LIVE FROM - 2019 Pacific World Cruise - LA to LA

[8dimsum]

Din Tai Fung has many locations and generally consistent quality.  One of our go-to restaurants.  XLB rules!

[seamwoman]

Looking forward to following along!  I hope you dance!  Karen

 

[I object 2]

Have a wonderful cruise!  Denny and I will be following your "Live From".  We met you and Judy on Patrick's tour in Bora Bora on the 28 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise.  

 

I'm impressed with your packing skills for your trip.  We're getting ready for a 49 day South America cruise and we have 4 large suitcases, plus 2 carry-ons.  If we had any sense, we'd leave 1/s of our stuff at home and twice the money!  LOL

 

Safe travels!

 

Jan 

[Dreamer115]

Following along.  I will never get this cruise in before we stop cruising (Coming soon, unfortunately) so I am going to enjoy your cruise.  Just curious, what kind of a stateroom do you have?  Have to be on the larger size as you will probably spend a little more time in there than on an ordinary cruise I'm sure.

Have a wonderful and safe trip.

[jimbri]

Looking forward to your review and photos.

[ccrain]

13 hours ago, seamwoman said:

Looking forward to following along!  I hope you dance!  Karen

 

If we don't dance, I can't eat! Just in Case, we brought dance music and bluetooth speakers for DIY...

[ccrain]

10 hours ago, I object 2 said:

Have a wonderful cruise!  Denny and I will be following your "Live From".  We met you and Judy on Patrick's tour in Bora Bora on the 28 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise.  

 

I'm impressed with your packing skills for your trip.  We're getting ready for a 49 day South America cruise and we have 4 large suitcases, plus 2 carry-ons.  If we had any sense, we'd leave 1/s of our stuff at home and twice the money!  LOL

 

Safe travels!

 

Jan 

That was a great cruise wasn't it! I really enjoyed the crossing the line ceremony. (The blonde dancer jumping up and down on top of me sure helped!) Patrick's tour was great too. Got video of black tipped reef sharks and stingrays all in the same shot. We aren't doing Bora Bora this time, but a couple of new Islands in Tahiti. But we brought all of our snorkeling gear to enjoy the water once again. 

 

I don't know where you leave from, but this buy STUFF here worked quite well. United was charging $150 for a 5th checked bag! I can buy a pretty nice toolbox for that!  Hopefully it gets to our cabin in one piece!

[ccrain]

9 hours ago, Dreamer115 said:

Following along.  I will never get this cruise in before we stop cruising (Coming soon, unfortunately) so I am going to enjoy your cruise.  Just curious, what kind of a stateroom do you have?  Have to be on the larger size as you will probably spend a little more time in there than on an ordinary cruise I'm sure.

Have a wonderful and safe trip.

Just a normal Balcony cabin. The Pacific balcony cabins have a love seat in them, but lose the large closet typical in Princess Balcony cabins. That's why we bought an over the bathroom door shoe holder - actually a STUFF holder - and a hanging closet shelf to increase capacity in the very small closet. Most of our clothes will be folded, not hung. From the videos on-line, there appears to be room to use the tool box as an ottoman, coffee table, or end table storage box, which we are going to need a lot of nooks and crannies to put all of this STUFF in....

 

I appreciate your situation. That is why we are doing this cruise now. You never know what tomorrow may bring. After this cruise we will take a break and decide what we want to do in retirement.  But if you can't do the world cruise, at least enjoy some cruising while you can. It still is the most economical and easiest mode of world travel - and everyone who cruises does appreciate the unpack once and done thing. I look at Rick Steves videos of travel in Europe and cringe at the constant do this, do that, pack, unpack, up the stairs, down the stairs, in the train, off the train...its pretty hectic!

 

On the other hand I do enjoy sipping an adult beverage on our balcony overlooking some strange and foreign harbor, contemplating  seriously the nature of the whichness of the why, while not having to drive or park this thing!

[Amtrack Springfield]

Check out the Red Mecedes tour with Tracey in Tahiti. She knows everyone on the island and will take you to some great spots. If you want to buy black pearls she knows a great husband and wife team who sells them. They design their own jewelry. A lot cheaper than in the states.

[brownblonde]

5 hours ago, ccrain said:

Just a normal Balcony cabin. The Pacific balcony cabins have a love seat in them, but lose the large closet typical in Princess Balcony cabins. That's why we bought an over the bathroom door shoe holder - actually a STUFF holder - and a hanging closet shelf to increase capacity in the very small closet. Most of our clothes will be folded, not hung. From the videos on-line, there appears to be room to use the tool box as an ottoman, coffee table, or end table storage box, which we are going to need a lot of nooks and crannies to put all of this STUFF in....

 

I appreciate your situation. That is why we are doing this cruise now. You never know what tomorrow may bring. After this cruise we will take a break and decide what we want to do in retirement.  But if you can't do the world cruise, at least enjoy some cruising while you can. It still is the most economical and easiest mode of world travel - and everyone who cruises does appreciate the unpack once and done thing. I look at Rick Steves videos of travel in Europe and cringe at the constant do this, do that, pack, unpack, up the stairs, down the stairs, in the train, off the train...its pretty hectic!

 

On the other hand I do enjoy sipping an adult beverage on our balcony overlooking some strange and foreign harbor, contemplating  seriously the nature of the whichness of the why, while not having to drive or park this thing!

I along with others will enjoy your postings. It is nice to know a face to the posting as we also was on 2015 28 days round trip Hawaii S. Pacific  think I would like it again. Also have HAL world to follow so here as a snowbird in Fl. I will keep up with all of everyone’s travels 

[friend of Eeyore]

Looking forward to travelling along, at least virtually! We got off the Pacific in FLL after the New Year, and I miss her already.

[Hulagirl]

Be sure and check out the Cruisetones in the Casino Lounge.  Dan (guitar) and Elliott (piano) are the nicest people and we enjoyed listening to them every evening last Aug-Sept on the Pacific P.  Dan is married to Deborah who is the Destination lecturer on the cruise with you.  Was always a fun evening with them.

 

Dan learned Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot to play for me on the cruise.  Hopefully he kept playing it as he did a wonderful job.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Susan

[cr8tiv1]

Bon Voyage.  Didn't you just do the Circle the Pacific on the Coral?  I loved your travel log and will be following this one too.  Only in my dreams could I ever imagine more than a few weeks on a cruise ship.

[AF-1]

Safe travels, and I like your thinking.  You never know what tomorrow brings; so experience life now.  I get it and also don't wait until your so old you can't go anywhere.  I love it.  Have fun and look forward to your pictures;  they were awesome on your last cruise

[ccrain]

01-21-2019 At Sea To HI

 

Internet connection is now officially, sort of, kind of, working…The ship is rocking and rolling this morning, so I’m sure the antenna gimbals are getting quite a workout. That always makes for a very slow internet connection. We were allotted our 500 minutes yesterday and I purchased another 200. They did have their ‘unlimited’ packages – 200MB, 300MB and 500MB – which are actually not that much bandwidth if you think about it. Facebook updates their mobile app every week and its over 300MB just by itself. Which is why I always turn off all the automatic downloads and updates when I get on the ship.

 

Yesterday’s embarkation was WEIRD. We’ve never been on the Pacific before. Never experienced this kind of uncrowd before. We shuttled to the port from the Doubletree with all of our STUFF. Calmly walked through the areas, no hurries, worries, lines, crowding, yelling, screaming or otherwise the typical cruise boarding experience. Reminded me of the old days of flying. They held us in the Elite area for about 45 minutes, boarded the in-transits and then us.

 

So where’s the rest of the ship? 2/3 of it is missing! Oh yeah, that’s right – only 680 of us. The Norwegian Gem left the dock around 1700 and pretty much dwarfed our little ship. (Oh yeah, interesting story. So we are getting ready to shuttle to the port with our pile of STUFF. Still embarrassing to me BTW to carry this much STUFF. But met a very nice couple with a pile of STUFF that was about the size of ours. We chatted, expecting to find out that they were headed to the Pacific as well. Nope. They, and their large pile of stuff were headed for the Gem and a 7 day Mexico cruise! Now I don’t feel so bad anymore.)

 

So back to the ship. Wow. This is completely different. Old style cruising. Dark hardwoods. Brass stair handrails. Deep rich carpeting. A lounge, not a theater. Seating available at showtime! No need to get there 45 minutes in advance!?! Being able to almost, almost, reach across the ship! A hair dryer in the bathroom that looks like it came from a 60’s sci-fi show. (Judy thinks it looks like something I can’t write in a public forum like this….) An Atrium that is NOT an atrium. No lines in the buffet. Lots of crew everywhere.

 

This is going to take some time to absorb. Good thing we have the time!

 

We have a standard balcony cabin. And amazingly, everything fits and we have space available. I don’t know how, but it works. We did bring a bunch of storage enhancers after seeing a really good video from last year’s world cruise. The double door hutch type closet has been supplemented with a hang up fabric storage shelf. The bathroom door has an over the door shoe rack holder, now a STUFF holder, with very few shoes. We did have to limit the hangups to those requiring ironing – shirts, blouses and dresses – and we did bring several different high strength magnets with hooks that hold the metal ceiling perfectly where we can hang bags, jackets and rain gear. Magnetic hooks on the walls hold hats. Magnetic bracelets have all the paper work held firmly to the wall. (I will try and upload photos later.) A new 2 plug and 4 USB outlet charging station is now on the mirror over the desk, our 3 outlet extension cord and 6 USB charging station is under the TV – which by the way is the smallest TV I’ve ever seen on a ship.

 

The tool box, now storing the piles of spare STUFF, fits perfectly between the couch and the window. The end table has now been moved to Judy’s side of the bed next to the nightstand to hold her CPAP machine – gallon of distilled water was waiting for us in the cabin. Even the snorkel bag and equipment fit in the closet above the hanging clothes. We didn’t have to move the fridge either.

 

Even in the bathroom, there is limited counter space, but a lot of nooks, crannies and shelfs to hold things, including in the shower itself, the medicine cupboard, under the sink and over on the wall next to the toilet. With the over the door shoe holder, plenty of room for all kinds of toiletries.

 

We did empty the two bottles of shampoo/conditioner and body wash, and found traces of the ‘black’ gunk that we found on the Coral – both inside and outside the bottles, especially on the pump cap threads. Judy cleaned and sanitized both bottles and we filled them with our own shampoo and conditioner.

 

The bed is comfortable – on the soft side, but that’s what Judy likes - the air conditioner works well (yeah!), my new memory foam pillow is great compared to the standard pillows.

 

All in all, I am very pleased with the cabin.

 

So now on to the first patter information!

 

Andrea Spinardi, who looks like a teenager, is the Captain. Karin Luppes is the Hotel General Manager. Neil Rose is the Cruise Director. Billy Caronna is the Customer Services Director. Sean Leech is the Food and Beverage Director. Luigi Pascale is the Maitre D’Hotel. Sandy is the FCC and Captain’s Circle Hostess.

 

For this segment to Sydney we have 4 production shows – La Danza, Variations, Limelight and Amour. We have folkloric shows in Honolulu, Papeete, Huahine and Auckland. (Which I have to find out if these shows will be on the reflections DVD. They WERE NOT on the Coral.) For guest entertainers, we have Christopher James (saw him during the welcome aboard show, not bad). Craig Richard, James Fox, Noodles Levenstein (saw him on the Coral), Moya Angela, Tara Whittaker, Diane Cousins, Michael Young, Tracey Shield, The Behives, Michael Votano, Will Martin. The Domino Duo is also on board – we know them very well! The 2 Cool Duo and the Lado String Duo.

 

The Sandstroms are on board for Arts and Crafts (Judith) and lectures (Frank). We have a ballroom instructor pair – Michelle and Jeffrey East. A bridge director, Ann Richmond. A Destination Expert, Deb Fraioli. Hawaiian Ambassadors Tui and Maile Letuli and Maori Ambassadors Riki King and Kelly Bennett.

 

So that is a quick overview of the first patter, and my first LIVE FROM post.

 

Later!

[Hulagirl]

Karin Luppes, Hotel General Manager is a riot.  We were at her table both times at the Most Traveled Party.  She is a lot of fun to talk to and just a very nice person. 

 

Love the Pacific P.  Have a great time.

 

Susan

[moresun]

Excited to follow along.Wishes for a wonderful trip !

[PescadoAmarillo]

Tell Judy to watch that hair dryer. I would dry one side of my hair while standing but had to dry the other side sitting on the toilet lid because the hose wasn’t long enough to reach. And the dryer hose just gets hotter and hotter the entire time so that I finally learned to dry the sit down side first and the stand up side after so I didn’t burn my neck with the hose. 

 

I didn’t realize you’d never been on the Pacific Princess. You will be a firm fan...until the seas are rough. Watch those shelves over the toilet, or keep the lid closed.  Don’t ask me how I know. 

[beg3yrs]

Hi Charles and Judy!

 

Scott and Charlie here. We've sailed with you twice before and we're happy to be reading about your World Cruise adventure. Haven't done a WC yet but we have spent 51 days on the Pacific Princess in 2018 and a cumulative 125 days on her former sister ship, the Ocean Princess. We're booked on the Pacific Princess for another 31 days at this year as well. We just love these ships and we're already seeing the signs that you will too.

 

Captain Spinardi is great. He is very visible around the ship and there are two reasons for this. First, he is known for having "meetings" in the Club Bar area. We found him there typically around 9AM every day, often with his chief engineer. He's quite approachable and engaging. He isn't one of those types that take hidden crew-only passages to get around although there aren't many of these on the Pacific Princess. Second, he's visible because he's something like six foot, six inches tall. Oh yeah, the ladies love him too. Ask him about his dog, Nebbia (Italian for fog).

 

On our previous sailings we found the dance company did double duty as cruise director's staff. Take your time to get to know these kids, they're a lot of fun. However we were also told that for the WC just before our 2018 sailing, the dance company was replaced with a non-Princess company, at least for a good part of the voyage. We'd love to know how that works out.

 

Cheers!

[ccrain]

01-22-2019 At Sea to Honolulu

 

Sea state is much, much better this morning. It finally started calming down a bit late last evening. Now we have a slow gentle roll with minimal buffeting from the wind. The bed is quite comfortable and the new memory foam pillow is going to worth its weight in gold. Hard using one of those feather pillows after a memory pillow at home, so we just bought one, and it does compress very nicely into the suitcase. Still re-arranging the cabin. Those magnetic hooks from Amazon are great for sticking to the roof, where they hold the maximum weight, and hanging various stuff up like backpacks, rain coats, sweat shirts, hats, etc.

 

Yesterday was very busy. A welcome aboard get together with the Captain and staff in the Pacific lounge for all of us who joined in LA. And yes, the Captain is VERY visible! Apparently though, we will not be able to become Golden Shellbacks (cross equator AND date line at same time). Would have been an interesting selling point. Nor will we become Emerald Shellbacks (cross GMT and equator at the same time) because of the stops in Brazil. According to one of our fellow travelers there is actually a buoy at that point.

 

Internet is achingly slow. Slower than the Coral at this point in the voyage. Yesterday I could understand because of the motion, but not this morning. It takes 15 minutes to VPN in to work email to even start downloading email. And then its just sit and wait. (Oh, and this is at 0600 in the morning!)

 

Unfortunately the front desk staff did not get my invitations to the mailboxes. So only the Captain, and the staff Captain, showed up to the CC M&G and only because I personally invited him during the prior meeting. It was well attended and we got lots of signups for the Slot Pull, luncheons and dinners. Now I just have to track down the Maitre D to set up those things.

 

Not much activity yesterday because of the rockin and rollin. A bit too dangerous for Zumba. Looks like Zumba alternates with Line Dancing. Frank did his typical excellent lecture on Pearl Harbor yesterday. I’m so glad we have a good lecturer on this cruise – and they replay the lectures on TV. No dancing last night, so we listened to the Domino Duo in the Casino bar for a while after dinner.

 

Any yes, for the first time in over 100 days at sea, we actually went to the dining room for dinner. That was the lowest place on the ship to get Judy some food and it was still rolling pretty good up in the buffet. Dinner was good. The lamb was cooked perfectly and it was very tasty. I get lamb as much as possible on the ship. A good start, but I’m sure ship’s food will become pretty boring by the time we get back. Not their fault, but this is a long cruise for sure.

 

The Panorama buffet is going to be a fantastic place to eat when we get into the tropics. The open air dining deck is going to perfect at night in harbor in warm climates. Especially the late night departures and overnights in Tahiti, Sydney, Auckland and Singapore – maybe even Cape Town. We definitely won’t be eating in the dining room then.

 

I don’t know if I mentioned this or not, but Paul and Elizabeth, from Texas, has joined us on this cruise. They are staying till FLL. Not our first cruise together, we’ve probably done at least 120+ days together including a B2B2B2B 61 day on the Ruby in the Med several years ago, but our first world cruise together or apart. Nice to know someone on the ship, but several people from the Coral 60 Day are on as well. (Including Richard! More about him as we go through the cruise…) Missing Jane though! We have marked the seat in the Club bar as Jane’s Seat. (Pictures to follow…)

 

So let’s give you a taste of today’s Patter activity. Tonight is the first of five formal night for this segment to SYD. Doesn’t look like any Tai Chi yet, but there is meditation in the Pacific lounge, bible study in the card room, Yoga ($$) in the fitness center (which doesn’t open until 0700), Knitters and Knatters at 0900 in the Club bar, line dancing in the Pacific Lounge at 1000, destination presentation at 1000 in the Cabaret Lounge by Deb, arts and crafts, a lanyard, with Judith at 1000, bridge at 1000 in the steakhouse, morning trivia at 1100, line dancing at 1000, ballroom dancing at 1300, Ukulele lessons at 1400, hula dance class at 1500, afternoon trivia at 1615, elite lounge and then the Captain’s cocktail party at 1915 this evening.

 

The Pacific has two major lounges, Pacific and Cabaret. Shows and presentations are in the Cabaret Lounge. The Pacific Lounge takes up the rest of the activities like dance and trivia. Some smaller events are held in the deck 4 atrium area, but the Pacific is very limited in large public entertainment venues. There are lots of nooks and crannies to sit and watch the world go bye, but not that many venues, especially when the weather is cold, windy and rough outside.

 

So that the morning update from the Pacific….

 

Later!

[DrivesLikeMario]

We had the King Tides in So. Cal. yesterday so that's probably why it was so rough.  I did expect the sea state to improve after you cruised farther away and glad to hear it did.  My 4 friends onboard are not writing!  How dare they completely unconnect?!  lol 

 

Glad to hear FCC Sandy is onboard.  She is a wonderful person.  We're from the same area, so we had that in common and just seemed to 'click'.  We sat with her at the Most Trav. Luncheon besides booking 9 FCCs with her and seeing her at (it seemed) every turn.  Something you notice on the small ships - you see people you've met often.  Really enjoying your reports!  Thanks!

Edited January 22, 2019 by DrivesLikeMario

[TracieABD]

Charles!

I am so excited for you and Judy!!! I am also anxiously awaiting any cabin tips- We will be on the Coral for 34 days next December...

 

I hope you are having a wonderful time on your super exciting World Cruise!!!!

 

I am totally subscribing to this thread!

 

Tracie-Lynn

[BGKAHUNA]

(I’m raising my hand.) Enjoying your commentary but please discuss important matters, such as: how are the doughnuts; is there enough ice cream and Frosted Flakes for the entire cruise; how many glasses of orange juice is each passenger allowed to have on the table at one time at breakfast; and probably most important, did you personally check on the status of all future boonker barges.

[ccrain]

01-23-2019 At Sea to Honolulu – And time starts marching backwards!

 

Gained an hour last night. 23 to go, but minus one full day, which should balance it all out. We’ll see when we are staggering around Singapore 12 hours out of whack!

 

A very nice calm day yesterday. Was able to walk, stairs, work out in the gym, and not break anything. Its only 13 times around the running track for a mile! Today, Zumba is back. They are alternating Zumba and line dance. My ankle feels remarkably good, so I will probably give it a try. The gym is well equipped. They need to fix the broken elliptical as now there is only one left. Standard stationary weight machines, several treadmills and stationary bikes. Bring your earphones to watch TV while working out. Free weights, mats and an area for yoga is also available. Basically everything a large ship has, just cut by 2/3rds.

 

First formal night went very well. Didn’t get thrown out of any venues for just wearing a vest instead of a sport coat. Much, much cooler that way. Dinner in the MDR was quite nice – but the drink prices are just getting out of hand. Most mixed drinks are up to $10 each. Wines start at $11 per glass or $38 a bottle for the cheap stuff. Definitely going to visit a liquor store in Honolulu. I have heard a ‘rumor’ that if the screening is done by the port, they don’t rat you out to the ship. Whereas when the screening is done by the ship, they notice things like a case of wine or hard liquor concealed in your purse or backpack.

 

Early dinner seating is 5:30, late is 7:45. Way too late for us. The food was good, the lamb was really good. Tonight though, since it’s getting warmer, will probably be an early dinner/late lunch in the Panorama Buffet. Biggest issue is that we have a mayonnaise centered chef. Even the vinaigrettes have mayonnaise in them – which makes them non-vegan as well. So Judy has to eat dry salads until we get to Honolulu and pick up some salad dressings she can eat. She can only take so much oil and vinegar. I figure 3-4 bottles of kraft dressings should be sufficient. Just in case, we also brought some hot sauce. A variety of 2 oz bottles from Half Moon Bay – we call it our iguana sauce. A little habanero or jalapeno sauce goes a long way. That’s why they call their 2 oz collection “Bland Aid”.

 

We managed to get in a few dances to Domino Duo in the Casino Bar, on carpet, before dinner. My new ‘formal’ shoes, leather on the ball, non-skid on the heel, take a little getting used to as the heel will not slip at all. The length of these things, skis actually, really gets me as well as I am used to oxfords, not shoes designed for stirrups. But they fit very nicely, unlike my too small dance sneaks.

 

After dinner we caught the 2 Cool Duo in the Pacific Lounge. While Domino Duo is more ‘ballroom’, 2 Cool Duo is more Rock and Roll. 2 Cool Duo is keyboard and guitar, Domino is Keyboard centered. Both are fantastic. Good music to dance to, listen to or chill to. I just wish they had a dance floor for Domino in the Casino bar. For you dancers out there, both the Pacific Lounge and the Cabaret Lounge has very large dance floors. And they are wood. But that’s the only two. Tonight, they will do some pre-show dance sessions in Cabaret with the ship’s band – 4 piece btw – then the evening show, then another dance set. (Tonight is Christopher James as the Headliner. A variety act.) The Pacific Lounge is where the trivias, game shows and main dance sessions will be.

 

The reputation for the World Cruise that we have been told about is true so far. It is a completely different social atmosphere than any other cruise we’ve been on. Its far more laid back and there are a lot more repeat world cruisers having reunions with fellow cruisers and staff than any other ship we’ve been on. I had a slight fear that previous cruisers would be cliquish with us newbies. Not so at all. Everyone has immediately moved to a close knit community mode. Like a neighborhood. Very hard to describe, very nice to experience.

 

The captain and officers are also very visible on this cruise. (Especially with a tall captain.) Several of them were sitting at a table

 

Now for the important questions. Yes, Marty?!? Uh huh, Uh huh, Uh huh. Ok. So the question is about doughnuts, orange juice, ice cream and frosted flakes. The doughnuts are absolutely delicious, plentiful, fluffy, not filling at all, and have no calories. You can have as many orange juices as you want, AND, they will get you a LARGE glass or a pitcher if you so desire. Yes, there are frosted flakes in the buffet. Lots of them. They’re GRRRRREAT! And finally ice cream. Ice cream, a separate station in the buffet, is available from around 1500 to closing. All homemade. Two flavors. But no sorbets as their sorbet machine has been broken for the last 3 weeks. So Marty, there is still time to catch the ship in Sydney. But you need to hurry!

 

Internet and coffee card questions.

 

According to a majority of answers from Passenger Services, the bar manager and various servers, one e-café card, purchased in LA, will be good for the entire cruise back to LA. So Judy has one, I have one, and we’ll limit specialty coffees to port days, and then stick with black coffee from then on. The coffee is better than on the Coral BTW.

 

Internet. We got 500 minutes in LA. It will zero at the end of each segment (SYD, CPT, FLL and LA) and we will get a new allocation. The ‘unlimited’ packages are available for $20 to $30 per day, BUT use the same pipeline as the minutes. Each ‘package’ has a total bandwidth limit. 200MB, 300MB and 500MB in the 24 hour period. So yesterday I was uploading and downloading pdfs to print. At around 1000 I was getting about 75kB per minute – probably the slowest period of the day. Yes, it took about 4-5 minutes to download a 450kB pdf file. The internet manager has said that if you have a lot of minutes left over, like hundreds, he will roll those into the next segment on a case by case basis.

 

Until the Pacific gets the Medallion net hardware upgrade, the internet will remain pretty slow…

 

Our Hawaiian ambassadors have a lot of presentations during this portion of cruise. Hawaiian music, language, hula and ukulele classes and presentations. I suspect they leave in HI and the Tahitian ambassadors come on, then the Maori ambassadors come on in Tahiti. Be interesting to learn a Haka!

 

Room organization. The neodymium magnets we got from Amazon work amazingly well for hanging stuff. The closet, with the closet organizer shelves, is pretty tight. Having spare hooks around the cabin for hanging up clothes, coats, backpacks, bags, is very handy. We put those to the metal ceiling so we are taking advantage of the vertical space in the cabin.. Smaller magnet hooks are on the wall behind the love seat for hats, lanyards and lighter stuff. Really strong clip type magnets are on the wall holding Judy’s CPAP tubing to dry.

 

That’s it from the Pacific somewhere in the Pacific. Later!

[beg3yrs]

15 minutes ago, ccrain said:

...

Biggest issue is that we have a mayonnaise centered chef. Even the vinaigrettes have mayonnaise in them – which makes them non-vegan as well. So Judy has to eat dry salads until we get to Honolulu and pick up some salad dressings she can eat. She can only take so much oil and vinegar. I figure 3-4 bottles of kraft dressings should be sufficient. Just in case, we also brought some hot sauce. A variety of 2 oz bottles from Half Moon Bay – we call it our iguana sauce. A little habanero or jalapeno sauce goes a long way. That’s why they call their 2 oz collection “Bland Aid”.

...

 

Speak with the Maitre'D about Judy's vegan requirement. They've been real good with accommodating dietary needs. The chef should be able to make something for her.