The first cruise ship passengers have arrived in Hilo since March 2020.
Carnival Corp.’s Grand Princess, which sailed from Los Angeles with 2,138 passengers and crew members aboard, docked Tuesday at about 8:30 a.m. at the Port of Hilo.
It was the third Hawaii stop for the ship, with previous port calls in Honolulu and Nawiliwili, Kauai.
The Grand Princess departed last night for a scheduled visit this morning in Kahului, Maui — its final Hawaii stop before tonight’s departure for Ensenada, a seaport in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
Drivers of numerous tour buses, vans and taxicabs anxiously awaited debarking passengers from the 949-foot luxury liner.
A pair of drivers for KapohoKine Adventures, Rich and Scott — who declined to give their last names — were excited to take the ship’s passengers on their Big Island adventure.
“I’m glad it’s here. We need our livelihoods back.” Rich said. “I think everybody’s a little too freaked out about the whole COVID thing. We had it here in Hilo before anyone even knew what COVID was.”
Scott called the ship’s arrival “a positive thing,” saying tourism is “about 80%” of KapohoKine’s revenue.
“We’re slowly starting to come back from where we were before COVID, you know,” he said. “Now, with the cruise ships coming, we can slowly start to bounce back.”
Arriving passengers were at least equally excited to be here.
“We’ve been dying to take a cruise,” said Joe Bliudzius of Wrightwood, Calif.
According to Bliudzius, he and his wife, Annette, have been retired for about two years and have experienced “so many cancellations” of their cruise bookings.
“We were actually scheduled to go in December,” he said. “They canceled it, but they allowed us to book two weeks later. We’re having a great time. Everybody’s been friendly. We’re doing what we want. We’re listening to all the commonsense things, wearing masks and stuff. We got tested on the ship before we got off in Honolulu.”
Georgia resident Heath Bache arrived with wife Tammy and adult daughter Jewleeana.
Proudly sporting a polo shirt with the colors and logo of the newly crowned NCAA football champion University of Georgia Bulldogs, Bache described their vacation as “absolutely wonderful,” adding the islands “have lived up to every expectation we’ve had.”
“We’ve been trying to get here for three years, and the people have been fabulous,” he said.
Added Jewleeana, “We’re just thrilled to be here. The weather is great. Everything’s beautiful.”
At Keaukaha General Store, which is directly across Kalanianaole Avenue from the Port of Hilo, a long line of locals awaited patiently at the cash register while cruise ship passengers started to trickle in.
“It’s usually busy here, so it’s probably going to be extra busy. We’re getting prepared for it,” said the cashier, Alicia.
While all the passengers the Tribune-Herald spoke to were excited about being in Hawaii, a vocal contingent of Hawaii residents aren’t happy to see cruise ships and their passengers return.
A petition on Change.org titled “Cancel all Cruiseships to Hawaii Now!” had 3,795 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon with a target of 5,000 signatures. The petition is requesting the state cancel arrivals “due to the World-Wide Coronavirus Covid-19 Outbreak!”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 5 noted that all cruise ships operating in U.S. waters have COVID-19 cases aboard.
“It is especially important that travelers who are at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide, regardless of vaccination status,” the agency said in a Dec. 30 statement.
The Crown Princess was listed on the CDC website Tuesday as on yellow status, as are all but a handful of ships on the list.
Green means there are no reported COVID-19 cases aboard. Orange means the number of reported cases doesn’t meet the level for investigation by the CDC. Yellow means the number of reported cases meets the threshold level for investigation. That threshold is 0.1% of ship’s passengers reportedly testing positive for COVID-19, or one crew member.
The most severe status, red, means the ship has “sustained transmission of COVID-19 … or potential for COVID-19 cases to overwhelm on board medical center resources,” according to the CDC website.
No vessels were listed on red status as of Wednesday.
Some local residents expressed their displeasure with the ship’s arrival on social media, as well, with one referring to the ship as the “Omicron Ferry” and others opining the state is placing wealth over health.
Longtime activist Jim Albertini called the resumption of cruises to Hawaii “insanity” and “a disgrace of responsibility by public officials at the county, state and federal level.”
“Use common sense. Ban cruise ship passengers coming ashore,” Albertini said.
Alex Shin and Bill Brooks, a pair of cruise veterans from Los Angeles enjoying the Hawaii trip with their wives, said they expected some negativity within the community, but feel safe aboard the Carnival Princess with protocols agreed to by the state — including 99% vaccination, testing of the unvaccinated, and restricting those testing positive to shipboard quarantine.
“I think the ship’s cleaner than any city with all the protocols they do on the ship,” Shin said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.