Almost 10 years ago my husband and I had a beautiful wedding in Arizona and went on an amazing honeymoon in Hawaii. Many years and two kids later, each year we say our ultimate summer vacation would be recreating that Hawaii experience with our children. The amazing memories of our seven day Hawaiian cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line is enough to want to go back, but this week I’ve been spending a lot of time daydreaming of that trip after receiving beautiful tropical flowers from Pro Flowers. Their summer surprise was a great reminder of all the exotic flowers we saw throughout our week in Hawaii. Although we have our favorite family vacation destinations and frequently visit Southern California, I will forever want to plan a family cruise around the Hawaiian islands until we get back there.
Waking up every morning with a view of the sun rising over the ocean is spectacular. The Hawaiian ambiance from the ship is truly everything you would dream of in a tropical vacation.
We have been on many different cruises with different cruise lines staying in an assortment of room sizes. We mostly end up in small rooms but because it was our honeymoon, we reserved a suite with an outdoor patio and personal spa. We had a very warm welcome with balloons and a “congratulations” banner to start our honeymoon.
We took full advantage of seeing all the islands during our weeklong cruise. When planning our honeymoon we struggled deciding which island we would prefer to stay; the cruise allowed us to see so much more than we would have had we chose to stay in one place. Our many excursions included hiking down to the bottom of a volcano, kayaking, whale watching, a beach day, and more. We also attended a luau where I was pulled on stage to learn the hula with a very handsome local. That’s a story for another day but our video from the luau proves I shouldn’t hula in public.
In addition to all the planned excursions we had significant time to explore the islands.
When we weren’t playing on the islands, we were enjoying the many activities onboard. My favorite hour on the ship was during the night when we drove by errupting volcanoes and watched the glowing lava pour into the ocean. Amazing experience.
We did all the silly newlywed activities and posed for every photo opp, including this fun black and white photo from our formal night.
The ship offered many ways to enjoy the week including leisure days poolside with drinks, a pub crawl, and shows.
Our final day in Hawaii before our flight home was spent driving around Honolulu in a rental car. We explored the entire island and were definitely sad to say goodbye.
Six years ago we visited Hawaii with our oldest daughter at just six months old. While it was also an amazing visit, we remembered the fun we had with the opportunity to explore so much in just a week by being on a cruise around all the islands.
Our youngest daughter is just an infant but I’m sure we would have the best vacation ever aboard another Norwegian Cruise Line seven day Hawaii cruise! In the meantime, I’ll just look at my pretty Pro Flowers Carnival of Color bouquet and daydream of the day we can plan that trip!
Do you have a favorite vacation you would love to recreate? Or will the Hawaii Norwegian Cruise Line be your next weeklong family vacation too?
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Disclosure: I received complimentary flowers from Pro Flowers to share #mysummerstaycation and how they inspired me to remember the ultimate summer vacation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Oh, those photos are fabulous! Thank you for sharing! We’re planning a trip to Mexico for a friend’s wedding in the fall. Very much looking forward to it!