We were happy to find the start of the day presented itself with smoother seas and reduced rolling. The "white horses" as Captain Friso calls the waves have mostly disappeared. And even though there are dark clouds occasionally, we have managed to miss any sudden rain showers. The temperature has stayed around 80 degrees, while the humidity is constant…… slightly sticky. Typical tropical weather. We have been getting reports of the cold temps and rain in California, so we are appreciating the nice temps here. Glad to report the rain has let up, and the sun is shining back home.
The highlight of our day was a chance meeting with Shiv, the head of housekeeping. He is such a delightful person, and always takes the time to chat, even though he is incredibly busy. He admitted to finally adjusting to a different ship, as his assignments have been mostly (if not all) on the Amsterdam, which is gone from the fleet now. We thanked him for the smooth laundry service, and let him know we appreciate the cute notes from the workers that are in the basket. Bet that was his idea.
Then we had a session with the future cruise consultant, inquiring about a future cruise we have deposited already. The red tape of the details left us more confused as we went round and round discussing how things work. Most of it was about bookings made on the Amsterdam in 2020, and how they had been converted to this ship, which has multiple categories. Anyway, he kept saying we need to talk to our travel agent, who will indeed be able to explain things way better. We are beginning to agree with our tablemates that we don't always need to do a grand voyage with one time PC benefits. Lots of folks have figured out that doing back-to-back voyages yields much more shipboard credit and other nice perks in the long run. Something to think about.
Anyway, the future cruise consultant has set times. The morning session is first come, first served. However, the afternoon time requires an appointment. This is written nowhere except on his desk. We went back around 5:30pm to ask more questions, however, after sitting for ½ hour waiting for a lady to finish her booking, he told us we needed an appointment. Not just us, but another couple that had joined us in the line. Now we know….
Six o'clock is a great time to walk outside, since the majority of guests are eating dinner somewhere. There are no people ending around us, or meeting us head-on, as some like to walk the opposite direction. We began seeing a few white terns flying off of the ship, and then we saw a couple of boobys, we think. Since we did not spot any flying fish, these birds don't come close to the ship. The Captain had mentioned we were close to one of the islands today, and we also had a ship on the horizon. Even though we are nearing the rest of the Society Islands, we are surprised not to see some cruise line ships or containers.
Greg and Heo attended the Tamarind pop-up in the Pinnacle Grill tonight. It will be interesting to get their take on the food served there, as we found it far different than what we have eaten in the real Tamarind restaurants. Perhaps the wasabi-crusted steaks were the same, but the rest was not. By the way, those steaks were excellent on the Tales of the South Pacific. Gone are those chocolate-dipped fortune cookies one of us loved. Why change a good thing?
So our dinner choices were one cod plate, which arrived late, which happens more often than we like. Sometimes five out of the seven of us will be served the main dish, while two have to wait it out. Those last to be served will always say go ahead and eat, which they do. One of us ordered the Club Orange special of short ribs with garlic-mashed potatoes. It was tasty, but not hot enough for my liking. We do request HOT food, but it has yet to arrive that way. Oddly enough, this was the case on our last cruise, until our waiters finally listened and did serve it hotter. Normally we are not that picky, but slightly warm is really not acceptable. All of our tablemates agree, and have decided to ask as a group for hotter entrees and soups.
We are all looking forward to Papeete and the following stops in the next four days. Hope the weather holds up…..
Bill & Mary Ann
