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!