Wednesday April 3rd – Sea Days

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Hello from the Pacific. This is our last Sea Day before reaching the islands tomorrow. Happily we started today with a call from the Medical Center releasing Janet from the cabin. As of about 8:45 she was once again allowed to rejoin the cruising community.

So we went up to the Horizon Court for a small breakfast. Janet was no longer limited in her menu options, but she did not want to overdo it. So we had a little food and went off to our morning plans. Janet went to the Knitters and spent a couple of hours with her new friends while working on her project. David went to the Princess Theater and heard the information about Maui.

Our presenter said that Maui had been voted the number one island for tourist to visit in the world. It was not clear who did the voting but we are sure to appreciate it when we get there. The population of the island is about 130,000. We were told about a lot of different places to visit. However we already have a tour booked and that will be what we are going to see, so David only half listened to the other things. The island has two extinct volcanos with a lowland plain in between. Many years ago (like a million), Maui was a very large island which eventually eroded and broke up into 4 separate islands (Lanai, Molokai, and one other). The Star Princess is supposed to pull into Lahaina on the leeward side of the island.

We were also given a short explanation of the Hawaiian language. Until about 1898 it was exclusively an oral language without any written form. We were told there are five vowels A, E, I, O, U, but only 7 consonants H, L, K, M, P, N, W. There are probably many rules for word spelling, but the one we learned is that no two consonants can be together although you can string multiple vowels together. Anyway, we have learned some interesting things before even getting to Hawaii.

We met in the cabin about 11:00 and rested for an hour before going to lunch. Janet made a light sandwich similar to yesterday, but she got had cheese on it – along with a chocolate cream puff. David had a cheeseburger and fries, along with a small Cuban sandwich, and a cookie.

After lunch Janet settled down in the cabin to watch a movie called The Little Mermaid, but it was not the cartoon. The plot was nothing like the cartoon! David went to the pool for an hour of swimming and sunbathing. While up on deck he ran into a couple which he had met in Pisa Italy – they had discovered last year that we were both going on this same cruise, and somehow they recognized him. Also today our suitcase that had been damaged was returned with the wheel fixed for FREE. A nice service from Princess!

The temperature today got up to about 76 with lots of sun, so the pool was quite pleasant. We have been having really smooth seas the last few days (except for the first night leaving LA). Today there is a little more wave action, but not bad enough for Janet to use her “motion patch”. We heard that St Louis is going to be too cold tomorrow for the Cardinal’s Home Opener – maybe you don’t want to hear about our weather.

At 3:30 the Contemporary Duo was playing the piano and violin, David went down to the Piazza to hear them play and got an afternoon strawberry daiquiri. He then brought Janet a Salted Caramel Coffee. She had stayed in the cabin and taken a nap.

At 5:00 we went down to dinner in the dining room. This is not our preferred dining time, but the alternatives were either 7:15 for traditional dining with a consistent group of tablemates, or “any time” dining where you go when you’d like and sit with whoever is available. We both had Shrimp Cocktail tonight as an appetizer and David also had the Chilled Blackberry soup. For the main course Janet had Veal Milanese and David had Chicken Parmesan – it was Italian night in the dining room. Janet did not want any dessert but David had a slice of Cheesecake. She had a cup of tea and David had a glass of Grand Marnier.

We went back to the cabin instead of watching any of the shows in the main theaters. This evening they are showing a movie on the TV and we can watch it from bed and fall asleep if we get tired. The movie is Oceans 8.

That wraps up our activities today. Tonight we get one more hour as everyone sets their clocks back again. Then at 7:00 we are scheduled to arrive in Hilo. There are no photos today. Good Night from the peaceful Pacific.

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