crazycatperson goes a-cruising!

Yes, fireworks were just the one night, Pirate night.

Now, we interrupt this trip report for this message:

Jet lag SUUUUUCCCKKKKS.

Michael Harrison was the ventriloquist. Very funny.

And the magic act, also very good and very entertaining.

This is where writing the trip report gets interesting: I have no more notes, so I have to rely on memory, my photographs, and the personal navigator to piece together the rest of the cruise. And then memory, photos, and the Disneyland maps to piece that part together.

So this is Saturday, our last day at sea. We skipped the buffet breakfast in favor of a couple of quick pastries because this morning at 8 a.m. we had our second massage, the hot stone massage in one of the private rooms with a Jacuzzi and lounge chair and a wide open window to the wide open ocean! This was awesome! When we first showed up we got our feet washed and massaged with I don't know what the stuff was, but it was awesome. Then a nice soak in the Jacuzzi while we drank flavored water (I preferred orange, hubby liked cucumber best). Then the hot stone massages with ocean breezes wafting through from the deck. I think we both fell asleep a little during this. Then back to the open deck for a lounge and tea. All in all it took about two hours and was worth every penny. Our masseuses were Sharon and Neren, and if you ever sail on the Wonder look them up, they are amazing.

After the massages I'm pretty sure hubby visited the rainforest room; I showered in the women's locker room and headed out. And now I'm kinda fuzzy as to what happened next. Lunch, probably at the buffet yet again. The drink of the day was mai tais, and I know we got a couple up at the bar by the adult pool, after which hubby took his to the smoking area and I took mine and my audiobooks down to the promenade deck to relax with an ocean view. There was a Pixar Pals party in the atrium that afternoon; we missed it due to seeing Ant-Man at the Buena Vista that afternoon, but caught Remy doing a meet-and-greet in the atrium later in the evening. I didn't meet him this day, but did grab a quick photo from above after dinner.

Dinner this evening was back at my favorite restaurant, Parrot Cay. And that, sadly, is all I can tell you about dinner. Just assume we had good food and enjoyed it.

Toy Story: the Musical was the live entertainment for the evening. This was the first and only actual Disney show that hubby saw in the Walt Disney Theater. He, sadly, was not impressed, so I was on my own to see shows after that. I loved it, of course. Great show. I loved how they blended human-size scenes with toy-size scenes. And the cast was wonderful. No photos because they made it quite clear photos were! not! allowed! (Never mind that I've seen plenty of photos around the web, I wasn't breaking the rules.)

Hubby hit the smoking area after the show, and I think I got my evening cup of chamomile tea and went to bed early. Got a text from hubby later asking if I wanted to get another drink or just go to bed, but by then I was already in bed, so the drink was out.

The next morning finally took us to Hawai'i, Hilo being our first port of call.

The Quiet Cove pool area and our mai tais.

Actually, I got hubby to take these - didn't have my phone on me.

Gonna start our first day in Hawai'i with photos; I just looked at what I already posted and don't want to duplicate, so I'll do the photos while I remember stuff.

The weather was a little better when we set sail, so folks were out on the decks and the Pacific Princess's passengers waved as we sailed past. Also, the dock area in Hilo was not at all picturesque.

I woke up early Sunday morning all excited because I could see land out our porthole! I hurried up to deck 9 and dodged raindrops trying to get some photos of our docking (these appear on a previous page).

Our excursion to the volcano and nut factory left early, 8:45 a.m., and I don't recall whether we breakfasted at the buffet or got something a little faster, but I'm pretty sure we had time for the buffet (everything opened early so people could eat before leaving on their port adventures). Our meeting place for our excursion was the Walt Disney Theater, and as it turns out ours was the eleventh volcano excursion out of I don't know how many. We were given stickers with the number 11 on them to stick to our shirts and also provided with a free Disney Parks poncho since it was still raining; we saved the ponchos and used our umbrellas instead.

First stop was the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. There's a self-directed walk-by tour that lets you look into windows overlooking the factory, but it was Sunday so the factory was closed. Of course, the factory store was open and selling all sorts of delectable macadamia nut products and other Hawai'ian goodies. We looked around and ended up with a large bag of chocolate coconut covered macadamias and a variety pack with nine small cans of nuts, including butter toffee coated (my favorite), honey roasted, Kona coffee coated, chocolate toffee coated, and some just plain nuts. We also picked up a couple of bottles of coconut syrup for our cat sitter; they'd gotten some when they visited Hawai'i years ago and asked us to get them some.

Next stop was the Kilauea volcano visitor's center, which was very interesting; we got to see video and photos of the active volcano and touch various types of hardened lava rock. Unfortunately, although we were standing on freaking TOP of Kilauea, the volcano's crater was completely invisible in the rain and fog.

On our way off the volcano we stopped again and got to walk through a lava tube, where molten lava once gushed but now it's just a natural tunnel through the mountain. This was awesome! And now I've seen part of a volcano, if not the really interesting stuff on top.

Our bus returned in time to make it to the buffet for lunch, but similarly minded passengers made for the longest line I'd ever seen for the buffet, so we (finally!) got a quick-service lunch, although I can't recall what exactly we got. I think hubby got something healthy at Goofy's and I got...um...okay, no clue. After that, I think I spent the rest of the afternoon in our stateroom playing on my phone and posting photos here. I may have finished attaching pins to my hat and to my new-ish lanyard (got it last winter, never used it yet), which is where overflow pins from my hat will go. I think there may have been some refueling going on, which would've ticked hubby off since there's no smoking during refueling.

We went back up to the top deck to watch the ship leave port at around 5:00 pm, then headed for dinner back at Triton's. The evening's live entertainment was a presentation of Hawai'ian music by Elika Santos, who I'm sure is very talented, but we just weren't into it so we went to see Tomorrowland at the Buena Vista Theater (my second time, hubby's first). And that's as far as I can take you this evening; nothing in the Navigator gives me a clue as to what we might have done for the rest of the evening. Of course, Tomorrowland ran till 10:15, so we might just have gone to bed.

Next up, Nawiliwili, Kaua'i

Kaua'i was beautiful! Exactly the way you imagine Hawai'i should look.

Monday morning began with another jaunt to the upper deck to photograph the beautiful scenery, followed by breakfast at the buffet (we almost always got breakfast at the buffet). This was the morning of the crew drill. I don't recall what else we did that morning, but I know we wanted to try to squeeze in seeing Inside Out at 11:00 before heading for our 1:15 port adventure. We had about half an hour to spare between the two, so it went like this: Movie ends. I run back to stateroom to change clothes. Hubby grabs burgers at Pluto's. We eat burgers. He runs out for a smoke while I throw out most of my fries (finally, a VERY small lunch). We meet for our port adventure...um...that's right, we met in the Wave Bands lounge. And off we go!

Today's port adventure involved a visit to Kilohana Plantation, which included a train ride around the plantation. I've already posted a few photos, but this time around I brought my camera as well as my phone, so I know which photos haven't been posted here yet. The plantation was interesting enough and the train ride was fun. Some people we met during the backstage tour at the Walt Disney Theater were very adult-only oriented; we were on the same volcano tour but they went elsewhere today, thinking the plantation and train ride would be very kid-oriented. Not so much; there actually weren't a huge number of children on the tour or, for that matter, on the cruise (at least not as many as usual, I would think). They grow a lot of different things on that plantation, I can't remember most of it, but interesting stuff we don't have back home, that's for sure. And this is where I found the KITTY, whose photo I will post again just because you can't have too many kitties.

After the plantation we stopped to see Opaekaa Falls, which also included an overlook with a view of the river the falls eventually become, I think. There were kayakers down there, probably another excursion from the Wonder. We also stopped at a spot with a view of the sea. The excursion returned to the ship at 4:45 and the ship left port during our dinner hour.

When we returned, hubby needed a nap. Dinner time came, and he was still sleeping. So I went to Animator's Palate without him. I wasn't terribly hungry and kind of regretted going; I could've gotten something light later up on deck 9. But there I was. The really cool thing was that our servers suggested that I take dinner back to the stateroom for hubby - and our assistant server even carried it over for me! And this is just part of the reason why these guys got an extra large tip from us. (Poor Manuel deserved it, too, after having to see hubby lying on our bed his just his Jockeys.)

Hubby woke up long enough to eat his dinner. Then he went right back to sleep!

A bunch of Pixar characters were doing meet-and-greets in the atrium this evening. This is when I got a bunch of their photos and also got to meet Remy! My favorite rat.

They had Guardians of the Galaxy at the Buena Vista this evening, one of our favorites, so we passed on the evening's live performance (musical performance by Kristian Lei, sorry, Kristian, I'm sure it was a great show). Later in the evening we stopped for drinks in the Promenade Lounge and saw a performance by the Hawai'ian Tihati Performers, which included Hawai'ian music and hula dancing. Very nice. And I think that was it for the evening.

Next up, Maui and a day at the beach.

Kitty! And Remy!

Scenes of Kaua'i from the ship.

Scenes from the plantation. The train stopped to see the livestock (see photos of pigs and donkey a few pages back); they gave out bread for us to throw to the pigs and chickens, very much emphasizing that we should not try to feed the pigs by hand! Not even the little one that could get through the fence (see photo below)! They will take your fingers off! The donkey was okay to feed by hand, though. We didn't take any bread, but trust me, the critters did not go hungry.

Why the Wonder bypassed Maui and O'ahu to go from the Big Island to Kaua'i I do not know. But anyway, we bypassed O'ahu yet again to get back to Kahului, Maui on Tuesday. Our port excursion was a day at a beach resort. I half wanted to switch it up for another chance at a volcano (there was a volcano excursion here as well), but I also wanted a chance to swim in the Pacific ocean. So we stuck with the beach day. Yeah. Should've tried for the volcano.

Our port adventure departed the ship at 10:15, again from Wave Bands. We arrived early and discovered that they were handing out ship's towels for the excursion! So we didn't need to cram our own beach towels into our luggage. Oh, well. We took theirs anyway so ours wouldn't get nasty. More than one bus was needed to take us all on the maybe 45-minute drive from the dock to the resort on the western side of Maui.

As I've said, we got a discount on lunch, two free (barely) alcoholic beverages (some kind of adult Hawai'ian Punch), and free lounge chairs. Umbrellas and such cost extra; we paid the extra $47 for what they call a cabana, actually just two very comfortable lounge chairs with an awning of sorts over top. Worth the extra money IMO. So we lounged. I applied a generous amount of sunscreen all over; hubby didn't. Even with the cover over our chairs, the beach faced west and soon my legs were exposed to the sun so the sunscreen was very necessary - in fact, I ended up lying the ship towel over my legs as the day progressed.

Lunch was decent - I got a burger and housemade chips; hubby got a veggie burger and chips. (We aren't vegetarians, he just likes those things.) We were able to find seats at the open-air restaurant and bar that overlooked the beach and were under umbrellas, so that was nice. I think I have a photo that shows the view from our seats.

The day was very relaxing and the scenery was beautiful. We could see the island Lanai right in front of us, and Molokai was to the right if we peeked out from under our little awning. But...it was a beach. We have beaches. Should've seen the volcano instead. Eventually I did something that reinforced that idea - I got in the ocean.

So now I can say I was in the Pacific Ocean. And I can say it beat me up. The surf was STRONG! Other people were swimming a little past where the waves were crashing, but I couldn't get that far without getting knocked off my feet and dunked completely into the water. I'm sure I was quite an amusing sight out there struggling to get back to shore and getting knocked over again and again before finally making it. (Hubby confirmed this; he was laughing when I got back.) And remember that sunscreen? It's like glue! I had sand stuck EVERYWHERE on my bare skin and also all through my swimsuit! I tried showering off twice, but it barely helped. And that was the end of the Pacific Ocean for me.

Our bus got us back to the resort past 5:00 and with just minutes before our dining time. I HAD to shower and get the sand off me. This was not optional. So I did while hubby headed to dinner (he'd never gotten wet and didn't use sunscreen, so he was still in decent shape). I arrived to dinner about 15 minutes late, with the sand all gone and changed into dry clothes, but with my hair washed but still wet - didn't have time to dry it. Dinner was at Parrot Cay this night, my favorite, so I wasn't missing it. I did get the stink-eye from a couple at a nearby table - you know you're getting the stink-eye when one of the people has to turn around to glare at you because you're sitting behind her - but I graciously and politely refrained from telling them both to go sit on a tack.

This was the night for the Disney Dreams live show, which I enjoyed and hubby skipped. And I do not recall what we did after the show was over. Definitely none of the entertainment on the Navigator.

And now we're on to Honolulu and no more sailing once we've docked.

These two photos show the outdoor restaurant where we had lunch at the beach and the view from our table.

Approaching the dock in Kahului, a couple of shots of the beach, and a pretty flower we saw at the resort.

Not certain that I would have had that much self-control. Some people really do enjoy wearing their judgement hat and their jury pants even on vacation, don't they?