Last Sea Day Before Land Fall in Hilo

Will begin with a short recap of last night.  As I mentioned we just weren’t into going to the dining room tonight so we head up to the Horizon Court rather early and we are getting our food.  Lots of great offerings, a huge salad bar, with a variety of hot items including kabobs, beef, two different rice dishes, at least three different vegetables, two Indian type dishes, three seafood items, three different prepared salads, a carving section, and even someone is there preparing pasta noodles with tomato sauce, bacon and something else (was darn good), cheese section/with bread, two different soups and I am sure I am missing something.

Now the reason I am being descriptive above is because as we wandered around getting food tonight a very large man and I mean very large man complains about the variety of food and there is nothing for him to eat as he overheard me saying oh this looks good when I see the pasta.  The man says really “it looks like Asian noodles and there is nothing here I want” and he keeps grumbling.  Well I thought he was being unreasonable and I turned and said “well looks like you could skip a meal anyways” oh I know me bad!  So not Canadian of me, but really!  I later saw him at the dessert station with three choices in his hand again complaining that it all looked bad.  I know I should focus on the good people and will try.  This is a symptom of being on board for so long you see how hard the staff work.

We head to Explorer’s Lounge to check out the “Who Sang What” but is all 007 Movie Themes and well we really suck at that.  We sat with a lovely couple and continued our conversation in the Wheelhouse Bar afterwards.

But we are in bed early and I sleep in until 7:30!  But I feel GREAT.

Still having issues with chairs being dragged above, it is a bit better and when I go upstairs I see why.  They have put a rug down and two tables are on it but the chairs on each side are off the rug and they are constantly getting dragged by people.  I inform the purser’s desk again and the will look into it. 

Breakfast was very good – I had my waffles and pure maple syrup and now feel ready to take on the Sudoku challenge.  And it works I come in second, I am BACK!

I decide I am going to take part in the Princess Book Club, we meet up at Vines and we are given the book “Tenth Anniversary” The Women’s Murder Club by James Patterson.  Normally I only read from my Kindle but I want to try something new on Princess.  You have to give your name and sign out the book and we will meet up closer to the end of the voyage to discuss.

Today is the Most Travelled Luncheon, the menu consisted of:  Potpourri of Seafood Cinderella – A Trove of Land and Sea Gems, Lobster, Sea Scallops, Shrimp and Alaskan Citrus Segments (it looks so beautiful wish I would have had my camera, they actually made it look like a lobster), next was a choice of Penne Norma Style of Shepherd Pasta Tossed with Garlic, Fresh Tomato, Fried Eggplant and Basil, or Grilled Chilean Seabass Marinated and then grill fish filet, served with a delicate citrus papaya sauce, red rice, sautéed spinach, grilled fennel and pumpkin (Bernie had this and loved it), or Milk Fed Grilled Veal Chop enhanced by a sautéed mushroom and marsala demi glace accompanied with premium fresh vegetables and boulager potatoes (I had this and it was darn good).  For dessert it was Almond Sponge Cake layered with pistachio Bavarian Cream and Hazelnut Mousse, escorted by a hazelnut caramel sauce.  LOVELY.

We had the pleasure of sitting with a lovely couple and a single lady and the Hotel General Manager Emilio.  Great conversation.  The only thing that bothered me was those two gentlemen we keep running into who were also there who complained afterwards about how horrible the food was.  Don’t know where they ate but again I don’t know how they could say that.  I am going to try and stay away from them so they stop bothering me, Bernie reminds me they must be very unhappy people to only see the negative.  Stay tuned.

I catch Martyn’s discussion on the Hawaiian Ports, Maui and Kauai, he is doing a great job especially when I hear that he has had to fill in for the regular port lecturer.  Afterwards I head back to the cabin and have to get my shoulder exercises in – I am noticing more range of motion with the shoulder which is making me happy.

After lunch we both do some reading on our balcony and I get 100 pages read of my book and they we have to get ready for the fashion show.  Bernie is wearing a Quick Silver outfit and I am wearing a sporty Puma outfit.  It was a lot of fun – make sure to check it out and you could win a chance to win an outfit if you come to the event.  For us we get 10% off in the boutique and Bernie actually buys his outfit – he looks great in it too.  Thanks Mike and Pia for taking the pictures of us.

Other events happening today:  Paddle tennis, morning trivia, outlet sale, line dance class, MUTS – Blue Hawaii, Dirty Dancing, Lionel Richie, U2, and Moonrise Kingdom.  Shuffleboard tournament, bingo, egg drop challenge, golf chipping, Lecture on The birth and Death of Stars with David Stroh, cruise long speed trivia, art auction, $500 blackjack tournament, flora and Hawaii with Mark Harris, Bar Wars, Pool Games, flower making, Move The Lucky One, afternoon tea, jumbling tower.

Tonight’s events are:  Ballroom dancing, movie in cabin The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, String Quartet, Movie in Princess Theatre: Rock of Ages, Motor City Production Show, Who Sang What – Mowtown, 70’s Trivia, 70’s Dance Party, Karaoke.

Thanks for following along.