Wednesday January 28, 2015 Las Vegas, NV

The last day of our cruise.  They count it as a day but it is really just disembarking.  We were up at 6:30, We had to vacate the stateroom at 8.  As Platinum level Princess cruisers our place to assemble until our disembarkation group was called was in the Portofino Dining Room as opposed to the Princess Theater.  What that got us was coffee, rolls and more comfortable seating.

We disembarked about 20 minutes behind scheduled.  By the time we got through Customs and Immigration and to the airport we still had two hours until our flight.  We had corn beef sandwiches at the airport.  They cost $16 each.  They were good, but $32 was a bit  out of line, but I think we could have shared one sandwich as they were huge.  The sandwiches included potato salad and dill pickle spears.

The flight was only 1 hr. 15 min. and was uneventful, except for 1 gate change, but no time change for our departure.  Brother in law John picked us up moments after we arrived at the curb with our luggage.

This was an excellent trip.  We enjoy the days at sea and the visits to the Hawaiian Islands.  I managed to find 5 caches including the Hawaii Island Hoppers Challenge.  The Island Hopper cache was one of the main reason we choose to go on this cruise.  We did a couple of things we had never done before on cruises; we flew to the departure city the same day the cruise departed and we took an inside cabin.  We will try to avoid doing either of those in the future.

One of the highlights of this visit to the Islands was the tour of the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park.  We had driven through the park years ago and had taken a helicopter tour over the lava flow.  Much has changed since then.  The eruptions and lava flow have changed over the years and are again threatening a town.

February will be a busy month for us.  I will be tied up with two visits a week for radiation treatments for a couple of skin cancers to be eradicated.  Our next trip will be two weeks in Cabo San Lucas starting March 9. That trip will be followed by a 10 day Mexican in April.  My blogs will start back up in March.

Tuesday January 27, 2015 At Sea

In the dark cabin it is hard not to sleep in.  We started our day as usual with coffee in our room.  We both ordered cereal and yogurt for breakfast.

 

At 1pm Gerri went to the art auction and I headed to the Princess Theater for the last Scholarship At Sea presentation by Dr. Sharon Faff. We met back at the room and got two of our bags packed and in the hall before Gerri’s appointment with one of the art staff team.  Yes, she placed bids on a couple pieces of artwork today. While we were there finalizing the sale we took an option on buying another piece of artwork.

 

Afterwards, we went and ate early tonight in the Capri Dining Room.  Tonight we sat with two couples, one from the Bay Area and the other from British Columbia. 

 

After dinner we went to the Princess Theater for another show by the magician, Ben Seidman.  It was a different show than the one I went to a couple of nights ago. Then it was back to the Explorer’s Lounge for a game called Where on the Ship.  We teamed up with two couples.  One couple from Pennsylvania that we had dinner with before and another couple they knew.  The hostess showed slides from around the ship and we had to name the place and location on the ship.  We scored 30 points out a possible 40, mostly due to the effort of the rest of the team.  The prize was a bottle of campaign and keychain flashlights.  We left the champagne for the other couples.

 

We decided to go back to the Princess Theater and wait until the 9:30 International Crew Show.  We were there very early and saw most of the magician show again.  It was a little varied from the earlier show, but not much.

 

The magic act was followed by The International Cruise show featuring talented members of the crew that have jobs other than entertainment.  As a warm up to the show the Cruise Director’s Staff passed out balloons which members of the audience blew up and bounced around the theater.  All the shows we have seen end with the Cruise Director’s Staff putting on a skit called; If I Were Not Upon on the Sea.  It was hilarious as usual.

 

 

 

Back in our room we finished packing.  We read for a while and called it a night.

 

Tomorrow we arrive back in San Francisco and the hectic disembarkation and trip home.

Monday January 26, 2015 Ensenada, Mexico

We both had a restless night and it was late morning before we got up.  My first order of business was to get the correct luggage tags for our bags.  Yesterday we got tags and disembarkation instructions that put us in a group that would get us to the airport too late for our flight.  I also needed to get my  room key reprogrammed, it had stopped working last night.

Back at the room I ordered coffee and melon bowls.  We both seemed to feel better.  I may have dodged the cold getting worse for me and Gerri’s stomach situation was better.

The men and woman of the Star Princess

In the afternoon we went to a show put on by passengers.  

It was two parts; a group of ladies that learned to hula and a group that played the ukulele. 

Some of the ukulele players had never played before taking lessons and practicing on this cruise.  The ladies did the hula to three songs and the ukulele players did three songs and then all did a grand finale performance of Aloha Oe.

Ensenada, Mexico

We arrived at the dock in Ensenada at 4 after a long slow approach though the bay.  We went on deck and found it was a cool day and the port area was quite away from the town.  I checked on caches and the closest was a half mile away in a straight line across the bay.  It would have been further to walk around.  We decided not to go ashore.

We went to the Vista Theater but were too late for the trivia session.  We did have hors d’ouvres on the Sky Deck before going back to the Vista Theater for a show by Steve Moris.  He had performed with the Beach Boys for several years.

We went to the Capri Dining Room for dinner.  We sat at a table for ten.  There was one of the couples we had sat with at other dinners.  After dinner we went to the Princess Theater to see a singer named Lavina P. Fox. She sang some show tunes, some Motown and songs done by the late Whitney Houston.

It was late by the time the show was over.  It was pretty much straight to bed when we got back to our room.

Tomorrow is our last day at sea before arriving in San Francisco.

Sunday January 25, 2015 At Sea

I woke up feeling like I had the beginnings of a cold,  I started antibiotic and took Dayquil.

We did have our coffee and a light breakfast in the room. 

Gerri went to the art auction at 1.  I was still getting ready to go and missed the start of the presentation on the Whitechaple Murders’  Since we had planned to meet in the International Café I went there and read or played Word With Friends.  The art auction lasted over two hours.  I had  soup and a quiche, Gerri had a tuna sandwich for lunch after she joined me.

As we started to go to another activity, Gerri wasn’t feeling well so we went to the room.  In the early evening I ordered cheesed burgers from room service. 

At 9:30 I went to a magician show in the Vista Lounge.  On the way back to the room I stopped on the Lido deck and got a slice of pizza.

All in all this wasn’t a great day.  Both of us took it easy and hoped to fend off any approaching illness. We tried to retire for the evening but sleep was slow to come,

Saturday January 24, 2015 At Sea

After breakfast and coffee in our room, we went down to deck 5 and picked up our Sudoku puzzles.  Today’s puzzle was rated medium.  We both finished the puzzle.  Of course Gerri finished before I finished.

We did the puzzles while listening to two sets by a classical guitarist, Cesar Paucar.  I also played solo Word’s With Friends.  The computer beat me.

Cruise Director David Cole

We waited in the piazza for the live filming of tomorrows Wake Show.  This is the only day the show was filmed with an audience.  The two newer larger ships both are equipped with broadcast studios.  During our Mediterranean cruise on the Royal princess the live filming was an everyday event.

British Invasion

Princess singers and dancers

Our next activity was afternoon trivia in the Explorer Lounge.  We were invited by three others to team up with them.  One of the ladies was from British Columbia and the other couple were retired school teachers who had taught in Las Vegas in the early 70s.  Our team scored 23 of 25 questions, mostly answered by the rest of the team.  The winning team got 24 correct.

Ye Olde Pub Night

After trivia we waited in the Explorer’s Lounge until the Pub Night show started.  While waiting Gerri read and I got beat by the computer at another game of Words With Friends.  We were joined by Sharon Faff and her sister-in law.  Sharon is a member of the staff that lectures on most days at sea.  I have attended several of her lectures and we had dinner with them one night since leaving Hawaii.  The show featured a few of the Princess Dancers, the Princess band and several  members of the Cruise Directors staff.

Cruise director's staff Chris and John

We went to dinner with Dr. Faff and her sister-in law.  We sat at a table for six, but no one else joined us.  It was Italian night.  Gerri and I both had the Veal Scaloppini.  Gerri had Tiramisu for dessert and I had a lemon sorbet.

After dinner we went to the Princess theater to see a ventriloquist show,

 Don Bryan with Mr. Noseworthy.  We were early for the show.  Gerri read and I finished a game of Words With Friends on my iPhone.  The iPhone only beat me by 47 points.

Back at our room I set the time forward on both my iPad and iPhone, something I learned how to do on this trip.  Gerri did the same with her Android phone.  This was probably the latest Gerri stayed awake,  It was after 1 when she went to sleep.  I had started reading another 87^th Precinct novel and stayed up until 2 reading.

One more full day at sea behind us and one more to go before reaching Ensenada, MX for a short visit.

Friday January 23, 2015 At Sea

Our second sea day out of Hawaii.  We were about half way to Ensenada, MX.  The time went forward an hour last night.  Somehow the iPad and iPhone went back to Pacific time during the night,  Since we are connected to the ship’s network, I assume that network is on Pacific time although the ships clocks are not.  We thought we had slept away the morning and planned our afternoons activities accordingly. We ordered coffee and breakfast in our room. 

At 12:30 we split up, Gerri went to see a presentation on Thomas Kinkade and I headed for the Princess Theater for a talk on the Hawaiian Monarchy and eventual annexation of Hawaii by the United States.  When I arrived at the theater a presentation was still going on about the species that have become extinct since man arrived in the Hawaiian Islands.  Before man the only two mammals on the islands were Monk Seals and the Hoary Tree Bat.  The estimated population of Hawaii before Europeans arrived was over 800,000.  By the time of annexation that population had dropped to about 100,000, due to disease and warfare.

The lecture on species had been scheduled for morning.  I asked my neighbor the time and it turned out to be two hours earlier than I thought.  I started back to the room, but discovered I didn’t have a key.  I went to the International Café and sat and read.  After a while Gerri came looking for me.  Of course she had discovered the time mix up too.

We had lunch in the Crown Grill which was featuring pub food.  We both chose the Cottage Pie.  This is basically a bowl of beef stew (minced beef) baked with a mashed potato covering, that we had always called Sheppard’s Pie.

Since we had the time now straightened out, we both headed to the Princess Theater to learn about the Hawaiian Monarchy.  The presentation, given by the cruise director, was very informative.  With the time confusion, Gerri had arrived in time to see the morning Thomas Kinkade  presentation instead of the afternoon one she had intended to attend.

We stayed in the theater for a movie.  The movie starred Denzel Washington and was titled The Equalizer.  It was very violent but still was head and shoulders above the last movie we saw, Lucy.

By this time it was after 4:30.  We went by the room and dropped off some things.  We then headed for the Sky Deck for hors d'oeuvres.  We met Dick and Sharon from Half Moon Bay there and joined them for conversation.

Gerri and I decided to pass on dinner in the dining room and just have pizza on the Lido deck.  On the way to Hawaii we had pizza there and they had a delicious one for the Princess 50^th Anniversary.  We had tried to get it one day in port but were told it was only served on sea days.  We didn’t know all the toppings but remembered it being very good.  It turned out that a different pizza was being served tonight.  The 50^th Anniversary Pizza changed every night at sea.  Tonight’s was Orange and Peking Duck.  We tried a slice and it was so so.  We each took some pepperoni pizza back to the cabin.

Shortly after finishing the pizza, Gerri read a while and then fell asleep.  I read until 10 and called it a night. 

Thursday January 22, 2015 At Sea

Today was our first full day at sea after an active 4 days in Hawaii.  We started the day with coffee from room service.

In the afternoon we split up.  Gerri went to the art sale and I went to a presentation on mysteries of the Titanic by the same speaker that gave the talk on the DNA investigation of the Romanovs.

We met in the International Café for a late lunch of soup and a sandwich with cookies.  We then returned to our room and got ready for our second formal night and the Captain’s reception for Premium and Elite cruisers.  There was a drawing and recognition of the people with the most days at sea with Princess.  The top cruise had more than 1300 days at sea.

After the reception we went to a show in the Princess Theater.  A song and dance presentation called Stardust.   We then went for dinner in the Capri Dining Room.  We sat with a couple from Iceland and a couple from San Francisco.

After dinner we went to the Vista Theater and listened to Simon John sing and play piano, who usually performs in one of the ships lounge.  Tonight he did a tribute to Elton John, no relation.  After his show we returned to the room and read until we went to sleep.

Today was rougher sailing than we experienced on the way to Hawaii.  It wasn’t really very rough but the sun didn’t shine and it was overcast all day.  We didn’t take any pictures.

Wednesday January 21, 2015 Lahaina, Maui, HI

The Star Princess

We had signed up for a whale watching tour this morning, so we were up at 7.  The ship was already at anchor in the Lahaina harbor.  After having breakfast we met for our tour in the Princess Theater at 9.  The boat didn't come for us until 9:45, at least we didn't have to take the tender to shore, the whale watching boat came to the ship and we boarded directly.

whale sighted

Closer

Ready to dive

The boat took us out closer to Molokai and Lanai.  We saw whales in the distance and later very close up.  One mother brought her calf up close to the boat.  The calf was riding on the mothers head.  The naturalist on board estimated that the calf was about a week old.  Apparently the dorsal fin of the newborn doesn’t stand up so the age of the newborn can be determined by how far the fin has progressed toward a vertical position.  We had also learned in the onboard lectures that humpback whales never have twins.  We also learned that after the mother gives birth there is a male that acts as an escort, protecting the mother and calf.

When the mother whale brought her calf too near the boat the escort came and moved them away.  He was quite active, showing his fluke as he dived.  You have to be very quick to get a picture.  When taking pictures of whales you get a lot more pictures of water than of whales.

Our whale watching tour lasted two hours and we disembarked the boat on shore at Lahaina Town.  We had a snack at the Pioneer Inn and Gerri returned to the ship. 

When we were in Lahaina last Sept/Oct of 2014 I did a lot of geocaching and found many caches.  There were also some that I didn’t find.  One was at the site of the smokestack of the Pioneer Sugar Mill and one was at the Cannery Shopping Center.  The smokestack was .4 miles away so I walked there and found the cache.  I walked back to the harbor and finally decided take a taxi to the cache at the Cannery Shopping Center which was about a mile and a quarter from the harbor.  The taxi driver waited while I found the cache and signed the log.  Back at the harbor I caught the tender back to the ship.  I just happened to get to our room just before Gerri.

We spent some time in the Piazza using our MiFi to access the internet.  We participated in the trivia quiz in the Explorer Lounge.  We really did poorly, 8 correct out of 20 questions. The best team got 14 correct answers.

Sunset over Lanai

We cleaned up and got dressed for dinner. We went on deck for the sail away but it got dark before the ship sailed, therefore we weren't able to see anymore whales. We went for hors d’ouvres on the Sky Deck.  We sat with a couple from Half Moon Bay, CA that we had met earlier in the cruise and also a lady from the Oklahoma City area.  At dinner we were seated at a table for 10.  One of the ladies there was the lecturer that had spoken about volcanoes and whales at earlier presentations. One of the men also at our table had written a book about the Titanic and lectured on several Princess cruises.  A lot of interesting conversation.

The ights of Maui

After dinner we went to our room and read for a while before retiring.  The ship was cooperating and rocked us to sleep.

Tuesday January 20, 2015 Nawiliwili, Kauai, HI

We had no shore excursion today so we slept in until about 8 before we ordered coffee and breakfast.

We took the laptop and MiFi to the Piazza and spent some time on the computers.  Gerri finished her Sudoku, today’s was rated “Fiendish.”  I messed it up twice and quit.

In the early afternoon we went ashore.  We asked which shuttle went the furthest and were directed to the one that went to the Coconut Marketplace.  We took that one.  At the Marketplace we walked to the beach and took some pictures.  We then had lunch at TJ’s Grill.  We had fish tacos.  They were the largest fish tacos we ever had, and they were very good.

We caught the last shuttle back to the ship.  Sail away was scheduled at 4:30.  We went on deck to watch the sail away.  We hadn't set sail by a little after 5, so we decided to go for hors d'oeuvres on the sky deck.  We talked to a couple from Half Moon Bay until dark.  The ship sailed at about 6:10.  Gerri caught a glimpse of a whale as we left the harbor.

We decided to have dinner in the dining room.  We sat with two couples and two single ladies.  One of the other men who now lives in North Carolina graduated from high school in Nitro, West Virginia.  Nitro is a small town west of Charleston, where I was born.  We chose a good night to go to the dining room, one of tonight’s desserts was a soufflé.

After diner we went to our room and watched the movie From Here to Eternity.  We turned in about 11pm.

Monday January 19, 2015 Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

We arrived in Honolulu at about 7 AM.  We went to the Horizon Court for breakfast.

First sight of the hiding place

With Verizon internet service available, I determined that the geocache we had come to Honolulu for was 3.2 miles away.  That of course was straight line.  We engaged a taxi.  By road it was only about 5 miles.  We arrived at the Keeli Beach Park and started hunting.  The coordinates took us along a fence line of chain-link.  The hint was “Lifting Required.”  Gerri found it.  The cache was accessed by lifting the top of an end post by a gate.  The cache owner had sawed off the top few inches off the post and inserted a smaller pipe into the section.  The smaller pipe fit into the end post and the pill box containing the log sheet was in a pill bottle in the bottom end of the smaller pipe.  When the smaller pipe was lowered into the end post the cut was hidden by the fence fittings and it was difficult to tell that post from any of the others.

Close up of the hiding place

Geting close

Container exposed

Mission accomplished

We returned to the ship in the taxi and spent some time in the Piazza on the internet.  The Verizon MiFi worked there.  I was able to finish yesterday’s blog and log the two Earthcaches I completed in the National Park.  I also logged the cache I completed today.

After the Verizon internet connection deteriorated we went outside and caught a shuttle to Hilo Hattie’s. 

400XL Aloha Shirt

After shopping there we got on a free trolley that took us to Waikiki.  The trolley was crowded until a group of passengers got off at the ship.  

The trolley went through Waikiki stopping at many of the hotels.  The driver gave a running description of what we passed.  It was hard to take pictures from the trolley and we choose not to get off.  Before returning to Hilo Hattie’s the Trolley made another stop at the ship around 4pm, where we got off.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on deck looking at the city skyline.  The Waikiki area of Honolulu was crowded and busy when we were here the first time in the early 90’s.  It is even more build up and crowded now.  Compared to Waikiki the Las Vegas Strip is sprawled out and not crowded at all.

Tonight the featured hors d'oeuvres at the Sky Deck was a shrimp fountain so we went there at five.  Later we went to a show in the princess theater.  The show featured a trio of guitarists playing Hawaiian songs and their wives doing a hula dance through some of the songs.  Gerri was nodding off during the show and returned to the room without going to dinner.  I went to the Lido Deck and had a hamburger before going to the room.  Gerri had read for a while before going to sleep and I did the same.

Sunday January 18, 2015 Hilo, HI

We set an alarm last night before retiring.  We wanted to be up at 7 so we would have time to have breakfast before our tour.  Thinking the clock on my iPad was an hour ahead, I set the alarm for 8.  We woke up in anticipation of the alarm.  The clock read 7:15.  We then looked at the room telephone which had the ships time, 5:15, the iPad clock was still on Pacific time.  We weren't able to go back to sleep after lying in bed for another hour so we got up and went to the Horizon Court for breakfast.

After breakfast we turned in cancellations for the tours we had signed up for in Nawiliwili, Kauai and Ensenada, Mexico.  In the Piazza we were able to get on the internet using our MiFi instead of the ship board network.

Our tour to the Volcano National Park was set for 9:35 in the terminal building.  We got there early.  Our driver and guide took us to our van.  There were only six of us on the tour.  Besides Gerri and me there were three ladies from the Bay area and one lady from Germany.  Our driver, Cheyenne, was very knowledgeable.  An interesting aside was that she was from Molokai and is Miss Rodeo Hawaii for 2014.

Hilo Coffee Mill

A dragon made from machine parts

Our first stop was Hilo Coffee Mills.  We had a talk on coffee farming and samples of three different coffees.  We also got samples of other products they sold in the store.  Gerri and I split a coffee milkshake.

Our next four stops were in the Volcano National Park. 

The Kilauea Caldera

A view of the caldera

A recent crater

First was the Jagger Museum, which is practically on the rim f a caldera that is three mile across.  It is several hundred feet deep and there is a vent about the size of a football field putting out a steady stream of Vog, Volcanic fog.  In the museum there was a monitor that showed live pictures of the lava at the bottom of the vent.  I gathered the information for an Earthcache while at the museum.

The next stop was at an area that vents steam into the air.  Our guide told us that the water never reaches the lava but is caused by water hitting the hot rocks above the lava.  Therefore the steam is only that and contains no dangerous chemicals.  I gathered the information for another Earthcache at the steam vents.

We moved on to another area that overlooked a crater that was formed by an eruption in the 1960s.  

Entrance to the Thurston Lava Tube

Inside the lava tube

About a half mile further down the road we parked and walked to and through a lava tube.  The walk through the tube was about a 100 yards.  

The fiddle head of a fern ready to open

The entire walk was about a half mile.  Our guide pointed out plants of interest along the way so the walk was easy.

The hand rail almost under lava

Our last stop was at a lava field that crossed the road during a brief eruption in 1974.  At the edge of a small crater we could see what used to be the old handrail.  It was only a few inches above the lava and about 4 feet below the current road level.

 Once out of the park we stopped for lunch at the Volcano Gardens Art Gallery.  We had a good lunch of our choice of chicken, pork or vegetable wraps, chips, fruit, potato salad and drinks.

Valentine's Day decorations at the Big Island Candy Company

By the time we reached our last stop at the Big Island Candy Company we only had 10 minutes to get to the ship.  We had samples of their cookies and coffee.

We were late getting to the dock and were the last to board the ship before it pulled away from the dock.

We dropped our stuff off at our room and went on to the Lido Deck at the back of the ship to watch the sail away.  It was cloudy and Hilo doesn't have much of a skyline.  We couldn’t see Kilauea but did glimpse some playful whales in the ships wake.

We took in a show in the Princess Theater. A vocal impressionist, Michael Wilson.  He was funny and did a good job impersonating several well-known singers and actors.  Very funny and no off color content.

Decorations in the Piazza

Our final activity was to have pizza and an ice cream cone on the Lido deck while watching part of the Elvis movie, Blue Hawaii.  Gerri read until about 9:30 and I stayed up until 10:30.

Tomorrow we dock in Honolulu at 7 AM.  I want to finish the geocache that started us on this trip.