More Maui

As the ship docked overnight, there was no need to wait for clearance to go onshore this morning. We tried the breakfast buffet at the Aloha Café. There were mixed reactions from the family. Half preferred the freshly prepared options at Cagney’s, the other half preferred the speed and relative convenience of the buffet.

Our tour today was with Georgia, from Holo Holo Maui Tours, again. Today we headed west toward the Iao Valley for a much shorter tour. The lush and visually stunning Iao Valley and Needle were first on the agenda. The children enjoyed playing in the fresh waters of the Iao stream. We had to force them to leave for a brief stop at the Heritage Gardens, a public picnic area paying homage to the various immigrant groups in Hawaii. Unfortunately, some of the buildings were not maintained well which was a shame.

Iao Valley

The refreshingly cool river

Family fun wading around the river bed

A most beautiful picnic spot!

The Japanese Pavilion. They did a large amount of the field work

The Chinese Pavilion and its resident stone lions...

More lions...

Lunch was at a restaurant called 808 (after Hawaii’s call code) recommended by Georgia. We got there just in time. After we were seated, it appeared that the everybody on the island came too! The food was simple, fresh and tasty with generous serves.

Our last stop before heading back to the ship was Bailey House, a museum of Hawaiian history and art. The stone building was originally a house for the missionary families built within the grounds of the former last ruling chief of Maui. We had a brief tour and explanation of the various artifacts that are within the house as well as the history of the building itself. 

Once back on the ship, we had dinner at Cagney’s, our first of three dinners at one of the specialty restaurants onboard. We had a three restaurant ultimate dining package to use up. Dining at these restaurants would otherwise incur a surcharge. We noted that in general the service so far has not been as good as on the other NCL ships. We were not sure if this was due to the fact that the Pride of America was the only ship to be registered in the USA which meant it had to go with US labour laws. The workforce thereby would be vastly different to those on the Caribbean nation registered ships. The steak though…was good 😊

Lara headed to the Teen’s club and reported that she enjoyed it. Elliot chose to read and Jonah preferred to continue working through the movies that were available….

A replica traditional canoe on display

Cauldron for whale blubber. Oma's first comment...that was used to cook humans! 

An amazing collection of extinct snails

Intricate local seed necklace

Jonah feeling sad for the stuffed bird

Prawn cocktail = back on the ship!