Photos and video

With the Christmas and New Years cruise complete we returned home to frigid temperatures but, mercifully, no snow.  Since returning I have uploaded photos. While onboard I did an initial upload of a few low resolution images but the high resolution images were too taxing for the shipboard wifi so I decided to wait until now when I could place captions on each photo and replace the lo-res images. Since we did only one tour while away this album does not really show much of the islands, sorry.

In this post I have included several short videos below and this link to the complete Photo Album.

Champagne Waterfall – a shipboard tradition

Santa Arrives for the young children.

There were about 500 children and teens on this cruise

“There be whales Captain”

I did not bring any long range cameras with me so this is just proof of the existence of humpback whales. There were many whales and several calves in the shallow waters around Maui.

Leialoha’s Hula class – “Hawaiian Lullaby”

During sea days, Leialoha teaches several hulas to willing passengers. On the final day they perform in the main theatre.

Hula and Ukelele “I Wanna Go Back to My Little Grass Shack”

Leialoha’s husband, “Tiki Dave” teaches ukulele to willing passengers and they too perform solo and as accompaniment for the hula dancers.

More Hula and Ukelele “Aloha Oye”

This was the finale performance.

Spontaneous hula breakout in the Wheelhouse lounge.

“I Wanna Go Back to My Little Grass Shack” (clip)

While Leialoha and “Tiki Dave” entertained in the Wheelhouse lounge several of the hula dancers ran out to do a spontaneous performance.

This concludes posts for this tour. We have no dates yet for future tours, however, you’ll find them here when they happen.

————————— Aloha and mahalo for following along ————————–

 

The voyage home

There is a naturalist on board for this trip who has spent several hours educating us about animals in Hawaii and volcanos. Her session on whales was timed to coincide with our visit to Maui with its many whale watching tours. The island of Hawaii (the big island) is actually the most massive volcano on our planet because, like ice bergs, the biggest part is below the water, nearly 20,000 feet below the surface. I suppose I really did know this but having it pointed out again reinforced the idea that as we sail across the Pacific Ocean there may be some future island emerge anywhere in this ocean. Don’t worry, it’ll take a few million years. However, it piques my curiosity about the things happening on the ocean floor about which we know very little and sail obliviously across its surface.

There is also a woman on board giving talks on astronomical topics. We attended only one presentation as her presentation technique puts me to sleep and there is nothing I can do about it. There were tentative plans for some astronomical observation on deck but there has been so much cloud cover that no observation has been possible. 

There have been a few notable incidents while on board. Some are hearsay and difficult to confirm however, we have spoken directly with several passengers who missed our San Pedro departure because of flight delays. Although they might have been able to board the ship in Ensenada, Princess brought them to Honolulu where they remained until the ship arrived, six days later. What has been more difficult to determine is who paid for the alternate arrangements. That seems to depend upon who booked the flight and what kind of trip interruption insurance was purchased. It is also reasonably certain that the ship departed Nawiliwili, Kauai without a family of four who were able to rejoin in Hilo, Hawaii. There are unconfirmed rumours of more than one passenger leaving the ship early for health reasons. There are always accidents and health conditions that arise and change carefully laid plans. 

Monday morning, January 2, 2017 finds us about 700 nautical miles west of Los Angeles sailing at about 18 knots and on schedule for an 06:15 arrival at San Pedro. We were a little surprised to find US Customs declaration cards in our morning mail since we had been visited by Homeland Security folks who we arrived in Honolulu. In retrospect we were not asked to declare goods during that process so I suppose there is sone logic to doing so now.

There have been some very impressive solo performers on this cruise.  John Bressler is a husky voiced performer who’s piano stylings of 50s, 60s and other memorable melodies have been no less than spectacular. He mixes his music with personal stories and humour. He occasionally castigates himself for talking too much but it fits his act. The illusionist, Ben Seidman, is a master at slight of hand done close up with video cameras and audience participants within inches of his hands. The most impressive elements of his act is the finale where he reveals details of things that happened during the act by opening envelopes and other containers that have, seemingly, been sealed since before the performance began. One of his credits is a performance on Penn and Teller’s “Fool Me” but, presumably, he did not fool them or that would most certainly have been included in the credits.

Our friends Dave Soref and Leialoha Kini perform variously as Tiki Dave and ELUA focusing on Hawaiian music as well as pop favourites. Dave teaches ukulele classes and Leialoha teaches hula. Together they teach lei making. They are billed, deservedly, as the Hawaiian Cultural Ambassadors.

We have met many interesting people at meals, in lounges and, of course, hot tubs. There are several other excellent dancers including one young gentleman from Calgary who has competed internationally at the highest level. 

As we approach Los Angeles the weather remains overcast but the sea is relatively calm. It has been another enjoyable time at sea.

Here are a few final photos. I will push a bunch up to the photo album once at home.

It may be the end of the cruise but definitely not the end of the food.

IMG 1441IMG 1442

And the best performance of the cruise, ukulele masters and hula masters.

 

IMG 1458

———————————— 30 ———————————— 

Four days, four islands

The itinerary for this cruise was different. Historically, the first port has been Honolulu; Ensenada the last. This time Ensenada was the first port. There were two significant implications of this. First, the good news. Christmas Day would occur while we were at sea and not while we were in port at Honolulu. Christmas day in port would have been disaster for tours because of closures. December 26 was much preferred for tour operations although we discovered that some attractions were either closed or open for only a limited time. There was a second implication. We would, because of the stop in Mexico, be re-entering the USA upon arrival in Honolulu. I’m sure this seemed like a problem to no-one but that is not how many passengers perceived it. On paper everything worked out perfectly with passengers scheduled on early tours being processed first by US Immigration officials followed by all other passengers whose times were organized by their deck of residence. Unfortunately, immigration processing began 30 to 40 minutes later than planned. Before any of the tour passengers were processed two additional decks of passengers were queued up. The queue extended the length of the ship for most of three hours. Needless to say, I suppose, there was considerable poor language choices among frustrated passengers. For some of us, with no need for an early departure, people watching became interesting entertainment.

We left the ship, which was berthed at pier 2, around noon by which time we had abandoned our plans to dance at the Palladium, not because of the immigration delay but more to give Gail’s shoulder more time to improve, which it is doing—slowly. We have been dancing a little on the ship but we felt that an extended two hour or more dance might prove to be a setback. Our day on shore turned into a walk around the port area only to find that the once bustling shopping concourse at pier 4 (where we have berthed before) had become a ghost town leaving only a Barnes & Nobel, a Hooters and one other restaurant/bar where there had once been up to 50 shops. At the conclusion of our meanderings we returned to pier 2 with plans to take a shuttle to the Ala Moana shopping centre since we could find no pharmacy near the ship. It was at the pier 2 passenger terminal where I was to become a temporary vending machine repairman. Several attempts to get it to release a bottle of water produced absolutely no effect except for messages on a tiny screen that read sequentially: Make Payment — Make Selection — Purchase Cancelled. There was product in the machine, I could see it and I was going to get it.

While Gail was unsuccessfully trying to get some assistance from the few official looking people in the area (in fact there was barely sympathy), I stepped up my attack on the machine. Observation 1: buttons 1, 4, and 7 on the machine’s keypad don’t beep when pressed to make a selection. Observation 2: cells in the dispensing mechanism with a 1, 4, or 7 in there designation were full while those without were mostly sold out. Observation 3: attacking the machine with a shoulder turned on some lights and initiated whirring sounds from the machine. Ah ha. Attack plan formed. Shoulder into the machine (lights on), Make Payment (seems ok) Make Selection (hmmm 59 has product), buzz, berp, whirr, clank. Water bottle dispensed and proudly in hand i returned, to where Gail was chatting with a friendlier than average security agent, victorious.

IMG 1364

Thirst quenched, we boarded the Hilo Hatties shuttle to take us to the Ala Moana centre. It was only 2.5 km from the pier but riding seemed to be the choice. We were met by a friendly representative from Hilo Hatties, presented with an identifying shell lei after which she attempted to lead bus passengers through the parking lot, into the shopping centre and then to Hilo Hatties. I fear she arrived at the store alone. Bus passengers vanished into the crowd of shoppers. I hope she wasn’t being paid by the number of shuttle passengers she was able to deliver to the Hilo Hatties store. We never actually located the store while we were there, not that we tried very hard.

Our visit to Maui saw the sun dominate and produce temperatures in the mid to high 70s F. perhaps reaching 24 C. Tendering to the island was a bit hectic for those on early tours. We went ashore just after noon and did not have to wait at all. About 2:15 PM we boarded a 50 foot (16 m) catamaran and sailed out into the Maui channel, an area between the several islands that were once a single island. The water depth there is 300 ft. (90 m) or less and is ideal for humpback whales to give birth. During the two hours we were on the water we saw 100 or so sightings of what appeared to be several groups of whales including at least one calf. The boats observed the required distance and the whales didn’t seem to approach any of the craft with watchers.

IMG 1382

The last tender was scheduled to return to the Star Princess at 4:30 PM. We returned to our slip at about 4:15 to find nearly 1,000 passengers waiting for the 4:30 tender which holds a maximum of 150. Things went reasonably well until just after 5:00PM when the berths Princess was using to handle two tenders became occupied by a dinner cruise vessel, the Maui Princess. Another single berth became available and the remaining passengers were shuttled back to the ship. All-in-all our departure was delayed by about 1.5 hours. I guess everyone wanted to take full advantage of a really lovely day on a beautiful green island. Contributing to much of the green was a single banyan tree which covered most of a city block. Banyans, like mangroves and some fig trees, spread by dropping aerial roots from extended limbs. Each root cluster becomes another tree trunk which extends further and further. The canopy on this grove virtually covered an entire city block.

The vocal entertainment this evening was a very enjoyable group named “The Modern Gentlemen”. Apparently they have toured with Frankie Valli and did quite passable interpretations of several other groups including “The Beach Boys” and others of the same era. Their first two selections had me checking the way to the exit but the third was done a capella which seemed to inspire them. The remainder of the performance was close to spectacular.

Nawiliwili is the port used on the island of Kauai. It is primarily an industrial port with no services at the terminal. There are numerous shuttle busses available sponsored by merchants such as Hilo Hatties, K-Mart, WalMart and others. There is a beach and shopping plaza within a 10 minute walk of the terminal. There is also a small beach within the harbour that provides a few surfable waves. The plaza provided a place to resupply with macadamia nuts. The beach park served as home to numerous Kauai chickens. They are most evident in Kauai although I believe that are quite common on the other islands too. At one point a rooster and a hen scurried across the road herding nearly a dozen chicks. Doves are everywhere on the islands but today I saw a pair of red headed woodpeckers and managed to get a photo of one before the pair flew away. The ship departed right on time but just before departure a family of four was asked to check-in with the Purser (now called Passenger Services) which is usually a sign that they have not returned. Passenger gossip suggests they did not return before departure and since the port of Nawiliwili is restricted to daylight operation no longer delay could be tolerated. 

IMG 1392IMG 1398

It’s raining in Hilo! I think the Pacific Ocean is down a bit and the rain is trying to refill it. For the time being we are sitting in a night club at the top of the ship watching the rain gutters overflow. Actually there are no rain gutters. We once considered going ashore as the rain seemed to have stopped but by the time we got to the gangway the rain was heavy again so we cancelled Hilo and went to the hot tubs.

Next, five days at sea back to Los Angeles.

————————— 30 ———————————

On the sea, on the sea…on the beautiful sea.

Merry Christmas!

It is day 6, Christmas Day, our final sea day before arriving in Honolulu and it is warm if a bit overcast. I enjoy sea days, not because they are filled with activity but because they are at sea and there is little else that confirms how truly small and helpless we are. Our 110 thousand ton ship sails her course at the whim of the ocean and the weather. The Pacific Ocean at its calmest flicks at us with waves that the ship is powerless to resist. We maintain our 21 knot pace toward Honolulu on faith that the ship’s navigator will bring the ship to its intended destination. There is nothing visible that is convincing proof we are going to Hawaii. 

The first two nights aboard the Star Princess takes us well off the coast of North America. The weather remained cool and partially overcast, those seeking suntans had to wait. The sea was relatively calm but the swells were sufficient to give us a gentle rolling motion which I always find rather pleasant.

The barista who served me our second morning wake-up coffee was a Jamaican lad who is living in Toronto when not on the ships. I was wearing a Blue Jays T-shirt so he made me apologize for their early departure from the baseball post season. He served me with a smile in spite of the baseball failure. When I returned to the room I found Gail happy because she seemed to get her first complete night’s sleep of the trip. 

Wednesday evening we enjoyed dancing for the first time since Gail injured her shoulder before we left home. She was still experiencing some discomfort but managed brilliantly while avoiding expressive arm motions. There are several very good dance couples on this cruise, particularly a younger couple from Calgary who have clearly been in competition. There are also several couples who use enthusiasm to make up for their technique. Everyone seems to share the floor happily. The ship’s orchestra played a set that was very danceable and there are two other groups that will provide enjoyable, danceable entertainment.

Sea days are good to meet people, read and enjoy the hot tub. Still too cool for the pool but the weather is improving as we move west. Gail was able to participate in the hula class without too much discomfort so that is good news. Late this afternoon I glanced out the cabin window to see more whitecap like splashes than should have been there. A closer look and there was a pod of dolphin. Over the next several minutes at least four more pods passed along the ships starboard side and off into the distance. Their appearance was over so quickly no photos were possible The evening was busy with the hula dancers (students) hijacking the Wheelhouse much to everyone’s delight. 

Saturday morning was the first true evidence of warm weather. Seas were almost flat and winds very light. The sun was bright with only a few scattered clouds. We have been wandering on deck off and on since finishing breakfast. There are a couple of speakers on board that add interest. One is an astronomer and the other a naturalist. Today we learned that we should wear expendable clothes while whale watching in Maui. Apparently clothes need to be burned after a whale sneezes on you. Christmassy things are all around including people with strange, illuminated elf like costumes. The spa pool was enjoyable this afternoon but we still followed it with some time in the hot tub. The hot tubs are great places to meet people. Because of the number of Californians on this cruise it is becoming a point of honour to check everyone’s home and to cheer when an entire group is from places other than California. 

Christmas Eve included carol singing, amusing costumes and a generally Christmas atmosphere, or as much as possible for those of us who normally associate the season with cold weather and snow, neither of which we have. Although there were artificial snowflakes falling on the carollers in the atrium. On Christmas morning the strongest evidence of the day was the arrival of Santa for the children at about 10 AM. There are apparently about 500 children aboard and their presence has been the source of numerous smiles. Tonight most of us will dress formally for dinner and the evening’s activities.

————————————— 30 —————————————

IMG 1343IMG 1345