Albrecht's

Thursday 21 November

Flew Alaska from SFO to HNL, then took a Taxi to Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort.  Spent Thursday and Friday night.  Had a nice view from our balcony

View from our room

Weather was warm, but not hot, with high humidity. Ate dinner at the Tropics Bar & Grill, but was not impressed, nice view of the ocean and sunset, but food was so-so.

Friday 22 November

Spent the day relaxing and at the pool. Went to the Friday Night Firework Luau on the Great Lawn.  Typical luau food, and nice luau show.

Had great sunset view.

Sunset at Luau

Luau

Luau

Had good view of the fireworks, which is every Friday night at the Hilton.

Saturday 23 November

Had a bus ride from the hotel to the ship, and boarded the Pride of America about noon.  Went with a suite this time, so got special check in and other services.

We had a Penthouse suite Cabin 11018.

Penthouse Suite 11018

Cabin Location

Gave us extra room and larger bathroom.  Also had use of Cagney’s for breakfast and lunch.

Left Honolulu about 7:00 PM.  We had dinner at Moderno Churrascaria, a Brazilian style restaurant.  Food was very good, and needed effort to not overeat.

Sunday 24 November

Arrived in Kahului, Maui.

Maui

Did not even get off the boat this time.  The port is not near anything, and the old Hop-on Hop-off bus (Hula Hula Hopper) no longer exists and none of the excursions appealed to us.  Also tired from the first two days.

Had dinner in Main Dining Room, the upper level (deck 6) Liberty Dining Room.  With Cagney’s in place you have to use the promenade or rear elevators/Stairs to get to Liberty, so it had shorter (almost no) waiting line, while the 5^th Deck Starlight seemed to always have a waiting line.

Monday 25 November

Still at Maui and repeated Sunday (must be getting old).  Had dinner in East Meets West and was not impressed.  On a previous sailing (2019) it was good Asian fusion, this time it was closer to steam table Chinese.  The spring rolls and dumpling appetizers were good.

Tuesday 26 November

In Hilo Hawaii, took the free shuttle to downtown and the Farmers Market.  The shuttle only ran until noon, but the operators had an excursion to Rainbow Falls, the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens, the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center, Big Island Candies, and Liliʻuokalani Gardens for $60 per person, big savings off the ships $199 per person. And nice tour.  Had dinner in La Cucina, was very good.

Rainbow Falls

Wednesday 27 November

Kona

Arrived in Kona.  Took the Glass Bottom Boat excursion, which we booked separately at a savings.  Tour was nice and saw a lot of fish.  Then did a short walking trip along the shore to a small shopping aea.  Day was very warm and humid, so did not do much else.  Had dinner in Main Dinning Room again, good service and good food.

This was a tendering day, where the ship anchored off shore and used lifeboats to shuttle back and forth.

Ship off shore

Thursday 28 November – Thanksgiving Day.

Arrived in Nawiliwili Kauai, pretty tired from the heat in Kona, also not interested in any of the excursion, so stayed aboard and used the pool which was fairly empty.  Basically relaxed.  Had dinner in Jefferson’s Bistro which was very good.

Friday 29 November

Since this was an overnight, we were still in Nawiliwili.  Weather which had been real good turned to rain,  Looked at some shore excursions but were all booked, so repeated Thursday.  Except had dinner in Cagney’s, which was the best meal of the trip.

Saturday 30 November

Back in Honolulu.

Diamond Head at dawn from ship.

Took Alaska 876 from HNL to SFO. Due to time of flight (3:40 PM) did not have time for excursion and ended spending several hours at airport.  Need to find better flight times next time.

General comments

Enjoyed the entire trip very much, and while it pointed out how out of shape physically we were it was very relaxing. 

There are a few points to bring up.  First was the picture in ourcabin.

Ducks swimming or orchids?

Did get some cute towel animals from our room steward.

So all in all a good trip and would do again

Our Tavel agent for this cruise

Brenda Campos - ACC