Day 39: At Sea

Last night went from classical (the concert) to rock and roll in a heartbeat.  As Captain McBain had announced, the Emerald Princess encountered the first of the weather disturbances last evening and the bouncing grew worse overnight and throughout today. The walls and ceiling of our midship cabin were creaking and groaning, and it was definitely a “tuck in the sheets” night to keep from falling out of bed. 

As a result, we didn’t sleep very well, but that was fine, because the only two things on our agenda for today were ukulele (me) and a military get together (G). We ate breakfast in the World Fresh Marketplace and didn’t eat lunch at all (and it was actually nice to have an appetite for dinner tonight). 

The bounciness we’ve been dealing with is being caused by deep swells coming from hundreds of miles away.  Despite the rough seas, it was sunny today with temps in the mid 60s, and wasn’t even horribly windy. Some people were sitting on the open decks, but the pools were all partially drained and netted over.

Our ukulele class is moving along quickly, and today we played two four-chord songs. I am no longer struggling over the G7 chord, but still choke when I have to go between G7 and G. Thankfully, my finger tips are getting used to the pressure of playing. We found out today that our MTG luncheon won’t take place until after the Hawaiian ports, which means I won’t miss the same lesson I missed last cruise. That’s a plus; I felt like I never caught up to the rest of the class. 

G was cleaned up for the evening by the time I returned to the cabin, so I took advantage of the time he was at the military gathering to do the same, and took what was a real one-handed shower as I held on for dear life with the other hand. G texted me a photo from the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers and told me not to come up there; a stack of plates had just crashed to the floor, followed by still more. He said it was difficult to even walk in Skywalkers. 

We met up for dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room and, despite my appetite I ate lightly (salmon Caesar salad), not wanting to tempt fate as I sat in the Princess Theater for tonight’s show. Generally the front of the ship really bounces when it gets rough like this. 

G swing by the Captains champagne waterfall for the standard glass of…well, whatever that vile stuff is, and I went to the theater to get our seats. Tonight’s performance was production show Sweet Soul Music, one of our favorites. I have no idea how the dancers managed to stay upright for the show, and we’re familiar enough with the show to spot any significant choreography adjustments, and didn’t see any. Even the back flip was done by one of the dancers. 

Then we returned to the Michelangelo Dining Room for the coffee and dessert we skipped to get good seats for the show. Our waiter Richard actually has an empty table for two at late dining, and that’s where we sat. It works well. We love Richard and Anthony. In fact all the waiters have been simply the best. Ivy, our junior waiter for two cruises saw me today and came running to give me a hug, and we can now count on the waiters to point out to one of us where the other is sitting in the buffet when we’re searching. This is the first time since COVID that we’ve cruised long enough for that to happen, and it brings back fond memories of Emerald Princess and Pacific Princess seasons from years ago. 

And by then last night’s light sleep was catching up with us and we returned to the cabin. It’s still creaking and groaning, but we are hoping for a calmer day tomorrow (though there’s a second, less severe disturbance out there somewhere that we still have to cross). 

Day 38: At Sea

We are back in a sideways, mid-ship cabin on Riviera Deck, right next door to the cabin we had for Emerald Princess cruise #2, and perhaps it was that familiarity that led us to both sleep so well last night. In fact. We didn’t wake up until after 8am and took our time to get moving. The cabin TV said it was 62° at that time, so I dressed in yoga pants and a long sleeved T-shirt and we started out with coffee on the Terrace Deck until it was just a smidge too nippy to linger there. We moved inside and grazed a bit in the mini-buffet in the back of Deck 15 and had a seat inside, with this as our view. 

The sun glistening on the water never gets old. 

And that is how I came to say those words that seem to get said at least once every cruise season:  “Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to lunch”. And we did, having a quick lunch in the Botticelli Dining Room so I could get to the first ukulele lesson of the cruise. 

I enjoy these lessons so much, I really do. Hawaiian Ambassador Brian makes us feel like we are really making progress as he had us playing two songs on our first day.  I’m definitely going to buy a ukulele when I get home. Even more people on this cruise brought ukuleles from home. People seem to do this cruise year after year; next year, we hope to be among them, and I hope to be bringing my own ukulele on board.

G eventually came to Club Fusion to observe, but didn’t participate (not that he exactly participated before, either😉). I get the feeling he wants to be involved but doesn’t want to actually get the sore fingers that inevitably result from practicing. But the concentration required to make my fingers form those chords exhausts me, and we returned to the cabin to rest and watch the first of the enrichment lectures on our cabin TV. 

Elite Lounge in Skywalkers featured Emerald Princess show band guitarist Andrew playing (he confided to me) the “spa music” he’d been requested to play. No doubt he’d rather be rocking out the way he did during Jason O’s Elton John tribute show, but I enjoyed both kinds of music. 

We told waiter Richard last night that we would always eat lightly and quickly and be out of the dining room early, to get our desired seats for the Princess Theater shows that start at 7pm. He was definitely up to the challenge and we were walking out of the dining room at 6pm. I had the beef ramen tonight and the flavors were spot on. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater show was comedian Carl Strong. He was pretty good, a little dated, I thought, but he got a standing O, so he was well received. We swung by the World Fresh Marketplace for the coffee we skipped after dinner (so many people playing games and cards in the back section, just as there are in the Michelangelo Dining Room during the day). 

And then we went up to Adagio for a candlelight concert by Evgeny who is the pianist in the Emerald Princess show band and is also the ship’s music director. It was very well attended, so I’m definitely not alone in enjoying this type of entertainment.  

Evgeny was classically trained in Russia and performed music primarily from the classical, romantic and impressionist movements, including Chopin, Schubert, Mozart and DeBussy (Clair de Lune, natch) and the unusual harmonies of Saties’s Gymnopédies and Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-Sharp Minor and…I could go on and on here.  Clearly, Evgeny is hugely talented. Hugely. 

Ballroom dancing last night, a candlelight classical piano concert tonight; I am in heaven. 

Captain McBain said, in his pre-noon announcement today, that there are two storm systems to the north of us, and, as a result, the Emerald Princess is on a course about 300 miles further south than originally planned. We will pass by the first storm tonight (and the back of the ship in Adagio is definitely moving right now) and by the second, smaller storm in two days. If this is as rough as it gets, I’ll consider that a win. We had sun all day, though it was breezy, and I’m hoping for warmer temps tomorrow.

Day 37: Turnaround Day

My emotions on most turnaround days run the gamut from “I’m so homesick; I just want to go home” to “I can’t believe I get to do this again!!”  Today was no different. 

I’m not a big fan of the 6am wake up that is required on turnaround days, but that’s what it takes. I wasn’t hungry enough for breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room and so I just grabbed a light breakfast in the World Fresh Marketplace and moved along quickly. 

My current favorite breakfast in the buffet:  yogurt parfait, muesli and chia sludge mixed together and a green smoothie side

When housekeeping came to our cabin to move our things, I actually let them today. A move from one cabin to another on the same deck is easy; having to use an elevator on Embarkation Day morning raises the degree of difficulty quite a bit. However, the guest in our new cabin chose to stay in it until after 9am. I sat in the unlocked balcony cabin across the hall with my stuff until she left and I could store my luggage and hang up clothes in the new cabin before it was even made up to get to the in transit meet up for immigration at 9:30am.  G opted to move himself and it was probably easier to just do that. 

G was intent at being in O’Malleys (our meet up location) at 9:30am; me, not so much. We could tell that disembarkation had fallen behind, and I knew we’d be waiting. And we did, nearly 90 minutes. 67 people weren’t getting off the ship as they should. Grrrr… But we finally got through immigration in the most convoluted way possible. They paraded us through the terminal where the new guests got all excited about why these people (us) were being allowed to board when they still couldn’t.  We finally got back to our cabin where I quickly unpacked before going down to lunch in the Botticelli Dining Room. 

On the way, I swung by our muster station in Explorers Lounge to satisfy that requirement. We hadn’t needed to do muster check in since December 30, but could tell from our cabin TV that we needed a refresher today. 

Embarkation day lunch is always the best, though it’s getting increasingly crazy as more and more people take advantage of it. We finally left before G got his soufflé for dessert; we both needed to make some phone calls this afternoon. 

And then all the day’s hard stuff was behind us.  I got cleaned up for the evening and we went out to the Lido Deck for the Sail Away party, which gets more fun each time we see it because we know more of the cast dancers and singers. It was a beautiful day for the party, sunny and about 80° in LA. Captain McBain did say, in his welcome aboard message, that we will be facing a weather system to the north on our crossing to the islands, and we can expect some movement, but that they are taking a more southerly route to avoid the worst of it. 

We went right up to Skywalkers for our actual sail away (as opposed to the sail away party) and the Elite Lounge. What a view we had!  We had to back up almost to a large freighter and let me just say that I’m glad I wasn’t responsible for steering. We were close!!

It’s always a little weird to go to the same dinner table but our waiters and neighbors have changed.  We now have waiter Richard from the Philippines and junior waiter Anthony from India, and it’s going to be a wonderful 16 days. Tonight’s dessert menu featured the flourless chocolate cake with macadamia nuts and, oh my, it is the BEST dessert I’ve ever had on Princess. It’s like the old flourless chocolate cake but even better, with macadamia nuts. 

Book an Emerald Princess Hawai’i cruise for this dessert

Thank me later

We went to the Princess Theater for tonight’s performance called Dance Fever. We really didn’t know what to expect with this. We had ballroom dancers doing shows in the Explorers Lounge late last cruise, but we never made it to one. This is the first time they’ve performed in the Princess Theater (that I know of). Katia and Zhenia from Belarus left us all amazed. If you love Dancing with the Stars, you’d love this show. The costume changes alone were unfathomable. 

Then we still had room for coffee in the buffet before we called it a day. We are settled in for our last cruise of the winter. 

Life is good. :-). 

Day 36: At Sea

I slept so much better and awoke feeling great. I’d like to think that everything I’ve done to try to stay healthy moved that cold along quickly. The Emerald Princess was berthed in Ensenada by the time we got done breakfast and took it out to the Terrace Deck. It was warmer today, but we still wore shorts and long sleeves, and felt better sitting in the sun.  We were kept amused by a seagull (huge) who decided to make the Terrace Deck his home for the day and even took a swim in the Terrace Pool (yuck). 

We went to the Botticelli Dining Room for lunch (I think I forgot to scan the menu…sorry!) and then walked off the ship just to get some exercise. I remembered nothing about Ensenada, but I hadn’t been there since November 2004. It’s much larger than I’d imagined it would be.  Everyone has been commenting on how fantastic our weather has been every day of this cruise. Our only rain was when we were taking an Uber to visit our friend in Honolulu and that only lasted a couple of hours. I hope we are so lucky on our next cruise. 

G went to play bingo this afternoon, the Final Super Stupendous Jackpot Bingo.  He bought three cards for $10 and…someone won $4000, it just wasn’t him. 

While he was doing that, I packed up my items in the cabin, which I’ve really got down to a science, but I will say that, for next winter, if we do what we have booked, we will NOT be changing cabins. It’s just not that fun. 

When G returned, we paid for our April cruise and booked air and hotel for that, so if you’re interested, check back around the middle of April and I’ll be blogging about that one. 

It was nice to return to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room. It was waiter Ronnie’s last night on board, and I’m not sure where junior waiter Ivy will be tomorrow night, so there were lots of hugs when we said goodbye, and also to our next door table mates Sheryl and Craig. We had a fun time with them!

The Carnival Firenze at sail away, the first time we were in port with another ship this cruise

The Princess Theater show was a variety shoe, with vocalists Erik Bryan (Let Me Be Frank), Jason O (Elton John) and the two cast vocalists, Simon and Nick and they were having fun singing together so it was a lot of fun to watch. I simply can’t imagine having that kind of portable talent! We never did see Magic To Do this cruise, although it was scheduled several nights. We’ve heard it was a cast illness issue. 

Tomorrow:  our last move and our last cruise. Yes, I’ll be ready to go home…for less than two months (with some track meet travel squeezed in). It helps to have ten more cruises booked in the next year!

Days 34 and 35: At Sea

I woke up sniffly for the first time all winter, not a huge surprise as there has been a lot of sneezing, more than coughing, being heard around the ship. And, after all, it is exactly the two week mark, and this is not scientifically proven, but I am 100% confident in saying a ship becomes a sick ship after 14 days. 

In my case, and the case of the Emerald Princess’s current cruise, I think that colds are being passed around, mostly in the Princess Theater. There was an empty seat next to us a few days ago and, just before the show started, someone sat it and started sneezing immediately. It’s hard to give up a show you’ve waited nearly an hour for and we didn’t, and here I am. 

We had a light, late breakfast on the Terrace Deck, which was quite breezy and in the 60s, but still partly sunny. I saw a few people trying to lay out in swimsuits but they eventually covered up and then finally gave up all together. That was day 4 of the 5 days to Ensenada, and the good outside weather was definitely behind us. 

We went to lunch in the Botticelli Dining Room because they had a chicken soup the menu that looked really good, and, oh my, was it. We both had it, and then I had some more, but by the time I was finished, I just wanted to be back in the cabin. 

When I finally woke up this morning I did a COVID and influenza self-test I brought from home and it was negative, which I was pretty certain it would be. This is a cold, plain and simple. I ended up laying in bed for nearly 24 hours, going from messy sneezy to totally stuffed up and inhaling nasal spray all night to feeling much better this morning. G said everyone was quite concerned when I missed dinner and Restaurant Manager Nebo had offered to send anything I might want to the cabin, but I really just wanted to sleep.  G went to Voice of the Ocean and the Princess World Orchestra (last night’s Princess Theater show) and said that, when he finally returned to the cabin around 9:30pm, I didn’t even wake up. 

Courtesy of G

When I did finally start to stir, this morning about 11am, my back was so stiff from so much time in bed that I could barely move. I used all the tools in my tool box to try to relieve the pain, but was making questionable progress. I told G to go to lunch and I would take my time and try to get there, but, let’s face it, Lido Deck forward is a long, far way from Deck 6 aft when you can barely lift your feet. I needed a rest stop in O’Malleys and another outside Crown Grill, and from there I texted G and said I’d be there in a minute. I was walking down the aft stairs from Deck 7 to 6 when I noticed my shoe was untied (really, does anyone else have this kind of luck?) and sat down on the second step from the bottom to try to reach my feet to re-tie it when G came looking for me and thought I had fallen there, and, good grief what a spectacle this had become. He tied my shoe and half carried me into the dining room where Nebo saw me and thought I was still that sick. Um, no. This whole thing started out as a simple cold which has mostly passed, but now I’m left with this. 

It’s hell to get old. 

After having soup for lunch I walked around a little and that helped loosen things up. I ended up skipping the Aloha Oe festival in Club Fusion where guests show off the ukulele and hula skills we’ve been working on, which was a pity but I didn’t feel I could stand there and play, and, besides, I’ll get a make up chance next cruise. The extra practice sessions certainly won’t hurt. 

I spent the afternoon laying on my lumbar stretcher on the cabin floor with my legs on the bed and that really did the trick. But I started feeling stuffy again and G talked me out of going to dinner but suggested I could try going to the show but that is how I got sick in the first place and I don’t want to spread this. Then CD Nathan announced that, due to cast illness (it really is a sick ship), Magic To Do was being cancelled again, and instead Jason O would do his Sing Us a Song show, so I decided to just have some dinner in the World Fresh Marketplace (fish and brussel sprouts) and call it a night. I spent the solo time watching Roaming Wild Rosie’s YouTube video of her Arizona Trail hike this year. So entertaining!

The lumbar stretcher that goes with me even on an overnight trip. Luckily it weighs almost nothing though it is bulky. 

I stayed awake until steward Fidel delivered the last of our laundry for this cruise. We already know that next cruise has about the same number of Elites and am I being greedy to hope for 24 hours laundry turnaround again?  It’s been a wonder. I’ve sent more laundry than I ever have before, at least every other day, a few times (especially in hot and sweaty Hawaii) two days in a row. I’m not even certain that I will supplement with a self-laundry session on turnaround day, except that I’ll need the same (cool weather) clothes that I’ve been wearing for the past two days again on the first two days of next cruise, so I might have to. I packed pretty light. 

Tomorrow we finally reach Ensenada. If I had to pick a day and a half to stay down, I timed it perfectly. Plus, as G optimistically pointed out, I’ll have immunity against getting a cold again on the next cruise. Fingers crossed.