Editor's Note: This was all written the morning of Wednesday, September 18, however, technical difficulties followed by user frustration prevented posting until this morning, Thursday, September 19.
He Said . . .
It’s 11 am straight up as I begin my defense of actions on day 1- Google, once again, has let me down - I have lost faith in the AI engine that could be… I’m certain by now that you’ve heard that I “Google” led us on a two mile walking excursion from the Skylink to the Amtrak that I saw was pointing the other way as we stepped off the platform upon arrival, but I “trusted” Google maps and not the signage, those bastards at Google busy mining our lives and when you do have to turn on location services can’t manage to direct you 200 paces from the Skylink to the Wharf train station without sending you the wrong way for a mile and then turning the arrow around 180 degrees and sending you back right where you started, it’s baffling to me how they can get you across the country but can’t manage to get us next door, not across a street, next door without getting lost in the process!! I hope the NSA got more out of our jaunt than we did, a huge waste of time but it did cement the notion that I should not ever rely on them again with a degree of skepticism in the back of my mind from now on…
Sorry for the rant but I had to let them that they still need to work on their algorithms and quit focusing so much time on the Adware and ignoring all the tracking work they were perfecting.
Other than that little debacle all came off without a hitch, we Uber’d to the airport at 4 am with a really nice woman, Carolyn, that told us she didn’t feel unsafe driving a 4am to 12pm shift up and down 114 and 183; I thought that was a bit dicey but she told us that most of the riders were professional educated folks going to and from the airport and that she had never had any issues, she said she loved it, I wasn’t dissuaded with her response and thought I would never let any woman I loved drive strangers around at 4am, not on my watch, no way!!! Nonetheless, she was lovely and the time passed quickly both on the way as well as the plane ride to Seattle. I must say the biggest downside to WLS, weight loss surgery, for all you skinny people, is not being able to determine timing of needing to use the facilities, this is now the second time I’ve had to “use” the facilities on a plane. I even loathe the thought but you have to do what you have to do. That brings me to the first question, my wife and I were having a discussion about driving home to “use” our bathroom and she said I don’t understand having to come home to use the bathroom, I said I refuse to sit on a public toilet seat unless it’s an absolute emergency. And here’s the question, she said women don’t sit down to use the restroom, “they hover” and use the restroom, I didn’t believe her, is that really true do women sit down when they go to the restroom in public? I’m expecting some honesty here, but based on that input I don’t sit down either so it’s not a big deal anymore but I still hate not going home. Sorry for the graphic nature/question but “inquiring minds want to know.''
On to other more pleasant data points, after our Google bashing we dropped our bags on Amtrak and headed over to Pike Place Market over at the Pier and began the job of the day -- people watching, wow the things you see when you’re observing others and they think no one is watching -- great stuff. Did a bit of shopping, some very unique items that we didn’t have enough weight available in our bags to acquire coming back from Hawaii, maybe next time we’re in Seattle. We headed over to Athenian for the halibut fish and chips, very good, geez I miss fresh fish!! We headed back to the station and I grabbed a nap after the first 14 hours of the day, Ami was none to happy that we were going to have to hop another train when we got to Vancouver, I knew we were going to be hitting the taxi stand at that very moment. This was the prelude/build up for the case that she was NOT getting on another train today. That was fine but I didn’t want to concede the point before having the enjoyment of being a pain before relenting… I know, I know, not nice. :) We got to the hotel around 11:30 and checked in, we were asleep before we laid our heads down. That said I did have to mention that the cab driver actually had the nerve to tell us that they leave the streets in somewhat of disrepair because of all the tv and movie shootings that go on in Vancouver, Ami and I both just looked at each other after 18 hours on the road and said, “Now that’s really great that Vancouver has that kind of forethought for the movie industry”, upon arrival at the hotel Ami said “Does he even buy that load?”, we both laughed out loud, we knew we didn’t.
Early morning we checked out after asking the hotel to deliver our bags to the ship, yes, they are so close that they have a service to deliver your bags to the ship for you!!! We were impressed until we walked out the front door to go get breakfast, we then got the joke, we were staring at the navigation bridge across the street as we exited the front door of the hotel, they probably just rolled them across the side street while we were eating, I was nonetheless impressed that they performed the service, breakfast was great - although expensive - $28 dollars to share our meal and add an egg, that was CAD though $21 US, not really that bad after the mental currency conversion. After getting lost one more time during the maze process we were on and at the door to our suite. The VERY biggest sky suite we’ve ever had in our cruising history, I suspect Ami posted a picture, fingers crossed, but it’s huge in comparison.
Beyond that it’s been a steady diet of eating, exercising, napping, reading a fairly boring book called The Expats and now on to a cruise loaner by Michael Connelly called The Burning Room, which is part of the Bosch series on Amazon Prime - if you haven’t checked it out, give it a try, you’ll be hooked too I suspect. Only on chapter 8 but it’s picking up steam quickly and all the characters are already developed so it’s just meat, no potatoes as it were…
Tomorrow we reach Hilo and start our new adventure of beautiful beaches, waterfalls and necking on beaches that have zero footprints on them before we arrive, can’t wait, perhaps more later, for now tata.
She Said . . .
Here we are - last day at sea before we hit Hawaii.
2055 nautical miles from Vancouver
254 nautical miles to Hilo
We are currently traveling at 16 knots.
Water temperature is 79 degrees.
The first two days were wet or just cloudy and a bit chilly. Then Monday the skies cleared and the temperature was and continues to be absolutely perfect - not to warm and not too chilly. There is no other word but perfect.
We have spent our days relaxing. The last two days, we have sat out on our oversized balcony, reading and catching a few rays of sunshine (me more so than Blaise so I don’t burn in Hawaii).
Nothing really of note happening - just the way I like it at sea. Just relaxation.
Our Days
We wake up, open the curtains to the balcony and watch the water roll by. We get up and head to breakfast. Blaise has his muesli and hard boiled egg and I have something a little different every day. This morning it was a made-to-order omelette with onion, bacon, and cheddar. Yesterday it was yogurt and fruit.
Then we find some place to camp out for a few hours and read. At some point we make our way back to our room and our balcony. At some point we either catch lunch or tea time for a scone. Then I make it to either the gym or walking track. Yesterday Blaise and I walked the track together. Then back to our balcony for more lounging and sun bathing (for me anyway).
In the evening, we make our way to the Luminae for dinner. It is lovely. After that, we go to the casino or walk around on the top floors where there are usually sunbathers during the day but it is oh so quiet in the evenings.
Assessment of the Suite Butler
With our Sky Suite, we get at “butler.” I am not sure how useful he is. We asked him to book our excursion for Hilo and we ended up on the waiting list for it so we booked our own excursion. Then yesterday, I decided I would take advantage of a spa special and asked him to schedule a facial for somewhere around 3. He said they only had 5:30 available all day. That’s too late. He said he could get 3 the next day (today). I told him only if I could take advantage of the special price. He said he would check. A few hours later he came back and said he was able to do that. So I have a facial at 3 today. All of this is something I could have done on my own. I am not sure what value the butler adds to my experience unless he can pull strings and get me what I want. Yes, I get these are all first-world problems and they make me sound like a spoiled bitch. My whole point is, I would never pay extra for this service as I do not think it adds value to my experience. We did get some lovely white chocolate cherries the other night though.
The Ocean
I have had several people tell me crossing the Pacific is much rougher than the Atlantic and that there is all kinds of trash floating around the Pacific. Neither of these have been our experience thus far.
The first day, maybe two were rough. Nothing extreme that we haven’t experienced before. The Captain said he increased the speed to get us past some bad weather that was trying to brew up. Our speed for about a day was 21.5 knots. As of yesterday we were down to 17 knots per hour and today 16 AND there is next to no wind. That along with the perfect temperature, make the days at sea absolutely lovely.
We have seen three pieces of trash though. This is three more than we have ever seen in the middle of the ocean on any prior cruise.
Dinner
Dinner has been lovely. Each night I have gone with the sommelier’s recommendations and I have been pleased with the choices. Our meals the past few nights:
Sunday
Blaise: Braised short ribs, cod basquaise, cheese plate
Ami: Turkey Escarole soup, veal cannelloni, the only thing I remember from the dessert was the caramel gelato
Monday
Blaise: Pate de campagne, baked eggplant parmesan, coffee
Ami: Pate de campagne, veal chop, dark chocolate souffle with vanilla gelato and some sort of creamy vanilla sauce (absolutely worth every single calorie! - best dessert so far)
Tuesday
Blaise: Ginger crab cake, black sea bass, coffee
Ami: Ginger crab cake, chicken saltimbocca, something for which I can’t remember the name but it was marshmallow, meringue, kiwi sorbet, blueberry ice cream, and berries
What’s Next - Hawaii
Tomorrow
We make it to Hilo on the Big island. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be about 87. We purchased an excursion with our onboard credit involving a hike and waterfalls, I think. This is what we paid for in the event the one we really want does not open up - the butler put us on the waitlist and if someone else cancels, we are in.
Friday
We have another stop on the big island and purchased an excursion in which we visit a coffee plantation and do some other things.
Saturday and Sunday
We are overnight in Maui where we have rented a car. More on that later, I am sure.
That about sums it up. Bye for now.
