Embarkation

 We woke up in the morning to find that we actually had a very nice view of the ocean and the adjacent island of Moorea (last stop on our cruise). Also of the end of the airport runway, which is immediately next to the hotel, notwithstanding that the taxi cost us around $30 last night. Once finally awake we went down to breakfast which is set out over the water; you can look down at coral and tropical fish as you overeat.

The rest of the morning was really just spent reading, re-packing and mooching. We checked out at 11am and at 12 took a taxi to the ship, which was close enough that we could see it from the hotel. The process of checking in and boarding took another hour or so, lots of sitting around and then bursts of activity.

Once we got aboard it was certainly a smaller ship that we’ve been on in a while, so everything was compact but quite smart. We found our cabin, pretty much in the centre of the ship, went and got some lunch in a casual buffet, then spent much of the afternoon and organising, broken by the ubiquitous and obligatory muster drill.

At 5.30 we wandered up to the deck for some sort of welcome, which turned out to be just an advertisement for the ship’s services. But this got us out of the room and so we had a cocktail and sat watching the sunset. When we booked we got a package that includes laundry, internet, tips… and drinks. So we have all the cocktails we can drink. This isn’t actually very many, but we’d certainly had a few by the time the sun had gone and the ship was under way.

Next stop was dinner, which did require a change of clothes, though it’s not very formal by the standards of previous cruises, just not shorts and t-shirts. And dinner was very good. Apparently you can choose every night whether you want a table to yourselves or to be sociable… we’ll see if we’re ever social. By the end we’d reached our limit of food and drink and so chose to retire.