On the next Hawaiian Cruise I think that I would use the knowledge of the last one and apply it to the new cruise. What would a do over be like?
Rent Some Cars
Knowing the lay of the land.. or sort of around each of these ports, its seems like the next cruise would increase the circle some more. While some of the ship's excursions are a neat package and there is a degree of safety with the arranged tours, this is not totally necessary for travel in the states... and Hawaii is certainly one of our states. You can rent a car just like you were getting one in Denver or Seattle. Freeways seem to be only an issue in Honolulu. Most of the rental agencies are hooked up to the airports. The airports are not far away (as in taxi) in every port except Maui. We did not see nay planes flying in or out of any area close to our tender spot in the bay of Lahaina, Maui.
Getting on the road with a rental car would seem to be the next step in the progression of the Hawaii tour. It might also get us up and out of the ship a little earlier with a little more time devoted to sight seeing. Rental cars in Hawaii this time of the year (October November) are very reasonable. Sure gas is more expensive there and time factors enter in. You would not see some of the things you would see if you stayed in one place for a week rather then 9 to 12 hours.
With a wheelchair person, a car rental would allow us to go do something else if the attraction was too crowded at the time... we heard that there were 2 hour waits at the Pearl Harbor memorial. When we talking to the actual passengers from the ship they said that they walked right on without a line. The price differential is substantial for gate vs, escorted excursions. The botanical gardens cost 15 dollars plus 5 for the golf carts. Our excursion which got us the 8 miles our there and picked us up and returned us to the ship was 65 dollars each.. the cheapest excursion at Hilo. The more able members of a cruise could use the public transportation to get to and from the ship with a short walk. I saw no public transportation in Kaui or Maui but the other islands had pubic transportation that is great and could save a bundle. If it looked like you were getting a little close to shove off time on the ship, you could call and use a taxi or one from the street. A rental car could eliminate these fears. The only drawback would be getting to the rental spot. There were vans that picked up passengers and took them to the rental counters from the ship. Noteworthy were the budget and enterprise rentals.
Pick the Season
The Christmas season is high season for the islands. All those people are trying to run and hide from the bitter cold in other parts of the world during this time. Our cruise was certainly in the transition period. It wasn't winter yet in Merced. We did miss some windy cool weather especially the second week we were gone. Our yucky weather is usually after the first of the year. We gave up a week of the best weather of the year in Merced.
Since I have been home, I have talked to others that have gone to Hawaii in February and March. They love to see the whales "dance" across the water when they are in Hawaii. That would have been cool to take a whale watching voyage.
Its really great to visit another part of the country without having to speak or translate to another language like we have to do in the Mexican cruises.
Pack Fewer Clothes
Every time I admonish us for bringing so many clothes. In Hawaii everyone is wearing Hawaii shirts all the time. I will certainly bring rain great next time. Mostly its shorts in islands. Long pants feel great the two days going and the two days coming back.
There is plenty of time to do laundry on the ship. Although the laundry mats are steep in cost.. They keep you from having pack 14 of this and 14 of that.
Do Some of the Hawaiian Immersion Events on the Ship
The passengers that have been on this ship before, know that there is a crowd for the lei making and the ukulele lessons. They got there early and claimed the spots. Some active scheming needs to be done to be a part of this part of the ship's programming.
Less Buffet more formal Dinning Room
My daughters learned this early in their voyages. The difference in the meals in the dining room vs the buffet are large. Using a shared table, you get more involved with others that are traveling which in turn make you travel more interesting. Its tempting to go have a snack at the sandwich bar which takes you out of a good meal just a little later that day. You have to be in control of your appetite budget. There are somethings that truly taste better than others. There is no limit on what you can order in the dinning room. Its pretty amazing seeing what is out there. I love Italian antipasti with its great selection of dried hams and salamis with marinated veggies. These are always in abundance on the buffet and a little harder to choose or be selective in the dinning room. Sue is always after the hard rolls.. and cut fruit. The bakeries on these ships are wonderful. They make the hard rolls three times a day and a couple times in the middle of the night. The danish are always great.
No more Full Contact Massage
I always get Sue a deep tissue message on the ship. She had a great one on the Carnival ship. Everyone since that time has either been not enough or as in this case, too much. It took Sue a full day to recover from the one she got on this ship. We should have listened to our daughter Linzi who has taken some instructions in doing it. Sue is just too fragile with too many fibromyalgia issues to take on a ship board massage.
________________________________
Just some thoughts! :) Pat
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Hawaiian Cruise points of interest
Hawaiian Cruise Wrap up Points of Interest and Observations
1. Princess is the best cruise lines in its category for food and service.
2. 14 days is not too long a cruise.
3. Hawaii is a valid cruise destination even if you do not spend your money on a lot of excursions
4. Each Hawaiian island is very different from the others
5. The Hawaiian people we met were friendly and accomadating
6. People in Hawaii wear Hawaiian shirts and clothing all the time
7. There is more that we need to see, but it was so different than my expectations.
8. Fall may not be the best time to go since we missed the whale migration from Alaska
9. Fall is a great time to go as it seemed we had Hawaii to ourselves and our ship mates
10. The free Walmart express was an quick way to get the lay of the land. It was not reliable for meeting an excursion schedule
11. Expect to pay more for what you get on the mainland. Especially in consumer goods. But its what everyone is paying.
12. People are people everywhere. Most people on the ship were very tolerant of the powerchair. Some were not.
13. The movies under the stars is a great concept in warm climates.
14. Hilo Hatties had the largest collections of Hawaiian goods for sale. Walmart had the best prices. Some of the island produced perfumes and soaps could only be purchased at the ABC store.
15. Always bring a tropical rated umbrella on your journeys away from the ship.
16. Its pretty hot in Hawaii.
17. A tropical rainstorm is nothing to sneeze at.
18. Public transportation is great in Honolulu but realize that everyone there also knows about it.
19. Enjoy the diversity of Hawaii. Its different at every turn.
20. Hawaii is not just for the fit and tan. There are lots of ways to enjoy Hawaii that don't require good swimming skills.
21. Its a great place to buy kuku beads and shell beads
22. Don't expect chocolate buffets or midnight seafood extravaganzas on Princess. It does not happen.
23. There is progress in keeping down the smoke in the casinos. There were several no smoking nights and periods where smoking was not allowed in the casino.
24. LA has made huge strides in customer movement to get in and out of the port.
25. Expect to pay a fare in addition to the two fares it took to get on the ship to get off the ship. This comes from the tips, excursions and the photos and drinks you acquire on the ship.
26. The ports themselves are an interesting place to take photographs. You can shoot an unobstructed shot from 9 stories up.
26. The night entertainment is pretty stock on Princess cruises. All the ships in the fleet have the same stage shows. Still its something we do not do at home.. its great.
27. Liquor is not cheap. A stock American beer is about $8.40 including the 15 percent tip. A bottle of wine starts at $30. This however, these would be the prices in a Hyatt or a Hilton bar.
28. The coffee card is a good deal. It works out to be 2 dollars a cappucino.
29. The soda card is a great deal too. At $67 dollars, the unlimited diet coke was available in the cup that was provided with the sale and at any bar when showing your coke sticker on your cruise card.
30. People were willing to talk to others when they sat down to eat or relax along the trip.
31. Don't expect your TV lineup when you are using the stateroom tv. There were only a couple of news feeds (fox and CNBC) ESPN2 and BBC. In the past we had better TV. The close to first run movies on ship and through the stateroom were really pretty good. Most of them were at the pay per view level.
32. Don't expect to have your DSL level speed with the internet on the ship.
33. Buy the internet supplement minute package early.. like the first day or two. You will have more time to use it and getting the price package will be much cheaper than later on the ship. We were happy to hear that we had 250 minutes since we are platinum passengers. Elite members like mom and dad do not have to watch their minutes. The irony is that they don't usually use the service.
36. Look for unique ways to have fun. After all you are on a vacation. You are doing and going places that you would not do at home. So don't expect to have all the same things that you have at home.
37. Get a good table of people to eat with every night. If the first group doesn't fit with you, talk with the Matre dei arrangement can be made.
38. If you don't know what is offered on the menu, ask the waiter.. he or she will often give you an idea. If you don't like it when it comes... order something else. Or order more than one to start with. Our table had people that ordered three entrees regularly and shared it among its ordering couple.
39. Expect European portions at the table. Except on Lobster night.
40. The utilization of the International Cafe and the Piazza as an entertainment venue was new to me and very pleasent.
41. The scholarship at sea is a great program for Princess. The naturalist, the lei making and the ukelele lessons were super parts of the trip even if they were crowded and under supplied.
42. The ceramics program that Sue has loved on previous trips was totally in adequate and inaccessible. This one needs to be redesigned.
43. Getting on and off of this ship was easy even with a powerchair.
44. A person with limited mobility should consider renting a power chair for mobility and independence on this ship.. both for the barriers and the size of the ship.
45. Elevator use was much better on this ship than on others
46. Time changes on this cruise was unbelievable. We had to lose 3 hours going in time zones. We ended up with 2 hours on the way home because of the end of daylight savings. We had three because Mexico is one time zone different than we are by edict. The minute we crossed back into the US it was just 2 hours that had to be adjusted since Hawaii.
47. This was an "older" cruise similar to the Alaskan cruises we have taken. Very few school aged passengers. Very few newlyweds too.
Overall it was a wonderful trip and we would do it again!
1. Princess is the best cruise lines in its category for food and service.
2. 14 days is not too long a cruise.
3. Hawaii is a valid cruise destination even if you do not spend your money on a lot of excursions
4. Each Hawaiian island is very different from the others
5. The Hawaiian people we met were friendly and accomadating
6. People in Hawaii wear Hawaiian shirts and clothing all the time
7. There is more that we need to see, but it was so different than my expectations.
8. Fall may not be the best time to go since we missed the whale migration from Alaska
9. Fall is a great time to go as it seemed we had Hawaii to ourselves and our ship mates
10. The free Walmart express was an quick way to get the lay of the land. It was not reliable for meeting an excursion schedule
11. Expect to pay more for what you get on the mainland. Especially in consumer goods. But its what everyone is paying.
12. People are people everywhere. Most people on the ship were very tolerant of the powerchair. Some were not.
13. The movies under the stars is a great concept in warm climates.
14. Hilo Hatties had the largest collections of Hawaiian goods for sale. Walmart had the best prices. Some of the island produced perfumes and soaps could only be purchased at the ABC store.
15. Always bring a tropical rated umbrella on your journeys away from the ship.
16. Its pretty hot in Hawaii.
17. A tropical rainstorm is nothing to sneeze at.
18. Public transportation is great in Honolulu but realize that everyone there also knows about it.
19. Enjoy the diversity of Hawaii. Its different at every turn.
20. Hawaii is not just for the fit and tan. There are lots of ways to enjoy Hawaii that don't require good swimming skills.
21. Its a great place to buy kuku beads and shell beads
22. Don't expect chocolate buffets or midnight seafood extravaganzas on Princess. It does not happen.
23. There is progress in keeping down the smoke in the casinos. There were several no smoking nights and periods where smoking was not allowed in the casino.
24. LA has made huge strides in customer movement to get in and out of the port.
25. Expect to pay a fare in addition to the two fares it took to get on the ship to get off the ship. This comes from the tips, excursions and the photos and drinks you acquire on the ship.
26. The ports themselves are an interesting place to take photographs. You can shoot an unobstructed shot from 9 stories up.
26. The night entertainment is pretty stock on Princess cruises. All the ships in the fleet have the same stage shows. Still its something we do not do at home.. its great.
27. Liquor is not cheap. A stock American beer is about $8.40 including the 15 percent tip. A bottle of wine starts at $30. This however, these would be the prices in a Hyatt or a Hilton bar.
28. The coffee card is a good deal. It works out to be 2 dollars a cappucino.
29. The soda card is a great deal too. At $67 dollars, the unlimited diet coke was available in the cup that was provided with the sale and at any bar when showing your coke sticker on your cruise card.
30. People were willing to talk to others when they sat down to eat or relax along the trip.
31. Don't expect your TV lineup when you are using the stateroom tv. There were only a couple of news feeds (fox and CNBC) ESPN2 and BBC. In the past we had better TV. The close to first run movies on ship and through the stateroom were really pretty good. Most of them were at the pay per view level.
32. Don't expect to have your DSL level speed with the internet on the ship.
33. Buy the internet supplement minute package early.. like the first day or two. You will have more time to use it and getting the price package will be much cheaper than later on the ship. We were happy to hear that we had 250 minutes since we are platinum passengers. Elite members like mom and dad do not have to watch their minutes. The irony is that they don't usually use the service.
36. Look for unique ways to have fun. After all you are on a vacation. You are doing and going places that you would not do at home. So don't expect to have all the same things that you have at home.
37. Get a good table of people to eat with every night. If the first group doesn't fit with you, talk with the Matre dei arrangement can be made.
38. If you don't know what is offered on the menu, ask the waiter.. he or she will often give you an idea. If you don't like it when it comes... order something else. Or order more than one to start with. Our table had people that ordered three entrees regularly and shared it among its ordering couple.
39. Expect European portions at the table. Except on Lobster night.
40. The utilization of the International Cafe and the Piazza as an entertainment venue was new to me and very pleasent.
41. The scholarship at sea is a great program for Princess. The naturalist, the lei making and the ukelele lessons were super parts of the trip even if they were crowded and under supplied.
42. The ceramics program that Sue has loved on previous trips was totally in adequate and inaccessible. This one needs to be redesigned.
43. Getting on and off of this ship was easy even with a powerchair.
44. A person with limited mobility should consider renting a power chair for mobility and independence on this ship.. both for the barriers and the size of the ship.
45. Elevator use was much better on this ship than on others
46. Time changes on this cruise was unbelievable. We had to lose 3 hours going in time zones. We ended up with 2 hours on the way home because of the end of daylight savings. We had three because Mexico is one time zone different than we are by edict. The minute we crossed back into the US it was just 2 hours that had to be adjusted since Hawaii.
47. This was an "older" cruise similar to the Alaskan cruises we have taken. Very few school aged passengers. Very few newlyweds too.
Overall it was a wonderful trip and we would do it again!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Day 14 Hawaiian Cruise
_____________________________________
Day 14 Hawaiian Cruise--- Port of Los Angeles
November 9, 2011
_______________________________________
Today's entry is not from the daily journal I wrote while on ship. There was too much to do and the journal was packed as the made preparations for disembarcation... er getting off the ship and heading home. It was written several weeks after the voyage.
We woke up and got ready as requested by 7:30 am.
For those of you who haven't been cruising for a while, there is a new wave of getting many of the people off the ship that do not need to jamming up the exit.
All those people that can leave without using baggage services, can walk off the ship at its earliest time. Most of the people that live close by or did not bring a bag that they could not handle took advantage of this early off. They were off the ship and on the shore around 8:00. This reduces the number of people waiting to get off the ship. On the last cruise, to Mexico, this amounted to almost half of the passengers. The cruise was shorter and most of the passengers were Californians.
There were many people from other countries that need to be checked more carefully than we were as they came into the country to travel on the ship and were headed for more USA adventures or a quick connection to flights at LAX to home. Some of these folks came into to Las Vegas on the way to LA. They all had their own lines to stand in to get back to LA.
Our ship, The Golden Princess, slid into its LA port dock around 6:30. It was interesting to watch the ship recharge its wares and move the passenger luggage in steel cages simultaneously.
Our waiting area was designated by the time and order we were to leave the ship. We were in blue 1. We had no particular need to meet an airline schedule, or make connections with an overnight hotel. Our waiting area was in the plush upscale Italian restaurant on deck 7. This worked out well for us as Sue has a hard time sitting for a period of time and could lounge on the padded seats until our color was called. There were about 35 colors and number categories so that there would not be a bum rush to the gate. Our combination was one of the last.
Our time to leave the ship was announced and we were escorted to the machines that took our cruise card and verified that we were going off the ship.
The Princess port has a two story disembarkation building that our ship utilized. When we left the ship we still had a fairly lengthy wait to get through customs and immigrations and homeland security. We also had to pass the fruit and ag station going into California. Some of the passengers had failed at this spot and a couple of dozen flower leis were on top of the machines. Some ship fruit also was sequested there too.
Some older people that did not need a wheelchair, needed one to wait in the line. Princess employees were right their to get them into the wheel chairs and out of the line. Rightly so, with Sue's power chair, we were not offered this convenience.
When customs forms were filled out and turned in, after all, the ship spent four hours in Mexico, the next job was to find our bags and the extra wheelchair in the barn of the port. The luggage was sorted in the same sequence as the colors and numbers.
Sue had gathered up a porter with a long cart and she had found that most of our bags were near each other. The porter gathered us up and we headed out to the street. He dropped the bags on the curb and we gave him a 20 and I went looking for our expedition. Sue stayed next to our bags with her powerchair.
I found the truck and ran through the parking kiosk with my credit card in hand. $165 for 14 days.
I circled around to the loading area. We opened the back of the truck and threw in the bags. I repositioned the manual wheelchair so that the back of the trunk would go down. when I lowered the lift for the power chair and Sue guided it on.
We were all set to go.
I took the Harbor Blvd freeway to the 110 and since it was about 10:45 we whistled through LA without a slowdown. It was a beautiful day.
We stopped for a burger at Santa Clarita. A lady stopped me because she saw that were both dressed in the Hilo Hatties matching Hawaiian shirts. Together they make quite a statement.
The expedition purred over the grapevine and up interstate 5. We stopped for gas in Los Banos and we were home before dark..
The kitties were very happy to see us! We were happy to see them!.
What a great experience to cruise to Hawaii and back.
Day 14 Hawaiian Cruise--- Port of Los Angeles
November 9, 2011
_______________________________________
Today's entry is not from the daily journal I wrote while on ship. There was too much to do and the journal was packed as the made preparations for disembarcation... er getting off the ship and heading home. It was written several weeks after the voyage.
We woke up and got ready as requested by 7:30 am.
For those of you who haven't been cruising for a while, there is a new wave of getting many of the people off the ship that do not need to jamming up the exit.
All those people that can leave without using baggage services, can walk off the ship at its earliest time. Most of the people that live close by or did not bring a bag that they could not handle took advantage of this early off. They were off the ship and on the shore around 8:00. This reduces the number of people waiting to get off the ship. On the last cruise, to Mexico, this amounted to almost half of the passengers. The cruise was shorter and most of the passengers were Californians.
There were many people from other countries that need to be checked more carefully than we were as they came into the country to travel on the ship and were headed for more USA adventures or a quick connection to flights at LAX to home. Some of these folks came into to Las Vegas on the way to LA. They all had their own lines to stand in to get back to LA.
Our ship, The Golden Princess, slid into its LA port dock around 6:30. It was interesting to watch the ship recharge its wares and move the passenger luggage in steel cages simultaneously.
Our waiting area was designated by the time and order we were to leave the ship. We were in blue 1. We had no particular need to meet an airline schedule, or make connections with an overnight hotel. Our waiting area was in the plush upscale Italian restaurant on deck 7. This worked out well for us as Sue has a hard time sitting for a period of time and could lounge on the padded seats until our color was called. There were about 35 colors and number categories so that there would not be a bum rush to the gate. Our combination was one of the last.
Our time to leave the ship was announced and we were escorted to the machines that took our cruise card and verified that we were going off the ship.
The Princess port has a two story disembarkation building that our ship utilized. When we left the ship we still had a fairly lengthy wait to get through customs and immigrations and homeland security. We also had to pass the fruit and ag station going into California. Some of the passengers had failed at this spot and a couple of dozen flower leis were on top of the machines. Some ship fruit also was sequested there too.
Some older people that did not need a wheelchair, needed one to wait in the line. Princess employees were right their to get them into the wheel chairs and out of the line. Rightly so, with Sue's power chair, we were not offered this convenience.
When customs forms were filled out and turned in, after all, the ship spent four hours in Mexico, the next job was to find our bags and the extra wheelchair in the barn of the port. The luggage was sorted in the same sequence as the colors and numbers.
Sue had gathered up a porter with a long cart and she had found that most of our bags were near each other. The porter gathered us up and we headed out to the street. He dropped the bags on the curb and we gave him a 20 and I went looking for our expedition. Sue stayed next to our bags with her powerchair.
I found the truck and ran through the parking kiosk with my credit card in hand. $165 for 14 days.
I circled around to the loading area. We opened the back of the truck and threw in the bags. I repositioned the manual wheelchair so that the back of the trunk would go down. when I lowered the lift for the power chair and Sue guided it on.
We were all set to go.
I took the Harbor Blvd freeway to the 110 and since it was about 10:45 we whistled through LA without a slowdown. It was a beautiful day.
We stopped for a burger at Santa Clarita. A lady stopped me because she saw that were both dressed in the Hilo Hatties matching Hawaiian shirts. Together they make quite a statement.
The expedition purred over the grapevine and up interstate 5. We stopped for gas in Los Banos and we were home before dark..
The kitties were very happy to see us! We were happy to see them!.
What a great experience to cruise to Hawaii and back.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Day 13 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________________________
Hawaiian Cruise Day 13- Ensenada Mexico 4pm-7:30pm
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Forecast: Partly cloudy, High 70 F Low 56 F
Sunrise 6:11 Sunset 4:50 pm. Minus one hour from California Time
_______________________________________________________
This morning despite the forecast, the sky is clear and the winds are down. Its not a "shorts and tank top" day but I know that many will be seeking the sunburn bronze today in and around the pools.
The ship seems strangely quiet today. Lots of readers with their books and ribbon lei making going on around the ship.
Most of the readers are into their books. There were only 6 kindles/electronic books noted in the promenade lounges where people often go during the day to read or look for some quite time.
I picked up our DVD collection at the photo booth. 4 DVD's. Two were pro stock like photos taken in Hawaii and our ship. Two other DVDs were produced by the photographic staff for our particular cruise with footage of our crew members . Total cost was $39.00. A bargain and insurance from my perspective.
At lunch, as usual, I went for a shared table. Sitting next to me was a elderly man and his wife. They were not happy with the menu. They grumbled under their breaths about the menu being the worst they had encountered on the ship and almost got up and left. They would have done so if they had not had mobility issues and had paid the physical price to get there. They registered their concerns to the waiter who tried his best to find a choice that would fit their needs. He finally chose a cheese soup with ham . When it came he grumbled that their wasn't much ham in it. His sandwich came, it was a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich. I took one look at it and said that it was too spicy.
I enjoyed the linguini with tomato sauce, broccoli, and fresh peppers. My second entree was the Portuguese stew. It was a thick chippino type soup with smaller pieces of fish related ingredients. I suspect it had as its base the lobster and the shrimp from the night before. It was very tasty but certainly beyond the spice range of the couple next to me. The wife had a "health cup" of sliced fruit for desert. She had a grilled chicken salad for her lunch meal. They were both much more pleasant once they had some food going down. He had 2 scoops of ice cream. The couple from KC had a hamburger and they joined me in ordering peach pie with vanilla ice cream for desert. It also had a dollop of creme fresch to go with the pie.
The Kansas City couple were St. Louis cardinal fans. They were basking in the limelight of their team's World Series victory. They also liked hockey and were fans of the NHL St. Louis Blues as well as their minor league hockey team in KC.. He currently works for Honeywell which has collected and changed and merged a couple of times from the original Bendix. Basically it is a defense industry supplier.
They said that they enjoyed the solitude of the cruise.
I watched the naturalist's power point lecture on the pelicans (brown) and the penipods (sea lions) in the smaller presentation theater. These were animals that could be seen as we headed into the Baja coast.
I first saw land at 1:30 this afternoon. It was a few island off the Baja Coast.
The bay of Ensenada was much larger than I expected. I watched as we picked up the pilot on the south side of the ship and hour away from docking at the port.
Passengers were warned of strange additions being added to alcohol drinks ashore. This changed the idea s of many going ashore fore most of the passengers. Rumors of big weapons etc. also heightened the panic.
A fancy yacht was passing us as we were heading in. It was headed for Fiji.
We did not go ashore, but I had some fun taking photos of the sunset and the shore lights from the top of the ship.
We worked to get all of our stuff back into the bags this night as they needed to be out in the hall before we left for dinner. All that we held back were the items that we needed to get off the ship and check through the customs and immigration.
I got a card and some cash ready for Rosalie who had been so patient in working around our erratic schedule.
Our waiter was teasing us that all they would have for this dinner would be meatloaf. I think that he did that to see the reaction of the passengers.
We had more than that.. but in the fury of getting everything back into the suitcases.. I didn't write it down.
Hawaiian Cruise Day 13- Ensenada Mexico 4pm-7:30pm
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Forecast: Partly cloudy, High 70 F Low 56 F
Sunrise 6:11 Sunset 4:50 pm. Minus one hour from California Time
_______________________________________________________
This morning despite the forecast, the sky is clear and the winds are down. Its not a "shorts and tank top" day but I know that many will be seeking the sunburn bronze today in and around the pools.
The ship seems strangely quiet today. Lots of readers with their books and ribbon lei making going on around the ship.
Most of the readers are into their books. There were only 6 kindles/electronic books noted in the promenade lounges where people often go during the day to read or look for some quite time.
I picked up our DVD collection at the photo booth. 4 DVD's. Two were pro stock like photos taken in Hawaii and our ship. Two other DVDs were produced by the photographic staff for our particular cruise with footage of our crew members . Total cost was $39.00. A bargain and insurance from my perspective.
At lunch, as usual, I went for a shared table. Sitting next to me was a elderly man and his wife. They were not happy with the menu. They grumbled under their breaths about the menu being the worst they had encountered on the ship and almost got up and left. They would have done so if they had not had mobility issues and had paid the physical price to get there. They registered their concerns to the waiter who tried his best to find a choice that would fit their needs. He finally chose a cheese soup with ham . When it came he grumbled that their wasn't much ham in it. His sandwich came, it was a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich. I took one look at it and said that it was too spicy.
I enjoyed the linguini with tomato sauce, broccoli, and fresh peppers. My second entree was the Portuguese stew. It was a thick chippino type soup with smaller pieces of fish related ingredients. I suspect it had as its base the lobster and the shrimp from the night before. It was very tasty but certainly beyond the spice range of the couple next to me. The wife had a "health cup" of sliced fruit for desert. She had a grilled chicken salad for her lunch meal. They were both much more pleasant once they had some food going down. He had 2 scoops of ice cream. The couple from KC had a hamburger and they joined me in ordering peach pie with vanilla ice cream for desert. It also had a dollop of creme fresch to go with the pie.
The Kansas City couple were St. Louis cardinal fans. They were basking in the limelight of their team's World Series victory. They also liked hockey and were fans of the NHL St. Louis Blues as well as their minor league hockey team in KC.. He currently works for Honeywell which has collected and changed and merged a couple of times from the original Bendix. Basically it is a defense industry supplier.
They said that they enjoyed the solitude of the cruise.
I watched the naturalist's power point lecture on the pelicans (brown) and the penipods (sea lions) in the smaller presentation theater. These were animals that could be seen as we headed into the Baja coast.
I first saw land at 1:30 this afternoon. It was a few island off the Baja Coast.
The bay of Ensenada was much larger than I expected. I watched as we picked up the pilot on the south side of the ship and hour away from docking at the port.
Passengers were warned of strange additions being added to alcohol drinks ashore. This changed the idea s of many going ashore fore most of the passengers. Rumors of big weapons etc. also heightened the panic.
A fancy yacht was passing us as we were heading in. It was headed for Fiji.
We did not go ashore, but I had some fun taking photos of the sunset and the shore lights from the top of the ship.
We worked to get all of our stuff back into the bags this night as they needed to be out in the hall before we left for dinner. All that we held back were the items that we needed to get off the ship and check through the customs and immigration.
I got a card and some cash ready for Rosalie who had been so patient in working around our erratic schedule.
Our waiter was teasing us that all they would have for this dinner would be meatloaf. I think that he did that to see the reaction of the passengers.
We had more than that.. but in the fury of getting everything back into the suitcases.. I didn't write it down.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Day 12 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________
Day 12 Hawaiian Cruise, Monday, November 7, 2011 Dress: Formal
Weather Forecast: Mostly Cloudy- High 67F Low 56F
Sunrise: 6:49 Sunset: 5:18
___________________________________
Its easy to work the routine from this room for everything except dinner.
We are 35 feet away from the elevators that go all the way to the 5th floor from the 14th.
The 5th deck from this elevator opens to a Hall that leads into the art gallery. This ship has a large quantity of Art that will be put up for auction at times throughout the cruise. Prior to these auctions, these auctions these works of art are hung or displayed in the gallery.
The morning connections to the Piazza is through this art gallery. In the Piazza, is the International cafe with free 24 hour dinning. The internet cafe, a wine cafe doubles as a wifi station for those passengers that have brought their laptops along. A Godiva chocolate store and a tall central ear that exposes the central core of the ship 3 decks of open area. There is also a bar, and thankfully no smoking allowed. Many "outdoor" activities occur in the center. An activity that some people participated in was a group "sing" of some popular songs. Those interested, met and rehearsed a couple of times at sea and then performed in the piazza with a conductor. The chamber quartet would often perform in this area as did the instrumental jazz group. "Street performers" and piano players were scheduled to use its center stage. It was also used as the location for the champagne tower that is the Princess cruise lines signature captain participation event. This central area is much smaller than those on most of the previous ships we have cruised. However there seemed to be much more programed for it use than other ships. It was too small for that art auction . The wait staff for this area as it relates to the only place where you could order a gourmet coffee such as you might get at Starbucks, was very attentive. Most people, just like at Starbucks back at home, were gathering up the coffee to go. They have big "here" coffee cups here for the cappuccino, donuts (small) are there every morning with croissants,yogurts parfaits and breakfast sandwiches. Its really a nice alternative to the buffet and the formal dinning room.
Going to our dining room was a bit difficult. Usually we took the elevator to the 7th deck (the promenade deck, walked through the smoky casino, a piano bar, the piaza central open area, another smaller nightclub venue, the photographer's hall with their kiosk, and finally to the only elevator that would go down to the 6th floor on this deck. This a power chair, this was not that hard to do. If you wanted to do this with a walker, it could be problematic.
Being on Lido deck (deck 14) with a cabin is pretty special. You are only 35 feet from the outside. This was very quiet, and as close as you can get to the the bar for the diet coke, and the hamburger bar. Its a short walk across the deck to the buffet. There is always a buffet line that is open except for the middle of the night. A trip down to the International buffet has food available. A free room service with sandwiches and minimal food is also available from just a phone call.
The sun deck and the spa facilities were located one floor above us.
10:15 Culinary Demo
Our head chef is Scottish. The matre dei for this cruise is Italian. Where there is usually pasta potatoes become an option.
Demo today Salmon cured 48hours with salt and sugar and vodka.. sliced very thin.
Pesto pasta- chef drops some toasted walnuts into the usual mix
Garlic shrimp- olive oil, garlic with shrimp. tossed as they cook with brandy.. set aflame
Black forest gateau- chocolate sponge cake with whipped cream and cherries
11:30 Ship board Naturalist doing Natural Triva (from her talks)
Bonus round questions:
A. Demonstrate the sound/song of the humpback whale (someone in the crowd did)
B. Demonstrate physically the life cycle of a barnacle (no one did so she did on stage)
1)swimming upward 2) attaching to a site with tentacles 3) Feeding using feet to drag food to the mouth area (demonstrated by lying down on the stage and performing the movements)
Throughout the ship there were other activities going on full bore. The people who were getting uekeulalie lessons were rehearsing for their performance. There were also chances to make "woven leis"
The professional photographers were getting into their last chances to photograph people in the "fancy clothes."
I only counted 6 men with tuxedos on the entire ship for this night. All the women on the ship look forward to these nights as it is a chance to get out their fancy clothes and have a "night on the town" without having to worry about alcohol consumption and where we will eat and what we will see after. "Formal" for most men consists of a dress shirt with a tie and a suit like jacket.
Dinner- Formal Lobster Night!
Pat: Chopped cold crab cake with other chopped sea food ingredients (calamari, squid, mussel meat)
Asparagrass in tiny bundles (poached in stock)
Mango cold soup
Lobster and shrimp (the shrimp were just a little smaller than the medium sized lobster)
Beef wellington
Baked Alaska (the waiter parade with lit platters) then divided into individual servings
Sue: Chopped cold crabcake
Mango soup
Lobster
Another song and dance revue played at the major theater venue. It was called the "British Invasion" and featured songs of the Beatles and other tunes of that era.
Costumes from the "Mod" era and stage props included an inflatable captain for the Yellow Submarine . A parade sized mini car with a union jack painted on it was driven on stage for another song.
Our dining schedule had us eating at the 8:15pm serving. The most requested time is the 5:30 seating. This made it pretty late to go the late show after dinner for many of the guests that have this seating. This gets complicated for the people that want to see the show twice as they can sit through the show and maintain their seats. This ship's main theater does not hold enough people so that everyone can sit in there at one time.
When I went to see the British invasion show, all the seats left in the entire theater were standing room only. After about half way through, some people had had enough and there was room for us to sit.
Overall this is not that big a deal.
Day 12 Hawaiian Cruise, Monday, November 7, 2011 Dress: Formal
Weather Forecast: Mostly Cloudy- High 67F Low 56F
Sunrise: 6:49 Sunset: 5:18
___________________________________
Its easy to work the routine from this room for everything except dinner.
We are 35 feet away from the elevators that go all the way to the 5th floor from the 14th.
The 5th deck from this elevator opens to a Hall that leads into the art gallery. This ship has a large quantity of Art that will be put up for auction at times throughout the cruise. Prior to these auctions, these auctions these works of art are hung or displayed in the gallery.
The morning connections to the Piazza is through this art gallery. In the Piazza, is the International cafe with free 24 hour dinning. The internet cafe, a wine cafe doubles as a wifi station for those passengers that have brought their laptops along. A Godiva chocolate store and a tall central ear that exposes the central core of the ship 3 decks of open area. There is also a bar, and thankfully no smoking allowed. Many "outdoor" activities occur in the center. An activity that some people participated in was a group "sing" of some popular songs. Those interested, met and rehearsed a couple of times at sea and then performed in the piazza with a conductor. The chamber quartet would often perform in this area as did the instrumental jazz group. "Street performers" and piano players were scheduled to use its center stage. It was also used as the location for the champagne tower that is the Princess cruise lines signature captain participation event. This central area is much smaller than those on most of the previous ships we have cruised. However there seemed to be much more programed for it use than other ships. It was too small for that art auction . The wait staff for this area as it relates to the only place where you could order a gourmet coffee such as you might get at Starbucks, was very attentive. Most people, just like at Starbucks back at home, were gathering up the coffee to go. They have big "here" coffee cups here for the cappuccino, donuts (small) are there every morning with croissants,yogurts parfaits and breakfast sandwiches. Its really a nice alternative to the buffet and the formal dinning room.
Going to our dining room was a bit difficult. Usually we took the elevator to the 7th deck (the promenade deck, walked through the smoky casino, a piano bar, the piaza central open area, another smaller nightclub venue, the photographer's hall with their kiosk, and finally to the only elevator that would go down to the 6th floor on this deck. This a power chair, this was not that hard to do. If you wanted to do this with a walker, it could be problematic.
Being on Lido deck (deck 14) with a cabin is pretty special. You are only 35 feet from the outside. This was very quiet, and as close as you can get to the the bar for the diet coke, and the hamburger bar. Its a short walk across the deck to the buffet. There is always a buffet line that is open except for the middle of the night. A trip down to the International buffet has food available. A free room service with sandwiches and minimal food is also available from just a phone call.
The sun deck and the spa facilities were located one floor above us.
10:15 Culinary Demo
Our head chef is Scottish. The matre dei for this cruise is Italian. Where there is usually pasta potatoes become an option.
Demo today Salmon cured 48hours with salt and sugar and vodka.. sliced very thin.
Pesto pasta- chef drops some toasted walnuts into the usual mix
Garlic shrimp- olive oil, garlic with shrimp. tossed as they cook with brandy.. set aflame
Black forest gateau- chocolate sponge cake with whipped cream and cherries
11:30 Ship board Naturalist doing Natural Triva (from her talks)
Bonus round questions:
A. Demonstrate the sound/song of the humpback whale (someone in the crowd did)
B. Demonstrate physically the life cycle of a barnacle (no one did so she did on stage)
1)swimming upward 2) attaching to a site with tentacles 3) Feeding using feet to drag food to the mouth area (demonstrated by lying down on the stage and performing the movements)
Throughout the ship there were other activities going on full bore. The people who were getting uekeulalie lessons were rehearsing for their performance. There were also chances to make "woven leis"
The professional photographers were getting into their last chances to photograph people in the "fancy clothes."
I only counted 6 men with tuxedos on the entire ship for this night. All the women on the ship look forward to these nights as it is a chance to get out their fancy clothes and have a "night on the town" without having to worry about alcohol consumption and where we will eat and what we will see after. "Formal" for most men consists of a dress shirt with a tie and a suit like jacket.
Dinner- Formal Lobster Night!
Pat: Chopped cold crab cake with other chopped sea food ingredients (calamari, squid, mussel meat)
Asparagrass in tiny bundles (poached in stock)
Mango cold soup
Lobster and shrimp (the shrimp were just a little smaller than the medium sized lobster)
Beef wellington
Baked Alaska (the waiter parade with lit platters) then divided into individual servings
Sue: Chopped cold crabcake
Mango soup
Lobster
Another song and dance revue played at the major theater venue. It was called the "British Invasion" and featured songs of the Beatles and other tunes of that era.
Costumes from the "Mod" era and stage props included an inflatable captain for the Yellow Submarine . A parade sized mini car with a union jack painted on it was driven on stage for another song.
Our dining schedule had us eating at the 8:15pm serving. The most requested time is the 5:30 seating. This made it pretty late to go the late show after dinner for many of the guests that have this seating. This gets complicated for the people that want to see the show twice as they can sit through the show and maintain their seats. This ship's main theater does not hold enough people so that everyone can sit in there at one time.
When I went to see the British invasion show, all the seats left in the entire theater were standing room only. After about half way through, some people had had enough and there was room for us to sit.
Overall this is not that big a deal.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Day 11 Hawaiian Cruise
_______________________________________
Day 11, Hawaiian Cruise November 6, 2011
Weather: partly cloudy High 72 Low 60
Sunrie 7:20 Sunset 5:30
________________________________________
Today started out and continued to be a pretty dreary day at sea. There is lots of wind outside.
The LasVegas Company Fixer
The 84 year old approached me at coffee this morning. He has been "collecting life stories this trip and mostly relating his own. He has been "working the piazza" in the morning for most of the trip. Today was my turn.
I had watched him approach other and he diffidently had the gift of gab. I overheard that he had connections in Escondido. Escondido was one of the childhood homes of my dad. So when he approached me for some conversation, I asked him, "How is the man from Escondido doing today?"
He was a little taken back that I knew that, but it only changed his patter a little.
He had good mobility but had that long hound dog look that many years in the world of accountancy could give you.
He said that his job was to turn companies around. He claimed to be very successful at it.
He talked through his bushy eye brows. He introduced himself as "Chuck." I had overheard his story before at least three times with various people seated in the piazza. He took the Piazza as a center of the town literally. He agreed that he had lived in Escondido, a town just north of San Diego California for a large part of his life. He only recently, in the last three years had moved to Las Vegas. He moved there because California was taxing him to death. He owned or used to own numerous parcels of land including one that was about 1200 feet above sea level. It had no electricity or water. He brought in a railroad generator and drilled his own well. When they came to "provide" him with electricity, his power bill went up. They would make him pay for the water that he had drilled. He won a lawsuit that showed that he was out of their water district, so he could use his own well without having to pay an entity.
He has always worked hard he claimed. He was sent to rescue a jewelry company based out of Chicago that was losing 800,000 dollars a year. He turned it around by paying the employees much more than then the prevailing rates and firing the ones that were poor employees. He also reduced the market prices sold by them by a third and underbid the competitors. The company turned around to be making $28 million. They refused to give him his bonus on this turn around because they felt that the turn around was a fluke. Two more years later it was still doing that kind of business.
He wanted to pay his secretary a big raise. The company wouldn't do it because she was "union."
He has a bad taste in his mouth regarding unions. He said that he is a "conservative" not a Republican.
He also stated that he was behind the idea for Costco. He knows the president of costco by first name and also the owner of its older competitor, Price Club, He had someone try to sell him a 2 dollar coffee cup that he could sell for 3 dollars. He found out that the company had a warehouse in San Francisco. He called them knowing that they were paying a lot for warehouse space for all of the cups. He said that he would pay 39 cents for all they had. He sold them in his stores for two for a dollar. He had two railroad cars full of these cups that he warehoused in Texas in stead of San Francisco. He took an 18 percent profit from the transaction and shared the idea with the founder of Costco. Costco moved into that kind of sales and the rest is history.
He went on about his connection with Jimmy Carter and Clinton.."Two of the worst " presidents outside of Obama.. yada yada Yada.
He said that when Jerry Brown, the current governor of California, father was governor, he vowed to never build a freeway in San Diego because he disliked the mayor and the politics of the area. The next governor did.
_____________________
Hard Working Mexican
I met a miner on the ship. He was in his early 50's and short.. about 5 feet one inch. He said that he lived in Chico California. His wife was a RN .
He worked with crews that drilled underground to build utility lines and other infrastructures. His maid job was material removal. He ran a small train with rails that took the soil out form where they were digging.
He had done farm labor but realized that to get his kids though schools he needed more money.
Work pretty much stopped for him in 2008. He had to return to the farms. He was making good money but not as much as working the tunnels. He worked planting almond and other trees in orchards around Chico and Stockton and Lodi.
His kids are both gown now. He is proud that his daughter is working up the corporate ladder in CVR pharmacy . They told her that she had to get trained as a pharmacy tech to be a daily manager and eventually a district manager of about 40 stores.
The son had a college education too. He went on to study to become a computer engineer. He is working for a private corporation near China Lake in Southern California.
_________________
He and his wife and her mother had chosen this cruise because all of his current jobs were completed . The last one as a miner took 3 years . He could not take time off during that time.
The was a sea day. The football game (being Sunday) were sparse. The Green Bay Packers fans and the San Diego Fans got their wish of coverage on the big casino tv. The Green Bay Packers caem through which delighted the vocal crowd. I am sure that if there was a rallying song the Green Bay Packers fans would have broken into song.
In the afternoon I watched the movie "Super 8". It would be available on Netflicks about 20 days later. It was shown in the stardust theater.
Dinner: Italian themed
Pat: antipasto seafood mix, mussels, calamari ,
parma ham and cantaloupe
veal scallopine
snow crabs (legs cut in half lengthwise
Tiramisu
Zabaglione ice cream
Sue: zippy peach soup
snow crab legs
lemon sorbet
I watched the movie "The Help" up in the other big venue stage.. the vista lounge. Its a powerful movie about prejudice in the 60's with the black people that were the "help" to the rich white people of Jackson Mississippi.
Day 11, Hawaiian Cruise November 6, 2011
Weather: partly cloudy High 72 Low 60
Sunrie 7:20 Sunset 5:30
________________________________________
Today started out and continued to be a pretty dreary day at sea. There is lots of wind outside.
The LasVegas Company Fixer
The 84 year old approached me at coffee this morning. He has been "collecting life stories this trip and mostly relating his own. He has been "working the piazza" in the morning for most of the trip. Today was my turn.
I had watched him approach other and he diffidently had the gift of gab. I overheard that he had connections in Escondido. Escondido was one of the childhood homes of my dad. So when he approached me for some conversation, I asked him, "How is the man from Escondido doing today?"
He was a little taken back that I knew that, but it only changed his patter a little.
He had good mobility but had that long hound dog look that many years in the world of accountancy could give you.
He said that his job was to turn companies around. He claimed to be very successful at it.
He talked through his bushy eye brows. He introduced himself as "Chuck." I had overheard his story before at least three times with various people seated in the piazza. He took the Piazza as a center of the town literally. He agreed that he had lived in Escondido, a town just north of San Diego California for a large part of his life. He only recently, in the last three years had moved to Las Vegas. He moved there because California was taxing him to death. He owned or used to own numerous parcels of land including one that was about 1200 feet above sea level. It had no electricity or water. He brought in a railroad generator and drilled his own well. When they came to "provide" him with electricity, his power bill went up. They would make him pay for the water that he had drilled. He won a lawsuit that showed that he was out of their water district, so he could use his own well without having to pay an entity.
He has always worked hard he claimed. He was sent to rescue a jewelry company based out of Chicago that was losing 800,000 dollars a year. He turned it around by paying the employees much more than then the prevailing rates and firing the ones that were poor employees. He also reduced the market prices sold by them by a third and underbid the competitors. The company turned around to be making $28 million. They refused to give him his bonus on this turn around because they felt that the turn around was a fluke. Two more years later it was still doing that kind of business.
He wanted to pay his secretary a big raise. The company wouldn't do it because she was "union."
He has a bad taste in his mouth regarding unions. He said that he is a "conservative" not a Republican.
He also stated that he was behind the idea for Costco. He knows the president of costco by first name and also the owner of its older competitor, Price Club, He had someone try to sell him a 2 dollar coffee cup that he could sell for 3 dollars. He found out that the company had a warehouse in San Francisco. He called them knowing that they were paying a lot for warehouse space for all of the cups. He said that he would pay 39 cents for all they had. He sold them in his stores for two for a dollar. He had two railroad cars full of these cups that he warehoused in Texas in stead of San Francisco. He took an 18 percent profit from the transaction and shared the idea with the founder of Costco. Costco moved into that kind of sales and the rest is history.
He went on about his connection with Jimmy Carter and Clinton.."Two of the worst " presidents outside of Obama.. yada yada Yada.
He said that when Jerry Brown, the current governor of California, father was governor, he vowed to never build a freeway in San Diego because he disliked the mayor and the politics of the area. The next governor did.
_____________________
Hard Working Mexican
I met a miner on the ship. He was in his early 50's and short.. about 5 feet one inch. He said that he lived in Chico California. His wife was a RN .
He worked with crews that drilled underground to build utility lines and other infrastructures. His maid job was material removal. He ran a small train with rails that took the soil out form where they were digging.
He had done farm labor but realized that to get his kids though schools he needed more money.
Work pretty much stopped for him in 2008. He had to return to the farms. He was making good money but not as much as working the tunnels. He worked planting almond and other trees in orchards around Chico and Stockton and Lodi.
His kids are both gown now. He is proud that his daughter is working up the corporate ladder in CVR pharmacy . They told her that she had to get trained as a pharmacy tech to be a daily manager and eventually a district manager of about 40 stores.
The son had a college education too. He went on to study to become a computer engineer. He is working for a private corporation near China Lake in Southern California.
_________________
He and his wife and her mother had chosen this cruise because all of his current jobs were completed . The last one as a miner took 3 years . He could not take time off during that time.
The was a sea day. The football game (being Sunday) were sparse. The Green Bay Packers fans and the San Diego Fans got their wish of coverage on the big casino tv. The Green Bay Packers caem through which delighted the vocal crowd. I am sure that if there was a rallying song the Green Bay Packers fans would have broken into song.
In the afternoon I watched the movie "Super 8". It would be available on Netflicks about 20 days later. It was shown in the stardust theater.
Dinner: Italian themed
Pat: antipasto seafood mix, mussels, calamari ,
parma ham and cantaloupe
veal scallopine
snow crabs (legs cut in half lengthwise
Tiramisu
Zabaglione ice cream
Sue: zippy peach soup
snow crab legs
lemon sorbet
I watched the movie "The Help" up in the other big venue stage.. the vista lounge. Its a powerful movie about prejudice in the 60's with the black people that were the "help" to the rich white people of Jackson Mississippi.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Day 10 Hawiaan Cruise
_______________________________________
Day 10 Hawaiian Cruise Saturday, November 5, 2011
_________________________________________
I Checked the mail-email- messages sent and received. I bought a new coffee card to get me through the cruise. I did laundry on Deck 5. Later I found about three others all around the ship, and some were even closer. $2.00 wash $2.00 dry and $1.00 for soap. I had read that I needed quarters for the laundry from some nice people that blogged their trip on the web. No one was using the two washers or dryers that were in this compartment early in the morning. I watched the "coin" man come and get the money out of the machines and haul it away in a little cart. He was on his last cruise before he was off. He was pretty happy that there would not be any more coin collections on this cruise. The laundry was just down the hall from the art gallery and the piazza center. It still made it easy to get the clothes going and go get a coffee while they whirled and spun. We just needed a little bit of laundry done from this or that to make the one more formal night happen.
I got Sue up and we headed to do ceramics. Its one of the things that Sue liked to do when we were on the Alaskan Princess voyages. On this ship its a closed one table kind of thing. The table was sitting in one floor above us perched out above the indoor pool. Sue accidentally bumped a sun chair with an older lady in it. She got pretty upset . I informed the lady that she was way in to the passage space area with her chair and we couldn't get by without a bump. She said at least you could have said excuse me.
Sue was pretty upset about the lack of access to the event and the whole attempt.
She ate a quick scoop of shrimp slaw from the international cafe and headed back to the room.
I took her back and then had lunch in the dinning room.
I met a family from Madison Wisconsin. In conversation I found out that the mad worked for CUNA- now retired three years. There was also a couple from Nebraska and one from Ohio.
I got to talk health care plans with the insurance man. His office was union covered and he negotiated their contracts. Just as he was retiring, their company pulled their retiree health care package.
He had to go outside to get a $10,000 deductible policy,
He asked me what I thought we should get into at the end of the health care issue. I said a single payer plan.
I watched some college football (we got ESPN2 on the room TVs) Iowa beat Michigan in the last moments of teh game. I heard reported that Stanford had beaten Oregon State.
I did some more painting in the room. Sue did more reading with the books we bought in Kaui and some that people had donated to the pile in the library (paperbacks). We donated a half a dozen too that we had already read.
I completed the rainbow over Lahaina Maui that was scanned and inserted in a previous entry.
Dinner: Sue Hamburger and fries at the outdoor stand
Pat: Hawaiian fruits and macadamia nuts
Leg of lamb
Prime Rib
Chocolate Brandy Cake
Banana brioche bread pudding with caramel sauce
Day 10 Hawaiian Cruise Saturday, November 5, 2011
_________________________________________
I Checked the mail-email- messages sent and received. I bought a new coffee card to get me through the cruise. I did laundry on Deck 5. Later I found about three others all around the ship, and some were even closer. $2.00 wash $2.00 dry and $1.00 for soap. I had read that I needed quarters for the laundry from some nice people that blogged their trip on the web. No one was using the two washers or dryers that were in this compartment early in the morning. I watched the "coin" man come and get the money out of the machines and haul it away in a little cart. He was on his last cruise before he was off. He was pretty happy that there would not be any more coin collections on this cruise. The laundry was just down the hall from the art gallery and the piazza center. It still made it easy to get the clothes going and go get a coffee while they whirled and spun. We just needed a little bit of laundry done from this or that to make the one more formal night happen.
I got Sue up and we headed to do ceramics. Its one of the things that Sue liked to do when we were on the Alaskan Princess voyages. On this ship its a closed one table kind of thing. The table was sitting in one floor above us perched out above the indoor pool. Sue accidentally bumped a sun chair with an older lady in it. She got pretty upset . I informed the lady that she was way in to the passage space area with her chair and we couldn't get by without a bump. She said at least you could have said excuse me.
Sue was pretty upset about the lack of access to the event and the whole attempt.
She ate a quick scoop of shrimp slaw from the international cafe and headed back to the room.
I took her back and then had lunch in the dinning room.
I met a family from Madison Wisconsin. In conversation I found out that the mad worked for CUNA- now retired three years. There was also a couple from Nebraska and one from Ohio.
I got to talk health care plans with the insurance man. His office was union covered and he negotiated their contracts. Just as he was retiring, their company pulled their retiree health care package.
He had to go outside to get a $10,000 deductible policy,
He asked me what I thought we should get into at the end of the health care issue. I said a single payer plan.
I watched some college football (we got ESPN2 on the room TVs) Iowa beat Michigan in the last moments of teh game. I heard reported that Stanford had beaten Oregon State.
I did some more painting in the room. Sue did more reading with the books we bought in Kaui and some that people had donated to the pile in the library (paperbacks). We donated a half a dozen too that we had already read.
I completed the rainbow over Lahaina Maui that was scanned and inserted in a previous entry.
Dinner: Sue Hamburger and fries at the outdoor stand
Pat: Hawaiian fruits and macadamia nuts
Leg of lamb
Prime Rib
Chocolate Brandy Cake
Banana brioche bread pudding with caramel sauce
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Day 9 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________________
Day 9 Friday, November 4, 2011 - Formal
Weather: Chance of Showers High 80 degrees Low 69
Sunrise 7:20 Sunset 6:14
Added on an hour
___________________________________________
We are headed back today. There is a 30 mile an hour wind we are knifing through with a 190,000 ton vessel. There was considerable dip and roll last night no seems to be sea sick from it.
We are now out of shore days with the getting on land and security checks. I checked the email and Nattalie is handling it well.
Sue is pretty wiped out form yesterday. We needed some time to rejuvenate after all of those shore days. I got some painting in. Oh the joy of good brushes. They accompanied me to the ship with a limited palette of colors. It was fun to wet on wet the landsacpes of the Maui countryside from the ship. I made the first one on the moleskine tablet and made a few cards of the flowers we saw in the Botanical gardens. I also got a chance to paint the wild? chickens of Kaui. A rooster was printed on the tag of one of my shirts . He became the the starting off point to my rooster series. One wet on wet with the spray background, followed up by some pigment pen. The other card started with a dry paper and a very wet brush and pigment pen to define the details.
I am reading the Steve Jobs biography that I picked up in Hilo. Its a hard bound and written by Walter Isaccson . Its pretty clean. He also wrote the biography of Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. Steve picked him to do the biography and Walter turned him down twice.
Sue was too tired for lunch in the dining room. I had a great one.
Crustinnee with smoked sturgeon and cream cheese and scallons each on their own layer
Ruben sandwich
creme carmel for desert
Great conversation at the table with a couple from Green Bay, Southern New York, and a couple from Florida. The green bay couple had cheeseburgers.
It was formal night and we were invited to the captain's reception. All but the passengers with the their first year were invited.They honored the passengers with the longest cruise record- a mother and daughter tied (they always travel together). They had 1,072 days on Princess. No one else was close. The captain did not shake hands with anyone coming in. due to the Norwalk restrictions. The captain introduced a short movie of the artists representation of the newest princess.. the Royal Princess 4X the size of the Golden. Its due to enter service in 2013.
It was the Chef's special night:
Dinner:
Pat: Goat cheese souffle
French onion soup
gnochi, in cream sauce
strawberry sorbet
Triology- Veal steak, Lamb chop, and chicken skewer
Menage le Trois desert--- pana cotta, termousou, strawberry creme
(2 small tablespoons of each) 2 cookies pistachio and chocolate
Sue: Strawberry soup
green salad
seared scallops
strawberry sorbet
Romantic quote for the day: The best and most wonderful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
Day 9 Friday, November 4, 2011 - Formal
Weather: Chance of Showers High 80 degrees Low 69
Sunrise 7:20 Sunset 6:14
Added on an hour
___________________________________________
We are headed back today. There is a 30 mile an hour wind we are knifing through with a 190,000 ton vessel. There was considerable dip and roll last night no seems to be sea sick from it.
We are now out of shore days with the getting on land and security checks. I checked the email and Nattalie is handling it well.
Sue is pretty wiped out form yesterday. We needed some time to rejuvenate after all of those shore days. I got some painting in. Oh the joy of good brushes. They accompanied me to the ship with a limited palette of colors. It was fun to wet on wet the landsacpes of the Maui countryside from the ship. I made the first one on the moleskine tablet and made a few cards of the flowers we saw in the Botanical gardens. I also got a chance to paint the wild? chickens of Kaui. A rooster was printed on the tag of one of my shirts . He became the the starting off point to my rooster series. One wet on wet with the spray background, followed up by some pigment pen. The other card started with a dry paper and a very wet brush and pigment pen to define the details.
I am reading the Steve Jobs biography that I picked up in Hilo. Its a hard bound and written by Walter Isaccson . Its pretty clean. He also wrote the biography of Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. Steve picked him to do the biography and Walter turned him down twice.
Sue was too tired for lunch in the dining room. I had a great one.
Crustinnee with smoked sturgeon and cream cheese and scallons each on their own layer
Ruben sandwich
creme carmel for desert
Great conversation at the table with a couple from Green Bay, Southern New York, and a couple from Florida. The green bay couple had cheeseburgers.
It was formal night and we were invited to the captain's reception. All but the passengers with the their first year were invited.They honored the passengers with the longest cruise record- a mother and daughter tied (they always travel together). They had 1,072 days on Princess. No one else was close. The captain did not shake hands with anyone coming in. due to the Norwalk restrictions. The captain introduced a short movie of the artists representation of the newest princess.. the Royal Princess 4X the size of the Golden. Its due to enter service in 2013.
It was the Chef's special night:
Dinner:
Pat: Goat cheese souffle
French onion soup
gnochi, in cream sauce
strawberry sorbet
Triology- Veal steak, Lamb chop, and chicken skewer
Menage le Trois desert--- pana cotta, termousou, strawberry creme
(2 small tablespoons of each) 2 cookies pistachio and chocolate
Sue: Strawberry soup
green salad
seared scallops
strawberry sorbet
Romantic quote for the day: The best and most wonderful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller
Day 8 Hawaiian Cruise
________________________________________________
Day 8 Hawaiian Cruise Lahaina, Maui, November 3, 2011
________________________________________________
Morning pastries at the Piazza. The ship is moored in the Bay at Maui around 7:00 am. Some people had to be on shore at 7:30 to go to a snorkeling site. 2 snorkeling sites were going to be explored . 3 of our evening table dinner mates were on the excursion. The owner of the tour was showing some of the people the probable location of a medium sized octopus. As was related to us later that afternoon, by Jill, a 70+ year old man who seemed in good shape took the snorkel and died in the water. His wife who was along on the trip shouted for his rescue, The doctor who happened to be on the excursion jumped on the man and tried to revive him. He was already gone. It happened that a bereavement counselor was also on the excursion. She immediately started helping the wife. The excursion went back to port, the owner apologized profusely and the excursion was refunded to all the participants.
Our trip to the port was largely uneventful. I had taken the tender earlier and was back on the ship at 1:30.
I had texted Lindsay to make sure that I was getting the right products at the ABC store. She was hoping that we could bring back some pikake perfume. It is very subtle and is made only on the islands. Its pretty much only sold in the islands as well according to her. It has a distinctive after taste rather than a bold upfront smell.
At the ABC store Sue thought that she would go for one of her favorite snacks. Snowballs. I asked her to look at the price before she bought them. Not that she couldn't get them... but I had seen that the other hostess products packed a hefty price. She was shocked that they were over 3 dollars. The grocery store in Merced sells them for a dollar. I guess jet fuel is expensive.
I also found a great Hawaiian ice spot just off of front avenue. It was shady and important quality for today. There are no clouds in Lahinia. There was no rain today and it got rather warm in the sun. A gentle breeze from the ocean helped out however. The surfers were out giving it a go of the reef. The surf was bigger than any I had seen in California. It seemed more consistent.
We walked along Front street and enjoyed the art that was visible from the gallery windows.
It was a pleasant time. The huge banyan tree in the city square was much more than I imagined.
As we were leaving by tender Sue saw a beautiful rainbow by fog up on the mountainside above Maui.
Even though it was hot and everyone was sweaty, it was a great time. Sue loved the shopping and the Hawaiian ice. The first one she had was a mango and cherry with a little leeche thrown in. We shared this one.. but it was sooo good Sue needed another small one before we left. The one that I had before her was their coconut lychee condensed milk ice. It was spectacular.
Lahainia was an interesting mix of Carmel by the sea and Sonora. With their art galleries and architectural historic restrictions on city look it was an interesting combination. I really loved the idea of the banyan tree taking up a city block. That was unbelievable.
Diner:
Pat: tomato and fresh mozzarella cheeese
Crayfish and savory relish
smoked slices of duck breast
Potato and Ham soup
Chateubrieand and Snow Crab legs
Carmel souffle with sauce
Peanutbutter Oreo pie with chocolate garnish
Sue: Hamburger with fixings
Maui adventure was energy intensive, Sue didn't go to dinner
Day 8 Hawaiian Cruise Lahaina, Maui, November 3, 2011
________________________________________________
Morning pastries at the Piazza. The ship is moored in the Bay at Maui around 7:00 am. Some people had to be on shore at 7:30 to go to a snorkeling site. 2 snorkeling sites were going to be explored . 3 of our evening table dinner mates were on the excursion. The owner of the tour was showing some of the people the probable location of a medium sized octopus. As was related to us later that afternoon, by Jill, a 70+ year old man who seemed in good shape took the snorkel and died in the water. His wife who was along on the trip shouted for his rescue, The doctor who happened to be on the excursion jumped on the man and tried to revive him. He was already gone. It happened that a bereavement counselor was also on the excursion. She immediately started helping the wife. The excursion went back to port, the owner apologized profusely and the excursion was refunded to all the participants.
Our trip to the port was largely uneventful. I had taken the tender earlier and was back on the ship at 1:30.
I had texted Lindsay to make sure that I was getting the right products at the ABC store. She was hoping that we could bring back some pikake perfume. It is very subtle and is made only on the islands. Its pretty much only sold in the islands as well according to her. It has a distinctive after taste rather than a bold upfront smell.
At the ABC store Sue thought that she would go for one of her favorite snacks. Snowballs. I asked her to look at the price before she bought them. Not that she couldn't get them... but I had seen that the other hostess products packed a hefty price. She was shocked that they were over 3 dollars. The grocery store in Merced sells them for a dollar. I guess jet fuel is expensive.
I also found a great Hawaiian ice spot just off of front avenue. It was shady and important quality for today. There are no clouds in Lahinia. There was no rain today and it got rather warm in the sun. A gentle breeze from the ocean helped out however. The surfers were out giving it a go of the reef. The surf was bigger than any I had seen in California. It seemed more consistent.
We walked along Front street and enjoyed the art that was visible from the gallery windows.
It was a pleasant time. The huge banyan tree in the city square was much more than I imagined.
As we were leaving by tender Sue saw a beautiful rainbow by fog up on the mountainside above Maui.
Even though it was hot and everyone was sweaty, it was a great time. Sue loved the shopping and the Hawaiian ice. The first one she had was a mango and cherry with a little leeche thrown in. We shared this one.. but it was sooo good Sue needed another small one before we left. The one that I had before her was their coconut lychee condensed milk ice. It was spectacular.
Lahainia was an interesting mix of Carmel by the sea and Sonora. With their art galleries and architectural historic restrictions on city look it was an interesting combination. I really loved the idea of the banyan tree taking up a city block. That was unbelievable.
Diner:
Pat: tomato and fresh mozzarella cheeese
Crayfish and savory relish
smoked slices of duck breast
Potato and Ham soup
Chateubrieand and Snow Crab legs
Carmel souffle with sauce
Peanutbutter Oreo pie with chocolate garnish
Sue: Hamburger with fixings
Maui adventure was energy intensive, Sue didn't go to dinner
Friday, November 18, 2011
Day 7 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________________
Day 7 Nwilliwilli, Kauai, November2, 2011
Today's Forecast: Isolated showers- High 78 Low 73
Sunrise 6:43, Sunset 5:58
__________________________________________
The waters of the Ocean had become on the rough side as we snaked inot the port of Nawilliwilli. The port side was tall mountains and a very small breakwaterarea. The ship landed next to a huge shed that looks as if it were used to load ships with sugar cane or other products. The ship had to move completely to one side in the wind and then straighten out to dock along the tiny port.
I took the free shuttle to Walmart. the crusty female driver had been doing this for years, drove us up the hill. She had a good patter and narrated the sights. She could also let you stop at the museum or the anchor shopping area. But she made it clear that she would not pick you up at the anchor shopping center. It was about a half a mile away from the ship downhill.
The town its self is really small and kind of broken down. Along the top ridge are various helicopter businesses to take people for adventure rides into Wiemea Canyon.
One of the old guys on the shuttle said he was cold and could she turn down the air. We had been waiting outside and the rain had fallen, She said,"No" He asked why. She said that she liked it that temperature. The shuttle was a 25 passenger bus with a tall ceiling and a short step up to get in.
There was also a free shuttle for passengers that wanted to go to Kmart and Hilo Hatties. All the big boxes knew they needed to get the ship passengers up to their businesses.
Later that morning we were waiting transport up to the walmart with Sue. The Hilo Hatties shuttle arrived ahead of the Walmart one. We opted for the Hilo Hatties.
Sue and I had a great time at Hilo Hatties. That girl loves to shop and it seemed like everything Hawaiian was in this store. Most of the goods were made in Hawaii.
The shuttle driver started out by handing out to each rider a shell lei. One of the old ladies up front asked if he was going to kiss each person that got the lei. He said, "They have laws against that Now!" Everyone on the bus laughed.
Hilo Hatties in Nawilliwilli's is a one story about 10,000 square feet of retails space. As you walk in there are coffee cups and a couple of Hawaiian coffees for self serve as well as a couple of fruit juice containers for self serve as well.
The store has most of the square footage stocked with racks of Hawaiian shirts and other other attire. There are some sections with Macadamia nuts and cosmetics.
Sue found the bargain table and we invested in some nice genuine bargains.
We saw the chickens all over everywhere.
At the Walmart I picked up another 12 pack of caffeine diet pepsi. I was stopped by several passengers in line back to ship asking me whether that was permissible to take on the ship. They all made plans to do the same.
The Follies Singer
At breakfast I met an Asian man that needed a table to eat his breakfast. He told me that he was living in a gated community at 1500 feet elevation just outside of Palm Springs. He had retired as San Francisco architect 13 years ago. He said that he loved his life since he could play golf 4 times a week throughout the year. He also liked the fact that his community village had numerous interest groups that met throughout the month. They brought in a big star at least once a month to give them a show, like Bono or Andy Williams.
Every year the village puts on a big follies show. He was a performer. He likes to be an Elvis impersonator. As of 2 years ago his hearing got in the way of his performance so now he does it with lip syncing. He also is a star in the village people YMCA group. He is the C. Sometimes he is able to do a Louis Armstrong without the lip sync. He used a napkin to demonstrate how he could carry on a conversation with Louis Armstrong leading up to his singing one of his songs for me. What a treat.
He said that he had 6 Grand kids but is not as close to them as he should be. Some Grand kids live in Fresno and some in Turlock. He follies singer was a regular character. He asked me to guess his age. I guessed 72. He was amazed. He said that he was 78. It is these encounters that make the cruise for me. I always try to get a conversation going. The only problem that I have now is that these people will see me on the ship and break out in a big smile and they walk by before I can track down the memory of their conversation.
Chickens Domestic ---- Wild
At Walmart there were a huge amount of chickens running around loose in their parking lot. They were looking for a spare piece of a McDonald's bun .
Apparently they started out as domestic chickens in people's backyards. A hurricane in 1992 whipped through the town and lifted the chickens out of their cages and dropped them into the verdant country where they became feral. There were many more roosters than you would usually see in a domestic chicken population. They were also very territorial and had huge spurs.
Our driver mentioned that it was against the law to try to suppress the population. He said though with a little wink that went along with the statement. There homeless don't go hungry. At the Walmart parking lot the flock has become pretty bold, and the cars slow down when they make turns so as not to hit them. The flock was defiantly working the waiting crowd, looking for a a chance to pick up a crumb or a two.
There were downpours again today. Hilo Hatties has a covered outdoor waiting area for the shuttles along the side of the store. Even with this, the rain splashed significantly on one side reducing the sitting area to about half.
In the waiting area, Sue saw a lady show off to her friend a cosmetic bag she had bought on sale in the store. It was bright yellow with orange flowers on its side. She found out that it was only 5 dollars marked down from 27. We marched right back in and bought a stack of them. There was also a matching wallet kind of thing. Sue needed it too.
Sue bought be a T shirt at Hilo Hattie that had the logo from above on a green shirt.. StarClucks Kaui
Dinner:
Pat: Daiquri Soup (watermelon based)
Calamari-flash fried with baby octopus and artichoke
rack of veal with aspargrass.
Apple Struedel
Sue: Daiquri Soup
mixed greens salad
Tiger Shrip with mango and tomato chutney
coffee creme bruelee
Day 7 Nwilliwilli, Kauai, November2, 2011
Today's Forecast: Isolated showers- High 78 Low 73
Sunrise 6:43, Sunset 5:58
__________________________________________
The waters of the Ocean had become on the rough side as we snaked inot the port of Nawilliwilli. The port side was tall mountains and a very small breakwaterarea. The ship landed next to a huge shed that looks as if it were used to load ships with sugar cane or other products. The ship had to move completely to one side in the wind and then straighten out to dock along the tiny port.
I took the free shuttle to Walmart. the crusty female driver had been doing this for years, drove us up the hill. She had a good patter and narrated the sights. She could also let you stop at the museum or the anchor shopping area. But she made it clear that she would not pick you up at the anchor shopping center. It was about a half a mile away from the ship downhill.
The town its self is really small and kind of broken down. Along the top ridge are various helicopter businesses to take people for adventure rides into Wiemea Canyon.
One of the old guys on the shuttle said he was cold and could she turn down the air. We had been waiting outside and the rain had fallen, She said,"No" He asked why. She said that she liked it that temperature. The shuttle was a 25 passenger bus with a tall ceiling and a short step up to get in.
There was also a free shuttle for passengers that wanted to go to Kmart and Hilo Hatties. All the big boxes knew they needed to get the ship passengers up to their businesses.
Later that morning we were waiting transport up to the walmart with Sue. The Hilo Hatties shuttle arrived ahead of the Walmart one. We opted for the Hilo Hatties.
Sue and I had a great time at Hilo Hatties. That girl loves to shop and it seemed like everything Hawaiian was in this store. Most of the goods were made in Hawaii.
The shuttle driver started out by handing out to each rider a shell lei. One of the old ladies up front asked if he was going to kiss each person that got the lei. He said, "They have laws against that Now!" Everyone on the bus laughed.
Hilo Hatties in Nawilliwilli's is a one story about 10,000 square feet of retails space. As you walk in there are coffee cups and a couple of Hawaiian coffees for self serve as well as a couple of fruit juice containers for self serve as well.
The store has most of the square footage stocked with racks of Hawaiian shirts and other other attire. There are some sections with Macadamia nuts and cosmetics.
Sue found the bargain table and we invested in some nice genuine bargains.
We saw the chickens all over everywhere.
At the Walmart I picked up another 12 pack of caffeine diet pepsi. I was stopped by several passengers in line back to ship asking me whether that was permissible to take on the ship. They all made plans to do the same.
The Follies Singer
At breakfast I met an Asian man that needed a table to eat his breakfast. He told me that he was living in a gated community at 1500 feet elevation just outside of Palm Springs. He had retired as San Francisco architect 13 years ago. He said that he loved his life since he could play golf 4 times a week throughout the year. He also liked the fact that his community village had numerous interest groups that met throughout the month. They brought in a big star at least once a month to give them a show, like Bono or Andy Williams.
Every year the village puts on a big follies show. He was a performer. He likes to be an Elvis impersonator. As of 2 years ago his hearing got in the way of his performance so now he does it with lip syncing. He also is a star in the village people YMCA group. He is the C. Sometimes he is able to do a Louis Armstrong without the lip sync. He used a napkin to demonstrate how he could carry on a conversation with Louis Armstrong leading up to his singing one of his songs for me. What a treat.
He said that he had 6 Grand kids but is not as close to them as he should be. Some Grand kids live in Fresno and some in Turlock. He follies singer was a regular character. He asked me to guess his age. I guessed 72. He was amazed. He said that he was 78. It is these encounters that make the cruise for me. I always try to get a conversation going. The only problem that I have now is that these people will see me on the ship and break out in a big smile and they walk by before I can track down the memory of their conversation.
Chickens Domestic ---- Wild
At Walmart there were a huge amount of chickens running around loose in their parking lot. They were looking for a spare piece of a McDonald's bun .
Apparently they started out as domestic chickens in people's backyards. A hurricane in 1992 whipped through the town and lifted the chickens out of their cages and dropped them into the verdant country where they became feral. There were many more roosters than you would usually see in a domestic chicken population. They were also very territorial and had huge spurs.
Our driver mentioned that it was against the law to try to suppress the population. He said though with a little wink that went along with the statement. There homeless don't go hungry. At the Walmart parking lot the flock has become pretty bold, and the cars slow down when they make turns so as not to hit them. The flock was defiantly working the waiting crowd, looking for a a chance to pick up a crumb or a two.
There were downpours again today. Hilo Hatties has a covered outdoor waiting area for the shuttles along the side of the store. Even with this, the rain splashed significantly on one side reducing the sitting area to about half.
In the waiting area, Sue saw a lady show off to her friend a cosmetic bag she had bought on sale in the store. It was bright yellow with orange flowers on its side. She found out that it was only 5 dollars marked down from 27. We marched right back in and bought a stack of them. There was also a matching wallet kind of thing. Sue needed it too.
Sue bought be a T shirt at Hilo Hattie that had the logo from above on a green shirt.. StarClucks Kaui
Dinner:
Pat: Daiquri Soup (watermelon based)
Calamari-flash fried with baby octopus and artichoke
rack of veal with aspargrass.
Apple Struedel
Sue: Daiquri Soup
mixed greens salad
Tiger Shrip with mango and tomato chutney
coffee creme bruelee
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Day 6 Hawaiian Cruise
______________________________________
Day 6 Honolulu Oahu, November 1,2011
Today's Forcast: Mostly Sunny High 82 Low 73
Sunrise 6:36 Sunset 5:58
_______________________________________
We pulled into the dock ten minutes late at 7:10 am. I got up on the deck to take photos of the surrounds.
I saw a double beautiful double rainbow off the decks and to the East.
We were ported in the dock closest to the Aloha Towers.
I had my usual cappuccino on deck 5 with the usual pastry assortment. Sue wanted me to to check out the "get off the ship" clearance and report back.
I was off and looking for Diamond Head and maybe Waikiki.
My morning walk took me after 2.5 miles to the county park of Ala Moana. It had a good view of Diamond Head . Many people were jogging the park in the morning. It was not crowded on the beach or on the trails. Three were people swimming in the area before the breakers and several people on very long boards doing paddle surfing on the flats in front of the breakers. The breakers seem to be a quarter of a mile away from the beach. This is not what I imagined.. but good.
I was having a pleasant time when I felt a gentle mist blowing in the wind the had picked up. Then suddenly a tropical downpour occurred. It was huge. I tried to find cover under the Banyon tree. It helped a little but I was drenched. The downpour continued for 25 minutes . It reminded me of heading toward the trees or the car when a rainstorm would hit when we were fishing in the rockies.
This rain was pouring out of the sky. It lacked the coolness of the Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. There was no lightening in this and no thunder.
I rolled into the nearby Starbucks and the cashier noted my condition. I earned my Hawaii badge under the banyon tree. A native Hawaiian also headed for the tree at the same time I was there.
A banyon tree is a ficas relative. There are a million ficus trees in homes across the country but I will never look at the indoor tree in the same way again.
I had lunch at the Ward Farmer's market on the way home. No farmers but a grocery store for the Asian population. It also had a "junk souvenir" stand out in front. Inside they had a section of the store devoted to making sushi. 8 people were working making sushi in an animated way. I bought a bento box for $6.69 that had a thin piece of cold salmon the width of my hand, a shrimp tempura piece and a chicken on a skewer tempura piece. there was rice and three different salads. No wasabe or pickled ginger. also no chopsticks... fingers worked.
Another rainstorm hit and I was glad I was under some cover.
I took the bus back to the ship 2.50. Sue wanted to get out and move along the streets with her power chair. I thought that we might do the upscale mall right along the side of the ship. We did those and bought a few items. Then she wanted to go to the park that I had been. As we made it out along the streets we realized that the power chair was not fully charged. We had a mix up and got separated. She barely made it up the ramp to the elevators and to the room to plug the beast in.
On the way back I noticed that the water in the port had cleaned and the little reef that the port made had dozens of Angel fish and trigger fish swimming around it. No snorkel mask needed.
Dinner: Because we were in Honolulu there was reduced dinning room support. They told us all to use the anytime dinning if we wanted a formal dinner on the ship instead of our usual spot.
Pat:
Bratwurst and fries from the hot dog stand on ship. Copra (a kind of Italian salami) and a couple of chicken skewers from the buffet.
Sue: Hot dog with cheese roll, fries and some brough from home fruit roll ups and a nut bar
During the dinning hours teh captain came on the announcements and stated that there was a higher than normal admission to the Drs for gastro intestinal outbreak Norwalk. He said that we should be vigilant regarding our hand washing and that he was enacting new procedures today in the self serve sections of the food areas.
It was obvious that self serve buffets were no longer self serve. Everyone was "served" in the buffet. No passenger was allowed to "touch" tongs or even in the hot dog bar pump their own mustard.
I sat down at the table and an "older lady" sat across from me at the buffet tables. She said that she was hit by the malady. She was signed up to go with her grown kids to the Polynesian Cultural center all day long excursion. She sent them on in the morning. She tried to send word out that she could not make it on her legs. She slept the entire day. She was hoping that they would cancel the cost of the excursion..$375. There was no one down at the excursion table to collect her request. She had not been to the Dr on the ship. I told her that she needed to do that if she hoped that the excursion would not be billed to her account. She said that she was up all night but slept the morning through to the afternoon before she could get up again. The Polynesian Village excursion was to leave at 8:30 in the morning and get back about 10:30 at night.
The captain reviewed again the Norwalk procedures and did not shake hands with anyone that night at the captain's reception for the Captain's Circle members. At our cabin we responded by wiping everything down again with the disposable sheets we bought at the walmart in Hilo.
Overall there was a large contrast to between the rural sort of run down look of Hilo and the urban Jaguar car feel of Honolulu.
We saw some homeless (a few) camped out corners along the road in Honoulu. None of them were begging like ours. Some people were living out of their cars or vans, living the idealistic surf bum life.
Oddly there were not many tourists in the areas we walked except for ship borne folks all carrying their free blue princess bags.
I also had a chance to visit the Ward center. Its a 3 story "outdoor" mall and a group of parking spots between the two wings. There were empty store fronts and a little food court with a DQ and Orange Julius combined. I had a pumpkin blizzard.. pumpkin pie flavored soft serve with some cookie chucks that had the texture of crust tossed in.. I approved. the McDonald's was advertising their baked pies in Hawaii... bananna.. I didn't try.. got to save something for the next trip!
I took some photos of the sunset across the port.. The lights came on and streaked across the water of the port as the sky turned orange.
Overall a great day.. although it had its moments!
Day 6 Honolulu Oahu, November 1,2011
Today's Forcast: Mostly Sunny High 82 Low 73
Sunrise 6:36 Sunset 5:58
_______________________________________
We pulled into the dock ten minutes late at 7:10 am. I got up on the deck to take photos of the surrounds.
I saw a double beautiful double rainbow off the decks and to the East.
We were ported in the dock closest to the Aloha Towers.
I had my usual cappuccino on deck 5 with the usual pastry assortment. Sue wanted me to to check out the "get off the ship" clearance and report back.
I was off and looking for Diamond Head and maybe Waikiki.
My morning walk took me after 2.5 miles to the county park of Ala Moana. It had a good view of Diamond Head . Many people were jogging the park in the morning. It was not crowded on the beach or on the trails. Three were people swimming in the area before the breakers and several people on very long boards doing paddle surfing on the flats in front of the breakers. The breakers seem to be a quarter of a mile away from the beach. This is not what I imagined.. but good.
I was having a pleasant time when I felt a gentle mist blowing in the wind the had picked up. Then suddenly a tropical downpour occurred. It was huge. I tried to find cover under the Banyon tree. It helped a little but I was drenched. The downpour continued for 25 minutes . It reminded me of heading toward the trees or the car when a rainstorm would hit when we were fishing in the rockies.
This rain was pouring out of the sky. It lacked the coolness of the Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. There was no lightening in this and no thunder.
I rolled into the nearby Starbucks and the cashier noted my condition. I earned my Hawaii badge under the banyon tree. A native Hawaiian also headed for the tree at the same time I was there.
A banyon tree is a ficas relative. There are a million ficus trees in homes across the country but I will never look at the indoor tree in the same way again.
I had lunch at the Ward Farmer's market on the way home. No farmers but a grocery store for the Asian population. It also had a "junk souvenir" stand out in front. Inside they had a section of the store devoted to making sushi. 8 people were working making sushi in an animated way. I bought a bento box for $6.69 that had a thin piece of cold salmon the width of my hand, a shrimp tempura piece and a chicken on a skewer tempura piece. there was rice and three different salads. No wasabe or pickled ginger. also no chopsticks... fingers worked.
Another rainstorm hit and I was glad I was under some cover.
I took the bus back to the ship 2.50. Sue wanted to get out and move along the streets with her power chair. I thought that we might do the upscale mall right along the side of the ship. We did those and bought a few items. Then she wanted to go to the park that I had been. As we made it out along the streets we realized that the power chair was not fully charged. We had a mix up and got separated. She barely made it up the ramp to the elevators and to the room to plug the beast in.
On the way back I noticed that the water in the port had cleaned and the little reef that the port made had dozens of Angel fish and trigger fish swimming around it. No snorkel mask needed.
Dinner: Because we were in Honolulu there was reduced dinning room support. They told us all to use the anytime dinning if we wanted a formal dinner on the ship instead of our usual spot.
Pat:
Bratwurst and fries from the hot dog stand on ship. Copra (a kind of Italian salami) and a couple of chicken skewers from the buffet.
Sue: Hot dog with cheese roll, fries and some brough from home fruit roll ups and a nut bar
During the dinning hours teh captain came on the announcements and stated that there was a higher than normal admission to the Drs for gastro intestinal outbreak Norwalk. He said that we should be vigilant regarding our hand washing and that he was enacting new procedures today in the self serve sections of the food areas.
It was obvious that self serve buffets were no longer self serve. Everyone was "served" in the buffet. No passenger was allowed to "touch" tongs or even in the hot dog bar pump their own mustard.
I sat down at the table and an "older lady" sat across from me at the buffet tables. She said that she was hit by the malady. She was signed up to go with her grown kids to the Polynesian Cultural center all day long excursion. She sent them on in the morning. She tried to send word out that she could not make it on her legs. She slept the entire day. She was hoping that they would cancel the cost of the excursion..$375. There was no one down at the excursion table to collect her request. She had not been to the Dr on the ship. I told her that she needed to do that if she hoped that the excursion would not be billed to her account. She said that she was up all night but slept the morning through to the afternoon before she could get up again. The Polynesian Village excursion was to leave at 8:30 in the morning and get back about 10:30 at night.
The captain reviewed again the Norwalk procedures and did not shake hands with anyone that night at the captain's reception for the Captain's Circle members. At our cabin we responded by wiping everything down again with the disposable sheets we bought at the walmart in Hilo.
Overall there was a large contrast to between the rural sort of run down look of Hilo and the urban Jaguar car feel of Honolulu.
We saw some homeless (a few) camped out corners along the road in Honoulu. None of them were begging like ours. Some people were living out of their cars or vans, living the idealistic surf bum life.
Oddly there were not many tourists in the areas we walked except for ship borne folks all carrying their free blue princess bags.
I also had a chance to visit the Ward center. Its a 3 story "outdoor" mall and a group of parking spots between the two wings. There were empty store fronts and a little food court with a DQ and Orange Julius combined. I had a pumpkin blizzard.. pumpkin pie flavored soft serve with some cookie chucks that had the texture of crust tossed in.. I approved. the McDonald's was advertising their baked pies in Hawaii... bananna.. I didn't try.. got to save something for the next trip!
I took some photos of the sunset across the port.. The lights came on and streaked across the water of the port as the sky turned orange.
Overall a great day.. although it had its moments!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Day 5 Hawaiian Cruise
__________________________________
Day 5 Hilo Hawaii October 31,2011
Weather: Chance of Showers High 82 Low 65.
Sunrise 6:22 Sunset 5:44
__________________________________
This morning started with storm clouds all around the ship. Not overcast, but genuine black clouds. This storm passed us by. We are going to have a brilliant sunny morning.
I brought Sue her breakfast and choice from the buffet, scrambled eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, a baked pear adn 3 rolls with butter.
I took the elevator down to the 5th floor piazza, walking through the art gallery and had what they called an bengue (sp?) a french donut. Its really a small doughnut square filled with blackberry filling., a chocolate glazed rolled doughnut and a custard filled doughnut. Add these to a broad rimmed cup and saucer cappuccino and its almost a perfect breakfast.
I checked the email. Natalie said that Nigel is in the window all day and is happy to eat the treats.
Today is Mom's birthday!
They have a wild display in the piazza lobby. It had some gruesome carved pumpkins (the cooks with the garnish knives on watermelons could accomplish amazing things with pumpkins). Also in the center was a manikin with green eyes, and bloody shirt. My daily internet use is around 20 minutes per day on a 14 day cruise that works out to be around 300 minutes. I bought a plan that would give me more than the minimum 500. So I guess that spend a little more time in facebook. The connection speed was really good as there were only three others in the internet cafe and people started using their regular cell phones as we rolled into US territory in Hawaii.
I called Wanda (mom) to wish her a happy birthday. Dad was chopping on his peach tree.
I text messaged the Brownie Korbs in Colorado and both girls in the Bay Area.
It was neat to see that breakers as we barreled up the coast to our docking port in Hilo. It was clear enough at this point to see all the way up the mountain to the tiny round knobs that had to be the observatory. It was the only time during the entire day that the mountain was visible. The rest of the time grey and black clouds blocked the view.
I was off the boat about a half and hour after we docked for my 2 mile hike. I thought that it would take longer than that with people being on ship for so long. It was an easy off. So the early exucrsions were off on time. We had arrived about a half an hour late. After that many miles at see its a wonder that we were there so close to our planned arrival,
I walked down toward the town and saw car dealerships and big truck warehouses. After I walked a a mile and a half I decided that the additional mile to the town was not worth it. I had failed to put on my hat, and the sun was making it pretty hot.
I headed back and got Sue up to do the run to Walmart. A shuttle runs form port to Walmart and Hilo Hatties was running the some vans and did not want to waste their space with a wheel chair. (This we found out from another wheelchair couple as they waited to get on. Walmart hired a bus to do the runs and everyone including our two wheelchairs were welcome. The walmart bus held 65 people . It pulled up and we climbed on. It dropped us off at Walmart, and the driver gave us a little local color as we traveled. Hilo has 45,000 people.
Sue and I ate McRibs.. yum. I listened to the post high school students talk in their classic "pidgin" What an interesting linguistic soup.
I bought the Steve Jobs biography. Sue fell in love with the quality and depth of Hawaiian material available in the store. Almost everyone was wearing Hawaiian shirts. Shorts were everywhere.
When we were ready to return, we waited for the bus outside of Walmart. It finally came up but it did not have room for us. We could have waited for the next bus. But....
Our excursion started at 2:20 and I was afraid we were going to miss that one. I flagged down a taxi. It was a mini van. The first question the middle aged female taxi driver asked was,"Are you allergic to dogs?" I said no. Sue said, "find out how much it would cost." She guessed it would be about 14 dollars to the port. It was only 12. by meter. I told her to keep the change of the 20. She almost didn't want to keep the change but she did. She did in honor of her little shitzu dog that was her constant companion. Sue sat up in front with the driver and her little dog that had a tiny gold clip to keep her hair out of her eyes. She rode the transmission hump all day with her master.
Back at the port. I took the Walmart purchases up to the cabin while Sue shopped the merchants set up inside the port building. Some of our family members will be the recipients of the fine shopping environments . There were even some lady selling tropical arrangements for your cabin at 10dollars a throw.
The Botanical Excursion
We were gathered up from the huge indoor port building under the sign. We had the tickets supplied by the ship. We traded them for a big gold sticker for our clothes. 9 of us and the manual wheelchair squeezed into the van and off we went. The driver was equipped with a microphone and a headset so that he could narrate the trip and answer questions that people had before getting to the gardens. Our driver took us sight seeing along the way, showing us some of the public parks beside the sea and some of the flora that makes this place different.
We unloaded at the gardens and Sue went diving into the gift shop. She found the only shirt that had a chance of fitting. We also got some postcards of the place. It had some photos of the beautiful flowers and plants that we would see along the slopes of this vertical garden.
Sue got out her camera and took a large number of photos of the things that impressed her. It is situated on a very steep hillside. They got us down to the area that we had a chance at pushing the wheel chair around and more level walking by moving us down using gas powered golf carts. They were also used to drag the wheelchair and us back up the hill.
Sue sat in the front of the van coming and going. I sat with a newlywed couple from our ship from Oregon. She had long gorgeous red hair.
The driver narrated our journey. He answered the "living"questions. Gas was $4.25 a gallon. Currently in the states its $3.65 a gallon. He pointed out the banyon trees and the umbrella trees.
We were all checked thoroughly for identity four times this day just getting into the area that had the ship. Sue was hurting and wiped out. I was just wiped out from what felt like working in a warm sauna all day long.
It took 6 glasses of water at the buffet for me to feel I had caught up with the water I had lost.
Dinner:
Sue: hot dog with extra mustard with cheese and rolls form the buffet.
Pat: Double hamburger with cheese, handful of fries, a scoop of garlic shrimp form the buffet and a desert sampler (for use to share) small slices of pumpkin pie squares, cheesecake, and choc. layer cake
I watched the last quarter of the Monday night game that pitted the San Diego Chargers and the K.C. Chiefs. It was on the big outdoor screen as we headed out of port in the evening headed to Honolulu.
The kids on the ship, all six of them did some trick or treating through the buffet with the Princess mascot.. the pelican. Its the first and probably the only time that I have ever seen the Princess mascot.
Day 5 Hilo Hawaii October 31,2011
Weather: Chance of Showers High 82 Low 65.
Sunrise 6:22 Sunset 5:44
__________________________________
This morning started with storm clouds all around the ship. Not overcast, but genuine black clouds. This storm passed us by. We are going to have a brilliant sunny morning.
I brought Sue her breakfast and choice from the buffet, scrambled eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, a baked pear adn 3 rolls with butter.
I took the elevator down to the 5th floor piazza, walking through the art gallery and had what they called an bengue (sp?) a french donut. Its really a small doughnut square filled with blackberry filling., a chocolate glazed rolled doughnut and a custard filled doughnut. Add these to a broad rimmed cup and saucer cappuccino and its almost a perfect breakfast.
I checked the email. Natalie said that Nigel is in the window all day and is happy to eat the treats.
Today is Mom's birthday!
They have a wild display in the piazza lobby. It had some gruesome carved pumpkins (the cooks with the garnish knives on watermelons could accomplish amazing things with pumpkins). Also in the center was a manikin with green eyes, and bloody shirt. My daily internet use is around 20 minutes per day on a 14 day cruise that works out to be around 300 minutes. I bought a plan that would give me more than the minimum 500. So I guess that spend a little more time in facebook. The connection speed was really good as there were only three others in the internet cafe and people started using their regular cell phones as we rolled into US territory in Hawaii.
I called Wanda (mom) to wish her a happy birthday. Dad was chopping on his peach tree.
I text messaged the Brownie Korbs in Colorado and both girls in the Bay Area.
It was neat to see that breakers as we barreled up the coast to our docking port in Hilo. It was clear enough at this point to see all the way up the mountain to the tiny round knobs that had to be the observatory. It was the only time during the entire day that the mountain was visible. The rest of the time grey and black clouds blocked the view.
I was off the boat about a half and hour after we docked for my 2 mile hike. I thought that it would take longer than that with people being on ship for so long. It was an easy off. So the early exucrsions were off on time. We had arrived about a half an hour late. After that many miles at see its a wonder that we were there so close to our planned arrival,
I walked down toward the town and saw car dealerships and big truck warehouses. After I walked a a mile and a half I decided that the additional mile to the town was not worth it. I had failed to put on my hat, and the sun was making it pretty hot.
I headed back and got Sue up to do the run to Walmart. A shuttle runs form port to Walmart and Hilo Hatties was running the some vans and did not want to waste their space with a wheel chair. (This we found out from another wheelchair couple as they waited to get on. Walmart hired a bus to do the runs and everyone including our two wheelchairs were welcome. The walmart bus held 65 people . It pulled up and we climbed on. It dropped us off at Walmart, and the driver gave us a little local color as we traveled. Hilo has 45,000 people.
Sue and I ate McRibs.. yum. I listened to the post high school students talk in their classic "pidgin" What an interesting linguistic soup.
I bought the Steve Jobs biography. Sue fell in love with the quality and depth of Hawaiian material available in the store. Almost everyone was wearing Hawaiian shirts. Shorts were everywhere.
When we were ready to return, we waited for the bus outside of Walmart. It finally came up but it did not have room for us. We could have waited for the next bus. But....
Our excursion started at 2:20 and I was afraid we were going to miss that one. I flagged down a taxi. It was a mini van. The first question the middle aged female taxi driver asked was,"Are you allergic to dogs?" I said no. Sue said, "find out how much it would cost." She guessed it would be about 14 dollars to the port. It was only 12. by meter. I told her to keep the change of the 20. She almost didn't want to keep the change but she did. She did in honor of her little shitzu dog that was her constant companion. Sue sat up in front with the driver and her little dog that had a tiny gold clip to keep her hair out of her eyes. She rode the transmission hump all day with her master.
Back at the port. I took the Walmart purchases up to the cabin while Sue shopped the merchants set up inside the port building. Some of our family members will be the recipients of the fine shopping environments . There were even some lady selling tropical arrangements for your cabin at 10dollars a throw.
The Botanical Excursion
We were gathered up from the huge indoor port building under the sign. We had the tickets supplied by the ship. We traded them for a big gold sticker for our clothes. 9 of us and the manual wheelchair squeezed into the van and off we went. The driver was equipped with a microphone and a headset so that he could narrate the trip and answer questions that people had before getting to the gardens. Our driver took us sight seeing along the way, showing us some of the public parks beside the sea and some of the flora that makes this place different.
We unloaded at the gardens and Sue went diving into the gift shop. She found the only shirt that had a chance of fitting. We also got some postcards of the place. It had some photos of the beautiful flowers and plants that we would see along the slopes of this vertical garden.
Sue got out her camera and took a large number of photos of the things that impressed her. It is situated on a very steep hillside. They got us down to the area that we had a chance at pushing the wheel chair around and more level walking by moving us down using gas powered golf carts. They were also used to drag the wheelchair and us back up the hill.
Sue sat in the front of the van coming and going. I sat with a newlywed couple from our ship from Oregon. She had long gorgeous red hair.
The driver narrated our journey. He answered the "living"questions. Gas was $4.25 a gallon. Currently in the states its $3.65 a gallon. He pointed out the banyon trees and the umbrella trees.
We were all checked thoroughly for identity four times this day just getting into the area that had the ship. Sue was hurting and wiped out. I was just wiped out from what felt like working in a warm sauna all day long.
It took 6 glasses of water at the buffet for me to feel I had caught up with the water I had lost.
Dinner:
Sue: hot dog with extra mustard with cheese and rolls form the buffet.
Pat: Double hamburger with cheese, handful of fries, a scoop of garlic shrimp form the buffet and a desert sampler (for use to share) small slices of pumpkin pie squares, cheesecake, and choc. layer cake
I watched the last quarter of the Monday night game that pitted the San Diego Chargers and the K.C. Chiefs. It was on the big outdoor screen as we headed out of port in the evening headed to Honolulu.
The kids on the ship, all six of them did some trick or treating through the buffet with the Princess mascot.. the pelican. Its the first and probably the only time that I have ever seen the Princess mascot.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Day 4 Hawaiian Cruise
_________________________________________
Day 4 October 30, 2011
Forecast High 79 Low 62 Sunrise 6:50 Sunset 6:29
_________________________________________
Checked email: had responses from the girls. Also Natalie. The cleaning ladies were back. Natalie liked them. Connection speed slowed way down.
At breakfast I ate in the formal dinning room and was served a very strange version of Huevos Rancherios. Chopped tomato fresh salsa on the side. Eggs serced over a quesadila filled with green peppers and a large dollop of refried black beans accompanied.
Breakfast dinners included a couple from Pennsylvania. The wife had a white mennonite prayer cap. The husband a trimmed beard. Also there was a couple from Florida interested in horses, with the husband a police attorney. A couple from Rockford Illinois and an insurance salesman from Bakersfield completed the table. He was rather outspoken regarding California politics and its solvency. I let him have his right wing platform. It died without a second.
I met a truck driver from Hemit. He and his wife cashed in their LA home and bought a brand new one from the proceeds in Hemit. Hemit is a high desert city east of LA. He helps cook for the American Legion . He grills hamburgers and hot dogs with fries... price $4.00. Even then some of the members don't want to buy. The American Legion supports itself with bingo but no bar.
Sue and I booked the botanical gardens excursion for the next day when we dock on the big Island of Hawaii at Hilo. It is scheduled to leave the port at 2:30. Its the last one of the day. There were 4 other times. They use a van to transport the people to the location. The excursion office called ahead to see if there would be room for the wheelchair. They said that they could accommodate it.
The ship's naturalist was selling her own book after her lectures in the big theatre. It is all photos she took herself of natural Hawaii. She autographed it for us. She is selling it off to pay for her college loans. She is form Portland. She was a naturalist for the park service in Alaska before doing the princess boats. She was up on the Kenea peninsula. She was also stationed for 2 years in Ketchikan.
Dinner:
Pat: Carbmeat in a martini glass with pieces of orange
Cold coconut soup in a hurricane glass
Surf and Turf- Filet with four large Shrimp -tails on
Cherries Jubulee- Flambe with vanilla ice cream
Sue: Two hamburgers from the terrace via Pat's room service
We set our clocks back again for tomorrow wake up . We are supposed to be dockside at 9am in Hilo.
Day 4 October 30, 2011
Forecast High 79 Low 62 Sunrise 6:50 Sunset 6:29
_________________________________________
Checked email: had responses from the girls. Also Natalie. The cleaning ladies were back. Natalie liked them. Connection speed slowed way down.
At breakfast I ate in the formal dinning room and was served a very strange version of Huevos Rancherios. Chopped tomato fresh salsa on the side. Eggs serced over a quesadila filled with green peppers and a large dollop of refried black beans accompanied.
Breakfast dinners included a couple from Pennsylvania. The wife had a white mennonite prayer cap. The husband a trimmed beard. Also there was a couple from Florida interested in horses, with the husband a police attorney. A couple from Rockford Illinois and an insurance salesman from Bakersfield completed the table. He was rather outspoken regarding California politics and its solvency. I let him have his right wing platform. It died without a second.
I met a truck driver from Hemit. He and his wife cashed in their LA home and bought a brand new one from the proceeds in Hemit. Hemit is a high desert city east of LA. He helps cook for the American Legion . He grills hamburgers and hot dogs with fries... price $4.00. Even then some of the members don't want to buy. The American Legion supports itself with bingo but no bar.
Sue and I booked the botanical gardens excursion for the next day when we dock on the big Island of Hawaii at Hilo. It is scheduled to leave the port at 2:30. Its the last one of the day. There were 4 other times. They use a van to transport the people to the location. The excursion office called ahead to see if there would be room for the wheelchair. They said that they could accommodate it.
The ship's naturalist was selling her own book after her lectures in the big theatre. It is all photos she took herself of natural Hawaii. She autographed it for us. She is selling it off to pay for her college loans. She is form Portland. She was a naturalist for the park service in Alaska before doing the princess boats. She was up on the Kenea peninsula. She was also stationed for 2 years in Ketchikan.
Dinner:
Pat: Carbmeat in a martini glass with pieces of orange
Cold coconut soup in a hurricane glass
Surf and Turf- Filet with four large Shrimp -tails on
Cherries Jubulee- Flambe with vanilla ice cream
Sue: Two hamburgers from the terrace via Pat's room service
We set our clocks back again for tomorrow wake up . We are supposed to be dockside at 9am in Hilo.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Day 3 Hawaiian Cruise
___________________________________
Day 3 Saturday October 29,2011
Forecast: Partly Cloudy, High 78 Low 63
___________________________________
I was up this morning at 5. We lost another hour as we headed West today. Its supposed to be in the high 70's and low 80's maybe. There was very little rock in the boat last night or this morning. The Eastern coast passengers were up very early this morning- their heads have yet to join the game.
There was a swimmer in the Neptune pool this morning at 8:15. I asked about the water temp. She said that is was good. Out of port they have have been repairing this pool. with some plaster patches and some re- lighting projects. Last night it was ready for occupation. Today.. a swimmer.
This morning the internet connection was a little slower but still acceptable. Received an update on the Merced cats and Kelly with a cold.
This morning attended a slide show on Kaui. Lots of insight plus a nice map was provided for his talk in the Princess Theater. Luckily, no Diamonds International. It was genuine and his references were authentic.I also had a chance to listen to the captain circle talk. I was able to get another Pacific Island stamp. Back in the room the idea to use the stamp as a take point for some watercolor got the paints out.
I bought a couple of moleskine notebooks with watercolor paper inside of them. I made the first variation with the Caran de Arche watercolor pencils then wet them down. The second variation was made with watercolor sticks . The third variation was done with the pilot pigment pen to start and then watercolors, primarily Mayan colors for the rest. Its a little different working with the hot pressed paper that was in the notebook rather than the cold pressed paper that I have mostly used in my painting, Cold pressed is much rougher in texture. I also opened a pack of artist trading cards and made a variation on them from the travel kit.
We met some London Brits at lunch. His job was controlling the air and heat inside of the building.
Sue got ready for her massage
Dinner:
Pat: Escargot
cold cucumber soup
duck ala orange
raspberry creme brulee
Sue: fruit
green Ceasar salad
fettuccine
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Day 2 Hawaiian Cruise
______________________________________
Day 2 Friday, October 28, 2011- attire Formal
At Sea: Partly cloudy High 68 Low 55
________________________________________
Sunrise 6:50 Sunset 6:20
Breakfast -Lox and Danish (pear) canned apricots prunes, and figs
Morning broke with a string of clouds headed East- We are headed South west. Ship hours lose another hour tonight.
At 6 am I was in the internet cafe to get the latest update from Natalie, the house overseer. Paul (doing the cat and mail thing) left the front door unlocked but Natalie closed it and locked it within 10 minutes of his leaving. Natalie was headed over to him to remind Paul about it after he arrived home from school.
I sent emails to our daughters this am. As frequent travelers on Princess, (Platinum level) we get 250 minutes of internet time free. I bought another 500 minutes for 67 dollars. This should be enough. Its a one time offer that has to be done the first day that you are on the ship.
I had cappuccino service in the Piazza (the center of the ship on the deck 5. It was nice to have the card so that I didn't have to sign a slip to be added at the end with all of the others documenting our purchases.
2 Retired H.S Secretaries
As I looked for an easy chair to pass some time 2 retired High School secretaries couldn't seem to leave the active life alone. "Just because I am retiring this year doesn't mean that I am going to sluff off my duties," One of them stated.
Then there surfaced Angst expressed over a summer typed "purchased order... "I wasn't the one that typed that purchase order... It wasn't hers."I would have known not to use maintenance funds.
New personnel was taking over their jobs. And a new principal.. only 28. How could he think he could do the job? The counselors are coming back to schedule summer school with no knowledge of what they did in the spring.
"I told them they had the best staff of any High School could have. So he didn't talk to me the first 3 weeks just before school started, I pointed it out." He said that he was sorry, what can I do to make it better, he said. Just ask me when you need help. I will do it she said. Then there was the keys. Many teachers had lost their keys.. and round up.
So much angst so hard to let it go.
Looking out to Sea
See you are in the middle of the sea
No land to see for days
Would you look out the window to see?
Or find pattern in the waves?
If a tree were to fall in the sea
would there be anyone there to see?
Looking for the slightest breeze
To cap the waves and lighten the sea
Push on ship of wonder ship of the sea
Pat's book in hand.
Everyday in Tuscany-Seasons of an Italian life by Frances Mays (author of Under the Tuscan Sun)
Much of it is a quest for viewing paintings by Signorelli. I believe that he was the painter that we saw in Orvieto..an Umbrian hill town in Italy.
Canadian Bakers
At lunch Sue was helped through the buffet line by a Princess employee. She held the tray and Sue pointed out what she wanted. At the end she found a partially occupied table nearby. The Princess employee asked the couple if we could join them. No problem.
He was a retired bakery owner in Winnepeg. His company made thousands of cakes each day to be shipped out to Canadian safeways among other places. He said that they imported the flour for the cakes from the US as well as the fat. He preferred the soya fat over the only one made in Canada, canola. I asked him what he thought of the cake boss on T.V. He said that he likes watching the techniques but felt there was way too much drama in it. He watches it with the volume off.
In the afternoon I sat in the start of a movie in the Princess Theater. I realized that it was the same as the one I had seen the night before up on the Stars outdoor big screen.
In the meantime the workman had fixed the Neptune pool, probably why the workmen were drilling something in our hall the first night. 100 or so passengers were waiting to watch the test screen that said, MLB.
It was the 7th game of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Each group had it own cheering section as movies under the stars screen was bright enough to broadcast the game to the cheering audience in their swimming suits and buckets of beer. Nearby was the free hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza.. order up and enjoy. After the fourth inning the crowd slowly disappeared to get ready for the first fancy dress night on the ship for the 6 o'clock seating. A few passengers were enjoying the free soft serve ice cream (served until 11pm each night). Since our dinner was at 8 I was able to see the last of the game from St. Louis.
Dinner:
Sue: Grapefruit and Kiwi slices
Caesar salad
Pan flashed Shrimp
Chocolate Mousse
Pat: Slices of smoked Duck breast with salad greens
Yogurt Tamarind cold soup
New York Steak with veggies (asparagus and green beans)
Pear browned on Puff pastry
Even though we loved our table from yesterday with our Disney Imagineer Exec, Sue felt uncomfortable having everyone move as she passed by to get to our table especially on the way out. Sue always likes to leave a little earlier than most people at the table. We talked to the matre de, and in Italian fashion he tried not to take blame for the original seat. We of course absolved him of intent and he found us an outstanding table.
This table had thee people from Philly and one couple from Santa Monica. The Philly people were involved with the power grid and safety one of them retired form Eslon. The Santa Monica people took care of rich people's money the official title... Financial Advisor. They are a lively conversationalist interested in sports and personal experience. They were mostly sympathetic to a more liberal brand of politics.. good.
Tonight was "formal night". Just a few tuxes were out there. Men mostly wore sport jackets and ties. Women got out their sparkly dresses.
Earlier in the day, the red hat ladies posed for a photo . Two pro photographers were there as they "posed on the curved railings." These were all ladies were over 50 years old. They just met up when they got to the ship. When they were all set and standing sideways (there were about 40) one of them yelled out "Say Sex!"Huge giggles emanated from the assembled crowd.
Also on the Piazza was a "street performer" His last name was Rossi. He came in dressed like a chef with a tall white hat. Then he walked or jumped on one hand across the plaza on one hand (a moving one hand handstand) Then he did the same dribbling a basketball.
There was a demo and a sushi station at lunch. People descended on the sushi but they kept up with the demand. There were even a couple of big trays left over after lunch.
It was a pretty great day even if it didn't turn out exactly like we had planned.
Day 2 Friday, October 28, 2011- attire Formal
At Sea: Partly cloudy High 68 Low 55
________________________________________
Sunrise 6:50 Sunset 6:20
Breakfast -Lox and Danish (pear) canned apricots prunes, and figs
Morning broke with a string of clouds headed East- We are headed South west. Ship hours lose another hour tonight.
At 6 am I was in the internet cafe to get the latest update from Natalie, the house overseer. Paul (doing the cat and mail thing) left the front door unlocked but Natalie closed it and locked it within 10 minutes of his leaving. Natalie was headed over to him to remind Paul about it after he arrived home from school.
I sent emails to our daughters this am. As frequent travelers on Princess, (Platinum level) we get 250 minutes of internet time free. I bought another 500 minutes for 67 dollars. This should be enough. Its a one time offer that has to be done the first day that you are on the ship.
I had cappuccino service in the Piazza (the center of the ship on the deck 5. It was nice to have the card so that I didn't have to sign a slip to be added at the end with all of the others documenting our purchases.
2 Retired H.S Secretaries
As I looked for an easy chair to pass some time 2 retired High School secretaries couldn't seem to leave the active life alone. "Just because I am retiring this year doesn't mean that I am going to sluff off my duties," One of them stated.
Then there surfaced Angst expressed over a summer typed "purchased order... "I wasn't the one that typed that purchase order... It wasn't hers."I would have known not to use maintenance funds.
New personnel was taking over their jobs. And a new principal.. only 28. How could he think he could do the job? The counselors are coming back to schedule summer school with no knowledge of what they did in the spring.
"I told them they had the best staff of any High School could have. So he didn't talk to me the first 3 weeks just before school started, I pointed it out." He said that he was sorry, what can I do to make it better, he said. Just ask me when you need help. I will do it she said. Then there was the keys. Many teachers had lost their keys.. and round up.
So much angst so hard to let it go.
Looking out to Sea
See you are in the middle of the sea
No land to see for days
Would you look out the window to see?
Or find pattern in the waves?
If a tree were to fall in the sea
would there be anyone there to see?
Looking for the slightest breeze
To cap the waves and lighten the sea
Push on ship of wonder ship of the sea
Pat's book in hand.
Everyday in Tuscany-Seasons of an Italian life by Frances Mays (author of Under the Tuscan Sun)
Much of it is a quest for viewing paintings by Signorelli. I believe that he was the painter that we saw in Orvieto..an Umbrian hill town in Italy.
Canadian Bakers
At lunch Sue was helped through the buffet line by a Princess employee. She held the tray and Sue pointed out what she wanted. At the end she found a partially occupied table nearby. The Princess employee asked the couple if we could join them. No problem.
He was a retired bakery owner in Winnepeg. His company made thousands of cakes each day to be shipped out to Canadian safeways among other places. He said that they imported the flour for the cakes from the US as well as the fat. He preferred the soya fat over the only one made in Canada, canola. I asked him what he thought of the cake boss on T.V. He said that he likes watching the techniques but felt there was way too much drama in it. He watches it with the volume off.
In the afternoon I sat in the start of a movie in the Princess Theater. I realized that it was the same as the one I had seen the night before up on the Stars outdoor big screen.
In the meantime the workman had fixed the Neptune pool, probably why the workmen were drilling something in our hall the first night. 100 or so passengers were waiting to watch the test screen that said, MLB.
It was the 7th game of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Each group had it own cheering section as movies under the stars screen was bright enough to broadcast the game to the cheering audience in their swimming suits and buckets of beer. Nearby was the free hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza.. order up and enjoy. After the fourth inning the crowd slowly disappeared to get ready for the first fancy dress night on the ship for the 6 o'clock seating. A few passengers were enjoying the free soft serve ice cream (served until 11pm each night). Since our dinner was at 8 I was able to see the last of the game from St. Louis.
Dinner:
Sue: Grapefruit and Kiwi slices
Caesar salad
Pan flashed Shrimp
Chocolate Mousse
Pat: Slices of smoked Duck breast with salad greens
Yogurt Tamarind cold soup
New York Steak with veggies (asparagus and green beans)
Pear browned on Puff pastry
Even though we loved our table from yesterday with our Disney Imagineer Exec, Sue felt uncomfortable having everyone move as she passed by to get to our table especially on the way out. Sue always likes to leave a little earlier than most people at the table. We talked to the matre de, and in Italian fashion he tried not to take blame for the original seat. We of course absolved him of intent and he found us an outstanding table.
This table had thee people from Philly and one couple from Santa Monica. The Philly people were involved with the power grid and safety one of them retired form Eslon. The Santa Monica people took care of rich people's money the official title... Financial Advisor. They are a lively conversationalist interested in sports and personal experience. They were mostly sympathetic to a more liberal brand of politics.. good.
Tonight was "formal night". Just a few tuxes were out there. Men mostly wore sport jackets and ties. Women got out their sparkly dresses.
Earlier in the day, the red hat ladies posed for a photo . Two pro photographers were there as they "posed on the curved railings." These were all ladies were over 50 years old. They just met up when they got to the ship. When they were all set and standing sideways (there were about 40) one of them yelled out "Say Sex!"Huge giggles emanated from the assembled crowd.
Also on the Piazza was a "street performer" His last name was Rossi. He came in dressed like a chef with a tall white hat. Then he walked or jumped on one hand across the plaza on one hand (a moving one hand handstand) Then he did the same dribbling a basketball.
There was a demo and a sushi station at lunch. People descended on the sushi but they kept up with the demand. There were even a couple of big trays left over after lunch.
It was a pretty great day even if it didn't turn out exactly like we had planned.
Day 1 Hawaiian Cruise
Thursday October 27,2011
At Sea: Forecast: High 71 Low 59 Sunrise 6:25 Sunset 5:41
Awake at 5 AM (as usual)
There seems to be quite a bit of programming lined up for today:
•Sue has yet to find the library- if they are ready for her
•Tickets available for the lei classes with fresh orchids (need to buy a kit)
•Sue is scheduled for a deep tissue massage
•Introduction-orientation to the ukulele lessons
•2:30 Jacqueline Kennedy event (Jackie jewlery)
•ceramics at sea
(none of this happened for us as it turned out except finding the library)
Last night we jostled our way along. Nothing big just the slight feeling that your head may not be working the equilibrium task easily. Its a whole lot different from the sharp jolts we felt coming into northern California on our Alaskan cruises.
Overall the ship has a "big" feel about it. The Golden Princess was constructed in 2001 in Italy. It has been reconditioned since its construction in 2009.
In homage to my daughters that always find new friends at breakfast in the dinning room, I had breakfast there. A nice conversation was had.the ladies were u for talk and their husbands kind of softballed it. One of the husbands was a borderline diabetic and the other one was a diabetic. The wife of the borderline said that it didn't keep him from eating sweets. Fare for breakfast was cheese and mushroom omelette with a small piece of Italian sausage and fresh tomatoes.
I had previously used my coffee card (you can buy one to cover the coffee and tip) to get a cappucinno and a creme filled donut.
One couple at breakfast was from Deleware. They were concerned about a company supported by the state called Bloom. They are investing the people's money without the people becoming stockholders. It uses natural gas to make what sounds like fuel cells. The by product is water.
One lady told me about her daughter. After 45, started out as a PE teacher and went back to school to become a HS counselor so she could help out more.
I met a man who did cross country for 33 years outside of the internet cafe/library.
The internet cafe doubles for the library. This makes mobility on issue for the library folks. Early in the morning only 3 out of 40 pcs were being used.
I checked my g-mail and found a note from Natalie, the house overseer. She reported that the house cleaners were there and she was going to see that the trash cans were put out on the curb Thursday night. The cats were giving her the cold shoulder but she recognized that they probably would come around.
Sue had soda and a couple of donuts for breakfast using my coke card. The coke card allows you to get soda at any bar for 67dollars for the trip. A little sticker is issued on your card and a tumbler is issued. She did some prowling in the library and found a couple of books that will keep her entertained. She bought a light orange pair of pants on"trail" at teh gift shop. (They didn't fit too well so she returned them later in the cruise for credit). We also picked up some postcards .. mostly of the ship.
For lunch the set up of stir fry station outside of the buffet looked good.
The cooks stuffed stir fried veggies (that they did on the spot) with shrimp and a little ham and packed rice on top of it into a small ramkin. They flipped the rambkins upside down and on to a plate for serving. Available with a viable hot and sour soup it made a great lunch.
I ate lunch on the pool deck. A couple asked if I could save their place at my table. I said sure. The wife was widowed and so was the husband. They were both lost their spouses within six months of each other. They live in Sierra Vista part of Southern Arizona. She has a job passing out coupons one day a week at the military commissary. He worked 20 yrs each at the same job both military and civilian When pressed he said it was intel. Russian was his specialty. He was a linguist. It came in handy when they cruised to St Petersburg. He could speak to the natives in their own language. That pretty much floored them.
She now does a lot of travel agency work. Not for the money but for the experience. The first shot at ceramics was a bust... no one showed or they didn't have it. Sue was disappointed.
In the afternoon, I watched a pbs special on the sharks of Co Co Costa Rica on the jumbo outdoor movie screen.
Two Worlds Collide
The two servers in the buffet were busying around their preps. Its easier to "organize" than provide service. So far no complaint about service from me. there seems to be enough servers to do the job so these servers were milling around their support station, both of them Philippine natives.
A middle aged platinum blond approaches them, She says,"I would like some lemonade."
The server says, "Your glass is full."
She said,"I want some lemonade . In wild flourish he grabs a pitcher and says,"here"
He pours her cup from the pitcher. She walks away and and says "That is an Arnold Palmer. "
The server says "Arnold Palmer," with his accent.
"Yes," She said. "When I ask for an Arnold Palmer you can get me an ice tea with lemonade in it."
"An Arnold Palmer, "she repeated.
I asked the servers after she left if they knew who Arnold Palmer was. They ignored me, but were laughing because the server had filled up the glass with more ice tea. The servers were laughing at the big joke they had sprung on the passenger.
That was passing as humor from the server station from server to his server buddies. They all thought it was funny that she didn't get he mix.
So for the servers had no problem with me getting a diet coke in or out of the designated cup.
Dinner for Day 1
Sue:
Strawberry soup
Lettuce wedge salad
salmon
Pat:
Pinapple chopped up with other tropical fruits
corn chowder (no cream)
Pork shoulder with chimmichuri sauce
warm brownie with vanilla sauce
Our table mates were from Long Beach. They were celebrating their 25th anniversary. He works for Disney in the an executive function for theme parks and cruise ships. He is currently working on modifying the Hong Kong Disney Park. They have two sons in college. One is studying film like father did and the other is hoping to be a screenwriter. They live up by the Long Beach airport.
I am not sure that we will be able to keep our table. Despite so few eating at the 8 o'clock seating, Sue was concerned about getting her powerchair in and out of the table gridlock to the current spot. She also had to climb up a couple of steps to out table in the back.
One of the interesting tales that our table mates told us was about getting the newest Disney ship out of Germany and sailing with it to the Canary Islands and on to the United States before the public had a chance to get on it. It was in the winter and people lined the banks to see Mickey and Minnie at the head of the ship pass through the bridges in the middle of the night. They also came to see the fireworks that the ship set off as they passed under the low bridges. They had to go at low tide to get under some of the bridges.
It was winter clothing to start the trip and shorts as they hit the Canary Islands. The biggest obstacle was dodging the film crews as the ship made its way. They were filming promo spots all across the ocean.
Sue left early before desert .
I watched the movie Arthur on the Movies at see Stars Screen outside our pool deck. It got chilly at 11:15. There seemed to be a significant reduction in swales in the middle of the night.
At Sea: Forecast: High 71 Low 59 Sunrise 6:25 Sunset 5:41
Awake at 5 AM (as usual)
There seems to be quite a bit of programming lined up for today:
•Sue has yet to find the library- if they are ready for her
•Tickets available for the lei classes with fresh orchids (need to buy a kit)
•Sue is scheduled for a deep tissue massage
•Introduction-orientation to the ukulele lessons
•2:30 Jacqueline Kennedy event (Jackie jewlery)
•ceramics at sea
(none of this happened for us as it turned out except finding the library)
Last night we jostled our way along. Nothing big just the slight feeling that your head may not be working the equilibrium task easily. Its a whole lot different from the sharp jolts we felt coming into northern California on our Alaskan cruises.
Overall the ship has a "big" feel about it. The Golden Princess was constructed in 2001 in Italy. It has been reconditioned since its construction in 2009.
In homage to my daughters that always find new friends at breakfast in the dinning room, I had breakfast there. A nice conversation was had.the ladies were u for talk and their husbands kind of softballed it. One of the husbands was a borderline diabetic and the other one was a diabetic. The wife of the borderline said that it didn't keep him from eating sweets. Fare for breakfast was cheese and mushroom omelette with a small piece of Italian sausage and fresh tomatoes.
I had previously used my coffee card (you can buy one to cover the coffee and tip) to get a cappucinno and a creme filled donut.
One couple at breakfast was from Deleware. They were concerned about a company supported by the state called Bloom. They are investing the people's money without the people becoming stockholders. It uses natural gas to make what sounds like fuel cells. The by product is water.
One lady told me about her daughter. After 45, started out as a PE teacher and went back to school to become a HS counselor so she could help out more.
I met a man who did cross country for 33 years outside of the internet cafe/library.
The internet cafe doubles for the library. This makes mobility on issue for the library folks. Early in the morning only 3 out of 40 pcs were being used.
I checked my g-mail and found a note from Natalie, the house overseer. She reported that the house cleaners were there and she was going to see that the trash cans were put out on the curb Thursday night. The cats were giving her the cold shoulder but she recognized that they probably would come around.
Sue had soda and a couple of donuts for breakfast using my coke card. The coke card allows you to get soda at any bar for 67dollars for the trip. A little sticker is issued on your card and a tumbler is issued. She did some prowling in the library and found a couple of books that will keep her entertained. She bought a light orange pair of pants on"trail" at teh gift shop. (They didn't fit too well so she returned them later in the cruise for credit). We also picked up some postcards .. mostly of the ship.
For lunch the set up of stir fry station outside of the buffet looked good.
The cooks stuffed stir fried veggies (that they did on the spot) with shrimp and a little ham and packed rice on top of it into a small ramkin. They flipped the rambkins upside down and on to a plate for serving. Available with a viable hot and sour soup it made a great lunch.
I ate lunch on the pool deck. A couple asked if I could save their place at my table. I said sure. The wife was widowed and so was the husband. They were both lost their spouses within six months of each other. They live in Sierra Vista part of Southern Arizona. She has a job passing out coupons one day a week at the military commissary. He worked 20 yrs each at the same job both military and civilian When pressed he said it was intel. Russian was his specialty. He was a linguist. It came in handy when they cruised to St Petersburg. He could speak to the natives in their own language. That pretty much floored them.
She now does a lot of travel agency work. Not for the money but for the experience. The first shot at ceramics was a bust... no one showed or they didn't have it. Sue was disappointed.
In the afternoon, I watched a pbs special on the sharks of Co Co Costa Rica on the jumbo outdoor movie screen.
Two Worlds Collide
The two servers in the buffet were busying around their preps. Its easier to "organize" than provide service. So far no complaint about service from me. there seems to be enough servers to do the job so these servers were milling around their support station, both of them Philippine natives.
A middle aged platinum blond approaches them, She says,"I would like some lemonade."
The server says, "Your glass is full."
She said,"I want some lemonade . In wild flourish he grabs a pitcher and says,"here"
He pours her cup from the pitcher. She walks away and and says "That is an Arnold Palmer. "
The server says "Arnold Palmer," with his accent.
"Yes," She said. "When I ask for an Arnold Palmer you can get me an ice tea with lemonade in it."
"An Arnold Palmer, "she repeated.
I asked the servers after she left if they knew who Arnold Palmer was. They ignored me, but were laughing because the server had filled up the glass with more ice tea. The servers were laughing at the big joke they had sprung on the passenger.
That was passing as humor from the server station from server to his server buddies. They all thought it was funny that she didn't get he mix.
So for the servers had no problem with me getting a diet coke in or out of the designated cup.
Dinner for Day 1
Sue:
Strawberry soup
Lettuce wedge salad
salmon
Pat:
Pinapple chopped up with other tropical fruits
corn chowder (no cream)
Pork shoulder with chimmichuri sauce
warm brownie with vanilla sauce
Our table mates were from Long Beach. They were celebrating their 25th anniversary. He works for Disney in the an executive function for theme parks and cruise ships. He is currently working on modifying the Hong Kong Disney Park. They have two sons in college. One is studying film like father did and the other is hoping to be a screenwriter. They live up by the Long Beach airport.
I am not sure that we will be able to keep our table. Despite so few eating at the 8 o'clock seating, Sue was concerned about getting her powerchair in and out of the table gridlock to the current spot. She also had to climb up a couple of steps to out table in the back.
One of the interesting tales that our table mates told us was about getting the newest Disney ship out of Germany and sailing with it to the Canary Islands and on to the United States before the public had a chance to get on it. It was in the winter and people lined the banks to see Mickey and Minnie at the head of the ship pass through the bridges in the middle of the night. They also came to see the fireworks that the ship set off as they passed under the low bridges. They had to go at low tide to get under some of the bridges.
It was winter clothing to start the trip and shorts as they hit the Canary Islands. The biggest obstacle was dodging the film crews as the ship made its way. They were filming promo spots all across the ocean.
Sue left early before desert .
I watched the movie Arthur on the Movies at see Stars Screen outside our pool deck. It got chilly at 11:15. There seemed to be a significant reduction in swales in the middle of the night.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
The Hawaii Journal
This is a summary of the blog entries that follow.
The Ship: The Golden Princess, 109,000 tons. Original Cost 405 million dollars 18 passenger decks
Our stateroom: L252 (Lido) or deck 14.
Embarkation:Port of Los Angeles
Disembarkation: Port of Los Angeles
Sailing Date: October 26,2011
Sailing Time: 4 pm
All passengers onboard by 3:00 pm
Arrived Home: November 9th, 2011
Night before cruise: The Westin Long Beach (Hot Wire)
Length of cruise: 14 nights
Itinerary for Cruise:
Wednesday: Los Angeles Pier 93 (October 26,2011)
Day 1 Thursday: At Sea (October 27,2011)
Day 2: Friday: At Sea (October 28,2011)
Day3: Saturday At Sea (October 29,2011)
Day 4: Sunday At Sea (October 30,2011)
Day 5: Monday Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii (October 31,2011)
Day 6: Tuesday, Honolulu,Oahu, Hawaii (November 1,2011)
Day 7: Wednesday, Naniliwili, Kaui, Hawaii (November2, 2011)
Day8: Thursday, Lanhania, Maui, Hawaii (November3,2011)
Day9: Friday, At Sea (November 4,2011)
Day10: Saturday: At Sea (November5,2011)
Day11: Sunday: At Sea (November 6,2011)
Day 12: Monday: At Sea (November 7,2011)
Day 13: Tuesday: Ensenada, Mx (November8,2011) (4 hours docked)
Day 14: Wednesday: Los Angeles (November 9,2011) disembark.. by 9:30am)
Tues: We left Merced at 3:35. We waited 2 hours to make sure that we could see both cats were inside before we left. Georgie, the white manx cat hid out in the garage for two hours in protest. Nigel was out too, but came right in after waiting on the front patio while I read the newspaper.
At 5:30 we were at the base of the grapevine pass. We had traveled over to Los Banos and whistled down Interstate 5 mostly at 70mph. The cheveron on top of grapevine had a subway sandwich shop. The manager was bemoaning the lack of business.. hoping that it would pick up. We filled up and headed into the basin after dark.
Tuesday night we arrived at the Westin Long Beach for the bed that Sue wanted to take home it was so perfect. The Westin would accommodate her whishes for $4200.
It was almost 10pm when Sue sent me out for "something to eat" Around the corner from the Westin was a crepe house.
The manager said that since it was 10 minutes from closing time, all that I could order was "take out." He offered up the whole menu for take out however. I ordered a scallop and shrimp filled crepe and a vegetarian crepe. 16 for the seafood, 14 for the vegetarian. The seafood one had a delicate lemon sauce. The veggie had potatoes and mushrooms. Both of them were great choices. Sue choose the specialize in the seafood one.. but there was plenty for both of us to share, and we did.
Embarkation Day Wednesday, October 26.
I was up in the morning at 6:30. I tried to capture in digital photos the public art in Long Beach. What was cool was the art deco like mosiac tile art in a couple of blocks around downtown.
The last time we were Long Beach I ran across a restaurant on Atlantic that claimed that it had the best burgers in town, also serving lunch and breakfast. It had a drive through and a blue collar look about it. It looked like a prime spot for a stack of hot cakes, my latest obsession. I was not disappointed. 5 dinner plate sized cakes were delivered to my booth, along with 2 tubs of butter and 2 tubs of syrup. The very thought of syrup would bring Sue a negative reaction.
Back at the hotel room Sue opted for a "naked" coconut/pinapple smoothie and a cinnamon/raisin bagel from the coffee nook across from the hotel.
Sue needed a "hat" for the trip, so after checking out (I checked out for the guy one floor below us first before Sue pointed out my mistake), we fired up the Expedition and hauled over to the nearby Albertson's and then the CVS pharmacy. the hat was found and we made our way across the two bridges from Long Beach to the Port of Los Angeles. Our embarkation was simple and characteristic of Princess form for its preferred customers. It was the easiest of any ship we had traveled upon. Plenty of time to unload the the power chair and the wheelchair and two of the largest suitcases you can buy, a backpack and a carry on. Don't forget the purse too.
On the Ship
We were on the ship and in our cabin by 2:00.
The ubiquitous muster occured at 3:15. What a mess! We have a cabin on the 14th deck-Lido. Our muster station along with everyone else is on the 7th deck. Getting there via the elevator was not difficult. Getting back.. oh my. I climbed the 7 floors to our room but Sue was at the mercy of an elevator that had too many people in it and all of them having to jump or wait for her to get out so they could exit at their floor. I walked/climbed the 7 floors and beat Sue to the room. I did this so that the other people that really needed the elevator could use it.
When I arrived, the 2nd big bag was waiting for me in the hall. They collected them when we got on the ship and delivered them later to each cabin so you didn't have to walk your bags up the floors to your cabin. The wheel chair came soon after.
At 6:30 we still could see the Channel Islands as we moved toward Hawaii. Dad said that the ship travels at 18 miles an hour so still seeing the island 36 miles off the shore is kind of unique. Usually when we leave the port of LA we are headed for Mexico. Its usually a later departure too.
We are on the top deck (our stateroom) with the pools, indoor and outdoor, the horizon buffet, is also on this deck.
Our cabin stewardess is Rosalie. She came in our cabin tonight to drop off a pretty blue Princess bag with our chocolates with a reminder to set our clocks back one hour. Its now a quarter to seven, it is in real time tomorrow a quarter to 6pm.
We are very close to the pizza and hamburger stand. A bar separates them. The pool is between the outdoor pizza stand and the buffet court. No stairs, no elevators, that might not be such a good place to encourage shipboard interaction.
The Golden in the Princess line seems large. Even with its size, this time of the year, yields a very aged group. I did not see any kids at the muster. Sue saw a few preschoolers with their families when we were getting on. We also saw a one couple ahead of us in line that had two fortyish people hauling with them 6 thin oxygen tanks each behind their wheelchairs.
Sue and I choose off the buffet for dinner tonight .. pineapple (fresh) honeydew(fresh) and mixed veggies , about 5 hard rolls each . For me I added the borscht, and the cappra (salami) and Sue ate a slice of pork from the carving station. There was also some really yummy sugarless chocolate cake with fresh stawberries on it for desert.
On Princess, at the buffet, you pick a place to sit down, and the waiter serves you with water, and a cloth napkin and silverware. Sue loves the hard rolls that are from the ship. She also had a slice of cheese pizza.
I let Sue rest in the cabin while I brought her the dinner mentioned above in "take out" form.
Our room is really large. Its one of 25 accessible rooms on the ship. The bathroom is large. I bought two extra cords for the charging of the powerchair, my cpap machine and the recharging of our cameras and phones. There are only two outlets for the room and they are way into the corner of the room. Many of the other ships we have been on only have one outlet.
There is a nice writing table and a small flat screen TV over the mini fridge.
Tonight there already has been some mechanic drilling holes in the panel in our hall. This is not a very good sign.
I went to the "Welcome Aboard Show" in the main theatre.
Dancers and Singers (sampler: we are family)
Cruise Director-Introduced Staff
Filmed "fly over" of various parts of the ship video
Black comedian from San Diego, did part of his show
Cruise Director's "gag":
His wife called him to tell him that she bought curtains that were pink.
He asked,"Where are they going?"
She answered,"they had to be big enough to cover the computer monitor.
Why?
They use "Windows"
Everyone groaned on that one.
The slot machines are now using cruise cards to spend gambling and to collect the winnings. What winnings? No one seemed to be winning.
I bought a mojoito at the piano bar. They were running a "fill the card" scam with the completed cards having a chance at having your complete bar bill paid for at the end of the cruise. You need to have the equivalent of 30 beers (the lowest valued) to get your card into the drawing. This bar has olives with mystery fillings as its draw. Some olives are stuffed with garlic cloves, others with pimentos, others with almond slivers. I was assured that they were the only bar on the ship that had them. Mojito was good. Was a little more on the lime side than the mint side in flavor.
I am looking forward to Lox in the morning. They had a start for that on the deck sandwich bar today. No bagels, however.
The Ship: The Golden Princess, 109,000 tons. Original Cost 405 million dollars 18 passenger decks
Our stateroom: L252 (Lido) or deck 14.
Embarkation:Port of Los Angeles
Disembarkation: Port of Los Angeles
Sailing Date: October 26,2011
Sailing Time: 4 pm
All passengers onboard by 3:00 pm
Arrived Home: November 9th, 2011
Night before cruise: The Westin Long Beach (Hot Wire)
Length of cruise: 14 nights
Itinerary for Cruise:
Wednesday: Los Angeles Pier 93 (October 26,2011)
Day 1 Thursday: At Sea (October 27,2011)
Day 2: Friday: At Sea (October 28,2011)
Day3: Saturday At Sea (October 29,2011)
Day 4: Sunday At Sea (October 30,2011)
Day 5: Monday Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii (October 31,2011)
Day 6: Tuesday, Honolulu,Oahu, Hawaii (November 1,2011)
Day 7: Wednesday, Naniliwili, Kaui, Hawaii (November2, 2011)
Day8: Thursday, Lanhania, Maui, Hawaii (November3,2011)
Day9: Friday, At Sea (November 4,2011)
Day10: Saturday: At Sea (November5,2011)
Day11: Sunday: At Sea (November 6,2011)
Day 12: Monday: At Sea (November 7,2011)
Day 13: Tuesday: Ensenada, Mx (November8,2011) (4 hours docked)
Day 14: Wednesday: Los Angeles (November 9,2011) disembark.. by 9:30am)
Tues: We left Merced at 3:35. We waited 2 hours to make sure that we could see both cats were inside before we left. Georgie, the white manx cat hid out in the garage for two hours in protest. Nigel was out too, but came right in after waiting on the front patio while I read the newspaper.
At 5:30 we were at the base of the grapevine pass. We had traveled over to Los Banos and whistled down Interstate 5 mostly at 70mph. The cheveron on top of grapevine had a subway sandwich shop. The manager was bemoaning the lack of business.. hoping that it would pick up. We filled up and headed into the basin after dark.
Tuesday night we arrived at the Westin Long Beach for the bed that Sue wanted to take home it was so perfect. The Westin would accommodate her whishes for $4200.
It was almost 10pm when Sue sent me out for "something to eat" Around the corner from the Westin was a crepe house.
The manager said that since it was 10 minutes from closing time, all that I could order was "take out." He offered up the whole menu for take out however. I ordered a scallop and shrimp filled crepe and a vegetarian crepe. 16 for the seafood, 14 for the vegetarian. The seafood one had a delicate lemon sauce. The veggie had potatoes and mushrooms. Both of them were great choices. Sue choose the specialize in the seafood one.. but there was plenty for both of us to share, and we did.
Embarkation Day Wednesday, October 26.
I was up in the morning at 6:30. I tried to capture in digital photos the public art in Long Beach. What was cool was the art deco like mosiac tile art in a couple of blocks around downtown.
The last time we were Long Beach I ran across a restaurant on Atlantic that claimed that it had the best burgers in town, also serving lunch and breakfast. It had a drive through and a blue collar look about it. It looked like a prime spot for a stack of hot cakes, my latest obsession. I was not disappointed. 5 dinner plate sized cakes were delivered to my booth, along with 2 tubs of butter and 2 tubs of syrup. The very thought of syrup would bring Sue a negative reaction.
Back at the hotel room Sue opted for a "naked" coconut/pinapple smoothie and a cinnamon/raisin bagel from the coffee nook across from the hotel.
Sue needed a "hat" for the trip, so after checking out (I checked out for the guy one floor below us first before Sue pointed out my mistake), we fired up the Expedition and hauled over to the nearby Albertson's and then the CVS pharmacy. the hat was found and we made our way across the two bridges from Long Beach to the Port of Los Angeles. Our embarkation was simple and characteristic of Princess form for its preferred customers. It was the easiest of any ship we had traveled upon. Plenty of time to unload the the power chair and the wheelchair and two of the largest suitcases you can buy, a backpack and a carry on. Don't forget the purse too.
On the Ship
We were on the ship and in our cabin by 2:00.
The ubiquitous muster occured at 3:15. What a mess! We have a cabin on the 14th deck-Lido. Our muster station along with everyone else is on the 7th deck. Getting there via the elevator was not difficult. Getting back.. oh my. I climbed the 7 floors to our room but Sue was at the mercy of an elevator that had too many people in it and all of them having to jump or wait for her to get out so they could exit at their floor. I walked/climbed the 7 floors and beat Sue to the room. I did this so that the other people that really needed the elevator could use it.
When I arrived, the 2nd big bag was waiting for me in the hall. They collected them when we got on the ship and delivered them later to each cabin so you didn't have to walk your bags up the floors to your cabin. The wheel chair came soon after.
At 6:30 we still could see the Channel Islands as we moved toward Hawaii. Dad said that the ship travels at 18 miles an hour so still seeing the island 36 miles off the shore is kind of unique. Usually when we leave the port of LA we are headed for Mexico. Its usually a later departure too.
We are on the top deck (our stateroom) with the pools, indoor and outdoor, the horizon buffet, is also on this deck.
Our cabin stewardess is Rosalie. She came in our cabin tonight to drop off a pretty blue Princess bag with our chocolates with a reminder to set our clocks back one hour. Its now a quarter to seven, it is in real time tomorrow a quarter to 6pm.
We are very close to the pizza and hamburger stand. A bar separates them. The pool is between the outdoor pizza stand and the buffet court. No stairs, no elevators, that might not be such a good place to encourage shipboard interaction.
The Golden in the Princess line seems large. Even with its size, this time of the year, yields a very aged group. I did not see any kids at the muster. Sue saw a few preschoolers with their families when we were getting on. We also saw a one couple ahead of us in line that had two fortyish people hauling with them 6 thin oxygen tanks each behind their wheelchairs.
Sue and I choose off the buffet for dinner tonight .. pineapple (fresh) honeydew(fresh) and mixed veggies , about 5 hard rolls each . For me I added the borscht, and the cappra (salami) and Sue ate a slice of pork from the carving station. There was also some really yummy sugarless chocolate cake with fresh stawberries on it for desert.
On Princess, at the buffet, you pick a place to sit down, and the waiter serves you with water, and a cloth napkin and silverware. Sue loves the hard rolls that are from the ship. She also had a slice of cheese pizza.
I let Sue rest in the cabin while I brought her the dinner mentioned above in "take out" form.
Our room is really large. Its one of 25 accessible rooms on the ship. The bathroom is large. I bought two extra cords for the charging of the powerchair, my cpap machine and the recharging of our cameras and phones. There are only two outlets for the room and they are way into the corner of the room. Many of the other ships we have been on only have one outlet.
There is a nice writing table and a small flat screen TV over the mini fridge.
Tonight there already has been some mechanic drilling holes in the panel in our hall. This is not a very good sign.
I went to the "Welcome Aboard Show" in the main theatre.
Dancers and Singers (sampler: we are family)
Cruise Director-Introduced Staff
Filmed "fly over" of various parts of the ship video
Black comedian from San Diego, did part of his show
Cruise Director's "gag":
His wife called him to tell him that she bought curtains that were pink.
He asked,"Where are they going?"
She answered,"they had to be big enough to cover the computer monitor.
Why?
They use "Windows"
Everyone groaned on that one.
The slot machines are now using cruise cards to spend gambling and to collect the winnings. What winnings? No one seemed to be winning.
I bought a mojoito at the piano bar. They were running a "fill the card" scam with the completed cards having a chance at having your complete bar bill paid for at the end of the cruise. You need to have the equivalent of 30 beers (the lowest valued) to get your card into the drawing. This bar has olives with mystery fillings as its draw. Some olives are stuffed with garlic cloves, others with pimentos, others with almond slivers. I was assured that they were the only bar on the ship that had them. Mojito was good. Was a little more on the lime side than the mint side in flavor.
I am looking forward to Lox in the morning. They had a start for that on the deck sandwich bar today. No bagels, however.
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