HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!
This our first one. We love it!
We had another full day today, in and on the water. We are wiped out tonight. Apparently, two beach days in a row are our limit.
We took a boat shuttle from right in front of the port over to Iririki Island today, For AU $5 each, we were deposited at the Iririki Resort pier, just 10 minutes or so from the port. Things have changed a bit here since we were here two years ago; AU $20 (or 1500 Vatu) each buys a day pass to the resort, but there is no longer a food and beverage credit. We immediately took a golf cart down to where there were kayaks available. The day pass covers kayak rental, and we got two single kayaks and set off. We love kayaking, though we hadn’t done it yet this year, and spent over two hours kayaking around Iririki Island and over to a far beach we had seen from the ship.
I have no idea how we’ll feel tomorrow after that much exercise, but it felt great in the moment. The water was fairly shallow in places, and was never very deep, but we knew the wind would make our return across the harbor more difficult. Still, much of the time, we were within sight of the Majestic Princess bridge, and we imagined the officers were wondering what these crazy, old Princess passengers were doing and when we might be signaling for help.
Once we returned to the Iririki Resort, we collapsed on the beach and enjoyed the loungers and palapas. We never made it to the Sunset Pool we had enjoyed so much last time; we simply enjoyed the crystal blue water at the beach.
About 4pm we caught a water shuttle back to the port area. After walking through the gauntlet of little booths selling trinkets made in China, we re-boarded the ship and quickly got cleaned up, but dressed in shorts and Ts. We had told Francesco at breakfast in the Concerto Dining Room that we would not be at dinner tonight, but instead enjoyed the evening on the pool deck.
Not that we were there, but here is tonight’s dinner menu:
Day 6 dinner menu, page 1
Day 6 dinner menu, page 2
Day 6 dessert menu
There was an Australia Day sail away party, which took place well before our actual sail away, which was delayed until 7pm for some reason, and then we went to dinner in the buffet. An Australia Day Deck party was taking place starting at 8:45pm and we were a little underwhelmed by that. For the first hour, a DJ played what could easily have been Australian music but wasn’t. Instead it was disco, which was nice but not in keeping with the occasion. Then they had what G calls “kids’ party games”, and I thought the Aussies in the crowd would become unglued when an ostrich egg balancing game was featured. Ostriches are American; emus are Australian. Finally, the host must have gotten the message, and she started calling it an emu egg, and all the Aussies cheered.
We stayed until about 10pm, but couldn’t manage a minute longer. The day was catching up with us, plus we move clocks ahead an hour tonight. We have a most welcome sea day tomorrow, and I predict a late wake up followed by the Most Traveled Guest lunch.
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 6 Princess Patter, page 4