Pearl Harbor and the Pride of America

We awoke to a beautiful Hawaiian rainbow.
Fortunately, we both slept well and with our body clocks still on east coast time, our 6:30 AM alarm didn’t feel so bad. We made some in-room coffee, ate our ABC muffins and yogurt and met our tour bus driver for our ½ day tour of Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.

Just 3 days before our visit, the site was filled with WWII veterans, survivors of Pearl Harbor, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the attack. The memorial is on the U.S. Naval Base, about 45 minutes west of Waikiki. After a short documentary film on the Pearl Harbor attack, you board a Navy shuttle boat to the Memorial.

The Arizona Memorial was quite moving….the oil still seeps out from the ship on the bottom of the bay.

After visiting the memorial, we drove through the National Cemetery of the Pacific, known as “The Punchbowl”. The long drive was lined with gorgeous banyan trees.

From there, we drove through downtown Honolulu’s Chinatown and their corner “lei stores”. Honolulu is a much bigger city than I expected and the traffic is non-stop. The freeways are jammed, even on a Saturday morning. The downtown business high rises blend into the hotels and condos of Waikiki Beach to the north.
We got back at 1:30 and grabbed our bags to head to the ship. We had an entertaining ride with a Korean cab driver. He had us in stitches talking about his life as a cabbie and his over achieving children.

The Pride of America docked in Honolulu
Photo courtesy of Flickr
When we arrived at the port, we checked our bags and looked at a line that looked blocks long. We, however, were able to walk directly to the front of the line and got processed through immediately.

After the obligatory "photo" inside, the long lines continued, but we followed the signs for VIP’s and were personally escorted to the ship and greeted with a glass of champagne and met James, the concierge.
The “suite” guests had use of the Lazy J Restaurant for breakfast and lunch. While the rest of the ship was fighting for space at the Aloha Buffet, we were treated to a lovely, quiet lunch before making our way to our room.

On the 12th floor, down a private corridor of suites, we found the bright green door leading to our “Bird of Paradise Suite”.

What a sight—we walked in to find a bottle of Moet Chandon champagne chilling in a silver ice bucket, plate of cookies on the counter, fresh fruit basket and a gorgeous tropical flower arrangement on the table. Within minutes, our personal butler, George, rang the bell and took us on a tour of our suite.
He showed us how to use the coffee/cappuccino machine, the 3 HD TV’s (in the living room, bedroom and bathroom), the Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and the hot tub on our deck! The room was paradise.

The kitchen area was complete with stocked refrigerator, wine and champagne glasses and cappuccino machine. (George left us a liquor list to choose the wine/liquor that we needed for the week.)

The décor was tropical—murals and carpeting in shades of fuchsia and green. Our living room had a small dining table, sofa and 2 chairs and a glass coffee table as well as a deck outfitted with a PC.

Outside the sliding glass doors, we were delighted to find our HUGE deck—a table and 4 chairs, two lounge chairs and our own private hot tub.

With views of Honolulu harbor from the deck, we could have stayed there forever.
The View of Honolulu from our Balcony
But, there was still a bedroom, walk-in closet and huge bathroom to explore.

What a joy to have a huge walk-in closet with make-up station. We had more than enough space to unpack everything from our over-stuffed suitcases.

Our Walk-In Closet
In the bathroom, we had double sinks, a gigantic walk-in shower, bathroom and a large Jacuzzi tub. (And, for that time when we “entertained”, we had a ½ bath, as well).

Since our luggage hadn’t arrived, we decided to take a tour of the ship. The theme is “Americana”—from the giant seal of the U.S. in the lobby, to the themed restaurants, “The Liberty, Skyline, Jefferson’s Bistro, Little Italy, East Meets West, the Aloha Cafe and the Cadillac Diner”. Only weeks away from Christmas, the ship had a large decorated tree on the grand staircase.
We had dinner at the Liberty Restaurant….mahi-mahi, shrimp, key lime pie. We got back to the room to find our luggage (even with my smuggled wine boxes). After unpacking, we just relaxed in our gorgeous suite and watched the ship leave Honolulu, bound for Maui.