Hawaii Cruise on Celebrity - September 2013

This blog post is about 6 months late, but it took this long to get up the courage to "spill the beans" on our wonderful Hawaii Cruise last fall with the two "slightly younger :)" fellas we became friends with when we lived in Fort Worth, Texas.  TBT they used to live in (and still plan to return to) S Florida one day and we are so glad that might happen so we can plan more fun cruises with them!

Bob and Mike are "the slightly younger OK really younger ones in the photo above" Bob on the right of Tom and Mike on the left and we were in San Diego at Mo's Bar & Grill in the funky (read gay) part of town :>) yep when this photo was taken on a Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we toured around Coronado, Point Loma and La Jolla.

Monday we traveled by motor coach to Ensenada to board the Celebrity Solstice for our cruise to the Hawaiian Islands.  The ship looked beautiful in the bay and we loved the ship as soon as we boarded and entered our cabin.

At Bob and Mike's suggestion, we booked our cabin in Aqua Class which entitled us to dine in the very exclusive Blu Dining Room and we lounged and swam at the wonderfully quiet Solarium Pool.

Wherever we explored on-board the Solstice, we thought - as Bob and Mike do - this ship really is the most beautiful vessel we've sailed on so far. 

From Ensenada, Mexico to Hilo, Hawaii, we had (5) sea days and we enjoyed every minute.  The meals were spectacular and we enjoyed seeing where they were prepared in the ship's galley.   We found it interesting they posted photos of all the dishes being prepared so meal presentation by the kitchen staff was consistently done right. 

Steve became friends with our Sommelier (wine steward), and Tom kept count of how many bottles he was buying for dinner, ha ha !!   We had lots of laughs and got ready for our Hawaii adventure !!

In Hilo, Hawaii we began taking shore excursions that included a FIRST for Tom - yes, there is dare-devil Thomas making (he says) his one and only zip line adventure through the local rain forest.

On to Kona for coffee, of course, and we walked gingerly through the coffee plantation trying to avoid the goose droppings.  The owners explained having geese on their property ensured no one could steal any plants and then one goose flew right over Tom's head but later let him go haha!!

Mike couldn't resist looking more closely at one of the many - hopefully inactive - volcanic lava tubes that dot the Big Island of Hawaii. 

Then we sailed to Maui for a helicopter ride, swimming at Kaanapali Beach and a sunset catamaran sail from the port of Lahaina.

Our last port was Honolulu where we visited the Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery - Pacific to honor the grave site of one of Bob's uncles who died in WWII...making the visit to this most beautiful setting especially moving !!  Because the Federal Government was shutdown last fall, the Arizona Memorial was closed, however we were able to visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial or "Mighty Mo" which is separately operated by a local nonprofit

Before we left for the airport to fly home, we visited Waikiki Beach and Shangri La, the restored home of heiress Doris Duke which is operated by the Honolulu Museum of Art.

It's been six months since our Hawaii Cruise and we've taken six more cruises - four of them detailed in earlier blog posts - but I'm catching up Tom and Steve at Sea before we sail away this weekend for Bermuda on the Oceania Regatta.  This will be our 17th cruise and our first on Oceania so we're excited to experience yet another cruise line that leaves from South Florida.  We hope you are enjoying our blog and we wish you well in your own travels.    

Bon voyage !!