Wednesday, September 3rd, 2003: We arrived in Hilo on time and as usual with Hilo, it was raining. It is hard to imagine that the very active volcano Kilauea lives on this island, with as wet and lush as Hilo and the Hamakua coast can be. We were a little disappointed that we would not be visiting Kailua-Kona which is one the Kohala Coast but we could always do that another time. We were not allowed off the ship until 8:00 A.M. and we again did not book any excursions so we decided to have breakfast and see what we all wanted to do.

We met once again at the Versailles Restaurant on Deck 7 for another great breakfast with wonderful service. We were starting our 4th day on this wonderful ship and we still had so much to see and do. So we decided to take the shuttle over to Hilo Hatties and then come back to the ship and just have an afternoon of sun (hopefully) and fun and maybe wonder around the ship some more.

So we finished breakfast and made our way off the ship and thru the cruise terminal to the waiting shuttles, jumped on a Hilo Hattie's shuttle and we were off for a fun time at the ultimate of tourist shopping!

Now for those of you who have never been to Hilo Hatties, it is the best place to find all your souvenirs under one roof. Even after 23 trips and more than 20 years, I still love going to Hilo Hattie's. I always find something fun to buy. We spent about 2 hours in the store, loaded our treasures up in bags and back on the return shuttle we rode to the ship. The sun was just coming out as we got back on board so we took all of our stuff back to our cabins, got in our swim wear and made it back to "Our Table" for some lunch, libations and the hopes of catching some rays.

We were due to disembark Hilo at 5:00 P.M. and sail south to just below Kilauea Volcano and at 8:30 P.M. where we would be able to view the lava flowing down its slopes. We have been lucky enough to have seen Kilauea on a number of occasions and it is magnificent. So we thought that this would be another great way to see the volcano. Words really cannot describe the beauty and grandeur of an active volcano, either by air or standing 200 yards from it. It is simply amazing. So we certainly were lQQking forward to that.

After we finished our afternoon at the pool, we got ready just as the ship was leaving Hilo and we met at Versailles for dinner. As we expected it did not disappoint. Dinner was wonderful and the service as we had already experienced was superb once again. Since we had no where to be till 8:30 P.M. we enjoyed a very leisurely dinner and when we heard the captain announce we were approaching Kilauea, we settled up our bill and we went to find the optimum viewing area.

Now according to the "Freestyle Daily", the best viewing areas were to be found at the Spinnaker Lounge Deck 12 Forward as well as the Oasis Pool on Decks 12 and 13. Since we were on Deck 6, some of us just went up to Deck 7 and out onto the Promenade Deck. We could of course see the brilliant reddish orange of the lava flowing in a number of different paths but it was not what we expected. We had hoped we could have been closer, but I am sure there was some sort of safety issue for the ship so certainly that would be understandable. Not to mention, who knows how much we could see, even if we were closer. And as a funny side note, as my "Better Half" and I were standing on the Promenade Deck watching it and trying to take pictures and make movies of it, we over heard two elderly ladies say that they didn't believe it was lava flowing, they believed it was the tail lights of cars driving away. We both chuckled to each other.

We decided once the viewing was over we would go down to the Champagne Bar, have a couple glasses and then turn in. Tomorrow was to be our last full day at sea and we had alot of things we wanted to do so we wanted to get a good nights sleep. The Gatsby's Champagne Bar is on Deck 6 at the bottom on a long beautiful staircase mid ship in a rather secluded part of the ship with The SoHo Restaurant, Aqua Restaurant, Le Bistro Restaurant, The Wine Cellar and The Havana Club. A rather elegant little hideaway that served many different types of champagne and also had a piano bar for entertainment in the evening. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and were sorry we were not able to have spent more time there.

Around 11:00 P.M. it was time to head off to bed. We had a wonderful day on The Big Island, a favorite island to us and we lQQked very forward to the day we would make it back to this wonderfully diverse island paradise.

Start Over

© ParadiseAwaits.Com
Last Updated:

Waves Of The Ocean