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There was a slight glitch in our "pinning" ceremony at the Oceania Club party – they forgot to announce us. So after a day at sea after leaving Western Samoa, we went to another Oceania Club party for the newer members and got to be the only silver members announced. Since there are lots more amenities and benefits the more cruises you do, it is always good to make sure the records are straight. Free wi-fi in itself counts for a lot.

The two sea days from Samoa to Bora Bora went along pretty well. The crew put on a Country Fair on the second one and each department set up a stall with silly games that the passengers could participate in for points/tickets to cash in later. The Boutique had a blindfolded make-up booth; the Pursers had a water balloon toss with 3 of the well known crew members as very wet targets (the line to throw water balloons at them was very long!); Galley did a spice guessing booth: and so it went. The weather mostly held, although the Country Fair did get rained out at the end.

Bora Bora was the most exciting destination for most of the passengers, especially the 5 honeymoon couples onboard, so everyone was on their decks watching as we cruised into the Bora Bora Lagoon and saw the silhouette of the 2 famous mountains. Even Rob and Daryl were happy to be here although we had been on Bora Bora less than a year ago and before that on our very first cruise on Renaissance. It is really beautiful and exactly what everyone wants French Polynesia to be. We anchored offshore about 11am and were cleared to go ashore by tender after 12 noon. We had an excursion in the afternoon so went to get our tickets exchanged at 12:45pm and tendered over to Vaitape to meet the boat for our trip to the Lagoonarium. We were finally going to get a chance to use our snorkels which we had packed and brought from home. About 40 of us boarded a large flat bottom looking boat with wood benches with a crew named Thierry (his Tahitian name is 26 letters long so he also told us his French name), his brother Thomas and the driver, Bob. Thierry was in charge, but Bob did the driving while Thierry and Thomas played Tahitian ukuleles and sang, stopping only to point out various points of interest – e.g., the now defunct Hotel Bora Bora, Mahira Beach which is public and really beautiful, all the very expensive hotels like the St Regis and the Intercontinental, the now defunct Club Med, etc. - while we motored, sometimes very slowly due to the very shallow water, to the private family motu or island. There, they had formed a series of three large "pens" by erecting a barrier which allows water in and out, but keeps certain fish in. After distributing masks and snorkels to those who needed them and having us put our stuff on tables under large shelters, we all went and stepped down into the first pool where they keep baby lemon and nurse sharks and sting rays. Thierry had a bucket of small fish to feed them in order to bring them towards us. These babies have become so used to people that they allowed the brothers to ride on them and all of us to touch them. The water was pretty shallow, so you could just stand and lean down to look into the water at the fish and these babies. We then moved to the second pool, which was pretty much fish only. The third pool was much larger and extended the whole length of their beach. Here you needed to swim and then you found yourself swimming with full size rays and three kinds of sharks. Rob and Daryl and another couple were the last out of this pool, spending close to an hour swimming back and forth. The sharks pretty much ignore you, but they are right below and around you all the time. While it might not have been a gorgeous beach with only bright colored fish around your legs as we had seen in the past, you don't often get a chance to swim with a 12+ foot long shark. Once everyone was out of the water, Bob the captain, who by now was stripped down to the Tahitian version of a man's bikini (according to him) did a demonstration on how to tie the pareo. When he got to the last one, he picked Daryl as his model and you all know how much Daryl likes to volunteer for audience participation events (not!.) So he shows you how to tie the knots, etc and then has you model it with him. Since he affects (or maybe not?!) the gay designer persona, you just go along with putting your hand on his tribal tattooed butt and over his heart. After the show was over, we headed back to the boat to continue our circle tour of the island, driving right into a rain squall so that we were all wet again, but laughing to the singing and ukulele playing.

We tendered back to the ship about 5pm and washed all the sand out of our suits and water shoes, and spread them out to dry on our deck. Of course, it then started to rain again. It is the Tropics after all! Eventually we headed down to Jacques for our second to last dinner aboard.