Day 73: Papeete

I slept poorly last night, due mostly to worry.  Mom has not been feeling well since I had phone service on Sunday (my first words to her: "You sound so weak!"). Thankfully, she is now in the hospital, which is the very best place for her. Of course, going to Ohio is not even a remote possibility. We had discussed this before G and I left the US...French Polynesia is simply too far to rush back to the US. I would not even be able to get a flight this week anyway, due to the holidays, so it's a mute point.  And now that she is getting the best care anywhere, I can (hopefully) relax.

Even once my mind was at rest knowing she is being well looked after, I didn't feel like I wanted to be out walking this morning. When I checked Accuweather online, I discovered one possible reason:  the air temp was 86F at 10am, but the Real Feel was 98F. I thought it had been beastly hot when we returned from our walk yesterday afternoon, but perhaps it's good I didn't know just how much hotter it was with the humidity. We returned to our room after breakfast, I lay down and G said I was asleep in two minutes. 

I was awakened much later by a tap-tapping at the door. It was G, returning from a walk.  It was also nearly 3pm. I had slept the day away!  Feeling guilty, once G was cooled down a little, we left together, and had a late lunch/early dinner at a sidewalk cafe that we had discovered yesterday on one of the side streets. The food was great (G had a quiche and I had a big salad) but, OMG, it is hot!!  Air conditioning is virtually non-existent, and even when a building  has AC, it only feels good for a few minutes, and then only because it's relatively cooler than outside. But still not cool. The only truly comfortable place we've been is our hotel room. The forecast tomorrow is for rain, and I'm almost relieved. At least we won't have the sun heating things up. 

We followed our meal with a walk around the area around Notre Dame Cathedral, a frozen yogurt and then a walk down to Chaplins for Internet. We were back by sunset tonight, and viewed it from our balcony. Our big plan for tomorrow is to stock up with enough food to see us through New Years Day. If Sunday was any indication, many of the cafes will be closed for the holiday. 

Despite the sidewalk construction directly in front of the Hotel Tiare Tahiti, there are many walkers and joggers passing through that area to get to the waterfront park just to the left of this photo. By next year, the construction should be done and there will be a beautiful walkway from the cruise ship pier to the park. 

Things I learned today:

TNTV is not a typo: it is not TNT, as we once thought. G was picturing lazy hours filled with Law and Order reruns and old westerns. Instead we have Tahiti Nui TV; lots of French melodramas and no Lenny Briscoe. 

With nearly 100 degree difference between the real feel here and at home, I'm appreciating the fact that, no matter how warm it gets, we don't have to shovel "hot". 

Video pot pourri

Why I didn't take the tender to Rangiroa this cruise

Successfully surfing the wake in Bora Bora 

Monika does Slovakian tickle game Va de la

More videos...

It's darn near impossible for me to go back and insert these videos in the appropriate days' posts, so I'm going to take the much easier way out and simply lump them together again.

Caroling in the atrium on the Pacific Princess 

Santa arriving on a tender boat

Santa attempting to get through the ship's security. 

(We go through this same process every time we re-board the ship in port). 

Day 72: Papeete (or, the safety net has sailed)

We didn't set an alarm for this morning, to watch as the Pacific Princess sailed. But something awoke me at 4:50am (the Pacific Princess is signaling its departure on its horn?) and I looked out our balcony door to see that the ship had just pushed away from its berth and was starting to move. What luck!  I grabbed my iPhone and took a photo through the open door, then watched from the balcony as the ship sailed out of sight, en route back across the Sea of the Moon to Moorea. Bye bye Pacific Princess; see you nine days!

You can see the charter boats for day trips just across Pomare Blvd. where our hotel is located. 

Then, I went back to sleep. :-)

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we are getting a free breakfast daily at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. I'm not sure why, exactly...something about because we're staying here so long. Despite- or maybe because of- its price (about US $ 10.50 per person), we weren't expecting much. That's not a lot of money for breakfast in French Polynesia; prices at the resorts usually start at $20 and go as high as $40. But we were pleasantly surprised this morning when we went down to the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel. We were offered coffee (no decaf, of course. They don't know what that is), tea; hot chocolate or milk; a fruit plate; a baguette (natch!) AND a chocolate croissant (yum); and a glass of fruit juice in various flavor options. We thought that was it, until we were asked whether we wanted eggs or pancakes. We both ordered omelettes and were thrilled. This will be a great way to start the day while we're here. Since we're paying just under $150 per night for our room, all taxes included, this is turning out to be quite a good deal. And everything is working perfectly so far- the microwave; the refrigerator, the shower. We are very content here.

We stored the few valuables we brought with us from the ship in the community safe at the reception desk and headed out explore the immediate area. There are cafes and shops tucked into alleyways all around the Hotel Tiare Tahiti, and a McDonalds directly behind it. Our main goal today was to stock up on some food, and there is a Champion supermarché of considerable size (for French Polynesia) about 6 or 8 blocks away. It was just far enough that we couldn't carry back large quantities of anything, but we did get a few water bottles, and Coke in resealable bottles, and a big roll of paper towels to also serve as paper plates (because paper plates were crazy expensive). G had the brilliant idea to buy one of the ubiquitous loaves of bread (for 53 CFP, of course), and some lunch meat and cheese (and they even had Guldens spicy mustard) and make sandwiches to eat in the beautiful park along the waterfront.

We struggled just a bit with the meat; there were 37 kinds of jambon (ham), but I'm not a huge fan. There was something that looked like turkey but we weren't certain. Then I remembered our Word Lens app and -voila!- that solved the mystery. It was turkey, and they had two kinds, smoked and natural, and they were both from Tahiti. The cheese was from Holland and the mustard was from Omaha, Nebraska. International dining, indeed!

We used a credit card to pay for our purchases (best exchange rate anywhere!) and G was quite a picture with his baseball bat length baguette in one hand and a Princess beach bag filled with our groceries in the other. I carried three bags of Lays (from Dallas, Texas), trying to keep from crushing the chips any more than they already were. They don't have shopping bags in French Polynesia.

We walked toward the waterfront and entered Les Jardins (gardens) of Paofai and Place To'ata near the Tahiti Cultural Center. This is the park area visible in some of my sailaway photos, with hundreds of outrigger canoes stored on the beach and the Evangelist Church across the street. It is a gorgeous park, with several playgrounds for kids and even an outdoor exercise area for adults with equipment like there is on the Royal Princess. I first saw that in China over ten years ago, and still wonder why we can't figure out that would be a good thing to have in the US, too. 

We sat in the shade of a pavilion  next to where the outrigger canoes are and enjoyed the view of Moorea in the distance and the ferries coming and going and guys on their lunch breaks coming over to take one person and six person outrigger canoes out for a workout. We walked through the park, in the direction of the hotel, and enjoyed the many water features and waterfalls.  But by then it was nearly 2pm and getting HOT. 

Our view of Moorea at lunch 

Taking a 6-person canoe out of the water 

We retreated to the (relatively) cool comfort of our hotel room. We've gotten the temperature down as low as 74 but it was back up to 80 when we walked in. No matter; once the metal plate was in the control, the AC sprung to life again and started cooling things down.  And, speaking of sun, it was out in full force today. Two sunny days in Papeete...how have we gotten so lucky?

We made sandwiches tonight (using up that baseball bat of bread) and took them over by the Visitors Center where let roulottes were just setting up. It was a perfect location to watch the sunset over Moorea. A frozen yogurt cup (key lime flavored for me) later, we're heading back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti, and calling it a day. We've walked beaucoup des kilometres aujourd'hui and are ready for sleep. 

Things I learned today:

People might be the same everywhere, but their bathrooms definitely aren't. We have the strangest shower I've ever seen. Thanks to reader Elaine who stayed at the hotel following her Pacific Princess cruise in November, and another Pacific Princess passenger who stayed there before her cruise, I knew what to expect.  Whatever, however it is, it provides the best showers imaginable (and we're taking three a day to feel clean in all this heat). 

We step up into this. It's like a closed in bathtub with a shower pan. 

Papeete, Tahiti on a sunny afternoon is blistering hot. It's not the time to be wandering the concrete jungle of buildings and sidewalks. Unless we're in the water or doing a day tour, our best plan for Papeete is to get up early and get out and explore, and then rest from about 1pm-4pm in our hotel room, then go back out again for a walk and to watch sunset and get a bit to eat, either by making a sandwich and eating it at a park or by going to a cafe or les roulottes.

The Hotel Tiare Tahiti is on Pomare Blvd., the major street along the waterfront in Papeete. Earplugs are provided for guests' use, because it's never silent here. But, between the ear plugs and the hum of the AC, even rooms facing the waterfront (which are the premium rooms) provide an excellent night's sleep. 

Whipped cream comes in fire extinguisher-sized containers in French Polynesia. I consider that one of the country's best features. ;-)

Day 71: No Patters, no parties...just Papeete!

I debated whether or not to number the days we'll be in Papeete. As usual, I obsess over things no one will notice while the world spins out of control around me. In the end, I mentioned the issue to my BFF (that's G, in case you didn't already know), and he said I should definitely continue to number them. Frankly, I was shocked that he even had an opinion, but, since he did...well, there you are. It's Day 71, or as we've also come to call it, the First Page of the Second Chapter of our Fifth Winter At Sea.

Day 71 is easier. ;-)

It was a disembarkation day unlike any we've ever had. We did set an alarm, but were up about 6:30am anyway. Ring the bells; Papeete was awash in bright sunshine today. Not a drop of rain, nor fog, nor even wind. It was a day made for something more exciting than getting off the Pacific Princess and rolling luggage over to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti, but that's what we did. 

Before our final breakfast in the Club Restaurant, we took all our hand luggage up to the steakhouse on the ship to be stored until we disembarked. While I was taking up the last load, G singlehandedly rearranged the furniture in our cabin back to its original configuration. Go G!  We had our final breakfast in the Club Restaurant then walked over to the hotel. If we could walk on water, it would take one minute, but, since we can't (though one of us sometimes thinks he can), it takes about five minutes. It was only 9:30am or so, but they already had our room ready. I'm really liking these ladies who work at the hotel!

It was hot in our room (steel yourself), 86F. The AC only runs when there is a special metal plate in the control and the metal plate is attached to the key (yes, a real key, not a key card) and the end result is that it heats up when we're not in the room. We chose sides of the bed quickly; I'm directly under the air conditioner, with cold air blowing on me. It might be 81 in the rest of our room, but I'll survive. We were assigned the fourth (basically the top) floor, harbor front, just what we requested. The room is basic but functional, and has a large covered balcony overlooking the harbor. It is spotlessly clean (has a tile floor), has a microwave and small refrigerator and coffee maker, a comfortable mattress, plenty of hot water and good water pressure. 

Wucy, we ARE home!!

So close yet so far

It took one more trip back to the ship, and we stayed for lunch, but then we disembarked for good, which was simultaneously exhilarating and scary. 

We spent the afternoon settling in, sleeping and cooling down the room a bit. At 5pm, the joggers and walkers come out to the waterfront park area, and we joined them. It started to cool off by then, and turned out to be a perfect evening. We thought we'd not be hungry until Tuesday (notice how quickly the days stopped being called by their ports and started being referred to as their real names), but by 7pm G was looking for food. We decided to walk over to Les Roulottes (food trucks) for dinner and met several officers from the ship having a quick meal there. We got a recommendation for good Chinese in addition to our fav creperie, and ended up splitting a sweet and sour chicken.

I've decided to add a feature to my blog posts while we're in Papeete, called 'Things I learned today'. Here we go...

Today I learned that, when there are only five TV channels, all in French, G can be quite entertained watching a travel show where he has no idea what is being said.  Desperate times...

Day 70(!): Moorea

When was the last time we did something for the first time?  Today!  In fact, several times today!!

I knew it was going to be a gorgeous day the second I opened my eyes about 5:30am to find sunshine streaming in our porthole. This cruise started as a bit of a mess weather-wise, but the last few days have certainly saved us. Captain Ciruzzi told us last night at the Captains Circle party that the same tropical depression we dealt with for days had prevented the Paul Gauguin from even docking at Raiatea this week and also forced them to cancel their planned second day in Bora Bora. Two missed port days on a 7-night Paul Gauguin cruise would be rough. I think that Captain Ciruzzi might have wished, in retrospect, that he'd skipped Rangiroa (wait until you see a video I'll be posting of a tender bouncing up and down at the tender pier on shore), but he and the deck crew deserve the credit for the fact that everyone stayed safe and the only adjustment the Pacific Princess had to ultimately make was to cut Raiatea short by 6 hours on Christmas Eve. 

As soon as we heard tender boats being lowered, I peeked out of our porthole. Where the heck were we?  I had a sneaking suspicion, but we ran up to the Promenade Deck for an up-close view. Moorea has two bays on its northern coast (but you already know that, 'cause you saw my photos from our ATV trip just ten days ago): Opunohu Bay, where we've been anchored for six cruises, and Cooks Bay. And the latter is where we were anchored today. The shoreline was right off the back of the Pacific Princess and tall mountains loomed overhead. Oh my. This was gorgeous. 

Cooks Bay, Moorea

The views were just behind the ship. 

We lingered a bit over breakfast in the Club Restaurant. Our new anchorage location totally changed our plans for the day. We had intended to take a $5 per person shuttle over to Tipanier Beach, the one final thing we wanted to do on Moorea, but the location of the tender pier in Cooks Bay is considerably further from Tipanier Beach than the tender pier in Opunohu Bay. Instead, it is much closer to the eastern side of Moorea, closer to the island of Tahiti, but that's also where the ferries from Tahiti arrive, and we are considering taking a high speed ferry to Moorea one day while we're staying in Papeete. Any eastern Moorea sightseeing can wait until then (perhaps the Lagoonarium?), so we really weren't certain what we were going to do today. 

The first thing we did after breakfast was go up on Deck 10 to get one photo after another of the incredible views surrounding the Pacific Princess. Panoramic photos, videos...we just couldn't get enough of it all. Eventually, we settled down on loungers and just sat, taking it all in. I think this was the most beautiful tender/dock setting I've seen in 91 cruises, or at least right up there in the top five. We sat there. And sat there. And sat. Right there. It didn't help that I was dragging from the get-go this morning. Simply stated, 70 days of cruising have caught up with me. Executive Housekeeper Michael Collins told us this morning he'd just scanned next cruise's manifest hoping to see a spare cabin available for us, but did not. That was incredibly kind, but, between you and I, thank God. Sleep. I want sleep more than another round of ports. I know that we don't cruise with the same intensity as those taking just one cruise, but we still stay pretty busy with very limited downtime, and it's finally caught up with me.

We decided to do a bit of packing this morning and then see about getting off the ship. I was glad...it's tough to have a full day in port and then face packing up 70 days worth of living. And couple that with the fact that this is the first time we've ever packed up on a cruise ship knowing we'd be returning to this same cabin in ten days. We needed to pack smartly enough to have what we need in Papeete and still be able to pick up right where we left off when we return. It was a lot harder than just shoving everything in and sorting it all out at home; formal and dinner wear had to be just as neatly packed as when we left home in October. And we had to consider what we'll be doing in Papeete to know what we'd need with us.  It took us much longer than we thought it would, so long that we were still at it when we started to get hungry about 2pm. In another first for us this cruise, we decided to phone for room service. I know, it's free, and it's available 24 hours a day, but we don't generally like food in our cabin. Until today. G's tuna salad sandwich and my Moroccan vegetable pot hit the spot, and kept us going until dinner time. 

It was 3pm by the time we had everything packed except for what we'd need during the evening. I was really wiped out by then, and we both lay down for just a minute...and slept for an hour. We were showered and ready for the evening by sailaway, and watched it from the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet. That was very aptly named today...the panorama of first Cooks Bay and then both Cooks Bay and Opunohu Bay as we cruised north from Moorea was breathtaking. 

Cooks Bay on the left of the mountain in the middle; Opunohu Bay on the right. 

Dinner was quick and light. I keep telling myself to enjoy the food while it lasts, but I have no appetite at all anymore. It's not that we've over eaten- clothes still fit fine and we actually eat very sensibly- it's just that I haven't actually felt hungry in a few days and I don't enjoy that. Ten days on land to re-set our appetites will be a very welcome thing. I'll warn you now:  I'm sure I'll eventually be complaining about being starved but I really believe I could fast for at least two days before I felt my first pang. 

Crew members were telling us to "enjoy our vacation". ;-) They are envious of us getting off the ship for ten days...very envious. Ten days on the Pacific Princess means nothing to them; ten days on Tahiti is something to covet. 

We were out on the Promenade Deck to watch as the Pacific Princess arrived in Papeete harbor and oh-so-slowly slipped into its berth.  Our good weather today in Moorea stretched 22 miles across the Sea of the Moon to Papeete (it doesn't always). The lights of Papeete reflecting on the water were beautiful, and as we stood there, looking over at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti, G turned to me and said, "Wucy, we're home!"  Yes, we are. 

We skipped all entertainment tonight, instead returning to our cabin to finalize packing. The ship is rather quiet as some people have already disembarked and others are leaving as early as 4:30am tomorrow for a 7:15am flight to LAX.  We have no urgency in disembarking but do need to be out of our cabin by 8am, so an alarm has been set.  Our move to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti will be on foot, rolling our luggage, and should be simplified by it being Sunday, generally a quiet traffic day in Papeete. This time tomorrow night we'll be in our hotel room, looking at the Pacific Princess docked just a few minutes walk away, and imagining waiter Jose serving flourless chocolate cake to a whole new set of happy passengers. 

Pray for us. ;-)

Day 69: Bora Bora Two

Bright sunshine streaming in our porthole woke me before 6am today. The sun!!  Bright sun!!! Yay!!!!

We were in the Club Restaurant for breakfast shortly after it opened at 7am, with me poring over circle island tour information for Bora Bora in the two Tahiti books I had on my iPad. By 8:30am we were on the island and at Alberts car rental, located just a block back from the tender pier. For 8000 CFP, we had arranged to rent a brand new, air conditioned Kia for 4 hours. We could also have rented scooters (one of them cost the same as the car, so it would have been twice as expensive), or a dune-type buggy, which would have been $120 for 2 hours, with no back seat and obviously no A/C.  There was a point in our lives, nearly 15 years ago, when we would have selected the buggy in a heartbeat.  But things have happened to us- roasting sun burns, pelting rains, theft worries because they aren't lockable, being 15 years older- that made us opt for the tamer, four door car instead. We hadn't driven in 69 days...I think G was as excited about doing that (and having fun playing with the stick shift) as he was about seeing Bora Bora on our own. 

A quick note here about using US $ in French Polynesia. Can you?  Yes, most places, especially those catering to tourists, will accept them. But don't. The exchange rates offered are pathetic (only Marc of Huahine-Nautique offered a competitive rate). Today, at Alberts car rental on Bora Bora, we could have paid 8000 CFP or US $95, a very poor rate of exchange. Ice cream on Huahine was 200 CFP or US $3...even worse.  Instead, today we used a credit card without any international transaction fees, charged the 8000 CFP and I've already checked my card account online...$81 and change. It's a much better way to go. I use an ATM card from my bank at home and get an excellent rate of exchange, plus a 3% international transaction fee. Oh, and I also recommend bringing a second ATM card. I once had one gobbled up by at ATM machine at Gard du Nord in Paris on a Sunday morning. There was no chance of getting that card back!

And regarding extra tipping for the crew...we're taking care of that tonight, and so had a conversation with headwaiter Mehei about it this morning. It makes no difference at all to the crew if they are tipped in local currency or US $. They are given a very fair exchange rate by the crew office on the ship, and appreciate extra tips regardless of currency. We chose to use US $, only because we don't want to carry any extra US currency with us to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. 

We set out around the island counter clockwise, driving first down the western coast from Vaitape village towards Matira Point. It was a beautiful day, sunny with just a few thin, white clouds, and the Bora Bora lagoon glistened in the sun. I took a hundred blog-worthy photos; I'll need to narrow them down just a smidge, even with faster wifi only a couple of days away. 

It's just over 20 miles around the island on Bora Bora's only real road, one that follows the coast, so we had initially considered a two or three hour car rental, but, in the end decided on a four hour rental so we didn't have to rush. It was a smart move. We followed along in our guide books (on my iPhone) as we drove from one village to the next, pulling over for frequent photo stops. I would (try to) pronounce to G the name of the next village, or the next bay as we'd approach, and one of them had me stumbling. I said, "It's spelled P-a-o-a-o-a Point", to which G replied, "Of course it is"; which nearly had me falling off my seat. It reminded us so much of our first trip to Hawaii together that I just have to take a minute to tell that story here. 

Our first trip to Hawaii together was in 1995 (I had also been there with a friend in 1982, on a frequent flyer ticket where we spent more time getting there and back than we did actually staying in Hawaii. But we were young...). In 1995, we flew over and spent nearly three weeks visiting the four major islands, and on all of them except Oahu we rented a car for the duration of our stay. G was the designated driver, and, armed with maps and Frommers guide book, I was the navigator. I tried my best to pronounce the names of streets and towns and landmarks, but they were all at least 15 letters long and by the time I'd struggled through the length of the name, we'd have missed our turn-off. "The first five letters. Just give me the first five letters", I remember G yelling at me through gritted teeth after he'd had to turn around or back up for the fourth time. So that's what I started doing. However, we immediately hit another snag. It seemed like the first five letters of EVERY street or place were K-A-N-A-E or H-A-I-O-E. We couldn't figure it out...until one evening when I was reading the Frommers guide book and discovered the Hawaiian alphabet only has 13 letters- 5 vowels and 8 consonants. No wonder we were having trouble. Well, the Tahitian alphabet is exactly the same. Take one or two of the same eight consonants, throw in about ten vowels, and you have the name of 95% of the places in French Polynesia. And Paoaoa Point is a perfect example of that. 

Even so, it was easier to navigate today, what with that one major (mostly one lane) road around the island. The biggest challenge we had was in trying to find the American guns left behind after World War II. I had directions like, "When you get to Alain's art studio, pull over and look at the hillside. On the left is a path, and about a 15 minute walk up the path is one of the seven guns remaining on Bora Bora". We could never find Alain's art studio, let alone the path. Still, we found two of the guns more easily accessible from the road, and G was pleased with that. 

It's interesting how different the same mountains look when viewed from different parts of Bora Bora. 

We were about 2 hours into our four hour rental, and nearing Vaitape village again, intending to turn around and go back around the island again in the opposite direction when we drove past piano entertainer Jere Ring walking along a particularly bad patch of road. We didn't think anything of it...Jere's been walking every spare minute since he got on the Pacific Princess.  We drove on another minute or two and the road only got worse. G said he didn't think Jere would want to walk back to the ship again through that mess, and so we doubled back right them to find him. Well no, he wasn't interested in returning that way, but was very interested in being our back seat passenger for our ride back around the island in the other direction. If you knew Jere, you'd know it was a harious two hours back around Bora Bora. We were supposed to fill up with gas before we returned the car, but when we arrived at the gas station in Vaitape, we were told they were out of gas. We turned in the car and handed over 1000 CFP (about $10) for gas. Surely we hadn't used any more than that (about 1.3 gallons worth) going just less than 40 miles on flat road at 25 mph in a small Kia. Alberts car rental seemed happy with that, so we were, too. 

G and the wild and crazy Jere Ring

Once back on the ship, we had lunch in the buffet and then rested until it was time to get ready for dinner and the evening.  Waiter Ricky loaned us a wonderful adaptor he purchased at Office Depot in Fort Lauderdale two years ago to use while we're in Papeete. It has a USB adaptor too, so we'll be able to charge two devices at one time. This was a huge weight off our shoulders. Slowly but surely we're getting lose ends tied up. We received our disembarkation paperwork and luggage tags last evening; we can stay on the Pacific Princess until about 2:30pm on Sunday, which will be perfect, as check in at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti is 2pm.

We were on the terrace behind the buffet for sailaway from Bora Bora. It's a great place to watch from when we don't want to get wind blown (like when we're dressed and ready for dinner). There was no Elite Lounge tonight due to the Captains Circle party being held later on. Tonight's dinner menu was the usual second formal night menu (e.g. lobster and beef Wellington), and, following the party, we chose to skip production show Stardust and returned to our cabin to rest (and start this post). We're heading back out tonight for at 10:15pm show called "Dancing with the Stripes" (like Dancing with the Stars) where each of the six production show dancers is paired with an officer or crew member.  There are judges (I know Jere Ring is one) and the passengers will also vote on the winner. It's a great idea, and should be fun.

Day 68: Bora Bora One

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  I suffered so...I woke up on a cruise ship in Bora Bora on Christmas Day without a single present to open.

;-)

We had an open porthole hatch and visible sun on the water in the ship's webcam when we awoke this morning. Merry Christmas indeed!  But we were slow to get moving and watched our arrival in Bora Bora from the comfort of our bed. I have no idea where we cruised after we left Raiatea yesterday at 6pm; we went 140 miles to travel just 22 miles away, but it wasn't too awfully bouncy and for that I am grateful. The ship anchored in the Bora Bora lagoon around 7am and we fell back asleep. 

Our late night had caught up with us; it was just after 9am before we got moving. I was dressed and waiting for G when cruise director David made an exciting announcement:  Santa Claus was arriving on a tender boat!!  Woohoo!!  I grabbed my iPhone and made a beeline for the Promenade Deck. Santa arriving on a tender boat?  This was a first, and something I just HAD to see. Luckily, due to this ship's small size, there was plenty of room on the Promenade Deck for all interested parties.  I saw the tender boat with Santa waving from the open door doing circles in the lagoon. The ship's horn was blown, over and over, announcing his arrival, and the tender went around the entire ship (that was a photo op...Santa waving from a tender with Bora Bora's Mount Otemanu behind it) before coming back around to the tender pontoon. Santa was calling his HO HO HOs (with an accent. Italian?) as he stepped onto the pontoon and then made his way up the forward stairs where he was besieged by kids on Deck 5 and posed for impromptu photos with them. David made another announcement, that Santa needed to meet with the ship's officers below decks to take care of some visa formalities and then take a nap after his long night, but he would be back later in the day with presents for the kids. 

Santa's tender doing circles in the Bora Bora lagoon. 

Santa arriving on a tender boat!

Santa posing for photos in the elevator lobby (as far as he got before the kids found him). 

The whole thing was darling. I got some great videos that I will post from Papeete. I have to say that everything Christmas-y on the Pacific Princess has been just perfect, much more intimate than any Christmas we've had on the Emerald Princess (and those were also very nice). But, with fewer kids and more space per passenger, everything seems much less cruise ship-like and much more family-like, and this was has been a most special experience. 

G and I finally got up to breakfast in the Panorama Buffet sometime after 9:30am. Oooohhhh, we were moving slowly today. We had mimosas with breakfast, and I had Christmas stollen and egg nog was also served and we dined looking out at the beautiful Bora Bora lagoon (sitting inside, as it was HOT out there today). It was a Christmas morning I'll not soon forget. 

Our plan was to take a shuttle to Matira Beach but we returned to the cabin and got caught up with a movie on TV and actually fell back asleep again for a while longer. Eventually we woke up and felt inspired to do some continued "straightening" in our cabin. We have some Princess gifts put together (in blue Princess beach bags) for people we've met in Papeete, and bottles of wine and champagne to be stored for us in the galley bar while we're away and we're still trying to sort out what stays on the ship and what goes with us. We'll have a busy couple of days coming up while we continue to enjoy the islands with a eye toward getting off the Pacific Princess on December 28th. 

Finally we had had enough of housekeeping, and took a tender over to Bora Bora where we first worked on making some plans for tomorrow on the island. We then took the Air Tahiti ferry to the Bora Bora, airport a nice ride that we enjoy simply for the views of the lagoon and mountains. The day stayed hazily sunny, not the prettiest day we've had on Bora Bora, but, interestingly, the lagoon appeared a very pretty blue-green in spots. 

The resort boats leaving the Bora Bora airport with their newly arrived guests. 

The beautiful Bora Bora lagoon on a partly sunny, partly hazy day. 

Interestingly, the Aranui 3 (the combo freighter/passenger ship that carries freight to the Marquesas Islands) was in port with us today, the third time we've seen it since we've been in French Polynesia. I wasn't even aware that it sailed to Bora Bora, but perhaps it does just a few times a year. It stayed until after dark and then sailed out of the lagoon. It keeps strange hours!

By 4:30pm we were back on the ship (and I got another great video of outriggers riding the tender wake on our return). Today, being Christmas, was formal night, and I got ready for that while G snuck in a hot tub visit. By 5:30pm, we were dressed for the evening and up in the Pacific Lounge as Santa passed out presents (plush baby seals that had been wrapped by musicians and entertainers in their spare time) to the kids on board. There are so few kids that we didn't feel like we were taking space from someone else, and enjoyed the experience very much.  There is a family with three young boys that's been doing back to back cruises on the Pacific Princess with their extended family, and they are all right down the hall from us. They were so sweet, and wanted us in their family photos. We meet the nicest people when we cruise!

The winners of the gingerbread house decorating contest on the Pacific Princess

Dinner was a special Christmas menu, and I had a seafood starter, butternut squash soup (I'm not one for any squash, but bravely tried it and it was delish), and then had a full turkey dinner with roasted chestnuts and maple glazed carrots and asparagus and stuffing and cornbread. G had the Virginia ham and proclaimed it excellent (but not a true, salty Virginia ham). For dessert we both had gingerbread soufflés, and I have to say they were better than the gingerbread soufflés on the Emerald Princess last Christmas...much more ginger taste, and quite yummy. 

Bora Bora from our Christmas dinner table

Christmas cookies after dessert 

We. Were. Stuffed. And then we returned to our cabin to find mini-eclairs had been delivered for formal night (in lieu of chocolate covered strawberries, which we have not had a lot of down here due to how hard is it to get strawberries sourced in French Polynesia). Really, we don't need to eat the entire time we stay in Papeete (which is good because I'm not certain we can afford to). 

We weren't sure what the Christmas variety show was going to be, but went to the Cabaret Lounge at 8:30pm to find out. Well, it truly was a variety show, and every entertainer on the ship performed a Christmaa song or dance; and they showed videos of the crew and officers from the different departments on board wishing us Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. They also showed a video of Santa coming onboard through security and having a tough time of it, and that was harious. Apparently they had filmed that a couple of weeks ago, and we especially liked it because we know all those people by name. I've recorded it and will upload it from Papeete, too (it's going to take me ten days just to get all this internetting done!). 

All in all, it was one of the best Christmases in recent memory for us. I never had a moment to be homesick and never for one minute regretted our decision to extend our stay in French Polynesia...well, except for when friends Jim and Marcia sent us a Christmas email telling us they were looking forward to seeing us on the Royal Princess in two weeks. THAT was a hard reply to write. We will soon be missing people at home AND on the Royal Princess, people we've cruised with for years. But I just have to remember of all the wonderful people we've met on the Pacific Princess and in French Polynesia, keep calm and cruise on. 

Life is so good. :-)

Tomorrow:  just another day in Bora Bora. ;-)

Day 67: Raiatea

Sun!  We had sun today!  Sure, it was only for a couple of hours this morning, but beggars...  We had not seen the sun since Huahine four days ago, and then only briefly, which had not made anyone very happy. The San Diego-types, with their 420 days of sunshine a year, were grumbling about having traveled all the way to French Polynesia for THIS?  And the British-types, with their 420 days of rain a year, had traveled even further and did not expect to feel so much at home.

With our porthole hatch still battened down...indulge me a minute while I discuss that. Two readers, Nancy and Nicola graciously supplied us with answers to our wondering about the origin of the term "batten down the hatches". I'll provide Nancy's briefer email here, and Nicola's fuller explanation below. Thank you both for being so kind as to help us out in our Undernet world!! :-)

What Is the Origin of the Saying "To Batten Down the Hatches"? From Nancy

To batten down the hatches means to prepare for pending trouble. 

To batten down the hatches is a nautical term from the early 19th century. When a ship was about to enter rough seas, the captain would order the crew to batten down the hatches.  The crew would close all the hatches (doors) on the ship’s decks and use lengths of batten (rods) to secure the hatches in the closed position. 

... we could tell only from the front of the ship camera broadcast on Channel 49 that we had docked in Raiatea. and know enough now to be able to tell by the view on the camera which way the Pacific Princess was docked, and so knew that our porthole, had it been unhatched, would have been right at pier level. G went into the bathroom to take care of morning ablutions when suddenly the ship's power went out. He opened the bathroom door to ask for a flashlight (for which our iPhones work perfectly) just to find his way over to the porthole. Battened down hatches be damned...drastic times call for drastic measures. He lifted the porthole cover (surprisingly heavy) and I put the rod (batten) in place to hold it up and we at least had enough light in our cabin to navigate. 

G couldn't wait to get out to see what was going on; he was dying to know if the emergency backup generator on Deck 10 had kicked in (and therein lies the difference between the two genders. I didn't even know there WAS an emergency backup generator on Deck 10, and, even when I had that knowledge, couldn't care less what it was doing during the power outage). I was more interested in brushing my teeth and washing my face and trying to wet down my hair a bit to tame its 'bed head' appearance and, mostly, get my contacts in so I could see something...anything. Water pressure had instantly dwindled to a dribble...a scalding hot dribble. Luckily, I remembered the gallon of distilled water I keep under the sink, to clean my contacts in case of an emergency. I was able to mix it with a little of the boiling water and complete my morning cleanup, also via iPhone flashlight reflected off the bathroom mirror. Toilet flushing was out, of course (okay, I'll be honest- that was my first question to G when all this went down and he said "OF COURSE the toilets won't flush...they're vacuum operated". I am still in the dark (ha ha!) about what one issue has to do with the other, but, wouldn't you know it, he was right. What happened in the toilet stayed in the toilet). Our cabin was also immediately starting to warm up since there was no circulation, and the elevators were obviously out of service, too ('obviously', because even I knew that would be the case). 

You can see how these situations so quickly turn desperate. Captain Ciruzzi immediately made an announcement that emergency backup power was providing lighting for the corridors and that they would have all the power up in a few minutes. Once I was cleaned up and dressed, my first stop was the Club Bar for some brewed decaf coffee before it got cold. That, and water was about all we could drink. Dispensers of all sorts- soda, coffee, juice- stopped working when the power went out. I knew I could get fresh fruit and cottage cheese, and so sat down in the Club Restaurant for that. G soon found me there, and since I couldn't have toast, I had a slice of Christmas stollen. Stollen!! They had stollen!  I have been anxiously waiting for it, and it was a wonderful substitute for my usual six grain toast. 

Finally!

The power soon came back on in stages:  first the lights then the air conditioning. I don't think it was out for more than 15 minutes total, but it provided a bit of an exciting start to the day. Thankfully we were already docked when it went out, so there was no drama at all, just a sense of adventure as we navigated around the mostly dark and very silent ship. 

We had one last thing we wanted to do in Raiatea and so packed just a few things in my backpack, including my mask and snorkel, and set out to walk about 20 minutes south along the waterfront to the Hotel Hawaiki Nui, originally called the Raiatea Bali Hai, and the site of the first overwater bungalows in French Polynesia constructed in 1968. There was no beach (Douglas Pearson says there's no beach at all on mainland Raiatea), but we had heard about good snorkeling right off the pier at the Hawaiki Nui. There were no shoulders or sidewalks along the road on the walk down there, which tends to concern G (raised in a small town) more than me, but we wore our yellow "don't get hit by a taxi- or a pickup truck" t-shirts, walked facing traffic and hoped for the best. At least the cars on Raiatea drive at a reasonable speed, which they don't on Moorea. 

Once at the hotel we bought drinks but drank them on the pier, and I wasted no time in slipping into the water right there. Oh yes, what we had heard was absolutely correct. There is amazing snorkeling along the coral shelf on which the overwater bungalows have been constructed. The sun had slipped away by then, so the colors didn't pop, but the variety of fish was incredible. It was the best no-cost snorkeling I've done in French Polynesia, topped only by the Aquarium on Rangiroa and Coral Gardens on Bora Bora. I looked seriously hard in every bit of what I call "car wash coral", the wavy, mop-like coral for another Nemo fish; I had seen my first (and only) three right across the water at Motu Ofetaro. While I didn't see any, I saw the most interesting assortment of colorful fish and had a great time. 

Motu Ofetaro (that we visited last cruise) on the left, as seen from the Hawaiki Nui

I don't know how long I was at that (G says well over an hour), because I go into my own little world when there's good snorkeling, but finally G yelled down at me from the pier that, if we didn't leave soon, we were going to get caught in a downpour. I climbed up the ladder and started to dry off a bit before I dressed. While I was air-drying, I looked over at the deck off the nearest overwater bungalow and saw a glamorous young lady in a hat step out. Hmmm...that looked like one of the dancers from the ship, Natalie. Before I could ponder it any longer, out came dancers Steph and John. Assistant Cruise Director Xavier had surprised those that could get away with a day at on overwater bungalow at the resort. They all invited us to join them ('cause they're just that nice), but...please. They were trying to get away from passengers like us. I left them my mask and snorkel to enjoy the snorkeling and we were on our way. 

I loved the color of the foliage we saw on our walk. 

G's weather forecast was 100% accurate, but our little delay in talking with the dancers meant that we were about 10 minutes from the ship when the skies open and we were caught in a deluge. Luckily, it didn't last long, but that was kind of the end of the even marginally pretty weather for the day. We returned to the ship soaking wet with the Princess "flag" (blue and white striped beach towels) wrapped around us. While G was showering, I ran two of our Coke tumblers out to the two local security guys, and, in return got big hugs, two cheek kisses (I am getting so good at those!) and Joyeaux Noël's. These guys have given us friendly greetings on all our comings and goings from the Pacific Princess in Raiatea over the past two months and it was nice to have something small to give them. 

We ate lunch on the terrace behind the buffet, joined by entertainer Dan Riley and with Paige and her husband Lee at the next table. I could tell G was wearing down, and was grateful that, for once, I wouldn't be the one discouraging more activity before sailaway at 6pm. Sure enough, we made it only as far as two loungers on the pool deck overlooking Uturoa before G fell asleep. And when he finally awoke, we returned to the cabin so he could nap some more. That's a good thing; we have a late Christmas Eve planned and there is no way we'll make it until nearly 1am without a little down time. 

The Pacific Princess sailed earlier than originally scheduled today, due to the winds that are expected to increase this evening and might jeopardize our ability to get through Teavapiti Pass if we'd waited until 11pm.  There was no sign of the winds early on, but, honestly, Uturoa on Christmas Eve doesn't offer a lot of night life anyway; the Pacific Princess is the best place to be. Where we'll be cruising until tomorrow morning's arrival in Bora Bora is anyone's guess; it's located within sight of Raiatea, just 20 or so miles away, but Captain Ciruzzi said we'd be cruising 140 miles overnight. Too bad we can't see these Society Islands we're cruising past.

Even with overcast skies, the water is the lagoon is perfectly clear (this is the motu on the right in the photo above)

We were up at the Elite Lounge at 5:30pm (and I enjoyed both the port wine and Stilton offered tonight), but stepped out on Deck 10 for our final sailaway from Raiatea this winter (weep!). Suzan, we met your friends Roy and Pam up there. They said they were looking for a white beard and that eventually let them to G. It was nice talking with them, and together we enjoyed the views of the Raiatea mountainsides and reef as we sailed away. 

Tonight's dinner menu was Italian night, which was perfect. The waiters were in red and white striped pullovers and the assistant waiters were in green and white striped pullovers and several had Santa hats on too. I had eaten a late lunch and then had Stilton before dinner; I wasn't that hungry. I had just my favorite spinach salad topped with chicken breast...and lemoncello sorbet for dessert, of course. We shared a bottle of champagne and it was a memorable Christmas Eve dinner. 

Assistant waiter Gerald from India does everything with his own style. 

We're back in the cabin for a short time before going to the 8:30pm show in the Cabaret Lounge, Jere  Ring's Liberace Christmas. Between Jere's personality and talent; this should be a highly enjoyable hoot. Mass is going to be offered at 11:30pm tonight. (I hope I can stay up for that.) 

And, finally, Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday. Big hugs to family and friends...we miss you!!

A Christmas stocking was waiting for us in our cabin tonight. 

From Nicola's email, a further definition of the origin of the term "batten down the hatches":

'Hatch' is one of those words with dozens of meanings in the dictionary. In this case we are looking at the 'opening in the deck of a ship' meaning. Ships' hatches, more formally called hatchways, were commonplace on sailing ships and were normally either open or covered with a wooden grating to allow for ventilation of the lower decks. When bad weather was imminent, the hatches were covered with tarpaulin and the covering was edged with wooden strips, known as battens, to prevent it from blowing off. Not surprisingly, sailors called this 'battening down'.

The above was explained, probably better than I just have, in the definitive record of history of nautical language, Admiral W H Smyth’s 1867 encyclopaedia The Sailor’s Word Book. He calls it 'battening of the hatches' but it is clearly the same expression:

“Battens of the hatches: Long narrow laths serving by the help of nailing to confine the edges of the tarpaulins, and keep them close down to the sides of the hatchways in bad weather.”

The misspellings 'battern down the hatches' and 'baton down the hatches' are sometimes found in print. 'Batons' are sticks or staffs, which makes that particular misspelling plausible. 'Batterns' are a form of stage lighting.