Day 18 - Fri 26Apr2024 - Mo'orea, Tahiti
Some days and some places are more special than others. Moorea is one of those places for us. And today would have a special surprise for us. But more on that later. We didn't leave Papeete until sometime between 5 and 6am for the very short 10 mile sail over to Moorea. When we were here in 2018 we totally rebelled in the snorkeling and other scenic beauty of Moorea. So we were certainly glad to be back and were able to book a snorkeling tour from the ship after being on a waitlist. This is a tender port, so we met up with our group in the Princess Theater and were promptly sent down to a "water shuttle" (tender on other cruise lines) at 8:15 and after a short tender ride we quickly transferred to a catamaran. We exited the reef protected harbor, had a safety drill and then headed back into the protected reef area to a shallow spot just past an abandoned hotel complex.
At this first stop we spent nearly an hour in the water with sting rays, black tipped reef sharks, and all measure of very colorful fish. In fact we saw more colorful fish in the first 5 minutes here than we spent in all of the snorkeling time in Papeete. We were then transported to a beach on a little island which was near a second little island. In the water between the two islands was what they called a coral garden and it was there that we were free to snorkel for an hour. Interestingly, no life jackets or safety equipment was required. The snorkeling was good there except there wasn't the quantity of colorful fish that we had experienced at the first stop. There were certainly a large quantity of fish including one very large trigger fish (at least 24" in diameter. It was pretty cool to spot that one. All too soon it was time to snorkel back to the catamaran for our return to the wharf.
After we arrived at the wharf, I found the vendor Angela had purchased a ukulele from in 2018. The vendor gave me a lesson on how to tie the strings as one of Angela's had broken. We then decided to take a walk out of the port area and find a little restaurant to eat lunch at. About a mile to the left of the port exit, we found the Tasty Moorea Cafe and enjoyed a ceviche dish accompanied by grilled fish and a salad for $26.50US. It was yummy. We try to eat off of the ship whenever possible to support the local economy and experience new flavors. When we got back to the dock, Angela informed me that she wanted to return to the ship and get her ukelele and show it to the vendor she had purchased it from 6 years ago. So we water shuttled back to the ship, dropped off our snorkeling gear and retried the ukelele and caught an empty shuttle back to the port. We were the only passengers on the shuttle, so we were free to move around. A rain squall quickly approached and forced us to take shelter inside the tender. But then a rainbow opened up and we were able to take terrific pictures of the rainbow directly over the Majestic Princess. It turned out to be a very nice picture and has been enjoyed by many passengers and crew. Angela showed her ukelele to the vendor and compared the instrument to the current version with is slightly larger and made from laminated wood.
We were on the second to last shuttle (last shuttle was at 4pm) and once back on the ship we showered and changed into dry clothes. We ate a light dinner and I decided to attend the 8:30 comedian's performance in the Vista Lounge. I got there an hour early and secured front row seats for us an hour early. Andrew Grose, the comedian, who is from Canada showed up at 7:30pm and was stunned at the crowd already assembled. He was really funny and clean. We then went to the 9:30pm Princess Theater performance Dale Burridge, an Australian who sang lead roles in the Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. He was probably the best singer we've had this cruise. His voice quality and background explanations were excellent. Afterwards we did laundry and watched the latest episode of Oak Island while waiting for the laundry to wash and dry. We didn't make it to bed until after midnight.
Tomorrow is the first of 5 sea days. We have a new set of enrichment talks and for me a pretty light schedule during the day. Hopefully I can get the remainder of my underwater photos and movie as uploaded to my iPhone from my underwater camera.
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