Land Ho, HILO

Saturday March 28, 2015, On Land

The clocks were set back for the third time last night and so we are finally on Hawaii time

This was an interesting day to say the least. This was our day to be in Hilo and since it was our first stop in the US since leaving Canada it was necessary that we go through Immigration. Princess sent instructions on Thursday giving us times and telling everyone how important that we go to The Vista Lounge at our assigned times. Then we received another sheet with those same instructions on Friday This time they were in English and Chinese. There is a large contingent of Asian descent passengers.

The ship was due to dock at eight and our assigned time was ten. The Grand docked early and the process was to begin around 8:30. Unfortunately even though times were given to everyone there was a line up over half the length of the ship at 7:30 and the ship was still no where close to docked.  Persons with booked Princess tours were supposed to be handled early so they could connect with their tour. People with the 8:30 time were at the back of the line and people with 9:30 times were at the front of the line. Of course that made a complete mess of what should have been a smooth process. I am so glad that we did not have a tour booked for this morning. I am certain that many people with independent tours were unable to connect with their tour. You could not disembark without an immigration clearance card and those who did not follow instructions caused those who needed to get off early to be unable to. What a mess. Knowing we did not have a tour we went to the international café and visited and drank coffee until the line cleared out. We were not cleared until almost 11:30. Since it was almost lunch time we decided to eat on the ship and disembark after our lunch. We went topside and got a hot dog and came down and enjoyed it on our balcony.

Because the internet is out and since I have been unable to blog since Tuesday and because I know friends worry I decided to take the free shuttle to Wal-mart. There is a Starbucks right in that mall . I was able to post from there. The pictures are missing but at least friends and family know we are alive.

We caught the shuttle, found Starbucks, posted the blog and got back to the ship by two o’clock.

To go back to the start of our day. We awoke and saw land so we got up right away and sure enough we were on our way into the harbor. The day began with dark clouds up close to the ship and sun on the distant hills…mountains actually. Above the hills and the clouds we could see the snow capped area of the Keck Observatory. We could actually make out three of the telescopes. Ken was delighted.

We had ordered room service and by the time our breakfast arrived at eight the shower had begun so we ate inside. Then we went to the café to wait for our turn to clear immigration.

When we returned to the ship the sun was shining and it was lovely and hot. We decided to take advantage of the almost empty ship and we quickly changed and went to deck 16 to the hot tub. It was almost magical. We were almost alone with few others around. There was no one on deck 16 but we could see a few others on deck 15. The sky was as blue as could be and there was not a cloud. The water was a wonderful royal blue color. There were a few small sailboats beyond the breakwater and every now and then we would see a whole blow and splash in the distance. Memories are made of afternoons like this.

Around 3:30 we returned to our stateroom. The sun was on our balcony so I rinsed out my suit, hung it to dry and went up to deck 14 to get Ken and I ice cream and cookies…

The internet is still not in operation. I was hoping they got it repaired while we were gone but no such luck.

We dressed for dinner and had a fun time as usual. We certainly lucked out when it came to dinner companions. We certainly do enjoy our mealtimes. Erik and Rosalie were telling us all about their tour and the people talking instead of listening to the guide‘s commentary. But all in all they enjoyed their day and got a lot of wonderful pictures.

For the evening’s entertainment we went to hear a group called “These Guys”. They were fabulous!!

That was all we did, but of us were tired and ready to end the day. I discovered much to my surprise that I had quite a bit of sunburn.

Still no internet.

Tomorrow we are in Honolulu and we are taking a submarine tour.