February 2024 Hawaii Cruise - Day 6

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Aboard the Carnival Miracle, Pacific Ocean, Just East of the Hawaiian Islands

Today was a beautiful, sunny, warm day on board the Carnival Miracle. It feels like we have finally escaped winter and have entered spring! Even the seas were relatively calm. The Beatles song, Here Comes The Sun, comes to mind.

One of the things we love about cruising is the plethora of music venues scattered about the ship. Throughout the day and especially in the evening, musicians playing all sorts of different music can be found everywhere - poolside, outside on the decks, in the many bars and lounges, and in the main theater where there is a musical show or 2 every night. Anne and I especially enjoy going to the evening show in the theater after dinner and then going bar hopping! We review the calendar’s list of events and can choose to listen to country music, modern rock, 60s, 70s, 80s classic rock, Motown, violinists playing various genres, and even an Irish couple singing traditional Irish songs. The musicians play for 45-minute sets, take a 15-minute break, and then play another 45-minute set. They usually play 3 sets in the evening. So, Anne and I find a musician we’d like to hear, listen to a set or 2, and then move on to another venue to listen to another group.

Occasionally, if the spirit moves us and the tempo is slow enough, we even get up and dance, as we did tonight to a couple of songs, including the Tennessee Waltz! We are by no means good dancers, but we really don’t care; we are just there to enjoy ourselves and enjoy that special time close together that dancing provides.

We attended another lecture about the Hawaiian islands and especially the volcanic activity on the islands. We learned that the reason why there are so many volcanoes in Hawaii is due to a black hole in the core of the earth. Hmmmmm…. Sounds like the stuff Superman movies are made of.

After lunch, Anne and I went for a brisk walk up on gloriously outdoors Deck 10, followed by an invigorating 9 holes of mini golf on Deck 11. We didn’t keep score, so there is no record whatsoever of who won, nor is there any proof of Anne’s supposed hole-in-one on the 4th hole. It was all quite exhausting, so, after relaxing in the Serenity section for a little while, we went back to our cabin and took naps. PHEW! Enough exercise for this cruise!

After dinner we went to a great show in the theater called 88 Keys. The theme was piano music and featured music by Elton John, Billy Joel, and others. There were several pianos brought on the stage, but I suspect that none of the performers actually played any of the pianos - it was all recorded music (other than the singing). Nevertheless, the show, with plenty of singing, dancing, and audience participation, was fantastic! Too bad none of the performers could actually play those 88 Keys!

Tomorrow we will arrive on land! And what a land it will be - Maui! This is where we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, so it seems appropriate that our first stop in Hawaii will be Maui! We plan to rent a car for the day and re-explore the island, as we did 25 years ago.

Aloha!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

February 2024 Hawaii Cruise - Day 10

Image
Sunday, February 25, 2024 Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii Today we woke up to find ourselves in the harbor at Kona, Hawaii. Kona does not have a pier where cruise ships can dock, so the ship had to drop anchor in the middle of the harbor. That meant we had to use the ship’s lifeboats as “tenders” to shuttle passengers from the ship to land. We signed up for a “History of Kona” excursion that was to start at 10:30AM. Our tickets, however, told us that we all had to meet in the main theater at 9AM, which was 1-1/2 hours before the excursion was to begin! I thought that was strange. But, we went to the theater at 8:45am and took a seat, with what appeared to be about 200 other people. They announced a few excursion groups that allowed many to disembark, and it seemed like everything was going smoothly. I thought that Carnival really knows its business and had this disembarking system down to a science! Sure enough, at 9AM, they announced that our excursion group could head to the tend...
Read more

Travel Journal March 2, 3024 Hawaii Cruise - Day 16

Image
Saturday, March 2, 2024 Ensenada, Mexico This afternoon we arrived at Ensenada, Mexico. This is a new port for us! I think it might be a fairly new port for cruise ships as I had never heard of it before booking this cruise. We spent part of the morning packing our suitcases. WOW! That’s a lot of laundry! That made it somewhat easy to pack - we just had to stuff it all into our suitcases. As we approached Ensenada, we relaxed in a lounge to read and watch the ocean go by for one more time. We got off the ship at 3pm and joined a Segway excursion. This is the 3rd or 4th time we have ridden Segways, so we considered ourselves old hands at it. There were only 6 people in our group, which made it very nice. However, the 2 guides spent way too much time giving us instructions on how to operate a Segway. Two of the people had never ridden Segways before, so perhaps they needed a little extra attention. But I have found that the best Segway training is just hopping on the thing and e...
Read more

February 2024 Hawaii Cruise - Day 4

Image
Monday, February 19, 2024 Aboard the Carnival Miracle, East Pacific Ocean Today we continued our rockin’ roller coaster ride on the Carnival Miracle, and I suppose it is a Miracle that we are still afloat! Just kidding - it’s not that serious! But the captain did announce that the wave swells were 12 to 15 feet, and I could feel each and every one of them! As the ship climbed up the crest of a wave, it felt like I had suddenly put on an additional 200 pounds of weight, momentarily causing me to vow to cut back on my food consumption on this cruise! But as we slid down the other side of the wave, I immediately banished that obscene idea as I felt as light as a feather, almost weightless. What a ride! Today was Presidents’ Day onbaord the Carnival Miracle. To honor this special occasion, the ship held a traditional, old fashioned Presidents’ Day Trivia Contest. Sample Question: What are George Washington’s wooden dentures made of? A. Wood B. Human teeth C. Animal teeth D. Meta...
Read more