Tahiti 2011:
Day 5 - At Sea
Day 5 - At Sea
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Thursday, February 24: We awoke to a pretty sunrise over the open sea as we made the relatively long journey to distant Rangiroa. |
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Since room service couldn't provide us with the Diet Coke we ordered, we decide to drink the one in the room and see if it would be replaced. It wasn't. |
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We tend not to participate in shipboard activities, but we went up on deck to watch an ice carving demonstration in the hot sun. The entire pool area was filled with quite the assortment of sunburnt, leathery bodies. |
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The ice carver (who also was responsible for all fruit- and vegetable-carvings around the ship) started to work. |
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In no time, he had produced an angelfish with seaweed. |
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Today's lunch theme was Asian, with the most beautiful display of sushi we've ever seen. |
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This is certainly the most beautiful display of an entire roast suckling pig we've ever seen. Strangely enough, this is not the first time that the phrase "suckling pig" has appeared on this website. |
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The dessert display was also beautiful. This was the first of several days that we felt compelled to photograph the dessert artwork. |
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Debbie spotted this island in the distance in the afternoon. It's Makatea Island and we'd be getting an up-close view on our way back in two days. |
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It's time to show you our cabin. It was the smallest balcony cabin we'd ever been in, perhaps because the Royal Princess is a fairly small ship, sized for 700 passengers. We had just enough storage space by using our suitcases as very large under-bed drawers. |
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Take a look around, won't you? |
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This is cabin 8001 on the starboard side all the way at the front. |
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We always try to get a cabin in this location, because as a rule, starboard cabins tend to have the better views. On this cruise, both sides had great views, but the starboard side had better views more often, especially when we passed Makatea Island. |
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Here's the tiny bathroom, as expected. |
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There were plenty of places to hang the plastic hangers we always bring, and every day, we had various combinations of bathing suits, water shoes, and snorkel equipment drying out. |
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We had pre-ordered canapes, expecting them to be in our room upon arrival. Instead, we learned that we had to pick a day to have them served, and that embarkation day is not an option. Yay. So, we had them delivered to enjoy at sea in the afternoon with the papaya passion fruit juice we still had. Delicious! |
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It was our first formal night of the cruise, and our first evening sitting in our real table for two. There were no obnoxious people next to us, trying to learn all about us -- just the two of us spending time together. It's nice. |
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Debbie breaks out the non-standard jewelry only for cruises. She's a programmer, not a fashion plate. |
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One dessert option this evening was cherries jubilee, prepared by the maître d' just a few yards away, so we had to try it. Anything with "Jubilee" in the name has got to be good, and it was. |
Copyright © Deborah Schilling/Thomas Bundy