Today, I woke up in my hotel at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. I was still a bit tired but felt better than last night.
Pearl Harbour and the USS Arizona.
This morning, I had booked to go and visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour. Because of my late night and the traffic and roadwork I had seen on the way to my hotel last night, I had already decided not to attempt the trip in case of delays in getting to the cruise ship at 2 pm. When I woke up just before 9 am, I had a coffee, took my tablets, which I had luckily packed in my hand luggage, and then got in the shower.
I saw a note slipped under my hotel room door when I got out of the shower. When I looked at it, I discovered that the time for the coach taking me to the cruise ship had been moved forward to 12:30 pm. It was just as well I hadn't left to go to Pearl Harbour when I planned or I would have missed my transport. I put on the clothes I had travelled here in, back on, and walked to one of the hotel complex clothes stores. Luckily, they had a sale, and I bought two T-shirts, a pair of shorts and a pair of swim shorts. I also bought some sunglasses to wear as mine were in my suitcase; without them, I would be blinded due to my eye condition. I then added cheap flip-flops and paid for them before returning to my room.
It was around 11:00 am, so I took my bag of new clothes down to the hotel reception desk and checked out. I walked to the rear of the complex and stopped in a shop to buy a bottle of water before going to the bus stop to catch my coach to the port and my cruise ship. When I arrived at the pickup point for the coach, there was a large queue. The previous coach had got stuck in the traffic and another one had to be called. My leg was still badly swollen and in a lot of pain, so I took a painkiller and sat on a wall to wait for the coach.
My coach arrived a few minutes late, but only about 7 people were on it. We were driven through the roadworks in Honolulu to the cruise ship port. I realised on the way what a good decision it had been not to go to Pearl Harbour, as there was no way I would have got back in time to board my ship before it left.
NCL Spirit.
When I arrived at the cruise port, I was astonished that I could not join a disabled queue to get on the ship and that there was no seating or arrangement for disabled people to skip the long lines. There was, however, priority boarding for wealthy people who could afford a suite onboard. While standing in the queue, I began talking to two American ladies who were happy to save my place so I could sit on a low wall between the regular and priority boarding.
As they followed the queue through the snaking lines, I kept an eye on where they were, and each time the line came back towards me, I shuffled along the wall on my bum until about an hour later, they had arrived at the head of the queue. They told security that I was in front of them in the queue and was ushered through to join the queue in front of them. I was shown the next free window to check on to the ship, and after having my photo taken for my ID card and showing my passport, I was shown to a disability lift to board the ship.
As soon as I boarded the ship, I went to the service desk in the atrium and told them about my delayed luggage. I saw an accommodating lady who filled out some paperwork for me, gave me a small bag of toiletries and a T-shirt to wear and told me that they would reimburse me $200 straight away to make amends for the delayed luggage. She told me to keep any receipts for anything I had to buy and that I would be reimbursed for these items as well. After signing all the paperwork I went and found my cabin. I was pleased with the cabin, number 8526, on the port side towards the ship's bow and after checking it all out, I went to get a drink.
The ship had a daily cocktail, and today's was called Grass Clippings. I had one at a bar on the back of the ship overlooking one of the pools before wandering around to get my bearings. After looking around I returned to my cabin, laid on the bed and fell asleep. I woke up around 8:45 pm and went to the Windows Dining room for dinner. I had a lovely steak dinner and a beer before returning to my cabin to bed. It had been a tiring couple of days, and I fell asleep when my head hit the pillow.