Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

This was the best stop so far. Rabaul has been a German, Australian and Japanese possession. It is best known as the huge Japanese base during WWII. It included 5 airfields, a seaplane and submarine base and support facilities for up to 100 ships with 200,000 personnel. To escape the Allied air attacks the Japanese dug hundreds of tunnels in the surrounding mountains.

It is also in the Ring of Fire, the harbor area is actually a caldera formed 1400 years ago… the last major eruption in 1994 buried the town and surrounding area in 8 feet of ash. The people escaped, but returned a few days later to find only the tops of the tallest structures visible. Most people relocated to Kokopo, a town further around the coast from the volcano, but some remained and have dug out some of the buildings or built new ones on top of the ash. Prior to the eruption, this was a large thriving town and tourist center; today it is quite primitive.

We booked a private van at the market; Helen was our guide and Richard our driver. They were both completely bilingual as both English and their native language are taught in the schools. They took us to the island (separated from the mainland by a sandbar which we were able to drive across) where she lived prior to 1994. Nothing will grow in the ash so the people that are trying to live there make their slim living by fishing. The houses were ramshackle, built of whatever could be gathered. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time; the people were so friendly and the kids very cute and shy.

They also took us to the tunnels built by the Japanese and we were able to go into a couple of them and we visited the site of a Japanese airfield. One aircraft has been dug out of the ash (WWII - over 60 years ago). After that we went to the earthquake monitoring center on the mountain above the town.

They only get 6 cruise ships in a year, so our visit was one of the real exceptions to their daily routines. After our return we spent the time on the balcony watching the volcano and some of the local people circling the ship in their dubout canoes until our departure at 2:00 (short port stop!).

Today (Friday, March 6) is the Equator crossing ceremony for the new pollywogs onboard. Jim and I became shellbacks when we crossed the equator some weeks ago and “Golden Shellbacks” when we crossed the dateline on the same voyage. Wow, aren’t you impressed??

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

• Let’s start with Superb:
• The breads, pastries and desserts; the best I’ve ever had. I have never had a great sweet-tooth but I am eating so many of the desserts I might actually gain some weight. (In my case that is a good thing).
• The best desserts are actually in the buffet at lunch time (on sea days). They have a whole table of beautifully presented desserts to choose from.
• John Maxtone Graham’s lectures. He is truly the best speaker I think I’ve ever heard. We have really enjoyed getting to know them better.
• The library. I have been getting a new book almost every other day - there are 4000 to choose from and it is a beautiful room with comfortable furniture too.
• Brunch. It is beautifully presented and has a great choice of breakfast and lunch foods and, of course, the desserts.

Good: Most everything.

• The ship is very clean and our steward keeps our room in good shape.
• Morning room service arrives in 5 to 10 minutes each day.
• Food is good with a couple meals even better.
• Entertainment. We haven’t seen many of the evening shows, but the reports from others are that they are quite good. The daytime activities are good and we have attended a number of them ranging from trivia to lectures.
• Ship staff. Since this is such a small ship, the crew and staff have to perform many extra duties; the dancers also act for the cruise director hosting things like trivia and meetings.
• Passengers - almost all are very friendly and well-traveled. Many of them have done long cruises like this before. People are willing to share ideas and experiences. This is not a ‘beautiful people’ cruise and other than formal evenings dress is extremely casual (perhaps too casual as in the very large ladies in the tiny bikinis at the pool each day - oh, perhaps that should be below in the section below).

The Bad:

• The bed. Even though Princess is supposed to have replaced all the bedding on all the ships the mattress is bad. We have a 2 inch foam topper and it now feels like foam on concrete. The linens are nice.
• $60 for a haircut. I went up to the salon for a haircut expecting $30 which was what I paid for my last onboard haircut (different cruise line). I about fell over when she said it was $60. Since I have really short hair right now I thought that it was ridiculous but since I had already been cut I was stuck (lesson: ask first). I’ll just get shaggy from now to the end, or trim with nail scissors.
• Our room steward’s attitude. He keeps the room nice and clean, but he is the surliest person we have ever met on any ship. He acts as if he hates his job.
• The chairs in the Cabaret Lounge. They are really back-killers and because of their barrel shape you can’t curl up at all to get comfortable. It isn’t just my complaint - everyone agrees.
• The laundry. It’s hard to complain when we have free laundry service (elite benefit) but they are ruining much of what we have sent. T-shirts come back stretched several sizes larger and the elastic is completely stretched out on all my undies.

Great Barrier Reef

We docked yesterday morning right near the city center of Cairns, Australia. It is a large city, but has no high-rise buildings.

At 8:00 we went directly from our ship onto the Reef Magic catamaran for the 90 minute trip to the reef. The boat was really big with air conditioned / enclosed upper and lower decks as well as some outside areas. Jim decided he would do the Resort Dive Course (for first time divers) and took part of the instruction while we were heading to the reef. The Reef Magic platform at the reef is huge - there was plenty of room for everyone without any crowding. They provided snorkel equipment free and also rides in a semi-submersible sub. Diving cost extra. There were also helicopter rides (for a considerable fee) which we passed. A buffet lunch was also provided.

I wasn’t sure how my legs/pelvis/back would hold up to using fins so I stayed pretty close to the platform and did quite well. There were many many bright colored fish of all sizes. I followed one bright blue parrot fish for quite a while as he swam through the reef in search of nibbles. I couldn’t see what he was eating, but he seemed to find plenty of it. There was much coral right near the platform. We were lucky here that we took the ship excursion as we heard from some others that had booked private excursions that the coral was way too deep to see and that there were almost no fish.

Jim made it through his first dive and was exhausted and very pleased with himself. They put him and one other lady in the last class as neither of them were good swimmers and had no experience diving. He said he loved seeing everything but didn’t feel like he could relax at all. We bought a picture of him with Wally; a huge blue Maori fish that is very friendly. I got to pat Roxie, a smaller Maori that was in the snorkeling area. I assumed that the guides fed these fish to bring them in, but they said no - since it is a protected area they don’t feed them at all except in a special “feeding” (right before we left) and the food type (all fish) is strictly controlled - no scraps. The Maori fish just like people and come to socialize. They have to realize that they are pretty much the stars! It was as much fun to watch the people as the fish as the fish would rub up against you and nudge you if you didn’t pay attention to it. I wish I could post the picture of Jim and the fish, but it is hard copy and I don‘t have access to a scanner. It will be in the slideshow video we will post a couple weeks after the trip. There will be a link from the Luxury Cruise & Travel website.

We ate a sandwich supper right after getting back on the ship and had a cocktail on the balcony as we left Cairns. Then I hit the bed completely pooped out.

This evening we will have dinner with John and Mary Maxtone Graham. We realized that they will be off the ship in Hong Kong when we return from our overland tour to the Great Wall in a couple weeks.
We have two sea days before Rabaul.