bobmacliberty

People on balconies do realize that their neighbors can hear everything they say to each other, everything they say on the phone, everything they watch on the internet, right? RIGHT? 🤫

They’re playing the original version with the original lyrics (lovely day rather than perfect day) as background music before shows on Ovation. Subliminal messaging??!

Good idea but too late. We’ll be ashore for happy hour and dinner the last 2 nights.

We’ve been to Maui 3 times before on at least 1 week vacations, so we’ve “been there done that” for most things on the island. If you’re here, definitely go to the Old Lahaina Luau. Fantastic, but we’ve done it twice. We’ve driven the Road to Hana 1.5 times (daughters got bored halfway through our second time so we turned around). We’ve been to the top of Haleakala 3 times. We’ve ziplined (highly recommend Flyin Hawaiian), snorkeled, helicoptered (twice…Blue Hawaiian 👍), watched kite boarding at Ho’okipa (Wow). We’ve been to the Iao Valley and driven our rental car places that they are not supposed to go. So what do we have planned? Not much. We’re going up on North Star this morning at 10:30, figuring it would be better to do in port than at sea. We’ll then make our way to shore and go to Kaanapali. We’ll walk along the beach path and see what’s changed with the resorts in the area. We’ll do a little shopping in Whaler’s Village. We have dinner reservations at one of our favorite restaurants, the Hula Grill. We are very much looking forward to some fresh seafood. It will be good to walk on dry land, although probably with sea legs. 😁

I’m not a fan of Ovation’s Concierge Club. I’m guessing the same would be true for and Quantum class ship. It’s nice that it has a lot of space and has great views from the aft of the ship. It’s a long walk down a cabin hallway to get to it, which is strange. And it doesn’t have a real bar, which has caused drink limitation problems. I previously mentioned that the only Sauvignon Blanc they had the other night was Sea Ridge. That we still true last night (they couldn’t restock??) and they also ran out of any Pinot Grigio other than…you guessed it…Sea Ridge. Micheline gave it a try. Blech. 😵. One of the waiters felt bad and ran to a different bar to get some real wine. The happy hour snacks seem lacking also. Several dessert things (I’m not in the mood for dessert at HH…maybe for after dinner??), a few bits of cheese, some fruit, and usually 4 different little fried things. I recall a better selection on other ships My bigger issue is how separated it is from CK. CK therefore can’t use the lounge bar. Any drinks or specialty coffees that we ordered in CK get charged to us (ie use one of our vouchers). I really like how everything is in one place on Oasis class. On the plus side, service in the lounge has been great and Carlington has been an excellent Suite Concierge. We had a nice talk with him last night about how his family grows coffee in Jamaica (Blue Mountain…yum) but he doesn’t drink coffee.

I haven’t seen The Gift but from everything I’ve read about it, I thought the same thing.

Good morning from beautiful Lahaina. We are anchored and the life boats are tendering. The weather forecast is for temps in the low to mid 80s and a chance of rain this afternoon. We are anchored with the port side of the ship facing the shore. Our starboard cabin has a nice view of Lanai.

We really liked Pixels, but we’re more dancing than singing oriented for shows. Our daughter danced competitively since she could walk, was on the UK Dance Team, and is back working at the studio where she grew up teaching a new generation of young girls. The choreography was amazing and I loved how they integrated the robot monitors and the screen across the windows. My only complaint is poor sight lines, depending on where you were sitting and where the action was taking place. We were dead center at one of the cafe eating tables, right against the divider that separates the eating area from the theater seats. We thought it would be perfect. When the dancing happened on the lower floor area, we couldn’t see very well. I think that was true for everyone who wasn’t sitting in the lower bench area or the upper deck. It’s definitely a little different theme and we saw a few people leave mid-show, so your not alone in your opinion. I’ve felt that all of the production shows on both Quantum and Ovation were a little bizarre, but something about Pixels made us like it a lot more than the other shows.

Great news! The crew is no longer required to wear a mask! Individual choice as to wearing or not wearing. It’s so much more personal talking with someone when you can see their face. I talked with a few crew members who were VERY happy to not be wearing a mask.

I’ve been D+ all of 7 days, so I’m far from an expert, but I’ve seen other people on these boards saying that it’s rare that D+ is allowed in the Concierge Clubs that still exist. I’d assume that I won’t be allowed, and then be pleasantly surprised if I was.

From our cabin balcony, deck 12. I agree, it doesn’t feel that high up.

Weirdly calms seas right now. IMG_9536.MOV

Plans for tonight… Happy hour in the SL. I keep calling it the Suite Lounge but technically it’s the Concierge Club. I think that normally means that D+ are invited to participate in addition to Suites and Pins. One of our D+ welcome letters however said that, due to the high number of D+ onboard, they are unable to accommodate D+ in the Concierge Club. After HH, we have dinner in Coastal Kitchen. We have our rescheduled Pixel’s Cabaret at 8:00. If we last long enough, the adult comedy show with Mike Pace is at 10:15. I hope we make it as he was very funny at the Welcome Aboard show.

Both the Lava Flow and Mudslide were very tasty. Nothing better than a frozen drink poolside on a cruise ship.

While I’m waiting for happy hour to start, let’s talk about The Beautiful Dream. It was a strange but oddly satisfying production show. It’s one of those shows that has a very loose story line that’s hard to follow. They establish in the first 60 seconds that a man and a woman get married and have a couple of kids, then the woman dies. The rest of the show is about, I think, the man dreaming about his wife…maybe? It’s a very steam punk theme. One of the main singers seems to help the main character travel through time in his dream…maybe? The singers, dancers, and orchestra are very good. The staging is really impressive. At one point, there’s a very large steam punk dragon puppet that is controlled by 4 or 5 people. It spreads its wings, which are attached to ropes from the top of the stage and flaps its wings. The dragon nearly fills the entire stage. Most of the music is remixed versions of popular songs like Van Halen’s Right Now and Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. Songs whose lyrics fit the story…I think. The songs are changed enough that it often took me a few seconds to figure out what song it was. Not one of my most favorite production shows from Royal but it definitely showcased what they can do. I’m glad I watched it.

Nothing but blue skies and blue water.

The Lava Flow must have had a hole in the glass. Ordered a Mudslide for the second drink.

Found one! Yes, that’s a Kraken floater. North Star bar. Nice views from here, and I’m not talking about the bikinis and banana hammocks. Yikes. 😳

Just came back from a C&A event. They do several things behind the scenes for the crew, including their own version of The Voice where singing crew members get paired up with the pro singers from the theater for coaching. They do a song off and a crew member is crowned champion. They had the top 3 crew members sing for us. They were amazingly talented. The winner was part of the Activity Staff. We heard him singing before Bingo started the other day and thought then that he had a great voice. He was sort of a mix between Josh Groban and Julio Iglesias. IMG_9528.MOV Off to find a Lava Flow. Shouldn’t be hard to find.

Equal time for the ladies. Women’s Cannonball Competition. No hurt box though. How are they supposed to generate much of a splash jumping from water level? Beautiful day for it.

I’m all for science.

Great start for Owen’s team!

The C&A event with the entertainment family was a Q&A session with the CD hosting and the captains for the 2 different production teams (one in the Royal Theater and a completely separate team in Two70) answering questions. It was typical stuff like what’s the audition process? Who does the choreography? What other jobs do you have on the ship? I sat next to the mother of the Two70 team captain. She asked him a question, “I heard a rumor that you used to have a job in Finance and quit to perform on cruise ships. Is that true and if so, why”? 🤣🤣🤣. She was obviously joking as she is VERY proud of her son. We hope to see our rescheduled performance of Pixel’s Cabaret tonight.

I like the banana addition. Strawberry-banana is my preferred smoothie flavor.

I’ve got the name for the mooring line club. Keep it simple…Mooring Line Fans. We can call ourselves MiLFs. No wait…