Overnights in Tahtiti, Bora Bora, Kava & the Jacuzzi incident!

With everything going well on the work front and the end of my epic contract really in sight now, I set about just enjoying the ports on my last few weeks. First up was Bora Bora, French Polynesia which to this day is still one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and though I had been lucky enough to visit here twice before both times I had been ‘working’ as much as snorkelling and driving all over the island was work.

On my 3rd visit it was the first time I had the whole day off and with a group of new friends from the recent large crew turnover we headed for Matira Beach. There was Jan from production who I had previously worked with on the Coral when he was a waiter & one good thing about Princess was that if you wanted to change departments and you actually had the skills or were a fast learner you could switch departments after a few contracts. We also had Matt a level 1 photog from Wales who had only been onboard for a few weeks and there was Lauren an English deck cadet. We also had our nice Americans (after Chads reign of terror) Kyle also from production and Brittney from the spa.

Of course it being my first day off work in Bora Bora the weather was shit and despite the overcast skies and frequent monsoons you are still in Bora Bora, which means in a few hours it will be beautiful blue skies with no hint of a cloud in the sky and nuclear heat. After an hour or so of rainy the beach had thinned out a little bit with quite a few crew and PAX heading back onboard.

The downside to Bora Bora is it is ridiculously expense and on the beach there was maybe one drinks stall (it definitely did not qualify as a bar) and like every port they hike their prices on the day the ships are in. Now this was 2009 and it was $5 for a warm small can of beer, why did they pay that much? Because there was literally nowhere else to get a beer from on the part of the beach where we were.

A few days later we were in Apia, Samoa again and when I got back to the ship around lunchtime I found that most of the photogs and spa were shit faced drunk because they had been on the local Kava. What is Kava you might ask, well according to Wikipedia

‘Kava is a beverage or extract that is made from Piper methysticum, a plant native to the western Pacific islands. The name "kava" comes from the Polynesian word "awa," which means bitter. In the South Pacific, kava is a popular social drink. It is consumed as a beverage in ceremonies to promote relaxation’

Yeah, everyone was pretty relaxed alright and after a hard half days filming I quickly downed a cup of Kava and joined the rest of the photogs and spa out on the crew deck or was we call it metal beach. It’s funny because the crew pool is basically a small box where you would have to turnaround after maybe 2 strokes! Now under the influence of the Kava I got in one of the two crew hot tubs forgetting that my pager and wallet were still in my pocket, thankfully my mainly American money dried out with help from a hairdryer quite nicely.

Now my friends had been out drinking ashore all day and I was now playing catch up and one of the girls from the spa (name redacted) was quite worse for wear and decided to jump into the hot tub like you would dive bomb into a swimming pool. This did not go well for her and she was lucky not to break her foot which would have resulted in her being sent home and effectively fired.

Luckily for her this wasn’t her first contract and she was a very good earner for the Spa and as we know if you make the company money they will turn a blind eye to minor indiscretions especially if it is out of character. I think my friend (like most of us) vastly underestimated how potent the local Kava was as she was definitely focused on earning from her job.

One other issue with French Polynesia was it was really fucking nuclear hot some days out there and true to being a pale white Englishman my day ashore in Bora Bora had absolutely cremated me. One of the nurses said it looked like I had 3rd degree burns (she may have been exaggerating) and I remember getting some aloe vera balms from the spa girls. Ironically some of the girls in the spa looked like lobsters themselves which for them got them in trouble because its not a good look if you are supposed to be a skin care specialist and you look like Freddy Krueger!

The next day we were in Papeete, French Polynesia where we were docked for two days which meant the two favourite words of every crew member - OVERNIGHT! I’d had a brilliant night out just a year ago with the dancers when I was on the Sun as by that point of the contract that photo team was not in a good place, but on the Star even though many of my friends had left the new crew were great and most of the photo team headed ashore that night.

We all pre-gamed on the ship as alcohol ashore was ridiculously expensive and I think it was around midnight when finally fell ashore straight into the nearest club, which was completely deserted. It might have been a Monday night but when you work on ships the standard working week does not exist and with overnights being such a rarity even in my massively sunburnt lobster boy state I dragged myself ashore.

The club was instantly packed and it was exactly like the crew bar ashore, dark, smoky, packed and terrible music. Admittedly I think we were in control of the music as I’m certain I saw Boogie from the cruise staff DJ’ing most of the evening. As much as I can remember (its really only photos that remind me) I eventually made it back to the ship with Kyle & Janessa from production and some of the musicians.