The itinerary for this cruise was different. Historically, the first port has been Honolulu; Ensenada the last. This time Ensenada was the first port. There were two significant implications of this. First, the good news. Christmas Day would occur while we were at sea and not while we were in port at Honolulu. Christmas day in port would have been disaster for tours because of closures. December 26 was much preferred for tour operations although we discovered that some attractions were either closed or open for only a limited time. There was a second implication. We would, because of the stop in Mexico, be re-entering the USA upon arrival in Honolulu. I’m sure this seemed like a problem to no-one but that is not how many passengers perceived it. On paper everything worked out perfectly with passengers scheduled on early tours being processed first by US Immigration officials followed by all other passengers whose times were organized by their deck of residence. Unfortunately, immigration processing began 30 to 40 minutes later than planned. Before any of the tour passengers were processed two additional decks of passengers were queued up. The queue extended the length of the ship for most of three hours. Needless to say, I suppose, there was considerable poor language choices among frustrated passengers. For some of us, with no need for an early departure, people watching became interesting entertainment.
We left the ship, which was berthed at pier 2, around noon by which time we had abandoned our plans to dance at the Palladium, not because of the immigration delay but more to give Gail’s shoulder more time to improve, which it is doing—slowly. We have been dancing a little on the ship but we felt that an extended two hour or more dance might prove to be a setback. Our day on shore turned into a walk around the port area only to find that the once bustling shopping concourse at pier 4 (where we have berthed before) had become a ghost town leaving only a Barnes & Nobel, a Hooters and one other restaurant/bar where there had once been up to 50 shops. At the conclusion of our meanderings we returned to pier 2 with plans to take a shuttle to the Ala Moana shopping centre since we could find no pharmacy near the ship. It was at the pier 2 passenger terminal where I was to become a temporary vending machine repairman. Several attempts to get it to release a bottle of water produced absolutely no effect except for messages on a tiny screen that read sequentially: Make Payment — Make Selection — Purchase Cancelled. There was product in the machine, I could see it and I was going to get it.
While Gail was unsuccessfully trying to get some assistance from the few official looking people in the area (in fact there was barely sympathy), I stepped up my attack on the machine. Observation 1: buttons 1, 4, and 7 on the machine’s keypad don’t beep when pressed to make a selection. Observation 2: cells in the dispensing mechanism with a 1, 4, or 7 in there designation were full while those without were mostly sold out. Observation 3: attacking the machine with a shoulder turned on some lights and initiated whirring sounds from the machine. Ah ha. Attack plan formed. Shoulder into the machine (lights on), Make Payment (seems ok) Make Selection (hmmm 59 has product), buzz, berp, whirr, clank. Water bottle dispensed and proudly in hand i returned, to where Gail was chatting with a friendlier than average security agent, victorious.
Thirst quenched, we boarded the Hilo Hatties shuttle to take us to the Ala Moana centre. It was only 2.5 km from the pier but riding seemed to be the choice. We were met by a friendly representative from Hilo Hatties, presented with an identifying shell lei after which she attempted to lead bus passengers through the parking lot, into the shopping centre and then to Hilo Hatties. I fear she arrived at the store alone. Bus passengers vanished into the crowd of shoppers. I hope she wasn’t being paid by the number of shuttle passengers she was able to deliver to the Hilo Hatties store. We never actually located the store while we were there, not that we tried very hard.
Our visit to Maui saw the sun dominate and produce temperatures in the mid to high 70s F. perhaps reaching 24 C. Tendering to the island was a bit hectic for those on early tours. We went ashore just after noon and did not have to wait at all. About 2:15 PM we boarded a 50 foot (16 m) catamaran and sailed out into the Maui channel, an area between the several islands that were once a single island. The water depth there is 300 ft. (90 m) or less and is ideal for humpback whales to give birth. During the two hours we were on the water we saw 100 or so sightings of what appeared to be several groups of whales including at least one calf. The boats observed the required distance and the whales didn’t seem to approach any of the craft with watchers.
The last tender was scheduled to return to the Star Princess at 4:30 PM. We returned to our slip at about 4:15 to find nearly 1,000 passengers waiting for the 4:30 tender which holds a maximum of 150. Things went reasonably well until just after 5:00PM when the berths Princess was using to handle two tenders became occupied by a dinner cruise vessel, the Maui Princess. Another single berth became available and the remaining passengers were shuttled back to the ship. All-in-all our departure was delayed by about 1.5 hours. I guess everyone wanted to take full advantage of a really lovely day on a beautiful green island. Contributing to much of the green was a single banyan tree which covered most of a city block. Banyans, like mangroves and some fig trees, spread by dropping aerial roots from extended limbs. Each root cluster becomes another tree trunk which extends further and further. The canopy on this grove virtually covered an entire city block.
The vocal entertainment this evening was a very enjoyable group named “The Modern Gentlemen”. Apparently they have toured with Frankie Valli and did quite passable interpretations of several other groups including “The Beach Boys” and others of the same era. Their first two selections had me checking the way to the exit but the third was done a capella which seemed to inspire them. The remainder of the performance was close to spectacular.
Nawiliwili is the port used on the island of Kauai. It is primarily an industrial port with no services at the terminal. There are numerous shuttle busses available sponsored by merchants such as Hilo Hatties, K-Mart, WalMart and others. There is a beach and shopping plaza within a 10 minute walk of the terminal. There is also a small beach within the harbour that provides a few surfable waves. The plaza provided a place to resupply with macadamia nuts. The beach park served as home to numerous Kauai chickens. They are most evident in Kauai although I believe that are quite common on the other islands too. At one point a rooster and a hen scurried across the road herding nearly a dozen chicks. Doves are everywhere on the islands but today I saw a pair of red headed woodpeckers and managed to get a photo of one before the pair flew away. The ship departed right on time but just before departure a family of four was asked to check-in with the Purser (now called Passenger Services) which is usually a sign that they have not returned. Passenger gossip suggests they did not return before departure and since the port of Nawiliwili is restricted to daylight operation no longer delay could be tolerated.
It’s raining in Hilo! I think the Pacific Ocean is down a bit and the rain is trying to refill it. For the time being we are sitting in a night club at the top of the ship watching the rain gutters overflow. Actually there are no rain gutters. We once considered going ashore as the rain seemed to have stopped but by the time we got to the gangway the rain was heavy again so we cancelled Hilo and went to the hot tubs.
Next, five days at sea back to Los Angeles.
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