Who knew that these days and nights in Papeete would be among the highlights of every cruise? And we haven't yet even scratched the surface of what there is to do here, and on the island of Tahiti beyond Papeete. The real bonus, unappreciated until these two days, is that the Pacific Princess docks in town, right in town, with Le Marché just a block and a half away, and the roulottes at our doorstep...er, gangway. It's like staying on a hotel right in the city center. And this morning I enjoyed one of the best experiences of the cruise so far.
G was up and about at who knows what time. He knew I had a plan for this morning and so went off to do his own thing; which, this morning was walking over to Le Marché to use Internet. I knew this because, when I logged on to wifi in the cabin to get Mom's daily email, there was also one from G, telling me where he was. I dressed for my morning activity and walked over to meet him there, and we both sat together for a few minutes and had a coffee. My plan for the morning was to attend Sunday Mass at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l’Immaculée-Conception, just half a block from Le Marché and within sight of the Pacific Princess. G, however, had seen someone sleeping off last night's drunk and insisted on walking me to the cathedral. He needn't have worried.
Getting dressed for Mass this morning reminded me of tens of Sunday mornings when I was a kid and we'd be camping in the middle of nowhere. Every Sunday morning, Mom and I would put on dresses and crawl out of the tent, plop chapel veils on our heads and join the guys of the family for the long drive off to Mass. As kids, we'd look longingly at camping friends on their bikes, or going for a swim. Dressing in our Sunday best felt so incongruous with our environs. Today felt a bit the same way. I debated what to wear...I'd heard that many women in French Polynesia wear conservative tropical dresses to church. My only dress is a formal one; so I instead opted for black slacks and a tropical shirt. Then I decided that the tropical shirt showed a bit too much cleavage, and layered it over a tank top. At 7am in the morning on the Pacific Princess, I was way overdressed amongst the t-shirts, shorts and flip flops. And at 8am Mass. I was way overdressed from a temperature perspective. The only people wearing more layers than me were the priest and the sacristants on the altar. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
G left me off in front of the church, which is where the priest and the sacristants were standing when we arrived. The priest was a Jesus look-alike, and I'm sure that was the look he was going for. A French, 40-something Jesus. I greeted him with a Bonjour and he welcomed me in French. (I knew that high school French would come in handy some day!). I entered the cathedral, built in 1875, took a seat toward the back and looked around. My first thought? I could have worn the shorts and t-shirts and flip flops that my fellow cruisers were wearing and fit in just fine. There were a few ladies in tropical dresses, but many were not particularly conservative (I could definitely have skipped the layering). And there were several people in shorts and t-shirts. My second thought was that these people had been there before and knew the church would be warm. Really warm. Hot. Double doors stood open on each side and in the back hoping to allow in a breeze, but all that entered were birds that immediately perched on the wrought iron chandeliers and several flies. Lots of flies.
I looked over the papers I had been handed when I walked in. A few of them appeared to be articles in Fench on topics such as happy families vs. Individualism and the threat to religious liberty around the world (thank you. Soeur Judy, for preparing me well during four years of Fench. My speaking ability is at about a 3–year old level, but my reading ability is significantly higher, like at a 7-year old level. ;-) It's proving helpful!). I was more interested in a separate sheet of paper with responses and songs for today's Mass, in French on one side and Tahitian on the other.
Mass started at 8am with a processional. There was no vestibule at the back of the church nor sacristies on the sides of the altar, which is why Father Jesus and the others were waiting on what was basically the front lawn of the cathedral before entering. They entered in a line of about 12 people, with incense flapping. At the same time the choir; who I could not see as I was sitting under the choir loft started to sing and just about knocked me back in my pew. Wow! It sounded like 100 vocalists and they were amazing. And then I remembered reading that about Tahitian churches, too. Well, the dress advice I'd read might not have been right, but the choir information was spot on.
It was immediately obvious that this was going to be a High Mass, with songs in French, Latin and Tahitian, most of the Mass in French and responses in French and Tahitian. And English on my part. And lots of inscence. I'm not certain that its use was purely religious: every time the incense was used, the flies, at least temporarily, abated.
Anyone with 12 years of Catholic education could attend Mass in any language and know what was going on. The cadence of the Mass is the same, the timing of responses lets you know exactly what part of the Mass you're at. No, I wasn't sure if, in the homily, Father Jesus was talking about hellfire and damnation or next Sunday's bake sale. But I heard several words I knew- peut être's and parce que's and bien sur's- and I knew when "Nous prerions" was said, it was time for us to stand and say something. It worked.
It brought back even more memories, this time of Mom and I attending Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral-THE Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on her birthday in 2000. She and I sat there with tears in our eyes at the specialness of that occasion. I held it together today until the Our Father, and, with my hands held in those of the people on either side of me, I could feel myself getting floody. I tried everything to divert my attention- pictured stingrays and sharks and gorgeous men in loin cloths- and that worked.
And through it all, mixed in with prayers and piety and tears. I couldn't help thinking. "This is definitely blog worthy!"
The choir was the very best part: I really loved their songs in Tahitian. They seemed so happy and upbeat and enthusiastically delivered. And, when it was all over, Mass was ended with my favorite song from childhood, one I loved because it has my real name in it (and the name of one in ten baby girls born to Catholic parents in the late 50s/early 60s). Some of you know what one I'm talking about, and though it was sung in French today, the refrain, the Salve part, was the same as we sing in English and I sang with gusto.
Coconut imposed trauma? Did one drop on his head?
I stayed after Mass to take photos. The stained glass windows were particularly interesting because they mixed traditional religious and Tahitian images. There was a beautiful Marquesan wood carving and statues and the lecturn were dressed in floral leis. I was tempted to take a photo of Father Jesus, because he looked exactly like a picture of Jesus to the right of the altar, right down to hair color and length, beard and mustache. It was uncanny and a little amusing. But I refrained...this time, and settled for a photo of him standing in front of the church after Mass. You can see the Pacific Princess in the background. That's how close it is.
I left the cathedral at 9:30am and walked the few minutes back to the ship, where I peeled off my clothes and added them to a bag of laundry I was sending out, then dressed like everyone else. While I was still in the cabin, G returned. He had been busy with something I'll go into later, and joined me for breakfast in the Panorama Buffet. We sat on the back terrace and enjoyed the beautiful view of Notre Dame Cathedral with the Tahitian mountains in the background. It was a beautifully sunny and not humid day with a light breeze.
We spent part of the afternoon walking around Papeete and discovered some beautiful areas and gardens. We didn't do the walking tour in the guide books or at the tourist information office per se; we simply started in one direction and wandered, using our Maps.me app and my Kindle guidebooks to know where we were and what we were seeing. The Assembly of Frendh Polynesia was surrounded by the most beautiful tropical gardens, and we spent quite a bit of time there, but finally it was time to get down to business.
Here's the thing we've been struggling with...we want to stay on the Pacific Princess and take the ship back to Los Angeles on January 23rd. It's not a newly considered concept...when we were still at home, in fact, several months ago, we had this discussion multiple times. Our options were:
-Fly to Papeete, do multiple cruises and then fly home in another 22 hour travel day the Friday before Christmas; or
-Fly to Papeete, do multiple cruises and then, on January 7th, start the cruise that comes back through Hawaii and includes ten sea days out of 16 total days.
Hmmm...22 hour travel day vs. 10 sea days on a small ship we'd never before been on. At home, before we'd ever flown in Air Tahiti Nui's compact economy section, nor stepped foot on the Pacific Princess, the round trip flight won. It didn't take long after we'd arrived here for us to change our minds. (Unfortunately, we didn't change them until after final payment for the January 8th and 18th Royal Princess cruises, but that's why we buy Princess' Vacation Protection insurance, with its 'cancel for any reason' coverage). In the past couple of weeks, we've been working on a way to stay on the Pacific Princess until January 23rd. This issue was the December 28th cruise; we are wait listed, and are #1 on the wait list, but without a firm plan, we were unwilling to book the cruise just before and after it.
I have spent hours every day watching availability on all three cruises, and the Future Cruse Consultant on board is doing the same. Finally, we were worried about losing one of the currently available cruises. So while I was at Mass, G was out exploring on foot, to find us a decent alternative for 10 nights in Papeete. Decent and affordable. When we met up, he had one in mind, the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. I looked it up in my guidebooks; it was the best moderately priced hotel right in Papeete. So, when we set out on our walk, our primary intention was to check out the hotel and the neighborhood and see what we thought.
It's right on the waterfront, next to the post office and a stone's throw from where the Pacific Princess docks. It looks fine, and the staff is friendly. We made a fully refundable reservation for the 10 days of our wait listed cruise, returned to the ship and booked the cruise before and after it. We are now locked in, and, frankly, I am happy to have the worry and wonder of considering it and trying to figure it out behind us. Now my biggest consideration is how to make a scant 60-days of toiletries last 96...or, at least 88 days, until we get to Hawaii and stores and products that we are familiar with.
Well, and then there's a list as long as my arm of cancellations to make related to the Royal Princess cruises we'll be missing, and flights to Fort Lauderdale, and hotel in Fort Lauderdale, and, gee, do you think we might be able to salvage any part of our unused return air tickets from Papeete to home? So, lots to still do, but with the decision behind us, I feel like I have a few days to sort the rest of it out.
And, as G said yesterday, we could have a lot of fun with 10-days in Papeete, if that's the way it works out, and the first thing would be to take the high speed ferry back to Moorea for a day trip to the Lagoonarium, which is located close to where the ferry comes in on the southeastern part of the island, but not close to where the cruise ship tenders come in. And rent a car and do the circle island tour of Tahiti. And have coffee and croissants every morning at Le Marché. And Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. What's not to love?
That administrative work behind us, we went up to Deck 10 to watch one of the most beautiful sailaways I've ever seen, with Tahiti on one side of the ship, Moorea on the other, the champagne waterfall on the open deck and the introduction of the ship's senior officers topped off with a gorgeous sunset off the coast of Moorea.
I have to laugh when people ask if we get bored doing more than one cruise...with days like today, it's simply not possible. Exhausted, yes. Overstimulated, certainly. But bored...NEVER!
Dinner with Jose and Olexandr is always a treat, and we finished early enough to go up to the Pacific Lounge to listen to duo Great Escape for a few minutes before heading to the Cabaret Lounge for our first "welcome aboard" show we've seen, introducing us to all the cruise staffers we already know by name.
We returned to the cabin afterward, where I typed this post. I'm not going to publish it until tomorrow, sitting in a public lounge with hopefully better wifi. And I'll add photos one at a time, seeing how long each one takes before committing to a bunch of them. So, whether you'll see one photo or 20, I do not know, but I have at least 100 from today I could share. It was simply that good a day.
84 days in French Polynesia, a few days in Hawaii and a quick flight home. Life is good. :-)
PS- I have to add that the Paul Gauguin that we toured yesterday was supposed to sail last night at 10pm. We watched and waited for it to, then finally went to sleep. All night long, we'd peek out our porthole and see it was still there at the dock next to us, lit up like a Christmas tree. This morning...still there. And all day, too. We were told by security at the pier that they were having rudder issues and were unable to leave port. One day into a 7-day cruise, they're still sitting...er, floating there. It is a beautiful ship, but all the bare chested Gauguins in the world can't make up for the fact it's unable to go anywhere. I'm thrilled to be on the slightly more worn but equally comfortable Pacific Princess as we make our way to Huahine tomorrow.