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  | ARCHIVES | Mack | 5700 | 229 | 01-01-26 10:12 am |
 | Archive through January 04, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 01-04-26 9:54 am |
| Archive through January 17, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 01-17-26 1:49 pm |
| Archive through January 27, 2026 | Grooch | 25 | 1 | 01-27-26 12:54 pm |
| Archive through February 08, 2026 | Seamonkey | 25 | 1 | 02-08-26 4:30 pm |
| Archive through February 16, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 02-16-26 4:01 pm |
| Archive through February 23, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 02-23-26 5:02 pm |
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| Archive through March 23, 2026 | Grooch | 25 | 1 | 03-23-26 11:42 am |
| Archive through March 30, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 03-30-26 9:59 am |
| Archive through April 06, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 04-06-26 12:42 pm |
| Archive through April 09, 2026 | Pamy | 25 | 1 | 04-09-26 9:02 pm |
| Archive through April 22, 2026 | Juju2bigdog | 25 | 1 | 04-22-26 10:42 pm |
| Archive through April 29, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 04-29-26 6:47 am |
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| Archive through May 03, 2026 | Seamonkey | 25 | 1 | 05-03-26 12:49 pm |
| Archive through May 09, 2026 | Juju2bigdog | 25 | 1 | 05-09-26 10:14 pm |
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| Archive through May 18, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 05-18-26 4:55 pm |
| Archive through May 22, 2026 | Naja | 25 | 1 | 05-22-26 10:20 am |
| Archive through May 25, 2026 | Seamonkey | 25 | 1 | 05-25-26 5:03 pm |
| Archive through May 28, 2026 | Grooch | 25 | 1 | 05-28-26 4:25 pm |
| Archive through June 02, 2026 | Mack | 25 | 1 | 06-02-26 4:55 pm |
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| Author |
Message |
Pamy
Member
01-01-2002
| Tuesday, June 02, 2026 - 6:23 pm 
Mack that sounds so fun!!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Tuesday, June 02, 2026 - 6:28 pm
Will you fly out of Texas?
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Tuesday, June 02, 2026 - 6:29 pm
I mean out of the US.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Tuesday, June 02, 2026 - 9:40 pm
How exotic and exciting! Enjoy!
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-26-2000
| Tuesday, June 02, 2026 - 10:54 pm
Mack, you will love it, well, not Papeete so much, but the other places are just lovely. We have been to French Polynesia four times on Holland America, round trip out of San Diego, 35 days. Our favorite place in the world is Bora Bora, and I hope your ship goes to Bora Bora.
It looks like the larger cruise ships are no longer allowed to go there, which is probably a very good thing for the people on the island. I think you go on a smaller cruise ship, which may still be able to dock or anchor off Bora Bora.
IF you are going to Bora Bora, let me know. You MUST do a Patrick Bora Bora private excursion. You can just Google Patrick Bora Bora and find out what I am talking about.
You can also go to cruisecritic.com, and find the message boards, which I think are under the Community link, and then go to the Roll Call for your ship, and begin to talk with all the really savvy people who will be on your cruise with you. There will probably be somebody on your roll call who has already arranged for a Patrick tour.
For the rest of us, when Amazing Race went to Bora Bora, Patrick played two roles on the episode - he was both the priest (he actually is an ordained minister), and he was the native greeter at the end. Patrick IS Mr. Bora Bora.
Oh, don't even get me going on Patrick (too late, I am already off on a rant) - he steers the boat with his feet while strumming a ukulele. His family owns a private island (called a motu) where you have a picnic lunch, which may or may not have lobster, but will have all sorts of local delicacies. You will snorkel, even if you cannot swim, over amazing coral, you will snorkel/swim with sharks, AND for the grand finale, you will stand in chest-deep water while velvety-soft manta rays swim gently up to you and caress your upper body while you safely feed them from a top food-hole on their head.
It is indeed a trip of a lifetime, and I am happy you get to go there.
Okay, I have to go now before I spend all night here.
Juju OUT.
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Mack
Member
07-22-2002
| Wednesday, June 03, 2026 - 4:55 am
RN We will fly non-stop from San Antonio to Los Angeles which is not a horribly long flight. We opted for the cruise line’s full package so they will pick us up at the airport and take us to a hotel near the port for an overnight before we board. We learned a long time ago never to fly in the day of embarkation after almost missing our honeymoon cruise. At the end of the cruise the cruise line has a day room for us since our plane doesn’t leave Papeete until 8 PM and we have to be off the ship by 9:30 AM. We will fly non-stop to San Francisco then non-stop to San Antonio to get home. About 13 hours total which is not bad considering the distance.
And yes the Silver Dawn is a relatively smaller ship compared to mainstream lines like Holland America, Celebrity, Princess, etc., fleets. The Dawn is around 500 passengers versus a norm of 3,000 to 6,000 in most fleets today.
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Naja
Member
06-28-2003
| Wednesday, June 03, 2026 - 5:11 am
RN Mack, you are living a dream! How wonderful 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Wednesday, June 03, 2026 - 7:16 am
Sounds just great. On those message boards I assume they are talking about the possibility, which I hope is remote, of not being able to go through customs at airports in sanctuary cities.. which would include LAX and SFO. Also Seattle and San Diego.
Seems unlikely to happen, but so many unlikely things have happened.
Pretty sure the travel industry is pushing back on this.. Article I read says reacting with alarm.
Juju, That sounds amazing.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-26-2000
| Wednesday, June 03, 2026 - 10:44 pm
Yeah, Sea, it was, and we got to do it 4 times. The most amazing time was the 4th time, and by that time I was well-entrenched into the cruisecritic.com message boards roll calls, where people going on a particular cruise could plan a year or more ahead to research private shore excursions with other people going on their same cruise, and then invite other people to join their group at rates way below the ship's excursions. So we booked the Patrick excursion at the first possible moment.
So on our fourth year of going to French Polynesia and being on CruiseCritic there was another poster who said unfortunately she could probably not go because her husband had some crippling disease and could not possibly climb the wooden ladder back into the boat, and I advised her to personally contact Patrick, and see if he could manage to get her husband on and off the boat. And she did, and Patrick said yes, he could do it, and then we were on the boat (PatricK then had 3-5 boats) with Patrick AND with this couple, and Patrick did indeed get him in the water and back on the boat several times. I am sure it was one of the best times in that man's life. It was also one of the best moments of my life.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Thursday, June 04, 2026 - 1:47 am
That had to be a sweet moment, A bit teary eyed in a good way.
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Thursday, June 04, 2026 - 11:11 am
Juju, when you said you had to "climb a wooden ladder back into the boat", I quit the cruise.
Just the thought of doing that scared me. I could see me falling backwards off the ladder.
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Naja
Member
06-28-2003
| Thursday, June 04, 2026 - 11:46 am
RN I am so tired. There is no sleeping with 8 dogs in the house. There's always one whining to go out and then the rest wake up and join in.
I have them corralled in the living room so I can wash the floors. They'll be going outside next so I can do the living room floor.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Thursday, June 04, 2026 - 12:52 pm
Do Patsy and Dolly have places they favor and own or do they just go with the flow?
My labs all went out together, but they also all lived together, so they didn't come in with different lifestyles like your visitors.
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Naja
Member
06-28-2003
| Thursday, June 04, 2026 - 1:03 pm
RN Patsy and Dolly are so good at just going with the flow. Dolly always has to sleep by me, though.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-26-2000
| Thursday, June 04, 2026 - 10:18 pm
quote:Just the thought of doing that scared me. I could see me falling backwards off the ladder.
Well, Patrick's boats are just shallow-sided wooden boats, so even if you fell off backwards, you would land in placid saltwater, where you would float, and be unharmed. But IF you were on Patrick's boat, or even any of his boats, he would jump out and save you and carry you up the short ladder.
I am not kidding about this man - just go google Patrick, Bora Bora
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Dogdoc
Member
09-29-2001
| Friday, June 05, 2026 - 12:26 am
RN Thank you Juju
RN I pictured climbing up into an Ark sized boat.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Friday, June 05, 2026 - 2:34 am
Ohhh.. that image just brought back quite a memory. I was 20 and we went with our nephews and their cub scout pack out to an aircraft carrier.. It wasn't docked and we had to take small boats out to the carrier and get from the small boat to a little dock that was moving around with ocean swells and then climb a ladder up the side. Super scary band hard to imagine and probably taller than the Ark!
And I had a purse with one shoulder strap. At least today I would have a backpack.
I remember the tour being quite interesting a literally have no memory of getting back to the small boats.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Friday, June 05, 2026 - 2:35 am
You have such good dogs, Naja!
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Naja
Member
06-28-2003
| Friday, June 05, 2026 - 5:28 am
RN Today I have a dog being dropped off that only eats chicken. That's it. I have to cook chicken for it every day. I don't judge it. I just do it.
(I just boil it in the morning)
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-06-2000
| Friday, June 05, 2026 - 7:55 pm
I hope they give the dog some doggie vitamins. Wild dogs are omnivores.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-26-2000
| Friday, June 05, 2026 - 10:21 pm
Naja - $5 a day surcharge for having to cook chicken.
Well, and that is an interesting question - do the owners supply their own dog's food?
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Naja
Member
06-28-2003
| Saturday, June 06, 2026 - 10:50 am
RN I have no idea what else they give him besides chicken. They didn't leave anything else with me except 3 dental bones. I give him treats as well.
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