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.

Tahiti

Yesterday afternoon we did a 3 hour tour on Tahiti. We went inland to the national park and saw a dozen (or so) beautiful waterfalls. It is very green and lush and hot and humid, humid, humid. There were six of us in the back of a Land Rover with open sides so we had a wonderful view. The tour warned that it was not for folks with back problems… I went anyway and spent the whole time hanging on to the top bar to relieve the bouncing on my butt (to save my broken pelvis!) - This morning my right shoulder feels like it’s the size of a weight lifter’s, but actually I came through it very well. The light wasn’t particularly good for photos, but we took a bunch anyway.

Did you know that the highest peak in Tahiti is over 7,000 feet? I didn’t realize they were anywhere near that height. All of the major peaks are actually around the rim of the caldera; at one point on our tour the guide pointed this out and you could look around (and way up) and see that we were near the center of the circle of peaks.

When we returned to the ship it was another rush to the shower… we were so dusty there was actually dirt and sand left on the floor of the shower when we were done. We had hoped to attend the Island Deck Party later in the evening, but, weenies that we are, we were asleep before it started.

My thoughts on a Tahiti vacation… Spend a couple days near Papette and visit the inland area like we did and then head to Bora Bora and spend the rest of the time in one of the beautiful overwater bungalows. The water is beautiful; I wish we would have had time here to visit Moorea or Bora Bora and do some snorkeling.

Sunrise over Tahiti. We woke up a bit early this morning… about 5:30. We have set our clocks back 5 times in the last 6 nights. Tahiti was already in sight although shrouded by mist. We watched the sun rise sitting on the balcony while drinking coffee. I do believe I could do this permanently! Have I won lotto while I am gone??? We are now in the port just about to dock.
I have a couple corrections to make from earlier posts. First, Sega Rose was Sega Fjord, not Vista Fjord (now Sega Ruby). Bingo has not been canceled, just moved and is only held every couple days.

A few more misc. thoughts: Royal Princess has the best desserts and breads we have had. Thank heavens I’m on a mission to gain some weight and can eat all of them I want! The food has all been good and the presentation is better than we have been finding on the other Premium lines. The lunch buffet has a different theme each day - it has been excellent. It is a bit crowded as there is only one main food station and the salad and dessert station is directly across from it with too little space in between. Almost everyone onboard is very polite so there isn’t a real problem.

There have been a couple funny errors… the t-shirts on sale for Easter Island say Eastern Island and the world cruise t-shirt has the itinerary map for the Tahitian Princess world cruise - not ours. Oh well, I bought the WC one anyway. So far that’s my only purchase… I’m not exactly a great souvenir shopper.

They just rang the chimes to announce that people can disembark. We’ll go to the buffet in a little while - our tour isn’t until this afternoon. In the distance we can see Sega Rose approaching.

Ben - there is a review of Eurodam on our website…

Another day at sea

Another sea day. Tomorrow is Tahiti. We have an island 4-wheel drive tour in the afternoon.

I attended the presentation again this morning by the Master Chef. He should retire from Princess and get his own show. He puts on a better show than any of the chefs on TV.

I can’t think of any really interesting news so I’ll fill in with general info. This is not a “drinking crowd”; the ship is selling less alcohol than they had planned. The casino is getting a little use, but mostly the penny machines. I have seen a few people at the tables in the afternoon, but they have lowered the limits to $1 from 3 to 6. I did feed one of the starving slots $5, so I’ve probably saved it from starving. They actually canceled Bingo! That is a first on any ship I’ve ever been on - there wasn’t enough attendance for them to break even. They said they would try again after Auckland (the end of segment 1). We have 200 people getting off in Auckland and not nearly that many boarding so the ship will not be full for that segment.

All of the lectures and presentations are completely full… In other words, this is an adult, well-traveled passenger cruise that doesn’t need much entertaining. The library is very busy -- a bit of déjà vu: I just finished a Greg Isles book and in reading his bio I see that he plays guitar in the Rock Bottom Remainders.