Day 82: No Maui for me :-(

We awoke early and watched (albeit from our cabin window) as the sun rose just off the ship's starboard side.

Captain Ciruzzi made his welcoming announcement early, and by 8am the tenders were set up and operating. The day looked to be nice and sunny, and we were thrilled to see that the view of the West Maui Mountains from the ship was spectacular. 

We went to breakfast in the Club Restaurant (yes, we have some papaya...finally!!) and had just fruit plates and oatmeal. This morning, I awoke feeling a little...vertigo, I guess, and didn't have much of an appetite.  I found out at dinner that several passengers had been awakened at 3am by the ship's rocking and rolling. I slept through it, but think it was the cause of my vertigo. 

We returned to the cabin to make a couple of phone calls. G wanted to do a helicopter tour today, but, this being the holiday weekend, everything was fully booked, even for singles (that I don't do helicopters sometimes works in his favor if there is just one empty seat).

Defeated on that count, I took the time to order our Prime Time Shuttle pickup for next Thursday in Los Angeles (can you believe it is that time already?) and delete the 100 or so BLACK FRIDAY emails in my junk email account. Have I mentioned we will be home for Christmas?  I know I have, but have I mentioned it lately? I have a feeling, however, that the overt commercialism of Christmas in America is going to hit us like a ton of bricks, after so many years away. 

We gathered up some things for a walking/shopping day, and went down to the tender boat platform on Deck 3. Right away, I knew I was in trouble. Captain Ciruzzi had said he was initially having the tenders launch from the starboard side of the ship, but that the wind was expected to pick up throughout the day and we'd probably return to the ship using a platform on the port side. Well, the tender boat on the starboard side was pitching and rolling. Still, I got in it and sat for several minutes while it was loaded with a few more passengers. I knew to sit by the opening and watch the horizon, but I finally gave up and stepped back off of it.

I waited just inside the ship until the tender would be ready to leave, but, standing there, it looked even worse. I asked one of the helmsmen if it got better or worse as it traveled the not-short distance to the Lahaina pier and he said it got much worse. That sealed it for me. I handed a can of Coke from my backpack into G in the tender and waved goodbye (and that vertigo sensation in my head lasted two more hours).  G phoned me from the tender and said I had made exactly the right choice; it was a very bouncy ride.

While I was sorry to miss a day in Maui, I suddenly had a few hours alone on a nearly empty ship to do whatever I wanted. Anything!  People ask us lots of questions about cruising for as long as we do, and we honestly answer that, except for Internet issues, it's not hard to do. We don't get bored, we don't eat too much, and, while we miss people and certain conveniences of home, we don't pine for them. But, in the interest of full disclosure, I do miss being alone sometimes. Not that I would ever want a steady diet of solitary living, but I went from having a husband away for months at a time for military duty to having a husband who lived at home but worked to having a husband at home nearly all of the time, to having a husband and 1000 to 4500 people around all the time. A little alone time is a welcome thing.

I first went out on the starboard side of the Promenade Deck to watch the pitching and rolling of the ship's tenders as they loaded and unloaded. Within 30 minutes or so, my iPhone rang; G was boarding a semi-submersible sub!  He was walking by the sub loading point in Lahaina harbor and they made him an offer too good to refuse. I went on the port side Promenade Deck and watched as the bright yellow semi-submersible sub left the harbor and sailed north toward Kaanapali. 

I settled in with a book and looked up occasionally as the sub moved further away. Suddenly, my iPhone was alerting me that I was receiving texts. G was sending me photos while still under the water!   

 

The sub is the yellow dot in the middle of the photo

The seating and windows were on each side of the sub

A diver was pointing out the sea life, including this octopus, to the passengers in the sub. This reminded me of a dive I once did in Cozumel. I think it was at Paradise Reef, not far from where the cruise ships dock, because I was there on a cruise ship. I was at about a 40 foot depth when I heard the strangest sound getting louder and louder. Sound carries differently underwater, and I couldn't immediately tell which direction it was coming from. The next instant, a submarine with some of my fellow cruise passengers went by right in front of me, and I recognized some of the people waving at me from the windows. That was a surreal experience!

G eventually returned to the Lahaina pier and took a tender back to the ship to have a late lunch with me. He said the sub ride had ben surprisingly smooth despite the rough water, and that the visibility had been better than he'd expected. He felt it was worth the $35 he'd paid at the last minute. It was his intention to go back to the island, but he never did. Something tells me the tender ride was just a little too rough to take four times in one day. We sat for a long while on the terrace behind the Promenade Deck enjoying that incredible view. It was so pretty that it even promoted G to say that he thought it rivaled any of the island views in French Polynesia. It certainly comes close, but, of course, it lacks the beautiful blue lagoons. 

Panoramic pic of the West Maui Mountains

We watched as several parasailing boats sped by, with the mountains as a backdrop

We returned to the cabin mid-afternoon, and G napped as I giddily texted friends at home.  While I welcomed this connectedness with the real world, news alerts about the domestic terrorism taking place in Colorado Springs kept popping up on my iPhone.

Sigh.

And that's all I will say about that. :-(

Sailaway wasn't until 6pm, but we skipped the Elite Lounge tonight and instead went directly to dinner in the Club Restaurant. Let me take a moment to say that we have been so lucky with our dinner waitstaff this season. We've had three different waiters and assistant waiters, and they, as well as all the waiters on the Pacific Princess are simply as good as the best we've ever known. It simply doesn't get any better than this. Sitting at our table, we had a perfect view of the sunset over the neighboring island of Lanai. 

And the bridge had an even better view of the sunset (their windows are cleaner!)

Source:  Princess.com

The water was so rough that they had a little trouble picking up the last tender, but we were finally making our way north into the Pailole Channel on the northwest coast of Maui. Almost immediately, the water got considerably rougher, and after dinner (just a salad with chicken breast and sorbet for me), we made our way forward on Deck 5 to the Cabaret Lounge for the 7:30pm performance of production show Cinematastic. We got front row seats and waited for the show to begin. 

Immediately, I knew I wasn't going to make it. The movement was the roughest we've seen to date. I had no idea how the dancers were going to cope, but, even though I was concerned about them (the fun part of this ship is that we get to know them as individuals), I couldn't stay. I left G and went up to the Panorama Buffet to get ginger ale, crackers and a green apple in case I needed them overnight. Returning to our cabin, our steward Jackie was leaning on her housekeeping cart, as green as the apple in my hand. I predict a rough night for many of us, but hope it improves tomorrow. 

G returned to the cabin after the show to check on me and said it never got any worse in the Cabaret Lounge, but it never got any better either; however, the dancers did just fine. It helps that they spend so much time in the air and are moving so quickly that momentum helps them keep their balance. Even in our Deck 4 midship cabin, it will be a 'tuck in the duvet' night to keep from rolling around in bed.

We are moving clocks ahead an hour overnight, and one more hour ahead later in the cruise. When he returned to the cabin, G asked me if I had changed my watch and iPhone yet. No, I hadn't. Five days at sea...I'm not sure we will even care what time it is. 

Day 11: Mostly Maui, but a Milestone cruise, too

(I am cracking myself up with these alliterative post titles. Please forgive my silliness. I'll soon be relegated to First Sea Day, Second Sea Day, etc.)

As I said in yesterday's (aka this morning's) post, I did not make it up on deck for what surely would have been a beautiful sunrise.  Coming from Oahu, we would not have sailed by Haleakala, but would have instead come past Molokai and Lanai. When I awoke, I immediately got- and stayed- on task with posting about our busy day in Honolulu. I do NOT like to get behind, especially with these several port days in a row. 

Interestingly, when I plugged my iPhone in after returning to the ship last night, several messages popped up from friends concerned about the tsunami warning for Hawaii. We had known nothing about it until we were on the sunset sailboat cruise, when I overheard someone asking the boat captain about it. He downplayed it, saying it would be no more than a large tidal surge for Hawaii. But G and I knew that there would be no safer place to be than tucked in our tiny cabin on the Pacific Princess between Oahu and Maui. And, sure enough, the predicted hour of tsunami activity, around 3am, came and went without notice. 

So, finally, on to today. This cruise marks a big moment for us in our cruising career (career, because we work hard at this!!)...it is our 100th cruise overall and 75th Princess cruise. Princess calls these cruises (50th, 75th, etc.) Milestone cruises and right away we started noticing some differences. We received a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries before we even left the ship yesterday morning. We would have received flowers if there was a florist on board this tiny ship but there's not, and that's just as well. We'd have to hang them from the ceiling, so starved are we for counter space what with the minibar setups and paperwork and electronics. But the biggest benefit of a 75th cruise with Princess is that we get to dine in Sabatinis every morning for breakfast, a treat normally reserved for suite passengers. 

People talk about scheduling these milestone cruises such that they occur on a really good cruise; i.e. a longer cruise or one with lots of sea days. We had decided a while ago to do the same thing we had done with our cruising different cruise lines...just let ours happen when it did based on taking the cruises we wanted to take. In the end, we couldn't be happier with the timing, on this 12-night cruise with 5 sea days. 

So, there I was this morning, lying in bed and vicariously experiencing the sunrise while I was playing post catch-up. 

We made our way to Sabatinis (sooo excited!) where waiters Olexis from Ukraine and Ruel from the Philppines greeted us. We were the only people in there for most of the meal, and the Pacific Princess was already anchored off the coast of Lahaina, Maui, so we had spectacular views of the West Maui Mountains and the ship's tendering process right from our table.

Olexis brought us the Sabatini's breakfast menu (we didn't even know there was one), and it was hard to decide just what to order. 

In the end, I decided to stick with a fruit plate and scrambled egg beaters because I knew we'd have a busy day, but I did allow myself to be talked into a decaf skim milk cappuccino and small breakfast smoothie with honey and banana (to die for). 

Oh, and fresh squeezed OJ too (fresh squeezed!!)

Sabatinis closes for breakfast at 9:30am on port days :-(, so we finally had to pull ourselves from our high living experience and take a tender to Maui. This visit we wasted no time in getting the Kaanapali Express bus ($2pp) and got off at Whalers Village.  Because the bazillion steps we walked yesterday were not enough :-| we decided to walk first left and then right along Kaanapali Beach, stopping occasionally for a cool drink on the beach.  

Molokai from Maui

Lanai from Maui

The beach walk

Yellow hibiscus, state flower of Hawaii

We returned to the ship about 4:30pm and quickly got cleaned up for the Elite Lounge in the Pacific Lounge. It was port wine and Stilton night (yum) and we were treated to a rainbow over the West Maui Mountains while we imbibed. 

Fantastic view!

It felt like we had not been to dinner in the Club Restaurant for days, and we had been eating pretty sporadically lately. We actually had three courses plus dessert, not something we do very often, but it was also one of our favorite menus that we don't see very often, with my very favorite Italian seafood stew, cioppino, and key lime pie for dessert. Serve those every night, and I'd be happy!

After dinner, we returned briefly to our cabin to start putting together the things we'd need for our excursion in Hilo. It involved pulling out suitcases and finding those things we'd packed 'just in case'. And we needed to get them together before the 7:45pm show because we were both fading fast and didn't want to leave it until later.

The show was vocal impressionist Paul Tanner and he was...okay. We had never seen him before, and that's always a plus, and we wanted to really like him (and didn't dislike him), but, really, how many people sing It's a Wonderful World with Louis Armstrong's gravely voice?  Apparently, quite a lot... 

After that, we were in bed and asleep by 10pm. We have a big day in Hilo and want to be well rested for it. And then, five sea days in a row. Honestly, we need the break right now. I think our extended Honolulu stay (or maybe it was the Maitais) did us in. 

Day 8: Maui Monday

Before I get started talking about today, I have some unfinished business from last night's King Kamehameha Festival, which was able to be held on the open deck. I guess as soon as we left the rainy side of the Big Island, the weather improved considerably. 

The Hawaiian duo Makani E were playing Hawaiian music when we arrived, and Lokelina, who had been conducting hula classes on every sea day, taught us all the Hu Ke Lau, a simple hula, which was especially nice for those of us who hadn't made it to any of the classes. Then the passengers who had attended the lessons danced a couple more complex hulas. Finally, it was time for G (and all the other ukulele students) to show us what they had learned. 

And before it was all done, both the hula dancers and ukulele players performed Tiny Bubbles and they were an impressive group. 

Walking Miracles then took the stage to play more typical deck party music, but I was fading quickly. It was 11pm by then, too many hours after I had awakened at 5am that morning. We were quick to bed and asleep in minutes. 

When the alarm went off at 5:45am this morning, it was very tempting to roll over and go back to sleep. But, thanks to that large window in our cabin, I was able to see the earliest light of day and that propelled me out of our cabin. The island of Maui (MOW-ee) is shaped much like the island of Tahiti, kind of a sideways figure 8. At 6am, we were arriving from the east, cruising along the southern edge of the eastern side of the island, and the dormant volcano Haleakala was looming tall in the distance. Our anchorage for the day was off northwest Maui by Lahaina. 

Source:  http://www.mauirealestate.com

Of course, up on the front of Deck 11, Douglas Pearson was already holding court, though his audience that early consisted of just three of us. 

Pre-sunrise sky with the Molokini crater in front of the slope of Haleakala

On the opposite side of the ship was island Kaho'olawe (Ka-hoo-oo-LA-vay). 

Kaho'olawe, the tiniest of the eight major Hawaiian islands, was historically sparsely populated because of its lack of fresh water. In WW2, the U.S. military used Kaho'olawe as a training ground and bombing range, and the island has been uninhabitable ever since.

Sea cliffs on the southern edge of Kaho'olawee

It was windy up on Deck 11, but as soon as we lost the protection of Haleakala and sailed up along that area in the middle part of the figure 8, the wind took on hurricane-al properties. I was afraid it would blow the contacts right off my eyeballs. But our tenacity was rewarded with the first view of the sunrise above Haleakala. 

The pool deck looked so pretty in the early morning sun (this one is for the twins who wanted pictures of the food and the pool)

Eventually, we made our way down to the Club Restaurant when it opened for breakfast at 7:30am (we felt we had been up for hours by then!). It featured one of our favorite breakfast menus of the entire cruise- blueberry pancakes- and, while I still had my berries and orange segments and scrambled egg beaters, I allowed myself one blueberry pancake as my breakfast 'dessert'.

Life is good. :-)

The weather today was picture-perfect, 88F and brightly sunny. There was a significant wind, though, and that made for an exciting tender ride from the Pacific Princess to the (former whaling) town of Lahaina. We will be returning to Maui on Thursday this week, and so decided to spend today doing a walking tour of Lahaina, with our only goal being to make it to the U.S. Post Office to mail a few postcards and the padded envelope I had purchased yesterday at WalMart to Mom. I have a feeling we are going to sorely miss the ease with which we can talk, and Internet and mail back to the U.S. once we leave Hilo Friday afternoon. 

Surfers near the breakwall in Lahaina harbor

We first walked along the Lahaina harborfront checking out all the booths selling fishing and parasailing tours, and then walked through the museum and art galleries that are housed in the Old Lahaina Courthouse. We stopped at our favorite ice cream shop for shave ice topped with ice cream, purchased a silk flower wreath that I can wear on my hat and sat under the shade of the large Lahaina banyan tree to enjoy our ice cream. 

William Owen Smith planted the Lahaina banyan tree in 1873. All of the other trees there come from the roots of that original tree. 

We walked down Front Street and past the Christian missionary houses from the 1800s. 

 

We eventually found the post office and then became aware of just how hot the day had become. About that same time, we started smelling good smells from the waterfront restaurants and decided to return to the ship. The terrace behind the Panorama Buffet offered the best views of the West Maui mountains. 

And, just another reason to love this small ship...rush hour in the buffet. ;-)

We returned to our cabin by 3pm and I decided its cool comfort was exactly what I needed, but G spent part of the afternoon in a hot tub. We've watched very little TV since we boarded, but I was pleased to turn it on and find that The Sound of Music (also celebrating its 50th anniversary) was just beginning. Boy, does that movie bring back memories, both as one of my earliest movie memories but also in that Mom and I visited that house (castle?) where it was filmed when we were in Salzburg in 1984. 

I was showered for the evening and up in the Pacific Lounge for the Elite Lounge while G was still getting ready, and so I got the window side chair with a view, and what a view it was. Shrimp, Parmesan shards and Chardonnay...and the sun casting shadows on the West Maui mountains. Honestly, this is NOT how we live at home but that fact didn't cause me a moment of trouble in adjusting. 

Captain D, in his 'welcome back on board' announcement, mentioned how difficult the trade winds had made the tendering process (we had noticed; once back on board this afternoon I refused to leave again) and said that yesterday Maui had had torrential rains, so we felt quite lucky in our gorgeous weather today. 

Tonight's dinner menu was the Chef's Dinner, and the funny thing about it is that when I am hungry, it all looks good and when I'm not hungry, nothing does. After just a small salad for lunch, and despite shrimp and Parmesan shards pre-dinner, I was hungry tonight. I enjoyed twice baked goat cheese soufflé (nothing to offer for it nutritionally, but this is comfort food if ever there was any), a Boston Bibb lettuce salad and orange roughy. But Henry was concerned that I was missing out, and so brought scallops, too. I skipped dessert, but then Henry brought gourmandises (tiny cookies) and two of them with tea were delish. 

Twice baked goat cheese soufflé...missing one bite!  ;-)

G still had energy for tonight's show in the Cabaret Lounge (comedian Cary Long), but, really, I was done for the day. I may head back out to a hot tub (after dark...the best) but otherwise it will be an early night. We'll be missing out on the Country Western night party, but there will be many others. I have a 6am date with a sunrise and need my sleep. 

Day 91: Lahaina, Maui

We slept so hard last night and still slept until after 8 this morning. We were wiped out after our busy day on Oahu yesterday. But, while we were having a light breakfast on the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet, we could see that today's weather was going to be nearly perfect, just slightly windy and we needed to hang in there just more day before we could kick back and relax the next five days. And we were once again entertained by whales right behind the ship. What a view!

The view of the West Maui Mountains as see from our breakfast table on the back of the ship. 

I needed to get some serious t-shirt shopping done for the kids. I had decided to wait until Maui for two reasons:  they really didn't know much about Tahiti or where it was until we talked about it (I was tickled to overhear McGuy telling his friend I was going to Tahiti "which is in between South America and Australia in the middle of a lot of ocean" He's a quick learner!). However, they had made a family trip to Maui five years ago that they still remember fondly...but they've outgrown the t-shirts they'd bought then. And the other reason is that t-shirts are not big souvenir items in French Polynesia, and the ones that they do have are crazy expensive, like $30. No, Maui it had to be. 

I went over on an earlier tender than G to start my shopping. It took a while to find just the right ones. not so hard for the boys, but more difficult for their teenage sisters. They are always trickier to buy for. Finally, I decided to cover my bases and buy two each. Surely one of them will be perfect, and if the other is simply acceptable, I'll be thrilled with that. Laden down with nine t-shirts, I met up with G on the tender pier. He had brought my snorkel gear, and I didn't want to take the time to take a tender back to the ship to leave the shirts so they went with us for the rest of the day. Our goal was to take the 10:30am Maui bus from Lahaina to the Kaanapali resort strip. We had a few minutes before the bus arrived and so walked around to view the original art for sale in the park under the old banyan tree, one of Lahaina's most famous landmarks. The tree is massive, and its branches provide enough shade for the entire park. 

The #25 Maui bus, the Kaanapali Islander, has doubled in price since we last took it eight years ago and is now $2pp. Still, it's a perfect way to get between Lahaina and the Kaanapali resorts. We enjoyed the ride, seeing the Safeway we frequented every day during our nearly one week stay at an oceanfront condo in Kaanapali in 1995. We had stayed on four islands during three weeks and had an oceanfront condo with a washer dryer and full kitchen on each island. We'd go out to eat for breakfast, grab a quick lunch on the run but dinner was a home cooked feast. We'd stop at Safeway everyday and buy the freshest beef, chicken or fish and salad makings and a bottle of wine and beer. That night, G would join the other husbands at the huge BBQ grills on the condo grounds, I'd make the salad and open the wine and we'd have a feast served poolside with new friends. We have very fond memories of that trip, and taking the bus up to Kaanapali brought them all back. 

We got off the bus at Whalers Village shopping, dining and entertainment area and walked though it to the sidewalk that follows along Kaanapali Beach. Our first stop was the Sheraton on the north end of Kaanapali Beach and the large rock outcropping located there called the Black Rock. It has some of the best beach snorkeling on the island and I couldn't wait to get back in the water there but wasn't expecting how cold the water would be today. I had to think back...I don't think we've ever been in Hawaii in January. Coming from French Polynesia's 85-86F water, this felt pretty chilly...to us, but it wasn't stopping people from enjoying the beach and snorkeling. I did see some beautiful fish and even two sea turtles, but I only went in the water one time. That was plenty today. 

The Black Rock near the Sheraton Kaanapali

Looking south along the west side of Maui along Kaanapali Beach

After we dried off and rested a bit, we gathered up our gear and purchases and started walking south along Kaanapali Beach.  There is a sidewalk that runs along the entire length of the beach providing access to all the resorts and restaurants along the water. We eventually had a late lunch at Leilani's on the water at Whalers Village and were entertained by three musicians playing live songs from the 60s and 70s. 

Dining on the grass next to the beach with the island of Molokai in the distance. 

Another view of the beach with Molokai in the distance. 

We absolutely had to catch the 4:30pm bus back to Lahaina; the last tender was leaving Lahaina at 5:15pm. There was a long line when we got to the tender pier and so we walked to the Pioneer Inn right across the street to have a drink until the line died down, just as we have on three other cruises to Maui. And just as happened then, the security supervisor on the tender pier walked over to tell the several of us there exactly when we needed to wrap it up...the last tender was leaving. We were the last passengers on the last tender of the last port of our last cruise on the Pacific Princess. The security team and the coxswains and helmsmen we've gotten to know so well kept reminding us that this was IT. And letting us know that we'd lived up to our reputation on the Emerald Princess when it comes to getting back to the ship on time:  seldom early; never late. Yep, that's us. Do we still get off the ship in ports?  Heck, we maximize our time in most ports, and we certainly have for the past two days in Hawaii. 

The west Maui mountains over Lahaina

Surfers in the waves off Lahaina

Sunset over Lanai as seen from our tender boat

We had the best whale watching show of the day right from our tender as whales spouted and breached very close to our boat. What a thrill that was. We had seen them from the ship in Hilo and again today during breakfast, but it was very exciting to see them from sea level. The water may not be warm in Hawaii in January but apparently the whales like it that way; they were everywhere. 

We were late to dinner but maitre d' Luigi let us in. I could see why; the dining room was at least 1/3 empty. Our new waiter, Rivelino from India who took Jose's place after he left yesterday, and his assistant Justin had only six passengers...including us. Well, sailaway wasn't until 6pm tonight. I suppose many passengers decided to eat in the Panorama Buffet instead of going to dinner at 5:30pm. 

Sunset over Molokai as seen from our dinner table

We both had chateaubriand with a merlot, and peach daiquiri sorbet for dessert. We went to the last half of guitarist Dan Riley's show. He had gone home to Wisconsin when we disembarked the Pacific Princess on December 28 but rejoined the ship yesterday in Honolulu. That's as long as we lasted tonight, though. I may not need the five upcoming sea days to recover from Hawaii, but the first one, with two football games, will be very welcome. We've been at this cruising thing too long this winter to cruise with the intensity of the past few days. But we sure have had fun!

Life is good.  :-)