Sea days and Honolulu

After leaving Nuku Hiva and French Polynesia, we had four sea days to get us up to the Hawaiian Islands. These were filled with the usual activities, plus rehearsal for the magic show that Henry is putting on, the Country Fair (we didn’t win anything in the raffle but Tom did), and the crossing the equator ceremony.

We pulled into Honolulu a little before 3:00 PM on Wednesday, meaning there would be little time for shoreside activities. We’d been told that everyone would need to exit the ship for immigration processes, so we’d planned some activities with friends to kill that time. Turns out that did not happen, and instead we’d all be called by deck to come down to the lounge to clear face-to-face immigration. Instead of announcements being made for each deck, however, it was just a huge cattle call. We had been waiting in our room for the announcement when I saw people leaving the ship. So we went down to find a line extending from the lounge to the boutiques. Fortunately the process was quick and the line didn’t take too long, but this was poorly handled.

We had some shopping we wanted to do so we went over as a group to the Ala Moana Center. We picked up some essentials and then got a quick bite (which was very good!) in the food court. After that we crossed the street to Magic Island to watch the sunset. It was all very nice for an impromptu Waikiki visit.Read more