Day 26 - Rarotonga, Cook Islands Sun 1/30/11

We awoke to Bruce's announcements before 8, but managed to stay in bed
until 8:45. The weather looked a bit threatening with dark clouds, wind
and thunder. After breakfast, we sat out back and watched the rain and
the tenders bouncing around on their way back and forth to shore. We
decided to wait to see if conditions improved, but they didn't much. An
announcement was made that only completely agile guests try to go ashore
due to the swells at the ship side. We declined going in and found that
a local post office had been set up in the main lobby and we bought some
postcards and stamps, wrote them and returned them to be mailed.
Mission accomplished. We heard that since it was Sunday, almost all
stores were closed anyway. We went back up to the pool area and read
and watched the tender operations. We heard that one of the sailors on
a tender fell overboard while trying to secure it to the gangway. They
pulled him out quickly and no harm was done. We returned to the cabin
at 1:45 to rest until the sail away party at 4:30. At 3, they announced
that all further travel to shore was being called off due to the weather
conditions and they began working to get all guests on shore back to the
ship. After the sail away party while we were getting ready for the
evening, the Captain announced that the hoist for one of the tenders was
not working and that our departure would be delayed. At 6:30, he
announced that we were pulling back to the small boat harbor to let the
tender move back into the bay until repairs on the hoist were
completed. Finally, the repairs were done and we departed at 7:20. We
had our normal evening and got to set the clocks back another hour.

Day 25 - At Sea Sat 1/29/11

We woke up at 8:45 and had coffee on the verandah. Bruce's
announcements were around 9, so he didn't get to wake us. After
breakfast, Glenda laid out in the sun and I updated the blog. The ship
has finally acknowledged that there has been a continuing problem with
the internet and that they are working with MTN, the provider, to
correct it. I went to the front desk to buy some New Zealand Dollars as
they are used in Rarotonga tomorrow and we have many stops in NZ coming
up. I sat out back and read and we came back to the cabin at 2:15 since
we were having intermittent showers. We read until time for bingo where
Glenda won the 4 corners game in 5 balls called and got $33. The theme
for today's formal night is Tropical Paradise. After dinner, we went to
the Crow's Nest where they were having karaoke and I sang "You May Be
Right". Peter convinced us to have another Pirhanna and we stayed there
until nearly midnight. Our gifts were 2 World Cruise 2011 beach bags in
a very nice green color. I also had a card that I would get 60 free
minutes on my internet account for all our troubles.

Day 24 - Vaitape, Bora Bora Day 2 Fri 1/28/11

There were no early ship wide announcements this morning and we slept
until 9. We had coffee on the verandah and after breakfast, we went out
back and Glenda got a lounge in the sun. It started to sprinkle a bit
for a few minutes, but the clouds past on by. I went down to the cabin
to get yesterday's post on the blog. I watched the news coverage of
the troubles in Egypt and we don't know what this will do to our
itinerary. I went back up with Glenda and read in the shade. We came
back to the cabin at 2:30 and read some more. We went to bingo but did
not win. We went up for the sail away on the back deck and I took some
more photos of the area as we left and of Jeff, Patsy and Charles, and
Lo and Nell. At 6, we began cleaning up for our 7:30 AMEX dinner in the
Pinnacle Grill. There were only 8 of us including our hosts out of
about 60 in the group. I guess they are doing the dinners in small
groups. Six of the people at our table were either currently or
formerly from Chicago, so a lot of the conversation left us out, but we
had a nice time anyway. The food and the wine were great and after
dinner, we went to the show to see Sally Jones, who we had seen on a
couple of previous cruises. She has a great voice and is also quite
funny. We went up to the Crow's Nest after the show and had one drink
with Peter before retiring for the evening.

Day 23 - Vaitape, Bora Bora Day 1 Thu 1/27/11

We were shaken awake by the ship's maneuvering about 6:30 but went back
to sleep. Bruce made his clearance announcement around 7 and we finally
awoke at 8:40. Our view from the verandah was great. We were anchored
near the Paul Gauguin, which was in port for the day. We had coffee on
the verandah and watched the tenders and the kayaks in the bay. The
kayaks were drafting off of the tenders and it was interesting how close
they came. After breakfast we went to the tender deck and rode over to
the small town. We looked around the shops and I bought a T-shirt and
we got some postcards. The prices were even higher here than on
Tahiti. We had been told that the thing to do was visit Bloody Mary's
and have a bloody mary. On the basic map provided by the ship, it
looked like it was about 1 1/2 mile so we decided to walk there. After
a little more than an hour and about 2 miles of walking in the heat, we
learned that it was still quite a bit farther. Luckily, a taxi stopped
and offered to take us the rest of the way for $10. We gladly paid. It
was probably nearly another mile. Once there, we had our bloody marys
and rested from our hike. Glenda bought a T-shirt and we saw a couple
of buses out front. One was a Island Tour bus, so we went to the other
one. A passenger on the second bus told us that this was not our bus
but the driver ask if we wanted to go to the port and agreed to take
us. It turns out that it was a tour for 2 couples from the Paul Gauguin
and we enjoyed commentary from the driver on the ride back to the port
in air conditioning. We paid $10 to the driver and boarded the tender
back to the ship and were on board around 2. Glenda went out back for
some iced tea and to read while I checked email and attempted to post
yesterday's blog entry. The internet from the cabin was still acting
up, so I joined her. They began setting up tables for the BBQ on the
back deck and we went to the cabin to read. After I got dressed for
dinner, I went down to the internet cafe and managed to get the blog
posted while Glenda finished dressing. We skipped the BBQ for the
dining room. We got back from the Crow's Nest around 11:30 and found
our laundry back. We plan to stay on the ship tomorrow.

Day 22 - Papeete, Tahiti Wed 1/26/11

We were awoken by Bruce's announcement at about 7:15 telling the
passengers not to carry fruit or plant items ashore in order to protect
the local agriculture from pests and disease. He also said that the
ship had not been cleared yet by immigration. Then at 7:30, he
announced that the ship had been cleared and passengers could go
ashore. The temperature was 81 and we had coffee on the verandah, but
our view was of storage tanks and cargo docks. We went up to breakfast
and afterward, we went ashore at 9:30. We walked up to the market and
bought a couple of pareos and Glenda got a dress. We also bought some
Tahitian soap and postcards. We went up to the city cathedral and
walked around a bit more before stopping for 2 glasses of Hinano beer
($15). Pig and Fish enjoyed the beer. We continued to walk around
downtown and finally came back to the ship at 12:30. We wrote the
postcards and mailed them along with the ones from Easter Island and
Pitcairn Island. Postage was $13.68 for 8 postcards. Did I mention
that it is very expensive here? Glenda, Pig, and Fish enjoyed their
time on shore after 10 straight days aboard the ship. We sat out on the
deck until 3 and retreated to the cabin to rest up before the sail away
party. At the sail away, we had beers and fried banana appetizers while
visiting with Bill and Marianne. We didn't depart until over an hour
late due to a local workman finishing work on the ship. After our usual
evening, we got to bed around 11.