*Live* from the Eurodam - Hawaii/Tahiti/Marquesas

[FlorenceItaly]

You've had wonderful weather.  What a great trip.  Thank you so much for taking us along!

[seamist]

Today we are doing a morning island tour with William of Kevai Tours.  We have visited a cave where Paul Gauguin used to swim, and a botanical garden.

[Jersey42]

@seamist.  We have been following all of your posts since the beginning. On Saturday we are on a 28 day Princess cruise with many of the same ports.  We get less of the Polynesian Islands, a little more of Hawaii plus Samoa and American Samoa.  Our only other ports are Bora Bora, Tahiti and Moorea. Your pictures and comments on the ports have been inspiring.  Thanks for doing this.  Hope our journey is as good as yours.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Jersey42

[seamist]

2nd part of our tour included another waterfall and the blowhole.

[seamist]

1 hour ago, Jersey42 said:

@seamist.  We have been following all of your posts since the beginning. On Saturday we are on a 28 day Princess cruise with many of the same ports.  We get less of the Polynesian Islands, a little more of Hawaii plus Samoa and American Samoa.  Our only other ports are Bora Bora, Tahiti and Moorea. Your pictures and comments on the ports have been inspiring.  Thanks for doing this.  Hope our journey is as good as yours.

You are very welcome.  I have talked with a lot of folks who dream of this type of trip but just unable to do it, which was my purpose.  Let you all come along with us and perhaps be able to do this trip in future.

[seamist]

Stopped by the place where Capt. James Cook landed in Tahiti and where “The Mutiny on the Bounty” was filmed.

[seamist]

And there was a Lighthouse at the same location commemorating the father of Robert Louis Stevenson.

[seamist]

Following our tour we stopped by the Papeete market.  Yep, got another flower arrangement to enjoy on the trip home, the Hilo arrangement lasted quite a while but starting to look a bit rough.  The DH picked up some pastries, who can resist a French pastry?  And we bought good souvenirs here, Manoi de Tahiti oil is fabulous.  I’ve started using this stuff on my peeling skin (sunburn remnants) and boy what a difference it makes.  Another tip:  if you visit the vanilla plantation on Tahaa buy your vanilla there!  The vanilla offered at the market was twice the cost.  The market was about a 5-10 minute walk from the ship, and an excellent place to make a stop while in Papeete.  And they do love U.S. dollars!

[seamist]

For those ladies like myself who sew once in awhile there is a lovely fabric store directly across from the market that sells a wide variety of Tahitian fabric.  Average price is about 9.00 U.S. per meter.  I picked up 2 meters worth of a lovely design.   Maybe if/when we do this cruise again I’ll have it made up into a blouse🙈😂

[seamist]

Tonight’s menu and pics.  I did not take any photos of dessert. DH ordered the mango creme horn and I the banana crisp, already photographed upthread a ways.

[seamist]

We cruise away from Papeete to another beautiful sunset heading towards tomorrow’s port:  Fakarava. Onboard activities:

[Krazy Kruizers]

Beautiful, beautiful pictures.

 

I love the flowers.  There was a time when I did sew and would have taken advantage of all those wonderful fabrics.

 

You are really enjoying lovely weather.

[DocJohnB]

8 hours ago, seamist said:

Yep, got another flower arrangement to enjoy on the trip home,

I could certainly enjoy this gorgeous arrangement in my cabin.

[Purdey16]

Beautiful flowers and fantastic sunsets pictures 

[cawpaw]

This has been such a treat following your wonderful adventure. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with everyone!

[Sea42]

9 hours ago, seamist said:

And we bought good souvenirs here, Manoi de Tahiti oil is fabulous.  I’ve started using this stuff on my peeling skin (sunburn remnants) and boy what a difference it makes. 

I'm still using mine from our visit to the South Pacific in January! Just so you know, the oil will become solid in colder temps. I have to put mine on our heating vent while I shower so that's liquid by the time I'm ready to use it. While the bottle was still full I could squeeze the oil out and it would melt in my hand, but sadly there is not much remaining in my last bottle 😥

[seamist]

44 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

I'm still using mine from our visit to the South Pacific in January! Just so you know, the oil will become solid in colder temps. I have to put mine on our heating vent while I shower so that's liquid by the time I'm ready to use it. While the bottle was still full I could squeeze the oil out and it would melt in my hand, but sadly there is not much remaining in my last bottle 😥

Thanks for that information.....good to know!

[Alphen]

Great reading, thanks for sharing, looking how it is like, perhaps in preperation of such a cruise in the future.

[riverrat]

Seamist, Flowers are stunning, the Wellington looks good too, I hope it was.  Love the photos of the fabric bit different than our Batiks. We received our cabin assignment today for the 6th when we take the vessel from you 🙂 Are you still enjoying the food on board? We are enjoying your cruise too  

[seamist]

2 hours ago, riverrat said:

Seamist, Flowers are stunning, the Wellington looks good too, I hope it was.  Love the photos of the fabric bit different than our Batiks. We received our cabin assignment today for the 6th when we take the vessel from you 🙂 Are you still enjoying the food on board? We are enjoying your cruise too  

Think I’m enjoying the food too much, sure I’m gaining weight 😬😬😬🙈.  Beef broth diet when I get home!

[jmkennett]

19 hours ago, seamist said:

Tonight’s menu and pics.  I did not take any photos of dessert. DH ordered the mango creme horn and I the banana crisp, already photographed upthread a ways.

 

39 minutes ago, seamist said:

Think I’m enjoying the food too much, sure I’m gaining weight 😬😬😬🙈.  Beef broth diet when I get home!

Great to sail along with you.  Thank  you for all the info and pics.  Just got off the Koningsdam for a great 10 days.  Awesome ship and cruise. 

 

Seeing the $10 extra entree charge, I've noticed a few other differences in the menus & daily activities paper.  On the K, we had three appetizers every night on the menu.  Noticing mostly two per night on the Euro.  Seems like another cutback.  No more cold soups on the K either and I've seen none on your Euro menus either.  Guess they have been taken off of the menus.  The extra $10 for an additional entree was not on the K. 

 

The daily paper is different on the K and has been even more simplified.   Gone is the the info from the past about the captain, officers, general ship info, etc.   Very little port info was given as well.  It's basically an advertisement for shopping.  Have a great rest of your cruise.  

Edited March 29, 2019 by jmkennett

[Cls241]

20 minutes ago, jmkennett said:

 

Great to sail along with you.  Thank  you for all the info and pics.  Just got off the Koningsdam for a great 10 days.  Awesome ship and cruise. 

 

Seeing the $10 extra entree charge, I've noticed a few other differences in the menus & daily activities paper.  On the K, we had three appetizers every night on the menu.  Noticing mostly two per night on the Euro.  Seems like another cutback.  No more cold soups on the K either and I've seen none on your Euro menus either.  Guess they have been taken off of the menus.  The extra $10 for an additional entree was not on the K. 

 

The daily paper is different on the K and has been even more simplified.   Gone is the the info from the past about the captain, officers, general ship info, etc.   Very little port info was given as well.  It's basically an advertisement for shopping.  Have a great rest of your cruise.  

 

Sailing the Eurodam soon, interested to see if they're going to keep the $10 charge on the menu.  This will be my first sailing with it listed. I did read it was supposed to $10 on Gala Nights only, but seems it's every night.   I personally find the appetizers more interesting than the entrees, so at least they're not charging $5 for an extra appetizer (yet). 

[seamist]

Today we did https://www.fakaravaexcursions.com/ out to the “Blue Lagoon”.  The excursion started out, shall we say, a bit rocky.  Some folks who had booked this tour for whatever reason decided not to show.  The tour director was blaming the ship being slow with the tenders, but the reality was, those who booked went early to get tender tickets and had no problems whatsoever making it on time.  The poor tour operator got stiffed.  Nevertheless, he should have left on time, instead we sat there waiting and we were not sure how well this was going to go to say the least.

 

FINALLY a half an hour late we left and were on our way, the tour operator picking up other people at the last minute filling the boat.  From here on out the tour was FABULOUS.  The Blue Lagoon left me feeling like I was in , well, the movie Blue Lagoon or something.  It was an absolutely beautiful unspoiled place.  I was expecting Gilligan and the Skipper to show up!  So we had a wonderful time in this peaceful lagoon swimming, snorkeling, and enjoying some fresh coconut water.  This place fit my every imagination of what the South Pacific is like.

 

From there we went to the coral garden for some deep water snorkeling, then back to the ship.  Wonderful tour.

[seamist]

Tonight’s menu and pics:

[cccole]

All I can say is WOW!!!!!  "Our" adventures in French Polynesia have been amazing.  I assume that you arranged your excursions by doing you own research and did not use ship excursions.  Just FABULOUS.  Thank you,  Cherie