The Arizona Memorial

A most somber experience. God bless our service men and women. For those that have served and those that are serving, thank you.

USS Arizona, a 31,400 ton Pennsylvania class battleship built at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, was commissioned in October 1916. After shakedown off the east coast and in the Caribbean, she operated out of Norfolk, Virginia, until November 1918, when she made a brief cruise to France. She made a second cruise to European waters in April-June 1919, proceeding as far east as Turkey. During much of 1920-21, the battleship was in the western Atlantic and Caribbean areas, but paid two visits to Peru in 1921 in her first excursions into the Pacific. From August 1921 until 1929, Arizona was based in Southern California, making occasional cruises to the Caribbean or Hawaii during major U.S. Fleet exercises.

In 1929-31, Arizona was modernized at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, emerging with a radically altered appearance and major improvements to her armament and protection. In March 1931, she transported President Herbert Hoover and his party to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In August of that year, Arizona returned to the Pacific, continuing her operations with the Battle Fleet during the next decade. From 1940, she, and the other Pacific Fleet battleships, were based at Pearl Harbor on the orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Arizona was moored in Pearl Harbor's "Battleship Row" on the morning of 7 December 1941, when Japanese carrier aircraft attacked. She was hit by several bombs, one of which penetrated her forecastle and detonated her forward ammunition magazines. The resulting massive explosion totally wrecked the ship's forward hull, collapsing her forward superstructure and causing her to sink, with the loss of over 1100 of her crewmen. In the following months, much of her armament and topside structure was removed, with the two after triple 14" gun turrets being transferred to the Army for emplacement as coast defense batteries on Oahu.

The wrecked battleship's hull remained where she sank, a tomb for many of those lost with her. In 1950, she began to be used as a site for memorial ceremonies, and, in the early 1960s a handsome memorial structure was constructed over her midships hull. This USS Arizona Memorial, operated by the National Park Service, is a permanent shrine to those Americans who lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the great Pacific War that began there. Source: Naval History & Heritage

Maui

The picture below is a couple that we recognized on the ship and thought they had been BC4 cruisers last year on the Glory. When we finally talked with them they corrected us quickly by saying they are members of Stockton Yacht Club. Our club cruises into Stockton Yacht Club every May. What a small world.


Our next port of call is Maui, Hawaii. I've been here before many years ago. It sure didn't look the same.

Well it did when we bussed into Kāanapali. I'd recognize that strip of upscale hotels anywhere. The next two photographs were part of the hotel grounds (Hyatt Regency) and to say the hotel was beautiful is an understatement. In checking the room rates it would cost about $500.00 per night for an ocean view. That's pretty pricey in my book.

The luau show was very well done and they have a built in place to perform (Drums of the Pacific Lu'au Grounds). When you click the link you can learn more about the luau and also see the menu. Yes the pig was done in the ground and we got to see them take it out. It was moist and very yummy. There were about 600 guests that evening and six lines for the buffet. It went really fast. The show was based on all the different cultures that ventured to Hawaii and what they believed. The costumes were very colorful and the dances were awesome. We enjoyed this excursion very much.

The most fantastic and exciting part of the Luau was this guy. He was amazing and the video, although very good, just didn't capture all his talent.


A luau (in Hawaiian, lū‘au) is a Hawaiian meal. It may feature fish and wine, such as poi, kalua pig, poke, lomi salmon, opihi, haupia, and beer; and entertainment, such as Hawaiian music and hula. Source: Wikipedia (Luau)

I didn't try the poi...it was purple and I just couldn't do it. The meal was fabulous and plentiful, and you could even have seconds. This was a great taste of Hawaii.

Hilo Hawaii

Finally we see land on the 5th day and we are all excited about getting off the ship to explore Hilo. Coming into port was awesome as it had been so many days of just the ocean, a container ship and the air drop of blood. We were back in civilization and it felt good, not that we minded the sea days.

The first vehicle we see is the ambulance that took the lady to the hospital that had the medical emergency and had the blood drop from the Coast Guard. She was the first off the ship and rightly so.

While we were waiting for the bus to our excursion it rained to beat the band. It rains a lot in Hilo each year (about 130 inches per year).

We had already set up an shore excursion to Volcano National Park, so we were looking forward to seeing an active volcano...from a distance that is. Little did we know that a couple of people that we had met on the ship were taking the same tour, so we hung out together all day. Meet Dave and Linda from Alabama. We just loved them both. Notice the short sleeves? Yes, it's warm in Hawaii.

The next picture is a sight seen all over Hawaii. The ponds and gardens are just beautiful and most of all plentiful. Isn't this just gorgeous? I thought you'd think so.

Mauna Loa began erupting between 700,000 and 1,000,000 years ago and has grown steadily since then. Like all of the Hawaiian islands, Mauna Loa has its origins in the Hawaii hotspot—a plume of magma rising from deep in the Earth's mantle. The hotspot remains in a fixed position, while the Pacific Plate drifts over it at a rate of about 4 inches (10 cm) per year. The upwelling of the hot magma creates volcanoes, and each individual volcano erupts for a few million years before the movement of the plate carries it away from the rising magma.

The hotspot has existed for at least 80 million years, and the Emperor Seamounts chain of old volcanoes stretches almost 3,600 miles (5,800 km) away from the hotspot. Currently, the hotspot feeds activity at five volcanoes: Mauna Loa, Kīlauea, and Hualālai on the Big Island, Haleakalā on Maui, and Loʻihi, a submarine volcano south of the Big Island and the youngest Hawaiian volcano. Mauna Loa is the largest of these, although Kīlauea is currently the site of the most intense volcanic activity. Source: Wikipedia (Mauna Loa)

Sea Days

Day two started four days of sea days. The photograph above was our first sea day and hubby found it necessary to take a picture of me on the balcony in my robe. Bless his heart. We had 2,300 miles of ocean to cover before we would cruise into Hilo, Hawaii. That's a lot of ocean to see and during that four days we found it very exciting to see this container ship passing us. Everyone was excited. After a bit there weren't any birds. There didn't seem to be anything but miles and miles of water. Well that's because all there were were miles and miles of water.

We decided to get to know the ship a bit better and spend some time getting to know some of the crew. What a delightful bunch of folks we found too. Two of our favorite people were Miss Nancy and Wayon. They worked the Atrium bar and we spend a bit of time there each day. In the afternoons we would read sitting by the big windows (see the second photograph) and in the evening before dinner we would have some champagne. These two took very good care of us during the entire cruise. Miss Nancy made sure that we always had our favorite champagne and Wayon was always nearby if we needed anything.

On the afternoon of our much awaited Steakhouse dinner we saw this lovely rainbow. Hard to take a great shot, but it sure made us smile. The second photograph is the Filet Mignon that I had that evening. It was absolutely wonderful too.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings found us in the Pharaoh's Palace watching the shows. I wish I could remember what they all were, but I can't (they didn't list the shows in the FunTimes other than Showtime Early Seating. They were fabulous shows each and every one.

The biggest excitement on the cruise to our first port of call was a medical emergency that we just happened to watch while we were working out in the gym. Each morning we would use the treadmill for an hour and we saw a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules circling the Spirit and found out later that Coast Guard had delivered blood to a sick passenger. Read the story HERE. When we arrived in Hilo the first passenger off the ship was this lady. An ambulance was waiting at the port. She's going to be just fine, and that's great news. Below is the only video I could find about this airdrop. This plane made somewhere around 8-10 trips around the Carnival Spirit before it flew back to its base. Tons of excitement for the entire ship.

San Diego...

Hubby and I had a pleasant trip to San Diego and arrived around 5 in the evening and got checked in. We had a beautiful view of the downtown area and had a great meal nearby. We had some champagne on our balcony and just watched the world go by.

The next morning we were up, showered, packed and ready to start our cruise. We had a light breakfast to hold us over until we could get to the Lido deck for lunch. That was a great plan because it took a while to make it onto the ship.

Lines were the name of the game and we went from one area to the next and then to the next. We waited and waited and then we waited some more. We figured that since the ship had come from dry dock that there were tons of supplies that needed to be put on board and lots of staff that needed to show up and get to work. I'm sure that this was the case.

We finally made it on board and had a great deli lunch and a couple of DODs (one for you Miss Bee) and we waited and waited some more until we could get to our suite. We finally make it that far and we were still thinking that we would sail around 9 or so and the trucks just kept coming and coming with supplies.

We had our safety drill and then watched the other ship leave the port for their cruise through the Panama Canal. We just sat there. We finally went to dinner and met our dinner mates. They were wonderful and we spent a great deal of time with them throughout the cruise. We went to every show together too. We also did a steakhouse night that was fabulous. We couldn't have asked for better dinner partners. Thanks Ed (His Honor) and Paula. You two were and are terrific.

Finally hubby and I got to sit on the balcony and watch the ship leave San Diego. What time you say? We left the dock at 11:00 pm. Mike of Golch Central's Rambling Stuff came the closest with 10:00 pm. We were both so very tired, but we stayed up long enough to see San Diego fading into the background. After all we weren't going to see land for over four days so we wanted to enjoy it while we could. We were finally on our way.

Towel Animals

All of you that know me knows that I love Carnival Cruise Lines and I especially love towel animals. Every evening upon returning to our suite after a day of fun I looked forward to seeing what little critter (I called them my babies) would be waiting for us. Our room steward, Miss Novi, was kind enough to let me collect many many days of these babies. Here's just a few:


Our first little fellow was this cute elephant.

Then the next day was these cutie pies.

I so loved this frog!

I raved and raved over this fantastic monkey.
He stayed right there the entire cruise.

This little guy just stared at me all the time.
He finally gets a lady friend a few days later.

Everyone has to have a turtle and we were happy he arrived.


Towel Animal Theatre(SM)
"Orangutan" by CarnivalFunShips
Tomorrow I'll begin the not so great boarding day. I'll also share with you how long it took to leave San Diego. Anyone want to guess what time we left? We were slotted to leave at 4:00 pm. We were a bit later than that.