Day 23 at sea
The first of eight sea days.
We slept in this morning and woke to gray skies and light rain. We decided
to try the Da Vinci Dining Room for breakfast, and it turned out to be a
good choice. The smoked salmon with capers, red onion, and tomato was
excellent. The coffee, however, wasn't. That meant a stop for a mocha and
another attempt to upload Thursday's blog post. The mocha was great, but
for some reason I still couldn't connect to Google's servers.
Life at Sea
So, what's there to do on a cruise ship during a sea day? Quite a bit,
actually. Today's Princess Patter—your daily guide to life at sea—listed
75 different activities.
Among the offerings were a Knitters and Natters Get-Together, Croquet
Challenge, Morning Trivia Challenge, Designer Watch Event, Ukulele Music
Class, Hula Dance Class, Ping Pong Challenge, and for the night owls,
Dance the Night Away with DJ Jamie.
If you've ever wondered how well you know your spouse, you could sign up
for The Marriage Match, one of today's six Princess Picks. With only six
activities earning that designation, it must be a pretty popular event.
The dining guide listed twelve places to eat and ten locations serving
adult beverages, so no one should ever go hungry—or thirsty. Add in the
boutiques, casino, spa and salon, library, fitness center, and medical
center (if necessary), and there really isn't much chance of being bored.
Money
Our first stop outside the United States was Samoa, an independent country
with its own currency, the tala. The exchange rate was about 2.52 tala to
one U.S. dollar. I exchanged five dollars and received a colorful ten-tala
note along with several coins. Issued by the Central Bank of Samoa, the
currency features beautiful South Pacific scenes.
Bora Bora, Moorea, and Tahiti all use the French Pacific franc rather than
the euro. During our visit, the exchange rate seemed to fluctuate between
90 and 100 francs per U.S. dollar, depending on where you were shopping.
The prices can be a little intimidating until you remember to mentally
drop the last two digits. Those 50,000-franc pearl earrings suddenly
become about $500, and with the duty-free discount they're even more
attractive.
One thing I discovered is that many shops don't give change in U.S.
dollars, so I'm bringing home a few more francs than I really need. If
anyone happens to need French Pacific francs, I can offer a very favorable
exchange rate!
Like the Samoan currency, the French Pacific francs are colorful and
feature stingrays, sea turtles, and tropical birds.
Cars
Downtown Papeete was a jungle of cars. There were a few Fords, a couple of
Chevrolets, and even one Dodge pickup, but most of the vehicles were
Peugeots, Renaults, Hyundais, Suzukis, and a dozen other brands I didn't
recognize.
Nearly all of them were small cars with manual transmissions. Since all of
the fuel has to be imported, it's easy to understand why fuel-efficient
vehicles dominate the roads.
Our guide told us that Polynesian drivers were very courteous, and we
found that to be true. No matter how fast—or occasionally out of
control—they seemed to be driving, they always stopped to let us cross the
street. They even used their turn signals when entering and leaving
traffic circles, something drivers back home might want to try once in a
while.
I'm about a third of the way through my last book, and there's no way I
can stretch it out over the remaining seven sea days. Fortunately, I
loaded a few movies and some fly-fishing videos onto the iPad before we
left. That's a good thing, because the ship's library leaves a lot to be
desired.
Well, that's about it for today.
______________________
Aboard the Crown Princess
011° 40' South
146° 20' West
Posted by iPad Air 2
