Sunday, September 7th, 2003: Of course we were awake early, we were excited to head off the ship and into Waikiki. We were going to spend the next seven nights at The Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki, while four our friends would be enjoying the next seven nights at The Outrigger Waikiki right next door to us in Waikiki, while the last two of the group were going to be on their way to Maui, to meet friends of theirs and stay on the slopes of Haleakala to finish out their vacation. Needless to say, we were all lQQking forward to leaving the ship and beginning the next set of adventures that awaited us all.

We were greeted by a sleepy Waikiki with some rain and a beautiful pink sky as we could finally see Waikiki and downtown Honolulu just around sunrise. Since it was a bit unclear as to what time we would be allowed to leave the ship only because of the confusing colors of luggage tags we were given, we were just going to enjoy the view of Honolulu as it approached, go and have breakfast at the Versailles and not worry to much about leaving the ship as it was still very early.

The confusion over the "luggage tag colors" was that "our" luggage tag color could have been interpreted as either lilac or violet and both of those colors dictated different times as to what time we would be called to leave the ship. Yet as it turned out it was not even a problem, they called one of the colors and we walked off the ship, never really knowing if that was our color or not.

We had a wonderful breakfast at Versailles once again. All of us anxious to begin the next part of our vacation and also noting how bad we felt for people who were not only leaving the ship as we were but that they would also be going home. We did speak to a number of people, while lounging in the hot tubs, that did not extend their cruises and would be flying out that afternoon. And even tho Norwegian Cruise Lines had revamped their rules to allow people to stay on the ship until 10 A.M. once we docked so they did not have to be rushed before heading out to the airport. We were so lucky to be only at the half way mark of our vacation.

We finished our breakfast, took one last lQQk around this wonderful restaurant and headed back to our cabins to wait patiently for our "colors" to be called.

We all arrived back at our cabins to find a busy whirlwind of staff getting ready for the next passengers that would be arriving later on this afternoon as well as the current passengers trying to make their way off the ship and saying goodbye to new friends and the great crew that had been so helpful to everyone. Even tho it was a bittersweet time for all, there was definitely a tone through out the ship of excitement. We stood out on our lanai's lQQking at the peaceful downtown area of Honolulu and its striking architecture on this gorgeous Sunday morning and I am sure we all felt very fulfilled. We had started talking about this cruise some 16 months before it became reality and at that moment I could not think of one single thing that had made this expereince anything except magical. That is a great feeling, a feeling I will not soon forget.

Finally the "color" lilac was called and we decided we would try and leave the ship, it was 9:45 A.M. and we were all ready to leave. So we walked down to Deck 8 where we were greeted by the ships crew, they thanked us for the opportunity to serve us and we walked off the Norwegian Star.

Once off the ship we made our way down to the "Disembarkation Area" to retrieve our luggage. As we were coming down the elevator we spied our luggage as it was grouped by the "color", which ever color it really was to this day remains a mystery, we walked over to the security guards showed our room cards and we were allowed to gather our luggage and move out of the area to await the rest of our party to join us. Once we all had our luggage, we hugged the two from our group that were heading over to Maui and wished them a good trip. The remaining six of us, grabbed our perspective transporation with the next plan being to meet under the welcoming Banyon Tree in the courtyard at the Moana.

As my "Better Half" and I made our way to an awaiting cab, and our luggage was being loaded in the car, I lQQked back to see the Norwegian Star sitting, majestically awaiting her next passengers and I noted how familiar to me she now lQQked. She was an old friend, who had so welcomed me and made a week of my life memorable and magical from one moment to the next. I would never forget her. Aloha Nui Loa Norwegian Star!

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