4 Days at Sea

            Friday, 8 Feb 2018 – We were up by 7:45 AM.  After breakfast, we went for a swim, where we were joined for a little while by a couple from Switzerland.  French is their native language, but the man speaks pretty good English; the woman very little.  Then we joined a couple from Czech Republic in the hot tub, but didn’t stay there very long since Sally had gotten a little sunburned yesterday.  Afterwards, Sally continued to work on her family genealogy.  After lunch, she napped for two hours, while Jesse enjoyed watching TV.  We danced for 45 minutes before dinner.  Sally had lobster for dinner for the ninth time.

            On a side note, we’ve been getting an amusing notice on our I-Phone:  “DO NOT DISTURB WHILE DRIVING.  You will not receive notification while you are driving.”  (I don’t think there’s any chance that the ship’s captain will allow either of us to pilot the ship!)

Dinner in the Grand Dining Room

            Saturday, 9 Feb 2019 – We were up by 9:00 AM and went for a late breakfast.  Since the sea was rough again, Jesse thought the pool was sloshing a little too much to swim safely.  Except for lunch, Sally worked on genealogy all day.   The Insignia Crew Purser, Thamantha, had invited us (and another couple) to dinner at 7:00 PM in the Grand Dining Room, so we dressed up a little more tonight.  Thamantha lives in Granada, but was originally from Trinidad/Tobago.  Before Oceania, she worked for Princess Cruises for 7 years.  Also invited were Kathleen and Richard from Tallahassee, FL.  Richard spent 15 years in the army; the first seven years as a military policeman before he suffered a broken back.  Then he was trained as an air traffic controller.  After leaving the army, he worked as an accountant/credit manager until retiring 4 years ago.  He is very overweight and diabetic, and walks only about a block and a half without a walker.   He has also fallen twice since boarding the cruise ship and is wearing an arm brace from his second fall.  Kathleen retired only about 6 months ago.  They are on the world cruise, roundtrip Miami, with a cabin on Deck 3 (the lowest deck – our cabin is on Deck 4).  Thamantha also purchased a bottle of white wine, which she shared with the table.

            It was two hours later (after 9:00 PM) by the time we finished dinner, so we missed dancing for the night and retired to our cabin.

            Sunday, 10 Feb 2019 – This morning we were up early (about 6:15 AM) and went to breakfast at 8:00 AM.  We sat near two very friendly couples from Hermosa Beach, CA (near Los Angeles).  Marie and Ken have been together for 20 years, but married for only 6 years.  Pamela and Henry have been married for 36 years.  After breakfast, we swam for about 20 minutes before the waves in the pool became dangerously high.  Jesse kept envisioning one of us getting slammed against the side of the pool.  We sat in the hot tub for a little while; Sally sat very low in the tub to prevent getting sunburned again.  A crossing the equator ceremony was held on the pool deck at 11:00 AM.  We had crossed the equator several times before, so we did not attend: however, Jesse did take a few photos of the ceremony.

A special stir-fry station was set up in the Terrace Café for dinner, where Jesse enjoyed an extra-spicy chicken stir-fry and three desserts.  Sally enjoyed lobster and brownies and ice cream for desserts.  After dinner, we danced for in the Insignia Lounge.  Before retiring, we sat our clocks forward by 30 minutes.  This is the life!

            Monday, 11 Feb 2019 – We went to breakfast early, a little after 8:00 AM.  (Breakfast is served until 10:00; therefore, 8:00 is “early.”)  Afterwards we swam for half an hour, even though the water was a little rough.  For a little while, we were joined by the Swiss couple.  They have cruised a lot, but mostly on Costa Cruise Lines.  The woman asked Jesse if he speaks French and he responded, “Bonjour!”  We went to lunch at about 1:30 PM; Sally napped afterwards and Jesse nodded while trying to watch the “Destinations” channel on the TV.  Before dinner we danced for 45 minutes in the Horizons.  Jesse asked the band to play a waltz, which we really enjoyed.  (Otherwise, they still play mostly jazz.)  Afterwards, one of the passengers and a crew member complimented us on our dancing.  On this cruise, we’ve been given lots of complements on our dancing and swimming.  Also, Jesse was told by a group of the Terrace Café waitstaff that he looks like a movie star!  Look out, Hollywood!  (It’s a good world here on the ocean!)

Hilo, Hawaii

            Thursday, 7 Feb 2019 – Since we were scheduled for an excursion this morning, we sat our alarm for 7:00 AM.  At breakfast, we watched as Matson trucks hauling CONEX containers arrived at the pier, and then the huge cranes lifted the containers from the trucks and stacked them in various locations.  Jesse was thinking that would have been a great career for him!  (It looked like fun!)

Rainbow Falls

            Then we waited in the Insignia Lounge for our excursion number to be called.  Our excursion was a two-hour “Panoramic Hilo” tour.  Hilo is located on Hawaii, the big island.  Our driver and tour guide, Dennis was very tall and portly, with a heavy Hawaiian accent.  We first set out for Liliuokalani Gardens, where we rode past numerous large and very old banyan trees, with smaller growths along the side.  One tree was named Amelia Earhart, who was there in about 1936.  We continued on past Coconut Island to Rainbow Falls, where we stopped for about 30 minutes and we climbed steep, uneven, rough stone steps to be about level with the falls.  Of course, Hawaii is part of the U.S., so there was a safety railing alongside the steps.  From there, we had an excellent view of the 80-foot waterfall as it rushed into the large pool below that is almost 100 feet wide.  Also, a viewpoint below gave us a different perspective.

King Kamehameha Statue

            Our next stop was the Shinmachi Memorial that was erected in honor of the many residents of Hilo who lost their lives to the 1946 tsunami.  Adjacent to the memorial was a small art museum, where local artists display their work.  Sally especially enjoyed the paintings of the recent volcano.  Also, nearby was a Vietnam War memorial, in honor of the island’s fallen heroes.  Afterwards, we stopped at the beautiful gold statue of King Kamehameha, who unified the Hawaiian Islands in 1840.  Our guide, Dennis, told us that there are actually three statues of the king, one located in Washington, DC.   He also told us that a little known fact is that the king had about 1000 canoes (with warriors) that assisted him with the unification.  Our last stop was at the Big Island Candies factory, where we were given free samples and an opportunity to purchase tasty treats.

            After returning to the ship, we swam for a half hour.  On our way to lunch, we met Maurice and Liz from the cabin next door to ours.  They are from the LA area, just south of the Los Angeles Airport.  They boarded in LA (as we did) but are on the world cruise.  Afterwards, Sally napped for 2.5 hours while Jesse worked on his expenses spreadsheet.  (He tracks every penny that we spend, despite Sally’s complaints about his use of time for this!)  After dinner, we danced for 30 minutes.  Since a “British Invasion” dance party had been advertised, we went to the Horizons at 10:00 PM, hoping to dance more; however, there was only recorded music (no band); we returned to our cabin.  Sally stayed up until 1:30 AM working on genealogy, while Jesse watched movies on TV.  With the unlimited internet access (and not having to cook meals), Sally has been making great headway on her “Henry Family” genealogy book.

Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

            Wednesday, 6 Feb 2019 – We went to breakfast at about 8:00 AM; then Sally called her friend, Maggie, back in Iowa.  As with Kauai, we had visited Honolulu previously, so we did not sign up for an excursion.  Honolulu is the capital of the state of Hawaii and is situated on the island of Oahu.  It is the most populous city in the state of Hawaii and both the westernmost and southernmost major American City.  Tourist attractions include Diamond Head and the world-famous beaches of Waikiki, the inspiring memorials of Pearl Harbor and the Punchbowl National Cemetery, and the only royal palace ever constructed on U.S. soil.

Walk to Wal-Mart

Since it appeared that Jesse had forgotten the charger for his camera, we decided to take a “free” shuttle to Wal-Mart again.  We received “stickers” for the shuttle; however, the woman in charge told us that if we only wanted to go to Wal-Mart, there was a much closer store within a 15-minute walk.  After she gave us directions, we set out on foot.  It took us 45 minutes to get there!  Although we were hoping that Wal-Mart would sell universal battery chargers, of course they did not.  We also tried two drug stores and a business supply store in the area, but they were unable to help us either.  So, we made our 45-minute walk back to the ship empty handed!

            Although we were both exhausted as we re-boarded the ship, we felt a somewhat revived after a light lunch.  Then we showered and both of us napped.  Before dinner, Sally made a few phone calls, while Jesse made another search for his camera charger.  And eureka!  He found it!  After dinner, we were still too tired to dance, so we called it an early night.

Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii

            Tuesday, 5 Feb 2019 – Although Sally hadn’t slept well, we were up by 8:30 AM, and sat next to a window for breakfast in the Terrace Café.  While eating, we could see passengers outside boarding various “free” shuttles.  We did not purchase an excursion for this port since we had visited the island previously.  Kauai is the fourth largest and northernmost island in the Hawaiian group, and the oldest of the large islands.  It is the top of an enormous volcano rising from the ocean floor, with lava flows dated to about 5 million years ago.  Kauai’s terrain ranges from the volcanic slopes of Mt. Waialeale and the desert-like beauty of Waimea Canyon to the Wailua River’s lush Fern Grotto.

"Free" Shuttle to Wal-Margt

Multi-Colored Wild Rooster

            After breakfast, we went ashore and boarded a shuttle to Wal-Mart.  Jesse had a list of items that he needed.  While waiting near the Wal-Mart store for the return shuttle, a beautiful, multi-colored rooster was strutting about nearby.  A native of Hawaii sitting nearby told us that, ever since a 1946 tsunami that released a lot of penned-up chickens, many have been roaming wild.  When we returned to the pier, it was raining but we waited inside for another open-air shuttle that would be good for photos.  Although this second shuttle trip was only a 15-minute roundtrip ride, we took a few nice photos of the area.

            We were back on the ship by 2:00 PM, just in time for lunch in the Terrace Café before closing time.  When we returned to the cabin, Jesse called his friend, Janet, back in Iowa, and called and texted a few family members; then we napped.

Free Open-Air Shuttle

            Since a Chinese New Year celebration was taking place in the Terrace Café for dinner, seats were a little hard to find.  We sat at a table for four and were joined by Camellia and Mike from Ottawa, Canada.  Camellia retired in 2000, Mike in 2003.  Mike’s career was with the Canadian Army.  They use to travel a lot by car until they got older.  Now, they have been on lots of cruises, mostly Holland America and Princess, but this is their first on Oceania.  They have one son who is a diplomat in Sydney, Australia, and one granddaughter, who is attending school in Adelaide.  Camellia is originally from Quebec and her first language is French.  After dinner, we danced for 30 minutes.

5 Days at Sea

            Thursday, 31 Jan 2019 – Sally awoke at 9:05 AM, and we went to the Terrace Café for breakfast.  (Jesse had been awake for a few hours.)  We had our usual oatmeal with blueberries and various other fruit; a mushroom, spinach, ham, and cheese omelet, which we shared; and salmon.  Back in our cabin, we saw on FaceBook that it was minus 33 degrees Fahrenheit in Bettendorf!  We both felt very guilty for not being home, suffering in the cold with our friends; but not that guilty, because a little later we went for a swim in the ship’s pool.  The outside temperature was a little cool, but the water was heated.  One problem is that the pool is saltwater, so swim goggles are a must.  As we were getting out of the pool, Sally realized that she had forgotten to take out her hearing aids!  One was still dangling from her left ear, and the other was missing.  After a brief search, Jesse found the second hearing aid at the bottom of the pool.  After returning to our cabin, we removed the batteries, rinsed the hearing aids thoroughly with tap water, and placed them on the window sill to dry out in the sunlight.  According to the internet, hearing aids may need to dry out as long as 24 hours before they start back to working properly after being immersed in water.

After lunch, we ran into Dan and Carrissa.  They were our next door cabin neighbors on our 2018 cruise.  They have taken world cruises for the last few years on the same ship and always in the same cabin.   This time, we’re a few doors down from them.   Before leaving for dinner, Sally decided to try out her hearing aids.  They both worked great!   After dinner, we danced to the Insignia Orchestra for 30 minutes.  This orchestra plays in the jazz style, which Sally does not like. The songs were difficult to dance to (all sounding a lot alike), and none of them had familiar tunes.  (It is definitely not a ballroom dance orchestra this time!)

Friday, 1 Feb 2019 – Sally awoke a little late.  We made it to breakfast just before the 10:00 AM closing time; however, the omelet cook was already out of mushrooms and spinach.  Since Jesse has decided to wean himself off caffeine for this cruise, he skipped coffee.   It was raining outside, the sea was rough, and the pool was covered with a net; hence no swimming for today.  At lunch, the Terrace Café was very crowded, so we joined Dean & Darlene at their table for four.  They used to live in Virginia, but recently sold their house and put their furniture in storage.  They will be cruising until May.  Afterwards, they plan to purchase a house near their kids in Reno.  Dean has been doing genealogy since 2008 and Darlene is an avid Sci-Fi fan, so we had a lot to talk about.

We donned our dress-up clothes for the Captain’s welcome party, starting at 5:15 PM.  After being seated at tables, we enjoyed complimentary drinks and danced for 30 minutes before Insignia’s senior staff was introduced to the group.  We remembered the cruise director and one other senior staff member and they remembered us also.  We sat near two friendly couples: two sisters, Leslie and Betty, both originally from Massachusetts, and their husbands, Paul and Stephen.  Leslie still lives in Massachusetts, but Betty and her husband now live in Texas.  They boarded the ship in Los Angeles and are on the world cruise.  On our way to dinner, we ran into Jalynn (Jay) and Mike, from last year’s cruise.  They were playing cards as they were doing when we first met them.  We sat our clocks back one hour (gladly!) before retiring for the night.

Saturday, 2 Feb 2019 – Jesse let Sally sleep until 9:15 AM.  Jesse had decided to do laundry today.  While Sally slept, he finished about half of the laundry by hand.  Being just a little bit earlier for breakfast than yesterday, the cook had all of our favorite omelet ingredients still available.  After breakfast, Jesse did the other half by machine in the laundry room.  Both washers and dryers are $2.00 per load.  He enjoyed interesting conversation in the laundry room, helping a couple of the women retrieve their laundry from the dryers, which were stacked high above the washers.  Sally joined him towards the end to make sure Jesse wasn’t “over-drying” the clothes.  The pool was still covered with a net, so no swimming again today!  After lunch, we both napped for a couple of hours.  Jesse doesn’t usually nap, but he is having trouble staying awake without caffeine.  Before dinner, we went to the Horizons for dancing, where we met another dance couple, Paul and Nancy from Delaware.  They boarded the ship in New York and are cruising to Sydney.  We were able to dance the swing and a couple of cha-cha’s.  We stayed up until 11:30 PM, Sally working on genealogy (unlimited internet) and Jesse watching movies on TV. 

Sunday, 3 Feb 2019 – Sally slept well for a change, so we were both up by 7:30 AM, and went to breakfast at 9:00 AM.  Since the nets were off the pool, we went for a swim.  The water felt colder than usual, so Jesse had been swimming for 15 minutes before Sally finally got into the water.  (The pool is quite small compared to the YMCA pool at home, so that we usually swim for a half hour to get enough exercise.)  In the hot tub, we talked with Don and Pam from Toronto.  Pam worked as a physical therapist.  They lived on a sailboat after Don retired 13 years ago, but sold it recently.  They’ve cruised a lot on Oceania and get free laundry, and have also cruised a lot on Seaborne.  Pam has had several back surgeries and walks with a cane.  Don needs two hip replacements, but he keeps putting them off.  Don will be turning 80 this year and Pam next year.

After lunch, the Super Bowl was showing in the Insignia Lounge, but we chose to spend the afternoon in our cabin.  We danced for 45 minutes in the Horizons before dinner.  Before retiring, we set our clocks back one hour.

Monday, 4 Feb 2019 – We awoke at 8:00 AM this morning.  At breakfast, we talked with Margaret.  She remembered us from the 2018 cruise.   Originally from Germany, she has lived and worked in Washington, DC with her husband, Carl.  Now they live in San Francisco.  Carl has a severe eye infection and was told, initially, that he would be transported to Hawaii by a Coast Guard helicopter at 3:00 PM; however, the captain later decided that he would speed up the cruise ship and arrive in Hawaii as early as possible.  They are booked through to Sydney, but may not be able to complete the cruise.

At lunch, we talked with Al and Amelia from Florida, but previously from New Jersey.  Amelia has a strong resemblance to our friend Helma.  She will be 68 in June, and he is 73.  She was originally from Brooklyn, NY, and he from New Jersey.  Amelia is his third wife and they will be celebrating their 26 wedding anniversary on St. Patrick’s Day.  They are on the World Cruise, roundtrip to Miami.  After lunch, we swam for 25 minutes until three kids got into the pool.  Since they weren’t staying out of our path as the adults had done, we decided to cut our swim short rather than risk plowing over one of them.

We danced in the Horizon’s for 45 minutes before dinner.  At dinner, we sat next to a couple who also like to dance, but they haven’t danced at all so far on this cruise.  They appear to have several other interests and activities which have taken up much of their time, whereas we concentrate mostly on swimming and dancing.

Embarkation

            Wednesday, 30 Jan 2019 – At about 9:45 AM, we left Jon’s house for El Segundo, CA, to return our rental car.  Just as we finished checking in, our taxi driver arrived and drove us to the cruise terminal in San Pedro.  Although we boarded the ship at about 12:15 PM, our cabin was not ready so early.  So, we went to the Terrace Café for lunch.  We recognized one of the waitresses, May from the Philippines, and the lobster cook.  Two other waitresses and one waiter remembered us also, but they did not look familiar to us.  By 1:30 PM, we were safely in our cabin and starting to put away our clothes.

Old Décor - 2018

The ship had undergone refurbishment in dry dock since our last cruise and our cabin looked significantly different.  The pristine, antique mahogany furnishings had been replaced with modern, very light gray furnishings.  We would have preferred the old furnishings, but that’s the price of progress.  We do like the larger TV screen, which increased from about 19 inches to 36 inches.  The DVD players and library have been replaced with on-demand movies, although the selection is not nearly as extensive. 

New Décor - 2019

We were unpacked by 4:45 PM and also met our cabin steward, Sabio, from Goa, India.  At 5:15 PM, we participated in the mandatory lifeboat drill and then enjoyed lobster for dinner in the Terrace Café.  Since we were too tired to dance, we retired for the night at 9:30 PM.

En Route to Los Angeles & Phoenix

            Wednesday, 23 Jan 2019 – We just embarked on our second longest cruise ever – 59 days!  (Last year we completed a 71-day cruise).  Our cruise is a portion of a world cruise.  Around-the-world passengers boarded the ship at various ports, including New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, so the duration of their cruises vary.  New York to Miami is 180 days.  We embarked in Los Angeles and will be disembarking in Tokyo.  Many passengers are booked only to Sydney, Australia, or other ports. 

We planned to start our trip a week early to allow time to visit Jesse’s brother Jon and his family in Claremont, CA, and Jesse’s kids in the Phoenix, AZ, area.  Our flight to Los Angeles was scheduled to depart Moline, IL, at 9:10 AM, Wednesday, 23 Jan 2019.  Although we had set our alarm for 4:30 AM, we were awakened by a 5:20 AM phone call from our friend, Katie, who was planning to pick us up at 5:30 AM.  Katie had spent 30 minutes digging her car out of the snow and was checking to make sure our flight was still on schedule.   Upon checking, we learned that our flight was delayed by an hour.  Jesse spent the next 30 minutes clearing 6.5 inches of snow from our driveway for Katie to pick us up.  During that time, we learned that the snow had fallen on top of ice from sleet that had fallen beforehand; everything was closed down, and people were warned to stay off the streets because there would be no towing!

At any rate, we made it to the airport by 6:30 AM, and were told that the plane for our flight would be arriving from St. Louis, MO.  However, after waiting 4 hours, the airline announced that our flight had been cancelled.  (In fact, no planes were taking off, and our plane from St. Louis, MO, never arrived!)  Our original flight had us changing planes in Denver, CO; however, we were rebooked on a flight to Chicago, departing Moline, IL on Thursday at 5:40 PM.  After hearing the ridiculous rates that taxis were charging due to the slippery roads, we decided to rent a car for our trip home and back to the airport the next day.

Thursday, 24 Jan 2019 – We arrived back at the airport by 3:00 PM.  However, our departure was delayed by an hour.  Since we would probably miss our connection in Chicago, the flight personnel gave us the option of rescheduling a flight out of Moline to Friday morning or probably staying overnight in Chicago; however, we opted to take our chances on the flight to Chicago and at least get out of Moline!  Before taking off from Moline, we watched as the wings were de-iced and watched the blizzard-like wind swirling snow across the runway.  Needless to say, we missed our connection in Chicago and (after standing in line) were rebooked on a flight leaving Chicago at 7:15 AM on Friday.  It was near-zero degrees Fahrenheit there as we hurried to board the motel shuttle.

Friday, 25 Jan 2019 – After spending the night at a motel in Chicago, we arrived back at the airport at about 5:30 AM.  Sadly to say, our departure was delayed even then by 1.5 hours due to a frozen fuel truck.  Apparently, the brakes were frozen, which did not allow the pumps to work.  We were told that this is a frequent problem in extremely low temperatures.

Upon arrival at the Los Angeles airport (finally!), we boarded an Enterprise shuttle.  After waiting in line for about an hour, we learned that we were at the wrong Enterprise location!  We tried changing our reservation but there were no rental cars available at that location.  So, we took a taxi to the correct Enterprise location in El Segundo, CA.  We liked our taxi driver; he gave us a card with his mobile phone number to call later for a ride from Enterprise to the cruise terminal.  His name is Karim and he is from Algeria.  We departed for Phoenix with our rental car at 2:30 PM, just in time for Los Angeles Friday rush hour traffic!  At one point, it took us 30 minutes to travel 3 miles on the interstate!  We only made it to Indio, CA, before we stopped at a motel for the night.

"Twins" Arrival at Daughter, Verna's House

Saturday, 26 Jan 2019 – Tuesday, 29 Jan 2019 – We arrived at Jesse’s daughter, Verna’s house at 1:30 PM on Saturday.  It was only then that we realized we had been traveling dressed almost like twins!  We spent the weekend visiting Jesse’s kids and their families; then drove to Claremont on Monday, and spent Monday night and Tuesday with Jesse’s brother, Jon, and his family.  Our original week’s visit in CA and AZ was crammed into four days.