"Live" - Ovation of the Seas 20-30 Sept 2019 - Our not normal cruise to Hawaii

[PCWalton1]

Aloha,

Well it's been two years since our last Hawaii cruise so it's time for another. We are Bill and Marie from the Seattle area and you are more than welcome to join us on Ovation for our unusual cruise to Hawaii. I say unusual as after we depart Vancouver we stop in Seattle for a day before heading across the Pacific. So Saturday we get to play tourist in our hometown. In addition when we get to Kauai we just sail by and don't actually stop. That is a first for us. 

Also if you care to stick around, once we arrive in Honolulu we plan to fly to Molokai for 3 days than back to Oahu for three days in Waikiki. 

Should be fun

 

[Crazy planning mom]

Following.  I love Hawaii!

[PCWalton1]

Later today I will be stopping at the Seattle-Tacoma airport to pick up the rental car we will be using to drive over the border to Canada. Tomorrow night we will be staying at the Pan Pacific Vancouver after catching a terrific rate on Hotwire just last week. We get to drop the rental car right there at the hotel and as you can tell from the picture getting to the ship will be a breeze too. 😋

 

 

[h20skibum]

Will be following along.  We love Hawaii, and have been there seven times now.  Make sure you get some Hula pie at Dukes.  It is fantastic. 

 

Also looking forward to your impressions of Ovation.  We are booked on her next June, so it looks like we are sailing from your hometown. 

[PCWalton1]

9 minutes ago, Crazy planning mom said:

Following.  I love Hawaii!

Thanks for joining

 

2 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Will be following along.  We love Hawaii, and have been there seven times now.  Make sure you get some Hula pie at Dukes.  It is fantastic. 

 

Also looking forward to your impressions of Ovation.  We are booked on her next June, so it looks like we are sailing from your hometown. 

We spent 17 days on Ovation last year in Asia and loved it. That was our reason for taking this trip to Hawaii with such abbreviate stops in the islands. 

 

[bobmacliberty]

Love your reviews Bill.  Looking forward to this.  Doing one of your regular Hawaii cruises is on our retirement list.  

[CPPADILLA]

Bill and Marie, I will be following along.  Looking forward to Ovation pictures too.

[PCWalton1]

3 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Love your reviews Bill.  Looking forward to this.  Doing one of your regular Hawaii cruises is on our retirement list.  

I always love a Hawaii cruise. welcome aboard.

3 hours ago, CPPADILLA said:

Bill and Marie, I will be following along.  Looking forward to Ovation pictures too.

I will be sure to get some ship pictures on those at sea days

 

[ExPAGirl]

Following along...looking forward to your journey!! We'll be on Ovation next May and interested in your thoughts on the ship!

[PCWalton1]

56 minutes ago, ExPAGirl said:

Following along...looking forward to your journey!! We'll be on Ovation next May and interested in your thoughts on the ship!

Welcome. 😀

 

[PCWalton1]

We first booked this cruise early last year and the price was ridiculous, especially since we have an obstructed balcony. But we were patient and the price began to drop and kept dropping. 

  

[PCWalton1]

We are on deck seven in 7262. As I said an obstructed balcony but not really as there doesn't appear to be much there except Jamie Oliver's 2 deck down. We will see. 

 

[PCWalton1]

As usual I picked out a couple of books for the area we are heading to so I am reading about Hawaii. I read a lot of historical fiction and this first book a falls into that category. It's been a great read, extremely sad at times. I am bout 80% done. 

 

 

Moloka'i: A Novel

Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family, and dreams of seeing the far-off lands that her father, a merchant seaman, often visits. But at the age of seven, Rachel and her dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from her family, she is sent to Kalaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i.

 

I also have these to enjoy. 

 

 

Daughter of Moloka'i

The book follows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls in Honolulu, to her adoption by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II—and then, after the war, to the life-altering day when she receives a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth’s birth mother, Rachel.

 

 

Freckled: A Memoir of Growing up Wild in Hawaii

For fans of The Glass Castle and Educated, comes mystery author Toby Neal’s personal story of surviving a wild childhood in paradise.

We never call it homeless. We're just "camping" in the jungle on Kauai...

We live in a place everyone calls paradise. Sure, Kauai’s beautiful, with empty beaches, drip-castle mountains, and perfect surf...but we’ve been "camping" for six months, eating boiled chicken feed for breakfast, and wearing camouflage clothes so no one sees us trespassing in our jungle hideout. The cockroaches leave rainbow colors all over everything from eating the crayons we left outside the tent, and now a tractor is coming to scrape our camp into the river.

 

Standing in front of the tent in my nightgown, clinging to my sister as we face the tractor, I know my own truth: I just want to be normal.

 

But Mom and Pop are addicted.

Addicted to Kauai’s beauty, to drugs, to surfing, to living a life according to their own rules out from under their high-achieving parents’ judgmental eyes. I’m just their red-headed, mouthy, oldest kid. What I want doesn’t matter.

[Clarea]

7 hours ago, PCWalton1 said:

We first booked this cruise early last year and the price was ridiculous, especially since we have an obstructed balcony. But we were patient and the price began to drop and kept dropping. 

  

 

Huge drop in price!  Are those prices total or per person?

[Jimbo]

18 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Huge drop in price!  Are those prices total or per person?

Says total package price, I would guess that is the price together for both of them. Prices for repositioning cruises are usually pretty low because of the one way flights needed.

 

Years ago when we did  a 15 night Panama Canal cruise(Balcony) , West to East, the price was crazy low like they got

Edited September 19, 2019 by Jimbo

[bobmacliberty]

Wow.  Huge price drop.  How many months passed between the prices that you posted?  Were any after final?

[TwinMamainMN]

Enjoy your cruise! We are sailing a TP from HI to Vancouver next spring on Radiance. I'm glad Obviously a smaller ship, but we loved her in Alaska in August of 2018. An overnight in Maui would be great! Radiance doesn't overnight there on our cruise, but we have a long day there. We also visit Hilo, HI and Kauai and have decent port times at both. Looking forward to your review, especially when you are in port.

[suesnake2002]

Bill and Marie, so excited to follow along with your adventures. I remember reading you had knee replacements Bill. I guess you are all healed up and ready to go. I wish you smooth seas. 

[lrc04]

I'm sure it will feel weird to be home for one of your ports. 🙂 

[PCWalton1]

 
Huge drop in price!  Are those prices total or per person?

Bob, that's the total price.

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[Mrs.Dukes]

Looking forward to reading your trip report. That is some drop in price! Enjoy your trip!

[ExPAGirl]

10 hours ago, PCWalton1 said:

We are on deck seven in 7262. As I said an obstructed balcony but not really as there doesn't appear to be much there except Jamie Oliver's 2 deck down. We will see. 

 

 

Oh! We are several cabins aft of yours on Deck 7 too, 7280. I was hoping the view wouldn't be too obstructed so maybe there is hope.

[Clarea]

9 minutes ago, PCWalton1 said:

Bob, that's the total price.
 

 

Excellent price for a balcony on a long cruise!

[PCWalton1]

Morning and thanks for all the greetings. 

 

For the ports as mentioned we stop in Seattle first so we are going to play tourist. First a stop at the Seattle Center to with visits to MoPop, Space Needle then Chihuly glass museum. 

 

 

 

 

 

After that we hope to get over to the Pike Place Market for lunch and some fresh flowers for the cabin

 

 

[PCWalton1]

After some relaxing days at sea we will do a drive by of the Na Pali coast on the island of Kauai. We have flown over the Na Pali cliffs but never sailed by so that should be an experience. We have a Northstar reservation during the sail by.