Saturday morning was spent packing up the rest of our belongings and preparing to head out to the Pride of Aloha for our Hawai'ian cruise. As might be expected, the kids enjoyed the pool while the parents finished packing.

We made use of the Hilton Departures Lounge as place to change our clothes after swimming since we had to check out of our room at 11. Our luggage had been stowed with the front desk, so after a quick drink, we loaded up Buster. Janie and Thomas dropped off J.R., Alex and Rebecca at the port terminal with all the luggage and headed to the airport to return the rental car and take a taxi back.

After several Disney Cruises, the experience checking in for the Pride of America was much different. Instead of a brightly lit cruise terminal, check-in was in what resembled an old warehouse. After checking in the luggage, we had to have our IDs and tickets checked before going through security, then stand in a very long line for actual check-in. It was there that we experienced one of those moments where you realize your dream vacation might be turning into a nightmare. The person checking us in demanded to see a photo ID for Rebecca. We had chosen not to bring her passport as the cruise documents indicated a passport was not needed since we were not leaving U.S. territory, so we had no photo ID for a nine-year-old. An official was called over who asked if we could produce her airline tickets. But since we had flown in a week ago, we had thrown away the boarding passes from our inbound flight and had not printed out e-Tickets for the outbound. Our itinerary document was in our checked luggage, not our carry-on backpack, since we didn't need it. Finally, after a long delay with poor mobile data coverage, J. R. was able to pull up the itinerary on his cell phone and they checked us in. Janie arrived about a half-hour later with Thomas and no one asked for Thomas' ID.

We purchased our Pepsi drink stickers before boarding the ship, which would allow us to get sodas throughout the cruise without paying for each drink and headed up to the buffet for lunch. We were very surprised by the buffet offering as it was much more food and more diverse than the Disney buffet. We also liked the use of buffet stations as opposed to one long line, which made it easier to get seconds and thirds.

They called our deck number and so we headed down to our adjoining cabins. The kids changed into swimsuits and headed up to the pool while the adults relaxed waiting on our luggage. Luggage service was much slower than DCL so we all headed up to the deck to relax before the required muster drill. Following the drill, our luggage had arrived and we began sorting and hanging it while the kids continued to play upstairs.

Dinner was in one of the main dining rooms and then we decided to skip the evening variety kickoff show and just chill out on the ship.