Day 18: 20231010 Tuesday, October 10, 2023- At Sea Papéete to Pago Pago
Perhaps the air conditioning has been fixed or maybe the weather is moderating a bit because we were able to turn off the fan for the first time since we left Honolulu and have the temperature remain under 76˚F. In fact, it was down to 72˚F in the morning, which was downright comfortable. We could actually pull our curtains back and enjoy the view of the Pacific out our balcony for the first time in nearly a week. The morning was leisurely with morning trivia and a destinations lecture on Pago Pago, American Samoa. It sounds a bit like good ‘ole American capitalism can sometimes prey on tourists because the destination expert warned multiple times about setting prices upfront and specific terms (per person or per vehicle, one way or round trip, etc) for everything on the island because prices seem to vary not only by the hour but also by how generous or desperate any particular vendor may feel at the moment they are asked to provide services. And everything is cash up front with American dollars.
With the weather moderating a bit (low 80’s˚F) and with our stateroom’s air conditioning working better, we can walk the promenade deck and even consider resuming exercising since we can now cool off in our stateroom. It’s also nice to know we can drop off for a cat nap during the day since our stateroom is no longer sweltering during the day.
Ben’s hat did not turn up in the Lost and Found, so that’s going to be a victim of this cruise. Fortunately, he packed a backup ball cap and rain hat.
The afternoon progressive trivia restarted, although we don’t really have that many sea days left before we hit Auckland. Lots of passengers will be disembarking in Auckland, so that will certainly be the end of progressive trivia games for this cruise. There will be lots of regular trivia though. We tied the “Unstable Geniuses” today, which was the team that had won the last progressive trivia series so maybe we stand a chance at holding them at bay for this last segment.
Dinner was nothing particularly special tonight, but pork shoulder was moist and tender. There was a pretty good chocolate pecan pie for dessert, and up in the buffet later in the evening, during Ben’s soup run, we did finally find Pavlova on the desserts table.
The Showtime presentation in the Princess theater was a trio called The Covergirls, who did an entertaining mixture of nostalgic music from the 40’s to 60’s along with some humor and audience participation. One of the girls even got to show off her guitar and saxophone skills.
The clocks go back another hour tonight to American Samoa time. Another hour of sleep!
