Wouldn't you know it...G was up ridiculously early this morning, before 5:30am. I've always said that, when we cruise for long periods of time, I most miss people and high speed Internet, in an order I won't admit to (besides, high speed internet makes it easy to stay in touch with people). But I have to amend that now; I also miss sleeping past 7am. A lot.
I didn't jump right out of bed when G left the cabin, but I did take the time to finish my blog post from last night. I guess I do spend at least an hour preparing my posts each night, because it was 6:45am by the time I finished it. I don't usually pay attention to how long it takes me to document each day; I just type until I run out of things to say (which sometimes happens quickly, but mostly doesn't). ;-) I logged in to WiFi for the first time this cruise and was surprised to see that I was considered a returning user (not a new user) and that I had 13 minutes of WiFi remaining. Usually everything resets at noon on turnaround days. I used those minutes to publish my blog post and then checked emails, depleting my remaining minutes.
G had already had an omelette in the Panorama Buffet but had a fruit plate with me in the Club Restaurant. I added scrambled egg beaters and called that breakfast; I knew there would be lots of opportunities to eat today. G was already able to inform me, over breakfast, that he was unable to sign up for Internet for this cruise. I tried and had the same result: I was considered a returning user and was not offered the usual 250 free internet minutes we get each 10-night cruise for being Elite. This perturbed G enough (he was not able to get check our Nest thermostat for two days in a row) that he went to see the Internet manager. Apparently, the manager doesn't know how to reset our accounts, but someone is arriving the next two days who does. Hopefully.
The Nest thing was heavy enough on G's mind that we walked off the ship to use some of the ManaSPOT WiFi minutes we have remaining from the packages we had purchased when staying at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. And, happily, once we had decent WiFi, there was no longer a Nest issue. Internet is an ongoing struggle on the Pacific Princess in French Polynesia. I've had issues with Hotmail and iMessage just since we reboarded the Pacific Princess on October 18.
After some time spent checking accounts and paying bills, we returned to the ship where that pile of damp swimwear from yesterday hadn't magically disappeared overnight. I gathered it up, and added the embellished long sleeved T-shirts I wear sometimes at dinner and our Tilley hats and went to the passenger laundry on Deck 7 to do a load of delicates (remembering to add detergent this time. Go me!) These are things that I don't want dried in a dryer, so I returned with a pile of damp, but clean smelling clothes and proceeded to hang them from everywhere I could in the cabin to dry. It was breezy today in Papeete and things would have dried outside in a heartbeat; where's a sailboat railing when I need one?
G napped while I was doing laundry duty, so I took advantage of that time to get the glitter polish off my toes for the first time since we left home. That is a job for a blow torch...or pure acetone on cotton pads covered for five minutes with aluminum foil. I had been thinking ahead, and got some foil from headwaiter Josko this morning at breakfast. Finished with these mundane tasks, I read until G awakened and we went to the Panorama Buffet for lunch. Papeete looked so pretty from ten decks above the water, bright and sunny, and the steep mountains overlooking the city were verdantly green. It's easy to forget, when I'm dealing with crosswalks and traffic and French ambulance sirens, that Tahiti is actually no slouch, even when compared to its prettier Society Island sisters.
We got back off the ship after lunch and took a walk along the waterfront past the yacht harbor to the Jardins de Paofai and then crossed Pomare Boulevard on our return for a quick frozen yogurt and to say Bonjour! to our friends at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti. We were back on the Pacific Princess and dressed for dinner before muster drill at 4:15pm. (we don't have to attend again on this cruise!), and so spent the time on the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet. After it was complete, we moved to the pool deck for the champagne waterfall and introduction of the ship's senior officers during a beautiful sailaway from Papeete with the sun setting over Moorea in the distance. Gorgeous!
We still have our table for two next to a window, and enjoyed meeting our new 'next door' table mates at the next table. One of my favorite parts of doing several cruises back to back instead of one long cruise is all the energy and excitement that new passengers bring on board. It re-energizes us, too.
We attended just the singers and dancers and cruise director portions of the Welcome Aboard show after dinner but left before impressionist Sean O'Shea started his performance. We had just seen it a few days ago, and wanted to get our things packed up for our day on Bora Bora tomorrow. The alarm is set (6am), the swimwear is clean and dry and the sunscreen is packed. Here we go again...