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Published: April 1st 2019
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Hello from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. We woke this morning to the gentle swaying of the ship at sea. Actually last night was a little bumpy as the Captain apparently tried to make up some of the 3 hours we were behind schedule due to the late sailing. But we rocked to sleep in our bed and did not fall out. Since this is a “day of leisure” we slept in until 7:15. Isn’t that how you relax on a vacation? Of course that also was after adjusting our clock an hour.
We went to the Portofino Dining Room and had the sit-down breakfast instead of the buffet. There were a lot of people with the same idea, but we got seated with 3 other interesting couples and had a nice breakfast. Janet always says the Princess makes the best Eggs Benedict of any place, so she happily got her day started that way. David had an omelet with bacon & hash browns. Then we were off to do our individual adventures.
Janet took her needlework project to the Amafi Dining Room where they were supposed to have people playing cards anytime during the morning. That allowed her
to spread all her stuff out on a big table and get it all organized. Sadly this was necessary because they did not have the usual Knitters and Knatters session listed in the day’s activity newsletter (Princess Patter). She said two tables of card players complained it was too cold and they left her there by herself.
Meanwhile David went to the Princess Theater to hear the presentation about our first port – Hilo Hawaii. There are 185,000 people who live on the Big Island, 2
nd most of all the Hawaiian Islands. It is by far the largest in terms of square miles (4050 and growing more each day). All the rest of the islands combined are less than that. It has grown by more than 500 acres since 1983 with the continual eruption of the Kilauea Volcano. There are 2 other volcanos on the Big Island (Manna Loa and Manna Kea). There have been 2 tsunamis since 1940 which have twice wiped the town of Hilo off the map. In 1946 there was a tsunami with a wave 50 feet high. Then again in 1960 there was an enormous tsunami with a wave speed of 440 miles per
hour. Since then, the town has been built again, but further from the coast and on slightly higher ground. The Hilo harbor serves as the main shipping port for the Big Island and the rest of the coastline is a large garden/park area. There are a lot of tourist attractions on the Island but we will save reporting that information for the day we actually go ashore.
After the presentation, David went to watch the fruit/vegetable carving demonstration. It is done on every cruise of every cruise ship, but is always interesting to watch. David then found Janet in the Dining room and we went back to the cabin for a while.
At 11:30 Janet went to the Sea Craft: Cross Stitching class. There was a limitation of only 24 people because of supplies, but she was number 18, so she got in. They made some pretty basic things and the session only lasted 45 minutes. However she got to meet a number of other needlecraft ladies, so she is making contacts already. Also she learned that the Knitters group was not held today because of Bible Study, but it should be back tomorrow.
At noon the Captain gave the ship’s report. He said we were traveling at 21 knots on a WSW heading. It was officially “partly sunny” and the temperature was 59 degrees. So it was warmer than back at home, but not quite swimsuit weather. That did not stop some folks from giving it a try anyway. There are mostly old folks on the cruise, but we have noticed a few who are probably teenagers (two were in the pool gradually turning blue and pretending to enjoy the swimming).
We met at the Grill for lunch and got a hot dog and a burger with French fries. We got a table out of the wind and had a nice lunch. That just happened to put us next to the ice cream stand, so we got ice cream for dessert. Then we went back to the cabin. Janet watched an old movie she had seen long ago and David worked on fixing a couple of things on the computer to edit the photos – computer people just can’t leave well enough alone and they had upgraded the Polarr photo tool since our last cruise. But David has retrained himself and has even gotten a couple of photos inserted into yesterday’s blog entry too.
Since we have free drinks on this cruise, it somewhat negates our “frequent cruiser benefit” of a free setup of drinks in the cabin. We have exchanged some of the stuff we don’t plan to drink (like fizzy water) and traded the cans of beer for some miniature bottles, which will be easier to bring back in the suitcase after the cruise is over.
At 2:30 Janet went to the theater to watch a movie called Crazy Rich Asians. It had been the Movie Under the Stars last night, but Janet didn’t want to stay up late. Today she was able to see it from the comfort of a real theater seat instead of a deck chair. Meanwhile David went to the Fitness Center and did a few exercises before riding a stationary bike for 30 minutes. He hopes to make regular visits the center when we have Sea Days, but that dedication may wane after a few trips. Anyway, we got a snack from the Horizon Court and then went back to the cabin to read the rest of the afternoon.
Janet came back to the cabin with one of the fancy coffee drinks, but not until after 4:30. She had a little while to enjoy her drink and then we headed off to dinner at 5:00. This evening we had all 8 people at our table. The couple who we ate with yesterday is named Penny & Gary, and the name of one of the new couples is Wynona and Dennis. We did not hear the other names, but will probably re-introduce ourselves again tomorrow. Interestingly both of the new ladies did all the talking and neither of the men said much of anything, except speaking softly to their wives.
For our meal Janet had the Shrimp Cocktail and a bowl of Fettuccini Alfredo while David had Hot Potato Soup and Chilled Coconut Soup, followed by Hot Fired Prawns. Yesterday we tried to order a wine which we like but they did not have any, so we got an alternate rose. It wasn’t the best, so tonight we tried the Riesling – it was better. For dessert David had the Chocolate Pralines Torte with a glass of Drambuie and Janet just had a cup of coffee with a glass of Irish Cream.
After the dinner we went to the theater where there was a musician/singer. He wasn’t great but not terrible either. He played a variety of styles of music, but the better sounding songs were when he was singing and not playing the guitar or drowned out by the band.
Back in the cabin we have settled down for the evening and expect to get a good night’s sleep.
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