Hilo, Big Island

The Ship

We boarded the Pride of Hawaii the next day. What an eye-opener.

I could go the rest of my life never setting foot on another cruise ship. I actually felt this way before my mom declared she wanted to go on a cruise. I'm just completely, toally over them. But she was paying and she needed a companion so I agreed. Ugh. Also, I discovered I should spank myself for ever saying a negative thing about my brother's cruise line. I now see that his ship is the equivalent of the Taj Mahal or Buckingham Palace, while other ships are Motel 6s. The differences were staggering. Even my mom was disappointed, and she wanted to like the ship. It turns out all those negative reviews I'd read in Hawaii forums weren't a bunch of sour pusses. Then again, it makes sense. A single passenger with an inside stateroom on David's ship pays $4000, while the same on Pride of Hawaii pays $700.

The ship was awful. The food was horrendous and the service lackluster. I hate to say it, but I think a lot of the problem had to do with the all American staff. Most ships are registered in the Bahamas or Norway, and their crew is international. Those people bend over backwards for you. This, however, was an American ship. And it showed. Lazy Americans (I can say it) won't do more than they need to. I was actually so mad after a fine dining experience that I wrote on the check for the waiter to "Cheer up!" and then drew a frowny face.

To add insult to injury, you have to pay for sodas. The concept was so alien to me that I felt a little insulted. I was told that if you wanted sodas, you could buy them individually or pay for the soda program which gave you unlimited sodas for the week for -- get this, $52! Even at a dollar a soda, I'd have to drink over seven sodas a day to break even on that deal. What a scam.

But I viewed the ship as a necessary evil to take me where I wanted to go, which were the islands. First stop, the Big Island.

Hilo, Big Island

Hilo was very, very boring. I mean, maybe there are cool things to do, but we didn't do them. We wanted to go shopping but downtown Hilo looked like Fresno back in 1960 (I'm assuming, since I wasn't born yet).

However! We did sign up for a shore excursion which I had originally cringed at, but which turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for me. We signed up for a visit to the botanical gardens, which brought up visions of miles of carnations and roses and just bleh. I'd rather eat my own eyeball.

Heh. I should have known better. This is Hawaii! They ain't got the same flowers here, folks. The whole time we were there, I thought I was inside Myst III:Exile, in that garden world. My favorite.

The gardens meandered all over. You were given a map at the start, but it was totally useless. Every road came to a fork and some would double back and some were dead ends. It was a real challenge making sure we saw everything but I think we did. Also, it was probably 90% humidity, like a jungle, but at least we were in the shade.

Welcome to the jungle. Although it wasn't a jungle. But it was so damned green and lush it was amazing. Like a theme park for plants and flowers.

I didn't catch the name of the majority of these flowers. I kept going "ooh, look at that one!" and taking pictures left and right, afraid I'd run low on batteries.