Calm sea today…. At one point the sea water outside seemed like lake water…. Glassy, rounded edge and soft…they called it doldrums… The “doldrums” is a popular nautical term that refers to the belt around the Earth near the equator where sailing ships sometimes get stuck on windless waters.
Our bulletin board wall has grown into this…
Front row seat to another spectacular sunset
Arriving in Suva Fiji today…… Bula is Hello in Fiji and it also means life!
Taro, coconut and breadfruit are major produce here in Fiji
We took a motorized long boat for 35 mins up navua river to visit a beautiful water fall
And then experienced the kava ceremony performed by the villagers
And then taste the lunch the villagers cooked for us….. Its yummy
Lovely village that offers us all these wonderful experiences and activities
Many fijians waves at you whenever our bus went by…. Fijians are super friendly people and we love the sulus (mens kilt like garment)….
……. Sea days could be very relaxing….but too many of it could be a challenge if you start repeating yourself in activities without being aware and then felt bored by it
The exciting thing today is we earned $250 onboard credit by attending a princess cruise tips and tricks session… One of the tips mentioned that if you owned carnival stocksοΌparent company of Princess) and showed proof, you can get onboard credit of $250…..we knew about this in 2022, bought 110 shares and took advantage of this promotion for two cruises since then and thought the offer expired last summer… Apparently it did not…and still going on…. Woohoo!! … That 110 shares of carnival stocks not only double in price but also earned us a total of $750 onboard credits….. Thank you CCL π€©
5th sea day of 6th….not as hot and humid as the last couple of days as we are sailing away from the equator… But still feels lazy…. Time for happy hour at one of the lounges…. Whiskey sour is only $10, ipa beer is only $7.50…and a wise quote from Hemingway at the front of menu just cracks me up….. Cheers Papa π₯
Heres another fun door decor that we enjoyed
Poolside Zumba on sea days kept me sane…
I guess we should do some reporting on the meals that we are having…. There are many choices, varieties and styles…. Buffet, formal sit down, room service, your own balcony… Etc.. all these are free unless you want to go for specialty dinning …. Basically eating on a ship is an exercise of your power at self restrain…..we tried to avoid meat (unless they look really yummy π€) and go for seafood and vegetables… There’s always green juice during breakfast and lunch at the buffet, plenty of vegetable dishes, salads and fruits… Much more healthier choices than at home…. Lol… Here are some pics…deciding what to eat and how to eat is a challenge….. Luckily we bought some instant noodles in Honolulu and get to have a taste of home π
After all that speculation and chatter, they finally make an announcement of a major route change in lieu of the escalating situation at the Suez canal and middle east…we are no longer going to Asia or Middle East, but we are going to South Africa, western Africa, and loop back to western Europe and the Mediterranean via Strait of Gibraltar …. We are quite ok with this route change and applaud Princess for still keeping the Mediterranean part of the cruise which we care most! Here are the details of the changes from 2/16 till 4/15…others remain the same
So we keep turning our clock back one hour during the voyage and on the 4th time of backing, we backed into the future and lost 1/29/24…. But, we gain two certificates… Hooray!!! People who crossed the equator are called shellbacks… And people who crossed the equator and the international date line are called golden shellbacks…. We can now tell people we are golden shellbacks, woohoo πππγThank you Captain Cataldi and crews of Princess cruise πππ
It’s fun, it’s hilarious and even the captain is involved…
Naptune and his queen holds court and turns pollywogs(people who never crossed the equator) into shellbacks (people who had crossed the equator) by dumping jams and creams and pastas on them and make them kiss a fish
Apparently for every voyage that crossed the Equator they went through this ceremony… Someone told me there’s also a ceremony when you cross the arctic circle, which we hope one day to experience..
3rd sea day of 6 and 3rd time change (1 hour back each time) of the trip…. We are now 3 hours behind Los Angeles…. Tomorrow, we are going to cross the international date line and lost a full day of 1/29/24 jumping right into 1/30/24…talking about time travel….. What a strange new feeling, we had lost a day by flying but never by sailing slowly …..
There have been many chatters and discussions onboard on whether we can actually make it through the red sea and the Suez canal as scheduled given the current Houthis situation…. I guess we will know for sure in about 1 month…..many seasoned passenger don’t really care that much since they have been every where multiple times…oh well, to us this unknown element adds a little adventurous vibe to the cruise… Que sera sera