RADIANCE/HAWAII Sept 11-21,2015 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

I'll start this day's review off by saying this entire day could've been a huge disaster.....

 

Flashback to the beginning of the cruise. Sunil took my requests for excursions and booked them all. He told me the next day that 1 of the excursions was unavailable and possibly fully booked (Maui) and that two of the others only had 2 and 5 available spots on them respectively, so he considered us very lucky. He also did not wait the next day to book... right away when I handed him the list he got on the phone as he mentioned the lack of availability right from the get-go.

 

Push forward to last night (Hilo). We arrived late at night for bed to our stateroom to a message on our voicemail. "Mr. Sartore. We've called you many times and we may have to cancel your helicopter tour because you have not replied to our other many message on your phone. Call us immediately! You have not given us your weight for the helicopter tour and we have a waiting list. Please call us tonight". The message was recorded at 8:40pm. What the???????!!!!! We had dinner and were at the show! What other messages??? There were no other messages so this was garbage. I ran down to deck 4, of course that late at night no one's at the excursion desk. Instead of waiting in line at guest services, and went back up to the cabin to call instead and was answered right away, and luckily Sunil was down there. I told him what's transpired. He said not to worry, check in first thing in the morning.

 

I was down at the excursion guest at 7am (opens at 7:30). At 7:20am the gal shows up and doesn't seem overly happy to be there lol! She helps me right away though even though she's not officially ready to go. I tell her my story and she's familiar with it. I also nicely let her know several times that I do know how the voicemail and phones work very well, and at no time whatsoever was my light blinking or a message available for me before last night, and there were no other previous messages saved. I urged her to chk the logs if required. Turns out after looking at the reservation list that we had in fact been bumped... wow, I didn't show it but I was extremely upset. This full day helicopter tour is rated in the top 100 excursions in the world and I was bumped!!! We spoke spoke some more, and kudos to her, rolled up her shirt sleeves and got to work. With assistance of desk manager, got the tour supplier contact info and called in (7:30am). They answered, I gave my weights, and they said we'll try to fit you in, hopefully there'll be a cancellation. That was the best they could do. They figured I have a much better chance than 50/50 so show up at the pier where they'll have a clearer picture. Still upset we got ready for the day and crossed our fingers and got ready for the day. What else could we do? Easy, get over it and wing it if we have to.

 

Also note that Kona is a tender port. The DL and CL had some tender tickets including tender #1!!! So I did get a couple from Sunil the night before so that we can walk around town for a couple of hours before assembling for the tour. So down to the tender we went when they announced... no line up, no pushing/shoving, nothing. great set-up and extremely organized.

 

 

 

 

That 1st tender did fill up full, so most cruisers were ready to go that morning. If you need an early tender ticket for a private excursion, I suggest you do pick one up from the DL or CL, else they're all handed out for excursion guests. I love the 2nd photo below, the sun hitting the ship just right

 

 

 

 

It was a very short 5 minute'ish tender over to the pier. The green tents to the right are where all the excursion groups assembled, very easy to find with signs for the various excursions

 

[Hoopster95]

I've never been here, and our transportation to the airfield wasn't until 10:30am, so we planned to walk around the town for a couple of hours before having to head off. The little town of Kona is right there off the pier, easy walk to restaurants, bars, art studios, coffee houses, etc etc. Also just around the corner from the pier is this beautiful tree... look at the size of this thing! On the 2nd photo below you can see the pier and a tender docked under the tree to the left... only about a 2-3 block walk into the center of town.

 

 

 

 

We also had a great view of Radiance from this vantage point across the bay

 

 

 

Not having done very little homework on Kona as my full focus was on the helicopter tour, we stumbled upon this church very quickly after the big tree along the main road. It does have some significance as it turns out, so it's a nice little stop to look around for those of you interested in a little bit of history.

 

 

 

 

It was open to the public, and there was a volunteer inside more than happy to answer any questions you may have

 

[Hoopster95]

There's plenty of info there, really a short read to familiarize yourself as to the significance of the church and it's history for the community.

 

 

 

All in all a nice little visit for 15 minutes, and out the front gates we went to continue our stroll through town

 

 

 

There are plenty of awesome art studios inside little malls and lanes... definitely walk into the nooks and crannies of the various store fronts as there may be gems waiting for you. This art studio was fabulous, and of course most all of the have the no photography sign up but this art was incredible, and actually one of the few I would consider shelling out this kind of money for. Just gorgeous

 

 

 

I also strolled into and out of various excursion booths, and for sure the prices were so much lower than the ship prices, and lower than to advertised on-line prices direct to the supplier. You have to be careful... some of the really low prices were to good to be true... involving time-share seminars. YUCH!!! However, the legit re-sellers were fabulously competitive. If I were staying on land I could easily go through some of these rates for various tours at about 2/3 the price as on the ship.

 

After about an hour or so we began making our way back, closing in on the familiar tree at the beginning of our walk.

 

 

 

And this sign almost at the front of the pier I had walked by and not noticed, but this is where the Ironman World Championships are held. You can pull up google images and video of the pier (and you can see the church above on the background of those various videos)

 

[Hoopster95]

So now the moment had come... we had to anxiously await news as to whether we'd get on this tour or not. We arrived back at the pier maybe 1/2 hour early in order to speak with someone regarding our situation. I couldn't find anyone from ShoreEx nor the Chopper company, so we sat with a few others who were waiting for the chopper company to arrive at 10:30. 10:20'ish a ShoreEx personel was hanging around so I went to talk to her... she knew of my situation and I told her what was said and what was done. She too took down all my info and was prepared to confirm my involvement. 10:30 arrived... no bus. 10:40... no bus. 10:50... no bus. ShoreDEx came over and said they just called and would be there in 10 min. 1/2 hour later they finally showed up! A few impatient people finally got lined up to re-confirm weights. I was never asked about my maybe/maybe-not status. When I got to the front of the line, the BlueHawaii rep had my name on the list so were were good to go!!!! YAAAAY. 45 minutes late off we went... at least we were going!

 

The ride to the BlueHawaii airfield was much farther past the airport on their own little helipad. It took about 45minutes to get there! Boring bus ride with not much to see, but it was really interesting to see the previous lava flows from years gone by and how far it had come down the mountain side to the ocean. The driver had zero narration... it was just transportation only, that's it. Also during the ride out of Kona it began to get very dark and rained. Byt he time we hit the Helipad, it was cloudy with a little sub breaking out here and there... rain had stopped. We got to their helipad just after noon.

 

Now came the crappy news... we were all very sure they knew this before we arrived, but they announced to us that the full 1 hour 45 min tour (Big Island Spectacular) was cancelled because the weather at the craters will not allow flights today... we can get full refund and book another day (yeah, right!!) or do the 45min tour up the Kohala Coast. Well after a 2hour walk around waiting, another hour waiting for the bus, and another 45min of bus ride of nothing, what would they think we do???... cancel and go back to the ship after already wasting 4 hours?? Of course not, so begrudgingly we decided to do the shorter tour. Thankfully it was still spectacular!

 

 

 

We were given a short safety video, then lined up/positioned according to our weights, and then taken to our helicopters!

 

 

 

Our pilot today was Noel. Great guy! Answered all questions and I can tell he was positioning the helicopter many times in order to get perfect video of the sites we were seeing.... more on this later.

 

 

 

They assisted us into the chopper with safety harnesses and instruction, pretty soon we were lifting off and on our way with a fly by of the head office where we had just done our safety speach.

 

 

 

Within a couple of minutes I knew this would still be a fantastic experience even without the craters... I have to admit that with the pictures coming up and some of the sites I am about to see, seeing the volcanoes and craters would have been just an unreal experience by chopper. I will absolutely most definitely do this again... but only if I stay on the Big Island on land so that I can do some land site-seeing during questionable weather and then book the helicopter tour next day on clear weather for example. And being it the front seat of the chopper was a major bonus!

 

[Hoopster95]

Pictures always say a thousand words. I'll let some of these do the talking...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note there is quite a bit of glare through the glass. It was mentioned in the write ups of the helicopter tour to wear as much black, or at least dark clothing, as possible else it will reflect on the glass. We were the only ones to do so as there were several people with high florescent t-shirts also! Big mistake. They do give you darker blue logo shirts to wear overtop but note even my pics... we were all black but still you get glare and mirror effect showing my hand, sandals, legs, etc within the pictures. Any coloured clothing at all would show up in these pictures. So if any of you do this tour, absolutely 100% wear black shirt and shorts/pants

 

 

 

Look at the number of and heights of these waterfalls! I feel like a broken record on this review but it's true... these pics do not do this site justice compared to being here and flying by.

 

[Hoopster95]

Noel did a great job buzzing in and around the mountain sides, with many close-up opportunities. We also did a close-up fly by into this canyon... just gorgeous!... with plenty of close-ups at various waterfalls located inside.

 

 

 

 

Take a good look at the pilot's display. Top right corner is actual video being taken from one of a couple of mounted cameras. Not known to me, there's also an inside camera looking back at the passengers also. Noel had to fly the helicopter in a way where the rigid mount cameras would take the best video with the angels he was flying... he did a great job! In the end the videos are only $20. No brainer

 

 

 

And back we go the opposite direction up the coast-line we had just flew by

 

 

 

Almost to the minute (45min tour), we had arrived back to the Blue Hawaii helipad... there it is right next to the Highway

 

 

 

And here we were... adventure over

 

 

 

No doubt about it I would do this again. But never again will I pre-book this months in advance from a cruise ship knowing what I know now... I would need to know the weather. The problem is this tour is totally full on day 1 so you have to take that gamble if on a cruise. It was now around 1:30pm'ish... another 45min ride back to town and it would be 2:30pm. With needing to be on the last tender by 4:30pm there was little room for anything else... very much to me a "wasted" day. While that last 45 minutes was spectacular, I would've much preferred having a rental car and being on the road by 9am and actually seeing many things all day long rather than for this 45 minute period. I think the way to do this from the ship would be to book private the day you get to shore, once you've confirmed the weather and after you have your rental car!!! You can get there on your own before a peak cruise time (say 10 or 11am) where to me they would have much more space than when the buses arrived at noon. If the weather is bad, then you don't have to go.

 

So on the bus we went and back to Kona.

[Hoopster95]

On the way out of town, I noticed within a few blocks of the pier the Kona Brewing Company which I had read about on-line prior to the trip. I was going to ask the driver about it on the way back, but he did mention that he was dropping a few people off at a local restaurant well-known for a few things (I can't remember the name) and that the Kona brewing Co. was just a 1/2 block away. So we got off before the pier with a few people and headed over there.

 

 

 

As you go up the stairs, you actually see the end point of the brewery tour rather than the front door, and we looked at the gift shop area and restaurant before knowing we had to go around the corner. Once we went around the corner it all made sense.

 

 

 

Note that tours are limited to twice a day, and only 17 people max, so booking on-line I think on a cruise ship in port day (and very early on) is likely a must. we didn't bother inquiring as it was very late in the day... this would be something I would have to plan ahead of time the next time.

 

 

 

They had what was called a "growler" shack. Google growler and you'll know what this is: "Growlers are big right now with beer geeks. The refillable half-gallon bottles let you roll on up to your favorite brewery/fancy beer stores and get a tap-fresh jug o' suds." It's basically like a really big refillable Starbucks mug, except for beer!

 

 

 

 

The prices were steep I felt, but I guess for the size of the Growler perhaps warranted. I just didn't feel like downing that much beer in the limited time we had so we passed it up.... yes the "smaller" growler is 32 ounces!

 

[pspercy]

When on Radiance last year the one helo tour I considered was Blue Hawaii's West Maui and Molokai so we could see the Molokai sea cliffs. I have a love/hate thing about helicopters so we didn't go in the end !

[Hoopster95]

We spent the last hour or so hanging around the shops over the last 3-4 blocks in and around the pier area. Luckily, into one of the "alley ways" of stores, I found this hole in the wall cafe which had shaved ice (I got the Blue Hawaii) and the very best cookie I've had eons... it was the last one. The shop owner told me she normally sells out of these long before now so I was lucky. Home made chocolate chip, laced with a ton of macadamia nuts... and warmed up! Omg yummmm!!! And note the size of the plate in my hand, the cookie was approx 5 inched in diameter.

 

 

 

 

A little more walking around brought us back to a store front we had passed earlier in the morning. They offered free samples of various Kona coffee.

 

 

 

Be sure you look at the labelling. Some packaging in various stores in Hawaii say "made with Kona coffee". Be sure it says "100% Kona coffee" else you'll be wasting your money. These guys were legit. Wonderful samples so I couldn't resist bring some home. I bought the Rainbow blend, a combo blend of the dark and light.

 

 

 

 

And since I was buying and chatting up the owner about a few things, he got friendly and asked if I wanted to try something different? He pulled out this sample jar, and there were just a few jars in behind the desk available for sale. This small jar is $25 I believe. He gave me this little spoonful to try, hopefully to sell me obviously. What was it? Macadamia nut butter!! Holy cow batman, talking about delicious!! But I just couldn't pull the trigger at that price. If you ever get the chance to try this, do it!

 

[Hoopster95]

It was time to get going and we had milked pretty much all the time we had. As you can see leaving the tender area there was zero line-up as we were one of the last to get back I would think with only about 15-20 left to the posted "last tender time"... no one behind us waiting

 

 

 

 

The tenders used both here and tomorrow in Maui were the Radiance's own dual purpose ship life boats/tenders. Here's a closer up view of the next one coming back to the pier

 

 

 

And finally we were back 'home'

 

[Hoopster95]

We had loose plans this evening for dinner, at first we had talked to UNV-IT about Rita's but that fell through, so we decided to dress smart casual tonight and go to MTD un-announced and see what happens. In the meantime, once changed and ready to go I was thinking about maybe doing sailaway out on the helipad so we exited on deck 5 and came across this...

 

 

 

Sure enough they were about to bring the last tender up. I had never witnessed this up close so I was really interested to see how this all worked as they winched up the tender.

 

 

 

 

They had each side roped off to the public... I was standing right at the rope to take these pics. This process was quite simple as it turns out. From the initial winching from sea level to it's final tied down state it took maybe 10 minutes tops

 

 

 

 

 

It was basically dinner time by that point so we headed over to the MTD early (5:30) as we didn't have reservations to see what would happen. we were seated immediately at that same table for 8 and again filled quickly enough with a couple of the same people we have dinner with on prior days.

 

Evening events were subdued again... We caught the tail end of Finish that Lyric game show and I believe we bee-lined for 7:30 trivia in the Schooner Bar instead this night. Other than that, only one headliner show was offered this evening for all guests at 9:15pm: Sean Laughlin ... juggling comedian kinda guy. Admittedly, we were bagged after this and decided not to attend the "Dancing Under the Stars Luau" on pool deck this night. I guess we've been preconditioned so far that the nightly events were poorly attended and figured why push it if we were tired? So we hit the sack early to get ready for Maui.

[Hoopster95]

When on Radiance last year the one helo tour I considered was Blue Hawaii's West Maui and Molokai so we could see the Molokai sea cliffs. I have a love/hate thing about helicopters so we didn't go in the end !

 

I recommend you bite the bullet and try it at least once... it truly is spectacular and a lifetime memory no matter where you do it. :)

[A&L_Ont]

Hoopster, I am glad to read that you chopper ride went well, once you finally got going. The pictures are amazing. It is unfortunate that much of your day was lost to waiting. I would think the night previous might not have been the best for sleeping, as you were wondering if you would be flying the next day.

 

I have been enjoying your review, and look forward to the rest of it.

[critterchick]

What a fun read! We've done this route the other way a few times on Rhapsody and are looking forward to Radiance next year and 2017. Unlike you, I really like the Radiance class ships, so it'll be a nice change for us.:)

[LMaxwell]

 

Smack dab center of this deck is this.... does anyone know what it is? I couldn't figure it out and forgot to ask Sunil or Capt Juan. It looks like some kind of sun dial but I really couldn't tell.

 

 

 

 

Just metal art work mimicking a ships helm and binnacle.

 

Here is the one in the VCL on Majesty of the Seas

 

[pawperazzi]

I and DS (dreamer 976) met you at sail away and saw you several times during our cruise. I appreciate many of your insights and recommendations (i.e. Wait to see what the weather will be before committing to an aerial tour). I'm sure those tips will help out many on their cruises, too. Also loved the close-up video of your Thriller dance, as I watched it waaaaaay up on deck 9. Thanks for your efforts in this review, and I'll be following it to the end.

Val

[2catfamily]

I and DS (dreamer 976) met you at sail away and saw you several times during our cruise. I appreciate many of your insights and recommendations (i.e. Wait to see what the weather will be before committing to an aerial tour). I'm sure those tips will help out many on their cruises, too. Also loved the close-up video of your Thriller dance, as I watched it waaaaaay up on deck 9. Thanks for your efforts in this review, and I'll be following it to the end.

Val

 

I know Steve Davis personally so I will let him know that you posted this review and you had a good time with the Thriller Dance and posted a lot of pictures.

[Hoopster95]

I know Steve Davis personally so I will let him know that you posted this review and you had a good time with the Thriller Dance and posted a lot of pictures.

 

Hey that's great! I mentioned him on the RCL survey as well, thought he did a great job overall especially being on the ship first time I believe, always around and very visible. Super nice guy, would like to see him as CD on a future sailing.

[Hoopster95]

Today was another tender port day, and again we got an early ticket from the DL the night before (albeit not #1). This was the port we were placed on a waiting list for a tour, but it didn't pan out, so we were on our own to do whatever we wanted. So after breakfast off we went to see what we can find.

 

 

 

 

I've been to Maui many years ago, and I knew full well I did not want to spend over 4 hours in a bus (2 hours there and back to Haleakala) or trying to take a rental car all the way to Hana... just too far, not enough time. Our excursion was supposed to be a nature hike with plenty of waterfalls, including swimming in them, so our goal was to find a taxi/tour guide to take us somewhere to do just that.

 

Once off the pier, like any Caribbean port, there were several drivers/tour guides holding their placards trying to get business. We told one guy what we wanted and he said no problem... along the way to Hana there were waterfalls he can take us to long before Hana so much closer, offered at $75pp and needed more people to join in... and just as we were confirming exactly what he was offering another guy stepped in to steal us. The first guy kind of sheepishly bowed down to him somewhat, almost like the 2nd guy had seniority or something. Regardless, he promised us a full island tour plus a waterfall stop. At that same time another couple came along and they really wanted waterfalls too, so we decided on guy #2 at $70pp.

 

In the meantime, we had about an hour to spend before our meeting time so that he can collect more cruisers. There's a very short historic walk around a couple of blocks which we did...

 

 

 

And then spent the rest of the time under the amazing largest Banyan tree on the world (I believe). Just beautiful! Plus there was a huge market going on there so there was awesome artwork for sale. We spent about 45mn here until our meeting time at the van.

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Unknown to me, our tour would consist of the roads west through Kanapali, and up around Kapalua which consisted of primarily 1 laned extremely thin roads where cars/vans needed to take turns in order to proceed. There were plenty of short photo ops and beautiful scenery.

 

 

 

 

There was no real major site seeing stop along this route until much further into the morning, and that was the Nakalele Blowhole up on the north side. We did not have enough time here as it would've been great to walk all the way down where those people were and actually hang out a bit! Again another reason to have a rental car in order to stop whenever/wherever you wanted. Nonetheless really cool to see... several times the blow hole exploded higher and stronger than other times depending on the force of the waves

 

 

 

 

We continued around the island stopping at a few various spots along the way... but no waterfalls... and a lot of bus time. So several of us began to ask him about the waterfalls as that was our #1 as we had told him from the get-go and he said not to worry we'll get to them. Still great scenery but a lot of driving time. And that is what I got out of Maui as well as my 2 week stay there many years ago... to see Maui you need a few days minimum. I firmly believe that Maui is not a good cruise stop as to see anything of real value there is not enough time with one port day (in fact looking back that's how I felt about all our 4 ports... unlike any Caribbean port where I'm good to go after a day). RCL has got it right to include the overnight in Maui in the next sailings (matching Rhapsody's itineraries)

 

[Hoopster95]

So I guess feeling the group pressure of wanting waterfalls, one of the "planned" stops he made which included "waterfalls" was a public park called the Kepaniwai Heritage Gardens. It was busy with locals, public picnics, etc. The park was divided up into areas with mock buildings of Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, etc cultures describing the influence on the Island. We did not walk around these areas... we were there for any waterfall experience as this is where he said it was. Over that course of 45 min, including a walk over a locked private gate (where he told us to trespass), over a bridge, through a unmarked trail, we only found a waterfall maybe 4 feet high. The walk was nice, but that was it.... just nice, and a major disappointment. We made the best of it and went into the water regardless to enjoy the few minutes left we had. Pictures weren't spectacular or anything and definitely don't portray Hawaii like the helicopter pics did in Kona, so I'll skip ahead to our next "famous" stop.

 

Unbeknownst to us, he said our last stop was going to be great with a larger waterfall. He did not tell us it was the famous Iao Valley State Park.

 

 

 

 

There were plenty of people im swimming suits and wet, so we knew we were going into the water no problem. There were many locals too. To get down to the rapids you have to go over the bridge in the picture above... where you get the first glimpse of the Iao Needle

 

 

 

Truthfully... it's highly underwhelming! I thought to myself "those poor people on RCL excursions to only the Iao Valley for $60pp... what a waste". We continued down to the rapids and water, but truthfully and again there were no accessible waterfalls at all. We walked for a while to find anywhere with any kind of decent falls but found nothing (maybe way into the valley?). So we dipped into the refreshing water here and enjoyed whatever time we had

 

 

 

Heading back up the steep stairs to that bridge produced some more views of the Iao Needle... my thoughts no different... underwhelming.

 

 

 

And this was the end of our tour!!!! How unfortunate and somewhat a bummer to be sure. I have rarely had a bad tour, whether it be RCL or private, but unfortunately this was one of them. The worst part is this guy was a descendant of royalty (according to his necklace) and obviously had some kind superiority over that first guide we had talked to. He really talked the talk and was very knowledgeable, spoke well of the history...

 

But again, my initial thoughts were re-confirmed, your own rental car here is the way to go at bare minimum. Bare minimum #2 is an overnight 2 day stay (coming up next year on Radiance). Best case is staying 3-4 days on land so that you do both Haleakala sunrise and sunset, road to Hana, watch the huge surf on the North Shore, and spend more time in Lahaina incl. the famous Old Lahaina Luau. Just my 2 cents as we were dropped off in downtown Lahaina.

[Hoopster95]

We were dropped off about 4 blocks from the tender pier so that we can walk along Front St. It was packed as the main road was roped off for kids running a mini marathon of sorts. Nonetheless, we were able to get in and out of the various shops... the art studios are amazing! But the very best stop and highlight of the day (sad) was this....

 

 

 

Ululani's Hawaiian Shaved Ice... a must must just try. This is the real deal.

 

 

 

There are plenty of flavours, and they make it right in front of you. Seriously, the line-up of Ululani's on Front St was at least 15-20 minutes long, but this one I stopped at I was super lucky as it was down one of those lane-ways with others stores. I had no clue I would stumble upon it and there was zero line.

 

 

 

I asked the boys to make the best combo and they put together a Passion Fruit, mango, Coconut Shaved Ice for me.... oh so goooooood! And HUGE. It was not like a North American snow cone at all... it more ice-creamy, can't explain it.

 

 

 

We noticed the tender lines to be really long, so we decided to check out the artwork and various booths again under the Banyan Tree and enjoy the music being played there for a while

 

 

[Dreamer115]

I hope you told him what you thought and didn't tip him as he did not give what you asked for.

[Hoopster95]

Well, instead of the tender lines loosening up a bit, they got worse! So we bit the bullet and got in line. This below is the line in front of us after progressing forward for about 15min...

 

 

 

And from the exact same spot looking back...

 

 

 

Overall it took maybe 25-30 min to get on a tender. RCL did their best to have servers come out and serve water in the line-up, so looks like everyone wanted to come back to the ship at the exact same time by maximizing their stay in Maui... makes sense! Soon enough we were on a tender and on our way

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

I hope you told him what you thought and didn't tip him as he did not give what you asked for.

 

Yup! I was not mean spirited, gave him feedback (and again repeating what I already said before we even got in the van... which he agreed to but obviously had his own route/agenda) and still said thank you, but did not tip. He was nice the whole way... water/managing time at each spot/providing really great narration actually... it just wasn't what we wanted which he said he would give us. Too bad for me unfortunately... you just have to make do! :)