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Rating (out of 5):     Ship    Food    Service    Itinerary

Marjorie booked this cruise "last minute", about two months before sailing. The cruise wasn't selling well, so HAL lowered the prices dramatically to attract customers. It was listed as a Travel Agent special at $72 per day for a regular balcony. Just before sailing we upgraded to a Signature Suite for an additional $8 per day. This was one of the best deals we have encountered in a long time. The final passenger count was about 1,775 compared to a double occupancy capacity of 1,916, so not quite full. About 600 guests were Aussies and there were almost that many Canucks. There were only 8 children aboard. The itinerary was very interesting, hitting many islands that we had not been to before. And, the cruise was in the right geographical direction so that we could do the dreaded 30 hour transit to Sydney at the start of the trip and have only a one hour flight at the end of the cruise.

The weather was mixed. We fled from Hurricane Ita as we left Sydney and had some cloudy / rainy days. But it was lovely and warm, and we did have lots of sun as well. Because we had planned on snorkeling on most of the islands, we were less affected by the weather than other types of excursions would be.

Our cabin was lovely. It was essentially a double wide cabin with 2 writing desks, a large sofa / sitting area and a bathroom with double sinks, a full bath and a separate shower. For the first week or so we were thrilled by the size of it, but by the end of the cruise it had become "normal", and the regular sized cabins seemed so small! We're going to feel really closed in on our next cruise.

I gave the ship only 4 stars because of the layout of the public space. When we did the Westerdam (identical ship) in 2005, I had noted the wonderful library and the internet room on deck 3. The library is now a movie theatre and the internet room is the "Digital Workshop" for computer courses. On deck 10 where the huge Crow's Nest Lounge used to be, there is a coffee bar, the library, the internet stations, a liquor bar and a lounge all in the same enclosed space. It was a zoo at times and very noisy. This was the location of trivia each day which sometimes conflicted with happy hour - now that was a scramble for seating! Also, the main theatre was dotted with posts and pillars that obstructed the view from many of the seats. I can't remember any other ships with this problem.

The main attraction of visiting islands was the snorkeling opportunities. We took lots of photos of the fish at each stop. To keep this diary to a reasonable size, I have put most of the fish pictures on a separate page.
*** If you wish to see more fish pictures click here ==> More Fish ***

"How long have you been out of Canada?"
"Actually we never left ..."

A half hour later we finally made it to the unsecured side of the international terminal and met Jeanne who had been patiently waiting for us. We had dinner at Timmy's and had a nice visit. I don't think that I had seen Jeanne for almost 2 years.

We then had to retransit security for our 8:00 PM Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. (Marjorie had chosen Air NZ over Air Canada or Qantas because it was almost half the price!) The flight was long - 13 hours - but we were served two very good meals. We arrived in Auckland about 5:00 AM after losing a whole day due to the date line. Our final flight to Sydney was delayed coming in from Shanghai, so we were rescheduled out by 1.5 hours. Finally we left for Sydney at 8:30 AM. We were served a snack and arrived in Sydney at 11:00 AM. It took almost an hour to get our bags, go through customs and purchase a shuttle ticket to downtown. We were at our hotel (the Grace Hotel) by about 12:30 and our room was ready!! Fighting off 30 hours of no sleep, we wandered the downtown area. Lo and behold we saw the same "rhino art" that we had seen the previous year in Southampton. Just like the Calgary cows! We ended up at Darling Harbour and walked along the waterfront area. The sky got quite dark and we had some rain showers for the rest of the afternoon. The temperature was about 18 degress and would remain at that for our stay in Sydney. We bought snacks at Woolworths (including my favorite "bullets") and had an early dinner at the Coronation Hotel. I had curried lamb but it was ridiculously HOT! Back at the hotel we took sleeping pills and went to bed at 5:00 PM.

We retraced our way back to the terminal dragging our suitcases along the wet pavement. When we got to the terminal we discovered that they weren't letting anyone in until 12:30. So, we dropped off our main luggage and headed off through the rain with our carry-ons. We popped in and out of shops trying to keep dry. At 12:30 we were allowed in. Checkin was very quick. We went straight to our cabin to drop off our carry-ons as it was ready for us. It was our first view of a Signature Suite and it was huge (double width). We were really pleased with it. We had a bit of a shock though as the room was set for two singles rather than a double, and someone else's luggage was in the cabin. The cabin steward realized the error and soon beds and luggage were corrected. We went up to the buffet for a quick bite and then back to the cabin to unpack our bags. The bags had obviously sat out in the rain and a lot of our clothing was soaked! Our lovely suite shortly became a laundry room! Afterwards we decided to wander the ship. We were somewhat familiar with the layout of as the ship as we had done the Westerdam earlier, but some things had been moved around and my memory isn't the best anyway. Muster was at 5:30 and we eventually sailed at 6:00. For dinner I had the usual "first dinner" of prime rib. Very good! We went to bed early, but we had to turn our clocks forward an hour tonight so it didn't seem so unreasonable.

After snorkeling we wandered through the market area and then back to the tender slip. There was quite a lineup to go back, but we all made the next tender. We were back on board by 1:30, just in time for lunch. At 3:30 it was trivia. We were in good form and won again by a tie breaker. I should mention that both of the tie breakers that we had won so far were numerical answers where the closest "guess" won. Although our guesses were miles off, the other teams were even further off. So, it wasn't like we knew the answer! We headed for dinner at 6:00 and I had the mahimahi. It was very good. The entertainment was a former US Olympic gold medal gymnast (Lance Ringnald). I wasn't sure how a gymnast could do a cruise show, but he was excellent. He did some amazing floor exercises all the while talking about being a gymnast - training, competing, etc. He finished by doing a routine on the "silks" (the curtains from the ceiling). It really was an interesting show.

We walked on to the library but they didn't have any internet facility. A nearby building was adorned with a huge Wyland whale painting. On the walk back to the ship it rained hard, but we had umbrellas and only got our feet wet. As we passed the NMS building the folkloric shore was proceeding in the rain. We were back onto the ship for a dry towel and lunch. After lunch we wandered through the souvenir market that had been set up on the dock near the ship. We bought a couple of Samoan t-shirts. Then we decided to walk in the other direction into town to find a grocery store. I bought a couple of cans of beer to take aboard. On our walk back to the ship it poured again so we were soaked by the time we were aboard. I was running out of dry sandals! Trivia was at 3:30. I had lasagna for dinner. Very good. Afterwards we tried out the ship's movie theatre and watched "Frozen". It was a Disney movie and really aimed at children. We walked the wet decks for a bit and then headed to bed.

After lunch we returned to our car and headed off to a hotel inspection at the Disney Aulani Resort. We drove through Honolulu and Pearl City to the Western corner of the island. There was a lot of traffic so it took us over an hour. We arrived at the resort at 2:00, right on time. What a beautiful resort! The plan was that Marjorie would meet with other TA's and do the tour, while I was free to use the facilities - pool and beach. However, as Marjorie was the only TA to show up, I was invited to tag along. We toured the hotel towers visiting several sizes of rooms. then we were taken through the outdoor area, restaurants and shops. It was a wonderful hotel complex, but very expensive. On our way back to the ship we stopped at the Honolulu Wal-Mart and bought some Pepsi, mac nuts and Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Porter for the kids. We refueled at a nearby gas station and were back at the rental place by 5:10. Enterprise had a shuttle back to the ship so it saved us a short walk. For dinner I had a pork chop. It was good. For some reason there was no trivia today. Unrelated to the lack of trivia, our friend Clancy had to leave the ship today to fly back to PG for a court case. Jan stayed on the cruise and Ralph and Shelley filled in for Clancy for the rest of the trivia sessions. We skipped the entertainment for the evening.

Note: The cruise was marketed as both a 29 day to Vancouver and a 28 day to Seattle. There was also a 1 day cruise from Seattle to Vancouver. So, about 600 passengers disembarked today and 400 new people came aboard. Some of the 400 were only on for the overnight, catching a bus back to Seattle tomorrow. The rest of them were tagging the extra day onto a 7 day Alaska cruise from Vancouver.