Sailing towards San Diego May 1, 2016

Well this is our final night of this cruise. We have said our goodbyes to our friends, Val and Jim, we will see them in about a month. And Bill and Irene we will see in a a couple of weeks, they are continuing on to Seattle, so they get to enjoy this wonderful crew we have had. Agoone our water, has been the best we have ever had, and our room guys, Ipool, and Eddie have also been the best. We can't say enough good things for HAL in that department. 

Our bags are out and we are ready to go, no suntan, but happy non the less, as we had a good time. 

I will lose our internet, but will hope to get on at the airport

CINDY and Ed 

April 29, 2016 sailing towards Ft Lauderdale

KWell we have been without internet for two days now, we are in never, never land. The seas are a bit rough, about five ft and head winds of 45 KTS. It is 75 F and the map finely has the land on the screen, so it won't be too much longer now, and maybe that means we'll get the internet back  I hope I can get this to post, but we'll see.  

Around the ship for the last couple days have been sort of busy, we had the Neptune crossing, but didn't get to see it as they scheduled the wine tasting at the same time. That type of thing has been a problem the whole cruise. I don't think the cruise director is very swift. And we have had rain again, first sea day it was sunny then rain and clouds, it makes things kind of a downer. Everyone in our group has  has made the best of it, but it is hard not to wish for a bit of sun. 

So I will try to show you some of the fotos of the happenings around the ship

Here is a picture of the Philippino show. 

Yesterday we went to the mariners luncheon, it is to honor the people who are most traveled. 

Then day befor we had a Gala Night, better known as formal night. This is our group. 

And Jim passing out YUM YUMS after dinner. 

Later,,,, got to see if I can this out. 

Welcome to Nuku Hiva

Well it finely happened,,,,,,, we had SUN!

It is really pretty and it was very bright! We have been in shade too long!  It was also hot,hot,hot. Small island, not a lot to do, except wait in long lines for the tenders, and a wee bit of shopping, but it was wonderful to see the sun. 

Ed wanted to go down to the queens lounge early to get an early tender ticket, and I grumbled all the way, when the blond doesn't even get time for coffee,,,,, well you know. But as it happens it was the very right move. Tendering was a real challenge on this island, and unless they fix this on, Nuku Hiva I know we will never get off at that port of call again. Long story, and the only tour offered was awful, according to Bill and Irene, thank god we hadn't booked it. 

Tikis are a big part of the culture here

Because we left early we got back in time for lunch and spent the afternoon here in the aft pool. 

When every one returned and met for dinner, we had lots of stories to tell. One of them was from Ed. In the visitors center, we bought post cards, but they didn't have stamps, we were now in the Marquesas, so they have there own government and stamps. So they sent him to the post office. What looked like just around the corner turned out to be up a big hill when he asked a lady in an SUV, I guess the look on his face made her offer him a ride up the hill. Phew,, when he got there, the postmaster, said they couldn't take dollars!  But after a bit, and Ed telling him, they didn't have stamps at the visitors center, he finely figured out how he could do it. 

Tommrow is a sea day, and I will elaborate on the food in the dinning room and the cabin crawl. Good night. 

Sunday, April 24, 2016 Sailing towards Nuku Hiva

Ok so now we are at sea, and it is warm and sunny!  81 F and the ship's clocks will be set another 30 minutes forward. We did that last night too, sense we had a sea day, I am not sure why they didn't just make it an hour tonight, instead.  Oh well. 

We got our passports back this morning, and Kainoa gave another location talk on Nuku Hiva. He is very good. 

Tonight we are going to the Pinnacle Grill for dinner with the group it should be fun. The stakes were really good and the shrimp cocktail were like little lobster tails. We ate too much, but had fun. 

Early to bed as Ed wants toget on an early tender in the morning. 

April 23, 2016 Opunohu, Moorea

We sailed across the bay to the island of Moorea, and anchored in Opunohu bay. Last time we were in Cooks bay, so this was all new to us, it didn't really matter as it was raining before we were able to get tender tickets. By the time we got to the island it was raining hard, we whroe our swim wear, thinking we outdoor get a excursion to swim with the stingrays and sand sharks, but that wasn't going to happen. The market was under cover, so we just did a bit more shopping. And got in line to go back to the ship, when we got to the ship, it was again a downpour and we had to climb an outside stairway in the pouring rain. Good thing we wore our suites, we were now as wet as we could be. 

Can you tell it is raining?

Pape'ette, Tahiti April 22, 2016

Capten Rens van Eerten, changed our itinerary, we will now be in Papeete, Tahiti today Friday, from 6:00 to 1:00 AM  on Saturday the 23rd, the short cruise across the bay to Moorea. Instead of the reverse, seem we need fuel., and stores. Well that is ok with us as when we awoke in Tahiti it wasn't raining. At least not at first.   

This is a big city, and it was sweltering hot and humid. So we were going across the street, to find the market, we missed last time we were here, because it wasn't opened. And we had no excursion booked, and many had been canceled. 

I was feeling a bit under the weather, with a yucky cold so, we didn't do much. They had a show with dancers in the theater, but we knew we would never get in, as our dinner time makes it so we would not be able to get there early enough to get seats,,, oh well. 

Making coconut milk

Flowers in the market. 

View of the city from or balcony. 

This was in our mail box:

Dear guests,

As you know we have been experiencing some unpleasant weather conditions,,,,,, that have caused cancellations of port calls as well as excursions---------- I have been in contact with our home office and as a special gesture of goodwill we are pleased to provide each of you with a Future Cruise Credit equal of15% of the base cruise fare you paid for the 30-day sailing which began April 2, 2016. Additionally we are pleased to provide an onboard credit of $100 per person for your enjoyment on this sailing. This will be posted tonight to your shipboard account. (And it was) 

Would you say they were trying to make up?

Bora Bora April 20-21, 2016

Well we finely arrived and anchored in Vaitape, Bora Bora, where were suppose to be. We anchored in the bay, and it rained,,, again. But later in the day. It cleared enough to take the tender ashore. So we put on our clothes, that could get wet without being to provocative and bumped across to the pier. 

When it rains here, or really rains!  

First on the agenda, was to check on our reservations for Bloody Mary's, we went to the visitors center, and they called and confirmed all was in order. So now it was a hunt for pearls. Kainoa, was on the dock, and he sent us accros the street to Alberts, and many $$$$ later we came back to the ship, to get ready to go to dinner.  

The shuttle to Bloody Mary's was to pick us up at 6:15, not knowing how long the shuttles would take we all decided to error on the side of being early, and luckily we hit it all right and then had to wait an hour for the bus. It finely came, now there was 18 of us!

When we arrived and checked in, we were all set to see the menu.

This is our menue

So we all ordered and waited for it to get to us, meanwhile, it again started to rain, and hard, it even came through the thatched roof. We had fun, ate,  and left on the 8:15 shuttle back to the dock not wanting to go back in the rain. 

Well we didn't make that, by the time we got to the dock, it was pouring, and lightning and thunder, a real show, they couldn't launch the tender. We waited under the eve for about an hour. And would you believe this was our tender, that would take us back to the ship!

Notice the number, LOL 

It was a bumpy ride back, and fireworks were still going on, but all was well and we returned wet, but with a great story!

We all felt sorry for the crew who had to keep going back and forth, until midnight. 

The next day it was cloudy, with off and on rain, but we needed to go a ashore again to get post cards and look for more treasures, all the shore excursions had been canceled because of the weather once again. So we found the cards, and went to a little place to sit down, and luckily ran in to Val and Jim who had snaged a table. 

Even we got back to the ship, the clouds opened up again and it poured. So we said good by to Bora Bora. 

Our welcome even in the rain. 

They still have phone booths. 

Tonight's dinner?

 

Sailing towards Raiatea Monday April 18, 2016

Forecast partly cloudy, NOT, it is raining and we haven't seen the sun in days. Not even for a little bit. The seas are rough we have winds across the bow of 48 knots. 

They say it is 83 F, but not sure about that one. 

Not sure you can read this, but this is on the screen of our TV 

Here is out the door.

Any way, we are suppose to dock early, around 9 PM, spend tommrow all day in port, sure hope it clears up, as no tan yet. 

Our on location guide Keinoa is giving a talk on French Polynesia at two, so we will do that. 

Last night we saw a great show, Greg Andrew, doing Elton John, he looks like Elton and plays the piano as good as Elton, he was amazing. 

Then the 11 pm show was the Philippino crew show, it too was wonderful. It made for a very late night, and this morning we are not moving fast,with the ship rocking and rolling, we have to be careful any way.  So we had breakfast in the room, room service, has been great, very fast and VERY well done. 

By for now. 

 

Welcome to Avatiu, Rarotonga April 17, 2016

We not really a welcome as once again, we cannot go ashore. The wind is at 30 KTS across the bow, and they tried to get us off, by putting the tenders in the water, but just too much wind and the swells are just too big. Then on top of that they had a medical evacuation, so they had toget that person off to be air evaceted home to Australia, sad. 

So we are to do scenic cruising around the island to take pictures. I will post them here. 

So now we are on our way to Raiatea we are now suppose to spend the night, arriving about nine tonight. This is a docking port, not a tender. We have not been off the ship, since we left Kona, a week ago!

Saling towards Rarotonga April 14,15 2016

Ok we missed Fanning Island. We woke up early, so we so we could watch the sail in and we saw the island,,,,, and then we didn't!

This was at first. 

Then it looked like this, then you couldn't even see the island, it rained so hard.  The capten  said we had to abort, as there was no way with the storm, that the tenders would make it. 

So we just headed south, on to our next stop Rarotonga. Now our on location guid says it Friday the 15th, but none of us is really sure, as we have criscrised the date line, with no real refeance as to time and date. Oh well "what difference does it make?"

So now we are on our ? Sea days, all I know is we should be in Rarotonga day after tommrow. We'll see. I'll try to give you an idea of how we have settled into sea days around the ship. 

This is a very interesting ship, it is smaller then what we are accustomed to, so even though we are more aft we don't have very far to go to get to most things. 

I profiled the library, last time, that is on deck 10, if you go down one deck to 9 you are on the lido, and spa deck. The lido market is wher you have the casual option, for breakfast lunch, and dinner. It is very good, as that type of thing goes. The biggest problem is finding a seat, and the dinamics on this ship, makes it even more of a problem, as they are all so much older, so they all go to everything way ahead of schedule. 

There is another lunch venue on this deck, it is The Drive In, the have hot dogs and hamburgers and frys, this is the BEST I have experienced, in this category. I will try to get some photos tommrow.  We had lunch here today, with Bill and Irene, we got New England clam chowder and the other three had hotdogs and I had a chicken sandwich. Now Ed is napping, and I'm writing. 

We have been going to the lictures around 2 tha Kaino, gives on the upcoming islands, but there wasn't one today. The one today is on flying the North Atlantic, and Pacfic. Not sure if Ed is going or not. 

We go to dinner at 7:30, finely got that worked out, and we go to the Oceans Bar befor dinner, more on that later.  

So more trivial things later.  

Catching up part 2

  Ok so we get up and, have breakfast, and plan what to do today in regards to the car. What seemed like a good idea 6 months ago, doesn't seem so now. We are tired,and don't feel Ike driving all over Oahu today, so it is onto the walk to the garage, and find the car. Long story here, for another day. 

So we drive to the Pagoda, hotel, turn in the car, and walk to Walmart, do some last, shopping for, necessities, water, sunscreen etc.  it was an adventure. Then took the free shuttle back to the ship, the ship sailed at five.  We said a sad aloha to Oahu we were all sad to leave, hope we get to come back some day. 

So now it was on to, the big island, and Hilo. George, and Diane met us just outside the gate, and they showed us there, part of Hawaii. Right beside there condo is a small park, and I don't remember the name, but there is a great swim area, and you can swim with the turtles!

This is walking into the park. 

Just beyond here, there are steps, to go into the water. 

Then you see these guys

Then we got to see their airplane, and we were on to a Saturday morning market, no photos, of the market, too busy buying. 

Next day we were in Kona, here we had a private tour, to Explore the Kohola coastline, the birthplace of King Kamehameha and the mystical Polou Valley. This tour took us along the scenic Kohala coastline, a landscape of lava flows, resorts and white sand beaches. Visit PU'ukohola Helau National Historic Site and the temple of King Kamehameha the Great. We traveled to historic Hawi town, the birthplace of King Kamehamaha and payed  a visti to the original statue of the king, we continued to the end of the road to take in breathtaking views of the Pololu Valley with it's black sand beach and tropical wetlands, traversing the Kohola mountain pass through active ranch land return to Kailua-Kona along mountainous country roads while taking in panoramic views of the island.  

It was nice but a long drive in a van, that had one too many people, I think by now we were tired, ready for a sea day.

So now it is on to Fanning Island..... 

Catching up on all the days in Hawaii April 11,2016

Wow here it is the 11th of April and I last published on the 6th and that didn't go out like it was suppose to. So now to catch up the best I can. 

We arrived in Honolulu about an hour late, which wasn't good for us, as we were renting a car, and for a while it got worse befor it got better. We finely got off the ship about 10:30. And where the Westerdam docked was not at the aloha tower, it was about a mile toward Waikiki, so we get out and Ed calls Hertz, for a shuttle, and the say the shuttle only runs untill 9 AM!  So we walk off to Aloha tower 1 which was the address, and guess what they aren't there!  So now what to do? Ed calls Hertz, and the guy says, were in the Pagoda hotel, about 5 miles away, we flag a taxi but he doesn't know where the Pagoda hotel is, so we go to the Interprise rental, as it was on the way, and we are not happy with Hertz right now, but they have no cars, so we get out on the street again, this time we found a great taxi driver who knew the way, and the Pagoda was right behind the WALMART!  Who knew we found out the next day that we could have taken a shuttle to Walmart, and been right there, but more on that later.

So we finely get the car, it is now it is noon, and we wanted to be at the Polynesian Culture center at noon, but at last we were on the way. We took the road over the Palii and road it around the coast, It took about an hour, and it was beautiful I saw lots of places I used to paint, lots of memories, the whole day, was just beginning. 

The four of us, Jim, Val and Ed and i, had purchased the Super Ambasader Package, so we got parking right up front and our own private guid for the day, and very VIP  treatment all day. Our guid was Phobie a sweet young blond girl from China!  And she really considered herself Chinese her parents moved moved to China when she was three, and she now had  9 siblings and they are all in China and when she finishes school on Oahu she will go home. She speaks fluent Chinese as well as English.  She was delightful and we all enjoyed her very much. 

We started out going to Fiji , and we learned that the early Fijians, were the pottery makers of Polynesia, and saw some wonderful natives dancing,  and our seats were right up front. We were given used some big bambo sticks that you pounded on the ground, it was fun. 

Tonga, was the next stop, Tonga is one of the few countries in the world, and the only one in Polynesia, never to be colonized by a European power. It's a royal family, now headed by his Majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV.  This was one of the funniest shows, they chose three guys from the audience, one from Wisconsin, and two from California, one being aishen decent who was so funny. They were all very good sports. 

Then we went to Samoa, we learned about all the uses for coconuts and learned how to make coconut bread, yum, and Ed was chosen to try coconut juice, from a fresh coconut, he too was a good sport. 

Then we went to Tahiti and Jim and Ed learned to dance,, lol 

Tahiti, is the name of one island in the Society Islands, a group that includes Moorea, Bora Bora, and Raiatea, among others. 

Then it was on to the Pageant of the Long Canoes, and again we were given front row seats. 

Tonga

Tahiti 

Hawaii

After the show we got our own longboat canoe ride. Then it s on to dinner, again we had up front seats, and I mean up front. 

When it is time to dine, the pig is ritually removed from the imu and  paraded across a bridge into the dinning area. 

Then you have The Ali'i Lu'au, or the show, this was not the big evening show, that we saw later, I didn't take photos there, just enjoyed. Here are photos from the dinner show. 

We were so close they had to put up a fence to protect us, this was a female fire dancer. 

We left the center, about 9:30, we all had a great time, so many memories, from the past, and the day.

 The drive back was easy, and the guys dropped Val and I to the ship, and then they went on to hunt a place to park the car, then they had to walk two miles back to the ship, now we all said good night, after a brief glass of wine we were off to bed. 

To be continued........

Sailing towards Honolulu April 6, 2016

It say partly cloudy, not it is raining and very cloudy and about 70 F 

Today's highlights include: a lecture on Pearl Harbor - what happened and why, the events leading to December 7, 1941, the missed clues, the spy, the catastrophe for American forces and its impact on the future of the world. Ed is there now. 

You could learn to do the hula at 11am pool side, I think that might be a wee bit wet. Or you could do a licture on diversification of life in ancient seas.  Later at 2 we could see Hawaii's 2010 male star of the year performing music from Hawaii and see the hula dancer Celeste Akeo, we might just do that one, if we didn't have reservations for Wine Tasting For Dummies, at 2:30. Oh well you can't do everything. 

We are on our last sea day before we get to Honolulu tomorrow, we are scheduled to arrive about 10 am, and we are setting the clocks back, I think, although, there has been no reference to that yet. 

We just went to a talk on three of the islands we will be visiting. We must have missed the talk on the first three, but it was ok as it was interesting any way. 

We spent time in the spa yesterday, and I have found places for all our stuff in the room, so all is going well. Now we are up in the library/ crows nest, and coffee bar. It is really pretty, up on the 10th deck all the way forward.  And now it is clearing up, the sun is out. 

Where you get special coffees

The bar area

The library area

The view, Ed doing sudoku. We will go to lunch in a bit.