Day Thirty Seven February11

Today is the last of nine straight sea days on the Oceania Insignia. Surprisingly the time has gone by rather quickly.

We left Bora Bora at 16:00 February 2 to begin our journey back to Los Angeles. Here is a brief synopsis of what has happened during this time.

For those who have not cruised, all cruise lines provide their passengers with a daily newspaper style paper reporting on the activities for the next day. Oceania's is called "Currents". These activities can be anything from Crazy Golf Putting to Bridge lessons. Enrichment series lectures are also carried out on sea days.

There is an artist loft on our ship where there is always an artist in resident. On the first segment, Janice attented jewellery craft classes where she made Hawaiian and polynesiann jewellery. For this segment and the next until Barbados we have an artist on board that has been teaching us sketching and water colours. It's been alot of fun and after 9 consecutive classes which are always on sea days we feel that we have somewhat improved. perhaps we will exhibit our art in a future blog.

During the evening, guest performers as well as the cruise staff provide entertainment to the passengers. Some entertainers which were to meet the ship in Papeete tested positive for covid and were prevented from joining the ship. Under these trying cirumstances, the cruise director did an excellent job with the resources he had on hand. One of the guest performers did three excellent shows during the fourteen days. Two members of the cruise staff also put on solo acts that were exceptional.

As mentioned, aside from providing information on the daily activities, "Currents" provides interesting articles on the front page. Two of these were:

• "Crossing the Equator" (two times on this cruise)
• "The Ring of Fire" in reference to the volcanic eruptions which have occurred in the area of the Pacific Ocean between the land masses of Asia, South Pacific, Australia, North and South America.

For those interested in these topics, please refer to the internet for more information.

On a lighter note, because of the changes to the itinerary, the ship and its Captain provided many nights of complimentary cocktails between17:00-19:00 in all 3 bars.This is where I succumbed to the Big O Martini. Between Captain nights and a few extra nights I believe there were six nights of free drinks.

On one sea day Janice attended a White Wine Tasting event. We also played bingo a few times and I got a much needed haircut. Between my daily trivia and doing crosswords, reading and mensa quizes, the days just fly by.

We continue to walk the deck outside when the weather allows or even walking inside for exercise. Janice also goes to the gym a little more regularly than me.

I will talk a little more about the food and dining options in a later blog. We can only say that the food and service is amazing.

On my count we have had three covid tests during this cruise with another one today before we reach Los Angeles. of course the ship tested 100% negative as we have been at sea for 9 days.