Aloha! Live from the Radiance 9.8.17 Cruise to Hawaii

I'm loving your review...We are going in the opposite direction in April with Celebrity. Your pictures are making it a reality for us! Thank-you for sharing [emoji4]

 

 

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That's what my friends and I did last year on Solstice...AMAZING!!! Enjoy.

Our next stop was Hale'wa. It is midway on the north shore. This historic town dates to 1832 when the missionaries founded a church here.

We hoped to see some big waves. However, everything was very calm. It was a beautiful beach.

Our other reason for stopping here was to try the garlic shrimp from the food trucks. I had read about the food trucks on CC and several people in our hotel mentioned them. So, we set out to find them. We located a parking area before we entered the town with 5-7 food trucks around the parking lot.

Each truck had a set of picnic tables for their own customers. We picked our truck by the number of customers on their tables.

This was the winner. The shrimp was GREAT!! . . . And it was pretty cheap. A meal was 2 scoops of rice, slaw and shrimp was $13. For $3 more they add 5 more shrimp. DH added the shrimp and split the meal. . . . Did I mention how wonderful the shrimp was? :p It was also very messy. Our travel companions had the shrimp with pineapple saunce. They said it was very good, too.

We stopped along the way to Wiamea Bay Beach Park to see the sea turtles. However, they were not on shore. . . . so we headed back to the airport to drop off our friends.

After traveling to the North Shore the day before DH and I decided to spend our last day on the beach in Waikiki.

We were able to leave our car at the hotel until we left for the airport and they had a hospitality changing/shower room that we were able to reserve and change before our flight.

The truth was that we were tired and needed some down time. . . . and who can resist these views?

Aloha from Hawaii. It was time for us to fly back to Virginia. :D

I have some flinal thoughts, sugestions, and lessons learned. I will post those as soon as I get my thoughts together.

Nice to catch a glimpse of DH. That garlic shrimp sounded yummy. While you were touring, did you have any special Hawaiian desserts? I remember a macadamia cream pie and a shaved coconut and macadamia brittle candy that were awesome. We bought some cans of the candy to bring home with us.

Nice to catch a glimpse of DH. That garlic shrimp sounded yummy. While you were touring, did you have any special Hawaiian desserts? I remember a macadamia cream pie and a shaved coconut and macadamia brittle candy that were awesome. We bought some cans of the candy to bring home with us.

That macadamia cream pie was called a hula pie at a couple of the restaurants we went to. We saw it at the table next to us in Maui. It was about 6 inches tall. I really wanted to try it--but, was too full.

Our thotel had a welcome gift of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. They were great. We MAY have polished them off before we left Honolulu. ;)

We bought macadamia candy for us to bring home and as gifts + nuts at the place we bought the garlic shrimp.

There was a family selling their nuts from the trees in their yard. They had set up a tent and the nuts were packaged nicely. So, you could see this was their little side business for tourists. The company name was "4 da Family." :p We laughed when we read the name.

We tried several flavors of the nuts [chocolate, pumpkin, etc], but bought the sea salt. We felt it was a shame to hide the flavor of the nuts. They were so fresh!

 

 

Our other reason for stopping here was to try the garlic shrimp from the food trucks. I had read about the food trucks on CC and several people in our hotel mentioned them. So, we set out to find them. We located a parking area before we entered the town with 5-7 food trucks around the parking lot.

 

My DD and BIL are stationed in Honolulu and we will be there next week, our main plan for this trip is to eat at one of these, we missed them last time. We did do the Dole thing. Like the sherbet but it's so intensely acidic it hurt my tongue after a few bites. Thanks for the recommendation on the truck.

 

 

Our other reason for stopping here was to try the garlic shrimp from the food trucks. I had read about the food trucks on CC and several people in our hotel mentioned them. So, we set out to find them. We located a parking area before we entered the town with 5-7 food trucks around the parking lot.

 

My DD and BIL are stationed in Honolulu and we will be there next week, our main plan for this trip is to eat at one of these, we missed them last time. We did do the Dole thing. Like the sherbet but it's so intensely acidic it hurt my tongue after a few bites. Thanks for the recommendation on the truck.

 

Lucky you to have someone to stay with in Hawaii.

 

You will enjoy the garlic shrimp trucks. The shrimp were large, yet very tender.

 

The area we visited was on the right as you entered the town of Hale'wa. It is a parking lot that seems down within a grove of trees. We did not notice it until we had almost passed it. So, we came back after we explored the town.

Welcome to Day 4 of our cruise! This morning was the chocolate breakfast in the main dining room. That is always a good way to start the day. :D

 

The ship was still having a little trouble with the satellite reception. Both of the ESPN channels and CNN are off of the TV.

 

 

I signed up at the“Next Cruise” desk to book a cruise. They told me their system is down, too, and they hoped it would be available by our afternoon time. [it wasn't]

 

There were a number of activities going on on day 4. Some were a little silly [JMHO] like the Egg Drop Challenge, The Wettest Link Contest and the Thriller Dance class. There was also a scrapbook class, a 3 on 3 soccer game and informal bridge play. The movies today are Going in Style at the Cinema and Ghost in the Shell on the poolside screen.

 

 

Here are a few more pictures from around the ship:

 

 

While many ships have gotten rid of their libraries or reduced them to a book nook, the Radiance has a nice library. The book collection is a little limited, but the room is nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I have noticed is the emphasis on safety in thepools. I already mentioned the lifeguards by each of the pools. There is a lifeguard stand next to the towel exchange. There are at least 2 racks of life preservers for the children and these signs are located in several places on deck 11.

 

 

I had not seen these before.

We were on for 2 weeks in August and these signs as well as a yellow chain/stansions around the pool appeared the 2nd week.

We were on for 2 weeks in August and these signs as well as a yellow chain/stansions around the pool appeared the 2nd week.

Thank you for the update. I had not seen these signs or the heavy lifeguard presence on previous cruises. [life preserver racks for about 18 months now] It was hard to tell from this cruise whether parents would use the life preservers.

We had a low number of children on this cruise. [long cruise and schools were in session] The seas days at the beginning of the cruise were almost too cold to swim and the last days in Hawaii most passengers were off the ship as much as possible.

My friends and I did the reverse itinerary (begin in Honolulu/end in Vancouver) on Celebrity last year. The five sea days sailing across the Pacific were amazing. Enjoy your time on the ship and in Hawaii.

Aloha

When did you do this as I've talked about doing the transition cruise either to or from HI? I just didn't know when these cruises took place.

Aloha! I have read many live threads and enjoyed “cruising” via the Internet with fellow Cruise Critic members. So, I thought I would pay it forward.

 

Come join us as we cruise from Vancouver, BC to Honolulu, HI. Our cruise begins with 5 days at sea. Then we overnight in Maui before visiting Hilo and Kona on the big island. Our final port is on Kauai before we disembark in Honolulu. We plan to stay for 5 days and 4 nights after the cruise at a time share in Waikiki. We are veteran cruisers, but this will be our first trip to Hawaii.

 

One of my travel goals [read bucket list] is to visit all 50 states. I have always felt that I would visit all of the rest and then cruise to Hawaii to finish off. Actually I am only up to 42 states. However, DH and I decided why wait to do Hawaii? :D

 

 

We began our trip this morning with a 4 am shuttle to the airport. UGH! :eek: We had booked a later flight, but that one was cancelled and we were changed to this one.

 

We visited Vancouver when we cruised to Alaska 4 years ago. So, this time we are staying at a YVR airport hotel.

 

 

I will try to add as many pictures as I can from the ports we visit.

 

I have used Photobucket in the past. However, their policies have changed and I do not use them anymore. I have switched to Shutterfly. I have my fingers crossed that it works for me. :)

 

 

That is enough for now. I will post again when we arrive in Vancouver.

 

 

DH and I want to send positive to those in harms way back east. Stay safe!

When did you do this so I can check into doing the same thing in 2020. I just didn't know when the transition cruises took place.

If you look at the title of the thread or the OP's signature you will see that this cruise started on 9-8-17.;)

When did you do this so I can check into doing the same thing in 2020. I just didn't know when the transition cruises took place.

There is a Radiance of the Seas reposition cruise in the spring and the fall. [ from/to Alaska and Australia]

Our cruise was September 8-19, 2017. I hope you have a great cruise.

When did you do this as I've talked about doing the transition cruise either to or from HI? I just didn't know when these cruises took place.

We left Honolulu (after spending three days there) on April 26, arriving in Vancouver on May 6. The ship does Alaska cruises for the summer months before doing the reverse trip back to Honolulu, and ultimately down to Australia, sometime in September. This was Celebrity Solstice (amazing). We chose this itinerary so we could get the long flight to Hawaii out of the way...we then only had a four-hour flight back to Chicago at the end of the trip.

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much for your thorough and excellent review. My friend and I are booked on the same cruise this year leaving Vancouver on September 7th and I’ve been searching for reviews of the this cruise on Radiance if the Seas. Really appreciated your comments and photos.

I am looking at this cruise for 2019. Just wondering which cruise would be better for weather. The one that leaves Hawaii or Vancouver. I haven't seen the best weather (reviews posted) from the cruises that leave in April/May headed to Vancouver so thinking the September cruise time might be better. Looking forward to following along.

 

Thanks!

maggieq- we are looking at the Sept 2019 cruise also.

Thank goodness for people who are so kind to do theses trip reviews.

Thank you for all the great info and pictures. DH and myself are on this exact cruise this year, leaving Vancouver on Sept 7, 2018 and heading to Hawaii...can't wait!! We are also extending our vacation by a week in Waikiki, so again thanks for all the info.

We hiked up Diamond Head when we were there 10 years ago. Those last set of stairs up the the bunker were the worse but so glad we did it.