Adventures of Beth and Dan: Nawiliwili!! Merry Christmas All 🎅🏻

Christmas Day found us docked at Nawiliwili. Kauai from 8-4:30. We had planned a riverboat excursion here with Roberts of Hawaii tours. Early that morning I checked my phone and found I had a message from the tour company saying that due to heavy rains during the night they had cancelled our excursion :(. I called them back to see if possibly they had anything else we could get in on but they were totally booked. You could see the beach by the port was muddied from all the rain. One of the downside of booking off ship is this.... and because it happened that morning we couldn’t find another ship tour to take. But we decided to get off and take the hop on hop off tour offered right close to the ship. All in all it worked out just fine and on Christmas Day we had a really good alternate tour visiting the Botanical Garden and the Kilohana Plantation. We spent several hours at the gardens and found them beautiful, serene, and full of hundreds of birds and waterfowl along with lush lovely flowering gardens, ponds and unusual plants. It looked like they were preparing for a musical holiday extravaganza that night along with a buffet and train ride. I could see where it was used for weddings and special get together year round. If I lived there I would find myself spending many days per month just wandering and sitting.

The plantation train ride was ok.... nothing too exciting but we did learn about the history of the plantation. They also had beautiful lush grounds and a historic restaurant that was decked out for the holidays. Lots of little specialty shops lined the driveway and restaurant entrance. Because it was Christmas Day many of those were closed.

Once we got off the hop on we spent a little time at the Anchor Cove Mall which sets beside the resort and beach area.

That night onboard we joined up with some folks we made friends with from New Zealand and Canada. These were folks we met through the Cruise Critic meet and greet. Of course our meal was wonderful and we enjoyed chatting about our day. Most of the entertainment throughout the ship was themed to Christmas. Santa came and passed out gifts to the wee ones right before the ship left the harbor. We have had a violin duo onboard which are excellent. There have been a good variety of movies under the stars too with nice padded loungers and red plaid blankets!! We just haven’t been that brave to brace for the cooler evenings and whatever is presented on the big screen is always on our TVs. The cruise line really has made it a very nice holiday sailing in every way. Our steward gave us a little stocking with candies and candy canes. We have been thoroughly spoiled!!