Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Aloha from sunny Hawai`i! I know that many of you back home are dealing with snow and frigid temperatures, while we’ve had two glorious days in Honolulu. 

We arrived early on Tuesday morning and had a beautiful view of the Aloha tower at Honolulu’s harbor. We were eager to get our feet back on dry land after five days at sea but had to wait until 8:00 a.m. for the ship to be cleared by local authorities before we could disembark. We rented a car from a new rental company called Go Vibe. They literally bring the car to you and meet you where ever you want to turn the car in. Amazing concept that worked extremely well, we would definitely rent from them again. We had a small Mercedes Sedan, not sure of the model, that was very clean and met all of our needs for the day.

 Our driver met us at the port at 8:30, we hopped in the car and head to Pearl Harbor, not to see the sights, but to go to the Navy Exchange for a much-needed haircut. We also did some shopping while we were there and bought a few needed items. From there we headed to the Pearl Harbor post office and mailed a package of souvenirs to our house, so we don’t have to worry about fitting them in our luggage at the end of the trip.

After Pearl Harbor we decided to go back into Honolulu to visit Kully’s favorite store…Costco. We thought going on a Tuesday morning before lunch would be easy, boy, were we wrong. The place was a zoo! All we wanted to get was a big box of protein bars to have as snacks for upcoming excursions.

After this we were ready for some sightseeing. Since we have both been to Honolulu, we decided not to do any of the tours offered by Viking. Instead, we wanted to drive up to one of the mountain overlooks and back down to the northeast side of the island. We drove up to Nu`uanu Pali Lookout where there is a great roadside pull off and overlook. There are beautiful views of the northeast side of the island from here, as well as a monument to Hawaiian Warrior Women who fought in the battle of Nu`uana in 1795.

After visiting the overlook, we drove down to Kailua Beach, what a pretty little beach town. We worked our way west to the H3 interstate highway to go back to Honolulu. H3 is an incredibly scenic drive the winds along the base and ultimately through the spiney mountain that runs through the center of O`ahu. The pictures don’t do justice to the grandeur of these rough mountains.

We stopped by the ship changed for dinner and headed to the Hale Koa hotel where we met the Go Vibe representative to turn-in our car. The Hale Koa is the Army owned recreation services hotel which, in our opinion, is the most beautiful property on Waikiki Beach. I also think they have the best beach bar in Honolulu. Here are some pictures of the Hale Koa grounds.

We had reservations for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Honolulu, Roy’s. Roy’s is one of famous Hawaiian chef Roy Yamaguchi’s restaurants. Yamaguchi has won numerous culinary awards over the past 30 years including the James Beard “Best Pacific Northwest Chef” in 1993. My favorite dishes are his Macadamia Nut crusted seafoods. We had a wonderful dinner with great drinks and wine. 

We had a little more than half of a day on Wednesday in Honolulu, so after breakfast we took an Uber to Waikiki Beach to take in the lovely beach scenery.

We also decided to take a walk around the Hilton Hawaiin Village Shops and grounds, our second favorite hotel grounds in Honolulu. Here is some of what we saw there.

We made one more stop at the shops at the Hale Koa to pick up two shirts that I had seen earlier before heading back to the ship just in time for lunch and our sail away from Honolulu. We hated to have to leave so soon but were treated to beautiful views of the Honolulu skyline as we headed toward the South Pacific.

We will be at sea for the next five days. Our next port of call is Bora Bora, French Polynesia on Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it is on my list.” Susan Sontag