ATW - Day 13

Well Dear Reader, it has certainly been a while since I have posted.  Have you wondered where I've been?  I will tell you now that it had been 11 days since we set foot on land, the last time being in San Diego!  Today we finally did it in Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia.

You may be asking what happened.  Well, the weather did indeed prevent us from getting into Kona on Saturday.  My cousin Mel told me that the storm was the worst they've had in the 13 years that he has lived there!  So, that made it another day at sea which meant that we would have another 5 days at sea until we reached Nuku Hiva.  We love our days at sea  - especially if we win at Bingo!

The days passed quickly.  The Sommelier's Choice Lunch on Sunday was a highlight as usual.

Tuesday, the 17th started with a great rainbow as I did my morning walk on the fitness track.

 We finally had good enough weather to enjoy some time on our veranda.

And, we crossed the equator which was nicely marked.

Being St. Patrick's Day, they had a pub night on the ship.

It felt great to get up on the fitness track this morning and to see land at last.

This morning we took a tender into the town and walked around.  The first thing we did was walk up a hill to see the tiki statues and the views.

Following that, we walked down to a beach.  No swimming today.

We then walked in town along the waterfront.  

Did I mention that it was hot and humid?  We were hoping for a rain shower to cool us off, but we had to settle for some cold drinks from a store.  After sitting on a bench for a while, Linda headed back to the tender pier while I walked up to the Notre Dame Cathedral.

So, that catches you up.  Yesterday was day number 12 of the ATW cruise - 10 percent down, 90 to go! Tomorrow is another sea day before we reach Rangiroa.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

ATW - Day 7

Here we are in sunny and warm Honolulu, Hawaii:

Okay, so it's not so sunny and warm 😁☔⛈.  We had hoped to get out for a little walk before the real rain hit, but it never really gave us the opportunity.  There might be a small chance later in the day.  We'll see.  If not, it will be another relaxing day on board Vista.

Yesterday, the highlight was the South Seas Salt Life cooking class.  (I'd like to say that the highlight was a Bingo win, but that didn't happen).  We made Sushi Reimagined:

Next was Coconut Fried Shrimp:

Then it was cocktail time - a Thurston Howell III:

The final dish was Samoan Fish in Coconut Sauce:

Our Chef Instructor was Karlis who we have cooked with before.  He always keeps it interesting and fun.

The afternoon provided another successful round of trivia for Linda and her team.  In the evening we had dinner in Red Ginger with a couple from the trivia team although the GM Evan had commandeered our private chamber.  I had to give him a hard time about that.  And the night wrapped up with a cocktail in the Founders Bar which is a very dangerous place for such a long cruise.  Much control for eating and drinking is going to become imperative for the next 113 days!

Here's hoping that we are able to visit Kona tomorrow though the weather forecast still looks quite awful.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

ATW Day 5

Yes, it's day 5 with only 115 left to go 😁.  This is our 4th day at sea on our way to Hawaii with one more sea day to go.  The days have been mostly uneventful with some fun activities on board.  As has become our custom on the first night, we dined in the Red Ginger restaurant in our "private chamber"!  This has been a joke since the initial Vista cruise in 2023.

The most fun event and the most unique to Oceania was the Race Around Vista.  Put together by Cruise Director Carson and his team, it is modeled after The Amazing Race reality TV show.  Linda and I participated in the qualifying round with the intention of having fun and not advancing to the semifinal round.  We were paired with friends Russ and Denise and a younger couple.  Mission accomplished - we finished third!  It was fun.

Today was an event that is always one of the best - a cooking demonstration with Chef Frederic, one of our favorite chefs.  There is a guest comedian on board who I thought was okay compared to some of the lousy comedians we've seen.  But I have to say that Frederic and the 2 chefs who joined him on stage were much funnier and more entertaining.

The weather starting out was cool, windy, and cloudy.  It has slowly gotten better.  This has allowed us to get some good walking in and to sit out on the veranda and watch the ocean go by.

Now for the low-lights.  We have yet to win at bingo.  It seems that the bingo god has abandoned us.  Perhaps they are waiting for the big jackpot to grace us.  The bigger low light is the weather forecast for Hawaii.  It says that, on Friday in Honolulu, it will  be "windy with rain, some heavy".  Hopefully, there will be a break so we can get off of the ship and walk around.  Worse is the forecast for Kona on Saturday - "very windy; cloudy with rain, heavy at times"!  Kona is a tender port and there seems to be little chance that they will be able to run tender operations in those weather conditions.  That will be very disappointing since I have 2 cousins who live in Kona that we were hoping to visit.

Oh yeah, one other highlight.  Being on board really gives us the opportunity to tune out the news of the world.  They say that ignorance is bliss and it has been truly blissful.

And now, more than ever, we wish you peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

ATW - Day 1

We are in San Diego (thanks Marc and Yasuko for the ride down) on the Oceania Vista . . .

. . . for the longest cruise we have ever done - 120 days ATW (around the world).  Here is the alleged itinerary.  I say alleged because it seems very unlikely that we will be going to the Middle east given the current events.

If we don't go through the Suez Canal, we'll be going down to South Africa and then up the west coast of Africa to pick up the original itinerary.

After we leave San Diego tonight, we'll have 5 days at sea before we arrive at our first port of call - Honolulu.  There might not be much to blog about until then  - stay tuned.

Until then, peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry