Auckland, New Zealand

We awoke this morning just as we were approaching the port in Auckland. It was still dark and the skyline was magnificent with all the lights and the sky tower lit up. The port here is within walking distance of the city center so we will do a bit a walking and perhaps ride the Hop-on Hop-off bus. I think we have only had one port in two weeks so even I am looking forward to a day on land. I’ll report more after we go ashore.

I added pictures to yesterday’s post. The bakery in the galley; a shot showing the Maitre d’, the First Purser for food & beverage, me, and the Master Chef (he did the tour for us). I also added a shot of the albatross that was with us all afternoon and evening… is that good luck or bad?

Cheryl, CruiseCritic is a website (http://www.cruisecritic.com/) with much information about cruising. You can find your upcoming cruise on the appropriate roll call board and meet others on it. It is a good way to get and share information on the ship, ports and even plan group events or excursions. Just remember, like all websites… the info you read is all “someone’s opinion” so take it for what it’s worth. J We have met many wonderful people over the years, some of whom we are still in contact with.

The Case of the Missing Monday

It is Tuesday, February 17th, yesterday was Sunday the 15th. We crossed the International Dateline so there was no Monday the 16th ; the crew is quite happy as they get paid for it! We also had a weird time change… the night before last we set the clocks back 1 hour (as we have been doing quite often) and then last night we set them forward 1 hour. Now tell me why with no port call it was necessary to make those changes???

Since I mentioned the crew above… what a hard working bunch of people. It seems that they get a day off about once in three weeks and, as you know, their hours are long. By now most of them know the names of the passengers and everyone seems quite comfortable. I don’t imagine that this is a difficult passenger base, but I think many of them are dealing with a bit of boredom and probably a slightly lower income as this is not a drinking and spa-going group of passengers as they would get on a 7 or 10 day cruise.

We have a special Galley tour at 10:00 this morning for the CruiseCritics. I just got the invite late yesterday afternoon so we tried to spread the word quite quickly - I hope most people heard about it. I always like visiting the galley - it is really remarkable how they manage to feed the entire ship - even more remarkable on he mega-ships.

Is the albatros good luck or bad? He was with us all afternoon and evening.

Rock’n and Roll’n at sea

Yesterday was Valentine’s day and the ship was completely decorated for it. They did the “Marriage Game” (newly wed game) and the 4 couples ranged from the newly wed to the nearly dead… and the ages fit well. It was very entertaining. I had told Jim if they needed participants I would volunteer us, but they had enough and we escaped! Jim had ordered flowers for me… when it was delivered it is so big we almost need a bigger cabin! It was a formal night and the dinner was wonderful. I had pork - it was called Wild Boar… but whatever it was it was great and had a wonderful mushroom sauce that didn’t skimp on the mushrooms.

Late in the afternoon the ship started hitting large swells that really had us bouncing. About 9:00 the seas got quite rough and we were rocked to sleep; just the way I like it. At about 2 in the morning both Jim and I were awakened by the rough seas - it was really really rough for several hours. We did get back to sleep after an hour or so and it had calmed pretty much by morning. There is still a bit more movement than we have had since our first couple days; people are using the railings in the halls and stairways, but it does make it seem like we are actually on a ship…

Trivia… we seem to lose by one point almost every day! We have a team of 3 to 6 people almost every day now depending on who shows up. Ian and Judy are the two real brains but we all seem to have pretty good input AND we keep it fun. If people start taking it too seriously it stops being fun.

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.