My kidless Hawaii trip report!!

[nunzia]

OK..so maybe I can do this hike..except for the scary rope down the side of hill part that messed everyone up.

 

[disneycruising]

I am enjoying your trip report.

 

[luvslikepi]

I bought at Animal Kingdom! I went back and forth bewteen there and Aulani but in the end figured I would be at WDW more than Aulani. I am so proud of myself as this is my first big girl purchase done all on my own since Dh died. I felt like all the DVC guides did a great job at explaining everything.

I know I will love it!

Congrats! I'm hoping to convince my husband to buy on our cruise next year.

 

[bonnielynn]

Am loving your report.. can't wait to get there.. thanks for describing the excursions.. have to make a decision on them soon.

Sorry about your knee.. ouch! No fun there..

 

[Goldeelox9]

This is a GREAT Trip Report! I am loving it!! I am glad to see you could still take Alcohal on board at the Port of LA. DO you recall what your dining rotation was? The Letters? What were the DVC incentives. We want to add on during our Hawaii Cruise.

 

[socababy]

This is a GREAT Trip Report! I am loving it!! I am glad to see you could still take Alcohal on board at the Port of LA. DO you recall what your dining rotation was? The Letters? What were the DVC incentives. We want to add on during our Hawaii Cruise.

Yes I took on 2 bottles of my favorite Pinot Noir, 2 bottles of skinny margarita mix (very yummy) and some small bottles of Frangelico that we added to our hot chocolate! We also bought a lot of mixed drinks onboard but I wish I would have brought at least one more bottle of Pinot.

I have requested PTTAPTA for my past 2 cruises prior to this one so I think that is why I got the rotation I got...PTTAPTAPTAPTAAP. It's so weird seeing all those letters on your KTTW card.

I bought 200 DVC pts at AK and got 40 free. They also gave me an additional 240 dated back to Dec 2011. These free pts need to be used by Dec 1, 2013. I did not have to pay dues on those free pts. I also got 18 ultimate fast passes but I asked if I could have 25 and he said yes! We are a party of 11 going to WDW in August and 18 wouldn't go far so I figured I'd ask for more. The worst they could say was no but luckily I was told yes! They said this was the best offer/incentives that they had every scene. The good deals had to do with it being the 2oth anniversary of DVC as well as in being the Inagural Hawaiian cruise. My friend asked if they would be running the same special come August when we cruise again and he said that have no idea. Since her DH wasn't with us, she couldn't make that type of decision without him.

 

[luv2sleep]

Yes I took on 2 bottles of my favorite Pinot Noir, 2 bottles of skinny margarita mix (very yummy) and some small bottles of Frangelico that we added to our hot chocolate! We also bought a lot of mixed drinks onboard but I wish I would have brought at least one more bottle of Pinot.

I have requested PTTAPTA for my past 2 cruises prior to this one so I think that is why I got the rotation I got...PTTAPTAPTAPTAAP. It's so weird seeing all those letters on your KTTW card.

I bought 200 DVC pts at AK and got 40 free. They also gave me an additional 240 dated back to Dec 2011. These free pts need to be used by Dec 1, 2013. I did not have to pay dues on those free pts. I also gGot 18 ultimate fast passes but I asked if I could have 25 and he said yes! We are a party of 11 going to WDW in August and 18 wouldn't go far so I figured I'd ask for more. The worst they could say was no but luckily I was told yes! They said this was the best offer/incentives that they had every scene. The good deals had to do with it being the 2oth anniversary of DVC as well as in being the Inagural Hawaiian cruise. My friend asked if they would be running the same special come August when we cruise again and he said that have no idea. Since her DH wasn't with us, she couldn't make that type of decision without him.

Wow! Sounds like there are lots of perks when you purchase on board! I hope they offer something similar in October.

 

[Goldeelox9]

We bought our first 100 on board and got the back dated points. I love that...They are like a free vacation. When we bought 60 before BLT prices went up they gave us backdated points again and I rented them out to pay the downpayment. Now I want 100 more, either AKL or Boardwalk. hmmm

I have another question. Did your cell phones work in Hawaii with no extra charges?

 

[aan1701]

I have another question. Did your cell phones work in Hawaii with no extra charges?

Your phone should work just fun in Hawaii with no extra charges. I have a AT&T iPhone and no extra charges.

 

[Goldeelox9]

Oh Great! I can not go two weeks without talking to my favorite kids!

 

[socababy]

I forgot to mention that I also got $500 OBC with the pruchase of DVC as well!

Yes our phones worked fine in Hawaii. Ensenada, however, I think I will find some higher charges. It was Mother's Day though and I needed to talk to my kids!

 

[socababy]

Day - 8

This day will probably be split up in a few different installments!

I got up early once again and watched out on the balcony as we sailed into port. Getting out of bed I realize that my knee is a wee bit sore. I look down and realize the entire knee is bruised and I have a golf ball size lump on my knee! Yikes! Luckily we are having a non-adventurous day. I popped some Tylenol in hopes that my knee will start to feel better. We had our usual morning coffee and fruit and made our phone calls home. During my phone call home, I learned that my son’s eye was red again. I had taken him to the eye doctor days before I left on the cruise because his eye became really red. The school even sent him home one day thinking it may be pink eye. Turned out that his eye became irritated from something, we are thinking dirt from the baseball field. They put him on drops and t had cleared up for the most part before I left. My MIL tells me that it is red again. Of course it is Sunday so the eye doc isn’t open anyway but I tell her I will call the eye doc first thing Monday morning to give permission for my MIL to take ds to the dr. I should have left a letter stating such before I left. Oh well, lesson learned!

We head to Studio Sea at 8:45 for our Explore and Taste Oahu’s North Shore Excursion. The weird thing is that at 8:45 there are only 9 people in Studio Sea. They call our group and we are walked off the ship and into a small shuttle bus. I look at the huge bus next to us and it has the exact same excursion name in the window and I am grateful that we are in the smaller shuttle bus. Turns out that the large bus was the Adult only Explore and Taste Excursion. I thought that is what I booked but maybe I was wrong. I was happy to be on the smaller bus with just 9 of us. We only had 2 kids with us who were around 9 and 7 and they were the most well behaved kids!! This was an all day excursion, a lot of time on the shuttle bus, and they handled it so well!

The drive all day was beautiful! Our first stop on the tour was a Buddhist Temple. We got out and were able to walk around the beautiful grounds for about 25 minutes. There was a little gift shop inside where Sarah bought her Dh some beautiful (yet manly!) chopsticks.

 

[socababy]

Our next few stops were at different beaches along the North Shore, including Sunset Beach. One beach just past Turtle Bay Resort is a notorious spot where sea turtles often beach themselves up on the sand. Today was no exception! Thy have volunteers who work all day keeping an eye out for the sea turtles and when they come ashore, the volunteers rope off an area to keep people away. The pictures don’t do justice to the size of these awesome creatures!

Pics from other various beaches!

Marking our friendship in the sand!!

 

[luv2sleep]

Great pictures!

So this was a 7 hour excursion? Was there lots of time spent on the road as compared to sing out of the bus and seeing stuff? How do you think a 5 year old boy would handle it?

 

[socababy]

After visiting all these beautiful beaches, we then stopped at a shrimp farm to have lunch. They had about 8 different shrimp dishes you could pick from or for those non seafood eaters, they had a burger and chicken to choose as well. Sarah and I both had the coconut shrimp and we both agreed it was the best coconut shrimp I have ever had. This place also smelled so good! Following the shrimp came the shaved ice!! You cannot go to Hawaii and not have shaved ice! This was a perfect lunch! Next time I visit Oahu, I will try and make it back to this shrimp farm for lunch.

After lunch, we drive to the Dole Plantation which is a huge store for shopping. I was able to pick up some cute necklaces for cheap for my dd, flavored teas for my MIL, some pineapple wine, pineapple candy and some other various snacks. Others in our group also got some pineapple ice cream which they said was awesome. They also have a pick a pearl station which you can then have the pearl turned into jewelry. Cute little store!

After the Dole Plantation, we headed back to the port. My oldest ds’ baseball team is the Hawaii Warriors so I had to take a pic of Aloha Stadium as we drove by it on the freeway.

On the way back, our driver pointed out Pearl Harbor which was off to the right of the freeway but a distance away.

We got back to the port around 3:30. We went back to our room and rested before dinner. I was happy that my knee was feeling better and only really gave me problems when I would keep it bent in a certain position for a long time. Dinner tonight was in Parrot Cay. Just like the previous nights, it was fun talking with our servers and other servers around us about what they did off the ship. Our assistant server Jorge said he loved going to Waikiki beach and that it was one of the most beautiful beaches he has ever been to. I talked with Tawanda later that night and he said he was disappointed in Waikiki Beach. Go figure! That just goes to show everyone has different opinions on what they like or don’t like. We chatted so much that I think we were one of the last ones to leave the restaurant.
We LOVE Jorge!

After dinner, we decide to get off the ship and walk towards the downtown shopping area. It is only about a 10 minute walk or so. There was a great spot to take a pic of the Wonder from land but I couldn’t get my p&s to take a still/non blurry shot. It was the one time I wish I had brought my Nikon. We make it to the shops only to learn that they were all closed!! We should have asked before we left the port since it was a Sunday night. We didn’t mind so much since it was a beautiful night for a walk. We head back to the ship around 9:30 and end up going back to our room and calling it a day. We were exhausted. We could hardly believe we only had one more day of Hawaiian island time. This first week has gone by so fast!

 

[socababy]

Great pictures!

So this was a 7 hour excursion? Was there lots of time spent on the road as compared to sing out of the bus and seeing stuff? How do you think a 5 year old boy would handle it?

There was definitely time spent on the bus. The two kids our our bus did great. When you stop at the beaches, you have a little time to go play in the ocean if you'd like. They didn't care if you brought your sandy feet back in the bus. If you are concerned about your son, you could always bring a book, video game system or something to keep him occupied for a short time. Sarah and I happened to have our Kindles with us and we did read them a little bit but the driver was talking about a lot of things we we drove along that I was always looking out the window to see what he was talking about.

 

[luv2sleep]

Thank you! I think it might he better for him if we do a shorter tour and then head to the beach instead. That's pretty much all he wants to do anyway. He'd love tosee those turtles though so I also might just rent a car so we can see them.

 

[cheryllarsen]

I love taking the kids but would be nice to see what its like without them one time!

 

[Saratoga75]

Really enjoy the trip report so far. You had mentioned the dining room at dinner was not crowded. How was it overall on the cruise? I know it was not full something I am not use to sailing on DCL. If you were able to find a chair at the quiet cove pool without waiting that probably would be a good sign.

 

[socababy]

Day 9 - Kauai

Yes I was up early yet again! Only I can’t sit outside on the balcony to read because it is RAINING!!! Yikes! It’s the first good rainfall I had seen all cruise long. I read inside until 7 so that I wouldn’t wake Sleeping Beauty. Finally at 7 I need to make a phone call to my ds’ eye doctor. I call and they tell me that I need to fax in a letter stating that it is okay for my MIL to take ds in. I start to stress a little so I make a phone call to Tawanda. He says he will fax it for me and to meet him at Guest Services. While he is in the back trying to fax my letter, there is a gentleman that Tawanda was helping at GS on the phone trying to book flights that day to fly back home. Tawanda had told us earlier in the cruise that he had some concierge guests not too happy about a few things. I didn’t ask him what they were unhappy about. Later I asked Tawanda if this gentleman was so upset that he wanted off the ship ASAP and he said no, that sadly he had a death in the family and needed to get back home. He also said 2 other families on the ship had deaths in the family and needed to get off early. Another man really didn’t like the sea days so he got off early and left his wife onboard! Wow!! Okay, back on track…Tawanda was able to get the fax through and my MIL was able to get ds in later in the week.

I go back to the room, get changed and we head to BBB for breakfast. It has stopped raining but it is cloudy outside. The good news is that the weather in Hawaii changes so fast! By the time we were done eating, the sun was shining! We were not to meet for our excursion until 11:45 so our plan was to go to the Cove pool and soak up the sun!! When we got there, only one other person was lounging. So many people must have gotten off the ship ASAP. This is actually the first time I have ever used the loungers at Cove Pool and let me say, they are quite comfy. I’m sure the only reason we were able to get loungers at 9:30 in the morning is because everyone got off earlier. All week long whenever I would pass the Cove pool, they were all taken with everyone wrapped up in their blankets and jackets! LOL We stayed there reading our Kindles until 11 and then we decided we should eat before our excursion. We ended up eating chicken fingers and fruit up on deck 10, basking in the sun and taking in the scenery. We were so bummed that this would be our last day in Hawaii.

We meet in Wavebands at 11:45 for our Tubing the Ditch Excursion!! We see some familiar faces…people we have been hanging out with at Wavebands and the two cute, well behaved kids from our day in Oahu with their mom and grandma. Everyone is so excited for this excursion. We are escorted off the ship and we board a shuttle van. The van takes you to the company’s warehouse where they fit you with gloves, helmets, and water shoes if you need them. Once we have all of our gear, we get back in the van and start to head to where we will be tubing. The tubing area is on an old Sugar Plantation. Ian was our guide and he was quite entertaining. Although it wasn’t raining, I did question the temperature of the water. That’s when Ian informed us that once we get into the water, we were not allowed to use the ‘c’ or ‘f’ word…cold or freezing!! He said the word to use is refreshing. My heart is starting to race at this point. I just kept thinking how am I going to enjoy this if I am freezing…I mean being refreshed??? Before we get to the tubing area, we stop at a waterfall viewing area. It is so beautiful here…so lush and green! Ian told us to look at the waterfall for 30 seconds and try not to blink. Then when he told us to, we were to look to our left. We did just that and wow, what a trip! After looking at the flowing, moving water for so long, as we looked to the left, it looked as if everything was moving. Very cool!

We then get back into the van and continue on the very bumpy road to the tubing area. I believe the port excursion paper said it was a 60 minute drive but that wasn’t the case at all. Not counting the stop at the warehouse, we were only driving for maybe 20 - 25 minutes.

We get to the tubing area and even though Sarah and my first thought is to spray bug spray on us, the guides advised not to put too much on because we didn’t want to slip through the tube!! They also pointed out that we would be getting wet and the spray would just come off anyway. As we are getting ready to get in the tubes, we see the guides putting on their swim shirts…WHAT???? Why would they need swim shirts if the water was refreshing?? I am a little nervous. Then our group starts to get in the tubes and the high pitch squeels from the girl in front of us wasn’t reassuring. Sarah gets in first and she also as a high pitch voice as she says it is REFRESHING!!! Oh no…my turn. I tell our guide that I understand that I cannot use the ‘c’ word or the ’f’ word but just be prepared that some other choice words may come out when I get in the cold water. I’m not going to lie, it was cold at first for this Southern California girl. Sarah and I both had goose bumps and we were starting to shiver. We are all held behind a rope until everyone is in their tube. They had special tubes for the 2 kids and when they have young kids, they always keep them up front where the guide in front can keep an eye on them.

So I am sure you are saying…where are the pics??? I did have a water proof camera with me and got about 10 pics but I haven’t used the camera up so they haven’t been developed yet. As soon as I do, I’ll add them to this report.

As Ian drops the rope, our tubing adventure begins. By this point, I have gotten use to the water and I am no longer shivering. The sun even starts to shine on us!! This excursion was awesome! We went through 5 (I think, maybe 1 or 2 more?? ) caves. One was ½ a mile long. When we would go through the caves, we would turn on our lights on our helmets and it was such a cool sight to see! As you look up, you can actually see the digging marks made when the cave was carved out so many years ago. Then as we got to one of the caves, he told us to keep our lights off. It was so dark that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Very cool! One bit of caution…while looking up in the caves, keep your mouth closed! Sarah had hers opened and some not so clean water went right in her mouth! She then tried to wipe the taste off on her arm when she got a mouthful of bug spray!! I thought it was pretty funny but she did not. Ian joked that luckily we would be far from the island when Sarah would start to feel the effects of ingesting the water! I believe the course was nearly 3 miles long but it went by so fast! We didn’t want to get out of the water when just a hour before, we were hesitant to get in! After we were forced out, we dried off and were then taken via the van to a little picnic area where they had chips, cookies and water to snack on. There was an area you could take a swim in as well. There was an outhouse looking changing area that you could change into your dry clothes. We stayed here for just about 20 minutes and then we headed back to the warehouse to turn in all of our gear. They had some things you could purchase like sweatshirts, sweatpants, hats and shirts. One shirt they had said “I Tube” in the same font as we see “YouTube.” Before we knew it, we were back at the port just before 3.