Day 9 in Hawaii: Kauai

We had to wake up early today as we had booked a Blue Hawaiian Helicopter ride at 8:00am. For an 8:00am flight you must report to the office at 7:15am. We awoke around 6:30am, headed to the buffet and then walked to the office. Their office is across from the Anchor Cove Mall. We left the boat at 7:00am and were there before 7:15am. We checked in and used the restroom before the security movie begins, around 7:30-7:40am. We watched a movie, similar to what airlines show you. After the movie, we head to a van which takes us to the airport. We arrived at the airport and waited about 10 minutes for the helicopters to land. Each helicopter fits 6 people, we had 5 on our flight. My DH and I sat front row, next to our pilot, Dawn! They give you a seat number, which the computer figures out based on weight configuration. The fight was simply amazing! Dawn explains everything that you pass over. The NaPali Coast is breathtaking. It is hard to remember everything that she told us, but we did purchase the $25 video from our flight.. It was definitely worth the money. The flight is 55 minutes long. We LOVED it!!! Dawn told us she had NEVER saw the crater as clear as it was on our day. We actually got to go inside the crater of the volcano that created Kauai due to the how clear the day was! So even though day 1 in Kauai was a bummer, day 2 was AMAZING!

Beautiful Sunrise, we knew day 2 would be MUCH BETTER

Toxic Flowers, even though they look pretty

Heading to the van with his nice yellow hip life vest

Views at the airport

Here comes the helicopter

Controls

Up, Up and Away

The port from the air

POA

Waimea River

NSSA uses this sight to monitor things

NaPali Coast

The waves crash before shore line due to the reef below

Inside of the crater.. so clear

Inside of the crater

Wailua Falls from the air

Back on the ground after an awesome ride

After the helicopter ride, we got back to our rental car, filled up on gas which was cheaper than doing the gas option at this location. The gas option charges you for a full tank... we had only used 1/4-1/2 tank so we just paid for it ourselves, and returned our car. Again the return process was quick and easy. Looking back we should of returned our rental on Day 1 of Kauai as we did NOT use it at all on Day 2. We wasted the money on the rental and $20 on parking. Oh well!!

We returned to the boat around 11am. We grabbed some lunch, changed into our swim suits and planted ourselves on the deck near the pool to soak up the sun for our last day of vacation!! We did not do anything that afternoon. We relaxed on the deck, listened to the Jimmy Buffet Tribute which was fun!! We enjoyed our last day on the cruise thoroughly.

Relaxing at port

We watched the boat leave the Kauai port, which was awesome to watch the captain navigate through the port and out into the ocean.

The front of the boat as it leaves Kauai

Such a beautiful day

Beautiful Kilauea Lighthouse from the boat

Everyone watching the boat leave the port

We headed back to our room around 4:00pm to shower and get ready for dinner. We knew the NaPali Coast Sail By was scheduled for 5:45-6pm. We headed out to the deck to watch the sailby. It was gorgeous!!!

We had a reservation at East Meets West at 6:30pm. We arrived at the restaurant, greeted and seated. We both hadSapparo beer. They serve edamame as soon as you sit down. We ordered two appetizers, then dinner was served. My DH order Lemon Pepper Shrimp and I ordered Kung Pao Chicken. Both were very delicious. After dinner we walked around the ship, we headed to Martini Bar which has Happy Hour from 9-10pm. It was a little confusing to get to but the drinks were delicious! The Martini bar is at the front of the ship, near the meeting/conference rooms.

By 10pm we were pretty tired due to our early wake up. We headed back to our room, had a few beers that we had left over in our fridge while we packed up our bags for disembarkation tomorrow. We were planning to take our own bags off the cruise ship so we did not have to leave them outside our room or tag our bags.