DCL Wonder B2B May 2022: Hawaii to Vancouver plus the 1st Alaska sailing of 2022! (complete! updated 7/4/22)

[ironz]

Hi, everyone!
I keep putting off starting my trip report because things have been busy since we got home-- somehow (lol) there are extra work hours to be made up after being off for 3 weeks. Sigh... It was nice while it lasted. So, I've decided that I had better get started and just do a little bit at a time, or it's never going to get done.

The backstory. DH and I (in our 50s, no kids) had planned to do a B2B in May 2021--San Diego to Vancouver, then the 1st Alaska sailing of 2021. When the Hawaii itineraries for 2022 were released, we initially booked B2B Vancouver to Hawaii and Hawaii to Vancouver. All this was going to be with our cruise friends from WBPC 2019 (G and T--also not traveling with kids). Well, we all know that 2021 didn't happen. And, seeing as how we have jobs, we can't do ALL the cruises all at once. So we dropped the San Diego cruise off of our radar (for now), and eventually moved the 2021 Alaska to 2022, and then, reluctantly dropped the Vancouver to Hawaii cruise. This left us with a really great plan of Hawaii to Vancouver, and Alaska, all set for May 2022. We were excited that we would get the whole Pacific experience, different climates, different adventures, and also have a great time with G/T.

Of course, as we all know-- planning was stressful over the last couple of years. Not KNOWING if cruises were going to happen, or how they would be affected. It really made us hold off on our planning and enthusiasm until just the last few months before the cruises. We just didn't want to get our hopes up and have everything fall apart. We did our best to book only things that could be canceled without fees, wherever possible.

We eventually booked tickets (yay, points) to fly to Honolulu, and back home from Vancouver. We had a hotel booked in Waikiki. We had our reservations for Pearl Harbor, and some excursions booked on both cruises. And we had the cat boarding booked. We had never left our cat for that long, but he did fine!
Packing was, um, interesting... shorts for Hawaii, pants and sweaters for Alaska, and everything in between! Spoiler alert: I could have used one more pair of leggings or pants, and less shorts/running skirts.

And of course-- the Covid situation. I think I'll make a separate post about our experiences regarding testing, ArriveCan, cruise checkin, etc., because it was an ever-changing situation and obviously, is still going to be changing moving forward for anyone who's reading this in preparation for their adventures.

Cheers for now... Next post or two will be about logistics, and our arrival to Honolulu.

 

[ironz]

A little more pre-trip info:
DH and I have a saying: "The adventure you plan is not necessarily the adventure you have (but it's still an adventure!)."

Less than 2 weeks before we were due to leave for Honolulu, we got an email from our friends-- they were going to have to cancel the Hawaii part of the cruise, but they would still plan to meet us in Vancouver for the Alaska part. We were very sad, but what can ya do? We had to carry on and hope that all the rest of the plans worked.

So, we canceled them from one of the excursions we had booked independently (helicopter in Kauai). Then I got to thinking-- we weren't planning on staying at Aulani, because our friends don't have DVC-- but WHAT IF?? So I stalked and stalked the DVC website. It wouldn't have done well to only have one of the 2 nights we needed, since Aulani is not close to Waikiki, and then just 4 days before we were supposed to leave, 2 nights in a standard view studio came available for the nights we needed. I texted DH-- should we do this? Of course, he said yes! So we did some creative DVC borrowing and canceling to come up with the right amount of points. I danced around the rest of the day singing, "we're going to Aulani!" Everything has silver linings, if you just look for them.

That also meant calling DCL to arrange transfers from Aulani to the port in Honolulu, and we all know calling DCL has had long wait times, but we got it done. (Hindsight-- we should have just taken a cab or ride-share.)

 

[ironz]

We left Texas for Hawaii 2 days before the cruise. Really, flights were uneventful, other than a delay on the 2nd leg from San Diego to Honolulu. But uneventful flights are good flights, right?
I had paid for the 'more leg room' seats for the longer segment from SAN to HNL-- worth it for a 6 hour flight. I don't sleep well on planes, but I think DH napped. We had a light lunch/snacks on the plane (whatever snack box thing Alaska Airlines has).

Finally, there was land in view, and we could see Aulani!


We didn't have to wait long at baggage claim, and then... my lack of planning for part of the trip came into play. I really hadn't researched taxi/rideshare/shuttle options from the airport TO Aulani, because that reservation was so last minute. Turns out it was too late for us to get whatever the preferred shuttle service is. Being tired, we just got a cab. Not cheap, but that was the price to stay for staying further away, and that's ok by us. Just a learning experience.

Check in at Aulani was easy-peasy, with no long lines that day. Had a nice chat with the DVC people and learned about the Aulani app to check for activities, look at menus, etc. The resort is so lovely and peaceful!! There definitely is a vibe similar to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We felt relaxed at 'at home' right away.

 

[ironz]

Our studio was available when we checked in, so we dropped our luggage off and relaxed a few minutes. The view from our standard view studio was not great at all, really, mostly over the roof of the convention center part, but we weren't there to sit in our hotel room all day.

We then decided to go walk around and get some lunch/dinner/beverages. We were getting hungry and had already been up since at least midnight (Hawaii time). We ate at the outdoor bar/restaurant near the pool called Off the Hook. We pretty much ate all meals there, or at the Ulu Cafe quick service. The focus was not on fine dining-- just convenience. We had good burgers there, and a lovely Mai Tai. And really just relaxed at the end of our travel day and soaked up the atmosphere and Aloha Spirit.





And that was pretty much it for day 1-- I think we went to bed at 7 or 8 pm Hawaii time.
Next up, a little more Aulani time and a visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

 

[Skywatcher1206]

This is my dream trip someday to combine this B2B cruise! Enjoying your trip report and can’t wait to read more! We were on the 5/23 Wonder Alaskan cruise and headed
to Aulani in August.

 

[NAB]

Can’t wait to here more we were suppose to be on the Hawaii to Vancouver in 2020 with 2 weeks on the island before. Canceling all that was something.

Come 2022 we were suppose to do B2B Hawaiian cruise. Again we canceled. Just thought there was to many restrictions and hoops to go though with coming from Canada into the U.S.

Was hoping someone would do a trip report. We want to do an Alaska one some day too.

 

[Mich123]

Following! Great start, I like reading about the planning, it reminded me of my planned-canceled-replanned-canceled-planned 2020 and 2021 DCL trips. Thankfully we are traveling again! Alaska was one of my favorite cruises and Hawaii (just land) is on my 2023 list so I’m looking forward to reading more.

 

[lovingeire]

Sounds like a lovely start to the trip!

 

[Stefy]

Following along because there are 3 of my favourite things to look forward to, Disney, Hawaii and Alaska

 

[ironz]

Aulani day 2, with visit to Pearl Harbor National Memorial

After having gone to bed super early, and with the 5 hour time change, no surprise we were up by 6 a.m.!
Had we stayed with our original plan of staying in Waikiki, we would have hiked up Diamond Head, but since we were staying at Aulani, that was going to be too far out of the way. My husband went for a run along the seawall. We then met for breakfast at the quick-service Ulu Cafe (breakfast sandwiches-- nothing fancy). We walked around some more to enjoy the Aulani atmosphere and saw Donald and Moana.



Basically, we had the morning to relax, but I didn't want to swim because we were going to Pearl Harbor in the afternoon and I didn't want to have to totally re-do my hair. I got a geocache nearby and we decided to get a quick lunch at Off the Hook (we split a sandwich) before getting a Lyft to go to Pearl Harbor.
We had made our reservations for a time to do the boat over to the USS Arizona two months before our trip, when the spots opened up, and had a 3 pm time. The Lyft took about 30-40 minutes to get to Pearl Harbor.



We checked in here about 1:30 p.m., got our National Parks passport stamped, and watched the film in the open air covered area about the history of Pearl Harbor and the attack. (They were not using the indoor theater either due to Covid or renovations, I forget which. As with any National Park, always check the NPS website for any updates about any park you are going to visit--good rule of thumb.)
We had time to walk around looking at exhibits and get a snack before we got in line for the 3 p.m. boat over to the USS Arizona. Note: they sometimes have day-of spots on the boat come available, but waiting in a line in the sun for an hour would not be my idea of a good time. Plan ahead!
The USS Arizona is a somber site. So many lives lost. I'm not adding a bunch of photos of Pearl Harbor--there are better photo essays out there of that experience.

We ordered a Lyft to get back to Aulani-- leaving Honolulu near 5 p.m. to drive north/west wasn't a great idea. They have pretty bad traffic! So I would recommend people plan their visits accordingly.

Oh, yeah-- about that cruise! We had found out the day or so before that DCL would have representatives at Aulani to help people check in for the cruise, and get their bus assignments, etc. They were there from noon to 8 pm on the day before the cruise. Since we knew there would probably be a long line when they first started at noon, we opted to do this check in when we got back from Pearl Harbor. The check in was in some side room on the first floor. We checked in with the DCL/Aulani rep and were told that they would pick up our luggage at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, and we were to report back for our bus time by 12:30 p.m. I *assume* it was a first come/first served situation with the bus assignments, since we'd all be on Disney transportation, but I don't know for absolute certain. I don't recall that at that time they assigned us a specific character for reference, so we did end up checking in when we got in line the next day, and we had Goofy. They might have told me that the day before, but there were so many logistic hoops to jump through, I'm sure I mixed a few things up.



We went to dinner at Off the Hook again (we loved sitting outside watching the ocean), and then went back to our room to get our bags organized for the next day.

 

[ironz]

Going to divert here for a post about logistics, even though these things are ever-changing. Obviously, per DIS policy, this is not a place to comment on if testing/masking/etc is your deal, so no comments about whether or not you think the policies are right or wrong. They are what they are; they're changing and evolving constantly; and anyone traveling needs to take it upon themselves to stay up on it. If you have specific questions about the required process, I'll try to answer.

As of our situation, traveling in May 2022:
--Disney Cruise line check in was 30 days prior to each cruise. (activities could be booked whenever your date is, based on your Castaway Cay status-- we booked 1 cruise excursion in Hawaii, and 1 in Alaska-- the rest were going to be on our own, as initially planned)
--Safe Passage to upload vaccine cards (or 90 day exemption) was to be available to load info 14 days prior to each cruise.
--ArriveCan -- the Canada system to check vaccine cards, linked to your passport/id-- is to be done 72 hours prior to your arrival to Canada-- for us, since both our arrivals to Canada were via the cruise ship it was to be done within the 72 hours prior to boarding a cruise ship that will stop in Canada. So we did this from Aulani before the first cruise, and sitting in the terminal waiting to re-board when we were in Vancouver.
--As of our cruise, DCL was doing all passenger testing at the port on embarkation day. (this has already changed)

Now multiply that all by 2, since we were doing 2 cruises. I mapped all this out on my calendar to keep up.

And, there was still a requirement to test prior to flying back to the United States from Canada (no longer in place, as of today). We were able to schedule this test via Safe Passage to be done after disembarkation from the 2nd cruise at the Pan Pacific hotel in Vancouver a couple of weeks before our cruise.

I have always been of the mindset that knowledge is power, so it was important to us that we know our Covid status as best as possible-- not only to protect other passengers AND THE CREW, but so we don't have any surprises. Therefore, there was extra testing done on our part that was not required, but we felt it was important. Editing this post to make it shorter-- basically we tested ourselves several times in addition to the required testing-- for peace of mind, mostly, and later when I developed some cold symptoms. So that I don't have to write it over and over-- Every home test or lab proctored Covid test we took prior to, during, and after both cruises have all been negative. (yay)

We wore masks on the plane to Hawaii, in close situations (buses), sometimes in indoor spaces on the ship (both cruises). Our main goal, as I said, was to not end up positive and having to miss the 2nd cruise. But also, just health (whether thinking that other people could have it, or when I developed cold symptoms, to try and not spread my cold, and to report to the med staff if I had tested positive for Covid). Have seen reports that some people ended up testing positive after (or even during) either cruise-- but I have no idea if those people took the same precautions or not.

It is my understanding that the current rules (now that it has been a few weeks) are that DCL does not provide the testing at their cost at embarkation anymore, but that you can schedule it on your own within 2 days before your cruise, or you can pay SafePassage and have it done at the port.

ArriveCan was not onerous-- basically it felt like the Canada version of Safe Passage.

When we were flying home from Vancouver, we received our disembarkation test results quickly and had that information to give to the airline check in agent. There was also a form to sign for the airline, which thankfully had been condensed to a one or two page form compared to the 7 page form I had printed out before we left. (check your airline for whatever requirements may be in place)

 

[ironz]

Oh, good... "that" post is done. But logistics are important-- you can't just wing it all of the time.

Yay, Embarkation Day! Which always ends up in my head just as Anna is excited for Coronation Day in Frozen.

Again, we got up early due to the time change. Had our bags ready to be picked up for the DCL people to pick them up and they were promptly at our door at 7:30 a.m. FYI: we had 3 suitcases and 2 decent sized backpacks for this trip between 2 people, for 17 nights of cruising in 2 very different climates. We brought dressy clothes for formal and semiformal nights and photos, a little bit of Disneybounding/themed shirts, some clothes/coats for the colder weather in Alaska, but no pirate outfits-- something had to not make the cut, and there was some confusion pre-cruise on whether or not the Hawaii leg would have a pirate night. We knew there was not one in Alaska.

Since we didn't need to report to the bus until 12:30 pm, we put on our swimwear and walked over to the 'secret' beach near Aulani because I wanted to look for sea turtles. Did not see any turtles, but this adorable monk seal was playing around in the cove for awhile! awww... so cute.

We ate quick service breakfast again, then went back to change and clean up to get on our way to the Wonder! We got to see Stitch and Angel as well. They are so cute, and they loved our small Stitch dolls that we traveled with.

I am thinking that we ate a large-ish breakfast, because I have no notes that we had an actual lunch. Which is only important in that the next few hours were not part of the most fun on this trip.

We did go shop in the gift shop at Aulani, and when we got to the lobby, we realized that the buses bringing people TO Aulani at the end of the Vancouver to Hawaii cruise must have arrived, because there were people EVERYWHERE. It was crowded, and loud, and people were lined up for checking in to the resort, milling around the lobby, in the gift shop. And, people were in line down on the first level, waiting to get on the buses going to the port. I believe one of the Aulani CMs told me there were about 400 guests arriving from the ship that day, and about the same number going from Aulani to the port. I will give a kudos to the CM in the gift shop that found the last shirt in DH's size in the style he wanted, so yay.

We got in the line to wait to board the bus to the port at about 11:30, as I had interpreted our 12:30 time slot to mean "be there by 12:30," though that may have been our assigned boarding time, but what else would we have done at that point. Outside. In the sun. With a few places to sit. Found out that we were to have a character designating which bus, so I had to double check with the people at the DCL/Aulani desk, as I referenced earlier. We were on the last bus. People were hot. People were anxious to get to the port for this trip we've all waited 2 to 4 years for. And we just weren't moving, or so it felt.

We got on the bus at 1:06 p.m. We got to the Honolulu port at 1:50 p.m. Ugh. Then more waiting. We got our Covid tests, and were put in the waiting area for our results. Just as on our previous cruise on the Dream, they had TV monitors in the front, but they were not updating the names there. So we had to check our results on Safe Passage by refreshing and refreshing. The room was not full that late in the day. The workers were disassembling the character banners in the waiting area. (If you're a slow runner, and have ever experienced being in the back of the pack, and the race crew is picking up the cones behind you while you are still presumably in the event-- it was that-- the cone truck of embarkation day.)


Not too magical. We got our results within 30 minutes, though, and got in the line to get to the check in area. And then had to wait again-- some person in front of us either hadn't done ArriveCan, or couldn't find their boarding information, or something, and instead of taking them to the side and dealing with it, we were at a dead stop in the line. I get that it can be confusing, when you know that you have at least 2 barcodes-- one being the DCL boarding info, and one being ArriveCan, and when the port agent asks for your barcode---um, which one? But still-- try to have all your travel info accessible when you show up. I kept telling myself to be patient, since we had 17 nights ahead of us to enjoy the ship, but when you are within what seemed like the last 50 people (there were 30 people in the waiting area when we were in line) to board the ship, it's frustrating.

We did finally get checked in to the ship, and boarded at about 2:45 p.m.
Our 'home' ship, the Wonder! (we honeymooned on the Wonder in 2014)


The last speed bump was getting the app to recognize that I was on the ship to complete the online Muster drill check in. I had trouble with this on the Dream in March as well. It finally worked after I updated the app, refreshed a bunch of stuff, and I think cleared my cache on the DCL app. I guess it gets stuck on the prior cruise. Thankfully, the app, such that it is-- I prefer paper Navigators-- otherwise worked fine for both cruises.

So, yay-- all (most) of the 'business' and 'planning' is over. We're on the ship! Time for the stress to now melt away into the ocean for the next 17 nights!

 

[ironz]

Hawaii Cruise Night 1

Since we boarded so late, we were able to get right to our cabin after checking in at the muster station. We were in cabin 5640, and our assigned station was in Animator's Palate. I really like that we don't have to all crowd in there to check in anymore. The new system is good, though, I do hope people at least pay a little attention to what they should do in case of an actual emergency.

Our cabin was... ok. It was a 7A GTY rate that we got when the Hawaii bookings first opened. Nothing was available to change to for the longest time on this cruise, until all the later cancellations started showing up on the website, and I do think they were holding back capacity a bit after the pandemic, at least initially. A couple of months before the cruise, they had extended the PIF date and cancellation policy, but we had been PIF for quite some time. Then a VGT rate opened up, and I could have saved about $800 and possibly been in a better category than 7A, but I didn't try this until right at the end of our cancellation period, and couldn't get through on the phone to DCL, so that was that.
For some reason, our cabin was just very creaky. We've stayed in navigator's verandahs on the classic ships before, but usually on deck 6. But it was only creaky some of the time, depending on how fast the ship was moving, I guess. There was a loose panel in the ceiling, and the toilet didn't flush properly, but maintenance took care of those things very promptly while we were at dinner the first evening. There is also a loud room across the hall-- some machinery and a humming noise you can hear coming down the hallway, but we couldn't hear it from in the room. I don't know if it was because of the ship noise or late upgrades (or covid), but a few travel groups on our hallway moved in the first few days of the cruise. ? Also, our room was right above Animator's Palate, so we could hear the music from the end of dinner shows.

We had a wonderful stateroom host, super helpful, and always smiling. No photos of the room. We were happy to unpack quickly before going to the Sail A Wave party.
We always watch from Deck 10, where we headed after picking up beverages from Signals bar on Deck 9.


Oh, yeah, they did give us fresh leis when we boarded. That was a nice touch.
If this photo looks like there aren't a lot of people-- it's because it was not at all a full cruise. We were told about 1200 guests, and only something like 70 of the guests were children. It was a little weird, but also, we liked not having a crowded ship.

They are also doing 'magic' shots on board, so we took a few, including this one:


We had early dining, which was at 5:45 p.m. We don't like to eat too late, so that works better for us. We like to have time to relax, digest, and go to the show after dinner. Our first night dinner was in Triton's, where we met our serving team. They were good and I felt bad that they didn't have many guests to serve, but I do believe the Alaskan season is picking up, so that's good all around. You could definitely tell the ship wasn't full by the empty tables we saw. We were not seated with others, so were at a 4-top by ourselves, but generally were next to 2 other sets of 2 people at the nearby tables, so we all ended up talking most of the time, and by the end of the cruise, we were invited to go sit with one of the groups so we could have conversations more easily. I won't go into specifics about what we ate-- didn't write it down, and everyone's taste is different. A lot of it was the same menus we've seen in the past, with a few of the special menus for the longer sailing, similar to how it was when we did the Panama Canal in 2019.

The show for the first night was the premiere of the new Doctor Strange movie, and we decided we'd see it another time during the cruise. So we just walked around the decks and inside-- the ship was darn near deserted by 9 pm-- it was surreal.


And with that-- we said good night so we could be up in the morning to explore Maui.

 

[lisaburnsmiles]

Loving your trip report! Thanks for doing it!!!

 

[anricat]

Hawaii Cruise Night 1

Since we boarded so late, we were able to get right to our cabin after checking in at the muster station. We were in cabin 5640, and our assigned station was in Animator's Palate. I really like that we don't have to all crowd in there to check in anymore. The new system is good, though, I do hope people at least pay a little attention to what they should do in case of an actual emergency.

Our cabin was... ok. It was a 7A GTY rate that we got when the Hawaii bookings first opened. Nothing was available to change to for the longest time on this cruise, until all the later cancellations started showing up on the website, and I do think they were holding back capacity a bit after the pandemic, at least initially. A couple of months before the cruise, they had extended the PIF date and cancellation policy, but we had been PIF for quite some time. Then a VGT rate opened up, and I could have saved about $800 and possibly been in a better category than 7A, but I didn't try this until right at the end of our cancellation period, and couldn't get through on the phone to DCL, so that was that.
For some reason, our cabin was just very creaky. We've stayed in navigator's verandahs on the classic ships before, but usually on deck 6. But it was only creaky some of the time, depending on how fast the ship was moving, I guess. There was a loose panel in the ceiling, and the toilet didn't flush properly, but maintenance took care of those things very promptly while we were at dinner the first evening. There is also a loud room across the hall-- some machinery and a humming noise you can hear coming down the hallway, but we couldn't hear it from in the room. I don't know if it was because of the ship noise or late upgrades (or covid), but a few travel groups on our hallway moved in the first few days of the cruise. ? Also, our room was right above Animator's Palate, so we could hear the music from the end of dinner shows.

We had a wonderful stateroom host, super helpful, and always smiling. No photos of the room. We were happy to unpack quickly before going to the Sail A Wave party.
We always watch from Deck 10, where we headed after picking up beverages from Signals bar on Deck 9.
View attachment 676032

Oh, yeah, they did give us fresh leis when we boarded. That was a nice touch.
If this photo looks like there aren't a lot of people-- it's because it was not at all a full cruise. We were told about 1200 guests, and only something like 70 of the guests were children. It was a little weird, but also, we liked not having a crowded ship.

They are also doing 'magic' shots on board, so we took a few, including this one:
View attachment 676035

We had early dining, which was at 5:45 p.m. We don't like to eat too late, so that works better for us. We like to have time to relax, digest, and go to the show after dinner. Our first night dinner was in Animator's Palate, where we met our serving team. They were good and I felt bad that they didn't have many guests to serve, but I do believe the Alaskan season is picking up, so that's good all around. You could definitely tell the ship wasn't full by the empty tables we saw. We were not seated with others, so were at a 4-top by ourselves, but generally were next to 2 other sets of 2 people at the nearby tables, so we all ended up talking most of the time, and by the end of the cruise, we were invited to go sit with one of the groups so we could have conversations more easily. I won't go into specifics about what we ate-- didn't write it down, and everyone's taste is different. A lot of it was the same menus we've seen in the past, with a few of the special menus for the longer sailing, similar to how it was when we did the Panama Canal in 2019.

The show for the first night was the premiere of the new Doctor Strange movie, and we decided we'd see it another time during the cruise. So we just walked around the decks and inside-- the ship was darn near deserted by 9 pm-- it was surreal.
View attachment 676036View attachment 676039View attachment 676040

And with that-- we said good night so we could be up in the morning to explore Maui.

Wow, that looks super empty! But sort of neat! Can't wait for the rest of the report.

 

[iannovich]

For some reason, our cabin was just very creaky. We've stayed in navigator's verandahs on the classic ships before, but usually on deck 6. But it was only creaky some of the time, depending on how fast the ship was moving, I guess. There was a loose panel in the ceiling, and the toilet didn't flush properly, but maintenance took care of those things very promptly while we were at dinner the first evening.

We were in cabin 5632 on the Westbound Panama Canal in March. That cabin (3 doors down) was CRAZY creaky. I would get up and push on the ceiling panel and it would stop for a while, but it would usually start back up again in the same spot or somewhere else fairly quickly. It seemed the faster we were going, the creakier it was. About 3/4 of the way through the cruise I started to wear earplugs to bed and that worked out perfectly. We never noticed any noise from Animators, but I just realized it was probably because we had late seating and were almost always at the show beforehand.

For the Vancouver to Hawaii we were up front on Deck 5 in a Sideways Inside room. It was so much quieter, although we could hear whatever was going on in the Walt Disney Theater from that cabin.

I can almost see us in your picture of the Sail A Wave party! We were down on deck, right in that little crowd of people

Loving the report!

 

[ironz]

We were in cabin 5632 on the Westbound Panama Canal in March. That cabin (3 doors down) was CRAZY creaky. I would get up and push on the ceiling panel and it would stop for a while, but it would usually start back up again in the same spot or somewhere else fairly quickly. It seemed the faster we were going, the creakier it was. ...

I can almost see us in your picture of the Sail A Wave party! We were down on deck, right in that little crowd of people

Loving the report!

There was just something in that quadrant of the ship that was creaky-- I even noticed it from the aft stairwell on that side. But we were in 6634 for the Alaska part, and it was just fine.

It was a great cruise, wasn't it?

 

[ironz]

Day 2 of Hawaii cruise-- Port of Call Kahului, Maui

Still adjusting to the time change, we got up early, but we also wanted to be up early to get breakfast and be ready for our day on Maui. Time in port was to be 8:30 am to 10 pm-- this will come into play later.

Breakfast was in Cabana's, where DH ate all the things, and I had an omelet, fruit, and bacon. I like eggs, but I can't do the fakey scrambled eggs in Cabanas.

Getting off the ship went quickly-- I don't think there were long lines of people that I recall. One thing I had not researched, was transportation from the port to the airport, where we were picking up a rental car for the day. It seems close (few miles), but not really walkable, and I didn't realize when we got off the ship and started checking on the Lyft app that only official taxis could come into the port area, and ride-shares had to be picked up off of the port property. Luckily, we just asked other passengers and followed around, for about a 1/4-1/2 mile walk to a shopping center, where our driver patiently waited for us.

We picked up our rental car, and headed to Haleakala National Park. It's less than a 40 mile drive, but it took at least 75 minutes, because the road up to the summit is full of hairpin turns.


We stopped at the Visitor Center at the bottom, to get a map, get our NP passport stamped, and take a photo with the park sign. We would love to visit all of the U.S. National Parks one day (stretch goal), but this was number 18 for us as a couple. Then we drove the rest of the way to the summit. It got pretty chilly up there (we were prepared with coats-- the coats were not just for Alaska!), as the elevation at the summit is over 10,000 feet. It was so cool to be up above the clouds.


The views of the crater looks like another planet-- I think how I would picture Mars.


In the above photo, the ship is down just to the right of me, where the waterline curves inward.

We did a couple of short hikes to overlooks, visited the Visitors Center at the summit, and then made our way down the mountain. I don't particularly enjoy roads that are on the sides of mountains, but DH is a good driver and we were safe. It was fun to see some cyclists going either up or down the mountain--we talked to a guy at the summit who said it took him 5-1/2 hours to ride up. Ugh. Even in my fitter days, I don't think that would be fun; though going downhill would have been.

We were starving by the time we left the park, so I just used Google to find something close. It was a food truck near the turnoff to the park called Stewy's. OMG. One of the very best burgers DH and I have ever had! I love when little random things like that on vacation work out! There was a few food trucks near a shopping center, but we chose well. yum. Since there was a store nearby, we picked up some wine and beer to take on the ship with us. Next stop was a Costco near the airport to refuel the rental car (DH was surprised I had my card with me-- I was prepared!)-- crazy long lines at their fuel center, but we had allowed plenty of time. After we dropped off the rental car, we thought we'd just catch a cab back to the port, so we could be dropped off closer to the ship. Our driver was surly, and wouldn't even promise to get in the right parking lot, and drove badly, so no kudos for him.

Then back onto the ship, got a drink at Signals and visited our bartender friend there, and then.. back to the room, because we wanted to dress for Formal Night. Hmmm... we'll see how that turned out....

 

[ironz]

Hawaii--2nd night, continued

Dinner was in Animator's Palate, and it was the show where the drawings start as sketches and then eventually turn into animation, with a visit from Mickey at the end-- always a fun time when Mickey comes out!
After dinner, we went to the atrium for photos... all dressed up

Sort of a weird pose, but there we are.

It was getting to be time for characters to come out, and I always love getting photos with them in *their* formal wear. And, here comes Donald Duck down the stairs-- in his Hawaii outfit. I said to a lady near us, "um, didn't they get the memo that it's formal night?" and she told me, "oh, they changed it." Grrrr!! Also, I knew this was going to be an issue! ugh. There had been a lot of pre-cruise discussion about the schedule for formal/semiformal etc, and people kept getting word from DCL that formal night was on night 2. It never made sense to me, since we were in port until 10 pm, and people wouldn't necessarily be back on the ship, so I always figured that they had just kept the same schedule in from the Vancouver to Hawaii, in which all the sea days were at the start, and being Disney, their tech people didn't update it.
But when I reviewed things on the app on the first day, and even as of day 2, dinner was still listed as Formal. They changed it and updated it sometime late that afternoon, or even when we were already dressed and at dinner. That was aggravating, in a way. Small potatoes, yes, but should not have been a hard thing to get right from the start. So, there we were, all dressed up.

We also noticed long lines at Guest Services and Port Adventures, so people were clearly having issues with some things that didn't go right. It was just an awkward start to the cruise-- again-- nothing HUGE for us, though we did see some guests acting way too entitled several times, to the point where a few crew thanked us for being nice and easy-going. They work so hard for us-- we try to make sure they know they are appreciated.

We changed into comfy clothes before the show, which was one of the local Hawaiian acts, Heart and Soul, which was a family playing the ukelele. It was cool that DCL had brought local style acts on board for entertainment, in addition to the usual shows which would be on our sea days. It's just nice to have something different. In the day time, they also had lectures about Hawaiian history and things like that, but we didn't attend those, as we were off in port most of the time.

 

[ironz]

Hawaii cruise day 3- Hilo, Hawaii (Big Island)
Port time 8:30 am to 4:45 pm

So fun to get to visit multiple islands on this cruise. Highly recommend if they do this itinerary again!

This morning, DH got up early and went to the gym. (I always had good intentions, but hiking in ports, and walking the deck, along with all the stairs on the ship were my exercise.) Breakfast was in Cabana's again.

At the Hilo port, we were pleasantly surprised that Budget/Avis had a shuttle that would go from the port to the airport for their customers-- yay! We had booked a car again today for another National Park visit-- Hawaii Volcanoes NP-- number 19 for us! Note-- there were very limited excursions to the National Parks for Hilo and Maui through DCL-- and it was much more cost-effective to rent a car, rather than being on a bus, as well as allowing more freedom in choosing where to go. Also, we have the annual pass for the National Parks, so didn't have to pay extra admission.

Having learned our lesson about getting hungry the day before, we stopped at a grocery store for some malasadas (sadly, we didn't have time to go to the bakery I wanted to go to, on the other side of the volcano), some macadamia nuts, and beverages. Then we made the drive up to Hawaii Volcanoes NP, which took about 45 minutes.
Customary sign photo:


We stopped at the visitor center to get our passport stamped, map, tips from ranger on how to see as much as we could in about 4-5 hours. We drove over to one overlook, where we could see the steam coming out of the crater.


Then we drove around to the other side of the park, where we explored the Thurston Lava Tube.
It was cool that we got to go all the way through it-- when my sister and I were there over 10 years ago, we could only go part way in. DH and I had brought our hiking headlamps with us, as it was very dark (a phone flashlight would also suffice).


We then drove over to where you could see the volcanic activity the best. It was a 1 mile hike each way out and back to the overlook, but not technical. We didn't see any actual orange lava, but lots of steam, and it just sort of looked 'alive.'


On our way back to the car, we saw a couple of Nene, the Hawaii state bird, and these pretty flowers, that I should look up to see what they are. Not a great photo of the bird.


to be continued...