Since the Pacific Princess was docked in Papeete by 8pm last night, and our cabin on the starboard side of the ship is away from the pier, and I had the forethought to pile the decorative pillows in front of our porthole before retiring last night (not wanting to scare the passengers on the Papeete-Moorea ferry at the next pier with any early morning nakedidity), it stayed quiet and dark and cozy in our cabin, and, somehow even the inevitable announcements on disembarkation morning didn't wake me. I finally (!) managed to sleep past 6am and woke feeling as rested as I have in weeks ('cause those last couple of weeks at home were certainly not restful, and our early morning arrivals have had us bouncing out of bed early every day).
I slept so late I missed breakfast in the Club Restaurant, and didn't want to do battle in the Panorama Buffet on disembarkation morning, so I skipped breakfast altogether. Instead, G and I took advantage of today's sunny skies to walk off the ship and across the street to the Vaima Shopping Center, which up close is more inviting than it appears from the ship. While the purchase of a drink would have bought us 30 minutes of wifi in any one of several bars, we instead opted to purchase an entire day's worth for $10 each from Cyber e-space. Unfortunately, the wifi was only passable (but it was consistent), and Cyber e-space, like every place on these islands, either doesn't have or has something against air conditioning. We did have shade but even in the shade it was warm; still, G paid bills and checked the webcams at home (which we haven't been able to do from the ship) and I checked on future travel plans and finally was able to iMessage some food photos to the twins (more! They want more!). Finally I started to tackle getting last night's blog post published and initially had no luck on land either, but eventually deleted all the photos from it, uploaded the text and added back the photos one at a time. It took awhile...
G returned to the ship long before I was done, and when I finally got there, I went directly to the Panorama Buffet for a slice of pizza. Not finding him up there (but every crew member told me he had just left). I found him in our cabin. He got cleaned up for the 4pm Cruise Critic gathering; I chose to nap. Once again, the heat had drained me. I was showered for the evening by the time he returned, and the 5:15pm muster drill was just finishing up as we went up to the Elite Lounge.
This is a good time to mention the obvious difference between this cruise and most other cruises...on turnaround day, disembarking passengers are allowed to stay on the ship until 8pm or so. The primary reason for this is that many passengers are flying back to the US on the 11pm Air Tahiti Nui flight (the aircraft that arrives just after 9pm as we did 10 nights ago is serviced and turned around for a flight back to Los Angeles). With no place to go, passengers who purchase their transfers back to the airport from Princess get a place to stay (and keep their carry on luggage) until it's time to leave for the airport. They have to vacate their cabins by 8am, but can use the entire ship and its facilities all day long. The only exception is that they are asked to just dine in the buffet, not in the Club Restaurant so that newly embarking passengers also have a place to eat.
I thought it would make this ship feel extra crowded today, but it really didn't. Many people chose to take island tours; still other new passengers aren't arriving until 10pm tonight (as we did). It's all very workable. The only funny thing is that when we see someone from last cruise, we're not sure if they're leaving or staying. Still, most are leaving: there were only 25 or so "in transit" passengers- those staying on for another cruise (like us).
And, speaking about in transit passengers, being in transit in Papeete is the easiest thing imaginable. No immigration, no schedules...we didn't even need new ship cards as the ones we have are good into December. Gosha, the ship's administrative manager, stopped by our cabin with in transit passes in case we needed them when we left the ship (we didn't). No new security photos...nothing. It was just another port day for us. Easy peasy!
Dinner tonight was open seating, so we were not at the table we have been assigned to starting this cruise. Still, Antonio and Gerald stopped by (Gerald several times) to make sure we were being well looked after by Joaquim from Portugal and Yash from India. It was comical, these four waiters falling over each other to serve our dinner, and it was nice to feel so comfortable and at home after only 10 days.
Entertainment tonight is primarily a Tahiti Nui Folkloric show being held at 10pm in the Cabaret Lounge. Did this group perform the first night of last cruise? We have no idea; we arrived on the ship that night and crashed. Our cabin steward Bianca just told us she has no late arriving passengers tonight, which is the best a steward can hope for on turnaround days on this itinerary. She's going to sleep, but, well rested after today, we're planning to stay up for the show. The Pacific Princess sails at 5am tomorrow morning, cruising back across the Sea of the Moon, to anchor again in Opunohu Bay in Moorea.
