Things are changing

After a very hard, pretty stressful week, we were due for some good luck. And we sure got it today, though not everyone would agree. I was back from the pool and having my first cup of coffee when G asked me to check on cabin availability for our first cruise, starting tomorrow.   Now, between you and me, I’ve been doing that every day, as our cabin for our first cruise was on a different deck (though same elevator bank) from the cabin we’d booked for the Grand transpacific cruise. That was the best that was available when we added that cruise at the beginning. And for at least a month that cabin category has been sold out, so I wasn’t hopeful. Well, do you believe in miracles?  Today there was one cabin available, the same cabin we have booked for cruise #2. I was dialing 1-800-PRINCESS so fast that I didn’t even take time to refresh my coffee. It was a different (lower) category than we had originally booked, and the agent needed to contact her “lead” about it but kept telling me we’d get $18 and change back. Interesting, but I don’t care. Just get us that cabin!  And they did. And I gladly took the post-call survey and gave her all 5s. 

No move between cruises. It was our lucky day!

But it got better, a couple of hours later I received an email. Our itinerary was completely changing due to Hurricane Polo. Instead of what I published last night, we’ll be spending two days in San Diego, a long day in Cabo and a day in Mazatlan. Except for the fact that we pre-purchased admission to Balandra Beach in La Paz (hey, maybe we can get down there for a land trip!?!), we love the changes. People who live in SoCal might do feel a bit differently. This isn’t even remotely the Sea of Cortez cruise people signed up for. But we were given a choice:  cancel for a full refund or cruise and get $100 On Board Credit.

I have never been to San Diego (except for a sail in 24 years ago, but that’s a whole other story). I am thrilled. So is G. He has been there, has much to show me, and we already have dinner reservations on the bay for Saturday night. We’ll be celebrating our anniversary then. 

The suitcases are closed and weighed.  The three we’ll be checking come in at 39 pounds each. Lightly packed, we are not. But I feel certain we’ll be very comfortable regardless of weather for the next ten weeks. 

 Now, if Nolo would just be kind to Hawaii…

Are we surprised that Princess attached the old itinerary instead of the new one to their email today?
 Nope, not one bit. We don’t care. We’re just happy with the changes.

Catching up

Having just returned home from the Star Princess Panama Canal cruise in early May, summer seemed short…and busy, but the season unfolded pretty much as we’d expected it to. The first six weeks were busy for the best reasons and the next six weeks were busy…’cause we’re getting old and medical stuff must be attended to during the months while we’re home. I actually have medical, dental and vision surgeries and procedures planned back to back next year. (Not the kind of B2B I like!)  Is this what getting older is all about?  Not a fan! 

I traveled for two days to Bentonville, Arkansas (a culturally surprising little town, courtesy of WalMart’s Walton family) in late May for McGee’s final race of his D1 career, the NCAA Semi-Finals Track Championship held at the University of Arkansas. Since he was simultaneously missing his squadron’s commissioning ceremony at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), he had his own at a restaurant in Arkansas, attended by some officers, his coach, his team, his parents and me. He was appropriately lauded for his academic and sports accomplishments, and it was a very memorable (and personal) occasion.

It required perfect weather, an on time flight, and divine intervention (or, in this case, the intervention of the Superintendent of USAFA, which is kind of the same thing) to enable McGee to compete in a race starting the night before at 9pm in Arkansas and still make it to the USAFA stadium several states away before 9am the next day to line up for his graduation. That day started with the four of us leaving the hotel at 4am, boarding a flight before 6am and landing in Denver, where McGee was met right outside the airport doors by a cadet friend with his parade dress uniform in his car. Every minute counted.  The other three of us got a car and started our drive to the academy. The Superintendent had arranged for both cars to have a military police escort to the football stadium once we arrived at the base security gate to bypass traffic congestion.  McGee joined his fellow graduates, already lined up in the stadium tunnel to march onto the field. The rest of us got to our seats just as the march on began. That is always so impressive (search 2026 USAFA graduation on YouTube for proof. March on begins at 24:45). Graduation was cold and damp and breezy and…simply the best, especially since the hat toss/flyover could take place as anticipated despite the weather. We were and are so proud. 

The Wild Blue Yonder was more grey than blue but I suspect no one cared a bit since the flyover could take place as planned.

If you saw this chest bump on the national news, you saw McGee

No, not the first guy (the Veep) that the graduate chest bumped, but that same cadet then walked down the ramp to chest bump his friend McGee, 

left side, silver sash, huge smile as he walked toward the camera.

Service academy graduates get 60 days paid leave before they have to report to their first duty station. McGee and teammates spent a few weeks in French Polynesia (yeah, I may have influenced that decision just a smidge, but, hey, they asked!) where they had the time of their lives doing things like technical hiking, jet skiing, cave exploration and deep sea fishing. What else do six distance runners do while vacationing on Moorea?  They run the length of the circle road around the entire island, 36.4 miles on a Sunday morning. Just for fun. 

This was another one of those “I’m glad I didn’t know you were doing this until you were done” undertakings (and there have been many over the years). That road around Moorea is narrow!

We had a couple of weeks off then before Wedding Week began. Excitement reached crescendo pitch by wedding day, and that was the highlight of a love, joy and faith filled week. McGuy had made certain I was involved in everything, starting with two ring shopping trips when he was home for Christmas break more than a year ago (I was deeply touched) right through the proposal and honeymoon planning and up to the wedding. This couple is so darn photogenic that their photographer is using their wedding pics for her social media advertising. Between them and McGee in the viral chest bump video, I never knew which of my guys was going to show up in my daily social media feeds.

The rehearsal dinner was Western themed. I bought my first cowboy boots for the occasion!

That week in June when they were a world apart- and a world away.

Three months later, both of my guys are well launched and living their best lives. McGee is a 2nd lieutenant (LT McGee!) and McGuy is a cybersecurity analyst for a large financial corporation. They both live elsewhere and are thriving. I am surviving. I’m finding myself in the unusual position of being an empty nester without ever having had kids, but I have been so blessed to have them in my life.

Also blessed to have friends like Martha, whom I’ve known for 38 years.
Blog readers often ask about her as she was such a help to us in our early years of spending winters at sea
 and got several blog mentions. She’s still living her best life!

After that, it truly felt as if nearly every other week I was being anesthetized for something. But we are finally both fit as fiddles and ready to roll.  The rest of the summer was filled with endless days of record breaking heat, smoke, drought and road construction.  Frankly I’m not sorry to see the end of this one. And, with all the kids moved away, I found myself earlier this month dog sitting their family’s 14-year old schnoodle. Blind and deaf but still eating and comfortable, Blu may not be here when we return from our trip 🥺 so I enjoyed the opportunity to love on him for a few days.  Actually, over the years I’ve watched their 4, then 3, then 2 remaining kids, always along with two dogs, with less anxiety than I felt dog sitting Blu. I slept there every night to ward off wild animals (we have a lot) during his middle of the night potty breaks, and handed him back in one piece to his parents five days later. Success!

Blu’s favorite pastime 💙 He would have been happy to curl up next to me on the sofa all day,
every day, and I kind of enjoyed it too.

And by then Labor Day weekend had passed, summer was unofficially over, and our travel prep began in earnest.

It’s been a while since we’ve left home with the intention of cruising quite as many consecutive days as we have on tap this fall. I think we may have been gone this long in Fall 2024, but that was unintentional, and a result of the Regal Princess going out of service for three weeks in the middle of our B2Bs.  That year also featured a mad scramble to try to re-stock personal care items through Kroger and Amazon deliveries made to our Galveston hotel when we extended our time away by over four weeks. Re-stocking will be more limited this time, and I’ve tried to pack intentionally.

To that end, I booked Choice Extra or some such seats on Southwest. The fare in points was only slightly higher than the cheap seats, and the best part is that we can each have two checked bags (and, I’m told, will be served pistachios on board as snacks!). I am flush with points right now, having maximized the 3/24 and 5/24 credit card games this summer, and we felt like living large. We truly didn’t know how many suitcases we’d have until we were fully packed today, and I was not in the mood to cut back and do without on this trip. I know we’re going to have some cool days in New Zealand and to/from Hawaii and packed warmer clothes for them and for Princess Theater temps, too. Final suitcase count?  Still one large and one roll aboard each, with an additional shared suitcase plus a small backpack. And that includes snorkel (Dravuni Island, I’m coming for you!) and workout gear, packs of disposable washcloths and makeup remover cloths (that Princess washcloth shortage still haunts me) and back care devices (will we get good Princess mattresses…or not?). 

Home preparation for our time away was fairly straightforward. We did start up the furnace on a 100° day in August just to ensure no surprises.  Tested the water shut off valve ahead of time. Added Stabil to our gas tanks. Replaced our battery backup to keep WiFi humming in the event of a power outage. Did the usual winterizing activities outside.   (Those are all “royal we” accomplishments, in case there was any confusion.😆) Largely emptied and then cleaned but did not turn off the refrigerator.  Put my MacBook in the safe deposit box. Unplugged lithium ion battery chargers around the house and garage. Renewed our passports in early June and got our New Zealand and Australia electronic visas. Planned a few excursions. And that’s about all we did. We won’t be gone for months AND months this time.  Just months. 

The days when we tackled major projects around the house just before leaving are behind us, but I well remember the year we started ripping and replacing the trim boards off our three story house, involving day after day after day of hours in the sun, and evenings spent with me shining flashlights out windows to light up the area G was working on, 20 feet off the ground. Then there was the year we leveled the house’s main support beam, jacking it up in the basement and turning the cranks on the support posts. I’ll never forget standing under all this house and hearing the creak as the house (we hoped) settled back down. Damn, we were crazy, but it all worked out. And we’re no longer quite so ambitious but final days this year still included two extension ladders. 

I hate extension ladders. I truly despise them. (Linda, I know you’re laughing right about now, as you are a firsthand witness as to my feelings about them). Not the climbing them or standing on them parts, but the setting them up and taking them down parts. And, for me, cruise preparation and extension ladders will always be linked. I’d be happy to break that mental connection. 

In a bad news/good news series of events, I was vacuuming with our cordless Bissell a few days ago when it suddenly stopped working (bad news). G determined it was the switch, which we had replaced once before and knew could be done easily (good news). But a Google search turned up no parts availability for this and similar models (bad news). I assumed the vacuum was so old that parts were no longer available for it; however, more Google searching turned up a recall on that model (we had never been notified). I sent in the appropriate proof of ownership and immediately received a return email. They were shipping us a new one (very good news). However, we wouldn’t receive it before we left home (bad news). But we have wonderful neighbors who I felt certain would grab it from our front porch (good news). Still, the house wouldn’t get cleaned before we left (bad news). Then, a day later G was taking the vacuum apart and got it working (good news).  Not that it was safe to keep in the house (the recall was for fire danger), but I did finish cleaning and depleted and removed the battery.

It’s inevitable that we leave in the fall just days after Apple 1) launches its new products and 2) does a significant iOS upgrade. The latter can always throw our “managed from our iPhones” home into pandemonium but we upped the degree of difficulty this year and purchased new iPhone 18 Pros also. I must have forgotten the number of times over the years that doing that has called my ability to do blog post writing and publishing into question. No matter. One night of lost sleep and I have BlogTouch Pro working (admittedly a little sluggishly but hopefully there will be an update in the next week). I also got all my Bluetooth listening and body composition devices disconnected from my old phone and connected to my new phone, so I’ll call that a win. 

After a crazy week (chasing down one final vacation override on a prescription nearly unhinged me), today involved just a 5:30am pool workout and a pedicure for me, and closing up the suitcases. Our anniversary dinner was comprised of the last of the whatever remained in the refrigerator.  We’re hungry, but know that feeling isn’t going to last. Tomorrow we have a very early pick up and a direct flight to Long Beach. It’s no secret that Los Angeles has become our favorite cruise departure port, because of the size and the ease of reaching LGB from home. The stress level of that airport is even lower than Houston Hobby, which is a good thing because our own airport is perpetually crazy, even for those of us familiar. 

Lots of free checked luggage, a direct flight, multiple cruises in store…and a new vacuum on the way. 

Have I mentioned that life is good? :-)

Starting year 15 of Yellow Fish Cruises!

Welcome back!  We are once again preparing to take a cruise or two (or three). I have to admit, I’m quite excited about what we have in store this fall/winter, and I’m so happy to think that you might be following along. 

Beginning another year of blogging compelled me to look back at where- and when- this all began. Fifteen years and nearly 2300 posts ago I was publishing blog posts by emailing them to a blogspot address, with no way to see what I was posting and certainly not enough internet minutes while on the ship to do any editing. Some things haven’t changed though…I’m still preparing all these posts on an iPhone, still not using dictation (I’m not sure G would appreciate that at 11pm while he’s trying to fall asleep), and still not doing much editing until I return home. And because I’m using Slide to Type to write posts, the autocorrects can be pretty egregious. Buckle up for another wild ride.

Let’s jump right in with where we’ll be cruising this fall, and I’ll do a “what we did on our summer vacation” post next (for those who are interested.  Remember, this is my diary, not a travel journal). 

We’re starting with a 10-night cruise that was supposed to be to the Sea of Cortez (but can only be most loosely considered that now);

…followed by a 28-night crossing to Sydney;

 ,,,followed by a 30-night crossing to Los Angeles!

So many of our cruises these days are of the last minute variety. Even if we book ahead, plans change, and then change again. But this fall, the two transpacific cruises have been on the books since April 2025. I am desperate to return to the South Pacific. And New Zealand. And to sail in and out of Sydney Harbour again. G, though, was not interested in another flight to or from Australia.  A flight home from Rome last year with a 0Dark30 departure from the ship in Civitavecchia and a long layover in Munich just about did him in. He is clearly over 24 hour travel days regardless of how appealing the destination. As a result, I had just about given up hope of ever seeing Australia again and was reconciling myself to the fact that our four previous visits would have to suffice (oh, enough with the eye rolling already!😆). 

So when the opportunity to cruise to Sydney, spend one night there and then turn around and cruise back was presented a year and a half ago, I had both cruises booked for us in a quick minute.  The fact that we will be stopping at Dravuni Island, Fiji twice and Mystery Island, Vanuatu once was the icing on the cake. There are no new ports for me, but that’s okay when the itinerary is this good. New ports are getting harder and harder to come by anyway. And G has never before been to Western Samoa (and I’ve been there only once on a transpacific cruise he couldn’t go on). I really can’t say we’ll be traveling in Australia…but we will get a sail in and out of Sydney Harbour and that’s the next best thing. 

I was in the process of booking a pre-cruise hotel night because of those five sea days at the start of the westbound transpacific (missing the ship could derail everything) when it occurred to me that it made more sense to simply book the cruise just prior as a sort of buffer. We could sleep in our own bed one additional night, fly out the same day and save $250 on a hotel night. Always preferring more cruise days to fewer, G immediately agreed.  As things grew closer, he suggested we might still want to fly out a day early, but NO.  I really dislike pre-cruise hotel nights. While I concede that they are at times imperative and even more often quite prudent, I think traveling for McGee’s races has put me off hotels for years to come. We’ll take our chances with a same day flight knowing that our world won’t end if we miss that first cruise. Plus, what are the odds of another simultaneous vehicle mechanical failure / blizzard resulting in witnessing a fatal car accident en route to our home airport (à la last November)?  And we survived that perfect storm just fine, right? 😳

It helped that I also love Sea of Cortez cruises and was not disappointed with the extra ten days on the ship, However, I’ll admit that when the town of Loreto in July outlawed any large cruise ships to protect the local marine life and our itinerary was changed to instead include a freight port on the west coast of Mexico (Guaymas) that sounds kind of sketch, I wasn’t thrilled. I understand the rationale, but I think it’s valid to be disappointed. I truly love the little town of Loreto and the scenery along the Sea of Cortez. 

So we are off in two days on a 10-night Mexico cruise where we may or may not even sail south to Mexico due to Hurricane Polo, and even then we may not leave the ship in at least one port, but it’s still better than a hotel night pre-cruise. Our first 38 nights will be spent on the Grand Princess, the oldest ship in the fleet. We haven’t been on the Grand in over 10 years, and then it directly followed several Pacific Princess cruises that made the ship seem huge by comparison. Something tells me we’ll feel quite content with the ship’s comparatively smaller size this year. Our third cruise, following an overnight in Sydney, will be on the Crown Princess, exactly like the Emerald Princess we were on so much last winter. That one will feel more familiar. 

Frankly, our many upcoming sea days hold a lot more appeal now than they would have 15 years ago. Dare I say I’m looking forward to them as much as our ports? I loved the enrichment activities on the Emerald Princess Hawaii cruises last year and hope we have more of the same to look forward to this time around. The month of September has been quite busy (heck, the whole summer has) and the opportunity to slow down quite a bit is very attractive. 

Tomorrow is our 43rd wedding anniversary and I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate than a ten week vacation to some of my favorite places in the world with my favorite person in the world. 

Life is good. :-)

Home!

I know, I know. I’m even later than usual in publishing a wrap up post, but today (Friday) was truly the first opportunity I’ve had to sit down and type this. I’ve decided that returning home on a Sunday evening is much harder than on a Saturday evening. All the week’s busyness hits you in the face as soon as you open your eyes the first morning at home. 

In my case, that busyness involved four medical appointments the first four days at home, a 24-hour medical monitoring and a haircut. Then, of course, I had to get through four loads of laundry, get to the dry cleaners and forage some food for the house. We received a three day reprieve of digging in the dirt when the forecasted 6” of wet, heavy snow fell Tuesday through Wednesday. However, after my last appointment on Thursday, I headed right over to Costco and bought the first of our annuals before the Mother’s Day weekend buyers descend. A benefit of being retired!

Ten hot pink geraniums, plus four pounds of broccoli. This was just a “get started” Costco run!

Today, at last, things started feeling more normal:

I finally made and ate breakfast;

and peeled and segmented my own orange (how do they do it so perfectly on a cruise ship?)

The flowers still aren’t planted, but the snow has melted and that allowed me to do some preparatory garden bed clean up today, and after I prepared the post-cruise surveys and made a spreadsheet for tracking 12 months of booked cruise prices, AND uploaded that last day’s Patter (it’s there, go look!) which required G digging them out of his suitcase, I’m here, ready to share some thoughts about the Star Princess. Simply stated, we love nearly everything about it. Maybe we weren’t so crazy to book that cruise after all!

Surprisingly, I like the Star Princess despite the fact that it is so different from what I’m usually looking for in a ship. It’s big, really big, and there was no issue getting in my steps every day (in fact, I came home two pounds lighter despite lots of indulgences).  It feels way more like a hotel than a ship, but still allows guests to feel a connection to the sea. Certainly all the windows and globe shaped Piazza help with that. And the outside Dining Promenade and its nearby soft seating do, too. 

Most of my steps were spent walking forward to back on Decks 7-9, several times daily. I was only on Deck 6 a few times, first to explore, then to go to Guest Services, and I’m not a fan of that deck. The entire deck feels closed in and smells like heavy chemicals from the spa pool. In fact, I was surprised to see, when we looked at the ship from shore, that there are bulkhead balcony cabins (I think they’re called Cove Balconies) on Deck 6. I would have thought, from the smell, that there was no outside air at all to that deck. It reminded me of Deck 8 on other ships. I went to Deck 5 and Decks 10-16 only a handful of times, but did walk across Deck 17 much more frequently. All this to say that, though the ship is big, I tended to live on just a few decks. 

We loved having a cabin on Deck 9. It seemed central to everything, which is why we booked it in the first place. I would not generally book as far forward as we did (9200 series) because of the Princess Arena noise, but, if it was the only cabin remaining on Deck 9, we’d bring our usual earplugs and stay there again. For future cruises, we booked more midship cabins, not too close to the forward elevators. Smoke from the casino on Deck 8 is pervasive in the forward stairwell a few decks above and below, but, in chatting with people who stayed in those midship Deck 9 cabins, it is not an issue in either the corridor or in their cabins. 

And while I’m on that topic, I tried to avoid the smoking casino area entirely, but did walk through there a few times. I can’t imagine a single experience I am less suited for in life than to sit in a smoky casino playing obnoxiously loud and flashing machines and losing money. This was a Prestige casino cruise, and there were a lot of gamblers on board. I met one very nice couple who cruises nine months a year, all on casino rates across various cruise lines. On Princess, they generally book side by side minisuites with the Premier Package and said it costs them, after losses, at most $50K annually to do that. They are in the casino nearly every hour it is open. Good on them, but no thank you. 

We loved the outdoor areas on the ship, but I’m not sure how we would enjoy this ship in cooler climates. Still, short 500 passengers in this cruise, we always found a place to sit, inside or outside. It felt much less crowded than the Emerald Princess did on our rough second Hawaii cruise in February. The Princess Arena is definitely undersized, but here’s the thing:  we are picky about our seats in the Princess Theater and always get there at least 45 minutes early for the early shows. This was really no different, except that when we arrived 45 minutes early, our choice of seats was not unlimited. But I spent my waiting time writing blog posts, so, without that dedicated time, I’m not sure this blog would exist.  The seating is much, much more comfortable than most Princess Theater seating, wide enough with plenty of leg room. And, like in the Princess Theater, there are favorite rows that go early where people can easily pass by to get to middle seats. 

Ingress and egress in the Princess Arena is definitely limited. It’s a confined space, and that had my husband highly concerned, trying to figure out how they would get people out of there quickly in an emergency, especially given that it’s a muster station.  I prefer to not worry about it (but you might). 

We made a point of checking out The Eatery and the Americana Diner to size it up for future cruises. There are ample options, including even grab and go boxes with sandwiches, salads and desserts that could be very handy for in cabin dining if you don’t have a package with the free Ocean Now delivery. I thought it would be great if one of us got sick…but we never did. In fact, this was a very healthy ship. I heard two deep coughs during the entire cruise. One of them was right next to me in the Princess Arena, but it was again a case of having sat in my seat for over 30 minutes already and not wanting to give it up. I survived unscathed. 

The ship amenities themselves are largely wonderful. Certainly the elevators top the list. They almost totally eliminate the crowding that is commonplace on other ships. And when an elevator arrives and a door opens, people aren’t dashing into it, because there’s a good chance it’s not going where they want to go. It’s amazing how removing elevator tensions improves the cruise experience. Saying that, I largely used the stairs between Decks 7 and 9 all day long. My knees are definitely feeling it after three weeks. Definitely. 

Public restrooms are large and uncrowded. I only encountered a couple of waits. The sink faucets, when they work, are amazing, especially the sinks that have individual hand dryers. They don’t always work, and that’s why there is often a separate soap dispenser sitting on the counter. I can see that being an issue years down the line. You’d think they would have tested them for durability. 

Our cabin was pretty near perfect. I’m not a fan of closet doors, and missed the normal Princess layout, but we quickly adapted. The little bench was nothing more than a pillow and clothing collector, and a place under which shoes were stored. I loved the drawer space, there was plenty of storage, but the nightstands are narrow. This meant that the space between the beds when set up as twins is also narrow. We bonked heads a couple of times when we both went to stand up at the same time. Coming from a sideways cabins on both the Crown and Royal Class ships all winter, that was the biggest adjustment. But the cabin lighting was fantastic. For the first time, we had ample lighting in the cabin, and could even find the wayward pill or earring back that fell to the floor. 

The bathroom is the best part of the cabin. I would cruise on this ship for that alone. The shower is the best I’ve ever encountered on a ship, lighting was perfect, storage was ample. We always received two bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths. Always. It was a wonder. There is separate shampoo and conditioner in the shower and it wasn’t awful. There are Drybar blow dryers in the desk drawer, too, and they are much kinder to hair than other models. 

There are ample power ports of the USB-A and -C varieties all around the cabin. The mattresses and pillows were perfect. It made my cruise experience so enjoyable (and much less painful). Our cabin steward was the only weak link we encountered with any crew, and she wasn’t the worst we ever had. She just seemed a bit overwhelmed. 

However, what I’d heard about the crew on the Star Princess - all overworked, unfriendly- just wasn’t the case. They were fantastic to us. We were spoiled, of  course, with Sanctuary Dining, but every time we ate in The Eatery, every crew member was attentive and helpful. Drink offers, table clearing, the buffet line workers…it was all great. 

Dr. James Engman was a phenomenal enrichment lecturer. His professorial style made me want to return to college again (but I’ve had enough, thankyouverymuch, not to mention that pesky studying part.) The entertainment for the most part was quite good (though not as good as on our Emerald Princess cruises this past winter), CD Dan Looney is a prize (but I don’t see him staying on ships too long), and the production shows were a big disappointment. In fact, probably the only disappointment of the cruise. 

Captain Arma is a charmer (hey, that almost rhymes!) and his announcements made us feel like this was a really special cruise (it was!) and we were just the best group of passengers to ever sail on the Star Princess. That was maybe an exaggeration (just maybe), but it was a really nice group of people. This cruise felt friction-less. It was wonderful. 

We liked it all so much that we booked six more cruises on the Star Princess (but it looks like we’ll be cancelling at least one of them…choices). I guess that kind of says it all. 

As for what’s up next…cruising-wise, nothing until October. And we have to make a choice in the next month about whether we’ll be returning to the Star Princess then or going with our original plans. Those people who book with non-refundable deposits over a year in advance? Yeah, we ain’t them. We don’t usually know until final payment date which direction we’ll be heading. 

In the meantime, we have a busy (and I mean busy) few months in store. A couple of trips in the next few weeks for conference and NCAA Regionals track championships (and then there’s still a chance of going to Nationals in June). I’m going to have to watch McGuy’s masters graduation via live stream next week (this body is tired, and I did make it to his undergraduate graduation last year).   And, the big news I just got the day we were in LA, McGee’s event time at the NCAA Regionals in Arkansas was finally published and -wonder of wonders-  he (and we) are (fingers crossed) going to be able to be there for the nighttime race and then catch a flight before 6am the next morning that will have us driving straight from the airport to the academy with just enough time for McGee to get into parade dress and march on the field for his graduation ceremony. 

We really thought he was going to have to miss his own graduation to compete at Regionals. Though we had been at his sister’s academy graduation four years ago, I was kinda pretty crushed at the thought. We all were. I predict I’ll be teary from march on through McGuy’s wedding vows in mid-June. So much joy.  It’s kind of…wonderful. 

Life is so good. :-)

Day 21: At Sea

I started this post early, just after 9am, as I sat in the Princess Arena awaiting the 10am Meet the Captain session. CD Dan Looney interviewed Captain Arma about his career, and about the Diamond COVID experience, and, as I expected, that was very interesting. Captain Arma mentioned that there are two guests on the current cruise who were on that fateful trip in 2020. We know Jeff and Desiree and their experience on the Diamond was also fascinating and challenging. I remember being on the Majestic in Australia at the time and cancelling a final cruise that was to end in Singapore and going home early. That cruise was cancelled just a few days into it in Fremantle. 

The day was largely gloomy, at times rainy and quite chilly, and I expected the ship to feel more people-y, with everyone forced inside, but it wasn’t bad. After the Meet the Captain session, I headed to the Piazza for the Teammate Farewell Parade, and after that met up with G in the Sanctuary Restaurant for lunch. I hadn’t eaten yet and it was good to actually feel hungry. I need to get used to that feeling!

One final soup pour of the cruise

I ran to the cabin to pack my suitcase while G held a seat for me in Princess Arena for Voice of the Ocean. Today was the first time it’s been held on the Star Princess and someone from the company that owns the brand in Holland was on board to help roll it out. Of course CD Dan hit it out of the park but all the contestants were fantastic. Bill from Liverpool had the audience in the palm of his hand from the opening notes of Mustang Sally, and won with 80% of the vote.

We were in The Dome to watch the Kentucky Derby, and that was huge fun. We finally broke open the bottle of Britto Prosecco that was in our cabin on embarkation day and shared it with those fellow guests sitting around us for the race. It was hugely exciting to watch Golden Tempo come from behind to win. 

And then it was time for our final dinner, and it was the exclamation point on a cruise of stellar dinners. What an experience this has been!  We will miss these people so much. 

Restaurant manager Ray arranged for special Filipino sweet rolls called ensaymadas to be prepared and they were the yummiest thing ever. Kind of a cross between a cheese danish and a brioche

We didn’t rush through our dinner. There was a variety show at 7pm, but we were more interested in watching sunset and the Silent Disco taking place in The Dome at 8pm. 

The inevitable result of silent disco!

We danced until about 9pm and called it a night. The alarm is set for 6am tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day. For the first time in years I will be sorry to be leaving a cruise, and  I have the beautiful Star Princess and its wonderful crew to thank for that.