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Live from the Aloha Tribe on the Star

PunkiC

By PunkiC,
in Princess Cruises

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IdahoCruises

IdahoCruises

Posted
Posted

Fun following along with you.

 

Michener's Hawaii is a book I have read twice. Was going to

take it along with to HI, but could not find it and did not have

time to order a new one.

 

Tried to get it for my Kindle, but was not available until later

in December.

 

Keep on having a great time!

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KruzPrincess

KruzPrincess

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We're in beautiful Honolulu. It's been a simply beautiful warm and sunny day. I have an aft balcony and it was great to sit out there and enjoy the warm weather.

 

Two nights ago I saw David Klinkenberg. I'm not a show person, but I wanted to see him because a friend knew of him. He's a classically trained violinist, but does a folk fiddle show. He does about 100 days in Branson a year. I don't know what future cruises he'll be on, but I highly recommend him. Charming and talented.

 

Last night, I went to see Words and Music and was reminded why I don't go to production shows. It's just not my thing. Many people seemed to enjoy it, though. Music of West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, etc.

 

Today is the Hawaiian folkloric show with the hula dancers. I've seen this before and it is entertaining. They also scheduled two movies in the Vista lounge today. Lone Ranger in the afternoon and something else (?) tonight. I can't remember.

 

Yesterday was Mediterranean theme in the buffet for lunch. Today is Wurst Night in the buffet for dinner. They call it Bierfest.

 

Speaking of food, they don't have our favorite chicken salad in the International Cafe every day. I asked about it and the worker said they alternate salads now. The day they had the chicken salad it was not at all like it was on other ships I've been on. Mostly cubed chicken and apples with a couple cashews on top. Not horrible, but not what I recall.

 

That's it. Just have to say I'm so impressed with the staff. I've only had one single encounter with someone who wasn't smiling and helpful. He was probably having a bad day.

 

 

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SunLakesBob

SunLakesBob

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We're in beautiful Honolulu. It's been a simply beautiful warm and sunny day. I have an aft balcony and it was great to sit out there and enjoy the warm weather.

 

Two nights ago I saw David Klinkenberg. I'm not a show person, but I wanted to see him because a friend knew of him. He's a classically trained violinist, but does a folk fiddle show. He does about 100 days in Branson a year. I don't know what future cruises he'll be on, but I highly recommend him. Charming and talented.

 

Last night, I went to see Words and Music and was reminded why I don't go to production shows. It's just not my thing. Many people seemed to enjoy it, though. Music of West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, etc.

 

Today is the Hawaiian folkloric show with the hula dancers. I've seen this before and it is entertaining. They also scheduled two movies in the Vista lounge today. Lone Ranger in the afternoon and something else (?) tonight. I can't remember.

 

Yesterday was Mediterranean theme in the buffet for lunch. Today is Wurst Night in the buffet for dinner. They call it Bierfest.

 

Speaking of food, they don't have our favorite chicken salad in the International Cafe every day. I asked about it and the worker said they alternate salads now. The day they had the chicken salad it was not at all like it was on other ships I've been on. Mostly cubed chicken and apples with a couple cashews on top. Not horrible, but not what I recall.

 

That's it. Just have to say I'm so impressed with the staff. I've only had one single encounter with someone who wasn't smiling and helpful. He was probably having a bad day.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the Islands

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Woobstr112G "Live from...." Rare

Woobstr112G

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Day Five—Almost to Hawaii

This morning we could really feel Hawaii in the air. The tropics are so special. I bless our forefathers who had the foresight to acquire both Hawaii and Alaska in our country. Both states dramatically enhance the quality, diversity and beauty of our amazing country.

We do have flea or some sort of bug in our cabin that joined us in San Pedro. I don’t think it paid a proper fare. Hopefully, it will jump ship in Honolulu because it is really annoying.

This morning the Zumba was held on the Lido Deck, and was even more packed than usual.

DH came back soaking with sweat. Even though we get free laundry, I have to wash out his workout clothes every day, along with my lingerie which I would never entrust to a laundry.

We are becoming totally immersed in Hawaiian culture on this cruise and are loving it--can’t wait until we actually get to Hawaii once again. Our ukulele class today was taught by Dave Cole, our CD and it was very difficult. He took us through most of the major chords (the hard part) and we also learned “Amazing Grace” and “Silent Night” (the fun part) and had a tutorial on where to get the best deal on ukuleles in Hawaii. We also learned that almost all ukuleles are made in China.

They are serving a lot of cauliflower and cheese dishes in the Horizon Court which is just fine with me. I love the taste and they are very good for people on low carb diets. That would be me. J

After lunch we attended a presentation by Elua called “Eat and Speak Hawaiian”. It was fun learning the Hawaiian words but quite honestly, there wasn’t much in the way of Hawaiian food that appealed to me. I think I could live a long time without ever eating SPAM or poi. Fortunately, these days, there are lots of choices for food almost everywhere we travel.

The movie “Hawaii” is being shown on TV several times a day. I first read the book when I was 16 and was totally fascinated. I read it again when we came back to Hawaii for our 25th wedding anniversary and then a couple of years ago on another trip to the islands. I really prefer the book to the movie--movies never really capture the whole story. While I rested and watched the last half of Hawaii, DH went to another presentation on volcanoes and the solar system. When he came back for an afternoon nap and I returned from a walk around the ship, we watched the first half of the movie “Hawaii”. I don’t know how much of it is true, but over 50 years ago the book formed my basic understanding of Hawaii so that is pretty much what I believe. Michener’s books are usually pretty well researched so I would imagine that there is a good amount of truth in the book and movie.

While we have anytime dining, we usually make reservations for dinner, which eliminates waiting time when we go to dinner. Tonight our reservations were for 7:03 p.m. so we danced in The Wheelhouse prior to dinner and enjoyed chatting with ship friends. We ended up at a table for 6 and all of our table mates were very interesting. After dinner we went back the The Wheelhouse and danced another couple of sets. They did have big band music in Explorers but it looked crowded and we were happy dancing to The Wheelhouse band.

Tomorrow, Honolulu! J

 

I hope you enjoyed your day ashore....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited by Woobstr112G
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PunkiC

PunkiC

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You are so right--all of Michener's books are amazing. I think my favorite was "The Source" which is a must read for anyone visiting Israel.

Day Six—Honolulu

Woo Hoo! We woke up this morning and discovered that this magical ship had taken us to Honolulu. J

It is warm and almost sunny in Hawaii today and the forecast is for clear skies and full sunshine later on in the day.

Apparently one can go anywhere on the island by the city bus, and, if you have a Medicare card, the cost is only $1.00 per person, so, with transfers we were able to ride the bus all day long. Well we first boarded a Maui Pearl Diver’s bus and went through their museum, which earned us a sticker for a bus that took us to Ala Moana Mall. We went into Nordstrom to get change for the city bus and then took the city bus, with a transfer out to the Elks Club which is just under Diamond Head for lunch. The Elks Lodge has a beautiful piece of property right on the water which was sold to them by a member for $1.00. Why doesn’t anybody ever offer me a deal like that?

The lunch was really quite good and we ate on the deck overlooking the ocean with some folk who were sailing on the Veendam. After lunch, we caught the bus back to Ala Moana Mall and went to Long’s Drugs to get all of the stuff that we had either forgotten or run out of on the trip so far. We were able to find everything we wanted except for ukulele picks and a new cell phone cover for DH. His is falling apart.

As we were heading back across the mall, we spotted a large group of children from St. Catherine’s School who were performing in hula, ukulele, and singing Christmas performance. It was really charming and quite entertaining. When the recital was finished, we went down to catch the Pearl Diver’s shuttle back to the ship.

We had also picked up a couple bottles of wine, just to see what would happen. They stopped me and filled out a corkage form, which was fine with me. They said that I was the first person ever who just joyfully gave them their card and information for paying the corkage fee without arguing with them. I thought that was very interesting. So, for the record, they do check for wine when passengers are returning to the ship in Honolulu.

We ate early so we could go see the Hawaiian entertainers who had come on board. The band was Maunalua & Their Lovely Hula Ladies and they did two shows, one at 7:00 p.m. and one at 8:45. As it happened, their performance was a little more contemporary than we had anticipated, but we enjoyed it. They also play at Duke’s on the island and it turns out they are good friends of our old neighbors whom we had discovered on the ship. Those neighbors also have a condo here and spend several weeks in Honolulu every year. That was nice because we hooked up with them for the walk from the Princess Theater back to the aft elevators and up as far as our cabin on Aloha—they continued up to the HC for some dinner, but we wanted to change shoes and go dancing.

As always, we finished off our evening with dancing in The Wheelhouse to The Janos Quartet which we are really enjoying.

They did have an Ultimate Deck Party on the Lido deck with Elua and Dave Cole playing ukulele and dancing, and it sounded fun, but we prefer dancing on a wooden dance floor so we passed on that. I am sure a good time was had by all.

Aloha!

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reedprincess

reedprincess

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Posted
You are so right--all of Michener's books are amazing. I think my favorite was "The Source" which is a must read for anyone visiting Israel.

Day Six—Honolulu

Woo Hoo! We woke up this morning and discovered that this magical ship had taken us to Honolulu. J

It is warm and almost sunny in Hawaii today and the forecast is for clear skies and full sunshine later on in the day.

Apparently one can go anywhere on the island by the city bus, and, if you have a Medicare card, the cost is only $1.00 per person, so, with transfers we were able to ride the bus all day long. Well we first boarded a Maui Pearl Diver’s bus and went through their museum, which earned us a sticker for a bus that took us to Ala Moana Mall. We went into Nordstrom to get change for the city bus and then took the city bus, with a transfer out to the Elks Club which is just under Diamond Head for lunch. The Elks Lodge has a beautiful piece of property right on the water which was sold to them by a member for $1.00. Why doesn’t anybody ever offer me a deal like that?

The lunch was really quite good and we ate on the deck overlooking the ocean with some folk who were sailing on the Veendam. After lunch, we caught the bus back to Ala Moana Mall and went to Long’s Drugs to get all of the stuff that we had either forgotten or run out of on the trip so far. We were able to find everything we wanted except for ukulele picks and a new cell phone cover for DH. His is falling apart.

As we were heading back across the mall, we spotted a large group of children from St. Catherine’s School who were performing in hula, ukulele, and singing Christmas performance. It was really charming and quite entertaining. When the recital was finished, we went down to catch the Pearl Diver’s shuttle back to the ship.

We had also picked up a couple bottles of wine, just to see what would happen. They stopped me and filled out a corkage form, which was fine with me. They said that I was the first person ever who just joyfully gave them their card and information for paying the corkage fee without arguing with them. I thought that was very interesting. So, for the record, they do check for wine when passengers are returning to the ship in Honolulu.

We ate early so we could go see the Hawaiian entertainers who had come on board. The band was Maunalua & Their Lovely Hula Ladies and they did two shows, one at 7:00 p.m. and one at 8:45. As it happened, their performance was a little more contemporary than we had anticipated, but we enjoyed it. They also play at Duke’s on the island and it turns out they are good friends of our old neighbors whom we had discovered on the ship. Those neighbors also have a condo here and spend several weeks in Honolulu every year. That was nice because we hooked up with them for the walk from the Princess Theater back to the aft elevators and up as far as our cabin on Aloha—they continued up to the HC for some dinner, but we wanted to change shoes and go dancing.

As always, we finished off our evening with dancing in The Wheelhouse to The Janos Quartet which we are really enjoying.

They did have an Ultimate Deck Party on the Lido deck with Elua and Dave Cole playing ukulele and dancing, and it sounded fun, but we prefer dancing on a wooden dance floor so we passed on that. I am sure a good time was had by all.

Aloha!

 

Sounds like a wonderful day was had by all!! We are enjoying your updates immensely - just adding to our anticipation for our next cruise!! Have a great time!!

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Day Seven—Kauai, Nawiliwli

We went to sleep and when we awakened, the magical ship had once again moved us to another beautiful island in the sun.

Today our only mission is to find a new cell phone case for DH and ukulele picks for me. Without picks, I wouldn’t be able to play at all as my right index finger is too fraught with arthritis.

It looks like Kauai has several free shuttles around the island. They list Hilo Hattie’s, the Coconut Market Place, and Anchor Cove, but I know there is also a shuttle to Walmart where I know for sure we will be able to find both iPhone cases and guitar picks, well at least I assume they must cell guitar picks. Last time we were here, we took the Hilo Hattie shuttle to Hilo Hattie’s and then walked over to Walmart and took their shuttle back to the ship. We actually don’t have a Walmart in Seattle, so it is always interesting for us to explore their stores when we travel. I did find my favorite Mickey Mouse travel nightgown at the Walmart in Orlando for only $9.00. I love it because it is comfy, modest enough for strangers coming into our cabin with coffee, etc., standing out on the balcony in busy ports, and it can be hand washed in the sink and dries very quickly. It is also cute. Maybe I will be able to find another in Kauai.

The first shuttle that came along happened to be the Hilo Hattie shuttle so that is the one we took. DH found a bathing suit on sale for only $9.99 and I bought us matching shirts. Everybody I know has matching shirts but us—now we do. J After shopping at Hilo Hattie’s for a while we walked over to Walmart—nothing is as Hawaiian as Walmart—where we were NOT able to find guitar picks or an iPhone case. I did, however, find a very nice Hawaiian shirt for me and DH had a good time chasing chickens around the parking lot trying to get good pictures. We took the shuttle back to the ship and had a bite of lunch before we headed out again.

This time we took the shuttle to Anchor Cove. It is only a short distance away, but I had overdone it in Honolulu and was using my cane, trying to save my legs for dancing later in the day. When we went into the music shop in Anchor Cove to get my guitar picks, a water pipe broke and started flooding the shop. The first thing to go was their electricity, so they couldn’t process credit cards. We also discovered that they were out of stock on guitar picks. Will I ever get a guitar pick? I did, however, find a sundress that I really liked and they let me pay cash and buy it. I was the last customer of the day. We then walked down to the beach which is truly lovely, and very well worth the trip. DH also found more chickens to chase around and photograph.

We are not typically beach or pool people, but DH just had to initiate his new bathing suit, so he got in the hot tub when we got back to the ship. I decided to skip the hot tub and get ready for dinner which takes me longer than it takes him

We ate early once again because we wanted to see the show which was “Walk Like a Man” and included four young gentlemen who sang songs from the 60s and 70s which had originally been performed by male singing groups, particularly Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It was pretty good. One nice thing about eating early and seeing the early show is that we have to leave the table before they serve dessert and we certainly don’t need dessert.

Following the show we danced, of course, until it was time to go to bed. When we returned to the cabin, I found that I had won the Wake Show “Question of the Day” which was, “Which performer recorded his first album for his mother’s birthday?” That was a pretty easy one for those of us who were Elvis nuts when we were very young. I actually had had correct answers for all of the questions so far, but didn’t realize that you had to turn them in before noon. Duh? Oh well from now on, I will get them in early in the day.

Another perfect day in paradise.

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KruzPrincess

KruzPrincess

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Aloha.

 

Not much new to tell. Everything is going well. Beautiful sunny days in pardise. In Kauai, home of the multitude of free shuttles.... First I took the shuttle to Kmart. If you want to do this, go early. At about noon the crew all wants to go there and it's swamped. My cabin attendant said they are doing a Kris Kringle and they all wanted to buy stuff for it. LOL. They are all buying Christmas gifts, he said. Then, after Kmart, I took the shuttle to Anchor Cove shopping center and back and then to Hilo Hattie's and back. Hilo Hattie's is next door to Walmart if you want to go there. There's a large mall with 60 stores, but I just kept missing that shuttle.

 

Today is Maui and I'm staying on board to enjoy my beautiful suite balcony and watch for whales. There will be a naturalist to watch for whales with sailaway.

 

Once again, we have Thursday night football, but it's actually Thursday afternoon football with the time difference.

 

That's it.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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For your guitar picks' date=' try Lahaina Music in Maui (near Hilo Hattie) or Hilo Guitars in downtown Hilo. Sorry, I could have told you tons of shops in Oahu and a few in Kauai to try if you had not already been to those ports.[/quote']

 

Thanks, we went to Lahaina Music and met Jason. What a nice guy. If we didn't already have ukuleles I would have bought one (maybe two) from him. He had some nice ones and they seemed quite reasonable. I bought five picks for $3.00 and he gave us from free sheet music and some playing techniques. Good experience. :)

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Aloha,

Just come to one of our sets and I can give you a pick.

 

Dave

(Of Elua)

 

Thanks, Dave, how sweet of you.

 

We performed our first concert this morning, playing Happy Birthday on the balcony to our neighbor who turned 80 today. He said he wants a new song every day until the end of the cruise. :).

 

Guess we will have to get busy learning and practicing.

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abbydancer2003 "Live from...." Rare

abbydancer2003

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Thanks for this thread. You're doing much better than we did with Hawaiian immersion (I did do hula).

 

A couple of notes - was the Jazz riff band on your last cruise the same one who was on one of the coastals? (And if so, I guess the talk didn't work).

 

Also, if the coastal you're considering with friends is the one on May 9th, you should do it.

 

Have a blast and I'm looking forward to more of your adventures.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Also, if the coastal you're considering with friends is the one on May 9th, you should do it.

 

Have a blast and I'm looking forward to more of your adventures.

 

LOL, Abby, we are certainly leaning that way.

 

Day Eight—Lahaina, Maui

Maui is the first island we ever visited in Hawaii so I always feel like I am coming home when we arrive. The weather was once again totally perfect. Lucky us.

We decided to take our fresh flower leis apart and return the beads to the lovely Carla who is both the lei instructor and the Zumba instructor. She told us that we the very first people ever who had ever returned the beads. When I told her that maybe she should suggest that people return the beads when their leis wilt, she and the guy with her laughed and said, “Oh nobody would ever do that”. Really?

After turning in our answer to today’s question, we checked our account balance, and also received a print-out that belonged to someone else. We nearly had a heart attack when we first looked at the balance due. Eeeeek! I guess there are people who spend a whole lot more money on the ship than we do.

By the time we finished breakfast, they had already announced that tickets were no longer required for the tenders. As Elites we don’t need to get tickets but we rarely get going early enough for it to matter. We are so lazy.

When we returned to our cabin after breakfast, we participated in our first ever ukulele concert. It was our balcony neighbor’s 80th birthday so we played and sang “Happy Birthday” for him and it went pretty well. He said he wants us to sing him one new song a day for the rest of the cruise. We are going to need to study and practice a lot in order to accomplish that.

We first jumped on the Hilo Hattie shuttle and did a courtesy walk through. Today we didn’t really find anything we needed/wanted so we headed over to Lahaina Music, finally got my picks and then went to the Foodland where we got some more wine. We are still members of Foodland so we got huge discounts. Maybe we should move to Maui.

We stopped in a shop that had my favorite type of sundresses on sale for only $10.00 so I bought two more. The only other place I have ever found them was in Aruba so I decided to stock up a bit. We won’t be going back to Aruba until April and I love those dresses.

After an intense round of shopping (it was hot in Lahaina in the sun) we walked across the shady grass park like area and decided to refresh ourselves with a cold beer at Captain Jack’s. Well DH had a cold beer and I had a glass of Merlot. It was truly heavenly to sit and watch the world go by from the second story with the fans going. Maui is still my favorite island.

Since there was no special show that we wanted to see, we decided to eat later, thinking we would dance before dinner, but we were too pokey and didn’t get ready until our reservation time—7:30 p.m. Our table was only for 6, but all of our table mates were delightful and we were once again the last people to leave the dining room, which is always a good sign.

A round of dancing finished off our evening and it felt good to get in some decent exercise before we went to bed.

In only eight days, they are going to kick us off the ship. L I hate that thought.

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dchip

dchip

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PunkiC, Enjoying your posts very much! With all the dancing you do, I would hardly use lazy to describe you. :D

 

We will be on the Grand January 19 for our first RT Hawaii cruise. We are really looking forward to relaxing after the holidays and before several family birthdays in February. We will be celebrating DH's birthday on Kauai!!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your cruise posts.

 

Cheers, Denise

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Kahlua Girl

Kahlua Girl

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We stopped in a shop that had my favorite type of sundresses on sale for only $10.00 so I bought two more. The only other place I have ever found them was in Aruba so I decided to stock up a bit. We won’t be going back to Aruba until April and I love those dresses.

 

After an intense round of shopping (it was hot in Lahaina in the sun) we walked across the shady grass park like area and decided to refresh ourselves with a cold beer at Captain Jack’s. Well DH had a cold beer and I had a glass of Merlot. It was truly heavenly to sit and watch the world go by from the second story with the fans going. Maui is still my favorite island.

 

Truly enjoying your blog of the cruise.

Please, please, please, where is the shop you got your sundresses at.

Would you suggest any other shops in Lahaina that you found worthwhile?

And where is Captain Jack's, sounds like a little bit of heaven we'd like to visit.

Enjoy the rest of the cruise,

Nancy

PS Are they doing the Princess Choir again this year?

Edited by Kahlua Girl
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