On my way to Hawaii, we flew with Harmony. The service was fantastic! They kept the beverages coming, and we even had a meal. The flight was under 6 hours. I would definitely fly with them again!

On the way home, we flew with Westjet. I couldn't believe how roomy the pleather seats were! I could stretch my legs out. And each seat had a TV. The service was a little lacking though. They came around twice with beverages, and food was available for purchase. I liked their casual attitude with the jokes and stuff. They were okay, but I enjoyed Harmony more.

We cruised with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) on the Pride of Hawaii. I was already expecting the worst after having read the reviews for the ship for our particular trip. Maybe because the ship was fairly new and the staff was really new made a difference. The service was kind of sucky. The dining room service was the worst. It was slow and inefficient. And a lot of the waiters didn't seem to know anything about wine, especially how to pour it. I guess cruising with Royal Carribbean and Princess spoiled me. I've cruised with Carnival as well, but I don't remember much about them. We never even met our cabin steward.

Their Broadway style shows were boring. One of the singers was constantly flat. And the dancers could never dance in sync. They had a guest entertainer, Scott Alexander, and he was awesome -- except for his final final joke. He recited "Chinese proverbs" that I'd read many times off the Interet (you know, like "Man who fart in church sit in own pew" or "Squirrel who crawls up woman's leg finds no nuts", etc.). Scott Alexander is this illusionist and magician. His card tricks were amazing. He was a great performer.

There was lots to do on the ship, and there was never a lineup for anything. However, NCL advertised having a volleyball and tennis courts, but neither were present. The pools were nice. The hot tubs were okay. There were just enough places to tan!

We had cabins with balconies, so I guess those cabins were a bit bigger. I don't have any complaints about the cabin. In fact, I loved ths shower! It was great because I could adjust the height of the shower head *down* to my height. I hate getting sprayed in the face! And the hairdryer was actually strong enough! And it came with a nozzle, too!!

The food was okay. They had "speciality restaurants" on the ship where you paid extra to eat there. The French restaurant was great. And so was the steakhouse. The Chinese restaurant I would not recommend. They had shabu shabu, too, which was not a bad experience. Shabu shabu is hot pot where you cook your food in boiling broth. If you've never had a hot pot experience, the servers will throw the food in the pot for you. One big faux-pas they committed was coming out with a tray of food and rice where the chopsticks were stabbed into the rice.

When I did their survey, I said I would not recommend them to friends and relatives and that I would not cruise with them again. But if you've never been on a cruise, NCL's Pride of Hawaii would not be that bad.

I can't wait to get my snorkeling photos developed. When I'm done, I'm thinking about getting a PhotoBook from Future Shop online. For a fee, they'll print your photos and present it like a coffee table book. I think the cost comes out to be fairly even if I had all my digital photos printed. What I like about the book is that I can add captions and I don't have to print them out myself!