Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Day 10: At Sea

We awoke today to this view, and it’s hard to imagine a nicer way to start a day at sea. Though our sail away weather was great yesterday, it soon grew cold and windy, and I thought that might be the end of the nice weather. No no no…except for a few rain showers late this morning, today was a perfect weather day. 


We made it to the Concerto Dining Room shortly after it opened, and G kicked off the day with a Bloody Mary and I ordered a decaf soy cappuccino. We are enjoying the novelty of having the Premium Beverage Package, but I’m not sure I can keep this up for an entire week. 


At 10am we went to the Hollywood Conservatory for a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. It was very well attended, and several senior officers, including the captain were there. The predominant message we continue to hear from everyone?  They are so glad to see us. Yeah, we can relate. We’re glad to see them too!

We left the Meet and Greet in time to get to the 10;45am presentation by naturalist Michael Modzelewwki.  I was so happy to see that Princess is continuing with these sorts of enrichment speakers. I really missed them on Holland America last week. Michael has an interesting backstory. His dad was an NFL athlete with the Cleveland Browns, but at some point at time, apparently at least 20 years ago, Michael moved to an island in Alaska’s Inside  Passage and has lived off grid ever since, writing books and lecturing about nature and his life in it. 

We returned to the Concerto Dining Rook for lunch, and we turned it into a bit of a wine tasting of our own (the Grapevine Wine Tasting was held this afternoon but we skipped it) by trying three different white wines. Gotta love that combination of a sea day and the beverage package. And then (and I’m almost ashamed to admit it) I might have spent some time in Vines wine bar today, too. 










We managed to get back to the cabin just in time to get dressed for tonight's formal night, then went to the PES lounge for a short time before going to dinner a few minutes early to try to improve our dinner table assignment. We did…for tonight only. If there has been a disappointment for us on this cruise, the dinner situation with the new Dune My Way feature is it. As G says, it certainly isn’t Dining HIS way. But no matter, our waiter tonight was a dear, and immediately asked us if we were trying to get to the early show tonight. When we told her we were, she had us finishing our meal, including dessert and coffee, in less time than it took to get our appetizers last night. 











We were quite excited about production show Sweet Soul Music. This one is backed by the Majestic Princess orchestra, which adds so much to the performance. Loved the singers, loved the dancers, loved the songs. It was all good. We walked across Deck 7 to the back of the ship afterward, catching all the live music along the way and part of the Yes/No Gameshow, which is always a hoot. And with a little energy left, we changed into swimsuits and enjoyed a bot tub in the covered Hollywood Pool area. We would really miss it if this ship didn’t have an indoor pool area. 

And that was our day. We’ve told ourselves we can sleep in tomorrow, but we move clocks back an hour tonight, and I know we’ll be up early. Naturalist Mike said that we may start seeing some wildlife early tomorrow morning, and we don’t want to miss that.