Aloha! Live from the Radiance 9.8.17 Cruise to Hawaii

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!

Looking forward to this one. This is a bucket list cruise for us!

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

Following! Thanks for doing this! :D

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

DragonOfTheSea - Will be following along! Have a great trip.

lovetoovaca,

We did this late April...three days in Honolulu pre-cruise, then boarded the ship on 4/26. We ended up in Vancouver ten days later. The seas were very calm as we crossed the Pacific. What I didn't take into consideration, unfortunately, was that the temps would drop the closer we got to Vancouver. We were able to be at the outdoor pool for the first few days, but then spent time at the indoor pool for the other three days. Since we had aft-facing balconies, we could still be outside on the balcony enjoying the view of the wake without it being too chilly. We also chose to get the long flight to Hawaii out of the way so that we only had to fly half as long to get back home. I believe Celebrity does the reverse re-positioning cruise in September.

Susan

Signing on! Hope the first leg of your trip was easy and uneventful.

I'm in! Reliving our Legendary cruise to Hawaii on Legend! Can't wait to see your pics! Aloha Nui:hearteyes:

We were on the Radiance last month and really liked the ship. Enjoy your cruise!

Karen

Wow, awesome!!!! Thanks for taking us along! We did this 2 years ago and it was amazing! Hope you have a great trip!!

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We made it. Our two flights were pretty uneventful. We had a long layover in MSP, but we knew that before we left home. We missed connecting with our fellow cruisers. We will see you at sailaway.

The customs/immigration process at the airport now uses electronic passport readers/scanners. Each passenger scans their passport and then takes a picture. Then it prints out a ticket you take to the customs agent. That process was fairly easy.

However, getting to the e-scanners was like going through the entrance maze to popular attractions at Disney World. Back and forth, back and forth.

When we looked down on the customs/immigration floor below. I told DH it looks like we had arrived at Elis Island. LOL

. . . even with all of the back and forth we still got through the customs/immagration process in 35 minutes. That was a bargain.

Here is a pic I took with my Kindle. [not the best quality] You can see the row of white e-readers in the center of the picture.

Glad you arrived safely after uneventful flights. Hope the hardest part of your trip is behind you.;)

The day is finally here.

Since we got up in the middle of the night the day we left [3:17am] I was ready for bed before it got dark here in Vancouver. :p My early night meant that I was up at 4:30 local time [7:30 EDT].

I went to the lobby to let DH sleep. I was joined there by a nice woman from Norway. You can imagine the jet lag she had. We had a great conversation and kept each other busy until the coffee was ready. LOL

We are staying at the Hampton Inn on Bridgeport St in Richmond, BC. It is just across the river from the airport. The area is very industrial/commercial. Richmond has a very Asian feel to it. Over 60% of the population is made up of immigrants. Most of these are Chinese. Many of the business signs that we have seen are in English and Chinese.

We walked over to the River Rock casino yesterday afternoon, just to look around. The desk clerk mentioned that there was a boardwalk by the casino and we hoped we would be able to walk along the river. However, the boardwalk just led to a parking lot.

If you are interested, the casino was fairly large and attached to a hotel. The slots were the same as I have seen on the ships and similar prices. DH noted the roulette table had a $10 minimum. We saw a couple high roller sections. We did not stop to get Canadian money and were not in the mood to gamble so we did not make any donations. :D

By 5 pm local time our traveling companions had arrived from the airport. [They had a similar experience/timeframe with customs] So, we walked across the street to Subway for a "fine dining" experience. There was an Italian restuarant 3 blocks away, but we were too lazy to go there.

Thank you I will be following

We are taking a shuttle to the port. We could take the SkyTrain for around $2.50 each.The hotel says a taxi is $45.

The shuttle is $15pp. It is the most expensive option for the 4 of us. But, it is raining and we have luggage. Convenience is the key.:D

I love your reviews! I just added this thread so I can follow your adventures. I always wanted to go to Hawaii so now I can go through you both. Thanks for starting this thread. I am so excited to be able to follow along.:D

Thank you all who are following this review.

We left this morning at about 9:20 from our hotel and our shuttle dropped us off on the street level outside of the Pan Pacific Hotel. We were kind of disappointed in that because the previous cruise a taxi had taken us down below right to where we dropped off our luggage.

The desk clerk at the hotel said the shuttle would be better. But it wasn't. YMMV

Check-in for our cruise in Vancouver was a four step process. After dropping off luggage we signed in for our cruise and got sea pass cards. Next we went through security. Then we headed down stairs to complete electronic scans of passports, get US customs/immigration pictures taken and print out a receipt. Finally we took the receipt to the customs agent who let us get on the ship. We were finished with all of this by 11:00am. We were told to go into the next room to wait for the ship to board. But, by the time we got there boarding began and we got in line. Here is a view of Canada Place from our balcony.

It is a little rainy today. But, for me it is always a great day to cruise. :D

You can see the low clouds. Watching the sea planes take off and land is one of my favorite things to do at Canada Place.

They have quite an operation at this port.

We will always start off a cruise out of VC at Pan Pacific...just too simple to walk down the escalator with no luggage and waltz on the ship. Your belboy takes it and checks it for you. For the amount you save on transportation you can pay for the room. On the last Alaska cruise the room costs us a whopping $169! It's not always that cheap but I got a great qte at the time from Expedia. I love that hotel! Smoothest embarkation ever. And the trip under Lions Gate bridge is fantastic!

We will always start off a cruise out of VC at Pan Pacific...just too simple to walk down the escalator with no luggage and waltz on the ship. Your belboy takes it and checks it for you. For the amount you save on transportation you can pay for the room. On the last Alaska cruise the room costs us a whopping $169! It's not always that cheap but I got a great qte at the time from Expedia. I love that hotel! Smoothest embarkation ever. And the trip under Lions Gate bridge is fantastic!

Wow!!! Good to know, thanks!!

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We did this about 2 years ago. Will enjoy seeing it again though your eyes. I really enjoyed the sea days. Have a wonderful time. :cool:

Will definitely be following along with you on your cruise. We did the Honolulu to Vancouver cruise on Celebrity 2 years ago in April. As someone posted in the 5 days from Hawaii to Vancouver, the weather changed considerably. It was very rough (pool chairs tied down), and a real change in temperature. We anticipated the cooler temps and had come prepared with appropriate clothes.

We loved the cruise so much, booked with Holland America for their circle Hawaii from Vancouver for next April.

Have a great cruise, enjoy Hawaii and know you will be having many folks following along with you.

We did Hawaii on Legend back in the day for our honeymoon - so good memories. We finished up just south of San Diego (due to the foreign porting rules - which was a real pain, as I recall). The cruise was late April/early May, and while we had some noticeable movement, it wasn't at all trying. Thank you for sharing your adventure!!

Following!

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DragonoftheSeas, thanks for doing this live review. We did this sailing in the fall of 2005 and had an amazing time. I look forward to following your adventure. I also look forward to your commentary on Radiance, as we return to her and Alaska next summer for a southbound adventure.