Day 58 – 71
Due to the fierce winds and high waves, we were unable to leave Auckland until April 17th, two days behind schedule. Because of our late departure, the captain had to cancel our first stop at American Samoa. This was rather disappointing since we only had 3 scheduled stops in our extended journey. However, we didn’t want to brave the waves, so we made the best of it exploring the ship, meeting new people and relaxing. After many weeks of intense travel, this schedule was welcome.
Our first evening on board, we went to the Crown Grill, which is their specialty steak house. We decided that this was the best restaurant on the ship. We especially enjoyed Joseph, our favorite waiter and Abhishek our very knowledgeable sommelier. We returned to the Crown Grill to enjoy the excellent food and service throughout the cruise.
On Day 60, we finally left Auckland to begin our adventure across the Pacific Ocean.
The skies were cloudy and the ocean still had pretty high waves, so we spent our time listening to live music in the different venues and attended shows.
The other specialty restaurant on board was Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria. Is was also quite good. In addition to their normal menu, we enjoyed a Super Tuscan wine dinner one evening.
The main hub of activity on the inside of the ship was in the Piazza on Deck 5 and the two floors above.
All of the activities ranging from exercise, dancing classes, games, and evening music were at the Piazza. This area was surrounded with bars, restaurants, and shops and was busy throughout the day.
We met a family as we were boarding the ship and subsequently spent quite a bit of time with the parents, Boris and Mary Ann. Currently living in Adelaide, they were both originally from the Netherlands, but met in Australia. They were traveling with their teenage boys for about six weeks, including the cruise from Auckland to Los Angeles, followed by some time in the US, and another cruise to the Mexican Riviera before flying home. They were “gamers” and we spent a number of nights playing board and card games.
After sailing for 5 1/2 days, we arrived at Papeete in French Polynesia. We walked over to the local market to explore and have some lunch.
The afternoon was spent on a snorkeling adventure. We stopped in three locations, getting to see a wide variety of things. At our first stop, there was a sunken boat, plane, desk and heart made with stones. The second stop was in a bay that had a number of turtles. A freshwater river emptied into the ocean here, which promoted the growth of some vegetation that the turtles like, so they are typically in that area. Our third stop for snorkeling was in some shallow water where a number of stingrays are found. Our captain “knew” several of them, as he would feed them pieces of fish. The stingrays were very inquisitive, particularly with the women in the group (one swam up behind Cheryl and gave her a “hug” with its wings, before swimming on). They were also very interested in an underwater camera device that one of the tour members brought along, continually swimming up to it as he videoed under water.
To finish our day in Papeete, we booked a sunset Champagne cruise with the same company. Since the cruise was for 4 people, we invited Boris and Mary Ann to join us. We returned to the shallow bay to swim with Boris and Mary Ann. It was a lovely way to end our day in Papeete.
The following day, we stopped at the neighboring island of Moorea, a mere 15 miles from Papeete. We bought a day pass to the Hilton Moorea resort. It was a very nice property and we hope to return one day to stay in one of the overwater bungalows. They had a nice cove with coral and lots of fish. We even saw a family of stingrays swim by as we were eating lunch overlooking the cove.
Between the ship and the Hilton, we passed a bay that had a huge private yacht anchored. It turned out that it was “Octopus”, the yacht formerly owned by Paul Allen that our waiter in Brisbane, Paul Hinkley, told us about a month earlier. It was quite impressive. I wonder if the current owner needs a private butler …
With our port stops behind us, we continued our progress to Honolulu. We enjoyed several more dinners and playing games with Boris and Mary Ann. We also made friends with a retired couple from Brisbane, Ian and Tina. Pat had won a bottle of Chianti at a wine tasting event early in the cruise, and we took the bottle to the Main Dining Room one night to share with anyone seated in our area. Ian and Tina were quite appreciative, and we saw them several times throughout the journey. They invited us to dine with them at the Crown Grill on our last evening (they were continuing to the final destination, Vancouver). Pat bought a special bottle of Opus One to share with our new friends and we enjoyed the final dinner on our cruising.
Getting off the ship in Honolulu was quite inefficient. We stood in line for over two hours, and ended up missing our scheduled flight to Maui. Fortunately, Hawaiian Air runs planes every hour, so we were able to re-book at the airport.