Taking Stitch to Hawaii and NOT Leaving Him There

[dolphingirl47]

For a while, the dolphins played in the waves that our boat created and performed for us. Then they suddenly hung back a bit. It was almost like they were expecting something. This was the signal for our captain to slow the boat right down. I explained that it was time for the first "drop". We would be allowed to go in the water. He reminded us that we needed to wear the life vests. He also explained that this was not as much for our protection, but for the protection of the dolphins as this would prevent us diving down to them. He also recommended that we stayed together as a group as the dolphins are usually more likely to engage with a group then with individuals that are spread out. He then invited people to come towards the back of the boat, sit down on the rim and jump into the water from there. I did not think much of this. Eventually it was our turn. The water was not as cold as I had expected. Once I was in the water, I swum towards the group. Initially I was a bit nervous about the snorkelling. I don't quite understand why this was as I had done two successful snorkelling trips previously and both were in the Pacific. I started out with short stints of snorkelling and then coming up for air, but soon I got into the swing of things again. There were plenty of tropical fish that kept me entertained. What I did not see was dolphins. It was hard to believe that there were so many of them nearby. After a little while, the photographer came by to take some underwater shots of Graham and me. After we were in the water for about 40 minutes or so, the captain signaled is to come back to the boat. This answered my question on how we were supposed to get back on the boat. There was a ladder right at the back and this part was actually easy.

Once everybody was back on board, the captain asked if there were any people that had not seen the dolphins. I was the only one. He started the boat up again and moved a bit further up the bay. There we did the second drop. When I went in, something went wrong and I ended up with a lung full of water. This actually turned out to be a blessing. I spent a while coughing and spluttering, which separated me from the group. I was still relatively close to the boat when I felt that I was ready to get snorkelling again. As soon as I put my face in the water, I realised that I had company. Right underneath me, there were about a dozen dolphins including a calf. This was just an amazing experience. I swam on slowly and for a while the dolphins and I just swam together. At one stage I had to come up for air as I had another coughing fit caused by the water that had gone somewhere were it did not belong. When I was ready to continue snorkelling, the dolphins had moved on. I carried on snorkelling for a bit longer, but then decided to head back to the boat. This proved easier said than done. I am not a fast swimmer, but I am a reasonably strong swimmer and normally can hold my own. I have swam in all kinds of different bodies of water and I have always been OK. However, there was a strong current near the boat and for every three lengths of progress I made, I was swept back about two lengths. I was not worried or afraid and I still felt in control, but it was hard work and quite tiring. The captain realised what was happening and shouted to me to stay exactly where I was and he reversed the boat towards me. This is the ultimate exercise of trust to remain still when a very powerful boat is coming right at you . He stopped a couple of lengths away from me and I could get back on the boat with no problems. When it was time to move on, he took the boat close to the small groups that had formed so that there was minimal swimming involved.

 

[dolphingirl47]

With everybody back on the boat, we got a first impression what this boat was capable of. The Nai'a has a cruising speed that is a third more that that of the Disney Wonder and a top speed that I don't even want to think about. As soon as we were clear of the bay with the dolphins, the captain opened her up and it was almost as if we were flying just above the water surface. Our next stop was a system of sandbanks that is known locally as a turtle cleaning station. The green sea turtles come to this area as there are certain fish there that feed on parasites that attach themselves to the shells of the turtles. This was actually the part of the excursion that I had looked forward to the most when we booked this. I have spent significant amounts of time in the company of dolphins for the past 10 years or so. However, I have never come across green sea turtles. In the end, after the mishap on the previous drop, I could not face going in the water again. So while most people jumped right back in, I opted to stay on the boat and enjoy the beautiful scenery. As we approached the sandbanks, the captain set out some more ground rules. Life vests no longer had to be worn, but reaching out to the turtles was strictly forbidden. The captain did advise though that the turtles either do not understand this rule or do not think much about it. Apparently they do often come really close and almost provoke contact. We stayed there for about 20 minutes or so before moving on to another spot that is good for turtle watching. Again I opted to stay on the boat. After another 20 minutes or so, we made our way back to the boat harbour. The ride back was a real thrill ride. The captain really opened the boat up and this time it did not feel so much like we were flying, but more like a high speed roller coaster ride. I hung on to the metal bar behind me for dear life, but I actually rather enjoyed it.

When we were back at the harbour, we headed back to the main building for lunch. Graham had ordered the Tuna Salad Sub which came with crisps. I had ordered the Bento Box, which as per menu was a slice of Spam, Teriyaki Beef and a Hot Dog with rice. I love Teriyaki Beef and rice and I was quite curious about Spam. When I collected this, there was no sign of Teriyaki Beef. I still enjoyed it though. The meal also came with a soft drink. I had a Coke and Graham had Sprite. We ended up sitting with the other family from our cruise meet thread and it was great to have a chance to get to know them. During lunch, the photographer was also taking orders for photo CDs of the photos that she had taken during the excursion. The price for this was very fair and included shipping to anywhere in the world. So we decided to go for it. All too soon it was time to get back on the mini bus to head back to the port. I spent most of the journey back chatting with the driver. It has always been my dream to study marine biology, but as I could never see a practical career application for this, it has remained a dream. However, I make good use of every opportunity I get to talk to marine biologist. We were the first people to be dropped off and we made our way back to the ship. Again, security was handled by the port and this was a much more professional set up as at the other ports. However, I was quite surprised that they were very worried about people bringing alcohol back onto the ship which is not an issue with Disney Cruise Line at all. Some people had bought some salad dressings and marinates and they had to take them out of the bags to show the official and only once he checked that they were really what the customer said they were, they were waved through. This time round, we did not have to do security again when we got on the ship.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once we got back to our cabin, we dropped off our stuff and got changed and then we headed out again. The original plan had been to get on one of the hop on hop off buses or trolleys, but we were too tired for this. We figured that this would wait until our next visit to Oahu. Instead we just wondered over to Aloha Tower Market Place to have a look around. Unfortunately this place most certainly has seen better days and there were loads of empty shops and restaurants there. First of all, we needed something to drink. We found a coffee shop called the Island Vintage Coffee Company, which looked promising. We both had a Vintage Kona Mocha, which is an ice blended drink made wit Kona Coffee, Macadamia Nut and Coconut. This was absolutely delicious. They also showed a video about the production of Kona Coffee, which was very interesting.

I was still in the market for a few things I wanted to buy so we headed out as soon as we had finished our drinks. I was hoping to get a couple more Hawaiian sun dresses and I got lucky at a shop right across the way from Island Vintage Coffee Company where I found a lovely white dress with Hawaiian print, which was also an absolute bargain. I did not have much luck with the Plumeria body lotion that I was also hoping to get. I decided to have a look at the little market area that is behind the main shopping centre. They sold pretty much everything but the body lotion I was after. I did however find another dress. This is ankle length and black with a lovely orchid print. At that stage I was pretty much shopped out, but on the way into the shopping centre, I had spotted a big surf and leisure wear shop that had a closing down sale. I figured this would be worth a look. I did not buy anything, but Graham got two gorgeous Hawaiian shirts, one of which is the same shade of blue as my semi-formal dress.

We headed back to the ship. The excitement of the last two days had finally caught up with us. The Rainforest Room did not really appeal. As i was wearing my Middle Eastern swim suit, i had only burned part of my hands and feet. Graham did not get away quite so lightly. In any case neither of us found exposure to heat particularly appealing. We decided to have a nap. For some reason I thought that our Palo reservation was at 19:30. So I requested for Mickey to call us at 18:45. When Mickey called, I checked our reservation and realised that it was not until 20:30. So I reset the wake up call and went back to bed for another hour. This time it was really time to get up and we got showered and ready.

When we arrived at Palo, the server that we had for Brunch welcomed us. He would be our server again. He showed us to our table, which was near the window. This was kind of strange. We have eaten at Palo many times, but we were always at sea. This time we were still docked as we were not scheduled to leave port until 22:30. So we had the lit skyline of Honolulu outside the window. This actually was quite romantic.

Our server asked us what we wanted to drink and we fancied some wine, but I find the wine list at Palo quite intimidating. Our normal go to wine at Palo, the Fairytale Cuvée, was not on the menu this time round. So we asked our server for a recommendation. After he established that we like white wine, but nothing too dry, he recommended the Gaierhof Moscato Giallo Trentino. This was a slightly sweet wine, but not overly so and had a gorgeous fragrant flavour. It was literally love at first sip. With the drinks order out of the way, he brought out the antipasti cart. We had assorted breads and bread sticks, Prosciutto, Bresaola,Parmesan Reggiano sprinkled with Balsamic Vinegar,Marinated olives and sun-dried Tomatoes, Artichokes, Tapenade and Olive Oil. I passed on the Artichokes and Graham passed on the Tapenade. I still miss the red pepper dip and the Aioli that they used to serve at Palo. Still, I tried something new that was a total revelation. Our server had suggested to drizzle some Balsamic Vinegar over the cubes of the Parmesan Reggiano. I am not normally a fan of any kind of vinegar, but I felt adventurous that evening. This was one of the most delicious things I ever tasted. The flavours just complimented each other perfectly. Graham was not too keen so I got most of this.

At that stage it was making your mind up time. We had to choose the rest of our meal. Graham had Tuscan White Bean Soup with Prosciutto and Parmesan Cheese garnished with Shredded Cabbage and Red Radishes for his starter and I went with my favourite, Grilled Portobello Mushroom and Polenta with a Roasted Shallot Sauce and a Parmesan Crisp. After we had our starters, we had some lemon sorbet to clean the palate. Graham had decided to go with the Chianti Braised Beef Ravioli tossed in a rich Red Wine Reduction with oven-roasted carrots and celery. On our last cruise, our server had brought some out for us to share and Graham really liked this. I went with the Beef Tenderloin "Palo", but rather than the sides that come with it, I asked for Risotto Milanese. This was absolutely gorgeous. For dessert, we both had Zabablione with Sangiovese-infused berries made with Marsala Wine and Biscotti Chips. Dinner was finished off nicely by the traditional Sgroppino, a drink made with Prosecco, vodka and lemon sorbet. We were pleasantly full, but not as stuffed as we usually are when we go to Palo. We had nearly finished our meal, when we commended that we had not seen any photographers around. There are normally some photographers. We were waiting for the bill when a photographer appeared. We had a couple of photos taken and they actually came out pretty nice.

Once we had taken care of all the formalities, we said goodbye to our server. We decided to have a little stroll on deck 10. It was a gorgeous night and Honolulu at night looked beautiful. Once we got to the forward elevator lobby, we headed back to our cabin. There were no photo opportunities that evening either due to the late port departure. So we had nothing left to do. When we got to the cabin, I took a quick photo of our towel animal and then I got ready for bed.

 

[LindaBabe]

Oh Corinna! you must have been in absolute HEAVEN with all that dolphin interaction. The photos are GLORIOUS! Thank you for sharing with us. This installment was WELL worth the wait for it!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Oh Corinna! you must have been in absolute HEAVEN with all that dolphin interaction. The photos are GLORIOUS! Thank you for sharing with us. This installment was WELL worth the wait for it!

Heaven pretty much describes it. It was just an amazing excursion. The photos were taken by their resident photographer. We could not resist buying the photo CD. We are hoping to got back to Hawaii for my 40th birthday in 2014 and we definitely will do that excursion again.

Corinna

 

[Tammy Stringer]

What an amazing excursion Corinna - all those dolphins and turtles - how fantastic and what great photos to remember it all by

Tammy

 

[Pinkocto]

That looked amazing!!! I can't imagine how you felt being in the water with those beautiful dolphins. Turtles are one of my favorite creatures, love all the photos. So this wasn't a DCL excursion correct? Can I ask the company it was with, I'd love to do this when I go to Aulani.

Palo sounds so delicious. Can't wait to try it on my next cruise.

What a fabulous day!

 

[dolphingirl47]

That looked amazing!!! I can't imagine how you felt being in the water with those beautiful dolphins. Turtles are one of my favorite creatures, love all the photos. So this wasn't a DCL excursion correct? Can I ask the company it was with, I'd love to do this when I go to Aulani.

Palo sounds so delicious. Can't wait to try it on my next cruise.

What a fabulous day!

No, this was not a DCL excursion. They did not offer anything on Oahu that interested us. The company is called Dolphin Excursions (http://www.dolphinexcursions.com/). Their boat dock is quite close to Aulani and we checked that they did pick up from there.

Corinna

 

[Tinkerbell1989]

Corinna, I am so jealous!

I can't convince DBF enough to go on a Disney cruise, even the new ships, or AquaDuck can't convince him!

However, we have agreed that for our honeymoon (bearing in mind we aren't even close to being married yet! ) we would love to go to Hawaii... Now I know I can cruise one day! I will get him on a Disney Cruise to Hawaii.

The excursion with the snorkelling and the dolphins... Just beautiful!

xxx

 

[dolphingirl47]

Corinna, I am so jealous!

I can't convince DBF enough to go on a Disney cruise, even the new ships, or AquaDuck can't convince him!

However, we have agreed that for our honeymoon (bearing in mind we aren't even close to being married yet! ) we would love to go to Hawaii... Now I know I can cruise one day! I will get him on a Disney Cruise to Hawaii.

The excursion with the snorkelling and the dolphins... Just beautiful!

xxx

I had a similar problem with DH. We got married in 1998 and spent our honeymoon in Orlando. At that time, DCL was aggressively marketing as it was their launch year. Ever since I saw their adverts, it was my dream to go on a Disney cruise, but DH was not having any of it. It took me nearly 10 years to convince him. Fortunately he has fallen in love with cruising as much as I have.

I keep my fingers crossed that DCL will do another Hawaii cruise in future. They had bookings at the Hawaiian ports for autumn 2013, but the expected Hawaii cruise did not materialize. I hope that they will offer another one in future. I would not hesitate to do this cruise again. It really was amazing. Another option would be flying to Honolulu, spend some time at Aulani and then do an inter-island cruise on the NCL Pride of America to see the other islands. That is what we are hoping to do for my 40th birthday in 2014.

Corinna

 

[tiggrbaby]

Wonderful pics from an amazing excursion! I love the dress you wore to Palo, you two look so sweet!

What you described as your dream trip is what I had wanted to do for our 30th next year, but right now I'm just hoping we can do a timeshare exchange on Maui - much cheaper.

 

[Shell54]

Amazing dolphin excursion and your descriptions and the photos were beautiful. The coffee drink you got in port sounded yummy.

 

[dgbg100106]

Corrina,

The dolphins and turtles are truly amazing creatures and you got to spend such lovely time with them.

It looked amazing from the pictures and I am sure it was more beautiful in person...

I have this fear of water, I can be on top of it without any problems, I can jet ski, water ski, cruise all that, but if I get in it, I get very scared. not so much where I can stand but any place that is deeper than I can stand is

I would love to do this, but just reading about the water coming in the pipe and making you cough, that would send me over the edge....


I was so scared reading this.


But again, it was beautiful and thank you so much for sharing the pictures.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Wonderful pics from an amazing excursion! I love the dress you wore to Palo, you two look so sweet!

What you described as your dream trip is what I had wanted to do for our 30th next year, but right now I'm just hoping we can do a timeshare exchange on Maui - much cheaper.

The dress was actually one of my Ebay bargains. This cost me less than $20. It creases quite badly, but as having clothes pressed is so cheap on the ship, I just sent them out to be pressed as soon as I am unpacked.

I think this will be pretty good value. We will use our DVC points for both Disneyland and for Aulani and NCL normally offers pretty good travel industry rates.

Corrina,

The dolphins and turtles are truly amazing creatures and you got to spend such lovely time with them.

It looked amazing from the pictures and I am sure it was more beautiful in person...

I have this fear of water, I can be on top of it without any problems, I can jet ski, water ski, cruise all that, but if I get in it, I get very scared. not so much where I can stand but any place that is deeper than I can stand is

I would love to do this, but just reading about the water coming in the pipe and making you cough, that would send me over the edge....


I was so scared reading this.


But again, it was beautiful and thank you so much for sharing the pictures.

I am actually a bit of a water baby and love to swim. I do not like the water to come higher then chin level though. Jetskis are a different matter. They scare me to death. One of them threw me off at Castaway Cay.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 13

We had a 7:45 meeting time that morning, but as this was just a morning excursion, we decided to pass on breakfast and I had set the alarm for 7:00. We got up and got ready. This was an easy task today as it was a strictly land-based excursion. Once we were ready, we headed up one flight of stairs and headed for Wavebands, where our meeting point was. This was another adult only departure and although there was also a family version of this excursion, they even kept them separate at the point of check in. Check in was very smooth again and they had multiple buses. Again, they took people down to the gangway a bus at a time. This time they took us past the photographers at the speed of lightning so we did not get the chance to have our photo taken. The buses were parked just outside the port building. Our driver was waiting for us outside the bus to collect our excursion tickets and soon we were all on the bus and on our way.

Our last Hawaiian port of call was Nawiliwili on the island of Kauai. Kauai is the fourth largest of the Hawaiian islands and is also known as the Garden Isle. The island of Kauaʻi has been featured in more than seventy Hollywood movies and television shows, including Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Lilo and Stitch is also set there. Kauai could not be more different from Oahu if it tried. On Kauai there is a rule that no building can be higher than the tallest palm tree. So there are no skyscrapers here.

The excursion we were doing on Kauai was a happy accident. What he had really wanted to do was Tubing the Ditch, which is the ultimate lazy river ride. Essentially you travel on inner tubes along the irrigation system of a disused sugar plantation. Unfortunately this had been fully booked before we were able to make our reservations and Disney Cruise Line seemed to have bought out all the slots for that day so we had not been able to arrange this independently either. So instead we booked an excursions to Waimea Canyon, which is also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

Our driver for the day was a native of Kauai and he told us a lot about Kauai and its history during the drive. Our first stop was the Spouting Horn near Poipu Beach. There is a blowhole there that can sea water up to 50 feet in the air. This occurs whenever waves are forced under the lava shelf and up through an opening in the rocky coast. In the past there was a much bigger blowhole there, but that was blasted by the manager of the sugar plantation, because the salt spray was damaging a small portion of the crop. Still the blowhole that is there now is pretty impressive. We watched this for a while and then went exploring. There is a little craft market in the area and I had a look there, but nothing caught my eye. We headed back towards the car park where there were a lot of feral chicken and also some of the most beautiful flowers that I had seen that trip. We still had a bit more time so we headed back to the outlook to have another look at the blowhole before heading back to the bus.

When we left the observation area, we drove through the Poipu Beach resort area, which is very pretty. There are mainly holiday homes there, but also some low-rise hotels. The views in this area are stunning. Once we turned away from the ocean, we saw something I had not expected - coffee plantations. Before we came to Hawaii, I was aware of the famous Kona Coffee that is grown on the Big Island, but I had no idea that coffee is grown elsewhere on the Hawaiian islands, too. Traditionally, the main agriculture on Kauai was sugar cane and pineapples, but like most of the other Hawaiian islands, they could not compete with third world countries that have become the main producers of these crops. In the mid 19th century, the owner of one of the main sugar plantations on the island decided to branch out and started to grow coffee. This was not exactly a success. In 1845, 248 pounds of coffee were grown on Kauaʻi and Hawaii island. A few years later, much of the coffee crop was destroyed by an infestation of scale insects. Nowadays coffee production is thriving on Kauai and they are hoping that eventually Kauai coffee will be as well known and thought after as Kona coffee.

Our next stop was an overlook near the area where Jurassic Park was filmed. This area actually belongs to the Robinson family. Elizabeth McHutchison Sinclair, an immigrant from New Zealand, purchased parts of Kauaʻi and the neighbouring island Niʻihau from King Kamehameha V in 1864. The land is still owned by her descendants, the Robinson family. Because this is privately own land, nobody is allowed to enter it. However, we got a good view from the overlook by the road. I have to say this really looks like Jurassic Park and I would not have been surprised if some dinosaurs had appeared.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After this photo stop, we drove through some pretty towns and villages. In one of them, they had a catholic church, a congregational church and Buddhist temple right next to each other. Soon we were in the rainforest again and started to climb. Like in Maui, the rainforest is mainly made up of non-native invasive species. It does look pretty though.

Soon we arrived at Waimea Canyon State Park. Waimea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, is a large canyon, approximately ten miles long and up to 3,000 feet deep is located on the western side of Kauaʻi. Waimea is Hawaiian for "reddish water". After the obligatory bathroom stop, we headed up towards the observation points. We were lucky enough to spend some time at the Grand Canyon National Park in 2006. I have to say that even though Waimea Canyon is on a much smaller scale, it is still absolutely breathtaking. The name Grand Canyon of the Pacific is well deserved. Even so the various outlooks are very close together, the perspective is completely different from each of them.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once we had admired the view for long enough, we headed back towards the bus. Somebody had set up a stall selling toasted coconut, dried fruit and fresh coconut, mango, papaya, sugar cane and pineapple. One of the things I really wanted to do while in Hawaii is have some fresh pineapple. I had kind of got round to the idea that this was not going to happen. So I was very glad to see this stall. Although there are no commercial pineapple plantations on Kauai anymore, there are still farmers that grow them on a small scale to fulfil local demand. I could not resist this. I got a huge tub of fresh cut pineapple that Graham and I shared. I think it probably contained a whole pineapple. It was absolutely delicious and the pineapple we can get over here will never taste the same again.

On our way back from Waimea Canyon, we saw the island of Niʻihau a short distance away. Niʻihau is the seventh largest of the Hawaiian Islands. The people of Niʻihau speak Hawaiian as their primary language. This is not the modern Hawaiian that is spoken on the other islands either, but an ancient for of Hawaiian. The island is generally off-limits to all but relatives of the island's owners, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials and invited guests, giving it the nickname "The Forbidden Isle". Niʻihau has approximately 130 permanent inhabitants, nearly all of whom are Native Hawaiians who live in the island's main settlement of Puʻuwai. Niʻihau has no telephone service or cars. Horses are the main form of transportation, but bicycles are also used. There are no power lines. Solar power provides all electricity. Water comes from rainwater catchment. They do have TVs on the island, but no TV signal so the TVs are just used to watch DVDs or videos. There are some special shells that can only be found on Niʻihau and that are turned into very exclusive leis that can sell for thousands of Dollars. Our driver had told us that during the shell season, the women of Niʻihau are at the beach from dawn to dusk collecting the shells and on a good day, they may have a jam jar full of shells at the end of the day. I was thinking that he was exaggerating. However, at our last stop, I was able to see some leis and other jewellery made from Niʻihau shells and they are tiny. Each of the shells is only about 2 to 3 mm big. Not only does it take forever to collect enough shells for a lei, but they are all sewn together to make the lei. I only saw some white shell leis, which are the most common and the most affordable, but they were absolutely beautiful. The shells also come in different colours, but they are quite rare.

Our last stop was in one of the towns that we had passed earlier. There was a huge souvenir shop there, which is where we were headed. Essentially if it it was of interest to tourists, it was there. They sold everything from the typical tourist fare like magnets and t shirts to more unusual things like CDs with Hawaiian music, Hawaiian art work and the Niʻihau shell leis. I finally found my Plumeria body lotion there at a fair price. They also had some Plumeria perfume so I got a small bottle of this. I was also drawn to the dresses and particularly to the traditional Hawaiian Muumuus. Unfortunately they did not have the colour and style I liked in my size so I passed. The seemed to make good business of our bus so. Virtually everybody came back with at least one shopping bag. On the way bag to the port, our driver pointed out a mountain range that supposedly contained a profile of Queen Victoria. I personally could not see it, but I took some photos anyway. If nothing else, it looked pretty. Shortly afterwards, we arrived back at the port. As we approached the port, we were asked to have our ID and Key To The World ready. When we got to the port entrance, port security got on the bus to check them. This almost felt like the border controls of my childhood.

As soon as we got back on the ship, we headed to Triton’s for lunch. We were asked if we were OK to share and were seated with a family with two young kids. It turned out that they were part of our cruise meet thread and the mother is actually one of my Facebook friends. This was the second cruise where we spent time chatting online, but we had never met in person. So it was nice that we finally had the chance to put faces to names. Lunch was very pleasant again. Graham had Citrus Fruit Cocktail with Toasted Almond and Fresh Mint followed by Angus Chuck Burger with Bacon, Cheddar, Lettuce, Tomatoes and Onions served with Coleslaw and French Fries and Key Lime Pie for dessert. I had Vegetable Quesadillas served with Guacamole, Sour Cream and Pico de Gallo; Chilled Mango Soup with Mint Foam; Glazed Meatloaf with Smashed Yukon Potatoes, Buttered Carrots, Green Beans and Gravy and Key Lime Pie for dessert.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Originally we had planned to head for the beach in the afternoon, but more sun and heat did not seem appealing at this point. I decided to take the free shuttle to Hilo Hattie to see if they had a Muumuu similar to the one I had fallen in love with in the morning in my size. Graham decided to stay on the ship. While I was waiting for the Hilo Hattie shuttle, every other shuttle came past, some of them even more than once. Still, eventually the shuttle arrived and about 10 minutes later I arrived at Hilo Hattie. Near the entrance, they had some tables set up with various samples of local produce. Among them were a few varieties of Kauai Coffee. I tried one of them and really liked this. So I decided to get a bag for Graham. They also had a good selection of wines from the Tedeschi Winery in Maui for sale and about half the price that they charged at the winery itself. I was so tempted, but did not want to risk that they wine would be confiscated by the port authorities. They did have the same Muumuus that I had seen in the morning in my size and also did have them in different colours. I decided to try on a couple as they were also on the sales rack, but this is a style of dress that does not suit me so I passed. I did end up getting a silver necklace for my pearl pendant as the one that I already had did not fit. The concession where I bought the necklace was actually the same company that provided the Pick a Pearl on the ship. They also had a second concession at Hilo Hattie near the exit and they had a competition where you chose a key to see if it opened their treasure chest. Of course the key I had chosen did not, but I got to draw a money off voucher for an oyster and in the end the oyster only cost me $4. So I decided to go for this. I got twin pure white pearls. The lady on the counter was not impressed when I made it clear that I was not going to purchase a setting. I decided that I had enough of shopping and headed out towards the shuttle stop. The shuttle was already sitting there and although the line was quite long, I was lucky that everybody else was there as a couple or family and they had on spare seat. So I got to queue jump. Looks like the single rider line even works on a cruise. When I got back to our cabin, I realized that Graham had decided to have a nap. This was rather appealing so I decided to have a nap myself.

Once we were both awake again, we decided to head up to the Outlook Café for a drink. When I did my Mojito tasting, I asked about Caipirinhas and was told that they had one bottle of Cachaça on the ship and that this was located at the Outlook Café. As I love my Caipirinhas, this was too good to pass up. Graham fancied one of their alcoholic coffees, but all of them contained chocolate, which he is allergic to. When he let the bartender know about this, he came up with some custom drink that did not contain chocolate. We had no idea what it actually contained, but Graham liked it a lot. My Caipirinha was not quite such a resounding success. A Caipirinha is a very simple drink consisting of Cachaça, Lime, Brown Sugar and Ice. Our bartender made it with the same ingredients, but also added Club Soda. It was not that the drink was unpleasant. It was kind of a cross between a Mojito and a Caipirinha and very refreshing, but it was just not the real thing. Shortly after we had ordered our drinks, one of the staff from Cove Café came up to relieve the bartender at the Outlook Café so that he could go on his break. This bartender was from Brazil and he nearly had kittens when he realized what was going on. I have learned my lesson. This was my third attempt at having a Caipirinha on one of the ships and not one was made properly. In future I will stick to Mojitos, Margaritas or the Drink of the Day.

Once we finished our drinks, it was nearly time for us to set sail again and to leave Hawaii behind for the final time this cruise. We went outside to listen to the horn and watched as Kauai disappeared into the distance. Once the clouds had swallowed the land, I decided to head for the Rainforest Room for a bit. Graham wanted to give his skin a rest from the heat for another day so we arranged to meet up in the atrium before dinner. I relaxed on a heated tile lounger for about half an hour and then I got showered and changed in the spa. When I headed back to the cabin to drop off my things, Graham was not there. So I headed up to the atrium. There were not many people around, but Stitch was out and about with an escort. He had stolen one of the robes that are normally used for crowd control and he used this to try to tie his escort to the metalwork on the midship lift. It was hilarious to watch. Time just flew watching Stitch’s antics and soon it was time for dinner.

Dinner was at Parrot Cay that night. The menu that night was Mai e'ai, which is Hawaiian for Come and Eat. Again the menu was not very Hawaiian, but it was nice. Graham had
Volcano Ground Potato and Sausage Casserole Soup with a touch of Paprika, Peppercorn Crusted New York Strip with Sauteed Green Beans and Corn, whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes and Brandy Sauce. I had Blue Cheese Polenta Cakes with Caramelized Onions and Walnuts, Volcano Ground Potato and Sausage Casserole Soup with a touch of Paprika and Peppercorn Crusted New York Strip with Sauteed Green Beans and Corn, whipped Yukon Gold Potatoes and Brandy Sauce. We both passed on dessert. We still had 5 bottles of our wine package left so for the rest of the cruise we would have a bottle of wine most nights. As we liked the Moscato at Palo so much, we decided to try the Moscato that was part of the wine package. It was called Moscato Allegro and was from California. It was also absolutely delicious. We started a trend there. By the end of the cruise, our whole table was drinking this wine.

As we left port quite early, this evening marked the return of the photo opportunities. They had a very simple backdrop with various shades of grey out. So we had a series of photos taken against this.

Once we had our photos taken, we headed back to our cabin. I took a photo of our towel animal and then we got ready for bed and called it a day.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Corrina

I've loved reading your trip report....you guys packed so much into your trip...we found that the days just flew by and before we knew it the cruise was almost over....

I'm sorry you weren't able to do your tubing excursion in Kauai but the excursion you did take is the one I wanted but unfortunately I got the Wailua River and the Waimea Canyon mixed up and I ended up booking the (very disappointing) Wailua River/Kilohana Plantation excursion. I hope you don't mind if I "borrow" some of your amazing pictures from the Canyon...it looked absolutely breathtaking....I'm still kicking myself for messing up these excursions...

I'm sorry we never really got to meet...I did see you at your group Palo lunch (didn't know at the time it was you) . We were there with Linda's group and found out that the private room was double booked...so we were all kinda standing around....hopefully we will cruise together someday soon....and you will have another jewellry making class because they were beautiful.

 

[LindaBabe]

Loved reliving Kauai through your eyes. We went the same route as you in a rental car but in the opposite direction.