The second night was a cocktail evening, and I was really looking forward to it. I love dressing up in expensive clothes that I never get to wear. I also love drinking cocktails, but I abstained, of course. Felt pretty ick, but had some professional photos done anyway. There were photo booths set up all over the place with different backgrounds, if you had photos done at four of them you could got into a draw to win a package, so we gave that a shot. I'd used up my luck though.
Day 3 was awful. I spent most of it in bed. No one had to worry who was minding Isis for her naps on day 3. I decided then that cruising isn't for me and that I'm never doing it again. I didn't know how I'd survive til the end. I made it down to dinner on time, somehow, and my sister tells me "You just have to ignore it! Mind over matter!" yes, thanks for that. Real helpful. I wanted to stab her in the face with a fork. She too was pretty damn ill before it was all over though and ended up eating her words, so that made me feel somewhat better. Not a whole lot, because she never actually apologised for being a dick and instead sat at breakfast taking photos of my miserable face and laughing (which my wonderful husband deleted later) but it was nice to hear her admit that sometimes you can't ignore it.
Finally we had a port day! How I lived for the port days! First stop was Isle of Pines, New Caledonia. Let me tell you, it's a beautiful place, but there's nothing there. I was enthralled by the trees. Not the pines, pine is boring. But the other ones they have there, all tangled together like an enchanted forest. Mostly the point of this island is to snorkel though. And you can't snorkel with a one year old, so off Bec and Chris went. They have a giant sacred rock in the middle of the reef you can't touch/walk on, and if you craned your neck you could see an old path with totems at the top. It was pretty cool I also got a lot of quality time with Isis, just sitting in the water at low tide and playing with the sand. It was sweet. I live for these moments because she generally prefers the company of her father. Everyone else tried this Bougna stuff. It's a cultural dish, and there was a little stall with a sign "Free Bougna taste". A "taste" was pretty much a meal, the lady gave out Chinese food containers with quite a lot in them. Awesome. Bougna is basically everything they have on hand - mango, yam, banana, fish or chicken, other random veggies - wrapped in leaves and cooked underground in coconut milk. Being knocked up, I didn't try any because of the bacteria/food poisoning risks, but apparently it wasn't bad. No one went back for seconds though, so I guess it wasn't great either.
The spa voucher I'd won on the first day was only valid for use on port days, and only for a small range of treatments - their most expensive treatments. If I were to go for the cheapest option, I'd still be out of pocket $70. So I wanted to make it worth it. I was also restricted by the fact there's a lot of services you can't get when you're pregnant - including teeth whitening. Who knew? We had to book the day before, and at some point I asked Obi to do the couple's massage with me. Obviously, that was far more expensive, but for me it was the only option I could see being worth it. My social anxiety wasn't about to let me get a massage alone, and I don’t care about having my nails done or any of that shit. Actually it kind of freaks me out, but we can talk about that another day. Lucky for me, he agreed. It was a big highlight for the whole trip. Anyway, the package included a 50 minute massage for both of us, champagne, and then an hour to stay in their couple's room alone to use the steam shower, Jacuzzi and have sex. Oh come on, don't look at me like that. Why else are they going to leave you alone and naked for that long if they don't expect you to do the wild thing?
Lucky for me, they let us book for after the last tender returned to the ship so we didn’t need to cut our port visit short and they had a masseuse on hand who’s trained for pregnancy massage. And it was blissful. The steam shower was also amazing, even though technically I wasn’t allowed in there (You have to be very careful about overheating yourself when pregnant, so they say. So no saunas or hot tubs or any of that. But honestly it was far hotter in Vanuatu and I was there for much longer than the steam shower, so whatevs!). The difference between a steam shower and sauna (for people like me who didn’t know there was one) is that the steam shower has a shower in it. You’re supposed to have a cold/cool shower every ten minutes or so while you’re in there. It’s some kind of hot/cold therapy. It was also tiled rather than wood like most saunas seem to be and you couldn’t tell where exactly the steam was coming from. It was great. I’d like to do it again sometime.
The Jacuzzi was actually pretty cold. I assume they turned it down knowing in advance that I’m pregnant. But it was still great (and huge! Three other couples could have copulated in there with us and there’d still be room for a man with a video camera.) as was the champagne… and Obi. Such a beautiful boy. It was nice to be able to connect with him and TMI alert! : Actually look into his eyes while we were making love. Because without a giant tub to support my bulk, that hasn’t happened and won’t again for months.
Because Isis had already eaten, we got to have a dinner date alone after our spa too. I’m getting the warm fuzzies just thinking about it.
glad you had some alone time with Obi! Hopefully it helped make up for the bad parts of the trip!