Sunday, 1st February 2026
Another couple of sea days. Unlike the Caribbean, where you can visit a different island every day, you have to travel hundreds of miles between islands in the vastness of the Pacific, which is larger than all the other world’s oceans put together. 🙂
So here we were, in our usual sea day routine. Got up around 7.30am and went up to Deck 10 to do our nautical mile. The ocean was fairly calm and already it was pleasantly warm; we could expect temperatures of 27°C today.
After we’d finished our laps and I enjoyed some chilled orange-infused water, we went into the Windows Café for a leisurely breakfast. I enjoyed some yoghurt with granola washed down with coffee and more water. When we left the buffet, we were surprised to see a queue starting to form along the jogging track outside, as it was only nine o’clock.
We had received a form to fill in and a notification that “all non-European passport holders who were disembarking in Pape’ete on 5th or 6th February” were to collect their passports from guest relations and take them up to the Living Room to the designated desks, so we could have them stamped and receive an “entry into French Polynesia” card. This was not supposed to be happening until 10.00am (until 12.00pm) but already people were queueing up! Didn’t they have a life?!
We pondered over whether we were European or non-European. Britain is, of course, geographically situated in the continent of Europe, which did indeed make us European. But from a political view, because of good old Brexit (!!), we were no longer classed as European, so unfortunately we would have to join the queue at some point, but not yet.
Instead, at 10 o’clock, we attended another superb talk called “Our Blue Planet” by Dr. Rachel Cartwright, enjoying a chilled can of Coke Zero each as we listened to the presentation. I must say that the guest speakers on this voyage have all been excellent; very engaging and informative.
After the talk finished, we went along to the guest relations desk and retrieved our passports, before taking them, and our completed forms, to the Living Room Deck 10. We travelled up in the packed lift until the doors opened on 10 onto a solid wall of people. We were unable to go any further; the queue was about three deep and snaked all the way around the Living Room and out on deck, where several people were standing in the sun. Bar staff were walking around dishing out bottles of cold water. We were pleased there were only 640 passengers on this ship; imagine if it had been one of the behemoths with ten times that amount!
As it was, we just decided to go and have a beer at the Pool Bar, from where we could observe when the queue went down, and pick our moment to go and join it. At first, it didn’t seem to be moving, as people were joining the queue as fast as the ones at the front were being dealt with. However, it did eventually go down, so we finished our drinks and returned to 6030 to collect our passports.
Once we joined the queue, it did actually start moving and we weren’t stuck there too long. We approached a desk where an official looked at our paperwork, asked the flight number of our departure from Pape’ete (AF029), stamped our passports and gave us a card to show that we had been granted permission to enter French Polynesia, which we would reach in two days’ time.
This brought us nicely up to lunchtime, which we enjoyed in the Patio, the outdoor eating area on the pool deck, which did great burgers, salads, hot dogs etc. I enjoyed some piri-piri chicken wings and a bowl of fresh, crisp salad vegetables, and it was all washed down with a freezing cold pint of Heineken.
I would have liked to have gone in the pool today, but I didn’t want to expose my mozzie-bitten legs in my cossie. As it was, I applied some more anti-itch cream and was pleased to see that the bites didn’t look as livid as they had yesterday.
Looking at The Insider activities programme, there wasn’t an awful lot I fancied doing this afternoon. Many of the events listed were really just sales pitches in disguise; we have found this to be the case on ships that cater to the American market (such as Azamara, Celebrity and Cunard). We would have liked some more shipboard games such as those they hold on Fred Olsen ships – carpet bowls, golf putting, indoor kurling and baggo.
At 2.00pm, Trevor went along to the Cabaret Lounge to listen to another talk by the wonderful Leo Rossi; this time he was reminiscing about Prince. I just decided to stay in 6030 and enjoy an afternoon power nap, followed by a refreshing shower, hair shampoo and blow dry.
We just spent the rest of the afternoon pottering around the ship, until it was time to start getting ready for dinner. We weren’t really hungry as we had had a substantial lunch, so we just went in the Windows Café again and I enjoyed a plate of salad with some cold meats. The Windows Café, which led onto the aft decks, was bathed in a gorgeous golden glow from the westering sun we could see beyond the large windows. We decided to go outside and catch an amazing sunset.
At half-eight the doors to the Cabaret Lounge opened, and we went inside and bagged our usual seats in the front row, in time for the show at nine o’clock. A waiter appeared immediately and we each ordered a cold prosecco. Then I just spent some time reading Mutiny on the Bounty until the lights dimmed, signalling the start of the show.
Tonight’s cabaret was called “Song Book” and featured cruise director Emily Love. She sang a selection of popular pieces, accompanied by the excellent ship’s orchestra. We enjoyed her singing a lot.
Afterwards, we remained in our seats, because tonight the talented crew members had the chance to shine, in “Creweoke” which was karaoke, with the lyrics displayed on a large white screen in time to the music. Some of the songs were in English while others were in the crew member’s native language. All the singers were fabulous and received enthusiastic cheers and applause from the audience. 🙂
We finished the evening, as usual, by going up to the Living Room, where we enjoyed the dance music played by the excellent Musiq4Soul. When they played Señorita, we got up to do the Ria Bachata again. Our dance teacher would have been proud of us! 🙂
After enjoying a night cap of vodka and Coke Zero, we made our way back to 6030 and settled down for the night. Tomorrow would be our 10th and final sea day of this voyage, and we looked forward to reaching terra firma again in two days’ time. 🙂
Monday, 2nd February 2026
During the night the clocks had gone back an hour once again, so we were now nine hours behind GMT. We were therefore up bright and early and ready to do our laps around the deck. As we exited the lift on deck 10 and walked outside, the hot sultry air hit us immediately; it was already 26°C and would rise later on to 28°C.
The ocean was a little more lively this morning, and we could feel the motion of the Onward as we walked around; sometimes we were walking slightly uphill and sometimes slightly downhill as we watched the bow of the vessel gently rising and falling. As it was such a lovely day and our last sea day, we determined to spend as much time as possible above decks today. I was also pleased to see that the bites on my legs were much less discernible today, so I would be able to enjoy an invigorating swim. 🙂
After breakfast, we went down to the promenade deck on Deck 5 and decided to sit in the shade on a sun lounger, just watching the world go by. We procured one each just outside the windows of The Den, and I sat watching the Onward as she glided along. It’s a sight that Trevor and I never, ever tire of – it’s just great, and it made me take in huge breaths of the incomparable sea air. Fantastic! 🙂
Around 10 o’clock we decided to drop into the Cabaret Lounge, which was holding the “Onward Expo” from 9.30 – 11.00am. This gave the passengers the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes of running a cruise ship smoothly, and to meet the officers and crew members involved. It had everything from the ship’s plumbers, housekeeping department, entertainment and backstage tours and the vessel’s navigation equipment. Trevor was particularly interested in the engine examples on display and I was fascinated by the traditional navigation equipment such as the compass and the sextant. Although modern vessels use sophisticated GPS to get around the globe, navigators still have to learn celestial navigation and know how to use the ‘old fashioned’ instruments in the event that all the computer systems go down.
Once we’d had a good look around, including a tour backstage from a member of the show company, we decided to do the customary thing and go for a cold beer! We made our way to the pool deck and sat at a table in the shade, hailing the barman, JR, as we did so. “Two beers?” he asked us, and we nodded in the affirmative. 🙂
It was very hot up on deck and several people were cooling off in the pool. They all had to be out before 11.30am however, because today we were going to see the results of the “Azamara Boat-Building Competition”. This was an event in which passengers had to use their imagination and innovation to construct a vessel from found materials around the ship, e.g. plastic bottles for floats, napkins for sails and other things. There were four teams, each submitting a vessel, and they had to be judged on appearance, robustness and ability to carry ‘cargo’ in the form of six bottles of beer! The latter two would be tested by launching each vessel in the swimming pool! 🙂
From what we could see, an awful lot of ingenuity and consideration had gone into each boat, and all the teams deserved to win.
It brought us nicely up to lunchtime, and we decided (as it was the last sea day) to go into the Discoveries Restaurant for a change. Once again, we were allocated a pleasant table for two by a window, and we enjoyed a tasty two course lunch, which I washed down with cold water and a glass of chilled prosecco, all served by a smiling and attentive waiter. Dining on a cruise ship is like going to a posh restaurant twice a day, and the food on the Onward was very good indeed. 🙂
It was then time for the usual post-luncheon power nap before we made our way to the Cabaret Lounge once again before two o’clock, as they were holding a “Q & A” session with the Captain, Chief Engineer, Hotel Director and HR Manager. As we entered the lounge, we were just in time to see the last few minutes of the “High C’s” passenger choir rehearsal, ready for the show they were putting on for us tonight. Joining a choir seems to be a very popular pastime on cruises these days; we have seen them several times before.
The question-and-answer session was very interesting and, once again, it gave the lay person the chance to see how a ship is run and ask sensible questions. Some of the banter between the officers was quite amusing as well, and it was a nice little interlude.
We then just spent the rest of the afternoon pottering around the ship, walking around the decks, looking out to sea to see if we could spot any wildlife. We were surprised we hadn’t seen any flying fish on this voyage, as it is very common to see them in tropical latitudes, but perhaps the water was too deep or too cold; we were very far from any land.
We once again gravitated to the pool bar, where I had a couple of glasses of prosecco and Trevor continued to work his way through the complimentary cocktail list. Drinks are all-inclusive on all Azamara ships but you can ‘upgrade’ to the premium drinks package which includes premium brands and a larger cocktail selection. However, in the pub at home we tend to drink beer, prosecco and white or rosé wine and rum, vodka and whisky as a matter of choice, and as these were all included in the package anyway, it didn’t make any sense to upgrade.
The afternoon turned to early evening and we returned to 6030 to start getting washed and changed and ready for dinner (eating again!!). As we had had a substantial lunch, however, we just decided to go to the Windows café and have something light.
At eight o’clock we returned to the Cabaret Lounge, where they were holding the game show “Liars’ Club” (the TV show Call My Bluff in the UK) featuring four of the senior officers. An obscure word was displayed on the screen behind the stage, and each of the four team members had to say what it meant. The audience then had to try to guess who was giving the correct definition – it wasn’t as easy as it sounded (unless, of course, you did actually know the word!) 🙂
Liars’ Club was followed by tonight’s main performance, which was called Rhythms of the Pacific and featured the passengers! I have already mentioned the choir, but other passengers had been learning to play the ukulele or learn traditional Tahitian dancing during this voyage, and now they had the chance to showcase their talents. It was actually a really enjoyable show, and I particularly enjoyed watching the dancers. 🙂
Afterwards, we hotfooted it up to the Living Room, where it was the passengers’ turn for the limelight once again, because tonight was karaoke night! Several singers got up and performed, and I got up and sang Back to Black by Amy Winehouse, and Alejandro by Lady Gaga, getting an enthusiastic cheer and round of applause each time. The overall standard of singing was quite good; we have been in some karaokes where you heartily wished for some industrial-strength ear plugs! 🙂
We then just remained in the Living Room and enjoyed a nightcap of a Famous Grouse whisky, ginger ale and ice. Then we returned to 6030 to settle down for a good night’s sleep. We were due to reach land once again in the morning, in the shape of the atoll Fakarava in French Polynesia, and we absolutely couldn’t wait. 🙂
