Reading my posts you might imagine that our life at sea is utopic, and that Princess is the bestest cruise line ever, and day after day goes by and nothing goes wrong, but, of course, that's not true. Our life at sea is very good, and Princess is an excellent cruise line, but stuff happens sometimes.
Today was sometimes.
The Emerald Princess announced its arrival at Crown Bay in St. Thomas by sounding its thrusters and rattling us out of bed as it docked. I was first out of the cabin and went to the International Cafe for brewed decaf, and then to the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast with waiter Joel and his assistant Erika. I really couldn't say for certain that G would be joining me, but Joel brought his usual four juices and waiter Alvin dropped off a chocolate croissant for him "just in case". Well, I dawdled over breakfast; since we were already docked, the dining room was not busy, and, because we were in St. Thomas, I had 4G Internet on my phone. I finished the decaf coffee I had brought with me in a to-go cup, and dear Erika insisted that a refill of the usual dining room syrup coffee was not good enough...she went down one deck to the International Cafe and brought me a tea pot filled with more brewed decaf. I was so touched! When G showed up just as I was finishing my breakfast, I still had plenty of coffee to keep me occupied while he ate.
I really wanted to go to Honeymoon Beach on Water Island today, but with G being late to breakfast, and knowing I had to make a few business calls today, we decided instead to get done what we needed to, and then make it a walking day. I returned to the cabin, got our Princess Visa Card and our Captains Circle number, and went to the Adagio Bar for some quiet while I phoned Princess about scheduling a Bon Voyage Experience, where we visit another Princess ship on a turnaround day in Fort Lauderdale. And that's where things took a turn for the worse. I'll spare you the details, but the experience was so bad that I was physically shaken by it, and, after stewing about it for an hour, actually called back and reported it to a supervisor, encouraging her to listen to the recording of the call. I don't usually do things like that. In fact, I've never done things like that. But if Erika can go out of her way to get me good coffee from the International Cafe, a reservations agent ought not be upsetting me like that when I'm trying to do more business with Princess!
I needed to walk it off, and so we left the ship with no plan in mind. We wanted to see something different, and climb some hills around Crown Bay for exercise, and we chose not to walk into downtown Charlotte Amalie. We probably shouldn't have taken that first left, and we definitely shouldn't have taken that second left and I think we knew that the third left was a mistake even as we were turning, because we saw a side of St. Thomas that, I would guess, most tourists never see, and sights that will stay with me for a long time. Unfortunately, we thought we would eventually come out on a more well-traveled road, but instead we hit a dead end, and so had to walk back past the drooling homeless man who viciously growled at us for a second time. After we'd passed him, G turned to me and said, "Now, remind me. What were your irritations today?"
Just 30 minutes after seeing what we'd seen, we were walking into Crown Bay Marina with its $25 million yachts and its doggie day spa advertising blueberry facials for Fido. It's a wonder we didn't experience emotional whiplash. We were weary by this time, and not just physically, and so sat at a picnic table surrounded by grass and gorgeous landscaping and those aforementioned yachts. And talked and texted with friends and generally committed ourselves to enjoying the rest of the day.
It worked. When we talked with friend Martha, who's been following this blog, she mentioned that it seemed to her that we were having the funnest, most trouble-free winter yet. And she was right: we'd been talking about just that same thing yesterday. It's never been this easy, or this relaxing. Or this perfect. By the time we returned to the ship, the day's minor irritations and life's major injustices were acknowledged, but considered with perspective.
On a lighter note, as I was crossing a busy intersection just ahead of G and trying to dodge the cars driving on the "wrong" side of the road, I spotted an almost-new small wrench lying in the road. Now, my husband has been known to pull over when driving and weave through traffic to retrieve a wrench, so I wasn't one bit surprised when this one ended up in his pocket.
I was cleaned up for the evening first, and headed up to Skywalkers. Bar Supervisor Ricky told me I was the first of "our group" to arrive, so I found an area large enough to hold the six of us, ordered a Breeza Marina and called Mom, who, once again is dealing with record-setting cold and and snow. The others showed up shortly, and G gave everyone a laugh by saying he'd gotten me a shiny new bauble today in St. Thomas to hang from my omega chain...and producing the wrench he'd found. Bob and Ross admired it, saying it looked like a beautiful 3/8" one, and I found out mine is not the only husband who pulls over in a car to pick up tools from a busy street. ;-)
I was so pleasantly surprised when blog reader Mary made a special trip up to Skywalkers to look for me. Ricky pointed her in our direction, and she put the icing on what was turning out to be a surprisingly good day by telling me she enjoyed the blog every morning (that seems to be a common thread among readers. In fact, one new friend told me that her boss would ask "Well, what did she do today?"). :-) Mary, it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope we see you again. Thank you!
Junior waiter Komang has promised to show us photos of his new son Gade tomorrow. He is Skyping home every morning...technology has made the crew's lives so much more bearable. He won't go home to Indonesia until April, but his son will know his voice when he arrives. I love it!
G and I had arrived for dinner a bit late at 6pm; Jim and Marcia were well ahead of us, but that's the beauty of side by side tables for two instead of a table for four. We didn't finish in time for the 7:15pm performance by vocalist Bobby Brooks Wilson, so instead spent some time walking on the Promenade Deck after dinner. G discovered we still had AT&T service, probably from Puerto Rico, so he called Mom while I started this post. We're in the cabin now- G's already asleep and a Love Boat rerun is playing on TV for the eleventy hundredth time...this year. I don't mind; I know living at sea isn't perfect.
But it's pretty close. ;-)
