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My Portrait
Photography
My Nature Photography
Woke to the wonderful sight of Kauai. It was overcast, but I knew that even if it did rain it is almost always short lived. As the sun rose, I could see the clouds thinning.
We order breakfast to our room using the door hanger and it was delivered on time and hot.
Having a strong interest in movies, I was intrigued by a tour showing where many of the movies filmed in Hawaii were actually shot. I found Movie Tours while searching the internet for things to do. They offer two tours, and since I prefer the path less traveled when possible, we took the 4x4 tour. They picked us up at the pier right on schedule. Since we were the only ones from the ship, we made two other stops to for additional people. The total on the tour was ten people, including the six of us. Then it was off to their offices to check-in and pay.
The driver explained that this was not the regular vehicle, as the regular one was in for repairs. Consequently we had some audio/video problems with equipment at the start. We told him about it and he quickly fixed it (bad connections).
How the tour works is they show you video clips of various films shot on the island and take you to the locations so you can see how they look today. Everything from famous beaches and waterfalls
to the Coco Palms hotel
to the Jurassic Park site where the original entrance stood, waterfalls and it looks like a dinosaur footprint?
It was interesting to see how much some areas how changed. We also learned how movies must restore and area to its pre-film condition after they are done.
We also got to seem some of the wild chickens the roam the island. My kids found this very cool, whereas the locals seem to see it as an annoyance.
When the tour was done we were dropped back at the pier. We had a great time.
Tonight was formal night, so we didn't have a lot of free time after the tour. In my opinion, they should have formal night on Tuesday as you must be on the ship much earlier and would not be in such a rush to get ready. I still had time to get a few quick pictures.
Once again we were greeted by some chocolate covered strawberries. And here is were Al did something that set NCL apart from Holland America (HAL). He made sure that my in-laws got the same treatment. In fact for the entire cruise they were treated as suite guests and given all the little snacks, tender passes and party invites. When we where on HAL, they made it very clear that even though we were traveling together, my mom was not in a suite and could not take advantage of any of the benefits.
We had a little time so we decided to tryout the hot tub. Turn out the drain wasn't working and it did not hold water. A quick call and someone was there to fix it. Not only did he address the drain, but also made sure everything else was working. We left it filling and said he would be back in 10 minutes when it was full. He returned right on time and proceeded to show me how the various features worked. The kids splashed about while we got ready for dinner.
They were taking pictures in several locations (outside both no-fee restaurants). We chose to eat at Crossings again and arrived at 5:55. There was one couple in the process of having their photo taken and then we got ours done. I'm sure ours were fabulous, but we found out later that the memory card they were using got corrupted and they lost all the pictures.
We then went to get our table and were seated right away. We were given the same table as the night before, but tonight we were waited on by Lindsay. She had been with the line for a longer time than many and really liked her job. She provide excellent service.
We noticed our table had a comment card located on it to rate your meal and service. It looks like they are really trying to keep a close eye on how things are going.
As I had read on the messages boards, we found that 4 entrées changed tonight along with the desserts, whereas there were five entrées that remained the same each night menu. I enjoyed:
Crisp Fried Veggie Rolls
Avocado Caesar Salad
Grilled Pork Tenderloin - the Special
Broiled Lobster Tails on the side (it was lobster night after all)
Bittersweet Espresso Pot de Crème and the Grand-Marnier Soufflé for dessert
Everything was great. Several at the table had extra lobster as it was so tasty.
Tonight's show was "Island Magic", basically a show like you might see as part of a luau. We got there a little late and sat in the balcony - never again. At first I thought it was just me, but everyone in my group mentioned the same thing. The balcony has these decorative metal rails that you must look through to see the stage. These rails are very distracting and really take away from the enjoyment of the show. If they were to replace them with glass or acrylic balcony seating would be very nice. Otherwise the show itself was fun.
Our cabin came with 3 bottles of liquor. You ordered the ones you wanted, but they
were to be delivered Monday. They did not show up so we called Al to track them
down. Turn out they did not have the brand of gin we had selected and
he was trying to locate it. He gave us another one instead, and
because of the change a free bottle of wine a dinner.
Tomorrow will be our shorter day on Kauai.
| Our Trip | Pre-Cruise | Sun-Board | Mon-Kauai | Tue-Kauai | Wed-Hilo | Home |
| Thu-Kona | Fri-Maui | Sat-Maui | Sun-Honolulu | Ship Tour | Videos | Back |
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