"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #28 Honolulu, Hawaii January 27, 2017 Friday Sunny & 75 degrees Part #1 Of 3 66 Pictures

Last night, we got the first Cruise Log, signifying the end the an official segment. It began in Ft. Lauderdale, and ended in Honolulu. One of the interesting facts printed on the brochure is that the ship is capable of producing 370,000 gallons of water a day, although only 160,000 gallons are consumed. We can assume the difference between those two numbers is the amount of water used around the ship such as in the pools, cleaning decks, washing windows, and also laundry. The ship has an excellent desalination system, so we will never run dry.

Other notable numbers are the guests that are onboard…….1067 and crew members……655. Around 50 folks left the ship today, and the same number of new guests took their places. Also tied in to the end of this segment, was the special limited offer of the DVD collections so far. Clips from many special events that were held on the ship since the beginning of the month, were shown on channel 26 on our TV's. From what we saw, these DVD's are most amusing, and we'll leave it at that so we don't get into trouble. By the way, one DVD cost $35, while if you purchase 10 DVD's, they are $250.

Time was limited today, since all aboard was 3pm. Having had taken a long hike yesterday, we slept really soundly. This morning we had a light breakfast in the dining room while chatting with our AM tablemates that sit near us. They shared shopping info with us, reporting all the special sales they had found at Ala Moana Center. That reminded us of our British tablemates that had a ball shopping in Hawaii last fall. Compared to England, they loved the quality of the clothing in the US ports, and also the low prices. Also, the Hawaiian sales tax is much lower than in other foreign countries…….even lower than a lot of the other US states.

So we headed off once again, around 10am, and much to our surprise, it was cooler today. With fewer stops for taking pictures, we reached the Ala Moana Center in an hour or so. As we followed the canal along the park side, we spotted a black-crowned night heron perched on a rock above the water. Assuming he was searching for his normal prey of fish, he was really waiting for a young local gal that was coming over with a handful of bread chunks. Like a pied piper, she was followed by an array of birds like pigeons, sparrows, egrets, and the heron. Obviously, she does this every day. She threw some bread in the canal, and the heron flew down to gobble it up. Probably not the best diet for these birds, they are scavengers, surviving on everything they can find.

Lunch was the first thing we did, and that was on the top level of Ala Moana at California Pizza Kitchen. By now, it was after noon, and we were lucky to get about the last table for two. We always order their BBQ chicken salads (half order), which comes with fresh French bread with spicy olive oil. We had hoped they offered the weekday combo of salad or soup with a small pizza. However, it was not on their menu. Hungry for pizza, the waiter suggested we get the mini pizza off of the kiddie menu. That worked for us. No matter where we find a CPK, their pizza crust is always the best.

We wandered through the open-air mall until we found Longs Drugs. We only needed to buy a spray can of disinfectant. This is the hint of the day: we spray the ceiling air return with the disinfectant with hopes of purifying the air in our room. As long as you are careful about the aroma, we believe it helps to kill bacteria. Especially the cold virus. Actually, the recovery from this latest bout of cold virus has been good for one of us. It never developed into bronchitis, or worse, pneumonia. Just a nasty head cold. Slowly, our other tablemates are getting better as well.

As we rounded the corner near the pier, we spotted another ship in the slip……Regent's Navigator. They must have arrived sometime after we left this morning. A much smaller ship, the Navigator is 5 stars in the Berlitz book, and having sailed on this ship several times in the past, we can agree with the high rating. They are all-inclusive, and spoil their guests. Expensive? Quite, but a nice and easy way to travel.

We got back to the ship around 2:30pm, and shortly thereafter, attended the mandatory passenger emergency muster drill. It went smoothly as the new handheld computers were used to log each one of us present and accounted for at the drill. By the way, as we left our room to go up to our station, we noticed Ratno, our room steward, checking rooms for guests. He put an "evacuated" card in each key slot in the doors. No more hiding in the bathrooms to avoid attending the drill. Yes, we know folks that did that almost every time.

Sail away was from 4 to 5pm on the aft pool deck. With the wonderful weather we were having, it was very crowded back there. Delayed by some late arriving guests, we left the pier, and headed in a westerly direction. The ship was not far from shore, when the officer of the watch announced that we were coming near a pod of humpback whales. Golly, the people ran to the starboard railing to get a look at this sight. Staying more towards the back railing, Maureen, Jim, and one of us had a good view eventually. Bill did snap some great photos of some of the whales breeching before they stayed down under. At one point, we spotted 4 whale blows, with some doing shallow dives.

Most everyone left after 5pm, because dinner was starting. That's when we saw some dolphins feeding off the port side. What a lucky day to see both.

We had hoped to catch the sunset, but since the ship was heading dead west, it was mostly blocked from this angle on the aft deck. Today, the horizon was cloudy, so we did not want to wait to see it. We had three days of long hikes, and were feeling a bit tired.

Dinner time found the dining room mostly empty. Philip, the dining room manager, said that many folks were quite tired, and had an early light dinner before turning in for the evening. That's probably why a big screen movie, Amelia, was shown in the Queen's Lounge tonight. Few people would have gone to a live show tonight.

Now we have several days at sea to get ready for the next port in Majuro, a new one for most all of us.

Bill & Mary Ann

If you look over this wall, you will see tropical fish