Cruiseboy in Hawaii

 

 

When I returned from my trip to Hawaii a few weeks ago, a few friends, whom have never been before, asked me to describe Hawaii in two words, I described Hawaii as humbling and heavenly. The Aloha spirit is a very humbling feeling and, well, I’ll let the photos I’m about to post show just how truly heavenly Hawaii is. Each island is special and unique in it’s own right, and each offer a different experience.

I’ve have traveled to Hawaii several years ago with my parents as young child and teenager so this was my first time as an adult. I decided to treat this trip to Hawaii as if it were my first since I didn’t really have the appreciation for travel that I did when I last visited. Everyone that knows me, knows that I am a avid Royal Caribbean cruiser and most of my travels involve cruising. Royal Caribbean does sailings to the Hawaiian Islands twice a year. The perfect itinerary arose, a 12 night sailing leaving from Honolulu,  with 2 stops on the Big Island, and overnight stays in Kauai and Maui followed by a 5 day crossing to Vancouver. I jumped at the opportunity. Work provided a bit of a challenge for me down the road but i made it work. After all, travel is and always will be my #1 priority. I had almost 2 years to plan this trip (I always book my cruises early) and lots of research and chatting with fellow members of the Cruise Critic roll call. I was able to organize a few private tours, independent from the cruise line, as not much of interest was being offered in terms of shore excursions.

 

I begin my journey with the loooooooooooong flight to Honolulu. Most of my friends back home have really not shown much interest in Hawaii due to the fact that it’s really a long flight to Hawaii with the Caribbean being so close, although you can’t really compare the Caribbean islands with Hawaii. All together with connections the flight for me to Honolulu from Miami is around 11 hours which is a long time (I’ve flown longer distances) , but trust me it is worth it in the end. The good thing about the cruise is that it ended in Vancouver so the return flight was reduced quite a bit.

 

Oahu 

I spent 3 days in Waikiki prior to cruise.  I stayed at the Luana Waikiki right on Kalakaua Ave. I wasn’t looking for anything upscale or super fancy. Just a clean place and easy location. Luana was perfect, great little hotel with a classic Hawaiian charm. The decor was dated and cheesy but that only added to the charm of this hotel which made me love it. The Hawaiian lamps and the nice view of Honolulu was my favorite thing about this hotel.

 

 

After freshening up, I went for a stroll around Waikiki. I was reminded a lot of South Beach with the upscale shops everywhere and the massive crowds of tourist. I was so extremely tired from the long flight so I didn’t do anything too exciting this day. I had been looking forward to trying Hula Pie from Duke’s since I began planning this trip so stopped in for a late lunch / early dinner and continued my stroll and called it a night.

 

Hula Pie from Duke’s 

Waikiki 

 

Grand Circle Island Tour 

https://www.robertshawaii.com/oahu/tours/grand-circle-island-tour

For my first full day in Hawaii, I booked a Grand Circle Island tour of Oahu with Robert’s Hawaii, A very reputable tour company on the Hawaiian Islands. When people travel to Oahu, they’re immediately drawn to Waikiki / Honolulu because, that’s what they know. Oahu is so much more than just Honolulu, and this tour was a great way to explore what else Oahu has to offer. Cousin Dorothy was our guide for the day (sorry I did not get a chance to get a photo of her), a native Hawaiian and an excellent driver I might add.

 

 

The day started out early, my pick up was just about a block from the hotel at 6:45am. Cousin Dorothy was on time and well organized with pick ups and throughout the day. The tour was pretty much all day, with several stops around Oahu which included, Hanuma Bay,  Hālona blowhole, Nu’uanu Pali lookout, Byodo-In Temp le, Kualia Ranch for lunch,  Macadamia nut shop, a fruit stand in Kahuku, and finally the Dole Plantation.

 

Dinner that night was fairly easy. Found this great Vietnamese place in Waikiki called Old Saigon. Had some spicy garlic shrimp and called it a night.

 

 

Pearl Harbor Remember 

https://enoa.com/tour/pearl-harbor-remembered-tour-66/

A somber tour, but a very necessary and significant place to visit while in Honolulu. Pearl Harbor can be easily done on your own, but then you’d be responsible for securing your own tickets and time, and getting there. I opted to do a tour with E Noa. E Noa’s portion of this tour was mostly transportation , which was great and reliable, and a bit of commentary,  I found the guide Noah to be a little bit on the obnoxious side. While I appreciate the fact that we are in Hawaii and we should be having “fun”, I feel like a Pearl Harbor tour should have a little bit of a more delicate tone.  He kept making weird jokes and made a rather sexist remark which I personally did not care for but I just went about the morning just ignoring Noah basically. We arrived at the visitor center just before it opened. We had an 8:45am ticket for the film and boat ride to the USS Arizona memorial so I had about an hour to explore the visitor center and view the various exhibits there, which are very very interesting. When your time arrives, you head to the theater and watch a movie featuring actual attack footage, the movie is about 20 mins long but it is very well done and insightful. After the film, you take a narrated boat ride to the memorial built over the sunken USS Arizona. From the memorial platform, you can see pretty well, the remains of the USS Arizona and the oil slick from the ship. You have a good 15-20 minutes here before your ferry boat departs to take you back to the visitor center.

Battleship Missouri 

Punchbowl 

 

Chief’s Luau

Makapu’u Beach on the way to Chief’s Luau 

 

For my final night in Oahu, I really wanted to go to a luau. Went with Chief’s Luau and I’m glad I did. Wonderful and very entertaining show, food was ok, nothing spectacular but these luaus are not exactly known for great food. transportation from Wakiki to Waimanalo was available.

 

 

Diamond Head 

It was cruising day, one final thing I wanted to do in Oahu for this trip was hike up Diamond Head. I walked from my hotel to the top and back so as you can imagine I was pretty tired in the end. The walk from the Luana Waikiki to the Diamond Head crater parking lot was just a little over an hour plus about half an hour to the top, with a couple of photo stops along the way. The view from the top is amazing, you feel like you’re on top of the world up there. The hike up was a lot easier than I thought it would be though lots of uneven terrain can provide a challenge for some people. This hike is certainly not for everyone but does not require a maximum level of fitness. The hike down was about 20 mins, from there I walked to Leonard’s Bakery for malasadas, exactly what you want to eat right after the hike and right before boarding a 12 night cruise.

 

Malasadas from Leonard’s Bakery 

 

ALOHA RADIANCE OF THE SEAS !

 

Radiance of the Seas

Radiance is among my favorites of the Royal Caribbean fleet. offering a somewhat intimate cruise experience and port intensive itineraries. I sail on this class of ship with some frequency,  but this was my second time on Radiance herself (previously I have sailed Alaska on Radiance 2 years ago).  Very clean, elegant and simple. I feel more sociable when I sail on Radiance class because I am not overwhelmed by onboard activities. If I could sail the rest of my cruising days on these ships, I would.

 

 

Home for 12 nights

Hawai’i – The Big Island 

Kailua-Kona

https://www.islandwidefamilytours.com/2-step-snorkeling-and-local-flavors-tour.html

 

Day 2 of the cruise finds us in Kona on the Big Island. Coffee is a must in Kona, but I also wanted to do some snorkeling. Mary Lou’s Big Island tours had come highly recommended to me a few years back by a friend, so I had them in my notes. Mary Lou’s son Kyle has his own tour company and he offered a nice tour in Kona that included snorkeling in Honaunau Bay, so I organized a small group with some of my cruise critic friends. Kyle met us right at the tender pier (yes, Kona is a tender port). Our tour began with a scenic drive and an overview of Kona. Our first stop was at Greenwell Farms where we enjoyed a nice tour of the coffee plantation, coffee tasting and an opportunity to spend over $100 on coffee, macadamia nuts and chocolate. lol. All worth it though, as the coffee was exceptionally delicious. After a quick photo stop in Kealakekua Bay , we were off to Honaunau Bay or “Two-Step” for our snorkel adventure. I honestly did not want to get out of the water. The bay here for some reason is so refreshing and relaxing. The water was not too cold which was perfect. The fish life was amazing here, I’ve never experienced snorkeling quite like this before. A quick stop at the painted church, and then off to Keokis Ono for lunch. While we were waiting for our food, Kyle took some of us across the road to the Poke Shack to try some Poke. YUM……I’m officially hooked.

 

This little guy was greeting us as we made our way back to the ship.

a very special surprise later in the evening. We sailed by the Kamokuna lava flow from Mount Kīlauea on the Big Island on the way to Hilo. Not many cruises can you honestly say you’ve seen lava from the ship.

 

Hilo

http://www.marylousbigislandguidedtours.com/hilo-cruise-ship-tours.html

The next day in Hilo, Kyle was our guide once again. Can’t stress enough what a great guide he was in Kona and in Hilo. Took us to all the popular spots in Hilo: Liliuokalani Gardens, Rainbow Falls, Volcanoes National Park (of course), Thurston Lava Tube, Mauno Loa Macadamia Nut Factory, and Richardson Black Sand Beach. I booked this through Mary Lou’s Big Island Tours (Kyle’s mother). I personally found Hilo to be the most quaint of all the port we visited. Not a big resort area, as least as far as I noticed. 

Liliuokalani Gardens

Rainbow Falls

Volcanoes National Park 

Mount Kilauea Crater

Kilauea Iki Crater & Trail 

 

Thurston Lava Tube

Akatsuka Orchid Garden

Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory 

Richardson Black Sand Beach Park

Kauai 

Our next stop, Kauai. Officially my favorite Hawaiian Island. I love how untouched Kauai  feels, like the Hawaii of the 1950s. Everything in Kauai is so green and lush, exactly what Hawaii should be. We had an overnight stay in Kauai. Thank goodness because 1 day in Kauai is not enough, Heck , 2 days was nowhere near enough for me. A cruise ship stop is a tease really. Which is why I must go back, on my own next time.

Na Pali Coast

https://bluedolphinkauai.com/tours/napali-sunset-dinner-cruise/

The Na Pali coast has been on my bucket list and on this trip I officially crossed it off.  I’ll let the photos speak for how truly breathtaking the Na Pali Coast is. Myself and a few friends from CruiseCritic booked a dinner cruise with Blue Dolphin Charters. We had to make our own transportation to Port Allen from the cruise port. I arranged for 3 taxis with Discovery Green Taxis service in Kauai. They picked us up right on time just outside the cruise port, and right on time in Port Allen for our return. As for the dinner cruise, the boat itself was very nice. Comfortable, in my group all together there were 15 of us, on the boat I would say about 50 which may seem crowded but it really wasn’t. the boat was big enough for all us. The ride to Na Pali was about an hour, then we had about another hour, hour and a half cruising the coast and then an hour back. Food was also pretty good. Buffet style. Good options, chicken, pork and vegetarian. This experience  is an experience i will definitely do again in Kauai.

 

Duke’s Canoe Club – Kauai 

After the Na Pali coast dinner cruise, I popped in to Duke’s for a Mai Tai and of course  Hula Pie.  My goal was to hit all 3 Duke’s in Hawaii. Didn’t make it to the one in Maui.

 

Waimea Canyon 

The next day, I took the Royal Caribbean shore excursion to Waimea Canyon. Having done the Na Pali the day before, I kind of wish I had used my time a little differently. I should have rented a car and gone to the canyon on my own and I could have squeezed in so many other things as well. By doing the excursion, I feel like the entire day was just on the canyon. Waimea Canyon is stunning and breathe taking, I really wish I had done something else.  On the way to the canyon, we stopped at Hanapepe Valley Lookout and Spouting horn blowhole.

 

 

After my shore excursion to Waimea, I stopped at Kalapaki Beach and relaxed for a little while before returning to the ship.

Maui 

Our final stop of this Hawaiian adventure takes us to Maui. I had originally booked a shore excursion to Hana but my lovely group of friends thought it might be a lot more fun (and probably cheaper) to just rent a car and do the Road to Hana on our own. From Lahaina we took a taxi over to Ka’anapali to pick up our rental at the Hyatt Regency Resort and WOW. I’m staying here the next time I’m in Maui.

We were completely unprepared to the do the road to hana on our own. We had maps of course (and GPS but cell service was a little slow and sometimes unavailable) but weren’t sure of what stops to make etc. We pulled up this blog site on my phone and used it as a guide.

http://roadtohana.com/sights.php

It’s really impossible to do everything on the road to hana in the amount of time we had, but we did quite a bit, and we spent a lot of time at the stops we did make. the drive itself is worth it alone but the drive is not for everyone. Lots of twists and turns, and there is about a 5 mile stretch of unpaved road and unprotected cliffs. Car rental companies don’t allow rentals on this part of the road, luckily none of us got car sick or anything. And the drive requires LOTS of patience, patience I certainly don’t have (I live in South Florida, mecca for idiot drivers lol ).

Here are all the stops we made:
-Paia
-Ho’okipa Lookout
-Twin Falls
-Garden of Eden
-Honomanu Bay (no stop but can see on the drive)
-Halfway to Hana Stand
-Wailua Valley
-Town of Hana for Lunch
-Several scenic stops after leaving Hana on the way towards Haleakala.

We had planned on making it to the crater of Haleakala for sunset but we did not make it. (Next time)

 

 

Day 2 in Maui, I wanted to do some snorkeling (again), I took the bus from Lahaina to Ka’anapali, which was extremely easy.After snorkeling at Black Rock at Ka’anapali, I came back to Lahania and wandered around for a bit and had lunch at the Lahaina Fish Comapany. The perfect end to a fabulous trip to Hawaii.

 Lahaina

 

Mahalo for the memories Hawaii

 

 

The next 5 days crossing the Pacific, consisted of eating and drinking mostly, with a few shows here and there, a galley tour and a sushi making class that was a lot of fun. This was the perfect way to relax after 10 days in Hawaii.

Most of my dining experience on board was in the specialty dining venues which really is worth the extra money in my opinion. The quality of the food is better than in the main dinning room and the level of service is slightly more personalized. Most of my dining on board was at Izumi, predominately sushi but also a lot of Asian fusion.

 

Arriving in Vancouver

 

Ka Hopena (The End)