Our 25th Anniversary Adventure - Baja Mexico & Hawaii on the Inspiration & Splendor

[Jamman54]

13 hours ago, CruisinginWonderland said:

My great uncle was on the USS Nevada. It was a a very moving visit when I went with my family about 15 years ago. 

 

1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

Jeff, thank you for some lovely photos of Honolulu and a very moving tour of Pearl. Doug and I visited over 30 years ago when Doug's brother was a Navy lieutenant on a destroyer homeported in Pearl, and my dad served on a submarine in WWII, sailing out of Pearl to Australia. Funny, though, our Navy Son has not been to Pearl and doesn't plan to put in for a ship based in Pearl - the cost of living is too high, even with the housing stipend the Navy gives.

 

BTW - Loved your photos of Diamond Head. Doug and I hiked to the top when we were there. As we close in on 60 years old, that's not happening again.😃

 

Thank you both for sharing your thoughts and experiences.

[Jamman54]

Day # 17  (May 4^th)   -  Kona, Hawaii  (9 am to 6 pm).

 

Here are today’s Fun Times…..

 

 

 

 

We are up at 6 am. It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day. The temperature is 81 degrees and the seas are fairly calm. The map channel on the television shows that we are approaching Kona on the big island of Hawaii…..

 

 

Stepping outside on the balcony we catch the sun rising over the big island of Hawaii…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kona is a tender port so we will be using water shuttles to go ashore. Here is the water shuttle information…..

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Here are some views of Kona as the Splendor was anchoring offshore…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the pier that the water shuttles will be taking us to…….

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

I went up to the Lido to bring coffee and Danish for both of us back to the cabin. Here is what we are going to be doing today:

Kona Historical Tour

Starting At:

$54.99 / Adult (ages 13 and over)

$49.99 / Child (ages 4 - 12)

Infants less than 4 years don’t require tickets

*Prices may vary by sailing

EXCURSION DETAILS

Learn about Hawaii’s folklore and ancient legends as you travel on this fantastic excursion of Kona. On this excursion you will:

 

Learn about Hawaii's folklore as you travel along Ali’i Drive that traverses through the quaint village of Kailua- Kona.

 

Continue your island journey south along the slopes of Mount Hualalai and catch a view of Keauhou Bay, the birthplace of Kamehameha III.

 

Stop at Royal Kona Coffee Factory and have a spectacular view of Kealakekua Bay.

 

Visit Pu’uhonua O Honaunau, also known as the “Place of Refuge”. Marvel at the city’s temple sitting on a 20-acre finger of lava bordered by the sea on all sides. Experience this sacred Hawaiian site now a National Historic Park dating back to the 16th century.

 

Stop at St. Benedict’s “painted” Church, which dates back to 1899, home to vibrant and colorful religious murals.

 

The Splendor will be using her own lifeboats as water shuttles. As we sat on our balcony eating our breakfast, we watched them  being lowered into the water and readied for work…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We watched the first of the water shuttles reach the pier at Kona…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Our tour tickets said to meet in the Spectacular Show Lounge at 9:15 am. All the tours were going to be meeting there this morning, and as they called your tour, you would be led down to the water shuttles. Our tour was about four or five busloads, so when our tour was called it got a little chaotic.  They were only taking only 70 people at a time, so 250 people stood up and ran for the door, then 180 people had to sit back down. We just sat there and waited figuring we would just wait until the end to avoid the crush.

 

Then they made an announcement that the waters had become choppy which would slow down the water shuttle process, and because of the choppy waters all of the glass bottom boat tours had been cancelled.

 

Finally they got things sorted out and we were led down to the water shuttles. As we went down the stairs we passed Conner from the Fun Squad who wished us a great day…..

 

 

We are on our water shuttle. It was about a ten minute bumpy ride. I could see why they cancelled the glass bottom boat tours. If it had been any worse we probably would have had to skip this port, which has happened before…..

 

 

 

We have arrived in Kona……

 

 

The Carnival Splendor is anchored offshore…..

 

 

Once off the pier, the parking lot where the tour buses were parked was right there. We were directed to our tour, our bus, and our driver / tour guide…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Our first stop is going to be the PU’UHONUA O HONAONAU National Historic Park which translates into “A place of refuge”. Here are some views of Kona as we make our way there…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about a forty minute ride we have arrived at the National Historic Park……

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We were given about an hour to explore here. The views here were spectacular…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Here are some more views of “The Place of Refuge”…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Here is one more page of the spectacular views here…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very quickly our time here was over. We boarded our bus for the fifteen minute drive over to the painted church.

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We have arrived at Saint Benedict Catholic Church aka “The Painted Church”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some views inside the church…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Here are some views of the church grounds…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a little over a half hour there. Our final stop is going to be at the Royal Kona Museum and Coffee Mill. It will be about a twenty minute ride. Here are some views as we made our way there…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We have arrived at the Royal Kona Museum and Coffee Mill…..

 

 

 

 

 

Patti makes her way downstairs to the Kona Coffee Museum…..

 

 

 

 

 

There are some great views off the back deck……

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

They had a huge variety of coffees to sample. My favorite was the toasted coconut. They also gave out samples of rum cake which was very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They also had some teas.....

 

 

We spent about forty five minutes here before heading back to Kailua Kona. On the way back we passed a lava flow from the early 1900’s…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We were dropped off at the water shuttle pier. It was now time for Patti to explore and check out the shops. She drops me off at today’s Husband Daycare which is the Paradise Tap & Grill…..

 

 

 

 

 

I ordered a bar pie to go along with my beer. From here I have a great view of the Carnival Splendor anchored offshore……

 

 

Patti sets off to explore Kailua Kona…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Patti continues to explore Kailua Kona……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti spots a sea turtle out in the bay……

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

She also spotted some colorful birds…..

 

 

 

Here are a few more shots that Patti took before collecting me from the Paradise Tap & Grill…..

 

 

 

 

There was only a short line to board a water shuttle back to the ship…..

 

 

We were back on board around 5 pm. We went back to the cabin to relax before dinner tonight. Patti, who never ate lunch, ordered a turkey sandwich and salad from room service to tide her over. It was delivered in ten minutes…..

 

 

In the meantime, the last water shuttle heads back to the ship……

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Once the last passengers were off loaded, the lifeboats had to be loaded back onto the ship…..

 

 

 

 

 

Yet another beautiful rainbow appears as the Splendor prepares to sail away from Kona…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…….

[Jamman54]

Soon it was time for dinner.  Here are tonight’s menus…..

 

 

 

 

We both started with the potato skins……

 

 

Patti also had the crab melt, while I had the duck pot stickers…..

 

 

 

For our mains Patti had the flat iron steak, while I had the penne newburg…..

 

 

 

Here is tonight’s dessert menu…….

 

 

Patti decided to skip dessert tonight, but I had the lemon meringue pie…..

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

The waiters danced and sang for us again tonight……

 

 

 

After dinner I went to the Sports Bar for a few beers with Jose. Patti took a walk around the ship before winding up at tonight’s Dive In Movie.  The Golden Sound Duo performs in the Robusto Bar……

 

 

#GROOVE6 performs in the Splendor Lobby…..

 

 

Patti checks out the Dive In Movie……

 

 

 

 

The Pizza Pirate isn’t busy at all at the moment…..

 

 

 

We were both back to the cabin by 11 pm. It was another great day!

 

Coming up next:  Drinking wine on a volcano!

[jgeraci7]

I'm assuming that Hilo is your next stop.  Don't miss Volcanoes National Park!  Once again, Thanks for all the memories!

Joyce

[TrqoisWtrs]

On 6/7/2019 at 3:43 PM, MistyRo76 said:

Just before 7 am, a crew member came in and led us up to the bow via the outside deck on Deck 4. When we walked out on to the bow, we literally walked into a party! We were not expecting this! 😄😄

I just sailed the Legend in Alaska and the Diamond party was out on the bow as we cruised into Glacier Bay.  Its nice they are stepping it up for the Diamond parties...only 60 more days to go.  lol

 

When we visited the Memorial, I was shocked to see kids pulling out their phones during the movie.  I actually poked the shoulder of the one sitting in front of us and whispered to have some respect.

 

On a lighter note, we always got a laugh out of the poor GPS lady trying to pronounce the street names. 😄

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by cruisin*tigger

[grandmarnnurse]

On 6/9/2019 at 7:08 PM, Jamman54 said:

Our tour tickets said to meet in the Spectacular Show Lounge at 9:15 am. All the tours were going to be meeting there this morning, and as they called your tour, you would be led down to the water shuttles. Our tour was about four or five busloads, so when our tour was called it got a little chaotic.  They were only taking only 70 people at a time, so 250 people stood up and ran for the door, then 180 people had to sit back down. We just sat there and waited figuring we would just wait until the end to avoid the crush.

 

Then they made an announcement that the waters had become choppy which would slow down the water shuttle process, and because of the choppy waters all of the glass bottom boat tours had been cancelled.

 

Finally they got things sorted out and we were led down to the water shuttles. As we went down the stairs we passed Conner from the Fun Squad who wished us a great day…..

 

 

We are on our water shuttle. It was about a ten minute bumpy ride. I could see why they cancelled the glass bottom boat tours. If it had been any worse we probably would have had to skip this port, which has happened before…..

 

 

 

We have arrived in Kona……

 

 

The Carnival Splendor is anchored offshore…..

 

 

Once off the pier, the parking lot where the tour buses were parked was right there. We were directed to our tour, our bus, and our driver / tour guide…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

Hey, Patti, I have that same exact T-Shirt! Great taste! BTW—you look fabulous! I, too, have been working on getting my weight down with diet and exercise. Not easy to do at my age (65).

[Jamman54]

20 hours ago, fyree39 said:

We had to miss Kona due to high surf. I was so disappointed!  Lovely photos and I'm enjoying every one of your posts.  Thanks again for sharing with us!

 

It's a shame you had to miss Kona. We had a great time there. 😎

 

6 hours ago, jgeraci7 said:

I'm assuming that Hilo is your next stop.  Don't miss Volcanoes National Park!  Once again, Thanks for all the memories!

Joyce

 

Hilo is next. Some pages going up shortly. 😎

 

5 hours ago, cruisin*tigger said:

I just sailed the Legend in Alaska and the Diamond party was out on the bow as we cruised into Glacier Bay.  Its nice they are stepping it up for the Diamond parties...only 60 more days to go.  lol

 

When we visited the Memorial, I was shocked to see kids pulling out their phones during the movie.  I actually poked the shoulder of the one sitting in front of us and whispered to have some respect.

 

On a lighter note, we always got a laugh out of the poor GPS lady trying to pronounce the street names. 😄

 

 

The party on the bow was a highlight for sure. 😎

[Jamman54]

Day # 18  (May 5^th)  -  Hilo, Hawaii  (7 am to 4 pm).

 

Happy Cinco De Mayo everybody!  Here are today’s Fun Times…..

 

 

 

 

We were up a 6 am to a partly sunny day. The seas are calm and the temperature is 78 degrees. Looking at the map channel we can see that we are approaching Hilo on the big island…..

 

 

By 7 am we are docked in Hilo, and a short time later passengers begin leaving the ship……

 

 

 

 

The tour buses and vans begin to line up…..

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

This is the view of the port area from our balcony…..

 

 

 

 

This is what we are doing here today: 

Volcano Wine Tasting Tour

Starting At:

$99.99 / Person 

*Prices may vary by sailing

EXCURSION DETAILS

Wine tasting in Paradise is just a sip away at Volcano Winery on the Big Island.  You'll be treated to a tour of America's southernmost winery. What makes it even more unique is its high elevation, perched 4000 feet above sea level in the middle of volcano country.

 

Come taste local wines inspired by volcanic fire and the bounty of the island. Tropical fruits like yellow guava and the exotic jaboticaba berry are blended with traditional wine grapes and transformed into vibrant creations that capture the playful spirit of Hawaiian paradise.

 

Of course no winery tour would be complete without a premium wine tasting paired with gourmet cheese and crackers.

 

Our tour wasn’t leaving until 10:30 am, so we had time to head up to the Lido for some breakfast. It wasn’t busy at all, but we still took our omelets up to Deck 10 to eat. Our bellies full, we left the ship at 10:15 am…..

 

 

We will be travelling to the Volcano Winery in a 26 seat van instead of a bus. This way to the volcano…..

 

 

A couple of views on the way to the winery…..

 

 

 

We have arrived at the Volcano Winery…..

 

 

 

There are some young grape vines right out in front….

 

 

 

This is our van…..

 

 

To be continued…..