Thanksgiving at Sea

Before you cruise to Hawaii from Los Angeles or take any transoceanic cruise, you better be sure enjoy days at sea.  It's not unusual to find a few people on such cruises who love sea days so much that they skip some ports of call entirely.

My friends Brion and Rita cruise to Hawaii every Christmas, but their primary focus is the on-board experience.  They enjoy the great meals and entertainment, but their biggest passion is ballroom dancing.  Julie and I took fun Latin dance lessons taught by Oz on Star Princess on our recent cruise, but I can't say we're devotees.

Taking a holiday cruise can be an opportunity for a family reunion at a time when kids are off school and salaried workers receive paid holidays that save valuable vacation days.  Multi-generational family members can do what interests them alone or together and gather around the dinner table to share their experiences.

For other folks who opted to focus on careers rather than families, there's a sense of belonging among travelers exploring the world together on all cruises.  That's true in spades for holiday cruises in particular.

Drs. Christian and Caroline, the psychologists we briefly encountered on the rental car bus in Hilo, spoke about 7 kinds of love for the modern world in one of their presentations.  Among their list was enjoying shared interests together and the sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves.  I don't recall all of the details, but the exact categories as defined by Christian differed from those carried forward from classic Greece.  It's good to remember that just because a relationship isn't hitting on all cylinders doesn't mean that love ceases to be.  This is especially important for couples should Eros love that sparks the initial attraction may wane.  Other types of love remain, and of course we can also experience with people beyond our soulmates.

Christian actually began that presentation by recounting an intermittent conversation he and I had on the Promenade Deck when we passed as I did laps.  Julie had opted to do the aerobic dance class that morning, which I also enjoyed on a couple of other days.  As always, we are forced to make choices on cruises between interesting activities, which is why I only attended two of the psychology presentations despite quite enjoying both of them.

The prior day, the Heims presentation had been that "Laughter Is the Best Medicine," and it was hilarious as well as educational.

Julie was reading by the pool when I attended this very funny seminar, but she came to mind as I laughed together with the audience, and she was the topic of my interaction walking laps the next day.

Some early jokes humorously attributed to Aristotle made fun of Cretans, and Julie's grandfather happened to come from Crete.  More current jokes of this type made fun had British making fun of Irish, and Julie's mother's maiden name is associated with a castle in Northern Ireland, so Julie is both Cretan and Irish.

Then, there were some jokes about lawyers, and Julie spent many years essentially acting as a lawyer in negotiations with lawyers.

Of course, there had to be some blond jokes, and Julie is blond.  Christian also told a couple of jokes about strong-willed redheads like his wife Caroline, which actually are much applicable to Julie than blond jokes.

Anyway, I revealed an element of this with each lap, which amused both Christian and me, so when he started his presentation the next day, he spoke about how he had insulted one person in every way possible within five minutes of starting his presentation the day before.  As he recounted them, I wished Julie had been there, but she was reading in a lounge chair in the sun, with Shania Twain in concert on the poolside movie screen.

Music on board is always important to us.  Each time, we tend to gravitate to some particular performers who we follow during the voyage.  One was the Hawaiian duo Makani E, made up of my Ukelele teacher Kimo and his wife Lokelina, who taught Julie the hula in a separate class.  As family friends of the late Hawaiian music icon Bruddah Iz (famous for his version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), they carry forward his gentle style of island music.

We rarely missed a show of the Ukranian violinists, the Adagio Trio.  I especially enjoyed their renditions of Strauss and Mozart, whose music was prominent on our Danube River cruise, but they also did shows based on other themes, including one based on "The Sound of Music," which for me also brought to mind our AmaWaterways excursion to Salzburg.

The incredible orchestra band did some great jazz concerts outside of their usual venue of the Princess Theater, where they back guest performers as well as production shows.  It's always so amazing how these band members gel as a unit and produce flawless back-up for guest performers and production shows even if a replacement band member has only arrived on board the day before.

The production shows were also outstanding, with a gifted group of performers where all were stars, and as always there were guest artists to keep add to the variety.

I personally enjoy movies, and in addition to "Yesterday," which we both loved, I enjoyed seeing another great movie I'd missed in theaters,  "Once Upon a Time In Hollywood."

The meals aboard our cruise were all delicious.  A highlight this time was at the alternative dining venue, Crown Grill, where we savored 8-ounce Filet Mignons cooked to perfection and great sides.  I must say the similarly prepared Princess Medallions in the dining room while smaller were quite excellent, and as usual, I enjoyed all the savory seafood dishes.

I think Julie wanted to take this cruise primarily to get away from the kitchen, and of course another dining highlight was Thanksgiving Dinner.  Some other guests skipped turkey for other tempting entrees, but we went with the traditional meal.

Our kids had gathered at Gina and Laszlo's new home in Pennsylvania, and I must confess I would have rather been at that feast.

However, we had flown to four family reunion vacations already this year, and also had Emma in California stay with us for an extended visit during the summer, so at the time when flights needed to be booked and seemed very expensive, we somehow talked ourselves out of going.

While I love travel, nothing beats spending time with our family.  I'm excited to be getting together with Jay and Sasha plus my sister's family for Christmas.

Make no mistake; we definitely enjoyed this entertaining two-week escape to paradise.

Our final port was Ensenada, where we took our morning walk but then returned to enjoy our final afternoon and evening aboard the ship.

With a simple Lyft home from the port, we returned home totally relaxed and renewed, which I'm not sure would have been the case had we endured holiday airport hassles for a quick turnaround trip east.