Heading Home...

Our island adventures were done, and now it was all sea time to head home.  We had a little over a week's time to be back in Los Angeles.  

For me, that week started off with a celebration (or two)!  It was my 78th Birthday and my husband (and it seemed the crew) made sure it was going to be "extra special".  To begin with, Princess Cruise Lines has a very large (TV) screen at almost every elevator hub.  It shows you where the ship is at, at any given moment (latitude and longitude) and where it's heading - but, whenever I was near it (wearing my medallion, which we wear for identification) the screen would change and show birthday balloons, a cake with candles and a banner saying "Happy Birthday Marie B"!  It was such a hoot!  

 

On the night of my birthday which coincided (with "formal night" so we got to dress up too), Jack made reservations at one of the special restaurants on board, The Steakhouse.  Wow, what an experience!  We've been to wonderful restaurants in our travels, but I must say this was above and beyond anything we've ever experienced.  Of course they ended the evening with the staff coming over with a most decadent dessert (chocolate, of course) and sang to me.  I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures...

The funny thing was, and so very special, was that the following night, when we returned to our regular table, our wait staff immediately said "you weren't here last night for your birthday!"  I shared with them where we were, and Kwanravee said "well, we are just going to pretend that tonight is your birthday anyway!" So they did!  After they served me my cake and sang, I told them "well, if it makes you feel any better, you all sing better than the other restaurant staff!"  I told them although I love the dessert, I was just to full to eat it...she said "no problem, we will just have it delivered to your room for later".  When we returned to our room, it was there, along with a Happy Birthday banner across the wall that our room steward Danio had pinned up. They all made me feel so special.  

The Cruise Director and his assistance made sure there were plenty of things going on and entertainment for us to watch for those eight days and nights.  Of course they had a different show each night for us, everything from singers to acrobatics to instrumentalist, to piano to dancers.  Towards the end, they brought in the Culinary Team and showed us who they were and what they all do!  They read off some of the "amounts" of food items we consumed while on board - oh my!  

 

Another fun thing was two "recitals".  All during our cruise there were two classes passengers could take, hula and ukulele.  They met several times a week to practice with our Island Hosts.  We had seen a number of passengers walking around with their ukulele, some with their own that they brought with then, some belonging to the host's.  We spoke to one of the passengers once and asked her about the class and she shared that she had started taking a class on a previous cruise and got hooked and then bought her own ukulele and kept up the lessons.  She said it's harder than one thinks, but she enjoys it and always takes it with her now on cruises.  A few days before the end of the cruise, they gave us a recital!  I was surprised at how large the classes were. They sure looked like they were having fun, and we all enjoyed watching them too! 

Before we knew it, it was time to start packing up and getting ourselves ready to disembark!  32 days seemed like a long time, buy honestly, it flew by!  It was great being "unplugged" from emails, phone calls, texts, etc. and just relaxing.  However I have to confess, the  "no cooking (or planning), cleaning, gardening", was really the BEST part!  I am still missing Martin, Servio, Kwanravee and Danio! They truly spoiled us...

...and in no time, it's back to Arizona and our wonderful life here!

Marie

Making the most in Moorea!

 It was Sunday, and our last stop in Tahiti.  After yesterday's shopping disappointment, we weren't in a hurry to board the water shuttle to Moorea, thinking that there wouldn't be any opportunity to get anything there, and we hadn't booked any tours, so it would just be "free time on our own",  so we just mossied on out after breakfast to see what there was to see...

  Coming into the island, we could see that it was a small sweet looking one with a lovely cove.  I was surprised at how high the surrounding mountains were, some you couldn't even see the tops because of the clouds!  As with the other smaller island, everything was lush and green. 

As the water shuttle docked we could already hear the music, and it didn't take us long to realize that these island people were not taking Sunday off!  There were musicians playing island music along with lovely dancers to welcome us, and they had this place FILLED with vendor tables as far as the eye could see!  Beyond that were tour guides offering all lengths of tours from 2-4 hours around the island.  We asked several of the people selling items how long they would be there, and they all said "as long as you are here!" They were excited to see us and were so friendly and happy, it made our day.  We talked to a couple of tour guides and decided that a 2-hour tour would be the best for today - it covered enough of the areas I was interested in and gave us time to come back and enjoy the music and shopping, so that's what we did.  They were nice small vans that only held 6 people, which was perfect, so off we went.  

We learned a lot about this wonderful island from our guide.  Like Moorea is an island of volcanic origin, located 11 miles northwest of Papeete and has a circumference of 37 miles. Many people have described Moorea as the most beautiful place on earth. After a visit to Moorea and inspired by its beauty, author James Michener wrote “peaks which can never be forgotten...the jagged saw-edges that look like the spines of a forgotten dinosaur”. One of the features that is so striking about this island is the jagged peaks and spires that give the island its unique profile. Moorea's appearance is the result of volcanic activity hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The volcanic crater of Moorea is completely surrounded by a coral reef;  Geologists speculate that the northern rim of the volcano either fell into the sea or was blown away by a volcanic explosion, leaving the heart-shaped island of Moorea. The south rim of the volcano makes up the mountain range that protects the lush interior of the island known as the Opuhi plantation. This astounding range that makes up the south rim contains several named mountain peaks. Towering some 3,000 ft. above Opunohu Bay and Cooks Bay (named after Captain James Cook), Mt Rotui (2,949 ft.) resides at the center of the crater of the ancient volcano. The view of Rotui from Belvedere Point was spectacular.

 

 

After leaving the panoramic views of the Belvedere Lookout, we headed to the pineapple fields.  What an interesting place.  These were very different from what we've seen before in Hawaii, as they are grown just for their juice and not shipped out.  These plants were very thorny and the pineapples were much smaller than the kind you eat.  Our guide told us these plants only last about five years.  The field was huge and went further than we could see!  There is the Moorea Fruit Juice & Distillery Factory on the island that harvests local fruits from papaya, pineapple, star fruit, ginger coconut and grapefruit but it's closed on Sundays so we weren't able to go there. 

 

Some last views before we returned to the dock area...

 

 For a short (2 hour) tour, we saw a lot and really enjoyed ourselves!  We got back in plenty of time to take our time and browse through all the wonderful items the locals hand for sale.  There were a number of tables with Tahitian pearl jewelry, mostly black, which is what they are known for, but some gray and white as well.  Incredible prices!  I was really tempted, but just really don't need any more jewelry, and how many earrings can a lady wear with shorts anyway?  ;-).  I did get myself the t-shirt I wanted and added a (very small) piece of art work to our collection.  We listened for a bit more to the sweet musicians, then finally caught the water shuttle back to the ship reluctantly, knowing that this was our last island adventure...

As we bid Moorea goodbye, she gave us this one last gift...

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.

 

Tahiti at last!

Twenty-four days after we left Los Angeles we finally sailed into our final destination, Tahiti!  The sun was shining, the weather was beautiful and I, for one couldn't be more excited!  We had booked a "tour around the island" from 9-2 that would pretty much cover all the sights, then it would be time to go shopping!  Our on-board island hosts said that the market here was really huge and the best!  Tahiti is known for it's black pearls.  I wasn't really in the market for any, but, hey, it's always fun to look!  

As I stood on our balcony watching us pull in, I was amazed at how big Papeete was compared to the other islands we had just visited.  It was more like the US or Hawaii ports with high-rises and modern equipment albeit surrounded by a beautiful, tropical cove!

 Unlike the other, smaller island, there were no "island greeters" singing and dancing for us, just a whole lot of tour busses, ready and waiting to whisk us away, so off we all went (and there were a lot of us going here and there)! 

Once we left the dock and the "downtown" area, the island took on the jungle beauty and charm that we all anticipated it would be.  Lush mountainsides, pristine coastlines with clear blue waters coming up on black sand beaches, scenic waterfalls and beautiful gardens.  

Here were some of our stops...

A fabulous visit the Vaipahi waterfall and Gardens.  What a lovely, peaceful place.  There were several paths here to meander through, but the first to catch your eye was to the waterfall and grotto with lush ferns hanging to the edges.  

 As I walked on from the grotto, there were so many beautiful plants and flowers to see and smell as well and birds to just enjoy listening to...

 

 

Which then led me to the lily pond and streams...

 

 Finally scooting us out of here, we were off to see the Araholo Blowhole!  What fun.  Waves loudly crashing through volcanic basalt rocks, spraying us with cooling mist and sending laughter throughout the group as everyone snapped lots of pictures and video!  

 It was a short trip to see the beautiful black sand beach at Point Venus!  We've seen others in our travels, but I have to share that this one was a bit darker, with a little more sparkle and the "bits" were a little larger (not so fine).  Maybe that's the reason for the darkness and sparkle?  hmmm

Also at this stop was a great lighthouse and a cool display of all types of boats...

 We saw so much more in our travels - neat churches, whizzed by a cool cemetery, great views of valleys, sea sides and coastlines...all beautiful and mesmerizing.  Here's just a small taste...

 After hours of driving around the island, snapping dozens and dozens of pictures, we were ready to come back and check out that Market place we heard so much about!  Jack was hungry, after all it was 2 0'clock and way past his lunch time and all he was interested in was food!  Kathy and I decided we could wait on that and headed straight into town, and sweet Bob followed along with us.  Well, much to our surprise and dismay...the town was all CLOSED UP!  It seems that on Saturdays, it closes by 12:30!  No one told us!  Not our Island Hosts, not our tour guide, no one!  We knew that they would be closed tomorrow (almost all the islands respect Sundays and keep their shops closed then).  We walked all around the town, just to make sure, but other than a McDonald's, and a couple of very high-priced outlet stores, nothing was open. To say we (and everyone else) were not happy, was putting it mildly.  As we came back to the ship, there were others coming off the ship that had waited until it got cooler to go shopping, so when we told them, not to bother, they too were surprised and unhappy.  Tomorrow being Sunday, and our last day in Tahiti, we didn't hold out much enthusiasm for our trip to Moorea...A sad ending to a beautiful day.

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.

Crossing the International Dateline - Fun at Sea!

Britannica defines the International Date Line as an " imaginary line extending between the North Pole and the South Pole and arbitrarily demarcating each calendar day from the next.  The International Date Line is a consequence of the worldwide use of timekeeping systems arranged so that local noon corresponds approximately to the time at which the sun crosses the local meridian of longitude."  It goes on to give the longitude and latitude, but suffice it enough to say that all it really does is mess up your days by adding or taking away a day as you cross it in the ocean!  ;-) 

I had heard that ships, all kinds, from Navy to cruise ships, love to have fun, silly and sometimes elaborate ceremonies for people who are "first timers" crossing the Equator.  Our ship was crossing it twice, so it was not a surprise when I saw that the crew had a special "Ceremony" scheduled!  I couldn't wait see it!

They held it around the large open pool (no surprise there) and lined up all the chairs they could for the best front seat viewing, leaving the rest of the area open for everyone else to gather above.  I lucked out and got a (stand-up) spot pretty much in front, in the shade.  I only had to contend with the people pointing their phones/cameras up high in front of them like "they were the only one who matters" (don't you just hate that? Because of that, I didn't really get pictures of the recipients being dumped on).  

The Cruise Director and his staff were all decked out in full Neptune garb and makeup, what a hoot they were!  Tables were set up with dishes filled with: spaghetti noodles (cold), various puddings, flour, plus a very large dead fish! 

One of the Officers came out and read the "decree" and the "recipients" were led out.  I have no idea who they were or how they were chosen, but there were six of them (maybe they were ship's crew or VIPs?).  They had been given large Princess T Shirts to wear over their own clothes (thank goodness).  Each one was brought before the King and Queen and read his/her charge (first time crossing? The microphone wasn't real clear) and then led him/her to the table where the court people dumped one of the various goodies from the table onto their head. Some were not so bad, like the spaghetti noodles.  As each person came up though, it seemed to get worse, and by the end, he got it all and was completely covered, much to the crowd's laughter!

It made for a fun morning and when we all got back to our staterooms, we each had special certificates to take home to commemorate the date and acknowledge we not only "Crossed the Line" but had an extra day added to our trip!  lol 

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

Having Fun in Fiji!

We were excited to reach Fiji because we had signed up for a zip-lining adventure early on and was really looking forward to doing this.  Jack and I had done zip-lining a few times in San Diego, but nothing like what we were going to be doing in Suva.  Here, it was going to be seven rides over the jungle canopy going from one platform to another, each one longer and steeper that the last!  

The day started out with a bumpy bus ride out to our destination, there were about a dozen of us in the group. It was an early morning trip, but humidity and temperature and were already rising.  Once we arrived, we had a short walk...uphill, to get our gear and suit up! I only took a couple of picture en route, and of us (all ready to go) - but nothing else - as I handed my phone to Jack to put in his deep pockets to make sure it was safe!  I had this crazy idea that he would be able to take a picture of me as I traveled from platform to platform, hah!  First off, we all were pretty tightly squeezed together on those platforms, and secondly, there wasn't much time from getting onto them, before we were sent off again!  Not much time for "friendly photo shoots"!  Every time the guide offered to take someone's picture, Jack wasn't there with my phone, so I was out of luck...Oh well, I was there for the experience anyway.  ;-). 

 

The next day was a relaxing day on the island of Dravuni Fiji.  It's a small beach island (only about 125 inhabitants) that we had to be shuttled into.  Warm, clear, delicious water to swim in, with white sand to sit back and just relax the day away...ahhh.

The locals were there with their goods (of course), lovely linens (I had to have one!), as well as a variety of shirts and dresses.  Several people went out on a boat tour of the island as well as enjoyed their BBQ offers.  Unfortunately, the excitement of the day turned out to be a shipmate who ended up being life flighted out due to a medical emergency.  Our captain kept us informed and all ended well with him in the end. 

Here's a few pictures of our day there...

Views coming into the island

Enjoying the warm ocean!

Sandy beaches and lovely things to buy

 Sun, sand and shopping, what more can a person ask for?  ;-)

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.

 

Having fun on the sea!

People always ask what everyone does all those days at sea?  One thing I can tell you, is the cruise director and his staff are kept extremely busy!! There was (many) something(s) going on board from 7a.m. until well past midnight every single day!  You couldn't get bored! That's not including all the swimming pools, lounges (to sit and read or just chat), gym, spa, casino, ping pong, pickle ball courts and eateries!

Beyond all the quizzes, table games, arts & crafts classes, art auctions, etc. they would occasionally come up with some wild and crazy fun thing to really get our attention.  One such time was "The Egg Drop Challenge".  This evidently was a tradition, as a number of guests expected it to happen at some time and were waiting for it to be announced.  If my sister-in-law hadn't told me to look for it, and be sure and go to it, I wouldn't have given it a second thought.  

The "Piazza" was inside and in the center of the ship where music and food (cafe) was "happening" 24 hours a day.  This is where "it" was going to take place...

Let me try and set the scene...The Piazza is surrounded by two large, spiraling staircases that go up three floors.  Each of those floors over-look the Piazza.  The Piazza floor is about 25' round with chairs and small tables surrounding it.  They placed a plastic sheet down over the stationary piano and the floor as well as an "egg" decal that would serve as the target.  

Once it was announced that there would be The Egg Drop Challenge, tons of people gathered all around, in every possible spot!  Anyone interested in participating in the challenge had to use "available" things, to secure the raw egg given to them (by the staff) and come up with a name for their piece.  They had seven challengers.

Each challenger showed their piece, described it, gave it a name, and then went to the third floor, leaned over the railing, and did their best at dropping it to land safely onto the egg target on the floor.  One of the staff was appropriately dressed in a blow-up chicken, who then checked to see if the egg survived.  

Each contraption was ingenious, funny, cute and all but one survived!  The "winner" was a teddy bear who was all dressed up in small life jacket (holding his egg) including eclipse sun glasses! He landed bottom up right on the target!  His owner got a rubber chicken as his prize!  We all got lots of laughs and  a great time.

 Who says you can't have silly fun at sea! ...and we weren't eve gone two weeks yet!  ;-)

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

A quick stop at Pago Pago, American Samoa

 The following morning we headed over to the next island, Pago Pago American Samoa.  Here, we were greeted with one of the beautiful Samoan long boats with at least 49 rowers swiftly rowing by us at full speed!  What a sight!  I was so glad I was on our balcony at the right time to catch sight of them!  It was so cool! 

It's always fun to look at the coastline as we sail into the island...

It was interesting to see the differences between the "American" and the "Western" Samoa.  The American island looked so much more modern...in their buildings, in their housing, even their port.  One thing noticeable was their large tuna boats and canning buildings as they have a large tuna industry here.

These are some of the buildings of their downtown area, with the Governor's home (upper left) at the top of the cliff as you arrive to the island; the large white building is their main Government building which is right at the cross section downtown. The other large buildings are all shopping markets! 

As we docked at the port we were entertained by a delightful student group from a local school.  What a wonderful treat!  They were so cute, all sizes (one really little one) and all so very talented.  They really put on a great show of quite a number of dances for us, ending with a lovely number that their teacher explained was a traditional one that honored the home and was a way of saying "welcome to my home".  It brought tears to my eyes and made me feel very special.  Such beautiful people here.  

 After enjoying the wonderful welcome, we disembarked and took a walk around town and did some shopping.  In all honesty, we felt there really wasn't much to see and do here, so after our stroll through town and the shops, it was back onto the ship for us!

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.

 

Sailing to Samoa!

After leaving Hawaii, we would have five days at sea, including crossing the International Date Line.  The Princess Cruise staff made sure we were fed and entertained every minute of our trip, so for those five days, it was smooth and fun sailing! 

One of the things I noticed during our days at sea, was the lack of sunrises and sunsets...but as we began to get closer to Western Samoa, that all changed!  The early morning sky greeted us with it's full beauty!  

Not long after we were pulling into port and were greeted with our first group of singers and dancers!  What a wonderful sight!  So fun to stand out in our balcony and watch and listen to this welcome!  

It didn't take us long to check out the many lovely items for sale after we exited the ship and we were greeted with many friendly guides anxious to show us the island as well.  Once we decided on a driver, off the four of us went on a tour of the island!  Joe assured us that he would take us to all the spots on my list, including some he had I didn't know about!  

Joe didn't disappoint....I wanted to see churches, and boy did we!  Samoa (and and all of the Pacific Islands) are very religious and have just about every place of worship you could think of.  

Some of the ones we took the time to really visit though were the beautiful Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the Gardens and distinctive Baha'i House of Worship, the Mormon Temple as well as some local parishes.  I saw so many more as we whizzed by that I couldn't take pictures of...all so different!

 Did you know that the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson once resided here in the 1890's?  He was having problems with is health by that time and found the climate and the people met his needs.  He only lived here a few years, but did manage several writings during that time.  His home is now open to the public.  It was quite beautiful with a large, lovely garden.

Apia has two, easily accessible waterfalls that were beautiful to visit.  One was the Sopo'aga Falls that plunge through a deep green gorge.  

 The second is in the O Le Pupu-pue National Park (means from the coast to the mountain top).  This spectacular  park encompasses the summits of Mt. Le Pu'e, Mt Fito, and the magnificently rugged O Le Pupu lava fields besides the 328' majestic Papaitai Falls

 We spent most of the day with Joe, and there is no way I can include it all here...but let me just say, he and his island were most charming.  I spent three years in the 1950's on the island of Guam when I was young and my Dad was stationed there.  This island reminded me very much of that time.  So natural and still undeveloped to what today is considered a fast-paced and "modern" tourist area.  I loved it.  Here are few fun pictures:  Their "Town Clock"; their round Parliament Building; a new Courthouse, the view of our ship from the top of the mountain and a view of the "jungle roads".

...catching up from our cruise,  Marie

If you would like to see the rest of my photos, you can go to my Flickr account and it's under the Pacific Islands Album.

32 Day Pacific Island Cruise to Tahiti - How It All Began...

It all started with a phone call.  Jack called his sister to find out how her latest cruise went and while they were talking, one thing led to another and he began asking her about their next one and just how expensive it was, etc.  They were going to Tahiti, a 32 day cruise out of Los Angeles in April.  He turned to me and said, "so, Marie, do you want to go to Tahiti for your birthday?"  I responded with "you know I've always wanted to go to Tahiti, sure."  A couple of sentences later, and before we knew it we were sitting with our friend who is a cruise travel agent making the arrangements!  Oh my gosh, we were joining his sister and brother-in-law for a 32 Day Pacific Island Cruise to Tahiti! Wow, and Happy Birthday to me!

We had just a little over a month to shop, plan, pack and prepare for the trip, which was probably the best thing - not much time to really let it all sink in.  I had meetings to attend and prepare the staff for while I would be away as well, as we wouldn't have any WiFi.  I could get texts while on land, but nothing else.  I contacted my sister and asked her if she and her daughter would like to house-sit and get away from Washington for a month, she jumped at the idea, so that was taken care of. Next was to review the various tours offered and make reservations on the ones we really wanted.  

We have friends and a cousin in Honolulu (our first stop), so we quickly contacted them to see if we could meet up with them.  Our friends, usually come to the mainland to vacation and we always try to hook up, but the last few years, every time we are traveling on the eastern states they are on the western, and visa versa, our timing has been awful, same when we are traveling to the islands, they are here!  Well, guess what?  Because of the scheduled eclipse, they were going to be in TX when we were going to be there! Dang.  However, we did luck out with his cousin, and made arrangements to meet up with him, yea!

Two days before we left, my sister and niece arrived and we were able to spend a little time together.  Enjoyed showing them around and teaching my niece how to drive our golf cart!  It's always a fun thing when you haven't driven one before.  ;-)  Before we knew it, we were off to the airport!  

Arriving in LAX was a breeze...but then the "fun" began.  Oh my.  When I started in my career, it was working for a company that arranged all the free time that conventioneers had - starting when they arrived at the airport, transferring them to their hotels.  So, I KNOW airport transfers and how they SHOULD be done - and this WASN'T it.  What a disaster.  1. Two Princess Cruises were being transported.  No signs saying which line was for which ship.  Only the guests telling each other (no communication from the transport company).  2.  We all stood in line for over 3 hours (no communication from the transport company).  3.  After 3 hours they finally started checking off names of people who had signed up for the transport, so those who had not (the couple behind us hadn't), and didn't realize it, had to leave at that point and find a cab.  4.  They finally began loading us on busses, but again no communication from the transport company.  5. Upon arrival to the port they unloaded us, but didn't tell us where to go, or what to do with our luggage - some left it for them to handle, some took it, some knew where to go, some of us just wandered around until we found the right tent (again, no communication from the transport company).  We finally figured out that THEY would handle the luggage and get it to the ship - no thanks to their communication.  6. Four hours later, we arrived aboard the ship from LAX that was 30 min. away.  Crazy.  Horrible.  Unnecessary. 

From that moment forward, the trip was smooth sailing...

When we arrived in Honolulu, we had arranged to meet up with Jack's cousin Patrick for an early evening visit with drinks and dinner.  He drove us around to a couple of his favorite sites to view the island first.  We had been here before visiting our friends, but this particular spot can be super windy and when we were here the last time, Jack was nearly blown away and I have a fun picture of that!  This time it was lovely.  It also is the spot where my most favorite tree it.  ;-)  

Nu'uanu Pali with my favorite tree

From there we went to a fun "local" restaurant for wonderful drinks and a great meal.  It was super to be able to catch up with Patrick as it had been over a year or more since we had seen him and a lot has happened since then.  A new job, and new lady, a new life, all going great, life is good!  Yea! 

Harbor outside the restaurant, our cousin Patrick at Restaurant 604, view of downtown Hononlulu as we pulled into port

Our next stop was to Maui.  We've been many times and the ship was offering a super discount on massages, so we opted to stay on board and I got a full-body 90 minute massage instead!  mmmm Great way to start a vacation...

Now, we were out to sea for a week.  So glad we had a balcony room.  Loved that we could sit outside when we wanted - and that it was covered too, so when it did rain, it didn't matter!  It was also on the side where we pulled into port, so we always got to see that action every time.  Very cool.  Best cabin ever. 

Our room, Captain on the Bridge, view of Maui, Kathy found a "hidden duck", and enjoying the view from our balcony

...more to come as we continue with our South Pacific Adventure,  Marie