;-)
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 resort boats leaving the Bora Bora airport with their newly arrived guests.
The beautiful Bora Bora lagoon on a partly sunny, partly hazy day.
The winners of the gingerbread house decorating contest on the Pacific Princess
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.
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.
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!
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
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. ;-)