Day 78-81 - Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th March - at sea

Day 78-81 - Thursday 26th - Sunday 29th March - at sea

As those of you who are still reading this have probably realised, I have got way behind with this blog! Sorry! So this one is just going to be a summary of the last four days (which, being at sea, can be quite repetitive anyway!)

Thursday was a normal morning (walk, stretch, line dancing for me, reading and table tennis for JL), with the only difference being that at 11.00 we had to go to the baggage desk to register for two of our three suitcases to stay onboard when we leave in San Francisco. They say that this service is subject to availability, and thankfully there was still space. Or else I would have cried! The clocks went forward at lunchtime, and then JL and I went together to the theatre to see the speaker Martin Saunders, who is a wildlife cameraman and worked with David Attenborough for 35 years. He showed clips and told background stories of some of the most famous moments of the Life on Earth series, including the incredible gorilla sequence, and a lion hunt. It was fascinating. I then embarked on a rather chaotic (but fun!) afternoon/ evening. I did my exercise early and then got ready for formal night, so I could go to the start of the Aurora Singers performance at 5.45. They are a choir made up of passengers and they are really good. They sang a range of tunes, my favourite being the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Sound of Music medleys! But due to the timings I had to watch their show in two halves tonight! So after 20 minutes I left and met JL for dinner, then we went to the classical piano duo's next show, and then I went back to watch the second half of the choir's second show! And then to the theatre to see a lady called Levena Johnson who was doing a Whitney Houston tribute show - very good. I was exhausted after all that!

On Friday, it was a typical morning of walk/ stretch/ line dancing/ table tennis, but no more knitting for me as I've decided I'm going to be too busy the next few days to make anything else. After lunch the clocks went forward again, and then we went to see the second talk by Martin Saunders, this time with tales about the series The Living Planet. It was then time for... duh duh duh.... the laundry! I had almost two weeks worth, as well as some of our evening clothes, as I want to have everything clean to either leave on the ship or take with us across the States. So after a little queueing I managed to squeeze load one into the machine and found enough hanging spots for all the non-tumbledryable clothes around the cabin! I did a gym workout and then it was dinner time. After we'd eaten we went to a 1960s Guess the Tune quiz, which JL did very well on (he was beaten though as he had never heard the song My Old Man's A Dustman!). I then went to see a guy called Paul Emmanuel who sang lots of old love songs. 

On Saturday the weather was getting much cooler so I got up early to go for a run on deck. It felt like I ran much more than the 3 miles I actually did, as the wind was blowing so strongly that I had to fight to even move, and to not be blown off the deck! At the end I was too late for stretch class but I still made it to line dancing later, while JL played some more table tennis. No clock changing today thank goodness, which gave me an extra hour to go to the third talk by Martin Saunders, this time about wildlife and natural phenomena around the Pacific, and then to do the second load of laundry - yay. Plus, horror of horrors, to start packing! I find packing one of the most stressful things in the world, and I was having palpitations just thinking about it! JL said to me "right, what can I do to help?" and after considering it for a while I said "you can go away!" So he duly vacated the room while I worked out what was going in each of the three suitcases (two staying on the ship, to be collected from Southampton on 27th April when the ship gets back. And tried to make them close! There was a limited amount I could do though because of the many clothes which were still drying all over the place but I did my best! It was soon time for dinner, so after apologising to our cabin steward and telling her not to bother even trying to get into the room this evening, we set off to the restaurant! After eating we went to the final concert by the pianists, which was excellent, and then JL went to see the comedian Colin 'Fingers' Henry for a second time while I continued packing. By the time I turned out the light at around midnight I had done all I could do, but I had a very restless night worrying if the clothes would be dry by the morning and if it would all fit and if I'd put everything in the correct suitcase...

This morning (Sunday) I skipped walking and stretching and instead finished the suitcases (everything WAS dry and everything DID fit - just about!), and then we went to breakfast. We had a very enjoyable extra long line dancing today as she wanted to try and recap all the dances we had done this sector - even after an hour and a half we didn't have time for them all though! I then had to rush back to the room to collect JL and the suitcases and then join a long queue by Reception to hand them in. I felt an immense sense of relief after this as I can no longer swap anything from case to case - I've just got to live on what is in the one remaining case for the next few weeks! I got back to the room just in time to Skype my family, and then off to lunch. The clocks went forward AGAIN (this is getting silly!) and now I am back in the room writing this!

Phew! That ended up as a rather long summary didn't it?! So this afternoon I will be going to my last afternoon tea, JL will be collecting his prize with all his table tennis winning stickers, we will be leaving our final suitcase outside the cabin, having a late dinner, and going to see a double bill theatre show with Paul Emmanuel again and also the classical singer Will Martin who has hopefully recovered from his laryngitis. Then an early start tomorrow to watch the sail in to San Francisco. We need to be out of our room by 8am tomorrow so are planning on having a big breakfast in the main restaurant (where they serve Quorn sausages!) and then sitting round twiddling our thumbs, or maybe having one last nostalgic walk around the ship, before we are allowed to disembark at 10am.

The days we will be spending in San Francisco, and later LA, Chicago, and New York, will be pretty jam packed, so I will try and summarise them on the long journeys we will be making after each one! I don't know if there will be Internet in the trains (I'm guessing not) so not sure how regular the updates will be either - apologies in advance!

So, congratulations if you have made it to the end of the cruise part of our blog (particularly this longer than intended post!) - hope you've enjoyed it! Very much looking forward to catching up with many of you in person in just a couple of weeks!! :-)

Day 77 - Wednesday 25th March - Hilo, Hawaii

Day 77 - Wednesday 25th March - Hilo, Hawaii

Another early start to watch the sail in to Hilo, our final port of call on our cruise :-( And well worth getting up early for! First there was the gorgeous sunrise over the ocean, with the rays shining through the scattered clouds. Then there were the views of the island, with the Mauna Kea volcano towering over the coastline, it's top capped with snow, but best of all - there were whales!!! Scattered all around the harbour were water spouts, shortly followed each time by the diving body of a beautiful humpback whale. They were everywhere! I saw a few pairs of mothers and babies, and some that were very close to the ship. It was definitely one of the highlights of the whole cruise for me! :-)

We pulled into the harbour and the ship docked, and we could still see spouts in the distance, so we had breakfast with the most wonderful view ever! We eventually pulled ourselves away from the windows to go and meet for our tour - Best of Hilo. This was a full day tour and we set off at 8.45am in order to pack it all in. We firstly drove through Hilo itself, the second largest town on the Big Island of Hawaii, and yet still quite a small place (population around 43,000), and a lot less built up than Honolulu. We drove along the coastal road for a while, through the pretty Liliuokalani Gardens with their ponds and statues, past all the trees of Banyan Drive, viewing the small island in the harbour here, then soon arriving at our first stop - the Big Island Candies Store! Which was full of chocolate! Despite only just having breakfast, I managed to eat the free samples that we were given of various chocolates and cookies, and very good they were too! You could also see into the workroom where the chocolates were made which was interesting. After everyone had made their purchases it was time to go to the next stop - the statue of King Kamehameha in central Hilo. It was very similar to the one we saw yesterday in Honolulu, but apparently this one was a true reflection of his size - 6 foot 9 inches!! It was surrounded by pretty gardens, with a pond and more ducks! The next stop was the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens which were truly incredible! We had an hour there to explore independently, but we could easily have spent two! The visit started with a very steep walk down into the gardens, and then we had a map to follow with various different themed area. There was a wonderful gushing waterfall at the start, statues representing various traditional figures, enormous spiders webs (although we couldn't see the spiders!), ponds with lilies and fish, and of course plants and trees as far as the eye could see. There was a lovely orchid garden with flowers with more colours and patterns than I have ever seen in my life! At the end of the trail we emerged into a clearing by the ocean where we overlooked a gorgeous bay with palm trees, rock formations and secluded coves. The path then curved round in a different direction past some other types of plants, including the cannonball tree that I had so liked yesterday, eventually taking us back to the steep path up to the entrance. We had a little time to browse the interesting gift shop before getting back into the coach.

Our next stop was lunch, which was served at the Nani Mau restaurant which also boasted a botanical gardens. So after we had filled up on the buffet, we spent a while wandering these gardens, which although nothing like the ones we had just let, were still very pretty. We saw a mongoose and a baby mouse which was very exciting! We then boarded the coach again and headed for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We were visiting the Kilauea Volcano (which is the world's most active volcano - erupting continuously for the past 20 years), and as we drove into the area we could immediately see the steam vents alongside the road in a clear area - no large plants can grow because once their roots get too deep they get burnt by the magma under the ground. The road took us around the crater rim to the Thomas A Jagger museum, where we saw exhibits informing us about volcanoes and stories and pictures of the goddess Pele. From here we also had our best views of the crater itself. For safety reasons people are kept a certain distance back, so we could mainly just see steam, but it was still very exciting! After spending a while observing the Halemaumau crater, we drove to the nearby Thurston Lava tube, which is a tunnel formed by a large lava flow which cooled and solidified on the top and then the still hot liquid contents flowed out, leaving an open space. We walked through a small area of lush rainforest to access the tube, and then spent some time inside it (not too much time though - it was cold!) Hanging from the ceiling were roots of trees growing above.

The final stop of the tour was the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory, which allowed us a glimpse of how these nuts are processed and made into various products (many incorporating chocolate!). There was a large shop (of course!) and a small botanical garden which we had a little look round. On the way into and out of the factory grounds were macadamia nut trees galore, and also a large number of papaya trees.

We got back to the ship at around 5.00 after a very enjoyable day. We had a quick turnaround and then dinner; as if to say goodbye, as we were eating, a big humpback whale came alongside the ship right next to our window and played for a while and then she was gone!  What a way to end our last port of call on the ship!  Then to a crew special called A Song for Europe, which was part entertainment, part quiz - some of the entertainment team sang a range of previous winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, and we had to name the song/ artist/ country/ year. (JL decided not to go to this one!) We then went to the theatre to see Colin 'Fingers' Henry who is a comedy pianist - the best bit was when he stood on his head and played a tune! Then to bed, exhausted!

Day 76 - Tuesday 24th March - Honolulu

Day 76 - Tuesday 24th March - Honolulu

We got up at 6.00 to watch the sail in to Honolulu, but we discovered we had already arrived! The reason for the early arrival was that as this was our first port of call in the US, every passenger and crew member had to attend a face-to-face American immigration inspection. People doing tours today (including us) were asked to turn up between 7.00 and 7.45. We arrived at 6.50 to discover the queue was already stretching half way down the ship! We joined it and spent the next hour gradually inching our way towards the room where the immigration was taking place. Just before 8.00 there was a sudden influx of people being fast tracked to the front as they were on the first tour of the day which had to meet at 8.10! Eventually we got seen just after 8.00, and luckily were given permission to enter the U.S. - phew! 

We had some breakfast and then went to meet for our morning tour - Natural Highlights of Honolulu (which incidentally we had wanted to do when we came here 4 years ago but hadn't been able to fit it in!) We caught our coach just outside the terminal and set off for our first stop - Diamond Head Crater. On the way we passed some fascinating ships (old and new) in the harbour, and listened to our guide start to tell us the history of the Hawaiian Islands from the beginning of time, which she continued throughout the morning! She was amazing! We drove up the hillside and entered the crater through a long tunnel and emerged into the base of it - it was huge! I had been imagining us looking down into a small opening but in fact you could fit numerous football pitches inside it! Our guide explained that the crater was made by built up steam inside the earth's surface exploding and breaking through the ground, then the ash fell into the crater shape, with one side higher than the others as the wind blew it. It is possible to do a trek to the 763 foot summit of the crater, but not on this tour! So after a few photos of the sides of the crater and the bird life living there, we set off again along the coast, with amazing views of the beaches, cliffs and sea below. We saw the famous Hanauma Bay, which is a spectacular snorkelling area (again, not on this tour!) and lots of surfers in the sea. Then as we rounded a corner towards our next stop, the driver suddenly shouted "Look, whales!!" And sure enough in the sea in the distance were several spouts shortly followed by dark bodies gliding through the waves. We stopped close by and had a magical 15 minutes watching the whales in the ocean, as well as observing the Halona Point Blow Hole just below us, which spurted water spray every now and again as the waves came crashing in. Wow!

We continued our drive along the coast, viewing the volcanic hills all around, and seeing interesting formations like Pele's chair (Pele being the goddess of the volcano) looking out over the sea, and Rabbit Island where once settlers had bred rabbits for human consumption, but none of the Hawaiians wanted to eat them! There were also many more steep cliffs and a lighthouse. We stopped at the Kaiona Beach park to have a paddle in the sea (not quite as warm as the South Pacific Islands!), and then made our way to an archaeological site which consisted mainly of a large pile of sacred stones placed in such a way as to bring good energy to the area. There was also an interesting garden full of typical Hawaiian trees and plants, such as the taro vegetable growing in paddy pools. The final stop of the tour was the Pali Lookout, high up in the mountains, with breathtaking views over the island. There were also a number of chickens and cats roaming around the area, and some pretty red headed birds.

We headed back to the ship for a late lunch before going ashore again to have a look round the city itself. We firstly went to look at the Aloha Tower shopping centre, where JL had bought a lovely Hawaiian shirt 4 years ago, but it was unfortunately being renovated! So instead we walked through the town, past some pretty squares full of trees and outdoor cafes, to see the Iolani Palace, the State Capitol building, and the statue of King Kamehameha, as well as the post office which we found after much searching ("all for one blooming stamp!" muttered JL!). We then wandered to the north of the city, past lots of pigeon families, and some lizards, in search of the Foster Botanical Garden, which we finally arrived at at 3.30 - to find it closed at 4.00! They told us as long as we were out of the grounds by 4.30 we could stay a little longer, so we set off exploring the lovely gardens, seeing the indoor greenhouse full of delicate flowers, the butterfly gardens (unfortunately with no butterflies!), the prehistoric glen (which did look like a scene from Jurassic Park!), the beautiful orchid garden, and more plants than I would be able to name here! There were some incredible trees, some hundreds of years old. I particularly liked the cannonball tree, which lived up to its name as the trunk was covered with round balls! We even saw a descendant of the Bo tree in India under which the Buddha gained enlightenment! And some ducks in the carpark! On the way back we paused to look at the amazing Buddhist Kuan Yin temple and the San Francisco style trolley bus making its way around the city. 

Back on the ship we had an early dinner and then went to the Crows Nest for a cocktail, and then on deck to watch the sailaway, with spectacular views of the city lights and Diamond Head silhouetted against the skyline. The show in the theatre that evening was Will Martin, the youngest man in history to top the UK classical charts, who has a wonderful voice, but unfortunately tonight also had laryngitis so wasn't at his best and had to cut his show  short. Still, this gave us an early night to prepare for another day ashore tomorrow.

Day 75 - Monday 23rd March - at sea

Day 75 - Monday 23rd March - at sea

We started the day with our usual walk/ stretch/ breakfast and then line dancing for me while JL went to see Gloria Barnett do her last talk, this time about sharks. I then went to knit and natter where I finished my Easter bunny and started learning to crochet (which so far seems much harder than knitting!). JL played his first game of table tennis.

After lunch I went to party dance class and then we went to the theatre to watch the classical duo perform an afternoon concert. They played some of Holst's Planets, as well as some Beethoven and Debussy. The most memorable part was their live performance of 4 minutes 32 seconds of silence - weird! JL rushed from here to his second game of table tennis, while I had a cuppa and then did an abs workout. 

After dinner we had two shows - the first was a double bill starring the Carpenters singer Laurie Briggs (tonight singing some songs by other popular female artists), and then Helen Wilding (who reminds me very much of a Disney princess!) singing a Sound of Music medley, some opera, and some jazz. The second show was the comedian Adrian Walsh, who was again very amusing. Then back to the room to prepare for Hawaii tomorrow!!! Can't wait! :-)

Day 74 - Sunday 22nd March - at sea

Day 74 - Sunday 22nd March - at sea

[JL|: something terrible has happened, a tragedy...]  I started the day with a lovely video chat with my family, and then went walking. The top deck was closed due to the high winds which had sprung up overnight, so we went to the lower deck. I then did stretch class while JL walked another mile, then we had breakfast. I had my typical morning of line dancing and knitting (I'm now making an Easter bunny!), and JL went to a talk about the motions of the oceans.

At noon the clocks went forward an hour, so by the time we had finished lunch it was 2.00 - I decided not to go party dancing on a full stomach so instead went back to the room and finished reading my book and did some more knitting. Meanwhile JL read his book in the Crows Nest and then played table tennis, which he won! I went to an exhausting circuit training class where I worked muscles I didn't know I had! 

We had dinner and then went to a classical concert by the two pianists - they played various pieces including my favourite bits of the Peer Gynt suite. From there we went to the main theatre to get front row seats for the guitarist Byron Johnston who was performing his second show, this time called Legends of the Guitar. It was mainly electrical guitar tunes this time, by a selection of the most famous rock guitarists, and he was accompanied by the ship's orchestra. It was like a civilised version of a rock concert!! He was incredible, and I bought his cd afterwards.  [... We're out of Banyuls!  We finished the last drop last night.  How are we (especially Emma) going to survive the next 2 to 3 weeks?]

Day 73 - Saturday 21st March - at sea

Day 73 - Saturday 21st March - at sea

We started the day walking our mile, then I went to stretch class, followed by breakfast and line dancing. JL went to see Gloria Barnett talking about seabirds and reptiles, while I went to knit and natter to help price up the rest of the items for the craft sale in the afternoon. 

We had lunch and then I went party dancing while JL read his book, then played table tennis. At 4.30 I went along to the craft sale, which was immensely popular, and I ended up helping out at one of the stalls. There were 3 tables of stuff made by the knitting group and the afternoon craft group, with a few very special items which were auctioned. People could choose to give money to either Macmillan Cancer Support or the Vanuatu Relief Fund. Altogether they made around £950!!! As well as buying my own penguin and chick which I had knitted, I bought a crochet penguin (which I now want to learn to make!), and a really cute crochet hat and neck warmer (which I am going to wear to lunch as the restaurant is super cold!!). I then went to do a gym workout.

After dinner we went to see Stephen Garcia, the comedy magician, for his second show. We got great seats right at the front, and it was too late to move when JL suddenly said "I feel a bit nervous in these seats - he likes to get volunteers from the audience doesn't he?!" And sure enough we got picked to help out with several tricks, including one where he took my wedding ring and tried to make it appear inside an apple, then a balloon (neither of which worked!), then in a sealed can of baked beans (which luckily turned out to be empty of beans but just containing a jewellery box with my ring in!!) He also got JL involved in adding up a set of random numbers that had been generated by members of the audience, which the magician then said the would reveal in a sealed envelope - but it was wrong! He declared that as his penalty he would strip for everyone, and embarked on a very entertaining routine with bits of different tunes including the Birdie Song and Gangnam Style, before ripping off his shirt to reveal a T-shirt underneath with the correct answer sewn on!!! It was amazing! :-) From there we went to see a second show which was a Carpenters tribute band, who were very good.

Day 72 - Friday 20th March - at sea

Day 72 - Friday 20th March - at sea

The weather is getting hotter and hotter as we near the equator, but we were very brave and managed to walk our mile, although I missed stretch class as I was too lazy to get out of bed straightaway when the alarm went off! It was then line dancing for me, in a smaller venue today as they were doing a cookery demo in our usual venue, but we made do without too much stepping on each other's feet! I then went to my knitting group where I helped make labels to price the items that had been made and donated for the charity craft fair which is happening soon (I'm buying my own things, I love them too much to give away!). Meanwhile JL read (too hot even for the swimming pool!] and played table tennis.

We had lunch and then went to see the Crossing the Line ceremony. Those of you who have been reading this since the start might remember that we had one of these already on the way out - well we are now crossing the equator again so have another one! The ceremony involves members of the ship's crew dressing up as pirates and sailors and competing in contests against each other to try and impress King Neptune. In order for permission to be granted for the ship to cross the equator, the sailors' team must win. The challenges were swimming up and down the pool in a life buoy, then in a wet boiler suit, making up and performing a team dance (great fun, as the pirates were made up of members of the Headliners Theatre Company!), blowing up and popping a balloon with a mouth full of crackers, then getting ping pong balls out of a tub of custard using only one's mouth. You will be pleased to know that the sailors' team won, so we were given permission to cross the equator and we are indeed coming home!!! :-) After this JL went to see a lecture on coral reefs, and I did a gym workout, before getting ready for formal night. 

The menu was yet another Marco Pierre White extravaganza, but this time JL decided not to have the four courses as set out but to make up his own menu - two main courses! So he had the lobster tail meal first, and followed it by the scallops in mashed potato. At the end the waiter came over and very seriously said "Can I get you another main course sir?" - for a moment JL considered having the beef fillet, but thankfully decided to stop there!  [only because Emma gave me the evil eye across the table]. There were some lovely fresh strawberries to finish. We went to the first show of the new classical duo - a couple of pianists playing on the same piano, who were excellent. From here we went to one of the bars as I fancied the mocktail of the day - Virgin Chocolate Banana, one of my favourites! We then went to the main show - an Irish comedian called Adrian Walsh, who was very good.