It has been quite warm as we head further south to Papeete. There is less of a breeze than earlier in the trip but I can still handle the heat. I understand as we get to around Tasmania it will become cooler and I look forward to it.
We are scheduled to arrive in Papeete around 1pm tomorrow and are there until Sunday late afternoon.
Had breakfast with Paulette Mitchell, guest chef on board. She disembarks tomorrow. Seabourn plans on bringing in guest chefs throughout the cruise at various ports. She was quite pleasant although I got the feeling that she felt a little rebuffed by the Seabourn staff. If she was cooking a dish that evening or preparing for a lecture, she was not allowed to go into the pantry or refrigerator to retrieve her ingredients, she had to be accompanied by a Sous Chef and they are always busy so she had some difficulties. I won't mention this in the story but she seemed peeved.
I told her I really wanted to talk to long term cruisers and she promised to put me in touch with another cruiser through email.
Paulette has been a guest chef on various cruise lines for more than 15 years and was telling us stories about some of the "Wonderful and Charming" people she has met: like the guy who is now 90 years old and Seabourn would not allow him to come on the unaccompanied because he falls quite a bit. He refuses to be helped so he opted not to come on this cruise.
For formal nights he refused to wear a Tux but would come in costume to dinner dressed in whatever port he was close to, Example near Egypt he came to dinner in a turban, cloak and pantaloons including curved toed shoes, Near China he came dressed as a Mandarin with pigtail and embroidered jacket................and so on.
Paulette told us that a husband and wife came on board and the husband was in ill health. He passed away during the cruise and rather than get off the ship the wife told the Captain that since she had paid for 2 she would call her sister and her sister could fly to the next port and join her for the rest of the cruise,
They kept the dead husband in a cooler until they came to a port where Seabourn helped the wife have him cremated. She came home with his ashes, her sister and a wonderful cruise to remember. No joke!
I would have loved to meet these people to write about, but I know we will meet many long term cruisers during the trip on our own.
2 people we had previously met asked us to meet them for dinner tonight. Cabin 862 calling Cabin 646.
"Hello Helen and Len this is Michelle and Dick. Would you like to meet us in the Observation Lounge for cocktails and then have dinner in the Colonnade?"
Len moaned and I sighed. We had had a very light lunch sitting with 2 other people (whose names I've already forgotten) and then at 4 went to the Observation Lounge for tea. Well tea consists of not only tea but pastries and sandwiches. After Len eating 3 small pastries and I eating 3 small sandwiches we were not in the mood for dinner but no sooner had we gotten back to the room than the phone rang with the
cocktails & dinner request.
Well you can't be rude to people because word gets round quickly here so Len and I agreed to meet in about 2 hours.
No sooner had Len laid his head down that the phone rang. Cabin 721 calling Cabin 646.
"Hello Helen - this is Suzy and Lance Erickson. Could you meet us tomorrow before we dock? We are having problems with our uploading photos and we could use your help."
So tomorrow we are having breakfast and computers in the restaurant to try to help.
Kinda like the blind leading the blind I think or it could turn out to be like a skit from the 3 Stooges. Will let you know.
Well the 4 of us went down to dinner (Michelle and Dick). On the way she says - Sylvia is joining us.
WHO IS SYLVIA?, I wondered.
Well this was the scene out of Seinfeld.
Do you remember the episode that Jerry goes with Kramer and his girlfriend to the restaurant and the girlfriend is a low talker. You see lips moving but can't hear the words and Jerry got sucked into wearing the pirate shirt on the Leno show?
Well this was Sylvia. A really, really low talker,
She must be older than dirt! She may weigh 80 lbs. but I could be wrong and she may be less.
There were more wrinkles on her face that in a stack of Phylo dough and she talked. She talked and talked and I don't think i heard 10 words of what she was saying but Len and I nodded and smiled and smiled and nodded for about an hour.
I know she has travelled extensively on Seabourn. The staff call her by her first name and there is a ritual to serving her. A big glass of red wine, 2 rolls and 2 pats of butter. The glass gets perpetually refilled and it is my guess she had 4 glasses of wine with dinner (but who's counting)
I would love to talk to her about cruising but I'm afraid I wouldn't hear much of what she said unless I corner her in a bathroom where there is no other sounds.
After dinner Len and I went to Deck 9 (smoking area) and sat down. A Canadian couple sat down at our table and we talked and smoked. Let me tell you - Unless you have lived in Canada and been exposed to people who smoked Export A cigarettes for more than 25 years could never truly appreciate the sounds that came out of both their lungs. The coughing fits both of them had, I thought they were both going to spit out lung particles any minute,
Well we came down to our room and found the cutest facecloth made in the shape of a baby seal with 2 little black matches for eyes. Will upload a photo tomorrow.
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