This is our 31st cruise, a substitute for a different cancelled cruise this fall. We have been to Hawaii at least five times over the years, the last time in 2016. My thanks to Patty for arranging this cruise and for picking the best cabin on the ship for us.

I have found it helpful for me to record interesting things that we did, or things about the cruise experience, as soon as I could after they happened. So, this will be my log of the trip, with notes about what we did and what was going on around the ship.

Saturday - November 9
With less than 40 days to go, I finally finished the itinerary page today. It includes all the normal stuff, but does not yet include any shore excursions we may choose. You can review it by clicking here.

Friday - November 22
25 days to go. Today I completed the check-in process, with my new passport. Both Medallion devices are ordered. Patty has booked the hotel for the day we fly to San Francisco, it is in the Fisherman's Wharf area, relatively close to the cruise terminal. Everything seems to be moving ahead smoothly.

Saturday - December 7
10 days to go. Today we got emails indicating that our Medallion devices had been shipped, however we can not verify that this is the case. On Princess Cruises, the Medallion device replaces identification cards, room keys, and credit cards for buying stuff. They include a proximity radio, monitored by other devices around the ship, that allow us to pay for stuff, get into our room, and order drinks remotely and have them delivered to us wherever we are. Worst case, we will pick them up at check-in. Also, it is time to start packing for departure next week.

Tuesday - December 10
Surprise - Both Medallion devices showed up in today's mail. This will speed up our boarding process, and means we don't have to wait in the line of people with problems. Gathering stuff and packing is going slow for me, but I think there are enough days left to accomplish everything.

Tuesday - December 17
Travel Day - Arrived at airport right around 9:30, checked bags, out to airside for security, which took me about 20 minutes. Boarding and takeoff on-time. Arrived in Atlanta in good shape and found the food court without problems, then on to the second flight. Again boarding and takeoff on-time, with arrival in San Francisco pretty close to on-time. We found the bags, secured a luggage cart and moved out to the Uber pick-up spot. Uber car only 8 minutes away and the ride to the hotel was uneventful except it was still rush hour on the roads, so it took a while to get to Fisherman's Wharf where the hotel is. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant and was expensive, but we knew that was coming, and we settled in for the night.

Wednesday - December 18
We learned that the Ruby Princess had a small number of sick people when they returned earlier today, so boarding was delayed a little to allow extra cleaning. We got in line around 12:55 and got through all the preliminary stuff and to our cabin by about 2:45. After a little rest and meeting Michael, our cabin steward, we found the muster station and watched to safety video before getting ready for dinner. Our assigned table featured a very uncomfortable bench seat, so we asked to be moved to a better location. We will see how that works out. The opening show of the cruise was a guy who did a little magic while juggling stuff.

Thursday - December 19
I was feeling poorly, so I spent the morning and early afternoon in bed, but was OK by dinner time. Our new table was not what we asked for, but was a good table anyway, with attentive waiter, Antonio, and assistant, Jake,, so we lobbied to have this table for the rest of the cruise. Again, we will see. Tonight's show was a vocalist performing a bunch of popular songs. He was pretty good,

Friday - December 20
Today was a normal sea day, not too much going on during the day. We did go to a Cruise Critic Meet & Greet, which featured many of the ship's management company. We also attended a port discussion about our first two ports of Hilo and Kona on the Big Island. Dinner was a treat because our new table was now assigned to us, so we are good for dinners the rest of the way. The first college football playoff game was on our TV this afternoon so we watched Indiana lose to Notre Dame before dinner. This was a formal night and we should have seen a production show, but it was a little rough in the middle of Pacific Ocean, so a substitute performer filled in, which happened to be the same guy from the first night.

Saturday - December 21
Another sea day was good for watching more college football playoff games, capped off with THE Ohio State Buckeyes ripping up the Tennessee Volunteers. Dinner was normal at our now normal table. The show tonight was a tribute to Elton John, after which we attended the final show of the day with the piano man in Crooners.

Sunday - December 22
Yet another casual sea day started with a port discussion about Honolulu, followed by a Pub Lunch at the restaurant. I am playing with GPS data for our trip across the Pacific - we have covered a little over 2000 miles already. Patty is off to the treadmills for a while. She has been doing this for a few days and is much better prepared for walking around over the next few days than I am. We expect a normal dinner tonight followed by a show featuring RJ Cantu, an illusionist, who shows things that cannot possibly to true. He was pretty good.

Monday - December 23
Awoke this morning at the dock in Hilo. We are inside a breakwater, so there are no waves, which made moving around a little difficult at times. Our plan today is to debark the ship, spend some time around the vendors that always pop up around cruise ship docks, and then to catch the shuttle bus to the Hilo Hattie's store. We later discovered that there are no vendors around the dock, only an empty warehouse type building that served as the staging area for taxis and vans going somewhere, and none of those places was Hilo Hattie's, because the store had apparently closed some years ago. So we got back on the ship for lunch at the Salty Dog Grille and a casual afternoon. GPS data shows that we have sailed a total of 2499 miles, which is slightly longer than the straight line distance (2320) because the captain chose to sail a little farther south to miss some heavier weather on the way. We are expecting a normal dinner and show tonight.

Tuesday - December 24
Today we are near Kona, a tender port. We got an early start and caught a tender to shore before calling an Uber. The Uber took us from town to a small boat harbor about 3 miles north of town, where we boarded the Artemis for a whale watching tour. We headed north and did see some whales, but they were pretty far away from our boat, until near the end of the day when one whale swan close to us. Caught another Uber to get back to town and eventually tendered back to the ship. Normal dinner.

Wednesday - December 25
Overnight we sailed to the island of Kauai and were docked in the morning. We had a rental car reserved here, and found the shuttle bus to the rental office. We took off out of town to the south to find the Spouting Hole, where water is forced under a rock and spouts up out of a hole in the rock. (See the video) Leaving this area, we headed to the north to the town of Princeville and some photos of the area. It is interesting to me that there are still one-lane bridges across rivers and streams in this area and we crossed three of them one the way up and on the way back. We ended up driving around about half of the island before dropping the car back at the airport and catching the shuttle back to the ship. Normal dinner.

Thursday - December 26
This is our last day on land for the next 5 days and we made our way to the Moana Surfrider hotel to watch the sunset. This has become a tradition for all of our visits to Hawaii and we were not disappointed. After eating we got back to the ship and watched the sail away maneuvers as we started the trip back to Ensenada, Mexico, our last stop.

Friday - December 27
The first sea day on the return trip started with a discussion from some of the crew members about how they got into sailing and how long they have been sailing. Following that was a presentation about some of the animals that live in the sea, including whales and dolphins. We had pizza for lunch and then went to a wine tasting session. the Captain's Party is coming up tonight before a normal dinner.

Thanks for having a look at the log.