Hawaiian Cruise: Kauai Luau, Return to Oahu then Home (Day 9-Day 11)
I woke up in Nawiliwili on the “Garden Isle” of Kaua’i, the fourth largest Hawaiian island and the last scheduled stop on the cruise. It was Thanksgiving Day, and I was approximately 4,900 miles from home and the traditions celebrated there. Well, most of them. Instead, after a satisfying breakfast at my usual spot, the 50’s theme restaurant on Deck 6, I walked the deck and got several shots, including the panoramic one below: At 12:30, I went to the ship’s theater, where they were live streaming the Dallas Cowboys football game. The Cowboys’ season hadn’t gone as we fans had hoped due to so many injuries to players, but we faithfully watch anyway, and it is a Thanksgiving tradition, so…. The main event of the day was the luau at the Kauai Plantation. It appeared that a lot of the ship’s passengers had been bused there for the…
Hawaiian Cruise: Maui and Two Days on the Big Island (Day 6-Day 8)
WARNING: the theme of the first three paragraphs of this post is “a little–well, a lot–of disappointment goes a long way.” Bypass them as you wish. My travel agent had strongly encouraged me to select off-ship excursions through the cruise line because the line would then be responsible for any incidents related to those excursions. I followed her advice except for two activities. The one that applied here I scheduled through an outside vendor because they advertised that they could accommodate those with accessibility needs for a sunrise visit to Haleakalā National Park. The cruise line specifically indicated that they could not provide accommodations, so that choice was my only option. I will not use space here to describe what happened, but the result was that I was unable to make the trip and, thus, missed the national park. The only positive from the situation was that I got a…