Back from Hawaii - Island Princess 4/4-4/19

[Quacker]

Just back from a wonderful cruise on the Island Princess. The weather could have been better but also could have been worse. Great CC group on board and bought a horse for the wooden horse race. Didn't win the big race but won the best dressed. The CD gave a party for the CC people. (without us asking - guess a little PR work) Hawaii is always beautiful and those many days at sea made a great trip. Hello to all the CC gang - was great fun. Quacker Don and Lee.

[SraLiz]

My Aunt and Uncle from California just returned from that cruise. Did you meet Georgia dnd Lindsey???

 

Glad you had a nice trip. I can't wait to chat with my Aunt!

[DesrtDrmr]

Quacks to Quacker and Mrs Quacker!

We had a GREAT time! Got home last night at around 5:30, after picking up the dog..................totally wiped out today!

Toby is off again tomorrow, for a week............no rest............................

Hope everyone else made it home okay.................and now for the big question.............

WHEN ARE WE GOING AGAIN????? :) Everyone got so good at that horsey "staging", that we surely are not going to waste all that knowledge........... :)

We made an open booking onboard............know that Ho and Mrs did too...........anyone else?

[Tallcruiser]

Quack Quack Quacker and Mrs. Quacker.

 

Hi DesrtDrmr and Mr. DesrtDrmr. Laine thank you again for the pen! I used it today at work and had to smile.

 

Hi to all my new CC friends. Hope you all got home safely and are getting some unstaging time.

 

The Islands were beautiful! I had a chance to travel one more time with Mom and she loved it. I hiked the rainforest in Maui and swam in the water fall. Some thing I am thrilled I was able to do. Well worth the aching muscles for a few days after. LOL

 

There were so many high lights on this cruise. The ship is one of my new favorites. Everyone spoiled us! The staff is outstanding! The horse racing was a blast. We had the best horse. She didn't win the race because she was too fine to compete with the rif faf , hehe! We had the best Coach and the best Jockey too. Not to mention the finest owners and cheering section :D

 

But one of the best parts of the cruise was meeting all of my new CC friends. I really like you all. (as Sally Fields would say) The greatest group of cruisers you will ever meet.

 

So when are we going again? I am in! Until then I hope to hear from you all.

Anyone gain as much weight as I did? :eek:

[mommykim]

Hi all,

Just one question. I want to confirm that they do indeed close the casino's while the ship is travelling within the islands? We are booked on this cruise over New years and my husband has forgotten that little part of the cruise and I am hoping I'll actually have him at a few shows!

Kim

[Cruisin' Chick]

Any words of advice for us future Islanders?

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Will be on the Island Princess 10/23/05. Can't wait.

Anxious to hear more about your cruise.

[Quacker]

Yes - the Quackers have a open booking also!!!

[Dave Hansen]

Just back from a wonderful cruise on the Island Princess. The weather could have been better but also could have been worse. Great CC group on board and bought a horse for the wooden horse race. Didn't win the big race but won the best dressed. The CD gave a party for the CC people. (without us asking - guess a little PR work) Hawaii is always beautiful and those many days at sea made a great trip. Hello to all the CC gang - was great fun. Quacker Don and Lee.

Thanks for your

comments. Linda and I are booked on the Island Princess (2-20-06) That's

too long a gap so we're looking for another cruise somewhere in between.

Glad to hear they held a party for the cc group. I'll bet if we encourage

Princess, they will pass out pins and formalize the parties like Celebrity.

Fair Winds & Following Seas

Dave Hansen

[ho]

Hi Gang,

 

The Ho's are back also. We got in late Tuesday to a minor problem ( dead battery in the car) but we made it. Still trying to get caught up at work and will be for some time. I sure feel sorry for Toby having to start traveling again. Cindi is now regretting all the clothes she took as she saw the enormous laundry pile.

 

The cruise was great. Yes, they do close down the casino while you are sailing around the islands. My advice would be stay away from the slots and weird table games, stick with blackjack and craps and you should not get hurt too bad.

 

We had a great CC group. Sorry about the horse not winning, as the coach I am taking full responsibility, I am reviewing the race films now to see if I can figure out what went wrong but it appears I trained her for a sprint race and Mr. Cole the CD put her in a route race.

 

Let any of us know if you have more questions.

 

Ho out.

[pegpowell]

Dave and Linda-hi. It was such a surprise to see your name pop up. I was watching for you on a cruise that was leaving out of SF last year and it looked like you didn't go on that cruise. We sailed with you on the Mercury through the Panama Canal.

 

Peg and Jon Powell

[KQuilt]

Hi Everyone,

 

Just wanted to see if everyone is home and feeling that they had a great time.

Roland and I were so happy to meet some new friends. Will try to stay in touch

as the trip was great. The race was a slow start and a last finish. But was

a great time. Tallcruiser is right. Camilla was not into racing with the rif raft.

Her time was not full filled. She had better things to do. HEHE. After all they

were all peasants. There surely was a lot of people who voted for us. Taking

her to breakfast was great. And the photo opps were what she liked anyway.

Anything to get her face in the Headlines. Robin give me a call and we will set

up a time for going to the mongolian barbecue with Quacker. :D I think you

and your mom will enjoy it. Did anyone gain any weight? :p Roland said he

didn't and he ate like he hadn't in a month. :p :p Will see you again soon.

Karen :)

[Berliner]

Helpful Site for Weather Researcher;)

 

....

 

 

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/PHOG/2003/9/26/MonthlyHistory.html

 

 

 

 

 

Berliner

[13_jane]

Hi All

 

Well we eventually got home on Wednesday at 7pm!! It wasnt too bad as I managed to sleep most of the way!!

 

We all enjoyed the cruise sooo much too!! None of us could fault it in anyway!! Everything was excellent!! Especially meeting all the cruise critics!! It was great being able to walk around and always having someone to say hi to!! Tim actually thanked me for booking such a great holiday!! (now thats never happend before!! hehe!!)

 

Ho - I cant possibly let you take all the blame for Camilla!! I must confess!! - I secretly let her have a cigarette break half way through!!! hehe!!

 

I've come home to a sick dog!! She wouldnt let my friend put her eye drops in, so I had to take her to the vets as she now has an ulser on her eye and is walking around bumping into everything, as both her eyes are so swelled up!!! So I've had to take the rest of the week off work to look after her!! So all I've done is sit on the settee with the dog and watch tv!! I've not even unpacked the cases yet!!!

 

Poor Tim is the only one back at work this week out of us all!! he was back in work on Thursday!! I dont know how he managed it!! he had to get up at 5am and drive for 3 hours to get to the office!!

 

We all defiantley want to go on another cruise!!! Tim fancies Alaska, and all the rest fancy the caribbean. We didnt make an open booking, but we'll defiantley be doing princess!!

 

My mum has printed all her pictures off and they're great! I'll get them all on my webshots page as soon as I can and let you all have the web address. I was laughing at them all, as all we seemed to be doing on them is eating and drinking!!

 

MIL is alot better!! We're going out with them tomorrow night as its FIL's birthday and also Tims sister-in-laws birthday too!!

 

Robin - yes I have put weight on!!! I've just been out with my friend jogging - and I was totally knackered when I got back!!!

 

right better go - nearly bedtime - our clocks are all over the place still!! We all wake up in the middle of the night!!!

 

Take care everyone

 

jane xxx

[KQuilt]

Hey Jane,

 

Glad to see you all made it home OK. :) We all gained on a few inches with

all the food we ate. Lobsters are one of my favorite things and I surely

had my share. :p Roland was at work at four in the am on Wednesday. Ouch!!!

But we had a great time visiting with you and your mum and MIL. We have

an open booking also. Quacker and Roland have been putting their heads

together and will come up with another trip. Sorry to hear about your dog.

Hope he gets better soon. Talk to you all later. KQuilt (Karen) :)

[DesrtDrmr]

Hi Everyone,

I KNEW that horse had stopped for a smoke break!!!! :)

Actually, I think Camilla did an excellent job of bringing us together, and she looked positively smashing, didn't she?

Sorry about your battery, Mr and Mrs Ho............did you have that bad hailstorm that we've seen on television, in Kansas? We did laundry on the ship, but I sure took too much stuff............some day I'm going to learn........it's a real pain to unload the cases.

Jane, I hope your dog is better. They are such members of the family. Our Peppy was very happy to get home. I also hope that Anne has fully recovered. It was good to see you on deck as we were leaving.

Tallcruiser, hope Mom is doing better. It was wonderful to meet everybody. We loved having lunch with your Mom one day.

KQuilt, boy, do I feel for Roland for having to be at work so early the day after the cruise. At least Toby got one day in between. :) I loved your enthusiasm for Camilla........there just wasn't enough time to visit.

I gain weight looking at food, so I probably have gained...........I'm just not going to weigh for a week or so. We don't have any goodies at our house.............but we seem to miss having COOKIES that they had on the ship! Princess has great cookies and great ice cream, although I didn't much care for the cinammon ice cream. It WAS different. I miss the shows. I miss being rocked to sleep. I miss my bed being turned down, although the dog did jump up and mess up the covers trying to get me up this morning. I miss Quacker having us organized.................and Hi Lee!................

I miss seeing all of you......................sure was fun.

Have a good weekend!

[Quacker]

Quack to all of you. Dottie I still have your $8.00 - never was able to track you down after the race. I don't know if any of you knew that the Quackers and KQuilts had table mates of two great couples from ME and MA. One of the fellows had a gall blader attack and had to fly home from Honolulu. KQuilt heard from the other couple and the fellow (Jim) is doing fine now after surgery and a week in the hospital. And some people say "Oh you don't need to have insurance - it's a waste of money" harhar Cost them $2400 to fly the red eye to Boston. Lee works one day a week (RN in NICU) so she's working tonight. Saving up some money for the next cruise. Quack

[13_jane]

HI all

 

Shannon is doing much better (the dog!!) She can find her way to the treat cupboard and manage to get onto the bed so she's getting back to normal! Shes sat on my feet at the moment with one of her teds!!!

 

Hey we've actually got nice weather here!!! Its been nice since we got back!! Rain is on the forcast for next week though!!

 

Glad to hear that Jim is doing ok!! That must have been such a nightmare for him and his wife.

 

I've not been on the scales yet either - but can defo tell I've increased size by my jeans - breaking my nails trying to zip them up!! I've just got a Weight Watchers meal out of the freezer!!! I went shopping last week and just got salad!!! no goodies what so ever!!! My mum has only put 3lbs on and Mo has stayed the same!!!! I wish!!!

 

My mums just popped in to see me on her way to visit her brother. She went out with Mo & Bob last night who were keen to book another cruise - Bob even said he'd cash in some of his pensions to finance some more cruises!! So it looks like the Island Princess made quite an impression on both of them! My dad jetted off early this morning to play golf in Belfast,Ireland! We live pretty close to Liverpool Airport and they have some great deals on flights!! It only cost him £20 ($40) for the return flight! Only problem is they only fly to UK and europe and not USA! Lots of "no-frills" airlines operate from there, Tim and I use them for our weekends to Paris!!

 

Right I can hear the washing machine finishing the cycle so I'd better go and get another load!! I've got piles of clothes all along the landing upstairs!!!

 

bye for now

 

jane xxx

[DotR71]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm glad everyone made it home okay and that everyone had a nice time on the ship. I apologize if I seemed a little quiet and not as involved as I should have been. (I should have warned you that I'm a shy and quiet person, even around my own family. :D ;) ) Anyway, it was a great cruise, even though I had received bad news from the vet 2 hours before leaving for San Pedro. My 19 year old cat has untreatable cancer, but she has improved a little since I returned home.

 

Quacker, I'm sorry to hear about Jim. I hope he is doing better. I had received your message, but with all the re-packing and trying to settle my credit card account, I completely forgot about the $8.00. I'm not sure how I can get in touch with you. Does this forum allow the user to send private messages?

 

Dottie

[wtevrfltsurbt]

Hello!

I am booking our Island Princess cruise right now for 3/22/06 and ask for your kind help!Could you tell me what kind of seas you had going and comming? I assume around the Islands its relatively calm but was wondering if it gets rough during the 4 days out and back?

Thank you Thank You Thank You!:D

Just back from a wonderful cruise on the Island Princess. The weather could have been better but also could have been worse. Great CC group on board and bought a horse for the wooden horse race. Didn't win the big race but won the best dressed. The CD gave a party for the CC people. (without us asking - guess a little PR work) Hawaii is always beautiful and those many days at sea made a great trip. Hello to all the CC gang - was great fun. Quacker Don and Lee.

[houch]

Hi all,

Excuse me for dropping in on your board but wanted to see how your cruise was. We returned the 17 from a Celebrity Infinity Hawaiian cruise. We had a lot of coulds, overcast, and rain on the islands, I was hoping for more sun but we had a good time anyway. The islands were beautiful, lush and green and now I know why: lots of rain!

Someone mentioned the casinos being closed around the islands. That's what I thought too but ours was open every night throughout the cruise, including between the islands.

There was also a question about the seas. We had rougher seas than the Caribbean throughout the cruise. Rough enough to make walking difficult for some (lots of rockin and rollin). The first 5 days we cruised the islands and then crossed the Pacific to Ensenada. First formal night (2nd night out) many were getting sick and missed dinner. I don't have motion sickness so enjoyed the movement and being rocked to sleep at night. Seemed the seas were about the same throughout the crossing, calmer as we approached Ensenada. I have no idea how big the swells were, I just know it wasn't calm. I heard a few poor souls didn't make it out of their room during the whole crossing. I feel bad for those who got sick.

This was my first time with Celebrity. We chose it because there was a crossing only one way. It was a nice ship and a good cruise but I still prefer Princess and so do the others I was with.

Carol

[DesrtDrmr]

Hello all,

So glad your pup is better, Jane.............I hope your cat is doing okay, Dot, that's always so sad...glad everyone is home safe. I'm glad that Jim is recovering nicely, we missed him for the race. Wish I'd known Lee was in NICU..........would have thanked her on behalf of all NICU nurses since our twin preemie granddaughters spent a month in NICU. The nurses were WONDERFUL!!! Of course, we knew that Lee was super nice anyway. :) Tallcruiser, how's Sondra doing?

Anyone got your next cruise planned yet?

Did anyone see the new posting from rita on New Live from Island Princess today? They've bought a horse, too, and also are doing two rafts. David C is doing a meet and greet for them, too.................wasn't he nice? I thought that ship was fantastic. It's my new favorite..............well, tied with the Star! I think the crew and staff were fantastic though, along with my fellow CC cruisers.

houch, we had rain in Hilo, but not any other island. It was roughest our first night and til noon the second day out of Los Angeles, one day out of the islands, and from glassy smooth to moderate seas the rest of the way. On our cabin tv it was called "rough" (7.5 - 14 ft seas) twice during the cruise. I was prepared for worse, and pleased with what we had. You must have gone further out from the islands than we did while there, so that your casino could be opened, or maybe it had something to do with having sailed from Honolulu.

Have a great week everyone!

[Tallcruiser]

Hi All,

 

Hi Houch and Cher amie, IMHO you may experience more "rocking" in the first two days out from LA and The last couple days coming back. We had "Moderate" seas most of the time and "Slight" around the Islands. I have to admit it was a little more "rock-y" for me leaving than it was last year. I was scrambling for the Bonie the 2nd day. But by then it had calmed down and I felt fine. You have to remeber it is a "crossing" and you transition differant waters and climates.

Just take your Bonie and remeber to pack a jacket for those few windy days.

 

Mommykim, the casino on the Island Princess is closed the days sailed around the Island. I personaly did not have much luck at the slots. I enjoyed the horse racing so much more. You not only have a chance to win some money, they also give prizes out with some bets. Travel clocks, decks of cards, tote bags, sports bottles, needle point kits etc. also give you more chances to win prizes with your losing ticket stubs through drawings. Not to mention the group partisapation. IT WAS FUN!

 

Hi everyone I will be e-mailing soon. I still have not unpacked yet:eek: . I will have a day off this week to catch up. I am looking forword to the Mongolian BBQ Karen! Jane thanks for the e-mail I will write back soon I loved the photo albums! too fun. I did laugh a little with glee. Quacker you are so organized maybe you could let us know of a future cruise we all could get together again. Same time next year? Alaska sounded good too! Laine I hope I can take you to lunch the next time I head to Vegas. I would love to see you again. Dotti there is nothing wrong with being shy, nothing to be afraid of. We wouldn't bite we just ran around in crowns and tiaras.. nothing strange about that. Hope your Kitty is doing better. Ho and Cindi I hope to have a chance to cruise again with you. You are a great coach. You and Camilla brought us together.

Hope to see some of your pic's. If I can figure out how to get them on here I will post mine also.

Take care all!

[KQuilt]

Hi to All CCer's,

 

We all had a great time on the Hawaiian cruise. Jane glad to see shannon is

better. She probably just missed you. How is MIL doing? It was really great

getting to meet all of you. Desertdrmr- We are supposed to come in May for

the stepmoms Party to celebrate her life. It is on a Sunday I think. We will

probably fly as Roland doesn't have time to drive. They live over by the

Santa Fe Station Hotel and Casino. I don't know how close that is to you.

Tallcruiser I need you to call by phone or E-mail me as I don't have your

number and with Lee working at the hospital we will have to cordinate with

her time schedule as well as yours. Give me a call when you can. Ho and Cindi

it was great meeting you and getting the inside scoop on the training. We

had such a good time.Please all stay in touch as you are all great people.

I'm on another project for my granddaughter. I have a Flat Stanley visiting

and have to take him all over with me and document his visit with us. So I need to go now and take him to the Kitchen to do dishes. Talk to you later.

Karen

[DesrtDrmr]

Hi all!

Tallcruiser, I got unpacked AND put away finishing yesterday! I was zonked for a few days after we got back..........

KQuilt, guess what? We live right by the Santa Fe Hotel and Casino!!!! We are probably about a mile and a half............it's our "home" casino! We were there for dinner tonight. :) It sounds like you'll be there for a real family time, but if you do have any free time, please give us a call, we'd love to see you. We will be at granddaughter's graduation, and Toby's college reunion over Mem. Day weekend. Rest of month we'll be HERE! :)

We'd love to see any of you that get over our way!

Jane, I loved your note and pics............see your email.

I have downloaded my 500+ pictures. Most of them are awful, but I do have some of the "gang". I'm still trying to find time to sort them out and post to Webshots.........will let you know when I get it done........hopefully by the end of the weekend.