I decided to keep my streak going, and went to use a treadmill and a bike in the gym instead of going to breakfast this morning. It wasn’t hard to pass up the food; today was MTG luncheon day! Then I returned the cabin and did some of the serious freshening up- manicure and face mask and red light therapy- that has been neglected too much lately. I’ve got another solid day of football spectatorship upcoming, and we know how hard that is on the body.
We were cleaned up a bit for today’s MTG luncheon (cutoff was 696 days; there are fewer than 600 Elites on board, hence our 24-hour laundry turnaround) and went to the Adagio Lounge around noon. The nice part about MTG luncheons on the Emerald Princess is that they start with champagne in Adagio before moving into Sabatini’s for lunch.
Food and Beverage Director Antonio has left the ship and Roy Kelly has come in to replace him. We go way back with Roy, to our early seasons of cruising on the Emerald Princess and it was great to get caught up with him. I teased CD Nathan that I had been getting worried. As of last night, tomorrow’s championship games were not appearing in Journey in the app. However, I checked first thing this morning and they were there. He said he literally loses sleep over these games, and wakes up in a cold sweat imagining that he forgot to schedule them into the day. He may be British, but he fully understands their importance to many of us on board.
It says Captains Circle Party, but it was MTG
My fruit plate starter
The food, service and conversation were all delightful, and this lunch absolutely ruins us for the rest of the afternoon (in the best way imaginable). We spent the afternoon catching up on enrichment lectures and feeling the very gentle motion of the ocean in our forward cabin.
We’ve been very lucky since we first boarded the Emerald Princess on December 30. Our weather has been remarkably, consistently good. Today was much warmer (mid-70s) and the air felt tropical. The pool decks were busy, not crowded, but people have finally spread out on the ship. It’s nice!
As I mentioned last night, we were absent at today’s ukulele lesson, and, while one of us might not have minded (🙄), I was sorry to have missed it. I really need all the practice time I can get.
With no right to, we went to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers at 4:30pm (they have candied ginger there every night. It’s my weakness on this ship. Every cruise has one kryptonite for me, and I suppose this can’t be too much worse than the Regal’s oatmeal cookies without raisins. We ate very lightly at dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room and then went to Club Fusion early to get seats for Jeff Bughart’s comedy show tonight.
That had us first sitting through a family karaoke session in Club Fusion that was alternately entertaining or heart warming or positively ear-bleedingly horrid. Club Fusion was completely packed for karaoke; do people really enjoy karaoke, or were they, like us, simply claiming seats for the upcoming comedy show? It was a kinda high price to pay, but we survived.
Jeff Bughart’s show tonight was fantastic. A different feel, of course, being in Club Fusion rather than the Princess Theater, but he totally owned that venue, and we loved his quick mix of comedy and impressions.
Jeff’s show finished in time for us to get to tenor Connor Bogart’s own show, called Mic Drop Moments. We had just seen this late last cruise but enjoyed it so much then that we were happy to see it again. A two-show night!
We move clocks back an hour tonight, putting us on Hawaii time. We will pick up the Hilo port pilot at 6:45am tomorrow, and the morning weather is supposed to be a bit sunny, with the usual showers moving in during the afternoon. A lot of the Volcano National Park excursions have been cancelled as Kilauea is shooting debris 650 feet into the air. In fact, the park was closed today. My husband originally had visions of us seeing lava flow tomorrow, while I instead had visions of camping out at the MUTS screen for back to back divisional championship games. I needed a natural disaster to allow me to do that, and…well, here we are. Do you believe in miracles?
A friend shared this with me this week, and I have to say, it’s spot on. Tomorrow could be ugly, and I’ve spent the week preparing for it. I survived watching Super Bowl XLVIII on the Emerald Princess where the Broncos didn’t even get a first down the entire first quarter. I’ll survive tomorrow, too.
Today marks the half way point of this series of cruises. Am I enjoying it? Oh yeah. I’m having the time of my life. This ship, this crew, this entertainment… all making me fall in love again with the Emerald Princess.
Life is good. :-)
