Review of Pride of America & Pre-Trip

[lv2bgoofy]

This is the best place for information that I found....I also used the Revealed books. We are planning on returning next February as well but a land vacation instead of a cruise.

 

Hope I have helped a little.

[lv2bgoofy]

Kona - Day 5 (I think)

 

We scheduled the only ship tour today which was the Land and Sea Tour. I thought that this was in a sense pretty disorganized. POA had you meet in the theatre and then sent you to Deck 3 to get on the tenders...there was only one tender but somehow we all got on it...I'm don't think that everyone in the line was going on the same shore excursion - I think what happened is that they released everyone for their 8:30 shore excursions at once but not positive. Once we arrived on shore there wasn't anyone to tell you where to go - there was a girl standing there holding a sign that said "Land and Sea" - I asked her where we needed to be and she said "right here" - I said do we just get behind you? Oh no you need to get on the bus was her response...really there are like 4 buses sitting here...wanna give me a little bit more than that....we finally got on the right bus and we were off.

 

We received a ton of information from our tour guide about the history of Kona and the Hawaiian Islands. We arrived at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) - I believe we were given about an hour to wander the grounds, which was plenty of time. We then went to the Painted Church...there is quite an incline walk up to the church but so worth the walk. The church is gorgeous and on one of the pews there was a cat taking a nap and was completely undisturbed by all of us milling back and forth inside her sanctuary.

 

We then headed to a coffee place that had several different types of coffees for samples....I don't do coffee but my DH does so I got him a couple which he enjoyed - which really surprised me. I then went shopping because coffee had been a request to come home so I picked up a few bags of Kona Coffee and few other things - one which was a tiki - the same tiki I found at an ABC store later at a higher price which I found quite interesting since I had heard that the ABC stores were the best price on everything....it was about a dollar cheaper.

 

We then headed back to the pier and boarded a Body Glove boat for our sea portion. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the trip - I think I was born for the water. We had a really nice lunch and a guy who explained the history about Kona again from a little bit of a different perspective. We traveled to the Captain Cook monument...there were several people snorkeling here but this is where everything got really interesting. We had some spinner dolphins jump right in front of the boat several times - spinning the entire time. As we started to return to the pier...we encountered two whales which we watched for quite some time and the captain of the boat was great...following not too close and shutting down the engines anytime we caught a glimpse of one of them. It was a great top off to a beautiful day - I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the dolphins or the whales.

 

I do believe that all of the pictures are now posted.

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/lv2bgoofy

[Budget Queen]

Kona - Day 5 (I think)

 

 

 

We then headed back to the pier and boarded a Body Glove boat for our sea portion. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the trip - I think I was born for the water. We had a really nice lunch and a guy who explained the history about Kona again from a little bit of a different perspective. We traveled to the Captain Cook monument...there were several people snorkeling here but this is where everything got really interesting. We had some spinner dolphins jump right in front of the boat several times - spinning the entire time. As we started to return to the pier...we encountered two whales which we watched for quite some time and the captain of the boat was great...following not too close and shutting down the engines anytime we caught a glimpse of one of them. It was a great top off to a beautiful day - I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the dolphins or the whales.

 

 

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/lv2bgoofy

 

Did you get to snorkel at Capt Cook?? Was snorkeling included in your tour??

 

I kayaked to Cpt Cook and the snorkeling was just superb!!!!

[Teacher_91]

The Mr. & I will be taking this cruise in June 2013, so I have happily been reading your trip report. Thanks for including info on both POA and the various ports you've visited. I've picked up a lot of GREAT information for my "Hawaii file"! :) I'm looking forward to reading more.

[GAP2001]

Loved looking at your pics on the tour you did with Wings over Kauai, we are doing that tour in Sept 2012. I have enjoyed reading your review.

 

 

Thanks, Gap2001

[lv2bgoofy]

Did you get to snorkel at Capt Cook?? Was snorkeling included in your tour??

 

I kayaked to Cpt Cook and the snorkeling was just superb!!!!

 

Unfortunately the tour didn't include snorkeling...we were unsure of snorkeling on this trip since neither of us have ever done it. I am planning it for next year for sure!

 

I have heard that the snorkeling at Cpt Cook is awesome.

[lv2bgoofy]

The Mr. & I will be taking this cruise in June 2013, so I have happily been reading your trip report. Thanks for including info on both POA and the various ports you've visited. I've picked up a lot of GREAT information for my "Hawaii file"! :) I'm looking forward to reading more.

\

 

Glad I could help since this board helped me a ton while I was planning my trip.

 

You will have a wonderful time! Wish I was planning mine all over again..I enjoy that part almost as much as taking the trip.

[lv2bgoofy]

Loved looking at your pics on the tour you did with Wings over Kauai, we are doing that tour in Sept 2012. I have enjoyed reading your review.

 

 

Thanks, Gap2001

 

 

Thanks - I really loved the flight and we almost decided not to go because of weather...as you can tell it really didn't make that much of a difference. Ellen, Bruce, Carter and Shane were all really nice and just great people.

[Darthdaddy]

Thanks for the info re: Aulani.

I think we will book a couple days there in connection with our cruise.

Beach access combined with proximity to Pearl Harbor and USS AZ will work great for us.

 

For others following this thread, Aulani is new Disney resort located on Oahu. It is part of Disney Vacation Club and also rents units to non-member vacationers.

[Budget Queen]

Unfortunately the tour didn't include snorkeling...we were unsure of snorkeling on this trip since neither of us have ever done it. I am planning it for next year for sure!

 

I have heard that the snorkeling at Cpt Cook is awesome.

 

It certainly is!!! What a shame that the tour did not include it, which is a major reason to boat there.

[lv2bgoofy]

Kauai – Day 1

We arrived in Kauai right on schedule and we were off the ship and at Thrifty to get our car in no time flat. Our first stop was going to be Waimea Canyon – we headed there and instead of taking the turn off that the road signs suggest we took the Waimea Canyon Road – which at first you think that you have taken a wrong turn and have ended up in a residential area…just give it a few and you will find yourself seeing some gorgeous scenery. We soon came along the red rocks with waterfalls – these to us were just gorgeous…they just kind of mesmerized me….not really sure why but it may have been the white rushing water falling over the deep red rocks.

We then headed up to the first look-out….quite fascinating..we live in the “Grand Canyon State” and have visited it quite often and Waimea was so gorgeous..it definitely is worth the visit. The greens mixed with the reds and then the blue skies…such a magnificent place. We stopped at several of the areas on the way up to the top and went all the way to Pu’u o Kila Look-out – it is a pretty steep incline to the top but it is a ramp not stairs that lead the way. Views are beyond awesome….the clouds were pretty good to us while we were there…it wasn’t completely clear but enough to be able to see the ocean down below. I completely forgot about the Koke’e Museum as we left…so can’t comment on that. We left via the Koke’e Road so we had completely different views on the way down – that didn’t disappoint either.

We then headed North from here to Polihale State Park – which we had to drive on I believe it was 5 miles of dirt road – not all that rough but you definitely knew that you weren’t on pavement any longer….it was a beautiful beach and the sand dunes of average height here…the water was very nice…didn’t go all the way in but standing at the edge the surf came up and hit me about mid thigh….refreshing to say the least. You could see the start of the Na’Pali coast line from here…again a gorgeous view.

We decided that we were hungry and we headed towards Island Tacos but once we got there we veered off and ate at Shrimp Station – ordered the garlic shrimp since at the time we didn’t know that they are known for their coconut shrimp….the plate was good but didn’t come close to measuring up to the garlic shrimp that we had at Giovanni’s on Oahu. We decided then that since we had heard good things about Island Tacos that we needed to try one of those as well…we shared a taco…very good and very friendly people here.

We have red dirt shirts here in AZ from our Sedona dirt so we definitely needed to have red dirt shirts from Hawaii….so we made a stop at the Red Dirt Shirt Warehouse – had a hard time choosing just one shirt so we ended up with two – one red dirt a piece and I had to get a purple one with all the islands on it and DH got a black one that says “Bite Me” on it with a big lizard.

We still had about 4 hours before we needed to be back at Thrifty to catch the last shuttle to the ship so we headed to Wailua Falls….the falls were raging since there had been quite a bit of rain in the last week and it was pretty red as well. We left here and decided to hit another waterfall – Opaeka’a Falls….this was just as beautiful but not flowing quite as much as Wailua.

At this point we had a decision to make….we were trying to decide to drive the rest of the way to Princeville or turn around and head to Duke’s to get a Hula Pie….we decided to head to Duke’s…this became an issue since we knew it was in the Marriott but didn’t know exactly where…we drove through the entire Marriott area – which is very pretty and was a really nice drive…we got to the end – turned around and headed towards Anchor Cove and that is when we spotted Duke’s – we parked in a handicap spot to walk over to Duke’s and we were told that we had to leave because it was parking for another restaurant (didn’t know that they could do this with handicap spots). We decided at this point to just take the car back and head back to the ship – it was about 6:30 or so at this point.

[Just4You]

So lobster night in the MDR is on embarkation night? If we do the sampler we will miss it? Is there any lobster on the sampler menu that night?

 

Embarkation night is the only lobster night for free, but they are the tiny little tails. Wed when the ship harbors in Kona they puchase local grown giant lobster that are raised in Kona. You have to book Jefferson Bistro for Wed night to get these, but they are served whole (best to book this the first night on ship). Teppanyaki has lobster, but they are the small ones that they serve on embarkation night.

[lv2bgoofy]

Embarkation night is the only lobster night for free, but they are the tiny little tails. Wed when the ship harbors in Kona they puchase local grown giant lobster that are raised in Kona. You have to book Jefferson Bistro for Wed night to get these, but they are served whole (best to book this the first night on ship). Teppanyaki has lobster, but they are the small ones that they serve on embarkation night.

 

 

Jefferson's Bistro no longer does Lobster night - it is now at Lazy J's on Wednesday night