Breakfast in Sabatinis remains a wonderful way to start the day, but I'm keeping it light now. Just a fruit plate and (today) a fruit and yogurt parfait...and fresh squeezed OJ and a mimosa, naturally. ;-) More than that is really not necessary on sea days when we'll be eating a nice lunch and dinner. But even though the breakfast choices are simple, the service is anything but. Two waiters for four passengers can't help but provide a memorable dining experience. In fact, when he knew we had to leave for Douglas Pearson's 9am lecture (today's was on Huahine), waiter Jaime sent us off with to-go cups of cappuccino, to keep us warm in the refrigerated Cabaret Lounge.
We continue to enjoy Douglas' presentations for three reasons: 1.) they remind us of many things about each island; 2.) they teach us a least a few things every time; and. 3.) they get us so darned excited to be returning to these places we love so much. We've thought about and planned this trip for so long, it's hard to believe we're finally almost in French Polynesia. Just our cruise to date has been a wonderful vacation, but soon the pièce de resistance will be added.
Life is good. :-)
We wanted to stay in the Cabaret Lounge for Dr. Evans' lecture on Captain Cook and the relationship between his South Pacific voyages and the stars, but, honestly, it's just too cold to spend that much time in there. G made tracks to a hot tub while I checked out Ramon and Alex's craft session in the Steakhouse. Today's craft was once again the ribbon leis we made last cruise, and they had a full turn out, so I didn't stay. However, I did act as a visual aid. I don't think I've yet been able to publish the photo I have of the lei I made with the ribbon I purchased at the Hilo WalMart, but I will. (I have a LOT of photos to get caught up with). I wore the lei to the craft session and acted as model (the first and last time in my life I'll ever be asked to do that!).
I then adjourned to the heat of a lounger on the Promenade Deck. I am listening to an audiobook, and it's a favorite place to do that. However, the crew has been doing quite a bit of painting and sprucing up of the deck railing, and something they were using today caused me to develop a headache (but obviously didn't have any ill effects on the other passengers out there), so I returned to the cabin to await G's return.
While I waited, I tried to get on WiFi and was thrilled to see it was the tiniest bit better. I had been trying to upload just a single photo to my post of two days ago (that fantastic sunset) and had had no luck at all, but this morning I finally got it posted. Well, yay! However, I am going to wait with the many other photos I have, until Papeete or perhaps until the Pacific Princess reaches the Society Islands in a few days. I have plenty of free internet minutes left; all I need is a stable ship and a good satellite signal, both of which we'll hopefully have in a couple of days.
I had quite an effort to pull G away from our cabin when the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! came on at noon. I kept reminding him it would play, over and over again on Channel 24 for the rest of the day, but... We did finally make it to lunch in the Club Restaurant, but not early enough for me to eat and make it to the 1:15pm movie in the Cabaret Lounge: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. That's okay; it will be on Channel 21 at 8:15pm tonight, and our cabin is at least ten degrees warmer than the Cabaret Lounge.
I had part of a wonderful spanikopita with a truly flaky crust for lunch, and we watched as the Grapevine wine tasting was being set up in the center of the Club Restaurant. We really weren't intending to go to today's wine tasting but headwaiter Josko told us they would be presenting totally different wines to last cruise. That sounded too good to pass up, so we returned to the cabin for our wine tasting invitations and spent a most enjoyable hour tasting five wines. I even found a new favorite red, quite a shocker for me, as I am not a Cabernet Sauvignon fan, but this one (Greystone Cellars) was a blend with merlot and had much less tannin. Consider me sold!
G was antsy to get back to the movie on TV (because his 57 previous viewings of Tora! Tora! Tora! were simply not enough), but spent a few minutes with me in a lounger on the shady side of the Promenade Deck. I was eventually left alone to listen to my book and enjoy the passing sea, entirely mellow after the wine tasting. Yep, these sea days have been tough to take!
We skipped the Elite Lounge tonight and went directly to dinner. When I told Henry I was hungry tonight, he smiled as if we had given him a gift and said, "Finally!" Maybe we should start skipping lunch, if it makes Henry so happy to see us hungry when we arrive for dinner. As on other evenings when there has been a theme party later in the evening (tonight it was the Country Western Hoedown at 9:45pm), the shows in the Cabaret Lounge have been at 7pm for late diners and 8:30pm for early diners. We ate quickly (but ate three courses!) and went to the 7pm performance of musical entertainer Duncan Tuck, and then I went back to our cabin, opting to watch The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on TV while tucked comfortably into bed. G is heading out to star gaze with Dr. Rhodri Evans, weather permitting. We're still hoping to catch a glimpse of the Andromeda Galaxy but the moon getting increasingly larger is not helping our efforts.
Only one more sea day. Sigh. I'll miss them a little when we begin the parade of islands starting September 24th. Really. ;-)