In the Cook Islands

NOTE: 15 minutes after I posted this the storm broke loose. The Captain rang the chimes and announced that the stop was being canceled.

We just dropped anchor at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Again we have an afternoon tour so we are having a lazy morning. The sky is very cloudy right now, but the island looks wonderful; you can see all the green jagged peaks. It is far less populated than Papeete… much more what I was looking for in a South Sea island. No sign of Saga Rose yet. (Bob, thanks for the spelling correction, I should have known it)

We have several sea days until our next port and there is only so much I can report on sea days even though I love them! If you have questions, this is the time to ask them in the comments area. I will try to answer them all as I have done with the one below.

Cheryl, As you probably are aware Royal Princess is a twin to the Azamara ships so you will feel right at home. Our regular size balcony cabin is working out very well for us even when we are used to the much larger suites on Celebrity and HAL. This cabin is lacking a bit in storage space, but we have found it to be ok… just don’t over pack. It does have a launderette, but we have free laundry service and have made much use of it. We also have a small desk/dressing table with two U.S. plugs (and two European plugs) so we have been able to keep everything charged with no problems. There is also a loveseat sized couch and a too-small coffee table. On the balcony we have two chairs and a little table. It is actually a pretty good size for a balcony cabin. I’m thinking it is actually a bit larger than the regular size balcony or CC cabins on Celebrity’s Millennium class… but that’s a guess. Our steward, Allan, has kept the cabin perfectly - no complaints that area or with any of the service. We have the same room service attendant every morning for our coffee and he greets us each day with Good Morning Mr. James and Good Morning Mrs. Susan.

Our longest cruise before this one was a 20 day cruise so this was a big jump for us too. We have done a number of transatlantic crossings and a Hawaii roundtrip from LAX so we knew that all the sea days would be just fine with us. There is plenty of entertainment, in fact, people are complaining as things overlap and they can’t attend everything they want. You won’t find belly flop contests or other raucous activities although they did have a pool volleyball contest passengers /vs. crew - they didn’t get enough passengers so they had to add the crew. I am enjoying all the activities I’ve attended; many of them are things I would have skipped on regular length cruises. Each day they have one or more Connections@Sea for groups like veterans, crafters, antique lovers, book lovers, police officers, submariners, etc. It is a great way to meet some of the other passengers with similar interests. The card room is full almost all day and you see people playing all sorts of games at tables throughout the ship. May I stow away in your suitcase next year??? We aren’t even half way through and I’m ready to do another one.