Day 11: 20231003 Tuesday October 3, 2023- Honolulu
The ship arrived dockside in Honolulu during the early morning hours for the medical evacuation, so we had a view of Honolulu harbor when we pulled our balcony blinds back.
We could see Eileen and Tony's condo under construction from the ship, and could also see the Coral Princess at a different pier in Honolulu Harbor. That is the ship which we will take to go all around Australia from Sydney. The two ships will probably swap entertainers. We had a relaxing breakfast in the dining room because our Polynesian Cultural Center excursion was at 9:30am. Ben and Janet wanted to take some selfies in front of murals in the terminal building, so we ended up being the last 2 people on the full bus.
Strangely, that worked out to our favor because the driver and guide had her bags and stuff on the first seat behind the driver seat, and there were no other seats in the completely packed 52 passenger bus, so she stuffed her things in the overhead compartment and we got princess seats at the very front.
It’s a long drive to the Polynesian Cultural Center from Honolulu, but we made a stop at the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout for pictures and a second stop at the Dole Plantation before arriving at the Polynesian Cultural Center(PCC).
The last time we did the PCC on a cruise ship excursion, we had a guided tour of the islands and luau meal, but this time, they just dropped us off inside the gates and said see you back on the bus by 5pm. Since we have been there many times before, we were familiar with how to get to the various shows and activities, but last time, it was nice to have an insider who knew strategies for making the most of a brief visit giving us directions. The biggest change however was the parade of canoes which showcased all of the islands with dancing and singing fell victim to the Covid Pandemic. It seems the dancers and singers had all graduated and moved on while nobody could train to take their places during the Pandemic shut downs. That was a disappointment. It seems lots of things fell victim to the pandemic including the chocolates we used to get on our pillows every night, or the blue Princess tote bags that were so ubiquitous at all the ports of call. We hope that as time passes, things will gradually get back to normal.
The performances and demonstrations were still excellent, and to or surprise, Kap, one of our favorites over the years, is still lead at the Samoa section. He has made this a full time career since getting his fine arts degree at BYU Hawaii.
We lucked out on the weather, which was warm and mildly humid, but overcast most of the day. We did feel a few tiny sprinkles as we were headed back to the bus at the end of the day, and we drove through some rain showers headed back to the ship. We were pretty bushed after spending the day at the PCC, so we had dinner on the ship and called it a night after watching performers from a Honolulu Hula school in the Princess Theater.
The performers are children from ages to 15, and they are remarkably expressive and talented. But we each spent at least one or two numbers resting our eyes. We could hardly wait to get back up to our room to hit the sack after that.
