Review South Pacific Explorer/Amsterdam Part III

[kakalina]

THE SOUTH PACIFIC EXPERIENCE/AMSTERDAM

Part III

 

1-20 AT SEA

Today we cross the equator. They have done an amazing job at decorating the Lido pool area for the King Neptune ceremony. During the night they built the framework of a pirate ship over the jacuzzis and then put up canvas painted like boards over the frame. There were fake rocks with loot, and dead pirates on them. The Captain of the pirate ship was a skeleton all dressed up in pirate garb with long curly wig, standing at the wheel. It was truly exceptionally done.

The turnout for the ceremony was huge. The only place for a seat where you could see was on the floor. First the "judge" walked in in full old fashioned court dress with long curly white wig and black robes. There was a large cage at the bar end of the pool. King Neptune, his lovely lady and escorts paraded to the bar end of the pool and sat on their thrones. Then the Captain, HotMan, and other bridge officers took their seats as jury for the accused. The accused consisted of staff and crew that were "pollywogs" ( ones who have not officially crossed the equator) were led in fake chains by crew dressed as pirates to the cage. They wore togas over their clothes and begged and pleaded for mercy from the King. After sentencing they were made to kiss the fish. A large fish on ice waiting for the cold, unwilling lips of the malefactors. Then long tables had been set up, presided over by the "Doctors and Nurses" (activity staff dressed in costume), the medical staff then proceeded to push the convicts on their stomachs on the tables whilst covering them with all manner of gooey, nasty, sticky foodstuffs. Then the "jury" gave a thumbs up or thumbs down which decided who went in the pool to clean off and who didn't. Then entire ceremony took about an hour. Towards the end there were catcalls about dunking the judge (played by the CD). It was all in good fun and we were very entertained. Of course, after the ceremony we were officially shellbacks no longer pollywogs.

Later in the evening the pirate and his treasure chest were set up outside the main dining room doors. It took a lot of time and effort for the staff to create such an extravagant display. Along with the special King Neptunes dinner that included all kinds of seafood and shellfish, yes, including lobster tails. We were advised that we won't be stopping at Christmas Island due to problems with the reefs and shallow water. We did hear gossip that there was some local fighting going on that might be dangerous to our health. To make up for this we are staying overnight in Papeete and we got free champagne with the Captains compliments at dinner.

1-22 Riatea, French Polynesia

The ship docked at 7am. We were up on deck about 5am to watch the islands come into view. The ship was escorted through the reef into the lagoon by a good sized pod of dolphin. So amazingly beautiful, what an auspicious welcome to Paradise. I thought nothing could be prettier than the NaPali coastline - I was soooo wrong! French Polynesia is beyond my abilities to describe. Our tour for Fa'aroa River left early. We all just walked over to the marina and got on our boat. There was a very long and scenic ocean ride over to where the river is. Everything here is so green, except the water which is sooo blue. The river was lovely but very, very hot as air doesn't get up in there very well. We saw lots of flowers and trees. We saw pearl farms - little tiny huts on stilts built in shallow ocean water. Then we went to a gorgeous motu ( small atoll ) to swim. There were changing facilities, bathrooms and fruit and juices for us to drink. We got on our snorkle gear but there just wasn't much to see here. There were some fish, lots of sea grapes and we did find a couple of lovely shells. When it was time to leave the motu, the guide went around blowing a conch shell, it was a lovely day. We returned to the ship about 1pm, couldn't wait to take a looong, hot shower! Then we went out to check out the town, as we were there on a Sunday most of the small town was closed. We walked through some very, very pricey shops. The guidebook said that French Polynesia was the most expensive place on earth. I can believe it with a tee shirt going for $35.00 !! We picked up some of the famous vanilla extract, and some monoi oil. This is an oil made from coconuts that is used for literally everything from jock itch to sunburn; to on the hair and on the body. I just had to get some of this "wonder oil". We just had a wonderful day and are very anxious to get to Bora-Bora tomorrow!!

1-23 Bora-Bora Day I

Oh My God! James Michener was right, there are no words to describe Bora-Bora; and what's my best compared to that? But I will try. We sailed into the bay about 6:30am. We watched from the crows nest and were properly and totally awed. Our shore excursion is really early so we rushed off to get ready for the Lagoonarium. There were a lot of pax on this excursion that were on the Fa'aroa trip with us, I guess those of us who like to swim and snorkle stick together. The catamaran was quite large and comfortable, Our tour guide Xavier, a lovely frenchman ( who kissed my hand ) gave good tour talk. We went around the north side of the island about 1/2 way around the whole island before we got to the Lagoonarium. We saw all kinds of over the water bungalows, pearl farms and water so many shades of blue I can't count them. The Lagoonarium is fantastic! We walked aboout 50' from where the boat anchored to the shore. Such colors in the water, turquiose, aquamarine, deep blue, green even. There were picnic tables set up in the shade with coconuts, flowers etc on them. It was very pretty with lots of sand, but lots of bouganvilliea and other flowers also. The ocean there was cordoned off into four seperate pools. First pool was for looking and pix only. Turtles were there and they are highly protected here. There were also sharks, the non people friendly kind. The second pool where snorkling was allowed was full of jacks and colorful tropical fish. So many fish, so many colors, so beautiful. The third pool was also full of amazingly colorful tropical fish but also had huge sting rays. The sting rays are so soft, the inside folds of their "wings" feel like velvety jello. There were these little red fish there that were absolutley voracious. I was given some bait fist to feed them, I held the fish in the water head first and so many of these red fish surrounded me that in the pix you can barely make out the outline of a person. I started to get a little scared here, I mean I don't deal with mighty fish hoardes in Phoenix, you know? The fourth and final pool had the sharks, both Lemon and Black tipped reef. The sharks were a little scary but we spent the most time snorkling with the sharks and the rays. Fantastic, absolutely amazing. There was fruit and juice served and a little shop for souveniers. When we finally had to leave the catamaran took the Southern route home so that we literally encircled the entire island. The entire excursion took about 4 hours. We went back out to the town later in the afternoon. The shops are full of rosewood carvings, tapa cloth, woven straw, vanilla products, and of course, black pearls everywhere. After shopping we returned to the ship where a local dance troupe was performing in the lounge. They were really very good, towards the end of the show the dancers came into the audience and took people back on stage with them. They attempted to get me up there but believe me, that wasn't about to happpen. I know what kind of fools they make out of people, And sure enough there was some woman old enough to be MY mother, with a male hula dancer on either side of her trying to get her to do the hootchie-kootchie. No thanks. But I enjoyed watching them and caught a lei and had my pix taken with the dancers after the show. It has truly been an amazing, once in a lifetime sort of day.

 

1-24 Bora-Bora Day II

Out the gangway and on the tender and we first off the ship this morning. We walked down to Chin-Lee's grocery store and checked out the local stuff for sale, they had a good deal going for those who like local fabrics and tea pots. We took "Le Truck" which is the French Polynesian version of a bus system. They are open air long bed trucks with seats in them, they are usually decorated quite prettily with leaves and flowers. We took the truck for $3.00 to the beach at the Bora Bora Beachcomber hotel. What a lovely place. Their beach is open to the public. When you walk in the entryway the first thing you see is the infinity pool through the two arched open doors in the back. The pool seems to enlessly stretch into the ocean beyond. Beautiful. There is a wonderful coral reef just off the back of the hotel, so we donned our gear and into the water we went. There were just tons of tropical fish there. Gorgeous coral formations and lots of sea urchins. We spent several hours lying in the sun. Loaned our snorkle gear to one of the wine stewards who came to the beach on someones recommendation only to dicover they rent gear only to hotel guests. We picked up Le Truck outside the hotel ( it runs approx. every 15-30 minutes) and took it to Bloody Mary's famous bar. The outside has a marvelous totem pole and signs with the names of all the rich and famous that have been there. Inside it is wonderful, the floors are just sand with tables and chairs set into it. The bathrooms have something unbelieveable in them but you have to go there to find out what it is, it's not fit for family oriented reading. We sat at the bar with our toes in the sand and watched as a tour from our ship came through. We had drinks, I don't like tomato juice so I tried a vanilla rum punch..yuuummmm. We pulled up anchor about 6pm and sailed away from possibly the most beautiful place on the face of this earth!

1-25 Papeete, Tahiti

We docked at 7:30am and once again we were the first couple off the ship. Papeete was rather disappointing. After seeing all the movies and postcards we expected an island paradise, what we got was a typical big city. We never did see a palm tree in Tahiti. We saw them around the island on the motus, but not where we were docked. After some french pastries we walked the four blocks to the famous Bon Marche we had been reading about. It was huge. It covers at least two city blocks. The lower floor is very colorful, full of local merchandise such as shell jewelry, shells, monoi oil everywhere you look. There was one section dedicated to straw goods, and another was just food. We watched men wield huge machetes and chop up very big fish. There were fruits and vegetables that I've never seen before. And then one large corner full of amazing fresh flowers. Giant baskets filled with roses, tiare ( their famous local flower that only blooms at sunrise in the presence of lovers and makes a cracking sound when it blossoms), babies breath and bluebells, jonquils and daffadills. Baskets that took two people to carry them were $20 smaller ones that only took two hands to carry were $15. We took the smaller one back to our cabin. The upstairs is filled with souveniers, shirts, books, pareaus, sarongs, dresses etc, I found the dresses to be quite pricey they wanted $150.00USD for a simple long cotton dress. Calenders were averaging $12-15USD. Papeete is a very expensive place. There was a nice information center when we got off the ship that we went through. It rained off and on the whole day. The ship did spend the night there but the town closed down at 9pm, there was also a teffific rain storm that lasted quite a long time. We leave very early in the morning so we can be in Moorea by 9am.

1-26 Moorea

We left Tahiti about 6:30am and arrived in Moorea about 8am. The ship was once again escorted into the bay by dolphins leaping and squealing alongside the ship. As unimaginable as it may seem, Moorea appears to be even more beautiful than Bora-Bora. The mountains are such a beautiful emerald green that you should be able to lean over the rail of the ship and caress them. The sand beaches, the water of many shades of blue and green, the amazing, fantastic, shimmering water. Our tour today is the Motu Island Picnic and Ray Feeding. We got started about 8:30am. We tendered in from our anchor in Opanohu Bay, there were three boats waiting to accomadate all the pax taking this excursion. Our boat was the first to leave. A short ride through scenery so pretty it hurt my eyes, ot a large palm studded motu. The motu had picnic tables and shaded ramadas. Loads of trees for shade and a large bar b q set up. There were local muscians in local dress playing colorful local music on our arrival. It was great! There was snorkle gear for those that didn't bring their own and life jackets were also available. There was ray feeding where we could feed and pet the sting rays. What an experience. They really have some amazing suction when they take the food you give them. There was a pretty strong current there but it worked to our great advantage. We just walked up the beach a block or two, then out into deeper water we then just had to lay out flat and the current would gently waft us back to our original starting point. We were like kids on the roller coaster ride as soon as we got back to the starting point we jumped out walked back and did it again. The most glorious coral formations I 've ever seen were here. We were in water well over 30' deep. We floated directly over huge coral reefs so high we had to flatten our legs out so we wouldn't get brushed by the coral as we passed. And fish. Everything from trigger and reef fish, to yellow tailed blues, clown fish, parrot fish, needle fish, some beautiful black fish outlined in iridescent blue. The water, the air, our bodies were all the same temperature and it was so marvelous, It felt like we were kids again and the guides trying to get us out of the water to eat lunch probably felt like the parents of recalcitrint children. We didn't want to get out of the water. Eventually, Kyros (Rita) and JudyAl prevailed upon us to get out and join them at our table to eat. There was freshly caught and grilled fish, grilled chicken and sausages, potaoe salad, fresh rolls, green salad, and tons of fresh pineapple. Cut and sliced right in front of us. So sweet and just dripping with juices. While we were eating the tour guides went around asking everyone if anyone had a tour scheduled for later that day. No one did and so we were told we would stay an extra hour or two, WOW! We were so happy. We plunged back in the water ( I don't care what my Mother said about waiting an hour after eating to swim) and played with the fishys again. There were fish in shades from powder blue to deep purple, pink and red striped and polka dotted,we were able to get some amazing underwater pix. We were actually in the water at least 4 hours. We got so badly sunburned. You know those tender places on the backs of your knees and the tops of the back of your thighs that haven 't seen the sun in 40 years or so. . . Ouch! We had a fantastic time with our fellow CC'ers that were on the tour also. Rita, JudyAl, if you read this thanks for making our day so wonderful, you guys are great. I tell you what, it was worth every inch of sunburn and I would have done it all over again given the chance. We got back to the ship around 2pm. There were some nice stalls set up where the tenders docked and we shopped around them for awhile. We picked up a carved Tiki and I got a lovely caftan. When we finally did get back to the ship we raced for who got the shower first and then naps seemed like a perfectly good idea. Around 5:30pm the ship dropped the pilot off back in Papeete and we are off for Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas. We have discovered the most beautiful place in the world, our new favorite place, her name - - - Moorea!

1-20 Nuka Hiva, Marquesas

We arrived about 7am. Nuka Hiva is a tender port. Strangely enough we were once again escorted into the bay by dolphins dancing and frolicking by our bow. There are no shore excursions offered here so we don't expect too much from the place. The island itself is quite lovely with green hills and rolling meadows. This is the only non volcanic island that we have visited. We were hoping for some nice beach to go swimming but there was nothing within walking distance and this "town" doesn't have any form of public transportation. Most of the locals seem to use horseback to get around. We met some young boys out riding and although they spoke no English and my high school French is atrocious we managed to convey where we were from and I was allowed to make friends with their horses. There is a brand new building just finished that houses long tables full of local merchandise. It is full of the usual shell jewelry, tapa cloth, monoi oil, and shells. They do wonderufl carving here and it is apparent if you look for it. The older shops all have very intricate carved poles and rafters. There were some local dancers out under the pavilion and more local goods for sale. We found one tiny little shop tucked away and it had these cute little beanbag type souveniers shaped like starfish, angel fish, octopus, etc. We picked out a starfish because it did have Marquesas printed on the back and I did want a little something, and that cost $8USD. ( I am telling prices in this article not to brag at what I spent or saved but to give those interested an idea of what things cost locally.) We went back to the tender dock and by then there were locals out with drums, chanting, and doing some dancing, The decorated us with palm fronds, and tiare flowers. We were back on the ship by 10am. Tonight is the Great Pretenders show and I am in it so I didn't want to get overtired anyway. We had dinner in the Pinnacle Grill with o friend of ours on staff. We had agreed to meet at 7pm and at 7:15 we were starting to get a little worried but the Maitre d' let us know he had phoned and would be a little late. They brought the bread and butter and oil and we munched on that a little. To be quite honest I was very disappointed in the food and the service there. The clam chowder was so think as to be more of a broth then a cream soup. The asparagus were so underdone that it was difficult to cut them with a knife. I ordered the mushroom ravioli which I've had before and loved, but it was runny, and thin and not appetizing at all. The waiter upon removing my plate asked me if I liked it I replied no and he just smiled and removed the plate. No questions as to what was wrong or not to my liking, just a grin. I looked at my DH and he looked at me and we both looked at our guest who looked at the Maitre d'. Eventually the chef came out and asked about my dinner and although I don't usually like to make a fuss I did tell him what was wrong. Our guest ordered a marvelous red wine. DH doesn't drink at all and I drink rarely but this wine slid down my throat like honey with no bitter aftertaste, just a slight hint on the back of the tongue that something marvelous has just passed this way. We lingered over coffee until our guest had to leave to deal with work. I had to go back to the room and get into my poodle skirt for the show. It was a wonderful show and several other CC'ers were in it also, Rita (Kyros) and JudyAl were there. We drank free champagne and danced the twist and had a great time. After the show Rita and I went up to the Crows Nest to finish off the evening with a little sock hop. It was a lot of fun.

There were six sea days back to San Diego and they were filled with friends, lectures, games and trivia. The team I was on at trivia was composed of five women and one man. One of the other ladies decided our team name would be James' Happy Harem, we all agreed and the CD had a lot of fun with our name over the days. On the last day of trivia, all the women dressed up in harem costumes and we dressed James up as a potentate, he walked into the ocean bar first, stopped clapped his hands and we all walked in one at a time murmuring " yes, master" as we bowed our way in. It was a hoot. The CD was speechless and the rest of the teams hooted and clapped. It weny of perfectly and we had a great time with our little practical joke. We've said our final goodbyes to old friends and new and can't believe the cruise we waited over a year for is just about over. We did talk to the future cruise consultant and book a European and Norway cruise for 07', but that's a long time away. That does however, give us time to add to the cruise bank account. Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. Was it the cruise of a lifetime they advertised? You betcha. There aren't enough superlatives for what I wish I could describe. Is 30 days too long? Actually, the question should be is 30 days enough and the answer is no.... it's never long enough.

[FlorenceItaly]

I am speechless and overcome with emotion. What a fabulous trip, a trip of a lifetime. I suppose this time next year I will be coming off this same fabulous cruise, God willing.

 

Trisha, thanks so much for taking the time to post this wonderful review. It is greatly appreciated.

 

Marie

[djallar]

Incredible! :) I can only dream of such an adventure! :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Bucky3]

What a wonderful, wonderful review! Oh, how I want to take this trip. Thanks so much for helping us all to visualize your paradise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Excellent review.

 

Gee - when we crossed the equator, we didn't have that an elaborate setup for the King Neptune ceremony.

[dot73]

What a great review. I am copying it and saving it on my computer so that I can re-read again as my own 30-day cruise gets closer.

 

Marie, we absolutely have to do this cruise. The more I read, the more excited I'm getting about January 22/07. Make sure you scout out all those wines stores in San Diego. We will have to take a case of wine to last us 30 days. Only 11 more months to go as of today.

[FlorenceItaly]

What a great review. I am copying it and saving it on my computer so that I can re-read again as my own 30-day cruise gets closer.

 

Marie, we absolutely have to do this cruise. The more I read, the more excited I'm getting about January 22/07. Make sure you scout out all those wines stores in San Diego. We will have to take a case of wine to last us 30 days. Only 11 more months to go as of today.

 

Hi Dorothy - I have also posted the links to the review over on our Roll Call Board. I agree, we absolutely have to do this cruise. As I was reading about the excursions I was picturing you and I on them :). And, you are right, we will definitely need to carry some wine on. I'll be going in a day or two early to San Diego, as I am sure you will so we'll definitely have time to scout it out. There seems to be several options within walking distance, or a short cab away. Only 11 more months.............

 

Marie

[O2cruise]

Thanks for a wonderful review. I swear you painted the picture so well I could see the dolphins, the water, the fish ..... Thanks again!!

[FlorenceItaly]

Thanks for a wonderful review. I swear you painted the picture so well I could see the dolphins, the water, the fish ..... Thanks again!!

 

I agree. You really did, Trisha. Thank you so much.

 

 

Marie

[kakalina]

Well golly, gosh gee, t'warn't nothin' folks ( rubs toe in dirt ):o

Trisha

PS Just let me know if you guys have any questions.:D

[kakalina]

Thank you Rita, that was nice :)