Today was a down day of sorts for us. We had only one thing on the schedule, and even Papeete seemed to close down by mid-afternoon for the weekend.
We started our day with a full Hotel Tiare Tahiti breakfast. Yesterday, I had asked (in French) the name of the lady who serves us breakfast and we actually get an occasional smile now, and the offer of eggs scrambled or fried or in omelette form. Along with the juice, fruit, croissant, baguette and coffee/tea, it really is a feast by any standards.
G went out to take an early walk, and I returned to our room to take care of that hair coloring chore that was on my to-do list. It certainly is darker than it was before (!!), but will continually lighten over time. It should be juuustt right in about a week...and stay that way for a day or two.
G returned and we spent some time going through our three suitcases and pulling out the things we want to take on board tomorrow in our carry ons, mostly over-the-door shoe rack stuff (good grief I have missed that!!!), toiletries and organizing bins and magnetic clips. Getting those things set up before the big suitcases are delivered really simplifies unpacking. We are looking forward to staying in the same cabin for our four remaining cruises, a porthole cabin on Deck 3. We will rearrange the furniture, unpack one time, and be home. Bliss!
G was very wise to request that we do both of our side trips back to back, so to speak, and we were very fortunate that things worked out with the weekly flights the way they did. I don't think the promise of any adventure would be enough to incent us to move back on the ship, then leave again after one cruise, only to return again later. After 40 days of packing and unpacking and repacking and flying here, there and everywhere, we are ready to be a bit more settled. Cruising has spoiled us forever!
And speaking of 40 days...I took the time after the hair color but before G returned to touch up my nail polish. Not remove it and start over, of course; the nail polish remover is in the suitcase on the ship (this has been a common theme lately). But I just wanted to freshen things up. G returned and commented on it (he hates the smell), and I told him that I was looking a bit travel-worn and needed a spruce up after -and here I was searching my brain to remember what day of the cruise we were on- and G offered, "55 years?" Ha ha. Do you see what I must live with?? ;-)
We had received an invitation from an officer on the Paul Gauguin we had met last year to visit the ship today while it was in Papeete for its turnaround day, so we walked over there at the appointed time of 1pm. Luckily, I had brought the print out of the agreed upon rendezvous, and we had needed to register our passports ahead of time and bring them with us today to get through the security red tape, but we were soon ushered on the ship and given a chance to visit and have a little tour. It's a beautiful ship, and we love that it offers a Polynesian option year-round. If it wasn't for the price, we might have to make the switch now that Princess appears to be abandoning the French Polynesia market. :-( Or, as our officer friend gloated (and he used to work for Princess), Princess was driven out by a superior product. Hmmmm, I'm not so sure about that.
We left the Paul Gauguin and walked through Le Marché, but most of the stalls had already closed. However, the flower sellers were still out en force. Saturday sales of flowers for Sunday are huge, and they were probably still hoping to sell a few to Paul Gauguin passengers, who were beginning to embark their ship at 3pm today. Along the way we were passed by a teen on his skateboard. Also on the skateboard, between the guy's feet was a tiny puppy, who seemed accustomed to this mode of transportation. So darn cute, but he passed by too quickly for us to get a photo.
We were a little hungry by then, but didn't want to eat anything that would spoil our dinner later, and so stopped into our favorite frozen yogurt shop. Our friend there allows us to use his WiFi for free (but of course we always buy something too). He was closing up for the weekend right after we got there, so we enjoyed froyo's and WiFi for an hour. I was even able to call Mom using Vonage (for free! Get the app!) and we had the first long conversation we've had since G and I left Hilo a month ago. She is doing so well, and my friend Suzan has started staying in touch with Mom, sending her cards and emails in my absence. What a wonderful friend!! The twins' mom texted to update me on their football game today (a 60-6 win!), and then asked if I had a drink in hand; she had some news about the Midhigan-Michigan State game. I then entered a period of mourning that lasted...20 minutes. Hey, I don't have time for an extended period of grief. I'm in French Polynesia!!
By 5pm we were starting to fade a little, but needed to have energy to go back out to watch the Pacific Princess' arrival around 8pm, and get dinner from les roulottes. We returned to our room, where I started this post (before 10pm. Go me!). G kept an eye on all the harbor activity from our large balcony at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti (he would be bored. to. death at a frou frou resort with only a view of the pool). He occasionally called me to come out to watch a freighter leave, or a ferry, or the Paul Gauguin's muster drill at 5:30pm (they muster outside on the Promenade Deck. Superior product, my eye!). ;-)
Meanwhile, I kept checking the Pacific Princess webcam online to watch its progress as it approached the island of Tahiti from Moorea, where it had anchored today. The Paul Gauguin was also still in port, scheduled to leave around 11pm tonight. It was a busy night in the Papeete harbor! We could start to see activity on the Pacific Princess pier around 5:30pm, well before its arrival.
The webcam with the lights of Papeete in the distance
While the ship was doing its final maneuvering against the pier, we made the quick, 5 minute walk over and watched as the lines were set. We never see this part of the docking process when we're on the ship, and I was amazed at all the work that goes into it. We were observing the aft lines and the crew on Deck 4 under the Club Restaurant, and the dock workers on the pier. It takes three men to pull a single wet line through the water and onto the pier. And there were probably 15 lines in total holding the ship in place. When it was all done, a cheer went up from the crew on deck 4. It really was something to see!
We chose a roulotte called O BBQ tonight for dinner, and we grilled our own chicken and beef on a tiny grill that had been set on our table. We will certainly remember it tomorrow night when we're having dinner in the Club Restaurant, just 100 feet away. While we sat there, several crew members walked off the ship and over to Chaplins to use WiFi and it was wonderful to see them all, and to know every one of their names. We love this small ship! They said they've had two cruises with not the best weather, which was sad to hear, but not too surprising. We certainly had our share of rain and wind on Rapa Nui and Rarotonga. This is not the wet season in Polynesia, but it seems someone didn't get the message.
We are back in our hotel room by 9:30am, looking out at the Pacific Princess, where we'll spend the next 46 nights. G just commented that there is absolutely no challenge in rolling our suitcases over to the snip tomorrow morning and then being mollycoddled in the cocoon that is the Pacific Princess. He asked if we wouldn't rather go back to the airport and fly somewhere for hours and then find our way around yet another totally new environment, searching for restaurants and ATMs and waiting for buses and maybe struggling with the language to boot?
Um...no. ;-)
Before I close tonight, I wanted to reprint something I read in the Paul Gauguin equivalent of the Princess Patter that I picked up while on board today. I thought this was extremely helpful, and might be useful to someone who will be using WiFi for the first time on any ship in the near future. (Comments in parentheses are my edits).
Here's a list of tips to make sure you're not consuming more minutes than you intend:
- Put your device in Airplane Mode and turn on WiFi
- Turn off WiFi when you're not accessing the Internet (on Princess you must log off first)
- Turn off any automatic software updates
- Turn off Photostream on iOS devices
- Turn off background app refresh
- Disable the auto-backup function and syncing to cloud-based services
- Remember that activities such as streaming movies (what are they smoking??) consume a lot of data while others, such as checking email and web browsing consume less (I might add that web browsing consumes less than movies but still can consume a lot and be very slow)
- Unused minutes cannot be refunded (ditto on Princess)
Source: Embarkation day newsletter, Paul Gauguin, October 17, 2015
I actually spend 15 minutes or so the day before we leave for a cruise doing last minute app updates before I then complete the above steps and remove unneeded apps to make room for photos. The extra effort not only saves Internet minutes on the ship, but ensures that we never incur a penny in extra charges from our cellular provider while cruising.
It's a good thing. :-)