Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

January 31,2017

It’s the third of 5 sea days and the seas have been rough. Today is a bit calmer but it is really amazing to watch the waiters balancing trays with many plates as they move from side to side. Everyone is doing the “motion of the ocean” dance!

Last night we had a really funny ventriloquist, Mark Merchant.  He will do another show in a few days and everyone is looking forward to it – he had everyone laughing out loud! At the end of his act, he had the dummy singing a some while he drank wine.  Don’t know for a second how he can do that!

Here’s a shot of the sunset as we left Honolulu on Saturday. The sunrises and sunsets are always beautiful, too beautiful to really capture in a photo, but we try anyway.

Again, the sea days are full of things to do, I had one first place and one third place in the blackjack tournaments, still working on the needlepoint and doing the lectures and cooking demos and trying to decide on another square for the quilt. It might be a Komodo dragon when we reach that port. In the meantime, Norm is working on his third square!. He has a reputation for being a good stitcher now!. The latest one is Cartagena, Columbia.  Will post a pic when he is done.

I have developed a nasty cough and did see the doctor yesterday.  On meds and sound much worse than I actually feel.  Many people are coughing and because we really have to use the handrails with the motion of the ship, it is impossible to wash hands frequently enough.

We had dinner with Anna and David Smith last evening. Anna is the quilt coordinator and David is the photography lecturer. They are from British Columbia and we met them on the last cruise. Anna had gone to the lei making class (while I was at the blackjack tournament) and she presented me with this lei as we went into the dining room!

And here’s Norm in another color shirt.. Sandy said he is wearing too much beige and khaki! He takes this feedback seriously!

In one of the cooking demos, Jorg, the executive chef, introduced the sous chefs.  In all these are 60 chefs in the kitchens here. They all  have very specific duties.  Today’s cooking demo featured Jorg  and Helena who is the pastry chef. They made a black forest cake, crepe Suzette and lemon meringue tarts. As I have mentioned many times, the food is absolutely wonderful.

 
They are going to show the super bowl on the ship and will have a betting pool and some traditional tailgating foods. The game will start here at 1:22 PM.

So now we are down to two more sea days until we arrive in Nuka Hiva  in the Marquesas.  I am sure we will have the equatorc rossing ceremony on Thursday, which of course we have done many times before.  Always fun though.

January 29, 2017

As I probably mentioned before, we booked a private tour with fellow passengers on Cruise Critic several months ago.  It was a photography tour, not that you had to be a photographer, but the plan was to spend 5 and a half hours going to the most scenic places at the best times for spectacular photos.  We were meeting the other 6 passengers at Baristas on deck 5- the coffee bar.  At breakfast, the ship was definitely tilting one way, and we could see the shore, so we assumed that the stabilizers were off in preparation for docking at the port. As we prepared to meet our group, Norm said “we have turned away from the port”.  We were scheduled to dock at 8 and it was already just past 8. Sure enough within a few minutes, the captain came on the speaker and announced that the pilot had come on board, but due to wind of 40 knots, the port was closed and we were back at sea on our way to Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia, now 5 days at sea away.

So, a revised schedule of activities was prepared and we are enjoying a day at sea.  Seas are not too rough and the sun is beautiful.  Disappointing but not much you can control. We hadn’t been to this island before.

So a bit about what we were going to do.

Kauai is called the Garden Island and is a tropical paradise with rainforests, waterfalls and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, they say…my comments will need to wait till next time! It is the oldest and northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain. We were particularly looking forward to seeing Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Many movies were filmed here including Blue Hawaii, Diamond Head and Jurassic Park.  Parts of the island are only accessible by boat or helicopter.

So, since we didn’t go, I will add a few things about our excursion yesterday and what we learned from our excellent guide:

Torpedoes… Norm included for scale. These babies are huge.

The clock tower at the port of Honolulu

• Many Japanese Americans in Hawaii were fiercely loyal to the US and enlisted in the armed forces.  Because it was feared that they would be mistaken for the enemy, they were sent to fight in Europe and their regiment became one of the most decorated in the war.
• There is a fairly large Chinatown here and our guide said not to to ever go here at night.  After about 3 PM stores close and the area is overrun with crime and as she put it “sidewalk stewardesses” – a term for prostitutes that I have never heard before.
• Real estate is expensive on this island.  A modest apartment sells for an average of $719,000 while the average income is $54,000.  Real estate is much less expensive on the other islands but there is little work there. Good for retired people, she says.
• In the Cemetery of the Pacific, the Punch bowl, there are small religious symbols on the stones.  There are 64 different religions represented.  The stones are laid flat to make it easy to maintain the beauty of the place.  The stones that are together are brothers. 38 sets of brothers were at Pearl Harbor and 23 sets of them died.  One of the brothers of the remaining pairs died as well and only one full set survived.
• Honolulu has the largest outdoor shopping center in America- 300 stores.  We didn’t go there! On purpose.
• 953,000 people live here and it has the 3rd worst traffic in America.  We were glad it was Saturday.  It can take 2 1/2 hours to travel 20 miles.

These cranes were made by a 12 year old girl to commemorate peace after the atomic bomb.  They became a worldwide symbol of peace.

Tonight we are having dinner in the Italian restaurant, Toscana, and will have Jade Milian and Samuel E at the show performing the music of Whitney Houston.  We heard them on our previous cruise and really enjoyed the show. Lots of things to do on sea days and we have several dinner plans with friends.  Meeting new people who boarded yesterday as well.

So again, stay tuned!

January 26, 2017

At last, we arrive in Hilo tomorrow!. The past two days at sea have brought 80 degree weather and much calmer seas. This is especially good for the people who depart the first segment in Honolulu on Saturday since we have had those rough sea days.  Lots of people by the pool today and we enjoyed breakfast and lunch outside on the terrace.  We probably will have dinner outside too as it is a Pan-Asian theme tonight, and we love the food of that region.  Of course all of the food is terrific, it really is known as the best at sea.

We are now 5 hours behind east coast time and it seems strange that it is already afternoon at home when we are having breakfast.

Here is a photo from San Diego that Marie took.  For some reason it wouldn’t download the first time so she kindly sent it again. The ship on the left is our ship, the Insignia.  The one on the right is the Star Princess which is  4 times as big!

We have been busy on the sea days as usual.  We both finished our first quilt squares.  As I posted before, Norm did the Around the World logo and I did the square representing Nicaragua.  He is getting lots of compliments as so far he is the only man who is participating! Maybe others will be inspired.  Norm is now going to do Petra and I am still deciding.

Here are some of the other squares that people are working on.  The one with the clothesline uses the little clothespins that we get on the miso glazed sea bass wrapped in a hoba leaf, a lovely dinner item. In the background are the tags that are put on our clothes when they go to the laundry- our suite number.  Sukey has been collecting them from many of us for this project.

  
We have been going to the enrichment lectures by Dan Ostler www.ostler.com

He did one on whales, one on sea turtles and todays was on Pearl Harbor.  Very interesting, as he is so well prepared and knowledgeable.  A couple of things I didn’t know- whales are able to use only half their brains when they are sleeping.  Sea turtles return to the same beach that they were hatched from 20 years later when they lay their eggs.  Sometimes this can be a swim of 1500 miles or more.  No one knows how they remember, but they do!

We also had a session with some of the senior staff where they answered questions from the guests.  There were lots of questions and I won’t try to write about all of them.  We did learn that this ship uses 1500 eggs and 200 pounds of butter a day!

Last evening we were invited to dinner with Chantelle from Brisbane, Australia – the Oceania Club ambassador, and Rohanca from Cape Town, South Africa, the Destinations manager.  Joining us were sisters Mary and Georgina who were on the last world cruise with us.  It was a really fun evening.  We learned that the 2018 world cruise is already sold out! They will be announcing the itinerary for 2019 in about a month, so stay tuned.

About Hawaii- native Hawaiians believe that the first hula was performed by a god or goddess.  Because of this, it is considered more as a sacred ritual than a form of entertainment. The movements of the hands and body have specific meanings. They may represent animals, plants and even war.

The local cuisine (which we will have tomorrow at the world cruise special event in Hilo) reflects the settlement and immigration in the Hawaiian Islands. Pineapple is still a major crop here.  Who knows why but Spam is popular here and is referred to as the Hawaiian steak! They consume the most Spam per capita in the US.  I won’t be having any of that, thank you!

The plate lunch (called loco moco) is two scoops of rice, American macaroni salad topped with a hamburger patty, a fried egg and brown gravy.  No thank you on that one too.  We do have the menu for tomorrow’s event but I will wait to post it after the event. No Spam or loco moco on it.

We have seen several good shows during these sea days too, Colleen Williamson was an especially good singer.  Tonight, though, is the guest/crew talent show.  Who knows what we might see. Last cruise there were some pretty crude joke tellers!!!

Ok, onward to Hilo.  We have visited the big island of Hawaii twice and have been to Hilo.  We will explore in the morning and we leave for the event at 1:15. 

January 23, 2017

We are on the second day of 5 sea days on our way to Hawaii.  Sea days are always full of activities from golf putting to Baggo  bean to classes of every kind. There are two different people doing photography classes and they are sharing a lot of editing techniques and iPhone/iPad tips. They are also having a photo contest.  We each submitted and will see the results just before we reach Hawaii.  David Smith, one of the photography lecturers, was on our previous cruise, and at the class showing the contest submissions, he always provides feedback on the submissions which is really useful. We have never won, but we learn each time.

The weather has been quite rough, with waves of 25 feet.  It has not bothered us but many are not feeling well and none of the venues or classes is full.  Yesterday we kept up with the football scores.  The games were not broadcast but Sky sports showed excerpts so we knew what was happening.  There happen to be a lot of disappointed Green Bay fans on board as it turns out.  Not us, we have no preference really.  Well as long as Dallas is OUT we are happy.    We hear they will show the super bowl in the theater though.  What I miss is the Australian Open.  I keep up with the scores on the internet but nothing is broadcast here.  Of course, I am always rooting for Federer.

Our performers for last night could not go on due to the rocking of the ship, so they showed a movie instead.  And today they showed Captain Fantastic in the afternoon.  Being the movie/TV junkie that I am, I went and even missed the blackjack tournament!  Interesting movie.  Last night was Bridget Jones’s Baby.  Have to admit I nodded out in that one.

Norm chose our room well.  We are right in the middle of the ship so the movement is much less here than on either end.  

Here is a picture of Norm and Ed Beck after our afternoon visit in San Diego. We had such a good time catching up.

I am continuing to work on my needlepoint and my quilt square, will probably complete the quilt square in the next day or so and will take another picture then.  In the maantime, Norm has decided to do one.  Anna, the coordinator of the project, suggested he do the Around the World in 180 days logo.  So he took on the challenge.  Here is his work so far.

We are also doing some good reading as the library on this ship is wonderful.  Our kindles are loaded and neither of us has turned them on.  I am now reading All the Light We Cannot See and just finished Hillbilly Elegy.  Highly recommend both.

And meeting more new people every day.  This morning I chatted with someone who had on a Long Beach Island sweatshirt.  She and her husband vacation there, and the friends they are traveling with are from Philadelphia.

Apparently there have been quite a few falls with the rocking of the ship.  Every time the cruise director makes an announcement, he reminds people to use the handrails.  We heard that someone fell off a stool in the casino too.  They took someone off by ambulance in San Diego, don’t know the reason for that one. I have to admire the waiters, they look like they are dancing as they balance the dishes and meals.

Yesterday I also missed the blackjack tournament for a great reason… the first of many hot stone massages.  Just a wonderful and relaxing 80 minutes.

So, all is well on this first leg of our journey.  We have a special Around the World event in Hilo, hoping for sunny skies.  It was to be in the Volcanos National Park, but they have had an eruption, so it will be in an event center next to the park.  Stay tuned for all the details!