"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #25 Sailing Towards Hilo, Hawaii January 24, 2017 Tuesday Cloudy & 72 degrees 12 Pictures

We heard through the grapevine that 92 passengers completed the Hawaiian Marathon walk around the lower promenade deck that took place these last five days at sea. They earned a lot of ship dollars, except our friends that live on deck two, said it sounded like a herd of elephants every morning at 6:30am. Doubt that activity will be repeated anytime too soon. And with the clocks going back one hour last night, waking up extra early was not in the cards for many folks.

The forecast of cloudy was only partly right, since during the majority of the day, the sun came out, and it was beautiful. The seas have smoothed out, there was little wind, and sunbathing on the aft deck was most relaxing. During his PM talk, Captain Jonathon mentioned that we might be going through some squalls with rain. We did look ahead and noticed some dark clouds, but somehow, he maneuvered the ship in between the showers. Most times the showers are too big to avoid, and as much as they try not to, they have to plow right through them. We have always wondered with all of the cameras installed for observation on the navigation deck, if they get a huge laugh when they see all the folks running for cover.

While catching up on or reading by the pool, we had a series of visitors. We found out from two couples that have verandas on deck six, that they had a limited list of alcohol to choose from prior to the cruise. In other words, no more of the "good" stuff. If you want a finer quality of liquor, it now will cost you 2 for 1. The perk for booking a veranda has always been 2 bottles of alcohol per guest. Or the equivalent of that in wine. This has got to be one of the new changes fleet wide that began at the beginning of 2017. Sure wish they would have kept their 2 premium bottle policy for the "grand" voyages. We do not personally know anyone on deck seven, but will have to investigate to see if they still receive the "good" stuff. In our opinion, they should, because they pay a whole lot more for their suites.

Another subject came up concerning Orlando Ashford's visit to the ship when we arrive to Korea. As the new President of HAL, he will hold a question and answer session in the Queen's Lounge. A couple of days ago, we all got a request for three questions to ask Mr. Ashford at this meeting. The most asked questions will be presented to him to address to the crowd. Although it was quite difficult to choose only three questions, we came up with a few good ones.

First, we would like to see their upgrading of staterooms to be based on the number of days sailed with the cruise line. Their most loyal customers should have that privilege. Nothing makes more folks upset, than when they hear that a first or second time cruiser gets upgraded from a lower category to a veranda or better. Now if this was based on days sailed, then there would be no resentment.

This is probably a dead-end, but we would really like to see the "formal" evenings come back, at least on the world cruise. The mixed messages on the new dress code has taken the "grand" feeling out of these occasions.

Finally, the choice of newspapers is limited. The one that continues to be on every cruise is the Times Digest, not worth the paper it is printed on most days. And getting worse every year. A more intelligent choice might be the Wall Street Journal, which also includes stock market reports and world weather. Other cruise lines will provide the entire paper, and a variety of them. We would be afraid to bring this subject up (cruising other lines), or else you may be told to leave, and go to the other lines. It did happen to one man at the Q&A one year with the CEO of HAL. Quite embarrassing to say the least.

Whatever the questions and answers will be, we shall report the results when it happens.

Ship activities continued as usual. So far, we have yet to see the Hawaiian Ambassador team that have been teaching the Hawaiian language, pareo tying, and lei flower making. Having recently been on the South Pacific cruise in the fall, we are certain we have seen it all already.

It appears that there are two different speakers onboard, however, their names are not written in the Daily Navigator. One spoke about the upcoming celestials, with possible star gazing held on Sky deck 10 forward on clear evenings. Tablemates did just that last year, and raved about the experience.

The PM guest speaker dealt with a series on Pearl Harbor….what happened and why. Very suitable subject, since we will be in Honolulu in a few days.

Dinner was special tonight, since one of us had a birthday. Tried to keep it quiet, but when the cake arrived, along with a dozen or more waiters singing their song, it was no longer a secret. Yesterday, we had asked Philip, our very kind dining room manager, for a strawberry whipped cream cake for the 9 of us. Served with vanilla ice cream, it was a really treat….even more so, sharing this evening with such great tablemates. And more good friends who came by with their good wishes.

Looking forward to stepping on solid ground tomorrow in Hilo, come rain or shine. Oh, by the way, Captain Jonathon made an announcement today that he is not going to go south out of Hilo to try to see the lava flow in the dark. As it is not in the itinerary, there is no time or extra fuel to do that detour. In the past, we have seen this display, and it was awesome.

Bill & Mary Ann

Another partly cloudy day at sea