Celebrity Solstice - day 18 - disembarkation day - Honolulu - part 2

We continued walking to Waikiki Beach...

Selfie with Diamond Head (and other tourists)

Selfie with surf at Waikiki Beach (and other tourists)

Another view of Diamond Head

Looking down the beach toward Diamond Head

All the colors of blue and blue-green!

We had walked down to the edge of the water to take those pictures -- we wanted to find a place where we could sit down and have a cold drink...

... but the view from the tables at the hotel were all of umbrellas and chairs!

We kept on walking down west down the beach...

... still lots of umbrellas!

We stopped at the Sheraton -- they have an infinity edge pool overlooking the ocean -- lots of people in the pool enjoying looking at the ocean.

There was a singer entertaining there, and we could enjoy the breeze and views of the ocean as we enjoyed a cold drink. He even played one of the songs that we line dance to: Wagon Wheel.

We saw the large catamaran, Mai Tai, come in with a group of visitors.

We decided that it was time to start heading toward the airport -- we decided to that The Bus to the Honolulu Scuba Company...

... so we walked to the stop where we could catch The Bus -- and saw these interesting buildings -- I think these were part of the Ritz Carlton Residences.

We successfully caught the bus and were able to get back to the Honolulu Scuba Company. We retrieved our luggage...

...and then ordered an Uber. He got us to the airport quickly and easily.

We re-packed some items from one suitcase to another so things would be well positioned for checked versus carry-on bags, and then got them checked in with the airline.

At the Honolulu airport, the terminal was not very busy and many of the shops were closed.

When I walked down the terminal, 

I saw this interesting structure that looked like a small camper trailer.

Up close -- it is identified as a place for mothers to do pumping or breastfeeding. I saw that it had a keypad, and I thought that would make it more secure, but it appears that the code is right there on the structure!

We made it onto our flight, and 6 hours later, arrived in Phoenix on Saturday morning...

...waiting for our luggage in Phoenix Sky Harbor.

What a great trip! Carl said that it was like having two separate vacations -- one to Sydney, and separately for the cruise. We enjoyed celebrating our 5 year anniversary!

Celebrity Solstice - day 18 - disembarkation day - Honolulu - part 1

Friday, April 25, was the end of our cruise... sad face!

We had elected to handle our luggage ourselves (rather than having to put it out into the hallway the night before and have the ship's personnel transfer it to the terminal) -- so we finished last packing needs, and went up to our final visit to the buffet. After breakfast, we went up to take a few pictures...

Aloha tower with more of the volcanic fog (vog) also visible here on Oahu, 200 miles away from Kilauea volcano.

Our suitcases ready in a two-part train to transfer off the ship

When we were planning for what we would do in Honolulu, we realized we would need to do something with our luggage. The cruise ship wouldn't hold it for us, we couldn't check it with the airline until 6 hours before our 9:20pm flight, and we certainly didn't want to schlep it around Waikiki. I did a google search on storing luggage in Honolulu, and found a service called "Bounce" (https://bounce.com/) where businesses can provide this service in many places around the world. I found a provider of storage services within 1/2 mile of the port, and booked for them to keep our bags for the day.

We found the place (Honolulu Scuba Company) easily and they had a marker out front indicating that they were part of the Bounce program.

After dropping off our luggage, we continued walking down Ala Moana Boulevard toward Waikiki.

We passed what-used-to-be the IBM building where I taught a class for Hawaii State Employees (on some IBM product, I don't recall which) many years ago!

It was humid and warm, so we were trying to see if we could find a hotel where we could sit in the lobby -- we walked through Hilton Hawaiian Village but it was pretty busy and we didn't see an accommodating spot.

We walked out to the beach in front of the Hilton -- Kahanamoku Beach -- looking east...

... and looking west back toward the Hilton.

There was a good paved walking path along the beach in front of the Hale Koa Hotel and Fort DeRussy Beach Park (Fort DeRussy Boardwalk). We could see Diamond Head in the distance to the east.

We were discussing whether we could find a place for a nap -- we noticed lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas on the beach and looked at the prices...

... we might consider it later in the afternoon.

We each had visited the International Marketplace in the past, and we wanted to see it again...

... it was a lot more built-up mall than when we had seen it in the past.

Some information about the International Market Place

We wanted Kalua Pork for lunch, so looked for a place nearby...

... we found Kono's...

... good choices -- we each had Hawaiian Bowls and they were ono-licious!

We wanted to walk to Waikiki Beach, so headed over...

... on the way, we saw a surf board rental storage area (https://www.nalustorage.com/)

Surf boards in storage

More in the next post!

Celebrity Solstice - day 17 - Kailua-Kona, Hawaii - part 3

We walked around Kailua-Kona...

We were walking down toward Ali'i Drive (the older, commercial/shopping part of town) and saw this interesting building in the narrow triangle between two streets. It appeared to be a medical (and other) office building.

We could see the Celebrity Solstice out in the bay.

We stopped to see Moku'aikaua church...

... we were able to view the outside...

... but it is currently undergoing renovations, so we could not view inside (https://mokuaikaua.com/campaign-of-spiritual-renewal/).

As we were walking along Ali'i Drive, we saw this bright Brazilian cardinal amongst the lava rock.

I had seen that Kona has a "Kat Cafe" so we stopped by to see what it was...

... you could pay a fee to go in to the Catio and interact with the cats for a period of time.

The room where you could sit with the cats and interact with them. These are adoptable cats (https://www.konakatcafe.com/).

One of the kitties in the Catio

After we got back on the ship, we took a picture of this building that looked like it had a steep slide into the water!

Backing off a little - you can see how hazy it is from the volcanic gasses being produced by Kilauea's current eruption.

Tenders going back and forth to the pier.

The evening show was another show by the magician, this one allowing him to show his mind reading capabilities, "Mind of the Mentalist".

Before the magician came out, Cruise Director Angela and Captain Theo talked with us and thanked us for being passengers for this cruise.

Andrew did a number of tricks where he selected random people from the audience, and asked them to do something -- like think about a specific thing (e.g. "Think of someone, a friend of family member, with whom you would like to share a travel vacation in the future"). He would then write down on a small chalk board what he predicted that they were thinking, ask the audience member to say out-loud what they were thinking, and then turn the chalk board around and show that his prediction was correct. It was a wee bit disconcerting and made you wonder how in the world he did it.

We had to get our things packed up as we would be cruising overnight to our disembarkation port, Honolulu. When we were packing up, I took pictures of the two certificates that we each got:

Recognition for crossing the International Dateline on 18th April 2025

Recognition for crossing the equator (becoming Shellbacks) on 20th April 2025

All in good fun!

Celebrity Solstice - day 17 - Kailua-Kona, Hawaii - part 2

We headed to Kona Brewing to join our tour...

Kona Brewing Company

Their tagline is "Liquid Aloha"

We walked from the restaurant to the newly built brewery about a block away.

Information on the building blocks of brewing beer

The two fellows who founded Kona Brewery in 1995 -- the photo has quite a glare on it, but maybe you can see that one of them has a cat on his shoulder! He *must* be a good guy!

Information about use of solar in powering the brewery

What was being made on the day we visited and the crew working

We went into the brewing area via a catwalk above the work area... ('ono means delicious).

Area where they are processing the grain, extracting the wort, and adding the hops

The grain used is barley, and sometimes wheat or rye.

Hops are a flower that add sharp flavor and aroma to balance the sweetness of the wort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops)

Area where the cooling and fermenting takes place

Some of the cans ready to be filled

Can processing area (no cans being filled at the time we were there)

Directional and mileage information from Kona to other places!

Tasting area on the tour

 We enjoy factory tours when we find them in our travels.