October 15, 2024 - Honolulu, Hawaii

Nice to be back in Honolulu. We have visited here many times over the past 30 years but on this occasion, with the cruise ship, we will be enjoying 2 nights and 3 full days. Without getting into specifics we are here a day earlier as a result of medical emergencies and the need to disembark passengers to get the attention they need. The numbers, well this is the largest we have seen, there were a total of 8 guests disembarking including 1 that did not survive the crossing - again not sure of all the dynamics but there are many older folks on board.

For us, this extra day allowed us to rent a car and tour the island for the day. This time around we headed anticlockwise hitting many of the scenic spots along the way, lighthouse park, Chinamen’s hat and the North Shore to name a few. There is a great restaurant in Turtle Bay named, The Beach House. This is a great stop for lunch with watching the enormous waves crashing on the reef. After lunch we just had to stop at Bonzai Pipeline beach where the surfers we out hitting the 15 to 20 foot waves, just crazy to watch. Then it was time for a little retail therapy at one of our favourite stores, Surf N’Sea before heading back down island to Oahu. We did make an additional quick stop at a Walmart on route to pick up some incidentals.

We did have the car rented for 24 hours but didn’t want to deal with overnight parking issues around the port so we decided to return it at the Waikiki after hours drop off location which happened to be right downtown making the drop off very convenient. The bonus was that we had drive right past the cruise ship to get there so I thought that we could park for a few minutes to offload all our stuff. The pleasant security officer allowed us to park for 20 minutes, awesome. This made the car return even easier and with plenty of restaurants near by perfect for the 8 pm drop off. Dinner was at a great Sushi/Steak house. A little walk around afterwards before heading back to the ship by about 10:30pm.

Some pics of our day, hope you enjoy…

Our view from our room…

The famous Blowhole area.







View from the Lighthouse park.





Chinamen’s Hat





Our ride.















Lunch. Lobster Rolls.




A surfing dog…





















Yup, she is heading out in to big waves…









Got to be a 20 footer…







Surf N’Sea shop…

















Christmas?







Outrigger Waikiki, our first hotel here some 30 years ago.

Bumped into our cabin stewards in town, Agus and Bobbi

The Aloha at night.