ALMOST six months after Cyclone Evan hit Fiji’s west coast, Captain
Cook Cruises’ flagship Reef Endeavour is putting the finishing touches
on a “forced” refurbishment.
At anchor in Nadi Bay when the cyclone hit on December 17, a
skeleton crew had little chance against the huge wages that battered its
sides and broke several windows in the lower deck dining room.
Luckily no-one was hurt and no passengers were on board, but the
D-deck dining room was a write-off along with the 10 nearby family
cabins, and carpets and soft furnishings in the rest of the vessel.
But the 17-year-old vessel was back in service a few weeks later and a
steady refurbishment took place bit-by-bit.
All upper deck cabins and suites were refitted with new carpets and
bedding, and were re-painted along with their bathrooms.
When I joined the ship for the May 5 Four Cultures Discovery cruise
around the islands of Vanua Levu, the dining room had just reopened
following a long and frustrating wait for carpet to be delivered and laid
(passengers had been dining either in the Yasawa Lounge and on the
open pool deck in good weather).
Workers were also on board with strict instructions to get the top Sun
Deck in ship shape order (with new astro turf and sun lounges) within a
few days.
Rain held up that procedure by a few days, but the sun deck was ready
for passengers
by the May
12 departure
and the longwaited
dining
room furniture
(especially-made
Fijian mahogany
tables) were
expected in place
by early June.
Managing director Jackie
Haworth-Charlton said
it had been a frustrating
time waiting for weather
to clear and deliveries
but all internal work and
refurbishments were
complete.
The ship’s glass bottom
boat, one tender and the
rear hydraulic platform
were also washed away in
the cyclone and makeshift
replacements are being
used while the others are
on order.
The ship is looking good and smart new lounge furniture has replaced
the somewhat dated lounges, chairs and coffee tables in the Yasawa
Lounge and the old sun lounges on the outside decks.
Future plans include creating two additional sets of inter-connecting
cabins to make a total of six; currently the ship has four suites (with
bedroom, sitting room and two bathrooms); four sets of interconnecting
cabins, 40 staterooms and 10 family cabins, the latter with two lower
berths and two Pullman bunks.
Ironically the ship had only just completed a mini-facelift when the
cyclone hit in December, ship’s purser Florian Haber said.
The line has recently changed the names of its longer itineraries to
better reflect what each offers – I took the newly-named Four Cultures
Discovery Cruises (circumnavigating Vanua Levu) and had previously
taken the Colonial Fiji Discovery Cruise which visits the former capital of
Levuka on the island of Ovalau and the 180° Meridian on Taveuni Island.
The newest itinerary, an 11-day cruise to the Lau Island Group on
October 22, is sold out and another is scheduled for April next year.
