For those wanting to use the internet, yes it is slow but not as slow as I was expecting. I ended up purchasing the 500 min package for $150 that my friend and I split. This ended up being a great way to keep up with what was going on at home with the kids. My MIL would send me almost daily updates and when the kids wanted to talk to me, they would send me an email via grandma. I really missed seeing my oldest play his baseball games while I was gone. His coach always does an email game recap so I was happy to be able to read those. We checked our email every night but still ended up having a little less than 100 min left over. Oh well.
Speaking of talking with my kids
we got a call from Tawanda on Tuesday asking if wed talked to our kids yet or not. He knew my middle child had tubes put in his ears the week prior and that he was going in for a follow up appt on Tuesday. We told him that we had talked via email. Thats when he told us to meet him at Guest Services and he let us make a phone call home to the kids! Like I said before, seriously one of the nicest men I have ever met! My MIL was still at the doctors with my youngest 2 but I was able to talk to my oldest. Sarah got to talk to all of her kids and she didnt shed one tear! She was definitely in vacation mode now!
I also forgot to mention that we went to the gym on Tues and Wed in the morning. Neither of us work out at home but we figured with all the food we were eating, we might as well go in since our plans of walking deck 4 often didnt pan out due to it being windy and cool. I had never done the elliptical before but I actually really enjoyed it. Cant be the view either! We only were on the machines for 30 minutes but it felt good!
Day 6 - Hilo, Hawaii!!
Once again, I was up bright and early. I sat on the balcony reading for awhile, the big island within sight. At around 8, I made a call home to talk with my MIL and dd since the boys were at school. It became hard to talk because of a helicopter flying so low, circling the ship as we were making our way into port. We didnt know it at the time but the helicopter had dropped 5000 orchids into the water welcoming the Wonder (and
DCL for that matter) to Hawaii for the first time. There were media helicopters at all of the ports of Hawaii. I cant remember which island but one of the media helicopters actually sent their photos to Shutters and they had those pics for purchase.
After showered, dressed and phone calls made, we headed up to BBB to eat some breakfast before our 9:45 meet up for our DCL excursion. BBB was packed! The sun wasnt shining yet and many people opted to eat inside. Luckily our server Jorge was working and he helped us find a table that we were able to share with a couple. It was nice chatting with them. Thats one of the things I like about cruises
you get to meet so many wonderful people. We finish eating and then head back to our room just as the Wonder is getting tied up at port. At this point it is starting to rain!!! I believe they said that Hilo is the rainiest (or one of) city of all the islands. Even though it was raining, it was warm and humid outside. Far cry from the coolness we felt for most of our sea days.
Zip lining was so much fun! I was a little nervous at first but after I zipped the first course, I was hooked! What an absolute freeing experience. I believe we had 7 zip courses and one draw bridge to walk over. Between courses we stopped and picked water apples off a tree. They were delicious! We also were introduced to some sleepy grass. I cant remember the actual name but it is a weed that grows all over Hawaii. You touch one area of it and the rest of it closes up to protect itself. Yes I am easily entertained! I plan on looking to see if I can get some here at home and put it in a pot. My kids would love it! The last zip course is actually a side by side course where you race someone. Sarah and I raced each other and we bet the loser would buy dinner at Tritons that night. LOL I won but I think that has to do with the fact that I weigh a little more than her. More weight is to your advantage when zip lining, at least on the last course. We loved this excursion and would do it again, this time with camera in hand. The only thing that was a downer on this excursion was the fact that we had a 17ish year old in our group that just had to be first at every course. He would position himself further up the trail even if the guides were talking to the group as a whole just so that he would be first. It drove Sarah and I crazy because there were quite a few older people in our group and he really should have let them go first. It also scared me because my 9 year old is this way now and I shutter at the thought of him being that way even when he gets older and should know better.
The shuttle bus got us back to the port around 2:30. We had a very important errand to run
we had to get to
WalMart! There was a free shuttle bus that ran from the port to WalMart every 30 minutes. We got to WalMart and was able to stock up on chocolate covered macadamias and a bunch of souvenirs for the kids, including monkey banks made out of coconuts, a hula girl outfit for dd and some key chains for the boys. We also picked up some cheap tennis shoes for our Rainforest/Waterfall hike the next day. We only had our water shoes and workout tennis shoes with us and we didnt want to ruin them. Sarah also stocked up on some cans of flavored green tea that she has a hard time finding back at home. We caught one of the last shuttles back to the port from WalMart. I believe the last shuttle left WalMart at 4:45 even though all aboard wasnt until 7:30. We had quite a few bags, heavy bags, and when we got back to the port, there was a long line to get back on the ship!! Our arms were killing us. I saw my room steward Dalton and thought about asking him to carry my bags to my room but decided that wouldnt be right. LOL In fact, a lot of the cruise staff got time off in each port to relax and adventure out. Everyone we talked to had such a good time. Im so glad they got some time off to enjoy themselves since they work so darn hard! We finally get back onboard, dropped our bags off at our room and then headed to dinner
good thing because we were starving. Our excursion only included a bag of chips and since we needed to go to WalMart, we didnt have lunch.
Dinner tonight was in Tritons. I cant remember if it was tonight or the coming Monday night in Tritons, but one of these nights we had some popcorn shrimp that was downright delicious!! One of the best things I ate all week. Starting tonight we had some special menus made just for Hawaii. Not everything on the menu was Hawaiian inspired but I always found something I liked. I also really liked how the menus were brand new, never been used before. They were so pretty. Sarah and I toasted to our first day in Hawaii and I ended up having a few glasses of wine during dinner. After dinner, we head back to the room to rest since we were not interested in seeing The Avengers. Our plan was to head down to Wavebands as usual to listen to Speakerbox. However, my body had something else in mind. We laid on our beds and started reading our Kindles to pass the time when all of a sudden my eyes are EXTREMELY heavy. Thats when I knew I would never make it to Wavebands at 9:45. The early mornings up, the late nights out, the excitement of the day and 3 glasses of wine got the best of me and I was sound asleep by 9pm! I think Sarah followed my lead and was asleep shortly after I was.
