Days at Sea

We departed Auckland in the afternoon of the 16th. Our sailing to Papeete is taking 5 1/2 days. Because of the International Date Line, we actually had two April 18ths. I am writing this on the morning of April 19th.

I thought you might enjoy knowing a little about our day. Just like at home, and everywhere we travel, I get up first. The International Cafe is open 24 hrs and have coffees, teas and pastries. When I get up, I go down have a Latte and check email using the laboriously slow internet. Eventually Bill is up and we have choices for breakfast. Just one floor down from us is the large buffet with far more choices than we will ever need. We have done that a couple of times, but as you can imagine, I am very leery of their eggs.

After breakfast, we both try to do something active. Some days Ride the stationary bike.

This is one of the bike stations, just waiting for me. I seem to run off the track on the virtual bike path, because my concentration drifts to the sea view. Oh well!

I have also been talking TRX classes. TRX uses your own body weight as the resistance.

Here I am exercising my tri/biceps

and here the TRX strap suspends my feet off the ground while I do push-ups.

Bill and I have also been doing stretches. Bill has always done this, but it is new to me and I can tell you, it is making a difference in my posture and various pains.

Some days, I do a spin class, which is designed to mimic a multi-faceted segment of the Tour de France. So, it has much higher hill profile than I am accustomed to.

After morning exercises, we sometimes just sit on our balcony and read or watch the waves pass by.

For lunch there is the buffet, a pizza stand, a burger, dogs and brats stand, or you can go for a full table service lunch. Bill and I like casual for lunch and have not done the table service.

In the afternoons and evenings, there are various games/activities. There is also movies on the wide screen at the mid-ship pool area. Yesterday we had an invitation for cocktails in the Grand Suite. The guests staying there are from Honolulu and received an upgrade offer from Princess. it is 3 to 4 times larger than our suite.

This is Bill on the balcony, which takes up most of the stern on the Baja Deck.

And this is the sitting room. I don’t see Bill and I ever sailing is this suite. We don’t cruise enough to get complimentary upgrades and we certainly can’t pay that much. But it was nice to see.

After cocktails in the Grand Summer the, we went to the movies.

And look what we watched. It was almost a sing along.

After the movie, we went to Club Class Dinning area, which has very attentive waitstaff and extra menu items.

There are so many choices on what to do each day. We tend to go to things that keep us active, eat sensible lunches and breakfasts and try healthier choices at dinner. But, who could refuse Bananas Foster last night?

So, this will either post later today, or if not, when we arrive into Papeete on the 21st. we are now on the same side of the date line as you, just hours earlier.