January 28, 2016 – At Sea

We’re making good progress at 17 knots heading WSW toward Hawaii on our third sea day out of San Francisco. We have one more day at sea tomorrow, as we still have about 850 nautical miles to go before arriving in Honolulu on Saturday (Jan 30). Captain Vorland has kept the ship’s speed down somewhat because of the strong winds and high seas we’ve been experiencing. So far there haven’t been many outdoor activities, and it’s an experience for most of us just walking inside the ship. We went out and looked around on deck yesterday. There were really high waves in the swim pool, crashing on the sides with water spraying from the pool up about 25 to 30 feet – very impressive! Jim has been able to get in his morning 3-mile walks despite the wind and sea swells. Conditions are noticeably better today, and outside temperature has reached 70°F – far better than the low 50s we had in San Francisco.

The first formal night (Black-Tie Optional) on Tuesday evening was nice, with about 80% of the men in tuxedos and lots of sparkly outfits on the ladies. Meals in the Crystal Dining Room are always excellent – food arranged on the plates like works of art, great selections, and tasty. For formal night that was no exception. We marvel at how they can serve such spectacular meals to so many people all at the same time and have it look and taste so special. Luckily, the portions are not gigantic; that’s good.

Tuesday night’s show in the Galaxy Lounge – “My Life – the Music of Billy Joel” was great. James Fox and the Crystal Ensemble of Dancers covered a large number of Billy Joel’s hit songs. The performances were loud, lively, and fun. Of course, James Fox starred on Broadway singing these same songs, so he was near perfect. We were impressed that the dancers performed so well despite the ship’s rolling and bucking in heavy seas. The Wednesday night show was a comedy ventriloquist – Mark Merchant. He was very funny, and we enjoyed the show a lot.

The past two days at sea there have been six excellent enrichment speakers offered. We went to four of their presentations and found them well worth attending– two on the Middle East, and two dealing with the Hawaiian Islands. There are so many things going on that it’s impossible to do everything – there are many different fitness classes, Spanish language classes, bridge lessons (both beginning and intermediate), knitting classes, needlepoint lessons, dancing classes, art lessons, memoir writing – just as examples. Of course, there’s also the casino, Bingo, Afternoon Tea, the spa, etc.

Both of us signed up for the World Cruise Olympic Games and received free t-shirts just for participating. There were more than 20 different categories, so there’s something for everyone. Some require more athleticism than others, as there’s some strenuous swimming categories along with scrabble, solitaire, and social bridge.

We forgot to send out this picture of the San Francisco skyline we took the first night on board. So here it is, just to prove that we were there.

We’ll write again after our port stop in Honolulu.

Jim & Ginny