It's not that we lack insurance that makes me reluctant to seek medical help for these more minor things; it's the amount for paperwork to file a claim first with our primary insurance and then with Princess Vacation Protection that holds me back. After all, I still have all that paperwork related to Nice and the cancellation of our October 16 cruise to submit when we finally get home. Something tells me I will be busy until August with it all. But, as G encouraged when I expressed this morning that I really didn't want to add another issue to the list, "You're so good at all that!" What he means is that I am like a dog with a bone and tenacious as all get out, which is exactly what it takes when dealing with insurance companies.
I arrived at the Medical Center ten minutes before it opened at 9am and was third in line waiting outside the door. That's the other part of going to the doctor that I don't like: I'm not sick but found myself standing among people who truly were, with multiple URI symptoms. I'm always certain I'll pick up something much worse than what took me there in the first place. But I left by 10am with eye drops and a warning to resist wearing a contact in that eye for several days, something that is much easier to do on the ship than in port (you may recall the last time this happened, and I ran into a low hanging branch on Water Island as a result). I'm safer here.
I went immediately to the craft session to finish my bookmark and had to nearly beg for the needle and yarn to do that, because I was early. I explained that G wanted me to get to the Mexican Fiesta Sunday Brunch buffet in the Club Restaurant as soon as I could and was reluctantly granted the needle and three pieces of white yarn. It was a bit of a trick to stitch on the plastic canvas with only one good eye. Neither working with reading glasses nor without made it any easier and I squinted my way to a completed bookmark, needing to pull out and re-do stitches only twice (see above re: tenaciousness).
I finally made it to the Club Restaurant where the initial surge of passengers was still underway and I waited in line to get in. The theme for this Sunday Brunch buffet was Mexican and the entire Club Restaurant and its entrance were decorated in red and white and green balloons (hey...that would work for an Italian theme too) and paper accordianed hanging decorations and Mexican flags and it was all spectacular. All the waiters and galley crew were dressed in jeans and white shirts with colorful ponchos (I know that's not the correct word, but the Spanish term eludes me right now) and sombreros and had mustaches painted on with eyebrow pencil. What a hoot! My first order of business was to find G, but along the way I took lots of photos of our favorite waiters (and they're all our favorite waiters) and they pointed me in his direction.
Assistant Maitre d' George
Waiter (and fellow Clash of Clans-Eric) Pepito from the Philippines
Alter Saiteesh from India
Assistant waiter Taufik from Indonesia
Rolando and Ferdinand from the Philippines
Waiter (and our dinner waiter) Marco from Mexico
Waiter Joey from the Philippines
G had brought our one remaining bottle of MTP champagne and waiters Joey and Oliver brought flutes and glass after glass of orange juice and we repeatedly got plates of food and stayed there eating and drinking until we had finished the entire bottle of champagne and could barely move. The food was just amazing (I will post pics of the menu and food eventually). As one entered the Club Restaurant, there were different stations with different types of food- so much of it- breakfast food and lunch food and lots of seafood and pasta and all sorts of fancy cheeses and pates and specialty cured meats and a goose and then another area with Mexican food and guacamole made in front of us and lots of fruit and in the back corner of the Club Restaurant was a large table filled with desserts and ice cream and a chocolate fountain. It was hard to know where to begin.
Sunday brunch menu
Pastry chef Santino and Maitre d' Oscar
Dragena from the galley
Headwaiter Petros from Poland
Assistant waiter Oliver serving mimosas
Waiters Tommy from Thailand and Joey
Headwaiter Ilio from Macedonia
(Newly promoted) waiter Vesko
Because we stayed so long, drinking and eating and talking, we saw Maitre d'Oscar twice lead the headwaiters and waiters in a conga line through the dining room, shaking maracas and singing and it was a lot fun. It must have been an incredible amount of work to set up and prepare and display the food (there were ice carvings and fruit and vegetable carvings everywhere) but it seemed very much appreciated by everyone and made the whole day feel special. We found out today that this is offered only once per World Cruise segment, so five times during the 111 day World Cruise, with a different theme each time based on the ship's location. We felt so fortunate to be able to partake in today's! Honestly, it was the very best food occasion we've ever had on Princess, and was even better than the midnight Gala buffets Celebrity still offered when we last cruised with them (in 2007 or 2008 I think).
But, of course, we were ruined for the rest of the day. We changed into shorts and t-shirts and sat in loungers on the Promenade Deck where we (yes, me too!) joined all the other passengers who were already there and napped with our mouths hanging wide open. It was a beautiful afternoon with not a bump in the water to be found. I awoke after just a few minutes (based on my audiobook) and returned to the cabin to apply warm compresses to my eye, which is darn hard to do using just a facecloth that only stays warm for 30 seconds. G finally returned to the cabin and changed into his swimsuit and decamped to a hot tub. And that was a productive as we got for the rest of the afternoon. Very sadly, there has been no football at all on the Pacific Princess; I tried both yesterday and today to no avail to find a game on TV and then used way too many internet minutes trying to stay up on the scores. Thank God a thousand times over that we were on the Emerald Princess, with MUTS, at this time last year (when, you may recall, the Broncos won Super Bowl 50). ;-) Even two years ago when we were on the Pacific Princess returning from French Polynesia they managed to show a couple of playoff games on the ship. This year: nada...except for ESPN International running old football documentaries which is akin to dangling something desirable just out of reach of a child.
Not hungry at all, we still went to dinner in the Club Restaurant where I had just a small Caesar salad with chicken breast...and sorbet for dessert, of course. We were finished in no time at all and walked out on the Promenade Deck to await the beautiful sunset that was made even better by the few clouds at the horizon. It was still too early to go to the Cabaret Lounge for this evening's entertainment so we again sat in loungers and watched as the multiple colors in the sky faded to darkness. It was so beautiful out there that I could have been convinced to stay a while longer, but tonight's show was violinist Chris Watkins and pianist David Crathorne performing together and it was too good to miss.
But our day was done by 9pm. Tomorrow, our third sea day in a row, is when we will start going stir-crazy. Once again over dinner, G mentioned the variety and frequency of ports we enjoyed on our Mediterranean cruises. They were so different from this experience that it's like they were a whole different sport. All cruises are not created equal, but on the spectrum of cruise experiences, a World Cruise is a bit of an outlier. Still, we're happy to have the opportunity to experience 17 days of one.
