Tuesday 3/2/2015 Day 29 - 4 absolutely wonderful and fascinating weeks at sea

What a night, and a day. Even though the temperature outside has risen to 20C again, there are some very strong winds (ship’s info reports force 7 overnight and force 8 now, sea state rough, swell short and moderate) and really heavy rain. These have meant nobody is allowed out on the decks, doors are locked and we are advised to keep the balcony doors closed.  Everyone holding on to the rails when walking, and, for my yogi friends, standing postures all very unstable, nearly lost it in my wide leg forward folds, and my practice had to be split into two today.

There are going to be few doctor consultations for sea sickness I think. Not for me though I have three contingency arrangements.  If gazing at the horizon doesn’t work, I am going to try the one eye closed technique, and if that doesn’t do it the Stugeron will be out of its packet for the first time. An early night anyway as lying down and feeling the ship rock and roll feels lovely.

Last night was the Captain’s Gala dinner and we had the best dinner yet (five courses from Marco Pierre White’s menu, the main course of which consisted of the most delicious lobster EVER, and the puddings were extremely chocolatey and decadent). Photo opportunity with the Captain duly taken J.  Then we went to the Black Tie Ball and danced our three favourites – foxtrot, jive and waltz. Getting a little bit more brave by the day.

Because of the near gale force winds today there was no deck walking, so for tonight there’ll be no pudding for me! Enough said. There’s always the 10 flights of stairs, walking the corridors, potentially the jogging, rowing, cross training machines and lots of different exercise classes in the gym. Potentially I say, because apart from yoga and Pilates I don’t fancy anything else at the moment.  So instead I joined a craft class and came back to the cabin with a fabulous card making kit.  See what I mean about something for everyone all of the time.

At our dance class with Jeffrey and Brenda today we danced the waltz, in every direction with a lot of attention on posture, arms and transferring the weight more positively. I would go so far as saying we wouldn’t be worried at all if we were invited to dance this one without our teachers. As long as the lights are low, and nobody looks for too long!

Now today’s art was something else. A water colour of a whale’s tail above the sea, and its shadow on the sea’s surface. I cannot believe how life like mine looks. I showed it to my dinner mates tonight and they said it looked like a photo! Is this just a one off I wonder, or a turning point?  Khachik’s is wonderful as always, with a different interpretation of the sea state. We are both very happy.

KHACHIK'S

MINE

So, another 2 sea days to Hawaii, where rumour has it the temperature is 28C. We are assured this storm will have passed and we will all be feeling comfortable again soon.  

I will be back to confirm! x

Monday 2 February 2015 – Sea Day 2 to Hawaii

There have now been several sightings of pods of dolphins playing in the wake of the ship, this never fails to make us smile.  I missed one of these yesterday but Khachik was there and said they were really close and obviously performing! Water temperature is coming up again, and the air is warming up again now 19C, bright sun.  The moon is looking stunning too. My Moon app says 1 day and 4 hours to full. Time for a lovely rest.

I forgot to say something on Saturday about our tour guide in San Francisco.  I can just about remember her name  - Barbara!   She said there were a lot of songs about San Francisco (I left my heart in SF, SF nights, Dock of the Bay, If you’re going to SF) and she promised to sing us those songs. Born and brought up in SF, in love with her city, full of enthusiasm and knowledge, but she said her husband refused to let her sing in the car.  She saved the reason why until we were returning to the ship in the coach, now we know why her husband wasn’t too keen. Flat and tuneless unfortunately, but on the plus side everyone joined in,  it was a relief to know our own voices weren’t too bad.

Remember yesterday I said that sometime on this cruise we just might try dancing without Jeffrey the dance teacher calling out the steps – we are really self-conscious and forgetful, but nevertheless we tried a proper dance in the Retreat last night without any assistance. We had a go at the Rhythm Foxtrot, Jive, Waltz and cha-cha-cha! What can I say! We felt brave, and it was a jolly good effort ;) I think it’s like anything else, there’s a way of getting by when you make a mistake without drawing too much attention, stay close, maintain great posture, don’t fall apart, and sway gently until you’re ready to count yourselves back in.

In San Francisco around 900 people left the ship to fly home or journey on another way, and 900 joined the ship, 500 from Australia travelling homeward, many fly cruisers from the UK and a good few from USA. All very interesting.  Did I say this is a ship for adults only, no children? We both notice that  only when we leave the ship for the ports we see whole families again, little ones running around and playing, babies in slings, babies feeding, little ones in prams. 

The average age of the cruise looks to have fallen a bit since SF, I think this must be because people flying long distance might be younger and more mobile (on the whole), whereas if you join the ship in Southampton and return to Southampton the trip is much more accessible for people with varying disabilities and frailties.

Back tomorrow. Bye for now.

Day 27 Sunday 1st February 2015 Pacific Ocean to Hawaii

Everything went as planned on Sunday, the City highlights was such good fun and our tour pictures are already up on Facebook because we found a Starbucks for hi speed internet just before going back to the ship. Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Bridge, look out points, Twin Peaks, Union Square, the cable cars, trams and buses  On one of our stops we tried the clam chowder – enough chunky and tasty food for a day in one bowl!

The jobs we had to do all got done too, paying bills and keeping our bank up to date with the countries we are using our account in.  We found a Fedex agent so we could send important documents to the UK, and a hairdresser for me so I could have another “haircut of the world”, and then spent the afternoon walking towards Union Square up Market Street, taking in the feel of a new city.  Lots of pop up craft stalls more street performers, places we recognised from movies. We made it back in time for dinner, and enjoyed the cabaret, and then were off to sleep in no time with very little waking up.  The clocks have stayed the same for 2 nights now.  I imagine they will start to go back again on the way to Hawaii.

On 13^th we are told we “miss a day” to bring us back to reality as we cross the international date line, otherwise we would be going back in time until we got home.

As it’s a sea day we have started our stretching, dance and art together again. In art we painted a penguin with chick, and were very happy.

Dance actually felt comfortable today. You know what, I am beginning to think I might even be able go to one of the dances on board without a “caller”! Steady on.   Today we worked on our rhythm foxtrot, which we are reassured we can resort to for anything in 4:4 time.  Time will tell.  Other sea day activities include sitting on the deck for coffee, doing brain training puzzles and chatting away.

We have attempted not to eat too much today, and we have maintained 9-10 laps of the Promenade Deck every sea day, so efforts are in place not to overdo it (too often ;) )It’s easy to eat very well as there’s so much choice, it’s also just as easy to add a slice of cake, chips, in fact ANYTHING your heart desires 24 hours a day.

Another sea day tomorrow, bye for now.

Days 25/26 Friday 30th and Saturday 31st - San Francisco

There’s now 8 hours between our times, so by the time we got up, though immigration and off the ship it was nearly bedtime in the UK. This means the live chats have fallen off a bit, which heightens the feeling of missing our lovely family L. 

San Francisco, once through immigration, is a beautiful surprise, the marina is like a town in itself, and reminds me of 1960’s London but with sun. Street performers everywhere one singing Joni’s Big Yellow Taxi, kiosks selling souvenirs and tours of all the attractions.  Our plan was to join a local boat trip to Alcatraz but they were all sold out, so plan B became a boat trip around the island and under the Golden Gate Bridge with wifi audio and historical slide show.  We were able to save the slides to our phones, so I will add them here as soon as I can, as they provide a lovely commentary.  We have been watching a P&O TV channel about San Francisco on the sea days, all about earthquakes, fires, prison break outs. These contain ancient speckly black and white movie footage make really interesting documentaries. The Alcatraz break out was absolutely fascinating using spoons stolen from kitchens then fashioned into chisels and life rafts secretly sewn from raincoats covered with some kind of glue.

Instead of the cool weather and rain we were advised to expect we got bright sunshine and clear blue skies all day J  For a big city everything seems comparatively inexpensive, so Khachik felt comfortable getting another box of red wine here.

And Saturday’s plan? We originally booked the Sixties Hippy bus tour, but the company P&O had previously used has gone out of business. Just not enough of us aging hippies taking it up!  So it’s going to be a City Highlights coach trip this morning and possibly a walk into Union Square this afternoon. More about that later.

We leave San Francisco at 7:30 Pacific time and then have 4 sea days towards Hawaii for 2 days, arriving in Honolulu on 5/2/2015 and La Haina 6/2/2015.

Day 24 Thursday 29th January 2015 Leon’s 2nd Birthday (celebrated by Nanna and Grandad on the Pacific Ocean)

Happy Birthday to our grandson Leon! It’s a strange feeling not to be phoning and chatting to Leon today, or getting frequent updates about the bairns. It is very hard to imagine that it was 2 years ago when we were waiting to meet the lovely little man. We hope everyone is well at home and the start of 2015 has brought love, hope for the future, that Leon has a great day full of fun & surprises

Well here we go – the last sea day before San Francisco.Passengers are reporting dolphin performances at breakfast these days, I love that.  The classes for sector one have finished, the art has been exhibited, many people are preparing to leave the cruise now and fly home, and there’s a feeling of excitement and accomplishment in the air.

The Sector One Cruise Choir (passengers) have just performed very beautifully and professionally on stage.  That was an unexpected treat. As predicted the temperature has dropped a little bit again, to 16C with a bracing wind, so we’ve all got our jumpers back on, and apart from brisk walking are doing a bit less out on the deck.  The clocks have gone back making an 8 hour difference now.  Tomorrow at 6 a.m. we will be sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge and coming in to port. Our captain predicts a temp of 8C at that time and has advised us all to wrap up if we’re going out for photos.

We have travelled more than 8000 miles since Southampton 3 and a half weeks ago yet it still feels brand new! More tomorrow, in port so with high speed wi-fi for sharing photos and Skyping a little bit too we hope, as long as it’s not too late when we get off the ship (USA immigration procedures). Bye for now.

Day 23 ALREADY? Wednesday 28th January 2015 Playful Dolphins

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Two sea days until San Francisco and we have had to cover up our arms and walk more quickly to keep warm, how spoiled we have been since reaching the Caribbean.  As we head to the USA the temperature is falling, overnight 24C and now 20C, predicted 11C on 30^th. Of course this makes the prospect of exploring SF very comfortable.  We still have brilliant sunshine, and a peaceful sea so all is well.  It won’t be long until the heat comes again in sector 2 as we head for the South Pacific and Australia.

There is a big difference between Mexico and USA’s immigration policies and procedures. In Mexico we didn’t have to show our passports, just carried the cruise card (bar coded with all our passport details on it and a photo).  We have already had an A4 sheet of instructions for the USA, which involves all 2000 of us having a face to face with an immigration official in a booth in the port with our Passport, Cruise Card, Visa Waiver confirmation. It could take some time, we are advised there might be bag searches. No food drink or water allowed into the USA from the ship. Interesting though.

We have just returned to the cabin after our classes – as a few people finish their cruise and leave the ship in San Francisco (they call what we have just completed sector one) dance and art lessons for sector 1 are coming to an end.  They will start up again in sector 2 on the 5 sea days to Hawaii.

Dance today was revision of the rhythm foxtrot, jive, cha cha cha, rumba, waltz and quickstep. ;) we are ok at the slow ones but our quickstep is disastrous! The final art subject for this sector of the cruise was a watercolour of a dog, going well for us so far. We will be finishing it off tomorrow in time for the exhibition at 2 p.m.

We have been very lucky so far with both teachers’ patience and understanding of different learner styles. Impressive that it is all included in the cost of the cruise. Lessons every day (two of each if you want/can fit them in) would cost a fortune on their own. We are putting everything up on the walls at 1 p.m. and collecting them at 4 p.m. Just to recap…water colour of a meerkat, autumn landscape, robin, young woman portrait, mountain landscape, snowy forest, Venice landscape,  our waiters, Khachik and me, seascape, woman planting, koala, camel’s head, dog, and one pencil drawing of Mohammed Ali.  Khachik has never laughed as much as he did at my koala – honestly, in his whole life I dare say. Even now that I have amended the shocking oversized ear and the look it had on its face of being a bit of a bugger, the memory of my first effort is indelibly fixed in Khachik’s mind.  I am so glad he became a civil engineer and nothing "inter-personal".

 

Our captain calls from the bridge every time whales and dolphins are in sight.  Today we were walking on the Promenade Deck when one of those calls came and luckily we also had our camera so not only do we have whale footage from yesterday, but also 30 seconds of joy from this morning  when 3-4 dolphins came to play near the ship. These are incredible moments.  You can tell from the gasping and shouting out soundtracks! The foloowing picture is unfortunately not one of ours, but feel free to gasp any way.

We have another Black Tie dinner tonight with a Marco Pierre White menu, so it’s time to get ready for that.  We may not go to the Palladium tonight for our fix of after dinner entertainment, as we are already yawning!  That could change…

Bye until tomorrow xxxx

Day 22 Tuesday 27th January 2015 Whale watching in the Pacific Ocean

This morning we arrived in beautiful Cabo San Lucas between Mexico’s Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean. We went ashore in tenders which felt very exciting as we got to feel the full effect of the waves, but only for about 10 minutes. These are the little lifeboats attached to the cruise ship underneath our balcony, and also on the starboard side.

 Once ashore we spent a sunny morning chatting first of all in person to the two entertainers from the last two nights in the Palladium – singer Peter Howarth (Hollies) and saxophonist Julian Smith (BGT’s runner up to Diversity and Susan Boyle).

Then we tried again with Skype to reach our “bairns” but made do with messenger as the wi-fi was, well, intermittent. For lunch we were off the ship so we had fish tacos with guacamole and salsa in a different restaurant.  Then came a two hour boat trip with refreshments and very satisfactory whale watching, particularly a family of hump backed whales

We got back to our cabin at around 5 after returning in the last tender for the sail away. We have started looking through our pictures short videos from the excursion. Hopefully we will soon find a piece of video that conveys all the joy of seeing these enormous creatures in the flesh! There were lots of sharp intakes of breath and ooooh, ahhhhh-ing going on. Quite emotional really. Very very grateful again today.

So today there were no art, dance or yoga classes and no deck walking on port days, but we now have another imaginary tick on the imaginary bucket list for “Whale watching on the Pacific!”

Tonight’s dinner was also a Mexican themed chilli with rice, beans and more guacamole – fiery hot and exceedingly satisfying. And in the theatre tonight Will Martin (link to a You tube clip) from New Zealand, described as “crossover” which I believe means combines classics and rock/pop vocals and piano.  He was very, very good. The standard of performances in the evenings is high now.

Bye for now.