We had a largely sleepless night last night. It became dire about 3:30am. Both of us were fitful. If I hadn't soaked my contacts in Clear Care overnight (it needs 7 hours to neutralize, and that's a whole other story), I would have simply put them in and dressed and gone to the International Cafe to pass the night.
Simply stated, this sheet situation is doing us both in. It's not as simple as untucking; we wake up with sheets everywhere, pooled on the floor creating a trip hazard in the night. We have not yet woke up with the duvet still tucked in the bed cover pocket as it's supposed to be. Never. I'm not saying that everyone will have an issue with this, but, over the years, Princess trained us well to sleep under just a covered duvet. We liked it so much that we adopted the same practice at home. Now the rules have changed. We're like 2-year olds giving up their binks. It's rough going. Last night it was rough going for both of us.
I was so out of it that I skipped breakfast and lunch and didn't eat until dinner. We had to go through immigration, of course, but that was easy today. The agent came right on the ship. By 11am I was back in the cabin, still trying to sleep. By 3pm I gave up. Muster drill was starting, so I just showered and dressed for dinner and went up to the Horizon Court Buffet for a cup of tea. We had Barefoot Bubbly on the Terrace Deck for our 15th sailaway of the season, but we were fairly subdued.
The only fun spot of the day occurred over dinner. We looked out our window at an HAL ship that had left Port Everglades just ahead of us. It was in front of us when we sat down at our table but by the time we started our entree, it was behind us, going the same direction we were. We supposed it was going to be at the HAL private beach resort at Half Moon Cay, just 20-ish miles away from Princess Cays, where the Emerald Princess will be tomorrow. "Why do you suppose it's going so much slower than us?", I asked G. "It's Holland America. Everything moves slower there." Then he added, "Has their left turn signal been on this whole time?", and, finally, for the first time in a few days, we laughed and laughed. Delirium? Perhaps.
We were too tired to eat dessert (!!!!!!!!!) and went to the 7pm Welcome Aboard show simply to see a new comedian for us, Tom Briscoe. He was actually pretty good. He didn't pick on audience members (I never like that) and even his travel humor was original. We'll look forward to his longer show later in the cruise.
I swung into the perfume /makeup store (give me a minute to look up that name...it's called Essence. That makes sense), Essence, to buy my Smashbox items at 10% plus 10% off. This was the biggest thrill of my day, and I felt so cruise-y, walking back to the cabin carrying my little blue Princess gift bag. I couldn't wait to show my purchases to G, but he was already asleep when I got to the cabin, on top of all the sheets, with the heat turned up to BAKE.
Okay, we'll try it that way tonight.
Two more things before I end...
First, there was more contact drama last night after I returned from S h a r e. G was still out listening to Ryszard Sulek play piano. Ryszard left today, and we will miss him. I pulled the lever to close the plug in the bathroom sink, as I always do, before I took out my first contact, and didn't realize it didn't close completely. The contact dropped into the sink and right down the fraction of an inch opening in the drain. Damn. Thankfully, I was not running the water; I knew the lens was there, just out of reach.
I phoned the Passenger Services Desk, not an easy thing to do on the last night of the cruise. After being on hold for awhile, I was able to report the issue. In less than 5 minutes, a plumber was knocking on the door. I showed him the other lens so he knew what he was looking for, and in 2 minutes it was all over and he was gone. I have decided that plumbers are the most important people on this ship. The doctor is second most important. No, wait. The tailor is second most important. The doctor third and I'll give the captain fourth place. But plumbers...these guys are gold.
So that's why I used peroxide based Clear Care to soak my lenses in overnight, and why I couldn't take myself down to the International Cafe at 4am. It was a rough night all around.
But, there was a final bright spot tonight. I took out my Fuji XP80 camera that crapped out on me a couple of weeks ago to see if it was still not working...and it is! It's taking multiple pictures and zooming out and in and all the things it refused to do the day we climbed Dunns River Falls. I was hoping to be able to use it a couple of times this week. I think water got in it somehow. I hope it keeps working.
I hope the weather allows us to get into Princess Cays tomorrow.
I hope we get some quality sleep tonight.
I hope I can get this posted before I fall asleep and get hit in the nose by my falling iPad.
