Carnival Miracle: October 26, 2013, Honolulu

I found Steve at the Lido deck after I woke around 5:30 this morning. We read, watched us arrive in port and had coffee until it was time for breakfast in the Dining room.

I lived on Oahu as a child for 3 plus years and then Steve and I vacationed in Honolulu a few years earlier. Since we did all the usual touristy things then, we didn’t plan any excursions.

We got off the ship around 8:30 and walked to Iolani palace stopping at a Longs Drugs store along the way for Steve to get some gum.

We bought two tickets for the next guided tour at 9:45 and ended up with about a dozen others on the tour. This is the only royal palace in the US and it’s a beautiful building.

While waiting we explored the grounds.

To give you a perspective on how large these trees are, we posed in front of them.

The tour took about an hour and very interesting.

Guide in front of stairs to second floor

We did go up to the second floor but via elevator instead of these beautiful stairs.

We got to see the King’s and Queen’s personal bedrooms along with the throne room, ballroom and more.

King's bed — Although the King had a large bedroom suite, the actual bed is pretty small.

After the tour ended we went to the basement where photos, jewelry and other royal items were on display. We enjoyed learning more about the Hawaiian monarchy.

We walked back to the ship for lunch. On the way we passed this statue of King Kamehameha I in front of the state judiciary building. He is the King that unified the Hawaiian Islands (after conquering them) and created the Kingdom of Hawaii which eventually became the state.

Back on the ship we were both so worn out from the prior two days we ended up taking a long nap and staying on board.

There wasn’t much going on the ship so we read or watched TV until it was time to get ready for dinner. I ordered langustino cocktail, mixed green salad and blackened tilapia. Steve had shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad and barbequed Cornish game hen. We both enjoyed our entrees very much. There was also New York strip steak on the menu and chicken pot pie. Hard choices!

For dessert I had the white chocolate bread pudding which was excellent. Steve had the almond date cake which was too dry and a banana split with bananas! The dining room was even emptier than the night we were in Maui and we four were the only passengers in our headwaiter’s area.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much planned in terms of entertainment tonight so we finished the evening with books before retiring. Tomorrow we have two excursions and need our rest!