Day 51: Eleventy-Seventh Day at Sea

I’m not joking about that. Today really did start to feel a little desperate. It wasn’t quite as bouncy as it has been but that’s speaking in relatives. It was still a whole lotta bouncy. The forecast for tomorrow in Ensenada is for a high of 58° and rain and I do. not. care. Rain and cold don’t shake the ship underneath me. Bring it on. 

Fortunately, today was a very busy day, which kept me from feeling desperate very often. We didn’t make it to breakfast again, nor did we order coffee in our cabin, but at 10am I attended Naturalist Daniel’s enrichment lecture on coral, which is one of my favorite topics. From there I fell into the galley tour line, as I haven’t seen the Emerald Princess galley in many years. We did the Chefs Table on the Emerald on its first cruise after COVID (October 2021), but the galley was not included in Chefs Table at that time (heck, we were wearing masks at all times outside our cabins and testing every so often. I don’t miss those days!). 

I got a piece of carrot cake from the dessert extravaganza in the World Fresh Marketplace and took it to the Botticelli Dining Room for lunch with G (just lentil soup for me). Yeah, my “I’m giving up sugar for Lent” vow lasted all of two waking hours today, but I did just eat seafood and vegan the rest of the day, so that part was Catholic-compliant. 😉

I had to eat that carrot cake fast, because today at 1pm in Club Fusion was the Aloha ‘Oe Hawaiian Farewell Show. I definitely hid in the back of the ukulele pack but was busy looking for G in the audience. You know those videos you see on social media where a kindergarten is performing and the child is in tears imagining mom and dad didn’t show up but then he see them and his face lights up with a big smile?

Yes, exactly like me here (yellow shirt against the back wall on the left) when I spotted G

G wrote the chords for my songs today on my hand because I knew that music stands were going to be in short supply for today’s show and I thought I could get by as long if I knew the major chord order.

We had prepared three songs (Pearly Shells, You are my Sunshine and I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing) to perform, but I missed yesterday’s class for MTG and- surprise!- they added Tiny Bubbles. Now, I had never played that song, I didn’t even have the music in front of me for Tiny Bubbles, but, fortunately, I learned finger syncing from the best and pretended to strum every chord except C, which I played loud and proud.  

The hula dancers were very impressive and G (entirely unbiased, I’m sure) said the entire show was fantastic and he actually stayed afterwards even longer than I did taking photos and talking to other family members in the audience because I raced out to go to the Princess Theater to get our prime seats for the Voice of the Ocean. 

One singer (HJ, originally from the Philippines) was a clear winner with 86% of the vote for his rendition of Unchained Melody, but, as always, it was the comedic banter between CD Nathan and the coaches that was most entertaining. 

There was just enough time for a clean up before going to the Elite Lounge and then dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room. I haven’t been hungry in so long that I don’t even remember what that feels line. It is going to be a hard transition going home where there is almost no food in the house and we just might leave it that way for a couple of weeks. 

We finally had a sunset tonight!

After Ebony and Ivory’s performance, CD Nathan called up many of the ship’s crews and officers on stage for a final farewell, and that is always fun. 

We returned to the Michelangelo Dining Room for coffee and dessert (mandarin sorbet for me). I’ve received a couple of emails asking if that is an acceptable thing to do and, yes, it definitely is. Theoretically we should go to the DaVinci Dining Room (anytime dining) but we know that there are many empty tables in Michelangelo Dining Room for second seating, and, in fact, our unusual wait staff (Richard and Anthony) have an empty table and host Mark always seats us with them.  We don’t do this every night but probably every fourth night or so, because we nearly always leave the dining room early in time to get good seats for the 7pm Princess Theater performance. 

I am truly wiped out tonight and suspect I will sleep long past our arrival time in Ensenada off 9am. I think it will be another case of the best sleep being that which comes after the ship is docked and stable. 

Day 50: At Sea

I must start today by sharing news of the saddest kind. Two days ago, dear cruise friend Carole passed way after a valiant fight against The Disease That No One Wants. We cruised with Carole many years ago on the Emerald Princess, on one Emerald Princess cruise that stood out simply because of the wonderful friends we met on board and stayed in touch with for nearly 15 years. Carole’s smile could light up the world, and she was beautiful and stylish and oh so fun. 

Then, last night, friend Fungirl messaged me twice during the Captains Circle parties, but by the time I received the notifications it was late and we never connected. I laid down for the night, picked up my iPad, saw on Facebook that friend Nancy had unexpectedly passed away in her sleep, and my reaction was physical. Nancy was smart and fierce and feisty one of my biggest role models and cheerleaders, and my immediate reaction (after more than two years!) was that I just wanted to talk with my mom to be enveloped in her love and…life is moving on. Life has moved on. 

I wasn’t sure, in that moment, how I was going to make it to the MTG luncheon today, or finish this cruise’s blog, but, here we are. Thank you for listening. Thank you for following along. 

With that one hour ahead thing overnight, we were very slow to get moving this morning. Finally, at 10:30am I was the first to move. It was still bouncy, but slightly less so (at this point, we’ll take any improvement). Sleep has been difficult; we’re going to be playing catch up for days at home. We didn’t need breakfast; it was MTG luncheon day!

We always enjoy the MTG luncheons, and not just for the delicious food and attentive service, but because we love chatting with the officer at our table (in our case, Captain McBain) and our table mates. It was comforting to hear the captain admit that, while last cruise might have painted a rosy picture about the weather we could expect on a Hawaiian cruise at this time of year, this cruise has been far worse than usual. And it’s not that the swells on any particular day were the worst we’ve ever seen (they weren’t); it’s the fact that they have been unrelenting. We booked this cruise again for next year just two weeks ago; this week I was ready to cancel it. 

Fried goat cheese and baked apple starter

Seared tuna starter

Starter for those who don’t like goat cheese or seafood (G)

Halibut, shrimp and scallops entree

Lamb entree

Raspberry and chocolate dessert

The colorful chocolate wrap

Cutoff for the MTG luncheon was 795 days!!!

That luncheon (and the wine) always ruins us for the rest of the afternoon. We collapsed on the bed and talked about…the cruise we just recently booked for April. We already know that Michael and Zenny who were on the first two of these Emerald Princess cruises will be traveling with us and today we found that luncheon table mates Jeff and Desiree will be also. It’s always fun to see familiar faces on board. 

We stayed dressed for the evening, and went to the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers just for the musical entertainment and then to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room, where we had no right to eat ANYTHING but did anyway (split pea soup just to warm up). 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was Jeff Tracta, an impressionist-singer taking us on a journey through pop culture. Ahead of the show, I believed we had seen him on the Royal Princess in December and liked him, but couldn’t figure out why a search of my blog didn’t turn up his name.  And then I remembered…I didn’t blog from the Royal Princess! Duh.  Sure enough, he was the same guy. His show is fantastic, and we enjoyed it just as much this time around. 

We left the theater and walked into the stay of silent disco in the Piazza. We love this, and after 10 minutes of dancing, my Apple Watch asked if I wanted to record this workout, and heck yes I did. I had had a renewable sedentary day up until that point. It’s line doing mild aerobics and my knees are going to let me know all about it tomorrow. When Shawty was getting low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low most of us dancing were ‘bout to never get up again. 

The pool next door, which was totally emptied for several days due to the rough seas is full again, and we definitely are hearing the water sloshing. Still, our cabin is as stable tonight as it’s been since we were docked in Honolulu, and I’m here for it. Two days ago I wasn’t thinking I would miss being on the ship when we return home on Friday, but tonight I’m almost certain I will. 

Day 49: At Sea

I decided last night to skip breakfast and have a lie in this morning. G had a bridge tour (I could have gone, too, but I’ve seen the Emerald Princess bridge a fair few times in the past. I’ve even seen the engine room (not just the ECR) but that’s a story that won’t get told here. Before he left the cabin I pinned G down (not quite- but almost- literally) to go over our calendar for the seven weeks after we get home, because it’s scary busy, especially our first week at home (more on that later). We need to be on the same page!

We actually had coffee delivered this morning, our first room service delivery in almost 50 days. It was nice, not necessary, not quite our thing, but we knew it would save us stumbling through the World Fresh Marketplace for coffee as soon as we woke up. While G was away, I used the time to get cleaned up for tonight’s Captains Circle parties and gather up a last laundry submission. We had received a notice in our cabin last night that it had to be given to our steward by 5pm today, but we don’t usually see Rocky by 5pm in the afternoon, so this morning it was. I needed one last laundry bag and form, but could hear Ricky singing Dancing Queen in the corridor 😆 and knew he was nearby 

I’m glad he was our cabin steward for two of these four cruises. He’s provided excellent service and been a lot of fun, too!

I met up with G in the Botticelli Dining Room for lunch, and today’s  menu featured an entree that was close to the old broccoli and cauliflower entree called the Floret Family or something similar that I used to love, so I ordered that and the teriyaki chicken because we never know about dinner on Captains Circle party nights. 

We had a combined ukulele and hula class today in preparation for our farewell show which will be held on Wednesday. Today’s rehearsal was a hot mess, and I will miss tomorrow’s (MTG luncheon), but I think the hardest part of this whole thing will be standing in one position if the ship is moving like it is today.

G was napping in the cabin when I returned and that was actually a good idea. I tried to do the same but I’m just no good at that. Sleep is a struggle; moving sound the ship is a struggle, and I was reminded of the wise words of our Chief Engineer friend, Roddy McConnell (he is so missed!) today:  I’m not seasick. I’m just sick of the sea. Yep, that’s exactly it. 

We met friends Mary and Ed for early entry into tonight’s Captains Circle party, and then saw CD Nathan’s mom was there and invited her to join us as well. We were honored to be this cruise’s second most travelled guests. 

#1 2254 days

#2 1812 days

#3 1697 days

We returned for the second party and then grabbed a two course dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room. By the time we finished up, it was after 9pm and we move clocks ahead for the final time overnight. Luckily, we have no where we have to be until our luncheon at noon and I can already predict another morning sleeping in. 

With CD Nathan’s mom Lindsay

Day 48: At Sea

We are continuing to bounce our way across the North Pacific…bounce being the key word there. I think it may have been a little better this morning, at least there were a lot of people walking in the sun on the Promenade Deck. But by early afternoon the sun was playing hide-and-go-seek, there were intermittent squalls, the winds had increased and the Promenade Deck was closed off. 

It can stop anytime as far as I’m concerned, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to. I think this whole crossing, both directions with the exception of one day is going to be like this. 

I was up fairly early today. I think the ship’s movement was on my mind; I was having a dream where the Emerald Princess was encountering turbulence as it sailed across the sky, and it ran into a bell tower in Italy and broke it off. Really. Yeah, I think it’s starting to get to me. 

We went to both breakfast and lunch in the Botticelli Dining Room and in between, at 10:15an, there was something called Hotel at Sea in O’Malleys. That sounded different and interesting, and we were happy to see F&B Director Roy and his Food Supervisor and Beverage Supervisor and they talked about provisioning (watermelons provisioned in Honolulu cost 5x as much as watermelons provisioned in San Pedro!). 

Last turnaround day they got a pallet of food at the Emerald Princess that was supposed to go to a HAL ship in San Diego. Actually, the truck driver was confused and started to deliver his food to the Emerald Princess and one pallet came off the truck and got mixed in to everything else before they figured it out. Roy said in his 40 years with Princess, no two days have been alike. 

They all talked about the three special events this cruise (Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras) and how they’ve planned things to make each event special, like the special desserts and drinks they featured yesterday. It’s been really nice. 

A breakfast bonus 🌈

Waiter Romeo at lunch provided entertainment with his folded napkin creations. So clever!!

Lunch was followed by ukulele (what else?) but I was delighted when new friends Mary and Ed showed up bearing gifts. Ed is a talent with a 3D printer and air brush, and prints and paints the cutest ducks and other items, like textured heart ornaments and iPhone holders to use on plane tray tables. It was like Christmas for me and even better when they stuck around for a few songs and cheered me on.

In fact, it reminded my a great deal (alert: incoming story) of when I was a kid and had to practice piano every day. I started taking lessons at 5 years old, and my required practice time quickly grew to an hour a day, probably before I had the attention span to actually accommodate that. But it was the 60s, and a different time, and parents- at least my parents who were paying for my lessons- didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about my attention span. I was going to practice, dammit, before I could go out to play. So my friends would play in our front yard where they could hear me, and applaud after each song to keep me motivated so I didn’t end up losing play time altogether and, yeah, Mary and Ed brought back some fun memories today. 

With my new duck from Ed and Mary 

Angry Duck looks like I felt practicing piano 60 years ago 😂

The act of getting around the ship is wearing us out, and we returned to the cabin to rest until Elite Lounge and that was an experience. We positioned ourselves in Skywalkers where we could watch down the length of the ship as the waves crashed over the bow. They were impressive, kind of like fireworks. To be fair, we’ve twice seen them larger, where they crashed well above the Promenade Deck, both times in the Tasman Sea, but these are definitely the worst we’ve seen in this section of the Pacific Ocean. 

At this point in the cruise, I’m generally having salad topped with a protein (salmon tonight) for dinner

We don’t need to eat for at least a week when we get home 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was a magician, so we went right to the Piazza where we snagged front row seats for tonight’s Princess World Orchestra. It was fun to watch them set up, especially since we know many of the musicians by now. 

The Imperial Strings Duo

Where we usually are for Princess World Orchestra

Then we went directly right to Club Fusion for another candlelight concert, this time by new (to us) Groovy Tunes Duo from Argentina. The guitarist’s skills are incredible, and they play more contemporary (ie Prince) music. If you get a chance to hear them on a ship…GO!  Truly the best duo we’ve ever heard on Princess. Such a great venue for this type of concert, too. 

Another great entertainment day on the Emerald Princess. But, please, make the bouncing stop!