Celebrity Solstice - day 17 - Kailua-Kona, Hawaii - part 1

We arrived at Kailua-Kona early on Thursday morning. 

Representatives from US Immigration services came aboard and all on the ship (passengers and crew) went through US Immigration. We would not be allowed to leave the ship unless we had an indication on our "sea card" (room key card and identification onboard ship) that we had gone through immigration. It was quick and painless for us -- and seemed to be pretty easy for everyone, though we noticed a line up when the process was first beginning. The time we had been assigned to go through was late in the schedule, so by the time we went to the Sky Lounge, there were no lines at all for US passport holders.

When we took the elevator up to the buffet on 14 for breakfast, we saw information in the elevator about where we would go for US Immigration...

... and where we'd find access to the tenders to get to shore after we'd gone through immigration.

After breakfast, we walked up to deck 15 where we could see the tenders ready to take us to shore..

We checked the flags on the mast...

... we saw the flag that indicated that the pilot was on board (we learned from the 3rd officer, Anastasia, on Wednesday https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/04/celebrity-solstice-day-16-sea-day-part-1.html)

After going through US immigration, we went to the tender preparation area to pick up our tender tickets -- they had just called for those with tender groups 1 & 2,

...so when the crew member handed them to us, we thought we got tender group #6 and that it wouldn't be long... then we noticed the writing on the tender ticket...

... and realized that we were in group 9!

It didn't take long though...

...and after getting to shore, we noted the time of the last tender boat -- we had no plan to be there that long, but always good to keep in mind!

We had scheduled a factory tour at Kona Brewery and headed that way...

... along the way, we stopped at a mall area -- finding Puna Chocolate Company's Big Chocolate Island...

Encouragement to come inside

Information about chocolate growing on the Big Island

The process of growing and making chocolate - part 1,

... part 2,

... part 3

Offerings on their menu

Interesting to visit!

More in the next post!