Day 49: Port Vila, Vanuatu

This post is being published (and, if I’m being totally honest, written) the day after the Ruby Princess was in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Sometime yesterday evening, the ship lost everything- TV and Internet- and with nothing to watch after we returned to the cabin after the show last night, I gave myself a pass and fell asleep without writing about our day. 

It was nice. 

It took a little finagling this morning (which I’ll get into on today’s post), but things seem to be working again, so it’s time to get caught up. 

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Where in the world are we?

Our weather has been stellar every single day since we had a morning rain in Hobart a lifetime ago, and so it continued today. We had fond memories in Vila of taking a water taxi to a private resort called Iririki Island when we were here two years ago, and that was definitely an option. But after our rather active day on Lifou yesterday, we weren’t exactly high energy. I slept until 9am, right through breakfast (and, sadly, didn’t even wake enough when G left for breakfast to remind him to get a photo of the breakfast menu). Around 9:30am he joined me in the Horizon Court Buffet where it was obvious he was feeling much like I was.

We walked around the upper decks a bit to see what we could of the area from the ship, sat in the wicker chairs on the back of Deck 16 and stared out at a gorgeous area just behind where the Ruby Princess was docked. It would require a short walk through the Port Vila Boatworks to be reached, but we decided to do just that. 

Our view from Deck 16

Those water colors just called to us

There was an outlet to the ocean just a little further down

We packed lightly for a beach day (we’d be so close to the ship we didn’t feel we’d need to take everything with us), just one beach towel, water and a soda, layered on the sunscreen and walked off the ship. We weren’t even certain we’d be allowed to walk through what was basically the back side of the port but we were waved out past security and were soon making our way along a very pot-holed dusty dirt road past the Boatworks. I had taken both hiking sticks today, as I was still a little tender after yesterday’s walking, and it was a wise decision. 

What we were doing reminded me of what we’ve done so many times in the Caribbean when we were spending our winters cruising there: just heading out and exploring a bit. In the Caribbean, we generally had great fun and met some very nice locals, far from the normal tourist areas. If we ever felt uncomfortable, we’d simply turn around.  We had that same attitude today, but everyone we met (everyone!) greeted us with a hello in English. Most people in Vanuatu are fluent in English, French and a local Creole dialect. 

We walked until we were well past the Boatworks and laid the towel down on the beach under a particularly shady tree. It was quiet and calm and simply beautiful. Not too far away, a father and his son were fishing in a way I’d never seen before. They had fishing line wrapped around an empty plastic water bottle, with a hook on the end.  This was thrown into the water, and the water bottle was then half buried in the sand on the beach. When the bottle started to move toward the water, they knew they had a bite. 

Our view for a couple of hours. Pure bliss!

Larger scale fishing obviously took place, based on these fishing nets hanging in a tree. 

Looking toward the ship. We were so close that we saw several crew members

walking over for a quick swim. 

Blooms from trees washing ashore. So pretty. 

We stayed on the beach until about 2:30pm, then tried to walk further along the beach to the inlet that opened into the ocean. However, when we got close to the end, several large homes with walls prevented us from going further. We tried to walk inland (and saw a beautiful gated community), but could only walk out the same way we had entered. Oh well. It had been a very pleasant, very cheap (like free) way to spend the day. 

There was a maze of canopies by the ship selling local trinkets and souvenirs (most not made locally, though), but we bypassed it entirely and returned directly to the ship. It was nice to not be quite so rushed in our clean up for the evening, and we enjoyed 45 minutes in the Elite Lounge before dinner. We have befriended solo traveler Virginia from Perth, a very spunky older lady who was sitting alone in the lounge the first night of this cruise.  We asked if we could join her, and have done so every night so far. She is very adventurous; despite her advanced years, she hired a taxi for three hours yesterday and had the driver show her the island. 

Despite our snack in the Elite Lounge, we were starving at dinner.  I started with the garden mixed greens salad, which is truly the greenest salad I’ve ever eaten. Everything in it was green. For my entree I had the South Pacific barramundi with spinach and broccoli. I could eat that every night. 

Day 5 dinner menu, page 1

Day 5 dinner menu, page 2

Day 5 dessert menu

Tonight’s entertainer in the Princess Theater was saxophonist-clarinetist-singer Chris Gable from Australia. His was a great show, particularly enjoyed by G whose father was a professional musician who played the saxophone and clarinet. Sometime while we were being entertained, connectivity on the ship seriously acted up. We returned to our cabin to find no TV and no Internet. I felt compelled to prepare this post anyway,  but not compelled enough, apparently. It was an early bedtime, which was not a bad thing. Clocks move ahead an hour overnight and again another hour tomorrow night. 

Port Vila Port Guide, page 1

Port Vila Port Guide, page 2

Port Vila Port Guide, page 3

Port Vila Port Guide, page 4



Day 5 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 3

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 4

Day 56: Vila, Vanuatu

Do you know how authors typically write a ‘dedication’ that appears at the beginning of a book? Well, I am writing a dedication for this blog post:

Thanks, Cheryl (Chaz) and Andy, for all the wonderful excursion suggestions you sent us for these ports, but especially for the information about Iririki Island Resort. Because of your recommendation, we had a perfect day today in Port Vila, Vanuatu!

We had a good (and long) night’s sleep and were up early for breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet. The weather looked excellent; the day was already hot and sunny and fairly humid, but that was fine, because we were planning to spend our day in and on the water. We gathered up the usual beach day supplies and walked off the ship (no tenders today-yay!)...and faced a maze of locals selling souvenirs under canopies. We walked back and forth, back and forth, and weren’t sure we’d ever find the cheese at the end. And as soon as we did, we faced a gauntlet of taxi drivers offering tours of all sorts, but we had our eyes on the prize. 

We walked directly to the water taxis, which are the same kind of wooden boats that took us on the snorkel tour yesterday on Mystery Island, and the same boats that will be used for fishing tomorrow. The seats are wooden 2x6s laid crosswise. For $5 AUD ($4 USD) per person, we rode the water taxi across the harbor to Iririki Island, about ten minutes away. Along the way, we saw several shipwrecks, large and small, leftover from the most recent cyclone. Poor Vanuatu; it has to deal with both devastating cyclones and earthquakes. 

We were greeted at Iririki Resort and directed to the Reception Desk, where we purchased daypasses for 1500 Vata (about $14 USD) per person (I used a credit card since we have no local currency and they wanted $20 AUD). In return, we got full use of the resort and non-motorized water toys, and a 2000 Vata voucher for food and drinks at the resort. What a deal!  It was a lot like the day passes we bought during our second season in French Polynesia, but at a fraction of the price.  

The resort was beautiful, with accommodations of all kinds and sizes, including overwater bungalows. It was also fairly large, with two main pool areas. We first walked over the to Smugglars Cove snorkeling area so I could get my fish fix. This was very nice, with a ladder entrance into the water. The coral here was quite good, especially considering the cyclone activity in the area, and the fish were fantastic. In addition to clown fish, striped spurgeonfish and Moorish idols are my favorites. And parrot fish; they are massive in Vanuatu. 

Iririki Resort



Not quite Bora Bora, but...

Following my snorkeling, we chose to go to the adults only Serenity infinity Pool, and settled in two cushioned loungers overlooking the gorgeous blue green water and a three-masted schooner at anchor right in front of us. We had shade, a breeze, a warm water pool and relatively high speed WiFi. This place was heaven, and we initially had sun, though we kept an eye on some dark clouds building over the town of Vila, which we could see across the water and which looked a lot like Suva or Lautoka, Fiji (rather run down. I’m glad we went directly to the island). The clouds stayed nicely over the mountains beyond Vila until mid afternoon. 

Vila looked far less appealing than where we spent the day

Meanwhile, we ordered a light lunch and G had a couple of beers and we just cycled between the pool and the loungers until about 3pm, when it did finally start to rain. We gathered up our things and decided to walk through the warm rain on the sidewalk that encircled the entire resort back to the Reception Desk. Water taxis were waiting at the dock there, and we rode directly back to the port, retraced our steps through the maze of markets and arrived back on the ship just before 4pm.  

Our rainy walk

Headwaiter Sean asked if he could surprise me at dinner tonight, and Alona served me a delicious scallop and shrimp appetizer in a light tomato sauce, a salad, and then a huge plate of roasted veggies. I enjoyed it all so much that I told him to skip bringing me the next night’s menu...just bring me what he thinks I’ll like. He said that’s his favorite thing to do. Not only is it like I have a personal chef; I have a personal meal planner too.

We finished in time to go to the 6:45pm Adele tribute act by Emma Kirk. We had seen her on our first cruise (I think), and, though she has a great voice, Adele is not a favorite of ours. I warned G that I didn’t think he’d want to see the show, but he wanted to try it, and we sat in the just in casiest of the just in case seats, right next to the exit. Well, something must have happened, because the show didn’t start until 7pm and the natives were getting restless. I don’t know what caused the delay, but after waiting for 45 minutes for the show to begin, we lasted until the first “Hello from the other side” and G was heading for the door (about 45 seconds). 

I knew it!

And that was it for the evening. We walked across the Lido Deck for G to pick up his nightly ice cream fix, and it must have rained a lot after we returned to the ship. The deck was flooded, and I doubt that tonight’s Love Boat Disco Deck Party will be able to be held out there. We will have to miss it anyway. Tomorrow is yet another beach day (please may we have some sun), and I’ve just finished re-packing our bags for another day in paradise.