Around the World. Week 13 Wrap Up

In case you couldn't tell, it's my Birthday week!

Schedule

• Day 85 / April 1: Vava’u, Tonga

• Day 86 / April 2: At Sea

• Day 87 / April 3: Suva, Fiji

• Day 88 / April 4: At Sea

• Day 89 / April 5: Mystery Island, Vanuatu <-- My Birthday!!

• Day 90 / April 6: Noumea, New Caledonia

• Day 91 / April 7: At Sea

Day 85 - Vava’u, Tonga

I can confidently say that I’ve watched ALL of the Mission Impossible movies available to us currently on the ship. Little did I know that there was a “new” one that came out in 2025 that ended up being a continuation of the one from 2023. Did it follow the same storyline as all the others? Yep! Did it remind me of the Fast & the Furious saga meets James Bond in terms of unrealistic stunts and repetition of co-stars? Definitely! Did I have rewind a few times because I fell asleep repeatedly throughout? Obviously! (In case you didn’t read last week’s recap, I’ve been a bit under the weather for a few days at this point. Going a bit stir crazy to be honest!)

With that said, I exited my cabin for the first time in a few days to go celebrate a birthday! Did you know that when it’s your birthday, your name shows up on the Today’s channel and the crew circulates your photo to all of the restaurants around the ship? That way they can ensure you get extra special treatment, or in Virginia’s case, a very loud Happy Birthday song!

Day 86 - At Sea

I left my cabin again today! Was I required to quarantine for that long? Not really, but I just don’t like being around people when I don’t feel well. I’d much rather be in fetal position on my bed while wondering if this is the cough that will finally deflate my entire lung or if I’ll survive for another breath. Really hoping the walls are soundproof and I’m not keeping my poor neighbors up at all hours of the night and day...

After running my needed errands, like sending postcards, updating excursions and dining reservations, and turning in my mid-cruise comment card, I headed to “my office” in Baristas so I could catch up on all the cruise gossip and find out what’s new around the ship.

The other fun thing I was able to work on today was booking my next cruise using the future cruise credits that we received for the Around the World reroute. I replaced two of my NCL segments that were planned for Europe this summer with one Oceania cruise, so I will officially be back on the Vista in August! Now I get to work on booking more excursions and figuring out all the travel logistics… Maybe I’ll save that for another day.

The Speaker Series covered the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. I’ll admit; I’ve never heard of this story before. In summary, the expedition was intended to go to French Polynesia area to collect Bread Fruit plants and transport them to the Caribbean in order to have more food sources to feed the slaves living there, supporting the sugar cane industry. Along the way, a lot went wrong and eventually, moral on the ship tanked, resulting in the second in command to gain a following, eventually forcefully removing the captain and sending him to off on the life boats with some of his loyal followers. That crew survived and once back to England, the Royal Navy sent a flotilla in search of the Mutineers. After a bit of a chase, the Mutineers found a deserted island called Pitcairn that they could reside on and burned their ship because there was no other way to “hide” it. Life on the island wasn’t exactly what they all expected and the men started killing each other until eventually there was only one man left standing, who became responsible for the women and children living there with him. The Royal Navy eventually discovered the colony, but decided to leave them alone because the remaining Mutineer had his hands pretty full by then. In my opinion, being responsible for all those kids would have been a far worse punishment than being taken back to England to be hung…

Day 87 - Suva, Fiji

After missing out on a few ports due to being sick, I was very excited to go explore Fiji. I was even more excited because I was invited to join a private tour as an early Birthday present!

The tour started with the government buildings as we learned about their structure and current election status. I promise I was listening, but also may have gotten distracted by all of the tiny tadpoles and frogs hopping amongst the lily pads.

Next stop was to the Fiji Museum. There were quite a few items of note housed here. The first is the rudder from the infamous Bounty ship that we learned about from the Speaker the day prior. Because the the crew burned the ship, the only remaining piece was the rudder. Another interesting exhibit was the Flesh Forks. Yep, cannibalism used to be a thing here. For some reason, I had assumed that they consumed humans like savages, not using utensils, but turns out, they used forks, at least. The last thing that was unique is how the iTaukei tribe would use Whale Teeth as a type of currency, but primarily, they were used for men to present to women when they requested their hand in marriage. The bigger the tooth, the more valuable it was.

We then headed to a nearby Village. Because it was Good Friday, the typical dancers had the day off, so instead, the church choir welcomed us by singing local hymns and sharing Kava with us. The sharing of the Kava was similar to the ceremony I participated in at American Samoa where they mixed a communal bowl to share with the visitors. Then we had lunch! It was all home made in an Earth Oven, where the food is buried in a hole in a the ground and covered in banana leaves to allow it to steam. It was all delicious!

The last stop was at a swimming waterfall area. We were not so well prepared for this stop as it required “hiking” through the forest, while it was raining. My two travel partners both had on jeans and sneakers, while I had sandals and a sundress. We did not go swimming and only went as far as the middle pools instead of the full 45 minute hike.

Back aboard the ship, the solo travelers decided to have a Pizza Party! The Waves Grill turns into a pizza place for dinner every night, but they only have one size. We decided to have a get together in order to not waste so much food and try some of the different options.

Day 88 - At Sea

Cooking Class this morning! Nothing like a cocktail and tapas before 11am, but as I’ve mentioned, time is very arbitrary on the ship, especially with all of these time changes crossing the Pacific. Today’s theme was Asian, so we had a very lime flavored soup, rice wraps with duck confit, and pad Thai. This class was taught by the new Culinary Chef, Daniele. I’ve been asked how I compare the three chefs now that I’ve had classes with each of them. My analysis is as follows: Chef Stephano really highlights the social aspect of food, consistently bringing the discussions to stories of his family or how to prepare the meals for a dinner party. Chef Karlis is more about the technique and ensuring the students are learning the fundamentals of food preparation. Chef Daniele focused a lot on group participation and being very interactive throughout the entire class. All are very effective methods in their own way, with the results being an interesting and fun time in the Culinary Center.

The Speaker Series covered the “Australian Pearl Harbor”, which is when the Japanese bombed the Darwin port during World War II with a very similar approach as they did with the Hawaiian Pearl Harbor event. The sneak attack worked again, resulting in pretty devastating losses for the Australians. The reason we haven’t really heard much about it is because the Prime Minister at that time, tried to keep it quiet in order to limit widespread panic.

Day 89 - Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Hip Hip Hooray! It’s my Birthday! And what a day it was. Buckle Up because this will be a very long entry…

The morning started quietly, with overcast skies and light rain showers as the ship set about anchoring off the coast of Vanuatu. From my cabin, I could only see the lush green mountains and was confused because I thought we were going to a beach island that day, that you could “walk around the whole thing in 20 minutes”. I decided to head upstairs to get coffee and a view off the other side of the ship. From Deck 14, we could see a small plot of land, that looked to have beaches, but were not convinced it was Mystery Island until we saw the tenders travel there and noticed the small dock projecting out from the beach. It was about this time, that the sun was just trying to peak through, resulting in faint rainbows on and off as the clouds passed in front of the sun. If you recall back to St Patty’s day, we saw a full rainbow over the ocean, but couldn’t search for the pot of gold. Well, today, the pot of gold was obviously the tender at the end of the rainbow, which meant we were able to go ashore!

But before I went ashore, we had an Easter Egg hunt! While I expected this to happen, it wasn’t discussed on the daily show by the Cruise Director, so I didn’t know to search until he made an announcement over the PA. By that time, most of the easy eggs were found and although I tried to search for the 100 point egg, someone else got to it first. Oh well. I know she’ll use the Big O points more than I would have, so it worked out.

Following a quick breakfast, I headed back to my cabin to grab my stuff to go ashore and I was extremely surprised that my room had been decorated! Walking in, the first thing I noticed was the music. The cabin stewards had turned on the High Energy Dance Music channel on the TV and turned it up. Next, I saw all the red balloons that had been taped to my ceiling. As I walked in further, I could see the birthday cake made out of towels that was placed on my bed, surrounded by other towel animals and a few of the stuffed animals that I had won in claw games. There was also a “Happy Birthday” banner on the wall. It all made me so happy! I could not stop smiling all morning!

I decided to go to the island earlier than my planned excursion so that I could walk along the beaches. With my excursion meeting time just after noon and getting to shore around 10am, that gave me enough time to walk around the island about six times. In reality, I walked it twice because as you may have figured out, I talk to everyone and take pictures of everything. So stopping every few yards delayed my pace quite a bit.

The water was clear and warm. The sand was a bit rough with all the shell bits and rocks. The sun had decided to shine through more and more throughout the morning. There were hermit crabs, sand crabs, and other crabs hanging out on rocks everywhere! Basically, any time I took a step, I could see something scurrying away or ducking for cover in its shell. I practiced being a statue quite a bit in order to get some videos of the little dudes peaking out and sashaying across the sand again.

Eventually, it was time for the snorkel excursion. With my meeting time at 12:10pm, I arrived at the meeting point just after noon only to find out that the group had already left and they filled my spot with a couple who had missed their excursion earlier that day. However, they were able to get me on the next departure, so I just had to wait a little bit longer.

When it was our group’s turn to get ready, there was some confusion and muttering. From being on this ship, I have really learned how to be much more patient than I used to be, so I just stood there and waited to be told what to do. At some point, the guide came over and asked me where my friend was, so I confirmed that I was a solo traveler. (This detail is important later in the story.) Once everyone was ready, we headed to the boat.

The excursion was called Drift Snorkel, which I had never done before, but the gist is they take you out in a boat, drop you off, and you just snorkel with the current until they pick you up again. However, with this location, they took us out to the break reef and we swam all the way back to shore. I have absolutely no idea how far this was, but it took us well over an hour to complete. During this time, we saw some magnificent coral and very colorful fishes! Rumor is there was a shark and barracuda in the area, but I did not see them. We also had to be very careful about navigating around the coral as it can easily cut you if the waves smash you against it or you don’t pay attention and end up in a shallow area, potentially scrapping across the top of a reef.

Now, I’m a good swimmer as we grew up with a pool and vacationed at the Great Lakes often. I’m also really good at following directions because of my time in the Nuclear Industry. Both of these things lead to me being right behind the guide most of the time. As we progressed, he would show me different things such as a sea mushroom or giant clams. At one point, we were waiting for the rest of the group to catch up when he mentioned how lucky we were to be seeing all those different things. I casually mentioned that it must be because it’s my birthday. What followed was a very awkward hug, in the water with a strong current / waves, and I really didn’t understand what was happening. But don’t worry, it gets more awkward very soon!

From that point, we really just needed to swim across the deep zone, where it was wide open without coral, so the group got moving. Again, I ended up near the guide with the rest of the the group a bit behind us. This is when it got weird. The guide slowed up to be next to me as we propelled ourselves towards shore. He then reached his hand out towards mine. I assumed he was going to point me at something like he had previously done when we were meandering amongst the reefs. Nope! Instead he interlocked his fingers with mine and pulled me in to swim hand in hand. Now, I’ll admit I was not sure what to do in this situation and just went with it for a bit or at least until I could wiggle free, claiming I needed both hands to swim… Once on shore, we returned our equipment and I quickly made my exit. Let’s just say, this guide was not the same as Steven from Raiatea.

Once back on the ship, I grabbed a quick lunch and headed to get cleaned up for the big night. I realize that I’ve already typed up almost two pages and we haven’t even made it to the main events of the day. I did warn you to buckle in!

First up - Cocktail hour at Martini’s. Leading up to this portion of the party, I had notified the Food and Beverage Manager that I was planning something and recommended that they have a few extra servers in the area since we would be there earlier than the normal crowds tended to roll in. When I got to the lounge, they had cordoned off a section with Private Event signs. I’ll admit that I thought it was a bit much and suggested they take it down because I really didn’t know how many people were planning to join and didn’t want to take up more space than we really needed. They left it up, even with my protest. It ended up being the best thing to do because over 50 people came though to celebrate my birthday! I don’t know why I’m still surprised of the outpouring of friendship, but I am. It was amazing! As we started to move towards the Grand Dining Room, Piano Man David stopped us and started the “Happy Birthday” song, so I was serenaded by the entire lounge!

When we got to the Grand Dining Room, there was a bit of confusion over the number of people in my party, but the Staff did a great job responding and getting us all settled into tables near each other. Dinner was fun to get to see all the people who I’ve gotten to know also get to know each other. Once the main meal was cleared, it was time for the cake! But really, it was a nut-less brownie disguised as a cake! (Courtesy of Chef Fredric) What followed next was something that I don’t know if I can fully describe, but as the brownie cake was presented to me with a lit candle, those sat at other tables got up to surround mine, but it wasn’t just those that had intentionally joined in for my birthday, but it seemed that the entire dining room joined in with the “Happy Birthday” song. So as I looked around, with all eyes back on me, it felt so special to also see my smile reflected from everyone as well. If you were there, again, thank you so much for making this night so memorable!

The night did not end at that point as some of us made our way back to Martini’s for more music with David at the piano and it continued until well after closing time.

Whew! What a day!! Such an amazing day!!

Day 90 - Noumea, New Caledonia

For once, I slept long after the sun came up. I can only imagine why… Actually, we all know why if you read the whole marathon story from Day 89. Oh, we're also at the HALFWAY POINT!! It really is crazy to think we've been on the ship for three months already with just three more to go!

Once again, the skies were a bit overcast with rain sprinkling down, so instead of a beach day, I figured I’d go wander through shops and maybe keep it a low key day. However, once in the city, I found that most of the shops were closed for Easter Monday. I’ll admit that I didn’t really research this location, mostly expecting to need a down day after my birthday, so after a bit of LeAnne-dering, I headed back to the ship to book a spa appointment.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of a massage, during which I fell asleep a few times, likely snoring, and napping at the pool. Come to find out, there actually was a lot to do in New Caledonia if I would have ventured a little further or booked a trolly tour. Oh well, this area is already on my Come Back list because most of French Polynesia was a bust due to rain or my cold.

I’ve skipped a lot of the evening entertainment this segment due to my cough, so once again, the evening was a quick dinner at Terrace and music with David at the Piano, then off to bed.

Day 91 - At Sea

Early to bed + an hour time change = really, really early to rise. Up at 4:30am with the sun, I actually got to Baristas before they even officially opened at 6:30am. Believe it or not, someone was already in my seat! But don’t worry, they were only waiting to get a coffee, so I was able to move down shortly after arriving.

It took me hours, yes hours, to type up this week’s recap. Not only because I was a slacker and didn’t keep up with it day to day, but also because I pause to chat throughout the morning.

Good thing I got up early because the day ended up being very busy!

It was Country Fair day again where all the ship department set up fun little games for the passengers to play. We get raffle tickets and hope to win some Oceania swag. For the umpteenth time, I did not officially win anything, BUT the lady next to me won a tote bag and decided she didn't want it, or the rest of her raffle tickets, so she gave them all to me! I didn't win anything more, but didn't walk away empty handed. I'm claiming it as a win!

A few weeks back on an excursion, I had briefly met a couple who had invited me to lunch. With all the port days and my being sick, we weren't able to meet up until today. It is always fun to meet new people. Plus they are now on for the rest of the trip, so I'll continue to see them even after this segment ends in two days time.

Next up was the Speaker Series where we learned about the origins of Australia. Basically the British did what the British did which was ignore the Indigenous peoples and colonized the land. Similar to the States, they initially sent the prisoners there to start the cities, but then filled in the population by sending families there as well. What I found most interesting was the similarities to Canada in terms of still being a Crown country and the population distribution. For Australia, the population is most dense around the coastal areas and the rest of the country is mostly uninhabitable whereas for Canada, most of the population is along the southern boarder due to the northern areas being too cold (aka also uninhabitable).

Today starts the sad goodbye sequence as we are about to wrap up another segment in Sydney. That means the Our World show was pre-dinner followed by the Crew Salute. My favorite brownie supplier (Chef Fredric) is leaving as well as our Cruise Director Carson. It's going to be a very sad farewell in two days time. As you can see in the photo, the waterworks may have already started leaking.

Dinner was another birthday celebration! Yes, the THIRD this week! If you look closely between this photo and the one from Day 85, you may notice that the other day, you could see outside and tonight, it was pitch black. Yep, we had another time change as well. Slowly making our way back to Eastern Time now, but we're still 14 hours ahead.

But for now, I'm off to bed and get ready to start Week 14...