We had a wonderful start to our second set of sea days en route to Papeete. Our cabin is on the starboard (right) side of the ship, so we're not on the sunrise side for these five days sailing almost due south to our first French Polynesian port. Still, light was coming in our cabin shortly after 6am (sunrise was at 6:08am) and so we kept with the 'early to rise' MO we've practiced since we left Vancouver 12(!) days ago. We will want to be up on deck early to watch our island arrivals once we reach French Polynesia, so we might as well just stay in this pattern.
We took a few minutes to sort through the plethora of paperwork that has accumulated in our cabin since our arrival in Hawaii a week ago. (Seriously? It's been a week since we arrived in our first port of Hilo?) I forgot to mention that we also received personalized stationery for our 75th Princess cruise, the same sort that suite passengers receive. I love it, and will enjoy using it to write some thank you notes on the ship. Despite the paperwork cleanup efforts, our cabin looks very...lived in. Oh, it's clean, and it's certainly organized. It's just that we have more stuff than people cruising for just one cruise. I suspect it looks more like the cabins of World Cruisers, hugely cluttered but very accommodating.
We were in Sabatinis for breakfast when it opened at 7:30am. It was nice to have a bit more time to enjoy it today. I have received emails from fellow cruisers familiar with the Sabatinis breakfast menu suggesting different entrees to try, and I will work hard to eat my way through them over the next 10 days. ;-) Today, I had my usual freshly squeezed OJ and decaf skinny capuccino, but, since it was a sea day, enjoyed a mimosa, too. I had a beautiful fresh fruit plate followed by the brioche French toast with apple cinnamon compote (recommended by Ginger). What a way to start the day! Waiters Olex and Ruel provide exactly the classy and unobtrusive service you'd expect from a premium dining experience. It's hard to remember that just one deck below Sabatinis, people are dining in the considerably different atmosphere of the Panorama Buffet. Even the wonderful breakfast service in the Club Restaurant on Deck 5 can't match Sabatinis; we are forever spoiled.
I finally had to pull myself away from the breakfast table to attend Douglas Pearson's 9am lecture in the Cabaret Lounge. Today's topic was the islands of Raiatea and Taha'a, as well as a brief introduction to French Polynesia. I learn something new every time I attend one of Douglas' lectures. These cruises wouldn't be the same without him.
By the end of Douglas' lecture, G and several others showed up for the 10:15am BIG!!!!!! $500 Treasure Hunt Drawing*!!! (*must be present to win). You may recall that, last year, it took us six cruises until we had our first win (an 8x10 photo we gave away); we didn't hit real pay dirt until our seventh cruise, winning both a shopping spree AND a massage. However, fresh off of his big win at last cruise's bar drawing, where he scored a Princess cookbook, G was especially hopeful. It's one of his most endearing (and enduring) qualities. Alas, we were not winners today.
I attended Alex's 10:30am craft session, once again making travel journals. Not surprisingly, my finished product was even worse than last cruise's. I really should stop when I'm ahead! I wasn't going to participate, was only going to watch, especially if there weren't enough journal kits, but only three of us showed up, so I had no excuse. I think newly boarded passengers are worn out after their travel to Honolulu and their first two ports in quick succession. And the 69 of us who are in transit passengers from last cruise are tired because we had six busy days (and evenings) in Hawaii.
I finally had a break in the schedule to do some hand laundry that had piled up over our several port days. I also took the time to complete our French Polynesia immigration forms that had been delivered to the cabin last evening. Apparently, French Polynesian immigration official(s) boarded the ship yesterday in Hilo and are staying on for five sea days, simply to clear the 615 passengers on this cruise into their country. Nice work if you can get it. ;-) We are scheduled to go through immigration at 9am tomorrow morning in the Pacific Lounge. It was rather fun to write, on the immigration form, that we had most recently been in French Polynesia just eight months ago. Life is good. :-)
G returned to the cabin from whatever he had been busily doing, and we turned on the TV to find a documentary on two other Polynesian countries, Samoa and American Samoa. We've visited both islands, and found them to still have some of the most interesting and traditional cultures we've ever seen. They are fascinating, and so was this documentary. Unfortunately, it was narrated by that same mono-toned guy who seemed to narrate so many of these travel documentaries from the late 1970s and early 80s. G was asleep in 30 seconds and even I had trouble keeping my eyes open. After all, we had been awake for all of six hours!
I woke G up at 1pm to eat again. Eat, sleep, eat, sleep...now THIS is a vacation! We went to the Club Restaurant (of course) for a sit down lunch, but also to see some favorite waiters who were concerned that we haven't been there for breakfasts lately, and obviously not for lunches, either, on port days. I was freezing (Really! The Cabaret Lounge remains meat locker-cold, which, in one sense is a good thing because it keeps seasickness at bay.) and so started with the chicken tortilla soup, followed by nasi goreng (without the fried egg, please) and then hot tea for dessert.
I must be a glutton for punishment, because I returned to the chilly Cabaret Lounge for a 2pm lecture by astrophysicist Dr. Rhodri Evans (He's a man. He's from Wales.) about what we'd be seeing in the night sky on this cruise. And lecture is the right word. Unlike with Douglas Pearson's exuberant sharing of all things Polynesian, I was transported right back to school with Dr. Evans' presentation. The most exciting thing- well, two most exciting things- is first that we would be having star gazing parties on a darkened Deck 11 forward each night starting at 8 pm (come when you want), and, second, that we might spot the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye during one of those parties. To think that we might see light that has traveled 2 million years to reach our eyes...this just boggles the mind.
Following that, Douglas and I had a bit of a discussion over coffee (to get warm!) about the value of astrophysics versus the respect for native spirituality as it relates to that 14th telescope on Mauna Kea (how appropriate that G and I had just been there yesterday). It's a bit of a philosophical issue: the doorway to heaven vs. the closest look mere humans can get into the heavens. (I still side with the Hawaiian protestors.)
And then it was time to begin getting ready for our third formal night of the winter (i will be keeping track), and time to rummage through the over the door shoe rack for those tools required to transform me from middle-aged island girl to middle-aged prom date. G wisely kept quiet this time, just asking, when I finally sat down on the bed to put on my jewelry, "Are you done yet?" Well, I wasn't sure. If he couldn't tell, maybe not done enough.
This cruise, the Captain's Welcome Aboard Cocktail Party (they call it that, but this year it's really more of a Captain's Welcome Aboard Party Champagne Party as only champagne is served) was held between the first and second dinner seating, at 7pm. So we first went to dinner (the 50th anniversary menu with that luscious dessert) but had to stay a few extra minutes when Henry brought a plate of the most delicious tiny cookies, of types that were entirely new to us. There's always room for gourmandises!
The champagne party is still featuring those yummy Norman Love chocolate truffle pops, but I've had to swear off those. That special heart shaped 50th anniversary chocolate mousse for dessert, then tiny cookies, then a chocolate truffle pop, all in the same evening and every cruise...that's the very definition of excess.
Production show Stardust followed, and immediate afterward we called it a night. Though the day had been brightly sunny, it appeared the sky tonight was cloudy, so we guessed this evening's star party on deck had been cancelled. We have four more nights to try to find the Andromeda Galaxy, and Captain D said tonight that our weather would continue to improve (and the swells to diminish) as we continued on our course to French Polynesia. Now, if we could only count on a heat wave in the Cabaret Lounge...