2024 Sydney to Seattle

 Today turned out to be a very active day.  We were scheduled to go through immigration inspection at 7:50AM. That early time required us to get up at 6:30 in order to eat breakfast in time.  We did just that and while eating, there was a PA announcement from Ron, Entertainment Director, that the inspection was delayed due to departing passengers needing to pass through the inspection first.  Finally, an hour late, we in group 5 were called and we quickly went through the process.  While we were waiting to go through the process, we attended the first part of the daily Bible study which Ron Shaefer continues to lead. After the inspection, we considered hiking up Diamond Head, but I didn't feel there was enough time as we needed to be back at the terminal by 1:20pm for a turtle snorkeling trip.  Since we hadn't walked Waikiki Beach in a while, we decided to do that.  After exiting the port we found a city bus market "Waikiki Beach - 42".  It was a ...

 Today was our fifth sea day on our way to Honolulu.  At our morning Bible Study in the Princess Live theater, I gave up my day to Rob Watkins, ventriloquist, as he is getting off in Honolulu tomorrow and he led the study.  It was a good time. Once again, not many of the morning activities appealed to me.  Finally at 11am, retired Ambassador Lewis Lucke gave the second of his presentations on Interesting People He had met. It was interesting. Nothing else on the schedule interested me until 3pm when Comedian Andrew Grose did a repeat of his previous show only this time it was in the Princess Theater which was nearly full.  Angela's Pop Choir then performed in the Piazza.  It was really good and well attended. After dinner Meghan Murphy (Big Red) was the vocalist entertainer with her second show.  She's a powerful, well endowed red head who has a powerful voice.  She's based out of Chicago.  Afterwards we joined the Beards in the Double Down B...

It was another lazy sea sea on our way to Honolulu.  After breakfast I led the Bible study which went well.  Not until 11am did any of the activities interest me.  At 11 I attended the Deal or No Deal game show.   I should note that there are lots of activities every day and all day and night.  Many of those activities are shopping related.  However, I don't see many people in the shops except at the tables displayed on the way to the theater. On board events finally opened up at 11 and I attended the Deal or No Deal Game show after missing the 9am lecture by Ambassador Lucke.  I'll watch it on our stateroom TV. Two gals won $33 and $162 compared to the $.25 that was under their cases. They made good deals. While I did no activities the rest of the afternoon, Angela did crafts, choir practice, ukulele practice, and Hawaiian dancing. After dinner with Gary and JoAnn in the Lido, I went to Rob Watkins' ventriloquism act.  He was very good.  I t...

 Overnight we crossed the equator and this afternoon there is scheduled a "ceremony" where 10 guests who have never crossed the equator and otherwise known as "pollywogs" will become "shellbacks".  This morning at 8:30 I led the Bible study in Princess LIve.  It went well and I led discussion around verses that include the two words "In Christ".  Sue Beard gave her enrichment talk about Honolulu.  After lunch retired Ambassador Lewis Lucke presented his enrichment lecture on the funeral of King Hussein.  It was really interesting.   The crossing the equator ceremony was held in the main pool/fountain area on deck 16.  It followed much the same process as what we've experienced on Holland America except that there were no senior officers present to act as a jury, guests were the pollywogs, and none of them took a swim after being slathered with meringue.  And for the first time in many crossings, the ceremony was performed in a downpour. ...

 On this second sea day, I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep until 6am which only lasted an hour as we needed to be awake and prepared for the church service at 8:30am in the Vista Lounge.  The church service was very well attended with well over 100 in attendance.  Ron gave a terrific sermon on John 9 which is the last of the 7 miracles John records in his gospel account.  Afterwards I attended Sue Beard's presentation on the history of the Hawaiian Islands.  It was interesting but didn't have much new information for me as we've seen many such presentations on previous cruisers. There was a long gap before Lewis Lucke's next enrichment lecture which was on US Foreign Aid.  It was really good and interesting to hear about the USAID program.  Based upon these first two presentations, I purchased his book "From Timbuktu to Running for Cover" which is an engaging read. I had the rest of the afternoon off from events so I was able to restring ...

 Today we started our next to last long stretch of sea days as we make our way to Honolulu, Hawaii.  There's all measure of things to do all day, but I chose to simply attend the Bible study and the enrichment talk on the 2010 Haiti earthquake response by the retired US Ambassador Lewis Lucke.  As I approached Princess Live, Ron Shaefer, the current Bible study leader, approached me and asked if I could take over for a few days.  I agreed to it so I'll be leading on Mon-Wed which are the days before we reach Honolulu.  Ambassador Lucke was a great presenter and did not read from a script which was refreshing. After lunch I caught up with my blog and watched my YouTube subscriptions in the cabin.  It made for a very relaxing afternoon.  For evening entertainment schedule, we decided to change things up a bit.  I went to the Vista lounge at 7pm for the 8:30pm comedian's show.  Angela went to the 7:30pm vocalist, Meghan Murphy (Big Red) and then...

 Some days and some places are more special than others.  Moorea is one of those places for us. And today would have a special surprise for us.  But more on that later.  We didn't leave Papeete until sometime between 5 and 6am for the very short 10 mile sail over to Moorea.  When we were here in 2018 we totally rebelled in the snorkeling and other scenic beauty of Moorea.  So we were certainly glad to be back and were able to book a snorkeling tour from the ship after being on a waitlist.  This is a tender port, so we met up with our group in the Princess Theater and were promptly sent down to a "water shuttle" (tender on other cruise lines) at 8:15 and after a short tender ride we quickly transferred to a catamaran.  We exited the reef protected harbor, had a safety drill and then headed back into the protected reef area to a shallow spot just past an abandoned hotel complex. At this first stop we spent nearly an hour in the water with sting rays...