Cruising The Pacific Ocean en route to Fakarava, French Polynesia – February 8

habibi-habibi cocktail and chips "for the table"

Partly cloudy, a short shower, 28 degrees

We decided to mix things up today and not walk to start the morning. It was a nice change to stay in bed…reading and watching TV. Once we did venture out it was for BINGO – I continued my losing streak.

Post-BINGO and pre-lunch we ‘Cooled by the Pool’ – that’s what it’s called when Maxine and Vaughn, the ship’s duo, plays at noon. We sat at the bar and enjoyed a couple of Habibi-Habibis…the Indian lunch buffet’s speciality cocktail – gin, sloe gin, ginger ale and sweat ‘n sour mix. It was very tasty, but sweet as these drinks tend to be - I was happy with one.

naan with chutney...could have eaten a million more

Tandoori fish, tandoori chicken, cucumber, mint and peanut salad, naan and chutney were all pretty delicious. There was also noodle pudding for dessert – sounded interesting, but I didn’t try.

The ship does a great job varying up lunches. Options for lunch are 1 - the main dining room: this tends to be quiet with not very many people, but pleasant because of that and the fact that it is served. 2 – the buffet: mostly indoor with minimal outdoor seating, lots of options

fully moon just after sun set

hot/cold/salads/desserts, this tends to be popular, but because of this a bit frantic. 3 – the pool grill: outdoor, so can be too hot, always available items such as hamburger/hotdog/grilled fish/some sandwiches, this is also where the sea day themed lunches happen. 4 – room service: there is a room service menu with specific items, but during hours when the restaurants are open you can order anything from any of those menus, you can also pretty much order anything from room service you can imagine. I think we ordered popcorn in the past and for sure chips and salsa.

Daily Passages

One of the current guest performers is a Whitney Houston tribute singer, Elyse Branch. Tonight was the second of her 2 shows and it was as great as the last one. Her first show was almost exclusively Whitney material and tonight’s was Motown. This was a very energetic show with lots of clapping, hooting and hollering. It was a nice change from most of the shows onboard, which tend to be a bit quieter.


Every night the when the room stewards ‘turn down’ the rooms they place a ‘Daily Passages’ in our rooms. The Daily Passage outline activities for the next day, info about our next port and other tid bits of info – the weather, a

the winning ballot??

sale in the shop. Tonight’s Daily Passage included a ballot for the Oscar’s party the ship is holding tomorrow. We’ve be on board when the Academy Awards were on, but nothing much was done. This time there will be a red-carpet party and a viewing party – wow! But more importantly there is a ballot to pick my choices. I’m missing the pool we have at school each year, so was thrilled to see this! I did ‘extensive’ research as I do every year and made all of my picks before I went to sleep.

Chris only stuck it out for about half the show and somehow found his way to the casino. We decided to check out the ship’s 5-piece band playing a Brazilian themed show in one of the lounges...fun.