We woke up to land ahoy today after days of only the ocean.
It was fun sailing slowly into Noumea’s industrial port as we enjoyed an early breakfast.
After a rundown of what time to return to the ship in our groups, we set out to disembark, showing our passports and tickets to the world card before being cleared.
A large bus awaited us- well two actually, our lovely tour guide Lumila had the most beautiful voice and accent. and was an engaging tour guide. We made three stops on the 3.5 hour tour. One at Church of the Immaculate Conception- oldest church in New Caledonia and a 12 minute drive from the town centre., one at a lookout and the last one at Noumea’s internationally recognised aquarium.
To be honest, the actual drive though so much of the island, with it’s diverse terrain, lush palms, mangrove swamps, rolling hills and diversity of socio economic status evident in the housing options, lots of the modest homes has their own veggie gardens.
The palm- lined paths along the sea, with restaurants and markets on the opposite side is an area I would have liked to explore if we had had time. Noumea has pretty spud with tropical food name like lemon bay and coconut square.
I was thankful for the cloud cover that lingered the whole day, because it was very warm and humid.
We were all happy to discover free wifi at the aquarium, and the attention seeking turtle. The delicate and graceful jelllyfish, vibrantly coloured soft coral and the blind old eel also grabbed my attention. This li’l fella was my favourite though. Looked like he was trying to tell me something.
We clambered onto our tour bus ready to be taken back to the main place where we could explore or shuttle back to our ship. We had been looking forward to real French pastry and baguettes. Here is where things turned different to plan. The bus went all the way buck to the shop- which meant that we needed to get off and then board a shuttle going back to the station to walk then walk back to a boulangerie or to the coconut square
Flynn was struggling with a sugar low. And so… being at the ship already- most of us chickened out and headed back on board and straight to lunch.
For the first half hour at lunch I kept debating whether to race back out to try to get a baguette. Glad I didn’t as the guys who went looking, only found croissants.
Lunch at Tritons was so good- satay beef sticks with a peanut buttery sauce and a topping of cucumber bits in a tangy fragrant sauce.
The mozzarella and tomato bruschetta was another a standout. It seems that Disney does great bruschetta! The steak was great and the dessert but the bruschetta was truly memorable.
We arrived back to our room to find scarves for Pirate night awaiting us.
I woke myself up post-outing with an iced latte at Cove cafe and then Pam and I settled in to watch Soul at the cinema. I popped my head in to see some of the all-ages karaoke and those kids performing were just so brave and charge my phone. We had no internet, but we were all connected via the app and able to text each other there. However, the app was a real drain of my phone’s battery.
Some of the kids doing karaoke kept in tune, and some – all you could honestly say is that they read the song well. But they all gave it a go.
We dressed up for pirate night and them lined up for magical photos.
Tonight’s dinner at Tiana’s was a massive highlight. It was Madi Gras night and we just loved the vibe. Today has been such a packed and gloriously and confusingly mult-themed day.
Noumea, pirates, Marci Gras, with two highly anticipated shows in quick succession:the Frozen show ( 1 1/4 hours) followed try the Pirate night show!
Such a collision of themes. That being said, only 1/3rd of the ship was enjoying Mardi Gras because we rotate restaurants.
After dinner, I really could have curled up in bed and gone to sleep. As it was, Kara and I arrvied at the theatre way too late. Everyone in our group had to sit apart from each other- except for Kara and I who were assigned wheelchair seats in the very front row! Seats that we would be forced out of if someone needed them more than us.
Frozen truly was a broadway-quality show, and so immersive with its use of multimedia. I thought Elsa was falling off the stage at one point as she rushed down the stairs past us. So I automatically stuck out my foot to catch her. She, of course, was acting, so I spent the next 20 minutes worried I might be kicked out for trying to kick Elsa.
Right after the show, some Disney magic happened. To our wonderful Nanny (Pam or her cruise name Pamela)
I wasn’t there, but Kara was and she documented it all. Goofy was walking past into a room and Pam and Kara wanted to get a snap of him. All of a sudden he breezed out and, threading his arm through Pam’s he whisked her away for a stroll and then he sat the two of them down in some chairs where they shared a sweet moment together.
It was one of those unforgettable moments that you couldn’t dream up. Thank you Goofy!
We knew the 10:30 pm pirate show/ fireworks on Deck 9 would be wildly popular.
While I went to find a spot on the top deck to look down and watch the pirate show on the deck below, it was raining.
I really wasn’t feeling pirate night but the weather improved. Pirate night was really a lot of singing and dancing from the entertainment team and a bunch of Disney characters. But then a skull came and threatened the safety of the crew. It took Mickey abseiling in to save the day. Where on earth was Jack Sparrow?
We got back to our room to sind this amazing towel creation:
We fell into bed, exhausted.
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Dory the Explorer 