Tahiti Cruise--Day 4 (At Sea)

Day 4—At Sea (January 30, 2015)

From the Navigator:  “After departure from Huahine yesterday, Ocean Princess set various courses through the French Polynesian waters.  Today we will pass by the island of Makatea on the port side of the ship.  Makatea is one of the few islands in the region that has naturally occurring fresh water on the island.  Later on we will pass Mataiva Island to starboard, once clear we will set a south easterly course for Rangiroa.”

I love sea days!  There’s something about being on the open ocean watching as the water passes by or seeing the ship’s wake fade off in the distance that simply induces a feeling of serenity.  I can’t think of a vacation that is more relaxing than getting away from it all on a cruise. 

I can’t claim to be totally disconnected since here I am typing this blog on my laptop, then connecting to the internet on board to post, but the cell phone is in the safe, so no phone calls from work, no text messages, no emails that have to be answered.  I’m only posting my blog once a day (assuming the ship has satellite reception which is never a guarantee), and not spending hours on the computer as I would on land.  I’ll catch up with what’s going on with all my friends once I get back, but for now, it’s nice to be partially disconnected.

It was another cloudy day with the forecast calling for “Mostly cloudy with showers” according to the Princess Patter.  With the cloud covering, it didn’t feel as hot as with the sun burning down (we are much closer to the equator, so the sun is much stronger here), but it was still very humid.  Since it was a sea day, we were able to spend it in the ship’s air conditioned comfort.

After meeting my parents for breakfast, I headed up to the Tahitian Lounge, Deck 10 Forward, where I was meeting the other Cruise Critic folks for our Meet and Greet.  I had again organized this event and sent invitations to the officers and staff.  We had 35 people signed up to attend.  Surprisingly, almost all the officers attended, including the captain and staff captain.  When I’ve organized this in the past, we’ve only had a few of them attend.  While talking to Simon Heath, our cruise director, he told me that there was a meeting scheduled for 10:00am that would preclude the officers from attending, but he had asked the captain to move the meeting to 10:30am so they could all attend the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet—wow, I think this is the first time I’ve heard that a meeting was moved to accommodate our group.

The captain was switching out this cruise, and both the outgoing captain and incoming captain were on board.  It was the outgoing captain who attended, and I spent some time talking with him.  I thought that when a new captain arrived, the outgoing left right away, but he told me since the incoming captain was relatively young (experience wise), he was required to be on board a week prior to the outgoing leaving so that a proper turnover could occur with the incoming shadowing the outgoing.  I learn something new about ship’s operations each time I come on board.  I know most passengers don’t care, but I find it all very interesting.

One couple from our Meet and Greet, Doug and Carole, were getting married on Bora Bora and was telling us about the different arrangements they were offered for their beach wedding.  She said Doug could have arrived on the beach in a canoe dressed as a Polynesian warrior, while she waited on shore.  She said they weren’t doing that since she wouldn’t be able to pull off the “dreamy look” of the young maiden waiting for her warrior and instead would probably burst out in laughter.  Another option was that she could be dressed as a Polynesian Princess carried in a chair on the shoulders of four warriors to beach where her warrior husband waited.  Again, she said she’d never be able to pull that off with the proper decorum and instead would be giggling all the way.  She had us all laughing at the descriptions of the possibilities they were offered.  They opted for the more American-style wedding although with a few Polynesian touches—the wedding would take place on the beach, their hands would be tied with palm frond leaves, blessed water poured over their linked hands, then they would both “take the plunge” by diving into the ocean, wedding dress and all! 

The rest of the day was spent doing very little—relaxing in the loungers on the Promenade Deck and reading (and dozing too).  My mother and I went to the dining room for lunch since fried calamari was on the menu and we both loved calamari, while my dad dozed on the Promenade Deck loungers.  Later I attended the pearl lecture and learned all about pearls, both the natural occurring and cultured, how pearls are graded, and the different colors including the more common white pearls, the Tahitian black pearls, and the extremely rare gold pearls.  It was very interesting.

Princess is celebrating it’s 50^th anniversary this year, and the menu for dinner was a special anniversary dinner with an appetizer course from the 50s and 60s (one offering from each decade), a second course from the 70s and 80s (one from each), an intermezzo of sorbet, a selection of two different main courses from the 90s, and desserts from the 2000s.  None of the choices appealed to us, so for the first time ever, we decided to forego participating in formal night and opted instead to eat in the buffet.  We ended up having hamburgers from the grill (I had the bratwurst) and eating out on the aft deck behind the buffet since it wasn’t too hot and there was a gentle breeze.  We watched the clouds turn beautiful shades of pink and orange as the sun set. 

After dinner, I headed back to my cabin, and watched a movie, then read for a little bit before falling to sleep.  What a relaxing day on board!