Life on the Pacific Princess - January 31st

We’ve been on the ship 11 days and have stopped at only one port – Honolulu.  I happen to love sea days but I’m sure there are plenty of people who can’t wait to get off tomorrow at Pago Pago (American Samoa).  

All is well here in the South Pacific where the ocean is about 85 degrees.  A far cry from the waters of the Puget Sound even in the summer.  It’s pretty warm and humid and I’m really trying to channel the wonderful book I recently read, The Gratitude Diaries, and really trying to find the silver lining when it comes to this hot weather.  I’m not coming up with much so far other than to be grateful that I don’t need to use moisturizer on my skin.  (That’s the best I can do today.)  

Our cabin is just about perfect right now.   The removable hangars for my costume jewelry didn’t do very well on the vinyl-type wall coverings so they’ve been moved to the wooden strips framing the large mirrors and they’re holding up very nicely in their new locations.  A squeaky closet door and a drawer that was too difficult to pull out have been fixed and the air flow of the air conditioning unit has been adjusted as well.  

The gym is very nice.  It has just about everything we need.  We’ve been doing our own strength training programs, using the CD tracks we bought for treadmill workouts (fantastic by the way), taken a cycling class (with more scheduled) and I’ve been going to Zumba classes as well.  Dancing is a nightly event.  

The entertainment has been wonderful.  Aside from the professional singers and piano players we’ve enjoyed so far, our fellow passengers will be performing hula dancing and ukulele playing taught to them by our Hawaiian ambassadors, who leave the ship tomorrow.  Two gals we met from Arkansas will be performing this afternoon and Michael will video them and send them the DVD when we get home.  I’ll be joining the book club during this segment of the cruise. 

We have the most wonderful wait staff on the ship.  Our waiter, Andreii from Ukraine, and head waiter, Nelson from Portugal, couldn’t be better.  Each night, Nelson gives me the next evening’s menu so I can make my selections and he can have them prepared gluten-free; he always makes sure I get extra vegetables on my plate, and arranges to have rice milk at the coffee bar for my afternoon iced coffee, and gluten free dough for pizza when I’m in the mood.  More importantly, he’s been supportive in my efforts to wean myself off soda.  It isn’t as if I’m addicted and experience withdrawal symptoms when I don’t drink soda, it’s just that I really love the taste of diet coke (and, of course, my Dr. Thunder at home).  I also know that soda isn’t good for me and I consider it to be my only real vice.  My nutritionist, Alexa, has been trying for years to get me off the stuff.  I have six cans of diet coke in our fridge in our cabin and have only one a week now, although I know it will be far more difficult to not drink soda once I get home.  

One thing I always ask our waiter is how many lobster tails they’ve served to one person.  Andreii told me that the most he’s ever served is 18 lobster tails to one person.  Two tails on a plate with shrimp, rice and vegetables.  He served this person at least 7 complete plates (14 tails) and 2 plates with just 4 tails.  I can’t even imagine.  

We’ve also discovered that some people have taken this world cruise more than once.  I considered our trip a once-in-a-lifetime experience and there are some people that have taken it 4-5 times.  Wow!  

As I mentioned, our next port is Pago Pago tomorrow.  We don’t have a planned excursion but we will be visiting the village on our own.