twangster

As we sailed closer you could clearly make out the signs of a larger city. There is a pier in Papeete so we were spared from tendering today. Unfortunately the forecast was rain and it didn't take long for the forecast to become accurate. Today's excursion was Tahiti Sail by Catamaran booked through Royal Caribbean. I had a reasonable 10:30 am meeting time in the theater so lots of time for breakfast and looking around from the upper decks between passing rain showers. Upon arrival to the theater I was informed my excursion was cancelled due to the weather. They told me I could use the app to find something else but the app indicated everything was sold out. I went top side figuring I could jump on North Star which is free on port days. There I noticed several catamarans carrying ship guests out to sea. Hmmm. I guess the captain of my catamaran didn't want to get wet today. I couldn't book North Star because the app still showed I had an excursion in process. It seems all the excursion staff go to the theater to manage the excursion process but not one of them has access to a computer to process cancellations. They'll do that later once through the busiest part of their day. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't book anything else, including an alternate excursion that did become available when someone else cancelled a spot. I explained all this to the North Star crew who found a way to get me on the calendar. Thank goodness for that. A time lapse of the North Star ride, complimentary (short) version. PapeeteNorthStarTL.mp4.6f377680ae7b14437ea3f7bc15a21c42.mp4

Day Twelve Papeete, French Polynesia While Tahiti is the island we will visit today, the capital city is Papeete. As the sun started to illuminate the sky my first glimpse of land from my balcony was that of Moorea, the island next door to Tahiti. This was pre-dawn so the sun wasn't fully awake yet. We will visit Moorea tomorrow but they are that close to each other. Up to the Suite Sun Deck to see things from the other side of the ship. Despite the inadequate lighting of these early morning photos it was quite stunning.

During our sea day marathon we made our way to day 9 (A) on April 16. The next day was day 9 (B) on April 16. The Captain addressed it during his regular noon announcements so there was no mistaking it was Groundhog Day (movie reference) but there was no ceremony or special event to mark the occasion. One April 16 the map channel on the display indicated it was April 16 and on the following day, April 16, the map channel indicated it was April 16. The weirdest part for me was the mental math I had been doing while working remotely loosely based on an Eastern time zone work day. Up until this point I had been one day ahead. When I woke up the next day I was 6 hours behind. That and the fact that the Royal app had days 1 - 20 with no "9A" or "9B" leaving the Cruise Director staff to do some gymnastics to make the app fit our reality. In the words of the Captain... "Welcome to your free day on board Quantum of the Seas!" Hmmm. Should I ask the CAS team for extra CAS points?

Day Eight to... The first of a number of sea days on the way to French Polynesia and Tahiti. In case you are wondering what the seas were like, this was typical, sometimes with cloud cover, sometimes with full sunshine and sometimes partially cloudy. Slight swell on some days, pretty flat on other days. Strong headwinds much of the time but not many waves to speak of. Enough winds to coat the ship with a layer of salt though. I'm going to gloss over a few sea days here because I was pretty boring, working in my cabin mostly and when my work day finished I was exercising my fingers pressing the spin button in the casino where pictures and videos are frowned upon. It was a smoke free casino and I couldn't let that rare opportunity pass me by. The ship had plenty going on with lots of activities offered by the cruise director and his staff. The day after leaving Auckland we crossed the Antemeridian. That magical dotted or solid line in the ocean depending on the map you use, where East meets West. /cruisegeekon Up until this point our longitude had been increasing meaning the second number in the top left corner of the map display had been going up. Duh! Our position around 15:14 was longitude 179° 58.49' East. Not long after I took this photo I heard a blast of the ship's whistle and shortly after that our longitude was now decreasing, counting down from 179° 57.16' West. Pretty exciting times here on Quantum of the Seas! Note the bridge crew were either premature horn blowers or the map display lags reality. I'm betting on the latter. Also note this isn't the international date line which is influenced by other factors beyond simple longitude and latitude. There was no fanfare. No balloon drop. No champagne toast. A simple blast of the ship's whistle and we had crossed from East to West. It's all downhill from here, at least for our longitude. /cruisegeekoff I took in Starwater in Two70°. I liked this how because it wasn't about a bunch of weird antics or disjointed skits. Core art on display. Many nights in the pub to catch our pub singer. He's quite good. On these sea days i've been working. Like really working, not fake work from home at another job kind of working, actual work. The frequent time changes and being one day ahead has made this interesting. I found an app that would post a clock for my home time zone and my local time zone in the menu bar. I became accustomed to thinking a day off. "It's tomorrow here, so this meeting request will work best for me yesterday in two hours time." Having two April 16 days on the work calendar was interesting. "Are you available for a meeting on April 16 " - my response... "Yes on both days". I have to admit it became much easier once we crossed the international date line and I only had a time difference to contend with but once I was in the swing of things it wasn't that hard to manage. Apparently it's true... time is relative.

Because of the long transit to reach the Pacific and international water, shops and the casino remained closed until after 11:30pm.

Auckland departure. Beautiful golden hour after sunset as the ship prepared to sail away from New Zealand and on towards French Polynesia. Not me on the flow rider!

But wait, there’s more…. The transportation company forgot about us. To be clear I booked this excursion through Royal Caribbean. We met in the theater as instructed. They provided the transportation to the activity. The folks at the activity company were great but this was out of their hands, they weren’t responsible for the transportation part as the port is a cargo port and only ship provided busses can pick up and drop off guests within the port. After 60 minutes of hearing mixed comments from the receptionist... “They’re sending taxis”, “…maybe they found a bus”, “No, taxis are coming” but nothing was happening. So I emailed the HD back on the ship. Francois replied immediately and he got working on it from his end. Around 90 minutes after we were supposed to be picked up a bus finally arrived. There goes my free time to explore Auckland. This is why I always like having a data plan for my phone no matter where I go. I am so glad I had data coverage in New Zealand. Even for a ship provided excursion, the ship uses local operators who sometimes screw up. Despite the break down on the part of the transportation company it was still a great excursion that I’ll remember fondly for a long time. Now I have an excuse to book another visit to Auckland - to explore the city. The ship did provide a partial refund as compensation.

At 11:30am we left the ship as a group and boarded a bus to drive to the bridge. Since this is a cargo port only approved ship provided buses are allowed to move guests within the port area. At the bridge the tour operator has a small shop. There we were fitted with a harness and a jumpsuit or coveralls plus a helmet. You can’t bring anything with you as they don’t want something falling on a car causing a crash. Photos and video taken by our guide would be provided through a website URL at the conclusion. Everything went into a locker. The company that runs the bridge climb also has other adrenaline based activities such as bungee jumping from the bridge. Other groups that were not from the ship were being fitted for their own adventures as we waited. We would see them again later. The following photos and a video were captured by the guide and provided to us included in the excursion price. Much like the Sydney bridge climb you are tethered to the bridge as you walk along the steel walkways under the road deck of the bridge. Once we were closer to the center of the bridge we would climb up onto the top of bridge, spend some time at the top then return similarly to how we came. We were fitted with an earpiece so that everyone could hear the guide who led us on this adventure. As we walked he would provide history and data about the bridge and the city. We stopped briefly once we reached an area directly opposite the bungee jumping platform so we could watch the victims, I mean participants, do a bungee jump. Discounts were offered if we wished to add a jump after our tour. No one from our group accepted. The bridge has lasted beyond its intended operational lifespan so new tunnels are being explored as a replacement for this aging bridge. At some point in the not so distant future it will be gone. It’s a great time to climb a piece of history. Great views from the top! That's Quantum in the distance. Here is the video they provided, posted with permission: AucklandBridgeClimb.mp4.9c485f6eb82272edda53a8ecd642357f.mp4 We didn't do the bungee jump but watched the folks in this video do it. It was an amazing excursion and I’m really glad I did it.

Today we would be berthed at a cargo pier with massive cranes hovering over us. Now if they offered driving this shipping container mover as an excursion I'd sign up in a heartbeat. My excursion today was the Auckland Bridge Climb. Now seeing the bridge in the distance it didn’t look that impressive. Oh well, might as well go with it. During my 2020 visit to Australia I did the Sydney Harbor Bridge climb and thoroughly enjoyed it so this looked like a great excursion to try for this visit. I booked the 8:30am time slot hoping to have free time in the afternoon to explore Auckland on my own but that wasn’t how this day was going to play out. I received a letter moving my meeting time to 11:30am. Okay, no big deal, I’ll still have a few hours to self explore.

Day Seven Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland is located deep within a broad bay of sorts so we are within New Zealand's territorial waters for many hours before arriving to and after departing the city. As such many onboard retail and casino venues are closed long before we arrive and well after we depart. Our progress so far... We arrived early in the morning to the bright lights of this big city on the horizon.

Quantum is such a beautiful ship.

Day Six A sea day sailing up the coast of New Zealand to reach Auckland. I worked. Boring.

The next stop is Zealandia Sanctuary. New Zealand didn't really have any mammals before some were brought my man. Without mammals native species lived hundreds of years ago without their presence. Not knowing what these strange mammals were when they arrived many species were wiped out. Zealandia is a project to create a sanctuary walled off from non-native species including mammals so that truly native species can flourish as their world once was before man brought new species and mammals to New Zealand. They have been able to breed up species nearly wiped out. It's a 500 year project because there are some species of trees that take that long to grow full cycle. This wall goes the entire way around Zealandia keeping any mammals from entering. It's a pretty fascinating project. Our guide escorted us around various trails and paths narrating frequently. To be honest I booked this excursion for the cable car experience but this turned out to be a pleasant and fascinating stop to compliment the cable car.

Here are some photos from the top. There is a cable car museum and great views of the city.

Day Five Wellington, New Zealand Today's excursion is Zealandia Sanctuary and Cable Car Experience. First we arrive into Wellington to clear skies and no wind. That's pretty much unheard of in Wellington, it's a very windy city. This is the only port duplicated from my last New Zealand cruise when on that occasion it was windy. First we'll do the cable car which is not really a cable car any longer but now a funicular. This has been around for a long time and been through several iterations of cable cars over the years. Once cleared as a group we mixed into the general population boarding the uphill service to the top. As you approach the boarding area the line divides two ways boarding the same car from both ends. I chose the lower end hoping to get a view downhill as we go uphill. Our driver will bring the bus to the top and we will board it there on our way to the next stop. Until then we have time to ride the cable car and check out the museum and grounds at the top. I captured a video of the ride going up, while looking down towards the waterfront. I sped up the video to save time watching it. WellingtonCableCarTL.mp4.9cd854a067097c37d032421ac9b67a70.mp4

My excursion is Scenic Cruise and Queen Charlotte Track Hike booked through the ship. I'm very grateful I bought that hoodie. Out here on the cool Pacific waters of New Zealand it's quite chilly. Some guests, like me, did not come prepared for this. A guide walked around to illustrate where were going. A twenty five minute boat ride over to Mistletoe Bay. We broke into three groups each with a guide and headed around a short hike. As hikes go it's what I would consider easy but for anyone with less mobility you'll want to consider if this is an appropriate excursion for you. I wore running shoes without issue so it's not like hiking boots were required. It was a pleasant hike and an informative guide who knew a lot about the flora and fauna of the area. After a 90 minute slow paced hike we boarded the boat to make our way back to Picton. The excursion bus dropped us off near the small boat harbor where our scenic cruise began but this is not where the cruise ship shuttle bus operates from. I could have gotten off the scenic cruise and jumped on the waiting bus but I wanted to walk around a little. Read the instructions carefully and map out where you need to go to reach the main cruise shuttle bus, it's a fifteen minute walk from the boat harbor. We depart from Picton and sail out of Queen Charlotte sound across to Wellington. This will take several hours much of which is in the dark. Wellington is at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand. I upgraded my phone for this trip to enjoy a better camera and I'm still exploring it's capabilities. Not terrible for a handheld phone from my balcony.

I think they are all the same but I didn't bring a measuring tape

Dolphins on the port side. PictonDolphins.mp4.f8da625426e377dcf1449da9b269fdf8.mp4 Eventually we reach Picton where we do a 180 and reverse into the cargo slip. Free shuttle busses will take us into town. Water cannon welcome. A time lapse of our transit into and through Queen Charlotte Sound. PictonTL.mp4.15834bb58cb8a3bf441b08aa1d853b35.mp4 The cargo port with wood exports being readied for shipment to China.

Day Four Picton, New Zealand With Picton positioned on the top of the South Island we enter the gap between the North and South Islands then sailed down Queen Charlotte sound to reach Picton. It's very beautiful. I love on the older Q class ship the suite sun deck allows you to quickly move from side to side. On various trips on this class I've used this area extensively for great photos. On Odyssey this is a Teen club area.

Beautiful sunset tonight.

Day Three (B) Neglected to mention there were time changes on night 1 and night 2 of cruise #2. There will be more time changes on day 8 and 9B. Given our two time changes so far we are now on New Zealand time. Slight motion due to minor swell. It's a lot like standing on an airport train or subway with subtle back and forth motion once in a while. Fortunately motion doesn't tend to bother me until it is severe which is why I don't mind being so far forward on deck 6. I actually enjoy a slight rocking to sleep. CAS Top Tier in the Theater. 705 Gold 362 Platinum 173 Emerald 544 Diamond 542 Diamond Plus 111 Pinnacle 13 Aussie Pinnacle 16 Canadian Pinnacle 9 UK Pinnacle 1 French Pinnacle 72 US Pinnacle 7 new Pinnacle this cruise Top cruiser is from Australia with 3,354 points. Captain claims there are over 18 million CAS members worldwide. Due to the high numbers of D+ and P, D members are not allowed in the Crown Lounge during the evening happy hour. There was someone on duty every night checking sea pass cards. This is becoming common on high top tier cruises such as transatlantic, transpacific, Panama Canal and so on. In other news I came to the realization I under packed warm clothing for the New Zealand portion so I dropped by the logo store to find a full zip hoodie on sale.

Here is a time mind bender from my arrival in Australia. When I landed in Sydney flying in from Tokyo a couple of days ago it was one hour different from Brisbane. Upon taking off from Sydney enroute to Brisbane I moved my watch by one hour so my watch would be correct when I landed. When I boarded the ship in Brisbane on our way to Sydney I was expecting we would change time on board. We didn't. Yet when we arrived in Sydney we were on the same time.

Day Two (B) I have chosen to label the replicating days as A or B since that is how Royal is handling our crossing of the international date line. A letter in our cabin explains we will have a day nine A and a day nine B, both occurring on April 16, 2025. We now have two sea days to cross the Tasman Sea on the way to our next port of call, Picton New Zealand. In addition to the NZeTA travel authorization app that is required to visit New Zealand there is also a separate app or website for the purpose of making a customs declaration. Deciding I didn't need or want another app with another account, I just used the website. Fortunately I have a Voom internet plan but for those that don't they did have crew available to assist guests who are having issues with this requirement. I don't recall having to do this a few years ago so I am guessing it's new, at least to me.

Sail away from Sydney is usually pretty great unless it's pouring rain but fortunately the forecast had turned out to be wrong much of the day and we had a pleasant departure. An exclusive CAS event tonight. With that our adventure had begun.

Cabin 6128 - Category 5D Balcony Technically as a 3 person cabin I didn't qualify for this cabin being solo but since they moved me from Ovation and on Ovation this is a 4D cabin, I was allowed to keep it. I like the location of these cabins and that they are directly over the ocean. No walkways, lifeboats or anything else between you and the view to the sea straight down. They are super convenient and down one flight of stairs to deck five and Schooner Bar. Down one more deck to the Theater and Esplanade. Very convenient. Two bottles of water courtesy of the CAS for a 21 night cruise. I'll need to ration them carefully.