Cruise Day 30
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
This cruise has three distinct parts to it, the first was our visit to Hawaii and Fanning Island. We just completed the second part with visits to American Samoa, Samoa, Fiji and Togna. Today is the first of four sea days as we sail towards the third and final part of this cruise, French Polynesia.
We slept in this morning as we both had a very bad night of coughing. For Val it was particularly disappointing as it seems that her cough was going away, but last night it came back with a vengeance. Neither of us really coughed very much yesterday, but I guess there is something that happens when you go from being upright to lying down that changes everything.
After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, Val decided to revisit the doctor as her cough has been lingering on for quite a while. She asked Kyle to make her an appointment so she will be returning to the doctor at 3:30.
We returned to our room and relaxed on the balcony while the room stewards cleaned our rooms when the most bizarre thing I have ever seen on a cruise ship happened. K (one of our room stewards) had just come out on the balcony to wipe down the table and balcony rail, when a jet plane flew by at almost eye level. This wasn’t a small plane either, this was the size of a passenger plane. There was no land in sight, we were afraid it was going to crash, but after flying by the ship, it gained altitude and flew off. Everybody who saw it was stunned; it was like something out of the twilight zone or an AI creation. My only guess was that it might have been a Tongan military plane deciding to buzz the ship, but who knows, we’ll probably never know.
After that excitement, I decided to finish updating the blog before going to lunch. Neither of us had much appetite, but we did eat lunch and then returned to our room. We rested until it was time for Val’s appointment at the medical center. I didn’t go with her as she wanted me to go to trivia, and she would join us there when she was done. We added two more people today who were from Washington State, so when Val showed up, we had a full team of six. The extra people didn’t help us as we finished in the middle of the pack as we usually do.
Val and I returned to our room, and she told me that the doctor confirmed she still has bronchitis and gave her some additional antibiotics to go with the ones she’s already taking. Tonight is a formal night and a masquerade party on the ship so since we didn’t feel like dressing up and didn’t have a costume, we decided to just stay in tonight. We got some food from the Neptune Lounge and after letting our room stewards know we didn’t need service tonight, we settled in for a night of relaxation.
I found out about the plane flyby today from Kyle this evening. It turned out it was the New Zealand Coast Guard “checking up on us”, but as Kyle said, maybe showing off a little bit too as she told me they had actually done a fly by on both sides of the ship. New Zealand and Australia have strong ties and a presence in the South Pacific as this is their backyard and strategically important.
Val rested, watched some TV, and read before calling it a night. I did a final blog update and then went through my email for the last few days (mostly spam), before joining Val and spending the rest of the evening relaxing. I am actually feeling a little better tonight, but we’ll see how tonight goes and how I feel in the morning. We have three more sea days to recover before reaching our first port in French Polynesia.
Tonight, we’ll cross the International Dateline again, but this time heading east, so tomorrow will be Wednesday, October 29, the same as today. When we crossed the International Dateline Heading west, we lost out on a Sunday, but going back we’ll gain that day back as an extra Wednesday.
Cruise Day 31
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
It’s déjà vu, yes, it’s once again Wednesday, October 29. Last night we crossed the International Dateline heading east, so it’s yesterday again. With both of us coughing, neither Val nor I slept very well last night, so we slept in. I woke up not feeling very good, and Val encouraged me to make an appointment with the doctor, so when we went to breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, I asked Kyle to make an appointment for me. Val is feeling much better today, so her antibiotics are doing their job.
After lunch we decided to go down to the casino for a bit. The casino has been very busy when we visit it in the evening and it is difficult to play where you want so we decided that while we are at sea, we would go during the day. I didn’t stay long and did pretty well, before returning to our room.
It was back to resting for us until 3:30 when I left for my appointment with the doctor. The doctor’s visit lasted quite a while as I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, take a covid test, and other tests with the nurse before I saw the doctor. I didn’t have the same doctor as Val had, but she was very nice and came to the same conclusion that Val’s doctor had, she had a viral respiratory infection that had turned into something bacterial. In Val’s case it was bronchitis, but it wasn’t clear in my case, though she thought it might be my sinuses, so I was given some cough syrup and antibiotics.
After leaving the doctor’s office I went up to the Crow’s Nest to meet Val, Donna and Arthur and they were just finishing up trivia. We talked for a bit and then Val and I went back to our room and rested until dinner time. After dinner we returned to the room and called it an early night as we are both tired and the clocks will be moving ahead again so we’ll lose another hour of sleep.
Cruise Day 32
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Today is the third of four sea days before we reach the Cook Islands and our next port. We slept in again as we had lost an hour of sleep last night. When I got up this morning, I felt terrible. I was sick to my stomach tired and just feeling bad, the only good thing was I wasn’t coughing as much. Val looked up the side effects of the antibiotics I was taking and it turned out that was exactly what I was experiencing, not pleasant, but at least I wasn’t coming down with something else.
After eating breakfast in the Neptune Lounge and taking my second antibiotic pill, I felt even worse, so I spent the morning resting and doing nothing. Although I didn’t have much appetite, I did go to lunch in the Lido and started to feel a little better. After lunch we went to the casino where I had another good day.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and relaxing as neither of us has much energy, probably another effect of us both being on antibiotics. As it got close to four, we headed up to the Crow’s Nest for trivia only to be told it had been moved to the Ocean Bar today so we headed back down there. Donna told us she was catching a cold; I hope she didn’t catch anything from us. After trivia and since the casino was right next door, we tried our luck again and I did well again.
After the casino it was back to our room where we relaxed until dinner. We had a good dinner and then returned to the room. I hadn’t done the blog in a couple of days, so I caught up with that while Val read.
I felt a lot better this afternoon and evening, but I am afraid I’ll feel like I did this morning tomorrow, and I’m not looking forward to that, but we’ll have to see. I do think things are looking up health wise, especially for Val who is almost back to normal except for some residual coughing.
Cruise Day 33
Friday, October 31, 2025
Today is our last day at sea before arriving in the Cook Islands. I had a bad night last night with coughing, but I did feel better this morning. We are not planning on doing anything today as Val and I want to continue getting better and resting before we start our next series of ports in French Polynesia. Val is feeling almost back to normal, but her cough is hanging on. It’s not as bad as mine, but still annoying.
After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, I took my antibiotics and ruined my morning as it really affects my stomach. I’m not quite sure what to do as we are just not hungry enough to eat a big breakfast, and if we were, we’d have to go up to the Lido.
We did go to lunch in the Lido and then, as we are now doing on sea days, we went to the casino. I soon returned to the room, but Val was having some luck and played for quite a while. We rested until it was time for trivia and then headed off to the Crow’s Nest. Arthur wasn’t feeling well today so it was just Val, Donna and I and we did our usual eleven points. It doesn’t seem to matter who plays, we always end up in the middle.
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| Since it was Halloween, there was a contest among the culinary staff to see who could decorate the best pumpkin and the entrants were on display in the Lido. |
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| Today is Halloween and after finishing up with trivia, look what walked into the Crow's Nest. |
After trivia, we relaxed until dinner. It was Halloween Night so there were a few people in costume at dinner, but Val and I hadn’t prepared for this, so we went as ourselves. Since we had done well, in the casino today, we decided to spend a little time there this evening, but I didn’t play long and returned to our room. Val once again got quite a bit of action and played for quite a while before joining me.
Tonight, there is a big Halloween Party up on the Lido Deck, but neither Val nor I feel like going to that, but we could hear it as it is directly above us. Tomorrow we’ll be visiting the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
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