Day 51: At Sea

Prepared Friday evening, December 20th, but Internet has been down since the afternoon

I awoke this morning turned round in the bed, head to feet, and, for the life of me, I can't figure out the how or the why of that maneuver. But despite what must have been a slightly restless night, I awoke early and ready to GO to use my Sanctuary chair. I couldn't right away, of course, as breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room was waiting for me, and I wanted to share it with my loving husband. And then I couldn't go because this cruise's Cruise Critic Meet and Greet was being held at 10am in Skywalkers, and G had set this one up, and I certainly didn't want to miss that, nor miss seeing friends we'd cruised with over past Christmases. 

It was a fairly small turn out, as it typically is for the Christmas cruise, but we were thrilled that Captain Nick made an appearance and cleared up exactly what had happened yesterday as the Emerald Princess was scheduled to leave Port Everglades. Apparently the manifest list of passengers on board was sent to Homeland Security an hour before sailaway, and one passenger on the list had a warrant out for his arrest. It could have been something as innocuous as a bench warrant for an unpaid traffic ticket, and it perhaps could have been settled on board but this guy chose to run and hide and was found not on the Terrace Deck (as the rumor mill had decided) but in Club Fusion. Captain Nick said that they had several more levels of missing person alerts to begin if they had had to (searching storage lockers and food lockers and entertainment lockers, etc.), but, thankfully, he finally surrendered and it didn't have to go that far. Now, to make up for lost time, we are running on five engines instead of four, and it would be quite bumpy, Captain Nick said, until we hit the shelter of some smaller islands about 2pm. 

Honestly, this ship has been really bumpy for weeks. 

Afterwards, we had a $9 per person slot pull, for which I had done the accounting, so you know that the gambling started long before we even arrived in the casino. ;-) It moved much faster than a $15 per person slot pull, and we were able to lose our money much more quickly and move on, poorer but momentarily entertained.

By then it was nearly time for lunch and I figured, what the heck...the beauty of having a chair in the Sanctuary is that it is there, waiting for me. Right?  Of course, we did have to be seated with our first really slow waiter this winter, and I was starting to go a bit crazy when our lunch stretched over an hour (for soup and veggie burritos?) thinking about how I really needed to be in my Sanctuary lounger, relaxing.  G suggested that, perhaps, just maybe, I was missing the whole point of the Sanctuary, when he saw me getting out my iPhone calculator and figuring out the rental cost per hour of that lounger. 

Finally, about 1:30pm, 5 and a half hours late, I made it up to the Sanctuary and saw the very nice lounger G had reserved for me for the cruise. Really, it was nice up there.  It's windy, of course. Windy and a bit chilly. Windy and chilly and so loud from the wind whistling that I have to press my earbuds deeper into my ears to be able to hear an audiobook. But it's relaxing. Really.

Honestly, the best part of the Sanctuary during a holiday week is not what it has, but what it doesn't have, mainly kids jumping and playing and screaming in the adults-only Terrace Pool. I think I would be even more stressed putting up with that than I am stressed from trying to learn to relax in the Sanctuary. And the serenity stewards (really, that's what they're called) did come around with tea at tea time and that was very nice. 

Sure, I enjoyed hot tea wrapped in a towel trying to stay warm. And dry, when it started to rain, but it was wonderful. Really. And I found out when G came up and saw me wrapped and shivering in a towel that there are blankets available for Sanctuary guests to use, and I don't have to use a wet towel. I just have to ask for a blanket. See, I'm not very good at this at all. So tonight I'm setting my alarm so that I can be up there promptly at 8am when they open and ask for a blanket and relax, damn it.

After a hot shower, it was time to eat again, and so, of course, I did, but only a big salad, because, really, tea (and scones and cookies) at 4pm doesn't leave me much of an appetite at 5:30pm. 

We followed up dinner with impressionist comedian Michael Wilson's show at 7:15pm. I'm not certain what else we'll be doing tonight, but I have to get to bed before too long. 

I have to get up early to start relaxing. 

;-)