After five days and six 
nights at sea, we finally drew into Honolulu harbor this morning. Granted, it was rather grey and overcast, and on and off the rain erupted all day, but…it feels so good to just be on land!
Early (and I mean exceptionally early) this morning the entertainment team rose bright eyed and bushy tailed to be on the gangway and “lei” all the passengers (yes, make all the jokes you want, I guarantee you they’ve already been made many times!) – the leis they gave us were fresh flowers and smelled absolutely heavenly. Surprisingly there wasn’t a huge rush to get off the ship, which is a shock after so long at sea…the guests seem content to take their time on things, if they chose to get off at all.
The crew on the other hand; having worked a 5 day slog with maximum hours a day as we plowed our way across the Pacific, I’m surprised that we didn’t run down the gangway!
We’re here on an overnight, so thankfully most of us are working minimal hours (there really aren’t that many passengers who stay onboard on an overnight), split shift bracketing the day. In other words, I had to come back to the ship to close up, after that my evening is my own; as long as I’m back in time to open up the library tomorrow morning (which also coincides with when IPM begins for the next day).
It may not be the sundrenched shores of the postcards just at the moment, but that doesn’t mean it’s not Hawaii. The air is heavy with humidity and plumeria flowers and everything smells of sunscreen. The rain didn’t particularly bother us, like a few other places I know, this is a port where if it rains, it’s tropical rain. It may soak you to the skin and you laugh as you try to unsuccessfully avoid getting drenched, but you don’t end up being cold. The big floppy straw hat I probably paid way too much money for actually took care of keeping me surprisingly dry.
Lunch found us at the Hard Rock Café, eating friend plantains and watching a huge festival parade go by (I’ve never seen so many horses in one parade!); which means that I acquired yet another Hard Rock Café glass for my collection, I think that makes 5 now. By the time I finally have a proper place to keep them I’ll have enough to serve a small but respectful gathering of people!
We ambled our way through a sprawling outdoor market, mostly run by Chinese merchants, which seemed to feature everything from beach towels and Hawai’ian shirts to bottle openers. I ended up adding another charm to my bracelet, one that I didn’t ever think to find but am very glad I stumbled across. Soon enough I’m going to have to start stacking bracelets!
Sitting up to our necks in a hot tub, sipping something with an umbrella in it, the last thing we wanted to think about was going back to work…so we didn’t. The ship became an undiscussed topic for the duration of the day, except for when we were bragging about how awesome a job we had to other people who happened to be in the hot tub with us.
You guys live on a cruise ship?
Ye-ah, rough job, someone has to do it…
One of those moments when you realize that yes, right this very second, you are being paid.
That, my dear friends, is pretty bloody awesome…