i have always dreamed of two things. First to take my wife on a cruise, and second to take her to Hawaii. I wanted to do this for our 50th anniversary. In 2006 I suffered a stroke, so I felt if we were ever going to do it it was now. We used it to help celebrate our 47Th anniversary which will occur on June 29, 2010.

We drove to Seattle on February 24, then flew Hawaiian Air Lines to Honolulu on February 25.We stayed two nights in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel, Tapa Tower. We spent these two days exploring the Hotel grounds and the beach. We were supposed to go to the pier and prepare to board the Pride of America shortly after noon on Saturday February 27, but the forewarned Tsunami, because of the earthquake in Chile changed that. We were held inside the hotel most of the day on the 14th floor, and the ship was kept out to sea. After the danger passed we were allowed access out of the hotel. The ship docked around 6pm the evening of the 27th.after arriving at the port the actual fun began.

Upon entering the pier building I discovered a long walk ahead of me. Over 2000 people were lined up to go through security and ticketing in a very large 3 or 4 story building. This was no fault of the cruise line, but mother nature and the tsunami. As I walk with a cane, one of the employees working there asked if I was having trouble walking. He helped my wife and I go through security and ticketing much faster.We then had to go upstairs to the gangway to the ship. I could not walk the gangway to the ship as it was slanted. Once again a nice crew member came with a wheel chair and wheeled me aboard ship.Upon entering the reception area of deck 5, I was flabergasted at the beauty of the ship, and I had seen nothing yet. As passengers had just disembarked and we new cruisers were jst embarking our rooms were not ready for us. But that happened very quickly. Read more