Road to Hana and Beyond

One of the perks of being in a suite is being able to have breakfast and lunch at Cagney’s. This morning, however, the table service was slow, and the cold buffet was limited. Luckily, our tour meet-up time was not until 0830am.

Breakfast at Cagney's

 Maui wore the mantle of being the most visited of the Hawaiian Islands. As such, there was abundant choice of tour companies. We opted for Holo Holo Maui Tours mainly for their “All the way around” full day tour, a tour which essentially circled around Mount Haleakala, the largest dormant volcano in the world. It ended up being a great choice. Our guide for the day was Georgia. She was knowledgeable with the history, culture, flora, geology, fauna, and music of the islands! This would later set us up to better appreciate the differences between the various islands. We also loved being able to see the stark contrast between the wet rainforest of the windward side of the mountain and the “desert” side after the town of Hana where most visitors stop and turn around. We were glad that we chose to drive all the way around.

Some of the unexpected highlights include lunch at the food trucks along the way. We were generously given free fresh coconut juice and fruits on account of Georgia knowing the local vendors. Bonus! We also learnt about Charles Lindberg and Sam Pryor (founder of Pan Am), who we soon learnt were buried on Maui! We were also glad Georgia was here when we swam at the black sand beach in Waianapanapa State Park. There was a sharp drop off and the surf was tricky. I would not have wanted to venture out without her prompts of when to actually start swimming out and when to duck under the surf! My father was fascinated to know that Sun Yat Sen's brother lived in Maui and was active with funding his revolution in China.

Just a beautiful beach?

Maybe not...

What looked like rocks turned out to be turtles!

We spotted one swimming in the water too!

A surprise for us to see this! Rainbow eucalyptus

Chickens chickens everywhere....

Amazing banana bread!

We thought Georgia over ordered when she bought 2 loaves. It didn't last...

Fresh coconuts

A very happy child

Fresh fruits served on sugarcane

Dramatic landscapes

Simple engineering with channeling water to have self watering taro fields

Georgia introducing us to the flora

Enjoying the sweet nectar!

Black sand beach of Waianapanapa State Park

Waterfalls everywhere! 

Just by the side of the road...

Grave of Charles Lindberg

The dramatic scenery change on the "other side"

Maui's Grand Canyon

A little honey farm on top of the hill

We stopped but it wasn't worth stopping...

Sun Yat Sen Park

 By the time we returned to the ship it was well past 6:30pm and so we dined at the Aloha Café buffet. The food offering was decent with good variety and reasonable tasty food. The crowds were not too bad either.

We finished dinner in time for the Polynesian show. It would have been very entertaining were it not for the fact that we had already seen a luau! There were many similar elements chronicling the journey of the Polynesian people across the islands of the Pacific. It was still a pleasant way to end what was a busy and enjoyable day.

Dinner at the buffet

Happy Birthday Jonah!

With much sadness, we had to farewell both Malcolm and his parents today. Malcolm left well before the children woke up to make his early morning flight back home. Nana and Grandpa drove with us to return the rental car at the airport before we split ways, them to their airport hotel and us on to the port.

Whilst it was exciting to meet up with Oma and Opa to board a cruise, it still wasn’t quite the same without Malcolm. Our home for the next week will be NCL’s Pride of America as we sail around the Hawaiian Islands. There would not be too many 10 year olds who could say that they got to go on a cruise for their birthday! Lucky Jonah!

NCL Pride

We booked the cruise a while back and got a great deal in a 1 bedroom ocean view suite which fit all 6 of us. The price ended up being cheaper than getting 2 balconies and so we took it and gladly embraced all the perks that came with a suite including priority check-in. We were able to board the ship as soon as she was ready and was sitting down at Cagney’s enjoying our lobster bisque for lunch by 12pm. At 1pm we were able to explore the ship and it was not long until our cabin was ready with our luggage lined up outside.

The first ones to board!

Waiting for our welcome drink

Oma is happy now

Let's get the dining started

Lobster bisque, one of our cruise staples

Studying the entertainment offerings

Lovely Hawaiin touches to welcome guests

One of the public lounge areas

A little hula

Whilst our suite was clean and comfortable, our first thoughts were that despite refurbishment around 3 years ago, the ship still felt old and tired compared to the other NCL ships we had been on. This was apparent in the fittings within the suite itself. Our continuing explorations took us to the children’s facilities which seemed alright, followed by the spa and gym. Our attempts to win at the spa raffle were in vain.

As the sun set, we sailed away for our first destination of Kahului, Maui. We did consider spending time on a select island but ended up deciding that NCL’s itinerary would give us a great sample of the main islands. With the help of our US travel agent, we chose a few travel companies for private tours at our stops to maximise the use of our limited time on each island. I'll include details of the companies we used as we go along.

Our suite

The adjoining second room

From our amazing travel agent!

Perks of being a frequent sailor

Perks of being a suite guest!

Time to sail away!

Our route

Our dinner this evening was at East Meets West, one of the complimentary restaurants onboard. They served Asian food which was a little hit and miss. Some of the dishes were too sweet, some were passable, but the one of the desserts turned out to be a winner! (Red bean fried pancake with green tea ice-cream)

We enjoyed the rest of our evening in our cabin sipping on our free sparkling wine and munching on our complimentary munchies. The children caught on to the complimentary on demand movies swiftly...

One guess for the theme of the restaurant!

Chinese, even sub par ones, was still welcomed when one hadn't had it for a while!

The winning dessert!

An Early Birthday Celebration

One cannot have a Disney holiday without a character breakfast! We arrived right on time at 7am at Makahiki, but silly us... there was already a line of people checked in! We had to wait our turn for a photo with Mickey before being seated. There was a surprisingly good selection of offerings including local specialties or variants, as well as a few Japanese options and the all important omelet station. Aunty came around singing with her ukulele as well as Minnie and Pluto. She had a delightfully soothing voice! Our photo with Mickey came at the price of USD35 for a CD of all the photos or a photo package (a print in special sleeve). The more expensive choice of USD45 was for both. We took neither...

Photo with Mickey prior to getting seated

The buffet stations

Dolphin banana anyone?!?

Loco moco

A warm birthday hug from Pluto

Minnie!

 Being our last full day here, we took the opportunity to savour the view, enjoy the beach and swim in the pools. The poke bowls from the Ulu cafe were decent and the acai bowl not too shabby. The children were given some screen time as Mal and I left at 2pm to pick up Oma and Opa from Waikiki. It was lucky we left when we did because traffic was horrendous. We didn't return until 4:35pm!! Just in time for our dinner reservation at 5pm.

We decided to have an early birthday celebration for Jonah at 'Ama'Ama as Malcolm, Nana and Grandpa were leaving for home tomorrow on his actual birthday. It was a great way to end our wondrous time together as a family at Aulani.

The last day of enjoying this view...

An early birthday celebration today. Many many treats....

Acai bowl

Poke bowl from Ulu cafe

Matching clothes for the birthday celebration!

Mussels

Sunset during dinner

Hello to Opa and Oma!

A birthday card from Disney

Special birthday chocolate mousse cake

Last minute purchases...

Can't take Hei hei home without him....