DAY 17—January 20, 2017—Cruising the North Pacific to HAWAII

The Captain adjusts our course to Hawaii to avoid bad weather and rough seas.   (See arrow on map.)

As it was, we were met with 13-18 foot swells right away out of San Diego.  This meant there was a lot of rocking and rolling going on and we were all walking like drunkards down the hallways, pin-balling off the walls.

Barf bags were conveniently placed at the ready throughout the ship.  Dramamine became the complimentary cocktail of the day.

The 45th US Presidential Inauguration was broadcast in the Movie Theatre and on stateroom TVs at 9:00 am.  

Or, at the same time, we could take a class to make an Orchid Lei.  Then we could learn to Hula and play the ukulele all in preparation for our visit to Hilo, Hawaii in 5 days.  Lectures focused on Magellan and early Polynesian explorers.  A very funny Hawaiian comedian, Kermit Apio, performed tonight.  Mostly, the audience was lukewarm but Ron and I were in stitches.  Humor is so subjective and the crowd on a World Cruise is tough. Entertainers who do the circuit of very long cruises  have to know that their audience is half-dead to begin with.  Actually, about half the ship’s passenger are Baby-Boomers, like us, but the other half is from the generation born between 1925 and 1945 and they see the world in an entirely different way.  Also, most of them cannot hear very well and that makes appreciating a nuanced joke a little more difficult.

DAY 18 — January 21, 2017 — Cruising the North Pacific to Hawaii

Sea swells are still very high, 12-18 feet.  There are not big crashing waves, just heaving seas.

It’s a Gala Night tonight — an opportunity for guests to dress up, or not, and choose from more elegant offerings in the dining room. 

The evening’s entertainment was a brilliant 5-man singing/ukulele band from Liverpool, England, called Ukebox.  Wow, these guys were talented, presenting a fabulous and utterly appealing ukulele concert.  They were brimming with a non-stop energy as they bounced around a stage that was bouncing about underneath them from the rolling seas.  The largest cruise ships now have Broadway level shows but the majority still have performers who aren’t well-known to us but put on amazing shows.   Sometimes you think, “Why would I want to watch this?” and then, wow, you get a very pleasant surprise.

DAY 19 — January 22, 2017 — Cruising the North Pacific to HAWAII

As we continue on our 5-day cruise to Hawaii on this Sunday, we can learn to tie a Pareo/Sarong, take more ukulele lessons, learn the what’s and why’s of the Tropic of Cancer, and of course, watch the NFL playoffs with Atlanta vs Green Bay and Pittsburgh vs New England.  Not surprisingly, this gets a big turnout and gives the ship a lot of opportunity to sell drinks from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.  We are still roughly within the normal broadcast times for US football games and drinking beer.  In two weeks, the Super Bowl will be broadcast at 8:30 am on the Monday morning following Super Bowl Sunday in the States.  We will see if that puts a damper on the traditional Super Bowl party.   Maybe there will be Bloody Marys and Mimosas.  But, most likely, beer will still be the drink of choice.

DAY 20 — January 23, 2017 — Cruising the North Pacific to HAWAII

The ship continues to rock and roll.    Many people continue to feel pretty queasy.  But, hey!  What’s for lunch?

 

Also today, we could make a Lauhala Hawaiian Bracelet, learn how to fold napkins, take another ukulele lesson, learn about the natural history of Hawaii, and participate in meditative coloring.

Jane stays in the cabin all day because she has been hit with the cold virus circulating the ship.

DAY 21— January 24, 2017 — Cruising the North Pacific to HAWAII

Jane, still nursing the cold and hoping to get better by the time we get to Hawaii, sticks to the cabin and misses an astronomy lecture, Hawaiian language lessons, and a fashion show of colorful, gauzy, flowing cover-ups called Goddess (prices starting at $300) that promise to help formerly shapely women pretend they still are, while trying to conceal the shape they actually are.  

DAY 22— January 25, 2017 — Hilo, HAWAII

It is raining in Hilo, when we disembark because it rains in Hilo 5 days/week.  Annual rainfall averages 130” on this side of the island, with the Kona side only getting about 18”.   We take a bus excursion to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016.  At 4,300 feet above sea level, the conditions are cool and breezy and the rain stops and starts.  At the Visitor’s Center, we get an overlook of the gases streaming from the Kilauea Caldera, which is closed to visitors.   Signs everywhere warn us of the hazards of VOG (Volcano Fog, a dangerous sulfur dioxide gases emitted from the caldera). 

 

Off to the northwest we can see the magnificent Mauna Loa looming over everything.  We then travel down the crater’s rim into a rainforest where we walk for 20 minutes through a lava tube discovered in 1913.  Walking through, we imagine the huge river of red molten lava gushing through this space hundreds of years ago.

Turston Lava Tube.

On the way back to the ship we stop at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation processing plant and outlet store and load up on a lot because, you know, we can never be sure there will be enough to eat on the ship.

DAY 23— January 26, 2017 — Honolulu, HAWAII

Celebrating Ron’s 70th birthday on Waikiki

DAY 24— January 27, 2017 — Honolulu, HAWAII

King Kamehameha

We finally make it to a Walmart which is five minutes from the port, in the downtown business district of Honolulu near the historical Iolani Palace and the King Kamehameha statue, where the latest version of the  Hawaii Five-0 TV show is filmed.   

Iolani Palace

Our big purchase was a $10 bathroom scale.  The ship has a sophisticated digital scale in the fitness center on the 8th floor but the movement of the ship up there causes it to swing wildly.  Just when you are excited about seeing a low number, the read-out blips up 10 lbs more, then 5 lbs less, then 15 lbs more.  On wild sea days it only reads ERR.  The one we purchased doesn’t do a whole lot better but we more easily can monitor our inevitable weight gain without having to get dressed and walk up 5 flights of stairs to get the bad news.

This two-story Walmart offered a feature that I had never heard of or seen before:  a cart escalator.  Pretty awesome.  Oh, the wonders that are revealed to you as you travel the world.

No show tonight as we take off on our next stretch of 8 Pacific sea days.  Instead, a big-screen movie will be presented in the showroom:  Amelia, the story of Amelia Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.  At least they are not showing the Titanic.