Ready for a Happy New Year?

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I hope you have been enjoying the holiday season as much as Julie and me.

We kicked it off with a fantastic family Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania and ended celebrating Christmas with other family members in California.  In between, we packed a lot more fun events, including a Crown Princess cruise to Hawaii, roundtrip from Los Angeles.

If you have never cruised over the holiday season, you need to try it once, if just to see the fabulous decorations.  Coral Princess had lovely Christmas trees in many public spaces.  In the atrium, green faux-pine garland was strung around the banisters and rails.

The smell of fresh brewed coffee and pastries from the adjoining International Cafe created a lovely aroma as we sipped wine from Vines and listened to a Russian string duo play relaxing pre-dinner music prior to walking to Boticelli's Dining Room to savor our nightly gourmet, multi-course meal.

After dinner, we usually swung by Crooner's Lounge to hear David Moore, a gifted Scottish pianist and singer who, to paraphrase another Piano Man, is "quick with a joke" or even more likely to rattle off a half dozen one-liners between songs.  Some nights, we just stuck around Crooner's for another set rather than going to the main theater shows, but those performances were awesome too.

Productions shows feature a sparkling young cast of great dancers and talented singers.  There also were great guest entertainers brought aboard, like rock impressionist Greg London who does spot-on takes of Rod Stewart, Johnny Cash, Ozzie Osborne, Kermit the Frog and others.  Jason Ostrowski brought his new tribute to Elton John, "Bennie and the Rest," to the main stage on another night.

In daytime, we attended interesting presentations by naturalist Sharon Faff, who lives on a volcano.  I was too late to get a ukulele for Tiki Dave's class, which was just as well, because this time on sea days, we spent a lot of time watching sports on the big Movies Under the Stars screen.

Blessed with sunny weather, we enjoyed watching several World Cup games, including probably the greatest soccer finale ever.  We also happened to be lounging in the sun when the Indianapolis Colts took a surprising 33-0 lead over the favored Minnesota Vikings only to lose in the second half to the greatest comeback of all time.

The biggest stars of the cruise were the Hawaiian Islands themselves.  We loved every port, including snorkeling with turtles on three islands and hiking to the top of Diamond Head before having a cheeseburger in paradise at Duke's and then lounging beneath an umbrella on Waikiki Beach.

I know one lucky couple who embarked on that same cruise on the day we disembarked, so they were at sea for a Christmas and will be cruising home for New Year's Eve, with the beautiful islands in between.

Quite a few friends and family will be embarking on terrific holiday cruises of their own soon, celebrating New Year's Eve at sea.  Julie and I have only done that once, but it was so much fun, I often wonder why we haven't done it again...yet. 

It's probably too late to get on a New Year's cruise now, but if you have a hankering for pulling up the anchoring, I'd love to help you get on a cruise of your own.  After all, every day should be embraced like your favorite holiday.