Nearing the End in Hawaii

Thursday, 4/27 - I got up at 6:30 for our morning excursion to the 'Grand Canyon of the Pacific'. First, we made a stop at a rocky beach to see a spatterhorn in action. That's where the incoming waves go into a tunnel in the rocks and shoots out a hole on the beach, looking much like a geyser. Very interesting.

Then we went to the canyon, which was beautiful, much greener than the mainland grand canyon. We weren't getting back to the ship until about 2, so we made a short stop in a small town, where most people got off and got a bite to eat to tide them over. John wasn't doing very well on the way back, and he promptly lay down for a nap. I took my book back to the library and read for an hour there, then went to the bar in the lobby and got a Bahama Mama. As I sat there, a long line of people walked by on their way to the luau. I heard some 700 people had signed up for that. About 1 1/2 hr after john lay down, I went back to the room and waited for him to wake. After another hour, he stirred and rolled over. I asked him if he wanted supper, and he said no, so I went to the skyline by myself. I was waiting for my 2 desserts (couldn't decide on one) when he walked in and found me, so I guess he did want supper, but he kept complaining the room was warm. After supper, he turned in for the night, and I wasn't too far behind him.

Friday, 4/28 - I got up at 6:30, even though I had set the wake-up call for 7. We had breakfast in the buffet, although we didn't have a shore excursion scheduled this day, then I got off the ship just far enough to use my phone to call John's ENT, but the office was closed. Was it that late? Didn't seem like it to me, even counting the 6 hrs of time difference. Meanwhile, John checked our account balance, then we started looking for face masks for our shore excursion the next day. The Pearl Harbor Memorial, we were told, requires face masks be worn while inside. The ship's souvenir shop didn't have any, but the medical center handed them over cheerfully. We went to deck 11 to do some reading. About 11, we went to the room to pack everything we weren't going to need. At noon, we went for lunch, then John wanted a nap, but was coughing too hard to sleep, so he went to deck 11 to take pictures. I sat in the room writing.

About 5 pm, we went to deck 11 to try to see the beautiful Nali Pai shoreline. The ship had left its dock about 2 and traveled to the east side of the island so people could see this spectacular view before it turned around and headed for Honolulu. It had been a misty day, and unfortunately, as we approached the Nali Pai shoreline, the clouds came down to sea level and obscured the view. So we went to supper at the buffet, since we were already on deck 11. John had a couple desserts, while I had corn on the cob, celery, apricots and walnuts. Back to our room to make sure everything was packed, then John went to bed. I put the big suitcases out to be disembarked for us, and went to bed about 7:45, but because it was so early, I spent some time thinking about the next scene in my Work in Progress.

More Adventures in Hawaii

Tuesday, 4/25 - Hilo, Hawaii (the big island). I got up about 6, the wake-up call came at 6:45. Went to Skyline for breakfast, where we were warned that omelets and waffles could take 1/2 hour to prepare, in case we had a shore excursion. We ordered anyway, and there was no delay. Went to the theater and shortly got sent down to find our bus. Before we boarded, they handed each of us a 'box lunch' and a can of water. Because of my knees, we were offered seats in the front of the bus. We stopped at a Japanese garden, a statue of Kamehameha, Rainbow Falls, Akaka Falls, the zoo (where we ate our lunch), a macadamia farm gift shop and a candy shop. Had to take a detour to get to Akaka Falls, and missed the turn to the falls, so had to turn around on a busy hiway. Got back to the boat about 3:30 or 4:00, went to the talk on our next port of call. Back to our room until 5:30, when we went to Skyline for supper. Long line to get in and had to skip dessert to get to the comedy show, which was good. Back to the room, read for a bit, then went to bed.

 

Wednesday, 4/26 – I have forgotten the names of the rest of the ports we visited and the islands they were on. My notes don’t include that information. We’re still touring Hawaii, and probably hitting the islands to the north and west of the Big Island.

I got up at 5:30 because I woke up. The wake-up call sounded at 6:30, and John got up. To the buffet for breakfast, then to our room to pick up stuff for our day ashore; water, our shore excursion tickets, and so on. Went to the theater to be ready for our excursion. To get to our excursion, we had to get on a tender boat and be ferried to the shore. Once there, we found our tour guide, jumped in his van, and we were off for a "Scenic Taste of Hawaii". First, we went to a coffee farm, where John bought an expensive lb of coffee ($46). Then to a farmer's market, where we bought a book, 2 jars of local jelly, a facial scrub and a bottle of essential oil (TiTree). At a macadamia nut farm, John found a lb of coffee was going for $64! (He didn't get any.) Then to a park on the beach where we got a box lunch and drink for lunch. Then back to the port for a tour of the Kona Brewing Co, where we sampled 4-5 different beers. Got dropped off at the pier about 4:05, and the line waiting for a tender ride back to the ship was a mile long. The last tender was leaving the pier at 5, and they were loading tenders as fast as they could. Once we got to the ship, we went to our room, to relax before our specialty dining reservation at 8:00.

I was not terribly impressed by the French food offered by Jefferson's Bistro. Mostly, I wondered how I was supposed to eat it. Even for the baked pear I got for dessert, I had to ask for a knife so I could cut it up and get pieces on my spoon. 

Maui, the First Island

 Getting a Taste

 Sunday, 4/23 - At the island of Maui. We had a tasting excursion at 8:15, so we got up at 6:30 and had breakfast. Had 14 passengers and a driver/guide packed into a van, driving from place to place to try various dishes. Usually, a 'tasting' is a single bite, or maybe 2, but several of these tastings involved a complete serving. John got over-heated at 1 point, and then got full at the next stop, which surprised me. The final stop was a craft brewing company that served food. John tried the 2 beers they offered for tasting, but neither of us ate our fish taco. Back at the ship, John was wiped and took a nap. Then we had supper at the skyline, which was okay. John read for a while and went to bed. I read until midnight and went to sleep.

Our room had not been made when we got back to the ship about 2. Which meant the bed had not been split. I complained - again - and someone arrived about 3 to clean it. We went to the library until about 4. It had been cleaned and the beds separated so we could use them.

 

Climbing the Volcano

Monday, 4/24 - still at Maui. Had an excursion at 8 to go to the top of the dormant volcano, supposed to be 2 to 1/2 hours, but we didn't get back until 12:30. John tried to walk the last 500 feet to the top of the peak, but only got half-way there before he had to turn around and come back or miss the bus. It was a spectacular sight, but John was running down by the time we got back to the ship. We were going to eat at the Skyline, but it wasn't open, so we went to the buffet. Listened to our voicemails on our room phone. NextCruise wanted to answer John's questions, and she would be at her desk from 2 until 4. We originally went to the wrong desk, but eventually found her. Then back to our room, where John was tired and upset. At 4, went to the talk about the next day's port, Hilo, on the Big Island. At 5:00 was a Loyalty Appreciation party. After about 15 minutes, we left to get supper. Decided to try the Cadillac Diner, but weren't impressed. John ate about half his sandwich and went back to our cabin. I finished most of my meal and went to our cabin. We talked about the luau, which was an evening excursion on Thursday, and decided to cancel our participation, so I went down and cancelled it. When I got back to the room around 7, J stopped reading and went to bed.

Saturday, Getting on the Ship

 After going to bed so early, I got up about 6, and John at about 7. When we went down to find some breakfast, the lobby restaurant wasn't open, and looked like it was undergoing renovations or something, with a ladder and some tools in the middle of the floor. Other guests told us there was a coffee shop down by the entrance, so we went down and got some breakfast sandwiches and drinks and took them to our room. Our phones worked, so John had a long call with a fellow Klingon while we waited to check out. He wanted to call another friend, but realized he didn't have that friend's number. We checked out just before 11, and I sat in the lobby with our luggage while John went outside to take pictures. He came back about 11:15, and we moved out to the driveway, trying not to miss the taxi, which was due at 11:30. We found the taxi, the driver got us to the dock just fine; it was a much shorter trip than from the airport.

We had never gotten luggage tags for the ship, so we had to go inside and find the table set up just to deal with that problem. We discovered our cabin had been changed from 4005 to 8197, so we thought we had gotten an upgrade. Turning over our large suitcases, we could now check in, and we let them take a couple pictures before we got on the ship. Of course our cabin wasn't ready for us yet, so we found our muster station and checked in, went to the buffet for lunch and then to the Pink Champayne Bar for drinks, where a trio was playing Hawaiian music.

About 3, they finally announced we could get to our cabins. Ours was hidden in a maze of hallways in the aft of deck 8, and I almost walked past it. When we walked in, our hearts sank. This was not an upgrade! There were 2 bunkbeds attached to the walls, each sticking into the room about 12 inches. The walkway on either side of the bed was about 14 wide, so we had to contort ourselves to get in and out of bed. We asked for the main bed to be split in two, leaving a larger walkway between them, but it wasn't done before we went to bed. Getting in and out was a miserable as we had imagined.

Friday, Getting There

We were at it again, flying out in the wee hours of night to catch a cruise ship. Headed for Hawaii! This was a little different, because we were flying in the day before the cruise started, in case we had a flight delay. I had booked us into a hotel in the Waikiki section of Honolulu. Their website said they had a shuttle from the airport, a complimentary breakfast and a pool. I should have kept looking.

We went to bed on Thursday, about 6 pm, and on Friday, 4/21, I got up at 1:15 AM to get ready. I woke John at 2:30. Everything was packed and in the car; all we needed to do was eat and take off. Easy Peasy. Except I forgot to water the houseplants and grab my refrigerated medicine, I was so eager to get going. Well, the best laid plans of mice, men and people going on cruises.

We got to the parking lot about 4:15, but there was nobody there to check us in. We waited with 3 other groups of people. Apparently, there was only 1 person working, doing both jobs, the clerical checking in and the shuttle driving.

We finally got to the airport about 4:45, and there were long lines at TSA, despite their signs claiming it would only take 18 minutes to get through them. It took us more than that to get to the first TSA agent, plus another 20 minutes or more to get through the machines. John and I got separated between that first agent and the machines, so I went ahead to the gate to wait for John. Well, I did pause at a little store and picked up a couple pops and candy bars, because who knew if we would be offered anything on the plane?

He got there on time, with his shoes. Things went fairly smoothly, then. We were on Southwest, and they don't have assigned seats, just your assigned boarding group. We were Group 8, the next to the last boarding group, but we managed to find 2 seats together. We discovered our seats wouldn't recline, which made it hard to doze. And there was no wifi on this plane, so there was no entertainment. Shortly after take-off, the crew passed out pretzels and drinks.

After 3 hours, we paused in Austin TX to let off some passengers. John and I changed seats to some that would recline. Then the plane filled up, and we were off to San Diego. The gate we needed in San Diego was pretty close to the gate we came in at. We ate burgers and fries and found some seats to wait in. John noticed our flight was delayed by about half an hour. I called our hotel to let them know we might get in late. They said don't worry about it; the desk was manned until midnight. (!) They also said not to worry about their shuttle from the airport, that a taxi would be cheaper, anyway. Then why advertise that they had a shuttle?

We finally got on the plane for Honolulu in mid-afternoon, and the flight was uneventful. John was antsy, but couldn't sleep. We landed in early evening, got our luggage and found a taxi to the hotel. It was not what I expected. It had a circular drive, but the drive was full of vehicles, and the taxi could barely pull in far enough to unload us. The lobby was hard to find, because of all the little businesses between it and the drive, most of them not open at 6 pm. There was no evening restaurant, just a small cafe that served breakfast and lunch, and it wasn't complimentary. We would have had to walk somewhere to find supper, but we were too tired. We went straight to our room and to bed about 7 pm.

There's a 6 hour difference between Hawaii and Orlando, so we had been up and going pretty much for 24 hours.