Up bright and early this morning, with an emphasis on early. Why are there so many roosters aorund, when only a fraction are needed relative to the hen population? And why are all of them always outside my hotel door at 5:20 am? From Montserrat to Papeete, it is a mystery.
But you know what the Silver Cloud does not have? Roosters. (Presumably. It has been more than a year since we were last onboard.)
Off for breakfast. The buffet runs close to US$35 per person with an American option, so we ordered a la carte instead.
Our daughter had the pancakes:
Our son had eggs and bacon:
And I had a cappucino:
This was extra-fortuitous as it came with whipped cream that I was able to place atop one of the crepes I stole from my daughter.
And my wife and I had yoghurt and a couple of croissant. (Which disappeared before I had time to photograph them.) All of this clocked in at a much more reasonable US$45 for all of us.
Rationally, I do know that it’s a bit silly to count our pennies when we’re on a holiday like this, but I also cannot abide paying US$150 for breakfast. Besides, we’ll soon be in the land of unlimited breakfasts.
Back to the room to pack up and to tackle the usual routine of reading, writing, and homework. We’re coming into the Thanksgiving weekend in Canada so if they can get caught up now, they’ll be all set for the next four days. It’s good timing, as we’ll soon be in the thick of our expedition activities in the Tuamotus and the Marquesas and there will be little time for homework.
While packing up, I came across the laundry sheet for the Royal Tahitien for those curious about pricing:
Not as expensive as we’ve seen elsewhere. And the grounds here are actually quite nice:
One last glimpse from our mini-lanai:
And then it was time to play everyone’s favourite game show, “Will our driver show up on time?”
Roughly 15 minutes out, I sent our driver Alvarez a quick WhatsApp message just to make sure – and he confirmed that he was on his way. He arrived right on time, and we were soon loaded up and on our way to the cruise terminal. So full marks to our taxi driver.
Here’s Alvarez’s number in case anyone’s looking for a reliable driver with a large vehicle in Papeete:
The Te Anuanua cruise terminal is brand new, and seems organized and well laid out. There are a collection of young men in safety vests waiting to wrestle your bags out of the taxi when you arrive. I thought they would be aggressive in terms of wanting tips, but this just seems to be their job – helping you get your bags checked in for boarding, and then showing you where to go. So I gave our particular yellow-vest man a good tip, which I wouldn’t have done if he’d been pushy about it.
We then joined the line for Silversea, where we filed the usual health paperwork, registered our credit card, had our photos taken and picked up our room keys. This is the first time we’d actually done this in a cruise terminal as opposed to on the ship, as was done in both Dublin and Puerto Williams. The benefits of having a proper cruise terminal!
We also asked about the VAT paperwork for our pearls purchase, and about possible upgrades. We’d seen that Silversea had been pushing out regular e-mails about bidding to upgrade, which we had studiously ignored as they were both too expensive and there were no guarantees that we would be able to upgrade both rooms simultaneously.
We mentioned that we might perchance be interested in the Owner’s Suite and then named a ludicrously low price. They said they would look into it and get back to us – they didn’t hold out much hope of meeting our price, but we’re taking this as the start of negotations rather than the end. (With full awareness that someone will likely scoop it out from under us!)
Then it was just a short walk along the pier before our beloved Cloud came into view:
We’re almost there! Just a short walk up the gangway, as we wondered whether we might see any familiar faces once again. And we did! We spotted Bogdan – the Wind’s photographer and instructor of my fantastic masterclass – ready to welcome us onboard. (The Hotel Director seemed somewhat confused as to why I was talking about my new lenses while shaking his hand and looking over his shoulder.)
Otherwise, both Brett and Malcolm from the Wind’s expedition team are currently aboard the Cloud, and we have even spotted a familiar face – Patrick – from our trip to the UK and Greenland in 2023. Feels good to be onboard again.
Up to the Grill for a spot of lunch. Today’s menu:
My wife had the Caesar salad:
The kids each had a hotdog:
And I had the Reuben:
All very tasty with excellent service. Feels great to be back in the Silversea fold once more.
During lunch, I logged on to check out the cost of premium internet – US$273 for the full voyage, so we got two sets. (Last time we learned the hard way how frustrating it can be to deal with pokey internet, so we’re just going to skip all that nonsense this time around.)
We then headed up to the Observation Lounge for our usual reading / writing / homework, while I dashed off at intervals to run admin as needed.
We were also able to watch the safety briefing on our various devices – handy to not have to be in the room to do so.
First visit was to confirm that our name was on the list regarding upgrades. (It needed to be added.) Second was to see whether we could use our rooms as normal while we waited to hear back regarding upgrades. (We could, and should.) Third visit was to inquire about VAT. (They would handle it, we just needed to drop it off at the front desk.)
We also learned that there will be 199 passengers aboard this sailing and that unfortunately several of them are without luggage following a botched connection out of San Francisco. Fingers crossed that their bags catch up with us at some point in the journey – that’s no fun at all. At least they have time to do a bit of shopping in Papeete before the Cloud departs.
While roaming the ship, I also spotted a copy of today’s Chronicle:
Another familiar face – Igor, guitarist from the Wind! Will Chloë, the Wind’s former Entertainment Hostess, also be aboard? We’ll just have find out.
We spent a little while longer in the Observation Lounge, then went down to check on our rooms.
All the bags were there, along with a very welcome bottle of champagne.
Off to Panorama, where we confirmed – it’s Igor! Chloë is not onboard at present, as she is working with Four Seasons on the launch of one of their forthcoming luxury yachts. We also checked in with the Cloud’s muster crew – it was as simple as presenting ourselves and listing off the names of the people in each room.
We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon playing sudoko and reading in Panorama. Some of the guests from our previous voyages on the Wind and the Cloud are currently on board, and swung by to say hello – always a pleasant surprise!
I went back down to the front desk to see if there was any word regarding the upgrade situation. Head office has closed and because we are trying to negotiate, it may be a day or so before a deal can be struck. While we were looking forward to unpacking for a 23 day stretch, the tone was sufficiently optimistic that we will live out of our suitcases for a little longer yet.
We then had a chance to formally meet Sun, our butler, and Sree, our stateroom attendant. They walked through the usual items regarding room controls, laundry, and so forth and so on. No real changes or surprises since our previous journey aboard the Wind.
Off to the briefing! We were thrilled to run into some more passengers from previous expeditions, and have joined a trivia team. (Hopefully with a full roster – to be confirmed tomorrow!)
Apart from a very, very loud musical introduction, the initial briefing went well – we started with an introduction to the officers, followed by Expedition Leader Peter presenting a voyage overview and then the plan for tomorrow’s stop at Rangiroa at 10 am tomorrow.
Rangiroa is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus. It consists of more than 400 islands, and forms a lagoon that is larger in size than all of Tahiti.
We have several mandatory briefings that need to take place – zodiac, kayak, snorkelling – and then they will be running a zodiac shuttle down to the beach tomorrow afternoon. Potential excursions include kayaking, snorkelling and a glass bottom boat ride.
We have put our names down for snorkelling. It sounds like the minimum age is 5 years old for these kinds of easy floats, or 8 years old for deeper waters – so we should be all set.
We are in zodiac group 4, so we are booked for a 2 pm departure – however, we can head to the beach earlier if we so choose. While we had previously heard there wouldn’t be much in the way of snorkelling, Peter said they will do their utmost to find other opportunities while we are in the Marquesas.
(It will, understandbly, be tougher in Pitcairn and in Rapa Nui – fair enough! We’ll simply be happy if we land there at all.)
Dinner at La Terrazza tonight, as is our tradition for sailaway. Tonight’s menu:
The kids each had the steak:
I had the duck pappardelle
And my wife had the Bigoli e Pepe:
My wife and daughter skipped dessert, but my son had the chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream:
While I had scoops of hazelnut and chocolate ice cream:
At which point we were utterly wiped out by another early start and a busy day. (Curse those roosters!) So everyone went to bed.
But soon tomorrow shall arrive – and with it our fondest hopes of crystal clear water and another chance to snorkel.