Category: At Sea

I’m starting this on New Year’s Eve. Preparations are underway for midnight on the ship. However, we can begin celebrations at 4 PM since there will be a recognition of the Zero Meridian New Year.

We shall see if I can include a picture of the balloons dropping at midnight ship time.
The “Brits” on board just celebrated with their homeland.

The next event is dinner on the last formal evening and the menu included lobster.
We spent the last evening of 2017 watching the show “Born to Dance” and actually dancing. We did say welcome to 2018 and the balloon drop.

Happy 2018 to all.

We are, somewhat reluctantly, eastbound toward the mainland. Officially, there is one more port, Ensenada, Mexico. It’s not one that interests us.
The Cruise Director’s try to make the return trip as much of a party as possible. New Year’s Eve is the party target. We have to decide whether we will celebrate the New Year at midnight ship time or Eastern time.
A couple of galley staff did the traditional ice carving. A fascinating if temporary art form.

This morning there is yet another art auction. Personally, if I were interested in purchasing art a cruise ship auction would not be my first choice. I suppose there is a money to intelligence ratio required for such purchases. I guess the art sales, bars and casinos create the profits.
Three groups of passengers continue to prepare for performances. Some participate in a choir, others learn ukulele, still others learn hula. All will be on stage during the final days of the cruise.
We have found two groups that play danceable music, so when we are not at a show of some kind we can be found dancing. The Janos quartet has been fun.

More in 2018.
Happy New Year

We travel from Los Angeles to Hilo, Hawaii in about 5 days on the sea. By air it would be less than 5 hours. I’d be surprised if Captain Cook could have made the voyage in 5 weeks Amelia Earhart must have needed 25 hours (guess) for the trip. Of all these I find the cruise ship to be the most civilized. Perhaps if owned my own jetliner I might feel differently.

It is common for the first two sea days out of LA to be rougher than the next two days approaching the Hawaiian Islands. This time day three has been the roughest although by no means difficult sailing. Apparently there have been storms over Hawaii responsible for rain and several feet of snow atop Mauna Kea and this is the source of today’s weather at sea. With a bit of luck our time on the islands will find good weather.

I find this time at sea provides opportunity’s for socializing while air travel always seems to be antisocial.

On cruise ships people actually converse on elevators, in lounges and while dining. Ok, end of Philosophy 001.

Passengers and crew continue to decorate the ship. Stateroom doors display Christmas themes and many passengers wear sweaters and/or flashing lights. Christmas trees have been popping up all around the ship and suddenly the gingerbread village appeared.

Sunday, Hilo, our first port of call.

There may be some who can relax or de-stress whenever or wherever but others may need to extract from their normal lives. We find cruising to be that opportunity to do nothing, guilt free.

At the moment we are in the Pacific Ocean west of California.

The view from our room reminds us of nothing that must be accomplished today. Perfect for a stressless day.

Dr. Sharon Faff, our on board naturalist, and Dave Soref, known as “Tiki Dave”, Hawaiian cultural entertainer, both of whom we have met before, make interesting daily presentations. Both offer insight into historical, cultural and geological aspects of the islands.

Gail is once again taking hula lessons from Leialoha along with at least 50 other passengers. I decided not to participate, I may later explain why.

The evening entertainment is turning out to be quite to our liking. Elua, the Hawaiian cultural duo, is performing and usually packs any venue they play. The Janos quartet has been great and able to play most dance styles well.

We finished the evening with the comedian who is a good value. He is one who plays almost entirely off the audience. He enjoys enlisting the help of his audience to help harass late arrivals.

We were delighted by the floral arrangement that found its way into our room while we were out.

Thanks Ian and Abi.

Tomorrow’s another day.