Hawaii 2012

Final Thoughts

Despite last night's delay outside of Nawiliwili, we got to Honolulu on time at 7:30am. As soon as we were able, we got off the ship and took a taxi to the airport. We wound up waiting at the airport for quite some time until our 2pm flight to Los Angeles. We thought it would be just as easy to wait at the airport then on the ship... they would have made us leave by 9:30-10am. Unfortunately the section of the airport where the mainland and international flights depart has very few services, a Starbuck and a bar. We managed to kill the time and the flight to Los Angeles was uneventful. It was about 11:30pm before we got to the hotel (there was not way to get a flight to New York that late). Sunday morning we got up early, got the free breakfast at the hotel, and headed for the airport for the flight to New York. We got home a bit after 7pm. We booked all these flights late last year and used American Airline miles for the Los Angeles round trip and Hawaiian Airlines for the LA - Honolulu round trip. A couple of months ago, Hawaiian Airlines started non-stop service from Honolulu to JFK, about an 11 hour flight. We liked the stopover in Los Angeles... it breaks the trip into two five hour segments.

All in all it was a great trip. I referred to it as a "Hawaiian Sampler." It gave us a taste of four different islands, Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. Each one was different in its landscapes and towns. If we come back to Hawaii it would probably only be to one of the island... at this point Kauai gets the top spot for a return trip.

We had never sailed Norwegian Cruise Line before and found it to be a good line. The staff was very responsive to the guests and the food was OK. The entertainment was not up to what we have seen on other lines. One of the people we met on the trip felt that this was a bad ship and line because the entertainment was bad and the food was bad. He was the kind of person who thought of the ship as the destination. On the other hand, wethought of the ship as a means of transportation between stops and a hotel when we were in port. To us the destinations are the ports and excursions we took in them. The ship served its purpose well and the excursions, which we booked independently of the ship, were great.

This trip will be the only major trip we are taking this summer. We will take the trailer for a two week trip to New Hampshire in Augus,t where we will stay in one spot for the two week period. That will probably be all until we head south during the winter.