My Passport’s Travels

This trip has been in the planning for quite a while. We originally planned to sail on a 9-night Celebrity cruise from Vancouver to Honolulu. Then – we went on Allison’s graduation cruise and I bought myself quite the souvenir – a Disney Vacation Club contract for Aulani, which came with enough bonus points that we could exchange points for the first two guests in a stateroom on a 10-night Disney cruise from Vancouver to Honolulu. (Yes, I know, it’s generally thought to be a better value for the points to rent them out and then pay cash for the cruise. I haven’t been brave enough to try the third party rental companies yet.)

New cruise booked and tentative plans laid out:

Saturday, September 21 – fly to Seattle. After hearing Scott and Kassie talk about how lovely the tram ride up Mt Rainer is, we decided to rent a car since our flight lands around 11am. We’re booked at the lovely DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport. It’s a great hotel with wonderful service.

Sunday, September 22 – Amtrak Cascades to Vancouver. Upon arrival, we’ll check into the Pan Pacific Hotel, enjoy wandering the port area and find dinner somewhere near by.

Monday, September 23 – After breakfast, we’ll take the elevator downstairs to board the beautiful Disney Wonder. We’re booked in a stateroom with a huge porthole close to the water. Sail away is scheduled for 4pm and we’re off!

Tuesday, September 24 – Saturday, September 28 – at sea (Five glorious sea days!). We’ve booked Palo brunch one day, a champagne tasting and I’m getting a pedicure!

Sunday, September 29 – Monday, September 30 – overnight stay on Kauai. Upon arrival, Eve and I are being picked up by Grand Skies Island Tour for a helicopter ride! They’ll return us to the airport where we’ll pick up our rental car, head back to the port to get Mom and head out to explore! We’ve purchased the Shaka Guide apps for all the islands on this trip. They provide GPS, customizable driving tours and information about everything we’re seeing along the way. We’ll use them again on Monday. (Our original plans included a 7-hour sunrise boat tour on Monday. Sadly, the company had to cancel the cruise – although in hindsight, the logistics were crazy. There’s no parking at the cruise port, so we would have had to part at the airport, scheduled transportation back to the airport for 4:15 am and made our way 30 minutes across the island to be at the marina by 5;30. So, we’re sorry to miss the day, but all in all, less stressful.)

Tuesday, October 1 – Maui – another driving day! Again, using the Shaka Guide – we’re planning to head to Haleakala and drive up into the clouds!

Wednesday, October 2 – Hawaii, the big island. Today the Shaka Guide will lead us to Volcano National Park! (Hopefully – they had a 4.3 earthquake on the 15th. No impact right now, but if Kilauea decides to be more active, that may affect our plans. We’ll close out the cruise with our Disney Cruise Line Tradition – dinner at Palo!

Thursday, October 3 – they kick us off the Wonder, but that’s ok – we’re haded to Disney’s Aulani on Oahu. We had read in a couple of places how busy Aulani is on cruise change-over days, so our plan is to explore the island some (Shaka Guide to the rescue!) and make our way to the resort late afternoon to enjoy the evening. (We had also planned a sunset cruise for this evening, but again, the company cancelled on us, so relaxing evening at the resort, it is!)

Friday, October 4 – we head to the North Shore to see the waves and explore the Waimea Valley, before attending the Toa Luau there.

Saturday, October 5 – we will enjoy a lazy morning of packing and enjoying the resort (I have a manicure scheduled). After lunch we’ll head to the airport for our 6pm red-eye nonstop.

Sunday, October 6 – arrive home after a red-eye flight

I do want to send many thanks to our travel agent (aka – Scott) who booked cars on all the islands and our pre-cruise hotels. Not only that but a couple of times during the months of waiting he reached out to let me know he had rebooked our rental cars because the rate had gone down!