Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

On May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

My goodness gracious, I am finding that I am quite sad and melancholy as I begin to write this my last Blog post in my Hawaiian Cruise Series. I was pretty sad while I was packing up to leave the Star Princess as well. It is always harder for me to pack at the end of a vacation than it is to plan the trip, organize the particulars, and pack the suitcases at the beginning of a journey. <Sigh> Regardless of whether or not I was ready to disembark, it was almost time to do so. The hubby and I spent the last afternoon on our last sea day packing our bags, we were ready to go…We went ahead and placed our suitcases outside of our stateroom door right after dinner that evening.

We found our ‘End of the cruise paperwork’ in our little mailbox along with our “Red 4” luggage tags that we were to put on our luggage that Princess would be transferring for us. We had pre-arranged for Princess to transfer us from Canada Place to the Vancouver Airport, and it showed us where and what time we were to report (the Vista Lounge)…

While packing, I made sure to put some shampoo, and my hair gel, and other necessities in smaller disposable bottles so that I could pack up my full-size bottles. Our daughter Christin had given both my hubby and I disposable (carry-on compliant) bottles; Christin is an organized person like her Mama and she fixed us right on up with all of these sweet little extras this past Christmas. 😉 🙂

Here is a picture of that extra bag that I had packed in my big suitcase all those many days ago, I knew I would need it for this last night; we’d carry it onto the airplane with us. We put our dirty clothes (packed up in a medium packing cube), my makeup & toiletries, the hubby’s morning toiletries, my curling iron (I used the ‘lovely’ stateroom’s hairdryer that morning throwing in a expletive here and there while drying my hair because it took me forever), and anything else that we saw that we needed to take with us.

SO, I was as packed as I could be…We had eaten our last dinner in the Horizon, walked around the ship taking pictures, and did some last minute shopping. OH and I went to the Captain’s Circle desk and picked up a couple of “Ruby” Pins…I had lost mine along the way somewhere, they were happy to give me two more. I had received our two Platinum pins earlier in the day accompanied by a letter welcoming us to our Platinum status…woohoo. Here is where I put all of my pins along with a pin of the Star Princess (that’s my carry on backpack):

We came back to our Stateroom and headed out onto the balcony because we could once again see land…

And we also got a little treat! We *finally* saw a wee bit of wildlife…These cute little (relatively speaking) Dall’s Porpoises showed up and were playing right around the ship. 🙂

They were so much fun to watch, I was like a little kid in a candy store…I was jumping up and down and clapping and squealing. I’m sure the other passengers thought I was a loon, I didn’t care much what they thought honestly, I was just happy to see these cutie pies. 🙂 ANYway, we sat out there until dark taking in the sights and sounds of our last evening on our cruise; bittersweet thoughts along with mixed emotions were flying around in my head. On one hand, I was ready to go home because I missed my family and my pups, but, I sure wasn’t ready for our much anticipated trip to come to a close. OH well, all good things must come to an end huh?

The next morning, we woke up and our “Log of the Cruise” was in our little mailbox, check out the distance traveled!! Wow Whee!!

And here is my last outfit of the day, comfy and cozy to travel home in:

We stood out on our balcony and watched while we traveled under the Lion’s Gate Bridge one last time:

And onward to Canada Place we sailed:

That is a fake smile on my face, I really wasn’t too, too thrilled in that picture…my hair was sure BIG through…LOL…Again, if a girl can’t laugh at herself, then there is something wrong…;)

We had to be out of the room by 8am, so we complied and headed to the Vista Lounge to wait to be called to disembark. This is about how I felt about getting off of the ship…I look hateful mean…I’m really just sad…:(

ANYway, we waited for about 45 minutes, and then our number was called and off of the ship we walked, straight into Canada Place, and onto our awaiting motor coach.

We had an uneventful trip to the airport, we were familiar with this ride because we’ve always disembarked from Canada Place (we’ve done 4 Alaska: Voyage of the Glaciers Southbound cruises that all ended in Vancouver). When we got to the airport, we went through US customs there…pretty painless process and then we headed to our terminal and awaited our flight to leave.

There was our first plane…

And we were headed home…Which at this point, I was pretty content to be doing, this is what I saw out of the jet’s window…apparently this is Wenatchee National Forest, Stehekin, United States (according to the time and location stamp in my Photos on my Mac)…

We had uneventful flights home and we landed safely and got back to our house at around 2am the next morning…yes, to say we were tired is an understatement…but, it was good to be home. Here is what greeted us as we drove up our driveway and made our way into the house. 🙂 🙂 ❤

It was so good to be home!!

And it was SO good to see our pups…

Now for some final thoughts about this cruise. As I have written these posts one after the next, I have found that I really didn’t have a lot of negative things to say and that’s because this was a wonderful trip that provided my hubby and I with many memories to tuck away and cherish for the rest of our lives.

A note all of you out there who have been so kind with your comments, thank you so very, very, VERY much, every comment has been taken straight to my heart and I am humbly grateful for the responses that I’ve received. ❤

So, sadly, it is time for me to close this Series out now, I have greatly enjoyed sharing our adventure with you. For now, I will go back to my crafting, decorating, and DIY projects (why I originally started this blog site…haha). More travel blogs will appears when we debark on our next journey…most likely with Princess, hopefully, sooner than later.

So for now, I will bid you all adieu and send you my love and say once last time…

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

Much, much love,
~Arlynn ❤

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

On May 3, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

As I was perusing through my literally thousands of pictures that we took while on our wonderful cruise, and when I started to pull pictures out to be used in this blog post, I realized that I had way too many pictures and that this would end up to be a very confused and discombobulated post. So “Ms Anal Retentive” herself < ~~~~ me, decided to make collages out of ‘like’ pictures via a spiffy little app that I have on my iPhone. I have literally spent this entire day making these collages, but, I’m thinking that y’all will appreciate my efforts once you start scrolling through this post. 🙂

First, I will show you this gorgeous ship, the Star Princess from a bit of a distance:

She is a big, gorgeous girl to look at isn’t she? I love the way that Skywalkers is situated on the back, I think that it really gives this ship a ton of character.

Now, let’s climb on this beauty and work our way from the bottom to the top. Here is a little map that will help us navigate (of course there are a few decks even higher than this sign depicts…I didn’t get a picture of that sign…lol). 🙂 Please know that as hard as I tried, I did not get pictures of every single venue, but, the hubby and I worked as a team and traversed around the ship a lot taking random pictures and did the best that we could.

Deck 4: Gala Deck–This is where we caught our Tender Boat:

Deck 5: Plaza Deck:

I’ll go ahead and insert the collage of the Piazza here–It was breathtakingly gorgeous!

The International Cafe…Yum, Yum!!

Vines Shop: The hubby got us a really good candy bar from here one day:

The Internet Cafe:

The Capri Dining Room:

The only time we went in here was to attend one of their spiffy little sales that they often have going on on sea days:

Deck 6: Fiesta Deck:

Grand Casino:

Passenger Service Desk:

Calypso Cove:

And at the far end of Calypso Cove, you will find the Sundries shop:

Essence:

This is also the deck where they would set up tables for different special sales…

Promenade Deck:

Princess Theater:

Shore Excursions (the Princess Captain’s Circle & the Future Cruise offices were down this same hallway:

Crown Grill (This was by far our favorite place to eat):

Meridian Bay:

Photo Gallery:

Vista Lounge:

Dolphin Deck:

Our Mini-Suite was on this deck, D620, if you would like to see a very detailed video tour, I created one on my YouTube channel, you can find it here.

The walls in the Staterooms are metal, so it is always fun to bring some magnets with which to hang things:

We used the Laundromat on this floor a couple of times while on board, you use your cruise card to purchase tokens ($3 a piece) which then can be used in the washers and dryers and also to purchase laundry soap and dryer sheets (I recommend you take your own laundry supplies though, much cheaper and they don’t take up too much room in your luggage) It is free to use of the iron and ironing boards :

Deck 14-The Lido Deck:

Prego Pizza:

Trident Grill:

Neptune’s Reef & Pool and Movies Under the Stars:

Sundaes:

Calypso’s Reef & Pool:

As you can see in the pictures ^^^above^^^ there is a terrace type thing that wraps around the indoor pool (one deck up). They have chairs up there along with some ping-pong tables…very relaxing little place.

Horizon Court Buffet:

The Self-Serve Coffee/Tea Station, there is one on each side of the Horizon Buffet:

The Crab Shack is also held on this floor, they close down one side of the Horizon Buffet in order to accommodate the Shack…SO, SO good, highly recommend!!

Horizon Terrace and Pool

And then a couple more Decks higher is Skywalkers Nightclub:

Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the Sanctuary, the Fitness Center, the Wedding Chapel, the Youth/Teen Center, or a couple of the Main Dining Rooms along with other places that I probably don’t even realize exist..haha. 🙂 BUT, again, we did our best. 🙂 It truly is a lovely ship, (a bit of maintenance is needed in places, but, that is to be expected on a ship this size and one that is ‘at sea’ as much as this one is–I’m not complaining, just stating a fact); the crew works extremely hard each and every day to keep it sparkling clean and in great shape! 🙂 Speaking of the crew…they were absolutely wonderful, everyone ALWAYS had a smile on their face, everyone ALWAYS had a nice greeting or a put forth a sweet “Have a nice morning/day/evening”, I never saw one of them in a bad mood or being grumpy…ever!

I have one more Blog entry that will end this Series and in that I will talk about Disembarkation, possibly some final thoughts, although, I’ve pretty much said all I need to say, and our trip home (including a video of our pups when we walked back into the house). For those of you who don’t know, we have a Golden Retriever named Gracie, and two Newfoundland dogs names Sophie and Samson (brown). Here is a picture that I took of them yesterday…

And…Here is a link to my final post in this Hawaiian Cruise Series:

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

Boy oh boy do we ever love our pups. 🙂

SO, until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

OH one more thing…Here is a link to my very first post in this Hawaiian Cruise Series — And as in this one, there is a link at the end of each post that will take you to the next one in line–in chronological order. 🙂

And ***one*** more thing…haha…I promise just one more. 😉 Here is a video that I created for my YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels) of the Star Princess picture tour:

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

On April 30, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

I was awakened on the morning that we arrived in Maui with the oh so soothing (not) sound of the little “Tender” boats being lowered down into the water. As y’all know, our room was situated toward the aft of the ship, port side, and they chose to lower the Tenders right under our room down to be utilized to transport folks to shore. Of course, I didn’t mind being woken up, after all, we were in Maui! I will admit though, a wave of sadness came over me for a few minutes when I remembered that we were at our last port of call. I wasn’t going to think about that right then though, I’d think about that tomorrow when we were bob-bob-bobbing along heading back to Vancouver. That morning, I needed to get up and get ready for our day. 🙂

The stupid saga of my feet continues, grrrrr, we again had to cancel a day long excursion that we had had planned because my feet just weren’t recovering very well, stupid feet!

Honestly, we didn’t mind too, too much. Taking a little ride on a Tender boat, walking around town, shopping a bit, and having a nice lunch by the sea sounded really pretty perfect to us–we had been go-go-going for the last 3 days. We were content to have a bit of a more relaxing day planned. 🙂

***(BTW–My feet recovered completely after this day because the hubby pretty much wouldn’t let me stand, propped my feet up on a chair, and made me drink a copious amount of water for our 1st day back ‘at sea’..AND that did the trick, I haven’t had a problem since…thank goodness)***

Okay, so my outfit for the day…

Yes, I did wear those flip-flops, the next best thing to those pretty pink shoes. 🙂

And here is the Princess Patter for that day:

In the Patter there were instructions as to how one was to go about disembarking, we simply needed to head down to the Capri Dining room when we were ready to leave the ship, they’d give us a “Tender Ticket”, and we’d wait for our number to be called. All in all, it was a very smooth operation–not surprising because Princess has this stuff down pat. So off to the Capri Dining room we trekked…

And we were handed our Tender Ticket:

And then we sat down to wait:

It wasn’t long before our number was called (about 30 minutes), we were directed to go down a couple of decks (via stairs of course) to where we’d be loaded onto our sweet little **rocking** Tender boat…We saw this on our way:

Here the pictures will stop for a few minutes…That little Tender was rocking and rolling let me tell you…LOL…I took a look at it and then I looked at my hubby and grabbed onto him for dear life. It was going to be interesting getting ole “not so steady on her swollen, fat feet, bad knees, Arlynn” onto that ever moving Tender boat…

But, by the grace of all that is holy and with the help of the hubby and every Princess person’s hand that I could grab, I managed to step right onto that Tender. It was then that I saw the hubby climbing the LADDER to go up onto the top deck…OH JOY JOY…Okay, I was determined and I managed to climb right up (slowly) and pretty much fell right onto the little bench seat and proceeded to slide my rear to where it needed to sit. Whew, that was a little harrowing, but, dag nab it, I did IT!! Woohoo!!!

It was a lovely little ride to shore, and because I had managed to haul my ever so cumbersome self up that ladder, my vantage point was awesome. My favorite part was being able to see the Star Princess from the outside up close!

The view heading to shore was nothing to sneeze at either….

It was much less wavy when we pulled into the dock and I was able to climb right on off of that Tender with ease…The first thing that happened was that my hubby bought me a beautiful Lei…OMGosh, it smelled delightful!! AND the lady who made the Lei sweetly gave me a flower for my hair…BUT, it blew away within about 10 seconds of it being seeded not so securely into my hair (she had secured the flower onto a toothpick…now how in the world was I supposed to stick that in my hair and have it stay put with the gale force winds that were warmly blowing)? **Just asking…Silly of me I know…*** 😉 ANYway, here is that pretty Lei:

Windy? Yeppers, VERY windy! lol…

The hubby and I set off to do a bit of exploring and shopping, really nothing too astronomically interesting to tell you about that. We did see this school sign, it made me think of our daughter the teacher whose attitude is this almost every day of her life. 🙂

We were successful at buying some gifts for our girls on this day, we found some Vans shoes for a pretty decent price and they were really cute! We got the cupcake ones for one of our daughters…

And these spiffy tropical ones for the other daughter:

We also got each girl some pretty jewelry a necklace for one and earrings and a bracelet for the other. 🙂 My hubby treated me to some pretty jewelry too, he got me this pretty Plumeria flower necklace:

And then this necklace, earrings, and bracelet; a white plumeria flower just like the pink one up there…

After we had shopped for a little while, we stopped into a lovely, open and airy restaurant named Koa’s. It sat right on the ocean and upon entering, we, of course, climbed the ***stairs*** to the top outdoor deck. By this point, ***stairs*** and I were ‘one’. 😉

Here is the Menu for Koa’s:

And this was my lunch…OH goodness was it good, fattening yes, but delicious! That pasta salad was to die for!

This was our view in one direction…

And check out what was over my head in the background …I actually moved to the other side of the table after I took this silly selfie so that I could look out over the water…

After lunch, we started to head back toward where we would catch the Tender boat that would take us back to the Star…I clicked off a few pictures along the way…

Check out these two ladies…I would have LOVED to do that, but there was a line…Next time!

AND the gorgeous palm trees, blue sky, and puffy white clouds…Exactly how I’ve always pictured Hawaii…

Getting a Tender ride back to the ship was as easy as could be, we just walked right up and climbed on (literally, because we climbed to the upper deck again…haha…BUT, I was able to take this little video—Well part of the video is of them lowering the Tender down in the morning, but then the rest of it is of our little ride back…

I’m such a goober, I was taking selfies right and left, but, how many times are you sitting on a Tender boat with a HUGE cruise ship in the background?

We were back to the ship…AND maneuvering OFF of that Tender was NO easier than the harrowing trip was ONTO the Tender…LOL…I’m lucky I’m alive to tell the tale…<~~~ Just kidding of course, but, it was really rocky and I again grabbed onto my hubby, any available Princess person, strangers, poles, the roof of the Tender… once I got DOWN the devil ladder, and well, I’m betting y’all can picture it. 😉 I was happy to have my feet back on that solid ship <~~~ Uh huh, that made good sense…LOL…Relative to the Tender, that big ship was like the Rock of Gibraltar! 😉

The rest of the day/evening was spent r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g and hanging out on our balcony watching the Tenders come and go—Scintillating entertainment huh? Well, maybe not, but, we were happy to just sit and bask in the sunlight that Maui was providing on this gorgeous day in April 2016.

Here is the last Tender returning to the ship:

The sun went down over the western sky and our Hawaiian Islands experience had come to a conclusion. The cruise was far from over, but, we had seen all we were going to see of the Islands…Kinda sad really, but, I do feel as if we will return again…Lord willing anyway. 🙂 Many thanks to the gorgeous Hilo and her waterfalls, to Honolulu for allowing us to pay our respects to all of our brave, fallen soldiers, to Kauai for her beautiful crater and gorgeous views, and to Maui for finishing off our experience with a calm, very sweet, warm, sunny day. Hawaii will never be forgotten and we will hold all of the memories that we made while visiting her close to our hearts and ever in our minds. ❤

I’m not quite done with this blog series yet…Next up, I’ll take you on a tour of the Star Princess–Via pictures of course. I’ll show you how we enjoyed “The Crab Shack” & “The Crown Grill”, and..wait for it…THE LAUNDRY ROOM <~~~ exciting stuff! 😉 I’ll also share with you some of the gifts that I brought home for my family, among other things I’m sure. 🙂 Then in my last entry in this series, I will give you a short synopsis of my all-over thoughts about this cruise.

Here is a sneak peek at the tour and link:

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

***One more thing. 🙂 Here is a video that I created of our day in Maui after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

Hawaiian Cruise – Kauai: Spouting Horn & Waimea Canyon

On April 29, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

Our 3rd port of call was Kauai, I was really looking forward to this day as I had the 2 previous days because each day of this cruise had been an adventure and I was looking forward to whatever might come our way on this day. The hubby was out doing his morning walk and taking pictures of the sunrise while I pulled myself together for the day’s activities (“pulling myself together” takes a little longer these days, so the hubby busied himself each morning as I primped…haha…;) ). Anyway, this is what I saw when I opened the drapes of our mini-suite that morning:

And here is the outfit that I chose to wear on this day. Now, remember, I had purchased those fancy pink shoes…

And I wanted to wear them on this day because I knew that we had a good bit of walking ahead of us, so this is the outfit I chose. I’ll lament further on those orange pants a little later. :

The very first thing that I noticed about Kauai was that it was windy as all get out when I went out on the balcony to try to take a selfie…Note those orange pants don’t look too bad…Y-E-T…;) The hubby ended up taking this picture…or tried to take this picture…I gave up after a while…lol…

ANYways, enough about those silly pants for the moment…

Little did I know that while I was pulling myself together, my hubby had caught some gorgeous pictures of us coming into port and of a lovely rainbow!

There’s the rainbow!! 🙂

And check out this gorgeous sunrise, the prettiest one we’d seen up to this point:

Here is the Princess Patter for that day (Nawiliwili is the name of the Port *in* Kauai*…

Here is a description of the excursion that we had planned:

We disembarked the Star Princess and met our mode of transportation for the day, this motor coach:

Our bus driver was the nicest fella, quite full of information (and of himself…he was a hoot). We started our 2 hour drive to Waimea Canyon with him narrating the entire way–He was full of stories and jokes. Kauai was a gorgeous island and I was thrilled to be hearing about all of the old stories about its beginnings and its people as we meandered around and through lovely little towns. Again, Princess does a phenomenal job when choosing these excursion guides/bus drivers/narrators…They are all excellent. I know some people feel that they can save a plethora of money by NOT using Princess to book their excursions, but, honestly, it is worth it to us to go ahead and use them, especially on this trip, this was our first time doing this particular cruise and we truly would have had no earthly idea of where to begin to choose off the ship excursions if it weren’t for Princess’ guidance. Shoot, even when we’re in Alaska (we’ve cruised there 4 times) we still use Princess…most of the time.

So, our first stop on the way to Waimea Canyon was here at Spouting Horn (and for a potty break if needed). What was the first sign I saw when I got off of the bus? This…LOL:

Really? Feral cats and chickens? Well I didn’t see any cats, but there were a couple of roosters strutting around…haha.

This was a lovely little lookout type place, the water was so blue and just gorgeous, the grass was green and lush, we definitely felt like we were in the tropics:

And here is Spouting Horn:

Wow, that was pretty neat, I really enjoyed our little stop there. It was time to climb back on the bus and head on up (literally…WAY up) to Waimea Canyon…

There were two ways that could be utilized to get up the the Canyon’s lookout, one was a set of stairs that yes, I traversed, and also there was a large winding pathway/ramp type thing that those with physical problems could use…Here is a picture of that pathway, as you can kind of see, it winds its way back and forth so as to reduce the pitch of the climb.

As you probably read in the description of this excursion ^^^up there^^^, we were getting ready to gaze upon what Mark Twain had dubbed “The Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. It was an amazingly gorgeously, ridiculously stupendous place. I think the pictures will speak for themselves, so I’ll hush now and just show you the beauty that *is* Waimea Canyon:

To give you a sense of the sheer size of this canyon, the white blip in the picture below is a helicopter! 🙂 Goodness gracious!

Another couple was nice enough to take this picture of the hubby and I:

YES, it was e-x-t-r-e-m-i-l-y windy! lol

AND those stupid orange pants that I had on had now expanded to a VERY large size…What in the world?! They stretched out SO much…I needed SUSPENDERS…NO kidding, I really needed suspenders!!! Sheesh…I was a mess for myself! I know I’m a big girl, but, I do NOT fill up those pants in this picture!! I’m lucky I didn’t get picked up by that wind and whisked away down into that canyon…Well, if that had happened, those pants would have served as a parachute and I would have landed safe and sound on the bottom. 😉 (A girl has to laugh at herself once in a while…lol):

Okay, enough of my ranting and raving about those stupid pants…LOL…We headed back down to our motor coach. They had a fruit stand set up beside the parking lot with fresh pineapple and candies and all sorts of yummy snacks and more of that fruity canned juice that we had had in Hilo:

And there was another rooster here and he was strutting himself around all over the place…;)

Here is our motor coach driver blowing into his conch shell giving us our 5 minute warning–it was time to get ourselves back to the bus…I’ll tell you, he really was a funny fellow.

And back to the ship we traveled being entertained the entire way (2 hours).

Check out what was waiting for us right before we climbed back onto the ship–The Princess folks did this every single day…Those cloths were damp and scented…ahhhhh, did they ever feel good!!

The hubby and I were very hungry and we headed to the Buffet for something to eat…I changed my outfit though, I’d had enough of those stupid parachute pants!! Here was my outfit for the evening hours…Notice my feet were getting better though because I’d worn those spiffy pink shoes. 🙂

After we got back to our room, we kind of hung out in there for the rest of the evening…Well, we really hung out out on our balcony because sail-away was kinda fun to watch. The dock workers unhitched us…And the side thrusters started to do their job…

As I’ve mentioned ohhhh once or twice in this entry, it was really windy on this day and I guess it was so windy that we needed a little assistance from a tug boat to get us out of the harbor. I had such a good time watching this little (relatively speaking) tug boat protect us from hitting the dock–as far as I know though, it never had to touch us, it was just there as a back-up if needed.

Our room must have been right at the pivot point because the tug boat stayed right below our room for quite some time as we made our way out of the harbor…

Once we got out far enough, the tug boat left us and we fended for ourselves to maneuver around and through those buoys…

We skirted the shoreline for a while on our way out of this cove and we came to this point. I saw this golf green right on the edge of a cliff…Haha…My 80 year old Dad is an avid golfer and has had 8 holes in one in his lifetime–he is a “scratch” golfer (doesn’t carry a handicap for you non-golfers out there). I know he would have loved to play *this* golf course…and particularly this hole…he loves a challenge. 🙂

Check out where the Pin is…Goodness!

Our day in Kauai had come to an end and as the hubby and I sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the warm tropical breezes while watching the sun set, we lamented once again at how lucky and blessed we felt to be able to do this awesomely beautiful cruise. We felt so relaxed and were just loving being right there at that moment in time….Memories were being made that we’d hold in our minds and hearts forever. ❤

We were steaming toward Maui, and of course, that is what I’ll be writing about next. Here is a sneak peek and link:

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

OH one more thing…I am going to insert some links in here just in case anyone might want to look back on my earlier posts that I’ve written about this cruise. I’ll also include a link to my video (very detailed) that I took and narrated of our Mini-Suite (D620 on the Star Princess).

Here goes:

Hawaii Cruise Wardrobe Choices

Hawaii: Packing, Traveling, Dinner With Dear Friends, & Embarkation

Hawaiian Cruise: First Day On Board & 10 Sea Days

Hawaiian Cruise: Hilo – Waterfalls & More

Hawaiian Cruise – Honolulu: Arizona Memorial & Mighty Mo

And here is a link to that Stateroom Tour of Mini-Suite D620 on the Star Princess

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

***One more thing. Here is a video that I created of our day in Kauai after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

Hawaiian Cruise: Hilo – Waterfalls & More

On April 26, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations10 Comments

I have to admit, that I was pretty excited to wake up on the morning we were to be in Hilo and look out our balcony door and see something *other* than an endlessly stretching ocean. 😉 We had greatly enjoyed our 5 sea days, but, I was more than ready to place my feet on solid ground for a little while. Here was our view when we awoke that morning…

Before I get started telling you about our Hilo excursion, I want to let you know one thing that I neglected to mention in my other posts. As you travel to and from the Hawaiian Islands, in our case from Vancouver, you will lose 3 hours going and then you’ll gain that 3 hours coming back. In your first Princess Patter of the trip, you will have this nifty little cheat sheet (I hung this up on our wall along with our Itinerary) so that I’d have it to reference.

Princess is very good at placing these little “clock” reminders on your bed on nights that you need to adjust your clocks and watches…

Okie dokie, now moving on with our morning on the day we arrived in Hilo. There was a bit of business that needed to be conducted on this morning. Because we had sailed out of a ‘foreign’ port and were entering the United States, we had to go to an Immigration Inspection…OH joy, joy! I know it is a necessity, but, I will admit, I was a wee bit frustrated that we, as Americans, had to go through this process. I know, I know, it is a necessity and I’m grateful for the stringent USA rules…They help to keep us safe. 🙂 We had received a letter in our mailbox the day prior to docking in Hilo that required us to meet in the Princess Theatre at 7am and they simply took us row by row and scanned our cruise cards, took a look at our Passports, and then gave us this card (that we had to keep with us while in all Ports)…

Okie dokie…We were ready to embark on our day!! YaY!! Let me show you the Princess Patter for the day we were in Hilo and then we’ll head off on our Waterfall excursion…

There are many excursions that you can take while in Hilo, and to be honest, we had reserved an all day excursion before we set sail. Unfortunately, my stupid feet and ankles were so swollen that there was no way that I could have done all that we had had planned to do. The first thing that we did to help my feet was my hubby insisted that I purchase these pretty pink shoes in one of the shops on board (before we docked of course) because my poor feet wouldn’t fit in the sneakers that I had brought along. These shoes also came in black, dove gray, and a charcoal gray color…I’m such a girlie girl, and I knew that some of my outfits would match nicely and hopefully help me look ‘pretty in pink’. 😉

These shoes were admittedly pricy ($68 I believe), BUT, they were SO comfy cozy and perfect for me. (My feet did finally shrink back down to normal after I drank a copious amount of water and kept tight shoes off of my feet–days later). Here is the outfit that I paired with these cute shoes:

Here is an example of the excursion paperwork that you’ll get when you get on the ship, you’ll have plenty of time to go through it and read about all of the excursions available at, in this case, Hilo. Some of the excursions fill up pretty quickly because a lot of people (like us) pre-reserve online via the Cruise Personalizer, but, trust me, there are still some available after you board the ship.

We were very lucky in that we were able to switch our excursion from an all-day event that would have really taxed my poor feet, to one that was a bit less strenuous and a 4 hour adventure. Here is the excursion that we ended up taking, and it was lovely…

We simply went to the Shore Excursions office on board and they were so accommodating and wonderful–GREAT crew on the Star!! We even were refunded a bit of money because the excursion we chose to take was a bit less expensive than our original choice.

All righty, it was time for us to leave for our Excursion, so off we went (Cruise card, Passport, and Immigration card in hand), the first place that we saw when we got off of the ship was a big warehouse type building that had all of the different excursion guides standing there holding signs. You showed your excursion ‘tickets’ (that I didn’t take a picture of) and you were pointed to your ‘holding area’. While we were waiting to depart on our adventure, we had a little bit of entertainment. These 4 ladies were quite talented and welcomed us with a bit of ukulele music and hula flair. 🙂

Our little tour guide Jessica came to collect us and she led us out to our mode of transportation for the day, a 15 passenger van. 🙂

Jessica was a very sweet lady and she was full of information about Hilo and was filling our heads with all of that wonderful info as we started our tour…

Our first stop was at Onomea Bay, so pretty and calm…

Our next stop was Akaka Falls State Park. We traversed about a mile down many steps and then back up many steps (they do have an easier/shorter trail to get to the Falls, but, I of course wanted to do the stairs–silly me…it was challenging with my bad knees, but, I soldiered on to the falls… Jessica told me that she didn’t believe me when I said I bad knees because I motored along pretty quickly…go me). 😉 The trail runs through a rainforest and was just breathtakingly gorgeous.

Here are some pictures that we took along the way to the Falls:

Akaka Falls finally came into view…JUST beautiful!!

Akaka Falls drops 422 feet!! WOW!!! I was mesmerized and again reminded how small we are…It was majestically gorgeous. We were allowed to view the falls for quite a little while and everyone took pictures and selfies and sat in a little gazebo type thing before making the trek back to the van. Yes, my knees were aching a bit, but, it was well worth the little hike…and it was good exercise for me too. 🙂

Once we got back out to the van, Jessica provided us with nice cool rags and a snack. She had this wonderful tasting juice (along with other choices)…gosh, I really enjoyed drinking that down, so refreshing. 🙂

After we were finished our snack and drink, we piled back into the van and our next stop was Rainbow Falls:

The walk to Rainbow Falls was much less strenuous, pretty much, it sits right next to the parking lot. There is a set of steps that you can go up and look down on the top of the Falls…The hubby did that, I chose not to traverse up more stairs. 🙂

While I was sauntering around and viewing Rainbow Falls–so so pretty…I came across Hawaii’s State flower…The yellow Hibiscuses

It was now time to depart Rainbow Falls, at this point, I said to myself that I was really glad that we didn’t do the all-day excursion…I was pretty bushed honestly, but I was a happy, happy lady because I was seeing HAWAII!!! WHAT? I was so lucky. 🙂

Jessica took us back to ‘town’, and gave us the opportunity to sample some local Macadamia Nuts that are made right there on the Island…And we bought a bag of them as well. 🙂

We were then given time to walk around town a bit and do some shopping and exploring.

I thought this was just the prettiest Christmas ornament…

Here is the Farmer’s Market…Unfortunately, we were there on a Sunday and not all of the venders set up their wares on Sundays…Most of what was out on our day was food…But, it was interesting to see.

One of the most beautiful sites that we saw on Hilo was the Banyan trees…They are huge and gorgeous and EVERYwhere on Hilo. Also, a lot of the Banyan trees have been planted by famous people such as Amelia Earhart and Babe Ruth.

Back up for a second to Akaka Falls, I give a bit of commentary about the Banyan trees and you can also see some more of those lovely steps that lead to those Falls. 🙂

We also saw a little piggy running by…lol…I definitely chucked at that site. 😉

The only other critter we saw was this little fella…

It was time to load back into the Van and head back to the ship…I clicked off one last picture before heading back…

Here is a picture of the ship from the Van…

And when we got back to our ship, I was able to click off this picture…How pretty is the Star Princess? I’d say very, very pretty. 🙂

We greatly enjoyed our day in Hilo, we learned all about the “Big Island”, we saw a gorgeous waterfall while walking through a lush rain forest. We saw a Rainbow as we gazed upon another set of waterfalls, and we ‘felt’ Hilo and it’s folk (sweet as can be) as we did a little exploring and shopping on our own. All in all, a wonderful day!!

We got back to the ship and I sat out on our balcony for a while before we headed off to dinner at the buffet…This was my view:

It was time to sail away from this beautiful place, the sunset that evening did not disappoint…

Aloha Hilo, I hope to gaze upon you once again one day…

Our next stop was Honolulu, here is a sneak peek and link:

Hawaiian Cruise – Honolulu: Arizona Memorial & Mighty Mo

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

One more thing. 🙂 Here is a video that I created of our day in Hilo after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: Hawaiian Cruise

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

Hawaiian Cruise – Kauai: Spouting Horn & Waimea Canyon

Hawaiian Cruise: Hilo – Waterfalls & More

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