TIm & Anne Larison

The folks implied it would be better if we had a reservation, so the next day I called and tried to get a reasonable dining time but they were only offering 5:30 or 8:00 something, so I told them never mind, we’d just use our suite perks, to which they had no reply. The suite lounge was nice and reasonably uncrowded once we started going right after early dining started. The suite privileges were an unexpected perk, as the cruise critic thread pretty much said to expect junior suite-level privileges (i.e., not much). The first cruise with zero cruise-line based excursions and it worked out fine.

In this report we’ll give a day by day review of our cruise, highlighting the ship’s features and the wonderful shore excursions we took. As we landed in Lyon I wondered “where will we meet our Viking transfers to the ship? As you can see from one of Van Gogh’s paintings above the grounds still look like they did back in the artist’s time. For a first time river cruiser perhaps a cruise on the Danube or the Rhine rivers would be best to get more sailing time (click on our Danube and Rhine links to read our reviews of cruises on those rivers).

Last week Jane shared with us her family’s experience at Disney’s Aulani resort. On Maui we did the Maui Gold Pineapple tour and it was one of the highlights as we ate fresh pineapple, cut with a machete, in the middle of the field – delicious! ! In Hilo we used the Hoppa On/Hoppa Off bus just off the dock and saw the Black Sand Beach, Rainbow Falls and other key highlights. my husband took the Kona Coffee/Chocolate tour (informative and enjoyable), while my daughter and I did the Zodiac Boat/Snorkeling and Dolphin Adventure near Captain Cook’s memorial.

Thanks to our client Jane from Delaware in sharing her family’s experience of Disney’s Aulani resort. The restaurant Monkeypod (located across the street and within walking distance) was DELICIOUS and if you went early you received happy hour pricing that helped to lower the cost. The pools and the access to the ocean was beautiful and one of our favorite things was to watch the sunset over the ocean, followed by storytime at the fire pit with Uncle! Spending time at the stadium on Wednesday for the Honolulu Swap Meet was a great way to hang with locals and find some cool souvenirs.