South Pacific/North to Alaska: Honolulu, Hawaii

April 7, 2017

Woke up to see some land outside my window, so I got dressed and went out on the bow (on deck four). The Location Guide, Kainoa, and the hula dancers provided the welcome chant as we passed Diamond Head and pulled in to the beautiful city on Honolulu. Coming back onto the ship I followed some other people through an open door and ended up in the crew's bar. We were quickly ushered out.

We docked about ten but the ship was not cleared until about 10:45. I had heard that you could purchase the hop-on, hop-off bus tickets on the dock but that was not true. When I spoke to the rep he said that the tickets had to be bought onboard. Time for Plan B.

Hilo Hattie's (which I had read had gone out of business, but hadn't) and a jewelry store had free shuttles to the huge Ala Moana mall. Since I didn't have a lot of time anyway, I decided to do that. First stop was Hilo Hattie's where I picked up some souvenirs.

Somehow I had come away with only two Tylenol and I had taken them a few days ago when my back was killing me. Luckily the mall had a large drug store that even gave me the discount I get with my Prescription drug plan, so now I am prepared with both Tylenol and Alleve.

I waited about a half hour for the shuttle back to the ship. Arrived back about 1:30 with time to get a salad for lunch. Last year you could make your own but this year they make it for you. I had them make a Chef Salad and it was really good.

Met up with the luau group at 3:00. The bus arrived about 3:15 and we left 3:30 to pick up a number of people at the Trump hotel.

We went to Chief's Luau. It was much more expensive than my first luau but we did have a front row table. We were able to choose from three types of leis - I chose the flower one. Since we had purchased the "Royal Package" the food was brought to us instead of us going through the buffet line. I don't think I like that as much as going through the buffet line where you can choose what you want. There were a few things I left on my plate because I don't care for them. If you wanted more you could have it but what I did eat filled me up.

After dinner the show started. They presented dances from the different regions of the Pacific islands. The Chief called newlyweds and people celebrating anniversaries up to the stage. There was one couple who had only been married a couple of hours and another couple celebrating their 50th. The Chief sang the Hawaiian Wedding Song and couples were invited to come up and dance. There was even a couple who got engaged.

The luau was over by eight and we were back on the ship by 9:15. Some of us decided to go to the "Drums of Polynesia" which is a local group who does traditional Polynesian singing and dancing. They had a six year old who was the star of the show.

After the show I grabbed my iPad and went to the Lido to see what they provided for their "Late Night Snack". There was some fruit and salad makings, rolls, pizza and pasta, desserts and a few hot dishes. I settled for two cookies.

Went out on the aft deck by the Sea View pool and The Band was playing during "Honolulu by Moonlight". There were only about 20 people out on the deck and half of them were in the smoking section.

About 11:45 I went up to the Observation Deck (deck 10) to take a couple of pictures of Honolulu by night. The Crow's Nest looked closed down and the only people I saw were some of the crew sitting at a table talking.

I have been unable to get on the ship's Internet for 36 hours (others are having issues as well). Since we are in a US port my phone works so I used it to create a "personal hotspot" so I could finally post today's and yesterday's blogs. (Sorry, Betsy, for using up your data!)