Cruise---November 26-December 3 2011---

I have only cruised with Disney Cruise Lines until now (7 cruises). We chose this cruise with NCL because my mother (72 years old) wanted to see Hawaii in her last 2 months of life (advanced cancer) and I decided this was the best way to see as much as we could in 7 days. We travelled with my 7 year old child as well, staying in a stateroom cabin on starboard side, AFT with balcony. I knew ahead of time this would be a tight space for 3 individuals with varying energy levels. Our main goal was to see Hawaii altogether, while returning to the ship in the evening to eat dinner and retire to bed for the next day. Because of our port intensive 7 days, we only ate 7 breakfasts, lunch once, and dinner 6 days on the ship. Our schedule was to get up at 7am and be back at 6pm. This was easy to accomplish because my child likes to sleep in and my mother (the senior) has limited energy, which allowed us to never miss a dinner on the cruise ship. Only once we did not eat dinner because we attended a luau (Maui---2nd night). To be specific, 2 of us attended the luau in Maui, while the 3rd person attended the luau in Kauai with the rest of the passengers on the ship. Let me begin at the beginning and proceed to the end step by step. Before I begin, I will add that I read all the cruise critic reviews without missing one dating from November 2011 back to November 2010, noting every possible piece of information that was useful to me. I read many books here at home prior to my trip (Frommers, Hawaii for Dummies, etc). I felt I was best prepared without losing my mind. Looking back, I felt I spent too much time researching, but do not regret the days upon days without getting up from my chair to read as much as I could. I wanted to not miss a beat, knowing all of our desires and capabilities.

DAY 1--HONOLULU Read more