Saturday, March 30, 2019. Oahu, Hawaii

Saturday, March 30, 2019. Oahu, Hawaii

This cruise has gone from one extreme to the other with the transition from sea days to excursion days. We had to set an alarm to get us up early enough to ready for our excursion to the Polynesian Cultural Center. 

The ship docked near downtown Honolulu by the Aloha Tower.  This time, disembarking was smooth with no long lines or waiting, and it wasn’t long before we boarded a bus driven by our driver/guide.  His commentary started off with “I don’t know why they have your out here so early because the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) doesn’t open until Noon (actually it opens at 11:45AM).  Even the Dole Pinapple Store doesn’t open until 10:00AM (It was 8:20AM when we were told to meet the tour in the terminal)”.  Then he somewhat reluctantly boarded everyone and started us off on our trip.  He did point out landmarks around Honolulu as we headed off to the PCC, but about 20 minutes into the drive everyone noticed that the floor heaters were pumping out heat, and within 10 minutes the bus was over 90 degrees inside.  The driver insisted he had never turned on the heat, and that there must have been something wrong with the automatic climate control.  One passenger even walked up to the cab to investigate.  We ended up having a mutiny and he was forced to pull over to troubleshoot.  He ended up going outside and fiddled with something in the luggage compartment in the undercarriage, and then the passenger who had gone up to the cockpit fiddled with the temperature control.  He and the driver discovered that when the knob was turned all the way to max cold, there was a detent that actually clicked the system OFF.  That seemed to have done the trick as the temperature stopped climbing, and the bus started to cool off. Interestingly enough, someone else we ran into later in the evening said the same thing happened on their bus, and they ended up abandoning the bus and standing on the side of the road waiting a half hour for a replacement bus.  Their driver and passengers weren’t able to troubleshoot the same problem, apparently.

We ended up arriving at the Dole Pineapple Store about 10 minutes before opening time, and there were people lined up to go in.  We lucked out again on the weather because it was partly cloudy and in the 70’s, with no rain in the forecast.  This too had changed at the last minute because earlier in the week, rain had been forecast.  Our guide explained that pineapple production in Hawaii has virtually ceased, and that the vast majority of Dole Pineapples sold in the US are actually grown in Costa Rica.  However, this operation was continued on a small scale for the tourism industry, and produces pineapples for sale and consumption basically just in Hawaii.  While the cost of labor was one of the drivers of the shift of pineapple production from Hawaii to Costa Rica, the lack of land for further expansion was also a primary driver because demand worldwide for pineapples was exceeding what could be produced in Hawaii.  We got lucky in the store which features “Pick your Pearl” where you pick a key out of a bowl, and if it opens a treasure chest, you can pick a prize slip out of it.  Ben’s key fit and his prize slip was a free Pick-a-Pearl worth $14.  You pick an oyster out of a tray and they open it to find a pearl.  All of the oysters have been seeded so each one should contain a cultured pearl, but you can’t predict if it will be white, black or pink.  Ben’s yielded a cute pink pearl.  Then just before it was time to go, Janet had a second to at it, but picked a dud key.  But she got to pick a consolation prize out of a basket, and pulled out another coupon for a free Pick-a-Pearl.  She picked an oyster with a white pearl.  Of course, the girls at the sales counter offered to swap it for another pink one and have the two pearls mounted into ear rings, which is where they make their money, but we declined and just have a pink and white pearl souvenirs of our visit to Oahu this time.

We drove along some surfing beaches and actually pulled over to take some pictures at Sunset Beach, which was beautiful. There were locals out working the surf all along the beach.  We also stopped at the Mormon temple adjacent to the PCC, which has beautifully landscaped gardens and buildings.  

We arrived at the PCC just as the park was opening, and our first stop was the buffet for a Hawaiian BBQ lunch, featuring pork ribs and teriyaki chicken.  This buffet also had a variety of desserts including miniature pineapple upside down cakes, gooey coconut lemon bars and a jello cheesecake- was was better than it sounds.

We then headed as a group to the Samoan village where they demonstrated coconut husking, cracking, and coconut milk extraction.  The main demonstrator was a man we recognized from our last visit to the PCC years ago.  He was very entertaining and his crew put on a fun, educational and entertaining show.  The show ends with someone scrambling up a tall coconut tree.

Next, we headed to the show lagoon where they do a pageant on canoes.  A little Chinese girl sat next to us who was about 10 years old was super excited because there were all sorts of Polynesian references in the Disney movie Moana that she recognized. We had front row seats and it was also a nice production with live music and dancing highlighting Polynesian culture through the years.

Then we headed to Tonga for a drum beating seminar/performance where volunteers from the audience were brought on stage for some fun, and finally over to Tahiti for a traditional wedding ceremony.

We had seen a little less than half the park, but it was time to go back to the ship.  Our driver took an alternate route back to Honolulu that took us through the rainiest valley on the island and saw some beautiful towering green mountains reaching into the cloud bank on one side of the bus, and the surf on the other.  We also drove through China Town and past the mini-Walmart.  It has become a running joke that people from the cruise ships come all the way across the Pacific Ocean so they can scramble to the Walmarts in Hawaii to buy potato chips and souvenirs.  True enough, and they have free Walmart shuttles from the Cruise ship terminal in Honolulu.  

We made it back to the ship in time to enjoy some sushi for dinner at the Elite and Platinum lounge.  Then we were off for our evening’s entertainment starting with a win at Flag trivia.  We managed a perfect score this time.  There was a flag enthusiast next to us who had missed just one, mixing up Iceland for Norway, but they didn’t put up any obscure flags, so it was pretty easy.  

Our regular trivia team showed up for Famous Faces trivia, but there were a few we didn’t know.  Then we had to leave part way through “Finish the Lyrics” trivia to see the local folkloric show they had brought on the ship, which was a local Hula school.  They put on a great show.  Hula is such an expressive and beautiful art.  It is wonderful that the Hawaiians embrace and cherish this. They start Hula classes as early as 3 years of age.  These performers looked like they ranged from about 9 years old to late teens or early 20’s.  There were all very graceful.

We have to set our alarm clock again for tomorrow’s early start in Kauai.  We have an excursion to see the Waimea Canyon and Fern Grotto with a Wailua river cruise.

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.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019. At Sea

Wednesday, March 27, 2019. At Sea

We had to move our clocks forward another hour.  Unfortunately, all our devices (iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches) need the user to enter in a city in order to set the time zone if you aren’t connected to the internet through a cell phone provider.  While that’s no big deal when you’re in a country, it’s not intuitive when you’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  We ultimately found out that we had to enter a city called Rikitea in French Polynesia in order to get our time zone set correctly.  It would have been so much easier if they just let the user click on a map of the world.  That’s our suggestion to Apple for future updates of the iOS operating system.  Definitely a first world problem.  

A destination and enrichment lecture we attended informed us that we have passed out of the Californian current and entered into the main Pacific gyrus, which is a huge counterclockwise current that originates in equatorial waters and carries warmer waters.  This has been reflected by a increase in temperatures into the 70’s today.  We also learned that we might run into schools of flying fish, flying squid, and may even see signs of the giant Pacific garbage patch. So far, we haven’t seen any of those three items yet.  

We did our usual morning trivia and missed winning by 1 point.  We guessed the wrong meaning for the word nubile, as well as what two trees are mentioned most frequently in the Bible.  Then we had our second installment of the progressive cruise long trivia.  The questions seem to be drawn from a more select pool of harder questions. We managed 6/10.  We knew of at least one team that managed to get 8/10.  They were the only team that knew that Queen did the theme music for the movie Highlander.  We don’t know how our team is doing relative to the other 25 teams because no cumulative score has yet been posted, but we were told to expect to see a running tally starting tomorrow. 

After lunch we watched “Juliette Naked”, which featured Chris O’Dowd from the TV Show The IT Crowd- one of Janet’s favorite comedy shows.  Contrary to the title, there was no nudity as the title referred to an unreleased rock album which nerdy super fan played by Chris O’Dowd comes across while mediating a fan site on the internet.  It ended up being a somewhat lame romantic comedy, but it’s a movie checked off the “to be watched” list.

The Princess Theater featured a Black comedian who really worked hard at playing the race card for this largely white audience, although relative to most other Princess cruises we have been on, there are actually quite a few black families and couples on board.  The comedian acknowledged this by saying that looking around the audience, he could see just enough black faces scattered around the audience that he could feel safe.  He commented it’s no wonder there are so few blacks on cruise ships because black people don’t have a good history when it comes to traveling by ships, alluding to slave ships.  Most of the act was a little close to being a little too racist, but he said he could get away with just about anything because he represented an oppressed race and if a white person ever tried to do something to hurt him, it would be a hate crime ala the Jessie Smollet fiasco.  The few black couples seated near us didn’t seem to be laughing all that much, but he did keep us entertained for the duration of the show.  

Dinner turned out pretty good with prime rib and prawns the size of small lobster tails.  No surprises on the menu, but the menu remains quite extensive with at least 6-8 choices for each course of the meal.  We sat next to a couple who spoke Cantonese to each other, but were fluent in English, albeit with an accent, with the waiter and other passengers. Ben could tell it wasn’t Mandarin, and we learned it was Hong Kong Cantonese.  

Tomorrow will be our last day at sea before we arrive at Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Looks like another big trivia day with morning, progressive, Beatles trivia, afternoon trivia and evening Rock-N-Roll music trivia.  

Monday, March 25, 2019. At Sea En Route to Hawaii

Monday, March 25, 2019.  At Sea

The weather was overcast with a temperature in the lower 60’s when we woke up.  There continues to be a gentle rocking and rolling due to a long period swell despite what appears to be calm seas with minimal wind.  These swells travel thousands of miles across the Pacific, so I guess they should be expected.  

We had breakfast in the restaurant and met a nice couple from Ontario who are on their second Princess cruise.  Their preferred cruise line has been Celebrity, and they have sailed primarily in the Caribbean.  They said they preferred Celebrity’s version of anytime dining because they could sit at the same table with the same people every night with the same waitstaff, and they complained that there was no wine steward in the dining room, which is odd because there are several wine stewards who are more than happy to walk you through their recommended wines each night, if you let them know you are interested, and their dining preference sounds more like fixed dining than “anytime dining”.  They did admit that last night’s Magic To Do show blew them away as being significantly better than the usual showtime fare on Celebrity.  

We teamed up with the two couples from Kansas City Missouri for the morning trivia, and put in a decent showing, but fell short of winning by just one point.  

Janet and I explored the ship a bit and tried to find a photographer that was supposedly taking people’s portraits with the ship’s wake on the stern, but we never found them.

We had lunch in the dining room with a couple from Sacramento, who were doing this California to Hawaii cruise for the third time.  The last time they did it, they started in San Francisco, and said that sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge during the sail-away was a real highlight.  

After lunch, we had free time to relax. Janet got some reading done while Ben hit the fitness center for an hour.  The equipment on the Ruby Princess is a bit older than the Regal’s Princess, but still in good working condition.  The fitness center is situated over the bridge with a great view, but it is also subject to a lot of the ship’s pitching and rolling since it is all the way forward and near the top of the ship.  The movement adds a new dimension to cardio.  There were very few people in the fitness center after lunch when most people were probably having their siestas.

We teamed up with a couple from Las Vegas for the afternoon trivia and were 3 points short of winning, but we did have fun. We could only come up with one of the 3 Tenors and thought a baby jaguar should be called a cub, rather than a kitten. We also didn’t know John Wesley founded the Methodist religion.  

We had a specialty dining voucher courtesy of AAA that we used to dine at a new venue called Share, by Curtis Stone.  It features modern cuisine by Curtis Stone with a six course meal with 2 or 3 choices for each course.  It did end up being a nice dinner.  The Share part came with the main meat course, which was a large plate loaded with a huge pork chop with ribs that is shared.  The food is well prepared and very fresh, but made with very little added salt- a nod to healthier cuisine, but we did end up asking for some salt, which we thought really improved the food’s taste.  They also had excellent artisan mini loaves for rolls.  

Our regular partners from Kansas City turned up for Movie Poster Trivia, which we won in a 2 way tie.  We let the other team have the bottle of champagne, while we preferred to walk out with Ruby Princess silicone coasters.  

We finished the evening with the Princess Theater’s musician Craig Richard, who had toured with Kenny G playing alto and soprano saxophones, piano and singing.  Oddly enough, his resume also includes appearances on American Ninja warriors and “I Should Have Died”- a TV show that highlights stories of survival.  He is an avid rock climber, and had a serious fall in which he shattered his right leg, and then had to crawl 18 hours with his shattered leg to get to help.  He is an excellent musician and entertainer, although we find it hard to resist resting our eyes, especially after a big dinner, during some of these evening instrumental shows. 

Tomorrow is our first Formal night. Our tour package includes one 6x9 print, so we’ll actually have them shoot some poses for us to choose from.

Sunday, March 24, 2019. Embarkation Los Angeles for Roundtrip Hawaii Cruise

20190324-0408 Ruby Princess Los Angeles to Hawaii Round Trip Cruise

Sunday, March 24, 2019.  Embarkation in Los Angeles

It seems like we hardly had time to unpack and get our laundry done from our Regal Princess Caribbean cruise when we had to repack and head off for our next cruise.  We hadn’t originally planned it this way.  We had booked a 15 day Los Angeles to Hawaii cruise for October, but then we got a promotional email that knocked a thousand dollars off the price to do the same cruise in late March, so here we are.  We were surprised that there was no penalty of any sort for us to rebook it at the reduced price.  We did have to book our balcony on a guaranty, meaning we wouldn’t know exactly what balcony we would be in, but were paying for a BF category balcony, which is typically situated either at the bow or stern of the ship.  These areas are subject to more movement from swells and waves because they are further from the ship’s center of gravity, but we have not had troubles with sea sickness.  Just a few days before departure, we found out we were assigned stateroom A428, which is actually a significant upgrade because it is right at the center of the ship and is a category BA, which is the highest regular balcony.  There are also deluxe balconies with larger decks.  These are nice, and we have sailed in them before, but the regular balconies offer a better value for the money if you don’t plan on doing a lot of sunbathing on the deck, which we typically don’t.  

This itinerary leaves Los Angeles and crosses the Pacific to Hawaii.  It takes 4 full days at sea to get to the Hawaiian Islands.  Once we are there, we spend a full day at each of the Big Island (Hilo), Oahu (Honolulu), Maui (Lahaina)  and Kauai (Nawiliwili).  Then it’s another 5 full days at sea to return to Ensenada for the obligatory non-US port of call, and then back to Los Angeles.  

Departing from the West coast has its advantages for us.  We only have to get up at 5:30AM to get to Los Angeles in time to board the cruise ship.

Our trip begins with a ferry ride from Whidbey Island to Mukilteo.  Nice to have a ferry ride during daylight hours for a change.

We ended up flying Delta Airlines in Comfort Plus class, which is their version of premium economy.  You end up with similar leg room to first class, as well as snacks and alcoholic beverages, but sit 6 across, so you’re still shoulder to shoulder.  But we found that the amenities in Delta’s Comfort Plus were nicer than American Airline’s First Class, and at a significantly lower price.  We ended up with 4 little bottles of whiskey and rum to smuggle onto the Ruby Princess.  

The Princess transfers are really nice in that they eliminate all of the anxiety that is associated with getting from the airport to your ship on time, and they do treat us like Princesses.  Embarkation was seamless aside from having to take our bottle of wine out of our suitcase and putting it in our carry on backpacks.  We had no trouble smuggling the little liquor bottles in our back packs, which were loaded with cell phone charges and cables, so picking out the tiny bottle caps on X-ray must worth their trouble to flag them.  

The Ruby Princess does seem to show some of it’s age externally as there is more noticeable rust visible on the exterior.  However, Princess had done a good job of maintaining the interiors.  There are new carpets and the ship still looks very elegant and regal. While it is signicantly smaller than the Regal Princess, it is well appointed.  There have been upgrades to the poolside grill and pizza restaurants.  It’s funny that one suggestion I wrote on my Princess post cruise evaluation form for the Regal Princess Caribbean itinerary was to expand loaded fries offerings in the poolside grill, and sure enough, the Ruby Princess poolside grill offers loaded fries with cheese and bacon, or cheese and chili everyday.  You can also get a chili cheese dog any day.  The pizza counter also offers Stromboli and focaccias.  We explored those menus for lunch.  

We sat with a nice couple from Michigan for the muster drill who reported that it had warmed up to 15 degrees by the time they left for this trip.  They were looking forward to going back to Hawaii, having done this same itinerary about 3 years ago.  They are Platinum Captain’s Circle members like us, although after we finish this cruise, we move up to Elite status, which will get us free laundry and minibars, among other benefits.

The dining room is elegant and intimate, although it was busy.  We were surprised by the variety offered on the menu.  On most other Princess cruises we have done in the past, the left half of the menu has items that remain the same for the whole trip, while the right half has specials of the day.  Typically there are 3 or 4 choices for appetizers and main dishes.  This menu had 6-8 choices for appetizers and 6-8 choices for the main dishes, and the waiter said that the menus do change every day.  That makes it harder to decide which main dish to have at each meal, but that’s not a back thing.  It’s just different.  

We finished dinner in time to attend the 7PM Welcome aboard trivia.  We paired up with another couple who wandered in just before the game started.  They were from Colorado.  We made a decent showing scoring 15/20.  Two teams tied for first with 16 points.  We left before the tie breaker because we wanted to catch the Princess Theater production of Magic To Do,  which is another Stephen Schwartz number.  Ben really likes this show, which combines magic, puppetry and other stage effects with music from Stephen Schwartz musicals including Pippen, Wicked, Godspell and Pocahontas.  This production troupe is good, but not nearly as good looking or refined as the troupe on the Regal Princess.  There must be a pecking order for talent in the Princess line, and the Royal Class ships get first pick.  

We finished the night with the first music trivia, which was TV and Movie themes.  This time, we teamed up with two couples who had been sitting behind us.  It turns out that the women are sisters traveling with their husbands from Missouri.  It was fun playing with them, and we managed a solid win, out scoring second place by 5 points.  

There will be a lot of time changes on this cruise.  Tonight, our clocks go back an hour as we head west.  The weather was nice with a high in the upper 60’s today.  In the evening, temperatures outside dropped into the 50’s, so it’s cold out on deck.  There isn’t much wind, but there is a surprising amount of rocking and pitching by the ship due to the open ocean swells even in our midship cabin.  We’ll be rocked to sleep tonight.

Wrap-up: Regal Princess 14d East/West Caribbean Cruise

Wrap up report

Saturday, March 16, 2019- At Sea En Route to Fort Lauderdale

Saturday, March 16, 2019- At Sea En Route to Fort Lauderdale

Our clocks sprang forward last night so we awoke pretty late.  We grabbed a quick bite at the International cafe, which has donuts in the morning, and then headed to our last morning trivia.  Our team came up 2 points short of the win.  We got stumped on what German word for satellite is also a make of car? Trabant (an East German make), and who invented the ball point pen? Laszlo Biro.  It’s hard to imagine how the winning team managed to get those, other than by previously encountering these oddball questions.

We got in one last workout in the fitness center, and then the rest of our luggage packed, keeping out just the clothes we will wear to travel, and our toothbrush bag.

We had lunch in the buffet which was offering SE American fare including BBQ, crawdads and oyster shooters.  We were surprised to see how many people were walking around with a plate full of raw oysters.  The crayfish reminded us of New Orleans, but these “mud bugs” tasted better than what we had remembered (they tasted like mud in the Big Easy).  

Our last afternoon trivia game turned out to be more challenging.  We scored 11/20 while the winners managed 15/20.  Do you know what healed Jack’s crown after he came tumbling down in the nursery rhyme? Or who did laundry in Beatrix Potter’s children’s stories?  

We watched the movie “Green Book” with the on demand video in our room with captions, and can see why it got the Academy Award for best picture.  

Our final dinner was New York strip steak and chicken Alfredo and our final activity on this cruise was a music trivia, which we had a 3 way tie for first on.  We teamed up with a younger couple who came in halfway through, but sat next to us.  The tie breaker was what year did Billie Jean hit #1 in the US, without going over.  We guessed 1982, but it was 1983, which one of the other teams hit right on the head.

We’ll have to set an alarm to get up in the morning because we’ll have to have breakfast and disembark by 7:50AM for our Princess airport transfer.