The Ship at Sea

After leaving our last port of call and with four full days at sea, I thought I'd take some pictures to show you the ship and views of the sea. You can see that it's a big ship with lots of room for shows, sports, lectures, bars, casino, library, pools, internet cafe, art sales, etc, etc, etc. 

You can see our hallway and our "mailbox" for room 6151. There is also an electronic chart with "real time" navigational information and up on top are domes over satellite antennas for television, telephone and internet.

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

We had only about eight hours in Lahaina on Maui. It was a "tender port" where we had to take the life boat type "tenders" in to shore. As in other tropical places we had a mix of rain-sun-rain-sun but it was always warm enough that it didn't feel uncomfortable. It was just a bother on bus windows and camera lenses. In the rain forest area the rainwater caused spectacular waterfalls that were not there on sun only days.

I took a tour that went to the rain forest area with the famous Iao Needle, a tall lava tower in a dramatic, steep sided valley. The tour also visited the Maui Ocean Center, an aquarium that features a transparent tunnel through a giant tank of sharks, rays and other fish.

Leaving Lahaina, we headed out for five days at sea on our way toward San Diego and the end of our 65 day trip.

Honolulu, Hawaii

We had two days in Honolulu. I went on a tour to Pearl Harbor where they have the sunken battleship Arizona Memorial and tours aboard the "Mighty Mo" which used to be at Bremerton. We walked on the beach at Waikiki and went by the Hawaiian Royal Palace.

Crossing the Equator, etc.

We crossed the equator back to the Northern Hemisphere and we had several sea days on our way to Hawaii. There was a King Neptune ceremony at the crossing and we have had fancy food displays (and eating) and a fancy "Tropical Ball" during this time.

Apia, Samoa

I took a tour of the Apia area, visited a fish market and saw the Robert Lewis Stevenson House/Museum. After the bus tour I took a taxi to see the Samoa Temple. It was a pretty quick trip. We were only in port from 8am to 3:30pm. Some people almost didn't make it back to the boat in time.

Suva, Fiji

I took a tour by narrow, wooden longboat up a river to a Fijian village. They had a traditional Kava ceremony and some singing and dancing for entertainment. The weather was highly variable. It was warm the whole time but hot sun and heavy rain alternated all day. The river had some exciting rapids and there was tropical jungle on each side.