Tricia’s Travelogue

The Good Life at Sea continues, as we follow the same routines most sea days.  After coffee and screens, we walk for 30 minutes and get credited for 3.24 miles, which is pretty speedy for a couple of septuagenarians. My Apple Watch keeps expressing surprise at the sudden ramp-up in my activity level.  It really needs a setting that accounts for moving cruising ships.  A little before 10:00, I head to one of the conference rooms on Deck 13, right at the back of the ship.  It has big windows, so a wonderful view, though many of the crafters choose to sit with their backs to it, claiming it makes them feel queasy.  One crafter’s husband took this photo of us yesterday.  I’m at the back by the window.  New people found us today, after seeing the photo on Facebook. Then I meet Charlie for lunch, usually at the Solarium Bistro, as they have a good salad bar. We try to have a light lunch since our dinners are usually caloric. Still, I’m glad I packed stretch ...

Today, after our usual morning walk, Charlie stood in line to retrieve our passports while I went to the crafting group.  You may recall that passports were collected before we visited the first port in French Polynesia.   At the crafting group, I learned that the group organizer, Kim, is going to be on our transatlantic cruise in March!  We agreed we’d gather a group together on that ship.   We enjoyed a good lunch at Jamie’s Italian today.  Here’s the meat board we started with. You can also see the garlic buns. Then, I ordered lasagna, and Charlie had the garlic prawn linguine, and we polished them off.  We also had rocket salad on the side. Beef and pork lasagna  Garlic prawn linguine  The restaurant was swamped, so service was slow, but we were able to leave with about half of our bottle of Prosecco to enjoy later. (Remember that we travel with a champagne stopper.) Tonight it’s again Dress Your Best Night, so the people-watching should be go...

Today at noon, our captain announced that we’re currently in the least populated time zone, UTC-11.  American Samoa has about 54,000 people.  That’s your future Learned League fact for the day. Today I also learned that we’ll indeed go to bed on the 24th, and the next morning it will be the 26th, thanks to the International Date Line.  A woman in the crafting group did this cruise last year and said that’s how it worked. If you’re thinking that I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for blog fodder, you’re right! I was also asked by an Australian woman if we (Americans) could cruise all year, because they can only cruise from there from October through April. The Australians in the crafting group have all cruised extensively, but they usually have to fly somewhere first. It has been interesting learning more about life Down Under. Due to last night’s time change, we were awake at 4:30.  Charlie went for coffee soon after that.  It was already light outside. ...

Before showing you some photos from today, you must admire last night’s dessert, the Valrhona chocolate bar.  It was incredibly sweet, and paired with dulce de leche ice cream.  I could only manage half of mine. Alas, Raiatea was a bit of a disappointment, because the weather threatened and then delivered heavy rain. Some passengers did take the tender boats ashore, but probably a fourth as many as yesterday.  We stayed on board, needless to say. Here are some pics of our early morning arrival. We enjoyed watching the lifeboats lowered from our balcony. Just after we anchored, a French luxury ship left the harbor. We also enjoyed watching planes take off and land at the airstrip from our balcony. We took our usual walk, then went to the Solarium for breakfast.  Later in the morning we enjoyed a mimosa and a Bloody Mary in the indoor pool area (while our room was serviced).  We opted for pizza for lunch for the first time.  We also finished watching The Dipl...

Moorea is just a 30-minute ferry ride from Tahiti, but we sailed there all night, docking at about 7:00 this morning. Charlie took some good photos from our balcony as we approached, then we went up to the top deck just before docking.  He couldn’t resist this juxtaposition ! From the next photo, you can see how undeveloped the island is.  During World War II, Allied forces used it as a refueling point for planes and ships, but it didn’t get developed like others in French Polynesia.  Moorea is a tender port, and our ship’s lifeboats were used to ferry passengers to the island.  They started the process at 8:30 and were still calling ticket numbers at 11:00.  By that point, they were calling boat 45. After reading about the port, which requires transportation to get anywhere you could walk or see a beach, we opted to stay on the ship and enjoy the beautiful view from our balcony (on the ship’s shady side this morning). But if we were younger, the snorkeling is s...

We’re docked in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, on the island of Tahiti today.  Here are some photos of our arrival. The pilot boat, after the pilot boarded Charlie took a few photos from the top deck early this morning. This tugboat stayed beside the ship until it was secured to the dock.  We left the boat about 9:00 and were welcomed by some local musicians. Just inside the terminal was a market area, which we enjoyed browsing. Then we walked around the area near the ship, but since it’s Sunday, most shops and restaurants are closed.  There was a huge market that did have some stalls open. The flowers were amazing! We walked around the Hôtel de Ville, which thanks to Duolingo, I knew meant City Hall. The local vegetation is lush! Here’s a pink trumpet tree. These plantings just outside the terminal caught my eye. It was very hot, so we were back on the ship before lunchtime.  Charlie got a good shot of our ship. We headed up to the Solarium for much-neede...