Quantum & Ovation Plus - 30 Day Live (hopefully)

[Sea Dog]

15 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Next stop, Atlanta. 

Safe travels home. Great review. It makes me really want to go to Hawaii more than ever now. Fantastic pictures Bob!

[Sunshine3601]

3 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. Luggage included. 
 

More to come. I still need to post about our sunset Na Pali Coast cruise and our Waimea Canyon drive. I’ll do so as jet lag allows. 

Welcome home.   I look forward to more photos when you can.

Thank you taking us on your special journey🥰

[LATTELOVE]

Welcome back to the US!

 

The long flights on the travel to Hawaii

is the reason we have waited so long to visit.

Will see how it goes next year for us, fingers crossed.

[bobmacliberty]

3 hours ago, LATTELOVE said:

Welcome back to the US!

 

The long flights on the travel to Hawaii

is the reason we have waited so long to visit.

Will see how it goes next year for us, fingers crossed.

 

Micheline and I both agreed that Hawaii needs to be a trip that we take every year or two now that we're retired.  But it's a LONG trip from the east coast.  It was "only" an 8.5 flight from HNL to ATL, but we flew business class which makes things a lot easier.  I'd suggest spending a couple of days in California...maybe going in each direction...to break it up and allow a few days to adjust to the time change.

[bobmacliberty]

I ended up getting about 3 hours of poor sleep on the plane from HNL to ATL.  At least I could lay flat.  The plane was one of Delta's older business class configurations, so not quite as comfortable.  I watched American Gangster.  First time that I'd seen that movie and I was very impressed.  I can't recall a single Denzel movie that I haven't liked. 

 

Since we were traveling 6 time zones eastward, I used my proven Europe jet lag strategy yesterday.  We landed in JAX in the morning and I pushed myself to stay awake as long as I could.  We got caught up with survivor on DVR last night and I went to bed at 10:30pm. I woke up this morning at 10:00am! If all goes to plan, I'll be a little tired tonight and then good as new tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

 

Off to do some laundry and then meet the local Bills fan club to watch the Bills play the Chiefs.  Should be a great game.  I'm already trying to convince myself that this is just one game and is not life or death so that I can enjoy watching.  That's true...right @George C?  

[bobmacliberty]

While unpacking the suitcases, I found the ship models that we purchased.  Cool...something to do instead of the laundry (who am I kidding...Micheline is doing the laundry).  We buy one for every ship that we've been on. 

 

 

The models are identical except for the name, which makes sense.  A neat feature is the North Star that's magnetically attached to the ship and can swivel.

 

 

We need to rearrange our display somehow to fit these in.  Time for another shelf.

 

 

Don't know why, but Allure is much bigger in scale than the other ships.

 

 

[dani negreanu]

15 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I'd suggest spending a couple of days in California...maybe going in each direction...to break it up and allow a few days to adjust to the time change.

 

That was our thinking too... We flew 15.5 hours Tel-Aviv to LA (luckily, BC, since our son was still a flight attendant then and therefore, the price was "affordable"). We figured 4 days of adjusting in LA, before "tackling" the additional 6 hours to HNL, this time in economy 😢

 

Another 2 days of "adjustment" in Honolulu, and it still wasn't enough... we were tired at least half the cruise.

[bobmacliberty]

Before I jump into our sunset cruise, we also took a brief stop at the Spouting Horn...a blow hole on the south shore.  

 

 

 

 

 

[#55worktoplay]

Fantastic review I followed along right from the beginning  but just finally got caught up. 
 

This is a bucket list trip but must wait for retirement to have time to break up the flying time. 
 

The hotel is certainly top of the list, it looked beautiful.

[MJSailors]

Thank you for taking the time on your vacation to write this review and to post so many scenic photos of the places you and your wife visited.

I especially enjoyed the photos of the Na’Pali coast and that knockout resort in Kauai !

MJ🙋🏻

[Coralc]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

While unpacking the suitcases, I found the ship models that we purchased.  Cool...something to do instead of the laundry (who am I kidding...Micheline is doing the laundry).  We buy one for every ship that we've been on. 

 

 

The models are identical except for the name, which makes sense.  A neat feature is the North Star that's magnetically attached to the ship and can swivel.

 

 

It looks like Quantum has the giraffe? Does Ovation have their mascot animals? 

[lenquixote66]

What a wonderful trip you had 😀

[George C]

Hopefully you just watched Bills come from behind great win over there arch nemesis KC. Great game two more sacks for Von Miller. 

[aussielozzie18]

Fabulous review from a wonderful trip..  Been dipping in and out but need to read again in it’s entirety.  Beautiful resort & Hawaii photos.  Love your cabinet display of ship models and the latest model with the North Star.

[DaniDanielle]

I keep telling Charlie, Buffalo is the only real New York football team!!!  Good win today.

[bobmacliberty]

20 hours ago, Coralc said:

 

It looks like Quantum has the giraffe? Does Ovation have their mascot animals? 

 

Great catch!  The mascots are indeed different.  I didn't even notice that.

 

 

For those that aren't aware, each of the Quantum Class ships has a different animal mascot located on the starboard side next to the rock climbing wall (that sorta look like sponges on the models 😁).  For Quantum, it's a 30 foot tall magenta polar bear named Felicia.

 

 

For Ovation, it's a Mama and Baby Panda Bear

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by bobmacliberty

[bobmacliberty]

Duplicate

Edited October 17, 2022 by bobmacliberty

[bobmacliberty]

15 hours ago, George C said:

Hopefully you just watched Bills come from behind great win over there arch nemesis KC. Great game two more sacks for Von Miller. 

 

What a great game.  I was very nervous.  As I said to @Sea Dog  in his Live review, I'm sure the Bills and Chiefs will be seeing each other again this year.  Hopefully it will be in Buffalo this time.  

[George C]

11 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

What a great game.  I was very nervous.  As I said to @Sea Dog  in his Live review, I'm sure the Bills and Chiefs will be seeing each other again this year.  Hopefully it will be in Buffalo this time.  

I agree these teams should meet in playoffs again, Kelce is extremely scary , definitely best tight end in football. Our favorite play I think was when Josh Allen hurdled over a KC defender and broadcaster said Allen runs, passes and flies. 

[bobmacliberty]

Let's see if I can get this review wrapped up.  We really enjoyed the Na Pali Coast Sunset Cruise, although the weather was pretty overcast.  We used Holo Holo Charters out of Port Allen.  There are a few different charter cruise companies located there.  We chose Holo Holo because they had good reviews.  We talked to a guy next to us on the boat who had been on a Holo Holo cruise a couple of times.  He was on his 3rd beer in about 10 minutes and said that he likes Holo Holo because they're the only charter company that has an open bar from the moment they leave the dock.  The other charter companies apparently wait until they are cruising back before opening the bar.  So if that's important to you...

 

It was about a 3.5 hour cruise.  Roughly, it takes an hour to cruise from Port Allen to the southern edge of the Na Pali Coast, 30 minutes to get to the northern end of the coast at high speed, an hour to turn around and go back to the southern end of the coast at slow speed, and an hour to cruise back to the port.  The ocean swells can be big so our captain goes high speed into the swells in one direction and low speed with the swells in the other direction.  The high speed run can get pretty bouncy and he encourages everyone to only take pictures on the slow speed portion, since we go by everything twice.  He wants you holding on for the high speed part.  Of course, many people didn't listen and were trying to take pictures/videos while holding their phone in one hand and hanging onto a railing with the other, while bouncing up and down.  If you're prone to sea sickness, you should come prepared.

 

The bar is open from the moment you leave port until right before returning to port.  They serve free beer, wine, and mai tais, along with water, juice, and soda.  They serve pupus (appetizers...cheese and crackers and veggies with dips) on the way to the coast and a hot stir-fry like dinner on the way back.  They time the cruise so that sunset occurs right before returning to port, and they have a champagne toast at sunset.  Our sunset was almost non-existent because of the heavy cloud cover, but we toasted anyway.  Oh well, we saw plenty of great sunsets.

 

WARNING: Large number of pictures to follow.  I probably could have posted a dozen more, but they'll probably all start to look the same.

 

One the way to the coast, we passed the island of Niihau in the distance. 

 

 

It's called the Forbidden Island and is the smallest inhabited island in Hawaii.  The island has an interesting story, being purchased for $10K in 1864 by the Sinclair family under the agreement that they would keep it isolated for the few hundred natives that live there.  The US government reportedly recently offered the family $1B (yes...with a B) to buy the island and they turned them down.  More info here.

 

On the way to the start of the Na Pali Coast, there are several smaller seaside hills and cliffs.  Everyone was taking a lot of pictures, not knowing that these were just the warm ups.

 

 

 

Our boat moved close to the shore to see some interesting caves, and away from the shore to get a better view of the cliffs.

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to get good perspective in these pictures, but the cliffs along the water can be 1,000 feet high, and the top of the canyons behind the cliffs are between 4,000 and 5,000 feet high.  It's just awe inspiring to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This section of the coast, called The Cathedrals, is the most impressive in my opinion.  It was supposedly named by early English explorers who thought the cliffs reminded them of cathedrals from home.

 

 

 

 

If you're a very experienced hiker and get the needed permit, you can hike part of the Na Pali Coast.  It's a 6+ hour hike in each direction.  Most people will hike in and stay there for a few days before hiking out.  You need to bring everything you need...sleeping gear, food, water, etc.  Sounds like way too much work for me.  Some will even "speed hike", traveling the entire trail in both directions in one day. Nope.

 

This short video clip shows the beach at the end of the hike.  As I zoom in on the waterfall, you can barely make out a person walking at the base of the waterfall.  For perspective, the waterfall itself is about 120 feet tall.

 

 

I pasted together several other videos and uploaded them to YouTube.

 

 

[bobmacliberty]

37 minutes ago, George C said:

I agree these teams should meet in playoffs again, Kelce is extremely scary , definitely best tight end in football. Our favorite play I think was when Josh Allen hurdled over a KC defender and broadcaster said Allen runs, passes and flies. 

 

One of my favorite Twitter hash tags is #joshallenjumpingoverthings.  People have made some interesting pictures of Josh jumping over all kinds of stuff, including Patrick Mahomes' crazy wife and brother.

[bobmacliberty]

22 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

What a wonderful trip you had 😀

 

Thanks Lenny!

[bobmacliberty]

On our last full day on the island, we drove the Waimea Canyon Drive.  I previously mentioned that we used the Shaka Guide app to give us directions, point out interesting things to see/do, and provide some interesting history about the island (both factual and legendary tales).  After stopping at the Kauai Coffee Company, we continued on to Waimea Town, and turned right onto Waimea Canyon Road.  This road runs for 19 miles, traveling almost exclusively upward, to the end of the road at the Pu'u O Kila Lookout.

 

 

The Waimea Canyon (aka the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) is on the east side of the road.  There are various stopping places with lookouts and hiking trails.  The lower lookouts gave us a nice tease of what we hoped was to come.

 

 

 

There was also a stop with a small waterfall that clearly showed how red the dirt was in the area.  The red comes from iron in the soil that has rusted.  Waimea is actually the Hawaiian word for red water, the water that comes from erosion of the soil.

 

 

As we continued to drive up the canyon road, we start to climb into the clouds.  The promising views from the lower lookouts just became views of the clouds, with an occasional peak at part of the canyon as the wind blew the clouds.

 

 

 

We hiked on a couple of very short trails, including the Iliau Nature Loop.  This trail included signs showing some of the native trees and flowers.  The trail is named after the Iliau Shrub which is only found in the Waimea Canyon (and is related to the Silversword that is only found on Haleakala on Maui).  It takes at least 7 years to flower and when it does, it dies.  Tough life.  We found one that was flowering.

 

 

We continued driving up the canyon road, stopping at a few places to look at the clouds, and then stopped for lunch at the Koke'e Lodge.  They have decent food and a small gift shop there.  There's also a small museum.  And as Dani pointed out earlier, lots of chickens. There are bathrooms there, as well as at most of the larger lookouts.

 

The final part of the road takes you first to the Kalalau Lookout, and then a little further up the road, to the Pu'u O Kila Lookout at the end of the road, at an elevation of around 4100 feet.  Both of these lookouts are on the left side of the road and give a view of the Kalalau Valley that goes down to the Na Pali Coast rather than the Waimea Canyon itself.

 

Like the Waimea Canyon views, the Kalalau Valley was very cloudy.

 

The clouds were constantly moving though, and if you waited a few minutes, there would be a clearing of the clouds.  Usually, the clearing was just small enough to give you an idea of what you might be looking at.

 

 

 

 

Those clearings didn't last long, and the view went back to full clouds.  If you wait long enough, you were awarded with a nice, but very brief view of the valley, the beach, and the ocean beyond.

 

 

 

 

There was a little boy there with his parents and grandparents.  They told him that if he blew hard enough, he could blow the clouds out of the way.  A few seconds after he started blowing, there was a clearing in the clouds.  We took one last set of pictures and then thanked the boy for clearing the clouds for us. 😁

 

The Pihea Trail continues further along the ridge at the top of the Kalalau Valley.  We read that it's not too difficult to hike and that if you go about a mile, there's a nice view almost straight down the valley.  We started down the trail, but it looked to be rockier and with more elevation changes than we thought.  We turned back since it was almost certainly going to be a cloudy view after hiking a mile.

 

Looking back up the Pihea Trail.

 

Looking further down the trail, where we decided that it wasn't worth it.

 

 

Here are some brief videos of various lookouts

 

The drive back down went fairly quickly.  The Shaka Guide app did a good job of telling a few stories to keep things interesting.  When we got back to Waimea Town, we looked at a few other things that the Shaka Guide App suggested, and then went to the town of Hanapepe, an artsy little community.  Micheline found a few things that she liked in a couple of stores.  It was then my turn and we went to the Kauai Island Brewing Company for a local beer.  It was a neat little place.  We sat at the bar next to a guy who had moved there with his wife just 2 weeks earlier.  He has a fully work from home job (mortgage loan officer) and they decided that his "office" should be in Kauai.  I half respect him, and half think he's crazy!

 

Overall, it was a very good day, even with the clouds.  The clouds are apparently very common and it's always a crap shoot as to what you will see.  We were very happy that we had such a clear day on our helicopter tour a few days earlier and could see everything perfectly from the air.

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by bobmacliberty

[Luckynana]

Your pictures are awesome, awesome, awesome, Bob!!!!  Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

Did I tell you how awesome your pictures are??😁

[Momof3gurlz]

You pictures and videos are just breathtaking Bob.  What an amazing trip.  Now how am I ever going to decide between Maui and Kauai as our second island when we do Hawaii next year?!