My Islands Review

[H20 Lover]

Just got back yesterday from Radiance 10 day Hawaii, sorry if it's kinda choppy, I'm still rocking around. Here's what we did:

 

Hilo: short time there, rented car through Thrifty, drove to VNP, did the circle around it. Go see Thurston's Lava tube if you do this.

 

Maui (2 days): Lana'i Wild Dolphin with Pacific Whale Foundation (through the ship). Awesome crew, had a million spinners sailing with us for a bit, right under, next to us, almost jumped in the boat. Couldn't sail to Lana'i due to weather, however they took us to an amazing cove and we had a blast there. Sat on the front of the boat and had a WILD HANG ON FOR YOUR LIFE ride. Huge waves. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED excursion. Drinks were free flowing all the way back.

 

Lahaina at night, did some bar hopping, a Jazz Club before the crowds came, then onto Mc-something bar (upstairs) had a great time there, then onto my personal favorite Kimo's on the water, for some local fun. The view there, our Radiance parked out with her lights on, crescent moon hanging just to the left of her and water splashing up on shore with tiki torches and all. Of course didn't have my camera, so I took a very long mental picture. :::sigh:::

 

Volcano Bike Ride in Maui: total blast, pretty easy to do, just watch your guide and the bike in front of you and enjoy the ride down. Manny was a blast. Oh and the Volcano Crater was pretty amazing. Looked like the moon or Mars or something.

 

Tendering here stunk, body cavity searches, standing in the intense Hawaiian sun. I try not to be whiny, but hated this tendering. Come on Maui, you can do better than this.

 

Nawiliwili, Kauai: docked... uhhh, that was nice. Rented a car and drove all the way to the end of the road (Ke'e Beach), parked in some mud under some trees, grabbed our snorkel gear and headed into the beautifully clear waters. Beware of two things, mosquitos jumped all over us the second we opened the door, so bring that DEET stuff and get it on you. Secondly Beware, I got too much into my underwater world and got pulled out to sea, then in a slight rip tide, 1 foot of water with razor sharp coral that I was TRYING not to touch while getting slammed by waves, I went into Danger mode, swam sideways, rode the waves in and rested when I could.. made it back to shore exhausted. The scariest part was seeing my Brian's face seeing me sail out to sea. Anyway, just be careful. When we got out of the water and headed to the showers, there WAS NO PARKING LEFT, so get there early if you can, it gets really crowded.

 

Stopped by Hanalei Bay where as a teenager we rented a house a couple times on the beach where the surfers parked (Peggy Slater's house). It was sadly taken out by the last hurricane, so it's now a totally different house, 2 story with trees in front. Hanalei is such a beautiful cove. Good to see her again.

 

Stopped at Bubba's Burgers across the street from a local Pow Wow going on. YUMMY BURGERS! What's up with all the chickens on Kauai? :)

 

Tried to find Queens Bath, which we finally found at the turn off for Princeville, wow what a gorgeous community. We parked in this teeny parking lot, slid down this super dangerous Kauai mud hillside and there she was, but the tide was too high as we knew could possibly happen, but it was still gorgeous. Brian found a bracelet in the lava rock, told me some folklore story that I must wear it until it falls where it may, where the Princess decides it should go. It fell at Mauna Kea when I snorkeling and wasn't looking. Now someone else will find it and hopefully keep it on the Islands.:)

 

Just enjoyed having our convertible that day, no rain and perfect weather. Kauai is SO GORGEOUS and unspoiled.

 

Kailua-Kona: rented a car, Thrifty took care of us the whole trip, especially having our Blue Chip membership. The Ironman was about to begin, so lots of eye candy, I mean athletes to look at. We drove up to Hawi where the bikes turn around at, little sleepy town. That's as far up North as we drove, stopped at a little Mexican food joint, met a guy that used to be a fireman in my TOWN, now retired in Kona, small world. On the way there, we pulled over to Hapuna. As the Revealed book says "close your eyes and picture a perfect beach" .. yep they were right. AWESOME snorkeling, a turtle swam a foot under me. No I didn't go after him, I kept my distance, HE came up to ME. Of course didn't have my camera. I just kinda said "hi buddy!" underwater.

 

Next beach we did, Mauna Kea. OK again another picture perfect beach, NO ONE there and it was the best snorkeling I have ever done. Next to St. John. Yikes, I could live here. Then drove down to check out the Hilton world, were running out of time, but I'd like to go back there, even though it's real resorty.

 

That night we left the Islands, our captain drove us real close and we "parked" in front of the Lava flowing into the ocean. Just an amazing moment. I couldn't believe all the lava all over the hillside and then about 3 of them flowing into the water, very very cool and very blessed to have seen that.

 

I love Hawaii for all of it's diverseness. Aloha and Mahalo.:)

[tammie brooke]

If we do the an excursion for a day (snorkle trip). Do we need a car for thj next day, or are there nice beaches and shopping next to tender spot. How long did the tendering process take to get off the ship on Maui and Kona. Thanks for your help.

[H20 Lover]

Tendering in Maui was yucky as I said in my review. If you had an excursion it really REALLY sped up the tendering off the ship and we had a tour both days through the ship. Getting back on was a pain in my experience. But then again there were 2 ships so not sure if that added to the pain of it. The security was super tight.

 

In Kona, tendering was a breeze.

 

Kona was the Ironman thing so booking a car in advance was a must if you choose to do that. We paid $34 while my brother was quoted $100. Not sure how it is when Ironman is not there. Kona has AWESOME shopping as does Lahaina, in my opinion. Not sure about beaches in Kona right next to the pier other than what someone told me and that it was great. I have no personal experience with that.

 

Both towns are fun to walk around right next to the ship.

 

Not sure if this helps you.

[tammie brooke]

Thanks that does help. If an excursion is booked but not throught the ship, do you think allowing an hour is reasonable to get off the ship in Maui? Did you do a luau are did you see hula dances on the ship. Where there theme nights and when are the formal nights? Sorry for all the questions however, I'm a big planner.

[spleen93]

Great review, Yvonne. Thanks for posting that!

 

Spleen

[H20 Lover]

Thanks that does help. If an excursion is booked but not throught the ship, do you think allowing an hour is reasonable to get off the ship in Maui? Did you do a luau are did you see hula dances on the ship. Where there theme nights and when are the formal nights? Sorry for all the questions however, I'm a big planner.

 

Hopefully someone will post on here that did that, but we had both days booked for excursions through the ship. However, we were talking with a crew member, I forgot her name and she that we were fortunate we had tours because the people that didn't have tours might get cranky. Take that as you may.

 

We have done Luau's in the past so we didn't this trip. I LOVED the dancers on board. In fact we partied with Beth from Hot Lava one night on 70's night in the Disco. Too fun. Anyway, the little shows they have are quite enjoyable. I just loved hearing Hawaiian music as I walked through the ship. I have heard the Old Lahaina Luau is nice. Expensive but nice. Hopefully you'll get a review from that as well.

 

We had two formal nights on a 10-dayer, first one was our first night at sea, any other night would have been too hectic because we were all running around on the islands all day. I would say you might prepare for 3 since you have a 14-dayer. We also were told we'd have a Smart Casual (semi formal) and we didn't. BUT we were glad we had an outfit because we did the Murder Mystery dinner in Portofino's and we had to wear SC.

 

They had theme nights (lots of Hawaiian nights, loved that!) and some others but that's personal choice if you wanna dress the attire.

 

Ask me anything, it helps me with my depression!:D

[cujosmom]

Beware, I got too much into my underwater world and got pulled out to sea, then in a slight rip tide, 1 foot of water with razor sharp coral that I was TRYING not to touch while getting slammed by waves, I went into Danger mode, swam sideways, rode the waves in and rested when I could.. made it back to shore exhausted. The scariest part was seeing my Brian's face seeing me sail out to sea. Anyway, just be careful. 

 

Thanks for telling everyone about the danger of the rip tides around Kauai. We stayed at Poipu Beach many years ago and had the same experience you described, except we didn't know what rip tides were or how to get out of them. We both thought we were going to drown and were so exhausted and relieved when we finally got back to shore along with cuts from the sharp coral.

[lgarner]

Thanks for the review - we leave in less than a week!! When you said you got caught in the rip tide at Ke'e, were you out far from shore? If we are careful, will that mean staying too close to shore to see anything? I want to go there but I am a little afraid!

 

Did you experience the same type of strong currents at the beaches you mentioned in Kona (Hapuna and Mauna kea)??

 

Thanks! Glad you had a great time and that your experience with the rip tide had a happy ending!

Lisa

[spleen93]

Rip tides can be very powerful but are usually very localized in their effects. The general advice for rip tides is not to exhaust yourself by trying to swim against the rip tide (which is usually useless and just tires you) but to swim parallel to shore until you get out of the effects of the rip tide - then you can swim back in.

 

Spleen

[lgarner]

I know that but I'm not sure if I would react that way. Hopefully my brain would kick in!! DH and I will be really careful.

 

Thanks for all your help on these pages. I feel like between the CC pages and my revealed books - I'm ready!

 

Lisa

[spleen93]

Lisa - you'd probably remember at some point - hopefully not before you get too far away from land! :D (I'm just kidding)

 

Spleen

[H20 Lover]

Thanks for the review - we leave in less than a week!! When you said you got caught in the rip tide at Ke'e, were you out far from shore? If we are careful, will that mean staying too close to shore to see anything? I want to go there but I am a little afraid!

 

Did you experience the same type of strong currents at the beaches you mentioned in Kona (Hapuna and Mauna kea)??

 

Thanks! Glad you had a great time and that your experience with the rip tide had a happy ending!

Lisa

 

Hey Lisa,

 

Well, in my underwater world I was thinking to myself, if I could just get past all this coral and I kept swimming and swimming... well don't go out that far if you aren't confident. Stay inside the waves breaking. That's comparing to the conditions I experienced.

 

If you happen to get in a situation, even though I know you know this, just remember to relax. I know that sounds easy to do, but you have to remember to breathe and be smart if in a situation like that. Rip tides, swim parallel like Spleen said and ride the waves when you can, I thankfully had fins on which really helped. Just take your time and remember you aren't on a time schedule, just get to shore. If it comes down to you can't, wave your arms in distress mode. I'm not trying to freak you out, just prepare you. It'll probably be just fine when you go, but learning all you can doesn't hurt either. I am sure you know all this, and your brain will kick in.

 

HAVE A GREAT TIME! I'm so excited for you!!!

[H20 Lover]

Did you experience the same type of strong currents at the beaches you mentioned in Kona (Hapuna and Mauna kea)??Lisa

 

Whoops forgot to answer this, no we didn't. I would say have fins though, my sister and bil didn't and they seemed like they had to work way harder than us.

 

It was windier at Hapuna so when on the beach, be prepared to eat sand.

[cujosmom]

The scary thing about the rip tides and why people panic is the tides keep taking you further and further from the shore and all you can think of is "I'm never going to be able to get back to shore and no one on the beach can even see me cause I'm so far out". In theory, you're supposed to "go with the flow" but when you're caught up in one, it's hard not to try to get back to shore since the people on the beach are now starting to look like ants. I'm a good swimmer, but I can't imagine how awful this would be to someone who is not...or a child.

[H20 Lover]

Exactly why a child should not do it or an unconfident (is that a word?) swimmer. Just better to play it safe, there's plenty to see.

[lgarner]

for the advice. I will play it safe. H2O, thanks for telling me you went out a little far - I can relax now and know that if I don't go out far, and stay within my "comfort zone", along with checking things out before I jump into the water, I'll be fine. DH is a much stonger swimmer than I am but we will both be careful. We will also have fins which will help.

 

I hate to hear of people drowning in a rip current when everyone "knows" they can swim parallel to shore and get out of them. I think its a panic thing.

 

Thanks for the info - we'll be careful!

 

Lisa

[simonv]

Every year some drawn in Kee's Beach. It's famous for the rip tide. Nobody bothered snorkeling there before the hurricane wiped out the Tunnels. But in general don't even think of swiming in the north shores in winter, especially in Kauai.

[worldsbestcandles]

Hi all,

 

I was on the sailing with Yvonne and I wanted to add two things...

 

First on our 10 day cruise the first formal night was our second day in Maui and then our first day at sea.... just to clarify

 

Second, On our first day in Lahaina we did our own excursion. We were renting a car and driving to do the ziplining. Since we didn't have a ship's tour we were worried about getting a tender ticket and all of that as well. We figured two things about it. On our particular sailing (I can't speak for any others), they had two tender docks going on the ship. The ship's tours met in the theater in the front of the ship and left by that tender leaving the one mid-ship for others who were not on ship's tours. This seemed to help some. We were rady really early though and we were supposed to get into port at 7:30 with tenders starting at 8am for non-ship tours. They made an announcement that they were having several "early-bird" tenders that required no ticket. They left at 7:15, 7:30, and 7:45. We booked it and got one of those and it was fantastic. They make no mention of them in the compass and they announced them litterally at the time (It was 7:10 when they annouced the 7:15 tender, etc). They also didn't allude to the fact that there would be more than one. We missed the first one because we were eating breakfast and figured oh well, but then they annouced the other one and we grabbed our stuff and ran (A plus that our cabin was on deck three!). We were in our rental car by 8:15 after waiting for the rental shuttle.... just a thought....

 

WBC

[H20 Lover]

Hey Steph! OH my gosh, you're right, our first formal was 2nd day in Maui. Good thing you keep me in check. I can see me now, we were so pressed for time, we did the Bike Ride, got back on the ship after 5, then had to shower and shine in less than an hour to make it to dinner.

[worldsbestcandles]

That's all right, I wasn't trying to take over your post... just trying to clarify for others.... We were rushed on that one too since we did the rainforest hike that day.... but we had a little more time since we had late seating....

[Coralc]

I want to hear more about the Ensenada disembarkation. Is it really as bad as everyone says? We are tossing around the idea of a 1 night resort stay in Ensenada, and then a private bus up to the San Diego airport.

 

World'sbestcandles. What did your guarantee room finally end up being assigned?

 

Patti:)

Serenade Hawaii, 10/05/06

 

Thanks for all the information so far.

[H20 Lover]

Hi Patti,

 

My personal opinion here, if I had the choice of doing it through the ship or staying a night in Ensenada and still taking a bus, I would do the through the ship. Reason, the bus I was on was pretty nice and I don't like Ensenada enough to stay there overnight (unless of course it was on the ship parked out front;) ).

 

But! There were a couple other buses (spell?) that broke down on the way back to San Diego and I'm sure that wasn't too fun.

 

I didn't like the whole ordeal on the last day, but my brother thought it was no biggy at all. I tend to whine more. :rolleyes:

 

Let me know if you have any other questions and if not have a wonderful time next year, you will LOVE it.

[Coralc]

Thanks Yvonne! What time was disembarkation? And barring breakdowns, do you recall about how long the bus ride was? WBC stated in another thread that it was chilly nights on the return, how about day time temperatures? Was it rough? Thanks.:)

 

We are just thinking about an extra night in Ensenada, no firm plans. There is a fairly nice resort about 6 miles out of town on the coast. It was built about 7 years ago, swim up bar and other amenities.

[sceptic]

Just a comment about the Ke'e Beach riptide. As you look at the beach and the reef, notice that the only outlet for the water is at the far west (left) of the beach. All of the water that enters the shallow area via wave action leaves through this small opening on the west side. Keep the snorkeling as far away from this opening as possible and the rip tide is far smaller to non-existent. And Do NOT snorkel here if the waves are pounding over the coral reef. Getting caught in a rip tide is scary, even when you know what to do.

 

When you're at Ke'e, I also recommend that you walk as far to the right (east) along the shore of the beach to see a very nice view down the Na Pali coast. This is truly one of the most scenic beaches in Hawaii.

[H20 Lover]

Thanks Yvonne! What time was disembarkation? And barring breakdowns, do you recall about how long the bus ride was? WBC stated in another thread that it was chilly nights on the return, how about day time temperatures? Was it rough? Thanks.:)

 

We are just thinking about an extra night in Ensenada, no firm plans. There is a fairly nice resort about 6 miles out of town on the coast. It was built about 7 years ago, swim up bar and other amenities.

 

Wow, that kind of place sounds nice, maybe I should rethink the Ensenada thing. Thanks for that tip!

 

Wow, it's only been a little over a month and I've forgotten some of the little details, so I'm wingin it here.

 

Everyone disembarked different times. We were one of the last groups and we got off around 8-ish? I feel like it was a couple hour bus ride, we had to stop at the border to be inspected and then get in line for our bus again. Then drive to SD. I am having trouble remembering, maybe someone else will chime in on that. After we got to SD it was super crowded there, we had to take our shuttle to our car then we had a couple hour drive home. So just a long day. But then I talked to my cruise buddies and their day was MUCH LONGER than ours, taking like 13 hours or something. Ick.

 

On the return, it wasn't freezing or anything, just have a long sleeve shirt, hoodie, or bring a jacket and you should be fine. You know Cali weather.

 

Seas weren't like gihugic waves or anything, but be prepared for anything. I took Mr. Bonine every day at bedtime and I didn't have any problems being on the very back of the ship and having some movement.

 

Day time temps, again just have something to throw on if you need it.

 

Hope this helps some.