Category: Honolulu

Due South

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Some time has passed since the last post. We have sailed south into the tropics into the Society Islands of French Polynesia and these are the only Pacific Islands we will visit before our stops in New Zealand. This post is quite lengthy and you will likely need to click on the email to see the full post on the website.

Our stop in Honolulu was a welcome change from the previous couple of days. In truth, there was little good to be said for the weather after departing San Francisco. On Sunday, February 11, we are making 21 knots heading almost due south (170 degrees on the compass) in 26°C seas and 26°C air with very light seas. This is much nicer. Each day since Honolulu has been warm and sunny. The wind has intensified a little as we crossed the doldrums. Sailing ships would not find themselves becalmed in the 25 knot east wind we have this Tuesday.

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The dance floor remained almost totally horizontal Saturday evening and we enjoyed dancing until we moved to the theatre to see if the magician actually had any magic. This fellow was very entertaining. The actual illusions would never have fooled Penn and Teller but they were done with great style. He involved the first couple of rows of spectators which is one of the reasons we sit back and mostly out of reach. He kept one woman on edge after taking her ring and repeatedly failing to retrieve it from illusions that seemed to give her hope. It eventually reappeared seemingly in a ring box within the centre of an apple. Clearly, there are people who enjoy being victimized by stage performers.

On Sunday we listened to another new arrival. Gary played his violin, marched around the stage and the first several rows of the theatre. His musical skill is undeniable but his style and choice of material was less to my liking. Never-the-less, good quality. Monday evening’s guest entertainers presented one of the more interesting shows to date. This trio of vocalists, two men, one baritone and one tenor with one woman, began with a series of popular oldies, nice but nothing really special. When they performed a lengthy medley, a cappella, they became really interesting. At times each of the three was carrying a different melody, perfectly pitched, creating a complex blended harmony.

The Queens Court Orchestra gave us a very nice Dixieland set to keep Sunday evening going. As always there were pianists in some venues and other entertainers in various rooms whose only other commonality is the serving of alcoholic beverages. The photos in the Queen Elizabeth photo album may give you some idea of the public rooms around the ship. While I have not captioned many of the photos yet there will often be a sequence of photos one of which showing the name of the room. Interestingly, the casino on this ship is, apparently, equipped with slot machines purchased directly from Noah and delivered straight from the Ark, that is the opinion I have heard and I cannot speak from personal experience. It is certainly not as heavily used as on some other ships.

Saturday afternoon we found the pools. It was not that we really didn’t know their location it was just too unpleasant to bother with them. Besides, they were closed much of the time. It was a bit of fun to watch the ship’s motion create tsunamis. Fortunately, no passengers were lost in the surf. The pools and hot tubs we tried out were lovely and warm. We shall test them again on Sunday…and Monday…. We are seeing air and sea temperatures rising daily as we sail south toward French Polynesia. At our current speed I estimate we’ll reach the equator Tuesday morning. We anticipate some hi-jinx around the mid-ships pool as polliwogs are converted to shellbacks as they cross the equator for the first time. I’ll try to add some pictures  to the photo site when I have good WiFi.

On Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 0640h the ship crossed the equator, and so did we, again. King Neptune is scheduled to appear at 1400h to pass judgement on willing polliwogs. And so he did. It was a well done crossing show. King Neptune arrived with his entourage, escorted by musicians, and took his throne. Next, the polliwogs paraded and kissed the fish. Group by group polliwogs were judged guilty of such unforgivable crimes as reserving too many seats in the theatre. After the court has passed judgment they are “grunged” with sauces and pasta then plunged into the pool to complete their conversion to shellbacks. To end the show even the Captain and Entertainment Director would find themselves in the pool, The deck crew had the mess cleaned up and the pool re-opened before morning.

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On Sunday while we were in the pool we began chatting to a chap named Harry. As it turned out, he had just come aboard as an enrichment speaker who will talk about our oceans. There are a couple of other guest speakers whose subject matter we will try to ignore; the Royal Family and British Government being slightly less distasteful than the US President and Washington DC. Harry Strong wins our vote for the next few days. We shall see if the other two turn to subjects of more interest to us.

Harry’s second presentation was on the subject of sea turtles and once again both entertaining and informative. His third presentation on Tuesday described the mechanisms of ocean movement from surface waves to tsunamis. He has a very pleasant style and is easy to listen to. He will not present again until we have finished with our French Polynesia stops.

Sunday was the second formal evening, the Hawaii Ball. There were a few, women in particular, who wore colourful Hawaiian-like attire and one couple who went the “whole-nine-yards”. They must have a lot of suitcases. I think there may be one dedicated to his top hats. There are three more formals and, possibly, three more top hats. Dressing for the theme nights is quite voluntary. Dinner dress code is not, whether formal or informal, jackets are required for men and the jacket police is active.

We have a professional dance couple on the ship and their daily dance classes are quite popular, in fact the Queens Room floor is quite full. We have not been participating. To please the crowd they seem to try to teach more difficult figures for which few have adequate background technique. The couple themselves dance very well. They have presented three shows; a viennese waltz on the first formal night; a samba on the second formal night; and a jive on Monday evening which was not a formal. Dan and Alyona partner quite well, however, Dan may actually over dance her a little.

Since Sunday we have been getting decent coverage of the Winter Olympics which we have been watching from time to time and particularly at bed time. It is great to see the cold from our tropical location. We have also been kept up to date on Canadian news headlines, by way of a four page news brief called “The Canadian” delivered every day with our Daily Programme. I have also seen a Britain Today so I suspect there is a similar update for most countries represented on board.

Tuesday evening there was an opportunity to dance on on an empty dance floor. The seems to occur when there is a recorded music set after a sequence dance set. At these times we can really enjoy the big floor. As we began to leave the floor a full tempo viennese waltz began. Not being comfortable with viennese waltz Gail suggests I dance with Cecelia, a lady from Ottawa with whom I have danced a couple of times before. I can add her to the list of partners with whom I have done a five minute VW.  Wednesday evening as the Valentine’s Ball so empty floor space may be at a premium, but we were able to see rumba show dance from Dan and Alyona. Once again, they were spectacular. After their show we were able to enjoy the floor for a while.

 Thursday we are at anchor in Bora Bora. The ship’s tenders have begun taking passengers to the shore to connect with early tours. We have no scheduled tours but decided not to sweat our way to shore in the tenders

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 Friday brings us alongside in Papeete. Once again it is tropical as expected. Before landing I had thought we had previously visited her but once on shore nothing seemed familiar. The harbour here shows much more commercial activity than in Bora Bora.

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We sailed out of Papeete Friday evening at 11 PM and dropped anchor in Moorea at 7 AM Saturday, The two points are about 20 miles apart, line of sight, However, we may have sailed over 150 miles before arriving. 

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Arrived in Honolulu

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We have not seen all the entertainment offered on this sailing but what we have seen has been quite good. With a little effort I might be able to identify them by name but since it is doubtful you would know any of them anyway I won’t make the effort. We saw a brief performance from the on board dance troupe but last night’s performance was cancelled because we were bouncing like a cork. A comedian who has been on since San Francisco did a full show rather than sharing with the dancers and had most of us laughing  uproariously. We also had a guest entertainer who played piano rather well. For his closing number he took about 20 song titles from the audience then sat down and played a medley of all the tunes. There are also staff musicians including a harpist, a string quartet, at least two more pianists, a Caribbean band, the Queens Court orchestra that accompanies guest performers and the Queens Room orchestra that plays dance sets. 

There is a large dance floor on the Queen Elizabeth and we have enjoyed dancing several evenings. More than half of the time the dance floor is open recorded dance music is played, this is when we dance the most. The orchestra that plays exclusively in the Queens Room tends to attract more of an audience and the dance floor becomes uncomfortably crowded. We dance only occasionally with the orchestra. I fear I made myself a little unpopular with the orchestra Wednesday evening. Several members of the orchestra sat behind the stage curtain playing warm up exercises on their instruments while the pre-recorded music was playing for the dancers and it was quite distracting. I kind of went behind the curtain and told them to be quiet. I guess I’ll be on their naughty list.

The entertainment provided by the artist Philip Gray has been quite fascinating. We have been privileged to watch him develop three canvases. I assume it is common practice for artists to cover their canvas initially and develop the image over the base coat. Philip has been using members of his audience to apply paint randomly to these three canvases after which he creates an image as if by magic. Here are some side-by-side photos showing his work.

Painting 1

 

Painting 2

 It was amazing to watch Philip turn random splotches of paint into spectacular scenes. The images here cannot display the beauty of his work. However, you won’t be seeing any of it coming home with us either. If you need to ask the price you can’t afford it.

 

The last two days before making port in Honolulu were very rough. We didn’t even try to get on the dance floor, by Friday evening Gail was not feeling well and the seas were even starting to bother me. Overnight the sky cleared and we have a beautifully sunny day here in Honolulu.

We got off the ship as early as we could and walked the 10 minutes to a nearby Wal Mart where we picked up some supplies. We had planned to do this before leaving, It meant we didn’t have to pack a few things, like coffee. We planned to buy coffee in Australia and brought filters with us. The coffee on the ship is so pathetic we moved the plan forward.

There are quite a few photos on the photo site that I don’t show here. Check the previous post if you need to refresh your memory on how to get to them. This may be the last day with really good internet access before Auckland. I will get a few posts done I’m sure but unless I find good WiFi in French Polynesia I’ll be limited to ship’s Internet which is rather sad. 

So, here you have it.

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…A Palm Tree Christmas…

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We’re in Honolulu. There are palm trees all around. It must be Christmas. We’ve seen evidence of the snow in Burlington and learned from another passenger of the -40C temperature in Winnipeg.
Past versions of this Christmas cruise managed to fit the four ports in between Christmas day and New Year’s Day. Not so this time. While very little was open in Hilo, being a Sunday, all of the tours were operating. However, all of the most popular tourist attractions in Honolulu are closed on Christmas Day.
We spent some time ashore just walking in the sun looking for a decorated palm tree. This was what we found.
Diamond Head just fits between the towers.

Later in the afternoon youthful Hula dancers captured hearts.

The late evening departure let us see the Aloha Tower, once Honolulu’s tallest building.

Kaui on Tuesday.

Four days, four islands

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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