You might be thinking that I have a lot of photos to share after my first day in actual Hawaii. But I only have one. And a video.
We went to the beach. There’s Mum in the water! And that’s our boat in the background.
The same as the photo only in video.
Oh and there were chickens wandering around.
I slept in this morning, which is remarkable considering time zones (addendum to that, BTW, we were in Hawaii time yesterday, I was trying to change the time when I was asleep or something). But because of this, I didn’t have to wait long before the boat docked and we could get off (ok we did have breakfast first, too).
Then some time at the beach (see above) where we bobbed around in the big waves. The beach we visited had nice manicured lawns that nudged up to soft sand, and then nice warm water. I liked the soft sand, and , when I was in the water, the way the waves lifted me up. They were big waves and there wasn’t even a ferry or any big boat passing by to make them!
After beach time, there was some light shopping, and then back to the boat. I spent the rest of the afternoon on a lounge bed on the swim deck with a book.
Tonight’s desserts. My fruit crumble and sorbet in the front, and sticky toffee pudding for Mum
We finished Pride and Prejudice during nap time and didn’t know what to do with ourselves. So we went for dinner and are now waiting in the piano bar for the piano players to come sing us a song.
(To be clear, the boat is in no way lost. It’s me and Mum who keep going the wrong direction: We neither of us have a sense of direction.)
This is about yesterday! Thursday October… something
Seriously a day to relax. We went for a swim after breakfast, then I went to the morning lecture (about two of Hawaii’s major symbols: the ukulele and the Hawaiian Shirt – AKA Aloha Shirts). Then nothing for the rest of the day? After lunch we put on the 2005 Pride and Prejudice to watch while napping.
Facebook update
We had a late supper booked so we went to the main stage show before we ate. Last night was The Runaround Kids, who play hits from the 50s and 60s. They wear blue tuxedo jackets – what i think is a tuxedo jacket, with long lapels, In between songs the lead vocalist told really bad jokes, which I enjoyed immensely.
Dinner was the best. Fillet mignon and sorbet for dessert, which I again started eating right away due to excitement, only to be distracted by Mum “ahem”-ing nosily to remind me to take a photo first. I had a plan to hold on to my phone with my eatin’ hand, but it still ended up ignored on the table.
Tada! (I took the photo but all credit goes to Mum
We keep crossing time zone lines. Today we are currently 3 hours behind Victoria/Duncan time. There will be one more before we land in Hawaii, because whenever I go to switch my phone to Hawaii time, it’s wrong.
There are 2 ways of dealing with a drifting time zone change. Mum doesn’t change any of her devices and counts backwards whenever she looks. This is too stressful for me and I make my phone match boat time. My computer is still on home time and a freak out whenever I see it.
This morning we did out now-routine of eating breakfast and going for a hot tub and swim. This routine will go askew tomorrow when we have our first stop in Hawaii. (I don’t know when we’re landing. I think it was meant to be 8am but that changed because there’s another boat in our berth at Nawiliwili and we have to wait for it to leave. Our itinerary hasn’t been updated.
I missed reporting on days 3 and 4. On day 3 we hit the Pacific and the boat started rocking in all the ways a boat can rock and I’v been motion sick. I don’t get throwy-uppy motionsick, I get dizzy and woozy head motion-sick. Not gross but very uncomfortable.
Day 3 (Monday) wasn’t bad. Mum and I went for a 1 mile walk around the ship in the morning, then caught a lecture about the history of Hawaii. I wasn’t feeling good after lunch an found a reclining chair on the pool deck and read my book while Mum went to her Ukelele lesson. We napped after that and then got ready for fancy dress-up night for dinner. We had a late reservation for the dinning room, so we went back to the piano bar to listen to a set: the was songs of the 80’s this time. Guns and Roses and Eurithmics are pretty cool on two pianos. After that we were in time for our reservation, but I only got my starter salad half-finished before I realised I wasn’t feeling good and didn’t want to sit up for the rest of the meal. We took off early and the room service staff brought up our meals to us later. I wasn’t able to eat mine, which I’m a little dissapointed about because it was a plate of Thanksgiving turkey dinner.
On day 4 (yesterday as I write this) I woke up and immediatly knew I wasn’t going to get up that day. The boat was pretty tippy and that made me very woozy. I only felt almost-ok if I just stayed in bed and did nothing. Mum brought me food I could eat lying down; and she also went to the daily lecture and recounted it to me.(Culture of Hawaii)
I was better(ish) in time for dinner last night. And today I’m better still. I still feel woozy from the rocking of the boat, but alredy I’ve gotten out of bed and did the 1 mile walk again this morning. I’ll try going to the lecure again, but the theatre where that’s held is at the very front of the boat, and the rocking is defineatly more pronouched there, so I’ll see how I feel doing that. Today’s talk is about all the stops we’ll be making in Hawaii, and informtaion about what to do there.
I’m describing the distance of our walks in miles because the signs along the deck where we walk say that 3 laps = 1 mile.
Mum reads my blog and commented that not everyone may know why I’m so excited about my Non-Dairy desserts.
Since I am allergic to dairy, it’s not often I get to have desserts at restaurants. Or o should say that there were a lot of years when I couldn’t have desserts at restaurant. Restaurants are getting better at having vegan treats lately, but there’s still places were I don’t have anything for dessert. This is fine because I’m usually full anyway. But it’s nice to have the option. (Also, sometimes if everyone else was having dessert, I would make do with a Bellini or margarita.)
So that is why I get so exited when the kitchen sends me a different dairy-free dessert every night, and sometimes two. And not just sorbets, either, which is very often the dairy-free/vegan option. Last night was pavlova, and there’s been cakes and puddings, too.
Also exciting is that it’s sometimes a surprise non-dairy dessert. In other circumstances, I might be worried about this, since I like to be sure something is actually non-dairy, but I trust this kitchen. It’s fun to see what our server puts down on front of me.
Photos are from our Alaska tour circa July 2022. I was obviously more organized about taking a photo before shovelling them into my mouth
I’m feeling better today, likely thanks to the lack of massive ocean swells rocking the boat all day long. It’s calmer today.
Our view with breakfast. I have and will share many photos of the ocean because there is nothing else to look at.
The daily informative lecture today was all about the ports we’ll be visiting in Hawaii. Very important.
I spent some time after lunch reading on a reclined deck chair with a view of the water. I read some but I also gazed out at the ocean. The ocean kept changing colours today: dark blue, blue-blue, indigo, periwinkle depending on the location of the sun and how much cloud cover there was; and then blue-grey when the sun was completely covered. Blue and silver with the sun hitting directly.
Photos of Dairy Free Desserts – a saga
I keep forgetting the take a photo before I start eating, but I’m improving.
From Day 2: these fine dishes contained sorbet on the left, and strawberry crumble on the right.This is half-eaten pavlova from tonight. I made a specific effort to have my phone on the table beside me as a reminder, but I got excited when it was served.
OMG P.S. Looking out at the water at night is eerie. Beyond the path of the boat, and some whitecaps in the near distance, there is just black nothingness. Just black and nothing. Maybe a bit of a difference between the black ocean and black sky if that makes you feel better, but not really.
Yes. Busy day. All very fuzzy to remember now because I just had a monster nap.
Good breakfast in the dining room. Wanted to see if they’d let me have my favourite breakfast, which isn’t exactly on the menu, and my request was accommodated: 2 HB eggs, fruit, and bacon. Yum.
I felt motion sick for the next couple of hours after breakfast. Likely motion sick and not hungover because I felt better when the boat stopped rocking along when we entered the river into Astoria.
Lunch?
Off the boat as soon as the announcement came that the boat was docked.
Then back to the ship quick! For mannie/peddie appointments.
Then hotdogs for first supper.
Then naps. I slept well and DID NOT want to get up again. But I did because
Now we’re at the piano bar again before dinner. It’s 60’s cover time. I know some of the words and Mum knows most of the words. Runaway by Del Shannon and Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver, for example.
That’s the end of the update because we’re still signing along. In the near future will be supper #2 in the dining room.
P.S. While I was falling asleep I decided to spell “mannie/peddie” like that. Seems like a good time to be making decisions.
Mum and I inadvertently chose the same colour polish.
Our plan was to get on the boat as early as we possibly could, and that is what we did. We were on board in time for lunch in the dining room. Although, by the time we got there all the 2-people seats were occupied so we had to share, but that was bearable. On the first day of a cruise, everyone shares experiences of cruises past, and these stores contain tidbits of information of fancy rooms and odd itineraries.
Our room is not fancy. On my previous cruises we had a balcony (veranda in cruise-speak), but only because of good deals (Cruise 1 was a repositioning cruise) and post-COViD perks (Alaska 2022). This time is bare-bones fare: no perks and a windowless room. I’ve heard these rooms in the centre of the ship are better for motion-sickness, and I will report back on how that goes. I remember, however, when I was motion-sick on my first cruise, it was soothing to lie on my bed and gaze out the balcony window at the horizonless Pacific Ocean.
The library on board has improved since last year. Now there is an actually collection instead of six or eight random books propped up on shelves. There are many copies of many books nicely organized. There are, also, reading chairs next to windows. Oh! There’s also a new art room, again with a nice view, but also nice big tables. I will have the opportunity to learn orgami and creative calligraphy. There’s something with doodles AND adult colouring tomorrow, but Mum has reminded me we have to get of the ship and look at Astoria, too, so my participation might be limited.
The rest of the day in bullet points:
We sang along to Sweet Caroline at the 4pm leaving party when the boat is supposed to leave.
The boat actually took off around 5ish while we were at a raffle draw for gift certificates to the spa (we didn’t win).
Supper was good and I’m all set to have surprize non-dairy desserts for the duration of the trip. THE BEST DESSERTS ARE SURPRIZE NON-DAIRY DESSERTS.
Mother and I both enjoy the Billboard-branded music bar, which is a piano bar, with 2 (two!) pianos.
Now we’re off to arrive in Astoria tomorrow sometime. So in the meantime: nowhere.
In what is completely unprecedented behaviour for me, I didn’t finish packing for this trip until the night before I was leaving. That was Thursday night. Did I have a big pile of stuff already set aside? Yes. Had I already acquired all the extra stuff I needed to purchase? Yes. Am I taking my big suitcase so all I needed to do was stuff everything inside? Also yes.
Packing 1 – Sorting into pilesPacking 2 – all packed!
This is not how I usually pack, which is considered and careful and done the weekend before a trip, if not earlier. My excuse for the timing this time is that I didn’t get around to it until Thursday. My excuse for not being as particular with what I’m taking with me is that a) I’m using my big suitcase so I can just take everything; and I’m using that because b) I’m on a cruise so don’t have to carry all my possessions around with me from city city.
Today is Saturday, so a day has been missed but I’m leaving for Vancouver via Duncan –> Departure Bay with my Mum so I spent Friday getting myself to Duncan, napping, and eating roast beef dinner.
Back Story
Mum and I went on a road trip to Campbell River during the first week of July. While there, we found ourselves on an ocean-front patio with sangrias. As we sat, sipping and chatting, and enjoying the light breeze on an otherwise hot evening, a cruise ship was passing. We got to recollecting when we had been on the same route on our way to Alaska almost exactly a year before.
My original plan for travel this year was going to be a month in Thailand. I booked a tour last Black Friday for this November. However as 2023 progressed, I found myself less and less interested in going. Partly this was to do with the price and duration of the flights to get there – it seemed that direct Canada to Thailand flights weren’t starting up yet (or direct-ish) and those on offer were annoyingly long and way more than I wanted to pay. More than that, though, is that I wasn’t getting excited to plan the trip, never mind pack and go. So I was already thinking about changing my destination.
While drinking in Campbell River, Mum reminded me that she was ready to do another cruise anytime, and going anywhere. Just let her know and she’ll be packed. I thought that would be nice, as we had just been remembering what a nice time we had going to Alaska. I was like Hay! I need somewhere to go this year since I’m cancelling Thailand: where else can we cruise from Vancouver? Mum suggested going down the coast: Seattle, Sam Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego. She’s been before, but she’s been to Alaska a few times, too. That sounded good to me: ending up somewhere warm; and I started a mental list of people who have been to Sam Diego to ask what to do there.
This was all hypothesizing over sangria, of course. But when I got home I started searching for fall cruises. My first search was to look at Vancouver to California cruises. Those looked nice and ran around 7 days.
My second search was to see where else we might travel that both started and ended in Vancouver. This was the itinerary for our Alaska trip and we liked that. The one of these I liked best runs Vancouver to Vancouver via Hawaii and is 17 days. Seventeen days sounded a lot better than 7 days. That includes 10 days at sea (there and back) and 5 days around Hawaii. I emailed the link to Mum ” How about this or is it too long?” and managed to twist her rubber arm. And that’s what we’re starting off on today.
Note: the itinerary originally included a day in Lahaina, but now we have two days in Honolulu instead.
Note 2: the very original itinerary also included a stop Victoria instead of Astoria, but that changed before we even booked. That would have been hilarious.
i'll try to be better. i promise 