Day 13 LA to Hawaii Cruise

Day 13 January 29, 2013 Monday
3rd Formal Night At Sea
At Sea
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It was pretty cold on deck today but the boat is not swaying so much. Tonight is the 3rd Formal night on the Golden Princess. Its the night of Lobster and giant Shrimp.

I discovered that I packed the wrong blue shirt to go with the suit attire. Luckily, I had done laundry and so the red satin shirt was pressed back into action... It certainly fits better than the blue one that was at least 12 years old. I love the Goodwill silk tie that I bought for it.

Our dinner table Brit friends, the Bulmans had beef wellington instead of the Lobster because of allergies. Pheasant was also a choice at this dinner. Our Desert Springs fellow dinner couple were ready for the lobster and shrimp as we were. 

This is also the dinner that the cooks get introduced and cheered. So everyone stands up and waves their dinner napkins as the chefs with the tall hats and the cooks parade through the dinning halls. Our assistant waiter got us baked Alaska for desert. They used to come in flaming... not anymore.  There are battery operated votive candles that illuminate the frozen cake ice cream and whipped egg white creations.  Baked Alaska is not my number one desert... its okay.  I would really prefer a good apple pie slice. I ordered and got one those too. It was a night in the dinning room that everyone looked like they were having fun.

During the day we got ready for the performance on the ship of the ukelele songs we were practicing and the hulas that others were practicing. We had a couple of new songs as the hula class was going to perform to our music at least for one of the songs. Our new chords (D) and (D7) were integrated into Aloha Oui and Little Grass Shack. These songs were pretty tough for beginners.

Some people had taken the hula lessons and the ukelele lessons as well. They ahd to choose which group they wanted to be with for the performance.

Sue went with me to listen to the ukelele lesson . She was going to get some help with her heirloom lei. She bought a couple of kits and some pointers from Lilanan the hula instructor  that was also doing the lei kits.

We started to experience playing our ukeleles standing up. That was a new experience.
Unlike guitars, there is no neck strap because ukeleles are so light, they can be held and played without support while standing up.

There didn't seem the push push to buy extras on this ship. That is a good thing because most of those on this ship are older there might have been a backlash for an economic push.

According to our ukelele teacher he sees familiar faces on this cruise from people who take this cruise a couple of times a year, Their are some who take this cruise and his lessons once a month where this cruise is offered to Hawaii. Its what they want to spend their money on. They take ukelele lessons each time and have a really nice instrument and like to be in the classes to meet new people and to practice their skill.

After lessons, Sue went back to the room to rest.

The formal lunch in the dinning room is the one that is used for anytime dining. People who use this option, call in a reservation as to when they want to arrive for dinner. They have no particular waiter and could be seating anywhere throughout the dinning room. They trade this for being able to choose when and with whom they will eat with between 5:30 and 10:00 . If they don't call in, they have to wait outside until they can be seated in the dining room or use the buffet.

We generally pick the later traditional dining time at 7:45 seating. This is not the time that most people choose if they are older or have young children. the earlier seating is at 5:15 each night. There are assigned tables in traditional dinning and dinners eat with the same people and are served by the same waiter and assistant waiter each night.

Tips for the waiters and the assistants and the stateroom stewards are automatically charged to each person's ship card at the rate of 12 dollars a day. Passengers can reduce this amount or add to it by going to the front desk and requesting the charges be reduced or adjusted. We always give more. Our room steward usually gets $50 additional from us on the 15 day cruise and I always tip the waiter and additional 30 dollars for the head waiter and 20 dollars for the assistant.

Cash is not handled on the ship except when additional tips are provided. The passenger cruise card is used to pay for everything on the ship. The only exception being the casino. Here US dollar bills and up to 20 dollar bills may be fed into the machines. Winnings are collected as they are earned on the players casino portion of the cruise card. The casino bank is utilized with a pin number. It allows authorization right at the slot machine. When you are ready to "cash" in your winnings, the casino as a cashier booth where you show your ID and your cruise card and they pass over the cash you won. Passengers can have the "bank" transferred off their cruise card account that is secured with a credit card. If you overspend you limit on the credit card on file , the hotel desk will call and ask you to put up another card or make arrangements to pay.The run balances on the card as you are traveling. We did not have to reassign to another card on this trip... but on one Alaska cruise I had to put up another card mid cruise.