April 29, 2012 ~ Aloha! ~ Inagural Wonder to Hawaii-Part 3

[LindaBabe]

you can get a copy of the printing rights (even in the event you want to scan in your photos to resize the prints) at the link in the sticky thread on top of the cruise board. It will also come on the cd.

 

[castoff]

We are renting a car (mini-van actually) on all 4 islands and not doing any DCL tours. We had such success doing our own tours in Alaska, we're trying it again. It just makes sense with our group of 5 (4 adults, 1 child)

What we love about this option is allowing us the flexibility to spend as little or as long doing something as we like or changing our minds mid-stream if something "better comes along."

We are driving to the Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island and planning on spending most of the day there with the 70+ ILs spending more time at the Visitor's Center and at the look-outs while we hike a few trails between milestones.

We are going to the Maui Tropical Plantation and letting the ILs explore the the Plantation/Tram ride while we take an ATV tour with Green Zebra Adventures (kids 4-12 can ride along with parents!). Then we'll head all together to the Iao Valley State Park with maybe a stop at the Hawaii Nature Center or the Tropical Gardens of Maui if the mood strikes us! Then we plan to drive towards Lahaina with maybe a stop for a hike at Ma'alaea Beach Trail (Kihei) or the Olowalu Petroglyphs (Lahaina) and enjoy Lahaina before our Luau.

In Oahu, we're planning for a beach day - spending some time at Waikiki as well as a probable trip to Hauname Bay. We may spend the afternoon doing a hike to Manoa Falls or Kalawahine Trail or we may just lounge around like beached monk seals and enjoy the warm waters.

In Kuaui, we're planning to stop by the Kilohana Plantation on our way up to Wailua Falls and then we're planning on heading to the Kamokila Hawaiian Village so that we can kayak/hike to the Secret Falls and the ILs can take a guided (no paddling required) outrigger canoe ride to the Fern Grotto. ON the way back down, we'll likely stop at Lydgate Beach State Park for its awesome kid-friendly snorkeling and Kamalani Playground. Then, we may head to the southside of the island to hike/drive some of the Koloa Heritage Trail to see Spouting Horn, Poipu Beach, and the Pa'a Dunes.

We've got several "contingency" plans depending on what we feel most like doing each day and having a car (for about $50-80/day) in each place gives us that flexibility.

Hope this is a helpful take on "going it alone"

Steph

This sounds great Steph. I almost got tired when reading all of your plans. This is the first cruise that I have everything through DCL. Looking forward to those sea days after visiting the ports to relax.

 

[MrsMork]

We weren't able to get a Palo brunch reservation so if anyone is putting together another (non-celebration) one, Curt and I would love to join you.

You do not have to be celebrating anything in particular to join in the group Palo brunch.

 

[gydell]

Does anyone remember if the doors in our cabins are medal or wood?

 

[SanDiegoSteph]

Does anyone remember if the doors in our cabins are medal or wood?

The bathroom doors are metal (I'm pretty sure I used magnets on them!) while the sliding closet doors are wood I'm pretty sure. The doors into the staterooms are metal of course since we can all use our fab magnets on them.

Hope that helps!

 

[gydell]

The bathroom doors are metal (I'm pretty sure I used magnets on them!) while the sliding closet doors are wood I'm pretty sure. The doors into the staterooms are metal of course since we can all use our fab magnets on them.

Hope that helps!

Thanks! That's what I thought.

 

[valbob89]

I just had an idea that I want to run by the group. A number of you talked about having a group photo taken with the 153 of us in our cruise shirts (and of course anyone else who wants to join in). Vista Prints has a banner I can have made that we can hold in front of us. Is these to cheesy? What would would want on the banner? The images and text on our shirts identifying the cruise and year?

 

[dolphingirl47]

Corinna thank you....you have helped me get a little handle on what I am doing and I am pretty sure at this point I don't owe you money so we are good.

Val could you PM me because I am pretty sure you are one I owe and I can't find last e-mail with final cost details from tee shirts. Need amount and paypal account. I am only half way through everyplace I need to change account numbers for automatic deposits and payments... ugh, what a mess and time waster this has been.

Also did you do Doubletree reservation separate instead of with Dis group? Or did you upgrade what they help for us?

Hope to work on FE gifts this afternoon watching Oscars since they start so early.

You are all set as far as my activities are concerned.

Is this new form and we need to send it again, even if we are on the list already.....sorry, i'm a little confused....

No, you are good. This is just the weekly reminder so that as many people as possible see this.

I would definitely love to do the Mojito and Caiphirinha tasting again; I hope they have one.

They had one on our Mexican Riviera cruise and I have seen it listed on a lot of Navigators recently. I had to laugh as they tried to tell us on the WBTA that it could not be done and there would be no demand. I suppose they got so much great feedback from us that they decided to try it as a regular offering.

A question for someone who have been on longer cruises before.....is the price for photo CD the same as for 7 day cruise or is it higher? Not sure yet what to do, but I know there will be a lot more photo opportunities in 15 days then we had on our first 7 day cruise last year when I just bought a photo package on the ship.....

I paid $399 for the photo CD on the 15 night Panama Canal cruise and $279 on the 7 night Mexican Riviera Cruise. I have budgeted $399.

Do you know if there is a place to buy the photo CD in advance? And does the photo CD come with all printing rights?

No, you cannot buy this in advance. The CD has the copyright release included for you to print.

Corinna

 

[Pixiegran]

I just had an idea that I want to run by the group. A number of you talked about having a group photo taken with the 153 of us in our cruise shirts (and of course anyone else who wants to join in). Vista Prints has a banner I can have made that we can hold in front of us. Is these to cheesy? What would would want on the banner? The images and text on our shirts identifying the cruise and year?

I LOVE that idea. As a scraperbooker I can see that as my intro page to the cruise album I would definitely say the cruise and date for sure and then he images from our shirt? Does that make sense?

 

[tig82174]

I just had an idea that I want to run by the group. A number of you talked about having a group photo taken with the 153 of us in our cruise shirts (and of course anyone else who wants to join in). Vista Prints has a banner I can have made that we can hold in front of us. Is these to cheesy? What would would want on the banner? The images and text on our shirts identifying the cruise and year?

I personally love group photos.....HOWEVER, I know that Shutters has a "sitting fee" policy where they charge a large amount of money supposedly for group shots like that. On past cruises I have been with folks who have an "in" and were able to get Shutters to do it for free.....but other times I know they have been unwilling to do that-----so would we be looking for Shutters to do the photo? Or maybe just some other friend/family/DIS person or CM to take it with one or more digital cams and then post and/or email it around?

 

[chip&dale&fun]

if anyone has contact info for~ Hayley Little and Stephanie Kiesel - please pass it alomg. i think we have found the extra four with the recent posts for Palo brunch From Susie and Curt, Sam and I.

Thanks.

 

[Pixiegran]

I personally love group photos.....HOWEVER, I know that Shutters has a "sitting fee" policy where they charge a large amount of money supposedly for group shots like that. On past cruises I have been with folks who have an "in" and were able to get Shutters to do it for free.....but other times I know they have been unwilling to do that-----so would we be looking for Shutters to do the photo? Or maybe just some other friend/family/DIS person or CM to take it with one or more digital cams and then post and/or email it around?

I think we were talking about someone taking it with some of our personal cameras. Like was discussed for the Champagne Girls gathering. Just need a non shirted volunteer ...Is this what you were thinking Val?

By the way how are wedding plans going? And how is your baby????

 

[SanDiegoSteph]

if anyone has contact info for~ Hayley Little and Stephanie Kiesel - please pass it alomg. i think we have found the extra four with the recent posts for Palo brunch From Susie and Curt, Sam and I.

Thanks.

Stephanie here - so, I think I just need your stateroom # as well as Susie and Curt for a total of 4 adults and then we can submit the request to DCL. We also have 4 adults in our group.

I have Hayley's stateroom # from the FB page, but I'd need her friends' Melissa and John's stateroom # to add to the request. Hayley, her hubby, Melissa & John are another 4 adults.

That puts us at 12. We could take another 2 adults if anyone else wants to join us!

Thanks
Stephanie

 

[tig82174]

I think we were talking about someone taking it with some of our personal cameras. Like was discussed for the Champagne Girls gathering. Just need a non shirted volunteer ...Is this what you were thinking Val?

By the way how are wedding plans going? And how is your baby????

Wedding plans are coming along....we're in the home stretch....the only plannign things left to do are to meet with the pastry chef about our cake and the cupcakes for my cheerleading reception (meeting is sched. for march 5th) and to meet with the reception DJ to come up wiht a timeline for the night, playlist, etc.....otehr than that most hte other big details are done. Now we're just watching the RSVPs slowly roll in and we have to think about making favors, making the program for the ceremony and writing vows, etc. It's all very exciting and overwhelming....and I don't konw what we're going to do with all our time and money late May hits because we are spending so much time thinking about and planning and working on things for either the wedding or this cruise----and we've saving literally every extra penny because our goal is to be able to do the entire wedding AND the honeymoon and charge it all onto our disney Visa cards (cha-ching for those Disney Dollars!!!) but to have cash in the bank to pay every penny of it immediately so we carry no debt for any of it....and we're alreayd in a pretty good place financially to be able to do so without dipping into savings.....so once we get back from Hawaii we will have lots of spare time with nothing to plan AND lots of extra money that right now we're stashing away....I guess we'll have to htink of some other huge vacations to take soon! (Adventures by Disney anyone?!? )

As for our (fur)baby----he's wonderful. I don't know HOW I'm going to cope with being without him on the cruise for two weeks. I think I'm going to go get him a "helper dog" vest so the ship has to allow him to come on the trip with us!

 

[LindaBabe]

I just had an idea that I want to run by the group. A number of you talked about having a group photo taken with the 153 of us in our cruise shirts (and of course anyone else who wants to join in). Vista Prints has a banner I can have made that we can hold in front of us. Is these to cheesy? What would would want on the banner? The images and text on our shirts identifying the cruise and year?

I LOVE the idea in theory!

But I know from experience how difficult that is to stage - a few years ago - I forget what cruise - we tried to stage about 70 people on the stairs by the theatre on the first afternoon and got chased out - it was a 'hazard' because we were blocking the stairs.

One idea would be to have the group gather (standing) on the floor of the atrium and look up - with the photographer(s) on the little balcony above - that way all the faces would show and the bodies wouldn't take up any room.
Of course a banner wouldn't really show in that configuration, would it?

Erik & Jason - How about Panama to celebrate your first anniversary?

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

As for our (fur)baby----he's wonderful. I don't know HOW I'm going to cope with being without him on the cruise for two weeks. I think I'm going to go get him a "helper dog" vest so the ship has to allow him to come on the trip with us!

Erik....Mom has macular degeneration and her sight has been slowly deteriorating...we could always say that Merlin is her seeing eye dog!!!!! LOL!!!!

 

[tig82174]

Erik....Mom has macular degeneration and her sight has been slowly deteriorating...we could always say that Merlin is her seeing eye dog!!!!! LOL!!!!

perfect...I'll start shopping for a harness with a VERY long handle (he does, after all, only stand about 8-10 inches tall) right now!

 

[valbob89]

I personally love group photos.....HOWEVER, I know that Shutters has a "sitting fee" policy where they charge a large amount of money supposedly for group shots like that. On past cruises I have been with folks who have an "in" and were able to get Shutters to do it for free.....but other times I know they have been unwilling to do that-----so would we be looking for Shutters to do the photo? Or maybe just some other friend/family/DIS person or CM to take it with one or more digital cams and then post and/or email it around?

Your right, I asked about having Shutters take photos for us once and there was a $75 sitting fee PLUS we would have had to buy the pictures. Didn't you take group pictures of the Champagne Girls above the lobby for us once? We all gave you are cameras and you took pictures for us, with camera after camera after camera? Maybe we could get some one else to take the shot for us

 

[Pixiegran]

I LOVE the idea in theory!


One idea would be to have the group gather (standing) on the floor of the atrium and look up - with the photographer(s) on the little balcony above - that way all the faces would show and the bodies wouldn't take up any room.
Of course a banner wouldn't really show in that configuration, would it?

How about if we laid the banner on the floor in front of all of us...it should show then..

 

[tig82174]

Your right, I asked about having Shutters take photos for us once and there was a $75 sitting fee PLUS we would have had to buy the pictures. Didn't you take group pictures of the Champagne Girls above the lobby for us once? We all gave you are cameras and you took pictures for us, with camera after camera after camera? Maybe we could get some one else to take the shot for us

Yes I have taken Champagne girl pictures more than once on cruises....and I know we've had "non-professional" group photos of pajama breakfast taken before, too, by just a CM who was out and about in the lobby area in the morning......so if that's the route we want to go, i think that's totally fine. i'm not likely to buy a shutters print anyway because they always print them as an 8x10 only.....and when Jason and I do shutters, we usually do the CD and don't actually buy any prints (becuase we never display 8x10 shots at our house....we print them all as 4x6 or smaller so they can go in either our scrapbook or on our magnetic photo display walls in our basement). I also like the CD because then you have the images electronically so that you can load them into blogs, online profiles as avatars, etc. I don't konw what we would have put in our wedding website (www.libeywedding.com) if it weren't for Shutters CD's since over 3/4 of the shots on there are from the ship (or disney photopass CDs LOL)