The day before we arrived in Hawaii, we spent part of the day before in a very desirable location on the ship, high up on Deck 15, in the stern of the ship. There are two loungers there, overlooking the ocean. We grabbed the two seats and spent a couple of hours. But, as you can see in the pictures, Bill and I had entirely different ideas about the appropriate clothing. The wind was howling and I needed a sweater.
We arrived into Honolulu around 7 AM. Since I was in line waiting to get off early, Bill took a couple of pictures as we entered the harbor.
As I mentioned, I waited in line to get off early, since I needed to pick up a rental car in Waikiki. There were 18 people ahead of me in line, none of them US Citizens. When immigration came on board, they split us into two lines, US in one, and non-Us in the other. I was now first and just has to show my passport and off I went, with over 2500 passengers behind me waiting to leave the ship.
We didn’t have anything special planned for the day. The weather was not great, so we did some shopping and then drove to the North Shore for lunch.
Back on board, we watch our sail away from Honolulu
Later, we had dinner in the Crown Grill with friends. We sailed through the night (very slowly I assume) to reach Hilo this morning.
This is our last stop before Los Angeles.
In this picture, taken port side, aft, you can see the Staff Captain eyeing our position relative to the pier, while the Ship’s Captain operates the side thrusters to move us into position.
Again, we had a car rented for the day, well partial day. We picked up the car, headed in to Hilo town to do a little shopping.
Then Bill and I drove to our favorite beach on the island, Kehena Black Sand Beach.
The black sand is actually very fine volcanic rocks, pulverized by the unrelenting waves over eons.
After a couple of hours at the beach, we headed back to the ship. It is all aboard at 3:30 and then we sail for Los Angeles, scheduled to arrive Saturday morning.
Before I end, I received a picture from another guest of Bill and I underwater on the Tahiti dive.
Until Los Angeles!
John and William- On the Road Again 