Cruising The Pacific Ocean en route to Lautoka, Fiji – February 15

Chris watching Igor blending our Singapore Slings

Partly cloudy, 28 degrees

Here I am again…day at sea...more relaxing…or so I thought. Ding, dang, dong…was the sound we heard inside our cabin, rather than from the hall (or TV) - this always spells something important. Today it was hearing the plan for our 2 days in Fiji, 2 days from now. We were under the impression that the tour we already had tickets for would go ahead, but nope…we were wrong. Because we will be arriving so late due to the increased stringency on the clearance procedures a few of the day’s tours are being cancelled…ours is one of those. So…we have to pick tours for 2 days. As it turned out

health declaration

there was only one tour left, so we had no decision to make there, but in Suva (the new port) we had 6 to choose from.

There was supposed to be info and a form to fill out delivered to our rooms for the new tours, but we didn’t have one. I decided to bolt to the tour desk and see what was offered there without the form. Good thing I did…when I got there, I was already about 10^th in line. By the time I finished, the line was HUGE. It’s crazy that anyone cares so much, including us. Assuming that everyone will actually get a tour, what’s the big rush? I thought they’d have info and forms there…not really. We were told we’d have to come back with our form…ah, what? I waited in line and Chris just arrived directly and still NO form. We explained this and still…”you need your

more accomplishments

form” - suddenly a form appeared that a passenger didn’t need – maybe?? We suspect that the forms were distributed from the top or the ship to the bottom (we are at the bottom) which also translates (more or less) to those who paid more for their rooms get preferential treatment. I hope that isn’t the case, but it seems that way.

Anyway…we got a couple of tours, so we are happy. We aren’t dying to see something in Fiji, so whatever we will see will be good.

Chris is feeling a bit better, so we ‘cooled by the pool’ with a cocktail of the day…a Singapore Sling to pair with the Asian buffet. This one was blended…can’t say I’ve ever had a blended Singapore Sling, but it was good…again, like all of the feature drinks, one is plenty…very sweet.

When we returned to our room at the end of the day, we received certificates commemorating our crossing the International Date Line. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this whole date line thing. Our room attendants

crazy!

(Viktor and Odessa) always put a card indicating the time change (and actually change the room’s clock for us), usually it’s a reusable, laminated card…not today. Today’s card says “turn your clocks 1 day forward and 1 hour back” – crazy! This card was just on paper…not sure there’s much reason to laminate this one. We went to sleep on Saturday and woke up on Monday!

Not surprising, when we returned to the room, there was also a health questionnaire on the bed. Fiji is requiring this be filled out due to the corona situation. Not a big deal…we’ve done these in the past.

We are assuming we are sailing directly west because the sun seems to move from the back of the ship to the front of the ship, not from side to side. This means our balcony and I assume the other side of the ship balconies are always in shade…perfect for sitting and sailing. However, still NO WILDLIFE :(