“There’s a storm coming.” A classic quote from Sarah Connor at the end of the original Terminator movie. This line is being repeated by crew and passengers alike throughout the day. Hurricane Nolo is on its way.
Hawaii’s relationship with hurricanes is a strange one. For decades the islands were thought to have a kind of natural force field, sitting at a hurricane-prone latitude yet almost never taking a direct hit. Hurricane Iniki is still the benchmark, a Category 4 that struck Kauai in September 1992 with 145mph winds, causing over $3 billion in damage and famously interrupting the filming of the original Jurassic Park. Hurricane Iwa did similar damage a decade earlier, in 1982. More recently, storms have tended to weaken or veer away before making landfall, Hurricane Lane in 2018 stayed offshore but still dumped a record 58 inches of rain on the Big Island, and Douglas in 2020 passed just north of the chain. That force field has looked a lot less reliable in 2026 though, with Hurricane Lala brushing the Big Island in August and Hurricane Lowell following in September, well before Nolo, the storm bearing down on us now, even entered the picture.
Although there are no official announcements just yet, everyone is expectant of the captain making an announcement at some point.
We start our day knowing we are in good hands, so head up to the buffet for a quick bite to eat. After a lacklustre egg, sausage, and pancake, we head to deck 11 forward. We were invited by Janet, one of the concierge team in the Retreat, on a tour of the bridge. So we gather just before 11 and chat to the other dozen or so guests invited. Security is tight: pat downs, wands waved over everyone, names and ID checked three times. It was only then that we were ushered into, or should I say onto, the bridge. We are greeted by a second officer and shown to the port side wing station. In all, Celebrity Edge has three control points, the main helm and two wing stations, port and starboard. The starboard wing station is visible from our cabin. Whilst some say it obscures our view, we find it protects us a little from the strong winds experienced by cabins further aft of us.
The second officer, Pedro, then explains to us the navigational controls in use, noting no paper maps or guidance materials are used, it’s all digital, a combination of GPS and other positioning software, standard now across the industry under what’s called ECDIS, electronic charting that’s replaced paper charts on the bridge entirely. Propulsion-wise, Edge runs on a diesel-electric system, five Wärtsilä engines feeding two ABB Azipod units, essentially electric motors housed in steerable pods slung beneath the hull rather than a conventional fixed propeller and rudder, giving the ship far tighter manoeuvrability, backed up by four tunnel thrusters for close-quarters work like docking. Top speed is a shade under 22 knots, which lines up with the 21 knots we’re doing today being, as Katarina told us, essentially flat out.
After the tour we visit the Retreat, which was to have a port talk, but when we arrive it’s packed and there appears to be no port talk, maybe we missed it, we are a little late. Instead we return to our cabin and enjoy an hour or so on our balcony. The weather is delightful.
Our butler Katarina advises me as we pass on our way out to lunch there will be changes to our itinerary due to both the weather and a medical emergency on board. We are tracking at 21 knots, essentially top speed, and will arrive in Hilo tonight, instead of tomorrow morning, although there is still no official announcement from the captain.
For lunch we enjoy hamachi (raw kingfish), burrata salad, and a small filet mignon.
We head back to the lounge. I leave Mardi and I attend a work meeting for an hour or so, before we head off to an afternoon of trivia.
Before that though, the captain makes the announcement we’ve all been expecting. Due to Hurricane Nolo, and a medical emergency, we will dock in Hilo tonight, departing tomorrow at 5pm. We will then spend two days at sea, north of the hurricane as it passes, before heading to Honolulu. We will miss our day in Kona while we stay at sea until the storm passes.
After my meeting, I meet Mardi and we head to trivia. First is guess the movie or TV show soundtrack. We score 8 out of 15. Some songs, like Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you” from The Bodyguard and Judy Garland’s “Over the rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz are immediately recognisable. Others from more obscure films stump us.
Afterwards is the main event though, the final round of progressive trivia. We are currently equal sixth. We need a good round to climb the leaderboard, and we do. We score 15 out of 20, which gets us into equal third and a mention from Brian, our host, as he calls out the runners up and winner. We see him outside The Club afterwards and ask him for some Aussie themed questions for the rest of the cruise, he agrees, time will tell. We also bid farewell to Debbie and Geoff. They’ve been good fun and helped with a number of questions. They head back to Canada at the end of this cruise, which concludes in Honolulu. We continue the journey.
We relax in the room after trivia before dressing for a night out. We enjoy Martinis bar for a while, sampling a couple of interesting martinis.
Dinner is ok, with a couple of classics, potato soup, prawn cocktail, salmon, and a weird surf and turf, scallops and pork.
After dinner we head to the show. Tonight is an Irish vocalist, Stephen Barry. He sings some show tunes, belts out Meat Loaf’s I’d Do Anything for Love”, and a few other hits. He weaves comedy in as he sings and interacts with the crowd, stealing handbags and a guy’s thong, taking selfies and embarrassing “Helen” with some lewd suggestions, all in good fun. The crowd enjoys his vocal range and antics and he gets a bit of a standing ovation.
After the show we head to our cabin. We notice lights in the distance and stand on our balcony and watch as we dock in Hilo. It’s so humid, about 24 degrees, and it’s almost 11pm. We turn in, wondering what the weather will be like tomorrow. Remember, there’s a storm coming.
