8/7/25
Today we docked in Kona. This is located on the same island as Hilo, just on the opposite coast. This port has a lot of shops and restaurants within walking distance.
We did have to take a tender to the mainland. I had to go pick up tickets early in the morning. From there, we had to wait for our number to be called, and then we could head to the tender.
I did some searching before the cruise. We wanted a beach day, but didn’t want to have to travel far in case my mom needed to go back to the ship. I found a cabana right at the end of the dock at Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. It was $200.00 for a cabana from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. I could pick exactly which cabana I wanted and I booked directly on their website.
We were off the ship and at the hotel by 9:00 a.m.
This was the cabana I chose:
Our attendant made up the area and brought us some bottled water and chips.
They did have chairs for hotel guests. We did sit in two of them, and our attendant said it was fine as long as our towels from the ship were not out. It never was full. The beach however, WAS full. You could rent individual chairs and umbrellas from a stand on the beach.
Also, if you didn’t want to rent any chairs, you could just come and lay on the beach. The beach wasn’t just for hotel guests. It was partly cloudy, so not the greatest beach weather!
As the day went on, this beach filled in entirely with chairs!
This is looking from the beach back towards the hotel.
The view from the cabana towards the beach:
This is the stand where you could rent umbrellas and chairs. This sign is for hotel guest information, but they did rent to anyone.
Overall our beach day was just okay. The weather was eh. It did sprinkle multiple times. We felt like we paid too much for the cabana since there were chairs for rent that we could put right on the beach. The beach area itself was super small and crowded. If we had to do it again, we would definitely go to a different beach! On a previous trip we went to Hapuna Beach and it was beautiful and fun.
We went back to the ship in the late afternoon and just relaxed some more. For dinner, my mom and I were going to eat at Moderno, a specialty dining Brazlilian steakhouse! I did make a reservation prior to getting on the ship.
Upon being seated, we met our waiter. He explained the process…we were given a little table marker where one side was green and one side was red. If the green side was up, that meant we still wanted more food.
We started at the amazing 43 item salad bar! This was SO GOOD. There were so many different vegetable options!
The meats were accompanied by Traditional Brazilian Sides…white rice, black beans, sauteed mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes, fried yucca and Brazilian cheese bread.
The meats that would be coming around (sliced off of skewers!) were beef tenderloin, flank steak, top sirloin, parmesan crusted chicken drumettes, bacon-wrapped chicken breast, lamb top sirloin, pork loin, Brazilian pork sausage, pork belly.
I knew I wanted to focus on beef! I love any kind of steak, especially when I am not the one cooking it.
Here is where my picture taking went down hill! They were coming around so fast with every different kind of meat. Everything was DELICIOUS!
THIS! This was grilled pineapple but it had a sugar like coating. It was AMAZING!
By the time dessert came, I was so full!
Overall, this meal was excellent. I wish we could have eaten here every night, because I would have! Such a huge step up quality wise from the main dining rooms.
Up next…Kauai!
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures 