Day 48: At Sea

How rough was it last night?  Well, my Apple Watch recorded 7 standing hours before 9am this morning. Yeah, it was bouncy, and our poor sleep reflected that. These winds…

It continued to be bouncy today; however, we saw bright sun for the first time in days and temps in the low 70s. Not that we spent any time outside. Following breakfast in Botticelli Dining Room (blueberry pancakes, and there is no bigger incentive to get moving in the morning), we returned to the cabin…and slept on and off until dinner. Really. 

I knew we’d have at least once day like this on this eastbound crossing, but thought we’d be a few more time changes into it when it hit. It really had more to do with the almost total lack of sleep.

So, no lunch menu (but I checked the app. It was pub lunch, so was an easy choice to skip it). 

By dinner we were hungry, a wonderful feeling on a cruise ship. I had already decided to have just salmon, steamed broccoli and a plain baked potato to make up for those delicious pancakes (with extra whipped cream. Did I forget to mention the extra whipped cream?). 

I drew the short straw tonight and went early to the Princess Theater to get good seats for tonight’s show, vocalist Dale Burridge. He is an Australian living in Sweden who’s performed in West End and Broadway and…whatever they’re called in Australia shows for decades. 

We followed that up with coffee and dessert in the DaVinci Dining Room, and then moved down to Club Fusion where party band Tidebreakers was performing a Disco set. And we danced and danced, albeit carefully with all the bounciness at the back of the ship, lest Tidebreakers become Hipbreakers. 

And we stayed around for another set which took us right into Silent Disco, my favorite. And, as it does when I dance, my Apple Watch recorded 105 minutes of an outdoor walking workout, a very good thing. ‘Cause I had been a slug all day. 

We move clocks an hour back tonight for Suva, and don’t arrive there until 10am (which, coupled with our long nap, explains our relatively late (for us) night. We are happy to not be there on a Sunday this time, and have some very mild plans for the day. 

Day 47: At Sea

We were pretty much in an all day rain today, with heavy winds on top of it. The ship was bouncy, but, interestingly, we heard no sloshing noise from the Terrace Pool in our cabin. As one would expect. The funny thing is that this is the same cabin we had on the Grand (albeit a deck higher), and there we heard it quite a bit. I had not expected that, and still haven’t figured out why. 

Anyway, I dressed quietly and snuck out of the cabin this morning. I had a taste for avocado toast, and wanted to go to the Botticelli Dining Room for breakfast. We can’t figure out why, but the motion detecting light in our cabin hallway doesn’t work. We can’t find where the sensor has been covered up, and maybe someone simply deactivated the light.  We miss it, especially at times like this morning when I wanted to find clothes and get dressed in that area so as not to disturb G. Instead I had to turn on the switched light, which really does shine into the cabin. And at night, we have to leave the bathroom door open a smidge to serve as a nightlight. On nights like last night it sways back and forth until it finally slams shut. 

Don’t permanently disable the motion-detecting lights!  Just sayin’…

I enjoyed a cozy breakfast, watching the rain fall outside. I had worn leggings and a t shirt, but threw on my oversized Emerald Princess hoodie, and, depending on where I was today, I either needed that or didn’t. The various zones on the ship differ quite a bit in temperature. 

Avo toast with smoked salmon and egg

G finally caught up with me just as the Botticelli Dining Room was closing, so I followed him up to the Horizon Court where he got some breakfast, and I basically was his waiter, getting his omelet, his OJ, his coffee. Aah, the feeling of home!

At 10:15am in the Princess Theater there was a Veterans Day/ Remembrance Day service. We’ve been to a good many of these at sea over the years, but none has come close to equalling what the Crown Princess offered today. CD Nathan and the ship’s officers did a wonderful job marking the occasion, and one of us left blubbering…and you know I was, too. It was really moving. 

As a quick follow-up to that, we returned to our cabin to find our toilet flushing…and flushing…and flushing. It wasn’t shutting off, and while I tried to get through to Guest Services, G went out looking for steward Santhosh. Santy said the whole zone had been having issues this morning and tried to fix it from the outside…and then it started overflowing. A lot. We had a couple of pool towels in the cabin and G tried to use them as a dam to keep the water (thankfully clean) from getting into our cabin, but that seemed a good time to flee and get lunch and leave it to the experts. 

Lunch was in the Botticelli Dining Room (we were solidly on track to have a three-meal day, but it turned into a 3.5 meal day by the time we were done). 

On the way back to the cabin, I wanted to pick up some pool towels (just in case of another plumbing surprise), and found that they had been stored away on the Terrace Deck due to the sideways rain. Instead I walked forward the Calypso Pool, and, as I walked through the door to go out there, my feet were nearly blown out from under me in the strong wind. Wind, rain, and there was still a couple waiting out there for the start of a hockey game on MUTS. I had to laugh, and shared with them that I had looked exactly like them on Super Bowl Sunday last winter on the Emerald Princess. The things we fans go through!

Finally, I published yesterday’s blog post and then got cleaned up for formal night. I didn’t think we had one tonight (the original schedule didn’t show it) but became suspicious when an hors d’oeuvres menu appeared in our cabin last evening. Sure enough; the Patter for today said otherwise. I went with G to the Veterans get together in O’Malleys (probably 100 attendees and spouses!) and then it was time to eat again.  

We were shocked to see sunshine coming in the windows of the DaVinci Dining Room. Have we finally passed through our two+ days of rainy weather?  Does this mark the end of our cold temps?  Suva, the day after tomorrow, is supposed to be in the high 80s. It has to change at some point, and that means I can get back in a pool again. And wear shorts.  And leave the hoodie behind. 

Tonight was the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Champagne Waterfall (for this Auckland to LA segment), and I finished dinner quickly and went to the Princess Theater to get our favorite front row seats for tonight’s production show, Disco: Blame it on the Boogie. Seriously, that front row starts to fill up an hour before show time! 30 minutes before show time the whole Princess Theater was nearly full. Princess guests like their production shows. Disco is the one show where they specifically forbid photography, so you get bupkus on that. 

We followed that with coffee and dessert in the dining room (I don’t think we’ve done that yet this season) and then listened to the house band playing ballroom dance music in Club Fusion. 

It’s bouncy again tonight, but slightly less so than last night. No matter; we seem to be sleeping well in this cabin regardless. I thought today about how it took me five days to settle into this ship. You know me and transitions…they are not my forte. At first I was missing our friends on the Grand enormously- and I’m still missing the covered pool- but as we’ve gotten to know crew members on the Crown, and, of course seeing CD Nathan again, I’m feeling more settled. From a plant perspective, the condition of this ship pales in comparison to the ten years older Grand, and I don’t think the food is as good either, but the Grand was among our best cruises ever, so the fact that this ship falls a little short is not a surprise. 

Day 46: Tauranga, New Zealand

Today turned out to be dreary more so than plagued by the forecasted heavy rains. Foggy, mid-60s (again, the day/ night temp varies by only 2° or so, a totally foreign concept to us), but definitely drizzly with about 100 % humidity even when it stopped raining. 

Once again, we had no plans for the day. We’ve been here a lot, starting in 2004 on the Sapphire Princess. It was that ship’s first call in Tauranga; it was also the largest ship to date to ever stop there. I still vividly remember the locals dotting the trail going up Mount Mauganui to wave us in. In that visit, I did a full day tour that visited the geothermal area at Rotorua, some Māori cultural things and a New Zealand adventure sport (rolling down a hill in a clear, round ball. The exuberance of youth. 

Two events in and near Tauranga have left us stunned, one dating back to 2019.  There used to be large signs near the tourist information tent in Tauranga advertising White Island helicopter tours. White Island is a nearby small island with an active volcano.  We actually reserved a tour for a planned stop in December of that year. It was a huge concession on my part to even get in a helicopter but G was keen. And I am a very good wife. 😉

Then, the very next week, the White Island volcano erupted, and tourists were on the island, brought over by a small boat and by helicopter. Among them were people from a Royal Caribbean shore excursion. We were stunned. Such a coincidence. There were several people killed, and even more left with absolutely horrifying burns.  Once we returned home (during COVID), I watched several documentaries about the event. Another day, and we could easily have caught the same way. 

Sometimes we have to be as grateful for the things that didn’t happen to us as those that did. 

Then, last January, Mount Mauganui experienced several mud slides, one covering a holiday park (aka campground) at the mountain’s base. We’ve several times hiked up and around the mountain, enjoying its magnificent views in the area. And I’ve suggested to G many times that we should rent a camper van and spend a month in that same holiday park. We like this area that much. Well, the holiday park is closed, the hot springs pools are closed, that end of the peninsula is largely closed off.  Another crazy coincidence. 

New Zealand storms

Track closures…basically the entire mountain is off limits

So today, we were left unsure what to do, and decided to wait until we saw the weather. When it turned out to be slightly less rainy than expected, we bundled up a bit and headed out for a walk. And once again I was so grateful that I bought that new waterproof coat. I remember telling G that it would come in handy in New Zealand and for when I flew home. And it has. 

We once rented a catamaran and sailed it across the harbor here. None of that available today!

After we got some exercise, I braved the rain to do a water workout, simply because the ship was stable, and that’s something we won’t see again for a couple of days. It was a strange evening, because the on board time wasn’t until 8pm, and we didn’t sail until after 8:30pm. Things felt very casual around the ship. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was a ventriloquist, and you know it don’t do those, so I went to O’Malleys at 6:30pm for Irish music, and then stuck around for a jazz set by the Crown Princess house band. Shortly into that, G was joining me, having lasted only 15 minutes into the ventriloquist’s show (gee, who could’ve seen that coming?). We watched sail away from the covered Promenade Deck and called it a night.  

Day 45: Auckland

We enjoyed a dry early morning, but by 9am the fog rolled in and by noon the precipitation became a little more ambitious. By mid afternoon (when we were out in it…go figure) it was quite rainy. 

We started the day early; the ship was at its berth by 6am and announcements for those disembarking began shortly after. When I went down to the Botticelli Dining Room for breakfast at 7am, people were already lined up to get off the ship and the elevators were full of roll off luggage. 

G had gotten up very early, but by 9am was napping- or completing his night’s sleep- or something, and he slept until after 11am. We really should have gone out to sightsee right after breakfast, but no, we waited until we had eaten lunch in the Horizon Court (the dining room was not open for lunch) to leave the ship. 

Luckily, I packed a recent purchase for a day just like this. It’s not my first time in New Zealand, and I knew that rain here is like Alaska rain:  it chills to the bone. For that reason, I bought a new waterproof jacket that goes to my knees…and thank God for it. Coupled with water resistant pants, it was just my feet that were wet and cold. 

We set out to walk to the Auckland Sky Tower. G was convinced he wanted to go to the top despite the weather. He loves tall buildings, clouds or not. We’ve been to the top before, but it was something to do, and our original plan for the day- to take a ferry to Waiheke Island and spend the day visiting wineries held even less appeal given the weather.

The Sky Tower is about a 30 minute walk by the time we got through the terminal and down the length of  Princes Wharf (the HAL Noordam was at Queens Wharf for the day), and then figured out where the entrance to the tower was. For about $25 USD per person, we bought tickets to the observation area. It wasn’t a total loss; we could see the cruise ships and the harbor from the top. 

I actually wanted to do this, but not the rain!

We returned to the ship just in time for dinner. With our new table in the DaVinci Dining Room, we didn’t want to be late. We have a wonderful table for four set for two next to a window with two great waiters, Adrian from the Philippines and…shoot, I forget our junior waiter’s name, but he is from India. Jalo or Kilo or something like that. I remember it is short and easy, but apparently not easy enough. It’s going to be a good 25 more days on this ship. 

Tonight I lost the second page of the menu. I need to focus!

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was a female vocalist, Fem Billing. Incredible performance, incredible voice and she also plays the violin. The arrangement of the songs she did were so unique. Her “I Can See Clearly Now” was unlike anything I’d ever heard, and left me with goose bumps.

It’s just 9pm and we are already tucked into bed, as much to warm up as anything. The forecast tomorrow in Tauranga is even worse than today, all day heavy rain. Don’t expect too much from us. We’ve been there many times and have lots of ideas of things we’d like to do on sunny days, but on days with heavy rain warnings, not so much.