Hawaii Day 3/Installment 4 Boarding ship!

After recovering from our 4 A.M. wake up call:)~ We had our alarm set for 8 A.M. and managed to crawl out of bed! We were excited to get boarded so it wasn't that hard. It was a beautiful morning! It was a great idea to have our breakfast in our room. We were able to get going easier and quicker.

We got our bags packed and lined up and we showered. Hair and makeup all done! (that's a joke if you don't know me )

Hotel people picked up our luggage at 11:30 and we went down to wait for the Shuttle. It was there very quickly. Most of our hotel was going on the ship so we had quite a group!. They delivered us directly at the port with no problem at all. This cruise is the only one going thru the Islands right now so it's very much anticipated and accommodating.

After we arrived at the port, however there was a very VERY long lines. No help with luggage. Seemed very confusing but we did know we were in the right place. It was the first cruise for most of the people so it was the same for every one. People are very nice, we just could have used some help with luggage, it was a very very long line. Security was very tight. Cards were issued with our pictures put on a chip on the back of them (they would not let us pose together :) ) Everything is very computerized!

We posed for the "obligitory photo"
I treasure this picture~

We were told to go up by the pool area and sit until our cabins would be ready.

We got fruit drinks and sat in the shade not knowing what were doing like most of the rest :)


A restaurant tour was offered and since our cabin was not ready we decided to take the tour. We will be on the bottom of the list to get our cabin so we knew we had time.

I think the tour was a waste of time. They should have made it crystal clear which restaurants and places to eat were just part of the cruise and which ones were "Special" that you had to pay for and it was a more sit down formal etc. I think they should make this very clear on day one. We were told about long lines of waiting to get in to the fancy restaurants and that was just never the case. They were basically empty. We went out one night to one and I think 2 other couples were there. If I were to give advice to anyone it would be NEVER eat where you have to pay extra. The "Speciality restaurants" were just not necessary. The buffet is far the best place to go and the Elvis(Cadillac) restaurant was the best.

While waiting for our cabin to be ready we went to the buffet and it was FANTASTIC.. If you can't find something to eat there you have a problem! While we were eating we were called to our cabin! So excited! So off we went!

We entered our cabin and we were very pleasantly surprised. Our baggage was out side the door. Our cabin was larger then expected and we had a BIG window!.

There was a cover on the foot of the bed to put the luggage to unpack, which we did, so we would have more room. In the middle of our unpacking we were called for our Safely instructions. We were to take out life jackets and sent to the theater. I think I put mine on up side down but we got through it :).


Back to the cabin we got finished unpacking and our room arranged so we could move around better. It is VERY VERY COLD in the cabin! After we relaxed a bit we went to the deck so we could find where the BBQ was going to be and where we could see the sunset and watch the disembarkment.

We sat with a couple from Arizona celebrating their 30th anniversary.(almost everyone is celebrating an anniversary) They had a lot of unsolicited advice:) but they were nice enough. Obviously into drinking.

We stood at the stern of the ship to watch us cruise out. Beautiful sunset and beautiful view of Honolulu & Waikiki.
Took lots of photo's because we know from past experience this may be the only true sunset we see.

We went back to the cabin. Found the shower to be bit of a challenge but we will get the hang of it.. Have our things ready for our first day.. ROAD TO HANA! We're on a cruise in Hawaii!!!!!!