As we get closer to Hawaii the seas have calmed, the swells are almost gone, the skies are mostly sunny, and the temperatures warmer. There is no pitch to the ship, and the roll is slight. Unless you are watching the horizon you wouldn't even know there was any roll.
We have been putting our clocks back every other night to adjust to Hawaiian time. We are now six hours behind Florida. An hour every other day is so much easier than six hours at once.
The nationalities of passengers are nearly as diverse as the crew. Erin mentioned at least 20 countries represented. Canadians and Americans are the two largest groups as you might expect. Age diversity is a little different. My guess would be 90 % of the passengers are over 65, many over 80.
By day 5 the retractable roof is fully open, and many of the pool chairs are occupied by 7 AM. Last night I saw a passenger with one of the worst sunburns I have ever seen. His face was as red as my car, with two pink circles around his eyes where he was apparently wearing sunglasses. He is going to remember this cruise, but for the wrong reasons.
The gamblers are still busy. I don't know if they stayed all night, or have just started early but the slot machines are busy early in the morning. The smoke from the casino drifts throughout decks 2 and 3 at times. I keep overhearing conversations of passengrs losing, but never of winning. Trust me, if anyone won they would be talking about it. That is the nature of gamblers. Brag about winnings, and deny losses.
The staff has been excellent. Our cabin is serviced twice each day by our cabin steward and his helper, I will assume a trainee. We sent two bags of laundry as soon as we left Vancouver. I always do wash dry and fold, and never iron anything at home, so why should I here? Well I didn't know it was possible to leave so many wrinkles in a pair of slacks. The next day we send the now clean laundry for pressing. Better but not as good as tumble dry and hang it up as I do at home.
We have not seen a single ship since we left Vancouver. Not surprising as this is not a commercial shipping route. But we do have some extra unplanned cargo on board. A sparrow has been seen around the ship. Hitching a ride to Hawaii for the winter I guess.
Fortunately there have been no more medical calls that I have heard. The cabin where they were called the other night has the door taped closed. The preprinted writing on the tape is not in a language I even recognize. I don't know why, but can only imagine it needs to be sealed for inspection by some type of authority when we dock. Whether it is medical, health, or police, we will likely never know.
As I mentionwd earlier it is a very mature crowd on this ship. You can probably count first time cruisers on one hand, and the number of passengrs under 40 is probably 10 at the most.
HAL'S app is rather outdated. Navigation is not intuitive, and lots of information that you would expect isn't there. Venue hours, entertainment schedules, menus are totally missing or in the case of menues only available for the current day.
We are told to use the app to make reservations, but you can't. Our maitre de, also known as "bad boy", solves our menu problem. He prints out the dining room menu for the remainder of the cruise. Now we can decide which nights to forgo the dining room for a different restaurant.
There is a special hawaiian dinner while we are in Honolulu. Of course not listed anywhere Lynn learns about it during a cooking demonstration. The waiters and bad boy know nothing about it even though the passengers are told to make reservations through them.
After some research bad boy makes arrangements for us.
The production show tonight is the HAL dancers. High energy and talented, it was a good show. Volume in the theater has been good, the other musical venues, often very loud.
Tomorrow morning we arrive in Hilo, our first hawaiian port. We have a tour in the morning leaving at 8.
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