Aloha! Live from the Radiance 9.8.17 Cruise to Hawaii

[linkerbink]

My sister and I will be doing the reverse cruise next May, so we will be following your posts with great interest. I was stationed at Pearl Harbor back in the 70's and have been back once again in the 90's and am interested in seeing how much everything has changed.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

It is difficult to get good photos of the lava flow at night. Goodness knows, I've tried! :D They look much the same as yours., which are perfectly fine and probably what most people were able to get. Some cameras do better than others, depending on the lens quality and the ability to zoom. I'm glad you got to see the flow -- as recently as 3 years ago, there wasn't much to see. :)

 

(One year, I gave up and bought a stock photo from the photo gallery.)

 

We were so glad to get the opportunity to see it.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

My sister and I will be doing the reverse cruise next May, so we will be following your posts with great interest. I was stationed at Pearl Harbor back in the 70's and have been back once again in the 90's and am interested in seeing how much everything has changed.

 

We have a car and plan to use our 5 days wisely. I will post lots of pictures. :D

 

I am sure you will see many changes.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Welcome to day 10 of our cruise. Usually about now I get sad the cruise is coming to an end. However, we are looking forward to our time in Honolulu.

 

The forecast today was partly cloudy and a chance of showers. We had one small shower this am. But, it has been very cloudy almost all day. Kona is usually hot and dry.

 

The movies today are How to be a Latin Lover, Kong and Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

Stephen Thomas is doing a family friendly comedy at 7:15 and an adult comedy at 10:30. The CD, John Blair, is doing his tribute to Neil Diamond at 9:15. I am not sure we can make the beginning with our dinner time. We have seen this before when he was on the Grandeur. He is excellent.

 

We took a ship's tour this morning. It was the Highlights of Kona. [3+hours] We booked this a couple of months ago while they were doing a shore excursion special. They even let us use our OBC.

 

One reason we booked it was to avoid getting tender tickets and to get off the ship first. That did not work out. By the time the tender came for those of us in tours the numbers 1-4 had been called for the regular tender process.

 

We had Grayline buses and headed along the coast to see Kona. There was lots of hotels and also some public beach access.

 

 

 

The shoreline is very rocky. You will need water shoes here.

 

 

 

 

You can see the lava rocks on the shore.

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Next we headed to the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park. The was considered a place of refuge during Hawaiian early days. If you did something wrong you could come here to be absolved of your crime or misdeed. It is considered a sacred place.

 

This is the reconstructed heiau [temple]

 

 

 

They had what I think look like totem poles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were so much more intricate than Alaskan carvings.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

They had some interpretive exhibits to show what artifacts and skills during this time.

 

 

 

 

 

He was making weapons.

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I kept hearing about Noni in each of the islands we visited. But, I had not seen it. They had planted several Noni trees in the park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a roped off area in the park for the sea turtles. We did not see any there, but we did see 2 of them on the second day in Maui.

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Our next stop was the Painted Church.

 

 

 

 

 

The priest that built the church did not speak Hawaiian so he used pictures to share the gospel and sermons.

 

 

 

It is a beautiful setting high above Kona. It was built to serve the coffee growers.

 

Here is the cemetery:

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Our last stop was the Royal Coffee company. It was listed as a museum and a store. There were a few exhibits. But, that was all. It was mostly a store. The prices here for souvenirs were better than we had seen. The coffee was pricey. 1lb of ground100% Kona coffee was $32.

 

Here is a coffee tree. Workers harvest the red "cherries" by hand. They say that is why the coffee is so good. Machines take all the beans even if they are not ripe enough.

 

 

There are 4 stages to producing coffee. Here are the 3 after picking the cherries.

 

 

We were able to try all of the flavors. It was delicious.

 

 

Then we were back at the harbor. We did a little shopping and then rode the tender back to the ship.

 

 

 

You can see the clouds had moved in.

[Coralc]

A gentleman on our cruise gave us permission to use his photos. Our photos, like yours, came out looking like a campfire. It is an awesome experience to be that close to the lava! :D

[DragonOfTheSeas]

A gentleman on our cruise gave us permission to use his photos. Our photos, like yours, came out looking like a campfire. It is an awesome experience to be that close to the lava! :D

 

Wow--those are pretty spectacular. I know one of them is going in my scrapbook. :D Thank you!!

[Beachiekeen]

I've really enjoyed reading this. We have only done land vacations to Hawaii so far but haven't ruled out a cruise in the future. You've really made great use of your time there.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I've really enjoyed reading this. We have only done land vacations to Hawaii so far but haven't ruled out a cruise in the future. You've really made great use of your time there.

I have found a cruise is a good way to use time. In a land based vacation you spend time just relaxing. [i have nothing against relaxing] In a cruise you wake up in a different port each day and have an excursion of some type.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

It has been a full day with little time for posting. I will catch up tomorrow.

 

Welcome to day 11 of our cruise--the last day!

 

Here was this morning's sunrise.

 

 

 

Her we are pulling into Kauai.

 

 

They had smsll lighthouses on each point. in the harbor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We rented a car and drove to Wiamea Canyon.

 

 

 

 

 

The views were much more beautiful that these pictures can show.

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I know I still owe pictures of the Waimea Canyon and the rest of our time on Kauai, but I wanted to let you know that we're in Honolulu now.

 

We can see many of the skyscrapers a very short distance away. And the mountains are not far away either and we can even see the ocean although we're in a protected area. We chose to get off later rather than having to get up so early in the morning. So we have the number 19 and our time estimate is 9:10 a.m.

 

We have rented a medium sized SUV from Alamo rental car for the 5 days that we're going to be here. Today we're going to load up all of our luggage and just tour the island until our timeshare this afternoon is ready.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Disembarkation is taking a long time this morning. We are in the Aurora Theater and they are on number 10. We have a pretty long way to go to 19. They should be up to 18.

[podsnel]

Hope you are off and having a nice drive now! We really enjoyed the South Shore- just as much as the north shore on another visit! [emoji4]

 

 

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[DragonOfTheSeas]

Here are some pictures from the Waimea Canyon Lookout. The views were worth the drive.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you see how far down this is?

 

 

Look at the 2 women that climbed over the gusrdrail and sat on the ledge shown above. [they are climbing back over at this point]. :eek:

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

It was very busy at the Lookout.

 

 

 

There were restrooms and a vendor selling fresh fruits and drinks from a table.

 

 

 

There were chickens running around everywhere up there and some interesting flowers.

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

After lunch at the Wrangler Steakhouse in Waimea we stopped just outside of town at the ruins of Fort Elizabeth. It was a Russian Fort built on the mouth of the river.

 

 

 

Thee is not much left of the fort. It is mostly a pile of rocks. I teased DH. He says that I always drag him to visit national parks, churches and forts. We have hit all 3 in the last 2 days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK--enough of that. It was not all that interesting. However, there were restrooms available. [always good to know]

[DELTABLUE]

Again, another wonderful collection of pictures! The flowers look like some kind of hibiscus. Are you running into a lot of plumeria all over? I love them, so fragrant!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Welcome to Honolulu!

 

 

 

The port is very near the city.

 

 

 

 

Since we could not check in to our hotel [travel companions] and timeshare condo [us] until late afternoon we decided to explore the Pali Highway. Pali is the word for cliff in Hawaiian.

 

We stopped at the ocerlook to check ut the windward side of the island. . . . and it was VERY windy.

 

The overlook was formed when a volcano collapsed a long time ago.

 

Here is the description.

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

You could see all the way to the ocean.

 

 

 

 

Here is one of the tunnels the Pali highway uses to get through the mountain.

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

More views from the lookout. the small island is called Coconut Island. It used to be a private resort. however, it is now owed by Hawaii.

 

 

That is a quarry in the middle.

 

 

 

Then we drove to the beach town of Kailua. The water was the most beautiful color I have seen. Wow!!

 

Since we were just exploring we did not have easy access to our bathing suits. We decided we would come back here.

 

 

 

 

Tere was also plenty of shade. We were told most Hawaiian beaches do not have chair/umbrella consessions. Most people sit on towels and mats.

 

 

Then it was time to go to our hoteld and get some rest. Tomorrow we go to Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Stadium for the Swap Meet [flea Market].