Honolulu, HI

                                                                            

We arrived in port about 7:30. Since nothing would be open we were not in a hurry to get off the ship. We were off at about 8:30 looking for an Avis shuttle. Mel called. They only provide a shuttle to the airport Avis not where we had reserved a car at the Waikiki Sheraton. A couple from the ship (he worked at the Lab with Mel!) suggested we ride with them to their pick up in Waikiki then they would drive us to the Sheraton. Their shuttle driver ended up dropping us there instead, nice of him. 

We got the car and headed out. I wanted to go to a couple of stores so we did that first. Then we drove by the Royal Palace, the only one in the USA. This is our second time in Honolulu, both visits have been on a Sunday when the palace isn't open. Maybe next time. We headed west to the Disney Aulani Resort. Almost there I saw where we are going to a luau this evening, right next door! But we had to return the car to Waikiki then catch a bus back there, too funny. 

The Aulani is beautiful, as I expected it would be. We checked out the stores then headed to the beach. The water was warmer than last time we were in HI so we changed into our swim suits. Mel wanted to snorkel so we walked down the beach a bit to a natural cove. The Aulani is on a man made one. But the waves were pretty big with a lot of rocks so it didn't seem to be a safe place for us. Went back to the Aulani (actually in front of the JW Marriott which is next door, sharing the same cove) and went in the water. Mel snorkeled, I just tread water. 

It was about time to head back to Waikiki so we got dressed and got the car. It was about 45 minutes back, including putting gas in the car. Left it at the Sheraton and found the bus which took us right back to where we had just been. 

The Paradise Cove Luau had the best reviews on Trip Advisor. Not sure what I was expecting but it is huge! There were almost 700 people including a shore excursion from our ship. Those folks paid twice what we did. I made a floral wrist band and head band. They had all sorts of shows and activities. Dinner was pork, chicken, fish and various salads. The taro rolls were delicious. The poi not so much. The entertainment was dances from many different Pacific islands, most we have been to. The show at the end was very good. It was a nice evening, glad we went but do not need to do another one!

Now another 3 days at sea before arriving in Majuro. 

Hilo, HI

I tried to post about our 4 sea days last night but it would not load then disappeared completely. Guess the Blogger app isn't good with a slow connection. After all those days at sea we were very ready to hit land today. The ship we are on, the Amsterdam, holds 1300+ passengers. We are currently traveling with 923 so there are a number of empty cabins. There are 608 crew! No wonder the service is so good. We will have 12 formal nights. We receive gifts on each one. Our first gift was a very nice laptop size bag that has "Asia Pacific Grand Voyage" on it. Inside is a box which contains a journal and luggage tags. There is also a smaller zipped bag with travel essentials like bandages and antibacterial. Nice gift! We also received gifts from our travel agent, another nice bag, tote style, and a wind breaker, both with a tiki logo for the grand voyage. We will have extra luggage with out buying anything!

We arrived in Hilo at 10 am. Each passenger was given a fresh floral lei as we disembarked, nice. We got on the Avis shuttle to pick up a car at the airport. We first headed to Volcanoes National Park. We'd visited there 4 years ago during the World Cruise but I wanted to get my National Parks passport stamped. Mission accomplished. We did find out that just 5 weeks ago the lava flow that had been hitting the ocean and making the island larger diverted itself and is now burning down rainforest. We hit the road back thru Hilo then north to the Botanical Gardens. There was a "scenic route" so we took that. Stopped by the road where others were stopped and walked down a path. It was kind of the back entrance to the Botanical Gardens without paying! We did go to their visitor center but decided to head on to the World Botanical Gardens instead. 

The World Gardens has zip lining, we passed. We went to see a waterfalls then walked thru the garden to a grove of Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. I had never seen anything like it. The bark as it peals reveals bright reds, orange and green! Really beautiful. We then took a short walk thru a rainforest which kind of look like the rest of the island!

We went back to Hilo and walked downtown a bit. There is a festival tonight so many streets and stores were closed. We returned the car and are now sitting outside a cafe to use the free Internet. Hope this will post this time. We have to be onboard in less than an hour. The ship is 2 blocks away. 

I tried to email a picture of the bark from my phone to my iPad with no luck. Looks like my blog will be without pictures this time, bummer........was able to add the picture in Honolulu!

San Pedro, CA

We arrived in San Pedro at around 8:30 am. My first task was to find my package. I asked at the front desk about what time the ship's agent usually gets packages on board. The answer was in the morning...or sometime during the day. A lot of good that was! We had sort of planned to grab a taxi to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach but discovered that the pier would be supplying a free shuttle there, perfect. We toured the aquarium which was very good. There were several creatures I hadn't remembered seeing before. And seeing penguins and puffins is always my favorite. 

After the aquarium we hopped on the "Passport" bus which is a free service in Long Beach. The fav stop for cruisers is Walmart so we followed suit and went. Bought a few snacks for Mel, a shoe rack for me as well as some DVD's on WWII for $5 each. We were back on board for lunch, no package. 

Some of our shipped luggage had arrived so while I unpacked Mel headed over to the Iowa, a battleship they have turned into a museum. It was right in front of our ship on the pier. At 2 there was a knock on the door, my package. Now I can relax for the rest of the trip. 

I am not much of a lunch eater, usually having just yogurt and fruit when at home. I have always had a hard time deciding what to eat on board because of that. Everything else just seemed too heavy. Well, I have found my lunch and had the same thing 3 days in a row so far, sashimi! It is low cal and full of protein, just right for me. Of course they also serve sweet potato fries daily. I will have to resist and just have them as a treat once in a while. I am not going to make the mistake I made on the World Cruise and just eat what I felt like eating. Took me 2 years to rid myself of that indulgence! Now I will pick and choose. I did have a cookie this morning that was the best! It had a lot of coconut as well as macadamia nuts and chocolate. Fortunately it is not a standard flavor they serve for lunch every day or I would be in trouble, just delicious! (Of course then I was on a mission and discovered they do have that type of cookie in the Explorer Internet Lounge daily, oh my!)

I received a call this morning from the gal I had inquired about my package. She asked if I had received it as it never went thru the front desk. She asked how I got it! A steward brought it to the room, that was all I needed to know. At least she followed thru if a bit late. 

This morning we had a Meet & Greet with the folks from Cruise Critic. It is a large group, almost 150 people. Hard to get to know everyone. I had posted before the trip to see if anyone would be interested in snorkeling with us and had 18 replies! We met with some of them during the meeting. Right now we have 20, including ourselves, who are interested, at least at our first snorkeling port, Chuuk. It will be interesting to see if the operators Mel has contacted can accommodate that many. 

After lunch I did my 3 miles around the deck. No whales, just lots of waves. I then went into the small pool at the aft of the ship. The water was a lot warmer than the air! And it was full of waves, the water rolling back and forth lowering the level on one side as much as a foot then sloshing back to the other side. A half hour of treading water was a lot more challenging than in our pool at home. I was the only one in the pool the entire time. We have 3 more sea days before hitting Hilo, HI. By then we will be well settled in. 

Whale of a Day

HAL always has a banner on the ship when we board saying "Welcome Home!"  After having been on this ship and her sister ship for over 6 months, it actually felt like coming home. We have been greeted by many of the crew with "welcome back" or "welcome home" and by many passengers with "nice to see you again". It is like an extended family and a very comfortable place to be. We quickly fell into our usual routine, Mel going to as many activities as possible, me enjoying time for reading and catching up on movies. We always meet for meals. After lunch I do my usual laps around the deck, yesterday for only a mile, today for almost 3. Today's walking was the best. The capt had reported seeing 20 whales from the bridge in the morning. I had seen one from the salon. While walking I saw about 15!  One time there were 8 spouts at the same time, one just a few yards off the side of the ship. It was pretty exciting. I don't think I will see that much on most of my walks. Usually it is just the sea and me. 

We are in LA tomorrow, one of the more exotic ports! :) We may take advantage of our Verizon data and not do much else. May go to the aquarium in Long Beach. Not really sure yet. Whatever we do I am sure it will be a good day. 

Drama In Vancouver

Our two flights from Oakland to Vancouver were uneventful except for a delay. We didn't arrive until 3:30.  Ladies from our new travel agency, Cruise Specialists, were at the airport to greet us and lead the way to the hotel shuttle. First I wanted to see the large sculpture by artist Bill Reid which we had heard about on our last trip to Vancouver but hadn't had a chance to see. Reid is a national treasure for Canada, his art is on their $20 bill. The large bronze is spectacular. Tried to post a picture with no success. Hope that won't be the story for the entire cruise!

Cruise Specialists provided our one night stay in Vancouver and had a nice cocktail party for all their clients as well as a dinner. There were 120 of us, a few whom we had met on other cruises. The food was very good for banquet food. We were staying at the airport Sheraton. 

The most important item to pack when traveling, the one item which you can't just go out and buy, are your prescription meds. I went to take mine before going to bed only to discover the bottles I had thought were them were really meds I carry "just in case" on long trips. Not good. Spent most of the night worrying about how I would get my meds before leaving across the Pacific. I was also a bit worried about the one bag I had shipped ahead to Vancouver. It was still showing as being in customs on the DHL website. Two things to worry about, oh joy!

First thing in the morning we headed to the local pharmacy to see if prescriptions can be transferred from a US pharmacy, no. Plan B, we called our daughter, Brigitte, to have her go to the house and Fed Ex them to LA, our first port. Once at the house she called me for instructions and I also got to talk to Piper, our 2 1/2 yr old granddaughter. While at the house she found 2 long lost binkys and told me she had a new outfit for gymnastics. Nice to hear. Holly, from Cruise Specialists, found the best address of where to ship the package for me and even emailed it to Brigitte so we could board the bus for the ship. She had also begun to see where my missing bag might be. As we were waiting in the lobby, Mel noticed our carry on luggage passing by, including my purse! We were to have left our checked luggage by the door, anything else in the back of the room so it would not be taken. Whoops! Good thing we had been sitting there to see it as there were no Holland America tags on any of them. Holly was very apologetic, things happen in 3's, and from now until the end of the cruise, no more incidents!  Let's hope that is true. 

After boarding the ship and having lunch, we got off the ship to go to an attraction we had heard about called "Flying Over Canada". It is just like DCA's Soaring Over California, with a lot more motion and water. It takes you from the east to west coast of Canada and is very well done. After that we walked to Gastown to visit the Coastal People's Gallery which we had visited the last time we were there. Beautiful art. 

Back at the pier, they asked for our passports to go thru customs. HAL had taken them when we checked in earlier. They said we could not get back on the ship without them. Great. They finally decided that one of us could board to get the passports while the other waited in customs. I boarded, leaving Mel on his own. Of course there were 5 people in line at the front desk with only 2 people working. I asked if they would mind my cutting in line as my husband was being held hostage. I had a moment of thinking this was my chance to ditch him, but figured I would never find another companion as fun and compatible, so retrieved the passports and headed back off the ship. All the running around on and off the ship amounted to over 6 miles by the end of the day. I got in my exercise. When we arrived back at our cabin, the missing suitcase was waiting for us. 

We unpacked the little luggage that we had, went to the mandatory emergency drill, then dinner. We are sitting with the lovely couple of retired professors with whom we sat during the  World Cruise 4 years ago. Great to see them and nice to be sharing a table again. No show tonight, so we had a leisurely evening. Best news of the day, once our issues were taken care of, my Nespresso machine works onboard! I won't have to spend 75 days with bad coffee!

All Our Bags Are Packed, We're Ready To Go........

They picked up our bags yesterday. Seven went to LA, one to Vancouver. They were right about Canadian Customs being a pain. If we shipped anything like toothpaste, we needed to include the name and address of the manufacturer! We only shipped clothing. Hope it arrives ok. My foot was the first casualty of the trip. A suitcase attacked it. Not sure if you can see the bright purple bruise in the picture. 

And as usual Koda wants to go.  

We are having dinner with the kids tomorrow for a fairwell as well as an early birthday surprise for Siera. She complains that we are never home for her birthday which is on Oct 27. Other than that, we have four more days to think about what we might have forgotten to pack. We are getting closer. 

Crunch Time

It is crunch time as we get ready for another of our lengthy voyages. We have unlimited luggage in our package again so at least we don't have to worry about excess luggage this time. The majority of our bags will be picked up by Fed Ex on Fri the 13th. Hope there's not bad luck in that date. We will be shipping 8 bags ahead to meet us at the ship when we reach Los Angeles. We could have had them shipped to Vancouver where we will board on Sept 20, but have heard the Canadian customs forms required are a nightmare. We opted to take enough for those 3 days with us and just get everything in LA on the 23rd. I have several bags packed and ready to go, Mel has not started. Of course I end up packing all the things we both need, medical supplies, office type supplies etc. He just packs clothes. Next I will have to be sure that all the bills are prepaid or automatic, not that hard these days. I may have one account that needs to be paid by check. I'll give them 3 months worth and be done with it.

 

We have done a couple of trips between our last Half Way Around the world and now. One was a month long cruise in Europe, 2 weeks around the Baltic then 2 weeks up the coast of Norway and back last summer. We also did a 52 day road trip earlier this year. Of course there were no sea days on either trip so hard to get the time or energy to do a blog. This trip there are a LOT of sea days, makes it easier. And I have enjoyed going back and reading about what we did in some of those places, so nice for us to have it written down. Hard to remember everything. We are really looking forward to doing a lot of snorkeling this trip as well as returning to some favorite locations like Shanghai and Hong Kong. Hong Kong Disneyland will have doubled in size since we were there 2 years ago, that should be wonderful. Now to figure out the new Blogger app (new to me) and how to manage pictures better. That's my task for the next few days before we leave.