POA - Hawaii LIVE Sep 30, 2023

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Loving your reports and pictures as you know. Curious as to your thoughts and opinions on the islands and also the ship by way of food, service, etc. Are you flying home immediately after your vacation or are you staying a while? All the best!

[carohs]

4 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. Loving your reports and pictures as you know. Curious as to your thoughts and opinions on the islands and also the ship by way of food, service, etc. Are you flying home immediately after your vacation or are you staying a while? All the best!

Thanks! Yes two more nights. I'll write up a small summary on ship opinions at the end.

[carohs]

Last night we got the last daily along with the usual the end is near notices. We got back late and had an early morning, so it was dinner then bed. I can't believe how much we've seen yet how quickly the week has gone by. I'm tired now though. Not ready for real life but too beat for any more adventures.

free-style-daily-7.pdf

[carohs]

Sitting in the tub now relaxing with a mudslide.

[carohs]

Cell service has been spotty. Works in odd parts of the ship and their wifi isn't any better. Sometimes it works better when we're pulling away from port than when we're docked. I just can't predict it.

[Molokai-Chuck]

Well thanks for all the photos ... Newsletters ... and stuff you have posted over the last week ... it has

gone by fast even on this end.

Molokai-Chuck

[carohs]

We headed out at sunrise today to kayak and hike to Secret Falls. Breakfast opens at 6 am for dining and cafe, but Cadillac's is 24/7. We had a small and quick meal and headed right out. 

 

We arrived at the marina and got sunscreened and set to go. 

 

[carohs]

It started raining at the Marina. As typical it was already warm out even early in the morning so the water felt good. It rains so often here and it's not unusual for it to stop shortly after it starts. Our guide from Wailea Kayak Adventures said just ignore it and started us on our way. Seven days in and I'm still in awe over how luscious and green the islands are. 

 

I'm out of shape. It was especially evident on the return trip back but even on the way there I was falling behind the group so I didn't get too many pics although I did have to stop for the rainbow. Since it had rained we got a pretty good one as the sun started to peek out. See if you can spot it. 

[carohs]

We pulled up our kayaks with all the other groups out there and started on our hike.

That trail is wild. Muddy, rooty, overgrown in parts, wet, slippery, and rocky. Cole, our guide, provided our group with walking sticks and they sure came in handy at certain points. We also crossed several streams.

 

And parts that were easier.

[carohs]

The whole time you could hear the water. And smell the smells. Good smells. Several times we walked alongside the river too. 

[carohs]

Mushrooms a flower, and our guide pointed out the spiral ginger. 

[carohs]

Finally we got to the falls. The weather remained overcast until we left the falls. You want cooler weather when you're active anyway. The falls were what I was looking forward or the most and they did not disappoint. 

 

Took me a few minutes but I finally braved swimming in the water. It was cold! Because it's right in a valley I'm sure the water gets very little sun. If you ever want to do this hike, water shoes are a must. I thought I would take my shoes off because generally you're more sure footed barefoot (by the way if you get on a catamaran they do make you take your shoes off. Everyone's barefoot onboard), but the bottom is filled with every size rock and it hurts to walk on them. That is when they're not covered with moss and making you slide right off. But getting to stand under the falls was glorious. 

[carohs]

Then we hiked back. My arms were like jelly. We even tried switching DS and DD, but as it turns out DS was even less than a help than DD, and heavier to boot. By the time we got to the car I was ready to call it quits. I regret not having the energy to make the most out of island time, but I gotta listen and know my limits. Plus we do have another full day in Honolulu tomorrow. Unfortunately the rental place had a few call outs and they weren't able to get us back to the pier. We did have to grab a Lyft. I forgot to mention, last night we did find street parking. There's plenty of it around the pier area. 

[turbulentwaters]

Thanks so much for your great travelogue.  It has been enjoyable to follow and has been very helpful in planning for our upcoming cruise in a couple of weeks.

[Ellis1138]

9 hours ago, carohs said:

We headed out at sunrise today to kayak and hike to Secret Falls. Breakfast opens at 6 am for dining and cafe, but Cadillac's is 24/7. We had a small and quick meal and headed right out. 

 

 

 

 

The Diner is able to do breakfast before 6 am? That's excellent to know! Thank you so much for finding out! (We're hoping to do this on Kona day, in order to be able to eat and get on the first pre-ticket tenders.)

[carohs]

To end our last evening on the ship we attended Hula Graduation (after a tub soak and a nap). Moana quickly went over the two dances, Hukilau and Pearly Shells. If you had attended her earlier classes these were super easy. If you hadn't, well they were still easy. There was one Ami step, but otherwise done with all Kaholo. The great thing about hula is the arm movements tell the story in the song. So when it sings about the Hukilau we make the motion of pulling nets like if we had been fishing. Hukilau is the way of fishing. 

 

Then the kids ate dinner and off to Splash. DH and I had reservations at Moderno. We have dined at Brazilian steakhouse before but not on NCL. They brought out all the meats in succession when you were ready, but our previous experience with Brazilian had been the meats were continuously brought out in alternating fashion until you say you're full. I was stuffed after trying what I wanted to, but DH requested seconds of several. He hadn't expected to need to but they were happy to accommodate. Btw, the cocktail here was excellent. I could had several of those if my body wasn't already suggesting I had not trained it for the unlimited drinks package. 

 

We went to Hollywood to see Alex Ortiz again. His bit last night wasn't as funny as before. He did start it with awkward jokes about getting it on with a 96 and 102 yo on Holland. After that we watched the farewell thing then went to pick up the kids and called it a night. 

 

The seats in the theater are weird. They're like velvet and at a slight decline. It was a struggle to sit upright for the duration of the show. 

[carohs]

Rather than arrive early we decided to extend the trip into the weekend. Today we lolligagged and yet still had time for breakfast in the MDR. Nothing special on debark morning. I was a little bummed not to find something like the shakshuka from the other day, but I got my cappuccino. The cappuccinos are tasty are included in MDR of you have HBP. We made it off the ship and had our rental from the airport by 9am. Since PCC doesn't open til 12:30 we drove to Costco to see what they had for souvenir options then to the laundromat nearby. $5 for the washer, $1.25 per load of detergent, $.25 per 3 minutes in the dryer. FYI for budgeting. We'll find lunch before making the drive to PCC. 

[carohs]

We had Korean BBQ for lunch. It was good and plentiful, but I wish I had anticipated the portion size and ordered less. I'm tired, did I mention that yet? I only managed to take 140 pictures today missing at least half of the opportunities presented throughout the day. I'll give a brief overview of PCC for anyone curious about adding this on to their POA vacation. I think the land tour includes a visit here as well. 

 

The drive is about an hour give or take a few minutes depending on traffic. It's another scenic drive. 

Mountains to the west

Ocean to the east

And a tunnel too 

[carohs]

Bear with me, I've lost 5G. I hadn't remembered 4g as being so slow, but even if I could get signal it's been 4g all week.

[carohs]

There's a marketplace right next to the PCC the marketplace opens at 11:00 a.m. in hindsight this would have been the place to grab lunch. PCC opens at 12:30. We arrived shortly after 1pm got a map and took a few minutes to orient ourselves. There are six islands you can visit. Each island has at least one cultural demonstration, running on the hour and sometimes on the half. These run 15-20 minutes. They also have several hands-on activities for you to try. Some took 5 minutes, some 15. And each island also have a few cultural exhibits. You could choose to snap a pic and move on or take your time here. With 6 islands, and only 5 hours, I felt rushed and like we skipped a lot. Keep in mind, it takes at least 3 minutes to get the kids attention and convince them to move on every time. If you only have adults your time management would be more efficient. If you have the package that includes the luau with dinner, you get better seats at Ha but you also lose an hour of island time. Theoretically you could choose to return up to 3 days to the islands, but they close on Sundays so that wont be an option for us. 

[carohs]

At the PCC

The gateway buffet was super good. Wish I was hungrier. 

 

We browsed the shops after dinner then found our seats at Ha: Breath of Life. They strictly enforce no cell phone policy including checking your phone for texts, so no pictures. People raved about how good the show is, and it exceeded expectations. So worth it, they take you through a story that visits the different Polynesian islands and showcases each style of dance. If we ever make it back to Oahu we'll definitely check out PCC and see Ha again. The kids fell asleep not even halfway into the show. In retrospect, they never stood a chance. Between a hot busy afternoon in the sun, a filling buffet dinner, a show in the dark, after bedtime Hawaii time let alone home time, and sitting still....no way they would make it. Besides the fact that we've had a busy last week. Had we done it before the cruise it would have been a lost cause too, not yet being acclimated to a new time zone. Lastly, we drove the hour back into Waikiki to check into our room. I probably fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. 

 

We (mostly I) decided we'd take today slow and easy. Take the time to rest before flying back. Despite having 8 hours of sleep, I still felt spent out. The kids who slept thru Ha and the drive home slept in til 8:30 but would have gladly stayed sleeping later. I won't have much more to write about but I'll come back and give a retrospective on the POA after getting home. I also have the map of PCC.... somewhere. I'll take a few shots of that and upload for anyone curious. 

 

For now, Mahalo for following along. Aloha.

[#55worktoplay]

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed it. 
 

I’m sure you are all exhausted but that will soon be forgotten and you will be left with what I’m assuming a lifetime of great memories of the family vacation. 

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Thanks again for your posts. All health and blessings to you and yours!

[AKR2011]

Thank you for the awesome review! Hawaii is definitely on my bucket list and I really enjoyed reading about the PCC as well.

[Ellis1138]

I just thought of another question. How often do the tenders run at Kona? Is it like 1 boat every 15 minutes?