We like sea days and usually use them to rest up after busy days in port. But we're well rested now, thank you, and looking forward to Antigua on Friday.
We should be packing a bit, starting to make our way through the massive amount of...STUFF we've accumulated in our cabin. I guess it's safe to assume that clothes I haven't worn yet won't be needed in the last 8 days. That I won't be flying the kite I brought but haven't flown once. That the pair of sandals I debated buying but finally did and have worn fewer than five times can be safely packed now.
But, the commencement of packing seems so premature. Most passengers on this ship just unpacked last night. We don't want to shortchange ourselves on this last cruise.
So...it's almost time to dress for formal night tonight, and the suitcases stayed stored under the bed all day. I guess I don't have to think about it again until tomorrow. ;-)
Instead, I was up early to do some business, and we've enjoyed breakfast and lunch in the dining room. We also went to a meet and greet of a group of fellow passengers who "meet" online and plan cruise activities together (photo 1). A fellow passenger we met there lives within sight of the cruise ships sailing up the Inside Passage to Alaska, and has us quite excited about the back to back cruises we have planned to that area in August. (It's always easiest to leave a cruise with another booked within the next six months). Our new cabin steward is one we've known since November. My dear, sweet husband always makes an effort to learn the names of cabin stewards who work in our same area and whom we pass frequently as we come and go from our cabin. He wouldn't think of passing one without greeting them by name and sharing a sentence or two. Well, Cristian's replacement is David from Mexico, who was just down the corridor from us and whose wife also works on the ship (we've met her, too). We returned to our cabin last night and everything was perfect, and this morning after he made up the room, he left me a towel rose on the bed (photo 2). I think we'll get along just fine for our final eight days.
Thanks to everyone who sent me the news articles on the big Noro outbreaks on two Princess sister ships. We just found out that the Crown Princess, which left Fort Lauderdale almost 7 hours late on Saturday night is turning around and returning two days early without having visited a single island. The Noro on the ship continues. The Crown and the other infected ship, the Ruby Princess, both used Terminal 2 at Port Everglades for their turnaround, as we did yesterday too. We made a special point of scrubbing up when we returned to our ship from immigration in the terminal yesterday.
We've been so lucky this year...so lucky but so careful too. We're almost at the end of our fourth bottle of Dial foaming complete hand soap. We wash our hands as soon as we enter our cabin and right before we leave. We wash again in a public restroom just before eating. I even made the huge sacrifice of filing back my fingernails, when a cruise is the only time I can successfully grow them long. I didn't want to take a chance.
I can't imagine what it would have done to our winter plans if the Emerald Princess had been similarly affected. We've been on "Noro cruises" before...a cruise isn't ruined by it but it is certainly impacted. A string of such cruises would have had us packing up and returning home early, I'm sure. It just wouldn't have been worth tolerating for cruise after cruise after cruise.
I'm keeping my fingers clean, and crossed for eight more days!!