Familygoboston

Maui After moving to Maui and anchoring, we took a sunrise skiff tour into the Humpback Marine Sanctuary hoping to see humpback whales or other "charismatic mega fauna". while we didn't see whales on this day, we could hear them through the hydrophone dropped into the water. After breakfast we visited the Mala Wharf, a development that failed and fell into the sea creating an artificial reef popular with sea turtles. We took skiffs over to the wharf, and there were other snorkelers and divers there, but we were able to enjoy amazing underwater wildlife, including turtles and white tipped sharks.

Lanai In the afternoon, we tendered to Manele with lots of options for the afternoon excursions. All of these adventures were run by a concessionaire called Lanai Adventure Park, an outfitter associated with Sensei Four Seasons Hotel. We took vans up to the Adventure Park, and deployed into our groups, hike, two e-bike tours, one into town and one in a more remote area. We chose the more adventurous ebike tour through the dusty red trails at the top of Lanai. The little port area at Lanai is carefully developed. Safari Explorer anchored in Manele After some basic instruction, and a few loops around the parking lot, we were off. The roads and soils of the island are red from the minerals in the soil In the distance, Cook Island Pines, we were told were brought in after the sugar cane companies exhausted all the water on the island, and the pineapple companies planted them to add water to the environment, because thee tress actually create water! The pineapple companies also left remnants of plastic sheeting in the soil that can be see everywhere. At the top elevation, the open landscape over looking the ocean almost looked like a mars scape.

Lania The next morning we awoke anchored off the coast of Lanai. Lanai is nearly 100% owned by Larry Ellison, and he is referred to as Uncle Larry on the island. After years of agribusinesses using the island and using up resources (such as sugar cane industry using all the water and deserting the island) and the pineapple industry leaving behind plastic embedded in the earth, "Uncle Larry" appears to be using the island as a base for researching sustainable environmental projects and sustainable tourism. We spent the morning in the water, snorkeling at Dinosaur Cove. Do you see it!? Exploring the outside of a cave...always the guides were with us in the water, in a kayak above the water and in the skiffs watching over the group! In big beautiful Hawaiian "bathtub", Safari Explorer looks like a tiny dot on the horizon!

Molokai Paina Dinner One of the most special things about traveling with a small group us the authentic cultural interactions you can have with local people. Even the drivers of our buses shared personal insights and funny stories about growing up on Molokai, about being proud of their Hawaiian heritage and being joyful about sharing it! For dinner in Molokai, we were bused to the Molokai Historical and Cultural Center to the north of the island. We were greeted with colorful leis made of yarn. The main room of the center had been transformed with little tables and chairs and they docents at the museum gave us an orientation about the museum and explained about a paina as a special celebration for milestones and special occasions. They explained that when Hawaiians celebrate with their favorite foods, and sometimes dancing or entertainment, that they often believe the celebration includes all the ancestors of the people celebrating. They shared with us the importance of understanding the difference between the kind of celebration we were invited to, and the performative luau often experienced by tourists. They asked us to help spread the word about the appropriate ways to respect and acknowledge Hawaiian culture, which like many of the native cultures in the US, has been around for thousands of years. We had a wonderful evening and enjoyed food made by our hosts and entertainment by a small combo. The docents then shared an award winning legacy quilt made by their members, which they were rightfully proud of!

Molokai On our first full day we boarded small vans and headed out to the Halawa Valley along a scenic road along the southwest side of the island. View to the waterfalls in the Halawa Valley From the park we were invited onto the property of a local family where some of the group was able to make a local food and the rest of the group took a long hike into the valley and had a picnic and swim at a waterfall Devik, whose family has generational roots on the island, welcomed us to his family's home with a traditional conch shell greeting. Welcomed to this little ranch, we hiked to the water falls Mushrooms on the trail Our hike included stream crossings We made it to the water fall and were able to swim in the cold pool More to come later!

Our Itinerary As I mentioned earlier, the itinerary is posted when you book, but being an expedition cruise, things can change, based on weather, what there is to see, or even the ship's condition at any given time (stay tuned for a little "excitement" we encountered) Our itinerary was planned to start in Molokai for two nights, a day in Lanai and an overnight in Maui, crossing to the Hawaii for 2 days before disembarking. Our actual itinerary was interrupted by an unexpected weather event. It's important to note that this mostly water based itinerary doesn't include some of the big tourist attractions, such as the Road to Hana in Maui or the Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. But while we experienced some of those later in our trip on excursions from Quantum of the Seas, the Uncruise gave us opportunities to connect with locals and close up encounters with wildlife that a large cruise ship could never provide. Similar excursions could be part of a resort stay, but getting to as many places and the quality of the guiding was far superior to hiring a guide while staying on the island (we stayed in Oahu for 8 days and hired some of the best reviewed guides for tours, and none was close to what we experienced on Uncruise.) SO my advice is if there are some "must" see things on your Hawaii bucket list- Pearl Harbor on Oahu, or Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii, plan for pre and post tours after Uncruise. Uncruise is designed to get you off the beaten path and connected to the Hawaiian islands in a unique way.

A Typical Day Aboard Safari Explorer The typical day, is that there is no typical day! Activites vary based on the weather, the wildlife in the area and can be very nimble, with safety first and then optimized for guests to have a great experience! Evening: Let's start after dinner since that is when Wilson would brief us on the activities for the next day. A variety of options are offered, to meet the physical capabilities of everyone on board: kayaking, or skiff tours for those who want a gentler or less physical excursion, hiking, gentle walking, cultural interactions, snorkeling, or free time ashore, there are always options. Each option will be described, what it involves, what gear to wear or bring, and the best part is nothing "sells out", no matter what you want to do, guides will be deployed so that everyone gets a chance to do what they want to do. After the briefing, the bar (with all drinks included) stays open and usually one of the guides will make a presentation about flora, fauna, history, geology, or culture of the Hawaiian archipelago. Even as fascinating as these talks were, lids would get heavy and most passengers would be headed to bed by 9 PM! These skiff boats are used extensively for tours, snorkeling and to deliver guests to the dock where the ship can't come to the dock. Being able to board this moving boat from the moving ship is taught carefully for everyone's safety! Morning: Days start early...usually with coffee service at 6 AM and breakfast between 6:30 AM and 8:00 AM depending on the activities planned. Sometimes there's a stretch class on the upper deck, or folks will gather with coffee to see the sunrise an search for "charismatic mega fauna"! Breakfast is a set time, seated with whoever you wish, and after you have breakfast, you'll be asked about your choices for lunch and dinner. There's always a vegetarian option, and usually a meat and fish option. Special diets are cheerfully accommodated. occasional morning stretch Usually after breakfast, groups gather on the activity platform to board skiffs or launch in kayaks for excursions. Mid morning, everyone returns from excursions, to clean up for lunch. Lunch is another set time, sitting where you choose. Unless you have a longer excursion, in which case you'' have a picnic lunch during the excursion. Afternoon: Sometimes the ship will move midday, and there's often a little time to relax after lunch before the afternoon excursion. The ship has any gear you'll need in the water, snorkeling or wet suits. Evening: The afternoon excursion usually ends in time for a late afternoon nap, workout or pre dinner drink in the lounge. Dinners are at a set time, generally 6:30 or 7 PM, dining with whoever you like, on our cruise there were several parties of 4 or 6, but everyone (except one family) happily sat with different folks at each meal, and the group was very convivial. Sadly, this is where I have to be honest about the food on our particular cruise. As mentioned earlier, the excellent chef who the prior guests raved about, had finished his contract and we had a chef and pastry chef, both brand new to the company. Both were personable and responsive as people, but sadly, whether because they were still finding their way around the kitchen, or because we started in Molokai and food is generally hard to source in the more remote islands, or because with only 28 people and vegans and diabetics on board and they were trying to create one meal to fit all, but the food was a major disappointment on this cruise. Especially in light of how the food was highlight on both our Alaska and Mexican Uncruises, local, tasty and hot, we had been really looking forward to similar experience in Hawaii. I shared my feed back with Uncruise, as did other passengers and we all noted that none of us were on the ship for the food, but most of the passengers, being repeat guests, really noticed a significant drop off. The good news is I lost weight, often eating around certain dishes and rejecting desserts most nights after a bite. I saw a lot of food wasted on plates around me too.

A tour of Safari Explorer The Safari Explorer has a swim deck and sport platform where kayaks and skiffs are launched, on the next deck up, there's a promenade leading to cabins and viewing areas all around the ship. This is our favorite cabin location, with doors that open directly onto the promenade. The top deck includes a huge sun deck, a shaded area with a seating lounge, and all of the sports and exercise gear. The promenade connects cabins on port and starboard with some of the best wildlife viewing areas forward and aft. If you look at deck plans, avoid the cabin closest to the door to the ships ladder (stairway) because the door opening closing can be noisy during the day. (everything is quiet at night!!) The Sun Deck. lounge and exercise area. A beautiful spot for sunrises and sunsets and several evenings, the bar tender will set up bar here before dinner! This area serves as a library, and the shop for Uncruise gear. It's stocked with some musical instruments and games. The bar The lounge and briefing area The dining room Cabin B 10, fixed Queen bed This ship had a lot of areas for storage and also desk areas for working on photos or notes.

Uncruise Boarding Day Because Uncruise uses the relatively small resort (Hotel Molokai) in Molokai for hosting both returning guests and those about to embark, we had the opportunity to meet them all (again, since we'd seen them in Halawa Valley!) When we disembarked in Hawaii at the much larger King K Marriott, there were so many people, we really couldn't tell who was headed out on the next Uncruise. We knew we were in for a great trip based on the stories from the guests who just left. One of the things they raved about was the food...and that had been our experience too, excellent meals at the end of each day! A nice hospitality area is set up for both embarking and departing guests with snacks, water, tea and coffee, access to a changing room and full use off all the complimentary facilities at the resort. Anyone who does Uncruises knows that embarking is very personal...you'll be greeted by a receiving line, including the captain, and you'll have your photo taken for for the "face book". This is the only "social media" you'll find on board, any passengers who would like, have their photos posted in a book or bulletin board along with the photos of the crew to help you remember the names that go with the faces! Along with name tags used the first few days on excursions help so that by day 2, everyone including the crew knows everyone else! We were taken to our cabin by a staff member and our luggage was already waiting for us there! A briefing before dinner included trying on our life jackets, and discussing safety, and meeting our crew. We were thrilled to see that we recognized several of the crew from previous cruises! Part of the crew on an Uncruise is the Naturalist Guides, and Expedition Leader, which is unique to expedition cruises. Great ones make the trip and poor ones can put a damper on your trip, because all of the included excursions are only as good as guides you have. (We took an excursion on the Amazon with a major brand leader in expedition cruises and were so disappointed with the quality of the guiding, that no matter how shiny the trips look in the yellow bordered brochure, it will be a while before we cruise with them again!) Luckily, every time we've been on an Uncruise the guides have been excellent, and were delighted to find one of our favorite guides from our Baja cruise, Wilson, had been promoted to Expedition leader!

Thanks I'll try more, but it's so frustrating when the tech doesn't work! Hopefully we can get some of my hubby's photos up here to illustrate our review!

Molokai Equipped with "Jimmy's car" we headed out to explore Molokai. Our friends had explored the western end of the island the prior day; it was very remote and isolated. The "big" attraction on Molokai is the Halawa Valley on the eastern end of the island. We headed there hoping to see a bit more than we might with the Uncruise folks who had planned a hike up to the waterfalls. Wehne we arrived to the Halawa Valley Park, we ran into the two white vans with the Uncruise passengers and guides from the cruise that started in Hawaii and was ending in Molokai the week before our cruise. We were delighted to see 2 of our favorite guides from our Baja cruise, Mareth and Wilson, leading the group and they told us they would be still on board when we boarded the next day! Im sorry I have to end this prematurely, because I cant get CC to post my photos. I'm willing to provide free content to pay it forward, but I don't have time de bug CC! You know where to find me and the information about this cruise, which will be on my blog.

For those who asked about the Uncruise Safari Explorer cruise around Hawaii that I did before boarding Quantum...I've begun reviewing that cruise under "Other" in cruise forums. You can find it here!

Uncruise Safari Explorer April 2023 We recently returned from our third Uncruise, having previously visited Alaska's Inside Passage and Mexico's Sea of Cortez on Uncruise Safari Endeavor. We chose this cruise near the end of the Hawaii "season" because it lined up with a cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver we had planned with friends on Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas. The two experiences could not have been more different, but I'm grateful I had BOTH experiences! (and we spent a week in Waikiki between cruises) Safari Explorer is a bit smaller than Safari Endeavor, on this cruise we only had 28 guests, but we found the deck and outside areas of the ships to be more spacious. We had to fly to Molokai to embark and then fly from Hawaii (Big Island) back to Honolulu (Oahu) after the cruise because it's not a round trip. Add these costs to your budget, and be prepared to pay for any over weight, checked or extra luggage, (and pay attention to each of the small inner island airlines baggage allowances, because you'll need to match the strictest allowance for all you flights, or plan to store luggage in Honolulu. We found an expensive option at the airport directly across from the baggage carousels, but it served to store luggage we didn't need till our Waikiki stay.) And you may need plan extra days in hotels before and after the cruise in order to arrange the flights based on the schedules of the inter island flights and flights to the mainland. Uncruise has a section of their website where there's a good explanation of how to transit from the main terminals to the small terminal where Mokulele airlines is located, but you are on your own both financially and logistically to get to Molokai for embarkation. We flew from Boston to LAX to Honolulu and stayed at an airport hotel for the night. The following morning, we took the airport shuttle to the small terminal where you get the Mokulele airlines flights to Molokai. This is the plane- you'll wait till they call you flight and they'll arrange everyone by weight to board. If you don't mind small airplanes (9 seat) you will love the views you'll get as you fly up past Waikiki and Diamond head and out to Molokai! We arrived a couple of days in advance and we stayed at the Uncruise selected pre hotel, Hotel Molokai. We met friends from Seattle who had arrived the day before. After spending a few days in Molokai, you'll see it's one of the only options for guests to stay in Molokai. It's a quiet island, with little tourist infrastructure and felt the most like "old Hawaii" to us, and turned out to be one of our favorite places! Be aware that the local wild chickens are loud in the early mornings! The entrance to Hotel Molokai The beach and some of the "old" Hawaiian style rooms The pool The dining room with a beautiful sea view, it's one of the best restaurants on the island and offers live entertainment in the evening. We learned pretty quickly that we'd need a rental car to get around the island...the advertised hotel shuttle was "broken" and there are no walking areas to safely walk into town, even though its only 2 (hot!) miles. At night it would be very unsafe with traffic on the dark road. Renting a bike or ebike could also work, but we found it difficult to rent anything on the island! There were no real "rental cars" for rent when we visited and the rental agent essentially rented us his own car! It worked perfectly for us...we had wheels to explore the island and get out to restaurants, although we quickly recognized the best restaurant in town was right at our hotel! Rooms were rustic, but the AC worked well, although it was delightful to open the old jalousie windows and let the ocean breezes blow through, most of the rooms had refrigerators, coffee makers and microwaves, and some of the larger units also had stoves. Next Post : I'll share some of the things we explored on Molokai and then we'll get to embarkation!

I truly wish the noodles were offered at no extra cost. That venue was a weird mush mash of free hot dogs and charge for noodles and soups. Everyone would have preferred an Asian noodle place!

R#s review is spot on and I agree with almost all of it! I’d add a few comments… As a pescatarian, I found the new menus work to offer options for those with dietary issues without needing staff to create a special dish for people with dietary restrictions. For instance the vegan option would work for anyone kosher, vegans, or vegetarians. And the nightly GF free options avoids the chefs having to make a separate dishes for people with those issues but also helps people with “keto” preferences to stay on their plans. This seems to avoid a lot of work for the kitchen or wait staff, but it also leaves just 3-4 options for people who don’t care about those things. Although all the options could be appealing to anyone, my non vegetarian husband often chose the vegan option because sometimes it looked interesting. That brings us to flavor and availability of ingredients. Because this was a transpacific cruise (along with the one before it,) food had to “last” for over 6-10 sea days. Food was also sourced in places where it’s hard and expensive to get food and drink (Papeete and Honolulu) A head waiter explained to me that they did not get all they wanted in those ports and some of it was spoiled by the end of the cruise. We also speculate that for cruise ships as “one off” customers, most vendors aren’t going to compromise the amount or quality of what they give to their regular customers to satisfy RCs needs for ships that arrive just two or 3 times a year! When we arrived on the ship, not all the pallets had been unpacked on the first day and the ship was missing (and these are just the things that we noticed or needed) - fosters beer, mixers for many drinks, including pina colada’s and strawberry daiquiris and ketchup on the first day. After day 1 those things were restocked. But the cruise prior to us said they were out of drink mix by day 4, our cruise was not as hard drinking as the Brisbane to Honolulu leg, so most of the alcohol and mixers lasted the duration of the Honolulu to Vancouver leg. But by the end of our cruise the crew could no longer provide berry parfaits, pineapple was rare, couldn’t get honey and they ran out of lettuce in the windjammer in the last sea day. I also noticed that while the Thai chicken salad in 270 had a nice chili sauce bite to it on the first and second days, by day 4 it was bland and tasteless. This is something to consider on repositioning cruises- if food and specific alcoholic drinks matter to you- it’s important to remember that cruises that are not receiving regular shipments from their regular vendors (such as the port of Miami) are at the mercy of what’s available and what vendors are willing to part with at the ports where the ship is traveling. And trying to feed 16 thousand meals a day will quickly deplete what’s available and make it so that what’s on a “menu” may not be what they can serve. R# did mention the windjammer, but I would point out that the options on the WJ buffet are also fewer. But we didn’t find the quality to be improved by that. We noticed a salad bar, hot food station with 5-6 dishes on a side, dessert bar, hot dog and hamburger and fries station, and a fruit and cheese station. These were repeated so there were at least 2 of each station. We missed an action station at night where the chefs would create pasta or stir fry’s based on the international theme of the night. In the past we ate at the buffet almost every night, but this cruise we ate in the MDR almost every night and found the quality of the food to be better with the new menus, expect for a few misses and the wait staff would happily bring another selection!

Thanks everyone for following along on our “live” thread! I’m sure there will be a thought or two to add, but it’s been a really fun cruise- the crew was great and the ship is really in great shape with loads of fun places to hang out. The itinerary with Hawaii and plenty of sea days was interesting and very relaxing at the end. Hope you all have safe travels, where ever your next one is! Bye for now from your “hosts” FGB and R#

There’s only one cure for the end of a cruise! 🤣🤣🤣 None of our crew booked onboard, but several of us already have another booking. Mr FGB and I are taking a 10 day trip to the S Caribbean on Celebrity Solstice in the fall, the #s have Harmony planned for late fall and another in our group has 3 bookings!! The next time this crew will probably cruise all together will likely be 2025. We are talking about Greek Islands. Probably not Royal Caribbean, but nothing is booked yet! This cruise was our 140 night milestone on RCI cruises (combining celebrity, and royal and we got points for a few Azamara cruises when they were part of the organization.) We weren’t really aware of this until we got an email saying we’d be getting a glass block of Quantum of the Seas on this cruise. Because we’ve down sized our living arrangements and don’t really have room for a glass block, but when we got to our room we had a form from the Loyalty Ambassador that we could opt to get the block or opt to not receive it. We did opt to get it because we have a person in our group who was delighted to have it as a souvenir of her cruise. She lives in a group home for adults with cognitive disabilities and celebrated her 65th birthday on the cruise- so we were delighted to gift our block to her!

Lol! I think age might have something to do with it! We always used to be pretty active when were younger, but as we’ve gotten older we do enjoy a relaxing sea day! This was 6 days which we needed after 3 weeks of straight out touring, and activities such as kayaking, snorkeling and hiking every day! We had 2 half days for travel and laundry, so once the sea days started we were ready to relax!

Day 10 Cruise Compass and Menus

Sea Day 10 Goofing off with Northstar If you waited till today to do the North Star, you picked the right day, gorgeous weather in the mid 60s, views of BC and Washington. We’d already down out Northstar, so we decided to play instead. Shes got the whole world in her hands! DR J with the Northstar

Day 10 Sea Day cruising by Vancouver Island and Olympic National Park land sighted! We’ve sighted land! Headed into the channel to get to Vancouver with an arrival expected tomorrow morning.

Cabin 10704 Ocean View IMG_0321.MOV

So true! It’s funny because I’m not sure the outdoor bars are even open expect on the solarium. 😩

There’s almost no schooner bar scene on oasis class. I find myself really liking this class of ships. I don’t love the pokes on the main theater, but the rest of the venues are interesting and see traffic and use which is good. On oasis class I feel like you have to go out of your way to get to the night club or the jazz club and if there’s no scene going on there it’s sort of an embarrassing walk in and out 😳 On this ship it’s a bit of a maze, but you walk through or by all of the venues which lets you see what’s happening in each and decide to hang out or keep walking.

I like the candy kisses with “kiss” written in different languages. Must make the crew feel a bit more at home! 🥰