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This is entry #4 of Snookums' journal of our Hawaii-Tahiti cruise, covering days 13-15.
The previous journal entry is here.
The next journal entry is here.
The home page of the cruise journal web site is here.

April 30 (Sunday, Day 13)

We crossed the equator around 8 AM today. Filbert filled up the sink and we watched the water go straight down.

Cruise Ship Investigations

We wore our CSI shirts that Filbert’s sister made for us. The black t-shirts say “Cruise Ship Investigations” on the back and “CSI” on the front. Based on our December experience, she felt that we needed them for this cruise. Lots of guests and crew got a good laugh and we got some good pictures “inspecting” various facilities on board.

At 1:00 there was a King Neptune celebration to turn crewmembers that hadn’t previously crossed the equator from pollywogs to shellbacks. There were six or seven crew people that ended up getting smeared with all sorts of food and then each of them had to kiss a huge dead fish (KISS THE FISH!) and then jump into the pool. Amazingly enough, Giuseppe, the Hotel Director, had never crossed the equator before. He’s been sailing for 12 years but has only gotten as far south as Panama. So, it was kind of neat seeing a very distinguished-looking gray haired guy get the same treatment as the younger folks. This cruise only takes place every two years so I can see why it’s a big deal to cross the equator. When the celebration was over, the pool had a slime of spaghetti and meat sauce, bratwursts, eggs, dessert mousses and other food items in it and it was disgusting! But, the whole thing was cleaned and ready for swimming less than two hours later. The crew sure does a good job of keeping the ship neat and orderly.

May 1 (Monday, Day 14)

Filbert attended an astronomy lecture and a Captain Bligh lecture regarding the Mutiny on the Bounty. He said that both of them were good.

We ate outside for lunch, during which we passed under a tropical rain shower. Everyone (including me) ducked under cover, but Filbert just sat in his chair with his arms folded across his chest as if he was just daring it to continue raining. Everyone was laughing at him and he egged them on, of course. After about 5 minutes it stopped and everyone returned to sunny seats. Filbert is definitely getting a reputation for being the goofy guy on board the ship!

According to the ship’s newspaper, there was to be an ice cream social. I was looking for the ice cream and finally asked the Mark, the maitre d’ where it was. He said there wasn’t one and I said there was and we looked in the ship’s newspaper and his face turned ashen and he apologized profusely and got me my ice cream right away. Then I’m sure he got on the phone to figure out how the screw up happened! It was a completely different reaction than what we got in December on Voyager so there was no problem at all.

We went to the casino for the third time and once again, no one was playing at the blackjack tables. I refuse to play blackjack with just us (we lose our money too fast that way) so instead we played $.25 video blackjack for about 30 minutes. We ended up losing $3 so we didn’t feel too bad.

Veal medallions with Roquefort gratin

For dinner we went to Signatures which is the “sanctioned” Le Cordon Bleu restaurant (there are only two like that and the other one is, coincidentally, on the Voyager). We had a fussy (in a good way) French meal and the veal medallions with Roquefort gratin were outstanding (as was everything else). We ate with Ted and Kathie--the people we talked to on the first day of the cruise while standing outside of the boutique for about 15 minutes. Ted left Poland as a WWII refugee at the age of three. After another three years in Romania, he immigrated with his family to Canada since the US had used up its Polish quota. They are happily retired in California. Ted has two hobbies: he’s a painter (and it sounds like he is a pretty good painter) but his other hobby is more unique. He is building a scale model of a Polish 7TP tank that was used in WWII. He is into metal fabrication and used an old file cabinet for some of the metal parts and is friends with someone that had some metal he could use for the armor parts, etc., etc. When it’s all said and done, it will be about 2 feet long and weigh about 25 pounds and will have taken three years to make and will be “museum quality”. He doesn’t have any patterns or anything but is just doing it based on research.

After dinner we changed into sensible clothes (shorts and tennis shoes) and attended the star gazing party on the top deck. The astronomer was there and we saw the Southern Cross, the Milky Way and Jupiter. The night was cloudless so all of the stars were easy to see.

May 2 (Tuesday, Day 15)

We woke up early hoping to see dolphins as we cruised into Bora Bora (population 9,000). We had a continental breakfast in the Observation Lounge of Raisin Bran (Filbert) and Sugar Smacks (Snookums). After waiting for about three hours, it was apparent that the dolphins weren’t coming to play with the ship’s bow waves. Oh well. We dropped anchor around 10 AM and immediately got on the tender for our shore excursion.

Our coral preservation and snorkeling shore excursion was with a Ph.D. coral preservationist. He is transplanting stressed coral to the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort and making it grow. He approached the resort management around 8 years ago and pointed out that the overwater bungalows ($600/night) were simply looking down at sand. They said “yes” to him starting a coral “nursery” there and now each bungalow has a little coral reef under it and the guests can see lots of colorful fish. We were in waist deep water the whole time so no fins were needed. We got to see a lot of great fish and all sorts of different kind of coral. While we were in the water, he lectured a lot, but Filbert and I swam away and looked on our own. It was great snorkeling in very warm water. We finished with a drink around the resort’s infinity swimming pool and took the little boat ride back to the tender.

Filbert and I figured we were already hot and sweaty so we walked about 1 mile and ran across two grocery stores. Bora Bora only has these two! We didn’t buy anything (and didn’t see anything too weird) but we wonder why it seems like all the other countries in the world do NOT refrigerate their eggs yet the U.S. does?

Filbert & Snookums and the Paul Gauguin

We walked back to the tender dock and when we got onboard, there was a couple we didn’t recognize. It ended up that Mike and Terry were from the MS Paul Gauguin (a 200 passenger Regent ship that basically island hops around French Polynesian islands) and were coming to our ship to check it out. It’s a rare occurrence for two Regent ships to be at the same port so we got to visit their ship and vice versa. We played tour guide for them and took them to our cabin and the rest of the ship. Then they took us to the Paul Gauguin. Their ship was much smaller and since it basically just does 7-day cruises in and out of Papeete, Tahiti, Filbert and I don’t think we’ll ever cruise on it.

Bora Bora

While getting on the tender to come back to our ship, there were two younger guys waiting. (I later found out that the younger one is one year younger than me.) I assumed they were crewmembers since I thought I was the youngest on board and since I hadn’t seen them before. It turns out that not only are they passengers that have been on since San Francisco, but that one of them is our travel agent for this cruise! He couldn’t tell me he was coming on this cruise so when we met them on the tender he gave us his middle name. Then, later that night we were talking our friend and mentioned these two young guys that we had just met. Bill then told us that it was our travel agent. To make a long story short, Bill convinced Dave, the travel agent that it would be okay for us to know that he was on board and now we know everyone by the right names! Dave didn’t want us to know he was on board for two reasons. One was that he knew we had a bad travel experience on our last Regent cruise and didn’t want to have to deal with us if this was a bad one, too, since this was his vacation. Second, travel agents aren’t allowed to solicit business while on ships so he’s keeping his profession a secret from everyone. (Don’t worry, Regent, Dave didn’t talk business to us once, although we gave him a bit of good-natured abuse about his attempt to hide his identity.)

Tonight we had the dancers from the Paul Gauguin join our ship until our Nuku Hiva stop so we watched the Polynesian dancers on the pool deck do various Polynesian dances. The women are very beautiful and really can move their hips and butts like no one else! They remind me of belly dancers or hula dancers, yet the Polynesian dancers have 6-pack abs whereas those other kinds of dancers always seem to be kind of thick around the middle.

Then they showed the movie “South Pacific” under the stars. It was kind of neat since this ship is not set up to do any kind of outside movie viewing. But, the cruise director had figured out a way to project the movie onto the canvas that was hiding some work area on the pool deck and they set up the chaise lounges and popped popcorn. We didn’t watch it since it started at 10:30, but it was a neat set up.

Filbert commented at dinner that this was his best cruise day ever. The snorkeling was top notch and the carrot ginger soup at dinner was excellent (we even requested the recipe) and the whole travel agent “incognito” thing was just too funny. Anyway, he proclaimed it his best ever cruise day and I think it will be hard to top.

This is entry #3 of Snookums' journal of our Hawaii-Tahiti cruise, covering days 9-12.
The previous journal entry is here.
The next journal entry is here.
The home page of the cruise journal web site is here.

April 26 (Wednesday, Day 9)

Due to our Mariner Club membership, we were given a free shore excursion while in Honolulu. So, we boarded the tour bus and went to the USS Missouri. On September 2, 1945 the USS Missouri was chosen to be the stage for the signing of Japan’s Formal Instrument of Surrender bringing an end to World War II. The USS Missouri was also used during Desert Storm. We climbed all over it and I was amazed at how big a battleship is. I sure know that I like our current style of cruising much better than what life would have been like on “The Mighty Mo”!

On the Mighty Mo

After we toured the USS Missouri, the bus took us to Waikiki Beach for lunch at Hula Grill. This restaurant is above Duke’s and from our outside 2nd floor tables, we had a great view of the beach and Diamond Head Volcano. After lunch (and 20 minutes for shopping), we all got back on the bus to go back to the ship.

Filbert and I then wandered around the port tourist traps and went up to the free 10th floor observatory of Aloha Tower. From there we had great views (and all to ourselves since NO ONE else was there!) in all four directions.

The Mariner from the Aloha Tower

Neither of us would have paid for this 6 hour shore excursion, but since Honolulu doesn’t really offer snorkeling convenient to where we docked, we did the free trip and had a good time.

We gave our stewardess a very nice tip tonight and she was overjoyed. The ship has a no tipping policy, but tips are always appreciated. She kissed both of us and I’m sure we’ll be getting more flowers and chocolates on our pillows and anything else she can think of!

Our choice for dinner was the BBQ under the stars that the ship was hosting. They transformed the pool deck to a BBQ buffet. It started raining around 8 PM, but for just a few minutes so no one really gave up. At 8:30 PM, the entertainment started. It was the Halau Hula Olana Show which is a hula school for children. The kids were probably 8 – 14 and it was really amazing to see the whole group so in synch. They are world famous and have performed for Prince Charles and Princess Diana. (We were sitting on the deck above the pool deck for the best view and the sound system wasn’t that good so we didn’t hear the full introduction.) Blue Hawaiian drinks in real coconut shells were being passed around and everyone had a good time.

Filbert wanted to see us leave port at midnight for Maui so he sat on the balcony for about 2.5 hours and watched the harbor activities and the planes take off from Honolulu Airport. The Honolulu Harbor is where all the container ships load and unload for all of the islands. They can unload and load a container ship within 36 hours and get it out to sea. He had his short-wave radio, his camera, his pocket telescope and his beverage and he was in hog heaven! I, of course, was reading in bed and fell asleep shortly thereafter since cargo ships and airplanes bore me.

April 27 (Thursday, Day 10)

We dropped anchor in Maui this morning around 7 and we got up and had breakfast and got off the ship by 9. Our goal was to find a snorkeling tour on our own, but when we walked the Lahaina harbor front, we found that all of the snorkeling excursions left around 7. So, we took the $1 shuttle to Black Rock Beach by the Sheraton Maui in Ka’anapali and had a great time snorkeling and frolicking in the ocean. Filbert is still trying to figure out his mask and how to get it not to leak and I think he’s finally got it figured out! We’ll try again in Bora Bora (I think that’s our next stop where we can snorkel). We spent around 3.5 hours on the beach and neither of us got too sunburned.

Lahaina

We bought our obligatory painting for our travel wall at home. We found a good one of the world famous Banyan tree in Maui and since we sat under it three different times, it will be a good remembrance.

We returned to the ship around 3:30 and ran up to the pool grill to order our lunch of hamburgers before it closed at 4. We got back to the cabin, showered and decided to stay in for the night. Filbert got two DVDs. One was for me to watch (“Mean Creek” – a teen drama) while Filbert watched us sail away and the other one (“Adaptation” with Nicolas Cage) was for both of us to watch during dinner (when it’s dark outside and Filbert can’t see anything on the ocean).

April 28 (Friday, Day 11)

Today was basically a day off from having days off! We woke up around 7 AM and read the paper and I read my book, but we managed to get to breakfast right before it shut down at 10 AM. At breakfast, Mark, the maitre d’ of La Veranda (the informal restaurant on the pool deck) “helped” me by taking my can of Diet 7-Up that I brought with me and was getting ready to pour it in a glass of ice with a lime and a straw. He asked me first and I told him that this morning I was going to mix it with orange juice. They really do try to “predict” what people want and I told him that 99% of the time I want my Diet 7-Up with a lime and a straw, but that this morning I was going to mix it with orange juice. Even when they try to help, I manage to screw it up!

After breakfast we officially booked our next cruise (and Mom and Dad’s). The good thing is that not only will our remaining shipboard credit be applied to it, I can still shop around for different travel agents after I get home in order to get the best deals and perks. So, there is really no down side of booking it on the ship and you get an extra 5% off along with the other early booking bonuses.

We got back to the cabin around 12:30 and Filbert decided it was time for his nap! I watched the movie “White” (a comedy/drama with Robin Williams and a bunch of other stars – it was okay, but I’m not sure it ever made it to theatres since I hadn’t heard of it) and he took a two hour nap. We ordered room service for a late lunch at 3 (grilled salmon for Filbert and a chef’s salad for me) and then I worked out around 4 which was too soon after eating, but I survived.

Tonight was the Seven Seas Society reception for all returning guests so we went to that. Of the 550 guests on board, 360 are past cruisers with Regent. And, the average number of nights for the returning passengers is 60!!! Filbert and I will each have 34 after this cruise so we definitely brought the number down. They had 15 people on board with more than 350 nights and the most was a guy with around 430 nights on board the four Regent ships.

At the party we sat next to Bob and Pat, a couple that we had seen a lot before and they would always come up to us and say “It’s the Kissers”. Well, we finally got their names. The kissing thing is a running joke since they saw us kiss one time during a sunset and then they told us that they always kiss before they drink anything. So, now every time we see them (or they see us), both couples kiss. They live in Commerce City, Colorado and she went to Southwest High School in Kansas City—it’s a small world! She is 63 and was a TWA flight attendant for almost 20 years (starting in 1964 when I was born). Her husband is 75 and after he got out of the navy in 1955 or so, with nothing in his wallet, he bought some hogs from his then-father-in-law and managed to become what appears to be a millionaire by growing/owning farm-related businesses. It’s their second marriage for each and they’ve been married seven years.

It was a formal night and Filbert was able to order his escargots for an appetizer. We both ordered the Dover sole for dinner since our maitre d’ had told us that many people put in a special order for that (like we did for our Indian curry dinner). I can’t say I was too impressed since it was just an incredibly mild whitefish. Oh well. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t have too much flavor. But, since it was a whole Dover sole it was neat watching the waiter “fillet” it after it had been served to us.

The evening entertainment was supposed to be the ship’s singers/dancers, but due to the rocking and rolling of the ship, it was changed to the comedian. We thought we were going to attend the comedy show, but after dinner we were pooped from our strenuous (!) day and went to bed before 10 PM!!! The singers and dancers are going to be postponed to tomorrow night.

April 29 (Saturday, Day 12)

Today was another day at sea, with the difference being it rained off and on. But, it was still hot and muggy. It cleared around 3 PM so we went to the pool grill for a late lunch and found out that they changed the menu. No more plain hamburgers and hotdogs – now you can get bleu cheese burgers (the cheese is IN the hamburger) and spicy buffalo chicken wings. We tried both new items. The hamburger was great but the chicken wings were just fried chicken wings – no spice or sauce at all! We told the grill guy and he said that it was the chef’s first day making them so he didn’t marinate them very long (or at all!). Anyway, no problem.

Bill, a single guy that we see a lot on board, told us that at 2:30 AM his smoke detector went off due to the humidity in his cabin from sleeping with his balcony door open. He said he already wrote a letter of apology to his next door neighbors. I said that we didn’t hear it (he’s down the hall from us) and he said that meant that he didn’t need to write an apology to us! I thought it was pretty interesting that humidity would set off the smoke detector but he said that the front desk immediately knew what the problem was since it happens a lot.

Bill and the Paul Gauguin

Also about 3 PM, the ship’s motion smoothed out. I kind of like the rocking and it makes doing push-ups and sit-ups kind of fun/weird/different. Some of them are really, really easy and some of them are very hard – it just depends on which way the swell goes!

Filbert was a tad under the weather today so we ended up watching Nicolas Cage’s “The Weatherman” on the ship’s movie channel.

Dinner was the Mariner Club Gala Champagne Reception and Dinner and we sat Jim and Ann-Louise, a couple from Nevada that we’ve gotten to know, and with Dick and Jean from California. Dick and Jean’s grandson wants to go to University of North Dakota since it has the best aeronautical engineering program in the country so Dick pumped Filbert (who hails from South Dakota—close enough!) for all sorts of information. I think Filbert scared them with his winter stories of how Grand Forks gets down to –30 and that’s when the weather is considered “frigid” – I know it scared me! We closed the restaurant down since our table was the last to leave of the 90 or so guests that attended.

Earlier in the day, we gave our December letter regarding the Voyager cruise to Jerry and Lynn, the Mariner Club hosts on board. When they saw us at dinner, they couldn’t believe we had encountered all of those problems and Lynn said that we should have asked to speak to the captain. She said we would have been put right through to him, and he would have made sure that everything was taken care of. And here I thought that talking to the Guest Relations Manager at the front desk was good enough! So, in the future if we experience problems, we’ll go straight to the top based on advice from the expert.

This is entry #2 of Snookums' journal of our Hawaii-Tahiti cruise, covering days 4-8.
The previous journal entry is here.
The next journal entry is here.
The home page of the cruise journal web site is here.

April 21 (Friday, Day 4)

I woke up this morning when Filbert’s sleep apnea machine crashed to the floor around 5 AM due to the waves! Then, the captain came on at 6:11 AM and announced “Code blue staff to hospital”. This was repeated at 6:25 PM so I figured I would just get up. Filbert was already out of the cabin since he wanted to see us dock at 7 AM in San Francisco. I was hearing a noise that I thought was the crew hosing down the decks, but instead it was a Coast Guard helicopter!! It was lowering a man to the deck of the ship. I threw on clothes so I could get a better view than what I was seeing from our balcony. I went upstairs one deck to the top and found a lot of people there. The sick woman was bundled up and was being put on a helicopter basket and then they raised her up to the hovering helicopter. The ship was traveling around 7 knots at this time and its fastest is 21 knots which is what we had been going since the time we turned back to San Francisco. The ship’s crew members on Fire Detail were all decked out in firemen gear, including smoke inhalation mask things, and they were standing outside on the deck ready to act in case of a helicopter crash. The hospital staff was outside, too, with the woman. They got the woman up and then the guy that had come down and after about 40 minutes total, the helicopter took off from its long-time hovering.

The Evac

Then a private tug boat type of boat came on the other side of the ship to pick up the woman’s friend and their luggage. That was kind of exciting, too, since the seas were rough and watching the woman get helped down the tender steps onto a makeshift platform and then onto this private boat was kind of scary. At one point, the little boat banged into the makeshift platform and three crewmembers almost ended up in the water – really. It was all over at 7:07 AM and we went and found breakfast. We never docked in San Francisco (and there were some people thinking we would need to in order to get fuel) and now we’re on our way back to Honolulu. We first left San Francisco at 7 PM on Tuesday and were supposed to dock in Honolulu on Sunday at noon. Now we left San Francisco again around 7 AM and who knows when or where we’ll next stop!!! It will be interesting to see if any of this makes Fox or CNN!

It’s sunny but only 54 outside and the seas are kind of rough (the exercise class using exercise balls was changed to an abdominal class since you can’t use a ball when the ship is rocking back and forth).

We had a great galley tour since there were just seven of us plus the executive chef, Cornel. The executive chef is in charge of all five restaurants so he doesn’t actually do any “hands on” cooking. The tour was at 4 PM so we saw the calm before the storm of the evening’s service. Chefs were chopping green peppers and plating the leek terrine (one of the appetizers for the night). Another chef was making 2,000 hors d’oeuvres and he basically does that every day, all day long, since they pass around trays of them in the bars before dinner every night.

When we returned to our room after dinner, we had the revised itinerary. Kauai, Hilo and Fanning Island are being cut out of our trip. We will get to our first port, Honolulu, on April 26 (rather than April 23 as planned). Filbert and I really wanted to see Fanning Island (Republic of Kiribati) since stopping there would have had us crossing the International Date Line and would have allowed us to see an inhabited island without electricity. Oh well. Rumor has it that the captain, Jean-Marie Guillou, has been trying to get to Fanning Island for three years but something always comes up and he has to cancel. He has friends there. We figure he must be cursed because he’s not going to make it there this year, either.

Regent is giving each passenger $150 shipboard credit which means we now have $1950 to spend on the ship! They are also giving each passenger $500 off a future cruise. The unbelievable thing is that there has been NO grumbling on the ship about missing some of the ports. I guess it’s because just about everyone on this ship has been to all the ports multiple times (except us, of course).

April 22 (Saturday, Day 5)

This morning we had a tour of the bridge with eight other people. We learned that every kind of injury – even a broken arm – has to get reported to the local governing body (like the Coast Guard when sailing near the U.S.). So, when the woman had her heart episode, the Coast Guard was notified and since her condition was so unstable, they said that we had to turn around and dock at San Francisco. Her condition finally stabilized which allowed the Coast Guard to fly out and meet us and take her off the ship. This saved us at least five hours since we didn’t have to continue all the way to San Francisco and go through the docking process.

The Blue Pacific

Filbert has been watching the laysan albatrosses from our balcony. He got a book from the library on seabirds and narrowed the variety of albatross to the Laysan family! They are found between the U.S. and Hawaii and follow cruise ships for the galley waste. There seem to be three of them. They just fly alongside the ship and then make swooping turns to the water, but they haven’t gone in the water yet (on the port side anyway).

Filbert bought an island print silk shirt to use up more of our shipboard credit. It looks very nice on him. I think we have now bought everything we can possibly buy and even the art doesn’t interest us. We’ll have to figure out another use for our shipboard credit. Oh, the problems we have…

At dinner tonight, one of the headwaiters (Horatiu) came over and asked us if we had sailed before. It turns out he remembered us from the December Voyager cruise. He also happened to deliver room service coffee to us about three days ago and remembered our cabin number from that delivery. I can only think that as VIPs, our pictures and cabin number are posted everywhere since everyone seems to know us. I remember him from the Voyager (and he remembered Mom and Dad, too), but I can’t remember if I ever got mad at HIM. I don’t think I did, but I might have told him about an unpleasant dining experience we had during the December cruise. Oh well. I don’t think I did anything to him to get him mad at us, that’s for sure. While we were talking to him we mentioned the fabulous Indian dinner that they made special for us on Voyager and he said that do that here, too. So, we ordered it for Sunday’s dinner.

After dinner we went to the magic show and Filbert was invited on stage to help! He participated in two acts. The first was where Filbert held a cane in front on him and the magician, Mark Haslam, tied a scarf around it and then tied it again and this time it was totally off the scarf. The amazing thing was that Filbert saw that the scarf was totally off the cane about 30 seconds before the magician let the audience see the “magic”, but Filbert still has no idea how the guy did it! Then, the magician had Filbert strap him into a straitjacket (ala Houdini) and got out of it. The magician picked a man from the audience since the straitjacket has a crotch strap and he knew that guys would be sympathetic to the cause and wouldn’t hurt him! Filbert was a natural on stage and had people in the audience (and the magician) laughing. People see him two days after and are still pointing him out as the magician’s helper.

April 23 (Sunday, Day 6)

We ordered room service for breakfast and got up at 6 AM to see the sunrise but it was cloudy out. Oh well, we still enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then we went and had a hard workout.

Today was the first day where it’s been warm enough to go outside. We ate outside for lunch and it got hot! Finally, it’s in the 70s. At 2 PM the captain came on the loudspeaker and announced that we had made it to the point of no return so Hawaii, here we come!!!

The Internet satellite was down today (per Filbert). I guess I’ll try to send out another issue of this journal on Monday. I was going to play Bingo today, but one of the guests said that it was very boring – the caller just calls the number – so I decided not to.

The official Coast Guard statement came out today regarding the medivac operation:

“In a dramatic helicopter rescue, a U.S. Coast Guard crew in the San Francisco Bay evacuated a 68-year old woman having a medical emergency on a Hawaii-bound cruise shop Friday morning. The medical evacuation occurred about 10 miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge, Coast Guard officials said. The rescue began with a call of assistance Thursday from a medical team aboard the Seven Seas Mariner after a cruise passenger experienced a serious, undisclosed medical condition. The ship was about 600 miles southwest of San Francisco at the time. It had left its San Francisco port on Tuesday and was en route to Hawaii, Coast Guard officials said. Coast Guard personnel remained in contact with the medical team throughout Thursday and overnight. At about 6:30 Friday morning, a crew aboard a HH65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station San Francisco met the ship about 10 miles beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. A rescue swimmer was lowered on to the cruise ship to prepare the woman to be hoisted into the helicopter. She was then transferred to Stanford Medical Center and we are happy to report that her latest condition is stable.”

We later heard that she told the ship’s doctor that she wanted to stay on board and continue with the cruise!

Our Indian curry dinner tonight was outstanding. It was just the main course so we ordered our appetizers and salads from the normal menu but made sure to order light since we knew we would be getting a lot. And, boy oh boy, did we ever. We had rice, naan (Indian bread), lentil curry, chicken curry, shrimp curry and mushroom/green pea curry. They were all delicious and our mouths and lips were on fire for quite awhile. When Marinela, the sommelier, found out that we were having the special Indian dinner, she insisted that Filbert have her favorite wine http://www.dopff-irion.com/site.htm (Dopf and Irion’s Gewürztraminer) that goes with curry (and she even gave it to him complimentary). He agreed that it was a great pairing and asked her for the name, and she said she would send it in a note to our cabin.

It was amazing how each curry “gravy” tasted different. My personal favorite was the mushroom/pea curry with the chicken curry coming in a close second. Filbert’s least favorite was the lentil curry (and I agree with him on that). He thought the mushroom/pea curry was the spiciest and we both commented that the white meat chicken chunks were the biggest chunks of white meat chicken was had ever seen. Needless to say we both cleaned BOTH our plates (one plate was not big enough to hold what the waiter served so he got us each another plate for the shrimp curry). It was magnificent and we are definitely going to do that special order again and let them surprise us with the Indian dishes they want to make for us (except for no lamb and no eggplant).

April 24 (Monday, Day 7)

They gave us comment cards to fill out the other day and I let them know that the corned beef hash in the breakfast buffet was always cold but that all other aspects of the cruise were exceptional (because they were). Kylie, the Guest Relations Manager, wrote us a letter back thanking us for our comments about the corned beef hash. The letter was totally unexpected, but very nice. Then, this morning the headwaiter at the buffet asked if the corned beef hash was hot! So, I guess the comment cards really do get read (and if you write your name on them, expect to be asked about the “issue”)!

Filbert at La Veranda

I found out this morning that we can use our shipboard credit towards the purchase of a future cruise (and we don’t even have to buy it through Regent which is good since cruise lines are always more expensive than travel agents). So, that problem is solved. We’re going to go on the Panama Canal cruise in 2007 and Mom and Dad are coming with us. I plan on booking it while in Hawaii (cell phones can be used so I’ll be able to call around then for best prices), or at least before we disembark in San Francisco. The Mariner leaves from Ft. Lauderdale and disembarks at San Francisco.

The captain just announced that we’re going to get to Honolulu on April 25 at 7 PM rather than April 26 at 9 AM. Everyone is happy to hear that since everyone, crew included, is going a little stir crazy from all of the days at sea. The casino and boutique staffs are especially happy since they have had lots more work hours due to the extra days at sea.

April 25 (Tuesday, Day 8)

We wrote two letters today for the outstanding service we have received. One was addressed to Giuseppe, the Hotel Director, and explained how good Evi is as a room stewardess. The other was addressed to Cornel, the Executive Chef, thanking him for the wonderful curry dinner. We hope that the appropriate people get kudos for their service.

We had a room service breakfast this morning and ended up not leaving the room until around 11 AM when we went to work out. We had the gym to ourselves so that was kind of neat. I guess most people either work out very early or in the afternoon.

I watched two movies on TV – “50 First Dates” and “Fight Plan”. I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for them, but they broke up the monotony of our 7th day at sea! (But, I’m not getting bored at all and neither is Filbert. We’re having fun!!!)

Diamond Head

We docked at Honolulu at 7 PM and Filbert enjoyed watching the harbor activities and the Honolulu airport from our balcony. The other side of the ship had to see the port building the whole time so we were lucky that our side (port) was the one facing the harbor and the HNL runway.

Tonight we were invited to eat dinner with the Mariner Club hosts. Since we used an American Express card to pay for the cruise, we were automatically enrolled in the Mariner Club which is some kind of “frequent cruising” program. The other six people at the table all knew each other from many previous cruises and it was fun listening to them talk about what happened to so and so from other cruises. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it seemed like they had each been on at least 30 cruises.

So women like Ayaan Hirsi Ali can sit in a  restaurant and sip their espresso in peace.  Read the article, and understand what the civilized world is up against.  Her fight is your fight, so you should know what it's all about.

Hat tip:  Big Round-Up.

Government is very, very good at making things that regular people want to do more difficult.  It is not so good at making those things easier.

This is entry #1 of Snookums' journal of our Hawaii-Tahiti cruise, covering days 1-3.
The next journal entry is here.
The home page of the cruise journal web site is here.

April 18 (Tuesday, Day 1)

We arrived at the San Francisco airport, and while waiting for our luggage we saw a guy holding a Regent Sevens Seas sign. We asked him how much it would cost to take the “official” bus to the ship and after he radioed a couple of different people, he ended up saying that we could go for free. Transfers usually cost at least $30/person on cruises so we felt great that we were going to get to the ship at no cost, especially since the other six passengers had to give him their vouchers which meant they paid. The trip was starting out on the right foot! While waiting for the Regent bus, we got to know another passenger that was also waiting, Faith. She’s traveled everywhere multiple times and seems like a really neat older woman.

San Francisco Skyline from the Dock

We got to the ship at 1 PM and since the suites weren’t going to be ready until 2 PM, we enjoyed a nice lunch on the pool deck in the San Francisco sun. It had rained for 50+ straight days but didn’t rain on Monday or Tuesday so we got to enjoy the great sunshine and the spectacular views.

Our "Suite"

We walked into our suite (#1050 on the port side) and noticed the expensive bottle of champagne, the box of Godiva truffles and the coupon for a free photograph along with several notes/letters from various big wigs. We figured that they were going to work hard to win back our business after our bad December cruise. So far, every crew person has been extremely happy and helpful and there is a completely different atmosphere on board this ship.

At 5 PM they had a special exclusive unveiling ceremony since the Mariner was the first ship in the fleet to have the old “Radisson” repainted with “Regent”. The CEO of the company was there along with 200+ visitors (mostly press and travel agents, from what I could tell). The drinks and hors d’oeuvres were flowing and San Francisco port officials presented Regent with a couple of plaques and there were lots of short speeches. It was kind of neat seeing all the people with visitor badges since I know that it’s almost impossible to get visitors on a ship since 9/11. We sat with a younger couple, Dee and Kim from California, so we already met two friends!

We were supposed to leave San Francisco at 6 PM but an announcement was made saying that it was pushed back to 7 PM since the ship wanted to take advantage of the beautiful sunset while going under the Golden Gate Bridge. We sailed away to the accompaniment of the San Francisco fire department boat with its three water cannons spewing forth water and we also had a helicopter flying all around filming the departure of the ship with its new logo. The bottom of the swimming pool was repainted, too, while the ship was docked in San Francisco with the new “R” logo.

Fire boat and Rainbow

We went to the main dining room for dinner and sat next to a table with an elderly couple at it. Several times throughout the meal we would chat with each other, yet still had our “privacy” at our tables for two. We’ve noticed on this ship that all the passengers (and crew, too) are extremely friendly and willing to just stop and chat for 10 – 15 minutes at a time. I guess it’s the leisurely pace of being onboard with the same group of 550 passengers for 27 days that brings out the best in people. We also seem to be the youngest on board and it seems that everyone has been to the South Pacific multiple times (except us!).

Dinner was excellent and the sweet potato soup with cumin spiced bananas was outstanding. Mom needs to make it since I’m thinking it’s just pureed sweet potatoes, some chicken broth, probably a little cream and then a few spices (or maybe just cumin – the banana/plantain [hard to tell which it was] was just for decoration on the top). The couple at the next table each ordered it too, and raved about it. We ordered dessert but after 15+ minutes left without getting it. The couple next to us left before we did, without getting their dessert either, and Filbert was rather upset about it and let the head waitress know. We went back to the cabin and went to bed since we had been up since 2:15 AM Pacific time and it was now around 10 PM!

Our room stewardess is Evi and is 26 years old and is from Indonesia. Her husband is an auto mechanic and her job on this ship allows her to “support” him since buying car parts is so expensive. (They must bill for auto repairs differently in Indonesia since I know it’s common in the US for the customer to pay for the parts that are required!) She is going home at the end of this cruise and will be off for 3 months and will return to this ship if her husband is okay with that. She’s been here for seven months already and gets no days off and her hours are 6 AM – 2 PM and then 7 PM until she goes to bed around midnight or so. But, she is an incredibly cheery (and articulate) young woman.

April 19 (Wednesday, Day 2)

For breakfast we went to the buffet breakfast and the maitre ‘d (Mark) went to Filbert and addressed him by name. Well, it was Snookums’ last name, but still, it was remarkable. Filbert corrected the pronunciation as well as his last name, but we really have no idea how the guy knew us. We don’t know if it’s because we are coded as “VIPs” (and what does that really mean, anyway?) or if the dessert episode from last night is causing them to try to rectify the situation. We like being kow-towed to!! (Before leaving home, I called the cruise line to find out if we were being upgraded due to our bad December experience. The Customer Relations Manager told me that the ship was ready for us since we were VIPs.)

After we worked out we were sitting in the cabin reading and then all of a sudden Filbert noticed two pods of dolphins coming perpendicular to the ship. It was pretty neat to see two groups of 10+ dolphins frolicking in the water beneath us. They were there for about 3 or 4 minutes. Filbert ran into the room to get his camera and took a video of one of them.

April 18 (Tuesday, Day 1)

We arrived at the San Francisco airport, and while waiting for our luggage we saw a guy holding a Regent Sevens Seas sign. We asked him how much it would cost to take the “official” bus to the ship and after he radioed a couple of different people, he ended up saying that we could go for free. Transfers usually cost at least $30/person on cruises so we felt great that we were going to get to the ship at no cost, especially since the other six passengers had to give him their vouchers which meant they paid. The trip was starting out on the right foot! While waiting for the Regent bus, we got to know another passenger that was also waiting, Faith. She’s traveled everywhere multiple times and seems like a really neat older woman.

We got to the ship at 1 PM and since the suites weren’t going to be ready until 2 PM, we enjoyed a nice lunch on the pool deck in the San Francisco sun. It had rained for 50+ straight days but didn’t rain on Monday or Tuesday so we got to enjoy the great sunshine and the spectacular views.

We walked into our suite (#1050 on the port side) and noticed the expensive bottle of champagne, the box of Godiva truffles and the coupon for a free photograph along with several notes/letters from various big wigs. We figured that they were going to work hard to win back our business after our bad December cruise. So far, every crew person has been extremely happy and helpful and there is a completely different atmosphere on board this ship.

At 5 PM they had a special exclusive unveiling ceremony since the Mariner was the first ship in the fleet to have the old “Radisson” repainted with “Regent”. The CEO of the company was there along with 200+ visitors (mostly press and travel agents, from what I could tell). The drinks and hors d’oeuvres were flowing and San Francisco port officials presented Regent with a couple of plaques and there were lots of short speeches. It was kind of neat seeing all the people with visitor badges since I know that it’s almost impossible to get visitors on a ship since 9/11. We sat with a younger couple, Dee and Kim from California, so we already met two friends!

We were supposed to leave San Francisco at 6 PM but an announcement was made saying that it was pushed back to 7 PM since the ship wanted to take advantage of the beautiful sunset while going under the Golden Gate Bridge. We sailed away to the accompaniment of the San Francisco fire department boat with its three water cannons spewing forth water and we also had a helicopter flying all around filming the departure of the ship with its new logo. The bottom of the swimming pool was repainted, too, while the ship was docked in San Francisco with the new “R” logo.

Hors d’oeuvres were delivered to our room around 4:30. That is what guests in the suites with butler service get every day. We don’t have butler service, but we think this is another VIP perk. One way or another, it’s another nice bonus (and we are receiving them every day).

Tonight was formal night and we went to the Captain’s Gala party before dinner. We also got our picture taken since the ship is giving us a free 8 x 10 photo of our choice. We’ll have 3 more formal nights so we figure that we should be able to get one good picture of the two of us.

This morning we were invited to eat dinner with the Food and Beverage Manager, Ivar, at his table in Latitudes, the Indo-Chinese restaurant. A mother and daughter were with us, too. We don’t know if we were invited due to our “VIP” status from our prior bad cruise experience or if they were trying to make up for the late dessert from Tuesday night. But, it was kind of fun asking him all sorts of food and beverage questions. And, since he was from Norway, he bonded with Filbert immediately (and the daughter’s husband is Norwegian, too, although he didn’t come on the cruise, so she had stories, too).

April 20 (Thursday, Day 3)

We woke up at 8 AM and turned on the TV to the navigation channel and noticed right away that we were heading northeast. Right when Filbert was going to call the front desk to ask why, the captain came on the speaker and said that the Coast Guard ordered us back to San Francisco due to a medical emergency and we would dock there at 7 AM on Friday. We don’t know what will happen after that or how the cruise will be impacted, but what the heck, we’re having a ball! (Although I feel sorry for the sick woman and her friend since they are basically now waiting 24 hours for an ambulance.)

Dolphins Ahoy!

We’ve Turned Back!

After eating our breakfast, we ended up chatting for 2 hours with the couple at the next table (John and Morgan) and shared cruise stories and travel/hotel horror stories. She and I are alike in that we demand that the hotels fulfill their obligations and she has frequently been upgraded after filing legitimate complaints. She doesn’t let the hotel industry get away with anything (just like me!)

We went shopping in order to spend some of the $1,650 in shipboard credit that the cruise line and travel agent gave us. (It’s hard to spend when alcohol is free, no tipping is allowed and we’re not doing any of the ship’s shore excursions.) We got Filbert a mesh backed “travel vest” with lots of pockets, a sweatshirt and a zip-up jacket. Now he can be warm enough to sit on the balcony and watch the sea go by (which is what he is doing as I write this while on the sofa in front of the TV). It’s 59 outside which is too chilly for me. The boutique had nothing that fit me since all of the ladies’ fleece jackets/sweaters were too short and I didn’t even bother looking at the fleece pants since I KNOW they would have been too short. We also each signed up for Internet access ($50 for 250 minutes).

We visited the Art Director’s desk and he is going to pull some art out that he thinks we might like. He told him about our money that we had to spend and he said “Aha, that explains why our Hotel Director was suddenly transferred to the Voyager”. So, I guess the Mariner DOES have a better atmosphere and attitude and Regent is hoping to get that same feeling on Voyager and they probably figure it starts at the top (which is usually does).

We were invited to a pre-dinner party so we went (although they had just announced that all bars would be “open” tonight since the emergency turnaround was inconveniencing all of us). At the party, we talked to Lynn, Regent’s “Future Cruise Consultant” since she was the youngest person in the room. She is from Iowa and worked in Omaha for awhile before taking this job. She said it was nice to see young faces on board (I think the average age is 65). Sometime when she is on duty, I’ll ask her about next year’s 12-day Alaska cruise and 16-day Panama Canal cruise.

Filbert and I ate in LaVeranda and enjoyed a Mediterranean menu with lots of good antipasti. Then we enjoyed a free drink in the 12th floor observation bar before retiring for the evening.

From Michael Yon, in a post titled Hijacking Haditha (hat tip: Instapundit):

To get the true context of how fairly any newspaper or media outlet is treating the military in general, and this war in particular, news consumers should consider how long it had been since that same source focused the same energy on the war. For some outlets, the last time the war really splashed was with Abu Ghraib. But if the reality of the war or the true nature of our military men and women were to be accurately represented in column inches, newspapers would be filled with the stories of Ben Morton, Walt Gaya, Brandon Huff, Sgt Mesa, Mary Prophit, Tim Boggs, Mark Bieger, and Colonel Robert Brown, whose soldiers fought like hell for Mosul, and won. Amidst that kind of coverage, the Haditha story would find its true context.

Until the facts are released by the investigating authorities, we might benefit from a new sign:

WARNING
Speculating is Strictly Forbidden —
Violators Will be Fined

If you're not reading Michael Yon and the other warbloggers, and are just getting your Iraq information from Big Media, then you are not getting a complete story. If you have an opinion on the Haditha incident (pro- or anti-military) then you really need to reconsider your biases and assumptions, because no one outside the immediate investigation has enough information to form a meaningful opinion on the matter.

UPDATE: This applies double and triple to editorial cartoonists. The one who drew this one should be fired immediately. Why? Here's why.

On a not completely unrelated thought, I'm coming around to the opinion that it's time for American troops to stop patrolling in Iraq. We should remain, in smaller (but still strategically significant) numbers, in highly secure garrisons. We should support when necessary Iraqi security forces when requested, but we need to accelerate our disengagement from security operations within Iraq and reconfigure for a potential war with Iran.

Now that there is an elected Iraqi government, it is time see if the Iraqis really are capable of governing themselves as the Right prefers to think. Or, it's time to find out if the Iraqis so politically immature that they require the heavy boot of oppression (Saddam Hussein or Islamofascist terrorists) to bully and kill enough of them to behave, as the Left seems to believe.

Let's see who's right and who's wrong.

There has been much nonsense written and spoken about 6/6/06, most of which is spawned by an advertising campaign for a re-make of a horror movie (Hollywood IS out of ideas). 666, get it? Ooh, scary.

Little has been said or printed about a much more momentous June 6th, one which literally changed the world. The 6/6 in 1944 which sealed Nazi Germany's fate in World War II.

Jerry Agar at KMBZ radio in Kansas City remembered the Normandy invasion on his radio show this afternoon, reading General Eisenhower's Order of the Day for 6 June 1944.

Powerline also remembers the Longest Day.

The counsel from this quarter is still to wait until the military has finished its investigation.

Why? An article by Andrew Walden at Hawaiireporter.com (hat tip Free Republic) illustrates why:

Marine Captain James Kimber commanded Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. The troops involved in the incident were from Kilo Company. He tells interviewers that he first learned about the shootings in February when he heard that a Time magazine reporter was asking questions about civilian deaths. Notably, Kimber says he heard nothing about a civilian massacre during weekly meetings with the Haditha City Council and talks with local leaders. "It would have been huge, there would have been no question it would have filtered down to us," he said. "We reported no significant atmospheric change as a result of that day." Kimber who has been relieved of his command and is back in Camp Pendleton, CA says, “I believe I was a political casualty as a result of the Haditha incident.” Some media accounts indicate that some of the dead were relatives of a Haditha City Council member.
. . .
A key point in dispute is whether the 24 who died in Haditha November 19 were gunned down, as Murtha says, “in cold blood” or were 15 civilians killed by the IED and nine hostiles then killed in a firefight as the Marines claim. The families refuse to allow an exhumation which could possibly answer this key question. According to the June 2 Washington Post, those exhumations may occur soon.
. . .
There is a possibility that Iraqi eyewitness sources’ credibility may fall apart in the event of a trial. It has happened before in similar cases. The reasons are deep rooted in tribal culture.

A British case which speaks directly to the credibility of tribal witnesses and to the Islamic tribal tradition of “blood money” collapsed November 3, 2005. On trial were seven British soldiers charged with murder stemming from a May, 2003 incident in Ferkah, Iraq. All charges were dismissed after it became clear that the key witnesses were lying in order to gain “blood money”. The BBC describes the collapse of the trial as follows:

“…it has become clear to everyone involved as the trial has progressed that the main Iraqi witnesses had colluded to exaggerate and lie about the incident.”
. . .
Are lies being told to obtain blood money payments? Some insight comes in this response to the collapse of the British trial by Stephan Holland, a Baghdad-based US contractor.

I’ve been in Iraq for about 18 months now performing construction management. It is simply not possible for me to exaggerate the massive amounts of lies we wade through every single day. There is no way - absolutely none - to determine facts from bulls*** ….

It is not even considered lying to them; it is more akin to being clever - like keeping your cards close to your chest. And they don’t just lie to westerners. They believe that appearances--saving face--are of paramount importance. They lie to each other all the time about anything in order to leverage others on a deal or manipulate an outcome of some sort or cover up some major or minor embarrassment. It’s just how they do things, period.

Wait. Watch. Listen. Do not judge before all the facts are before you. That is what civilized people do.

Instapundit links . . .

"YOU DON'T NEED PAPERS FOR VOTING:" Just for really important things, like buying sudafed.

Heh.