What a weekend

Well what a weekend. What could have been a a washout turned into quite a busy weekend for us. Let me take you back a few weeks to explain. We were trying to plan a family vacation but because of our schedules we couldn't find a time to get away except for the 4th of July. So we decided to go to Maui on the Superferry.

The plan was to take a day trip, leave in the morning and come back in the evening. Since the Superferry runs 2 round trips to Maui on Friday we thought that would be perfect. So anyway I booked the trip on the Superferry, made plans for horseback riding and we were set.

That was about 4 weeks ago. Well about a week before the trip, a Superferry agent called us up to let us know that they were canceling the evening voyage to Maui. Instead they were going to run a fireworks cruise out in front of Ala Moana Beach. Well I was a little upset to say the least. But as the conversation went on, she asked that if we could reschedule our trip, they would give us three round trip vouchers for future travel on the Superferry. Ok that's the least they could do. Well in addition to that, they invited us on the Fourth of July fireworks cruise as well. Cool. In addition to being invited onto the cruise, we were allowed to invite 1 guest each. Another bonus. So we ended up rescheduling our Maui trip to the 5th, staying overnight and returning on the 6th.

So the Fourth of July cruise was set to sail at 7pm. We got to the pier just before five and there was already a line of cars waiting to park. Yikes! But it was too bad. We waited for about 10 minutes then they let us in, checked our invitations and guided us to the parking area. From there we walked onto the ferry via the vehicle loading ramp, then up to the passenger deck.

Once on the passenger deck we scoped out a place to park our butts. Found one of the large booths for the six of us then proceeded to explore the rest of the boat. More about what's available on the Superferry later in this post. While we were still in port, we were treated to a wonderful Fourth of July picnic. Complimentary hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and potato salad was available as well as soft drinks. We all got our plates and sat down for the dinner time meal. By the time we were done with our meal the ferry was ready to get under way.

The ferry cruised out of the harbor at exactly 7pm. Since it was still early the captain made a couple of passes in front of Waikiki, then headed out around Diamond Head so we could watch the Maunalua Bay Fireworks show. He didn't go all the way out to Hawaii Kai so the show was view from a distance. I guess he wanted to make sure he got back to Ala Moana in time for the 8:30 show. We watched the Ala Moana show from the Observation deck on the back of the ferry. At the same time that the Ala Moana show was going on we could see the Kapolei fireworks show going off in the distance. Following both the Ala Moana and Kapolei shows we were treated to a third show from Hickam/Pearl Harbor. All in all a great night. We got back to port early, about 9:30pm, disembarked then headed home. After dropping off Ashley's friends we got home around 10:30pm. Just enough time to clean up and get to bed.

The next morning the alarm went off at 3:15am. Everyone was getting ready to leave. Out the door at 4:18am and down to Costco Gas to top off the tank. Then a quick stop at Zippy's to pick up some breakfast and then off to pier 19. By the time we got there it was about 5:10am and there were already cars lined up to be loaded onto the ferry.

The check in process is pretty quick. They check your id's, look in, under and around your car, ask a few simple questions then send you off to the vehicle queuing area. There you wait until it's time to load the ferry. We waited about 15-20 minutes. Once they started loading it went pretty quickly. We drove up into the ferry, got out of our car and walked up two flights of stairs to the passenger compartment.

The passenger compartment covers almost the entire length of the ferry. There's a Galley at the mid section which features an assortment of salads, sandwiches, soups, and sushi as well as a selection of pastries. Surf Break Lanai is in the aft (for you landlubbers, that's the back of the boat) section of the vessel, where passengers can enjoy a cold beverage and watch sports and local programming on flat screen televisions. The Hahalua Lounge is the premium cabin at the very front of the boat and is available for a $20 upgrade, Some of the features of the premium lounge are extra spacious comfortable leather seating, as well as unlimited coffee and fountain drinks for the duration of the trip. It's definitely worth the money. That is of course unless you are susceptible to sea sickness. Then you might want to stay away from the Hahalua Lounge. Since it's at the front of the boat you feel more of the up and down motion. They say it's better to sit in the middle since you are less likely to feel the rocking of the boat.

The passenger areas have a combination of seating arrangements from your typical airline type seating to leather bench seats as well as booths and tables with chairs that are bolted down to the floor so no one can topple over.

There are three places where you can actually step outside of the cabin to get some fresh air. At the very rear of the ferry is the Observation Deck. You can stand at the railing and get a feel of that salt air and mist spraying onto your face or you can sit back and relax in one of the many deck chairs. On either side of the ferry there is also an outdoor walkway where you can feel the ocean breeze whip through your hair as the ferry travels at about 27 knots. Depending on which direction you are going, these areas give you an excellent unobstructed view of the islands.

There are three videos below. One is a time lapse video of getting on and off the Superferry with a vehicle. The second video is the fireworks finale from Ala Moana Beach on the Fourth of July shot from the Observation Deck of the Superferry and the third is just a short video sitting up in the Hahalua Lounge on the way to Maui.