January 19 - Cruising the Pacific Ocean

This is our last day at sea until we hit Hawaii.  We have much enjoyed the cruising but it will be nice to walk on land for a while. 

We attended a morning panel discussion called Ocean Views.  This appears to be a standard feature on Crystal.  We were all issued electronic voting gadgets as we went into the theater.  The panel consisted of a general, a US diplomat and a UK diplomat (all retired).  An issue was presented and 3 items of possible audience opinions on the topic were presented and we voted for the one that best represented our position.  The panel then gave their thoughts on the issue and then we all voted again to see if minds had been changed.

The panel members were incredibly knowledgeable on the topics (all world affairs issues) and it was very interesting to listen to their thought and opinions.

Once the panel discussion was over we all adjourned to Crystal Cove, the main lobby of the ship, where the chefs and kitchen crew were out in force with a Grand Gala Buffet spread out throughout the common areas.  

There were the usual works of art with carved watermelon and bread sculptors and ice sculptors.

And even a "mural" on the side of a roasted turkey.

There were huge tables with all types of delicacies and an extra large table loaded with all types of desserts.  

Everyone was overfilling plates and having a great feast

January 20 - Honolulu Hawaii

We took an early shuttle into Honolulu for a walk around.  Because we have been to Oahu several times before we opted to not spend any money on tours.  The bus dropped us off at the Ala Moana Center (huge shopping mall) and we walked down to the beach and along some of the streets.

The biggest change we found since our last visit was the International Market Place.  It used to be an area of quaint small shops selling souvenirs, eats and just stuff for tourists.  Now it is a very upscale shopping center with high end (and high price) stores.  Oh well. 

We ate lunch at the Hula Grill at the Outrigger Waikiki on the balcony overlooking the beach.  We then took a veeerrrry long walk to Waiola’s, reputed to have the best shave ice in Honolulu (as reported by one of the bell hops we talked to).  The walk was very long but the shave ice was exceptionally good.

Then we hoofed it over to the mall, did a bit of shopping and then caught the bus back to the ship. 

The biggest event of the day was the total lunar eclipse that started about 6:11 and ended around 8:45.  It was a full moon, a wolf moon (so named by the Native America's because the wolves howl at the moon in January - when they are cold and hungry), a "supermoon", a blood moon (the total eclipse causes the moon to turn red because the earth's atmosphere filters out all colors in the light spectrum except red) and a total eclipse.
  
We spent some time on the top deck watching the eclipse and taking pictures.  We finally called it quits shortly after the moon started coming out of the earth's shadow.  Talk about a special event.

Partial Eclipse

Partial Eclipse

Totality

Totality

Coming out of Totality

The harbor looked lovely at night as well.

The evening show was a very entertaining Polynesian show. 

January 21 - Maui, Hawaii

This morning we are at anchor at Lahaina, Maui.  

Late morning we headed into town and walked around a bit.  

There were a lot of tour kiosks along the wharf.  At one the boat had just come back from a fishing trip with quite a nice catch.

We then caught a taxi for a half hour drive along the coast to Maalaea Harbor.  While the drive was beautiful the ride was also rather expensive.  When at the harbor we noticed that there was a bus to Lahaina so we will try that on the way back.

We boarded the Pride of Maui for our afternoon of lunch, snorkeling and whale watching.  As usual the coastline was beautiful.  What we didn't remember (so they may be relatively new) are the wind turbines.  

We saw a few whales on our way to the snorkeling spot.  The whales are active and plentiful this time of year.  Mary was pretty disappointed that they didn’t have snuba diving (a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving) on the afternoon cruise but we both went in and had a good time snorkeling.  There were plenty of reef fish and the water was a very comfortable temperature.

After 45 minutes of snorkeling we all re-boarded and had lunch (burgers and salads) while we went looking for whales.  We saw quite a number of whales including whales breaching,

***********************************************************
Video of whale breaching.
***********************************************************


skyhopping,

tail slapping,

lounging at the surface,

and diving.

Magnificent and amazing animals.

We found the bus stop and were able to take the bus back to Lahaina and we then walked a bit more around town.  We stopped for shave ice…

before boarding the tender for the short trip to the ship.  We were both pretty full from the very late lunch and the shave ice so we didn’t bother to go to dinner tonight.  Tonight was the White Extravaganza where everyone puts on white clothes.  We should have checked it out (can be pretty dramatic) but we opted to just stay in our cabin.  At 10:00 the ship set sail for our trip to Kiribati.