carohs

We walked to Dunkins this morning. On the way we say so many baby lizards. I suspect these are full size but they were teeny. We also saw wild chickens and a rooster crossing the road. We had a chuckle at that. On the walk, DD says, "mommy, dare or dare?" That's when you have to make a decision, nip it in the bud or brace yourself for the ask. We're on vacation so I played along. "I dare you for this cruise the whole time to not drink coffee." 🤣🤣🤣🤣 never gonna happen. She's just lucky DH had brewed me a cup in the room and I had already finished it. Now, she wasn't being mean or snarky. Well not solely. She recalled a conversation we had about studies showing you actually get better rest if you abstain from caffeine. After I explained about parents having executive decision making powers, and the fact that I might still need the bit extra from caffeine due to energy expended from activities planned, I said, "besides, if I have to give up coffee you have to give up ice cream." A short walk later she tries it again, truth or dare? Truth. "Are you really gonna make me give up ice cream if you give up coffee?" DS then chips in "according to our family law, the penalty for taking away coffee from Mom is revoking ice cream privileges." 🤣🤣🤣

Now I haveta make a Mai Tai the first drink I get onboard. I hope it's as good as the islands'.

Hotel review: we stayed at the Airport Hotel. For convenience mostly. The room was fine; the hotel clean. But the AC didn't do a good job of cooling. I can stand next to it and feel the very cold air but across the room I'm hot. I can sit in 80 degrees in my house and still cover with a blanket for coziness. It may have something to do with the tickle in my throat (probably from the 🥶 on HA) or from my increased proximity to DH with only a full size bed. I also spotted a roach in the bathroom overnight. I accept that bugs are an inevitable part of life and they tend to invade every space you don't want them to, but still I don't look favorirably on a business that has roaches. Eew. We're staying on the 2nd floor.

Two updates from yesterday. They have a highway here that's literally built over another road. It tripped me out the whole way DD also saw and pointed out a rainbow 🌈 in the sky.

Got only slightly better sleep last night. I still have anxiety I think about what the plans are and all the ways we can be sidetracked and delayed. This is why I hate planning and prefer to go with come what may. But I started looking into it I just didn't feel come what may would work out very well. Or I'd be wasting a whole lot of $ just to end up at a beach. Woke up at 1ish then tried and mostly failed to sleep; finally gave up about 4ish. DD woke up a little bit after and said, "guess what mommy? I still have lots of energy I was just tricking you all night!" 🤣🤣🤣

What? I definitely don't have that kind of self-control and dedication. Props

11 hours! I don't think I could do a flight that long. I would get figetty and it's not like anybody on the flight would appreciate me pacing either just to stretch out for a bit.

We also got the kids sworn in as junior rangers.

We're back in the room now. I was feeling hungry again but it was only 5. DH points out that it's really like 8pm our time. Duh! Still waiting on delivery too pooped to get out again. But to combat it I found me Taro milk tea 😋😋

More birdies And statues

We had 2pm reservations for the Arizona memorial. We made it with just a few minutes to spare. The ranger came in and gave us a quick what for, starting with remembering this is a memorial not an attraction. We learned about the design of the memorial and how the ship and lives aboard were lost. It's all very shocking how quickly that happened. Even more sad that there were that many men aboard because the ship was scheduled to return to Washington. They had all been writing letters saying they were coming home. Instead the families received folded flags in the months following PH since most of the crew were basically instantly cremated and bodies never recovered. I'll add a few picture highlights.

Oh man getting out of the airport and checked in took longer than expected. Among the delays, the hotel couldn't find our reservation. But we did check in eventually and even managed to find lunch. Simple sandwiches but tasty. Found an unusual bathroom situation. Why limit access to the women's but not the men's? Anyway now we're waiting on Lyft to head to Pearl Harbor.

Poor injured birdie near baggage 😥

The flight was great overall, the coffee on the other hand, well let's just say beggars can't be choosers. We had plenty of butt space and DH had plenty of knee space. They did walk around offering snacks for purchase at very reasonable prices and then came around with sausage breakfast sandwiches and drink service. We even got a rum punch on offer. Yaas. There was so much Hawaii info and entertainment available. Even the preflight safety info was done with Hawaiian sights. Definitely in the vacation mood now. As an added plus we got probably one of the smoothest landings ever; I heard more than felt the touchdown. My only complaint was that they seemingly expect you to dress like you're headed to Alaska ❄️🥶. Would fly again!

Another first. First on Hawaiian. First time on a plane this size.

Boarding is underway. Unfortunately we had a couple delays so I didn't feel like I had time to wait for coffee after getting thru security. Drat hopefully the airline coffee isn't completely undrinkable.

We rented all through Enterprise and all airport locations. I did see some offices are actually closed Sat and Sun and that did have some affect on where we rented from.

Like LouChamp mentioned, there haven't been a lot of POA posts, and fewer still that were deeply detailed. I wanted to do this live to give the POA just a bit more love. I also did a live while on the Jewel and found that taking the time to put the day into words really helped me be present and enjoy those moments. I also have a horrible ability to recollect, or as DD puts it I forget everything. Sometimes it's nice to go back and reread those posts and think about what I'd like to do again, what I miss, and and what I would do differently given another chance. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to take the time each day to update this thread. It'll be a juggling act. I haven't slept. I'm not sure what it is. I mean I usually have a hard time falling asleep the night before but once I'm out I tend to crash hard. FitBit confirms very little deep sleep. Flight leaves in 3 hours so what to do, what to do? Not ready to start waking us all yet.

Speaking of budget. We booked an inside guarantee at the lowest rate available with all FAS offers except for airfare. Airfare was ultimately cheaper for 4 booking ourselves made even cheaper by booking basic economy, and less than that even by using points. Analyzed independent excursions vs NCL with $50 credit and still decided car rentals was the way to go. You helpful people helped me realize the potential of double up CNC and even asking for FCC after final payment. Didn't get the FCC but did get offered a negligible upgrade. Despite all that, this will hands down be the most expensive vacation our family has ever taken.

We have two independent activities planned but not until Kauai. We are DIYing the ports and have rentals booked every day except for tomorrow and Saturday. I left some space open for beach relaxing or other spontaneous decisions. I'm hopeful we won't end up missing VNP due to this impending shut down but you know, if we miss it, we would have a very good excuse to return to the islands. I feel so lucky to one, be able to have planned this trip, and two, know that it doesn't have to be one and done for us. But next time I'm looking into renting camping gear or something cuz this budget is already feeling out of control even with my cost controlling measures.

Let's go to Hawaii!!! After much second guessing, it's happening and I couldn't be more excited. Traveling with me are DH, DD (8) and DS (10) and none of us have been there before. Booked since June of last year, I started really planning a few months ago. My planning has consisted of scouring Cruise Critic, TripAdvisor and social media for information on Hawaii. It has also consisted of spreadsheets, lots of spreadsheets. Some people like to take notes on Word, but Excel and I are BFFs. Turns out there's so much I want to see and do it was hard to pick and limit to the time available in port, too. And also to remain within a reasonable budget. And then DH throws me a curveball - he wants to make sure we get actual relaxation time on this vacay and we don't return home more exhausted than when we left! I plan to treat the POA more like a floating hotel given that there's no sea days; besides, I'm bound to be exhausted in the evenings from all the port adventures we have planned. Hopefully we can sneak in a nap or two and enjoy some of the evening entertainment available. I'm going in with little expectations for the ship but lots of expectations for Hawaii. Could we have done a land trip? Yeah maybe, but we've never been to Hawaii so for us this will give us an opportunity to explore and decide to which island(s) we'd like to return. I will try to cover some bits of the ship but we all know this one is all about the destination!