Monday Nov 2, 2026
Hi All! We’re in Hawaii! Oops, I mean Jeju, South Korea! This is the largest island of Korea and is roughly the size of Maui. It has much in common with the Hawaiin islands in that it is volcanic and emerged from the sea two million years ago, and has a mild subtropical climate. It’s long been known as the “Island of the Gods” after a legendary lost race from whom the island’s inhabitants are said to have descended. And they have women divers, named haenyeo, who harvest abalone from the sea floor without the use of scuba gear. Girl power!
We had a late arrival into port at Noon and were leaving at 5 so we only had a short stop here. We went on a private tour with four other people organized by a nice gentleman I met thru the Cruise Critic website named Aryeh. He’s from Israel and shared some fascinating stories of living in Israel nowadays with all the conflict.
Given the short time, our tour only went to three places which were the Manjanggul Cave Lava Tubes, the beach and the Dongmun Traditional Market. The lava tubes were cool (literally being underground!) but to be honest, they weren’t overly impressive. I think they could have had better lighting to see the rocks and stalactites. The beach was nice but we didn’t stay there too long and really just stopped for a photo op.
But the market was fun. They had lots of things for sale, especially tangerines everywhere. I guess the island must have tons of them since everyone was selling the fresh fruit. Even lots of the clothes and hats had tangerines on them. The funny thing was, we were supposed to stop at one other place on the tour but it’s closed on Mondays so they offered if we wanted to go to a tangerine picking farm! The group said no! Lol. But we did find our sweet treat (pancake with brown sugar and cinnamon) at the market so we were happy!
After the tour we got onboard and got ready for dinner. We went to the main dining room and I had the Bang Bang Shrimp for my appetizer, the Barramundi for my main, and the Dark Silk Torte for my dessert. Everything was very tasty!
After dinner we went to the show which was a new guest entertainer named Angie Narayan. Her show was called “Soul Sisters: A Tribute to Women in Music.” It was described as “a journey through the soulful rhythms and powerful melodies that have defined generations.” She sang songs by Roberta Flack, Tina Turner, Etta James, and ended with five songs by Aretha Franklin. She ended with an amazing rendition of Aretha’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T. She was sooo good! One of the best guest entertainers we’ve ever seen!
After the show we kept our consistency up and finished the night listening to Kelly play piano. We have an early day tomorrow and are going on another private tour with the group we were with today. Tomorrow is our last day in South Korea and we’ll be in Busan! Hope everyone had a great day!
