Since the Circle Island Tour of Oahu portion takes 3 hours to traverse the island, we had to be up at their arranged meeting spot (across the street from the flagpole on the main boulevard after leaving the resort property) within an hour of the sun rising. That meant meeting up with the rest of the family around 6:45AM in the Diamond Head Tower lobby. Dad and I got downstairs first so he fought the crowd at Starbucks to bring back a bottle of water and a muffin for each of us. Breakfast on the go today. A and A joined us shortly thereafter, turning down our offers to split the muffins. We somewhat easily found our way up to the main boulevard but got turned around when we saw what looked like a bunch of tour guides standing around. We asked them about the Polynesian Cultural Center pickup and they pointed out the crowd gathered on the other side of the resort entrance. Turns out this is where most every tour you can think to book picks up their guests staying at the Hilton. We joined the crowd and stood waiting through tons of buses for sightseeing, parasailing, snorkeling, and turtle encounter tours coming and going. Reminded me of a cruise ship port excursion tour where everyone gathers in one place merely organized by trying to stay huddled next to the person holding your tour name on a sign. Eventually all the tour names get called to head out and the crowd thins.
During the wait, we discovered that a couple ladies vacationing together had also booked the Polynesian Cultural Center and when it seemed to be taking a while for our bus to show, they called the center to inquire. Soon after, we noticed them heading around the corner behind the bushes lining the road and when we followed it was revealed that our shuttle bus had pulled into that side parking lot and was waiting for us. Not sure how long they were there but it would have been helpful to have the driver peek around the bushes to call out for us. Once we gave our name to the driver, he recognized us as the only ones in the group to book the biggest package and gave us the front row shuttle seats on each side. Didn't realize that was on purpose until the end of our day when we came back and found signs on the seats saying reserved for us. He did make a few references during the trip that we'd booked the Super Ambassador package saying things like "except for you guys in the front row who get blah blah blah instead." Nice to know as he was simply trying to convey to everyone what their day at the center would be like but it was a little embarrassing to be singled out so much.
During the drive to the North Shore itself, we visited several lookout spots where the driver let us off for photos. The tour details list these places we were scheduled to visit but looking at my pictures, I couldn't tell you which photo went with which place:
- Diamond Head & Blackpoint Lookout
- Kahala & Hanauma Bay Lookout
- Halona Blow Hole and Makapu'u light house
- Pali Lookout – (historical site of the last battle for Oahu)
- North Shore beaches (stop at Sunset Beach)
It's a rare sighting of the khaki shorts sunglass triplets! Or perhaps you know them as my dad, my sister in law A, and my brother A.
All four of us checked out the gift shop, A and A wandering off to seek out potential gifts to bring home and of course I sought out unique treats to try. A ended up buying the popular multicolored "candied" popcorn I saw in most every gift shop on this trip and shared some with us. It tasted just like caramel popcorn except in multiple bright colors like red, green, and purple. Dad picked out some chocolate covered macadamia clusters and I found tons of what looked like sour licorice strips in varying flavors. There was plenty of sugary treats to appeal to any taste buds whether you liked taffy, hard candy, dried fruit, or gummies. I picked up a package of lychee flavored strips and pineapple flavored strips and was surprised to see that they both had the exact same ingredient list. None of those ingredients were lychee or pineapple! I ended up buying the lychee strips and they tasted like a slightly less sweet cherry. Definitely left my fingers covered in the sticky coating so back I went to fight the bathroom crowd to wash my hands.
On our receipt from the gift shop, it shows we were charged an extra 5 cents each (coded as ".05 Refund Dep") for the two soda bottles we selected from the cooler. Each soda was already overpriced at $2.95 but that's pretty decent considering average price hikes in any gift shop plus the normally high prices due to being in Hawaii. Dad's little six piece pack of clusters cost $5.95 and my Lychee Sour Belts were $7.25. I didn't eat much out of the pack so it was nice that the bag was resealable. I snacked on them later in the hotel room and eventually tossed the rest before we checked out. The final charge on our receipt was a 15 cents plastic bag fee but I don't recall ever actually getting a bag since we took our drinks and snacks right out to a table on the porch to eat. I stowed the resealable Lychee pack in my backpack that I carried around all day.
Next up - we become Ambassadors and get transported to the many cultures of Polynesia!
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