A Long, Winding, and Delayed Path To Celebrate our Silver Anniversary

Our Ship -- the Pride of America

With high confidence, this should be the last blog I open with an explanation of how the Covid 19 pandemic delayed or heavily altered planned travel between 2020 and 2023.  I say that with all sincerity, and every finger crossed.

Hawaii has always been one of those destinations to which K and I agreed that we'd go "someday," but it wasn't necessarily at the top of our list.  We said that consistently for years, with only our preconceived notions to blame.  I made a short visit to Honolulu in 2018 for work and will admit I was a bit taken aback by the beauty and mystery of the place.  Then again, a work trip to a secluded military base is not something on which to base any accurate image of the entire state.

I can honestly admit, too, that I cannot recall the genesis of our decision to book an inter-island Hawaiian cruise to mark our 25th anniversary (31 May 2022).  I do know we booked in late 2020, thinking that we were a) being very organized, and planning almost 18 months into the future, and b) secure in our eventually incorrect notion that Covid 19 would still not "be a thing" in 2022.  We were originally booked to spend our actual anniversary on Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of America ship, which sails exclusively between four of the Hawaiian Islands.  In the fall of 2021 we learned that our nephew, Simon, would be graduating high school that same week, down in Tennessee.  As everyone knows, the cruise industry was particular hard-hit during the pandemic, and Hawaii was one of the last places to open back up for tourism, let alone cruises.  When we learned of the schedule conflict, there were no estimates as to when cruises might even open up again, so we rescheduled our cruise for September 2023, thinking that was sufficient cushion, and allowing us to go down to Knoxville for Simon's graduation.  By summer 2022, however, Hawaii was still not open for cruise traffic so we had to reschedule again.  Not confident as to when things might open up, we decided to give ourselves another year cushion and rebooked for late September 2023.  As it turns out, cruises did restart during the fall of 2022, but with a lot of limitations, so we had zero regrets about our decision to push things out even further.

One unexpected outcome, however, was that our family trip to Poland in late August of this year ended only about four weeks before this Hawaii trip was to kick off.  We scheduled Poland around Anna's work and school schedule, and we had no appetite to reschedule Hawaii again, so we left things as they were.  In hindsight, neither of us have any regrets. 

Cruise Ship Economics

Needless to say, there are countless ways to visit Hawaii, with so many islands and experiences from which to choose.  We were aware of Norwegian's exclusive inter-island cruise for years and, after much debate, decided it was a good way to visit four of the islands and get a flavor for each, while minimizing the planning and logistics for the two of us.  That said, the cruise is much more expensive that any we'd taken before, and that is not due to the level of service or luxury, but rather pure economics.  If you are already familiar with the intricacies of ship's registries and work requirements, feel free to skip to the next paragraph.  Any commercial ship flagged in the United States has to abide by U.S. labor laws.  For cruise ships, they are usually flagged in countries like Panama or Malta, as those countries have very favorable labor laws for the industry.  While there are hundreds of cruises that call on U.S. ports, they almost all also visit foreign ports as part of their itineraries.  Even cruises to Alaska stop at a Canadian port along the way, so they don't have to abide by U.S. labor law.  All cruises that call on Hawaii, except for the Pride of America (POA), touch a foreign port.  Some leave from Vancouver in Canada, and then sail three or four days at sea to reach Hawaii. Others come from Japan or Australia, also requiring lengthy stints at sea.  We didn't have that kind of time, so POA was our best (and really only) choice.  Norwegian has permanently based the POA in Hawaii, and it sails identical inter-island seven-day cruises every week, round-trip from Honolulu.  As such, the ship is flagged in the U.S. and every worker on the ship is paid commensurate American wages, receives mandatory entitlements, are limited in their work hours, and must be U.S. citizens.  Close to 100% of cruise ships in the world are staffed by cheap labor (usually from Southeast Asia), but POA doesn't have that luxury.  That is the primary driver for the significantly higher costs of a cruise aboard the POA, as opposed to other lines.

As we had originally decided on this trip nearly three years ago, we kind of just booked it and then forgot about it.  Many other trips came and went in the interim, and we didn't really make planning a priority until earlier this year, and only after returning from Poland did we really begin working in earnest to lock down our plans.

The cruise departs Honolulu every Saturday evening throughout the year, and we theoretically could have flown in the same day of departure.  That said, given all of the nightmares associated with air travel this year, the sheer distances involved, and the six-hour time change (seven in winter), we wanted to allow ourselves a day of cushion on the front end.  For the distances of travel, too, I wanted to be sure we could fly in business class, so we could get some sleep and reduce the problems of jetlag.  We had credit with Delta Airlines (from our Covid-cancelled African safari) that we had to use by the end of this year, so we used that to buy our tickets to Honolulu.  For the return, United operates a once-a-week nonstop flight on Saturdays, which lined up with the end of our cruise, and we were able to use miles to secure award tickets for the trip home.

We left VERY early on a Friday morning.  We had to connect in Atlanta, and our original flight from Dulles was to leave at 7:15am.  That left us just under an hour to connect in Atlanta.  Worrying about delays and the chaos that can be the Atlanta airport, I asked Delta to move us to their 6:00am flight.  The price of the extra cushion was having to leave for the airport at 4:30am, which wasn't ideal.  Still everything worked out fine, and we were able to enjoy a surprisingly good breakfast in the SkyMiles Club in Atlanta.  All of our flights were on time and our seats for the 10+ hour flight to Honolulu were very comfortable.  Both of us got more than four hours of sleep along the way, which proved crucial later in the day.

Very Early Departure from Dulles

Flying into Atlanta

Settling in for the looooong flight for Honolulu

Our Flight Path

Aloha! First impressions

Our flight to Honolulu was completely full and the crowds at the airport upon arrival confirmed that the tourists were back.  In the run-up to this trip, I was in the midst of planning at work for a government shutdown.  Or, as we had been saying at work, "a lapse in appropriated funding."  When I left the office late on Thursday, things looked all but certain that the government would shut down at midnight on Saturday.  I had finagled things at work to allow me to be away that week, even though technically I was required to be there.  Of more concern, however, was the operating status of national parks.  Until an actual shutdown occurs, the Office of Management of Budget does not specify exactly which parts of the government will be deemed essentially and remain open. During every shutdown aside from the longest (under Trump), all the National Parks closed completely.  We were scheduled to visit no less than four parks during our cruise and I was concerned (and frankly, selfishly, angry) that politics were threatening our potentially once-in-a-lifetime chance to see some of these places.  On the last day of our cruise, I booked us a tour that would pick us up from the ship and take us to Pearl Harbor, which we would visit before being transferred to the airport for our flight home. You need advance tickets to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, and they sell out months in advance.  Worrying that we would miss this iconic site, I found out that the Park Service releases a small number of next-day tickets every evening.  So, late on the night before our departure, I waited on the Park Service website until exactly 9:00pm, when I was able to secure two tickets for the latest window the next day (3:15pm).  This meant, however, that we would have to go directly to Pearl Harbor from the airport.  Compounding the scheduling challenge was the fact that we had already booked a luau for that same evening, in Honolulu.  It was going to be a race to see if we could squeeze everything in AND stay awake, which is another reason we were both so happy to have slept on the plane.

Upon Arrival in Honolulu.  The airport has lots of open-air concourses.

By 2:30pm we were in our rental car, leaving the airport.  Honolulu is notorious for its traffic, and if locals are to be believed, they have the worst traffic in America.  I don't know if I could go that far, but there is a tremendous amount of traffic trying to navigate a very limited number of roads...oh, yeah, and it was rush hour on a Friday afternoon.

Pearl Harbor is only a few miles from the airport, and we made it with just enough time to very quickly walk through the museum and then queue up for the boat launch, which would take us over to the Arizona Memorial.  When I visited in 2018, I took the same boat, but the memorial was being renovated at the time (it had become unstable) so we were not able to leave the launch and board the actual monument.   They have since completed the restoration work, and I was very much looking forward to seeing it.  The US Navy runs the boat launch and, unsurprisingly, they run a proverbially tight ship.  We got to spend about 30 minutes at the memorial, at the end of which a World War II veteran came aboard, in his wheelchair, to a raucous welcome from those of us there.  We learned that only one survivor of the Arizona is still alive. He is 104 and, like many of his fellow survivors, he has elected to have his ashes interred inside the hulk of the Arizona after his death.

View to the Arizona Memorial from the Visitors' Center

Arizona Memorial from the Navy Launch.  USS Missouri -- where WWII Peace Treaty with Japan was signed -- in background.

Original mooring for the Arizona on Battleship Row

Names of all the soldiers killed on the USS Arizona.  Names of survivors later interred after death appear on lower pedestals.

Flags were at half mast for Senator Diane Feinstein who had passed away earlier in the day.

Oil still leaks from the sunken hulk 80+ years on.

As I wrote earlier, we had also booked a luau this night, and in hindsight we were beginning to question what we had been thinking.  I know we were trying to maximize our time, but the time change was surely going to catch up with us.  Using Waze in our rental car, I calculated that we did not have time to drive to our hotel in Waikiki, check-in, and then make it back to the luau venue in time.  The distances were not far, but the traffic was very heavy, and we simply couldn't make it work, so we ended up heading directly to the luau.  I should mention, too, that we were still in our airplane clothes, meaning that we had on long pants, which was not ideal given that it was in the upper 80's in Honolulu.

We did a lot research on luaus while planning, and quickly learned they are held on different nights at different venues, so our options were limited.  For a Friday night, there is a luau held at the iconic Aloha Tower, which is a 100-year old lighthouse-like structure that marks the historic main shipping harbor for Honolulu.  It remained the tallest structure on Oahu island until the 1950's.  

The Aloha Tower

The luau was, needless to say, a tourist attraction, and we met lots of fellow travelers.  We were, however, the only ones we met who had literally just arrived, with most others on the tail ends of their respective vacations.  Lots of couples on their honeymoons, and a seemingly equal number celebrating anniversaries, such as ourselves.  Lots of international visitors, too, from every corner of the globe.  I was surprised (but honestly shouldn't have been) at the numbers of Australians.  I laugh in hindsight, too, as while in line to enter the outdoor luau venue, we saw a couple in matching Hawaiian garb celebrating their anniversary.  We both looked at each other and said, "let's not ever let ourselves be those people and wear those outfits."  Fast forward a week and you'll see that we in fact BECAME that couple and ended up with our own matching Hawaiian outfits.  I'll attribute it to the "magic of the islands."

The luau was fun, with lots of history about Hawaii and the other islands of Polynesia, with obligatory fire dancing and hula, of course.  By the time the sun set, however, the time difference was catching up and we left with about 20 minutes left in the show.  

An Iconic Address

Hotels in Waikiki are notoriously -- and ridiculously -- expensive.  Knowing that we would be spending our pre-cruise night here, we had to accept that, while also taking best advantage of the situation.  Without getting into the gory details, through one of our credit cards, I was able to book a room at the iconic Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which is one of the first hotels established in Waikiki, and which is also known as the "Pink Palace of the Pacific." The hotel opened in 1927 to cater to the burgeoning tourism industry fueled by steamer travel from San Francisco to Honolulu.  It has been expanded over the years, including the addition of two oceanfront towers, but it's historic charm remains.  It was definitely a splurge, but we figured it was worth it.  

Traffic had let up a little and it was only about 20 minutes to the hotel, but I was nonetheless happy to park the rental car and check-in.  We were upgraded to a huge room overlooking the ocean, with a massive wrap-around balcony.  It was literally and figuratively too late to take in all the sites or appreciate all of the surroundings, as were asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

Our Hotel -- the Royal Hawaiian, dating from the 1920's.

Evening view from our balcony.

Which North Shore?!

We were in bed shortly after 8:00pm the previous night, but with the time change, we were whooped.  The change, however, meant that we were up early.  I viewed the sunrise from our balcony and even watched as our ship arrived into port.  We were not due to board until 3:30pm, so we had the entire day to see more of the island.  On our cruise, we'd be visiting the four primary Hawaiian islands, of which there are technically 137!  The "big ones," however, are Oahu (with the capital city of Honolulu), Maui, Hawaii (also known as "the Big Island"), and Kauai.  Of these four, Oahu is the smallest, yet it has the vast majority of the state's population.  Just over 1M people live on Oahu (mostly in Honolulu), while the population of all of Hawaii is 1.4M.  Oahu is also home to the very large military population, which accounts for much of the concentration of people and infrastructure.  

Sunrise from Our Balcony

Moonset and Sunrise

Breakfast on the Beach

View to Diamond Head from Breakfast Table.

We had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, outside, alongside the beach as we watched surfers getting an early start.  The view AND Hawaiian coffee were great and very welcome.  As I mentioned earlier, we had picked up a rental car at the airport when we arrived.  We wanted to tour the north shore of Oahu, and this seemed the best way to do so, without getting involved with an organized tour and worrying about getting back to make our ship.  In reading ahead, I came across a series of narrated GPS-guided self driving tours for all of the islands.  The app is called "Shaka Guide" and we were hooked from this first tour, on Oahu.  We quickly learned that "shaka" refers to the iconic "Hang Loose" sign formed by making a fist with your right hand and then raising your thumb and pinkie.  It is pure Hawaiian and we would see it everywhere during the week.  The Shaka app is really wonderful.  You choose the tour you want via the app on your phone, it figures out where you are, send instructions to your car on how to get to the starting point, and then once you're there, it literally guides you every step of the way.  It shows you where you are on the map and the guide (who we came to really enjoy) provides step-by-step instructions, history, tips, music, and information on what you're seeing.  You can travel at your own pace, see what you want, and the app also had extra features, such as guides of food recommendations based on where you are, parking info, etc.   It is a truly outstanding little app and we used it extensively on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai.  

Heading Out From the Hotel

We learned the majority of our Hawaiian history during our driving tours, and we'll both admit it was very limited before this trip.  I recently listened to a podcast on the true story behind how a very small group of industrialists and less than 20 armed men organized the demise of the Hawaiian monarchy, leading to it become a US territory, but that is only a small portion of their fascinating history.  Later in the trip, I downloaded the podcast on the overthrow of the monarchy, so Katherine could hear it.

Our tour took about four hours and brought us up and over Oahu, to the iconic north shore, famous for its surfing and pineapple plantations.  As soon as we left the hustle and bustle of Honolulu, it was like we were on a different island altogether.  We both really enjoyed the vibe of the north shore, but we did have a few laughs while we got used to the app and our navigation.  We quickly learned that pronouncing Hawaiian words can be challenging, but my biggest problem was that so many words sound alike, and I often became confused.  It is a very consonant-heavy language, and interestingly enough, they don't have an "s" sound at all.  We also did not bring a proper road map with us, planning to use Waze and the Shaka Guide.  As we started on our driving tour, Katherine had a printout of the "North Shore Tour" in her lap, and she was desperately trying to match up what our guide was saying to places on the map.  Nothing seemed to match, and for a while we attributed it to our confusion over pronunciation of the place names.  After about an hour we realized that K was looking at the wrong north shore tour.  Turns out, there are north shore tours on Oaha, Maui, AND Kauai.  We were quickly fine once she pulled out the Oahu tour, but we had quite a chuckle over this for the remainder of the trip.

We Saw These Often, on All of the Islands

Byodo In Temple on Oahu -- replica of the same shrine in Japan

Mountains Used in Filming Parts of the Jurassic Park Movies

Returning Back to Hotel for Lunch

When we checked into the hotel the night before, they handed us information that the annual "Aloha Parade" was being held on this Saturday, which would close many roads near our hotel.  It was to end around 1:00pm, so we hoped to miss most of the road closures by the time we got back.  While we had rented our car at the airport, I made arrangements to drop it off at a downtown Avis location, near our hotel, as we didn't want to backtrack to the airport.  The cruise terminal was very close to our hotel, too, so we didn't want to get involved with a lot of going back and forth.  Problem is, however, there are multiple Avis locations close to our hotel.  Using Waze, we headed to the return address provided with our rental information. That led us to a huge downtown galleria mall, with no parking garage, and entrances on four different streets.  It also happened to be right next to the parade route, which was just being reopened when we arrived, so traffic was quite heavy.  I tried calling the location multiple times, but never got an answer. The night before, when parking our car, I saw a sign in the garage, saying that Avis returns should be parked on the 7th deck.  I assumed that maybe this garage was the return location for our franchise, so rather than drive the block again, we just returned to the garage.  We elected to park the car, with K walking the very short distance to our hotel, while I walked a couple blocks in the other direction, in search of the elusive Avis office.  I finally found the Avis desk, which was literally in the heart of the open-air mall.  I explained that I could not find where to return the car and explained where I parked it.  He told me I needed to move it to another garage.  He pointed, but I asked for an actual address, as the area was very congested.  He again pointed and I again (politely) asked him to give me an address.  At that point (probably because he didn't know it), he just asked me for the keys.  Where I had parked was actually a different Avis location, for the Four Seasons Hotel, which isn't open on the weekend.  He just told me to give him the keys and he'd "fix it on Monday."  I wasn't about to argue the fact and was happy to just be rid of it at this point.  I did, however, insist on a printed receipt of the return, JUST in case.

Back at the hotel, we repacked our bags and went down to an outdoor restaurant in the hotel, also on the beach, for a nice lunch and some inaugural vacation cocktails.  It was a great way to settle into vacation mode.  There was a local man playing Hawaiian music on the patio with us.  We really enjoyed his music and K spoke to him as we were leaving, getting information on where we could hear and purchase his music.

Boarding and Cruise Basics

Our Cruise's Itinerary

It was an easy and very short Uber ride from the hotel to the cruise pier, which was ironically located directly across from the Aloha Tower, where we'd attended our luau the night before.  Check-in and boarding were the fastest we've ever had on a cruise.  When I checked in on-line a few weeks earlier, they had offered us a "Preferred Access Package," which included priority embarkation and disembarkation.  I was dubious at the time, but as I wanted some added cushion, should we have encountered any issues with our driving tour or returning the rental car, I went ahead and did it.  In hindsight, it was definitely worth it, and it wasn't very expensive at all.  This allowed us to essentially skip the line and we were onboard in under 10 minutes, from Uber to our stateroom.  Not too shabby.

Our cabin was a balcony, on the 10th deck.  It was nice, standard cruise ship fare.  We were both, however, impressed by how much storage they had built in, and we had tons of unused areas throughout the trip, which came in handy as our purchases multiplied.  The ship itself is older, originally built in 2000 as part of a pilot project to build a U.S. flagged cruise ship in a U.S. shipyard.  The goal of the subsidized project was to invigorate the U.S. shipbuilding industry with heavy government subsidies, but the project ultimately failed.  The company formed to build the ship, originally dubbed the USS America, filed for bankruptcy.  Norwegian Cruise Lines purchased the unfinished hull, which was towed to Germany, where it was completed in 2005.  It was flagged in the United States, and was the first such cruise ship since 1958 to be so.  From the outset, Norwegian planned to station the ship in Hawaii, and that is where it's been ever since.  Despite being completed in a German shipyard, the ship did qualify to be flagged in the United States, as a majority of its material was manufactured in the States.  It was refurbished in 2020, but remains small compared to most modern cruise ships.  It holds a maximum capacity of 2,500 guests.  Since Covid, they continue to operate with reduced capacity -- adhering to recommendations from the CDC -- so our sailing was only about 75% full.  Being so small and without a full contingent of cruisers, it was very easy to navigate.  It also does not have a casino, given that it never leaves U.S. territorial waters.

Breaking In Our Balcony

Our Cabin

This was my third time sailing with Norwegian, and K's second, though it has been years since we'd been on the line.  They are different from other cruise lines, in that they have a "freestyle" concept, meaning you are not assigned a dining time and table.  There are about a dozen restaurants on the ship and you can essentially show up when you want.  You can request a table for as many as you like, based on your party size, and you're not seated with others, unless you all request that.  You can make advance reservations in any of the restaurants, too, if you want to be sure you don't have to wait.  They also have three "up-charge" restaurants, which are higher end, in which you pay a service fee to eat.  As part of our booking (and the majority of most on the ship), guests get a certain number of "free" specialty restaurant visits.  In our case, we got three, so we made reservations in their Italian, French, and Steakhouse restaurants for during the week.  On the other nights, we went to one of the two main dining rooms, where we never had a wait for a table.  We really enjoyed our server on this first night, and requested to return to one of her tables for two other nights of the cruise.  I'll admit, as well, that my expectations for service on the cruise were quiet low.  I was used to the over-the-top service on most of our other cruises, usually from very deferential foreign staff, and I expected to encounter surly service on POA.  I'm extremely happy to say that we encountered the exact opposite.  Everyone with whom we interacted was so friendly, and the service was outstanding.  Over the top, really.  Most of the staff, we later learned sign six- or 12-month contracts.  Some sign over and over, as they love the lifestyle, whereas others do it to sock away savings and/or get experience in the hotel and/or food service industry.  

Welcome Aboard Toast!

Unlike other cruises, too, I'll admit that we got an unlimited drink package as part of our fare.  We both scoffed at this initially, thinking we'd never take advantage of it, but in hindsight now, it was a real treat.  We never thought twice about drinks with dinner, at the pool, or just in one of the clubs during the week.  As another example of how this differed from other cruises, however, is that we took advantage of almost none of the onboard activities.  Normally we would see the show every evening, and usually attended trivia and/or enrichment activities.  Aside from two comedy shows, however, we did none of that on this cruise.  Every single day of the trip was spent in a port, so we were invariably moving from sunrise to sunset.  With the time change, too, we never really acclimated, so we were usually in bed by 8:00pm each night, before most of the activities even began.  This reality highlights what many others have written about the POA sailing, in that it is less of a cruise, and more of a "means to an end."  In other words, it provides you transportation between islands, as well as lodging and food.  As I'm sure I'll write about later, too, the extremely high prices in Hawaii help also explain why using the cruise ship in this manner is actually quite reasonable and economical.  

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