Tuesday, September 2nd, 2003: As usual we were up early and enjoying the sunrise and Maui as it approached. I honestly cannot think of anything else in this world that is more beautiful than a sunrise on the shores of an island sitting in the vast Pacific.

We had set up a standing order for fruit and coffee at 6 A.M. with Room Service, which there is no additional charge for, once that arrived it was a very peaceful time to just enjoy the waves crashing against the ship and the beautiful scenery we were being shown. We were meeting our friends at 8 A.M. for breakfast at Versailles on Deck 7. Someone in our group mentioned how breakfast at The Market Cafe, in their opinion, just was not the way they wanted to start their day, and since I could appreciate this, we decided the Versailles and a sit down atmosphere would be the way to go.

We met at Versailles and we were all very impressed immediately upon entering this grand restaurant. It is simply a very elegant, very time less restaurant. As I said to my one left coast girl friend that we were with "It reminds me of a restaurant someone would have found on the Titanic in first class". And for anyone who knows anything about the Titanic, other than its fate, you will understand that statement. We were escorted to a table right in the center of the restaurant and we were immediately greeted by our waiter and served coffee and juice. We lQQked over the menu and as anyone knows on a cruise, the menu is one of the best parts of the meal. The menu had a number of choices and we all agreed that this would be a much better choice for us for breakfast.

The service was excellent as well as the food. One thing I would like to mention here about the "Language Barrier" we had found a few times so far, it seemed to us that the "more seasoned" a staff member was on the ship, the less problem "English" seemed to be. We could only assume that "Newer" staff members may not have made working on a cruise ship a career and as we also noticed they were younger, so perhaps they had had less exposure to English.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first meal in Versailles and we knew we would be back. We continued to enjoy our meal at a leisurely pace as The Star pulled into the Port of Kahului Maui and once we were docked and able to go ashore we did.

We did not choose any shore excursions for Kahului, as when we were planning the cruise, we were actually going to take the Lahaina Shuttle or rent a car and drive over to Lahaina. But since our itinerary changed and we were going to Lahaina on Friday we decided to just wing it in Kahului.

Kahului Maui is more of a modern business and residential area than a tourist mecca. That is not to say it is "Non-Friendly" to tourists. Quit the contrary, it has plenty of things to do, whether you are a tourist off a cruise ship or you are enjoying a few days staying on Maui. Kahului is a great city to wonder around in and enjoy the Aloha Spirit.

So we decided we were going to walk to Queen Kaahumanu Mall, which in my estimation was about 2 miles away. Of course at the time, we did not realize this, we also did not realize there was a shuttle we could have taken, but as I said, we decided to wing it, so we just kinda went with the feeling that we had and walked to the mall. Once at the mall we all had Orange Julius beverages, something I personally miss in the Midwest and set out for a fun day of shopping.

Queen Kaahumanu Mall is a 2 level mall with lots of shops and even tho it is inside, the ceiling is just one big skylight letting all that wonderful Hawaiian sunlight in. The mall has palm trees, but no potted palms here, I think the mall was built around the palms that may have been growing on this location first. Something you find alot of if you visit the Hawaiian Islands with any regularity, they never destroy nature, they use it. You will also find some Hawaiian cultural artifacts, as they share their rich heritage with you. It is a great place to shop and enjoy!

After a few hours of shopping we were ready to go back to the ship for some lunch and libations. Of course this time we took the shuttle back to the ship. We may have had no particular direction in Kahului, but we aren't stupid twice.

Once back on board, we made our way back to "Our Table" and had some of the great burgers and salads from The Grill and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in great conversation and the art of being lazy. Before we knew it the day had gotten away from us and we had not made any reservations for dinner, so we once again decided to wing it and just do the buffet at the The Market Cafe. Each evening of the cruise, The Market Cafe had a different type of buffet. Tonight it was the International Buffet. Again as in our other experiences with The Market Cafe while there was a great selection, the food was just ok at best. For us, we found the restaurants to be the best choice for all of our meals.

After dinner, we went to back to the Stardust Theater for the "Beat of Polynesia". Now we have seen many many Polynesian shows, not only at luaus, which tend to be a little "Hollywood" we have been lucky enough to see authentic dance performed in different venues so we were a little disappointed in this show. The show was only 45 minutes long, which really, in our opinions, is not alot of time for a complete lQQk at the dances of Polynesia as they should be shown and we found the performances to be hurried as well. Authentic ?? Well, I think that must be left up to the person viewing it, but from our experience it was really a second rate show.

After the show, some of us decided to go to the "Cocktail Spectacular" Two For One Martinis at the Star Bar on Deck 13, which is above the Oasis Pool. We really liked the Star Bar, it is a more laid back atmosphere than Dazzles with lots of seating and floor to ceiling windows. It is crescent shaped so a great view is possible from just about anywhere you sit. A grand piano is the source of entertainment in the evening. It is also a great place to get in out of the sun during the day, enjoy a drink and still keep an eye on all the activities at the Oasis Pool.

Alas, our 2 for one Martinis was not ideal. My idea of an "Apple-tini" and the bartenders idea was clearly two different things ...it was terrible. Oh well ...life goes on. We did our best to finish the rather strong drinks and head on back to our cabins at around 11 P.M. in anticipation of our arrival in Hilo on the island of Hawaii or as we know it, The Big Island.

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