusdasi: would recommend you

Private Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary, Artemis temple

http://turkeyportsofcall.com/kusadasi-tours2.html

The tour price per family 285 USD

Inclusions:

Pick up services from your port or hotel & return

All transfers by a private air-conditioned vehicle

Private licensed authorized tour guide

Entry fees to the historical sites

Lunch during tours

All taxes & service charge

Exclusions:

Any extras not mentioned in the itinerary

Tipping for driver / guide, etc

 

We are looking forward hearing back from you soon

Thank you very much

 

 

 

Have a great day & best regard

Hazem Abbas

Travel consultant

Ahmediye Mah. Halk Cad .No 37 Sunar iş merkazi - Kat 4 - No 404 Üsküdar - Istanbul

<snip>so as not to include contact information<snip>

My prayers are with the crew and passengers for speedy recovery and that those unaffected remain healthy. Thanks for letting us know what's going on. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

For our family of 5 we have rented a car as well and are SO excited to have the flexibility!!

Thank you for the pictures. I'm so excited for our trip in 2 months!

Yay!! Thank you!

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My friend just did it yesterday with Aikaloa and had a BLAST. The pictures were beautiful. I would recommend doing it by catamaran and taking a helicopter to Molokai for a flight tour.

Aloha, you are probably more up-do-date on this than I, but another helicopter flight to consider is over the Na Pali coast of Kauai. As I recall, it is VERY difficult to access by hiking or by Jeep, and is quite spectacular. You may see it from a distance on a cruise, but it is worth a close-up view.

Yes, it's very popular by air or sea (so much fun by catamaran), but might the ship be doing some scenic cruising of the Na Pali Coast in its itinerary?

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If I were going to go flight seeing, I'd try to find a tour that would take me to Molokai and/or Lanai because those are the two island that are hardly EVER visited. Molokai is the location of Kalaupapa National Historical Park. This is where the nation sent Hawaiians and other citizens with Hansen's Disease and where Sts. Damien and Mary Anne tended to them. Lānaʻi is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. If you want untouched real Hawaii, these two islands are the place to go.

Congratulations on the birth of your twins!! We also have three kids and still cruise, so it's NOT completely lost to you :) Enjoy this time!

Oahu - Pearl Harbor, Arizona Memorial, Mighty Missouri, North Shore, Pali Lookout

Kauai - Little Grand Canyon is pretty cool.

Maui - Kaanapali Beach is my favorite place in the whole wide world.

Hawaii (Big Island) - SCUBA with the Manta Rays, Volcanoes National Park (tons of hiking).

Yay! Welcome! I'm so excited for you to take this trip. The May sailing seemed to be wonderful. I'm waiting with baited breath for the June sailing, then it's your turn! After that it's FINALLY my turn!! YAY!!

Anyone been to the Shirokiya Beer Garden in the Ala Moana shopping center?

 

Read good things and we were thinking about trying it while staying pre- and post- cruise for some inexpensive beer and Asian food :p

Yep. Local favorite ;) Nothing fancy.

I second every restaurant on AlohaPride's list.:) Although some are a little pricey, they are all places that locals go on a Waikiki outing.

A little farther away, the Ala Moana Mall has an great food court with a good selection of food places, and lots of tables. Walk over (about two miles) to work up your appetite, bus back for $2.50.

Oh yes! Ala Moana has an awesome food court! The top floor also has a ton of sit down restaurants - CPK, Bubba Gumps, Ruby Tuesday, Macaroni Grill, etc. ;)

Two blocks further away from town is Ward with even MORE places to eat - Dave and Busters, Bucca Di Beppo, Wahoo Fish Tacos (my favorite), The Spaghetti Factory, and a lot more. There are also a lot of little boutiques at Ward for some fun shopping.

Teddy's Bigger Burgers (cheap, order at the counter type of place), Cheeseburger in Paradise (not just burgers, great fish, sit down restaurant), Tanaka of Tokyo (Japanese teppanyaki), Top of Waikiki (rotating restaurant, you'll see 360 degrees of Waikiki each hour, TWO happy hours ;) ), Jimmy Buffets, Cheesecake Factory, Chart House, Todai Restaurant (Japanese Buffet), Murphy's Bar and Grill (Irish Pub), Duke's, the restaurant at the Royal Hawaiian (home of the original Mai Tai), if you're military the restaurants at the Hale Koa are decent, Round Table Pizza (Hilton Hawaiian Village. The Chicken Caesar is to DIE for!), Tiki's Grill and Bar, Eggs n Things (yum!), Mac 24-7 has some AMAZING pancakes that are also HUGE, and lastly, if you have some money to burn Hy's Steak House is AMAZING but expensive (5 star).

Thank you thank you thank you so much for this thread!!

Yet another "My way or else" rant! The cult of the individual is overwhelming. How to accomadate a non-smoking, vegan, celiac, by-polar passenger.

 

You can't.

 

The answer is to establish campgrounds each specializing in the individual customers whims.

 

Please learn to be tolerant of others and do not try to force your attitudes on the rest of us,

You had me until you brought in legitimate health issues (celiac and by-polar passengers) who honestly NEED certain services that are medically necessary. :(

Someone from the Roll Call needs to call ships services to make the plans. It's not automatic with HAL for CC. HAL does have Facebook meet and greets at 2 pm the day of embarkation.

Just for fun, a few of our cocktails that we enjoyed on the SBP

What are the 2nd and 4th drinks?!? Those look sooooo good!!

I got hooked on a series while on a HAL ship... and wouldn't you know... they didn't have the next book in their library (gasp)?

 

I refuse to read out of order. It's just wrong. I even checked the library on my next cruise... no luck. I had to buy one to keep moving in the series. (Now graduate school has interfered with my pleasure reading... but soon, very soon... I'll be back!)

Which series is this??

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