Day 89

Day 89 – Honolulu to Tahiti – Sunday 12/8/12

Weather – Fine, Cloudy. 23C – 28C

Sunrise – 6.11m

Sunset – 6.50pm

Time difference - minus 20 hours ex Sydney

Throughout the day Sun Princess steered a south-south-easterly course through the Pacific Ocean. At about 9.30am this morning we were 24 miles east of Finch Seamount and 39 miles west of Wood Seamount.

Today is the first of five sea days on a voyage to Papeete, Tahiti. It did not take us long to slip back into sea mode coz we have done a bit of that during this cruise :) It was great catching up with others to exchange who has been doing what and where. Suffice to say we had a 2 hour breakfast, and a 90 minute lunch, during which there was more socialising than there was dining.

We do have a bit of a dilemma though, which we are trying to scope the magnitude thereof. See we have luggage issues. Given that we started the cruise with 4 suitcases (Of which only two were chocka block full), and a backpack each., you would think with that capacity, and Airline baggage allowance of 86kgs (which we paid extra for) , plus two 7kg hand luggage, plus a 'personal' item we should be sweet. Now given that we have, or will have used up 14 weeks of toiletries, medication and stuff that we should be sweet from both a weight and space perspective. You would think huh :)

As I write Donna has our cabin looking like a war zone, as she tries to pack the stuff we should not need for the rest of the cruise. We have a few clothes that we do not intend to take home, instead will donate them to a charity in Papeete or Pago Pago. We want to get it a little bit organised now so we dont have the last minute dramas by which time options would have run out. By doing a suss out now, we can work out if we want to freight/post some stuff back from Auckland, or just pay the additional excess when we board the plane in Sydney.

Today Princess are doing a big group photo of all the people who have done the whole World Cruise. Each person/couple will get a copy of the photo as a souvenir. I understand previous years cruises have received a boxed gift, but this year it looks like a photo.

The photo crowd assembled at all vantage points across deck 12 and 14, facing forward towards the bars. The area under the movie screen was jam packed, as was the surrounds of the top pool, the bridge, and the surrounds of the lower pool, and both sides of 14. The Photographer was in front of the bar on 15, so we will see how the photo comes out, we may need a magnifying glass to find ourselves:)

We found out that our dinner table partner, Ruth, was the thoughtful person who left the welcome balloons in our cabin upon our return to the ship yesterday – very thoughtful gesture, and it was really appreciated.

After the photo shoot we caught up with some friends for a coffee/beer and then the girls (Donna, Mary and Wendy) stayed atop to watch the hula dancers on screen, with the understanding that they would meet up with the men at pre-dinner drinks, which would be starting as the show ended, as it was only a 40 minute show. Well the 90 minute pre-dinner started, and ended, so the men went off to the dining room expecting the girls to be there..nope. Well the 2 hour dinner came and went, still no girls.

After dinner the men went their own ways, I went up to 12 Riviera Bar where they were last seen... no girls. I went to the next likely spot, the Wheelhouse Bar on 7..no girls. One thing seasoned cruisers would know trying to find someone on a ship can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I figured they were in either in one of the theatres, or the casino, or the nightclub, or one of the cabins. I decided to cease the search in the belief that they were having a bloody good time somewhere, and headed back to the cabin to write the blog for the day.

I got a call from Bob to say that they had been spotted in the Pizzeria, which made sense as they would have to come up for food and eat sometime :) I went back to blogging. I get another call half an hour later from Ian – best I come to the Pizzeria to collect my rather drunk wife :) And so it passed that many bottles of wine had been consumed in the previous 5 hours by the lovely ladies, the effects of which were clearly evident on Donna :)

Someone will be waking with a sore head in the morning, so best I make myself scarce until lunch time at least, coz I reckon that is when she will be surfacing :) The sore head will be lessened by the news that little Blake is back home from hospital again, which is great news.

The dream holiday continues, and as we head further south into the Pacific Ocean, it is starting to feel like we are in 'home' waters now, getting closer to home, there is a growing sense of disbelief that our three and a half month holiday has reached the final stage..so there may be a few more girls nights for the taking coming up :)