Day 2-6 January 15-19, 2024 Sea Days

Here is a synopsis of the sea days (five days at sea) while cruising towards Hawaii.

January 15 - The walking track was closed this morning due to inclement weather. We are sailing in a southwest direction with cloudy skies. It might be several days before the warm weather returns.

Last evening it was a chance to meet up with fellow passengers from the 2022 ATW as Janice and I had dinner in the Grand Dining Room (GDR).

The actual number of ATW passengers has ranged from 375 to just over 400. Its accuracy will be determined at a later date.

Today Janice meet her new bridge instructors who will be on the cruise for the duration. A good gig for them. She said it was a breath of fresh air and that she learned more today than over the eight seadays with the last two instructors.

I joined a Trivia team today. Either the questions were difficult or we provided the incorrect answers. Better days to come I hope.

The lines for the GDR are silly. The restuarant opens at 18:30 and people are lined up back to the elevators, some 50 feet or more. On short notice Carolyn and Paul the ship's hostess and host invited us to dinner with two other couples. It was embarrassing when we arrived at 18:45 only to jump the queue.

A beautiful bouquet from the Insignia Team was in our room when we returned from last night's show. Maybe it was in place of the bottles of wines broken in Miami.

Our "Currents" daily paper for the next day informed us of a time change that evening. One hour back. The first of many time changes of this cruise.

January 16 - Well Janice thought since I am up early "why don't you go to the gym". Wrong, do you know alot of seniors like me get up at this time. Their spouses or partners must have told them the same thing.

All the machines were being used as were the free weights. I was able to use the one rowing machine on the ship for a quick 2,000 meters row. The free weights will have to wait for later in the day.

I never did get back for the free weights that day.

Our Trivia team faired better than the previous day but not good enough to garner a Big O point. Our total was 15 of out 21. The winners were 18, 17 and 16 points respectively.

We were advised to expect some motion of the ocean this evening with swells of 3 to 4 meters.

January 17 - The outside track continues to be closed as the ship buffers against strong head winds. The ship is a rocking and rolling.

I am in the library early this morning and you can hear all the wind hitting the windows

The higher up you are on the ship the more motion of the ocean you feel. If you are on decks 3 or 4 the motion is less severve than if you are on higher decks.

There is a educational speaker on board who is talking about our upcoming stay in Hawaii. Do you know that Spam is considered a comfort food for Hawaiians. They say you can find it in McDonalds. One recipe has rice with spam wrapped in seaweed.

Before Trivia it was a quick stop in the Horizon Lounge (Deck 10) for Cupcake Tea Time. No I was there to take pictures of the cupcakes - again so many cupcakes so little time.

A trivia question for the day dealt with phophias. What is cenosillicaphophia? Still trying to place in the top three at Trivia.

Answer will be revealed tomorrow.

Another time change as our clocks moved back one hour. The second time change since we left the mainland.

January 18 - I would like to get a sunrise picture before we arrive in Hawaii but the weather has not cooperated. The walking track remains closed in the early hours.

The Captain indicated that today we would see a change in the weather with warmer temperatures and less wind. Unfortunately this was not the case.

OK the answer to yesterday's trivia question - cenosillicaphophia is the fear of an empty beer glass. It is true, look it up if you do not agree.

Today the Around the World (ATW) passengers were invited for coffee in the Insignia Lounge (Deck 5) for a get together and to meet the fellow ATWs. Various small sandwiches and pastries were available.

The Cruise Director, Dottie, provided the actual numbers for the ATW. A total of 357 passengers of the 640 passengers are on the Around the World. Over 50% are ATWs on this cruise. Here is the breakdown: 121 passengers joined in Miami for 196 days; 236 passengers joined in Los Angeles for 180 days.

Our Trivia performance is still lacking the correct answers.

January 19 - Finally the sun peaked through the clouds this morning and I was able to get a sunrise picture.

The walking track was open early today and passengers took full advantage of it. The strong southwesterly winds made walking on the starboard side (right) somewhat difficult. Passengers were tightly holding onto their hats. One gentleman's hat blew off, he was lucky to retrieve it before the hat blew into the ocean.

The walking track is rather short but some passengers still try to jog around it even when other passengers are walking. It is really not made for jogging.

Good news of Trivia team collected one Big O point for a third place tie with several other teams.

The Trivia question today is what job did Pope Francis do at the bar in his youth?

Tomorrow we arrive in Kailua-Kona. This is a tender port so many passengers will be anxious to get off the ship.