Day 13: 20231005 Thursday, October 5, 2023- At Sea Hawaii to Tahiti

 Day 13:  20231005 Thursday, October 5, 2023- At Sea Hawaii to Tahiti

As we are headed nearly due south from Hawaii to Tahiti, the sun rises on our side of the ship(port).  This is good because it gives us an incentive to work on getting or staying on an earlier schedule, and because when the sun is on our balcony, it is during the cooler part of the day, so we can actually sit out on the balcony and do a little sun bathing when the sun’s rays are not burning hot.  It has gotten very warm with the air temperature in the high 80’s˚F and matching humidities in the mid 80’s%.  The weather has been calmer regarding the wind and seas, so the ship is sailing a lot more smoothly than earlier in the cruise.  These may have been the conditions that lead Magellan to name this the Pacific Ocean.  It is quite a contrast to the conditions we saw between Vancouver and San Francisco.  

Ben’s cold has continued to rapidly improve, but to be safe, he repeated a Covid test, and it was again negative.  Janet has started noticing some congestion similar to Ben’s earliest symptoms, but so far, no fever or other systemic symptoms.  As we wander around the ship, it is apparent that a lot of the ship has been going through this respiratory virus.  It was somewhat refreshing not to have had many bugs since the Pandemic shut things down two years ago.  We usually got at least one cold during or shortly after returning from other cruises.  Most people have learned to mask or cover their coughs since the Pandemic, although there are a few clearly raised by wolves.  

Our morning and afternoon trivias went well.  We were one point behind the lead on the progressive trivia after the first day, and today’s progressive was seemingly easy as we achieved a perfect score.  One thing about the trivia programs is they do keep us intellectually motivated and engaged.  When was saw an ABBA trivia was coming up, we brushed up on our ABBA. There is usually a soundtrack playing over the ship’s PA in most public areas that features popular music and we can’t help think “Who is the artist, and what is the name of that song” when a new song comes on.  

Surf 'N Turf

Rasperry Lychee Mousse

After dinner there was a James Bond Trivia so we spent some of our spare time brushing up on our James Bond knowledge.  It paid off because we actually won that tonight as a couple.

The Princess Theater showtime was an instrumentalist/vocalist Craig Richard who sang, played the guitar, and played the saxophone.  He is from Colorado and his back story includes becoming an American Ninja Warrior finalist, but in the last round of the competition, he said it felt like his whole body just fell apart.  It was worse than Simone Bile’s developing the twisties during the Tokyo Olympics.  He fell into a depression but was eventually diagnosed with lyme’s disease, which responded to treatment.  Then while training to climb El Capitan, he fell and shattered one of his legs.  He had to crawl out of a canyon over 18hrs to self rescue.  Granted, he didn’t have to saw off his arm with a dull pocket knife, but he has promised us a tale of survival presentation later in the cruise.  As for his musical and vocal skills, they were just adequate.  The show was reminiscent of Branson level entertainment.  It didn’t help that they had some problems with balancing the microphones, or that his voice just wasn’t one that carries well into an audience.  At least his intonation was solid.  We probably won’t see any repeat musical performances by him, but hearing his survival story might be interesting.

As the day progressed, we noticed public areas of the ship were getting warmer and more humid.  The main dining rooms seemed to be the most comfortable temperature, but our stateroom has been consistently over 76˚F despite our thermostat being set at maximum cooling.  We had our room steward make a report in the morning but by 11pm our room was 79˚F (31% humidity), and too warm to sleep comfortably.  This is a bit puzzling because the outside temperature is only 84˚F (but 81% humidity).  Even our RV’s air conditioner would be able to drop the temperature at least 20˚F below ambient outside temperature.  We had to request a technician at 11:30pm. 

Tomorrow we cross the Equator.  There will be pollywogs turning into shellbacks under Neptune’s watchful eye and a certain amount of embarrassing exposure for those passengers who volunteer to be subjected to the ceremony.  When we did it with our kids in the Galapagos, it was more fun because we were just amongst family and friends on a private charter with the crew.  We’ll probably take advantage of the distraction to hit the gym with fewer crowds.  The ship discharged 60 passengers in Honolulu but apparently took on another 300, so the ship is now sailing near capacity.  This is noticeable particularly in the buffet. It is harder to find a place to sit, so we prefer to be seated in the main dining room.  The air conditioning also works much better there.  The buffet is subject to drafts which are now heavy with humidity.

The ship discharged 60 passengers in Honolulu but apparently took on another 300, so the ship is now sailing near capacity.  This is noticeable particularly in the buffet. It is harder to find a place to sit, so we prefer to be seated in the main dining room.  The air conditioning also works much better there.  The buffet is subject to drafts which are now heavy with humidity.

Day 12: 20231004 Wednesday, October 4, 2023- At Sea Hawaii to Tahiti

 Day 12: 20231004 Wednesday, October 4, 2023- At Sea Hawaii to Tahiti

Some people say they dread sea days, but they probably haven’t done as much cruising as we have.  It is nice to actually be able to relax during one’s vacation, and although it would be easy enough occupy every hour with another activity, at this point, we are happy to limit our trivia to the morning session and the progressive trivia, especially since we know what the prize table holds.  For us, it’s mostly for the bragging rights, but bringing home a few prizes as souvenirs is nice.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have Grand Princess coasters on the prize table because we so many other coasters from other Princess ships.  We always seem to miss out winning by just one point.  We should have named our team “Just One Point More”.  

After morning trivia it was a pool day for us.  But they have a silent trivia at the poolside where they hand out a question sheet and you have 15 minutes to write out the answers and turn it in.  We got a perfect score and tied with 3 other teams, but they had a tie breaker of what was the name of the very first Princess cruise ship.  Most of us guessed it was the Pacific Princess, but one guy knew his Princess Trivia.  It was the Princess Patricia.  

Ben has been allowing himself more naps to recover more quickly, and although still clearing his throat frequently, the coughing is quite rare and he has no more fever or myalgias, aside from some sore chest muscles from the coughing.  We did hear two medical response announcements made during our morning trivia, and were afraid they might have to turn the ship around, but we remained on course for Tahiti through the remainder of the day, so whatever those calls were, they must have been something they could manage on the ship.

We had our same trivia team, and felt pretty good about our first progressive game of this cruise segment.  We’ll have to see how the scores stack up tomorrow.  Do you know what insect never sleeps and has no lungs?  We had no clue.

Boulevardier-Whiskey and Sweet Vermouth Manhattan

Lamb Chops- not as tender as the Rack of Lamb but tasty.

Mango Streudel- more like a Mango pie Ala mode

Our evening wrapped up with the ship’s new comedian Darryl Joyce, who flew into Honolulu to join the ship.  He did a lot of jokes about common post Pandemic experiences, and advocated for trap doors that would allow anyone to make stupid people who make our lives harder to simply disappear.  

We’ll have several more sea days before we arrive in Tahiti, but we have been entertained and pampered everyday, and that’s what we love about cruising.

 Day 11:  20231003 Tuesday October 3, 2023- Honolulu

The ship arrived dockside in Honolulu during the early morning hours for the medical evacuation, so we had a view of Honolulu harbor when we pulled our balcony blinds back. 

 

Aloha Tower and Coral Princess

Eileen and Tony's Condo under construction

We could see Eileen and Tony's condo under construction from the ship, and could also see the Coral Princess at a different pier in Honolulu Harbor.  That is the ship which we will take to go all around Australia from Sydney.  The two ships will probably swap entertainers.  We had a relaxing breakfast in the dining room because our Polynesian Cultural Center excursion was at 9:30am.  Ben and Janet wanted to take some selfies in front of murals in the terminal building, so we ended up being the last 2 people on the full bus.  

Strangely, that worked out to our favor because the driver and guide had her bags and stuff on the first seat behind the driver seat, and there were no other seats in the completely packed 52 passenger bus, so she stuffed her things in the overhead compartment and we got princess seats at the very front.  

It’s a long drive to the Polynesian Cultural Center from Honolulu, but we made a stop at the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout for pictures and a second stop at the Dole Plantation before arriving at the Polynesian Cultural Center(PCC).

The last time we did the PCC on a cruise ship excursion, we had a guided tour of the islands and luau meal, but this time, they just dropped us off inside the gates and said see you back on the bus by 5pm.  Since we have been there many times before, we were familiar with how to get to the various shows and activities, but last time, it was nice to have an insider who knew strategies for making the most of a brief visit giving us directions.  The biggest change however was the parade of canoes which showcased all of the islands with dancing and singing fell victim to the Covid Pandemic.  It seems the dancers and singers had all graduated and moved on while nobody could train to take their places during the Pandemic shut downs.  That was a disappointment.  It seems lots of things fell victim to the pandemic including the chocolates we used to get on our pillows every night, or the blue Princess tote bags that were so ubiquitous at all the ports of call.  We hope that as time passes, things will gradually get back to normal.

The performances and demonstrations were still excellent, and to or surprise, Kap, one of our favorites over the years, is still lead at the Samoa section.  He has made this a full time career since getting his fine arts degree at BYU Hawaii.  

We lucked out on the weather, which was warm and mildly humid, but overcast most of the day.  We did feel a few tiny sprinkles as we were headed back to the bus at the end of the day, and we drove through some rain showers headed back to the ship.  We were pretty bushed after spending the day at the PCC, so we had dinner on the ship and called it a night after watching performers from a Honolulu Hula school in the Princess Theater.  

The performers are children from ages  to 15, and they are remarkably expressive and talented.  But we each spent at least one or two numbers resting our eyes.  We could hardly wait to get back up to our room to hit the sack after that.  

Day 10: 20231002 Monday October 2, 2023- At Sea LA to Hawaii

 Day 10: 20231002 Monday October 2, 2023- At Sea LA to Hawaii

Unfortunately, Ben’s cold symptoms have evolved to more closely suggest a flu or covid despite the negative test last night.  He had more coughing, myalgias and fever so now he’s masking up.  With decongestants, cough suppressants, Tylenol and Aleve, he was able to push forward with our sea day activities including the morning and afternoon last progressive trivia.  We had moved up to second place, just one point behind the leaders as of this afternoon.  

Despite a strong performance on the last progressive trivia quiz, we ended up still just one point behind the winners.  Janet took a look at the prizes table and saw that we could trade a single award ticket for a string bag, 3 for a Princess bottle stopper, 6 for a photo frame album or aluminum water bottle and 8 for a tiny crafts project.  Looks like we’ll hang on to our tickets (we have accumulated 6) and cash them in before we leave the ship in Sydney.

Instead of working out in the gym, we did a pool deck day, and after lunch even lounged on our balcony to start working on a base tan.  

Mahi Mahi

Dinner featured grilled Mahi Mahi, which was good.  They do serve a lot of shrimp, but most of the shrimp is farmed, which tastes nothing like our wild caught spot prawns.  At least the fish on the plate tonight was Mahi Mahi.  

Kalua Pork

There was a logos trivia that featured a variety of corporate logos including foreign corporations.  We didn’t win, but didn’t embarrass ourselves too much either.  It’s just interesting to learn new things.  

The vocal impressionist Tricia Kelley did another show tonight, this time on the big stage.  She had won $100K on a TV show where you sing karaoke style and have to remember the words.  They played some of the video on screens before her show.  She did put on another entertaining show and has a remarkable singing talent and showmanship to capture mannerisms and voices of celebrities.  

The Cruise director staff worked hard to rev everyone up for a big pool deck Hawaiian party, but the demographic on the ship is mostly retirees and older so it was mostly the adult kids sailing with older parents involved around the pool.  We hit the buffet for a late night bite and then retired to bed early to prepare for our arrival in Honolulu tomorrow. They said the ship was moving at flank speed to arrive several hours earlier in Honolulu to evacuate a medical emergency, but nobody else will get to leave the ship before it formally clears customs at 9am.  We have a long day at the Polynesian Cultural Center booked.  Since Ben is dealing with a cold, we’ll not be seeing Tony in Honolulu. 

Day 9: 20231001 Sunday October 1, 2023- At Sea LA to Hawaii

 Day 9: 20231001 Sunday October 1, 2023- At Sea LA to Hawaii

Our balcony got closed again for more cleaning.  There was a lot of salt spray the previous day, and it looked like they hosed off the salt. 

The water is now a very deep blue color, quite different from our water in Puget Sound.  

Now that we’ve been at sea for a few days, a regular schedule is developing for us. Breakfast in the dining room, morning trivia and then exercise.  Lunch in the dining room followed by free time until the afternoon progressive trivia.  At progressive trivia, we found that we had only dropped to 4th place with 3 teams with higher scores, and the highest team is only 3 points above us, so there is still a chance we might come out on top.  However, the cruise staff announced they would wrap up the progressive trivia tomorrow before we arrive in Hawaii, and will start a new progressive game after Hawaii.  We felt we did better today, not blowing any of the multi point questions so we’ll see how we do when the scores are announced tomorrow.

Dinner featured an oxtail soup and rack of lamb.  One of our favorites on prior Princess cruises was a wagon wheel pasta with oxtail, but this oxtail soup was made with finely diced vegetables and tiny bits of diced meat that had a good taste, and was serve with with a pastry dome, but it not up to the wagon wheel pasta of the past.  The rack of lamb, however, was excellent.  

The Princess theater featured the violinist we had already seen during the Vancouver to San Francisco leg, so we ended up just relaxing and doing an ABBA trivia in the evening with most of our progressive trivia team.  We missed winning by just 1 point so we did OK.  

Ben started clearing his throat frequently and even had an occasional cough and sneeze but hasn’t had a fever or felt ill at all.  But to be safe, he started wearing a mask after dinner and did a Covid self test in the room.  Fortunately, the Covid test was negative, so this is just some other random upper respiratory virus.  We did get our updated Covid booster vaccinations just the day before we boarded the ship in Vancouver, so it would have been a disappointment if the test had come up positive.  

Day 8: 20230930 Saturday September 30, 2023- At Sea LA to Hawaii

Day 8: 20230930 Saturday September 30, 2023- At Sea LA to Hawaii

It’s starting to look and feel a little more like we’re going to Hawaii as the seas are getting calmer and the sun is coming out.  

After a quick breakfast in the buffet we did the morning trivia with Sharon and missed winning by one point.  The gym was pretty crowded today even though the promenade deck was open this morning.  After working out, we spent some time relaxing and building our base tans on our balcony. 

Lunch was in the dining room where we sat with Two couples from Australia and a couple from Toronto.  One advantage to using the dining room is they do offer real gelato for dessert, which is better than the soft serve on the pool deck.  

Dark 'N Stormy- Dark Rum & Ginger Beer

The afternoon included a crafts class in which we learned to braid ribbon Leis, and the progressive trivia.  We were excited to see that we had moved up to second place tied with two other teams and one team 2 points above us in first place, but then we blew a 6 point question, which will probably cause our standing to plummet back down.  

Dinner in the dining room was fairly uninspired with a turkey dinner and something described as Chorochet featuring smoked pork, sausage and sauer kraut which turned out to simply be ham, sausage and bacon on sauer kraut with a couple of potatoes.  They did have Panko baked Alaskan cod on the menu, but there’s no telling what fish it might really have been.  Ben was disappointed to have missed Udon at the buffet during lunch service, and even more so to see it wasn't in the buffet in the evening.

We attended Kevin Jordan’s  second standup show which had different jokes including riffs on being married to a former police detective and bucket list items.  This was in the Vista Lounge which is smaller and more intimate than the Princess theater.  It was another entertaining show with lots of laughs.  After that we dropped in on a “Who am I” trivia where clues are revealed at different point levels.  For example, the first clue might be “I was born in 1926 in Los Angeles”.  If you committed to an answer with just that clue, it was worth 5 points.  However, you got zero if the answer is wrong as subsequent clues may reveal more about who it is.  If you committed to answering with the second clue you could score a maximum of 2 points.  And if you waited for a third clue, you’d get a maximum of 1 point.  If you are aggressive and try to get the most points by guessing with only the first clues, it can backfire and you end up getting nothing if your first guess is wrong.  It turned out to be pretty hard, and the strategy balancing points vs certainty of answer makes it more complicated. Regardless, we didn’t come close to winning that.   

We finished out the night with Tiki Dave’s Jukebox of Our Lives show in the Princess theater.  He had been on our prior Hawaiian cruise from LA and does the Ukulele lessons on board.  He was backed by the Princess band and did songs from the late 50’s to early 80’s.  He did a decent show but had a small audience for the second show of the night, and didn’t do his show a service by chasing people sneaking out of the theater during the show.  

Clocks go back another hour tonight, putting us on Honolulu time even though we still have another 2 days at sea before we arrive.  Tomorrow is likely to be a repeat of today’s activities, although we hope to have the opportunity to redeem our progressive trivia performance of today.