This was our first full day on the ship and we were still docked in Honolulu until about midnight on this night. We had booked a Celebrity excursion titled Destination Highlight: North Shore Adventure.
I was up early to enjoy the sunrise and then a beautiful rainbow.
After a quick breakfast, we gathered in the theater for our excursion to the North Shore and were on the bus by 8:45 a.m. This tour was a bit of a disappointment as it did not include a number of stops that were advertised (like a nature preserve to see shore birds or an actual stop at turtle beach instead of a quick drive by). Additionally, when we were planning our own touring on the island before embarking on the cruise, we had not remembered exactly what this excursion included but just assumed it would all be on the North Shore. So after our tour of the ranch on Sunday, we stopped at the Byodi Temple (on the east side of the island and not anywhere near the north shore). This tour began with a stop at that temple. Lighting was different though, so I was able to get a couple photos with better lighting.
We then drove most of the east coast of the island before finally reaching the north shore. We stopped at a small village for lunch and shopping. Our guide didn't really give us much guidance before letting us off to wander so we made our way to a Mexican restaurant which was decent. This stop seemed like a lot of wasted time when we really wanted to spend some time on the North Shore.
Our final stop was the Dole Plantation but unfortunately, it was such a brief stop that we didn't have time to do more than sprint through the store to buy some Dole Whip, roasted pineapple glazed macadamia nuts (amazing!), and get back on the bus. It again felt like a shopping stop instead of giving us any information on the pineapple growing and harvesting process.
For a 6+ hour excursion, we didn't seem to get much except a driver (who was also the guide) who rambled for that entire time period and not always with relevant information. We arrived back at the pier just as a number of buses were dropping passengers off so while Paul and his Mom got in line to re-board the ship, I took a walk to the Aloha Tower where I hoped to get some good views of the ship. This excursion did cover basically the rest of O'ahu for us though.
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| Aloha Tower |
I was back on the ship for the Elite Happy Hour. This was our first cruise at the loyalty level of Elite. One of perks is between 5 and 7 (every day but embarkation day) you can get complimentary drinks from a set menu at most of the bars. I got in the habit of sometimes having a pre-dinner drink and picking up two glasses of wine to bring to dinner for me (since Paul doesn't drink). We sometimes would also grab a bottle of water or two to take back to the room for later.
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| Kir Royal |
At dinner, we had a window table where we could enjoy the sunset.
Most of the time sail away is early evening, so you don't get a chance to enjoy the night in port or get a good night view of the ship so we had to take advantage of the fact we weren't sailing away until midnight. After dinner, Paul and I walked out towards the Aloha Tower for night photos.
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| Aloha Tower |
And with that, we ended our time in Honolulu. Although, I rarely miss a sail away, I was not willing to stay up until midnight for this one.
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