The Hawaiian language is based on five vowels and just seven consonants, but this is more than enough to utter the word "Aloha".
This greeting written out in lights already welcomes those arriving at Honolulu airport, but it is in fact much more than a greeting or farewell.
Aloha means love and well-being and somehow stands for everything that goes to make up the image of Hawaii, from colourful shirts, through flower garlands and grass skirts to coconut bikinis.
Hawaii is the "Aloha State" and the 50th state of the United States of America.
A visitor to these islands in the middle of the Pacific feels immediately that he has one foot firmly anchored in the American Way of Life, and this is particularly true when he sees the islands from the vantage point of a cruise ship.
"Aloha. How are you today?" is a frequently asked question on the "Pride of Aloha". The simple response, "Fine", or
Mahalo in Hawaiian, suffices as answer.
The passenger aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line vessel would have little reason to respond otherwise. At breakfast, travelers are greeted by mountains of ham and pancakes, and this is the pattern throughout the day.
Most of the almost 2,000 aboard have their homes in the U.S. Midwest, where there is general scorn at the notion of going on diet.
The Pride of Aloha bears witness to this attitude, consuming 9,700 kilograms of meat during the seven- day cruise – the equivalent of 700 grams per passenger per day.
The Norwegian Cruise Line is no more Norwegian than the food aboard the Pride of Aloha is Hawaiian.
The cruise ship belongs to Star Cruises, the third-largest cruise operator in the world, and the Pride of Aloha was built in 1999, initially bearing the name Norwegian Sky.
In 2004 it was converted for duty on the Pacific cruise route and is the first cruise ship to fly the U.S. flag in some time.
A cruise aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line vessel is perhaps the most comfortable and by no means the most exclusive way to see Hawaii.
A cabin with a sea view costs as little as 1,250 euros per person for the seven nights of the cruise. Included in the price is full board, a nightly entertainment program and transfers between the four most important islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago, Oahu, Kauai, Big Island and Maui.
Honolulu on Oahu, where the cruise starts, has a population of 900,000 inhabitants and is the largest human settlement in the South Sea.
Faceless apartment blocks turn into equally faceless hotel towers and shopping malls in the seaside resort of Waikiki.
Thousands of Japanese bustle along the shopping streets of Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues. There is a reason for the crowds, the endless concrete and the activity: Waikiki Beach is perhaps the most famous in the world after the Copacabana.
But anyone who gazes out over the blue ocean to watch the surfers ride the perfect waves knows why he has come to Hawaii. One hopes at the same time that the evidence of human progress will become less apparent as the cruise progresses while the beach remains as beautiful.
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