Thursday, March 28, 2019. At Sea

Thursday, March 28, 2019. At Sea

Our last day at sea has finally arrived before we reach the Hawaiian Islands. We attended the enrichment lectures on Maui and Sea Turtles.  The destination expert calls himself Tiki Dave. He is actually from Boston, but has lived in Hawaii for a long time. The naturalist Mark Harris comes across as a surfer dude who happened to learn some biology when he wasn’t smoking dope in the 70’s.  Both are good speakers and gave interesting talks.  Hearing about the turtles around Hawaii gave us a better appreciation for how special it was to have seen so many sea turtles in the Galapagos.  

We had a lot of trivia contests today starting with a morning general trivia, mid-day progressive trivia, afternoon Beetles music trivia, evening “Before they were Famous” and evening Rock and Roll music trivia.  We finally saw our progressive scores and it looks like we are in 4th or 5th place out of more than 25 teams, so we are doing OK, but have left ourselves room for improvement on the return leg of the trip.  We tied for a win on the Beetles music trivia where 5 teams all got perfect scores, but we lost it on the third tie breaker because we didn’t know the year that Hey Jude was released.  

We had breakfast in the dining room, but the rest of the day, we hit the various casual venues to grab bites on the go with all the shows and activities.  

The Princess Theater production show was new to us. It as called “The Colors of the World” and it combined costumes and dances from several parts of the world with modern and hints of classical pop music.  The opening number was bollywoodesque with very interesting choreography and Indian pop music.  There were nods to the Japanese/ Chinese, Argentinians (Tango dancers), Brazilian, ancient and not so ancient Greek and American cultures.  While not quite up to the level of the troupe we recently saw on the Regal Princess, this troupe did put on a great show. We also saw an encore performance by the Soul Diva “Teacake” in the more intimate venue of the Explorer’s lounge. That was also enjoyable.  

The weather has turned noticeably warmer and the air is more humid.  The excitement around the ship is nearly palpable as we will arrive in Hilo tomorrow morning.  We are booked on a day long tour including a helicopter ride, visit to the Volcanos National Park and a winery.  We also need to set our clocks to Honolulu time tonight.