Today our adventure continued with our first visit to Morrea, French Polynesia. We woke early with great anticipation of the beauty that we would see during our first visit to this tropical island.
We began our day as we normally do with a very nice workout in the Fitness Center. Keith worked out the entire time on the elliptical machine while Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill. The Fitness Center was not very crowded since we were arriving fairly early in the morning. Since many passengers were booked on a variety of shore excursions beginning as early as 8:00 AM they needed to have an early breakfast in order to be ready for these excursions. For a good portion of our workout there were only four of us in the fitness center; both of us along with Mary and John. A few other passengers arrived a little bit later before we finished our workout.
After our workout, we enjoyed a very nice breakfast in the Lido Café. We had a beautiful view of the ocean as we sat at our table. The Lido Café was fairly crowded since many passengers were enjoying an early breakfast before the start of the tours. We sat with another couple who we know well and a solo traveler joined us midway through our meal.
We spoke with some of the members of the Crystal Staff, as we were finishing up our breakfast including Bruno who is the headwaiter of Prego and Sigi who is the junior headwaiter in Silk Road. Bruno reminded us that he is holding some of that fish for us that we enjoyed on two evenings during the first segment of the cruise. While it has been deep frozen, he recommends that we have it soon so we will be sure to have it on our next visit to Prego on the upcoming segment of the cruise. We also spoke with all of our favorite Lido Deck Stewards. They are all wonderful. During the next segment of the cruise this team will rotate to another area of the Lido Deck and another new team will move over to the café. In all, there are three teams of Lido Deck Stewards who rotate between one of three areas on the Lido Deck. They are all indeed wonderful. We have a belief that in the end it is the people who make any business successful and this clearly applies to our cruising experiences with Crystal. We love the ship, and all of the other aspects of the cruise from the outstanding food to the outstanding activities but in the end it is the wonderful Crystal staff each of the Crystal Ships who we have all come to adore that makes cruising with Crystal a memorable and extraordinary experience. How they remember our names and many of our food and drink preferences is amazing. As an example, each morning that we arrive in the Lido Café they know exactly what type of coffee each of us prefers. They are truly amazing and we sincerely appreciate all that they do for us.
This was our first visit to the Island of Moorea. Moorea is a beautiful island. It is very pristine with beautiful beaches, and hills offering spectacular views of the Island. If you think of a picture perfect postcard of a beautiful island, think of Moorea. We feel so very fortunate to have visited this beautiful place.
It is believed that Moorea first became inhabited in A.D. 1600. Captain James Cook arrived in 1774. In 1847 Moorea became a protectorate of France and by 1860 it became a French Colony.
The Crystal Serenity anchored off the Island of Moorea and began tender service at around 8:00 AM.
Today’s thought of the day from the captain was “Footprints in the sand are not made by sitting down.”
We did not book a shore excursion for today, since we preferred to walk around the island on our own. After breakfast we took a tender over to Morrea. As the tender arrived, some of the locals were in canoes to welcome us to the island while other local sang and played musical instruments for us. There were a variety of vendors selling locally made items. The Island forbids cruise lines from providing shuttle bus service but the locals did provide shuttles to take passengers to the nearby town for shopping. There were also a variety of taxicabs available. While we did not do any shopping, many of the stores in town were selling black pearl jewelry.
Since we preferred to walk we ended up taking a very long walk (five miles roundtrip according to Keith’s iPOD). We ended up walking with the wife of the memoir writer instructor and their son. Last year the instructor and his wife were on board the entire world cruise along with their daughter. We enjoyed a great walk with them along with a very nice conversation. Anne Marie and Maria walked side by side and talked about various places that each of them have visited around the world. Keith and their son walked ahead of Anne Marie and Maria and talked a lot about journalism and world events since their son is a journalist major who recently graduated from college. We walked along a two-lane road with the water and beach area on one side and mountains on the other side with lush vegetation all around us. Neither words nor pictures will do justice in describing the beauty of this island. As we arrived back to where we began our walk, we ran into several passengers who had returned back from town on the complimentary vehicles.
We ate lunch in the main dining room. Keith enjoyed a wonderfully prepared entrée called Swordfish Salade Nicoise “Moderne” and Anne Marie enjoyed a chicken salad entrée.
Today marks the last full day of this first segment of the cruise. Approximately 250 passengers will be disembarking the ship tomorrow mornings with about 290 new passengers coming on board the ship as we begin the second segment of the World Cruise. We said our goodbyes to several passengers who we got to know during this first segment of our adventure. We hope to sail with them again.
Once again, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Main Dining Room. We had a wonderful fish (Wahoo) for our dinner entree which is similar to swordfish. After dinner Anne Marie watched this evenings movie in the Hollywood Theatre titled “The Jane Austen Book Club” while Keith caught up on some reading and writing.
Our ship departed Moorea at approximately 5:00 PM and arrived in Papeete, Society Islands, French Polynesia where we will dock overnight at around 7:00 PM.
Keith & Anne Marie
