A Great Whale Watching Day In Maui!

Banyon Tree

   WOW! What a great whale watching day in Maui. It started during breakfast when a whale was breaching not far from the ship and ended when we were sailing to our next port. We were up early enough but since we were tendered we had plenty of time to get ashore for our noon whale watching trip. That is when the waiters pointed out a whale close enough to be seen clearly.

   The tender ride took about 30 minutes. We had 2 hours to wait before we were in line for out tour so we basically stayed in the area of the departure point. Besides going to the discount mall is not something that is really that exciting. Lahaina (the town) seems to have changed a loy since we were here 28 years ago. I remember it as a town with a few stores (certainly not a outlet mall). The one thing that is still here is the Banyon Tree. The single tree fills the entire park. One tree trunk but many secondary trunks which grow from the “vines” which hang down from the branches. There are souvenir shops all throughput the area and there were many non ship visitors in the area. The Kaanapali resort area (where we stayed the last time) is somewhat removed from the town.

   By noon we were on the catamaran and headed out on out 2 hour whale watching tour. The last time we were here, I don't remember seeing that many whales. In fact I only took 3 pictures of the whales. Today I ended up with around 70! We saw everything. There were breaching whales. Singles, doubles. Mothers, babies and some male whales (always the third on the group!) At one point the whale swam under the boat. You could see an aqua colour which was the reflection off the fins. They were so close that we could practically reach out and touch them. There are somewhere between 10-

12,000 hump back whales that winter in the warm waters. The mothers give birth far from their only natural enemy which are Orca whales. The guide said that the humpbacks are or soon will be off the endangered species list. These whales then head back to Alaska to feed in the summer time. In all a truly great “shore” excursion.

   With the last tender leaving around 5, we decided to head back to the ship for a slice of pizza, a drink and a rest. By the time we sailed the sun was just setting. As we left Maui you could still see many whales doing their thing. 

Maui

      Dinner was surf and turf, followed by “The Four Gentlemen” a singing group that specialized in '60's and '70's sounds. They were quite good and received a standing ovation from the late show crowd. We ended the night on the upper deck doing a 30 minute star gazing show. Princess has improved the presentation a lot since we first did it a few years ago. A small meteorite appeared just as the presentation began. Funny the last time we did this there was a larger meteorite. Tomorrow we are in Honolulu.