I was bad this morning, and asked waiter Herbert (who, like all the others, treats us like we're his parents) if he would ask the cook to include a few blueberries in my pancakes, and - voila!- they appeared, like magic. This is a good life, and I'm going to enjoy it to the max for the next four days!
G and I sat there, lazily drinking coffee and eating breakfast when, suddenly, everything went quiet. And that was my first thought, that the constant background hum that is ever-present on a ship had stopped. It took a few seconds to register that we had lost power. Almost immediately, Captain Ciruzzi made an announcement confirming the power loss, telling us not to panic, assuring us the ship was navigationally sound and that they would be starting the backup generator right away. He also cautioned against venturing into unlit areas of the ship until they did. Within a couple of minutes, the lights were back on and passengers who had been stuck in the elevators were liberated.
Now, between you and I, I find these sorts of events very interesting. G, of course, made tracks up the stairs to Deck 10 to see the emergency generator in action, but I was more concerned about the state of the toilets. When we lost power, we lost most of our water pressure, but I was able to very slowly fill a cup with water several times to put in the toilet so that the suction worked. However, force of habit had me soaping up my hands with our Dial Foaming Complete hand soap before I realized there wasn't enough water pressure to rinse it off. Yep, it was an adventure!
Captain Ciruzzi kept us updated with several announcements, all assuring us the ship was navigationally sound. After about 30 minutes, he announced that one engine was operational and they were slowly bringing the others up to full power, and that we had once again resumed our navigational progress and our arrival in Los Angeles would not be affected. The water still wasn't working, so the toilets flushed with difficulty, but, within an hour after the initial event, except for the hot water appearing a little brown for a while longer, everything was back to normal. Which is to say I was sitting in our cabin looking for the most stable spot on the ship. Yep. It's going to be a long few days if the seas don't calm down a little.
We talked with a bridge officer tonight who said that things were very exciting on the bridge during all this (I can only imagine). Captain Ciruzzi was in his office when this happened but was on the bridge in seconds and almost, immediately made the first announcement. Unsurprisingly, there is a check list of things to do when power is lost, right down to the initial announcement the captain should make. We lost power once last winter, too, but then we were docked in Raiatea. It's a whole different sport when it happens 16 hours out of Hawaii.
We spent the rest of the day until dinner time watching college football in our cabin, one game after another, and loving every minute of it. I was hoping to see the Michigan v. Ohio State game until I caught the final score, and then decided I was glad I hadn't. But hope springs eternal...the Broncos play the Patriots tomorrow. I hope the ship has power, I hope the game is available on the ship, I hope the Broncos win. I hope I'm not sea sick. :-|
I did go up to the Panorama Buffet at some point and brought some pizza back to the room for us, the closest I've come to preparing a meal since our beach bungalow on Rarotonga. There was no Elite Lounge tonight due to the Captains Circle parties, so we went directly to dinner at 5:15pm. It was also a formal night, number eleventy-seven of our winter, and that's my favorite thing to do, to leave a fantastic football game (Notre Dame v. Stanford) to go to dinner all dressed up. ;-) We had a few minutes after dinner to return to our cabin to brush teeth and just happened to catch the last two minutes of the game. The score confirmed what I had expected, that it had been a great game to watch. We stayed as long as we could (actually, I stayed longer than I should have, right up until the end, before I had to get to the Cabaret Lounge for the Captains Circle party. Luckily I ran into Anna and Antonio coming down the Deck 4 corridor just as I was.
We had invited new friends Anna and Antonio from Genoa, Italy to be our guests for the party. We had spent the day with them on Matira Beach on Bora Bora (a lifetime ago) and they told us how they cruised a lot on Costa but this was their first Princess Cruise. Anna owns a B&B in Genoa and is the friendliest person; Antonio admits he only understands 60% of what we say but Anna is a good translator. We were honored to be the #2 MTP this cruise with 781 days. Mary Ann Z. has just over 1000 days and was the #1 MTP. Mom was a bit indignant (she's such a mom!) when she read that we had slipped to #2...steel yourself, Mom. We're heading to the Caribbean after Christmas, where we'll be lucky to be #75!!
Harmonica-ist (is that a word?) Bernie Fields performed with the Pacific Princess show band as the Cabaret Lounge entertainment tonight. We had met Bernie when he arrived on the ship yesterday on that same tender on which I made my ill-fated attempt to go ashore. That's a great instrument for a traveling musician to play; Bernie arrived on the ship with a carry on bag and nothing else. I was a bit unsure about harmonica entertainment, but Bernie has played with symphony orchestras all over the world. He is fantastic; however, after 45 minutes, I was starting to grow a bit weary of harmonica music. For a short time, I even wished that the Pacific Princess offered the child's-attention-span length shows that the other Princess ships offer...until Bernie's second-last song, Schubert's Ave Maria. That song has had particular significance for my gramma, mom and me for 40 years, and someday I may be able to listen to it without getting misty. Someday...but not today. It was a good show after a good day.
There is much going on tonight, including the 50th anniversary balloon drop in the Pacific Lounge, but we are tucked into bed by 10pm. We 're starting to transition to our home time zone...at least for bedtime. For wake ups, we're staying firmly in Hawaii. It is, after all, a vacation, and we have a lot of early morning island arrivals to recover from.
