Travel to Los Angeles

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Oct 212011
 

Well, after all of the anticipation, the day has finally arrived for us to begin this adventure. Today started out like an ordinary day, Stephanie had to go to work for a few hours, and I was up early to complete the final packing and then to mow the lawn. It was both a work of art and an exercise in patience to get the large suitcases to their 50 lb.maximum weight limit, needing to pack 100% of the items that were going in those bags for the final weigh in, including our toiletries, which were not items we could pack for good until we were ready to depart. It was amazing how little it takes to make that final one pound adjustment, but we finally were able to get both bags to be exactly 50 lbs., at least according to the combined scale reading taken while holding them and standing on our bathroom scale, then deducting our actual body weight.

Of course, my plan to have the carry on bags “almost empty, except for some shoes”, did not pan out, not even close. It was not a matter of available space in the larger suitcases, the weight limit was our enemy. The carry on bags ended up being entirely full, to the extent that we were placing small items inside our packed shoes to maximize space. At least we knew we would be able to redistribute items into the larger bags once we were back on the ground in Los Angeles, once we were no longer dealing with the airlines imposed weight limits.  We will be able to expand the larger bags and have plenty of room for adding items to them once their weight is no longer a factor.

We departed for the airport right on time at noon. At least we knew that the weather was not going to be a factor in the air travel, it was sunny here and clear skies in both Atlanta, our connection point, and in Los Angeles, our final destination. We only had a slight issue with the check-in at the Delta counter, which we knew was most likely to happen. We had to explain the reservations being separate due to the limitations on the Delta online system, mine was totally paid for by miles, Stephanie’s was a combination of miles and money. The discussion was centered around the one free checked bag, and the reservations being made on our Delta AMEX card, which enabled us to get the benefit of the one free bag. However, in the end, it all worked out, and we did not pay any baggage charges. Then came the real challenge, would our bag weighing efforts be accurate enough for the Delta scales. One bag was perfect on the scales, weighing in at a solid 50 lbs., but the other seemed to want to fluctuate between 50 and 51, but nothing was said by the gate attendant, both bags were accepted without question, and off we went to the gate for our flight.

Once at the gate, the attendants were making announcements about the flight being full, and offering to check any carry on bags to the final destination for free. We decided we would take advantage of this offer, and we went to the desk and checked our carry on bags through to Los Angeles. As it turned out, we were really glad we did. The plane for the Atlanta flight was an older Boeing 757, with ultra small overhead bins. In addition, even though we had an early Zone number for boarding, by the time we got to our seats, the overhead bins were full. It has become really competitive to get carry on baggage storage space on almost any flight since the airlines first imposed the baggage fees. We both had to put our back packs under the seat, which was fine for this short flight.

The flight to Atlanta left on time, and arrived on time. We arrived in Terminal B and had to go to Terminal A for our next flight. On the way, we stopped to get a sandwich wrap at one of the restaurants. We knew we had a short layover, and by the time we got to the gate, boarding had already begun, and our boarding zone had already been announced.  Once again, by the time we got to our seats, a lot of the overhead bins were full, and we would not have had enough space for both the carry on bags and for our backpacks, it was tight just for the backpacks. This was another older generation plane with mini sized overhead bins.  Once again we were thankful that we had taken advantage of the offer to check the carry on bags.

Flight to Los Angeles

The flight to Los Angeles was smooth and uneventful, the weather was clear the whole way. We actually landed a little early, but the plane went to a terminal that was under construction, and it was a little confusing to navigate through all of the temporary passage ways. We actually had to go over to an adjacent terminal to claim our bags. We had been forewarned about the longer than normal walk to baggage claim, but in the end, it was not really that bad. Within 10 minutes we had all of our bags in hand, alleviating any worries about lost luggage.

 The next step was exiting the terminal to find the “Super Shuttle” stop outside in the transportation area. We found the representative, and checked in with our prepaid reservation and waited for our shuttle van to arrive. It came within 5 minutes and we were off to the hotel. Unfortunately, we were going to San Pedro, and all of the other passengers were heading to Long Beach, which is actually farther away from the airport than our destination. Clearly this was an example of majority rules, so we had to be patient while we made three stops at Long Beach hotels for our fellow shuttle passengers. Long Beach was indeed farther away than San Pedro as witnessed by seeing the San Pedro exits pass by on the interstate as we headed over to Long Beach. It ended up being a nice diversion, other than the additional time.  We took some passengers to the Queen Mary, which is the old retired ocean liner from yesteryear that has been converted into a hotel, restaurants and shopping areas. It would have been nice to see the ship in the daytime, but it was still interesting.

We finally made it over to the Doubletree in San Pedro, and checked in. We were able to glean some information from the Super Shuttle about the process of getting back to the airport after the cruise is completed. We have a time specific reservation, but the driver indicated we could get on an earlier shuttle if we were able to disembark the ship earlier than our reservation time. At least we now know we have that flexibility.

Check in at the hotel went smoothly, the best part being the fresh hot chocolate chip cookies that Doubletree is known for. We inquired about the free shuttle to the ship for Saturday, and signed up for earliest available time slot, which was 12 noon. We had hoped for an earlier shuttle, but they were already booked. We also asked about the hotel shuttle for our shopping trip to the grocery store, and were told it was available, so we headed for our room to drop off the bags and get ready for the last chore, grocery shopping for supplies to take onto the ship.

This is where, as Stephanie likes to say ” the wheels fell off”, trying to coordinate the shuttle ride to and from Von’s, the local grocery store. Apparently, the shuttle driver is also the bell hop, and there was a flight crew from Tahitian Airlines leaving for the airport, and he was scheduled to help them to load their luggage, and would not be available until after 9 PM. Our other choice was a taxi, so we had them call one and we had to wait for 20 minutes for the taxi to arrive. It was a classic case of which would happen first, the taxi arriving, or the bell hop finishing his luggage loading duties. One thing we learned, it is hard to be patient when you are tired, and we were both tired after having traveled all day. Finally, the taxi arrived and off we went to the grocery. At least we knew that the hotel shuttle would pick us up if we called, and that by the time we finished our shopping, the bell hop/driver should be completed with the his other task.

The Von’s was a nice store, and at 9 pm at night, was eerily quiet.   Not many shoppers were out at that time of night. Luckily, they are open until midnight, so there was no concern about our getting there before they closed. We stocked up on our supplies, and called for the hotel shuttle, and surprisingly, we were picked up within 10 minutes. So in the end, the shopping adventure turned out well, just taking longer than our tired minds and bodies had wanted.

We finally turned in about 10:30 PM, it indeed felt like 1:30 AM to us with the three hour time difference. It had been a long day, but we were able to accomplish everything we had set out to do, and in the end, nothing really went badly, and we were thankful for that.

Tomorrow morning, we will expand and repack the large suitcases so we can add the grocery store purchases to the carry on bags, and be ready to head over to the ship at our scheduled noon shuttle time.

Embarkation Day – Saturday

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Oct 222011
 

Morning came early on our Embarkation Day, the three hour time change will take us a couple of days to adjust to. We were up at about 5:00 AM, our bodies thinking it was really 8:00 AM. We ate the danish we had picked up in the Von’s grocery store last night for our breakfast, and used the in room coffee maker for brewing my coffee.

We needed to complete the repacking of the suitcases to try and accommodate the added items from the grocery store run. We expanded the large suitcases, which actually increased their size more than we had remembered. After moving some items over from the carry on suitcases, we added some of the beverages to the smaller bags. Once that was complete, we took a short walk around the marina area outside of the hotel.

Doubletree Hotel – San Pedro

It was a foggy morning, and a little cool, and we ended up going back to the room for our jackets. Of course, about 20 minutes later, the sun finally peaked through the fog and clouds, and it turned much warmer. It was interesting looking into the water in the marina, it was surprisingly clear, and there were many large star fish on the rocks along the edges. There were various colors, some white, some red, and some were an orange color. There was also some Kelp growing in the marina, which was interesting to see in real life for the first time.

After about a 30 minute walk, we headed back to the room. Since our scheduled time for the shuttle to the cruise ship was at noon, we still had about 2 more hours of waiting. We watched some of the Clemson football game on ESPN.   It was strange to be watching live football at 10:00 AM in the morning, it was a 12 noon start time for the game on Eastern time. Once again, we found ourselves  impatiently waiting around for a scheduled event to occur. After yesterday and this morning, we were becoming tired of all of the waiting, but we knew it would not be much longer and we would finally be on the ship.

Our scheduled noon shuttle time finally came and we boarded the van along with some of our fellow hotel guests for the short trip over to the pier. With all of the luggage and passengers aboard, the shuttle headed to the port. The baggage drop off went smoothly, and we headed inside the cruise terminal to check in. Since this cruise was mostly made up of frequent cruisers, the advantages we normally see in shorter lines for our Princess Platinum benefit of preferred check in was not to be found. One of the ladies directing passengers indicated that about 75% of the passengers on this cruise were “preferred” status for boarding, so there were no quicker lines.

It took about 15 minutes to check in, then another 25 minutes to go through the security screening for the carry on luggage and personal metal detection screening, just like for the airlines. Then after another line for the final passport check to confirm we were the same persons as our cruise cards, we finally boarded the ship. After one more line to check into the ship’s on board security system, and of course, the boarding photo, we finally made it to our stateroom.   For the first time in two days, we could finally relax, no more lines, no more impatient waiting.

Port of Los Angeles

We were greeted by our cabin steward, Edgardo Perez, who was from the Philippines. He was really nice, and we could actually understand him, which has not always the case for some of our previous cabin stewards.

We had the emergency drill at 3:30 PM, and then were informed by the Captain that our departure would be delayed about an hour for completion of the ship’s refueling. There had been a barge along side the ship for the entire time we had been aboard, and we could see it was still there, adding as much fuel as possible  for this long voyage.

Finally, at about 5:15 PM, the dock lines were let go and the Sapphire Princess headed out to sea. As soon as we were outside the breakwater, the fog really set in, and visibility was less than a quarter mile, so there was not going to be a good sunset for photos tonight, although we took a few pictures as the sun  sank behind the fog bank.

Heading Out to Sea

We spent some time exploring the ship, then went to the buffet for dinner, which is our tradition on the first night of any cruise. We were just too tired to go through the dining room experience. In addition, our large luggage had not yet made it to the room, so we had limited clothes available in our carry on baggage, and did not have the proper “smart casual” attire for the dining room anyway.

After dinner, we walked around the ship some more, ending up in the Princess Theater to watch a portion of the comedy show. We headed back to the room, and found that our luggage had finally made it, so we unpacked and put everything away. It was not until then that we both felt like we were finally on vacation and could totally relax.

It was foggy outside for the entire time until we went to sleep, and the ship’s fog horn was sounding off about every 3 minutes. It was nice that the seas were calm for the first night.

Sea Day 1 – Heading to Hawaii

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Oct 232011
 

This morning, once again, we were up much too early, we were still adjusting to the time change, and what does the ship do, but move the clocks back an additional hour to help us out!! Now, we are 4 hours earlier than the East Coast. Just to add insult to injury, we get to adjust the clock an additional hour each of the next two nights to get us to Hawaii time, a total of 6 hours ahead of Eastern time. Maybe when we get there, we will finally be adjusted to all of the time changes.

I woke up about 4:00 AM, which to my body was a late 8:00 AM eastern time. Trying to “sleep in” I was able to extend that until 6:00 AM, and then got up to get coffee. Stephanie did a little better, sleeping until I woke her up with my scurrying about to get dressed to make my coffee run. I guess we could use room service for the coffee, but we don’t know what time to tell them to deliver the coffee, and surely as our luck would have it, we will tell them early, they will knock on the door, and it will be the day we finally sleep longer. Maybe later in the cruise.

It was not as foggy this morning, but it was still overcast. The wind was calm, but there was about a 6 ft. side swell from the north. Perfect conditions for the initial day at sea to get used to the movement. We got dressed and headed to breakfast at the buffet around 9:00 AM current ship’s time.

Afterward, we went to look around at the shops, and purchased a coffee card at the coffee bar. The coffee card is good for 15 different cups of specialty coffees, unlimited servings of fresh brewed coffee, and also came with a free stainless coffee mug. We were not able to find an inexpensive coffee mug during our excursion to the Von’s grocery store Friday night, so this was an added bonus, and helped defer the cost of the card.

Floral Arrangement Demonstration

There was a florist arrangement demonstration that was being held in the Atrium area, and that was interesting to learn how long they can store the fresh cut flowers in their special refrigerators on the ship. Most of the flowers they used were from Hawaii, picked up on the previous cruise. We then went to exercise at the gym, we both did the elliptical machine for about 30 minutes. I had never done one before, and found it was a little different, but certainly did get your heart rate up.

We then went to a free ukulele class.  The shipboard music director brought 16 ukulele’s to lend out for the lessons, plus a book showing the chords and some songs. It was a lot of fun, not too different from playing a guitar, except much smaller, and of course, there are only 4 strings. There are lessons every day for the next several days, and apparently, a concert  for all of the students to play in after we leave from Hawaii, a cruise ukulele recital of sorts.

Ukulele Lessons

Then it was off to lunch in the buffet.

The sun never did come out today, and it only got to about 65 degrees, which we had expected the first day out of Los Angeles. Tomorrow’s forecast is for sunny skies, and 75 degrees. However, the winds and seas are forecast to increase over the next couple of days.

One of the interesting things was that NFL football came on so early in the day for the adjusted ship’s time, the first games were on at 9:00 AM. Sunday Night Football will come on in the afternoon at 4:30 PM, so  it should be called Sunday Afternoon Football out here.

We played some cards in the room, sipping on some wine and watching Sunday Night (Afternoon) Football on the TV. It seemed to be warming up a little outside, although the sun never came out. At least the water temperature is rising, it is about 67 degrees now as we head south westward.

Tomorrow night is the first of the four formal nights, so the first thing we did yesterday after the luggage came was to give our Cabin Steward, Edgardo, my Tux and two formal shirts for dry cleaning and pressing. These were delivered this afternoon, so no worries waiting on them to show up at the last minute tomorrow, been there, done that on a previous cruise, and it is not fun going down to the atrium area to visit the Purser’s Desk when everyone else is all dressed up and you are in shorts looking for your tux 30 minutes before needing to put it on for dinner.

We went to dinner tonight in the dining room, the dress was smart casual. We went to the Pacific Fusion Dining Room, one of four themed dining rooms for Anytime Dining. We thought that each of the themed dining rooms was going to have some specialty items on the menu, but they are all serving exactly the same thing. Maybe this was a Princess trial or test of specialty dining in the past, but it has transitioned into just four ordinary dining rooms with different names. I am not sure that they are decorated differently inside since we have only been to the one. Maybe when this ship was built they tried to see if having different types of dining rooms, or specialty foods, was a better idea.   Apparently not, since they have been converted back into normal dining spaces with no differences in the types of food served.

The dining experience was slow for the amount of passengers eating at that time, but the food was good. We resisted eating any bread, and split a desert. We both had the Tenderloin, which was very tender and cooked to our request. We also ordered a side dish of another entrée, which was shrimp in a bisque sauce. It was also good. We split a cheesecake for dessert. Overall, it was a good meal, but the service was a little slow, so we were not able to finish dinner before the comedy show started that we had planned to attend.

We did hear from a couple sitting at the table next to us that the weather forecast for tomorrow was worse than had been previously stated, so we are not sure if we will see sunshine tomorrow either. One good thing was that we do not change the clocks again tonight, so I guess we will change them the following two nights, which seems like it would cause confusion for the night right before we stop at the first port in Maui. Surely, someone will forget to switch their clock and be early for their shore excursion.  At least that is better than being late.

It was a restful day, which we needed after all of the traveling and changes in time.

 

 

Sea Day 2 – Heading to Hawaii

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Oct 242011
 

It was another early wake up time for me in our cabin today. All of the time changes still have us a little sleep confused, especially me. The seas are indeed a little rougher this morning, but as this is being written, it is still dark outside, and I can’t really tell how rough it is. Stephanie is still sleeping in, but I have already made a coffee run, and completed the posting for yesterday. It is nice that there is wireless in the rooms on this voyage, in the past we had to go to a public area to get a strong enough signal. Now, we can do the postings from the comfort of our cabin desk.

So far, we have been able to manage using only about 6 minutes of connection time for each of the two posts we have done from the ship. Of course, we have not yet posted many pictures, and that can dramatically increase the upload time. I am running a copy of the blog on my laptop computer so that I can write the posting there, and insert the pictures where I want them to be. Then, all I have to do is copy the HTML code for the post, change a couple of items designating the folder where the pictures are located,  to point to the online server folder location versus my local computer folder location, and then go online and paste the HTML code into the real blog post server. Then we upload the pictures to the blog server while online, and wallah, the post is done. Of course, it is a little more complicated than that, but still relatively easy. We do have to edit the pictures to decrease their file size to “blog size” before we upload them. It took several previous trips to work out all of the steps in this process, all attempting  to minimize the shipboard internet connection time required to upload to the blog server.  We only have a limited amount of minutes of shipboard internet access due to cost, and the actual time on the slow shipboard satellite connection, as compared to home internet speeds,  can cause frustration in itself.

Stephanie has just started to “proof’ the posts, so there may be some errors in spelling and word selections that may not be misspelled, but are not the correct word for the sentence.

Once Stephanie got up, we headed to the spa to exercise.  After exercising in the spa area, we headed to breakfast at the buffet. By the time we finished breakfast, it was time to go and sign up for the classes they are offering on making lei’s out of real orchids which Stephanie wants to attend. We went down to the Library where the sign up was to be held and found quite a long line of people already waiting. We got in line and talked with some different folks while we slowly crept forward. After at least 40 minutes of waiting, Stephanie was signed up for the third class on October 31, which is the day after we leave the last Hawaiian port. At least the flowers should be fresh since they all come from Hawaii. Some of the classes will be held on the next two sea says from today, so they get the “old” flowers, ha ha.

Finally Some Sunshine

The sun finally came out this morning at about 10:00 AM, it was nice to see after all of the cloudy weather days. The air temperature was still a little cool, and with the wind, it was only warm in sunny areas on the outside decks that were protected from the wind. We went around the ship taking some pictures of the blue skies and blue seas. We then headed to the Atrium to watch a demonstration on making different types of martinis. There is a Martini Bar on the ship, and the bartenders from that bar put on quite a show making the various martinis.  The people they picked out of the audience to taste them were required to first perform embarrassing “dances” while shaking up their Martinis. It was actually a funny event, and we really enjoyed the show.

There was a special sushi buffet set up for lunch, so we tried that, and as we had found many times on previous cruises, the sushi on the ships is not very good. The rice is really gummy and the sushi is very dense. There were also some hot Asian dishes which were not bad. After lunch, it was time for Ukulele class, so we headed to the Wheelhouse Bar for class number two. We had expected the class to shrink in size compared to yesterday, but actually found that there were a lot of additional newcomers. This caused an issue with there being a need to share the 16 available loaner Ukulele’s, and also required the instructor to spend most of the class going over the basics that were covered in the first class, so it was very tedious and boring for the students that had attended the day before. Then everyone from the first day’s class was asked to give their Ukulele’s to the newer students, so practice time with an actual instrument was very limited. We would have gotten just as far if we had not attended the day before.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to the hot tubs at the Spa area and met two sisters that were traveling together. They were originally from Colorado, but one was now living in California, the other was still in Colorado. One of the sisters was actually a Catholic nun, and the one living in California was the voice of one of the characters on Sponge Bob Square Pants. They were very nice and quite interesting to talk with.

Rainbow at Sea

We headed back to the room for some adult refreshments on the balcony, and set up the music system with the iPod. We had decided not to go to the main dining room for dinner tonight, it is the first formal night of the cruise.  We really did not feel like dressing up in all of the formal wear, and the menu for the dinner was not that spectacular. The ship passed by a rainstorm, and a beautiful rainbow appeared as the ship passed by. It was not too far away, you could actually see where the rainbow appeared to touch the water.

Stephanie ordered one of the appetizers from the main dinner menu through room service, and unfortunately, it took them over an hour and four phone calls before it was delivered to us. We were not happy that it took so long.

I headed up to take pictures of the sunset, it was the first one we were able to see because of all of the fog and clouds for the first two days of the cruise.

Sunset at Sea

We got ready for dinner and headed up to the buffet. It was interesting to see that there were quite a lot of other passengers with the same idea, just relaxing and not getting all dressed up. It was also interesting that there were actually some folks dressed up in formal wear that were eating in the buffet. I guess they dressed up to attend the champagne waterfall event in the Atrium, but did not want to go to the dining room for dinner. There are still three more formal nights during the trip, so we will dress up next time.

After dinner, we headed to the Explorer’s Lounge for the early comedy show by an entertainer named Scott Wyler. We should have realized that this was scheduled for the early seating dining crowd, and due to the age group of the cruise, I believe this is the majority of the passengers. We arrived thirty minutes before the show, and there was not a seat to be had in the lounge. The crew ended up setting up some folding chairs, and we were able to get a couple of those for the show. The comedian was  good and we enjoyed the show.

We were pretty tired, so after walking around and listening to a few of the other musicians that were in the Atrium, we headed back to the room. There will be another time change tonight, so tomorrow, we will be 5 hours earlier than Eastern Time, with only one more hour to change before we are on Hawaii time.

Tomorrow, we have an interview with the Maitre’d at 10:00 AM as part of the Chef’s Dinner that we signed up to attend during the cruise. They actually interview the folks attending this special event to determine the menu items. That should be interesting, but unfortunately, it is at the same time as the next Ukulele class. We are not sure when the Chef’s dinner will be held, hopefully it will be on a sea day. We will probably find out tomorrow. We will provide some additional information on the entire event in tomorrow’s post.

Sea Day 3 – Heading to Hawaii, Still

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Oct 252011
 

Thankfully, we actually were able to sleep in a little more today, even though we had another time change last night. A little more as in being able to sleep in until 6:00 AM on the new time. We are now only 1 hour away from Hawaii time. We awoke to mostly sunny skies, although there were enough clouds around to diminish the beauty of the sunrise, at least from a photo perspective. I did get up early enough to try to take some sunrise photos, only to see the distant rain storms blocking the sunrise on the horizon.

When Stephanie got up, we went for a few laps of walking around the ship on the Promenade deck, then we went to the buffet again for breakfast. Then it was back for showers and getting ready for the 10:00 AM appointment with the Maître d’ to find out more information on the Chef’s Dinner. We found out that we will be with a group of 12 passengers, and the night for our special dinner will be on November 2. The dinner starts out with a tour of the kitchen, followed by hors d’ouvres and then the special dinner. Several of the other passengers we met at the gathering today have attended the Chef’s Dinner before, and they said it was a great experience, and were glad to be able to do it again.  Unfortunately, the Chef’s Dinner orientation was at the same time as the Ukulele class, so I missed out on that.

Since this was a sunny morning, and it was much warmer than yesterday, we applied sunscreen and headed up to the pool deck to get a little sun time. The wind was blowing in the same direction that the ship was heading, so there was virtually no relative wind on the decks. It actually got to be pretty hot, which was unusual after a couple of days of cool weather. We ended up just eating lunch out in the lounge chairs, Stephanie had pizza, and I had a hamburger, with some blue cheese added for a little extra kick. we met a couple from California that were sitting in the chairs next to us, they were both realtors, and had their own realty business. They had been on the Hawaii cruise several times before, and were filling us in on some of the things to do and see on the various islands.

Around 2:00 PM we headed over to the the art auction.  Of course, we were looking forward to enjoying the free champagne. These auctions are actually interesting, we get to learn about some of the artists, and get a feeling for the price of the artwork.  After the auction, we headed back to the room to sit out on the balcony and read, while enjoying the peacefulness of the passing ocean. We had a couple of refreshments before getting ready for dinner.

Tonight, we went to a different dining room, the Santa Fe, and had a much more enjoyable dining experience. Our waiter, Georgiana was from Mexico, and was very attentive and provided us with excellent service. This restaurant had a Southwestern theme, and they actually did have some specialty items to serve that were not on the normal menu, which was different than we had previously thought. One of the menu items here was fajitas, and Stephanie ordered them for dinner. Both of our meals were very good, and we will be trying to reserve a table with Georgiana for tomorrow night. It is always nice to find a wait staff that seems to fit in with our personalities, sometimes it takes us a few nights to find someone that we like. At least we have that option with the personal choice dining, we don’t have to worry about having someone we don’t like for the entire cruise, and also don’t have to worry about having table mates we may not like for the cruise duration either. I think the wait staff likes to serve people they get along with, they also enjoy the positive interaction, and the possibility of getting a few extra dollars in tips, which its what they strive for, to increase their income, but to also enjoy serving the passengers.

After dinner, we went to a game show in the Explorers Lounge called “Yes and No”. The contestants get asked questions by the entertainment staff, and you can’t say the words “yes” or “no” in the answers. The time limit to win is 3 minutes, and of about 20 contestants, no one was able to go for the full duration, it was actually amazing and funny seeing how the well trained staff could get passengers to fail.

When the show was over, we tried to find somewhere on the decks where we could see the stars, but unfortunately, there is so much lighting on the decks that it ruins your night vision. We found one area on the stern that was dimly lit, and were able to see some stars, but not nearly as many as I would have thought. I guess they need the extra lighting on deck for security and safety, but it would be nice to have one deck up high that was less lighted for stargazing.

We did not take many pictures today, it was too cloudy for the sunrise, and it also ended up being cloudy for the sunset. Really nothing to photo today except a lot of really blue water.

Sea Day 4 – Almost to Lahania, Maui

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Oct 262011
 

Sunrise – Sea Day Four

The sunrise was more spectacular this morning, there was a lot of red color being reflected by some clouds that were low on the horizon. Sunrise this morning was at about 6:50 AM, so after getting some coffee, it was off to photograph the sunrise. Of course, Stephanie was still taking advantage of her sleep time when I was out and about for all of this photo activity. Unfortunately, after all of the caution and precautions of hand washing, using copious amounts of hand sanitizer before and during the meals, I somehow woke up this morning with a scratchy throat. Not the way I wanted my day to begin.

When I returned from the photo excursion on the stern of the ship, I found that Stephanie was out on the balcony enjoying the early morning. I had stopped off at the buffet area and brought a supply of hot coffee back to the room in one of our stainless steel water containers. After some coffee, we both headed to the gym for some exercise on the elliptical machines. Afterward, it was breakfast time once again in the buffet. It is certainly easier to watch how much and what we eat for breakfast at the buffet as compared to a full sit down breakfast at the dining room, at least for us it is.

Once we were finished with breakfast, we went back to the room and put on sunscreen for some time up by the pool in the deck chairs. It was mostly sunny, but occasionally, the ship passed through some showers, sometimes they were very light, sometimes the were quite heavy. At 11:00 AM, we were off to another Ukulele class. I had not missed much yesterday when I was unable to go to the class because of the chef’s dinner orientation. There were still some newcomers, but the instructor spent less time trying to get them up to speed, much to the enjoyment of the rest of the class members who had attended all of the previous sessions. I had not missed anything of substance, so I was able to easily catch up and fit right in.

Passing Rain Showers

After the class, we headed back up to the sun deck by the pool to enjoy the sunshine. It has been nice the past couple of days, the ship and the wind are generally headed in the same direction, so there is very little relative wind up on the open decks. We could see some heavy rain showers approaching, so we decided this was a good opportunity to get a bite to eat for lunch. Unfortunately, a lot of other folks had the same idea, so it was pretty crowded in the buffet area, and especially difficult to find a table to sit at. I am always perplexed to see groups of people in the eating areas that are sitting at a table and playing games, there are so many other areas on the ship where this can be done and not impact the availability of those tables for their intended purpose, eating. Oh well, just people being people.

After lunch, we headed back up to the pool area, and found some entertainment in watching the pool games. The games are a lot different when the average age of the contestants looked to be late 50’s or better, as compared to a Caribbean cruise with a younger crowd. Some of the contestants really struggled with some of the pool games, but you have to give them credit for trying. We thought one man was going to have a heart attack, he was really out of shape.

At 2:00 PM, we headed to the Wheelhouse Bar for a presentation on various types of rum, including a rum tasting. It was interesting, they gave the histories of several of the larger rum distilleries, and explained the differences in the dark and light rums, and how they are made. There was a demonstration on how to make some rum drinks, and then there was the tasting. The tasting cups were small plastic containers similar to what we have seen used at communion at Protestant church services.

Snacks on the Balcony

Once that was completed, we headed up to the buffet area for a snack, they happened to have chips and salsa, so we got a couple of bowls of everything, and headed back to our balcony to enjoy our afternoon snack. The ship passed close by to a few rain showers, and each one of them formed a rainbow off the side of the ship. They seemed so close, and seemed to touch the water nearby.

We decided not to go to dinner in the dining room after looking at the dinner menu posted outside one of the dining rooms earlier in the day, and not seeing anything being served that interested us. Also, there was a comedy show starting at 8:00 PM that we wanted to see, it was a juggler named Dan Bennett. We had seen the very end of his show last night, so we wanted to catch the rest, and he only had one show tonight. If we went to the dining room at 7:00 PM, our normal time, there was no way we would make the show. Actually, we were late to his show last night due to the duration of our dinner in the dining room.

Rainbow From Passing Shower

This gave us a little time to head to the hot tubs in the bow of the ship near to the gym and spa areas. When we arrived, we found we had the entire area to ourselves. It has been interesting to see that the majority of passengers on this cruise like to go to the early traditional seating dinner at 5:15 PM.  The ship almost seems to be a ghost town during that time period. On other cruises, we have experienced a fairly even distribution of passengers going to early and late seating times in the dining room. It seems that on this cruise, at least 75% of passengers are going to the early seating dinner. It also seems like the show times have been moved up accordingly. There used to always be an early show for the early diners, and a late show for the later seating at 8:15 PM. On this cruise, it seems they want the late seating crowd to go the the early show at 6:00 PM, before dinner, and then the early seating passengers to go to the 8:00 show after their dinner. For us, it defeats the purpose of attending  the late seating dinner if you have to get dressed and go to a show first.

The buffet ended up having several of the same dishes as we saw posted on the dinner menu for the dining rooms, and then several other good items. I think we felt that the food choices were better at the buffet tonight. We headed to the show about 30 minutes before it was supposed to start, only to find that the lounge was already full of those early seating passengers, the same issue we had two nights ago for another show. We did eventually find a seat, several folks left after the pre-show band concluded their musical performance. The juggler was excellent, he did some unbelievable things, and we really enjoyed his show.

We decided to make an early evening of it, mainly because we needed to pack some gear and get ready for our first port stop tomorrow in Lahaina on the island of Maui. It is a tender port, so we are sure there will be a line to get onto the tenders. We are planning on getting to the holding area for tender tickets at about 7:30 AM, so our wake up call is at 6:00 AM. Once again, we move the clocks again tonight to get us on Hawaii time, 6 hours earlier than Eastern time.

Lahaina, Maui – First Port of Call

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Oct 272011
 

This morning, we arrived at the port town of Lahaina, on the island of Maui. This is a tender port, meaning that we will have to go ashore using the ship’s large lifeboats that are also used to ferry passengers ashore from the ship when there is no dock for the ship to berth at. Since the tender rides are on a first come, first served basis, we needed to get to the holding area early. Today, we are only in port from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM,  but having to use tenders can add time to the process of getting on and off of the ship.

Heading Toward Lahaina, Maui

Wake up time this morning was at 5:15 AM, which is more like getting up to go to work than for vacation. However, we needed to be able to get ready, go to breakfast, and then go to the waiting area to be on the first tenders going ashore. The plan for our day is to rent a car from Hertz, which is the only rental car agency in the actual port town, and is within walking distance from the dock area where the tenders let you off.  All of the other car rental companies are at the nearby airport, which is about a 15 minute shuttle ride or longer away. It also happens to be in the opposite direction of the route we are taking today, which is to go and drive part of what is called the Hana Highway. The worst part of the shuttle service is that only the rental car driver can take the shuttle to get the rental car, all car passengers have to wait at the ship to be picked up by the driver after getting the rental car. That is also the case for the car return, but even worse is that the last shuttle service from the rental companies at the airport is at 4:00 PM, which is much earlier than the ship’s departure at 5:30 PM. With Hertz, we can use the drop off box, and then walk back to the ship, allowing us to extend our day closer to the actual time we need to be back on the ship.

We arrived at the tender holding area, one of the dining rooms, at about 7:30 AM. There was already a short line, but we secured tender tickets for the first group to go ashore. We boarded the tender at close to 8:15 AM, and were ashore about 15 minutes later. It was about a seven block walk to the rental car company, and we actually beat the Hertz shuttle service there, allowing us to get our car before the lines started. We were not sure there would be a Hertz shuttle at the pier, but a couple of the passengers on the tender were also using Hertz, and indicated there was a shuttle service, but were not sure what time they would be there to pick up passengers. Apparently, the shuttle was waiting near the tender drop off, but we did not see it when we left the tender. It was actually nice to stretch our legs some on land after the four days at sea.

We rented a small Subaru, and off we went to drive the Hana Highway. We had already entered the cross street location of the start of the Hana Highway into our GPS the day prior to arrival, and so we had no trouble getting out of Lahaina, and on to the correct road to the town of Kahului, which is where the Hana Highway starts. This was about a 45 minute drive from Lahaina, although it is only about 25 miles away.  The long drive time was due to lower speed limits and curvy roads. The Hana Highway is a winding road that goes from Kahului to the city of Hana, and has some of the best views in Maui. Since the speed limit is only about 25 mph, and there are a lot of bridges that are one lane where you have to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before proceeding, we already knew that we would not be able to drive the entire distance to Hana in the amount of time we had for our port call. In addition, there are many areas to stop at to view waterfalls, and other scenic areas, adding time to the drive.

We had picked a point about 25 miles down the highway towards Hana as the target distance that we planned to travel today before we turned around and headed back.

Stephanie on a One Way Bridge

After arriving at Kahului, we turned onto Highway 36, known as the Hana Highway. All of the stories we had read about the road were true, it was very winding, and the lanes were narrow. It took a little while to get used to crossing the bridges, which are all one lane. There are places on the road indicating where you are to wait to yield to oncoming traffic. Most of the time, you can see the other side of the bridge, sometimes, it is not as easy. Most of the traffic was going in our direction, but occasionally, there was some traffic going the other way, requiring us to wait until they cleared the bridge. We realized that since we were only going part of the way, we would be going against the “normal” flow of traffic on the way back.

Lower Puohokama Falls

The first stop was at the Lower Puohokama Falls, which required us to walk a short distance on a trail to see the falls. The falls were nice, and the vantage point from the trail gave us a good opportunity for photos. A little farther down the trail, we could also see the ocean from the path. Heading back to the car, we were off again to the next scenic area.

Falls at the Pua'a Ka'a State Park

Falls at the Pua’a Ka’a State Park

The next stop was at the Pua’a Ka’a State Park to view another waterfall. It was becoming apparent as we looked at the waterfalls in the guide book, that there had not been much rain lately in this area. Most of the “waterfalls” were only small trickles of water as compared to the photos in the guidebook. The book did explain that there were periods of time where the waterfalls were pretty dry, and this seemed to be the case for today. This was the case for the waterfall at Pua’a Ka’a, it was barely worth the walk up to see it.

Hanawi Falls

We then drove to the last waterfall we would be able to visit before turning around and heading back to Lahaina. It is called the Hanawi Falls, and actually had a little more water flowing over it than some of the others we had visited.

The next stop was at the Waikana Falls. We actually had passed this falls on the drive out, but did not stop to see it at that time because when we had passed it the first time, it was too crowded in the small parking area to stop without parking out in the road. This time, we were able to pull into the parking area and take some pictures before it became more crowded. People seemed to come in waves, when we had first arrived there were only a few people, then all of a sudden there were many more. It was one of the nicer falls to photograph, so we set up the tripod so we could take a picture of us and the waterfall together. That became more difficult as the crowd increased.

Waikana Falls

This was to be our last stop on the Hana Highway before we completed the return trip back to Kahului. Although we had only gone 25 miles on the Hana Highway, it took us about 90 minutes to drive that distance back to Kahului, indicating just how curvy the roads were. Stephanie actually had a couple of bouts with some mild motion sickness, mainly caused by trying to read the guide book to help us determine where the various stops were for sightseeing. I was so occupied with driving, it did not bother me, but I am sure I would have also been bothered by the motion if I were reading.

We decided to stop at the Walmart in Kahului and pick up some provisions for the sea days ahead on the cruise. Walmart’s are just about everywhere in the Hawaiian Islands, and now knowing this, we could have picked up some of the items we brought from home, and lightened our luggage. Prices were not that much more than home on most items that we would have needed. However, not having been here before, we had played it safe and brought them with us from home.

Dragon’s Teeth at Makalua-puna Point

We then headed back to Lahaina, and arrived at about 2:30 PM. Since we were a little early, we headed north up the Ka’anapali Coast. This is the area where all of the hotels and golf courses are on the western coast of Maui. We decided to head to an area called the Dragon’s Teeth on the Makalua-puns Point near Kapalua. This is an interesting lava formation right on the coast that appears to look like dragon’s teeth due to how the lava has weathered and has been bleached by the salt spray. The point is in an area of property owned by the Ritz-Carlton, and also near another area where during construction of the hotel, they had discovered an area where Hawaiian remains had been buried. The area near the point is now designated as a sacred burial grounds for the Hawaiian’s, and the hotel built nearby had to be moved farther away from the ocean after the remains were discovered there. To get to the Dragon’s Teeth, you actually have to walk along the side of one of the fairways for the golf course.

Sea Turtle

While we were taking pictures, we found that there were several large sea turtles swimming along the shore area, and we were able to get some photographs of them, although they were swimming in the area where the waves were breaking, and it was difficult to see them for any long period of time before the next wave came in and washed them around. It was getting late, so we headed to turn in the car at the Hertz office around 4:30 PM.

After dropping of the rental car at Hertz, we headed into the town to look at a few of the stores on the walk back to the ship. We bought one Christmas Ornament, something we try and collect on our travels. They are always small and light, and easy to transport home.

We were tendered back to the ship and were back aboard by about 5:15 PM. It was a long day, lots of driving, but an interesting stop in Maui.

We went back to the cabin to drop off our gear, and then Stephanie went to the buffet to pick up a few snacks, and we sat on the balcony and enjoyed some chips and salsa, along with a few adult refreshments, as the ship pulled away from Maui.

Sunset Leaving Maui

Even though it had been a long day in Maui, we decided to go to dinner in the dining room, and try and get a table with the wait staff from the other night in the Sante Fe Dining Room. We once again enjoyed our dining time with Georgiana, our waiter.  After dinner, we walked around the ship to allow our food to settle.  There was not much we were interested in on the entertainment schedule tonight, so after our stroll, we headed back to the room to get ready for tomorrow’s port of call, Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are planning on renting a car and visiting the Volcanoes National Park during our stop there.

Hilo, Hawaii – Second Port of Call

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Oct 282011
 

Today is the second port stop in Hawaii, this time on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the town of Hilo. The ship is tying up at dock today, so it will be easier for us to get off and on as compared to yesterday’s stop in Maui where we used the ship’s tenders. Once again, we set an early alarm for 5:15 AM. The ship is scheduled to be at the dock at 7:00 AM, and departs at 5:00 PM, with all passengers required to be back on board by 4:30 PM.

Once again, we are renting a car, this time from Thrifty. We were able to get off of the ship by about 7:10 AM, and the Thrifty shuttle was waiting at the pier. All of the rental car agencies in Hilo are at the nearby airport, which is about a 5 mile drive away. We were able to get onto the first shuttle, and they would allow both the driver and passengers, but would only take as many persons as there were seats, which was about 15 or so. Some people were forced to wait for the next shuttle, about 20  minutes later.

We rented a Jeep Liberty through an online special we found for Thrifty. We also utilized their Blue Chip program, and our car was ready and waiting for us, all we had to do was have them verify the drivers license and credit card, and sign the paperwork, Within 10 minutes, we had the GPS up and running, and were on our way.

Rainbow Falls

The plan for today was to visit a couple of nearby waterfalls, then head to the Volcanoes National Park. During our online research, it had been suggested by others to visit the waterfalls in the morning when the sun was in a better position, so we headed to the waterfalls first. Unfortunately, the weather this morning was mostly cloudy, with some rain showers nearby. Hilo is noted for being more rainy than other cities on the island of Hawaii, it is on the side of the island that is the wettest.

We headed to the Rainbow Falls first, it was actually located more in a neighborhood area than we had anticipated, but was only a few miles away from the airport. We were the first persons there.  It is a national park area, but consists of only a parking lot, bathrooms, and a walkway to the falls. There was certainly more water flowing from this falls than we had seen yesterday in Maui, but you could tell that a lot more water went through the falls during a heavy rain based on the location of the rocks around the stream at the top of the falls. In addition, there were several large concrete culverts in and around the falls that diverted rainfall runoff to the river that forms the falls.

Banyan Trees near Rainbow Falls

We walked up a path to see the river ahead of the falls, and there was also a large area full of giant Banyan Trees, with their large root systems.

We then headed farther up the Wailuku River to an area called the Boiling Pots, which appeared to be several river rapids in succession. Once again, you could tell that in a heavy rain, the amount of water flowing through this area would probably more match the namesake than what we were seeing today. From the viewing area for the Boiling Pots, you could also see a smaller waterfall named the Pe’epe’e Falls. Then we drove farther upstream to a bridge to see the Waiale Falls, all in succession on the Wailuku River. The last area was not very impressive, and the area around this falls was not well kept.

Pe’epe’e Falls

There were other more impressive falls in the area of Hawaii more to the north of Hilo, but our next area we planned to visit, the Volcanoes National Park, was in the opposite direction, and about 30 miles on the other side of Hilo, so we had to skip the other waterfalls and headed to the National Park.

We had seen some periods of sunshine while at the falls, but on the way to the Volcanoes National Park, we ran into several rain showers in the first 15 miles out of Hilo. I believe that the entire drive to the Park was uphill, we saw signs along the roadway telling us the elevation as we drove. It took about 45 minutes to get to the park, but as we got higher in elevation, the skies cleared some to give us partly cloudy conditions. We entered the park, paying the $10.00 per car entry fee, and headed to the Visitor’s station to obtain some information on what was accessible in the park.

Steam Venting from Kilauea Caldera

Due to some volcanic activity at the Halema’ uma Crater, the road called the Crater Rim Drive was partially closed. There was no lava flowing or spewing from the crater, but there was a very large plume of sulfur filled steam venting from the crater, which caused there to be sections of the Crater Rim Drive where the fumes were too dangerous for people to breathe. We went up to the viewing area for the Kilauea Caldera, which is several miles across, and contains the venting Halema’ uma Crater. The first viewing area of the Caldera had several places where steam was venting from the sides of the Caldera. It was hard to visualize the magnitude of the size of the Caldera, there was nothing around for scale, but the information listed it as being a few miles wide.

Chuck & Stephanie at the Halema’ uma Crater

We then proceeded to the Jaggar Museum Area, which was the closest area in the park to the venting Halema’ uma Crater, the only crater with some limited volcanic activity that is accessible in the park. There was a park guide there that gave everyone some of the information on the crater, its size, and on how the winds sometimes shift, causing them to have to close the museum and viewing area for the day due to the poisonous fumes.

However, today’s strong winds were blowing away from the observation area, and we could not detect any fumes at all. We were lucky that we had remembered to bring our lightweight windbreakers, it was much cooler here at about 3,500 ft. in elevation, and it was quite windy.

High Dyamic Range Photo of the Kilauea Iki Crater

Next, we headed in the opposite direction on the Crater Rim Drive to an area called the Kilauea Iki Crater, which last erupted in 1959. It was a very large eruption, and there were pictures at the parking area of some of the lava streams and ash that resulted from the eruption.

There were a couple of trails that followed along the rim of the crater to an area called the Thurston Lava Tube, which is an area where flowing lava had left a tube (looked like a cave) that was about 15 ft in diameter, and ran a total length of about 400 ft. There was a lighted trail through the Lava Tube to an exit on the other side. It was very interesting to see and to think that molten lava had once flowed through this tube.

Thurston Lava Tube

Stephanie Entering the Thurston Lava Tube

When we exited the Lava Tube, we headed back on the trail to the car parking area. There was another trail that went down to the floor of the Kilauea Iki Crater, but it was about 1.2 miles down to the floor, and another 2.5 miles across the crater floor to the other side. We had wanted to at least walk down to the crater floor, but the thought of hiking back up hill for the 1.2 miles discouraged us, as well as the time we knew it would take to get there and back. Unfortunately, this is a drawback to a cruise, you only have a limited amount of time in port and have to pick and choose your activities based on the schedule. We did get some good photos of the crater, and of us standing at the rim of the crater.

We went to one other overlook for the Kilauea Iki Crater, took some more photos, and then decided to head back to Hilo. We knew it would take some time to return the rental car and get back to the ship, but we could also do a little shopping in Hilo, and utilize some of the available time knowing we were close to the ship.

Chuck & Stephanie – Kilauea Iki Crate

On the way back, we stopped at a orchid farm, recommended to us by the rental car shuttle driver. There was a building full of all kinds of orchids, many of which are hybrid species, developed and grown right there. They were beautiful, and it was surprising to see how many there were with various scents, like chocolate for example. We took some photos, and then headed back to the car for the remaining drive back into Hilo

Orchids from the Orchid Farm

I had decided to look at some of the musical instrument stores and to purchase an inexpensive Ukulele for the remaining classes and big ukulele concert near the end of the cruise. We headed to one of the stores we found through a Google search, and the person in the store was very helpful in advising us on the various types of Ukuleles and the various qualities. Of course, the ones made by hand in Hawaii were very expensive, so I opted for a decent quality, solid mahogany version, made in China. The ones that they had for sale were either made in China or made in Hawaii, and there were sizable jumps in price from the lowest to the middle to the high priced Hawaiian versions.

After that, we looked around at a few more stores, bought a Halloween decoration for our cabin door, and decided to stop at a Hilo Hattie’s to look around. This store seems to have become a tourist trap mecca, they have their own shuttles from the port, most all of the tours stop there, and has become more of a tourist stop than it had been when I visited Hawaii in the 1980’s. Back then, it seemed to be the place to go and pick up a handmade Hawaiian shirt for a decent price. Now, they seem to sell about everything, and have shirts both made in Hawaii (at least according to the label) and many other places. Stephanie had wanted to go, but once inside, we quickly learned we did not want to stay long or go back again.

We headed to the nearby Walmart and picked up a few items, mainly a few more soda’s, and some wine. We then headed back to the airport to turn in the rental car, and were shuttled back to the ship. Unfortunately, at the port in Hilo, there is nothing within walking distance from the ship other than one small tourist store. There were some vendors set up inside of a large warehouse where we exited from the ship, and where the security for boarding the ship was also located. We decided to drop off all of our gear, and then go back and look through the items that were for sale from the various vendors, mainly to kill some time. We had about an hour before we had to be back on the ship.

After returning to the ship once again, we headed to the cabin to have some sail away refreshments. It was too cloudy to get any good sunset pictures today, too cloudy even for good sail away pictures.

We went and looked at the dining room menu, and not finding anything that we really wanted, we opted for dining in the buffet area once again for dinner. Since they serve most of the same items at the buffet as they serve in the dining room, we don’t always feel up to dressing up, especially after a long day in port.

 

Honolulu, Oahu – Third Port of Call

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Oct 292011
 

Sun Rising over Waikiki and Diamond Head

Today’s port of call is the city of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. Once again, it was an early wake up time of 5:15 AM.  Today we are doing a ship’s sponsored tour to Pearl Harbor to visit both the Arizona Memorial and the Battleship Missouri.

After showering and eating breakfast at the buffet, we gathered our cameras and other shore gear and headed to the Princess Theater, our meeting place for the 7:15 AM tour. The instructions for the tour specifically requested that you not bring any type of bag or purse, due to security restrictions imposed in going on the tour of the Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri, thank you again 9/11 terrorists. There was a large group waiting in the theater when we arrived and took our seat to wait to be directed to go ashore and board the tour bus. It was interesting to see where the ship actually docked in Honolulu, we were in an area next to what is called the Aloha Tower. The interesting aspect of the port is that the ship is docked almost right in the downtown Honolulu area. We were literally a stone’s throw away from one of the major streets. This is as close to being in a downtown area on a ship that we have ever seen. Normally, ports have been far away from any city buildings, located in industrial ports.  This part of the port appears to be specifically designed for cruise ships since it is so close in to town, and next to a small shopping area.

Banyan Tree on the Royal Palace Grounds

We boarded our tour bus at about 7:45 AM, thinking we were heading over to Pearl Harbor. However, we soon found out we were not going there directly. First, our bus driver/tour guide took us by the Royal Palace, and let us off of the bus for about 20 minutes to walk around and take pictures. After re-boarding the bus, we then went on a driving tour to see some of the other historic buildings in the downtown Honolulu area, including the building where the original Hawaii Five-O show was filmed, at least where the outside building shots were taken.

Then we went by some other nondescript buildings on the way for a drive by tour of what is called the Punch Bowl, which is a memorial cemetery where persons killed during the bombing of Pearl Harbor were buried, as well as other World War II casualties. We then began heading over to Pearl Harbor. All in all, we were on the bus almost 2 hours before arriving at Pearl Harbor for our allotted time to visit the Arizona Memorial. We found out that we had 9:45 AM tickets to see a short Pearl Harbor film, and then to board the launches to take the ride across the harbor for our short visit of 10 minutes at the actual Arizona Memorial. By the time we arrived at the parking lot for the buses, I think about everyone on the bus only wanted to know where the restrooms were. I do not think anyone ever thought we would need to be at the meeting place at 7:15 AM, only to to ride around before getting to the park at 9:00 AM. If so, I am sure we all would have not consumed much coffee beforehand. I think the cruise line organizers should have told everyone to make sure they knew it would be almost 2 hours before bathroom facilities were available after meeting at the theater, there were none on the bus itself.

The other mishap we experienced was made by the bus driver when he instructed everyone to be back at the bus by 12:15 PM. We later saw and heard him going around while we were all in line for the movie trying to try find and tell everyone he meant for us to return to the bus at 11:15 AM, not 12:15 PM. More on that later.

Battleship Missouri and the Arizona Memorial

We looked around the grounds of the park, and read some about the Pearl Harbor incident, including seeing pictures from both the Japanese perspective of the attack, and from the pictures taken by the Navy personnel during the attack. We got in our line to see the movie at 9:45 AM, after which we would board the launch for the boat ride over to the memorial. The Park Service allots 10 minutes for each group to be at the memorial, they take one group of about 150 over and pick up the previous group every 10 minutes.

It was while we were in line for the movie that the bus driver came over and was looking for everyone wearing our green Princess Tour stickers to let us know that he had given us the incorrect time for returning to the bus. Since we were all in the same line for the same movie and tour time, he figured he had gotten word on the change in time to everyone in our group. Again, more on that later.

Oil Seeps From the Battleship Arizona Structure

We watched the well made movie explaining about how the Pearl Harbor attack came to take place, at least based on the American perspective. Mostly, it seemed to come down to the USA cutting off oil supplies to Japan after they attacked China. The movie lasted about 20 minutes, and we boarded the launch for the short ride across the harbor. True to the schedule, we were only there about 10 minutes. It was a little difficult to see the outline of the sunken ship, the sun was a little low on the horizon, and it was quite windy, making the surface of the water very choppy, causing a lot of glare. It was still an emotional  experience, especially to see the bunker C fuel oil from the ship still bubbling to the surface in small black globs, and dispersing once it broke the surface. You could smell the oil, and it left a sizable sheen on the water for several hundred yards downwind.

The launch returned with the next group, and we boarded after they got off. We spent a little time in the gift shop, and bought a nice Arizona Memorial Christmas Ornament. By then, it was time to head to the bus to go on the next part of the tour, the visit to the Battleship Missouri, or at least we thought it was time to go. Everyone had made it back to the bus at the “revised” time except for one couple. Apparently, they were German, and did not speak good English, or at least they apparently did not hear or understand the bus driver explaining that the time had changed when we were in line waiting for the movie. One of the other couples on the bus had talked to them during the Arizona Memorial visitation, so they volunteered to try and go find them. Meanwhile, the bus driver moved the bus to another parking area, normally the area for the buses going to the Missouri, and we waited, and we waited. About 30 minutes passed, and there was no sign of either couple. Then, out of nowhere, the lost couple was seen looking at one of the exhibits near to where the bus was now parked. The bus driver was able to go and get them, and a short while later, we also saw the couple sent to hunt for the missing couple. With everyone now on the bus, we headed for the Battleship Missouri tour.

Battleship Missouri seen from the Arizona Memorial

16 Inch Guns – Battleship Missouri

The tour of the Missouri was very well done. For about 30 minutes, we had a tour guide for about half of our group. The other half had another guide. We walked around the main deck area and learned about the main aspects of the Battleship, and saw the emblem embedded in the deck commemorating where the Japanese surrender was signed to end WWII. We learned that one of the 16 inch gun barrels weighs almost as much as the space shuttle (excluding the boosters and tanks), something like 225,000 lbs. for each barrel.

View From the Bridge – Battleship Missouri

After the guided tour was completed, we had some time to go below decks on our own and see the living areas for the ships personnel, and the kitchens and food serving areas. We were also able to go through the bridge area, including the command center and the area where the ship was steered.

There was one area that was protected with about 12 inches of steel armor, and had two doors that looked like doors on a safe. Apparently, this was a fortified area to steer the ship from while under attack, they would put personnel inside this stronghold, and seal the doors. There were small slots for seeing out, and I suppose for ventilation, but they could be covered with a protective glass if need be.

Fortified Area for Steering the Ship During Battle

Overall, we enjoyed this “on our own” part of the tour the most. At 1:30 PM, we boarded the bus back to the ship, arriving about 2:10 PM. Our original plan had been to eat some lunch on the ship, then take a shuttle to the airport to rent a car for the afternoon. We were in port until 10:30 PM, so we had time to do other exploring on Oahu. This plan had been based on the morning tour excursion ending on time and our being back on the ship before 1:30 PM, per the original tour schedule. However, the mishap with the missing couple at the Arizona Memorial had delayed us, and by the time we got back on the ship and had our lunch, it was almost 3:00 PM. The sunset tonight in Honolulu was around 5:50 PM, so we decided it would take too long to shuttle to the airport, get the car, and head out to see much before it would be getting dark.

Waikiki Beach

We changed our plan and decided to take a city bus to the beach at Waikiki, and just walk around there for pictures, and to visit some of the shops. We headed to the City Bus stop, and were waiting there when a taxi driver stopped and offered to take anyone to Waikiki for $3.00 per person. The bus fare was $2.50 per person, so we, along with another couple from the ship, jumped into the taxi. It was farther to the beach than we expected, well worth the additional $0.50 per person to get there quicker.

We went down to the beach, and found that it was very crowded. It was a nice and sunny day, and since it was Saturday, everyone was at the beach enjoying the beautiful day. We walked over to some of the shops, and happened to come across a Catholic Church right on the main street that passes along the Waikiki Beach area. The Church was named St. Augustine, which we both thought was unusual, especially since we lived so close to the town of St. Augustine. Saturday vigil Mass was at 5:00 PM, so we wandered around the shops until it was time for Mass.

Diamond Head Seen From Waikiki Beach

After Mass, we headed back out to purchase a few things, and then to find a city bus to return us to the port. We decided to make another Walmart stop, it was on the city bus route back to the ship anyway, near the very large shopping mall in Honolulu.

We asked a person in one of the ABC Stores about which city bus to take, and to find out if we needed exact change for the bus fare, which we found out we did. ABC Stores are part of a chain on Oahu, maybe mostly in the Honolulu area. It is unbelievable how many of them there are. I am not exaggerating when I say there is one on every block there, and sometimes it seems like more than one per block. They are various sizes, some stores are really small, some are medium sized and some are large. They mostly sell souvenir items, but also food and beverages, both soft and hard beverages. It is truly amazing to see how many of these stores there are.

After Sunset – Waikiki Beach

We actually missed one bus while getting directions, so we had to wait at the bus stop for about 30 minutes before the next one arrived, and unfortunately, everyone was apparently going to the mall, which was the end of the line for the bus that also went to the Walmart. It was standing room only for most of the way. We got off at our stop, and found the Walmart about 2 blocks away. We purchased some more provisions, and then took a short cut through the mall to the street to catch our connecting bus back to the ship. This was when we really leaned how well the earlier taxi cab deal had been. All in all, including waiting for the buses and going to Walmart, it took us about 1.5 hours to get back to the ship, but we saved $1.00!!!! Ha Ha. It was a fun bus ride, on the second segment we rode with several persons dressed in costumes heading to a big Halloween bash over at Chinatown. I suppose the bus is a good and safe way to get to, and especially from, a party.

when we arrived back at the port, we spent a few minutes going through the shopping area next to the ship. We were a little surprised that most of the stores were already closed and it was only 8:00 PM. It also appeared that several stores were empty, possibly indicating that there were not enough ships coming there to support them. We did see that there was a special Halloween party getting ready to start in the area around the Aloha Tower. A large area was barricaded off, and people were waiting in a long line to get into that area. This might have had something to do with the stores closing early, who knows.

We boarded the ship and headed to get some dinner at the buffet. We were pretty tired from being on the go all day, especially all of the walking around Waikiki. At 8:45 PM, we went to see a special Hula presentation in the large Princess Theater on the ship. We got there just as the show started. It was all done by Hawaiian children, up to the age of about 14. There were mostly girls, and there was one boy in particular who was very good. It was an interesting show, apparently these kids attend a special Hawaiian dance school, and do a lot of live shows. There were a couple of girls that appeared to be about 8, and they all did a great job with their show.

Departing the Dock in Honolulu

Afterward, we went back to the room to have a couple of refreshments on our balcony, and then decided to go to the big Beach Party that the ship was having before, during and after we were scheduled to depart at 10:30 PM. The party was on the aft decks, and was not that well attended. We think this was due to the age group of the passengers, the fact that we were in port so long, and that a lot of folks were now just arriving back from the evening Luau excursions, people were just not that interested in the ship’s party.

 

Departing Honolulu and Waikiki

We stayed up on deck until the ship departed Honolulu, and then called it a night at around midnight.

Unfortunately, we have another 5:15 AM alarm time tomorrow morning for our stop in Kauai.

Nawiliwili, Kauai – Fourth Port of Call

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Oct 302011
 

Sunrise from Nawilwili Harbor

The last stop in the Hawaiian Islands is at the port of Nawiliwili, on the island of Kauai. It is near the city of Lihu’e. We are scheduled to rent a car from Thrifty again today, this time it is a Jeep Wrangler. We were once again awakened by the alarm clock and wake-up call on the phone as a back-up, both occurring at 5:15 AM. Our scheduled time in port today starts at 7:00 AM, and we have to be back on board at 3:30 PM, a short stay.

Due to the short duration of our time in Kauai, we were waiting at the gangway at 7:00 AM so we could get started as soon as the ship was secured along side of the pier. The security crew was having trouble getting the ramp into place, so it was not until 7:30 AM that anyone was able to leave the ship, taking 30 minutes from our already short port time. After getting through the port terminal building, we saw the Hertz and the Alamo shuttles lined up outside, but no shuttle from Thrifty was in sight. There were several other passengers getting cars from Thrifty, and one of them was able to contact them by phone. Unfortunately, they were under the impression that the ship would not be letting passengers off until 8:00 AM, and had not yet left their office.

The shuttle from Thrifty at the the airport arrived about 7:45 AM, and everyone that was in line piled into the shuttle, about twice as many people as there were seats. We had gotten on in the first few people, so we had seats near the front. However, the people who actually were standing and had gotten on last were off first the shuttle first. We had to wait in line behind one person before we could get our vehicle, but when it was our turn, the process went quickly since once again we had once used the Thrifty Blue Chip Service.   All of the paperwork was already completed, and all we had to do was show my driver’s license and credit card, and sign the paperwork.

Small Stream in Waimea Canyon

We were on our way by about 8:05 AM, once again using our GPS for directions to the Waimea Canyon. Similar to all of the other island stops so far, it was not far in mileage, but took about an hour to get there due to the lower speed limits, a maximum of 50 mph, and passing through several small towns on the way.  Once we got to the town of Waimea, we turned onto the Waimea Canyon Drive, another winding road similar to the Hana Highway. Luckily, Stephanie did not need to read a lot about the scenic areas, they were clearly marked as overlooks on the roadway, thus avoiding any issues with motion sickness.

The weather had been a little cloudy early in the morning, but cleared some as we rode up to the canyon. We did not see many cars going up the road, so we were thinking we would not have to deal with many people today. We made a few stops on the way to the main canyon overlooks.

First Waimea Canyon Overlook – All Our Friends

Once we got to the first overlook, we were actually surprised to see one bus load of ship’s passengers were already there. We had not seen them pass us, but later determined they had gone up a different road to the canyon. There was another road that could be taken for the first one-third of the route, then the two roads merged into the main canyon road. Our guidebook had suggested taking the alternate route, the route the buses had taken this morning, on the way down, as it offered better views of the coastline. The entire round trip to see the canyon overlooks is 40 miles, and changes in elevation by 4,000 feet.

The overlook was quite crowded, and we had some difficulty getting pictures without there being a lot of “friends” in the picture with us. We waited a little bit, only to see two more buses arrive. We decided to go ahead and go farther up the canyon drive to the other overlooks, hoping to keep ahead of the buses. It was very windy and cool there due to the altitude, and once again, we were glad we had our jackets with us.

Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout

We soon learned that the initial overlook was the only one that the large buses could get to due to the narrow and very winding canyon road to the top. The only other ship’s passengers we saw afterward were in very small groups being transported in tour vans.

In addition, the other overlooks were actually better, although they did not show the part of the canyon with the most coloration. We did find some other pull over areas that offered better views of the actual area known as the Waimea Canyon.

Next, we stopped at the Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout, which was the highest point and also the end of the paved road. There was a trail from that lookout, and we hiked down the initial portion of the trail to get some good photos.

Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout Trail

There were periods where the clouds would roll through the valleys, and then clear up, and the sun would emerge. Then, occasionally, we would get showered on with some misty rain, then it would clear up again. This area is known as one of the wettest spots on earth, receiving over 365 inches of rain per year.

We drove back down to the Kalalau Lookout, which we had passed on the way up to the top. Again, the views were breathtaking.  We could see a waterfall in the distance, and occasionally, helicopters tours would come into the canyon from the ocean and fly through the canyon. They appeared to be very small in relation to the size of the mountains and canyon.

Kalalau Lookout

We wanted a picture of us and the view without the ugly green railing, so we found an area where a gate was open and went to the area below the actual fences in the concrete lookout deck. It was very obvious that others had done this same thing, there was a well worn trail to the “good picture” spot. There was a large flat area where we set up the tripod, and took our pictures with the breathtaking background.

We made a couple of other stops at pullover areas, taking pictures of the very colorful canyon. The sun had come out more, and it added a lot of color to the canyon.

Waimea Canyon – No Guardrails Here

We then started back down to the bottom of the canyon, taking the alternate road called the Koke’e Road. It was apparent that is was a better road for buses, which confirmed our initial assumption that the buses had come up this route, which was why we did not see them as we were heading up the Canyon Road this morning.

High Dynamic Range Photo - Waimea Canyon

High Dynamic Range Photo – Waimea Canyon

It did offer some better views of the ocean, but it was so windy, there was a lot of mist and salt spray in the air, making the views a little hazy.

Wailua Falls

We headed back to Nawiliwili and determined we still had enough time to go past that town and head out to see some of the nearby waterfalls.

We headed over to the Wailua Falls, which was the largest of all of the waterfalls we had seen on any of the islands. It was very impressive.

Next, we drove over to the Opaekaa Falls Lookout. This waterfall was not as large as the Wailua Falls, and it was quite a distance away from the lookout, but still offered a good photo opportunity.

 

Opaekaa Falls Lookout

We made our last stop at the Walmart in Lihu’e, it seemed like everywhere we went in Hawaii there was Walmart. We picked up some more provisions knowing this would be the last stop where a better selection of item would be available, and not be too expensive.

We then drove to the airport to drop off the rental car, and headed back to the ship on the Thrifty shuttle bus, arriving at the ship about 3:00 PM, 30 minutes before we needed to be back on board. Although our stay here was short, we ended up being able to see everything we had planned on, plus a couple of additional sites.

After going through security to re-board the ship, we headed to our room to enjoy the nice view of the harbor.  At about 4:00 PM, and the ship eased away form the dock, and headed out to sea.

Leaving Kauai Behind – Heading to American Samoa

We will not see land again for four days, crossing around 2,200 nautical miles of ocean to our next port of call in Pago Pago, American Samoa. We will have some time to rest, and should be able to catch up on the blog posts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Pictures Leaving Kauai

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean

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