Almost Live - Oosterdam Circle Hawaii 12/17

Sitting in the Lahaina Starbucks on a beautiful day. Saw the Iao needle and Maui Ocean Center. Decent HAL tour. Spent yesterday trampling around the brother in law's farm near Pahoa (near Hilo). The trip over had fairly constant swells but I don't know if it was "normal" or not. We have loved our aft verandah (5185). The verandah is huge, maybe 9x14 feet or so. It is essentially completely covered so the sporadic rain has been no problem. The soot also does not reach us (the sea view pool looked like tea one morning). And there is almost no wind. I might get hooked on these cabins. The ship seems fine, maybe some wear and tear showing but nothing major. They had to evacuate a crew member by helicopter for a medical issue (appendix?). We had to double back towards San Diego for around 50 miles to meet the Coast Guard chopper. The evac went smoothly & we were quickly headed west again.

Honolulu tomorrow!

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Feel sorry for the crew. Hope it’s nothing serious.

Enjoy your aft verandah and looking forward to your updates!

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Thank you checking in and report what is happening.

Thanks for posting.

Enjoy.

Keith

Have fun the rest of your trip!

Thanks for the update. Hope the crew member is ok.

Sounds like you really enjoy your cabin :)

Have a good time in Honolulu

We leave Nawiliwili at 5 pm and head back to the mainland. Took a bus tour to Wiamea Canyon - it was a long ride but the views were worth it. It was a nice, fairly clear day. Overall, the weather has been great. It was pretty rough between Kona and Nawiliwili though. This was my first visit to Hawaii so we stuck to the HAL excursions. All were good, but next trip we will get more adventurous. In Kona we did a historic cruise on a catamaran down to the Captain Cook monument - lovely coastline. The first day in Honolulu I went to Pearl Harbor on the "new" Call to Duty tour - 10 hours that includes the Arizona, the Bowfin, Pacific Air Museum, the Missouri, and a city tour. It was a small group outing, around 20 of us, for $250. Our driver took us to a bunch of other spots too - maybe because of the marathon(?) - the punchbowl nat. Cemetery, into Diamond Head crater, Pali lookout (foggy)....

We did the Pali coast drive on the second day, lots of bus time with 15 minute stops for pictures. It was OK, but probably not worthwhile for folks that have been here before.

So far we have only had on Gala night. Went to Canelleto once and it was good. Will try for the Pinnacle in the next couple of days. The MDR has been fine, we have a great couple fron Atlanta as table mates.

Uh oh, its 4:30 and I need to get to happy hour!

Doing this ***** my cell phone so please excuse any fat finger typos.

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The MDR has been fine, we have a great couple fron Atlanta as table mates.

If you run across my friend, Alfin, who is a restaurant steward, please tell him that Mr Robert says "HI". Thanks.

Thanks for reporting on what your tours were.

We will be on the Oosterdam in June. We have a rear cabin, 7149. Does this cabin have a large veranda and is it sheltered. Thanks for your post :D

Thanks for the update.

Your tour reports were very informative.:D

Visiting the kids in LA post-cruise.

We had 2 gala nights during the 5 sea days on the way to Ensanada, the last one was the filet/lobster surf and turf. I opted for the veal chop - it was huge and delicious.

Christmas decorations were all up including a gingerbread village in the atrium - it smelled fresh baked.

The crossings seemed rough to us but it was our first time in that part of the Pacific. In talking with officers and cruise directors, the consensus seemed to be leaning towards the rough. We did not feel sick, but it did get a bit annoying. The closed off the promenade a couple of times due to wind and waves. Some folks said they couldn't really use their balconies much, but ours was wind free the entire trip.

I had fun with the mixology classes (3 over and 3 on the way back). The gallery bar had good snacks with their drinks; olives, mixed nuts, chips, popcorn, bread sticks...

The shows seemed decent. The HAL singers and dancers did a very professional job. BB King was good as always. The female singer had a particularly good voice.

We fly back to cold MN at 6pm today [emoji852] but can start getting ready for our spring transatlantic [emoji2]!!

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