Day 5: Fourth of five days in a row at sea

It was brightly sunny with continued calm seas, making for another beautiful day crossing the Pacific Ocean. Before we left home, there was all sorts of hurricane and tropical storm activity in this area and we were uncertain of how these five days at sea might go, but we couldn't have asked for better weather. We are finally into comfortable shorts and T-shirt weather, both in the ship and outside (except in the Cabaret Lounge, which is a meat locker). 

We moved clocks back an hour last night (so now we're two hours behind PDT; five hours behind EDT). I first awakened at 4:45am but managed to fall back asleep until almost 6am. I went up to Deck 10 over the pool to walk before it got sunny and warm and then to the Club Lounge (right outside the Club Restaurant) when it opened at 7am for fresh brewed coffee. I was shown to our usual table for two for breakfast when the Club Restaurant opened at 7:30am but couldn't tell Samsuri, our waiter every morning to date, if G would be joining me or not, as he had still been sleeping when I left the cabin over an hour earlier.  Soon enough, I heard his arrival before I saw his arrival, as every waiter was greeting him,"Good morning Mr. G!"  We are already ruined for life outside this cocoon that is the Pacific Princess.

Douglas Pearson was presenting the final Hawaiian island we'll be visiting, Oahu, and Honolulu today in the Cabaret Lounge at 9am. Quite honestly, these cruises would not be the same without him. I can't wait for him to start holding court up on Deck 11 forward for each island arrival, speaking in at least three languages as he explains the sights to the passengers gathered up there. Douglas made an interesting point today, drawing a parallel between the pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach (tourism brings in $10B a year to the Hawaiian economy) and the pink Tripler Army Hospital, where G once was stationed, telling us the U.S. military brings in $6B a year to the Hawaiian economy.  

I had just enough time to get to cruise staffer Ramon's 10:15am crafts session, held once again in the Deck 4 Reception Hall right around the corner from our cabin (and I happily noted that Mr. Tango was again dancing on the other side of the Reception Area. I wish I could blame watching him for the fact that the first several inches of my hand woven ribbon lei looked like garbage, but, no, it was all me). I finally got the hang of the lei-weaving and it turned out quite amazingly. There was a large number of passengers participating today (word has gotten out about how much fun these classes are), so, unfortunately, our ribbons needed to be cut a bit too short for leis. Instead, we're all walking around sporting woven ribbon bracelets. Fortunately, that allowed me to un-weave the ugly start to my weaving and preserve just the best part for my bracelet. I would love to find grosgrain ribbon at the WalMart in Hilo and make one long enough to be a lei. 

During the lei...er, bracelet making session, I saw G walk through the Reception Hall having just come from a hot tub. I knew his morning plans included ukulele class, a hot tub session and ring toss.  I returned to an empty and serviced cabin (is there anything in this world better than twice-daily housekeeping?) and used the time to get ready for the Most Traveled Passengers (MTP) luncheon, scheduled for noon in Sabatinis on Deck 10.  We already knew that we would be seated at the Captain's table (Must. Behave. Myself. Not. Easy. To. Do.)

But Captain Domenico Lubrano Lavadera (Captain D) is a most personable host and made it quite easy to behave myself while still having a wonderful time. The true test of how much we enjoyed ourselves:  our table was the last to disperse, long after the dessert and petit fours were consumed. It is easier for me to type the menu than to try to upload a photo of it, so here goes (I will post photos of the food from Hilo):

Duet of Lobster and Pate de Foie Gras OR Risotto con Funghi

Herb Roasted Wild Halibut Steak OR Beef Tenderloin Tropical

Delizia al Limoncello

Petit Fours 

Risotto con Funghi

Beef tenderloin tropical

Delizia al Limoncello 

Captain D and the chefs

MTP waitstaff 

Oh my. When there was a choice (above) we both chose the second option. Everything was spectacular, wine glasses were never empty and when we finally returned to our cabin after 2pm, we could easily have stayed there napping until dinner. Instead, we forced ourselves to sit out on the Promenade Deck. We started on the sunny starboard side until it got a little too sunny and then moved to the cooler port side. Open loungers always, even on sea days. :-)

It was soon time to get changed back into our luncheon clothes to go to the Elite Lounge at 5pm (El Mejor Margaritas night but I had a glass of the bottle of Chardonnay I had purchased during Happy Hour in the Pacific Lounge that is being kept there for me). We obviously weren't too hungry for dinner at 5:30pm, so I had just a salad and Shrimp Tandoori, and we were able to catch the 6:54pm sunset from the Promenade Deck en route to the Cabaret Lounge for a show by comedy-magician Lorenzo Clark. He was surprisingly good. 

We took note tonight that the hot tubs were still open at 8:30pm and intended to use one but instead walked to the nearly-empty terrace behind the Panorama Buffet where comedian Cary Long kept us privately entertained until it was time to return to the Cabaret Lounge to catch piano entertainer Tom Franek's second show. Amazing, isn't it, how this small ship manages to feature so many activities and entertainment from which to choose?

There's just one more sea day until we reach the Big Island of Hawaii and some part of me is almost sad that landfall will intrude on this prefect little world in which we've been existing since Vancouver. It truly is the most utopic cruising we've ever done, and even an island paradise like Hawaii is bound to pale in comparison.