Marsha, thank you for your reports. I have really enjoyed reading them. Do you know if Mark Eddowes will be lecturing on the next few PG trips before the holidays? We will be sailing on 12/10 so I hope we will get the opportunity to hear his presentations. I've read other PG reviews (7-day itinerary) where he has lectured so I hope that will be the case. And I'm looking forward to the croissants as well! (I hope there are chocolate croissants - my favorite - though any will do...)

Hope that you had a wonderful day enjoying the motu.

Dena

Dena, I'll ask him if I have the opportunity.

The motu day was spectacular. Everyone seemed to have a really great day. The coconut drinks flowed like water and so did the water.

Tonight is the Captain's farewell dinner. The menu will probably be pretty special.

I forgot to mention that last night's entertainment was the Krew Kapers. About a dozen crew members, plus a crew band, provided some singing and dancing for us. It was lots of fun. It was their premier, under the direction of Amy Abler the pianist, and they were quite nervous but they got a standing ovation and lots of audience participation.

Now my mouth is watering for croissants. :)

Masaki

I showed this thread to Gloria and she was really touched. She saw Jim's photo and said, "Oh Mr. Jim!!". She really enjoyed reading what everyone said and was very pleased to be remembered.

We are in Cook's Bay in Moorea this gorgeous morning. I am in the Connoisseur Club watching the parasailers fly by. We have to do some packing today when George comes in from his dive but we hope to also get ashore for a little shopping if there's time.

The news about drydock, if I haven't already mentioned it somewhere, is that they will be adding some tv news channels, maybe ESPN as well, and installing something on the pool deck to provide some shade. I think all the carpet is being replaced too. There are definitely signs of wear as you would expect, but the ship is immaculately kept. Every square inch really sparkles.

Thanks MarnaLou.
Gloria really did take wonderful care of us.
Our group of about 12 this night, kind of got her in trouble one evening when we were hanging around in the show lounge after the cocktail hour when everyone was headed to dinner doing something different,(like drinking), and she stayed to wait on us. Well the matrie'D came looking for her and started scolding her. Kelly,(in our group), jumped up and ran over to him and told him to stop it as it was our fault and we had made her stay. (Which we did). Boy did he back down and everything was back to normal except we lost Gloria for awhile. We did get her back after dinner.
And all was well after that, and we pretty much had Gloria waiting on us the rest of the time.

I am not sure what's happening this morning but we got word last night that some unions were on strike and were blockading the main road in Papeete. We feel so sorry for the crew, as I am sure they were up most of the night making plans to get all of us where we are going. Things shifted by the hour, and as of waking up this morning we are not sure what our arrangements are. Last we heard we were going to be tendered to the Beachcomber where we could get a taxi to the airport.

We are sorry to leave the ship but we look forward to a few days on Bora Bora!

Yes there is a union strike.
Something to do with the goverment restructuring the taxes. Guess there are about 3,000 to 4,000
on strike

Well it was an interesting morning to say the least. The strikers have blockaded some of the roads around Papeete, making the use of the buses impossible. The ship decided to go with its original debarkation plan (the one that preceded Plans B, C, and D), except to use the Beachcomber as a staging area. So we were tendered over to the Beachcomber, and our luggage followed on another tender. More or less. We were lucky and all of ours came with us. Once at the hotel dock, we received conflicting instructions from the people there, but finally we checked our excess baggage and hopped on the bus. It was absolute chaos but everyone did the best they could.

At that point it was less than 40 minutes before our flight and we gave up all hope of getting to the airport in time. Imagine our delight to be not only at the airport but completely checked in scarcely 10 minutes later. We easily made our flight.

The PG staff did an impossible job. Circumstances changed constantly but they really stayed on top of things and I think everyone got where they were going today. I asked the CD if he thought they'd sail tonight and he said, "We aren't even thinking about that yet. We will worry about that this afternoon."

We are now happily settled at Hotel Bora Bora.

Marsha and George

Delighted that you made it to BB on time and unscathed. We were concerned about your flight with all disembarkation changes. When we left (1 PM) things were back to normal - we were bussed to Radisson then to airport. We fantasized all the way home about BB - hope the OWB worked out better for you than for us!

It was great getting to know you two. Tell George that we took one last dive with Dominique and did catch the current!

T&J

Nice to hear from you Ted. Your story of one last dive with Dom and catching the drift is totally amazing. I mean to the point of being unbelievable. George wants you to know that last night he jumped off the main dock and hitched a ride with a couple of resident mantas, though, for a fantastic underwater journey the likes of which he'll probably never see again.

We did get an OWB though we see that there are a number of fares that have obviously suffered some significant damage lately. The one next to us lost its lower dock and has had new siding put on.

We hope your trip home was uneventful. Let me know if you need soap.