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In 2016 we had planned for a flight to Hawaii and then cruise back to Sydney on the Carnival Splendour. This is an overview of the trip
HAWAII
FLIGHT AND CARNIVAL CRUISE.
Sydney
to Hawaii– Maree and Bill – Ellen and Peter
14th
September 2016
Today is the day that we
have been looking forward to for a long time now and it has finally arrived. A
lot of planning and backwards and forwards over the previous months including
visas and paperwork and many other things that had to be organised. But now it
is upon us.
This is two days before
we fly to America and then sail back to Sydney on the Carnival Legend Cruise
Ship.
We decided to head down
to the airport two days before hand to stay the night in a hotel close to the
airport and also close to where we were going to leave the car for the time we
were away.
We stayed at the Pullman
which was a brand new hotel that had only been open for a few weeks prior. As a
member of Accor I had a free night to claim and we stayed a second night for a
cut price so it was worth the funds that we paid and also when the 16th
September arrived for the flight we would be less stressed and only a few
minute form the airport.
This
is Maree in the hotel on the night before the flight
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16th
September 2016
We had organised to meet
Ellen and Peter at the car parking place on the 16th September 2016 so
after checking out we then drove to the place where we were to meet and met up
with them handed over the car to our chauffer and was then dropped to the
airport.
The cruise that we were
booked on from Hawaii was booked as a buy one and get one free cruise with
Maree’s sister Ellen and her husband Peter.
The plan was to fly to
Hawaii first and stay a week in Hawaii and then cruise back to Sydney on an 18
day cruise aboard the Carnival Legend. More about the cruise later.
We boarded the flight to
Hawaii in Sydney after parking our car at Mascot at which time we were
chauffeured to the airport by the people who parked our car in a safe area for
our return trip and who would meet us at the overseas terminal at the end of
the cruise and chauffeur us back to our cars.
After all the formalities
of passing through customs and getting our information taken by Jetstar we were
handed our boarding passes and then you guessed it – time for a beer or two in
the terminal inside customs.
The bar area was not too
busy inside customs which was unusual for a Friday afternoon but we found a
spot and parked ourselves down for a couple of drinks. After a period of time
we heard the boarding call for our flight and then we headed off to the
boarding gate to get on the plane.
We boarded the plane
after a period of time and had 13 hours of flying time ahead of us and it was
late in the evening which meant that we would be flying during the night. We
were lucky that we had seats together with Ellen, Maree and I on the RHS of the
plane and Peter across the aisle next to us.
Each seat had a small
screen with headphones for listening to music or watching TV shows or movies.
So initially we ordered drinks of course and just had general chit chat amongst
ourselves.
After a period of time we
were talked out and we decided it was time for a movie and started watching one
and then we tried some sleep as the night was moving on and it was getting
late. Remembering that all the time we were turning our clocks back and losing
time.
Because of the time zone
in the US we arrived at 6:00am on the same morning that we left at abut 6:00pm 16th
September 2020 it felt strange but anyhow we had arrived in the US at Honolulu
airport so all we had to do now was clear their customs. Which was fairly
quick.
Ellen and Peter an Maree and Bill in Hawaii
Anyhow we arrived in
Hawaii on the 16th September 2016 and after a little time we were
escorted to the bus that was taking us to our hotel and off we went. The trip
from the airport was eye opening as we were in peak hour traffic in Hawaii and
the traffic was fairly heavy and we had the chance of a fair bit of sights
seeing along the way.
The bus dropped off
passengers at different hotels along the way so we had the opportunity to see a
lot of the side streets of Oahu which was also great. Because of the rigid
check in times for hotels in the US we were not allowed to get into our room
before 2:00pm but we were permitted to leave our luggage in the foyer of the
hotel in a secure place.
The Ilima Hotel Oahu Hawaii this is our hotel
We were so tired and jet
lagged we could hardly keep our eyes open. However our luck had changed because
Ellen and Peter were signed into a different hotel than we were which had a
directors room on the top floor that was not being used and we were allowed to
use it.
The director’s room had a
kitchen and coffee machine available which we used often during the day.
As it was early in the
day we decided to head down and out to a café which in the US is like a small
restaurant and we sat down and had breakfast.
We headed downstairs and
then looked for a bus to take us to the nearest shopping centre. Across the
road from Ellen’s hotel was an arcade that lead to another street where the bus
exchange was so we walked off in that direction.
After some confusion and
because they drive on the LHS in America we were waiting on the wrong side of
the street for the bus as we thought that this was the direction we had to
take which it was only on the other side
of the street. So we had to ask somebody where to go and after getting the
advice we changed sides of the road and had to walk about 100metres to the bus
stop then caught the bus that we wanted.
PIZZA
The
infamous American pizza – great
After having a feed it was getting towards 12:00noon and we just headed back to Ellen’s hotel and sat around albeit with small snoozes in between and waited for our room to become available.
****************************
When Maree and I arrived
at our hotel and checked in we looked at our bags then the bed and promptly
pulled back the sheets and blankets and dropped into bed and slept. It was hot
and humid in Hawaii.
We slept soundly during
the afternoon and we awoke about 8:00pm and as one would expect we were hungry
so we went out to the local supermarket, as most of them are open late each
night.
We picked up some salad
and cold meats and had dinner late and watch a little TV as we were both tired
and went back to bed later on in the night.
****************************
17th
September 2016
After a good nights sleep
and a lot of the jet lag slept off we woke up and jumped out of bed and took a
look around the room and facilities which included a verandah.
We made a coffee and took
it out on the verandah to consume and just sat and took everything in.
Coffee in the US is great,
the room had a coffee maker and included a couple of pods for it which were
nice and mild and just what we wanted.
 |
| Just relaxing |
 |
| View of the lake from the balcony |
 |
| View from the Balcony |
 |
| Jet Lagged but awake |
We had previously organised with Peter to find a place where we could activate our telephones. We were fairly lucky as Peter’s cousin had only recently returned from the US and she had bought some US phones when she was there and she loaned them to us for the trip.
We met half way between Peters and my hotels at a small news agency/telephone sales store and promptly purchased sim cards for the phones and were allocated numbers so that we could use them while we were on holidays.
After getting the phones online we returned to our hotels and decided that we would meet up later in the day for lunch. So we had a nice lunch walking around Hawaii and returned home to our motel.
Because our hotel room was a self service room ie had a kitchen and dining area we had a lot of the meals at home. So on Saturday we went shopping at the local drug store as it is known but in fact sold some legal drugs and was mostly a supermarket.
We stocked up with groceries and other essential items and headed back to the hotel and stacked the fridge and cupboards and the Peter and Ellen headed home for a nanny nap. So did we except we were home.
That night we met again at our hotel for dinner and hit the fridge for the essential items that we purchased earlier and slowly got ourselves inebriated. Then we cooked tea.
 |
| This is them getting inebriated |
Makes
you wonder why we bought them along. Bloody drunks.
Its
amazing what a couple of drinks can do to grown adults.
Oh
God we changed from white wine to red wine
Anyway we had a great
night at home with a nice meal and a few drinks. The night was over and I am
not sure how they got home!!!
****************************
18th
September 2016
Its Sunday today and we
did not have too much planned out for the day and we did a little vegetating
with a nice sleep in.
****************************
19th
September 2016
Monday and after a good
sleep in we had some breakfast and a lazy morning on the verandah prior to
heading off to meet Ellen and Peter for lunch at the famous cheesecake factory
near our motel.
The cheesecake factory in
Hawaii is a famous licensed restaurant which serves a variety of delicious
meals all of which are very tasty. See photos below.
Ellen
and Peter relaxing and Maree and Bill looking at the menu
The
pasta meal that Ellen had and the open hamburger meal the rest of us had
A great meal with a
number of drinks as we were not driving, a lot of giggling from the women and
then lunch was over. And off we head.
We did a little bit of
sight seeing and then back to the motel for dinner.
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20th September
2016
Tuesday and today was the
day that we agreed to head down to the USS Arizona memorial and boy was that a
day to remember.
This
is a photo of the ship where the Japanese surrender was signed which we were
allowed to look through.
The
USS Arizona below the water level and a tribute graveyard
We had a great day at the
memorial including a bus trip to and from it and although the above are only a
few photos of what we saw they were a very hard reminder of what had happened.
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The remainder of the week
was spent on sightseeing and wandering around Hawaii and just taking in the
atmosphere.
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The
last night at the hotel in Hawaii for Maree and I.
The
last night at the hotel for Ellen and Peter
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