8/6/24
Today we docked in Hilo on the Big Island. This is where the volcano is located, and many were doing that excursion. We instead opted for a Hoppa On Hoppa Off City Tour due to my mom’s limited mobility. Also, my kids and I have been to the volcano before.
Here were the ship’s activities for the day:
Breakfast in the Main Dining Room:
Our tour departed at 9:30 a.m., so we were up early for breakfast. We got to the main dining room around 7:20 a.m.
Basket of Pastries:
I LOVED the raspberry danishes!
Mushroom, Spinach, Onion Omelet with a Side of Sausage and Breakfast Potatoes
This was mine and it was very good!
Ham and Cheese Omelet:
This was also good!
Traditional Buttermilk Pancakes with a Side of Bacon:
My daughter liked these.
Sides of Toast:
We finished eating around 8:00 a.m. and went back to the room to get ready to debark the ship.
We booked our excursion outside of the ship tours directly on the THIS WEBSITE. (Keikana Tours, Hilo) The tour was good for all ages and was 2.5 hours escorted. The cost per adult was $42 each. We were to meet 20 minutes before departure time. The tour office was located 100 yards from the ship. They did provide a shuttle if you didn’t want to walk. Our departure time was 9:30 a.m.
We made our way to the tour office and it was busy! They offer a few different tours, and many were doing the volcano tour. We boarded our bus and were on our way. We drove on Banyan Tree Drive which is composed of a canopy of banyan trees with plaques noting which celebrity planted the tree. Just a few were Amelia Earhart and F.D.R. This route led us directly to Reed’s Bay Beach. We stopped here and were able to get out and walk around and take photos.
It was the most beautiful day weatherwise!
There were several people out boating and paddleboarding.
One of the banyan trees:
Here you can see our cruise ship in the distance.
Our next stop was Liliuokalani Gardens, the largest, authentic Edo-style ornamental garden outside of Japan. Queen Liliuokalani, donated the original five acres of land to create a public park in 1907. This beautifully landscaped park features arching bridges over fishponds, rock gardens, pagodas, Japanese stone lanterns and a teahouse.
We were given about 30 minutes to walk around on our own and then meet back at the bus.
This was a really nice stop! The grounds were gorgeous, and I really think my mom enjoyed it.
Our next stop was Big Island Candies Candy Factory. They were very welcoming! Right inside the front door we could taste the sample of the day. In this case it was, Macadamia Nut Shortbread Chocolate Chip Cookies (THAT WERE SO GOOD), and Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Crunch (THAT WAS ALSO SO GOOD).
This was an actual functioning candy factory and we could see inside the production room!
There was also a little snack bar with extremely reasonable prices. One daughter got a smoothie (really good), and the other got a hot dog.
I ended up buying both of the free samples and some gifts for family. This was a great stop!
Our next stop was Rainbow Falls.
This was a nice, short stop.
We also stopped at the King Kamehameha Statue, but I don’t have any pictures!
Our final stop was the Hilo Farmers Market. The bus stopped here, and if wanted to get off, we could take any bus back to the tour center when we were finished. They have a “blue line shuttle” that would take us from the tour center to the Blacksand Beach.
There were so many vendors here with both fresh fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, and souvenirs.
We shopped for a little bit and then caught a bus back to the tour center. From there we boarded a different bus to take us to the a black sand beach, Richardson Ocean Park.
Fun story…We had been to Hawaii about 8 years ago. We stayed on the Big Island in Hilo in a VRBO. Every day, we would walk across the street to this very same beach! At the time, we didn’t know how good it really was. There were tons of turtles and people snorkeling.
Here’s the house we stayed in on our last trip!
We did a little photo shoot for the girls here. It was just breathtaking! We were slightly sad we didn’t wear our swimsuits!
We caught the shuttle back to the ship shortly after this. I have no other photos for this day! I think we ate at the buffet because we had given up hope on the main dining room. I know for sure we did our nightly sudoku and listened to some live music.
Overall, the day was great! We saw many sites in Hilo. It was beautiful!
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures 