I was on my balcony when we set sail.
The Golden Gate Bridge is ahead. The bit of ship superstructure in the upper left is part of the ship's bridge. In the lower left are balconies on the deck below mine.
Every morning I took a picture from my balcony. No, I won't bore you with all of them, since the majority are of sea and clouds. But here's the first morning at sea.
And some of the decorations in the buffet, where I had breakfast and lunch most days.
Activities on the ship ran from 7 am until past midnight every day. Lectures, demonstrations, classes (zumba, line dancing, hula, lei making and more). I took ukulele lessons; with the music in front of me I can play three songs (ten chords)! There was live music on deck 5 most afternoons and evenings.
The Hawaiian duo, Makani E, was excellent. Besides singing countless Hawaiian songs, Lokelina taught hula and gave talks on the food and language of Hawaii. Kimo taught ukulele.
I met them at dinner my first night aboard, and we became friends. I think I was at every evening set they played after that!
Unfortunately, before we reached Honolulu, a woman took her own life by going overboard. There were witnesses, but no one close enough to stop her. The Coast Guard took charge and had the ship remain in the area searching for her remains for 36 hours (not found).
Because of the time lost, Kauai was dropped from the itinerary. We also arrived in Honolulu, our first port, a day late. Some excursions were cancelled, but very few considering the companies must have scrambled to accommodate everyone. One positive thing to come from our late arrival was Lokelina and Kimo got to attend their nephew's wedding!
Here's Diamond Head as we arrived, taken from my balcony.
And here's our approach to the dock in Honolulu.
to be continued….
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