Our Tahiti Cruise!
Day 7 – 16 Dec 2005
(Daily Princess Patter Pg 1, Pg 2, Pg 3) – Red dots indicate events we attended
Another relaxing day at sea coming up! We spend SO much time on our balcony just sitting there looking at the ocean. It’s so great and the weather has been so nice.
This is a shot of the water from our balcony. The water is so blue and so clear that when the sun hits it you can see the rays cut right through the water.
Time for a cooking demonstration This was a really funny show. They prepared some dishes for us but they had a lot of fun doing it.
Every time someone went to take a picture of them they’d scramble into this pose – no matter what was going on. These guys are always so serious and it was nice to see them let loose and have some fun for a change.
After the demonstration we were invited to take a tour of the galley.
The galley was huge and extremely clean.
They had lots of foods “on display” for us as we went through. Overall we were very impressed with the galley.
Time for the FINAL art auction!
Susan liked this painting of this deck chair overlooking the ocean. It was a watercolor original. Unfortunately, it was $2000 so Susan decided to pass. We didn’t buy anything at the auction. We had looked this artist and some of the others up on Ebay using the ships internet connection and we really didn’t see any good art “bargains” on board.
Next we had lunch. We sat in the back of the boat on a balcony looking over this view.
Time for BINGO! This was the final bingo of the cruise and was worth $1300 to the winner! We didn’t win but one of the folks that sit at our dinner table won! We were so happy for them.
Not much to take a photo of while we are at sea.. so how about a tour of the ship? We’ve been onboard for 7 days now and know these areas really well. It’s currently a quiet time onboard as it’s right before dinner so most people are in their cabins getting dressed for the evening. So Adam grabbed his camera and is giving us a tour..
Let’s start with deck 4. This is to the left of the purser’s desk and it is the main lobby. The “Captains Circle” desk is here for folks that are returning princess cruises passengers, and for registering to get email updates and news information about upcoming cruises, etc.
This is just behind the purser’s desk. It’s a beautiful staircase where they take lots of photos of people. We will have our picture taken here on the next formal night.
To the right of the purser’s desk is this lobby for the shore excursion desk. The shore excursion folks were really friendly and helpful. They had all sorts of details about all of the shore excursions and when we wanted to switch one around they made it all very simple.
Here’s the purser’s desk. The staff here were extremely helpful and really went out of their way to answer any questions and get us any information we needed.
Up a deck to deck 5. This is the entrance to the club restaurant where we have our evening meals. Unfortunately, it was slowly approaching dinnertime and I wasn’t able to snap a picture inside.
This is a small lobby near the shops. Just inside this lobby to the left is the “future cruise” desk where you can book future cruises in advance.
This is another hallway leading to the shops. This is where most of the artwork for the art show is on display.
Here are the shops. On the left is where you can purchase snacks, toiletries, shirts, etc. They had a little of everything. On the right is the jewelry store where they sold nice Tahitian pearls. Susan keeps going in there to check them out.
I know these pictures look like mirror images of each other, but it’s actually the left and right side of the ship out on the deck of deck 5.
This is a beautiful piano bar.
This is where the photo gallery is located. All pictures taken by the photography staff put the photos up here for purchase. We’ll definitely be getting at least a couple of these.
This is a ships main photographer. He seemed happy someone was taking HIS photo for a change.
This is the casino. It was very small. There are perhaps 25-30 slot machines and 4 gaming tables. It got pretty busy at night. We played around in here for a while and had no luck.
This is the entrance to the Cabaret lounge. Unfortunately, it was closed for rehearsals when this photo was taken. However, this is where all the shows are doing and the cooking show earlier in the day was done here – so we’ve got plenty of photos of it from other days of the cruise.
Decks 6-8 are passenger cabins, so up to Deck 9 we go. This is the entrance to the fitness center. Inside the fitness center it is pretty big, there is lots of different pieces of equipment to work out on. It was pretty crowded when this photo was taken.
This is the main desk for the Lotus Spa. The girls of the spa were nice enough to pose for this photo. Everyone there was very friendly. Adam passed on a perm.
These 2 rooms are both part of the Lotus Spa.
This is the card and game room. This was a small but nice room with a nice view of the ocean where folks can go and play some cards or play some board games.
This the internet room. Using it was very simple. Simply swipe your room card and you’re on the internet! The connection was extremely slow and the charge is $.50 per minute.
This is outside on desk 9 at the pool area. There is the pool in the middle and plenty of places to sit and enjoy the sun.
Here’s the bar that services the pool area.
This is the entrance to the excellent buffet. We eat most of our breakfasts and lunches here.
Entering the buffet. There’s lots of seating and huge windows all around so everyone gets a great view.
When this photo was taken the buffet was currently closed. This is just one side of the buffet.
Just outside of the buffet, in the pool area, is this snack stand. You can get hamburgers, hot dogs, and the like all day long.
Deck 10 contains the Italian restaurant and the steakhouse. They were both currently closed.
The night quickly approaching so we went back to our room to get dressed for the evening. We saw a great production show called “Gotta dance, Gotta sing!” by the Tahitian dancers. Then we went for dinner where it was Italian night and the pasta was very good.
Tomorrow we need to be up quite early as we are on the first snorkeling Tour out of Rangiroa.