Yesterday we had a notice that everyone's shipboard accounts would be updated by running the credit cards we had on file if you owed money. We were not certain that the "cashable" amount we had would be sent back to the card like they did last month, so we bailed all of it out ahead of time. The cashable credit we had accumulated from the three Alaska cruises had been sent back to our credit card, but so far, it has not shown up on our account. Reporting this to the purser as well as Vini, our Mariner rep, they claimed to have sent many messages to Seattle, but there had been no reply. It has been almost a month now, and still no reply as to where the almost $1000 credit had gone missing. Needless to say, we are not happy about it. Guess it is time to schedule a meeting with Glenn, the hotel director, who may have better luck getting results.
Well, no need for that appointment, because we received a call from Melanie, his assistant, telling us Seattle finally responded, and the good news is that they will be crediting that amount to our shipboard account. Or, we can opt to have a check drawn and sent to our home, which she did not suggest as the best option. We said it was fine to put it on our account, but please keep it there in case we wish to spend it onboard. A word to the wise: always keep everything you can that is printed, such as a copy of your shipboard account. Once a cruise is over, that information is gone and cannot be researched as easily. We did have that copy with the correct cashable credit showing it went to our card on file. But it did not. It took a month, but at least there was a good end to the story.
Back to Suva and our overnight stay here. We were informed today that the Captain had warned all of the crew members to be very careful going out in Suva, especially at night. He suggested they stay in groups and be most aware of their surroundings. Even during the day you can be followed and more so if you are a woman out alone. Not the best idea anywhere these days. And one nice thing is that there are many activities on the ship on port days to keep the guests busy. For instance today, while searching for some more books to read, we found the library area full of folks playing cards, doing puzzles, and reading. Visiting with friends while sipping Explorations Cafe coffees is popular as well. It's not aways about the tours.
We left the ship a little later today, because we did not intend on walking the distance we went yesterday. After leaving the port gate, we took a right turn and kept going across the bridge, thus avoiding the very crowded Suva Municipal Market. This led us right to the seawall that was in back of the downtown buildings. We followed the seawall walk until it narrowed down to a fenced area where a big construction job was in progress. Probably not the best place to walk, we were pinned in between the fence and the seawall with no way out except forward. Maybe we were just being paranoid after all of the warnings, but we just kept walking until we found a side street that led back to the main road.
We came out very close to Albert Park, Thurston Garden, and the Holiday Inn. Of course, our destination was the Grand Pacific Hotel once again to indulge in another proper and nice lunch. We hoped they were not crowded, and it turned out, our timing was just right. We were seated again at their outdoor patio and ordered Fiji Gold beers with the same pizza as yesterday. Dessert was a shared pineapple strudel with vanilla ice cream. So good. You would expect that the prices would be inflated here is such a nice hotel, but we had our lunch for about the equivalent of $34 USD. If we were in Singapore, we would have to pay more than that for one Singapore Sling at Raffles.
Today's weather was not as good as yesterday's. It was heavily overcast and by the time we finished lunch, it was drizzling. Time to head back, we kept to the main street this time. Once back to the marketplace, we went inside to check out their veggies and fruit selection. This place is huge. Most all of the vegetables are grown here, but the fruit like apples and oranges were imported from Australia. Once again, their fresh produce is priced right. On the way out, we stopped at the fresh flower section where ready-made bouquets were being sold. We like the single stemmed flowers in a bouquet so we can arrange them to fit what we had in the room. We ended up buying two bunches for $10…..hopefully bug-free. We are never that lucky and today was no exception. The tropical flowers included heliconias, anthuriums, protea, and an orange type of bird of paradise. Several small-stemmed exotic-type flowers filled in the gaps along with lots of greenery. What a deal.
It appeared that the ship had received those containers full of food and supplies they had waited for. Hope lettuce is in the mix. There was also a security dog, which looked like a black lab, to check the deliveries. Back in our room, it took an hour to trim and clean the flowers and rearrange them in two or three arrangements. We did see a few ants, but not too many. We do have a supply of insect repellant so perhaps that might take care of few strays.
Captain Smit came on the speakers with today's update. He sounded relieved that the supplies had arrived today, and they still had time to load them. While we were here, we also got re-fueled. He jokingly said the ship had a full belly now. We have 160 nautical miles to reach our next stop of Lautoka tomorrow. He expected cloudy skies and some morning showers. Sunrise would be at 5:30am, about the same time we would be navigating through a series of reefs. We left the pier around 6pm, just when the city lights were coming on for the evening.
Dinnertime was interesting for the fact there was no real salad. No stand-by Caesar salad either. Both of us ordered a lettuce wrap with Beyond something in it. Then we asked our waiter about the Beyond part, and he reminded us that it was not really meat. The closer we looked, it resembled Fancy Feast, the cat food in a can. Oh well, at least it came with one red lettuce leaf. One of us had the udon noodle soup, and the other a smoked chicken appetizer…..really tasty. Mains were the "blue plate" special, Club Orange pork bellies, which is a fairly new dish for us. The plates came too hot to touch, and the meal was delicious with mashed potatoes and green beans. There was a side of an apple pancake, tasting much like apple pie. Can't go wrong with that. We shared one small scoop of a mystery sorbet. Sarif said it was watermelon, but we agreed it was more more like strawberry.
A fellow by the name of Tommy Proulx was the entertainer in the World Stage with his saxophone music. Infectious pop, hip hop, and rhythms and blues were his claim to fame.
Tomorrow's port will be Lautoka, much smaller and more rural than Suva.
Bill & Mary Ann
