Monday, March 27, 2006

More tales from the Islands...

Sorry it has taken so long to write more about our Hawaii trip. I’ll continue where I left off.

We had just gotten to our suite and waited patiently for our luggage to arrive so we could unpack and explore the ship. I neglected to tell you that our concierge, Mareike, had come by to introduce her self and offer to help make our trip as smooth and enjoyable as possible. We also meet Ramadhan, one of our butlers, who brought us some salmon canopies to enjoy while we waited for our luggage.
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Our luggage was delivered by one of our stewards, Emmanuel, who was from the Phillipines. Our other steward was Lea and she was also from the Phillipines. Both of them were exceptionally friendly and we enjoyed seeing them every day when they came to make our room or in the evening when they came to turn down our beds. They made us little animals out of towels each evening.
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SO, after we unpacked we took a stroll on deck to watch the festivities of the Aloha deck party as we were leaving. It was threatening to rain a bit, but it never quite manifested itself. We had a beautiful view of Diamond Head and the Aloha Tower clock as we waited to leave port. We sat on deck drinking mai tais, strawberry smoothies with rum, and blue Hawaiis. Once we left port, we went to the Sports Bar on board to eat something at the buffet before heading back to the suite to go to bed. We were all exhausted by this point.
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Let me describe the sleeping situation. First of all, as you walked into our suite, there was a hallway with a big bathroom to the left with a nice sized tub for soaking. It had a door on the other side that went into the master bedroom that had a queen sized bed, a desk/vanity, and a closet. It also had a TV and a huge sliding glass door that led out to the balcony. From the entrance hallway, on the right was a big walk in closet with tons of space for hanging clothes, a few cabinets for personal items, and a pulldown bed. Continuing straight down the hallway, there was a living area with a couch, two chairs, a coffee table, a curio cabinet with a desk, and an entertainment center with a 19 inch TV, a DVD player, and a CD player. The sofa pulled out into a queen bed for sleeping. It had a floor to ceiling picture window to the right and a sliding glass door to the left that also led out to the balcony.
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Then there was the balcony. It sat four people comfortably and we spent a great deal of time out there watching the waves go by during this trip. We sat out there as we were leaving port and waved to people on the pier. It was a typical Love Boat moment…except there wasn’t much confetti in these more ecologically sensitive times.
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Once we could no longer see the lights, we prepared for bed. Mom and Sandra took the master bedroom; Quanna took the sofa sleeper; and I took the pull down bunk in the closet. Now I haven’t been in the closet for years…but I actually enjoyed this one. I could go in there and close the door on the entire world if I wanted to. It was nice and cozy…and I slept very well in there. Before we went to bed, we met our other butler, Ryan, who came by to introduce himself. He and Ramadhan would bring us incredible treats every day. He came by to ask me about the three free bottles of alcohol that we were being given by the cruise line as a thank you for sailing in the Owner’s Suite. We got to choose what kind of liquor we wanted. So, we got a bottle of rum, a bottle of tequila, and a bottle of vodka.
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Okay…break time. I’ll upload more later!! Pictures should be forthcoming in the next day or so!

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