This was our fourth visit to the islands, however far from routine. We started the cruise by meeting Anja, the girlfriend of our buddy and “adopted” British kid , Tony Tromboney, who is one of the Princess Music Managers. Anja is Serbian and part of the Production Staff.

We got unpacked in our balcony stateroom, Lido 254 and looked forward to a nice relaxing time. On night two, we decided to go to the Princess Theater to see “Magic To Do”. We’ve seen it several times, so like to compare the Singers and Dancers.

After the first song or two, I was feeling a bit lightheaded and could barely keep my eyes open. At some point, I shut them. Next thing I know, I was laying in the stairway, the house lights were on and I had several people in my face asking if I could smile and grasp their hands. I could, but was completely unaware of what happened. I looked at my wife, Suzi, and saw she was shaking like a leaf!

Within minutes, I was helped back to my seat and the medical staff arrived. He started to check me out, but I asked if we could move out of the theater so everyone else could get back to their show. I felt good enough so walk out of the theater to a round of applause. They put me in a wheelchair and asked a few questions. I was wondering where Suzi was. She was so shaken, several people helped her, including the Head Of Security, Paul Harris. They ended up putting her in a wheelchair, too.

They took us through the innards of the ship to the Medical Center. They ran blood tests and an EKG and found nothing. They kept us there for a couple of hours. Paul stayed and comforted Suzi and conversed with me.

I was released but they wanted to see me first thing the next morning. We went down and they re-ran all of the test, and again, normal and consistent. Whew!

Although I didn’t remember a thing, Suzi was traumatized. For a few minutes, she thought she lost me. I had no color and would not wake up. She started screaming until people came to my aid and they halted the show.

The funniest part (no, really), was that I made the Facebook group for this cruise. Somebody enquired about the commotion and some one replied, “it was an elderly gentleman…”, well at 63, I’m hardly elderly, although, I did feel it at the time. Regardless, I’ve been fully checked over by my local doctors and they feel it was a combination of dehydration and low blood pressure.

So Anja was working the show and knew there was a medical emergency, just didn’t know it was me. I let Tony know via WhatsApp and he let Anja know.

The rest of the trip was “different”. I had all sorts of crew and passengers stop me and asked how I was. I was fortunate to meet most of the first responders so I could thank them in person.

We had three days at sea for me to rest and relax. In Hilo, we took a shuttle to the Farmers Market and downtown Hilo, walked around a bit, then back to the ship.

The next day / port was Honolulu. We took a shuttle to the Ala Mauna Mall via the Hilo Hattie’s bus. If you haven’t been to Ala Mauna Mall, it’s a great place to hang if you are not a beach person, like us. We’ve been spoiled as we live within 10 miles of the ocean.

The next port was Lahaina. It’s a tender port, so we decided to go ashore with Anja to grab lunch. Even with our Elite status, there was a greater than 1 hour wait (and this was after 2 hours since they started tender operations). We heard from Anja that no crew were allowed off to accommodate guests, so we just decided to stay on board and have lunch with Anja in the buffet.

We had no idea that we would never see Lahaina the same way again. Less than 4 months later, the devastating fire ripped through and destroyed most of the town. Fortunately, we had the pleasure of visiting Lahaina several times.

Next stop, Kauai. Although we had a car rental setup, I decided to rest. Suzi walked down to the local ABC Mart to buy Anja a little stuffed animal.

Time for the return towards the mainland. Five glorious days at sea, then Ensenada. I have no idea why so many people give Ensenada a bad rap. No that the have the pedestrian bridge that takes you to downtown, it’s a nice walk. Sure, the shop vendors are a bit aggressive but a simple “no, gracias” usually works.

Well another wonderful cruise, although way different. Something we hope to never happen again.