Finally - my 11/26/07 POH and Hawaii Trip Review!

[RachieLnnn]

Pride of Hawaii Review – 11/26/07 to 12/03/07

My new husband and I have returned home from our 11/26/07 POH honeymoon cruise and had just an amazing, wonderful time! Now that we are home it’s time to start Christmas shopping, name-changing, and writing up my Cruise Critic review! I hope it helps other people planning their own trips as much as others’ have helped me. I also hope it helps some people to reminisce about their time in Hawaii! I’m sorry it took so long to type of the review, but you know how busy this time of year is! I’ve been writing one “day” during my lunch breaks for the last week or two.

I will try to put as much information as possible (links to websites, etc.) but please let me know if you have any questions.

[RachieLnnn]

DH and I woke up at 6 a.m. to get ready to go to O’Hare. This was the day after our wedding, so as you can imagine, we were more than a little exhausted after falling asleep very very late…. But we were so excited to be going to Hawaii! DH’s parents treated us with a limo ride to the airport, which picked us up from our hotel. After a quick stop at my parents’ house to drop off my wedding gown and pick up my luggage, we were on our way. Made it to O’Hare with plenty of time for our 10 a.m. flight.

When we got to the airport, we discovered that United had “upgraded” me to United Economy Plus, but not my very new husband. We had booked separately back in March and picked 2 seats together and alone (the plane was 2-aisle-5-aisle-2). Needless to say, someone else had already taken seat 42A. After being treated very rudely by one United worker (“don’t ask me to change it, just check in and get your boarding pass, and then y’all have to sort it out yourselves when you get to the gate or once you get on the plane” another worker came over and changed us to 2 different seats which were together but in the 5 seater section. Oh well. We lost a window but we still had an aisle so it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t care about being upgraded, I just wanted to sit next to my husband.

The flight was fine, and luckily we had bought sandwiches prior to boarding and brought those on with us. United didn’t give us anything for the 8 hour flight, except pretzels and snackboxes for purchase ($5 each).

Once we landed in Honolulu, we picked up our luggage, met ABC limousines, handed over an envelope with the cash & tip, sat back, and enjoyed our ride to the Marriott Waikiki Resort.

We had booked the romance package separately on our own at the Marriott, which included a deluxe corner oceanfront room, 2 drinks at the Moana Terrace (beer or wine only), breakfast daily at the Kuhio Beach Grill (where I fell in love with coconut syrup on my waffles, you must try it!), and champagne and chocolate covered strawberries upon arrival.

Overall, I don’t feel the package offered by Marriott was worth it. The view was very nice, and it was perhaps a little larger, but I think we would have been happy with a regular room. The breakfast was delicious and quite pricey if you hadn’t had it included (I think probably around $25 per person for the buffet, but I can’t remember exactly). It was a very good buffet and left us feeling full until late in the afternoon, so maybe if you really filled up it would be worth it (I think the breakfast buffet was open until 11 a.m.). The strawberries were good but we could have easily picked up a bottle of champagne at the ABC store and saved a little money. There was a refrigerator in the room we could have chilled it in. I was also disappointed that we couldn’t get specify the drinks we wanted at the Moana Terrace, from the website I thought I was going to get a Mai Tai!

Overall, the Marriott was very nice, as Marriotts usually are. Service was excellent and friendly and the room was spotless. If I were to go back I would book a regular room, but we wanted to splurge a little on the honeymoon. One thing about the “corner deluxe room” is that there is only a balcony on the side of the building facing another hotel, not on the ocean-front side. We could still see plenty of ocean from the balcony, but I was hoping we would have an ocean-front balcony so that we could look at only the beautiful blue ocean, instead of other people’s hotel rooms and some ocean.

After arrival and check-in at the hotel, we went out for a walk along the beach and ended up at the Royal Hawaiian. I told DH we must try the Mai Tais so we can compare at each restaurant we visit, so we each had one (they were delicious, I would rate about a 10/10). I had the fish tacos (also delicious) and DH had ribs which were very good. The service was excellent and we got to sit right on the beach, listen to the band, and enjoy our first night in Hawaii.

[RachieLnnn]

One thing that surprised us in Waikiki was the lack of taxis! Perhaps we are used to seeing them all the time since we live in Chicago, but there were very few in the streets. We found the best way to get one was to go to a hotel and see if we could get one there or have them call a company for us. We also kept the business cards of the taxi drivers we got, and they said that we could call them if we needed a ride anywhere.

In the morning, we took a taxi to Diamondhead and walked up to the top. It was beautiful and quite a hike! Definitely wear study shoes (no flip-flops!) and bring water, and sunscreen/hat. There are many places to stop and rest along the way if you need it. There were plenty of small children and elderly doing the hike. The view at the top is such a great reward!

We took a taxi back and grabbed some sandwiches to eat at the pavilion at the beach. We had gone to the ABC store and bought blow-up rafts for $1.99 each, which we gave away at the end of our trip. We blew up the rafts and spent the rest of the day in the water at the beach. Note: the area in front of the Marriott is really rocky under the water, which can be painful if you land suddenly! I would have brought watershoes had I known. The area I’m talking about is not the area inside the breakwalls, but just adjacent to it (we didn’t go inside the breakwalls because we wanted to see some waves, it would be a good area for children though!)

That night we walked around Waikiki a little bit, came back to the hotel, and used our Moana Terrance Drink coupons. We had gone to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream earlier in the day and gave ourselves stomachaches gorging on the delicious confections, so we weren’t that hungry for dinner and shared a cheese quesadilla. Service was extremely slow at the Moana Terrace. I was going to get a Mai Tai after my glass of wine but the girl took so long for anything we asked that we just decided to go back up to the room. There was live music at the Moana Terrance, which was nice, and I’m sure if we were less tired we would have stuck out the wait!

[RachieLnnn]

This is the day I had been waiting for! We woke up, packed up, and had breakfast at the Kuhio Beach Grill. More coconut syrup for me…mmm. One thing that surprised us was the variety of dishes available – lots of miso soup and rice and things catering towards all the Japanese guests I believe. There were also “European-type” breakfast items such as prosciutto and cheeses. DH had miso soup and was complimented on his chopstick skills for the first time this trip (it happened 3-4 times I think). He studied for a year in Tokyo while in grad school. Anyway, we checked out and asked the hotel for a taxi to the pier. Total cost was about $30 I think. Once we got out of the taxi and were heading towards the entrance, DH realized he FORGOT his backpack in the van… including the entire vacation binder I made with all of our reservations, $200 in cash, his pills, and more. Needless to say, I was a WRECK and almost broke down right there! DH tried calling the cabbie on his cell phone, and didn’t get an answer. Then I tried, and luckily got through. The cabbie came around again and dropped off the bag unharmed. We tipped him extra for the trouble and thanked him PROFUSELY! What a nightmare!

After that eventful process we went through the uneventful process of boarding the POH. We arrived right around noon and there was a little bit of a wait. They opened the lines at 12:10 p.m. and we were one of the first people to board. Overall, embarkation was pretty smooth, they kept you moving and handed out info about all the specialty restaurants for the week for you to read while you waited.

Once we boarded we immediately bought a mai tai from the smiling waitress waiting for us as we crossed onto the ship! Mai tai was about a 7/10. She explained that they make theirs a little differently than some restaurants. It was still tasty. Our cabin wasn’t ready so we went on up to the pool deck and finished our drinks. After that we went to the Blue Lagoon and there were at least 3 tables of workers waiting to make dinner reservations for you (no wait). We made one for Jasmine Garden for Day 1 since it was half price, and for Teppanyaki for Day 2 since I really wanted to go there. Reservations were wide open and we had our choice of times…. We picked 7pm for both. By this time, it was probably around 1:30-2pm.

After making reservations we explored floors 6, 7, 8, and 12 a little bit (they weren’t letting you near cabins on floors that weren’t ready). We had lunch at the buffet which was fine, I made a fresh sandwich and a salad. I thought the buffet was very good during the week in the times that we ate there.

During lunch our floor was called so we headed to our room (our first balcony!) to check it out. The room was great – very clean! Only a few minutes after we entered we got a knock on our door with the strawberries and champagne from the Romance Package. We put the champagne in the refrigerator to chill and enjoy later.

The Muster Drill was at 4.p.m. and we were in the theater. The process was really pretty easy. Both DH and I put ON our life jackets and were instructed to take them off (I think they didn’t want people tripping and falling down stairs since it is hard to see your feet with those things on). Once we got the theater, we were told to put them on again while we were sitting, so we felt like stuffed mushrooms sitting in those theater chairs!

Dinner was great at Jasmine Garden, DH had a noodle dish with chicken and I had the Mongolian Beef – yum! It was so tender. The banana dessert was amazing. DH was complimented yet again on his chopstick skills. I do ok, maybe not the “right” way, but I get the job done! After dinner we were pretty tired (still catching up on the time difference) so we missed the show (I think shows were nightly at 9:30 p.m.) We had remembered to change our wheel outside the door requesting turn-down, but we must have missed the service. No big deal.

[RachieLnnn]

We had remembered to put out the breakfast request the night before, so we work up early as we were coming in to dock and had breakfast on our balcony. They offer basically standard continental breakfast stuff, but with all the days of rich food, starting off with cereal and yogurt and fruit is just fine for me!

Today we rented a car from Thrifty and drove to VNP. See http://www.nps.gov/havo for more information! We ended up with a Jeep Wrangler but since it was rainy off and on, we didn’t put the top down. (Plus, Thrifty specified that you must return the vehicle in the up position, and weren’t sure how to do it!) We had a pretty uneventful ride to VNP, but we did pull over when we saw the sign for VNP and took a picture! The park was amazing. We stopped by the visitor’s center and had just missed the introductory movie that plays every half hour, so we walked across the street to Volcano House to see our first view of the Volcano and took a few pictures. It was breathtaking! We went back and saw the video and then walked to the Sulfur vents – it wasn’t that far, maybe 0.3 mile. Then we returned to the visitor’s center where we parked, stopped AGAIN at Volcano House to pick up some turkey sandwiches and bottles of water, and were on our way.

We had planned to stop at the Kilauea overlook since on the VNP map there was the symbol for picnic tables, but imagined the picnic tables to be NEAR the overlook. They were actually on the other side of the parking lot. It was really warm by now (and I had worn jeans, thinking it was going to be cooler). So, we ate in the shade and then went to go look at the overlook. So neat!

We stopped by the Jaggar Museum and spent about 20 minutes there. There was a ton of interesting information and also another overlook.

Then we drove to the Southwest Overlook, I really recommend making this stop, the pictures we took we so neat! It looks like the landscape form another planet.

Continuing on to the Halema’uma’u Crater Overlook, we caught up with the tour buses so just took a few pictures and left. This was another really neat spot, though.

We stopped at the Devastation Trail, which is really more of a journey than a destination. We kept waiting to get to the area but at the end realized that the entire walk was really the “destination” because you could see all the landscape which is starting to come back. It was neat but took us quite awhile, maybe 30-40 minutes, so if you are running low on time, I would skip it.

Our last stop was the Thurston Lava Tube. We were just ahead of a tour group, so we were pretty lucky – they were all coming in as we were leaving. We did bring flashlights and did a little exploring. It was otherwise pitch-black and a little spooky! But really neat! Don’t go if you are afraid of the dark. J

After we had finished up the Crater Rim Drive and ended up where we started, we decided to skip Chain of Craters Road and save it for next time, so that we could get to Volcano Winery! I was a little bummed because I had heard such cool things about where the lava flows over the road, but figured this way I can guarantee that we return to Hawaii someday! J

Volcano Winery was not far down the road in the opposite direction of the port. See http://www.volcanowinery.com for additional information. We had SUCH a good time here! They let you try 6 small tastings of the wine – I was driving so I didn’t drink the entire glass! We liked the wine even thought it was kind of different – some was very sweet. They have an award winning Macadamia Nut Honey Wine. They were having a special shipping deal so we bought a case of wine (2 bottles of each kind) and had it shipped so that it would arrive after we returned home. (It has already arrived in perfect condition). I think it was $30 to ship the wine – they could also pack it up for you to be checked on the airplane, but we didn’t want to deal with lugging it around.

After Volcano Winery it was about 2:30 pm, so we started heading back towards Thrifty to return our vehicle. Along the way we just happened to see the sign for the Mauna Loa Nut Factory, so we did a quick right turn and went for a visit (a couple on the Thrifty Shuttle that morning had told us that we MUST try the nut ice cream). Unfortunately, we showed up as the place was PACKED with tour buses, so we didn’t buy anything – we figured we could just pick up what we needed from any other store if we wanted. The ice cream was delicious though. There is no “tour” but you can look down at the factory to see what they are doing. I think there are steps up to that level in case that is a concern for anyone. There was a free sample of flavored macademia nuts (garlic, onion, etc.) and the line was out of control – I would say people were waiting for 10 minutes just to get a sample. Needless to say, we were out of there quickly and returned our car. We got back on a shuttle and returned to the pier, which also had a long line but it ended up going by quickly. Security is the major hold up here and it only goes as fast as they can scan people.

That night we had reservations at Teppenyaki. When we got back to our cabin, we sat back on our balcony for sail-away and had our champagne and toasted our wonderful day in Hilo. Teppenyaki was really fun, we had a new chef but he was very good. It was a TON of food though. We were stuffed. We sat next to a nice couple who had children our age who had just gotten engaged so we told them all about our wedding. As a surprise, they bought us Sake Bombs, which was fun and very nice of them… we ended up seeing them all over the ship during the week. I definitely would recommend Teppenyaki, even though it is a $20 per person surcharge… especially if you’ve never been before. The food was delicious, especially the shrimp appetizer (and I don’t even usually eat shrimp!).

We were still tired that night from the full day so we didn’t see the show, but we did get turn-down service for the first time!

[RachieLnnn]

Today we had breakfast on the balcony again and went to go get our rental car – a convertible! We were given a white Sebring. Unfortunately, it rained most of the entire day today so we were unable to put down the top.

My original plan for today was to drive to Lahaina and Ka’anapali, which we stuck to, actually! It really did pour most of the morning. In Lahaina (http://www.visitlahaina.com/) we visited some of the historic sites like the mission house and the courthouse, where I picked up a Hawaiian recipe book in the gift shop. It was really neat for me, as I had read James Michener’s “Hawaii” and even though it is a fictional book, I could see some of the historical places of interest. We also did quite a bit of shopping and bought some Hawaiian quilted stockings for Christmas. We had lunch at the Lahaina Fish Company (thanks Beachchick) which was excellent. I had the salmon salad and DH had fish and chips. I also had a mai tai (of course) which I would rate an 8/10, very good. We didn’t have much of a view due to the rain, they kept the plastic “windows” rolled down.

However, by the end of lunch the rain had cleared up, so we drove on to Ka’anapali. I was hoping to see the Japanese Mission on the way, but we could NOT find it, we even turned around a few times. I’ve heard it was really neat so that I one more thing to do when we return. http://gohawaii.about.com/library/weekly/aa061499.htm

We drove to Ka’anapali and were able to find a parking spot in the free beach access parking garage near the Sheridan. We had purchased snorkel gear earlier that day from Walmart for only $12.99 per person so we were able to see a TON of fish at the Black Rock. This was one of my favorite things! I saw a sea turtle and I think maybe an eel, besides all the beautiful fish. We stayed out in the ocean until it started getting dark, rinsed off in the outdoor showers at the Sheridan, and saw the fire-lighting ceremony right before we left. We were going to stay and have a mai tai before heading back, but poor DH was practically shivering from being cold and wet so we headed back.

One really cool thing I bought in Lahaina was an IZ CD so we played that in the rental car non-stop. It’s a really cool souvenir that brings back memories of driving around Hawaii.

That night we didn’t make any reservations since we weren’t sure when we would be back. We ended up getting back to the parking lot near the pier around 7pm and got one of the last TWO parking spaces along the sea wall. After we parked and were heading towards security, we saw a few more cars pull in that couldn’t get spots, so we were very lucky I think! I’m glad because we were both tired after such a long day, and we didn’t want to fool around with parking at Thrifty and shuttles.

Since we didn’t have reservations, we ate at the Grand Pacific Dining Room. We probably made it there around 8:30pm since we showered and changed when we got back to the cabin. We were seated right away – it was pretty empty, actually! The food was good, one thing I noticed on NCLA was that they tended NOT to give you a wine list, you had to ask for it. This also happened at Papa’s later on in the week and at Paniolo’s! I guess I’m used to other cruise lines where they constantly ask you if you want drinks. No big deal, I don’t mind, it’s just an interesting thing – also, I never saw anyone walking around by the pools serving drinks.

I had lamb and DH had pasta, and we also split vegetarian chili, because it sounded good. Those things don’t really “go” together, but they were all good and service was friendly here. Some of the servers were kind of goofing around and joking with each other once the dining room was clearing out, but we didn’t mind. You probably wouldn’t see that on some other lines, but it was one of the things that gave the POH such a laid-back atmosphere.

That night we had turn-down service again and got more towel animals!

[RachieLnnn]

Today we slept in a bit and enjoyed the extra time in the morning. We had forgotten to put out our breakfast request so we went up to the Aloha Nui Café for breakfast. We ate outside at the Lanai. The buffet was excellent, and I was able to have more coconut syrup with a waffle!

We went out to the car and basically followed the tour from this website, a tour of upcountry Maui. I had printed out all the sights so that we could follow along. See http://gohawaii.about.com/b/2006/07/31/a-driving-tour-of-upcountry-maui.htm

This was one of my favorite days. We cruised around in the convertible and sang along to IZ. The weather and the views were wonderful. I didn’t regret not seeing the Road to Hana, because there was quite a bit of twisting and turning during this drive, plus wonderful views of the mountain and distant ocean. Plus, the twisty part lasted for only a half-hour or so, and by the end of that we had our fill. I couldn’t imagine doing it for the entire day!

We started off in Paia and Makawao. Both had many little artist-y shops and things like that, a little pricey but most items were made by local artists. I had a guava malasada in Makawao that was to die for!

We continued on towards Kula and stopped at the Holy Ghost Church, which was really neat. What a view. Then we went on towards the Alii Kula Lavander Farm. We had just missed the tour, but we walked around (what a slope!) and bought some lavender toiletries to bring home. One of my favorite souvenirs! You could also have lavender tea and scones while overlooking the beautiful mountain.

Our next stop was Ulupalakua Ranch, where we had delicious Elk and Beef Burgers. They were huge! I also found a bottle of coconut syrup to bring home from the gift shop. We walked across the street to Tedeschi Vineyards, but didn’t do a tasting since it was packed and we had seen the bottles for sale in other places in Hawaii.

Our last stop for the day was Surfing Goat Dairy, where we sampled some goat cheese and saw a few goats. We were asked if we wanted to do a tour, but unfortunately we were running low on time so we didn’t get to feed or play with them. This would have been fun, I think!

We made it back to the ship after returning our car to Thrifty with an hour to spare. That night we were going to dinner at Le Bistro, which was part of our Romance Package. Tip: it was “formal” night AKA prime rib and lobster night, so we had no trouble making a reservation for 7pm earlier in the day! On our way to Le Bistro, we walked past Grand Pacific and it was packed with people waiting, so we were glad we made the choice to go to LB that night.

Le Bistro was FANTASTIC and we ended up staying until at least 9:30pm. We took our time. The waiter asked us what kind of wine we wanted, so we ended up choosing a wine named Tintara for no extra fee. I don’t know if this is typical or not, since most people on CC seemed to be offered house wine. I had the pork tenderloin and DH had the duck á l’orange, and both were great. We caught the tail end of the comedy show this night, which was pretty funny and catered the jokes towards the baby-boomer crowd.

[RachieLnnn]

We had been having busy days and wanted to make sure we had time to relax, so I didn’t really plan anything for Kona. In hindsight, I wish we had gone snorkeling since I heard it was spectacular. But we did enjoy the “time off” from sight-seeing.

In the morning we went to the pool to enjoy the water slide and hot tubs, and then I had a spa appointment – the hot stones massage. It was wonderful, but I did get a little bit of pressure towards the end to purchase products. After I declined, the technician offered me $20, just like that! So if you are interested in products, hold off awhile, and you may get a discount.

I had made the spa appointment the first night when we took a mini-tour of the spa. It was really nice with a hydrotherapy pool and things. I went back again after dinner just to use it! It was surprising that for being such a nice spa, there weren’t any products for your use (for example, q-tips, shampoo & conditioner, hair rubberbands, combs, that sort of thing). At every nice spa I’ve ever been to, they’ve had these things, which is a nice touch. The only thing they had on the POH was the same shampoo and shower gel that are in regular cabin bathrooms.

After the massage I had jelly legs but I went back to the room and picked up my husband and we went to the Aloha Nui for lunch. It was tasty with a lot of variety.

After lunch, we took a tender into Kona and walked around. We split a gigantic shave ice and stopped at the historic Mokuaikaua Church (http://www.mokuaikaua.org) and the Huliheʻe Palace (http://www.daughtersofhawaii.org/huliheepalace/?PHPSESSID=0c834437c5da0c92f439de0b02b8867e) The Palace was actually closed except the bottom floor due to earthquake damage. There was a video about the reconstruction which we both found really interesting and touching. We were happy to make the small donation fee to go towards the repair.

We ended the day with a little shopping (I bought 100% pure Kona Coffee from the Kona Coffee Plantation). The girl said that the key with Kona Coffee is to taste it before you buy if you can, or else you could be stuck with something really bitter. Ours was excellent and I bought home extra for souvenirs.

That night we had made a reservation for Papa’s at 7pm. We made the reservation the night before without a problem (all our reservations were made over the phone without a problem, with the exception of the first day when we made them at the Blue Lagoon). Papa’s was just ok. The food was plentiful but kind of bland. I had the Chicken Parmesean and DH had the lasagna. We agreed it was still a value since this one was “free!” J We were glad we made a reservation because the line was out the door and they were saying the wait was 2 hours minimum!

After dinner we went to see the magician, which was pretty good, actually. Most of the tricks were kind of lame (pulling our flowers) but some I actually couldn’t figure out the trick. I had a chocolate martini for “dessert” and brought it with to the show – very tasty!

[RachieLnnn]

Today we booked our one and only excursion through NCL, the Mudbug and Waterfall Safari tour. It was an excellent day for it – overcast and rainy! After eating breakfast at the buffet again, we met our guides for the 11:30 tour. They picked us up in 2 extra passenger vans and we were on our way. During the drive, we saw a wild chicken with her baby chicks all lined up and following her! All the girls in the van went, “awww.” It was very cute.

Once we got to Kauai ATV we dropped off our paperwork and then moved on to the actual site of the mudbug tour. They provided us with camo pants and a t-shirt (which we didn’t get to keep, but were available for purchase after the tour, of course!) We drove about 1.5 hours to a waterfall, and the drive was rainy, wet, and MUDDY! We brought with a disposable waterproof camera because we didn’t want to rely on their photos (and have a photos full of strangers). I’m so glad we did, we got some excellent shots! Some spots were quite tricky to get through with all the mud. They said it was similar to driving in snow. DH did a good job getting up and down some of the steep and twisty hills. Some of us even got stuck!

The waterfall was a little one but of course we jumped in, even though it was quite chilly… when else do you get a chance to jump into a waterfall? We took our pants and shirts off for the jump (we had on swimsuits underneath). I was glad we didn’t have to ride all the way back soaked!

They provided sandwiches, drinks, and cookies and then we headed back. All in all it was a fun day. Once we returned to the ship it was still rainy so we decided to shower and just relax. At this point, the fruit & wine baskets I had pre-ordered finally showed up. One was supposed to arrive Tuesday and it never did, so they suggested we stop back everyday until they sorted it out with Miami. think the problem was that I had ordered them while they were still $20 baskets. By the time of our trip, NCL was only selling the $30 baskets. The thing that annoyed me was that I made sure I specially called NCL prior to leaving to get an emailed confirmation of the order, which I brought with me up to the desk. You would think if I customer had an emailed confirmation with them in their hand, they would send the basket to them with apologies. But they didn’t trust me and my confirmation, they had to double-check first. Meanwhile I had to interrupt my vacation daily to swing by the desk. That shouldn’t have happened. I wrote this on my comment card at the end…I can understand needing to check, but I thought they handled it badly. All over a measly $20 basket. Oh well, at least we received them eventually. When we did open them up, half the fruit was moldy in one of them… ewww. I ordered them specifically to get the wine, not so much the fruit, but still. Not a good impression.

That night we went to Paniolo’s, which was wonderful! We loved it! We shared the Firestar and it was delicious. We also had a few excellent margaritas for way less than we would be able to find here in Chicago. We had a reservation for 7pm, and again, no trouble making the reservation over the phone the night before.

After dinner we made sure to catch the “Not-so-Newlywed” show, which was HILARIOUS! You definitely should stay up for this one.

[RachieLnnn]

Today we woke up early to catch our 8am helicopter flight with Blue Hawaiian. We caught the shuttle to the mall and walked over to the Blue Hawaiian office… it took maybe 10 minutes. We had beautiful weather in the morning and I just thought how thankful I was that we did the mudbugs the day before! The pilot kept commenting on how the day before the visibility was nil.

We flew past the Napali Coast a little bit and into the Waimea Canyon. He was able to fly into the “wettest spot on earth” where we literally saw 100’s of waterfalls, it was so neat. I highly recommend this company. We didn’t buy the DVD but we took a lot of pictures, most of which turned out except for the few where I caught my reflection in the picture. We took the Eco-Star and everyone had a great view.

After the ride we went back to the ship and had lunch at the buffet, then changed into our swimsuits for some beach time at the nearby Marriott. Snorkeling was no good here but we had fun floating around. At this point it started getting cloudy so we went back to the ship to pack up and get ready for the sailby of the Napali Coast.

Unfortunately, by the time we reached the Napali Coast it was extremely foggy and rainy again, and you could barely see anything. L I will have to upload some pictures to see how little was actually visible. DH still put on jeans and jackets due to the cold and sat out on the balcony and drank our bottle of wine, it was still fun, but I wish we would have seen more. At least the pilot went past a little of it in the morning.

That night we didn’t make any dinner reservations because we had hit all the specialty restaurants we wanted to. We ended up eating at the buffet and it was pretty good. They had an entire roasted pig with it’s head still on which kind of grossed me out, but I just looked the other way! When we got back we had to put out our luggage and we again had turn-down service. We missed the final show due to being a little tipsy and tired.

[RachieLnnn]

Today was the day of debarkation. We were sad to leave the ship, but I have to say, it was the best debarkation I’ve ever had. We went to the buffet and ate breakfast leisurely and didn’t have to wake up super-early to get kicked off. Since we weren’t sure when our hotel room would be ready (I forgot to request an early check-in) we were one of the last people off the ship! At one point, the hallways were getting crowded so they encouraged people to go wait in one of the lounges.

Once we were off the ship, we picked up our luggage (one of the last few pieces in the “warehouse!”) and found a taxi to take us to the Resortquest Waikiki Beach Hotel. I think the total coast was around $25.

The Resortquest was great! We got a junior suite through Expedia for 3 nights, and got one of those nights free. It was a great deal. The staff was very welcoming and told us that we could have the room early. We went upstairs and dropped off our stuff, then went out and found lunch (a noodle/sushi place at the bottom of the Marriott. The Marriott is right across the street from Resortquest, which I didn’t realize when booking). DH was complimented on his chopstick skills again (!). When we returned to our room, the staff at the hotel had left us a mini bottle of champagne and two glasses congratulating us on our marriage. It was so nice!

That afternoon and evening we wandered around Waikiki and did a little souvenir shopping. We took a free shuttle to Hilo Hatties since we hadn’t been there yet. We also went to the International Marketplace and found an extra suitcase for only $12! (We ended up checking an extra bag since I was worried about the 50 lb. weight limit.)

For dinner we didn’t feel like going out so we picked up some Wolfgang Puck take-out which is at the bottom of the Resortquest and stopped at an ABC store for some drinks. That night, the weather started getting windy and rainy so we wanted to just relax and curl up in the hotel room.

[RachieLnnn]

Today was rainy but we wanted to do something, so we grabbed our to-go breakfast from the hotel and took it up to our balcony. The breakfast was good (cereal, a few hot items per day, fruit, etc.). It was included in the price of the hotel, so no complaints here!

We ended up going to the Honolulu Zoo in the morning. It was a nice zoo and a good rainy activity because you could walk around with your umbrellas. We at least felt like we did something instead of just lounging around the hotel room!

For lunch, we grabbed some sandwiches from Subway/Starbucks and I was able to purchase my souvenir Starbucks mug. I try to get one in every city I go to!

In the afternoon, it cleared up a little bit, but was still extremely windy. We tried to go to the beach anyway. There were jellyfish warnings all over, and on the news we heard that 23 people we stung the previous day. Needless to say, we didn’t go into the water, but tried to read a bit on the beach. It was too windy and the sand kept flying in our eyes, so we gave up and went back to our hotel room to relax. We ended up getting Wolfgang Pucks again since it was convenient and we liked it so much the night before. It was so windy by this time that there were weather advisories and on the news they kept saying it was hurricane-like conditions. This evening by far was the worst weather we saw!

[RachieLnnn]

Today we picked up breakfast again and brought it to our balcony. The waves were HUGE today. We made plans to go to the Ala Moana Mall for a little last-minute shopping. They have a lot of upscale stores there. I bought a charm for my little sister from Juicy Couture of a coconut for a souvenir. We had lunch at Mariposa which is in Neiman Marcus. I wanted to go there because I heard they served pineapple butter with their popovers (here in Chicago it’s strawberry butter). Lunch is about the only thing we could afford at NM after this vacation! J

That evening we wanted to spend our last night at Duke’s since we hadn’t been there yet, even though the weather was terrible. The wind was still very strong and almost pushing people over on the street! When we got to Duke’s, I wished we had made a reservation because the wait was 1.5 hours long. Needless to say, we went to the bar area to look for a table because you can also be served food there. The bar was crowded, but we found a place outside (yes…. Outside!) It was still extremely windy and we even had a torrential downpour for a minute or two! It ended up being really fun (there were large umbrellas over the tables so we didn’t get wet). I did feel badly for the servers, though. Of course I had a Mai Tai which tied with the Royal Hawaiian. I had the fish tacos and DH had nachos. Both were excellent! I’m really glad we braved the weather on our last night.

[RachieLnnn]

Today was our last morning so we picked up breakfast again and then took it to our room. We then had to pack up (the night before we were having too much fun after those mai tai’s at Dukes to even think about packing!). We were able to check our luggage with the bell hop and did one last tour of Waikiki. I ended up purchasing pearl earrings and a pearl necklace with an elongated pearl – the setting makes it look like a pineapple. I love it and I’ve been wearing it everyday! We had lunch at a pub-type place. Unfortunately the name is escaping me at the moment. They had $1.50 Mai Tai’s during lunch so of course I had to sample a few. For the price, I would rate them 9/10!

We went back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and asked for a cab to the airport. The bellhop said they have a certain taxi company that they work with, so he would give them a call. As we waited, he chatted with us. A taxi came up, which he waved away. At first we didn’t know what was going on. After it happened again we realized that they were just taxis from the street and he was telling them to leave so that we could use THEIR company! So when the next taxi came up, we pulled our luggage over to it without help and said look, it’s great talking to you, but we need to get to the airport and we can’t wait around for your taxi company! (By this time it had been about 20 minutes and 3 cars had been waved away). So reluctantly they helped us put our luggage into the trunk. It was all very strange.

We made it to the airport uneventfully, checked in, and flew home. The flight was uneventful except for an emergency landing in San Francisco because someone was sick on the flight and needed medical help! How scary would that be, I felt bad for the person. They took them off the flight and we were back on our way and ended up being only 45 minutes behind schedule. I thought United handled the situation well.

That is pretty much the end. Of course, please let me know if you have any questions about what we saw, the ship, or anything. I would be pleased to help as others helped me plan for this vacation. I know this is a very long review, so thanks for sticking with it! We will be sure to post our pictures of everything soon.

Happy Holidays,

Rachel

[CC Help Michell]

Great review, Rachie! I read it all, and enjoyed it all. You brought back so many memories, did things we plan to do next time, and had a nice, balanced perspective on it all. Amazing how one little thing can turn a whole vacation around -- if you hadn't been able to reach the cab driver who dropped you at the pier, and retrieve your husband's backpack -- what a different story it would have been! :eek: SO glad that worked out well.

 

I'm also officially jealous that you got to see BIG waves! ;) We won't be able to visit Hawaii during big wave season until I retire (since big waves coincide with "in school" and I'm a teacher), so until then I'm envious, yet enjoy reading about it!

 

Mahalo for taking the time to share your experiences. Happy holidays to you and your husband, as well!

[lanord]

Thanks so much for posting such a great, detailed review! DH and I are on POH in 3 weeks. It was neat to read about everything you did. We have already been on PoAM, so basically know what to expect and how to act ;)

[beachchick]

I'm so glad you had a wonderful honeymoon. What a nice, detailed review.

 

beachchick

[DopeyRN]

Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed account of your trip. We will be on POH on Jan 7, so I really enjoyed the whole report. I hope your marriage is as happy as your honeymoon! Congratulations!

[RachieLnnn]

You're very welcome, it was very fun to type up the review and remember all the fun things we did.

 

Thanks so much for all the well-wishes! :)

 

Happy Holidays to you and your families, and may you be blessed with time for vacation and relaxation in the coming new year!

[judyf]

Rachielnnn, nice review, I finally got a chance to get over here to read it.

 

Wow, good thing you got the backpack back. I never saw Coconut Syrup, I must have missed it.

 

So sorry you got so much rain, we did to. Eating outside in the rain on your honeymoon is something you will never forget!!