Are you guys newly weds?

We got asked this question a lot ever since the first cruise 25 years ago… And I am surprised we still got asked couple of days ago…..we told the nice gentleman that we were married for 36 years already and he asked if we got married when we were 12?

I think people are just being nice and trying to make a conversation which I really appreciate 😁

Mangosteens and rambutans

We were surprised to see them at Kona’s farmers market yesterday and shocked to see them at the ships buffet… So happy…. It’s too exotic to a fellow passenger standing next to me at the fruit section and want me to describe the taste to her before she decide whether to try them or not… My description was probably bad (“mangosteen is kind of milky and nice and rambutans are like lychee but with hair 😆” ) that she forfeit trying….when I go back for second serving the mangosteens were gone… A passenger complains that someone commandeered the whole pot of mangosteens 😒

Day 8, 1/25/24 Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii

A big sun welcomes us this time…. 6 months ago when we arrived at the Big island, an eruption at the national park welcomes us 😆

Our little hula girl is happy and swaying her hips like crazy

Kona is not a port that can support docking of a big cruise ship so we will have to use tender boats (they use the lifeboats as tender boats)

The Port of Kona is so small that Everywhere we went , there’s our ship as the back drop

We love the little town of Kona… Less commercial, more Hawaiian vibe… Lush vegetations, exotic fruits in the farmers market, beautiful beaches set on black volcanic rocks… Non stop Blue turquoise strong waves…. Truly mesmerizing….

Where the old king of Hawaii vacationed
The famous kona coffees are expensive

Finally….. Happy hour by the beach 🏖️

Our lunch was Thai cuisine….. Yes we had Asian themed food again for lunch in Hawaii…  After 6 days on the ship with western food, we craved soupy, Asian flavored dishes

That concludes our Kona stop 🤙

And the whales say goodbye too…

Whale season now in Hawaii

Seasoned cruisers..

This is our 12th cruise, we thought we are seasoned cruises and later found out many on this world cruise are way more experienced…. Makes sense since it’s hard to attempt world cruise unless you already have quite a few and kind of used to ship life……but we heard there’s a passenger on board already completed 12 world cruises and this is the 13th…. 🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎😆

Princess cruises’s Enrichment classes is one of the major reason we pick them…

Almost every cruises we were on, there are multiple charismatic speakers that knew their subjects well and spoke with such enthusiasm that they have a cult like following onboard with packed venue…. This section of the cruise we have Fred Cink the astrology guy that takes us on a cruise through the galaxy (see example pics of his presentation)… And what an eye opening trip 🤩

On our prior cruises.. Theres Robert the Naturalist, Joe the Antarctica historian, Gary the route 66 expert..

Final thoughts on Honolulu…

By the end of the day P logged 33325 steps and R logged 25000 steps (more steps for P because he went out at night, see pics below ) … Hope we used up all the fat that we accumulated in the last 5 sea days… This is the second time in 6 months via cruise that we stopped in Honolulu… 1st time we joined an excursion tour group and were bused around the island… Did a little of everything including snorkeling… This second time around we were mainly on foot and more tuned in with the local scenery and understand the fabric of the culture…

This is a post office 🤩
H mart in Honolulu!!
Local group performed Hula on the ship

Also we noticed birds here are not afraid of humans.. Heres a bird waiting patiently for a man to catch something…

Good night and goodbye Honolulu!!

Dreams and Drinks

On dreams… not sure why but almost nightly now we plunge into deep sleep with abundant vivid dreams.. Is it the mattress or the gentle rocking motion of the ship?

On drinks… We called our blog site happy hours Ahoy because we thought we are going to drink every afternoon like we used to. Turns out we don’t feel the need to do this daily anymore…. Maybe every couple of days…. Heres one with delicacy P brought 😉… Yes, with all the abundant food selections on the ship, we are delighted with this classic Taiwanese snack..