Category Archives: USA

Nawiliwili Bus Tour Kauai

The only last-minute tour offered at our port stop in Nawiliwili was a 3-hour tour on the bus that said hop on hop off, but really wasn’t. It ran shuttles to a mall for the first couple hours in port, … Continue reading

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Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port

Fort Lauderdale sits on the coast of Florida about 30 miles north of Miami. Besides being a vacation destination on its own it also hosts one of the larger cruise ports. It is one of the busiest ports in the … Continue reading

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Nawiliwili Kauai Cruise Port, Hawaii

Nawiliwili is just a port. The closest town is called Lihue, about a mile and a half away. The ship docks in a container port that probably has a hard time finding qualified help if our docking experience is even … Continue reading

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Hilo Volcano and Garden Tour

Looking online for information about Hilo cruise port pre-cruise I didn’t find much other than that it was not in town and that there was supposed to be a free shuttle to Walmart. The advice was to book an excursion … Continue reading

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The Tree of Life

On the west coast of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula above the beach at Kalaloch Campground in Olympic National Park, a large spruce tree clings to life on either side of a gap in the hillside, the ground beneath it having … Continue reading

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Endicott Arm

I’ve been on a couple previous cruises to Alaska that were scheduled to go down Tracy Arm, but ended up in Endicott Arm instead because the entrance to Tracy Arm was blocked by icebergs. In contrast, Quantum of the Seas … Continue reading

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Hilo, Hawaii Cruise Port

Hilo Cruise Port is on Hawaii’s big island (Hawaii Island) which has 6 volcanos. Some are active and some are not. Only 5 of them are above the surface of the water. The 6th volcano, Mahukona is extinct, submerged 1200 … Continue reading

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Sitka Sea Walk and Totem Park

About a week before our Alaskan cruise on Quantum of the Seas we received notice that the port stop in Skagway had been switched to Sitka on account of the third cruise ship dock in Skagway not being done getting … Continue reading

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Lake Pleasant Cruise in Arizona

While cruises are usually thought of as lasting at least several days, there are day cruises available that often just last a few hours or less. Arizona is more associated with dry desert than water or cruising, but you can … Continue reading

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Busch Gardens

Our original plans included a one-night stay in Tampa after our cruise on Celebrity Constellation, which was supposed to be followed by boarding Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas the next day. We booked at a La Quinta specifically because … Continue reading

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