By Pirate Captain Mike
Hawaii
We had fun in Hawaii. This cruise spent a lot of time at
port, so we got to see a good amount of Hawaii in a short
amount of time. Even though the temperature was very good
in Hawaii, it’s not “hot, hot, hot” like
the Caribbean. We like to do beach, snorkeling, boating,
and fun-in-the-sun activities. Hawaii is better for golf,
tennis, and biking. |
We
live in Virginia, and Hawaii is just too far away. The
Caribbean is closer and offers more a diversity with different
cultures. Hawaii is a nice vacation, but we like the Caribbean
better.
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Hawaii is also expensive. Excursions that would have cost
$60 in the Caribbean cost $100 in Hawaii. Taxis were also
very expensive. It was cheaper to rent a car. Hot dogs were
$4.50. T-shirts were over $20. Everything was more expensive.
Hawaii is different from the other cruises we have been
on. First of all, Hawaii is a state, so we used American
money, stamps, and paid taxes on stuff. We didn’t
haggle with anyone except taxi drivers. My cell phone worked
in most places. People have the “Aloha” attitude,
which is kind of like, “Yeah whatever.” I like
the feeling of being out of the country.
Cruise
10
We wanted to do something special for Cruise 10. We have
been thinking about a Mexican Riviera Cruise. Kimmy wanted
to go to Hawaii. She thought we were going to see whales.
I was not as excited to go to Hawaii because of the long
flight. This cruise was action packed. We had a lot of stops,
and we did a lot of excursions.
Pickles
& Gail
We met Pickles on Cruise 6 and gave her one of our cruise
cards. After the cruise, she e-mailed us about a cruise
out of Norfolk to the Bahamas (Cruise 9). Pickles went on
the Bahamas cruise with her friend Jean. This time she brought
her friend Gail. Pickles loves cruising as much as we do.
She lives near Williamsburg, which is a little over an hour
away from Richmond. We spent a lot more time with Pickles
on this cruise. It was nice to have a small group to do
things with. It was also nice to split taxi and the car
rental.
Pride of America
We didn’t send a lot of time on the ship.
We didn’t even have a day at sea. We spent
most of the time on Hawaii. We would come back for
dinner, hangout for a while, and go to bed early.
We didn’t see any of the shows. We actually
didn’t see much entertainment at all. We went
to the pool a couple of times.
There
is no gambling on the Pride of America
because we never went into international waters.
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The
Flight
Hawaii is just too far away. We flew from Richmond
to Chicago, then to Honolulu. That flight was over
nine hours long. We thought the flight there was long,
but on the way back we had a delay and a 12 hour wait
in Chicago. We booked the flight through the cruise.
On the way back, we had a stupid jumper flight from
Honolulu to Kona. It messed up our entire day. The
flight to Chicago was delayed, and we missed our connecting
flight to Richmond. |
Hilo
We had an ok time in Hilo. We took a taxi tour. The coolest
thing we saw was Rainbow Falls. We went to Volcano National
Park. It was a giant crater. It was kind of cool, but kind
of boring. We stopped at a Macadamia nut farm. Kimmy loved
the Macadamia nuts. We bought a big bag. We then went to a
black sand beach. The sand is not that nice and hard on the
feet. The water wasn’t very clear either.
Maui
We had two days in Maui. The first day we rented a taxi
to take us to a snorkeling excursion we had booked online.
The taxi driver totally tried to rip us off. We got to our
stop early and walked around and shopped for a while. I
bought two t-shirts. Our snorkeling tour was on the Four
Winds II. It was good except we were supposed to go
to Molokini Crater and we went to Coral Gardens. Molokini
Crater was featured all over on postcards. We would have
really like to see it. The Captain said there were waves
and we didn’t go. That was really lame, and he could
have at least taken us close so we could have seen it. We
also didn’t see any whales. I saw two really far away,
but Kimmy didn’t get to see any. The snorkeling was
just ok. We fed crackers to the fish. The snorkeling is
nowhere as good as Aruba. After snorkeling, we had chicken
sandwiches. The crew was very pleasant, and Pickles had
fun flirting with the Captain.
We
rented a Mustang convertible the second day in Maui. We
all went. We had fun driving around. It was probably one
of our best days in Hawaii. We went to a few beaches. We
shopped at Hilo Hatties. We sat on a beach and watched surfing
lessons. Overall it was just a really nice day. The Mustang
rental cost around $100 from the airport, and they had a
free shuttle to the ship. We filmed a cool video of me Ghost
Riding the Mustang. Make sure you watch it.
Kona
We rode a tender to Kona. We walked around some shops before
our Dolphin Snorkel Sail Excursion. We didn’t see
any dolphins. The snorkeling wasn’t that great. The
crew wasn’t very lively. The catamaran was nice. I
bought some cool Special Ed Surfing School t-shirts from
an ABC Store. Kona is known for their coffee.
Kauai
This was my favorite stop. The first day we went on the
“Tubing the Ditch” Excursion. It was really
fun. We went down three miles and 1.6 miles was underground.
I think I am the first person to ever Ghost Ride the Ditch.
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Later
in the afternoon, we went to Anchor Cove Beach. We took
a free shuttle. It was only a few minutes away from the
ship. I rented a surf board. Make sure you watch the video.
I am an awesome surfer!
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That
night we went to Luau Kalamaku. It was fun but expensive. The
show and dancing were good. The food wasn’t very good. I
liked the girls in coconuts. Kimmy had fun playing the drums before
the show started.
The
second day in Kauai we went back to Anchor Cove Beach. We had
a day and a half in Kauai.
Honolulu
We really didn’t see much of Honolulu. We pretty much just
went from the airport to the ship then back to the airport.
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Camera
For my birthday, Kimmy got me a new digital camera. I picked
it out. I got an Olympus Stylus 740 with 7.1 MP and a 5x
Optical Zoom. It looks really cool and fits in my pocket,
but I don’t really like it. This is my second Olympus
digital camera, and this camera just doesn’t take
great pictures. It should but doesn’t. |
During
the cruise I got sand in the lens. I exchanged it for a new camera,
and I’m still not thrilled with the picture quality. Burst
mode also is not as good as other cameras that I have used. I
wouldn’t recommend this camera. I would still recommend
Olympus.
Website
The website took about two and a half months to make. This time
I started with the videos and put them on YouTube. Kimmy told
me a long time ago that she wanted a Hawaii Five-0 theme for the
intro. We really enjoy cruising. Creating a website for each cruise
really helps us remember what we did, where we went, and what
we ate.
Saturday
April 7 |
Honoluli,
Oahu |
Depart
8 pm |
Sunday
April 8 |
Hilo,
Big Island
Taxi
Tour
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Arrive
8 am
Depart 6 pm |
Sunday
April 8 |
Cruise
Kilauea Volcano
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Evening
Sail |
Monday
April 9 |
Kahului,
Maui
Coral
Gardens Snorkel |
Arrive
8 am |
Tuesday
April 10 |
Kahului,
Maui
Rented
a Mustang |
Depart 6 pm |
Wednesday
April 11 |
Kona
Dolphin
Snorel Sail |
Arrive
8 am
Depart 6 pm |
Thursday
April 12 |
Kauai
Tubing the Ditch
Luau Kalamaku
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Arrive
8 am
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Friday
April 13 |
At
Sea
At
the Pool
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Depart
2
pm |
Saturday
April 14 |
Honoluli,
Oahu
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Arrive
7 am |
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