IMPORTANT REQUEST: Need to Complete Your Cruise Personalizer

NEED FOR YOU TO COMPLETE 

YOUR CRUISE PERSONALIZER 

BEFORE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

This is a request from Alex to complete your Cruise Personalizer on your Princess Cruises Website. But hold it before you log-in...go and get YOUR PASSPORT, CREDIT CARD (that you will be using on board the ship) and also a COPY OF YOUR CRUISE BOOKING INVOICE/CONFIRMATION that Alex emailed to you. Okay now you will be ready!  Go on-line at Princess.com and create a log in account, if you have not done this already. If you have already created a ID & Password account for Princess Cruises then either log-in with

1.Email & Your Password OR

2.First Name/Last Name/ Date of Birth/Booking Number 

You will see a page with your cruise details and information....and yes, your story begins in XX days ...means exactly that is how many days till we board on the Ruby Princess! 

At the top under the heading HAWAIIAN ISLANDS Ruby Princess sets sail on Saturday, October 3, 2015. You have 8 sub-headings:

1. Booking Summary
2. Guest Check-In
3. Payment & Credits
4. Travel Itinerary
5. Flights & Transfers
6. Excursion Reservations
7. Onboard Reservations
8. Vacation Protection

Click on each sub-heading and complete all your information. Under the “Guest Check-In” be sure that your items change to “Completed or Accepted” and if there is a Purchased next to Princess Vacation Protection, then you have purchased this travel insurance and can review your plan.

PLEASE COMPLETE THIS BEFORE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th. As Alex will begin to create our cruise documents and will be forwarding them to us. Of course that is if you get this information completed.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me as I will be around

this Labor Day weekend or Alex during the week.

Cabin Door Decorating Contest by Stella

Arouse, inspire, amuse, excite...no Roger, we’re not talking about sex, we’re talking Roger

and Diana’s 25th Anniversary Cruise Cabin Door Decorating Contest! And contest it truly is because judging will occur on Tuesday, October 6th with prizes awarded on Wednesday, October 7th. 

Our ports of call and a creative crafter goody bag provided by Stella will contain almost all the inspiration you’ll need to create eye-catching and clever door decorations. We’ll also provide the removable label on which you will unleash your creativity for all the world to see!

Here are some suggestions from past cruise contests to help get those creative juices flowing...

Pick a theme! What do you like to do besides cruise? Do you have a favorite Hawaiian island? What about inspiration from your friends? Are you an abstract kind of person? Do you see the Pillsbury Dough Boy in the clouds? I’m sure you get my drift :-) Make it fun!

Think Scrapbook! Before you embark, check out Michael’s Arts and Crafts discount bins or the dollar aisle at Target for those extra special door decorating items. Do you have a shoe box full of photos of people and places you don’t recognize? Cut up photos for a clever montage. Magazines also provide a mother lode for your busy scissors.

Personalize! Share with us and every other passenger on the Ruby Princess a little bit about yourself. No nudity, please, and that means you, Roger! Let’s keep our ideas g-rated so we aren’t sentenced to walking the gangplank before we reach the islands! I’ll have a bag full of assorted sticky stuff so make sure you find me during those first couple of days at sea to collect some craft supplies.

So now that you feeling a bit like Klimt or Renoir, don't forget these important deadlines.

October 3rd, contact Stella in cabin A709 to collect your creative crafter goody bag. Please call my stateroom to be sure I’m there and not out drinking with my Sis’ Diana!

Recapping the  Cabin Door Decoration Contest schedule... 

☆ October 3rd (Saturday) to 5th (Monday) Decorate! 

☆ Tuesday, October 6th -  Judgement Day 

☆ Wednesday, October 7th - Awards & Announcement

☆ Questions? 
Stella in Aloha Deck (12) 
Stateroom A709

FORMAL NIGHTS - Black Tie Tux waiting for you on the ship!

There will be three formal nights and to make it easy for the MEN Cruisers...you might want to check out the rental of the Tuxedos. Not only will three of your dinner nights formalwear be waiting on the ship for you ...but think how good you would look with that “Shakin’ not Stirred Martini”...was your name James? James Bond?

Below is the link for renting Tuxedos for Princess Cruises, just click and make your selection. 

Roger's helpful tip: Men Wearhouse (Store Locator) is great for taking your tux rental form and they will measure you right up for you to order on-line. And yes, it's FREE ! 

FORMAL WEAR - Cruiseline Formal Wear

LABOR DAY WEEKEND - Hawaiian Culture in Long Beach

Not sure what plans you might have for this Labor Day Weekend.

But if you want a taste of Hawaii check out the link below for specific details

and information. 

My dear friend Euphemia Nagashima is a Master Lei Maker and also a E HULA MAU Judge. She is a speaker for the lei workshop.

http://www.motuhawaii.com/Motu_Hawaii/E_Hula_Mau_2015.html

E HULA MAU - Southern California, Annual Hula & Chant Competition

Labor Day Weekend - September 4, 5, & 6, 2015

Terrace Theatre - Long Beach Performing Arts Center

300 East Ocean Blvd - Long Beach, CA 

Box Office 562/436-3661

Tickets can be purchased at Box Office or Ticketmaster

Hawaiian Arts & Crafts - Interactive Workshops - Flavors of the Island Foods

LEI WORKSHOP

STEEL GUITAR & UKULELE WORKSHOP & LECTURE

PLUMERIA WORKSHOP

HULA & HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE WORKSHOPS

HAWAIIAN CULTURAL VILLAGE - Artisans & Crafters

Chef Curtis Stone & Princess Cruises

Some of you might have received information about the recent partnership between Princess Cruises and Chef Curtis Stone. From what I can gather from the information I got and have found on my own that this upcoming Hawaii Cruise on the Ruby Princess

will not be taking on the changes. Bummer! In fact the changes for Ruby Princess will not happen till December 2015 and the Chef Table by Curtis Stone will not be occurring till the January 2016 on specific Princess Cruise ships.

So though it looks like some changes are happening in the culinary department for Princess Cruises, we can expect the status quo of Princess Cruises for our upcoming cruise. 

Here's a video of Chef Curtis Stone talking about his partnership with Princess Cruises. 

Might be fun to explore another cruise destination huh? Well until then check this out...

We have 20 signed up for our Chef’s Table...cross your fingers!

Thank you one and all for your interest in the Ruby Princess Chef’s Table. We officially now have two groups of ten or twenty individuals. A special thank you to Jan Noce for assisting us as lead for the Chef's Table Second Group. Jan can easily share with you her past experience with the Chef Table as we can. So feel free to connect with her if you have any inquiry about this culinary experience. 

Our first priority for embarkation day will be for Roger and I to meet with the 

Maitre’d to hopefully get our 2 groups confirmed for this extraordinary experience.

It is important that you check your stateroom mail box daily, which is located at the entry

of your doorway, as you will be receiving a personal invitation once you are confirmed with a reservation. Again this is a very exclusive invitation as it is limited

to approximately 30-40 individuals per sailing pending each ship.

You may be asked to come to a short 15 minute orientation prior to your Chef Table to meet with the Maitre’d. At that time he will go over the requirements which in the past included wearing closed toed-shoes, so remember to pack this item! 

Please be sure you are carrying your cruise card to dinner as you will be asked to provide your card for payment at the end of the meal. For those not signed up for the wine pairing. You may individually pay for your cocktails or show your beverage card to attain your soda or speciality coffee at the dinner table with your waiter.

Below are the two groups of ten for the hopeful Chef’s Table….
Cross your fingers that Roger and I can get us in on this exclusive reservation.

TABLE ONE (Lead Diana Davis)

1. Diana Davis

2.Roger Davis

3. Karen Vaughn

4. Buzz Vaughn

5.Reagan Miyasaki

6. Gary Heard

7. Rocky Alby

8. Peggy Alby

9. Stella Hacker

10. Andre Mathieu

TABLE TWO (Lead Jan Noce)

1.Jan Noce

2.Jim Berkson

3. JoMary Murphy

4. Michael Murphy

5. Angie Burgh

6. Lien Burgh

7. Wendy Kilgore

8. Norm Kilgore

9. Lee Spar

10. Bob Spar

Diana’s Ten Reason’s Why Vacation on a Cruise Ship is Better then a Land Tour Vacation....

1. You unpack and pack only once!    
   
2. One Bed & Pillow, the whole trip.
3. You have a room steward to help make your bed & more. 
4. No need to wait in line for your entertainment show tickets.
5. Your destination comes to you, not the other way around.
6. Wanna have a few drinks? You don’t have to drive, No DUI & a short walk home!
7. You don’t have to cook and you can select your meals or snacks.
8. Your time - Your call ... relax, be active, socialize or escape!  
9. Captain & Crew on Board...You don’t have to drive or get lost! 
10. BIG SHIP....Plenty of room to be with family and friends, that you can be with or not?! 

Happy Cruising...see you on deck!

TRANSPORTATION TO THE CRUISE TERMINAL

Most recently this past Spring, Roger and I utilized a great transportation service that I wanted to share with you. It is called DEVINE RIDE LIMO SERVICE. The contact person is JOHN. Phone number 949/355-8820. To see what was available, I actually contacted 15 different Town Car/Limo Service in the Orange County area and John was not only the most reasonable but also the most personable.

John was very professional and was early in arriving. He has great follow-up and was in communication with me upon our pick-up as well. His car was very well maintained and clean. We rode in a Black Lincoln Navigator and to my surprise he even had Starbuck’s Coffee waiting in the cup holder for us. Now c’mon that’s a big tug at my Customer Service standard that had me chuckling.

Devine Ride Limo Service is located at 318 W. Avenida Valencia, San Clemente CA 92672.  He is also listed on Yelp and so you can check out other reviews...but personally, we highly recommend him and you will be self assured that he will not disappoint you. Give him a call and make your reservation for your shuttle to the cruise terminal soon! 

Hilo Dive/Snorkel with Rocky - Deadline September 18th!

Below is the flyer that Rocky distributed at the Pre-Cruise Brunch. 

If you are interested in signing up for this non-Princess Cruise

Shore Excursion, please contact Rocky.

Rocky will need a final count by Friday, September 18, 2015

If you would like a smaller group to snorkel or dive with this will be 

a good alternative for other details and information 

please contact Rocky directly.

Hawaiian Names for our Cruisers

The Hawaiian language came from the Malayo-Polynesian language and other Polynesian dialects and was strictly an oral language till the outsiders (New England missionaries) arrived in the 1820’s. The 5 vowels a,e,i,o and u as well as the 8 consonants h,k,l,m,n,p, w and ' (which is called a glottal stop) make up the entire Hawaiian alphabet. In the Hawaiian language a consonant is always followed by a vowel which also means all Hawaiian words end in a vowel. Please note that the glottal stop is not used in phonetic name translations, just literal Hawaiian words.

As Karen and Buzz shared in their Cruise Introduction, names and words are more easily pronounced when they are broken down into single syllable chunks. So check out the name of Hawaii ’s state fish, humuhumunukunukuapua’a, and now try pronouncing it hu-mu-hu-mu-nu-ku-nu-ku-a-pu-a-a.  Was that hard? Now sounding it out phonetically will be easy-peasy, try it... who-moo-who-moo-new-coo-new-coo-ah-poo-ah-ah. Sometimes the letter W is pronounced the same as V as in the traditional pronunciation of Hawai'i which is phonetically pronounced huh-vi-ee rather than huh-why-ee. Now you can sound like a “local” instead of a tourist.

Stressed vowels

a - ah, as in car: aloha

e - a, as in may: nene

i - ee, as in bee: honi

o - oh, as in so: mahalo

u - oo, as in spoon: kapu

Unstressed vowels

a - a, as in about: ali`i

e - eh, as in met: kane

Traditionally Hawaiian name were given by an elder of the family to a child with a specific meaning. The family elder might have received a specific meaning through a dream or a family characteristic that the family would like for the child to represent or a certain distinguished characteristic the child was inherited with. As an example a female name Lani means Heavenly.

There are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian language as you read above. Therefore many of the names may sound similar and have phonetic translation based on the sounds the name makes when said with the Hawaiian alphabet and word structure.

The Hawaiian translations we are providing here are phonetic and have no literal meanings. This was given simply for fun and entertainment. 

Enjoy looking for your name below as the following are all of our cruisers in our group and their Hawaiian name as translated:

ALEX /ALEXANDRA  - “Alika” / “Alekaneka”

ANDRE - “Anakele”

ANDREA - “Anakalia”

ANGIE - “Anie”

BOB - “Lopaka”

BUZZ / CLIFFORD - “Puko” / “Kalipona”
CONNIE - "Kani"

CAROLE - “Kalola” 

DIANA “Kiana”

DEE DEE  “Ki Ki”

DUANE - “Kuane”

ELLIOTT - “Elioka”

FUMI/FUMIKO - “Pumi” /  “Pumiko”

GARY - “Kali”

HOLLY/HORACE - “Hali” /  “Koleka”

IRENE - “Ailina”

JAN - “Lana”  /  Kanike    

JIM - “Kimo”

JO MARY - “Lomalia”

KAREN - “Kalena”

LEE - “Li”

LIEN - “Lieni”

LINDA - “Linaka” 

MICHAEL / MIKE - “Mikale” / “Mikala”

NORM / NORMAN - Nolumu” / “ Nolemana”

PAT/PATRICIA - “Paka” / “Palika”

PEGGY - “Paki” 

REAGAN - “Lekana”

ROCKY - “Loluki”

ROGER - “Lokela”

ROSS - “Loke” / Keoni 

RUSSELL / RUSS - “Lukela” / “Luke”

SARA - “Kala”

SEAN - “Kana” 

STELLA - “Kela”

TED/ THEODORE  - “Keka” / “Keokola” 

WENDY / MARY - “Weniki” / “Malia”

Photo provided by maunalani.com 
Article information and Hawaiian Names adapted and provided by:

www.alohafriendsshop.com

"A Friend in the Islands", company owners: Mike and Kim Crinella  

Hawaii By Cruise Ship, 2nd edition by Anne Vipond