Category: Emerald Princess

First Real Sea Day

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The sidebar photo album covers both Dec 19 and 20. I have added a few of the decorations in the Atrium. The internet is rather slow so some photos may not be uploaded until we reach the islands where I can access faster service.

Thursday was our first full day on board the Emerald Princess. The ocean was a little angry last night and this morning. We have been experiencing moderately deep swells that tend to produce a corkscrewing effect on the ship which is felt much more extremely in the forward areas of the ship and the effect is amplified on the upper decks. Our accommodation is toward the aft of the ship and middle of the five major accommodation decks and the sensations, while noticeable, are not uncomfortable. We have experienced these conditions on most cruises that sail west from the coast of California.

We had breakfast in the dining room with several pleasant travellers and lunch with a fun couple from Arizona. During lunch about a dozen pods of dolphin passed the ship. To me, dolphin always seem to be laughing, even when you can’t actually hear them. I think they may be laughing at how easily we are entertained.

The ship is well decorated for Christmas with the three deck high atrium being the focus. There are numerous decorated trees, garlands wrapped around railings, a gingerbread village and some stateroom doors have been decorated by their occupants. There are decorations on some of the upper decks, particularly around entrances to food service areas.

We managed to dance a little with our two violinists, the Sun Shine Duo, and a little with our friends Elua. We keep meeting people on this cruise from previous journeys. Sometimes we are recognized, other times we recognize others. It is not uncommon to find passengers who have, like us, done this Christmas cruise one or more times. That said, there are many for whom this will be their first visit to Hawaii and others for whom this is their first cruise.

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Embarkation Day

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Ok, so we officially hate time changes—again. I suppose it is the rate of change that’s the real problem. We have travelled across two oceans by ship, no problem. The same distance by plane and it takes one day per hour of change to get back to normal. Despite the difference in time our bodies put us to sleep this night at about the same time as at home. Then we awoke feeling rested only to discover we’re still in the same time zone as we began and now have three hours to wait for 7 AM local time and seven hours until our cruise port transportation is ready.

There are some positives I suppose. Our luggage will depart ahead of us and may be waiting in our stateroom when we arrive. We also have considerable loyalty status with the cruise line so pier side checkin usually happens quickly. In retrospect what does the time change really matter? For the next two weeks we have virtually no time sensitive events on the calendar anyway. Ah yes, I remember now. It’s the reverse trip where we do have things scheduled only now our bodies are working three hours late.

We managed breakfast, cereal purchased at a nearby shop where we also purchased wine, the real reason for visiting the shop. Our suitcases were picked up before 8:30 AM but we had to wait several cups of coffee until 11:45 for our turn to travel to the port. The actual bus trip took 30 minutes, check in was over and done with in 15 minutes, the longest wait was on the gangway where the identity pictures seemed to be taking extra time. Never-the-less, approximately one hour got us from the hotel room to stateroom. Despite the head start our luggage did not beat us to the room, for that we had to wait until 2:30 PM, meanwhile we had our embarkation day cheeseburger…and ice cream. The only minor glitch was the room setup with twin beds rather than queen. The steward fixed that but as it turns out, that was how it was booked and neither of us noticed.

The evening unfolded with a couple more “glitches”. At dinner I presented one of our gift coupons for a bottle of wine. Apparently, the particular item is no longer stocked. I was offered a chardonnay as a replacement for the cab sauvignon. Really? No! When a couple of other suggestions (at least red) failed in my opinion I asked the head waiter to simply refund the value of the gift certificate to my room account. I think I could have asked the head waiter to punch the captain and he would have been less offended. Eventually, he promised he would find a suitable alternative and send it to our room. That was how it was left until about 9 PM. The knock at the door was from room service with a bottle of the Mondavi originally ordered but twice the volume. I both won and lost that battle.

Battle number two occurred a few minutes after the wine arrived when a person arrived to deal with the balky TV remote with only half of the buttons operational. He seemed incapable of understanding why I wanted to disable closed captioning, one of the failed buttons. After a brief “discussion” he ran away and returned in a few minutes with an almost completely working remote—except for the on/off button. Oh well!

Backing up a bit, during the evening we renewed acquaintance with entertainers Dave and Leialoha who are again operating the Hawaiian Cultural program on board. We missed the only performance by the Sun Shine Duo but as we exited the theatre to escape a rather unfunny comedian, we heard a voice call out to us, we turned and it was Anna, one of the two women who are the Sun Shine Duo who made us promise to come and dance with them on Thursday. 

I believe that pretty much finished the day.

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Wrap-up entry

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This wrap-up post is much later than I had planned it to be. During our trip north up the coast the application I use to minimize use of shipboard internet time became unusable for some reason and I simply postponed composing. Since returning I simply haven’t completed the task, but finally, here it is.

The trip back from San Francisco to Vancouver was two days of smooth sailing. We managed to dance our way back to the music of the Sun Shine Duo whom we got to know a little and learned they will be entertaining us again in December on our Christmas Hawaii cruise. We knew we were home as we passed under the Lions Gate bridge before dawn.

Our approach to finding a musical group on board is to determine which group plays music best for us to dance. The second criteria is the size and nature of the dance floor. A third criteria is how crowded the floor becomes. 

On this ship there are four entertainment venues where dancing is possible. The Wheelhouse bar has a small floor typically with solo or duo entertainers. The Explorers lounge has a larger floor where they frequently locate a “party band” of four or five musicians. Club Fusion has the largest dance floor which is only rarely used for dancing, sometimes with a live band and occasionally with a DJ. These three venues have wood floors. More recently dancing has been encouraged in the ship’s Atrium often referred to as the Piazza which has a ceramic floor that is harder on the feet. On this cruise the Sun Shine Duo began performing in the Piazza and  later in the Wheelhouse.

The party band and one duo played a variety of music but mostly rock and roll. We are versatile enough to dance to their music but the dance floors became overcrowded and while we enjoy dancing we do not enjoy overcrowded floors or being stepped on. The Sun Shine Duo played electronic violins, and when in the piazza tended to play more of a chamber music style. However, before dinner one evening, while entertaining in the piazza, they played a tango which Gail and I couldn’t resist. After talking with the ladies to thank them for the tango I told them that should they play “Lady in Red” we might be persuaded to dance a bolero. Later in the evening while we were listening to their music they did just that. From that time onward whenever they saw us in their audience they would play tangos or boleros for us. Fortunately for us we were almost the only couple  who danced to their music whether in the Piazza or the Wheelhouse.

Toward the end of the cruise as we were sitting in the Wheelhouse enjoying the music and dancing with the Sun Shine Duo there was a gentleman with his four year old daughter. The little girl was literally fixated on the two violinists. Occasionally, she would attempt to get her father to take her onto the dance floor but her efforts ended mostly in excited bouncing around. She also found our dancing of interest and she approached us. When I asked her name she replied: “Charmaine, with a C,” and she formed a “C” with her fingers. I offered to hold her hands and let her dance but she refused until the next evening when she was able to get approval from her Mom, after that she was good to go and here is a video clip to prove it.

Charmaine Dancing

The return flight from Kelowna to Hamilton was relatively easy. I had my first flight on a Bombardier Q400. A smaller airplane than the 737 with two seats either side of the isle and I got to sit beside one of the turboprop engines hanging below the high wing. The Rockies were clearly visible and snow covered as we approached Calgary. As we began the second segment of the return there appeared to be a brown haze over the prairie. Otherwise, the flight was uneventful until we approached Hamilton airport and found it shrouded in fog.  The pilot tried from the east and had to go around. The second try was from the west with the same result. We then took a leisurely circuit and made a third attempt, this time successful, from the west. Luggage was quickly off the plane but on the drive home I took a route to avoid most of the fog so arrival time at home was about 2 AM. Unfortunately, body was still on Pacific time. Next trip December.

  • Rockies West of Calgary
  • Prairies East of Calgary

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California

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Since Los Angeles the Emerald Princess has visited San Diego and Santa Barbara. We really had no particular interest in going ashore so we remained aboard. Today, Sunday, we arrive in San Francisco at noon and remain here until 11 PM Monday evening. There are a couple of things we may do while in port this time. As we approach the entrance to the harbour the Golden Gate bridge comes into view through the light mist so we may get a good view as we pass beneath.

The entertainment on this trip has not enthused. We enjoyed a comedian who did some shows early in the cruise but the other acts we had either seen before or were if insufficient interest to fight for a seat. For some reason on this cruise every venue seems packed. Even 30 minutes before a show seats are at a premium. We try to find a room with a dance floor and music. Thus far a duo featuring two women playing electronic violins has been of greatest interest. Most of the time they are located in the Piazza where the floor is ceramic but when they are in a room with a wood floor dancing is more enjoyable. The other groups seem more popular to others so while they fight the crowded floor we have enjoyed uncrowded floors with the Sun Shine Duo as they call themselves.

We entered San Francisco harbour sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge on a pleasant, sunny morning just before 11 AM. Many passengers out on the upper decks to see how close the ship is to the bridge. I’m not sure if some are actually anticipating a collision but there is lots of clearance. We can see a US Naval aircraft carrier pass under the bridge some distance ahead of us. I expect there will be more since this is the start of Navy Fleet Week. 

As we arrived at our pier there were two other cruise chips at their berths. Our berth was between the Holland America Volendam and the Grand Princess. The turn into the berth left no room for error as the ship appeared to pivot on the end of the pier as the bow swung into the slip. Today, Monday, Volendam and the Grand are gone and we have been joined by the Explorer of the Seas. Gone also is the sunny day seemingly promised by the beautiful sun rise. The morning has become grey, overcast and chilly but seems gradually to be improving. Indeed, the weather did improve and we got to wander around ashore.

On Sunday evening we began our dinner at a table with four other passengers and ordered a bottle of wine. Shortly thereafter our waiter returned with the news that our ship card had been “locked” and could not be used for purchases. After a little discussion we determined that this was a job for the Customer Service (formerly Purser) department. Apparently there had been a “computer glitch” which to me translates into “some idiot likely pressed the wrong button.” In our case there was no longer a record of a credit card to which on board purchases should be charged. After a trip up to our room, two stairs at a time, to retrieve said credit card for the Customer Service representative, all became right with the world once again. We returned to the dining room to resume our dinner only to find our table companions had very kindly waited for us to return. Our companions at this dinner were all from the Vancouver area as has been the case at many dinner tables. It seems that mare than two-thirds of the passengers are Canadian and most of them from within easy driving distance of the Vancouver cruise terminal.

Monday the ship remained in San Francisco. We did go ashore and walked along the Embarcadero having visited Pier 39 on Sunday and, believe it or not, purchased a couple of Christmas gifts. The area offers many touristy things to do and places to eat but what is most striking is the “grunginess” of the whole area. There are workers collecting debris but the combination of food spills, discarded chewing gum, bird droppings and other debris gives the area an uncared for appearance. In contrast, Circular Quay in Sydney, river bank walkways in Brisbane, numerous high traffic areas in Baltic countries give a cared for appearance. 

From San Francisco we sail north for two days and arrive in Vancouver on the morning of October 3. Here are a few photos.

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