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Published: October 3rd 2012
This has been a very important year for us. Our daughter Rosanna married Evan in June and now we were celebrating our 40th Anniversary, both in high style and very much budget busters! But you got to do what you got to do.
We have been planning this trip for over 330 days in order to use our frequent flyer miles for the flights. Originally, we planned to use our miles to fly from Colorado Springs to Sydney, Australia, with a free stopover in Auckland. We would then spend about a week in Australia and three weeks in New Zealand. However, when I set a goal to visit 100 countries, and then discovered what a deal repositioning cruises were, we changed our plans to:
- fly into Honolulu a couple days before the ship sailed and visit Oahu a bit. Joining us there were Mike and Betty who we met when we both lived in Germany in 1977, and with whom we travel frequently.
- cruise the South Seas for 18 days, departing Honolulu on September 25 to Lahaina, Maui; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Apia, Samoa; Suva, Fiji (was there in 1953 so doesn't count as a new
country); Port Vila, Vanuatu; Lifou, Isle of Pines, and and Noumea, French Caledonia; arriving in Sydney on 14 October.
Our son, Will, will join us for the Sydney and New Zealand legs of our trip. In Sydney we will have dinner with
Dancing Dave and
RJT. After a couple days in Sydney, we fly to Christchurch, New Zealand. While there we spend a day with friends from Brussels days. We will rent a car and spend a week on the South Island and a week on the North Island before flying home from Auckland. While in Auckland we plan to get together with
Jo Trouble and
Ferdi and Talita, and perhaps a couple other Travelbloggers on the evening of 30 October!
I will be blogging each step of the way when we get to ports and destinaitions with wifi. So enjoy the trip with us!
Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii 23 September 2012 Sunday. I turned on the computer first thing, and found an email from Untied stating that our flight was delayed 45 minutes. As our layover in LAX was only an hour, this left us 15 minutes to connect. I called United to book a later flight to Honolulu, keeping
both flights as options. After chruch, I found another email from United stating our flight was delayed further and there was not chance we would make the earlier connection. Linda still wanted to leave home as scheduled, but have lunch on the way to the airport. After a leisurely lunch we got to the airport about 1:15 pm, and upon checking in found that they had replaced the plane and now the flight was only 15 minutes behind schedule. If we had delayed our arrival at the airport we would have missed our flight. Anyway, we made the connection in LAX and arrived in Honolulu on time. We caught the shuttle to our hotel, the Hale Koa on Waikiki Beach, had a late dinner and crashed.
24 September 2012 Monday. We met Mike and Betty for breakfast and planned our two full days on Oahu. We decided to spend this day doing the circuit around the eastern half of the island. But having done it clockwise many times before, we decided to do it counterclockwise, to get a different perspective. This turned out to be a great decision as we went against the traffic going east past Kahala, Hawaii
Kai, and Koko Head. As we turned north along the windward coast, it lived up to its name with wind and a rain squall. By the time we arrived in Kailua, the squall had passed. Kailua beach is one of our favorites, but we were not dressed to swim so just walked along the beach. We then continued north to the Byodo-In temple in the Valley of the Temples. We walked around the beautifully kept gardens, and the temple.
We then contiued north and stopped for lunch at a small local establishment for lunch, eating native cuusine (not poi). We enjoy eating local while on the road. As we turned the corner at the northeastern point of Oahu, we headed west. Our next stop was Sunset Beach, one of the great surfing spots in the world, where we joined others in watching surfers take on the huge waves. After awhile we got the idea, and continued on. . We stopped to see the surfers ride the 30 foot waves. I regretted forgetting to bring my Beach Boys CD, but nevertheless sang a few lines of their surfing songs.
Nearby was the Waimea Falls Park where Linda and I
took the kids in 1997. We walked through the lush jungle stopping along the way to read what the various plants were and to study the archeological sites where the original islanders had built thier homes. The end of the walk culminated at a water falls where people swam. While waiting for the tram to take us back to the entrance, I heard some Aussies talking. I asked where they were from...200 miles west of Sydney. I mentioned that we would be there in about 18 days. They said they would be too. It transpires that they would also be on the Rhapsody of the Seas with us. We hoped to meet with them on the ship to talk more.
Our last stop was the Dole pineapple plantation half way across the island. The visitor center serves the best pineapple ice cream in large waffle cones, which made for a great mid-afternoon refreshment.
We returned to our hotel about 6 pm, freshened up and then met for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We then walked along the beach to the International Market where the ladies bought some souvenirs, and then strolled back to the hotel along Kalakaua Avenue
with all its designer shops. Then we were back to the hotel by 10 pm to turn in for the night.
25 September 2012 Tuesday. We could board our cruise ship at noon, and in that we were hoping to get an upgrade, wanted to be there by that time. We had breakfast at the hotel and then Mike and I checked off the square that said "swam in the Pacific Ocean at Waikiki Beach." I then spent the rest of the morning writing this blog and getting a haircut...this tropical climate makes it unkempt.
After a morning of relaxation on Waikiki Beach and the hotel pool, we checked out of the hotel about 11 am and drove to the marine terminal to check onto the cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas. The plan was to park, check in (primarily to find out if we could get an upgrade), then have lunch on board before returning to the rental car to do some more touring in the afternoon.
As it turned out, there was no public parking, and someone had to stay with the car. So while Betty stayed with the car, Mike, Linda, and
I checked in our luggage, and filled out the paperwork; but only intended to find out about upgrades, returning later to check in. Again, our plans were changed. Mike couldn’t get an upgrade from an outside room to a balcony, but Linda and I got an upgrade from the inside cabin to an outside large family room for $150. It would have cost an additional thousand dollars or more if we had booked the cabin. We had to check in right away to get this deal. After we did so, Mike started checking in while Linda and I returned to the car to send Betty in while we watched the car.
By the time we were all checked in both Linda and Betty were tired and decided to go on board for lunch. Mike and I went to see the Battleship Missouri at Pearl Harbor. We decided to bypass the line at the National Park Service Arizona Memorial Visitor Center and drive via the bridge to Ford Island. We took the tour learning all about the significant role that the battleship played in WWII, Korea, and the Persian Gulf War. We stood on next to the spot
where the Japanese signed the surrender documents ending WWII. I paused in front of the first gun turret with its three guns which could fire a shell the weight of a Volkswagen some 23 miles. Two of the guns had a combined weight equal to a B-747. Later, on our ship we saw the movie “Battleship” which featured the Missouri.
We then returned the rental car and went on board our cruise ship at about 5:15 pm. I found Linda in our room which was very large with a queen size bed, a couch and separate room with a bunk bed for kids, which serves as our suitcase storage and laundry drying room. Within minutes we were called for the mandatory lifeboat drill. We had never been advised at the time of booking or subsequently that we were required to board by 4:30 pm…all I knew was that the ship sailed at 11:58 pm so we could have showed up at 11 pm. It was just coincidence that we arrived just in time.
Our next issue with the cruise line was the guarantee that if we paid for gratuities up front we would have “Just in Time” dining.
We received numerous emails from the cruise line asking us to make reservations, but our agent advised us that this was not necessary as we could just show up and be seated. So we showed up after the drill and there were two lines; one for those with reservations and one without. We didn’t have reservations, so went in that line. We soon discovered that there wasn’t a maitre d’ at our line to take us to our table. So Mike went to the other line. When he got to the front he asked that we all be seated immediately as this was guaranteed. They found us a table next to the kitchen. Lesson learned…make a reservation no matter what they say about showing up whenever you want. So we made a reservation and now have a nice window table for the duration of the trip.
The food and service are great…no complaints there! Right after dinner we attended the evening show with a Hawaiian children hula group. They were fantastic. After the show we were tired so we returned to our room. Linda’s suitcase was still missing so we brought this to the attention of the staff. They
took us down to the security storage where all bags that failed the security check in were stored. Her suitcase was there. She had packed an iron, which they held for return upon disembarkation. Apparently, irons are a fire hazard. We unpacked and turned in.
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Congratulations Bob and Linda :)
Here's wishing you both many more years of married bliss and happy travels!!!