India, June 30 -- Crouching beneath the surface of Bora-Bora's impossibly blue lagoon, I watched as stingrays and black-tip sharks swam calmly around me. Emerging, I looked up just in time to see two enormous humpback whales simultaneously breaching in the distance.

"Did you see that?" I gasped. Tove and Jordana, my six- and eight-year-old daughters, clutching a kickboard next to me, answered with wide eyes and wider smiles. "You are the luckiest beans on earth," I said, hoping they wouldn't become too accustomed to their princess lives in paradise.

From Left: A dance performance on the ship; the author's daughter Tove aboard the Paul Gauguin as it sails past the island of Taha'a (Photo Credit: Amanda Villarosa) It was day five of our ...