Tag Archives: cruise vacation

January 18, 2017 · 5:35 am

Port 1 Hilo — Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

The Crown Princess left Los Angeles on October 17, 2015. Aboard with Ursula and me were our good friends from Houston, Al and Lisa Fittipaldi. You may remember Lisa and Al from our adventures together on another cruise we did together just last year. That one was to Alaska, and you can read up on Lisa and Al here: The Norwegian Sun Docks in Ketchikan.

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

We arrived five days later at our first port of call, Hilo, on the island of Hawai’i. From here Ursula and I boarded a van from Ricky’s Tours for a little sightseeing trip around the Big Island. First stop was Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens in Hilo. Queen Lili’uokalani donated the land upon which the park sits, and thus the park bears her name.

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

As you can see from the pictures, the gardens at Lili’uokalani Park are of the Japanese style. As such, brightly colored flowers are not used. Rather, the gardens concentrate on landscaping, creative trimming and shaping, water features, and Japanese-inspired structural details.

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

Now I’ll leave you to enjoy some of the sights:

Lili’uokalani Park and Gardens

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Filed under Photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel, vacation

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January 16, 2017 · 5:35 am

28-Day Pacific Cruise Series

Nawiliwili, Kauai

Today begins a series on a 28-day Pacific cruise aboard the Crown Princess that took place from October 17 to November 14, 2015. Along the way we’ll be making port on nine islands. Those ports are Hilo, Honolulu, Lahaina, and Nawiliwili in the Hawai’ian Islands; Apia on the island of Samoa; Fagatogo, the port serving nearby Pago Pago on American Samoa; and the French Polynesian ports of Bora Bora, Mo’orea, and Papeete in the Society Islands.

For today’s article I have chosen one photo from each island as a sort of preview of things to come for this rather long series. I hope the following pictures enough to come back for the highlights from each island port of call.

The “Big Island” of Hawai’i:

Liliuokalani Gardens and Park, Hilo, Hawai’i

Oahu:

Diamond Head, Honolulu, Oahu

Maui:

Lahaina, Maui

Kauai:

Nawiliwili Beach Park, Kauai

Samoa:

Samoa Cultural Village, Apia, Samoa

American Samoa:

Samoan Tree Carving, Fagatogo, American Samoa

Bora Bora:

Maohi Nui Tour, Bora Bora

Mo’orea:

Mou’a Roa (a.k.a. Bali Hai), Mo’orea

Papeete:

Papeete, Tahiti

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Filed under Photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel, vacation

Tagged as Crown Princess, cruise vacation, photography, R. Doug Wicker, South Pacific, travel, travel photography, vacation

October 15, 2012 · 5:45 am

Cruising the West Coast Aboard the Sapphire Princess

If it appeared that last week’s blogs were a bit canned, there’s a good reason. They were. I wrote them a week in advance and scheduled them for automatic posting because I was headed out of town.

Friday after work we loaded onto a flight to Los Angeles. Saturday found us aboard Princess Cruises’ recently refurbished Sapphire Princess. This was our second voyage aboard this particular ship, with the previous cruise taking place in May of 2009 for a Costco Wine Cruise. Alas, this cruise had little to do with wine and a lot to do with nonstop sightseeing — San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island, San Diego, and a trip to Mexico’s Northern Baja Peninsula and the quaint little town of Ensenada.

I must say that she’s a handsome ship.

Sapphire Princess

One of the first things I sensed upon boarding was the unnerving realization that either the crew lists to port or the ship lists to starboard:

The Crew Lists to Port

And if that realization weren’t startling enough, we then stumbled upon the Black Box (which are never black, by the way).

The Orange “Black Box”

At any rate, the retrofit that the Sapphire Princess underwent earlier this year really shows in the ship’s interior, most notable in the massive three-story Piazza.