Cruise Day #31 - Sea Day 1 of 3

Last night started off, once again, in the Observation Bar. Charlie had been off for a couple of days with a cold and returned last night with one small restriction—no singing. Enter Melody, the Assistant Cruise Director, who generously lent her voice to Charlie’s guitar. Wow! She has a fantastic voice! This was their first time performing together as a duo, and they were really good.

Afterwards, we had dinner with our Australian friend, Mr. C, in The Restaurant. From there, we headed to the Grand Salon for the Seabourn Singers and dancers’ Rock Opera show—and extraordinary doesn’t even begin to cover it. We are beyond impressed by the talent in this cast. Hands down, they are the most talented troupe we have ever seen or heard on a cruise. Bravo! 👏🎶

We started today with breakfast in The Restaurant, which is one of our favorite sea-day pleasures. It’s quiet, the service is superb, and we always enjoy catching up with our serving team.

The weather has shifted again—overcast skies with a chance of showers, and moderate seas running about six feet. Debbie spent the morning by the pool, while I retreated to our stateroom to tackle the online New Zealand Declaration forms and take care of some banking. Thankfully, most of our bills are on auto-pay, which makes life so much easier while traveling.

We had promised Mr. C we’d stop by Trivia this morning in the Club. He’s really trying to recruit us for a team, but we’re not quite ready to commit to every sea day. So Debbie and I showed up, sat in the back, and played along. We knew most of the answers, but a couple were real brain busters. For example—can you name all seven children from The Sound of Music? Really?! We could only come up with one! Our friend Danny should have been there… he’s a total Sound of Music fanatic.

We grabbed a quick lunch in the Patio and then retreated to our room for a quiet afternoon of reading. I think sushi is calling our name for dinner tonight. 🍣😄

This isn’t related to our current trip, but I thought I’d share this with my fellow aviculturist friends. A friend in Panama just sent me this photo from his aviary—an absolutely amazing Cuban Amazon mutation. We bred many Cuban Amazons, but we were never lucky enough to have a mutation. 

Spectacular doesn’t even begin to describe the beauty of this rare parrot! 🦜✨

Cruise Day #30 - Chepenehe Village, Lifou, New Caledonia

Today we finally made it to the Patio for breakfast—and discovered (surprise!) that they have a separate menu. 

How did we not know this sooner? 🤦‍♂️ We both ordered the breakfast burrito and wow… it was delicioso. Definitely worth the wait.

Since we had already prepped to go ashore before breakfast, we ended up being among the first on the short water-shuttle ride. The views on the way in were absolutely stunning.

While there isn’t much to see in the tiny shoreside village, a quick 10-minute walk brought us to a gorgeous stretch of soft, white-sand beach.

We were the very first ones there and rented two chaise loungers with umbrellas for $30 USD—money well spent. The water was perfection.

Crystal clear and calm, and we were lucky enough to swim with a whole bunch of sea turtles (sadly, photos just weren’t possible 🐢).

After about an hour, a few more people arrived, but it never felt crowded. It was one of those rare, incredibly relaxing days… I was in the water for at least three hours.

On the water-shuttle ride back to the ship, we shared the ride with the Chef, who had just picked up fresh local fruit—pears, nectarines, apples, and sweet mini bananas. Doesn’t get much fresher than that!

Now it’s on to three sea days as we make our way toward our first port in New Zealand. 

Cruise Day #29 - Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Last night was a formal night—and actually the first one where we got all decked out in our finest threads! 👗🤵 Now that we are officially on our second Seabourn voyage, we were invited to the Seabourn Club party in the Grand Salon. Since it was our first one, we attended… and it will probably be the last one we attend 😂. It’s Seabourn’s version of Princess’ Captain’s Circle Party. The ship’s officers lined the entrance as you walked in, and servers circulated with canapés and drinks.

Two guests were recognized for surpassing 1,000 sea days with Seabourn. One of them was our new Australian friend, Mr. C 🇦🇺. The most traveled guests were also recognized, having logged an impressive 1,450 sea days—wow! 😲

Afterward, we made our way to the Observation Bar, where we sat next to a very nice couple from New York City 🗽 and had a really interesting conversation. It has truly been enjoyable meeting so many intriguing and personable fellow guests, all with such varied life experiences.

We then enjoyed a very nice dinner in The Restaurant, followed by the show in the Grand Salon. 

The performer had an outstanding voice, but his set consisted entirely of Broadway numbers—not really our thing. 

Oh well, a little culture never hurts every once in a while 😉.

This morning found us in Anelghowhat, Anaton, Vanuatu (quite the mouthful!), and more specifically, the tiny uninhabited Mystery Island 🏝️. 

After a light breakfast in the Colonnade ☕🥐, we were among the first on the water shuttles to the island. 

Quite a few locals from nearby Aneityum were there, selling tours and handcrafted goods 🛍️.

We walked through the center of the island 🌴 to a cluster of cabanas, which were available to rent for $50 USD 💵.

Side note: Even though we brought along foreign currency from home, we’ve had no issues at all using U.S. dollars. Today, we were even given change in USD.

We rented one of the cabanas and had an amazing time swimming and lounging 🏊‍♀️😎. It wasn’t quite as private as our last beach day, but it came pretty darn close! Only two other couples were using the cabanas 👍. 

After about three hours, some rather nasty-looking clouds began rolling in ☁️🌧️, and it was clear rain was coming—and likely for a while. We gathered our things and hightailed it back to the pier, about a 10-minute walk. As we waited for the water shuttle, the rain started 🌧️. Perfect timing—we made it back onboard just in time! 

All in all, it was a fantastic day 🌺😊.

Cruise Day #28 - Sea Day

After our great beach day yesterday, we were a bit tired heading into the evening. Still, we managed to rally and make it to the Observation Bar a little earlier than our usual time to celebrate Engen’s (Head Bartender) birthday. Sean, the ship’s Bar Manager, gave a lovely speech, and then we all sang Happy Birthday! 🎂🎶

Sunset from outside the Observation Bar...

Not being very hungry (thanks to a huge lunch at the Colonnade), we opted for a light dinner… again at the Colonnade. After that, a movie while lying in bed sounded absolutely perfect.

I have to say, we are very impressed with the massive library of movies on Seabourn’s on-demand system. There are literally hundreds of options—far more than we’ve ever seen on Princess voyages.

Since today is a sea day, we were able to have breakfast in The Restaurant. We’re still puzzled by how few passengers come there in the mornings. Most seem to prefer the Colonnade buffet instead. 🤷‍♂️

After breakfast, we secured our poolside loungers for the day. I now wait until around 10:00 to head to the Fitness Center, which seems to be the sweet spot for finding it fairly empty—and both of my preferred ellipticals available.

It’s a sad state of affairs when you’re discussing your next meal right after breakfast… but that’s exactly what we did! Veggie burgers at the Patio are the lunch plan. 🍔

If anything exciting happens during the day, I’ll update today’s blog. If not, see you mañana!

Tomorrow we will be in Vanuatu!