4:30 AM - Sigh. Not totally unexpectedly, my body thinks it's 6:30 and it's time to get up. Not much point in fighting it, and I did have a pretty decent sleep. Not exactly sure what to do now, mind you, as I'm up too early to even hit the fitness centre which doesn't open until 6.
The bed in the room was very soft, almost a freaking trampoline, so I am sure every time I moved (and I move a lot during the night) I woke up the wife. We will see if we have our first sighting of Grumpy Bear when she wakes.
We certainly are in no rush, she can sleep for hours if she needs to. Check out time is Noon and the cruise ship doesn't start boarding until Noon as well, for our 7 PM departure. Lots of time.
6:30 AM - I head to the Fitness Centre to work out a little bit while the wife sleeps, sort of. She has been awake off and on. No sign of Grumpy Bear though! I don't think anything could bring out Grumpy Bear when we are just a few hours away from boarding our cruise ship!
7:05 AM - The wife has also decided it's not worth trying to force any more sleep, so she's up and we are heading to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. We sit outside on the patio, feet from the pool. While we are there we get visited by several friendly birds, and a beautiful, white, wild cat. Our waiter tells us that wild cats are common in these parts.
We start off with a plate of pineapple. The best we have ever had. It is so good that I have to fight Tracey for it, and she never goes near pineapple.
Along with the pineapple, we are served some strawberries and blueberries - non-native fruits - and they aren't any good at all.
Tracey has Sweet Bread French Toast which she loves, and I have waffles with a side of white rice. Yes, rice is on all the menus as a side here regardless of the meal. So, you know the old saying: When in Rome, have Steamed Rice for breakfast.
8:00 AM - Back in the room and we have a few hours to relax before it's time to check out and head to the docks.
I received a text message yesterday indicating we had used up all of our data. I then got another message saying we had occurred $50 in overages. So, I used this opportunity to call Rogers and tell the that they are abso-fucking-lutely crazy. Not once have we ever gone CLOSE to using up all our data in a month. Now they are telling me that my phone (which was not being used during the drive down here and has been on wi-fi whenever we have been anywhere with wi-fi) used 12 GB of data in one day? Riiiiiiiiiight.
Of course, they insist I used it, I bitch about it, and they capitulate partially. They refund me the $50 overage and give me an additional 3 GB to use until the billing month resets itself on December 10th. Best they would do. I reset my data statistics so if anything like this ever happens again, I will be able to show them it's not possible I used that much.
Noon - We arrive at the Port of Honolulu. My GOD, everyone here is so incredibly friendly; from the cab drivers, to the baggage handlers, to the security people. It's almost as if living in paradise puts everyone in a constant state of bliss.
Checking in is a breeze, and we are on the ship in about a half hour. This is one of the older ships in their fleet, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it. This is our third Norwegian cruise, and we figured we knew pretty much what to expect from a ship, but there are some big differences here. This is the only ship that never leaves American waters (hence the name Pride of America) so they have to adhere to local laws: for Hawai'i, that means no gambling. That's right.....no casino! Also, no duty/tax free stores on board the ship (but lots at the various ports, we are told). As well, every single staff member is American (and it seems for some reason like about 90% of them are from Florida???).
On our way to the ship we are told to be in the fitness centre at 3:45 for free raffle to possibly win some spa services. Undoubtedly an opportunity for them to push the services, but whatever.
We have some time to kill until they open up our suites and deliver our luggage, so we head to the buffet for lunch. I've always said that you can tell the quality of a ship, or hotel, or whatever, by the quality of their buffet. This one is just as good as we expected.
I also sign up for a wine package. Normally Norwegian offers a "beer and wine" package, but that is another thing not allowed in Hawaiian waters: unlimited beer is a no-no. So they have curated a 3-level package of specific wines, and we, of course, chose the "Connoisseur" level. We chose 6 bottles (also have a 4 or 8 bottle option) of pretty decent wine at a reasonable discount over what it would cost to buy those bottles on their own. Add those to the 6 bottles we brought on board, and we are going to enjoy some terrific wine this trip.
3:45 PM - We head to the fitness centre, which is gorgeous, for the raffle. As expected, they do a full rundown on all their services before raffling off four prizes. As the winners are announced, they butcher the names of the winners pretty badly. When it comes down to the last prize, a $250 spa certificate, the Manager says "I hope she gets this name right at least!". The girl pulls out the name, her eyes get big, and she says...."Tracey.......uh......Engman???".
LOL. Close enough, and we are happy to collect the prize! Tracey is going to enjoy a couple of spa services later this trip. Exciting!
We hit up the shops as well because some dumb fucking asshole forgot to bring any sunglasses to Hawai'i. They basically have 2 options: $20 pieces of shit, or $230 Maui Jim's. Wasn't really planning on spending $230 on sunglasses, considering I have 5-6 great pairs at home, but whatever. Clearly I am going to need sunglasses on this vacation. We actually get 15% off because of our status in their "Latitude Rewards" program....and in the immortal words of noted 21st Century philosopher Todd Bertuzzi:
"It is what it is. What do you want me to do about it?????"
6:00 PM - We make our way up to the Napa Wine Bar where we are expecting to find the suitcase of wine we brought on board. We have to pay a corkage fee ($15/bottle) so we knew that particular suitcase wouldn't just show up at our room. Unfortunately, though, it hasn't arrived here yet either. They know it's coming, though.
We have reservations at Cagney's Steakhouse, which is about 10 feet away, and we wanted to open up one of those bottles for dinner, but we decide to go and check in at the restaurant and I will go back to the wine bar and check on our bottles in a few minutes.
We are starting with a couple of appetizers anyway, so we start by using up one of the 6-bottles that we bought at part of the wine package. We select a Robert Mondavi Chardonnay, which pairs beautifully with my shrimp cocktail and Tracey's iceberg salad. Before we are even halfway done our appetizers, I notice that our friend from the Napa Wine bar is bringing our wine to us! We crack that suitcase open and pull out tonight's main event, a beautiful Cabernet Franc from Turnbull, one of our favorite Napa wineries.
They even offer to put our other bottles into their cellar, which can be retrieved at any bar or restaurant anytime we want! We decide to take the 2 bottles of white wine to our cabin in case we want some while sitting on our huge balcony, and we put the other 3 bottles of red into their custody. What terrific service, we were not expecting that.
My prime rib is fantastic; Tracey has a Filet Mignon which is good but not incredible, her quibble being that the Peppercorn sauce is too peppery (and it is reallllllly peppery). Still, it wasn't terrible, and paired with that beautiful wine, it's a great way to start off our vacation.
After dinner we are wandering the ship when we come across a show about to start in one of the theatres. It's a "welcome onboard" show, just a few acts to whet our appetite for the entertainment to come, hosted by our Cruise Director. No, her name is not Julie.
And if you don't get that reference....
Paul Heyman has some advice for you.
After the show we wander around a bit more before realizing we are both exhausted, so we retire for the night. The one thing that does NOT retire for the night are the extreme winds that shake us up more than senior officials in Trump's administration. I guess we'll get used to it.
Until tomorrow......
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