So after the long trip up the western coast to Vancouver,, BC (thank you, Michel, for those great seats!) we worked our way through the airport terminal through security towards the exit. Once we made it out of the building we started looking around for our friends who were kind enough to volunteer to pick us up and deliver us to our hotel.
Of course, we had to stop for dinner on the way so we called in at a Walt Disney World favorite, The Boathouse. Who would have thought that we'd find a branch of an Orlando restaurant in Canada?? But we did and the food was lovely.
Then it was off to the hotel which was in a sort of funky part of town, but near a rapid transit station! We walked up to the station, talked to some transit police about our trip the next morning to the pier.
The next morning we made the trek after zipping around to several stores looking for something. It was an Oriental part of town, so you might guess that we had no luck finding anything we wanted.
However, we did catch the train, made our way to the back car (which offered more seats) and off we went - luggage and all.
The transit cops had advised us to take a taxi from the exit to the embarkation point. They must have been laughing to themselves as the 'uphill' part of the walk was only a few feet long! So we breezed through all the stations Carnival had set up for check-in and were on the ship in a timely manner.
The cruise was a cruise. We did get to visit an extinct volcano (bigger than the Grand Canyon we were told) via bus and then there was the shopping at a Target store.... And lots of other things to see and do.
Disembarkation was slow and tedious in Honolulu, but it moved apace. Until we couldn't spot our service that we'd booked and paid for.
When we finally called their number, we listened to a recording informing us that they had gone out of business!!!
So we then had to find a taxi to take us to the resort that would take a credit card (we were on the east side of the island; our resort was on the west). So after a l-o-o-ong ride we arrived at Aulani. What a resort! They provided cool towels and refreshing water while we waited in line, and the greeter went ahead and checked us in so our time at the counter was minimized.
Found our way to our friends' room and saw that our room was right next door - with a connecting door, too.
TO BE CONTINUED
