Review Hawaii Nov 7-17, 2012 POA

[Just4You]

We just returned from our most recent visit to Hawaii Nov 2012. If you want to read my last year's review from Dec 2011, please visit:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1534322&highlight=just4you

 

In this review I have lots of pictures with the shore excursions we did on each island. We stayed in Waikiki for 3 nights, and then boarded the Pride of America (POA) for 7 nights.

 

For the flight to Hawaii from mainland in Houston, we paid extra for a bulkhead seat ($69pp) in the economy section 11 months ago. When the merge from Continental to United occurred, they changed the plane from 767 to 777 and our seats were switched to the last economy row but we didn’t realize this until we checked in at the gate. Since they were out of bulkhead seats, we were upgraded to Business Class, which included a meal and a recliner seat. Talk about comfortable!

 

Wed Dec 7, 2012 Oahu

We flew to Oahu Wed Dec 7 and stayed at Outrigger Reef on the Beach hotel for 3 nights. We got an ocean VIEW room, which means you have to go out on the balcony and look to the right to see the ocean. We were on the 8th floor and overlooked the pool/hot tub area. Here are some pictures of our room:

 

[Keith1010]

Thank you for writing and posting your review.

 

Keith

[Just4You]

I'll be compiling this review in pieces since each page has a limited amount of space for pictures. I'm currently loading pictures into Flickr to add to the review, so it may take a few minutes.

[Just4You]

We have a yearly tradition of going to Duke’s (in central Waikiki at the back of Outrigger Waikiki). We order from the bar menu and get fish tacos and ahi tuna poke. Dan drinks Root Beer and I have 2-3 Mai Tai’s (to get into the Aloha spirit).

 

 

Each year we run into at least one person with a flock of parrots who makes a living getting people to take pictures for a small donation. I think we gave him $5 and he took several pictures with the parrots placed in various poses.

 

 

[Just4You]

Thurs Nov 8, 2012 Oahu

 

International Marketplace in Waikiki. I bought a leather bracelet for $12. There was engraving included in the price but I didn’t have it done. Here is DH next to the koi pond.

 

 

Back in the hotel area, DH bought a cane made of Curly and Blond Koa wood (grows on big Island only) & watch (Italian ebony, rosewood, maple, bezel-rosewood) from Martin & MacArthur. The watch kept losing time in Hawaii, he thinks the stem wasn’t pushed in. It works just fine now that we are back on the mainland.

 

Tour: Waterfalls Sacred Sites and Movie Locations of Oahu with Mitch Berger ($42 pp) pick up at Outrigger Waikiki.

 

Kaniaka Pupu – Summer Palace of King Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama. During King Kamehameha I the battle of Nuanu Kamama was everywhere except this sacred site. The base and part of the wall of the house are still present.

 

 

 

Here DH is leaving an offering (shortbread cookies) and us at the balcony.

 

 

[slidergirl]

Ah yes, the Fish Tacos at the bar at Duke's. Pretty tasty. I wash mine down with a couple Lavaman Red Ales. Friendliest barmen I've ever met there, too.

[Just4You]

At a Heiau on Oahu:

 

 

 

DH with coconut and palm frond (later on the POA we learned how to weave these into bracelets and key chains):

 

 

[Just4You]

Nu’uana Pali State Wayside Point lookout. It was windy! Dan with Mitch Berger, who wrote and sold an Herb book ($10).

[Just4You]

Fri Nov 9, 2012 Oahu. Hole in the Wall Tour ($99 pp, pick up from Trump Tower, across street from our hotel). It was started by Matthew Gray, but our guides were Bill and Sahara. There were 12 of us. GREAT tour! We bought a T-shirt for $20. This is one of the best kept secrets on Oahu and the tour fills quickly.

 

The van held maximum 12 passengers and was very comfortable. They also provided water, wet wipes, dental floss and a collapsible stool to sit on in Chinatown. They thought of everything!

 

 

Our first stop was the Royal Kitchen for baked manapua made with Hawaiian sweet bread (our favorite!). I had one filled with char siu (spicy pork), DH had kalua pork (smokey taste). Bill is inside getting our yummy treats while the rest of us wait outside:

 

 

Across the plaza was a Japanese-Buddhist temple at Chinatown Cultural Plaza. Every summer the O-Bon Festival is held here.

 

[Just4You]

Next on the tour was Coco Puffs from Liliha Bakery. These are chocolate pudding cream puffs with Chantilly frosting (double YUM-YUM!).

 

 

Chinatown walk. See the collapsible chair that is slung over my shoulder? This tour group thought of everything! This was a fun, easy walking tour.

 

 

Ying Leong Funn Factory where we watched the women making handmade noodles.

 

 

 

Here is the outside entry into the factory. Then we got to sample shrimp and spring onion, and also roast pork and spring onion rice noodles. Bill was explaining the food and handing out the goodies:

 

 

[Just4You]

Next we sampled Korean BBQ chicken from Jackie’s Kitchen. Kimlan Soy Paste tastes like plum sauce (yummy!).

 

 

 

Eating rambutan (it has a tough red leathery skin) and longan (dragon eye, with brown skin). It tastes like a plum and a grape. We always wondered what these were in the Hawaiian markets, now we got to sample them.

 

 

 

[Just4You]

Kehaulike Market in Chinatown.

 

 

 

MaunaKea Marketplace. Here they sold all parts of the pig including the snout and had live bullfrogs for sale to eat:

 

 

Rambutan are $4.99 per pound:

 

 

Pepiau dumplings (Hawaiian, steamed) with spicy mustard from Char Hung Sut, and ma tai su flakey pastries (Chinese pot pies) from Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery. By this time we were getting full, but there is much, much more!

 

[Just4You]

Spam Musubi (rice with braised Spam, wrapped in seaweed). The ABC stores sell this warm, it's the size of a mini-meatload (about $1.79 each) and I had my first one yesterday in Waikiki.

 

 

 

 

Ahi tuna poke (it didn’t have enough citrus so was a little too raw for our taste but we ate some anyway).

 

 

 

 

Coconut tarts with local apple bananas. By this time we were STUFFED! If you wanted more, they gave you MORE!

 

 

Hawaiian papaya plain and sprinkled with Li Hing powder (traveling plum and salt). I bought a bag in the grocery, it's also good as marinade.

 

 

Fruit at the marketplace.

 

 

 

 

Sun Chong Grocery. Here we sampled crack seed from papaya and other dried nuts/fruit. We bought yummy dried ginger, sweet seedless cherries (salty!), coconut candy, and Li Hing powder.

 

 

[Just4You]

A statue in Chinatown:

 

 

We went to Char Siu House for Chinese sweet boneless pork and 5 layers of heaven roast pork with crunchy skin (so delicious!). Here is Saraha getting our goods, and a suckling pig, a delicacy for special occasions. Oh, the little baby piglet… how sad (as we licked our lips, shameful!).

 

 

 

Leonard’s Bakery for malasadas, a Portuguese doughnut. By this time we couldn’t eat another bite.

 

 

[Just4You]

Here was the T-shirt we bought. Again, I highly recommend this tour.

 

 

 

 

This was a great tour that sells out quickly. We were fortunate that we got in only a month out. Later, our bus driver to the pier couldn’t believe we ate what he and his family ate in Hawaii. You will feel like a local on this tour. We are going again next year. Our favorite was the manapua, but nobody makes them like the Royal Kitchen.

[Just4You]

Fri Nov 9, 2012 evening. Ali’i Kai Catamaran sunset dinner cruise ($75 pp, which is extra for window seats). It picked up at Sheraton Waikiki Aloha landing, a crowded underground parking lot with lots of buses and people. The boat held 6 giant busloads of people (360 guests) on each of 2 floors (total 720 guests). Cousin Rex messed up our window seats, didn’t bring us water or give us our extra drink tickets or shell lei until we asked 4 times. Food was buffet (not very good), entertainment was a joke, and mostly each bus had a stupid chant and competed against each other.

 

We were so disgusted we walked to top deck to watch the sunset and fireworks. This was the only tour/meal we did not leave a tip. Rex was so apathetic to us… since we were treated like cattle on a cattle car, when we walked off the bus and he held out his hand for a tip, we looked at him and moo’ed (not really, but we felt like doing it). I felt bad for the other passengers who may think this is what Hawaii is about.

 

The only good thing about the tour was the view of Waikiki from the ocean. Notice Diamond Head just to the left of the Tiki on the boat. Every Friday evening the Hilton Hawaiian Village puts on a fireworks show that lasts about 5 minutes. You can watch it on Waikiki beach but you'll need to walk to the Outrigger Reef on the Beach hotel to get a good view.

 

 

 

 

[Just4You]

Sat Nov 10, 2012. Feeding the doves from our hotel room. We had to keep chasing them out of the room and keep the door closed. They would knock on the door when they saw us in the room.

 

 

 

That morning we went to the US Army Museum since it was next door to our hotel. DH in front of US Army Museum.

 

 

 

 

Outside the Outrigger Reef on the Beach hotel while waiting for VIP Transportation to take us to the pier.

 

 

We used VIP Transportation for the shuttle from airport to hotel ($12 pp), then hotel to pier ($8 pp).

 

When we got off the shuttle van, a porter from POA escorted us inside and took our bags since DH uses a cane. We got to bypass the long line to drop off the bags and another long line to register. We received a flower and shell lei and had pictures taken with local Hawaiians dressed in traditional wear. We are latitudes members and thought we would have to get into this line, but we got to go directly to the handicap check-in and bypassed another long line. Sweet! We boarded in about 20 minutes, which was a record for us.

 

On the Pride of America, DH wore a birthday T-shirt and he got people to sign it. Here we are in the Liberty restaurant with Pam and Bill Smith (our neighbors in cabin 10156). Our waiters Kameron and Sue brought DH cookies with “Happy Birthday” written in chocolate. Kameron remembered each of our names throughout the lunch, which impressed us, considering he just said goodbye to the last group of passengers earlier that morning.

 

[Just4You]

Here we all are at the table for lunch:

 

 

Our cabin 10157 with birthday decorations. Here are the signatures on DH’s T-shirt, the front of the shirt said “Happy Birthday, Hawaii 2012” and the back read “It’s my birthday, now sign my T-shirt.” It was great fun riding the elevator and getting people to sign the shirt all day and evening.

 

 

[Just4You]

Our cabin 10157, a handicap room, so it is larger than the normal inside suite. We had this same room Dec 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to see pictures of the bathroom, go to my review from Dec 2011. Note the ample storage behind the corner bathroom mirror.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1534322&highlight=just4you

[Just4You]

We received a letter on our door that our luggage had been confiscated due to an unauthorized item and we had to go to the “naughty room” to explain ourselves and claim our luggage. It was located on Deck 3 gangway and security was everywhere. It was ironic that there was a person handing out champagne, as if to ease the pain.

It turned out that the ship's x-ray found a steak knife in our luggage, the same one we had been carrying for the past 10 years. It was old and dull, and I told the ship officer she could keep it as a souvvenir from us.

Later that day on POA we attended "Your Itenerary to Paradise" (boring, about shore excursions), but we meant to go to the "Port and Shopping Talk" (to get the free stuff that’s thrown into the audience). Last year we got a lot of cool, free stuff, like shirts and purses from Del Sol that change colors when out in the sun. We missed it this year.

[Katemusical]

I am loving your review! Continue them please...especially the different foods.

[Just4You]

Sun Nov 11, 2012. Maui: Lahaina and Ka’anapali Beach.

 

We rented a car from Avis for 2 days ($34/day). The driver of the airport shuttle who was to pick us up at the pier had a new bus without the security sticker, so he never pulled into the pier but instead waited across the street at the overnight parking lot. Some of the passengers ran across the street to get the bus but most of us stayed where we were supposed to wait inside the pier, thinking he would pull in. Instead the shuttle left and we had to wait (1 hour 20 minutes total) until the next bus arrived. We complained and the manager, Joe Celebrado, who upgraded us to a Jeep 4-door SUV and gave us the second day free.

 

Shaved ice in Lahaina, the Melo-Coco (melon and coconut shaved ice over ice cream), located next to public parking lot on other side of Harley Davidson shop (where we bought several T-shirts).

 

 

We walked to the Banyon tree, then to the main building where a bathroom is located. There are vendors selling their wares under the tree. We ran into Ellen Levinslky of Fair Weather Feather Creations who makes pictures out of feathers, ellenfeatherart@mac.com (808-661-8410). She learned how to sew feather hatbands by Auntie Mary Lou Kaleonohenahe Kekuewa at Bishop Museum in Honolulu, another favorite place we like to visit on Oahu.

 

We walked down Front Street in Lahaina and went to Wyland gallery to see the latest paintings and bronze sculptures. We have the dolphins swimming in resin sculpture at home, so we ooo’d and awww’d over the beautiful bronze sculptures where we could feel the ribs and muscles beneath the “skin” of the whales and dolphin sculptures.

[Just4You]

A rare palm cockatoo, Prince, at Dan’s Greenhouse. We paid $5 each donation to pet him. These rare birds retail for over $16,000, the owner wants $1 million. He was very lovable and friendly. This shop also sells Bonsai and tropical plants.

 

[Just4You]

Next we drove north to Ka’anapali Beach to Whaler's Village. This is a touristy place where parking costs $3/30 minutes. We had a sunset sail so we would be here 6.5 hours. We got 2 parking stickers (good for 3 hr/each) by buying Croc flip-flops for me and Croc boat shoes for DH. DH also bought a Koa pen/pencil set at Martin & MacArthur’s. There are mostly high-end shops and restaurants and ceramic koi fish in the fountains, which gives you an idea of the touristy kind of place. There is a beautiful, long stretch of sandy beach that extends to the north at Black Rock, a popular snorkel site where fish and giant sea turtles can be spotted.

We tried to snorkel at the beach but the waves were a challenge. DH sat in the water and I tried to pull him in slowly with each wave, but the waves were too rough and DH kept getting moved back to shore with each wave. It was a hilarious sight!

There was a crowd of people that gathered on the beach cheering him on and laughing with us. We had bought new snorkel gear, booties with socks, and waterproof fanny packs and carried it in the wheeled duffle bag to Hawaii. This was the first time we tried out the new gear and the first time for DH try to snorkel. DH also had a blow-up life vest and inflatable mini-boogie board with plastic viewing window. This gives you an idea how funny we must have looked. Unfortunately, the waves were too rough and DH didn’t get to snorkel, but we and the crowd had a good laugh over the attempt.

[Just4You]

Teralani Sunset Dinner cruise ($69pp) at Ka’anapali Beach. We had to meet at 4:10pm and wait in line on the sandy beach for the catamaran to pull onto shore around 5pm to offload a group of snorkelers, then take off our shoes and walk in the ocean to get to the boat. Nobody on the cruise offered to help DH into the boat that was bobbing wilding in the surf. Two other passengers finally got on either side and helped to lift him on.

 

The girl who worked on the ship (walking up behind DH in the second picture below) was indifferent and snappy to everyone, except at the end of the cruise when she expected a tip. The food was below average, it seemed everyone on board got drunk and we listened to canned American music… not our idea of fun. The sunset was beautiful, however.

 

 

 

 

A much better sunset dinner cruise, IMO, is with Quicksilver called the Quicksilver Sunset Dinner Cruise out of Ma'alaea Harbor. Here you will have better food, live entertainment, boarding from the pier (not the ocean), and many attentive crew and a friendly captain. It is one of the sunset dinner cruises that occur on Sunday, which is the day the POA docks overnight.