Days18, 19… 26 - 27th April- on board, day after two deaths last night & tenders onto the island of Kona, Hawaii

 Day 18, 26th April

It was a sombre start to the day today, everyone was quite subdued after such a late night last night, and all the drama and realisation that two people have died and  one in not a very pleasant way - they could not find the guy that had jumped overboard (turns out he was a 35-year-old from Brisbane). 

Spent most of the day just following the news, we went up to the library and saw Vicki and Robyn again and were chatting. I think it helps for people to discuss things and  we were talking about how the Chinese whispers were changing the story about what happened with the lady, and the guy that passed away– As there is so much speculation, and nothing has been made very clear from the captain.

I decided to put a post up on the quantum of the seas, FB page offering to contact people who didn’t have the internet package onboard and who wanted to speak to their relatives. I thought that it would be people onboard the ship that would hear about it, but it was actually people back in Australia, desperate to check with their families who were sailing. Some people weren’t getting much help because they didn’t know there relatives cabin numbers, so I decided the best thing was to go down to guest services and talk to them. They weren’t answering their phones as they were probably so busy with everyone, and there was certainly a big queue at guest services. But I showed them the messages I had from relatives in Australia on my phone each time, and they rang me through to the relatives cabins. One was a father and one was a grandfather and grandmother, so I passed on the messages and then was able to message the people in Australia back – they were so relieved and I totally understand.

I remember being in Fiji during the grade 4 cyclone in 2011 and it was the one and only time I decided to go away and not take any technology – and of course that happened. So we couldn’t get hold of family who were worried at home, couldn’t talk to the airline and an Indian guy in the room next door saw me in the hallway and let me go into their room, a couple of times to use his iPad, which I really appreciated, that’s why I did what I did today :-).

Oh - with everything happening yesterday, I forgot to mention the great puzzle challenge we had in the afternoon of Anzac day. We had booked into the royal society of puzzles, which is kind like an escape room challenge, where you are locked in a room with others - we had 9 of us, and they give you an hour to work out all these cryptic clues, find the hidden keys to locked boxes, decipher the codes, work out the puzzles and calculate the final padlock code, to win.  We did it in 39 mins and given how hard it was, we were pretty rapt!🤔👏. 

Graeme and a couple of other guys were standouts at calculating how to find hidden numbers in things like a sheet with lines on it that you had to realise, needed to be rolled up and laid over a circle on a table. Then you look down thru the tube to spy coded numbers inside the lines. It was hard!

We went to the specialty restaurant chops again tonight it was our last one, what a meal! You can get lobster for $21 usd and the rest is included in the price you paid at the start - I think it was about $415 Aud for 5 nights of specialty, dining, restaurants. So we got surf and turf steaks and lobster. It was lovely then we went to the theatre and saw the Freddie Mercury impersonator – he is a Kiwi and he is actually really funny as well. Back up to our room to try and get an early night as we are all up so late with what happened yesterday and into today. Thoughts are with all those involved.

Day 19 - 27th April

Our last day on the cruise today! They had put out the times for going through US immigration yesterday – you have to have a face-to-face interview with officials they fly in from Honolulu to Kona, where we are coming into the states from. Of course our deck was given the very last spot and doubled up with deck 3, so we wouldn’t have got off until about 2 pm which was rubbish. So we discussed it and I decided to book a royal Caribbean excursion, because if you had one of those, you are let off first thing in the morning and your interview was at 8 am – they really do hold you to ransom! Anyway, I booked a zodiac raft tour that was meant to promised dolphins, turtles and maybe whales. Thought it would hopefully be worth it,  seeing these, even though you were paying over $250aud each.

We went down through immigration, no problems. they obviously had our Esta’s on record and they just checked a form we had to fill-in and then off onto the ship tenders over to the pier. 

Mum and Sam had been following the news about the death on Anzac Day – it’s strange that he news channels have not picked up about the lady dying right before the guy jumped off? But anyway we saw the channel 9 Australian news reporters on the piece online before we came onto the pier, and sure enough the reporters were there with cameras, trying to entice people to talk about – ‘their feelings’ about what it happened -Think it would’ve been pretty obvious. Some people jumped in quickly and were keen to be on TV, but a lot of us felt the same way - that trying to entice emotion on TV was uncomfortable and felt disrespectful to the people that have died. 

We got on our Zodiac and had 16 of the raft – you sit sideways on the pontoon edges and they took us out to a bay about 20 mins away. They provided all the snorkelling gear which werereally good quality, and we had a good snorkel around on the reef. There was just so many tourists in the small bay thoughand absolutely no dolphins, turtles or whales! The coral looked like it was mostly dead but there were brilliant, yellow fish and  also a lot of black and white fish, so was quite cool but certainly not what they had sold The excursion as. Still glad we did it though.

Went back to the pier and decided to go walking around Kona as the shops are all along the waterfront. Spent a lovely afternoon doing that – we went to a place called The Cheeky Tiki, which was a hotel where you sit upstairs and look out over all the bay. We ordered cocktails – Graeme had a spicy margarita, which was bright purple – it had dragon fruit and some sort of chilli in it. He loves spice, but that was the hottest drink he has ever had, and I wouldn’t have been able to drink it! I had a piña colada then Graeme wanted to try the local beers too. Felt like a bit much after the cocktail but had to join in ha ha🤣. We had some local beers which were very nice. Think the bill was about $39usd + tip, so not cheap, but when in Rome……

We went out and walked up and down the lovely shopping strip, bought a T-shirt each and some bits and pieces. Then we were going to get the bus they called ‘the trolley’ that takes you around the town. But it was getting quite hot and Graeme started to feel quite faint – as he has got vety large arteries in his heart, when he gets hot his blood flow gets really slow because of it, and he starts to feel like he’s going to pass out, So I decided to get the tender back to the ship and into the cool room.

Got a nice cold coke and a piece of pizza from Sorrento’s on board for him, then when he was feeling better, we decided to face the challenge of packing – that’s the one thing I love about cruising, once you’ve unpacked you have 17 days without living out of a suitcase! 

But we got it all packed, no problems – we are going to take our egg crate mattress in Graeme‘s suitcase. as he has room and we have heard that the beds are really hard on the next ship as well  – this is the first time we have sailed on cruise ships and had beds that were like lying on steel🥺. But then we will donate the topper to the room attendant after that cruise has finished. 

Went up to the windjammer cafe as we didn’t feel like doing much for dinner, then took out dessert and sat outside to enjoy it for the last time. Did a couple of laps around the walking track, but it was starting to rain which was actually lovely as it was warm, but also they have stacked up all the loungers across the space where the guy jumped off the ship and put yellow tape around it - I guess to preserve the scene, but it isn’t nice and reminds you of what happened.

But all in all, a lovely end to our first cruise – don’t know where the time has gone!

Days, 15, 16, 17……..23rd – 25th April– At sea, crossing the equator and two deaths tonight

 Day 15, 23rd April

Woke to a hot sunny day today! So nice☀️👏😃. We decided it was a bit hot by the time we were up and ready after breakfast to walk on the walking track so we slathered ourselves and sunscreen, and went up and layout, on the lounges with a book and music – heaven :-) although there was a very loud Canadians beside us, who seem to speak in very loud voices, even though they are right next to each other!

Afterwards we went down and showered and read books – Graeme is actually on to his 3rd online book, and I am onto my 2nd. I still prefer to hold a book in my hand and it has been nice to have the time to do so. We went for a wander around the ship in the afternoon, and went to voyagers bar and tried a couple of cocktails – just because we could :-). Enjoyed having pina coladas that weren’t slushie’s and were the actual cocktail. I don’t drink strong drinks, but even I have thought the alcohol here has been very weak and have heard other say the same thing, think the slushy mixers are to blame as they are more like lolly water. They call normal cocktails “on the rocks” here.

Grabbed a slice of pizza and took it up to our room – gosh, we are going to miss that on our next cruise as they don’t have a Sorrento’s pizza. The ship takes about 3700 people I think in the next one is about 1000 people less. Will be interesting depending on how full it is as this one is about 1100 down on its normal total for passengers now that school holidays have finished. But I have just been reading that the Queen Mary two has had a breakdown and cancelled its South Hampton – New York – New York - Rome sailings so we may get some of those people coming onto our next cruise I’m thinking.

We enjoyed a couple of quiet hours in our room as we get the afternoon sun on our balcony which is lovely, then got dressed up as we had our specialty dining at the Jamie Oliver restaurant tonight. Just by chance, Vicki and Robyn, who we have met through cruise critic online, were down there having their meal as well so we got to sit with each other which was lovely to have a chat and catch up. The chat function on the Royal Caribbean app has been broken for a couple of days and that’s the only way you can talk to people on board, so was great we saw them tonight! 

Jamies -The food, oh my goodness – five courses and so much of it. The flavours were amazing – we had a charcuterie board, followed by the most amazing soft garlic bread and arocini balls, then the next starter was small pasta dishes which we shared. One was in a white sauce with truffles and mushrooms, and the other was a traditional penne with slightly chilli tomato base. The next main was salmon and chicken, which we shared with a side of posh fries! That sounded very Jamie! I could hear him saying it ha ha😃. Apparently the fries are hand cut and cooked, and all the pasta is freshly made. There was so much food. I am going to pay for it tonight I know! I have had a few of Graeme’s loser tablets as we arent used to eating so late and they are making a big difference, not waking up with reflux which says you’re flying out of bed like you’re going to be sick when you’re still asleep!

We had a lovely walk around out of the walking track afterwards.it’s funny with the wind at the bow, not good for woman with long hair, or floaty tops or dresses!!

Talking to family at home, sounds like everything is going well – Mum and Dad have got into a good routine with our two puppies and our place which is great and Danni has almost finished moving her apartment as their lease had finished. She is also into her flying with Qantas international and after an awful bout of food poisoning in Singapore, we are all hoping for good flying from here on in for her. Sam, Royden and the kids are all going well – Charlee has just finished a holiday hockey camp for two days which she really loved.

Day 16 -  24th April 

We have crossed the equator! First time we have been at sea crossing over and some lovely person stayed up until it got to “0” on the position, on the map! 😃👏

We went up onto the pool deck as they were having a – “Crossing the Line: the King Neptune, Equator Ceremony”. Apparently it is tradition and sailors, and the Navy always do it. It was really funny as I had to punish the officers who had been naughty first, especially the Head of the room attendance. She was punished and had to kiss a huge, raw flounder, because she had not taught all the room attendance how to fold, kangaroo towels!! 🦘.Then we all moved on from being ‘Pollywogs’ - those who haven’t crossed the equator – to ‘Trusty shellbacks’! Hear ye hear he…..👌🌊

A quiet day in our room and on the balcony, I think today – my hypotheses of paying for all the Italian food last night was correct, and didn’t get much sleep with a sore tummy – that will teach me!

Day 17–25th April…… Anzac Day

We got up at 5 am today so we could be out on the top deck for the ANZAC ceremony, which apparently has taken some negotiation with the cruise line to establish and to be outside. Approximately 1200 guests attended either the 5:45 am, ceremony or the 8 am ceremony in the theatre. We stood and watched the sun rise on one side of the ship, while it was still dark on the other – was quite surreal. It was great as they have handed out booklets as well and both New Zealand and Australian national anthems. Was impressed to see we also had the Māori verses, which we sang proud and only a little bit of the ‘hum hum’ in the middle where you don’t quite know the words or tempo😊. They had the last post  as the sun came up, which was beautiful, and the whole ceremony was quite poignant.

We went back to our cabin after that – heard a alpha, alpha, alpha emergency call in the cafe afterwards for a little girl who had an epileptic seizure. It was quite severe, I think and there’s been rumours that she had another one later and passed away, but I am not sure that is correct – Chinese whispers are a dangerous thing.

We have been reading and reading on this trip, which is lovely. Probably because we have had so many at sea days, don’t know where the time has gone?! I’m so glad I keep this blog though – Affectionately called “The Blob” 😂, we wouldn’t be able to remember otherwise! 

When we get off the ship we will be flying from Honolulu to LA, then transfer for LA to New York, which is about 11 or so hours of flying. We will arrive in New York City at around 7 in the morning, so won’t be able to get into our hotel room, we are guessing for awhile. We decided that after having so much fun in LA with Graeme, Danni and I when went together in 2017 – that we would look for an event that might be on, on 29 April as that is the only day we have in New York unfortunately before getting on another 15 days cruise. 

Had a look online, and there is a ice hockey game at Madison Square Garden which would’ve been really close to us but the tickets were over $500 each?!😳 What the heck?. But we can get the subway over to Citi Fields arena, where there is a baseball game on. We really enjoyed the one we had when we were with Danni, so we are going to watch the New York Jets play the Atlanta Braves in the afternoon that we arrive. We will be a tad tired! as we won’t get much sleep on the two flights, but we want to make the most of the time we have. So I booked the tickets and we are good to go. 👌👏.

We did some walking up on the track – 7 times around, but were dismayed to find out that, even though it says 1 km from the starting point of the track to the end, it is in fact, 553m only! Feels like 1 km ha ha so that was only like 3 1/2 km that we walked – boo we have been over estimating our walks then. 

We are both feeling so over full and uncomfortable, even though we haven’t been eating huge amounts. It is just that there is so much available – there was a lady today in the windjammer cafe with 4 dinner plates stacked up full of food- one on top of the other, she was getting for herself .🤢 That’s the problem with cruise ships – they encourage gluttony with all the lovely offerings everywhere. 

So we have decided to cut back and go back to having two meals a day as you don’t feel good when you overeat all the time. We are glad we didn’t take the drinks package too, as it was about $100 per day per person, so was about $3000 for the cruise for a couple!! You have to drink between 6 to 8 cocktails a day which sounds lovely but 17 days in a row would be way too much. We have any spent a tiny amount compared to that.

For dinner, we went to the adults only Solarium, which is the mediterranean buffet. The food is very nice and the staff are lovely. A lot of the waiting staff in the higher end restaurants on board are Indian we notice and in the large restaurants mostly Indonesians. Gosh, they work hard hard hard, 7 days a week for 7 - 9 months and then 2 months off I think. No wonder they put the envelopes out for giving extra tips. All cruises from Australia already have the gratuities included which is good.

On our  next cruise we will be under the American rules, which are about $36 USD per day for gratuities and then everything you get the exact same drinks etc as on our current ship, you then pay another 18% on top. America is an expensive place with this sort of thing. 

We went to the show tonight – was quite freaky, with music and the massive harp that went right across the theatre above our heads, and a guy was playing it, while people were dancing and a lot of drumming. Was pretty full on and well choreographed. 

Went back to our room and Graeme fell asleep, but I kept hearing calls through the PA system outside in the hallway – it was an alpha alpha alpha emergency medical call again, then about 30 minutes later they started calling for a gentleman to return to his cabin on the 11th deck. Then they started sending PAs that were coming into the cabins, continuously calling for him on a regular interval. That went from about 10:30pm through to midnight. 

Then we felt massive juddering which woke Graeme. We had a look outside and the ship was turning around and - as we are are very near the bridge where there is also a spotlight, we could see they were shining it on the water and a small rescue boat was put down. It was very black and rough, and we are nowhere near any kind of land. They confined everyone to the cabins, as there was also another man missing, who was later found. 

After about two hours, they stopped their pattern searching – there was just no hope of seeing anyone in the water, but it has become apparent that a man who was linked to a woman who had just passed away in her cabin (which was the alpha call) had gone upstairs and jumped overboard.

It was a very late night and everyone was quiet and somber the next morning. News coming out of Australia gave more information than the captain, which is probably a bit of a pity as there are a lot of chinese whispers going around as people are so concerned of course. Know he has to respect privacy, but he just said someone went overboard rather than giving factual info and reassurance to passengers as everyone was feeling it.

Feel for everyone and also passengers on board who have no Internet and need to let their loved ones know they are safe after the news reports. I have offered, that if anyone needs internet and an iPad, I am happy to share mine so they can let loved ones  know at home that they are okay. Would hate for anyone to be distressed and not be able to contact family back home – I know we have had a lot of messages this morning from concerned friends and family which is lovely and apparently they are reporting this on the BBC as well, so it has gone across the globe.

Days 12, 13, 14… 20–22nd April. 2 days in Moorea, Tahiti – tour & motupicnic with stingrays and sharks!

Day 12 – 20th of April, Moorea

We were up early this morning – gosh, it almost killed us ha ha. Makes you realise how good you feel when you sleep until you wake rather than having to set an alarm! 

We needed to get down to the vintages bar to get tender tickets which opened at 7 am, so we went down at 6:45am. Even so we were on tender number 11 and they were saying at least 45 minutes for each return trip, so that was worrying given that our tour operator was expecting us to be there between 8:30 and 9:30 am.

Royal Caribbean charges exorbitant rates for their tours – and that’s for the same tour as outside companies charge. For example, snorkelling with the rays and shark Motu picnic is several hundred dollars p.p with the ship, but when you go onto the shore, there were local operators offering the same thing for $50 per person! But ship lines hold you to ransom as they won’t let you off early, if you aren’t on a royal Caribbean excursion, so it’s a gamble with getting off on time. 

Anyway, we did get off with just enough time to meet the operator which was good, but probably wouldn’t want to cut it that fine again. Graeme thinks and is probably right though, that when we get to Europe, there won’t be local operators standing shoulder to shoulder to get your custom like they do in the islands, as they are so reliant here on tourism and the big ships are big money earners for the pacific islands.

We went on a sightseeing trip with Ron, from Mario Safari which took us firstly up a bloody big mountain - magic mountain on a very bumpy trail! We thought we would probably be in a van, but it was a safari style ute with the sides/back open so not quite what we are expecting, but it was fine and probably good to be in the open air:-).

We went right up to the top of Magic Mountain– got some great views from the top and photos, then back down all the way to the bottom and along to some gardens with really interesting fruits that we don’t get back home. Next was the juice factory and some tastings – it’s all from pineapple, but the Coca, and also the coconut liqueurs they make from the pineapples were beautiful. Pity we can’t take any back with us to the ship. We then had a quick look through the juice factory and then headed out through the pineapple plantations – that was an eye-opener..

The plantations go for miles and miles and miles! Leased by 33 families who grow their pineapple crops there. Ron said that pineapples grown from the shoot will grow a fruit in about 8 to 9 months, but one grown from the top of a pineapple that has been cut off, will take about 18 months. It is so incredibly labour-intensive – there was a guy in there cutting pineapples by hand, and they are so spiky with all the leaves and pineapples as far as you can see – now that is hard work!

After that we went to the Belvedere, which is another lookout point, and then back down to the ship. Was a really good tour and we enjoyed it.

It was pretty hot by then, so we went back on the ship fora swim and grabbed some food as it was 2 o’clock, and we hadn’t eaten. Then we lay down and crashed for an hour – Bliss! Graeme’s throat has been a bit scratchy, so he has been snoring, which I could hear through my sleep, it was a good alarm clock!

We got ready and went out for dinner, just in the windjammer cafe tonight which is the buffet style and you sit wherever you like. Then we went for a wander out on the top deck – it had been raining and we didn’t even hear it. 

Tomorrow we will go ashore as we will still be here in Moorea and will probably do the snorkelling with sharks and rays on the motu, that we were going to do originally was Royal Caribbean, but will do it with the local operators, as they will all be sitting there waiting when we get off again. :-) 

Day 13 - 21st April- Moorea Tahiti

What a cool day! Because we had been onto the Moorea pier yesterday, we knew there were lots of locals selling tours at much reduced prices compared to what Royal Caribbean charge as I have mentioned before. We had originally booked for the Motu picnic and then had to cancel it because of the day change with the other company excursion yesterday. So today we thought we would just go and do it with the locals! We got it for US$45 per person – cheap!

We jumped on small boats, and they took us around the island to the bay, right where we had done the same tour more than 10 years ago, to see the stingrays and sharks. They come right into the Motu because they are fed by the locals and it is shallow and warm. 

It was a beautiful day not too windy. Not too hot – just perfect, I think around 30°C. We all jumped in the water after grabbing some snorkels and masks and swam around as there was also some good coral. Really pretty fish, bright yellow, and also iridescent blue. The Tahitian guy running it also got the female stingrays to come up and they were quite curious actually – it’s almost like they are smelling you when they go over your feet and legs. He got one to come up on my body – I remember they feel like really strange, thick jelly underneath, and a little bit coarse on the top, but these being females they were really quite smooth. Graeme does not like them so declined from having them touch him except when one accidentally went over his foot while he was videoing me – it sounded funny as he got a fright🤣.

Swam around the coral again, although the current was quite strong, so glad we are strong swimmers as the tide was coming in. I had a few paddles with the rays and then a couple of small reef sharks I think they were, came in and swam around, but they are not as friendly and don’t come and touch you – thank God!

We bought some beers at the little bar they have there – we are enjoying the local ones, they are quite hoppy, and then we sat out on the barstools under the thatched umbrellas – there were even picnic tables with umbrellas in the Motu water. It was perfect and you almost have to pinch yourself that you are there as the water is a beautiful colour as well. Even though we have done this before so knew what to expect, it was still brilliant. We spent about 4 hours there.

On the way over on the boat, the people in front of me were Kiwis as well! It is so funny because they were from Hamilton! And we knew similar people as one of the other ladies had a farm out Ruakiwi where Graeme spent his teenage years, so a lot of commonalities! It was like the other day I was leaning on my balcony – not sure if I’ve written this already in my blog or not??!  But the lady in the next cabin was also out on her balcony and we got talking – she was a Kiwi and her ex father-in-law was a guy that Graeme worked with at the power station back in the 80s – 2° of separation alright!! Blows my mind, how time and circumstances puts us next to people that we have so many commonalities with!

We came back to the ship and had long showers to try and get the sticky salt off us and all the sunscreen – we have been very diligent as there have been some very burnt people we’ve seen around, so we have been really careful and I bought  good quality sunscreen. We grabbed some food at the buffet for dinner, and then took our dessert – which was way too much! Out of onto the open deck and sat and enjoyed the view as we sailed away from Tahiti – boo.🥺

It was so lovely to be on land for a few days, and now we are out at sea for another 6 days I think before we get to Oahu in Hawaii.

Day 14 - 22nd April- at Sea

We woke about 8am this am, after both getting up in the middle of the night- I woke up to go to the loo and found Graeme already in there, was funny as we both got such a fright!

We decided not to order continental brekky today, so we can do our normal intermittent fasting and eat more towards lunchtime. Had showers then went to get our passports back now we have left Tahiti. It was good as they had staff in the foyer of each floor with them, so wasnt a queue. Went walking up on the walking track but was 30C and humid as, so we only did 2kms then went back into the air con and down to the internet desk . 

Have been having trouble with accessing one of our banks and also the royal Caribbean website on my phone and ipad. Its like the logins start and then are blocked. Graeme had gone through everything clearing out cookies, history data and everything they say to do online, but still no go. The IT staff guy checked it all and said we had done everything and he couldnt work it out- a pain! But at least we can access them on Graeme’s iPad. Weirdly I had been able to access them until a few days ago.

Cos we had been so hot and then walked into the air con we were both pretty hot, then I started seeing spots in front of my eyes while we were waiting for the IT guy to finish, so we went down to the back of the ship to sit and cool down. There was a lady in there giving a lecture on genealogy which was  really interesting.

She was talking about how the only census data from the UK, Scotland & Canada I think it was, have been kept since the saus - ages…. NZ & Australia were using census stats then destroying all documentation for a long time, so all that info was lost. She said interestingly that a lot of the early English stats would round peoples ages up or down to the nearest 5 or 0, so the censuses were often not accurate. 

Also the scandinavians and Icelandic patronyms- boys would take their fathers name which made it really easy to follow their genealogy. Like John Andersen would translate to John, the son of Anders, and they would give the addition of a suffix of sen = son (or datter= daughter, as the suffix for a girl). Such a fascinating topic as you get older and more interested in your family lineage.

We grabbed a fresh salad in the cafe for lunch and 1/2 a tuna wrap and went back to our room, sat on the balcony and enjoyed it, a lot! Then we went down to the theatre as they had the Thor: Love and Thunder movie on at 2pm. That Māori guy Taika Watiti, who directed and narrates it is so funny- ah the accents of home 😃.

Had a couple of drinks in there in lieu of missing popcorn and sweets. Graeme said its not often you have a espresso martini and a mojito slushy in a move theatre!!

Went down the internal promenade and there wa a watch sale on and Graeme saw one he really liked - to add to his exiting dozen or so! To be fair it was hugely discounted, good thing about being offshore I guess.

We are going to the restaurant for dinner tonight for the 1st time in ages. Pic today of the “cool” frog our attendant made us lol, he is talented.

The ocean today has been as still as a millpond - the smoothest seas to date. It stayed hot and balmy all day- you can see by the pic below how warm, by Graemes glasses when we opened the door onto the balcony!!! But bonus- I found the chairs on our balcony actually lie down flat - awesome 👏.

Days 9, 10, 11 - 17th - 19th April. At sea and Papeete Tahiti, first land stop

Day 9, 17th April:

We slept late again? Not sure as we keep moving clocks forward a we head towards Tahiti. Think we are now 4 hrs ahead of Aussie. We got up and saw some sun today - yay. Still quite cloudy though and very windy.

The captain said yesterday that we have travelled about 1800 nat. miles and 600 to go and that the wind was 30-35knots, the sea waves are 8 ft. Just know that it’s hilarious when you are up on the walking track, so top deck - that on the bow you can hardly stand up on the starboard side - like you are leaning forward with all your weight, then when you round the curve to Portside, you can run like a featherweight! Its just those 2 parts that you feel the extreme wind.

We walked our 4kms then wandered round - saw a pair of reading glasses on the lip of the deck at the stern, so asked the people on the loungers next to them, if they were theirs. The lady said she had put them there as they were on the lounger she wanted - wondering if she doesnt think they could easily go overboard? So I said I’d take them to lost property and she thought that was a good idea?! Hopefully the person who left them gets them back.

Covered ourselves in sunscreen and went back up top to relax in the sun and read. Got about 45 mins before it got too cloudy but was nice to get out as the weather to date has meant most of your time is indoors. 

Dinner tonight was in the adults only solarium, Mediterranean style buffet. Was pretty good then we went down to the music hall bar which was hosting “The perfect couple” contest. Was funny the things they had to do eg/ 1 is blindfolded then has a pool cue between their legs and the other has a pool cue holder between theirs. and has to guide their partner to put the cue into the holder!

The bars have all run out of most of the mixers, so no pina colada slushies, but i tried the mojito ones which luckily I wasnt allergic to. I don’t drink strong drinks but have found they are pretty weak. They are running out of soooo many things onboard now - really poor provisioning and sounds like due to more cost cutting? but when people have paid upwards of $115 p.p, per day for the drinks packages, they will understandably be upset - glad we didnt. We decided we couldnt drink17 days straight and about 6-8 drinks each a day it would take to be ahead on one of those packages.

Later we went to listen to a singer in the hall, very Whitney Houston like. Lovely night and now to bed as its getting later and later with the time changes!

Day 10 - 18th April

Another sea day today. It was raining most of the day today so we just took it easy and read books then went for a walk later in the afternoon when the rain stopped. They have run out of so many supplies on the ship that and it’s getting hard to get the things you need in life – bran for your cereal and mixes for your cocktails ha ha ha ha🤣😂🤣😂.  At least it gives everyone something to talk about on long sea days lol!

We were booked in to the specialty dining, At “Chops” grill tonight, it is very highly thought of by everyone and is part of our five specialty dining package, we bought. We decided to get really dressed up tonight and as it is ‘dress to impress’ theme night, that worked in well. We went to the schooner bar for a drink beforehand, then onto the restaurant. 

It is quite oh la la. Great options - I had the prawn cocktail and Graeme had the crab cake, then we had lobster bisque, and both had the huge ribeye on the bone, which look like a T-bone steak with veggies, followed by a delicious meringue key lime pie for me and Graeme had the NY cheesecake with ice cream. We waddled back out of the restaurant! and went wandering on the ship to enjoy the evening.

They had the outdoor movie “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris” on the giant screen on the top deck in front of the pool. It was really really windy but lovely to sit out there and watch this movie again, as we had really enjoyed it at the movies previously. A lovely evening👏.

Day 11 - 19th April

We have hit land! Well, not literally, but Tahiti after seven days at sea… Sounds like there should be a split enz song about being in a leaky boat haha!😊😂

We pulled into the port of Papeete, So hot and humid 28° at 9 am already. We had had to hand our passports in 5 days ago for the cruise line to process the formalities with the Tahitian government. Doesn’t feel so good giving your passport away and not getting it back for so long, but we are a bit of a captive audience!

We got ourselves ready, and was an easy walk off the ship – thought they would be masses of crowds, but it was all very civilised. As we have been here before, we decided to walk around on our own, rather than get an excursion, as what the cruise line is offering wasn’t that great. We have noticed that, that the excursions are extremely overpriced and there are not many exciting ones now - and that is on our next cruise as well. It is actually made us look at different providers outside of the cruise line, but today we were happy just to wander around slowly.

You learn to walk like a local, – slow and scuffing in your jandals ha ha! We wandered around the town and reminisced about when we have been here previously as we had always flown into Papeete before going out to the resorts or over to the island of Moorea, where we are going tomorrow.

We found the markets and spent a good hour walking around in those, soaking up the atmosphere. You can almost see it on the locals faces though, that it’s a pain having about 3500 people descend on your town for the day, but then again that is the lifeblood with the tourist industry! Only thing we bought were three pairs of knickers, ha ha!! Although we did stop at an outdoor bar and have a beautiful cold, cold beer. Probably about the same price as home – 500 mls was about $12 Australian. That beer went down so nice,  then we cruised back to the port and went and had some lunch on the ship as we were ravenous.

Since we had sun today, we decided to go up on the pool deck, have a swim as we were hot and then lay out and relax. Very nice to see the sun as the weather hasn’t been that great up until now, but expect it will keep improving as we head towards europe and the equator.

Went down and had showers – love that the ship has glass shower doors rather than a curtain btw, so no sticking to your legs! We decided to have an early night as we need to be up at 5:45am tomorrow to be down at 6:45am for tender tickets to try and get off for our excursion early tomorrow. 

We had booked through the ‘shore excursion group’ for this tour and the meeting time was 8:30 am. Given that they won’t have the first tender going off until 8:45 am, it became obvious that it will be impossible to get there on time so I have emailed the company. 

It’s been a bit of a pain as the operator had previously shifted the day of our tour to the first day in Moorea, which clashed with one we had already booked with Royal Caribbean. So we had to cancel one and shuffle things around. Shore excursions group say that they will work with the ships when you book online, as you just put in your cruise line, the ship and date and it comes up with all the tours for each stop. But it actually hasn’t been that easy in reality, causing a bit of stress as to whether we will be able to get onto the shore in time. So we will be lining up early tomorrow for the tender tickets to get off as early as possible!