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The Blue Lagoon We topped off our trip with a Blue Lagoon cruise to the Yasawa Islands, a chain of palm-fringed volcanic islands north of the Mamanucas. Yes, this is where Brooke Shields swam in the buff for the 1980 film "The Blue Lagoon." Blue Lagoon Cruises runs eight ships a week out of Lautoka, and we settled on the four-day Original Cruise aboard the 118-foot M.V. Lycianda ($550 per person double occupancy, which includes all meals). Now, first off, get that cruise commercial out of your head. No swimming pool here, no 12 buffets a day, no Willard Scott. Just two main decks and 22 modest-sized cabins. But there's plenty of action off ship. Snorkeling, for one thing. Fiji is famed for its coral reefs — and with good reason. You've heard of schools of fish? We're talking universities here. At every spot I snorkeled, while the currents ran hot and cold like a crazy spa, tropical fish flashed by in breathtaking numbers and colors: plum-spotted leatherjackets, snub-nosed parrot fish, yellow-striped butterfly fish, needle-nosed garfish that came up as if to kiss my snorkeling mask. At Liku Lagoon, a sweep of white sand stroked by mint waters, I followed a school of Day Glo fish along a 10-foot-deep trench to a spot where a half-dozen bright blue starfish rested. Jutting up on both sides of the trench were sandy rock outcroppings covered with coralheads in shades of cinnamon and olive, some corals shaped like antlers, others like blue-tipped brainstems, still others like cabbages and broccoli and spindly porcupines. While some of us snorkeled, others strolled the deserted beaches, paddled a kayak or joined in a bushwalk to take in the local flora. We spent one afternoon at the shell market at Malakati, a village of 180 where townswomen sell perfect pink conch shells for a dollar apiece and footlong nautilus shells for $20. The last night was memorable. Not just for the amateur talent contest, or for the lovo feast, a meal of meats and vegetables cooked by heated rocks in an underground oven. It was our last night together, and we'd become fond of several of the other passengers, particularly Coral and Geoff, a honeymooning couple from Auckland, New Zealand. So we capped off the night with some good Fiji Bitter and a rousing poker game with Coral, Geoff and couples from Australia, Germany and Denver, while the crew hands serenaded us with island songs. I dropped about four grand at the card game, but as the Fijian crew members liked to say, "Don't worry, be happy." It was Monopoly money.   n e x t b a c k   NEXT: Fiji resources Fiji: An introduction The big island Castaway Island Cruising the Blue Lagoon Fiji resources • Fiji photo gallery Travel articles CONTACT JD