Day 9, LA to Hawaii Cruise

Day 9 Thursday January 24, 2012 LA to Hawaii Cruise
Lahaiana, Maui, Hawaii
Sunny High 79 Low 66
Sunrise 7:05 Sunset 6:12
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We had excursion tickets for this day to be on the first whale watching excursion trip of the morning.

Sue was up and ready to go. We met in the theater except those that had movement challenges. We were allowed to stay in the adjacent casino to wait rather than wrestle with the limited seating for mobility challenged people in the theater. There is only one half of  row in the back of the theater that is  devoted to such passengers. It really was more pleasent to wait for the call in the casino on the promenade deck on seven. The casino was not in service because we were in US waters . It completely shuts down until the ship is in international waters and then springs to life.

The ship personnel got us into groups to use the elevator down to the 4th deck where a 150 pasenger boat pulled up beside the ship. Sue and I chose the lower deck even though it had a sort of diesel vapor running around. We had a perfect seat as teh table and chairs configuration of the boat provided great views along its sides right near the waterline. There was an open door on each side that opened to allow passengers to access the rail that ran around the bottom deck. The walkway all around the deck was available for people to stand out there and shoot their photos.

The boat pulled away from the ship and we saw two male whales within 5 minutes who were in competition mode to win the approval of the female whale. The female whale was teaching her new baby. There were all kinds of activity on the surface. I was pretty happy to have the big 300 mm lense on the nikon to see the action and hopefully we will get some good photos. Those running the ship and the commentary over the loud speaker were very well versed in providing us commentary and at the same time opportunity to get as close as we could to the humpback whales as they surfaced.

After two hours of chasing the whales, the boat dropped us on the shore in the same place the tender boats from the ship were dropping off the passengers.

Maui is a tender boat port for the cruise ships. These little orange and white tender boats were continually going back and forth from the ship carrying the ship's passengers and some of its crew to shore.

Sue and I got on the Hilo Hatties shuttle bus once again and it took us to their store on Maui. It was about a 10 block shuttle ride. We decided to walk back from the store to the park with the huge Banyan tree and the dock where we could get a tender ride back to the ship. When we decided to walk back, I pushed Sue in the manual wheelchair along the narrow sidewalk that runs along the front of the Lahaina Bay. We came across Elizabeth and Frank, our dinner table partners on the streets of Lahaina. They asked us directions to Hilo Hatties..  We pointed over our shoulders and they were off.

Elizabeth and Frank had taken the excursion that included a trip to the aquarium on Maui. They had been before and together they encouraged us all to go. They said that it was as wonderful as the last time they had been to the aquarium.

Elizabeth and Frank live near Palm Springs. Our other shipmate couple, Deb and Dave live near Yorkshire/Leeds. Its about a 2 hour drive from where they live to London.

When we got near the courtyard center, we shared a hamburger with Swiss cheese and mushrooms at the restaurant named Cheeseburger in Paradise. Its a gracious place with a menu that is not too expensive. It provided a spectacular view of the harbor and the surfers in the distance that were surfing the reef. The one giant burger was just right for both of us. 

Our next stop was the famed shaved ice place that was proudly displaying its honors on Yelp and Trip Advisor as the best place for shaved ice in Hawaii. I think its name is Uluani's. We each had a small. Mine had macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom wand then mainly condensed milk and coconut flavoring for the top. Sue got the 1/2 mango and 1/2 coconut one. The flowers and textures were divine the day temps were in the high 70's and low 80's. A breeze coming down from the mountains made it pretty comfortable.

We found restrooms in the Island Whaler Center. Its an outside mall with many restaurants and jewelry shops adjacent to the Banyan Tree Central Park. The restrooms were on the third floor and we had to go all the way in the back to get to the service elevator that took us up to the third floor. When we were done we headed over to the courthouse park. I got some more photos of the huge banyan tree and the people that were resting under it on the benches... many with the ubiquitous blue bags.   

No rainbows were spotted on this cruise, unlike the last cruise to the islands where we had at least one rainbow at each of the ports. A beautiful reflection off the clouds on the mountains as we left was pretty special. The town high up on the mountains provided a pleasant scene for our sailaway from the islands.

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Dinner:

Pat:
Appetizer: etouphic crawdads and thinly sliced raw salmon (like lox)
Coconut soup
Entree: Turkey Pot Pie
Desert: Frozen cake (layers of Praline brittle, Chocolate Cake with chocolate ice cream spread between the layers

Sue: 2 slices of cheese pizza and one slice of veggie combo pizza with artichoke hearts on it

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We watched the Girl with the Pearl earring movie . It starred Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. Thie story is of girl who signs on to be a domestic helper for the family and ends up becoming an artist's assistant, perparing the paint and then she become the model for the famous painting.

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Service at the table has been great. Stephan, our head waiter is from Grenada. Before every dinner meal he explains to the table all of the menu items  on the menu. He has sampled them and gives us an opinion concerning whether or not they line up or live up to their titles. The night that the Stiffeild
mousse was served, The Brit, (Deb) asked if she could have some of the real thing beside the made up mousse. She and her husband Dave live within three miles of where the Stillton cheese is made. Our head waiter made it happen, not just for her but for the rest of the guests around the table. Elizabeth said that she missed mashed potatoes with the courses. Stephan said that they are always available... to we had mashed potatoes at every meal there after... amazing.

Our cabin steward, Abdul, was very non intrusive. This style really pleased Sue. When she wants to sleep she dosn't want to be awaken to have her room redone.  So it really worked out.