Sea Day #2

Today was a typical sea day, with a formal night dinner.  I explored the back of the ship in the morning while checking out the mini golf course and pickleball court. Check out the view of the entire ship on the left and a classic wake picture from the top deck on the right. 

I came in second at Sudoku this morning before attending a naturalist talk about the Hawaiian volcanoes. 

After lunch we tried to attend a presentation about our ports, but it was packed (no seats available) so we skipped it. Hopefully it will be on the TV tomorrow.  We had a very nice supper and especially enjoyed these dessert.  Mary's caramel cheesecake on the left and my hazelnut dessert on the right. 

Tonight's production show was a new one titled Magic To Do that had a number of magic tricks embedded in the dance numbers.  As you can see the costumes were quite colorful and interesting. 

At 11:30 pm ship time (3:30 am Detroit time) we will reach the halfway point to Hawaii.   2 more sea days to go!

Sea Day #1

We continued sailing toward Hawaii today at just over 20 mph.  Mary caught this beautiful sunrise this morning.  We tried to go to breakfast in the restaurant, but the lines were too long.  I played Sudoku and Carpet bowling in the morning, but no victories.  We tried to go to lunch in the restaurant, but, again, very long lines.   Seems like Princess should have more than 1 restaurant open for breakfast and lunch.

The highlight of the day was the National Championship football game -  U-M taking on the University of Washington .  U-M was favored by 5 1/2 points, but ended up winning 34-13!  What a blowout! It was nice to watch it on the ship's big Movies Under the Stars screen.  

We grabbed burgers for supper at halftime, then enjoyed dessert from the International Cafe after the game ended.  Overall it was a great and very relaxing day.  

Another relaxing sea day tomorrow with the first formal night dinner followed by a new production show with the Princess singers and dancers.

Heading Out to Sea

 

We had a fairly quite morning,  enjoying the typical Holiday Inn Express breakfast before getting ready for our ride to the ship. Once we got to the ship, embarkation went smooth since we had done all the prep work and had a minimal wait at check-in.  Lunch on the ship was great, and our balcony looked over  the city, so we got a nice picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We did have one issue when Mary's suitcase did not show up in a timely manner.  Passenger Services assured us it was on board so we waited, and waited....  She had to go to dinner with the clothes she had, but her suitcase did show up when we got back from dinner. WHEW!

Sail away was delayed by an hour so the sun had set before we cleared the harbor.  As we sailed out, Mary got pictures of the seal lions at Pier 39, and one of Ghirardelli.  We sailed under the Golden Gate while enjoying our Pina Colada chilled soup at dinner.  As expected, dinner was excellent. 

The entertainment for the night was an Elton John tribute singer.  In typical Elton fashion, he came out in a shiny, sequin-covered jump suit!  The music was great and we recognized nearly all the songs.  He included the original version of Candle in the Wind and closed with a rousing edition of Crocodile Rock.

Tomorrow is the first of 4 full sea days so we have several on-board activities lined up. 

Note: On the blog, you can click on any picture to make it larger.

Heading to Hawaii

Well, the Schotts are traveling again!  This time we are on a 16 day cruise to Hawaii. The above picture is not quite right since we are not going to Maui, but you get the general idea.   

Yesterday was a very loooooong travel day.  It was either fly out very early or mid-afternoon, and I picked mid-afternoon.  We left Detroit Metro on a 3pm flight to San Francisco with a 2 1/2 layover in Phoenix, scheduled to arrive in San Francisco at 9pm PST.  (Always book a sizable layover if you need to arrive on time!) Being a mid-day flight, our first flight was delayed by 30 minutes which was well within our layover time.  But our second flight was also delayed by 45 minutes which got us into SFO about 10 PM (that 's 1AM Detroit time).  Tired and well past our bed times, we caught our shuttle to the HI Express, unpacked a bit and finally go to sleep at 12:45 AM PST.  

Today we have a Lyft coming at 11am to take us to the Crown Princess.   We are looking forward to several sea days, arriving at Hilo on Friday.  Thanks for coming along on our journey!

You Can't Get Too Much Mack and Chris

Thursday we flew to Raleigh for a Mack and Chris Christmas Concert in Holly Springs, NC.  Yes, we just saw them in Nashville last week, but that was a Symphony concert with a couple of Christmas songs.  This was a Christmas concert with just them (and a drummer).    The concert hall was rather intimate, with under 200 seats.  We could see quite well from the 10th row.

What a concert it was!  Many John Denver songs, interspersed with Christmas songs.  And, as Chris said, no Christmas concert could be complete without his playing the Charlie Brown Peanuts theme song. Of course Mack sang Christmas for Cowboys along with Elvis Presley's Blue Christmas.  Chris told a story of being on tour with John Denver just after he joined the band.  John, who was very competitive, took them on a fishing trip near Aspen.  Chris ended up catching quite a few fish while John was skunked, so Chris was a bit worried about his job, but it all worked out. John even cleaned the fish, cooked them, and did the dishes!

Mack closed with his song, Star Light, a very moving song. 

Overall it was a beautiful Christmas concert. 

Of course we stuck around afterwards and had a very nice conversation with Mack's brother, Tom, and their father.  We had a great conversation with both Mack and Chris as well.  

Saturday we fly back to Detroit, with memories of this wonderful concert.

Nashville Day 2

Our full day in Nashville started with a visit to Lipscomb University's Dolly Parton dress exhibit.  The exhibit was organized by Dolly's niece (who is her archivist), and the Lipscomb University Fashion and Design department.  The exhibit was very interesting and had a nice video explaining all the behind-the-scenes work needed for her dresses.  Dolly has a staff of at least 6 people to make her apparel.  As you can see in the bottom right picture, the detail on the dresses was quite fascinating!  (click to enlarge) The staff has to prepare around 300 dresses per year and, fortunately, Dolly does not have a problem with wearing the same dress more than once since each new dress takes around 40 hours of work to prepare.  These are just a few of the many dresses on display.

After the Dolly exhibit, we spotted Nashville's replica Parthenon.  It's a full recreation of the one in Athens, only this one has a roof and no scaffolding.  

And, of course, no visit to Nashville is complete without buying some Goo-Goo clusters! They remind me of a local Fort Wayne candy that I grew up with. 

The main event of this trip was the John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas show.  It was mostly John singing on a video on the big screen, accompanied by the live Nashville Symphony and the musicians. Mack Bailey (right) sang Oh Holy Night and Chris Nole (left) was featured on For You, just like he did in the concerts he did with John; it was as beautiful as ever! 

At one point in the concert Mack told how whenever John Denver bought a new guitar, he bought identical 6- and 12-string models.  At the time of his death, the 12-string was in final preparation and got lost in the shuffle of his estate.  Well, tonight was the first time these two guitars were reunited! 

The main performers are shown on the right: Jason Seber (conductor), Chris Nole (piano), Alan Deremo (bass), Nate Barnes (drums), Mack Bailey (guitar and lead vocals), and Jon Conley (guitar).

Tomorrow we start a 2 day drive home so no further posts for this trip are anticipated. 

Driving to Nashville

Mary and I took 2 days to drive to Nashville, enjoying lunch with Katie in Ohio before staying overnight in northern Kentucky.   We came to Nashville for a Mack Bailey and Chris Nole concert with the Nashville Symphony tomorrow night.  

After arriving we drove downtown to see the sights, driving down 3rd, Broadway, and other famous streets on our way to the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.  All in all, it was cool driving around a very busy Nashville downtown and seeing all the museums and souvenir shops.  After that, we then drove out to see the new Grand Ole Opry.   There is quite a commercial development around the Opry site, with the Opry Mills mall and a lot of themed restaurants.  

We then enjoyed dinner at the Santa Fe Cattle Company.  You just gotta have some BBQ when in Nashville!   Now we're back in our motel and getting ready to see the Dolly Parton "My Life in Rhinestones" exhibit tomorrow before heading to the concert.