Kauai - Pride of America

It was great to wake up to bright, sunny weather, with gorgeous hills in front of us, a calm sea and a non-moving ship. Bob was already up and about, and brought me back a lovely breakfast sampler. He had to be off the ship by 8:30am to go play his golf game, which looked like it would go off without a hitch.

At 9:30am the ship began its emergency drills, which included sounding the loud main horn in an abandon ship signal as well as an emergency distress signal. That horn is very loud and I am sure Bob could hear it from the golf course. Hopefully he remembers that today is alarm test day, and doesn't think the ship is going to leave without him!

I stayed in bed to finish healing up from my cold - I didn't take any medicine this morning and my nose is a little stuffed up, but in general I am feeling OK. I'll finally be in good health when we get back on the plane, probably! I did get a call from the Hotel Manager saying that I would be able to talk with him at 3pm, in order to write up my article on the NCL Hawaiian cruise ships and their impact on the environment. So that should be very interesting. Back when I first began writing about cruise lines, one of the first groups to contact me was a Hawaiian group *against* cruise ships, who wanted to make sure I covered those issues. They even sent me a DVD laying out how harmful cruising was to the Hawaiian environment. So I have always wanted to take a cruise out here and learn more about the issues first hand.

The back end of the ship does face the small dock - which has container boxes and such in it - but really, that is just a tiny area and you are surrounded by gorgeous green hills, fluffy white clouds, and beautiful scenery. So I think this is a wonderful view and would rather look at this than "plain" open sea. I also happen to find dock work fascinating, how they move the containers around and so on :)

So I spent the morning resting and relaxing. I want to comment here that we brought a citrus 'fake candle' - the ones made out of wax with an LED light in them - so the room would have a nice gentle aroma and a little flickering candle in it. But we never had *any* off smells anywhere on the ship. Maybe the older cruisers are more experienced about not putting things into the vacuum toilet system and jamming it up. Also in general the staff has been great fun to talk with and hang out with, very friendly. I think the only staff members so far we had trouble communicating with were the chef in Teppanyaki and the sushi chef, both who were Japanese. But that's the same at most real Japanese restaurants too, so it's hard to complain there! Both did speak some English, just not fluently.

The Honolulu websites are full of news about this storm, about how intense it was.

In all her years in Hawai'i, Kathy Nohr had never seen anything like yesterday's early morning storm.

"It seemed like we were in the middle of a hurricane," said Nohr, who has lived at the Puu Alii condominium complex in Kane'ohe for 17 years.

"The wind was extremely loud," she said, retrieving her mail yesterday afternoon while workers nearby cut a wind-blown tree into pieces. "I was concerned that my patio furniture was going to fly into the glass, so I moved all the potential projectiles inside."

Honolulu Advertiser News Story

Also the NOAA site has a BLIZZARD WARNING for the island of Hawaii, the first time in memory that that has been done -



So this was no minor little storm that caused all of these issues.

While I'm lounging, I'll comment on the web access. To use the ship-supplied access, there is a $3.95 activation fee then

250 minutes for $100
100 minutes for $55
pay as you go 75 cents/minute

This applies to your connection time, whether you use their computers in the internet cafe or your own laptop.

Since I burn up minutes like you could not imagine with the websites I run, we got a Verizon Wireless laptop connector. One flat fee a month ($50 I think) and all the wireless we can use, as long as we're within cell phone range. Pretty much this entire voyage has been within cell phone range with the exception of that one time last night when we lost power at 3am and I wanted to log on, when we were exactly halfway between Oahu and Kauai

Also I don't seem to get a wireless signal here in my cabin (I did try when I couldn't get the Verizon to find a signal last night) but I do easily get my Verizon signal in my cabin when we are actually near land which is 99% of the time on this trip. The flyer says wireless is in most public areas and that the cabins have wired access.

Bob was not back by 3pm, which was when I was scheduled to meet with the captain and hotel director. So I showered, dressed and headed on down to the John Adams coffee bar.

Photos from Kauai

Hawaii Travelogue and Photos

Cruise Tips and Information

Main Travelogue Listing