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On the morning of April 16, we took Tiger to the kennel, made sure the house was secure for our absence and got ready for our noon pick up by Sterling Rose. Amazingly, it only took 90 minutes to get to LAX, maybe a new land speed record. We were able to purchase an upgrade to Business Class for Daryl (she had been trying to get upgraded with miles since last June) and, surprise, surprise, the seat next to Rob was available. We had a light lunch in the Business Class Lounge and waited for our 4:30pm flight. We are always impressed with Air Tahiti Nui and enjoyed the 8 1/2 hour flight, with good food and service. We gained 3 hours (same time zone as Hawaii but a longer flight because further south) and had an uneventful flight although we landed 1/2 hour later than expected because of winds. Oceania arranged for a bus to the 2 hotels that cruisers were using for pre-cruise arrival – 2/3 of the passengers were dropped at the Intercontinental and the other 1/3 of us went to Le Meridien, a little further (15km or 7 mi) from the town of Papeete. It was a relatively small sample of the cruise ship as most came on the "free" air arrangements provided by Oceania and arrived the night before or the day of the cruise. The hotel is attractive, although it was midnight when we arrived and a little too dark to see much. As you see in Hawaii, the public spaces of the hotel and the walkways to the rooms are open to the air. Our fifth floor room overlooked the water.

On April 17, after a short night's sleep, even with the 3 hour time difference, we woke up, walked out on our veranda and felt like we were back on Maui. The smells of the foliage and the sounds of the birds were very familiar and the temperatures the same. On the roof of the restaurant, 2 floors below us, was a huge lily pond filled with koi. Around the building were gardens, a large pool with a white sandy bottom only 3 feet deep, then the beach with over-water bungalows and the mountains in the background as you looked along the coast. We had the breakfast buffet and Daryl practiced her French on the omelette chef, then we spent the day with our books in lounge chairs under the trees along the beach or dipping in the ocean or the pool. We had some froo froo drinks before heading back to the room to change for dinner, which was at Le Carre right on the water. Rob had duck four ways and Daryl had Polynesian Bouillabaise with all the local fish and shellfish. We enjoyed a good bottle of wine and headed up to our bed for a better and longer night's sleep. We plan to finish our next year's cruise, which ends in Papeete again, by spending a day and night at Le Meridien and enjoying the setting and the unwinding.

On April 18, we woke to find that the majority of the cruise group had arrived at midnight the previous night. We found our cruise friends, Dick and Gene, in the lobby; they got Peg and Cheri and we all had breakfast. We signed up for the 11:30am transport into Papeete, which took us to City Hall for check-in. We had a ship's guide to walk us and our one carry-on to the ship, while the others waited at City Hall or walked around the city until they could board. Oceania provided food and drink in a meeting room and seating for the wait. Apparently, Papeete is a very difficult port as all the flights come and go in the evening. So Oceania did not want to dump everyone who had just done the 10 day tour of the islands (Papeete to Papeete). They made them leave their staterooms so they could be turned over for the new passengers, but they allowed them to hang out at the pool or the library or the lounges and fed them breakfast and lunch. The final group disembarked at 5pm. Our cabin was not ready when we boarded but they allowed us to leave our carry-on in the closet and our valuables in the safe and we went to have lunch. When we got back, the cabin was ready, our bags (which had come straight from Le Meridien) were there, we unpacked and eventually had an earlyish dinner in the Grand Dining Room as the specialty restaurants were not available. This was our first chance to see Marius, who was our waiter on previous cruises and promoted to Head Waiter for the last 2 cruises we were on. We found the others there as they had been able to board about 5. Daryl saw them from our veranda. The biggest challenge of the day was that Daryl had to reorganize her Kindle for the cruise as all the categories disappeared somehow. The ship left port at 11pm, with us snug in our king bed and with the door in the bedroom open so we could hear the sound of the ship in the water.