Los Angeles, San Pedro Pier

After arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, the shuttle drive through the green suburbs to Hollywood shows why that's a dream to live there. Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood... that's also a sort of carnival all the year round, theaters, inns, shops, a Marilyn Monroe sitting somewhere, waxed of course, masked Chinese warriors and true policemen, basketball players, exclusive motorcars and the noise of a supersport motorbike, like from a world championship. The names of the stars are written on the Walk of Fame, thousands, not exclusively Marilyn Monroe (but finally we've found her name)...


"Queen Mary", in the background "Grand Princess", Long Beach 2014

Another day, let's take the Metro Blue Line to Long Beach, a leisure resort on the shore of the sea, nice parks, children playgrounds and - the "Queen Mary", the famous ocean liner of the 30s, with her sleek black hull and the three red funnels the most beautiful ship ever seen, though she's surpassed in size by the modern "Grand Princess", moored close by. It's 12 o'clock and a loud "pfrrr" is sounding, could it have been the "Queen Mary"?


Battleship "Iowa", San Pedro Pier 2014

Next day a shuttle bus brings us to the San Pedro Pier, not to the "Queen Mary". Another historic ship is moored there, the "Iowa", a battleship of World War II, completed in 1943. Truly, she is beautiful, but let's remember the words of our art teacher: "What a pity that they were built for war." We're boarding not the "Iowa", but the "Star Princess", built in 2002, with 108,000 gross tons much larger in size. Check-in, the stateroom is nice, relax, until the emergency drill takes place. Then let's enjoy the view from the Upper Deck 15, see the suspension bridge above the container harbor, grandiose. At four o' clock in the afternoon of that Thursday, 20 March 2014, the "Star Princess" thrusts off the berth outside San Pedro Bay. The "Iowa" is left behind and only with binoculars it's possible to see the funnels of the "Queen Mary", far away, overtopped by some Long Beach skyscrapers. The pilot gets disembarked and a South-westerly course is set, for the five-days voyage to Hawaii.

Early dinner time, casual dressing on that first day. The meal we choose is good and very American, a 'Cowboys' Steak'. And the tablemates are friendly Americans, we're chatting, one has been to Berlin, he knows Munich, Hofbrauhouse, too, and he loves Beethoven. It's a quiet evening. Next morning the sea is rough, the sky grey. The buffets on Deck 13 are open all the day, for breakfast, lunch, with a nice view of the ocean below. And then, what a surprise: The Scholarship @ Sea presents 'New Discoveries in the Cosmos' with Shelley Bonus, one of the active female astronomers, explaining us the latest discoveries, from the Big Bang or rather "no bang" to the multiverse. What a chance for the enthusiast on a cruise under the label "escape completely". Escape, stroll around in this ship of a friendly atmosphere, hear the pianist in the 'Piazza', see the ships the pool deck and walk on the glazed 'Skywalk' to the Skywalkers' Nightclub, almost empty during daylight hours, and enjoy the ocean view from that extravagant place high above the stern.

"Star Princess" Skywalkers Nightclub, the Skywalk, the Piazza, Swimming...

Third day. Formal dinner, some gentlemen are wearing the dinner jacket, many ladies are beautifully dressed. Even more interesting: Our tablemate has worked with North American, where the mysterious supersonic XB-70 bomber had been developed decades ago, and then he worked with Lockheed. In the theater the show of the 'Star Princess Singers and Dancers' takes place, of a conservative elegance, nice. Relax completely, as the passengers aboard an old Matson Liner may have done it during a voyage from the USA to Japan three quarters of a century ago. How far away is Europe...

Sunday: An international Church Service takes place in the Explorer Lounge, led by Cruise Director Marakscalh, and he said he wouldn't imitate a preacher, but he told about his boyhood together with his dozen black brothers and sisters. In the evening let's listen the harmonica virtuoso Bernie Fields, music from Franz Schubert to Ernesto Lecuona. Another day at open sea. Working? The Internet connection works. But nicer it is in the evening to enjoy the Star Princess dancers, furiously, crazy...


"Star Princess" at Nawiliwili, Kauai 2014

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Tuesday, March 25, 7:30 in the morning: a lighthouse at starboard, a green landscape, palm trees, a cloudy sky - we've reached a Hawaiian island, Kauai in the utmost west, mooring in the bay of Nawiliwili, on the south-eastern shore. Stroll around on that Garden Isle, as it is called, see the wild volcanic mountains in the background, watch the trucks with the Matson containers, walk through the tropical parks and forests to the golf course on a hill, see the planes of Hawaiian and an Aloha Cargo or, may be, also an American or United, approaching Lihua airport. After some hours walk under the tropical sun, board the ship, choose the buffet on the open deck and have a Grolsch beer ("since 1615"), so cool... Departing on a southern, then eastern course, the volcanoes are left behind.


Leaving Kauai Island

Thrusters are rattling, it's early morning, we've moored at the Maritime Center of Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii on Oahu Island. The "Star Princess" is overtopped by nearby skyscrapers, Coast Guard ships are there and the touristic "Star of Honolulu" enters the harbor. In the distance the planes are ascending, mostly Hawaiian, a Lockheed military transporter, roaring jet fighters and a Japan Airlines plane heading towards crossing the Pacific, having departed from Honolulu International Airport, its newest runway being an artificial island. Still further away in the West is situated Pearl Harbor with the USS Arizona war memorial and the Naval Reservations. Remind that it was the U.S. Navy which had bewared Hawaii from being conquered during World War II. A walk leads to Chinatown and Downtown, past the Saint Andrew Cathedral, the Korea and Vietnam Memorial and the statue showing King Kamehameha, welcoming explorer James Cook in 1778. Let's have an outlook from the Aloha Tower and board the ship.

Kamelameha welcomes James Cook	St. Andrew Cathedral
	"Star of Honolulu"

The port of Honolulu in the evening

After night has fallen, the Halau Hula Olana Showcase in the ship's theater gives a farewell. The other morning an observatory is greeting from a mountain, we are mooring in the Kuhio Bay, close to the huge container terminal of Hilo. May be it's so busy for that's the largest among the islands, Hawaii, the Big Island, where the Polynesians have landed almost thousand years ago. The General Lyman Field or Hilo Airport is not far away, but only a single passenger aircraft is parked there, a Hawaiian of course. A 'Hop-on hop-off' bus carries us to the Rainbow Falls, exotic, and on the return to the King Kamehameha statue, where a Hawaiian jet is passing by on the final approach. What a pity, no snapshot. Two hours later an outlook from the upper deck and, exactly in this moment, the Hawaiian takes off, what a chance for the photographer, may be the King has arranged it... Dark clouds are brewing over the mountains, when the ship departs. On the highest, the Mauna Kea, world's largest telescope is being erected. The "Star Princess" sets a north-westerly course towards the Alenuihaha Channel.

Halau Hula Olana Showcase

Hilo Airport

Seven o' clock in the morning, the anchors are dropped off Maui Island. The Princess' tender boats are transporting the passengers ashore to Lahaina, once the King's capital, until it was relocated in 1845 to Honolulu. A walk leads to the little Maria Lanakila Church in this prospering agricultural landscape and truly the Polynesian religion already has honoured God as the creator of this friendly nature. Another tiny monument is the railway station, sugar cane transport has been the task of the railway, but some trains continued running as a tourist attraction, diesel or steam-hauled. There and on a nearby place some 3ft narrow-gauge steam locomotives are preserved. It was less prominent than the 3ft railroad on Oahu Island, opened in 1889, where in the 1920s even a "Limited" passenger train was running between Honolulu and Waialua. Passenger service ended there in 1947 (as railway historian Arthur D. Dubin reported it). On Maui Island, in 1943 a Naval Air Station has been erected at Kahalui on the northern coast, after the war changed into Kahalui Airport.


"Star Princess", Lahaina 2014

A monument at Lahaina

The Star Princess Singers and Dancers

The last tender boats are arriving, some passengers have seen a whale and then the ship departs from Maui, passing the Auan Channel and the Pailolo Channel. Under the darkening sky the lights of Molokai give a last farewell from Hawaii. "The Star Princess will set an east-north-easterly course across the Pacific Ocean", as the onboard information describes it. Five days at open sea, crossing the rough Pacific. Relax on the aft deck and think (or don't think) of the innumerable seafarers, who centuries and millennia ago have lost their live at sea. How many Polynesians have died in the Pacific, before Man has set foot on Hawaii? And the five days are not annoying, no. At show time, the star Princess Singers & Dancers are leading us to "Destination Anywhere", nice stewardesses in light-blue uniforms are jumping into the audience, the Flight Captain steps down the gangway, an advertisement presents fancifully a Princess Cruises' airline and the show begins, traveling to Las Vegas, to an old metropolis, to Africa, to anywhere... fantastic, simply fantastic... Some other afternoon: The onboard Jazz combo is raging, dizzy almost like 'Dizzy' Gillespie, the modern trumpet star of our youth time, the past... There is also a quiet library, and among the honorable bibles and the many novels almost hidden away there is a fundamental book: William Henry Flyhart's 'The American Line' describing the development of American North Atlantic passenger shipping, backed mainly by the Pennsylvania Railroad and then by bankers J.P. Morgan & Son. Try to study it.

Need anything else? Get frightened by music and comedy of pianist John Bressler, mad, madness, or another day by "The British Invasion", music of course. And then join "Aloha 'Oe", it's the last day before calling at Ensenada in Mexico. Why a call at a Mexican port? Thanks to the Jones' Act! Since the 1930s it has demanded that every ship providing a service exclusively between US destinations must have been built in the U.S.A. But as no cruise ships are being built there, a foreign port-of-call must be included in the itinerary. Decades ago, the most famous destination in Mexico has been Acapulco, but cruise ships are no longer calling there, surely on account of fear of organized criminality there.

Ensenada, la Catedral

The port of Ensenada, 2014

Early morning: A mountain range on the horizon signals that we are approaching the coast of Mexico. Hours later the ship is moored in the Puerto de Ensenada, a row of containers sparkling in the sun on the opposite pier. Passengers are deboarding, walking peacefully to the city, the traffic here is well organized like in the USA, let's go to the Cathedral, a Holy Mass takes place there, stroll along El Puerto, watch some historic VW 'Beatles' and enjoy this day in Mexico. Once again on board, after departure see the coast of Baja California passing by, while the ship is heading northward: Mountains, some towns, a highway bridge, on a hill some mysterious things (of the gas industry?), late in the evening the sparkling light of another city. "Not yet the USA", says a passenger. Early in the morning the thrusters are awakening us. San Pedro Pier. We're back from the Pacific. The sea has released us.


Northbound along Baja California

The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters,
than the mighty waves of the sea.
Psalm 93
The Holy Bible

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