sayvan

Our next stop along the road would be the blow hole... however the blow hole just wasn't cooperating this time...

Some more from the Diamond Head area....

The flip flop parking lot..

:D

Loving your review and beautiful pics. Looking forward to more!

Thanks for following along...:D:D

So the weather wasn't on our side today and we were in and out of the rain all day. It didn't matter tho' as it was still very warm and well, back home there was snow.

Rain or shine the surfers never stop...

On day 2 in Waikiki we decided we would rent a car for the day and drive around the island. One of the things I love about Oahu is that Honolulu is everything a city should be but you are mere seconds from paradise. Today we were off to see a little bit of paradise.

We started off with a drive toward Diamond Head and Diamond Head Beach Park.

Some more from Waikiki

With that we were calling it a day for the first night in Waikiki.

Hello everyone. I've started a review of our back to back 10 day adventure in the South Pacific on Voyager of the Seas and our 14 day adventure on Celebrity Solstice through Australia and New Zealand.

You can find the link here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2619594

Hope you can join me...

I just love the lifestyle and laid back atmosphere in Hawaii.

We decided to take a little walk to Waikiki Beach which was just across the street.

So the flight from Toronto through Chicago to Honolulu was uneventful. Thus, the reason I am writing this I suppose.

We arrived in Honolulu around 2:30 pm. Honolulu slips 6 hours behind our time so we still had some day left but we of course were on 7:30 pm time.

I had arranged for a private pick up at the airport with Go808 Express. They were fantastic. They contacted us as soon as we arrived to let us know where to find them and they were waiting outside. It was a private shuttle and it was $27 total plus tip. Hard to beat!

We were staying at the Marriott Waikiki Resort and Spa. The hotel was beautiful and pretty much every room has some kind of a view. I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again. In fact, we did at the end of the trip.

Some shots of the hotel:

Our Room:

Our View:

Ok... I said I would be back the day after I started this but that didn't work out so well. Then I discovered everyone's friend CruiseLifeRick had started a live thread on Symphony so I ended up caught up in that.... Oh well.. I'm here now.

I think where I last left off is that we were about to take off from Toronto for Honolulu. Our pre-flight hotel was at the Delta Toronto Airport and Conference centre hotel. I give this hotel 2 thumbs up. The rooms were large and very clean. The hotel had a great bar and seemed very lively. Once we settled in to the hotel we spent some time at the bar and proceeded to get our vacation groove on! A shot of the bar.

And our room.

As we would be away for close to 6 weeks, we decided the best place to leave our Jeep would be at the Toronto Park n Fly. Which we did. We used the valet service and from the time we dropped the car off to the time we made it through customs (in Toronto you clear US customs before you depart rather than when you arrive) and security it was literally less than 30 minutes. Not a bad start to our journey. Next stop would be Honolulu.

Well I was in the process of starting up a review of the 24 days we recently spent in the South Pacific and New Zealand onboard Voyager of the Seas and Celebrity Solstice and then I found this.... no point in my review until this one is done! Everyone will be over here watching these shenanigans... including me! All caught up now and looking forward to the rest.

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Greetings fellow cruise critic viewers. I am finally getting around to posting a review of our recent trip to the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand (with Hawaii strategically placed in there).

We departed Toronto, Ontario on January 16th and returned on February 23. I am Steve and my wife is Vanda. Come the end of this journey, I will have cruised 20 times and Vanda would be at numero 21. We are both in our early 50's and would be meeting up with our good friends who live in Australia who have also cruised over 24 times. Its a shame we really are not that loyal to one cruise line otherwise we would have had all those great perks the frequent flyers get. We tend to look at the itinerary when deciding what cruise to book. This would be our 2nd cruise with Royal and based on our experience on the Navigator last year, Royal cruises are always a place we now look when thinking about a cruise. If you're interested in a shameless plug, here is my Navigator review. We would spend 24 days between both ships this time.

So as I mentioned above, we departed from Toronto. However, rather than sitting on a plane for over 20 hours we decided the best path to Australia would be through Hawaii. Yep, that's right Hawaii. So what does that mean? Well, our cruises would embark in Sydney and the Solstice would make us leave in Auckland. So, with that in mind, I booked a return flight, Toronto to Honolulu and then a flight from Honolulu to Sydney and then following Solstice we would have another one way flight from Auckland to Honolulu. The beauty of that one was we got to have the same day twice.

So why did we do it this way? A couple of reasons. First off, we love Hawaii. Secondly, between Honolulu and Sydney there is a 20 hour time difference, one day ahead. This helped to eliminate any possible jet lag or at least that what we wanted to think. We would have a total of 8 days in Hawaii, 4 before and 4 following our cruise.

So our original itinerary would be as follows:

Toronto to Hawaii - 4 days

Fly to Sydney to meet up with Voyager of the Seas

Voyager would take us for 10 days as follows:

Noumea, New Caledonia

Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Vila, Vanuatu

Lifou, Loyalty Island

Mare, New Caledonia

We would spend a day in Sydney following this cruise and then board Solstice to the following destinations:

Sydney

Melbourne, Australia

Hobart, Australia (Tasmania)

Milford Sound, New Zealand

Doubtful and Milford Fjords

Dusky Sound, New Zealand

Dunedin, New Zealand

Akaroa, New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand

Napier, New Zealand

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Auckland, New Zealand

We then we head back to Hawaii.

What you can expect from this review. I will try to answer whatever questions you may have. If you are looking for food pictures...move on, I don't have any (just kidding you don't have to move on). Having said that, I have a ton of pictures to post. Most of the review will be on the scenery. It was spectacular to say the least and my pictures just wont do it justice.

I will do my best to get to this each day. However, it will take me some time to get through close to 32 days of adventure. So please sit back and hopefully enjoy what I have to bring to you. I will get into the meat of this tomorrow but for now here is a little bit of our stop in Hawaii

Our view from the Waikiki Marriott Resort

I'll be back tomorrow to get this thing going.. Cheers until then!

This is the forecast for tomorrow. Sounds about right.

 

What is this app by the way... also loved the review.. another great job!

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The altered photo section is now a few kiosks. You look at your photos on screens. I think it a huge improvement over searching through rows and rows of photos trying to find your own. I’m sure it’s a huge cost saving as only photos being purchased are printed.

 

 

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Personally I don’t like it. I prefer the actual photos. The other problem is with the kiosks the pictures have watermarks all over them. Takes away from seeing whether or not it’s worth getting the pics.

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I would agree that Silk Harvest is worth the try. Everything is subjective so check it out yourself and determine whether it’s worth it. We just came off Solstice and enjoyed all the specialty restaurants.

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We just came off the Solstice. When we embarked they offered a first day special for 3 specialty restaurants for $109. Thought that was a great deal so we tried Tuscan, Murano and silk harvest. Loved them all but have to agree that Murano was the best imho. I will have a full pictorial review started very soon...

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Well it is Canada after all and you all know most of us Canadians live in Igloos most of the year......:confused:;)

June weather should be just fine. You can expect temperatures anywhere between mid 50's in early morning to low 70's during the day. With global warming you may just get lucky and reach mid to high 70's. Check the forecast prior to leaving and layers are the always the safe way to go..... When in Halifax if possible try and get out to Peggy's Cove.. its a bit of trip but well worth it.

Our cruise isn't until March but we've completed check-in except luggage tags. When I select them I get:

 

 

 

Luggage Tags are not available at this time.

 

 

 

Luggage Tags

 

 

 

 

At Celebrity, we make your embarkation experience even more enjoyable by tending to the details ahead of time. This includes providing qualified guests with your personalized ship luggage tags weeks before your cruise. When you receive your eDocs, approximately 3 to 4 weeks before your departure, they will contain a page with Luggage Tags that you can print. Print as many as you need.

 

As an alternate, you can request we mail you a Luggage Tag

 

Mailer containing eight colorized tags, specific to your ship, sailing date and stateroom assignment. Simply attach your luggage tags to the appropriate luggage terms prior to your arrival, and we'll whisk them to your stateroom upon embarkation.

 

 

 

So I won't panic for a while yet. But it dies seem to be a common theme.

We’ve already received an email from Celebrity indicating luggage tags were available to download. When you go to the link nothing.... never had this happen before...

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I don't seem to be able to print my luggage tags? Can't say I have ever had that problem before. Everything else seems to print out OK.

Thanks for the responses. I decided to go with 808 express...

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Great...thanks for the ideas so far! I’m not a big fan of Uber ... long story to the tune of around $1500 for a few rides I never took.

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Looking for some reasonable suggestions on transportation from HNL to hotel in Waikiki and then pick up back to airport later in week. Any help is appreciated.

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That is, or is similar to the one I am thinking of. This guy took off from the beach, flew towards the exit of the port as the Allure was leaving. It was so clear, and amazing. I watched it over and over.

Is this the one?

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It's not a photo camera, it's a video camera. Watch YouTube videos of people doing tours of the cruise ships and you'll see plenty of nasty looks and people doing everything they can to avoid the person filming.

 

 

 

Remember Google Glass, and all the hubbub that created?

 

 

 

The bottom line is, the majority of people do not like to be filmed by strangers (and some even by family). This thread has many examples.

In fact it’s both. A drone can take both video and still shots. I’m not even going to acknowledge the rest of your comment! At the end of the day it’s about respect on all fronts! People use their cameras to both film (video) and take still shots. The drone simply provides a different perspective. Having a camera of any type is part of a vacation experience and a right in a public domain. Oh darn... I just acknowledged the rest of your comment!

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