Hi everyone!

We successfully negotiated the transfer from the hotel to the ship yesterday afternoon. We were the third and fourth passengers aboard, arriving at about 2:00. We were parked with champagne in the Grand Salon when one of the doors behind the bar opened and Elmo, one of the bartenders, emerged. He immediately greeted us by name and we were treated to huge bear hugs.

Thus it began. We have been warmly welcomed back by numerous staff members. It's astonishing how many of them remember our names but I was truly floored by something Tess did during the cocktail hour in La Palette. We were having a drink and I was about to ask her for a glass of water when she brought one over, unasked. She said, "Mrs Goodman, I think you like water." And it's true. She remembered from almost two years ago that I like to drink a lot of water and I usually have some along with my Cosmo. Unbelieveable.

We met with hrprof and Mrs. hrprof last night and had a lovely chat with them. We then had dinner in L'Etoile with three random couples and enjoyed that as well. We are off to quite a nice start.

There are about 60 French people aboard. The cruise director, Michael Shapiro, has a French assistant for their benefit.

We will anchor off Rangiroa later today.

What a trip you are having!!!!! Looking forward to more seamail. Enjoy, but then I know you will.

We just left Rangiroa. It rained torentially this morning so most of the excursions were cancelled. The scuba dives went on, though, and George got to see some kind of weird fish for the first time so that made his day.

Dolphins swam with the ship on our way out of the lagoon. Now we have a day and a half at sea and I honestly can't remember where we land next. :)

We have reservations in La Veranda tonight. We will be joined by another couple we invited along so we'll check out the new menu and report back tomorrow.

Wow! :ohmy:
Elmo is still there!!
Is Gloria still on board?

Marsha,
Sounds as if you have started a terrific cruise. Thanks for reporting. Keep having fun and please keep posting!!!!

Betty

What weird fish, George?

Masaki

Jim, yes, Gloria is here as well. She seems to make a hobby of taking care of us. Masaki, it was a Napolean wrasse.

Today we are anchored off Fatu Hiva. What passes for a dock here is too small to accomodate the tenders, so we went in via zodiacs, six passengers at a time. This worked really well. We walked into town, where we were greeted by dancing children who lined the road. It was absolutely darling. They sang and danced and I think the entire town turned out to extend the warmest greeting possible to us. The children gathered on the small lawn that seems to pass for a village green and performed there, too. The show was stolen by a little boy who could not have been more than about 2 years old. He was not intended to be part of the show but that kid had to dance, and he put himself in the middle of the action and danced his little heart out. When his mother tried to remove him he squalled most piteously and so they slapped a pareo around his waist but that was a lost cause too so they all gave up and let him dance. It was about the cutest thing I ever saw. At the end of one particularly stenuous number, he answered the call of nature in full view of the entire assembly, and that really brought down the house. There were crafts to buy and the prices seemed very reasonable for the very detailed and beautiful artwork of the local people.

It was hotter than hot so we made our way back before lunch. Insect repellant is an absolute necessity here. The scenery is spectacular and I hope that some of our pictures turn out because words cannot do this place justice.

MarnaLou, what a great report! That story you told about the little boy was a delight!

The children are a sight I will never forget. It is so NATURAL here in the Marquesas. Not spoilt by tourism in any way and they are all so genuinely pleased to have visitors. Wish we were with you.

Ken bought a BIG tiki here (he just had to have it) it sits proudly on the floor in his toilet. I warned him that is where it would be if he bought it and that is exactly where it is today. He is happy, I am happy and I think the tiki is happy.

MarnaLou, thanks for all your reports over the last few weeks. I have really enjoyed hearing about all your experiences!

Dena

Ngaire, that is defintely an apropos site for a tiki!

I know you are getting ready to leave for South America, and wish you, Ken, Linda and Ron a great journey!

Great report, MarnaLou!

Marsha, I can not wait to see the pictures!! I bet the little boy was darling!

The little boy sounded too cute! Napoleon wrasse = big fish. :)

Masaki

George has started to upload his photos if you want to see just a few of the first pictures. The little boy in blue at the drum is the one I referred to above. Oh he was so cute!! By the way, one of the PG passengers had a bag of candy and was giving it to the kids (with parents' permission) and I so wished I had a little something to pass out. If anyone else is going you might want to toss something in your bag to share.

George\'s pictures

We are at Hiva Oa today, time to go ashore! More later.

I love George's flower pictures. And the little boy was just as cute as I had imagined ... :)

Masaki

Wow! Awesome pix's...Tell George they're the best I've seen but how can you go wrong with the ingredients of paradise?

WOW!!!!!!!!
George's photos are beautiful! I felt I was there! Thanks so much for sharing them with us!


Betty

Well, I now have photos up from everywhere we've been, so far. Hiva Oa was interesting, beautiful, and not very easy to photograph. Fatu Hiva, though -- with all those kids dancing and such -- was a dream!

Thanks for the kind comments.

george

George, your pictures are wonderful. You really captured the feeling of the places you visited. Looking forward to more!

George, every single child in your photos couldn't be any cuter! I also liked your up close flower photos, they reminded me of your son's photography style!

George,

Did you go on the photo excursion with Bernard?
Some of your scenery looks like the places he takes you on Moorea. Beautiful.

Deleting a duplicate post

Kathy, George says the name of the photo excursion guide was not Bernard. He can't remember what it was, though.

In Hiva Oa yesterday we hiked to an ancient ceremonial place with Bob Suggs, the archaeologist, and Mark Eddowes, the anthropologist. It was a hot, steamy, muddy, insect-ridden climb through the jungle and it was worth every moment of it. We saw the terraces where ritual sacrifices were made and where deceased people were laid out in the sun to decompose before proper disposal of the clean bones could take place. It was absolutely fascinating and Bob made it really come alive for us. We arrived back in town for some shopping but by then the vendors had packed up and gone home so we missed out on the consumption part of the outing. We returned to the ship completely soaked with perspiration, sunblock, and insect repellant and quite exhilarated by our day. There is a significant swell to the waters here and tendering can be quite an exciting experience. It's necessary to jump, sometimes, from tender to the ladder and that has to be timed with the rolling of the sea. I don't envy the PG personnel this job as it's actually quite dicey at time.

In stark contrast to our grubby day we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with the concert pianist and two other couples we've gotten to know, it was a lovely evening. Amy Abler, the pianist, is a delightful young woman with a sparkling personality. She will give the first of two concerts tonight and we are really hoping to be able to stay awake for it.

There is a noticeable difference between the passengers on the Navigator and those we've met on the PG. When we stopped in Fatu Hiva on the Navigator, there were some very vocally unhappy people who complained that
1) it was hot and
2) there were no conveniences like Wal-Mart and 3) the transportation available was open-air school buses that were not available when the children needed them.

The PG folks seem to understand that
1) it is hot in the tropics and
2) French Polynesia is not a highly developed part of the world and
3) we are fortunate to share the buses with the kids.

The PG passengers really seem to have reasonable expectations for the conditions here and are pleased to be able to visit this part of the world. The culture of this area is fascinating and there is an almost universal appreciation for what a special cruise this is.

Today we are off to explore Ua Hiva.

Karen, thank you soooooo much for the kind words! I think a lot of Alden's photography, so any comparison with his work is a big complement!

george

We didn't do much in Ua Hiva yesterday because there is not much to do there. At the dock there was a little market that was fun to see. The tattoo artist was doing a land office business giving cruisers a permanent and very beautiful, to my eye, souvenier of the Marquesas.

The trips to and from the dock were what we call at our house an "E-ticket" ride, remembering Disneyland's old system of charging tickets for rides, the E-ticket attractions being the most exciting. It was so bumpy with immense swells that they made provisions for those who thought they might be seasick ('nuff said about that) and the captain was on the tender (wearing an Orient Lines polo shirt, by the way), running the show as we returned to the ship. In his most commanding voice he instructed everyone except two or three at a time to REMAIN SEATED. Each passenger was assisted by no fewer than four burly crew members who staged each person on a step in the tender and then shouted "ALLEZ" when the tender, ship, and apparently the stars above were all in proper alignment. Sometimes this took several cycles of the swelling of the ocean. It really was something and we are constantly impressed by the skill of Ernest, one of the tender pilots. He seems to know the sea as well as his own boat and manages to get us home each and every time, despite conditions.

We realized that the Seven Seas Society party was last night only because we happened to notice the signs indicating such. We never received an invitation. We inquired about this at Reception and were informed that Radisson in Fort Lauderdale had not indicated that we are past passengers. Things like this do not usually bother me too much but I was surprised how disappointed I was. I really enjoy that evening and I was very sorry to miss it. After dinner my disappointment turned to annoyance as I wondered if this situation is at all related to the fact that we don't get mailings from Radisson (remember the famous "tier letter" we never received) and that I cannot for the life of me get this company to send me brochures. I am grumbly this morning about feeling like I am doing all the work to be a customer of this company and they don't seem to be as interested in us as we are in them.

Today we are back in Nuku Hiva, at a different spot than our day here on the Navigator. It's a brief stop as we sail at 1:30 this afternoon so George and I are being lazy and staying cool aboard ship.

Marsha - how sad that you didn't get invited to the SSS party - especially disappointing given you and George's history with this cruise line. Sorry to hear about this. Your tendering sounded quite exciting!

Masaki

Marsha,
Good grief, that is appalling about RSSC's refusal to let you attend the SSS party. I mean you actually joined that cruise from a one-day prior RSSC cruise, if nothing else that should have been able to be confirmed while you were at reception and qualified you for an apology and an invitation as a past passenger! I am very sorry to hear that you were treated this way. You have every right to feel disappointed and grumbly. No one likes to spend time and money to be treated badly, ignored, and made to feel unappreciated. It is one thing for RSSC not to be able to manage their database, but you got to the Paul Gauguin from the Navigator, how hard would that have been to confirm!

I am glad to hear that even with all the difficulties and complications that Capt. Zupan has made sure that all who wished were tendered ashore for each of your stops. We had him as a captain on Orient Lines' Crown Odyssey in 2001. We sailed for something like 4-5 days to get to St. Helena. There is the tiniest of docks there too,in a fairly unprotected harbor. (This ship had a policy of handicapped and elderly passengers always went first. This meant that for every disembark, tendering, bus loading & unloading etc. that the entire population moved at the pace of the slowest passenger. I think it was kind that they paid special attention to those with special needs, but I am not sure how much in the long run they appreciated the rest of the passengers breathing down their necks.) Anyway, St. Helena, they loaded the first 2 tenders. In the first, were people who were in wheelchairs, and needing to visiting the local hospital. In the second, were the elderly. Big swells at the dock. The captain arrives first and supervises, as you describe. Apparently, he was so horrified at the sight of the completely wheelchair-bound first tender occupants being yanked up from below the dock on the surge bounce that he canceled all tendering. The second tender that had been sitting out there bobbing in the swells for an hour was turned around and sent back to the ship! There were some green folks loaded back into the ship with the stories. We remained anchored offshore (in completely calm water!) until the people who needed to visit the hospital there returned to the ship and Capt. Zupan headed for the coast of Africa and our next stop 3 days away. It was a looong, long stretch of sea days with much disappointment from the able-bodied who were looking forward to visiting a very hard to get to location in the middle of the Atlantic and there was near mutiny onboard, but Capt. Zupan stood firm by his call and refused to be swayed by any disccusion. Officials and vendors from the island came onboard for the couple of hours we waited there and stamped our passports and sold T-shirts, coffee and postage stamps, etc. So, we have proof we have been there, even if we didn't quite make it and only saw part of it with binoculars! I am sure that you are happier with having made the visit to these islands even if the tendering was only for the brave and nimble!
It sounds like you have had a wonderful time and loved the beautiful photos.
Debbie

Don't feel too bad about the party, they have done that before. When we did our second PG trip in 2003, they didn't invite us either. We had received a letter on embarkation telling us we would be informed later about it, but never got the invite.

Luckily, we had befriended a couple who were frequent sailors, so they told us when it was, and told us to just crash it, which we did. Didn't get pins or anything, but got the champagne. Felt kind of funny, but got over it.

Debbie, we probably could have crashed the party late but it just seemed so awkward that we felt uncomfortable about it. We did get our pins, at my request. We haven't heard anything about getting the database corrected yet but this being the weekend I don't expect we will until Monday or Tuesday.

Exciting things happened yesterday, but I'm going to let George share that part. We are going on another archeological tour this afternoon in Nuku Hiva and I'm really looking forward to it.

Others who have cruised to the Marquesas on the PG might have run into Bob Suggs. He's an archeologist who made some very important finds in the Marquesas back in the 1950s when he worked at the American Museum. He then worked an entire career in another field (apparently, intelligence-related) and in the past 10-15 years has returned to his love: archeology in the Marquesas.

The exciting things Marsha mentioned happening while we were anchored at Hatiheu on Nuku Hiva had everything to do with Bob Suggs.

I stepped out on our balcony about Noon and looked down to see two dive boats loading up with an august set of folks: Bob Suggs, Mark Eddows (our other archeologist lecturer), Jean-Michele Cousteau, Nancy Cousteau (J-M's wife), Andreas (our Hotel Director), Capt. Zupan, and Dominque Tahei (dive master on the boat) and his wife (who's name slips my mind, but she works in the hotel department). My first thought was, "lucky stiffs to do an unscheduled dive!" However, when they returned we found out the real story.

Back in the 1950s, one of Bob Suggs' discoveries had been of a red-rock quarry along the north coast of Nuku Hiva, a couple of bays east of Hatiheu. He had thought there were likely large red-rock slabs (quarried from the cliffs and then transported by canoe to various villages) sunken off-shore (things fall off of canoes sometimes...), but had never been able to investigate. After all these years -- and with a pretty good dive team! -- Bob got to check it out. The initial indications are that there are indeed artifacts to be found from the site and we'll probably hear more in the coming days as they get a chance to really analyze the photos Dominique took.

An archealogical find aboard a Radisson ship, with Radisson assistance to get it done! Amazing!

For those of you who know Bob, I've included a photo below showing him in action when he was describing a tiki to a group of us on Hiva Oa.



george

George, this is very exciting! You are indeed among a fascinating group & so close to their work. I would love to be there. Enjoy every second! - Michele

We had a lovely lazy sea day yesterday. George caught up on his napping and we had some sun time and it was just really nice. Lunch was an extravagant buffet served in the galley and that was a lot of fun.

Dinner in La Verandah was lovely. If you had not told us that they had changed the menu we probably would not have realized that was the case. Everything seems delicious and it's a quieter room than L'Etoile.

This morning we had another fascinating lecture by Mark Eddowes. I think he has forgotten more about Polynesian culture than any of us will ever know. He is a great speaker and his allotted time just flies by. I think that Jean-Michele is speaking this afternoon so it will be a very interesting and informative day.

MarnaLou;
If you get a chance, say HI to Gloria from bob and susan. we sailed with Ngaire on the same trip you are on a couple of years ago. Gloria is the BEST server I have ever had....

Thanks, Bob

MarnaLou,

I don't read the boards as often as I used to but I just came across your seamail from the PG and have enjoyed reading it tremendously. I'm on our older computer because my husband is on the new one and he has so many windows open on this one that I couldn't get to see George's photos but I'll check them out tomorrow morning - something to look forward to.

Gloria was so sweet to us when we were on the PG in June with Patricia & Chris. They had become friendly with Gloria during their cruise in 2004. We experienced the same thing as you with so many of the crew remembering us and welcoming us back.

We crashed the anniversary parties both trips with complete acceptance by the crew. In both cases we were with fellow passengers who were celebrating an anniversary. I'm sure they would have welcomed you to the SSS party if only they had realized your name was left off that list for invitations.

We saw our first Napolean wrasses last year in FP and saw some again this year. I think they look like a huge parrot fish with a concussion.

Marna Lou,
i thank you for your words, it will come in handy when we make our first trip in a few months. i love those reviews!! tahnks so much.
Cindy

Marsha...hello from the Navigator...we all miss you, but it sounds like the PG is wonderful and you and George are having a great time.

I really enjoy reading about your adventures.

We're in Bora Bora today and it's another beautiful day in paradise. George has a dive this afternoon so we came back to the ship for lunch and so he can change and get down to the marina.

The pastry chef on this ship should be sainted. The croissants are unbelievable, and I asked if they had an egg wash as George had been avoiding them in deference to his egg allergy. It turned out that they do have an egg wash but the baker offered to make a batch without for him. Unfortunately he forgot the morning he had promised to do so but came through this morning and George munched on a rare treat for someone with such an allergy. He was in a flaky buttery heaven and gave not one thought to the carbs.

Mark Eddowes is giving his final lecture tonight from 6:30 until he decides to quit speaking and it is reportedly an absoutely fascinating account of the mutiny on the Bounty. I am sure he will pack out the room and we'll not get to dinner until 8 tonight. We look forward to it. Bob Suggs is giving one more lecture tomorrow so we are winding this cruise down in high style. I cannot recommend this cruise with these speakers enough.

The day in Bora Bora was great fun. George really enjoyed his dive and while he was doing that I chose some unset pearls and had them made into pendants for my sisters.

Mark's final lecture on the Bounty was from the Polynesian point of view and was nothing less than riveting. We cannot say enough about how great these speakers are. We are seeing this part of the world through totally new eyes.

Today is motu day! We can see Motu Mahana off the port side of the ship and can hardly wait for the tender at 10:30. It's brilliantly clear, very warm and humid of course, and it should be a perfect day.

The tour desk has been very helpful with debarking arrangements for us. We will have to store luggage at the Intercontinental in Tahiti prior to our flight to Bora Bora and they have organized a taxi to take us there on Friday night to drop off our non-Bora Bora-bound bags and bring us back to the ship to spend our final night aboard.

Sounds like slice of heaven including those yummy croissants -