mooline

Oh well! One can hope! 🙂

THANK YOU all so much!! There are so many awesome suggestions here...definitely have my work cut out to research these. A few specific responses/questions: @destar, not necessarily set on British Isles and Iceland, though it's surely of interest. We're open to everything at this point! @PhillyTravelBug, @ontheweb, @Pitzel, @complawyer and @Ken the cruiser: is there any chance of seeing snow (on the ground, not necessarily falling) on any of the Iceland itineraries in early June (or even late May)? How about Northern Lights (I know, never guaranteed...) And, for the Star itineraries (and maybe even the Prima) how are the open water crossings? Typically rough or not necessarily? @BigRedFan South Africa is a fascinating suggestion. Everyone in the family loves animals and a wildlife expedition would be fascinating! @Silver Sweethearts, so nice to see your name! I hope all is well with you and that your beautiful island is recovering. Yes, French Polynesia would be neat and we could add Hawaii again I believe 🙂 Thanks again to all - please keep these great suggestions coming!

Hope this is a fun little post for any who are interested in "playing": We're thinking of another family cruise in early summer 2025, to celebrate several milestones: A 70th birthday, a 55th birthday, a 15th wedding anniversary, an 8th grade graduation and a First Communion. (whew!) There are 6 of us who will ,at that time range in age from 8 to 72. We all cruised Hawaii on POA in June of '23 and had a ball. EVERYbody in our family loved the entire trip. (Our preteen got a little seasick on the final day, though...) All of the adults have already cruised Alaska; and at least 2 of us have done various Caribbean ports as well as Spain, Morocco, and Madeira. Some of the adults have done land trips to Italy, France, and the UK. None of these destinations are out of the question, but they are places some of us have already visited. We'd like to go someplace safe (unfortunately, for us that rules out the Middle East right now, and maybe other places?) We all like to keep moving - in Hawaii, we enjoyed hiking, snorkeling, zip lining, horseback riding, etc. We live in Florida, so beaches are not as exciting as they may be for some others. With the kiddo's seasickness (and others of us have, it but take meds...), I'm thinking little to no long open water sailings (like transatlantic). As much as I'd like to see Antartica, sailing the Cape Horn waters isn't appealing... 🤢 Our preteen (who will be nearly 14 by then) is obsessed with everything British; she has even mastered the British accent. And, some of the adults who haven't been there are interested in London and Paris. I've wondered about the Prima's British Isles/Iceland trip as one possibility. We'd also entertain anything where we could book a Garden Villa or something similar, with 3 "real" bedrooms so we can all be together, with sufficient space (we had a Garden Villa for our Alaska cruise). Actually, we'll entertain just about any trip! So... time for you to unleash your thoughts, suggestions, encouragements, and ideas! Thanks in advance!

I want to add a PS to anyone who might be looking for a horseback riding experience in Maui: Triple L, the ranch I've reviewed here, has a "sister" organization (run by the very same family) called Spirit Horse Ranch, which does equine therapy - therapy using horses, because of their sensitivity to human emotion. Before the wildfire, they were working with survivors of physical trauma, and since the fire, they've been offering their services completely free of charge to anyone affected by the wildfires. I offer this information so that you know you are also supporting a very good cause if you choose to ride with Triple L. By the way, I'm in no way affiliated with them, and never knew of the ranch before we started planning our Hawaii trip. I have, however become a huge admirer and cheerleader for the amazing work that they do.

@rochteacher Thank you so much! That's very kind of you to say. It's a "pay it forward" type of thing, so many posters here on CC have been helpful to me when planning a trip, and it's cool to do the same for others. Wishing you a FANTASTIC trip - enjoy every minute! All of our family wants to go back, if that is a helpful testimony. 🙂

Hoping that this post is in compliance with the forum guidelines (if not, I apologize...) With Maui tourism now strongly encouraged by the Governor of Hawaii, I want to recommend a wonderful experience to anyone visiting the island and wanting a "different" adventure. We had the pleasure of riding with Triple L Ranch on our Pride of America visit to Maui in June of this year. Triple L is open and encouraging visitors. It's in the mountains, Upcountry, a beautiful and scenic spot. We have stayed in touch with the Ranch's owner, and she, like most business owners in Maui, is grateful for the return of tourism revenue to support rebuilding efforts - especially since all these folks were just coming out of the difficulties of the pandemic when the wildfires hit. The additional reason to consider a visit to Triple L is its "sister organization", the Spirit Horse Ranch. Spirit Ranch provides equine-assisted therapy and is providing its services free of charge to anyone affected by the wildfires. Emotional trauma is a big deal, and people, especially children and teens, need this often-overlooked level of support after a disaster like the wildfire. Riding with Triple L helps to support Spirit and its mission. Here are links to Triple L and to Spirit: https://www.triplelranchmaui.com https://thespirithorseranch.org If you do decide to enjoy an amazing horseback ride on your visit to Maui, you'll need to pre-arrange transportation to and from Triple L Ranch. We used Aloha Maui Limo and can highly recommend them. https://alohamauilimo.com Excellent, safe drivers and a very reliable operator. I am sure there are others, maybe even prearranged Lyft or Uber would work, but given the distance and remote nature of the ranch, I suspect it's best not to leave transportation to chance. Happy to answer any questions that anyone has about our incredible riding experience on Maui.

Good news as of today: NCL has announced Pride of America's return to Maui:

Yay! Got this message today from NCL. Based on what I've heard from business owners in Maui, this is VERY welcomed news. If you're on POA in September and beyond, be sure to support the businesses on this island as generously as you can.

So sorry for my delayed replies to you, @Mic101680 and @Chan50 First, your question, Mic: We had prearranged transportation in Maui, the only port where we did not do a ship-sponsored excursion. From what we saw, though, there were plenty of cabs within a relatively easy walk of the pier in every port. (Kona is a tender port, so you do have to take the tender before you're on the pier.). Maui was the one port that was a bit of a hike (not bad, though). When we sailed in June, security at that port was tight, so you had to walk to the street to catch a cab, Uber, or even for our prescheduled ride. I'm guessing that it's no different, or maybe even tighter given the disaster recovery efforts. Chan, wish I could answer that- we're not spirits drinkers. My guess is yes, you can have spirits in the cabin; if I recall correctly there was alcohol on the room service menu - but again, I'm not 100% certain of that.

By the way, the player piano in the suite is lovely if someone plays piano. But, in self play mode, we could never adjust the volume to a low enough level to be nice background music. Hope that’s been fixed for you!

Keep asking, no worries! A few months before the cruise, we received an email from NCL's concierge desk, inviting us to choose 3 bottles of wine and assorted sodas. There was also an option to choose from the "pillow library", and to indicate preference of still or sparkling water. There was a bottle of champagne in a bucket when we arrived, as well as the preordered wine on the counter. The fridge was stocked with the sodas and water, which Maria replenished every day, even though we rarely drank it. We also received a "treat" daily - chocolate covered strawberries, or canapés, or mini pastries, etc. This was a tray of 6 different small items. One day, we also received a bottle of Merlot from the Beverage Manager, and another bottle of wine with a cake for our 50th wedding anniversary. We only drink wine, not hard liquor, and there was more than we could consume in 7 days!

We were on the Star a long time ago, 2009, and in the Garden Villa for an Alaskan cruise. Things may have changed, but we enjoyed exceptional service from our concierge, butler and steward. There are all the usual NCL suite perks such as priority boarding, priority escorts, preferred seating for shows, ease of dining reservations, etc, etc. What we most enjoyed was the very personalized service. Our "trio" really took time to get to know us and went over and above to offer everything that would be "special". Some of that may have been unique to the time (2009) or the class of suite we were in, but it was awesome. We had a private ship tour, and we enjoyed an amazing in-suite dinner with menu items from Cagney's - our steward and butler worked together on that and it was so memorable. There is a thread on this site that lists all of the NCL suite perks: Happy cruising!

We were on the Star a long time ago, 2009, and in the Garden Villa for an Alaskan cruise. Things may have changed, but we enjoyed exceptional service from our concierge, butler and steward. There are all the usual NCL suite perks such as priority boarding, priority escorts, preferred seating for shows, ease of dining reservations, etc, etc. What we most enjoyed was the very personalized service. Our "trio" really took time to get to know us and went over and above to offer everything that would be "special". Some of that may have been unique to the time (2009) or the class of suite we were in, but it was awesome. We had a private ship tour, and we enjoyed an amazing in-suite dinner with menu items from Cagney's - our steward and butler worked together on that and it was so memorable. There is a thread here that lists all of the NCL suite perks and I'll try to find it for you. Happy cruising!

You can certainly request room service any time. If there is something specially you crave and it’s not on the regular room service menu, by all means ask your butler. He or she should be able to help! My son in law hates Nespresso coffee and asked their butler if they could instead have a regular drip coffeemaker in their suite. Voila, one appeared with all of the supplies needed for coffee making. The butlers are kind of like fairy godmothers/fathers!

Hi again, @Chan50, thank you for kindly passing along our message. 🥰 Yes, Cagney's was open to suite passengers for breakfast and lunch. Since the cruise is so port intensive and there was so much to see on the islands, we only had lunch in Cagney's on embarkation day, and breakfast I believe twice. In room breakfast is a great option, just hang your door tag before going to bed and Maria will bring it to you. In our case, breakfast came at the early part of the "window", i.e. 6:30 if we chose 6:30-7. Again, if you want to shoot for a specific time, just let Maria know that. What other questions do you have? Ask away, I’m reliving our cruise through you! 🙂