Monday April 1st & 2nd – Sea Days

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We woke this morning with the captain making an announcement on the Wake-Up TV Show that in our haste to try to leave Los Angeles, the ship had neglect to get any Hawaiian Dollars. Anyone planning to make purchases in Hilo would need to exchange currency on shore. He was sorry for the inconvenience.

Before we describe today’s activities let’s talk about our cabin. We are on Star Princess Caribe Deck, cabin 722. We are fairly far to the rear of the ship. We have a Balcony cabin but with an oversized balcony – just as wide but deeper than even the Mini-Suites one deck below us. On our two previous cruises we have been spoiled by being offered an upgrade to a Mini-Suite with only a small charge. This time they offered us the same but it would have cost $1500 per person more, so we decided to stay with what we had booked originally. It is a nice cabin but just not quite as much space as we had before. David took a few pictures to show what it looks like.

By the way, there are no such things as Hawaiian Dollars – they use regular US currency. April Fool! It probably only fooled the Asian and Europeans on the ship, who may not even know what an April Fool Joke is. As you can see, the captain is a perky, cheerful person.

Anyway, we got up on the 1^st and went to the Horizon Court for the buffet breakfast. It wasn’t too crowded and we got a table not too far from the buffet. We were able to choose what we wanted and had plenty of choices. David discovered Salmon Quiche mini-pies which were really very good. We had the usual bacon & eggs, cereal, banana breads, yogurt, juice and tea. It isn’t a restful as having someone bring your order but it was still good and quick.

This morning they had the first session of Knitters & Knatters. Janet went to the Skywalkers Nightclub on deck-18 at the very back of the ship. It gave her an excellent view all around the ship. There were quite a few ladies the doing various forms of needlework, so Janet had plenty of other folks to chat with while she worked on knitting a Prayer Shawl. Meanwhile David went to the Princess Theater on deck-7 in the very front of the ship.

David listened to the presentation on our 2^nd port call – Honolulu. Oahu is the most highly populated of the Hawaiian Islands with more than 900,000 people (about 75%!o(MISSING)f the total Hawaiian population). There are roughly 130 beaches all around the island, with Waikiki being the most famous and located in Honolulu. “Hono” meant “bay” and “lulu” meant “shelter” in the original language. So this portion of the coast is usually protected from the big storms and extreme waves. The presenter told us about many of the parks and botanical garden with lots of flowering plants, but we will not repeat all that information. They also described many of the monuments, statues, museums, and other points of interest. Various sets of these attractions will be within short walking distances from the ship, depending upon which dock we use. They showed us the Iolani Palace, which is the only royal palace in the United States. There was also a substantial presentation on Pearl Harbor and the events of the Japanese bombing. Finally they reflected on the Punchbowl crater, which is an extinct volcano which now serves as a National Cemetery with more than 33,000 veterans buried there – many who were killed while fighting in one of our wars. We will describe in more details some of these items when we actually have our day visiting Honolulu.

At 11:15, David went back to the theater to hear another presentation called “Hot Spot Volcanos – Islands in the Sea”. The presenter explained in a lot of detail how islands are formed, and it was very interesting, but we will not go into that much detail here. It is really interesting if you get a chance to research it. An island takes about 400,000 years for magma to accumulate underwater until it breaks sea level because the depth is about 12,000 feet here in the Pacific. The Big Island is another 400,000 years older above the water, making it 800,000 years old. Although it is the largest of the Hawaiian Islands, it is also the youngest. Maui is approximately a million years old, Oahu is about 3 million and Kauai is around 6 million. There are actually 136 islands in the entire Hawaiian chain which stretches all way to Midway (which is about 80 million years old), It comes from the movement of the Pacific Plate as it gradually moves about 4 inches a year to the northwest. So magma bubbles up and then stops for a while and then resumes later – all using the geologic scales of years (really big numbers). The gaps between islands come from the plate moving and the volcano coming off the hot spot and going extinct. Then when the magma gets going active again the process starts all over and a new island gradually grows from deep under the sea. We’re not going to explain all the stuff that was covered but it really was interesting.

As a correction to what we heard yesterday about the Big Island, the Kilauea Volcano added 575 acres of land to the island from 1983 to 2018 via eruptions. Last Spring the lava lake inside the volcano collapsed and flowed underground for 16 miles until it came out near a housing area. In 3 months the new lava added 875 more acres – not as an eruption but as an extrusion from a lava tube.

After the presentation David returned to the cabin and we both went to the Horizon Court for a light lunch – sandwiches, fruit, and dessert. Then Janet returned to the cabin to continue working on her needlework project and David went for a walk around the deck. The Cardinal/Pittsburg was on the stateroom TV so it provide a background to the needlework. It is warmer today (about 70) and more comfortable to walk outside, although still too cool for the pool. After he finished with a mile’s walk, he grabbed a soda and returned to the cabin. Meanwhile Janet had made good progress on her project so she was entitled to an afternoon nap.

At 3:30 we went down to the Piazza on deck-5 and listened to a piano/violin duo playing a variety of melodies. Janet was able to get one of her tasty coffee drinks and David got a mid-afternoon cocktail while we listed to the music.

At 4:30 we had scheduled delivery of canopies as appetizer before our first formal dinner of the trip. So we returned to the cabin to have these tasty snacks and then get dressed in our fancy outfits for the evening. We went down to the dining room and met 4 of our 6 tablemates and ordered a nice dinner. Unfortunately Janet suddenly started feeling sick and the sight of French Onion Soup made her want to go back to the cabin. She was complaining of feeling hot and dizzy (remember I’m the one who had the cocktail – not her). Once we got back to the cabin she felt terrible and barely made it to the bathroom.

We called the Medical Center and they sent a wheelchair for her. Even though it was after normal hours they treated her and eventually diagnosed a gastro-intestinal problem. They gave her some medicine and an IV and about 11:00 they released her to go back to our cabin. She was pretty sick there for a while – definitely broke the rule about nobody getting ill or injured during these 4 weeks.

Last night we got an extra hour of time by moving the clock back another hour. We still have one more hour to adjust before we get to Hawaiian time.

Janet actually slept fairly well during the night and felt a lot better in the morning. Unfortunately she is confined to the cabin for 24 hours. David brought her a cup of tea and a bagel which she enjoyed, However last night they had decided to leave the IV port in her arm in case she needed another one today. This morning she pulled the port somehow and her arm started bleeding a little. We wrapped it with an improvised bandage. At 9:00 we went back to the Medical Center and they took it out and were happy to see her feeling so much better. But she is still confined to the cabin anyway. So Janet’s adventures today will mostly be confined to the bed and TV.

We decided to cancel our Hilo excursions just to be on the safe side. We also cancelled Janet’s Honolulu day excursion since it involves a small-boat tour of Pearl Harbor – not a good idea to bounce around in a little boat – but David kept his ticket. We still have an evening excursion which we hope to be able to attend.

When David returned from the excursion desk there were two stewards at our door to do a special cleaning of the cabin. They let Janet continue resting in bed but they cleaned everything, including washing the cabin walls with disinfectant. So that is a something new for our list of ship experiences. The good news is that Janet is feeling much better and got a full day of rest in the cabin. The bad news is that she had to depend upon David to pick out some morsels of food for her, based on a short list of approved foods. The really sad news is that today was the Pub Lunch which we always enjoy – hopefully they have it again sometime during the cruise.

At 10:30 David went to the Martini Demonstration. This is a usual cruise activity and frequently is fairly funny. David is not a big martini drinker but he does enjoy fun shows. It turns out that he was chosen to answer a trivia question at the end of the demonstration, so he got a Super Cosmo. Fortunately he took pictures before the drink.

At 11:30 Janet was awake following a good morning nap. David brought her some sliced turkey and ham with a couple of soft rolls. She also go a glass of flat Sprite. David got lunch in the Horizon Court. When he returned to the cabin, Janet was sleeping again. Since the temperature had gotten up to 73 degrees, David was able walk another mile on the deck. We then proceeded to have a very restful and quiet afternoon in the cabin/balcony by reading, napping, and watching TV.

By dinner time Janet was feeling much better but still could not leave the cabin. She had more ham and turkey slices with more soft rolls, and some mild cookies. David went to dinner at 5:00 to eat with the rest of our table and explained Janet should be able to return tomorrow. He had the sea scallops & baby shrimp appetizer, and Hawaiian pineapple rings. Then for the main course he had Fettucine Alfredo. For dessert he had fudge brownie with ice cream. Then back in the cabin, Janet asked for a yogurt from the Horizon Court.

Now as we wait for the Medical people to call at 9:00 to release her from the cabin, she says "she is bored". That's a good sign. David is thinking about going to the late show in the theater – a tribute to Whitney Houston by some special guest singer. That about wraps up these two days. Good night

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Photos

Tower of glasses
He filled the top glass!