Pacific Island Cruise 2008

Pacific Islands Cruise March 2008 29th Feb Left home at 9 am and went to Adelaide picked up our Yankee Dollars at PCU and went to Bill and Gwen Gants for lunch and at 4 o’clock went to Kym’s where we spent the night. March 1st Out of bed real early as in 4.30am and arrived at the airport at 5.15 leaving at 6.20 for Sydney. 

First disappointment for the day after we took off, expecting some breakfast and found out that you do not get brekky with Jetstar so we had to starve until we got to Sydney BUT that hiccup was forgotten when we booked for our Auckland flight we were upgraded to BUSINESS class, could not believe our luck it is just so much nicer. Arrived in Auckland at 3.30 and would you believe it took until 5.15 to get thru customs. Rang the motel and the courtesy bus came and picked us up and we arrived at the motel at 6 o’clock. Had dinner and straight to bed.

March 2nd Took a taxi in to Auckland at 10 o’clock and was dropped off at the Cruise liner Terminal at 10 30 thinking we had a long wait until 3 pm before we were able to board, well that was the start of our second day of good luck, we were met by a porter who took our luggage and told us to come back in half an hour and we could board, which is what Happened so no problems there. When we got onboard and went to our cabin we found that the plastic card which opens the door would not activate so down to the desk to complain I went, after about 5 minutes the chap behind the desk found out that we were in the wrong room, and that was the reason the card would not work, we had been UPGRADED to an Outside cabin form a Inside because of being Captains Club members i.e. our second cruise on the Mercury, well we could not believe our luck, the cabin is situated right in the front of the Paranormal Deck .with an enormous window and a king size bed. . I think we have used up our share of luck now. although you would never know!!!

Had dinner in the Manhattan Restaurant tonight and met our table companions an American and a English couple, the lady of the English couple was a bit of a pain but we got on well with the Americans, after dinner went to the Celebrity Theatre to listen to Angelena Keys an excellent singer together with a very good troupe of singers and dancers.. March 3rd at Taranga NZ Took the Hop on Hop off bus in to Taranga from the Port and had a look around the CBD, quite a large city around 100000 people and appears to be very prosperous, Housing here very dear, a very ordinary looking house would cost $400000 and anything with beach frontage up to $1 ½ mil. Meat very dear chicken breasts are $20.00 a kilo and lamb 4 ¼ chops $10.00 a kilo. Petrol is 174.9 diesel 125.00 which is very helpful for tourists hiring a motor home as the owners of diesel powered vehicles pay a levy when they register the vehicle .LPG is 110 cents a ltr Another great dinner and then off to the theatre where there was a outstanding musician from Australia performing by the name of Danny Elliot, he was just amazing, he played the didgeridoo the sax, trumpet, violin, clarinet, flute, panpipes, piano and he sang beautifully, we will be going back again when he is showing.

March 4th , At sea Well a little rough last night Brodie lost her dinner and this morning she is not very well did not have any breakfast or lunch, our housekeeper told us that it was nothing compared to the trip from Sydney to Hobart, It was the roughest he had experienced in 14 years, 20’ waves and a really bad swell to boot. Did not go to the Manhattan Restaurant tonight, the little lady was still rather poorly so just went to the Cafe instead and gave the entertainment a miss.

March 5th Brode much better this morning, our housekeeper brought her down some dry biscuits and a green apple which after she eat some made her feel better, she then got some pills which really worked. Went to the pictures in the arvo, advertised as a Western and it turned out to be all about the Australian outback back in the 1800’s with the police and the aboriginals!!1 Went to the Celebrity Theatre this evening to see Stephen Fisher King another excellent Australian Baritone And then to the Navigator Club to see Hawaiian Dancers, another great show and then to bed.

March 5th Yes 2 days with the same date, the International Date Line was crossed and we forgot and rocked up to the meeting place to go on shore in Raratonga for a tour and wondered why we were the only ones there!!! Rather embarrassing when we were told we were a day early...went to the flicks this arvo and after dinner we went to the Celebrity theatre and watched and listened to a very good pianist named Brooks Aeherns. March 6th Well a disappointment today, rocked up to the Navigator Club to assemble for going on the tender to Raratonga and after an hour of trying to launch the tenders the Captain decided that as the wind was blowing at 30 knots and there was a swell of 1 ½ metres it was too dangerous and consequently we did not get to see the island.. Saw another very good film this arvo and after dinner tonight we will be going to the theatre again to see 2 very good artists that were on early in the week Danny Elliot and Angelena Ayres.

March 7th Not a very interesting day today, having spent 6 days at sea and missing out on going ashore at Raratonga time is starting to drag a bit, there really is not an awful lot to do other than eat and read and sleep and go to the movies so we are all looking forward to going ashore tomorrow at Papeete in Tahiti. March 8th Arrived in Papeette this morning at 6.30am and at 8 we went for a 4 hour 4x4 tour up into the mountains which was very good although it did rain for a bit of the trip. Will do the shops over this arvo and have a Polynesian dinner with the Hawaiian dancers around the pool tonight followed by the film Queen tonight at9. All in all Tahiti is a bit of a disappointment, the rubbish laying around is disgusting, the people are not proud of their islands and their really is nothing to leave a good lasting impression on the trip to Papeette, of course this is only one island of many in the Tahitian Islands hopefully the other islands are better. The shopping centre is nothing to be proud of either, little twisty winding ships and as it was Sat very few of the shops were open which would indicate that they are not all that impressed with tourists.

Well Bora Bora was our next Port of call and we arrived at 8 o’clock in the morning, at 9.30 we went in the tenders to the island and went in buses which are called Le Trucks for a 2 ½ hour trip around the island, well that was what one would call a nice trip but nothing spectacular so all in all can only say that we were not impressed with the French Polynesian Islands. Another 2 days at Christmas Island , well another debacle, we all lined up to be issued with numbers for going on the tenders and they after an hour said it was going to take us a long time to get us all on to the Island as there was only 1.2 mtres of water at the jetty so instead of taking 150 people they were only taking 40 and as there was about 1800 who wanted to go ashore so they were going to cancel the whole exercise which did not impress anybody in fact I think they will lose a lot of clients over their handling of the whole debacle. There was one plus to soften the disappointment and this was they opened the bar for free drinks for 2 hours, well they could not do this right either, the first thing to upset some of the passengers was they would only give beer and red and white wine and coke so as you can imagine there was a bellow about that so next morning there was another announcement from the captain apologizing profusely for the debacle and told us there would be a letter delivered to our staterooms giving a credit on our accounts which could either be spent on the ship OR credited to our existing charges or would be given to us in cash if there was no charges. Well those in Inside and Outside cabins were given $250 those in Verandah cabins $400 and those in Penthouse $600, well another bellow from the troops, we were wrapped but some and probably rightly so saying that the compensation was for inconvenience how could those in better cabins be inconvenienced more than the “peasants”

Another plus for our trip was the gratuity for the waiters, the 2nd to last night of the cruise we were to put in a chit authorizing Celebrity to add the gratuities to our account which was $300, well on the way down to dinner I suddenly realised that I had not put the chit in so I retuned to our stateroom to get it and our housekeeper was there turning back our bed and I said to him that I was back to get the chit and he said “you have paid” well I did not think so but he was adamant so I checked on the invoice and shore enough there it was Service charges paid. So that was another $300 we did not have to payout. So with the $250 +the air upgrade+ the cabin upgrade + the $300 I really do not have much to complain about!!! Next stop was Hilo which is the capital of Hawaii took a tour of the Island and visited a Macadamia Plantation and factory, quite interesting and also visited a Botanic Park which was excellent.

The ship weighed anchor at 5 pm and we traveled all night and landed at Honolulu at 6.30 am. Disembarked at 9 am and arrived at hotel at 9, 30 to find that our room would not be ready until 3pm so we walked down to Waikiki Beach and spent a bit of time looking over the shops. Got in to our room at 2.15 and was very pleased with it, the price was excellent and we had a view of the beach from our window..

Monday, today we were picked up at 6.15 to go to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and then we will do a tour of the island. The memorial was very good and quite sad to think of all those sailors who were entombed in the ships that were sunk in the harbor, apparently when the Arizona was sunk the blast twisted the ship to such an extent that the bulkhead doors could not be opened and that is the reason about 1100 sailors were entombed in the ship. The memorial was built over the wreck of the Arizona in 1958, one of the Rangers there told us that the wreck is supposed to last 200 years before it rusts away completely but they are very skeptical of this. There is still oil coming up after 62 years From here we went around the island of Oahu in a bus with a very informative driver/guide who showed us lot’s of features of the island and dropped us off at our hotel at 5 o’clock.

Tuesday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Centre which has been operating since 1963. Great venue where we spent about 12 hours, it has 7 different cultural villages as in Samoa Tahiti Hawai New Zealand etc and there was a show in each one showing the different life styles, then at 5 o’clock we had a traditional feast and then at 8.30 there was a show of 100 performers of the different races and this was in a word, fantastic.

Wed we went back out to Pearl harbor and done a tour of the Missouri battleship which was the ship that the surrender of the Japanese was held in 1945 with General Douglas Macarthur. This was a great couple of hours, nearly everywhere was accessible on the ship and we had a really great tour of it. The ships nickname was Mighty Mo and was the largest battleship ever built by the US, it weighed 58000 tons fully loaded and could do 32 knots or 37 mph or 59kph, unbelievable, its guns had a range of 23 miles and it was decommissioned in 1955 brought back in to service in 1987 and decommissioned again in 1992 and taken to it’s final resting place in 1998. We then went to the Flea markets at a baseball stadium but did not buy anything, we were very close on our baggage limit so that helped us be strong.

Thursday we went to Hilo Hattie’s which is a local store which is the biggest store in Hawaii for Hawaiian shirts, some of the colors are just fabulous and I could not resist buying a couple. From there we went to Mauri Divers Jewelry where Brodie bought herself a beautiful Black pearl ring set in diamonds, even for me it is quite beautiful and we won’t talk about the cost!!! Now to Friday which was our last day, all we done was walked the streets and Waikiki Bch and then retired to our room at the hotel for the arvo. Up at 4 am and arrived at airport at 5.15 am took off at 8.15 and 8.30 pm we arrived in Adelaide, it was 10hr20 mins from Honolulu to Sydney and 1.30 hrs to Adelaide plus 3 hours in Sydney so was pleased to get back. Spent the night at Kym’s and arrived home at 12 midday, all in all a great trip with only a couple of disappointments.