Day 4 Saturday LA to Hawaii Cruise

Day 4 Saturday, January 19th 2013 At Sea
Weather: Cloudy with rain showers - High 61 Low 56
Sunrise 7:08/ Sunset 6:10
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Today started the progressive ukelele lessons. 300 signed up and 100 showed up for the first class.... or so was the commentary from the teachers. Many that didn't sign up for the progressive classes were there. Two new cords were taught and very quickly integrated into song. My ukelele broke a string last night and luckily I brought a new set to string up... via Amazon. The snark (as suggested my my sister) also came from Amazon. The Harmony uke was given me by my other sister.  Those that didn't have their own are out of luck when it comes to practice as the loaners are put in bins after every lesson. Having your own on board is a great. The Cruise Director and the Hawaiian music master on the ship took turns providing the lessons.  Each instructor provides a different take on the instrument and it is nice to have this variety.
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Reunion in Camp Pendleton

At lunch Sue and I met up with a couple who drove from Michigan to get on the Ship in LA. They had traveled many a frozen snowy road to get to LA in January. They were also facing the same journey back after the cruise. The man's main objective was to meet up with his Marine buddies at their training camp at Camp Pendleton.Camp Pendelton is located just north of San Diego He said that it was nice to drive around and reminise about the base. His wife was making a renewed contact with a friend who lived  El Monte one of the LA cities. So far everything was working out well for both of them.

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I am not a big gambler. But on this day I won 200 dollars on the 25 cent slot machine on the ship. The ship has very few 25 cent slot machines.  Most of the slot machines in the casino were either 1 dollar slots or penny slots. All are electronic and my guess is that they can change the pay out on a whim.  I walked away from the machine after winning the 200 dollars and cashed in the winnings from the card that also serves as the cabin room key. No coins ever pass hands in the ship's casino. I made up my mind that the 200 dollar won from the 40 dollar investment and have it go for toward a nice ukelele when the ship reached Hawaii.  And it did.

I watched the lecture from the naturalist on the whales of Hawaii. The humpbacks are the primary whales in Hawaii this time of the year.  They have been spotted in Maui on early cruises so we were pretty certain that we would see them when we got to Maui for our whale watching excursion. The nauturalist said that they were around all the island and that we should be looking for them when we were in each of the ports of the Hawaiian islands. Their call could be heard by snorkelers a mile away from the animals.

While I was taking the first ukulele lesson sue had a chance to shop the Princess branded Hawaiian tee shirts... 2 for 20. She also did a buffet lunch. On the deck was the Italian themed lunch items on this day. Fresh mozzarella, and tomatoes were a welcome sight. There were several pasta dishes and some fancy Italian meats that could be used to make a chibata sandwich. It was pretty crowded around the outside lunch but here seemed to be enough for all that wanted it.
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Dinner:
Pat's
Appetizer: Cantaloupe in port wine, set in Martini glasses
Salad: Caesar's Salad 
Main entree: Pork shoulder cut in slices with french fries and lima beans
Desert: Chocolate Brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce with a toasted almond topping

Sue: Hamburger with Fries at the grill

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Breakfast on the Ship
The full breakfast buffet is ready each morning at 7:00 am. People start going through at 6 am. At my favorites spa choice. museli is put out in a giant iced bowl with a different flavor combination each day. Its base has oats and very thin green apple slice. As add ons to this it could be toasted coconut, walnuts, granola, and then a fruit sauce much looser than jam, it could be peach or raspberry, or apple sauce.
On this ship, the lox varies with a different kind of smoked fish each day. Usually lox are usually salmon. Today the fish was smoked mahi mahi in place of the salmon.