Our family trip up to Yosemite was planned to avoid the Memorial Day crowds, but we ended up with Fathers Day weekend. It is rare, but we were able to reserve the same camp site for 3 nights. The waterfalls were very full, and our favorite spot for tea in
Happy Isles was next to white water rapids which we have never seen so full
Mariposa Grove is about an hours drive from Yosemite Valley. It has undergone massive improvements since our last visit. The parking lot was moved with shuttle access into the grove. This will give the roots a chance – tourists were picnicking on top of these beautiful old growth shallow roots – the parking lot itself was destroying the trees. It’s really a great improvement with walkways to keep the foot traffic raised up above the root structures.
We opted to fly Southwest for this trip, as we had credit on the airlines. There is no direct flight, and no assigned seats – but you get 2 bags to fly for free while boarding in groups. It wasn’t too bad – on one leg I had a young man around maybe 11 who was riding alone who fell asleep on my shoulder
Our pre-cruise meet up party was at the Hard Rock Café and Casino – The did a pretty good job accommodating the crush of 100 single cruisers over 50.
We stayed pre-cruise at the Crowne Plaza in Ft. Lauderdale, as we had been there for a prior cruise and the beds were comfortable. They offer a shuttle to the pier but I’m pretty sure an Uber is cheaper. Our uber driver got lost on the way to the pier
The Caribbean Princess is a Medallion Class ship and we were sent our medallions which are used instead of card key for room entrance, ordering drinks etc. They have an Ocean Ready application for the smart phone and you can order drinks from anywhere on the ship and the staff can find you with your medallion. (Yes, they can track you) I ordered the premium drinking package and internet package so that I would not feel deprived.
We booked a balcony stateroom aft on deck 14 – close to the Terrace Pool and Bar at the back of the ship.
Princess Cays, Bahamas was our first port of call. I had pre-reserved a clam shell just to be sure I had a reserved lounge chair with shade based on past experiences at private islands. I didn’t want to have to rush off the ship to be the first ones grabbing chairs.
Monday was a sea day and time for a poker crawl. We were part of a fun group with four balconies in a row.
Tuesday the ship docked around noon in St. Thomas and a group of us took Taxi’s to Coki Beach where they serve tropical drinks in the water. I brought my snorkel gear and really enjoyed the beautiful fish along the reef. No turtle sightings but there was an iguana on the beach
We took the Tram up to Paradise Point for a good view of the sunset, since the ship was late in dock. They are famous for their mudslide type frozen drink the bushwhacker… I only made it half way through, likely due to the earlier libations at Coki beach
Wednesday we called on St. Maarten with it’s beautiful blue water. The group excursion was a snorkel trip on a Catamaran. The drinks were flowing and snorkelling was good but not great – our guide was feeding the fish and I prefer natural reef to sunken objects and man made reefs.
We had 2 days at sea before returning to Fort Lauderdale. One day was my actual birthday so I took 2 naps before formal night. The final sea Day we hosted another party on our combined balconies and had a lot of fun.
When we disembarked the Caribbean Princess we signed up for an excursion with the ship.
We toured the everglades in Ft. Lauderdale
We stayed at the Riverside Hotel in the heart of town, and expected to Enjoy the water taxi to have a stop nearby. The weekends that we were enjoying Fort Lauderdale. There was also a spring break music festival so the water taxis were all busy. Since we were already in the wonderful tourist area we enjoyed walking through the shops and drinking tropical drinks near the river. We even managed to find ourselves a wine bar, go figure.
February is an awesome time in Hawaii – mating season for the humpbacks. It’s iffy on weather, but always better than home
We arranged to stay two night pre-cruise in Waikiki – which is quite expensive so we reasoned we wouldn’t be in the room much and could go with a budget hotel. This proved to be a poor decision as the room was quite dated and bed was extra springy.
We made our way by Uber to Dukes for dinner
We had a full day to explore Oahu in a rental car so we headed for the North Shore to see big waves. We didn’t go all the way around the island and didn’t really see huge waves, but it was still very cool to see The Banzai Pipeline
The beautiful Waimea Valley has been well used by Hollywood.
The birds and the bees and the butterflies…
Saturday is embarkation day, but first we headed to the Hula Grill for breakfast – they did not disappoint! We had tried iHop next to our budget hotel (which was pretty darn expensive) the previous morning and after waiting a long time for service, my food was returned inedible.
At the Hula Grill I had eggs Benedict and asked for it to be made with smoked salmon.
Smoked Salmon Benedict
My sister had the Pancakes
Macadamia Nut Banana Pancakes
View of Waikiki Beach from Hula Grill
We were a bit disappointed with the size of the staterooms on board the Pride of America. We had a balcony guarantee stateroom so ended up in 9666 – go figure why nobody would choose it at the aft elevators with a balcony is like being on display, just at the curve of the ship… no privacy at all. I told a guy a few cabins down that I felt like I should be out there dancing like in a birdcage
Our first stop was Maui where we rented a car and reserved a room at a resort in West Maui for our overnight.
We had reserved a Whale Watch trip well in advance on line with Pacific Whale Foundation. We have gone out on a Catamaran in the past which was glorious, but we figured we could see whales from all sorts of vessels and had done this same trip the previous year. We ended up sitting with folks from our ship that had planned the excursion with the cruise line.
Whale Watch out of Lahaina with Pacific Whale Foundation
After our Whale Watch we walked down Front Street for our reservation on the patio at Kimo’s with a full on water view. I had the pulled pork sandwich and a Mai Tai – it was perfect weather sitting under the umbrella and super friendly service too!
Royal Lahaina Resort
The Myths of Maui Luau at the Royal Lahaina Resort had a few fashion changes, the guys were wearing some Walmart version of grass skirts. The band was great and the fire dancers did not disappoint. They didn’t even pretend like we were eating the pig that they hauled up on stage – that is clearly for tomorrow night’s luau. The wind picked up and brought rain toward the end of the show, so we rushed out quickly. In the morning, I enjoyed the walk along Ka’anapali beach
Royal Lahaina Resort
Kapalua is beautiful – we had planned on hanging out at Napili or Kapalua beach and doing some snorkeling but the water temp was about the same as the air, and just a few degrees shy of our comfort level. We enjoyed lunch at the Plantation House overlooking the golf course with a beautiful island view.
