Live from the Zaandam - Circle Hawaii.....

[DFD1]

KK, I may be wrong about this, but I have heard or read someplace recently that the smell is not sewage, but rather some sort of chemical or chemical combination used in the incinerator or the treatment plant onboard.

 

I've smelled it from time to time over the years on different ships and it's not pleasant. We did not seem to have it on the Zaandam 10/01 sailing, at least not where were out and about the ship.

[sassyredhat]

Hi nobby~~~We are also from San Diego, and will be taking this cruise in April.

I am interested in you aromastone massage. What is it ? Price ?

 

We were thinking about going to Sealife Park in Honolulu. Have you heard anything about it ? It's not a ship tour.

 

Thanks for such a wonderful review. I am living vicariously. :D

 

Pat

[nobbync]

DAY 5

 

I can’t believe we are already almost to Hawaii. Tomorrow morning at 8 am we’ll be at Hilo. It’ll be nice to get out and see the island but at the same time I am sad the first set of sea days are almost over. Even though this is my 4th cruise this is my first one sailing in the middle of the ocean since my Navy days. It’s been 20 years since I experienced the bliss of being in the middle of the ocean. A couple nights I went up to the top and just enjoyed the fresh air and the millions of stars. I feel there’s nothing like it.

 

This morning we awoke to another beautiful day. The seas are as calm as can be and might only be 1 foot swells. Very little wind as well and temperatures are in the high 70’s. Skies are partly cloudy and it’s just wonderful. The pools and decks are full of people and the main Lido deck pool the roof is open. All I can say is beautiful. I spent about an hour out by the aft pool soaking on the sun and reading. The rest of the morning I did some walking looking at the all the wonderful Captain Stephen Card paintings and other art on the ship.

 

Lunch was in the Lido and good as usual. Today they had this really good king crab salad and then I also tried their chicken breast ala king. I have been doing good in limiting my eating and I don’t think I gained any weight, yet! It took me 3 cruises before I realized I didn’t have to eat everything in one day.

 

The afternoon was spent in the thermal suite and Jacuzzi. It was really relaxing up there and the sky was beautiful with the blue sky and ocean with the clouds. The seas are as flat as can be all day. Late in the afternoon we did get a few showers.

 

Dinner was the Master Chef’s Dinner and for my first time I enjoyed it but I don’t feel it was anything special. I wonder if the dining room stewards new they were going to have to dance like this when they signed up? For those that don’t know what it is they give everyone these giant chefs hats with a special menu. The signers sind and the stewards dance as they serve. The food itself was good. We started with a mushroom pastry thing that I don’t know what it was called. The salad was growing out of a whole tomato. For the entrée I had the soy and apricot glazed salmon which was really good. Most people at our table had the duck and they all loved it. My mom had the jumbo shrimp with a tomato sauce on it and she loved it. The shrimp were really big and looked good. Dessert was some white chocolate chefs hat with a chocolate cream and brownie inside served with a strawberry blue berry sauce. This dessert was really awesome.

 

After dinner I just watched a movie Ratatoille on the TV before going to bed. We have an early start for the Secrets of Puna Tour at 8 am.

 

Nobby

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Nobby, I'd just like to say a big "thanks" to you for being so conscientious, helpful, and dedicated to passing on info about your cruise. I'm enjoying your thread very much.:) Looking forward to reading your impressions about Hawaii.

[ladymarine]

Dear Nobbynyc;

 

As others have said, thank you for the running comments. We take the same cruise in mid-November. That will be our first HAL cruise, and am looking forward. Many thanks for the information concerning shore trips. We have yet to select which to take, or just get one of the local car and driver that await at each port.

 

Enjoy!

[nobbync]

DAY 6 – Hilo, Hawaii – Secrets of Puna

 

Land Ho!

 

Today started early as we had room service ordered between 6 and 6:30 am and the food arrived on time at 6:15 and hot. I did get a rude awakening as I must have hit the radio controls on my bed in the middle of the night. By the bed there are these controls to turn up music in your room. At 5:45 while I was still dreaming some music started playing. I was wondering why in the heck are they piping music into the staterooms. What about the people that don’t want to get up early to go ashore???? Anyway, it took me a few minutes to realize I must have done it…

 

After breakfast we watched the ship pull into Hilo. The Pacific Princess was already there. It was cloudy this morning and was raining off and on so we thought it would be a good day. The sun started to come out and it looked nice. It was fast getting off the ship and we found our tour guides right away for the Secrets of Puna Tour. Our guide was Emma and she has been doing this for two years. We were all her cousins and auntie’s.

 

We started out with a drive out to Puna area. Our first stop was a walk over the city that was buried in the lava flow called Kalapana. We stopped in a small town where we started our walk out to the ocean. Where we started used to be the ocean front but after the lava flows it is about a 20 minute walk over the lava to get to the new shore. They have a nice trail and it’s a very easy walk. After this stop we went to a church and a place to buy some strange fruit that is supposed to be really good for you. I don’t think anyone bought any. From there we went to the Puna Girl Farms where we had lunch. It is a private farm and they had some nice chairs out there and fed us turkey, roast beef or salami wraps with a couple salads and cookies. The guides also have beer, soda’s, juices, champagne, and bottle water that you can take what you want. They have plenty. They also have small snack packs of crackers and cookies. After lunch I did some walking around and they had some nice flowers. Just before we left it started to rain.

 

After lunch we headed to the heated ponds for a swim. The roads there are rough as we drive over the lava flows for about 10 minutes. The ponds are beautiful and you can snorkel in there. I didn’t swim but walked around the area. It’s all the lava flows with miles of beaches on one side and then these ponds that go back and are volcanically heated. I just walked around taking photos and my mom sat back on the black sand and just watched everything.

 

I am an avid bird photographer and today I really didn’t see much. I could hear a few but I found out the big island doesn’t have a lot of birds. Our guide said they brought mongoose in to eat all the snakes many years ago. The problem is the snakes were all eaten years ago. Now the mongoose eat the bird eggs so they don’t have a lot of birds.

 

After this stop our last one was another private place to go to Green Lake. I think it was called Green Lake. This was a beautiful area where we walked for about a half hour. The lake is pretty far below where we were at and the green of the plants along with the green of the lake was really beautiful. It started to rain so we got back to the vans.

 

The drive back was rain almost all the way. I had plans to walk around a little but it was still raining so it was time to relax and just do these reports. One thing I was very disappointed on was we missed Lava Tree State Park. We didn’t have any time. I wanted to see everything we did but I was really looking forward to Lava Tree State Park. There were 3 groups of Secrets of Puna tours today and none went to Lava Tree State Park.

 

Overall it was a fun tour and we did have a good tour guide so it made it worthwhile. I just wish it didn’t rain… Hopefully the rest of the ports will be nice. I know Hilo is really bad for rain so maybe we’ll be good the rest of the way.

 

Tonight’s dinner was great as usual. We all had a great talk about what we all did today in Hilo. Also found out we have 2 waiters waiting on us instead of 1 waiter and 1 assistant. I know the service has been absolutely the best I have had on 4 cruises. The food today was also very good. Duck quesadilla, creamy chicken mushroom soup, duck salad and the Hawaiian barbecue dinner and then topped it off with a peach melba sundae… yum yum… I am hungry for more… They gave us fresh flower leis with dinner and they were beautiful. All the women at our table was wondering how they were going to keep them fresh.

 

After dinner I just watched Evan Almighty and then it was volcano viewing time. Only saw a glow and after only a couple minutes, that was enough… time to post this review and then off to bed.

 

Tomorrow is Kona and we are doing the Kona Highlights with Cindy and my mom. Those two will go back to the ship for the afternoon and I will go on the Off The Beaten Path: Cloud Forrest Tour. Hope it’s a great sunny day.

 

Today’s movie was Premonition starring Sandra Bullock. I didn’t watch the show tonight or the entertainment. I am on of the younger ones on board yet I am in bed early… What’s wrong with that picture?

 

Nobby

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you are having calm seas.

 

Master Chef dinner -- that is one meal we could miss. Have done it so many times -- no longer like it. JMO - but the white chocolate hat is too hard to cut and eat - waste of good chocolate. Glad you enjoyed the meal.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Leis - now I am jealous!! We never got any leis on our Hawaiian cruise.

 

I love Hilo!! Too bad you didn't get out to Lava Tree State Park.

[Susie51]

Great review. Your tour sounds wonderful. I wish it hadn't rained so much for you. I've never had the chef's dinner. Does HAL do this instead of Dutch night now or it is done only on 10+ cruises?

[LoyHAL]

Thanks, Nobby, for your daily posts from 'our' ship, the Zaandam. We did that same cruise this past April and it's fun to 'follow along' with you.

 

You are doing a great job! Wish we were there.:)

LoyHAL

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Aloha Nobby, I so hope you are enjoy my favorite place Kailua Kona. If I cannot live on a cruise ship then I want to live in Kailua Kona:D For many years we considered it our home away from home.

Too bad you did not see much of the Lava Flow, in all the times we have been to the Big Island that is something we have never seen.

[kakalina]

Nobby: We just asked our room steward to place our leis on ice and he was very accomadating. It makes them last awhile.

[nobbync]

Day 7 - Kona, Hawaii

 

Today was another early start to the day. Woke up about 6 am and I could see our approach to Kona and we were anchored by 7:45 am. The full breakfast buffet on the lido deck opened at 6:30 so we had breakfast there. Our tour met in the Mondriaan Lounge at 7:45 am and we were on the first tender ashore. The day started out nice and sunny and we could see the peak of the volcano above Kona.

 

For the morning we decided to do the Kona Highlights tour which ended up being a lot of fun. It was on one of the big buses and we had a very funny and entertaining driver. Our first stop was a coffee place so everyone can taste and buy Kona coffee if they wanted. I don’t drink coffee so I just walked around. I tried to find birds in the trees in the area and found a few that I could take pictures of. Our next stop was the Painted Church. Again I just walked around the grounds trying to photograph birds. I was able to get a few I have never seen before.

 

The best part of the tour for me was the stop at Pu’uhonua o Honaunau which is a National Historical Park. This was a place of refuge for ancient Hawaiian law breakers. It is right on the beach so it was pretty hot. I don’t know what the temperature was but it really was hot. The other places we were at were up in the hills so it was warm but not as hot. There were lots of sea turtles but they were in the water only. The area is really nice and lots of walking trials. I was able to photograph quite a few birds I have never seen in a very short visit. We stayed about 30 minutes and those who photograph or look for birds know they are not very cooperative at times so I felt I did good. It was much better then the little bit of birding I did in Hilo.

 

After the ride back we all decided to have lunch someplace in Kona. We stopped at a place close to the pier. It was called The Fish Hopper. They had some really good clam chowder and if you walk by they give free samples of the chowder. After lunch Cindy and my mom went back to the ship. I walked around Kona as I had about 90 minutes before my next tour. I just walked along the water taking pictures of birds and things.

 

My next tour was the Cloud Forrest Walk. I really wasn’t sure what to expect on this but I can tell you the tour lives up to its name. We only had 9 people on the tour and were all loaded into a small van. We’re going up the volcano next to Kona about 3,000 feet up. It took about a half hour to get there. This is someone’s land that he decided to turn it into a rainforest and planted so many trees and plants from around the world. It is really incredible how all these plants and trees can grow on the lava flows. As our guide said we have plants on steroids! Many of the trees are huge and the roots don’t grow very far into the ground because it’s all lava rock. This tour starts at this persons house and they give you rain gear (it was needed for us) and walking sticks. The walk is about a mile and a half and it’s not that bad as we are stopping in many places as they tell us about the plants. Half of it is up hill and there are some areas that are hard to walk so you do need to be in at least half way decent shape. Lots of the trail is wet and roots are all over so it can be difficult to walk for anyone with ailments.

 

The name Cloud Forrest really lived up to its name as it was really neat to walk on these trails with the clouds all around. It made for an eerie site. I left my camera in the car because it was raining more then I cared to risk getting my camera all wet. I wish I took it because about 5 minutes into the walk it stopped or slowed down raining till we were finished. But I wouldn’t have known it would stop raining so better safe then to be sorry. After the hike we stopped for about 30 minutes at a place close by to have Kona Coffee. I don’t drink coffee so I just walked around where I could. It was raining again so the walk wasn’t very far but I did get some interesting photographs of some of the flowers. They gave us some homemade cookies that were delicious and a bag of macadamia nuts. By the way, flowers are all over Kona and it’s really beautiful.

 

For those that are interested I saw in both Hilo and Kona people selling tours. I didn’t really see what they had but they had long lists of tours.

 

I did get back just in time for dinner so we could all talk about the days events. Dinner was really good today even though I wasn’t that hungry. I only had the salad and jumbo garlic prawns. The prawns were just perfect. I even skipped dessert but I might hit the midnight buffet tonight to grab some dessert. I did get to the buffet and just picked up some milk and cookies… Mmmmmm cooooookies…. We get to sleep in tomorrow so I don’t eat breakfast on these days and grab a little something at 11 pm when the buffet opens. That’s if I make it that far as I am already tired and it’s only 9:30 pm now. As you can see I did make for some cookies…

 

Tomorrow will be Honolulu and we rented a car and will just hang out in Waikiki and get back to the ship early. I also need to do my laundry really bad. Either that or I need to buy more clothes… The $12 fill the bag to the brim is very small and with my pair of jeans I can only fit a few more things in it so I am not sure if it’s worth it or not. Also with how humid things are my clothes is just stinky after one wear! Not that you wanted to hear that… So tomorrow evening I’ll be doing laundry… How fun…

 

Before I post this it is now 6:30 am and we are backing into our berth at the Aloha Tower. Looks like a nice day. Thanks for reading and hope you all have a wonderful day.

 

Nobby

 

P.S. I wil be answering your questions after our last port as I don't have time right now.

[sungoddess]

Today is US Coast Guard Inspection for the ZA, let's wish them luck!

[SeaRay48]

Great job Nobby, love your reports. Will be on the same ship,cruise, and date next year, so I really appreciate the weather reports.

Thanks again.

[FredCA]

My family will be on the Nov. 20 Zaandam and hoped to be able to "pack a lunch" to take ashore. Is this prohibited?

 

Thanks for the great reviews. It is really getting us excited about the trip!

[RuthC]

I took that Kona highlights tour my first time there. I loved it. Were the poinsettia "trees" still around the painted church?

I had never seen those plants growing wild before; they looked so straggly compared to the plants seen at Christmas.

There was a nice breeze off the water at the City of Refuge that day. It was pleasant.

Thanks for bringing back the memories. And you didn't bring back memories of an earthquake! Good!

[jeda]

I am so enjoying your "blog" thanks so much. I was on this cruise this past April and you are bringing back so many wonderful memories! We never had the Master Chef dinner on our Circle Hawaii cruise though, I suppose they change some things up.

 

Thanks Again!

 

Jess

[sweet sheep]

Nobbync,

Thank you for your most informative posts. I will be taking the same trip in April and wanted to ask you if they still have the Black and White ball?

I think it is or was held on the return trip!

Did you have any of the Hawaiian shaved ice while in Hawaii?

Enjoy you cruise and i look forward to other posts from you.

[hammybee]

WoW. I just discovered this delightful thread. Thank you Nbbync, for taking the time to share your cruise with us. You have created a compelling story and I look forward to the next page.

[nobbync]

Day 8 – First Day in Honolulu

 

Sorry this update is late as I had a very busy 2 days.

 

The morning came early again as I woke up about 5:30 am. On a normal vacation I’d have gone back to bed but this is far from normal. I decided to look out the window and that was a mistake as I saw Diamond Head and knew I wouldn’t be sleeping anymore today. I watched us go by Waikiki and Honolulu before we pulled into the Aloha Tower pier.

 

Speaking of Waikiki I found out how it got its name. When Captain Cook arrived here the Hawaiians all gathered by the shore. They told Captain Cook that he could not touch the water as it was sacred. As his boat came ashore the natives went out to carry him to the beach without touching the water. They slipped and he fell in. While he was in the water the Hawaiians started to kick him. Captain said Why kick kick???? Which turned into Waikiki…. Okay, I know that was bad but that was the Thrifty shuttle driver that shared that with us so blame it on him.

 

Anyway, we decided to eat breakfast in the lido at 6:30 when it opened for full breakfast. Today’s omelet of the day was chicken and mushrooms so I tried it. It turned out to be delicious. It had chicken mushrooms and a white gravy. Yum yum…

 

We were docked and people could get off by 7 am. We were tied up next to the Aloha Tower and no other ships were in today. We got off the ship very easily and I had a rental car reserved today with Thrifty but here is a hint for you all. They have 2 Thrifty locations with shuttles but our Thrifty shuttle bus driver didn’t say that and they took us to the small one in Waikiki. Our rental was supposed to be at the airport. We got a car anyway but drop off there has to be before 3 pm to get a free ride back. Airport is at anytime. We decided to take the car anyway because we didn’t have plans to stay out long.

 

Getting the car was easy and first we headed to Kapiolani Park across from Waikiki Beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day. It was partly cloudy and temperatures in the low 80’s. We walked the park and finally I was ably to take some pictures of some birds I have never seen. We then went across to the beach and walked out on this walkway where we could see the fish up close. There was quite a few very beautifully colored fish. Don’t ask me what kind as I have no idea but they were beautiful.

 

After walking and also just sitting and watching the world go by we decided to head over to Ala Moana Shopping Center to pick up a few things plus eat some Japanese food at Shirokiya. I wanted to get a real Hawaiian shirt so I went to Reyn’s and got a great one. My mom wanted to buy my brother a t-shirt so we went to Crazy Shirts for that. For those that don’t know what it is Shrokiya is a Japanese grocery and department store right in the mall. They have lots of bento style foods and sushi there. I was surprised at the selection of foods they had. My mom is Japanese and she was having withdrawals symptoms with no Japanese food for 7 days. We ended up getting more then needed but that was good because my mom had food for dinner as well.

 

After lunch we headed out to find the houses we used to live in back in the early 1970’s. It was near the stadium and it took awhile but we found where we used to live. It looks like they just built new houses and in the new design they even changed some of the streets. We still found where our house was and I couldn’t believe it but our tree was still there. It was the same one my brother and I used to climb.

 

While looking for our house we stopped over at Sand Island and took a few photos of the Zaandam. It’s a beautiful park but in the middle of the industrial piers.

 

Traffic was already getting bad and we headed over to drop off the car. After getting back to the ship we relaxed a bit before heading for dinner. Tonight was the Lido Deck Barbecue and it was very good. They had chicken, steak, salmon, tilapia and ribs along with lots of salads. It was also very good and the only problem is just about everyone decided to eat here and it was packed. My mom ate her left over Japanese food but they had a nice seafood salad so I made her a big plate of that. After dinner we headed down to the pier and the Aloha Tower Marketplace. Not that we needed it but Cindy picked up some Macadamia Nut Chocolates at a candy store where they make it there. It was really good and I still have a piece locked up in my safe for when I really crave it… I also walked around to take some pictures at night including getting some Zaandam shots at night. I know security is working fine because a police came by to see what I was doing as I had my camera set up on a tripod.

 

Tonight there wasn’t any shows but they did play the movie Hairspray in the Mondriaan Lounge at 9 pm. I wanted to see that but had to get to bed early as tomorrow is an even earlier day as we are going on a private Hummer tour with Ed Kos. I was watching a classic movie on TCM when I went into dreamland…

 

Nobby

[nobbync]

Day 9 – Second Day in Honolulu

 

Today was our busiest day. We are tired so I am just in my room watching the new Harry Potter movie as I write this review. My mom and Cindy woke up at 5. There was no way I wanted to wake up that early so I took a shower last night and woke up at 5:45. We headed to breakfast at 6 am as that is when they start the continental breakfast.

 

We had to meet Ed Kos from Kos Hummer Tours in the pier at 7 am. I reserved the 10-12 hour private off road Hummer tour. Basically he gave us the circle island and 5 hour movie/TV show tour for $600 for up to 4 people. We had 3 and that was just perfect.

 

We got off the boat and as we were walking out Ed pulled right up in the white Hummer. He doesn’t do many of the tours anymore as he has 2 hired drivers but he does still like to do the private tours. He has 2 Hummers and we got lucky today. One of his Hummer’s all the tires were slashed so he had to cancel one of the tours today. He kept ours because I reserved it a year in advance which was his longest in advance booking so far for him. I really didn’t even think about something like this happening so if you do go with a smaller company make sure you book as early as possible to help avoid problems later. I feel bad for the people he did have to cancel for but I do understand this kind of thing can happen. I guess the people he did have to cancel with were really upset and yelled at him and told him to cancel ours instead. Glad he didn’t listen.

 

We didn’t really need to go anywhere in Honolulu and Waikiki so we got started just on the other side of Diamond Head. I don’t remember all the stops but the overall tour was fantastic. We stopped at the blow hole, Haunama Bay, Fisherman’s Hat, Rabbit Island, Kaneohe Bay, Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay, Pali Lookout and a few more places I can’t think of. All of these places he told us some history but also just let us walk around where we wanted to go. The movie/TV portion of the tour was also fantastic. He would play scenes from movies and he would turn the Hummer just to the angle where we could see what was being played or we would get out and he’d point it all out to us. If you like movies and TV shows you will love the 5 hour tour. The main part of the movie tour is on Kualoa Ranch. This part of the tour we go off road and it is incredible. If you are a big fan of Lost tell him and he is a big fan as well and knows a lot of filming locations. On Kualoa Ranch we saw plenty of filming locations for the movies Pearl Harbor, Mighty Joe Young, Windtalkers, Godzilla, Jurrasic Park, 50 First Dates, George of the Jungle and more. We also stopped at many Lost locations there. Around the island he also pointed out many other filming locations as well.

 

As we were leaving Kualoa Ranch we saw they were starting to set up for a Lost shoot at a bunker. We were allowed to go into the bunker as long as we didn’t take pictures of what they were setting up. At Kualoa Ranch we also stopped for lunch. A crab cake sandwich really hit the spot.

 

After lunch we continued around the island to the North Shore. The waves were just starting to get bigger but not quite like they are in the winter. The beaches were really beautiful. He took us to one area where we were able to walk on the beach to the place where they film the base camp in Lost. If you are fan of Lost you will know what I mean. This camp is used a lot in filming so they just leave it all set up and they have one guy that just sits there and guards it all. It was really neat to see all the living quarters for the Lostaways.

 

We continued farther down the north shore to the runway where the glider port is. When I was small my dad took me on one of these gliders. When driving we hit the jackpot as Lost was filming close by. Unfortunately it seemed it was lunch time and everyone was eating so we didn’t want to disturb them. We did see Michael Emerson who plays Ben on the show. We did go farther down where “The Others” village was at and it looked like they were getting ready for another shoot there as well.

 

Overall it was a fun day and we got back to the ship around 5 pm so it was almost exactly 10 hours and the time just flew by. Overall a really great day and if you’re interested in a private or movie/TV tour I highly recommend Ed and his company Kos Hummer Tours.

 

When you are doing his movie part of the tours he will use toys to “enhance” your photos and it’s actually really incredible and clever. You can see some of what I mean if you go to his website.

 

We decided to eat today in the Lido because we were tired and really didn’t want to get ready for dinner. It seemed everyone else had the same idea as the lines were long.

 

Time for bed and tomorrow will be Lahaina and we have no plans other then to walk around so I hope I can sleep in some.

 

Nobby

[KAYEF]

WOW!

YOU PUT A LOT OF EFFORT INTO THESE REPORTS ~ THANKS!!:)

I was right there with you, reliving our cruise and jaunts.........just hoping you would stop at the general store and get a shave ice with the azuka beans in the bottom.................guess the Japanese food was YOUR preference!

Hope you have grand weather in Lahaina.

[pirates-chest]

Can't tell you enough how much we are enjoying your reports. We are scheduled on the Zaandam for the February 3 Hawaii circle cruise. We are very interested in contacting Kos Hummer Tours for a private tour. Sounds like a fun and interesting day and since there are 4 of us the private tour would work great. Perfect way to enjoy the Island. Thanks again for all your fantastic and very informative information. :)

[DesertDogs]

Nobby

 

Thanks for the wonderful reports. We are sailing the Circle Hawaii next year. I am really interested in seeing some of your photos. I am an amatuer photographer and love taking pictures. Hope you post a link so we can see some of your work.

 

Enjoy the remainder of your cruise. :)