For those who have made it this far, our next cruise blog can be found at www.timmer2018europe2.blogspot.com.

Day 51- Tue-Wed 10/30-31/18 Papeete, French Polynesia to Home

For our last day in Tahiti, for $200, we hired a guide and car to take us to Tahiti-Itti (or the little Tahiti Island. She was informative and drove us to the end of the road on both the west and east sides of the island. The road system on Itti does not circumnavigate the island. At the end of the road on the west side is a beach with a surfing beach (Teahupo'o) where an annual competition is held. At the end of the east road is a black sand beach and a choir was practicing singing and it was beautiful.

On the way back to the hotel we enjoyed some local donuts and ginger drinks. Our guide dropped us off at the Carrefour supermarket near the port and after Angela purchased another bread bag for a friend's ukulele, we walked 2 miles back to the hotel along the waterfront and waited about two hours for our 6pm airport shuttle pickup.

While on the drive to the airport, our driver mentioned that the inaugural incoming United Flight was due in at 6:30pm and she was carrying cold drinking water for the dignitaries arriving on the flight. At the airport, we were number one and two to check in, which went very fast. We then watched the incoming welcoming drummers and dancers for several hours. It was interesting to observe many of the incoming passengers had a look look like they were 'deer in the headlights' at all the attention they were receiving.

Unlike what had previously been reported to me, it was a breeze to clear immigration and security. It might have taken 10 minutes max, and I received a full pat down at security. We promptly boarded the 787 Dreamliner and received special inaugural shell necklaces as memorabilia. At 10:45pm we lifted off into the black night sky for our 7 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco.

I only watched one episode of Jay Leno's garage on the inseat monitor before falling asleep after a mediocre chicken and rice meal. While I was asleep, the video system failed on the flight and was unavailable for the rest of the flight, but we each received an electronic $100 discount for a future flight. Breakfast was served about an hour and a half before touchdown and it was even worse than the first meal. It was a spinach bacon ciche with cold noodles and another super hard roll. Again, for an international flight, these meals were embarrassingly bad!

Touchdown in SFO was on time and we cleared US immigration quickly using our Global Entry status (5 minutes max). It was a bit of a wait for luggage, and Angela remembered that she left her small electronics bag on the airplane. So we checked with an UAL agent who initiated a search for the item. While that was happening we walked the 5 minutes over to Terminal 2 to check in at Alaska. After checking in, Angela retrieved her forgotten item, and we were the last ones to board our not very full flight to Seattle.

The flight to Seattle in Alaska Airlines was wonderful with a chance to rewatch 'Bullit' with its famous car chase scene and enjoy a fruit/cheese snack pack. Landing in Seattle, we flew over our house and noted the fall leaves colors. The cool and damp Pacific Northwest weather was upon us. We were home!

I'll do a wrap up post in a few days. Thanks to all who followed along on our journey. We'll have another one in about a month. It can be found at www.timmer2018europe2.blogspot.com. See you then, and stay tuned.

For this day we booked a 4x4 Safari Adventure and did it ever turn out to be an adventure. We were picked up just before 10am and 6 of us sat in the back of a 4x4 Masda pickup. The route essentially took us on a barely maintained road from the east side to the west side of the island. Essentially the road bisects the island. We saw LOTS of waterfalls, did many river crossings, climbed and descended very steep and twisty grades, observed two major power producing dams and several water control dams, got lessons in local flora, walked through a tunnel at the 2700 foot level, and at lunch at a very nice restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was super scenic.

Besides ourselves, there was Paul & Kudda from the cruise, Deborah, mother of a United employee who is helping set up the first flight from Papeete that we're on, and Lisa from Austria. At the end of the excursion, we shared a food truck meal with Lisa along with terrific conversation.

Back at the hotel we connected with Deborah from the ship and Angela assisted her in changing her sunburn bandages (2nd degree snorkeling burns). We also chatted about events of the last few days.

Tomorrow we hope to visit Tahiti Itti (the small island) before flying out. Stay tuned.

Day 49 - Sun 10/28/18 Papeete, French Polynesia

Protestant church

After a final breakfast onboard and after our Green 1 luggage tag was called, we scanned off the ship for the final time, collected our luggage, and waited for our shuttle to the hotel. Another couple was also waiting for the same shuttle and a little after 9 it showed up. It was a short drive to the Hotel Sarah Nui where we dropped our luggage off for storage until we could later check in. And off we went to walk to the Protestant Church of Pā'ōfa'i to attend the 10am service. It was about a half hour walk. While the service was conducted in Tahitian, French, and a little English, the singing was frequent, loud and exhuberant! And communion was served. The service ended at 11:30 and I was a little surprised that nobody greeted us.

From the church we walked another 25 minutes to the Carrefour (like a small Walmart) and did a little shopping. We see these stores frequently in Europe when we travel there. The store and the mall it's located in closed at 1pm (virtually nothing is open on Sundays). On our walk back to our hotel, we stopped at McDonald's as it was one if the few things open. We reached the hotel around 3pm, checked in, showered to cool off and relaxed for the rest of the day.  

Around 7pm we wandered down to the food trucks at the harbor where we enjoyed a crepe and conversation with a young couple from Slovakia and Portugal who were computer security professionals here on vacation. Before we knew it, two hours had passed. We finished the evening walking the mile back to the hotel. All totaled, we walked around 7 miles this day.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day! We have reserved a spot on a 4x4 jeep tour. Stay tuned!

Day 48 - Sat 10/27/18 Moorea, French Polynesia

Largest morai on the island 

For our last stop, which is a return visit to Moorea, we decided to not do any snorkeling, but we didn't know what we would do. So we ate a leisurely breakfast and caught a tender to shore. There we booked a 3 hour land tour that would circumnavigate the island. It was a good tour that took us to the Belvédère (a very scenic lookout point), a fruit tasting, a pineapple farm, a distillery, the ferry terminal, the public beach and a few other scenic stops. It was a worthwhile trip.

We got back to the port around 1pm, ate a quick local sandwich, and walked out to the local grocery store to look around. Back at the dock, Angela made one last major necklace purchase before we boarded a tender back to the ship.  

On board the ship we first noted that we received our 5 Star pins (the highest level in the Mariner Society with increased benefits starting on our next cruise) and we took quick showers to cool off and then went aft for Tani & Rose's sail away set. We said our goodbyes to new and old friends. As the ship made the short journey to Papeete, we ate a last dinner in the Lido and finished our packing. After the ship arrived at Papeete we watched the placement of the gangplank and the first passengers to disembark. We returned to our room to put out our rollable luggage in the hall. Overnight it will be taken off the ship and made ready for us to pick up in the morning.

We made one last pass through the Crow's Nest to say goodbyes to presenters and the Unexpected Boys. And so ended our last day on the cruise. We'll spend a couple days in Papeete before flying home Tuesday night on the inaugural flight by United Airlines from Papeete to San Francisco. Stay tuned for more. I'll also do a recap of my thoughts about the cruise.

Day 47 - Fri 10/26/18 Raiatea, French Polynesia

I'll say it up front: today was the absolute best snorkeling of the trip and possibly anywhere for us.

We arrived early at the port and didn't have to tender! Today was a first visit of the Maasdam to this port, but what a nice stop it was. They have a nice terminal and shops and a grocery store across the street.  

We found our L'Excursion Bleue excursion boat behind the nearby Shell service station. One couple didn't show, so another couple, Peter and Kathy took their place. Our outrigger canoe type boat held 12 guests plus Bruno, the owner, and Carlos, his deckhand. Raiatea is the second largest island in French Polynesia and adjoining it is Tahaa Island, noted for Vanilla and Pearl farms. We journeyed over to Tahaa Island and first snorkeled with the sharks and rays and other smaller fish. There were dozens and dozens of black tipped reef sharks

We visited a vanilla farm and learned about how vanilla is grown and processed. They had a nice fruit snack there and an assortment of vanilla products to purchase. Back on the boat, We then did some wonderful drift snorkeling over coral formations before enjoying a nice lunch on Tahaa Island. After lunch there was a brief stop at a pearl farm where we saw how the pearls are cultured. A short boat ride across the lagoon brought us to the next drift snorkeling location. We waded or snorkeled to shore and then walked across the motu (Island) and re-entered the water following Bruno through the coral canyons on another drift snorkel where we saw all sorts of colorful fish including Nemo (a clownfish) and a giant moray eel. 

We then rode the boat back to the pier which meant that we had circumnavigated Tahaa Island. At the port we said our goodbyes and did a little shopping before reboarding the Maasdam. Refreshing showers cleaned off the salt residue and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner with Peter and Kathy chatting extensively about their experiences being foster parents.

Annie Gong was our entertainment tonight and was her cute little self. The theme was classical music. Later on Rose & Tani performed a set in the Ocean Bar. Afterwards we chatted with Erik & Marilyn before enjoying a brief chat with Annie Gong and then returning to our room.  

Tomorrow is unfortunately the last day of our cruise. We will be in Moorea, but we don't have anything planned. But stay tuned to see what we do.

Day 46 - Thu 10/25/18 At Sea to Raiatea, French Polynesia

A new day and a new harem

This last day at sea started out on kind of a sour note. The whole morning into early afternoon was pretty much blocked out for a face to passport immigration inspection with only 2 officers on board to process 1250 plus guests. The event was held in the Main Showroom so all events (the few that there were) had to be held elsewhere. The inspection was organized by deck of the ship with Deck 4 being assigned the time slot 8am to 9am. However, it took much longer than that and we were on Deck 5 assigned to the 9am time slot. We joined the line at 9:15am and were finally done at 10:30am causing us to miss a 10am ukelele jam session. HAL was doing the best they could, and they had an orderly process; there were simply not enough inspectors. On the flip side, once we reach Papeete, we could be standing in the heat on the dock alongside the ship in a long line. There are no port facilities to handle a cruise ship of this size. The whole process got significantly delayed causing the afternoon programming to be delayed and shuffled around and put into different venues.

A group of us gathered in the main atrium and we staged a new picture of me with my harem. We joked that it was a different day and a different harem!

We did watch Rose & Tani in the Lido Pool area which was hard to hear due to the splashing of the waves from the pool. I listened part of Kay's port talk on Moorea and Papeete before attending Jo Bradford's phoneography class on editing. I think she spent too much time rehashing material we previously covered and not nearly enough time on editing.

This final gala night dinner was pretty special. A group of ten of us (Ann & JOHN, Kate & Jim, Barb & Alex, Arlene and Marny, Tim & Angela) who have been on since the beginning of the cruise in Ft. Lauderdale shared a table together and we all enjoyed fun conversations and memories along with a surf & turf meal.

The evening's entertainment was The Unexpected Boys doing their fourth set 'The Finale' in which they announce they are now the Jersey Tenors. We went to both the 8 and 10pm shows with the Chocolate Surprise sandwiched in at 9:45. Of their 16 performances since joining the ship, we've seen 15 of them. We only missed one due to a dinner obligation. At the 10pm performance, they received an enthusiastic standing ovation. They are truly the best live non cast entertainment we've seen on a ship and we have nearly 400 days on HAL and 4 other lines.

Tomorrow we are visiting a new port in Raiatea, French Polynesia. Stay tuned for what appears to be another great day in Paradise.