We had pre-booked the Sea Life Park excursion. If you want to go on your own, there are buses from Honolulu, but we figured it’ll be less hassle if we spend the extra bucks to go through Princess. Everyone booked for that one and the Dolphin Swim (not really a swim but an "encounter") waited outside the terminal building for our bus. As I did in each port, I grabbed at least one those "This Week" type of brochures. I also picked up a copy of one oriented toward cruisers entitled "Hawaiian Shores Magazine Cruise Visitor Guide". Finally a Princess rep told us we needed to walk down the street. The driver was apologetic: for some reason, his bus wasn’t allowed to stop by the terminal. That seemed kinda weird. Maybe some development in tourism wars or something. Hopefully Princess will resolve that before the next cruise.

The driver was pretty funny with deadpan humor, describing the sighs we were seeing and also telling us about the current political climate regarding an influential women’s group in the state called the "Outdoor Circle that basically controls development here.
We were dropped off at the Park, located on the southeast corner of O’ahu near Waim~nalo Bay and told our return bus will be there at 2:30. We were told that the exit was through the gift shop. Turns out even the food are was through the gift shop. Perhaps, the park wanted us to drop some bucks there????!!!!!

I would describe this attraction as a very small scale Sea World -- just 62 acres.. There was a 300,000-gallon aquarium with various tropical fish, stingrays, and other aquatic critters. Sea Lions, penguins and other animals had outside areas. There was a bird sanctuary where sick and injured birds have been taken to live out their lives unless they recover enough to be set free. The famous wholphin wasn’t to be seen or mentioned so maybe it’s no longer there.

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We also spent time at the penguin enclosure. On one end, there was a see-thru area where one can view the birds if they went for a swim. One penguin teased us by staying at the very edge of the water. We kept waiting for him to jump in (he probably waited until we left). We didn’t make it to the touch pool,

Besides encounters and viewing the creatures in their environments, the park features shows. We saw the end of the seal one. Then we grabbed seats for the Dolphin show, a corny little program in which a group of ragtag pirates threatened (wink wink) a couple on a tropic island for their gold and video games. The head pirate enlisted the aid of a little boy in the audience who got to feed the dolphins. The last show we saw was located in a covered pavilion, featuring dolphins, parading penguins and promenading sea otters.

J tried out shaved ice (that was her big desire on O’ahu). She got to pick out one item in the gift show (an inexpensive necklace). The store also stocked many stuffed animals, little kids’ books, jewelry, and toys. The area that I found lacking was Sea Life Park tee shirts. A very small selection. Don’t know if that was because it was a couple days after Christmas and their stock had been depleted or that they just don’t feature apparel as other tourist attractions would.

We returned to the bus area and waited. Doris, our dining tablemate who participated in the dolphin swim, said that she got to pet them, dance with them and kiss them.

Jen made friends with a five-year-old boy, Jack, and discovered his family’s cabin was down the hall from ours. A couple of times, with her father’s help, she called his cabin and came over for a visit.

Looking at the buses for Japanese tour groups, I was reminded of that scene in "If It’s Tuesday, It must be Belgium" (a must movie for anyone who travels) where Norman Fell’s wife is feeling a bit sick and says she’s going back to the tour’s bus. But she unknowingly boards the Japanese bus and comedy ensues for the rest of the trip while Norman and his tour group keeps trying to reconnect with her new tour.

Our new driver didn’t say much on the return. He went a slightly different route, past the Honolulu Zoo (you can see the giraffes from the street).

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