Boarding Tales of the South Pacific

DAY ONE - Monday, Sep 29: As in the brief post from our stay in San Diego, we are on the ship. We have a few welcome gifts waiting in our cabin. One was a tote bag; the other was a reusable 12 oz. cup. They want you to use the cup for “to go” drinks, nice thought on saving waste. After dropping our small suitcase in the cabin, we ventured out to see the ship and have lunch. We chose Dive In for a burger by the Lido Pool. They have expanded their small menu with a few more options both in burgers and fries. One can get cheesy fries and Buffalo fries in addition to the standard ones offered before. Service was a bit slow, flavor was good. I was disappointed in my lettuce “wrapped” burger as the lettuce was falling off. However, I could eat it with a knife and fork.

4:45 was Sail Away at the Sea View pool. Tasty drinks, a few nice snacks, and Cruise Director Claire introduced some of the Dancers for a brief performance. She continued with some dancing for cruisers after the brief show. We appreciated views of San Diego upon departure. We chose Lido Market for dinner. It was so-so. 

Dinner was followed by the daily show featuring Erwin Urbi, from Hawaii. The show was called “Home in the Islands” with many traditional Hawaiian songs. A casino stop was next. I broke even on the slot machine so I was done for now. Not sure how Stuart did with Black Jack or Craps. From there we went to the Mix Piano Lounge. We met the piano player, James. He is from Scotland. He was personable and a I am sure we will enjoy many hours there listening to him perform. Long and tiring day. We have not fully unpacked the big suitcase that arrived in the afternoon. That will be a chore for tomorrow.

Ps: I forgot to mention we did not have a refrigerator in our cabin. We were surprised as we have never been on a ship that didn’t have one in our cabin. On this ship, only suite guests have them. We have a window cabin. There are no balcony cabins on this ship either. If you want a balcony one must splurge for a suite. We were told to inquire at Guest Service. We were told we could rent one for the cruise and it would be $60 for the entire trip. However, we were told there are none available. They hope to get more in Hawaii; they are on order. When we got back to our cabin, we now have a refrigerator! They put it below the desk, so now the chair doesn’t fit there anymore. This is an older ship. It has been refurbished and looks nice enough but there are these small things missing that larger ships have. Another missing feature is outlets, but we can deal with that.