The Star Princess: November 2009

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

We arrived at the pier (27) in San Francisco at about 12:30pm. In short order, we were shuffled along to check-in. Everything went smoothly and we were soon finding our way to our cabin (Aloha deck cabin 335). The cabin is small with a king size bed, two night tables, one small magazine table, desk, tv., bar fridge, closet/shelves and bathroom (small shower, toilet, sink). We have an inside cabin and although it is small, it suits us just fine.

After unloading our carry-on suitcases (the other two bigger suitcases came later), we headed up to the Horizon Buffet for lunch. The buffet is small, but we had a lovely salad and roast turkey with potatoes lunch with little cakes for dessert.

We watched a little tv waiting for the time for the Muster Exercise to begin. This is where all the passengers gather in different areas of the ship and we are given a safety lecture. At the end, the crew demonstrates how to put on a life jacket and then we practice it.

Next was the ‘Sailaway Party’ - we went up on deck to watch the ship (Star Princess) leave the dock at San Francisco. It was really cold up on deck so we decided to go down to the party where they were doing group dances like YMCA, etc. (Sue danced, Mike watched).

After that, it was time for dinner. We chose to go to the Portofino dining room. We have chosen ‘Anytime Dining’ so that we don’t have to eat at a certain time each day. The food is wonderful at the Portofino. For dinner, I had a delicious prime rib.

At 8:15pm, we headed to the Princess Theatre where we watched the evening show ‘Welcome Aboard Showtime’ starring a comedian/ventriloquist called Kevin Johnson. He was a really good ventriloquist, but an average comedian.

We had an early night as we were plum tuckered out. What a great way to start the cruise of a lifetime.

Sue getting ready to board the ship 'The Star Princess' for a thirty day cruise - San Francisco to Sydney, Australia.

Mike getting ready to board the ship.

The sign for the ship 'The Star Princess' - at the bottom of the gangway.

Mike looking at San Francisco from the ship.

Looking at the bow of the ship 'The Star Princess'.

View from the ship.

Pool on the ship - whale in the background.

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge on the way out of the bay.

Looking back at the Golden Gate Bridge after the ship went under it.

Kevin Johnson - ventriloquist/comedian.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

We have decided not to set alarms to wake us up while we are cruising at sea and so today we woke up at 7:30am and then watched tv ‘til 8:30am. After showering, we headed up to the Portofino again for another delicious meal (poached eggs for Sue and salmon scrambled eggs for Mike).

After that, we decided to go and check out what the book club was all about. There were only about 14 people there, but I think that’s enough anyway - too many is not good from my own experience with the book club at Bolton Library. They had five books to choose from and so we chose “Just Take My Heart” by Mary Higgins Clark (she is one of my favourite authors). We were told by Romeo (one of the entertainment staff) what we will discuss the book in a couple of weeks or so. It’s starting off to be an interesting read.

We next went to have a pub lunch - we just love English food. Sue had the cottage pie (beef, carrots, peas in gravy topped with mashed potato and Mike had the bangers (sausages) and mash (potatoes). Another yummy meal. We have decided already that we are not that keen on the little cakes they put out for lunch at the buffet, so we are going to have a soft ice-cream every day instead.

After lunch, we went up to the top deck and enjoyed “Movies under the Stars” which was a Barry Manilow concert on the big screen. He is such a great entertainer and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the one hour show.

We tried going in the water after that, but it was a bit too cold, so we settled for a hot tub instead.

Again we were tuckered out and so we had a lovely nap in our cabin - I think this will be a daily tradition when we are at sea.

Suppertime again and we were seated at a table with some lovely people including John and Elizabeth from Australia. After eating another amazing dinner of Beef Tenderloin (Sue) and Peking Duck (Mike) we joined Elizabeth and John at the evening show Spotlight Showtime” starring Lisa Donovan who is a great singer and sang mostly Judy Garland tunes.

After changing into more casual/warm clothes, we went up to deck 14 for ‘Movies Under the Stars’ to watch the movie “Bedtime Stories” starring Adam Sandler. It was an okay movie, but it was nice being out on deck munching on popcorn as we relaxed on our deck chairs under a blanket.

Mike relaxing on a deck chair reading our Book Club selection by Mary Higgins Clark.

Sue sitting on a deck chair reading the Book Club selection by Mary Higgins Clark.

Victoria and Noel - Princess Ballroom Dancers.

Barry Manilow on the big screen.

Mike ready to go swimming.

Sue ready to go swimming.

Mike ready for dinner.

Sue ready for dinner.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Another sleep-in and another delicious breakfast (omelette - ham and cheese - for Sue and pancakes for Mike) followed by a very fast 25 minute walk around the outside of deck 7. There were many people outside walking along with us which was a bit surprising, but nice to see.

Our first entertainment of the day was listening to a lecture by John Maxtone-Graham about the night the Titanic sank. He is a maritime historian/writer and he spoke about his interviews with various Titanic survivors as well as telling us some stories about people who had been on the boat, but had not survived. He was an incredibly interesting storyteller and we can’t wait to hear more of his adventures.

Next, we headed over to the Piazza to see Noel and Victoria dance. They are a couple from Florida who do Ballroom dancing - and they are really good at what they do. They only did two dances, though, which was a bit disappointing. We stayed around and watched a preview of tonight’s show “Cinematastic” which was a typical singing and dancing revue.

After a quick lunch at the Horizon buffet, we headed off to the Vista Lounge where Sue took part in a line dancing class. Mike took photos - tomorrow he will join Sue in the class. :-) The fellow who led the class is from South Africa and has a good sense of humour as well as knowing how to line dance very well. Sue had a great time learning three dances and got quite the workout.

Next was another presentation - this time about Sailing Europe with Princess. We learned about the various cruises which will be available on Princess next year. We could have learned it all on the net - good to know for the future.

It was now 3:30pm and so, of course, it was time for another nap - ahhh. Tonight was a formal night, so after dressing up in our fancy duds, we headed off to dinner. Again, the chefs did not disappoint - Cornish hen for Sue and Roast Pork for Mike). We had a nice group of table mates (mostly) - two couples from the Sunshine Coast who were travelling together and one couple (very hoity toity from England).

Tonight’s show was called “Cinematastic” - the singing and dancing revue. The singers and dancers are quite good and we did enjoy the show. We were going to go to ‘Movies under the Stars’ again (Hotel for Dogs), but we decided to come down to our cabin and get caught up on our comings and goings thus far since beginning on this amazing journey.

John Maxtone-Graham - lecturer extraordinaire.

Rich - our amazing Cruise Director.

Princess Singers and Dancers giving a preview of the night's show 'Cinematastic'.

Sue and Mike taking a photo of themselves in the mirror on the first formal night of the cruise.

Mike on the first formal night of the cruise.

Sue on the first formal night of the cruise.

Princess Singers and Dancers performing in the show 'Cinematastic'.

Princess Singer and Dancers.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Up early this morning and got to breakfast by 8:30am. We have decided that we will not go to the buffet again as we like being served our food. Mike is enjoying lots of seafood but Sue is sticking to traditional foods (pancakes and yogurt for breakfast.

First on the list of things to do this day was a port talk about Hilo, Hawaii which is our first stop on the cruise. We had been told at breakfast that the fellow who gives the talks is very knowledgeable but not interesting when giving the talks. They were right - he told us lots of stuff to see and do there, but it was tough to stay awake. :-)

Our next activity sure woke us up and also gave us a good workout. I managed to get Mike to do line dancing with me today and again we had a great time learning new dances and can’t wait to use our knowledge when they have theme nights on the cruise. The class today went about 45 minutes and it went by so fast as we were having so much fun.

We attended the maritime historian’s lecture again and it was the second part to “The Only Way to Cross” which was a lecture about North Atlantic ocean liners. He had us in the palm of his hands - he is a great speaker and I remember thinking while he was talking to us that Princess Cruises were very smart in having him onboard to talk about maritime things. His lecture was again filled to the rafters. We are looking forward to hearing him talk more tomorrow.

Lunch came next and so we headed up to the Portofino restaurant. Sue had chicken stew which was more like chicken soup, but as always it was delicious. Mike had a seafood platter which consisted of whitefish, shrimp, calamari and scallops. He is really enjoying all this seafood he can have on the cruise.

Sue convinced Mike to go for a class in ballroom dancing. It was quite the workout. The dance today was the cha cha and it was quite interesting as we tried to keep up with the instructor (Romeo). There were a few moves where we just did our best. At one point, a ballroom instructor was watching us and I’m sure he got a few laughs.

We decided to forego any more activities today in exchange for a couple of hours on the pool deck. We both brought our book club books along and read by the pool - actually, Mike did a lot of reading and Sue did a little reading and a lot of napping. :-) We did finally get in the pool and did a few lengths (so that we didn’t feel guilty about the cookie we had as a snack :-). It was so relaxing sitting by the pool in a chaise lounge and enjoying the lovely weather and the good book we are reading.

Our dinner companions tonight were delightful. We were sitting with a couple from Ottawa, a couple from New Zealand and a couple from New York City. Sue got into a ‘discussion’ about the Maple Leafs vs. the Senators with the fellow from Ottawa, but it was all in good fun. The woman from New York City is a retired teacher and so she and Sue spent a lot of time talking about teaching.

We really enjoyed hearing the music of Lisa Donovan the other day and so we decided to go back and enjoy her singing once again. She did not disappoint us - I can see why she is such a draw in Las Vegas - I would love to hear her again. She sang a variety of songs including one that she just recorded which was quite lovely.

There was a trivia quiz (50s and 60s music) in the Explorer’s Lounge so we went there even though we don’t know much about that era. People were seated in groups of 6, but we decided that we would be more of a detriment to a group and so we just watched. We did know some of the answers, but no mean anywhere what we needed to win. After the trivia quiz, there was a 50’s/60’s dance which was so much fun. We both love that kind of music and so very much enjoyed listening to the band Liquid Blue as they played and sang classics from that era. The entertainment crew put on a good show too holding a hula hoop contest, an Elvis contest and a jive contest. We were laughing so hard at some of the contestants and it was so much fun we wish it had gone on longer than the hour it did.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

This morning we started out our day going to church. It was a nice surprise to find out that there were Latter-Day Saints onboard the ship and that one couple had organized for us to meet. The interesting thing was that they couldn’t put in the Princess Patter (daily information regarding what was going on on the ship leaflet) that we were having a church service, so it was put down that it was a ‘Get together for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ - that way it didn’t offend anyone onboard. They had had a problem with another faith spouting off about other faiths and so didn’t even want to put anything in the Patter so this was their compromise. We weren’t sure if it was a church service, but we went dressed for it anyway. It was a shortened version (just one talk), but it was really nice to attend it and Mike was even able to bless the sacrament. The fellow who organized the meeting gave a talk on the Plan of Salvation. We are going to meet each Sunday so that will be great not to have to miss any meetings while we are on our cruise. There were about 15 people who attended today’s meeting.

At 11am we went to the continuing lecture on “The Only Way to Cross” talking about ocean liners that crossed the North Atlantic. This one focused on the Normandie ocean liner. As usual, Mr. Maxtone-Graham was interesting and the hour went by so fast - I said to Mike that it’s hard to believe how fast the time goes - the speaker just makes it that way with his in-depth knowledge of the subject. We are really looking forward to his next lecture which is in three days (after we visit Hilo and Lahaina, Hawaii).

The rest of the day was truly a ‘day of rest’. After lunch, we went to our cabin and had our ‘daily nap’ - the bed is a king size and it’s so comfortable as is the bedding. We are finding it so easy to relax and fall asleep in our cabin. After our nap, we went up on deck and relaxed on a deck chair and read our book for the cruise book club. I keep telling Mike who I think did it and we’ll see what happens when we get to the end of the book.

After supper, we went to the show which was a comedy put on by two entertainers. The first was a ventriloquist, Kevin Johnson. We had seen him earlier in the cruise and thought he was a good ventriloquist but not that funny. This show was actually more funny than the previous show. The second half of the show was the comedy of Jim McDonald. We had talked to people who had seen him earlier in the cruise and they said he was really funny. Well, they were right about that. We just about peed our pants as we listened and laughed along with him - it was great to be able to enjoy good CLEAN comedy. At the end of the show, he did a slide show and commented along with the slides - it, too, was really funny and we quite enjoyed his show. We were sorry that we didn’t see his earlier show.

After the show, we stayed in the Princess Theatre to see the movie “The Soloist”. Although the premise was interesting and the acting was good, it was a bit boring for me and so I asked Mike whether he wanted to stay for the end or not (we had watched it for about an hour at this point) and he was okay with leaving so we went back to our cabin to read for a bit before falling asleep.

Comedian Jim McDonald.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Today was our first port day - Hilo, Hawaii. We had arranged to take a tour titled ‘Highlights of Hilo’. Before the tour, we hopped on a bus and went to Walmart. Can you imagine that? Going all the way to Hawaii to go to Walmart. :-) We realized that we needed to get a few things and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. After that, it was a quick lunch as it was soon time to get ashore for our tour.

We had a lovely coach bus ride with a very informed tour driver. He took us around the city of Hilo while he explained its history. We made three stops along the way - the first was at Akaka Falls which ‘plummets 422 feet over a volcanic ledge’. We had to ‘walk through a lush rainforest to view the falls”. Although it was a very tall falls and was among lovely vegetation, it wasn’t anything compared to Niagara Falls - we really are spoiled in Canada when it comes to waterfalls.

The next stop was to “Nani Mau Gardens - a 20 acre repository of native Hawaiian flora.” We boarded a tram “for a narrated ride” through the gardens. They had some really beautiful flowers and plants/tree in the garden and it was interesting to learn about them as we went along.

Our last stop was at the ‘Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory’. They said there was a self-guided tour of the factory, but we were really disappointed in that. It was really just us walking along sidewalk and looking in at workers doing their jobs in the plant. Originally, it appeared that there had been pre-recorded information about each station, but they no longer worked. We were treated to a taste of three macadamia nuts when we got off the bus and they were amazingly delicious. I think it’s smart of them to give these free samples as it makes you want to buy some more in their store. We ended up buying some chocolate which had macadamia nuts in them.

When we got back from the cruise, we went straight to dinner and had a delicious chateaubriand with potatoes and vegetables. I had a chocolate souffle for dessert and it was the first time I had tried one - it really is a nice light dessert.

After dinner, we went to the show which was a comedy show with Canadian David Aiken. His comedy was based around juggling with some other body humour thrown in such as shooting ping pong balls from his mouth, balancing on a ladder while juggling and making things with balloons. He really got the audience involved in his show which was fun.

Hawaiian dancers meeting us as we came off the ship in Hilo, Hawaii.

Sue and Mike on the tour bus for the 'Hightlights of Hilo', Hawaii.

Scenic view in Hilo.

Our ship in the harbour at Hilo.

Garden park in Hilo.

Scenic view of the harbour at Hilo.

Beautiful trees in Hilo.

Scenic view in Hilo.

Sue at Akaka Falls in Hilo.

Akaka Falls.

Mike in front of Akaka Falls.

Beautiful scenery near Akaka Falls.

Interesting tree in Hilo.

Tree lined street in Hilo.

Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo.

Nani Mau Gardens.

Sue in front of waterfall in Nani Mau Gardens.

Man sorting macadamia nuts in the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory in Hilo.

Canadian physical comedian David Aiken catching a ping pong ball in his mouth which had been thrown by a volunteer from the audience.

David Aiken on top of a ladder juggling 'juggling clubs' (like elongated bowling pins).

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

We were up early today as we had a tour which started at 8am. We had arrived in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. We had arranged to take a snorkel tour which also included breakfast and lunch. We had to take tenders (small lifeboats) to shore as the water in the port was too shallow - our cruise ship had anchored offshore earlier in the morning. There were 67 passengers in total on this cruise. The boat had three levels - downstairs, rear deck and upstairs. We chose to sit on the rear deck as it was outside but shaded. Our breakfast consisted of fresh fruit, muffins and juice. We had about an hour’s ride to our first snorkel stop. The captain (a young girl) of the boat gave a little commentary about some of the places we were seeing along the way. We were given a life jacket, snorkel gear and flippers. We spent an hour snorkelling amongst the tropical fish and coral reef. The fish were plentiful and colourful. The most amazing part to us was that they were swimming right amongst us and didn’t seem worried about us being so close to them. I found that it’s harder to breathe normal when you have a snorkel on and so it was hard for me to keep it on for any length of time. We spent some time just enjoying the water on a swimming noodle. On the way to the next snorkelling stop, we had a barbecue lunch which consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, a pasta salad, chips and drink. There was plenty of food to go around and it was quite tasty. Our second snorkel stop was about 45 minutes from our first snorkel stop. When we got there, we were able to snorkel and see green sea turtles. Again we were amazed by the fact that they didn’t seem to care that we were swimming with them. We were told not to touch them at all as they were protected by the government. They would stay at the bottom of the water but occasionally had to come up to the top to take a breath. One time when we were watching one, he/she came so close to us that we actually had to folded my arms against myself so that I wouldn’t touch it- that was such an amazing experience to be up so close and personal with the turtles. On the way back to the dock, we had some chocolate chip cookies and drinks to end our cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed our time on this boat (the Island Princess).

When we got back to the dock, we walked a block or so and bought some t-shirts for the grandsons and then got into a long line to get back on a tender to go back to the cruise ship. By this time Lahaina was feeling the effects of an earthquake which had occurred in the South Pacific. The resulting tsunami which devastated Samoa, also caused large sea surges in the harbour of Lahaina and so we had to wait for quite a while until the tenders were allowed to come in to pick us up. It also caused great difficulty getting off the tender as at times the tender was rising and falling about 4 feet.

When we got back to our cabin, I asked Mike to check my back as it was starting to hurt a little. It turned out that I had a wicked sunburn. I had thought about putting on sunscreen on the boat, but had thought that since I would be in the water for most of the day or under the shade on the boat, that I would not need it. Silly me - I had forgotten that when you snorkel you spend most of your time on your front and therefore the back is exposed to the sun. Between that and the fact that I had felt a little seasick onboard the boat (I had taken a Dramamine towards the end of the cruise, but still felt a little wiped out), we decided that after dinner, we would forgo the night time show (a comedian) and just hang out in the cabin. We watched a little tv, but I was so tired that I fell asleep just after 8pm.