MV Mystique Princess

Thursday, November 7, Sailing day.


After a nice breakfast outside by the pool we packed up for our 4 day cruise. Actually, if you count the number of 24 hour periods, it’s a 3 day cruise. But this is Fiji time so who is counting. We left 1 bag and a jacket at the hotel as we will be returning to the same hotel following the cruise. Our driver headed north to the port of Lautoka in the heavy rain and fairly heavy traffic . The ride to the cruise depot took about an hour passing sugar cane fields and what our driver, of Indian descent, told us was the point where the first native Fijian landed in the islands. When asked where the settler arrived from, he replied South Africa. OK, I didn’t realize that the South Africans were such explorers, but what do I know?
We checked in for our cruise, got our cabin assignment (#1 of course), picked up our snorkel equipment and were driven to the ship, the MV Mystique Princess, in the heavy rain. The cabin is quite spacious with a king sized bed, large picture window (no portholes), bar and small shower and bathroom. After unpacking we met our fellow passengers and our Cruise Director Alfie who walked us through the safety lecture, fire drill and how to use our life jackets. Our cruise had only 18 passengers, 9 cabins worth, and a crew of 20. From the passenger standpoint, not a bad ratio. Not a good one from the cruise company’s perspective. We had a group of about 20 American travel agents from the west coast watch our drills. They were on board for a brief familiarization of the ship and cruise line and left for a resort not long after we had sailed from Lautoka.
We and our fellow passengers headed up to the Sky Deck to imbibe at the Sky Bar. The Sky Deck is open air on the aft of the ship with a nice breeze, and a strong blast of diesel exhaust if you go too far aft. Of our fellow 16 passengers, 8 were from Fiji, a newlywed couple from Australia, a newlywed couple from Indianapolis, a couple from Switzerland and Germany and a couple from New Zealand and Scotland.
Adam and Emma are young Aussies and had been married the previous Saturday in Australia. Their first cruise and first time out of Australia. Joachim and AnneMarie are from Germany and Switzerland respectively and were on a 6 month world tour. They started off in LA for a few days, then to Tahiti and Australia before coming to Fiji. From Fiji they go to New Zealand, the Philippines and India. They’ll get back home the end of February. Kelly and Dan are from New Zealand (alas, North Island) and Scotland respectively, although Dan now lives in New Zealand. Sounds like Kelly has traveled extensively to the US and Europe, although she said we have seen more of the South Island than she. The newlyweds from Indiana? Never found out their names.
Lillian and Mere are two very nice ladies from Fiji. Lillian has 2 children in the US and will be moving to Vegas shortly. A move we can’t quite figure out except for the need to be near family.
The other 6 Fijians, 3 couples, are all employees of the cruise line. Nonrevs of the sea I guess. Vara is a captain for Blue Lagoon and was along with his wife. Joe (?) is the general manger and he and his wife occupied the Sky Suite, the one suite on the top deck of the ship. Like airline nonrevs, I guess they too chase the best seat in the house.
While watching a beautiful sunset, we, along with the Adam and Emma and Joachim and AnneMarie were asked to sit at the Captain’s table for dinner. Captain Siti was not a big talker, but he most likely doesn't need to be one in order to captain the ship. He did tell us though, that this cruise was almost canceled due to the low number of bookings. Don't know what we would have done in that case. We had a very good 4 course dinner helped along some New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Some after dinner drinks and a lot of conversation and we got to bed close to midnight.

Today’s observations:
Each dinner course was announced. “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. The Main Course is now served”. Nice touch.
Cabin 1 is in the forward part of the ship. The anchors are also in the forward part of the ship. Anchors and anchor chains made a rather loud clanging and grinding noise as they were lowered after midnight as we anchored for the night.