Day 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6: 18 Night Transpacific Cruise - At Sea

Five days at sea - all pretty much the same!

We were up by 6:00 every morning drinking coffee outside the WJ. If Jim had spin cycle, we'd eat breakfast in the WJ; if not, we'd meet Valerie & Ian in the MDR for breakfast most days.

We did meet up for lunch in the MDR one day - I didn't much like the menu and probably won't go back. There is a big salad bar but I can't eat lettuce so it's lost on me. There is much more to choose from in the WJ.

Three different times during these sea days I collected the money for Patrick's Bora Bora excursion. Everyone (71) came through except one couple who fell ill and another couple who ended up making other plans (she apparently didn't check Cruise Critic as she was on my list). I had a Wait List and other people were only willing to take their places. I worked with Concierge Juan Diego to get all of us off the ship. He worked with Steve, Cruise Director, and Liz, Activities Manager, and took us off as a tour to the tender! Woohoo! We tried hard to get Juan Diego to go with us but he couldn't get the day off.

Our evenings have been all the same:  drinks in the Diamond Lounge at 5:00, dinner at 6:30 at table 314 with Elisio & Iputu (same as last cruise), and in bed usually by 9:30 or earlier. We have gone up to the Solarium pool for a swim and hot tub after dinner a few nights while people were still at dinner or at the show. It was nice having the place pretty much to ourselves.

Speaking of shows, we haven't gone to any yet. We heard that the 70+ year old comedian was not the least bit funny. We don't really enjoy the production shows either. I guess we'd rather go to bed!

We crossed the equator a couple days out of Hawaii about 9:00 p.m. The Captain told us during his Noon update that if we felt a big bump about that time, that's what it would be! Haha, funny man!

The day after we crossed the equator, there was a ceremony at the pool with King Neptune coming on board. All the passengers who had never crossed an ocean on a ship are called pollywogs. After a ceremony performed by King Neptune, the pollywogs were then deemed shellbacks.

The ocean has been pretty good. There's whitecaps (or white horses as the Australians call them) but the ship doesn't seem to be moving all that much. Maybe it's the following seas or maybe it's because I've been on this ship for so long I'm just used to it!

We've been getting lots of sleep in preparation for three busy days in the French Polynesia islands. This view from our balcony never gets old!

Another towel animal.

And one more!

 

A just one more!

Day 1: 18 Night Transpacific Cruise

Continued from Day 11: 11 Night Hawaii Cruise.

After Jim picked up Tracy at her hotel, they came back to the ship to pick up Ian, Valerie & I. We headed up to the North Shore to Turtle Beach to see the turtles-but they weren't out.

We went farther north to a couple more beaches and up to "pipeline" to see if the surfers were out but the waves weren't big enough.

By this time we were hungry and decided to get a bite to eat. Tracy, Jim and I found Fatboys, where the locals eat, and had a "plate lunch": teriyaki chicken (3 huge pieces), pasta salad, and 2 scoops of rice. Yikes, I had no idea there would be that much food! But it was delicious!

After lunch we went back to Turtle Beach and there was a turtle on the rocks. It was hard to get a good picture because of the idiots that crossed the rope to get close to it.

The turtle is the big black lump that looks like a rock. The people in the picture kept blocking everyone's view. The attendant finally came and ran them off but by them the turtle was back in the water.

Jim & I have never really known much about Oahu and really liked the North Shore. I'm definitely going to check my timeshare to see if there are in there for a future visit. It's very nice.

We headed back to Honolulu and dropped Tracy off at the ship so she could get checked in and we headed to the Ala Moana Mall. I bought a dress at Hilo Hatties, Jim found a shirt, swim trunks and a swim shirt at two stores and we stocked up on water and snacks at the ABC Store before heading back to the ship ourselves. Jim dropped us off and returned the car to the rental agency before we boarded the ship with our new Seapass cards we'd been given before we got off the ship that morning.

Brenda was on board already and we ran into her.

We had drinks in the Diamond Lounge before heading to the MDR for dinner. We were given a huge reception when the 6 of us entered and totally shock Tracy and Brenda! We had told them about the screw up of the hostess giving our table away twice the preview cruise and how I escalated it directly to the Maitre'd Shamus after the second time.

It was another early night. Being out in the hot sun and high humidity all day wears a person out. The ship left Honolulu at 10:00 p.m. and this was our view as we were pulling away! We now have 5 days at sea before reaching the French Polynesian islands of Papeete, Tahiti; Moorea and Bora Bora!

Debarkation Day: 11 Night Hawaii Cruise - Honolulu

When we woke up this morning it was still dark and we were still quite away out of Honolulu.

Jim & I had coffee after it was available but once the ship was cleared, he left to go get the rental car and pick up Tracy at her hotel. I had a quick breakfast while Valerie, Ian & I waited for him to return and pick us up.

This is the end of cruise one!

Day 10: 11 Night Hawaii Cruise - Kona

Kona is a tender port on the other side of the island from Hilo so we didn't have too far to go overnight! According to Scott, our tour guide yesterday, it's the dry side of the island. But it's still green.

Once we tendered to the pier, we went directly to the trolley and got on. As it turned out, it was taking the north route before taking the south route which is the one we needed to get to Kahului Beach. The best thing about this beach - it's a non-smoking beach! Awesome, huh!

We snorkeled and saw lots of wonderful fish. Unfortunately, my camera kept getting turned off when texts kept coming in. If my camera had been working properly, these are the fish I saw that I would have taken pictures of.

And, of course, what else do we see out in the bay but our home away from home, Radiance of the Seas!

We decided to call a cab to get us back to the ship instead of trying to get the trolley.  There were only 2 times we could have caught it and we probably would have had to stand. No thanks.

There was a street fair going on when we got back to the port and Jim found another shirt to buy. I only bought kettle corn! But we did meet these two fine Hawaii Policemen and they were more than happy to have their picture taken!

After returning to the ship, we decided to cool off by taking a dip in the pool!

 Me, Ian & Valerie

We had our next cruise meeting at 5:00 so we now know what we need to do in Honolulu. And we also had another towel animal tonight when we got back from dinner.

Day 9: 11 Night Hawaii Cruise - Hilo

Today we had a 6 hour tour with Scott from Tours by Locals scheduled for just the 4 of us as soon as we could get off the ship. We were docked today so that made it easy once we were cleared. We took snacks and water with us since our tour didn't include lunch.

Scott was waiting for us in the building and we jumped into his 4 door Ford pickup and headed to Volcanoes National Park. We drove through quite a rain squall getting there but it was barely sprinkling when we got to the park.

Our first stop was the Thurston Lava Tube. Scott wanted to get there before the tour buses came so we could be the only ones walking through!

I thought it was going to be scary, but it wasn't - just dampish. There were lights all through the tube but we had to watch for the puddles of water.

After the tube, we made our way up to the Jaggar Museum where we could also look over the Halema'uma'u Crater. There was so much smoke you could barely see the lava and you definitely couldn't get it in a photo.

After waiting to see if the smoke would clear so we could see the lava, and failing, Scott took us to see steam vents that nobody else goes to. It's amazing how hot they get.

Scott then dropped us at Devastation Trail. It's about half a mile long and begins at Pu'u Pua'i Overlook at Kilauea Iki Crater.

This little guy wanted to hang out with us!

After we walked through the trees, we came out to more lava flow where we were able to find some of Pele's tears.

On the way to the ocean, we drove down Chain of Craters Road and stopped a couple of times to walk across more lava fields. The patterns left by the lava are amazing.

And yes, even the 12's show up on lava fields!

The two tone lava is just the difference in temperature of the lava when it's flowing!

Ian, Scott & Jim

 Scott's truck!

In the picture above, we were headed down to the ocean to see Holei Sea Arch. We could also see the steam from the lava flowing into the ocean!

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at Rainbow Falls. There was a lot of water flowing that day!

After we set sail, Captain Trym informed us that about 9:30 it looked like he'd be able to sail us by the lava flowing into the ocean. It was spectacular. We were about 700 yards away when he stopped the ship and let us watch! These pictures were taken by my friend Valerie, as she had a much nicer camera than mine! Pretty awesome, huh?!

Day 8: 11 Night Hawaii Cruise - Lahaina, Maui (Day 2)

Jim  woke up (before 5:00) and took this picture.

After coffee, we took a walk up to the helipad before meeting Valerie & Ian for breakfast. I waved to the officers on the bridge (like they even noticed us!).

We had a second day in Lahaina but decided there was no need to hurry since we didn't have any plans but shopping and lunch at Bubba Gump. We've been having breakfast in the MDR (main dining room) and it's so much nicer than fighting the crowd in the WJ.

We tried to leave the ship at 10:00 but the line was ridiculously long so waited until 11:00 and got right onto a tender. I have my Seattle Seahawks 12 flag hanging on my balcony railing!

It was another hot and muggy day! The ship had ice water at the dock and ice cold wash cloths when we came back before getting on the tender to come back to the ship. That was so nice!

We trekked across town to Hilo Hatties. I wanted to pick up a couple of dresses but the store was less than half the size it used to be and the selection was not nearly as good. The dress I wanted was too small and they didn't have my size. So I ended up getting nothing. But the ABC store was right next door and we purchased snacks for our excursion tomorrow on Hilo!

Lunch at Bubba Gumps was good. We sat by the open window and watched the surf, and the breeze blowing in on us through the big open windows felt good. The wind had started to pick up during the afternoon and the surf was getting bigger. As we were heading back to the ship, we noticed a store that had the kind of dresses that I was looking for. I bought 2 and Jim found a shirt he liked - SCORE! When we walked into dinner one of the waiters had on the exact same shirt Jim had bought. Of course pictures were taken - I didn't have my phone but once I get a copy of the pictures I'll post them! 

The tender ride back to the ship was quite choppy and our tender skipper had a difficult time getting docked at the ship. I was glad we came back when we did because the wind picked up and the clouds came rolling in.

During dinner I started getting a headache so we called it an early night and were in bed shortly after 9:00. I think the heat, and maybe not enough water during the day, had finally caught up with me. 

We have a big day tomorrow - a private tour of the volcano fields and the national park in Hilo.