We took our first long cruise (16 days) in April/14 as a retirement celebration aboard the Carnival Miracle. We decided to fly into Long Beach instead of LAX, a stroke of genius as we landed about 5 miles from the cruise port. Used the best western shuttles at no cost. During the voyage seas were relatively calm even though we had high winds on several days. It was not until we approached Canadian waters that a 15 foot swell picked up but it was hardly noticeable. The weather was overcast every day except 3 but we saw very little rain. Pretty favorable weather considering what I have sailed in as a Navy man in these areas in past years.

We did excursions every day but one and the best of the bunch by far was out of Hilo with Marylou's Big Island Tours. With Kyle Smet (Kyle also operates Fallon's Islandwide Family Tours) as our guide we saw just about everything you could want on the Hilo side of the island. He was a knowledgeable and talkative guide who respected our interests and time frame. The company is very accommodating and we never actually paid until after the tour. A rare situation and we were delighted with the cost of $75 for about 7 hours of tour with six people in a van. Certainly outdid any of the shipboard or Roberts Hawaii tours we took. I highly recommend that you contact Marylou if you are going to be on the big island.

We also took the Roberts Hawaii tours including; Best of Maui which was interesting, Beach day at Maui which was a disaster as we were dropped off at the wrong beach and the pickup driver could not find us and Pearl Harbour tour which was disappointing as we could not get out the monument due to high winds. After the treatment we received from Marylou's son Kyle the 40 passenger buses were a bit of a let down. Read more