Day 45: Hilo

Well, what can I say about the weather today in Hilo?  Rain, gloom, fog…there was no seeing the observatories on top of Mauna Kea today. We couldn’t see any part of Mauna Kea today. In fact, we couldn’t even see the other side of the port this morning. No volcanic eruption smoke cloud either. We saw nothing. 

But, once again looking on the bright side, the ship was stable- at least until we sailed tonight- and just that reprieve was welcome. 

I won’t belabor the day. Breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room, dinner in Michelangelo, Elite Lounge, I don’t recall eating lunch at all, and we got off the ship just to take a walk. It really wasn’t any more exciting than that. 

This bus can be booked right outside the pier terminal

Cobb salad with chicken for both of us

A successful harbor pilot pick up today

Tonight’s Princess Theater show was the highlight of the day. A quartet called the The Modern Gentlemen, the group that was supposed to have boarded in Kauai and perform that evening finally made it on board today. They sang the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (why can I not think of Rudy Gualiani when I type that?😆), but so much more. The Beatles, The Temptations, Queen, the Four Tops, The Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye…good stuff. 

The show was fantastic but it really got interesting when one of the singers (Todd Fournier) said he was originally from Toledo, Ohio. Naturally, I Googled him and found out he went to the same high school as my parents and younger brother (good old Centrsl Catholic) but I truly thought the year he graduated was a typo and that was his birth year instead. So I went to talk with him after the show (they were in the Piazza meeting guests). 

When I told him of our connection, he asked me “What parish?” (Catholic life in a small city) and we both were from OLPH. It turns out he grew up about a mile away from where I did and is a couple of years older than my younger brother and so went to school with him.  Small world!  He said it was nice to meet a fellow Buckeyes fan, and I had to immediately squash that misconception. Just saying…Toledo is the epicenter of that rivalry, and it’s an intense one. 

We next went to the 80s deck party, relocated to the Piazza because of the weather and then G went to guitarist Dennys’ candlelight concert in Club Fusion but I returned to the Princess Theater for the later The Modern Gentlemen show because 1) I enjoyed it that much and 2) I wanted to sit closer to the stage because I was still trying to figure out how this 61 year old guy can sing and dance like he does. I guess that’s what clean living can do for you. What I wouldn’t give for those knees!

Todd is second from the right in these photos

No one enjoys their job more than guitarist Andrew

Tomorrow, FINALLY, no rain is forecasted in Honolulu. I’m so glad we can salvage one port this cruise. Our on board time is at 10:30pm, and, being Friday night, there willing be fireworks on Waikīkī Beach. You know where we’ll be!

Day 44: Kahului, Maui

Oh, the joy of finally reaching land!  The ship was stable, we actually saw some blue sky this afternoon, G felt better, I felt better, all God’s chillun felt better.

Life was good. 

When I first woke up, though, I wasn’t certain we’d even been getting in to port. The ship’s webcam showed grey sky and fog, but no land. I feared another missed port and lay in bed awaiting an incoming announcement. It wasn’t long, though, before I could start to make out land, though the surrounding mountains were shrouded in clouds. Then, joy of joys, we were at our berth and the world stopped bouncing. 

We went to breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room for the first time in days. When things were so rough, we seemed to do better eating in continuous small amounts throughout the day and spent a lot of time in the World Fresh Marketplace. But today… today we threw caution to the wind and both had that deep fried French toast with orange marmalade for me and extra strawberry puree for G. It was made extra special because our former junior waiter at dinner, Ivy, was our junior waiter for breakfast. It’s hard when these people we’ve enjoyed so much get rotated to a different dining room and we lose track of them. We now know to request table 27 in Botticelli for breakfast. 

I had tried- hard- to get a car rental for today from Enterprise, which blog reader Mary told me was within walking distance of the port, and there were a couple of others to consider also, but I couldn’t find any availability at all. If you want to do this (and I highly recommended doing that as your best option), reserve it well in advance. The ship excursions are quite expensive considering we’ve already done and seen all these things, and the one thing I really want to do, travel the northwest road around the coast, is rather sketchy to do on a cruise, especially considering the recent bad weather. It’s a landslide area in good weather. 

So we walked off the ship, just to touch terra firma, and over to the Longs Drug Store where I picked up an item I needed and were back on the ship by lunch. I miss tendering into Lahaina so much!!!

It was nice enough on the Terrace Deck to eat our lunch out there, and though clouds hung over the mountains all day, it never rained. Hallelujah!

By late afternoon, the sky over the ocean was blue and sunny. 

We didn’t sail until 7pm, and went to the Elite Lounge (my first time in days because it’s been so bouncy up there), and then to the Michelangelo Dining Room. Dinner tonight was the best so far this cruise (mahi mahi for me) and flourless chocolate cake again for dessert, not the macadamia nut version but the standard version and they know how to make it on the Emerald Princess! This pastry chef is fantastic. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater show was Disco: Blame it on the Boogie. I ran into dancer Jorge today in the buffet. We’ve known him for years, and I asked him how many years he’s been dancing with Princess: 19!  This cast is returning home after this cruise and will next be on the Ruby Princess. 

And we finished our evening in Club Fusion listening to party band Third Time Lucky play a Beatles set before calling it a day. I have a feeling we will sleep well tonight. At least for right now it’s not too, too rough and our pool neighbor has quieted down. 

Day 43: Not Kauai!

Oy vey, what a day this was!! We didn’t seriously believe we’d be spending the day on Kauai, but I also didn’t expect this to be the roughest day we had so far. And yet, there we were. 

We were up early and knew immediately that it was too rough to get into the port of Nawiliwili. We had heard the pool sloshing all night long, and needed to hold on just to walk around our mid ship cabin. G left to get coffee and see what it looked like outside but I was still in the cabin at 7:35am when an announcement was made, “Man overboard, port side”. In all our days of cruising, I’ve never heard that one before, without including the word DRILL along with it. But just a few minutes later, Captain McBain announced that, after multiple attempts to board the harbor pilot, he had fallen into the water (an extremely dangerous situation; in fact, a harbor pilot was killed here in Kauai  attempting to disembark the Island Princess almost exactly 20 years ago) but also that he had already been retrieved by the pilot boat and was uninjured. Huge relief.

There is still some confusion in my mind about why the pilot was trying to board in the first place since we knew we weren’t going to be porting in Nawiliwili today, but Captain McBain said something about him being our pilot for tomorrow in Kahului, Maui also and they were trying to board him early. I don’t know…these things are way above my pay grade. 

I grabbed my walking stick to meet up with G in the very back of the World Fresh Marketplace. There are some comfy chairs back there against the glass that kind of encircle you when you’re sitting in them, and they felt safest this morning. They were also very comfortable, a good thing since we spent all morning sitting in them. CD Nathan made an announcement telling us a new Patter would be distributed, and in the meantime I could see new events popping up on Journey on my phone, but nothing was calling to me until after lunch, which was good, because getting around remained tough. 

Eventually, we decided that the most productive thing we could do was start to make progress on our minibar. The items, especially the small bottles of alcohol, have been growing in number since we first boarded. I don’t generally drink, and G doesn’t drink a lot, but there wasn’t much else we wanted 

 to do this morning. He returned to the cabin to get some bottles of gin and we bought some cans of tonic water with limes from the Outrigger Bar and got to it. By 10:30am, things were feeling quite good. 

Note: the following paragraph is for all this readers who advise me to just tell stories if I run out of cruise things to talk about, so look away now if you’re just here to read about cruise activities and ports. 

Our conversation wandered, as it tends to do when we start drinking before noon, and we were eventually discussing old station wagons and their value today, which prompted me to text my brothers. I knew Dad bought a new 1967 Ford Fairlane in candy apple red because my older brother (5 years my senior) and I got to choose the color. I also knew there was a station wagon before that one (part of our family lore involves me sitting in the back, taking off my dress and tossing it out the back window, requiring Dad to back up while hauling a pop up trailer to retrieve it), but I remembered nothing else about it. Of course my brothers were well familiar with the deets, even the younger one (7 years younger than me) and they knew that it was a ‘64 Ford Fairlane with an 289 cubic inch V8 engine with a 3-on-the-tree transmission and nonsynchronized first gear and that there was a ‘58 Ford station wagon before that one. If you are a girl who didn’t have brothers, I’m sorry you’ve missed out on these sorts of conversations but they go a long way in explaining why I’ve always been a tomboy. Also, I can’t help but think that if Dad hadn’t needed those station wagons to do things like, oh, go to work and take us on camping trips, and had just bought and garaged all of them, I’d be able to cruise full time right now. 

G had mentioned that it was much more stable in our mid ship cabin, but I didn’t want to stay inside there and have to lay on the bed all morning, and the ship felt packed with people, with the weather forcing everyone inside, so we just stayed where we were, in our comfy chairs with views in all directions, grazing in the buffet when we got hungry. 

This was our SIXTH sea day in a row, but, really, if you don’t count turnaround day, it was my seventh in a row. If we’re getting tired of it, I’m can only imagine how sick the crew is of all of us. It’s like a mom with young kids…they’re always underfoot, they’re always demanding something (I need LIMES for my G&T) and the house is a mess. They sure are a patient bunch. 

It started to clear up and dry out a little after noon, and, though the seas remained rough,  it gave me hope for a better weather day tomorrow on Maui. This cruise has also given us a lot to think about with regard to what we want to be doing next year at this time. I think perhaps that our stellar weather last cruise may have given us a more optimistic perception about what we might expect on a Hawaii cruise in January and February, and that this cruise is painting a more realistic picture. On the other hand, this storm hitting Hawaii is newsworthy in its intensity. 

The afternoon offered several events I was interested in. I started with ukulele class at 1pm in Club Fusion. Brian gave us songbooks he had printed and we basically just played songs together for the whole class. It was so much fun to see how much progress we’ve made. 

All this fun I’ve been having is on a inexpensive kids’ ukulele using handwritten chord sheets

These were just returned from the print shop and are an excellent compilation of beginner songs

I next went to the Explorers Lounge for Fred Cink’s lecture on the sun (fascinating), and afterwards had a few-minute rest in the cabin to recharge me and my iPhone before dressing for the evening. We both went to Club Fusion for naturalist Daniel Gohstand’s talk on the history of early Polynesian canoes and the development of the surf board and then the cultural importance of Hawaiian drumming. 

Huge shout out to CD Nathan and the activities team for pulling all this together on very short notice today (though they probably also had an idea that Kauai would be cancelled). 

Captain McBain offered another update on the harbor pilot while we were at dinner, assuring us that he was doing well. He also gave us the weather forecast for tomorrow in Kahului, Maui, which has had lots of flooding and power outages in the past few days. Oh my. We are among the fortunate very few on board who have been to all these islands many times before, but most people have not, and, even if we can get into port tomorrow, the weather looks fairly abysmal. 

The ménage à trois

Because some days just demand dessert

As soon as we missed our port today, I wondered about our Princess Theater entertainment for this evening. We were supposed to get a four person vocal ensemble on board today, and that obviously didn’t happen. Luckily, CD Nathan still had Erik Bryan, the Magic Maker in Magic to Do on board, and he performed his Let Me Be Frank show again tonight. I’ve probably seen this show enough already this season, but it is a good one, and was something to do tonight while we were waiting for the 70s Disco party in Club Fusion. 

Here’s hoping we get into Kahului port tomorrow and don’t have an all day rain!

The original Patter

The revised Patter cover

The revised activities schedule

Day 42: At Sea

I was slow to start my day today, mostly because I had nothing on the schedule this morning. I could also see (on the ship’s webcam) white caps on the water and rain on the camera and heard the water sloshing in the pool next door. It was obviously another bouncy day. I instead paid a few bills and mindlessly scrolled the internet (I am heartsick at Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance) and set up appointments for after we return home. It’s hard to believe we can now say that we’ll be home next week. 

Sigh. I have enjoyed these cruises so much. 

I decided to get cleaned up for the evening before I even went to lunch, and met up with G in the Botticelli Dining Room. Actually, I first saw him in the elevator lobby outside the Botticelli Dining Room. The elevator door opened to a lobby full of people waiting to get in and I heard G’s voice and people laughing and, good grief, there is nothing that man likes more than an appreciative audience. I rolled my eyes and didn’t interrupt his act. 🙄

It was Cobb Salad with chicken for lunch again today

For once in my life I had come prepared, and went right from lunch to Club Fusion with all my chord notes and music for today’s ukulele lesson. When it comes to the simple chords, we are getting quite good and thrilled ourselves by playing several songs today.

I went to the Touch of Polynesia Showtime in the Piazza, which featured Hawaiian Ambassadors Brian and Rowena and the guests who have been learning hula, accompanied by Hawaiian drums and music. It was packed, and I didn’t have the best view but I enjoyed the music from where I sat in Vines. 

I was sorry to miss Fred Cink’s lecture at 4:30pm today, but it conflicted with dinner and we have no wiggle room with dinner because the Princess Theater shows start at 7pm instead of 7:30pm. That’s why we generally return to the Michelangelo Dining Room if we choose to have dessert and coffee because there is never time to linger after we finish our entree. 

Tonight’s show was Magic To Do, which we saw yet again. It’s fun now that we’ve gotten to know some of the cast members. And after that we called it day, despite the fact that we are moving clocks back an hour tonight. I think I’m tired from simply navigating the ship on yet another bouncy day. 

The weather forecast for tomorrow on Kauai is not good. In fact, schools and government offices and many businesses on Oahu were closed today due to rain, wind and flooding. Nawiliwili’s chicane entrance could easily prevent us from getting into the port tomorrow, but, even if we do, I don’t think our planned beach day is going to work out. That’s cruising life. 

Day 41: Super Bowl At Sea

5:57am.

That’s when I heard the cabin door click. I pulled off my sleep mask to be greeted by a room full of light and G asking me to spell him in 15 or 30 minutes so he could get a cup of coffee. 

5:57am!

And we weren’t even the first people claiming seats at the MUTS pool. 

!!!

Super Bowl spectatorship on MUTS is not for the faint of heart. But it can be oh-so-much fun, kind of like when you’re camping as a kid and your dad wakes you up before dawn to climb the nearest fire tower using flashlights just to watch the sunrise. 

Unfortunately, today was not one off those oh-so-much fun experiences. Today was NOT the best day ever. 

But I didn’t know that yet at 6am. I also didn’t know what the day’s temps would be, but it didn’t matter; our cabin is literally right under the Calypso Pool area so we’d be close for clothing changes. More accurately, our cabin is literally next to the Calypso Pool, along side the pool walls. The swells had returned overnight, and, because the pools had been filled during yesterday’s reprieve, we heard heavy sloshing all night long. It was exactly like sleeping on a beach, and wasn’t at all unpleasant…except for the eleventy-seven times I had to get up to use the bathroom during the night. The suggestive sound of moving water!

So, anyway, I dressed in slacks (those same pants must have gotten a little stretched yesterday, because they felt great today) and a long sleeve T-shirt and stuffed my new sweatshirt into my backpack, along with AirPods, sunscreen, 15 Wet Ones packets and our battery backup and did actually manage to spell G in under 30 minutes. He made a coffee run and thus began our day. 

Loungers were never set up (they take up too much space) but G had settled in at a table with chairs. Another table was already occupied and the Lido dining crew was busy setting up an extra charge area on Deck 16 that we didn’t even know about until today. Apparently, this was being sold on embarkation day, but as we didn’t go through normal embarkation,  we had missed it entirely. It cost between $395-$495 for a table for four and included a table cloth and food service delivered to your table. I don’t think it included drinks, though (special Super Bowl drinks were priced at $18). 

Setting up the conspicuous Super Bowl viewing experience

We were plenty happy in the cheap seats. Even though the sun (supposedly) rose, it started feeling even chillier, and I put on my sweatshirt and then pulled up the hood and added a pool towel around my shoulders…and fell back asleep sitting up in a chair. 

 The sexy reality of Super Bowl spectatorship on MUTS

 

At 8am, MUTS started broadcasting Tai Chi, and I opened my eyes to see that we were surrounded by a few people partaking in that. G went to the International Cafe to get those muesli cakes we enjoy so much and I switched to drinking hot water with lemon and the hours passed.

All the tables and chairs from the covered seating area were moved to have a clear view of the screen

Unfortunately, rain showers passed over every so often and we traded wet pool towels for dry pool towels over and over and over again and it all felt very familiar. This was definitely not our first rodeo. In fact, we were remembering back to being on the Grand Princess for the first Super Bowl ever shown on MUTS, out of Galveston in 2005. There was a huge marketing campaign, that you could watch the Super Bowl on a drive in movie-type screen on a cruise ship, and it sure sucked us in. 

Good times. 

Finally, the air started feeling even cooler and the rain became heavier and steadier. I traded out 31 pool towels (really!) as they all became soaked, and my clothes became damp in spite of the towel changes and, no, this was definitely not oh-so-much fun. But by noon the game was still more than two hours away and we looked at each other and decided to throw in the towel (haha). Two minutes later we were back in our cabin and turning up the heat and taking hot showers and willing ourselves to warm up. We hung up our wet clothes on our stretchy clothesline and it sagged under the weight of them. 

I was able to go to my ukulele class dry if still not warm, and that cheered me right up. We ended up in the Piazza today, as Club Fusion was being used for the game, and learned three more chords. Progress is being made (and my fingertips don’t hurt at all at this point)! 

We watched the first three quarters the game on our cabin TV and at that point decided to go to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room. I mentioned that it was obvious the Patriots had already lost, and G finished with “their will to live”, and yes, I expect they were maybe feeling that way but luckily for them they didn’t have the first ever shut out in Super Bowl history. But, good grief, that was one boring game. 

I wonder how those people who paid $495 for a table fared in rain.

Gloomy dinner view tonight

We dressed in our warmest clothes and ate comfort food at dinner and our resulting full bellies made the day seem much better. So did tonight’s Princess Theater show, the return of singer Gen Maldonado who we had seen at the beginning of last cruise. My God, what a voice, what a talent, what an entertainer. 

We took a peek at the dessert menu before we went to the show to determine if we wanted to return to the dining room for coffee and dessert, but we really weren’t hungry enough to do that, and so we ended our evening early, at 8pm. 

Just one more day until Hawaii, and (even better) a stable ship!

Life, even when it rains during the Super Bowl, is good. :-)