CONTINUED LIFE ON THE PACIFIC AFTER HONOLULU AND LAHAINA

Life continues on the Pacific Princess.  We were in Honolulu on Saturday (the 26^th) and Lahaina on Sunday (the 27^th).  We’ve been to both islands, Oahu and Maui, so we didn’t feel compelled to take any excursions or do any sightseeing.   We did go to the local Walmart in Honolulu, which is always a joke any time you’re on a cruise.  There are always passengers and even more crew members at the local Walmart.  

Michael was in search of his shoehorn, which he didn’t find in Walmart, but our terrific cabin steward found him one on the ship.  After the laundry losing several pairs of our underwear early on during our first week, we bought some extras, only to have the bag of our laundered items recovered, again, by our diligent cabin steward. 

We have definitely settled in to our “home away from home” and Michael has already commented today that he feels as if we’ve been on the Pacific Princess longer than just 10 days.  I feel the same way.  While all the planning of what to bring is behind me, all that planning has created a wonderfully comfortable environment for us.  Although we’re obviously living in one (rather large) room, it does not feel cramped, everything has a place and we’ve found all sorts of nooks and crannies to store everything.

Although we have a hole punch (for hanging our cruise cards on lanyards), an eyeglass tree that holds six pair of glasses, two desk cups holding makeup and brushes and pens, pencils and scissors (and more unusual items), we’ve met a lovely couple who actually brought an electric pencil sharpener.  (They love doing Sudoku.)  They beat us on that one – I only have six mechanical pencils.   

The air conditioning in our room is wonderful and we fall asleep with the sound of waves which is available on one of the channels on the television.  We’ve been able to access the HDMI input on the television to enable Michael to play any of the 300+ movies on his computer.  He also had a back up of the movies on a flash drive that he gave to our head waiter so he could enjoy the movies on his own DVD player.  

At lunch this week, we were introduced to three new tropical fruit I’d never seen before.  I’m hoping I can insert the photo here but the red spiky fruit is rambutan, the little brown ones are longan and then, of course, the obvious star fruit.  The first two are easy to open and contain a clear gelatinous meaty fruit containing a pit, one larger than the other obviously from the size of the fruit, and the star fruit, which Michael enjoyed, which is completely edible but tasted “watered down” – he doesn’t like “sweet” so that’s probably why he preferred this one.   

I also enjoyed my absolute favorite cold soup this week – chilled coconut soup with lychees.  I tell myself every time I’m on a cruise enjoying lychees that I must buy them when I get home.  I get home and never buy them.  It’s like tea, I supposed.  I will drink tea at home in the evening sometimes but when I’m onboard, I always have a cup of tea at the end of the night after dancing. 

We’re arriving in Tahiti, Huahine and Raiatea this weekend.