princess22
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2006
Guess where I'm going for my honeymoon Vanessa!? HAWAII! I'm super excited. My trip will probably look a lot like yours. Quick question, what package did you get at the Polynesian Cultural Center?
Vanessa- figmentfan814 ~ Happily Ever Wedding & 10th Anniversary VR Brunch #1 Added 8-10
- Thread starter figmentfan814
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figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
How exciting, you will hava blast! Which islands will you be visiting? I'm pretty sure we had the Deluxe Ali'i Luau and we added the transportation from Waikiki. Our tour bus guide ended up giving people the option of a guided tour with him, so I'm not sure that's standard procedure or not because I know the higher package automatically include the tour 
Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope my TR continues to help you out in your planning.
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
After leaving the swap meet we decided to do some exploring in downtown Honolulu. It was a Sunday afternoon though, so there wasnt a lot of traffic. We first drove to the center of town where the Iolani Palace is located. This is the residence where the last king and queen of Hawaii lived. It is also the only royal residence that exists on American soil. The palace really is an awesome structure and I would love to take a tour of it on another visit, but for now we just took a few pictures of the outside.
Across the street is a statue of King Kamehameha which I remembered seeing from my parents honeymoon pictures. They came during some special celebrations, so he was drapped in beautiful leis. During our trip he was bare.
For any of you that have been in the Capitol in Washington DC there are statues of governors and famous people from all the states and there is a statue of King Kamehameha for Hawaii. It brought controversy because he lived long before Hawaii became a state, so it is tucked away in a little bit of an out of the way place.
I was nervous about leaving our car too long in this area because we had also been warned to keep an eye on our belongings here. There werent too many people around though because it wasnt during the week, so we were able to see our car the entire time we were exploring.
Then Kris and I drove down a few streets to snap pictures of Dog the Bounty Hunters office. Okay, we like several lame reality shows, I admit it! We tried to be coy when we were asking the clerk at the concierge desk about where the street was where his office was located after we looked it up in the phone book. As soon as I mentioned the street, she said, Oh, you want to visit Dog, people love to go there all the time! It made me laugh because I thought we would be the only ones that would do something like that on a trip. Here are some pictures of the front of the building. They even have a gift shop, but it was closed since it was the weekend.
Where we live this has a different meaning
We then drove our car back to the rental place and then walked the couple of streets back to our hotel. Before heading up to our room we asked in the lobby about the sunset cruises that launched from the beach. They told us they were independently owned and you just walked up and paid the captain directly. We decided to go up and change then head down to the beach for a romantic evening. When we were up in our room I saw this really cool bird on our balcony.
Once we got down to the beach there was already a boat there, so Kris went over to the captain to ask about the price.
Across the street is a statue of King Kamehameha which I remembered seeing from my parents honeymoon pictures. They came during some special celebrations, so he was drapped in beautiful leis. During our trip he was bare.
For any of you that have been in the Capitol in Washington DC there are statues of governors and famous people from all the states and there is a statue of King Kamehameha for Hawaii. It brought controversy because he lived long before Hawaii became a state, so it is tucked away in a little bit of an out of the way place.
I was nervous about leaving our car too long in this area because we had also been warned to keep an eye on our belongings here. There werent too many people around though because it wasnt during the week, so we were able to see our car the entire time we were exploring.
Then Kris and I drove down a few streets to snap pictures of Dog the Bounty Hunters office. Okay, we like several lame reality shows, I admit it! We tried to be coy when we were asking the clerk at the concierge desk about where the street was where his office was located after we looked it up in the phone book. As soon as I mentioned the street, she said, Oh, you want to visit Dog, people love to go there all the time! It made me laugh because I thought we would be the only ones that would do something like that on a trip. Here are some pictures of the front of the building. They even have a gift shop, but it was closed since it was the weekend.
Where we live this has a different meaning
We then drove our car back to the rental place and then walked the couple of streets back to our hotel. Before heading up to our room we asked in the lobby about the sunset cruises that launched from the beach. They told us they were independently owned and you just walked up and paid the captain directly. We decided to go up and change then head down to the beach for a romantic evening. When we were up in our room I saw this really cool bird on our balcony.
Once we got down to the beach there was already a boat there, so Kris went over to the captain to ask about the price.
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
If I remember correctly it was $35 a piece for the one hour cruise that would be leaving right before sunset. We decided to go ahead and do it, so Kris paid our money and then we sat on the beach for a while. Kris ventured into the water, but I didnt want to get wet before we headed out.
We waited around for about 45 minutes while he sold seats to other people who walked up to the boat and then we set cruise on what we thought would be a beautiful sunset for our last night in Oahu. For the first 10 minutes or so it was really nice, you could see the hotels all along the shoreline and we had great views of Diamondhead.
The captain even had his dachshund on board with him, which I thought was so cute.
There were a few clouds rolling in, but nothing too ominous and the sunset was amazing!
About 20 minutes into the trip became a major disappointment and it wasnt because of the weather, stay tuned.
We waited around for about 45 minutes while he sold seats to other people who walked up to the boat and then we set cruise on what we thought would be a beautiful sunset for our last night in Oahu. For the first 10 minutes or so it was really nice, you could see the hotels all along the shoreline and we had great views of Diamondhead.
The captain even had his dachshund on board with him, which I thought was so cute.
There were a few clouds rolling in, but nothing too ominous and the sunset was amazing!
About 20 minutes into the trip became a major disappointment and it wasnt because of the weather, stay tuned.
princess22
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2006
Nice update. You have left me dying to hear the rest!!! What happened!? There is apparently supposed to be a big meteor shower while we are in Hawaii and I have seen several boat trips during it. I think that would be fun!
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
The meteor shower sounds totally cool, I hope you get to do one of the boat trips during it
Sorry the update will probably happen tomorrow, we had a bunch of business stuff to catch up on and I just finished a little while ago. After working all day, I am ready to
Here's a little clue- it was more an act of the behavior of the people on the boat and surrounding it. It was not the romantic evening we had been hoping for at all!
starrzone
<font color=purple>Quirky with snack cakes<br><fon
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2006
Yuck...I hate when things go wrong on vacation!
I'm curious to hear what happened, though!
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
Don't worry, I have the posted written and will be posting in just a few minutesYuck...I hate when things go wrong on vacation!
I really hope you get a chance to go; it is such a neat place to visit. I'm hoping if we ever make it back that we can take one of the tours of the grounds. Stay tuned the continuation is up next.
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
Sorry not too many pictures on this point, just the tale of our last, very disappointing night on Oahu
Everyone was having a good time on the ship. They were doing cups of margarita mix for 50 cents, but since Kris and I dont really drink we were laughing at some of the antics of our fellow passengers who were obviously started to become under the influence. As the boat was circling out in the water, a guy came up on a Ski-Doo and started talking to the captain. Apparently he is one of the guys that works on a lot of these types of boats in the area. As he is stopped by us suddenly one of the drunk women on our boat asks him for a ride. Our captain said, sure no problem, have a good time. So, the guy takes off with this girl on the back of his ski-doo. Side note, the captain did give her a life jacket before she got off the boat. This was weird to me, but I wasnt too upset yet. Kris was starting to get a little mad though because this was turning into a party night for some friends and not for the enjoyable cruise that we had all paid for that evening.
A few minutes later the ski-doo races back with a quick stop spraying most of us in the boat. The drunk girl climbs back into the boat giggling and then her friend proceeds to ask for a ride too. This time instead of taking her out further in the water the guy starting circling the boat spraying all of us in the process!
Now, we had out our video camera and regular camera, so I quickly duck and try to cover them with my body. This literally continues for 5 minutes and we were drenched. I swear the guy circled the boat 5 or 6 times. Our video camera ended up with some water on it (in the end it dried okay and works fine) but thankfully my body had shielded most of our electronics. Needless to say we no longer had these smiling faces that we had started with at the beginning of our cruise
Kris was fuming at this point v If we were close enough to shore I think he would have made us jump out and wade back to the beach. Unfortunately we were still pretty far out, so we had to sit there drenching on our ride back to the beach. The captain was joking and laughing and everyone on the boat who was intoxicated was having a good time, the few of us were not and were just there for the scenery were not happy at all.
When we got back to the beach we started to walk away and then Kris turned to go back to chew out the captain. I talked him out of it and said lets talk to the hotel to see what can be done. Normally, I wouldnt have cared but there were like four big guys hanging out with the captain at this point (including the idiot with the jet ski) and even though Kris is a bigger guy hes still pretty small (only like 58) so I didnt think he could take all these guys
We then went up to our room where we had to completely shower and change all of our clothes since we had been drenched. Kris called to the front desk and he told them that the boats are independently operated, so they gave him the phone number of our captain. Kris called that number immediately, but got voicemail and left a not too nice message requesting him to call back the next day
So, I will continue that story later.
We learned this lesson, never take these boats just on the beach. Spend the extra for one of the dinner cruises that you book in advance. I think the captains of these boats are people that can't hold a regular job, so they have no sense of how to properly do business.
Lets just say the night didnt get better after that incident. We walked a few blocks to this restaurant that people had said was good. It was a smorgasbord place and was packed with locals. It was super crowded and hard to find a clean table, plus the food was not good at all.
After that we walked around a little bit picking up some last minute souvenirs since this was our last night on Oahu. We were flying to Maui the next afternoon. We walked down and got some photos by Duke who was a famous surfer.
We got to our room and then started to pack up our stuff for our departure. We had still been falling into bed pretty early because of the time change and were getting ready for bed around 11 pm. Before I laid down I decided that I would never get any rest and couldnt take it any more; we could hear the word for word conversations of our neighbors plus they had music blasting in addition we could hear a baby screaming from across the hall.
Im not kidding each and every night there we had these noise issues and at this point I had it. The first two nights it was an older couple that was screaming now it was music blaring. Im assuming they have different building codes there because I swear there is no insulation between the walls. Im not talking about hearing muffled voices, you could repeat the entire conversations that people were having with each other.
I called the front desk demanding a different room
I told them that I couldnt take it anymore between the time difference and the noise from our neighbors I hadnt slept well the entire time we were at the hotel and we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow with our transfer to the other island. At first, they wanted to come tell our neighbors to quiet down. I said no, that wasnt going to help anything we could hear anything and everything going on with our neighbors. I asked to be moved since our stuff was already packed up for Maui I knew it wouldnt be that big of a deal.
I asked for a room without any neighbors on either side. At first he said he couldnt find any, but after a few minutes the desk clerk was able to find one in the entire hotel, but it was several floors down and had two queens. I said thats fine well take it. One catch was that he was working alone, so we had to come to the lobby to get the keys. I dragged Kris with me and we got the new keys. They then told us it would be about 20 minutes before the bellmen could move us. Just some of our luggage piled up:
By now, I was tired and getting more irritated by the minute after the evening we had just had there. When we got up to the room I said forget it were carrying everything ourselves. So, Kris and I proceeded to lug our three suitcases, souvenirs, carry-ons, purses, etc. all in one load. Our new room:
It was so peaceful in our new room and we collapsed on the bed relishing the soothing silence.
Everyone was having a good time on the ship. They were doing cups of margarita mix for 50 cents, but since Kris and I dont really drink we were laughing at some of the antics of our fellow passengers who were obviously started to become under the influence. As the boat was circling out in the water, a guy came up on a Ski-Doo and started talking to the captain. Apparently he is one of the guys that works on a lot of these types of boats in the area. As he is stopped by us suddenly one of the drunk women on our boat asks him for a ride. Our captain said, sure no problem, have a good time. So, the guy takes off with this girl on the back of his ski-doo. Side note, the captain did give her a life jacket before she got off the boat. This was weird to me, but I wasnt too upset yet. Kris was starting to get a little mad though because this was turning into a party night for some friends and not for the enjoyable cruise that we had all paid for that evening.
A few minutes later the ski-doo races back with a quick stop spraying most of us in the boat. The drunk girl climbs back into the boat giggling and then her friend proceeds to ask for a ride too. This time instead of taking her out further in the water the guy starting circling the boat spraying all of us in the process!
Now, we had out our video camera and regular camera, so I quickly duck and try to cover them with my body. This literally continues for 5 minutes and we were drenched. I swear the guy circled the boat 5 or 6 times. Our video camera ended up with some water on it (in the end it dried okay and works fine) but thankfully my body had shielded most of our electronics. Needless to say we no longer had these smiling faces that we had started with at the beginning of our cruise
Kris was fuming at this point v If we were close enough to shore I think he would have made us jump out and wade back to the beach. Unfortunately we were still pretty far out, so we had to sit there drenching on our ride back to the beach. The captain was joking and laughing and everyone on the boat who was intoxicated was having a good time, the few of us were not and were just there for the scenery were not happy at all.
When we got back to the beach we started to walk away and then Kris turned to go back to chew out the captain. I talked him out of it and said lets talk to the hotel to see what can be done. Normally, I wouldnt have cared but there were like four big guys hanging out with the captain at this point (including the idiot with the jet ski) and even though Kris is a bigger guy hes still pretty small (only like 58) so I didnt think he could take all these guys
We then went up to our room where we had to completely shower and change all of our clothes since we had been drenched. Kris called to the front desk and he told them that the boats are independently operated, so they gave him the phone number of our captain. Kris called that number immediately, but got voicemail and left a not too nice message requesting him to call back the next day
So, I will continue that story later.We learned this lesson, never take these boats just on the beach. Spend the extra for one of the dinner cruises that you book in advance. I think the captains of these boats are people that can't hold a regular job, so they have no sense of how to properly do business.
Lets just say the night didnt get better after that incident. We walked a few blocks to this restaurant that people had said was good. It was a smorgasbord place and was packed with locals. It was super crowded and hard to find a clean table, plus the food was not good at all.
After that we walked around a little bit picking up some last minute souvenirs since this was our last night on Oahu. We were flying to Maui the next afternoon. We walked down and got some photos by Duke who was a famous surfer.
We got to our room and then started to pack up our stuff for our departure. We had still been falling into bed pretty early because of the time change and were getting ready for bed around 11 pm. Before I laid down I decided that I would never get any rest and couldnt take it any more; we could hear the word for word conversations of our neighbors plus they had music blasting in addition we could hear a baby screaming from across the hall.
Im not kidding each and every night there we had these noise issues and at this point I had it. The first two nights it was an older couple that was screaming now it was music blaring. Im assuming they have different building codes there because I swear there is no insulation between the walls. Im not talking about hearing muffled voices, you could repeat the entire conversations that people were having with each other.
I called the front desk demanding a different room
I told them that I couldnt take it anymore between the time difference and the noise from our neighbors I hadnt slept well the entire time we were at the hotel and we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow with our transfer to the other island. At first, they wanted to come tell our neighbors to quiet down. I said no, that wasnt going to help anything we could hear anything and everything going on with our neighbors. I asked to be moved since our stuff was already packed up for Maui I knew it wouldnt be that big of a deal. I asked for a room without any neighbors on either side. At first he said he couldnt find any, but after a few minutes the desk clerk was able to find one in the entire hotel, but it was several floors down and had two queens. I said thats fine well take it. One catch was that he was working alone, so we had to come to the lobby to get the keys. I dragged Kris with me and we got the new keys. They then told us it would be about 20 minutes before the bellmen could move us. Just some of our luggage piled up:
By now, I was tired and getting more irritated by the minute after the evening we had just had there. When we got up to the room I said forget it were carrying everything ourselves. So, Kris and I proceeded to lug our three suitcases, souvenirs, carry-ons, purses, etc. all in one load. Our new room:
It was so peaceful in our new room and we collapsed on the bed relishing the soothing silence.
irisbud
I wished upon a star and... ...Disney Bride in 200
- Joined
- May 8, 2006
From both the cruise story and the noise factor, I don't know what possesses people to think they can be so rude to everyone around them!?!
I am so sorry you had such a horrible evening. It sounds like one of those times when everything just keeps going from bad to worse. I would have been really tee-ed off too at the whole thing. I'm glad you were able to keeps your cameras and such from getting ruined! I hope you got some reconciliation for the cruise (I will stay tuned to find out).
We had a bad noise issue at a hotel once. There was a couple next to us loudly, um, enjoying each other. The police came and everything, and we didn't call so they must have disturbed someone else too! It was really bad. Worse, they did it again later after the police left! I'm glad the hotel was able to move you to another room where you could actually get some sleep!
I am so sorry you had such a horrible evening. It sounds like one of those times when everything just keeps going from bad to worse. I would have been really tee-ed off too at the whole thing. I'm glad you were able to keeps your cameras and such from getting ruined! I hope you got some reconciliation for the cruise (I will stay tuned to find out).
We had a bad noise issue at a hotel once. There was a couple next to us loudly, um, enjoying each other. The police came and everything, and we didn't call so they must have disturbed someone else too! It was really bad. Worse, they did it again later after the police left! I'm glad the hotel was able to move you to another room where you could actually get some sleep!
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
Amy, I know exactly what you mean; I guess even in paradise people are extremely rude
That's too funny about your noise situation. Thankfully, we didn't get any of that during our trip, I probably would have been too embarassed to call if it was for that reason. The worst we had was the older couple that were screaming at each other for several nights
tiggersam00
Dole Whip addict... and proud of it!
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2008
Aww no Vanessa! I hope things get better in Maui! I cannot believe how horrible the boat ride and hotel were for you guys! Dave and I enjoy a drink and a sunset but not a booze cruise spring break style! That is just crazy! The captain could have at least warned you a bit, and the jet ski was awful! Thank goodness your cameras were ok, I would have been majorly PO'ed as well!
I am hoping that Maui treated you both a little better and more relaxed then Oahu!
I am hoping that Maui treated you both a little better and more relaxed then Oahu!
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
Aww no Vanessa! I hope things get better in Maui! I cannot believe how horrible the boat ride and hotel were for you guys! Dave and I enjoy a drink and a sunset but not a booze cruise spring break style! That is just crazy! The captain could have at least warned you a bit, and the jet ski was awful! Thank goodness your cameras were ok, I would have been majorly PO'ed as well!
I am hoping that Maui treated you both a little better and more relaxed then Oahu!
Maui does end up being a lot more relaxing; but we did have a few mishaps on our last day there too. Maybe there was a pattern there
You're exactly right it was a like a spring break cruise. Needless to say there were a lot of people that enjoyed a cocktail or two without any ill effects. It just seemed to be a small group that ruined it for everyone
Jennifer48
Not a Disney bride but engaged and honeymooned at
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2005
I'm so sorry to hear about your last night there. So rude! Were there other people on the boat as well that weren't drinking that were upset too? I would have said something then to the captain about my electronics, thats just not right.
Here's hoping for a better, quieter time in Maui!!
Here's hoping for a better, quieter time in Maui!!
DisneyLaura
A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
Sorry to hear that your last night was so not nice.
princess22
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2006
Oh no, sorry your night was so bad. =(
Now I know what not to do on my honeymoon, but I'm sorry you had to experience that! It amazes me how people act so crazy sometimes. I swear, ryan and I are so much like you and kris. We don't drink either, so I Know we wouldn't of been happy on that boat. And I hate getting wet like that, especially with ocean water! EEWW, I couldn't imagine.
Now I know what not to do on my honeymoon, but I'm sorry you had to experience that! It amazes me how people act so crazy sometimes. I swear, ryan and I are so much like you and kris. We don't drink either, so I Know we wouldn't of been happy on that boat. And I hate getting wet like that, especially with ocean water! EEWW, I couldn't imagine.
figmentfan814
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
I know there were other people that weren't happy either. The main problem was the captain was laughing and having a good time with all the other people that were causing problems. He definitely wasn't helping at allI'm so sorry to hear about your last night there. So rude! Were there other people on the boat as well that weren't drinking that were upset too? I would have said something then to the captain about my electronics, thats just not right.
Here's hoping for a better, quieter time in Maui!!
Maui does get much better compared to this night
I was just glad it wasn't the last night of the entire trip, that would have been a sour note to end the trip on before heading home
:Its definitely people like this that take away the fun from everyone else! Don't get me wrong I don't mind people drinking around me, I just don't like when people's behavior (intoxicated or not) interferes with everyone else around them. I definitely recommend avoiding some of these boats. I'm sure there are some good ones, but I would probably ask for a recommendation from the hotel or something for a particular captain. Otherwise go with one of the chartered boats for a dinner cruise, etc.
DisneyBrideToni
<font color=deeppink>Proud BLT DVC Owner<br><font
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2008
Wow I can't believe what happened on that cruise! I don't understand what is wrong with people. I mean do they really think people wanted to get soaked!? Drunk people are obnoxious. I would have asked to switch my room too. People don't have any manners.
I would have asked to switch my room too. People don't have any manners.Vanessa,
Just got caught up on everything...sorry to hear about your romantic cruise!! Some people are just so rude!! I mean, who wants to get totally soaked, not to mention try to protect your camera and camcorder? How annoying!! Then with the noise, that would have been it for me too....At least you got moved to a quiet room!! Hey, just to let you know, I updated my PJ finally, so when you have a chance check it out....I think everyone has forgotten about it, cause I haven't updated in so long!!!
Just got caught up on everything...sorry to hear about your romantic cruise!! Some people are just so rude!! I mean, who wants to get totally soaked, not to mention try to protect your camera and camcorder? How annoying!! Then with the noise, that would have been it for me too....At least you got moved to a quiet room!! Hey, just to let you know, I updated my PJ finally, so when you have a chance check it out....I think everyone has forgotten about it, cause I haven't updated in so long!!!
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