This was a new one for us. G quickly tuned the TV to the 'front of the ship' channel and I grabbed my iPad to see, on the Grand Cayman map I'd downloaded using the Maps.me app, just where Spott's Bay was. The webcam showed weather that looked grey, but we didn't see any raindrops on the camera lens. As we had no firm plans for the day, the port change didn't really bother us.
Fully awake by then, we took quick showers (that felt sooo good after yesterday) and went to breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room. Getting food for yesterday's breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet had reminded me of one of my favorite breakfasts at home, peanut butter on toast, and I ordered it for breakfast today after a bowl of orange segments. (Except at home I eat peanut butter toast made into a sandwich with lots of iceberg lettuce layered in it, thanks to Dad, but I didn't feel confident that I'd be able to convey the 'iceberg' part of the lettuce to Thai waiter Worwut and so just stopped at the peanut butter and toast).
Naturally, our discussion turned to yesterday's game and I can promise you that the 'morning after' felt a lot better this time than it did two years ago. I so clearly remember Darko (yes, that one) the day after the Broncos humiliating defeat, spotting me from the other side of the Horizon Court Buffet, crossing over through the galley and hugging me, telling me "We will never speak of this again". Gosh darn it, I wish Darko was here right now, so we could speak of this, instead.
Meanwhile, G has stopped by the Passenger Services Desk on the way to breakfast, getting a copy of our onboard spending statement, and handed it to me when I arrived, saying something didn't look right. Well, it certainly didn't, by a significant amount, and when we returned to our cabin after breakfast, G took a stab at reconciling what it said today back to what it said two days ago, on turnaround day. His Accounting background failed him, and he handed it over to me.
Now this is just NOT what one wants to do on a cruise, but we also didn't want to wait until the last day of this cruise, on Wednesday, to be dealing with it, either. The last day of a cruise and the first day of the next cruise are notoriously busy days at the Passenger Services Desk. With the next cruise being only four days long, this really couldn't wait.
That is how I found myself also trying to figure out our statement, and also getting nowhere. The funny thing is that the way the on board statements are reported have changed for back to back cruises. Instead of each cruise standing on its own, with just the balance carried forward from one cruise to the next, every statement we see goes back to when we boarded on January 4. When the statement at the end of the second cruise was delivered to our room on turnaround day morning, January 18, and I saw that it went back to the beginning, I almost tossed the statement we'd received at the end of the first cruise. Something in my accountant's mind told me not to, and that made all the difference today.
Finally today, in my attempts to reconcile, I went back to January 4, and ticked off every spending item for both of us, day by day. Shockingly, $206 in credits from the first two cruises had disappeared all together, and a postdated charge from last cruise had been applied erroneously. The discrepancy is not small, and it's very confusing to explain.
While I was ticking and tying, G decided to get out of my hair (his words) and take a tender to shore just to see what was there so we could make some plans for the rest of the day. When I had figured out what the errors were, I took advantage of most passengers being in port and went down to the PSD to present my case. (It's still being researched). I returned to the cabin, and shortly thereafter G also returned, looking a bit green. This was different; he's never gotten seasick before. He said that people had actually gotten sick on the tender to shore and he had gotten queasy on the way back. When I asked if we would be going over again later, he flatly declined.
It must have been really, really bad.
In fact, it was so bad that most (all?) of the water excursions for the day had been cancelled. Though it never rained hard, it did occasionally mist a little. But I think the wind and the swells are what really caused the issues.
So this turned into a sea day for me, a not unwelcome one at all. We went to lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet, and decided to use a hot tub afterward, but when we returned to the cabin to change for it, G quickly fell asleep. With some time on my hands, I pulled the box of hair color out from my roll aboard suitcase under the bed (aka the toiletries storage closet) and went to work taking care of that task.
I'm actually quite proud of how well I'm handling that these days, in a tiny cruise ship bathroom. I tuck the shower curtain behind the shower head to get it out of the way, remove the bath towels from their rack (because both of these things would get colored if I didn't), then, after the color is applied, sit on the toilet lid reading a book on my iPad for 30 minutes. Easy peasy. When I am done rinsing off the color in the shower, if my hair is Dark Blonde (Golden) while the shower curtain and towels are still white, I know it was a successful effort. And today it was.
G was stirring by the time I'd finished, and decided to fit in a trip to a hot tub after all, while I took the time to get ready for the evening. As I was later waiting for him to do the same, I caught most of the Super Bowl post game show and the awarding of the Lombardi trophy on ESPN. If I'd had DVR capability, I'd still be sitting here watching it, over and over and over again.
We are so spoiled at dinner by Victor and Darko (not that one). G took the last sip of his Coke and within five seconds it was removed and a fresh glass set in front of him. I would worry about how we'll transition to being home, but this is not our first year of extended cruising. We'll cope. It won't be pretty, and the first week will be downright ugly. But we'll cope.
We ate lightly, and quickly; because this cruise's MTP cocktail party was held at 7pm in the Adagio Lounge (cutoff was 318 days). They serve such nice hors doerves at these parties, but, having just come from dinner, it was easy to say 'no thank you'...at least until the dessert items were offered. We sat with Bob and Candy, and Phyllis, along with Chief Roddy and had a fun time chatting until the others had to leave for dinner. Bob, Candy and Phyllis all leave next turnaround day; Chief Roddy goes on vacation the turnaround after that. I think we're going to have some lonely days in our future. We will miss them!
G stayed in Adagio a bit longer to listen to Ryszard Sulek play the piano, but I returned to the cabin to attend to evening ablutions. I love it when I can get those done before G returns. I am not unlike the Bill Pullman character in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, creating an entire concert of brushing and water pik-ing and sniffing and snorting and inhaling and gargling until I'm finally ready for bed. As I've said before, at home we live the way God intended couples to live, with separate bathrooms, and G is spared the details of this nighttime routine. It's better that way.
We skipped all entertainment tonight (comedian Carl Banks performed twice in the Princess Theater), as we did last night (production show Magic To Do). I now have the entire final season of Downton Abbey on my iPhone, and several new books to read. After spending almost 16 hours on a pool deck yesterday, some down time in the cabin is just what I need.
