What a day.!
I could not have imagined a more perfect day for Super Bowl Sunday than this one turned out to be. All day, we stuck to our original plan to stay on the ship, hang out at the Calypso (MUTS, big screen) pool and relax awaiting the start of the game. As I told G, some people do this every day of a cruise, never leaving the ship in port. Every. Single. Day. While that might be a bit of overkill, spending the entire day poolside, for only the second time in 89 days (the other being the day of the AFC Championship game) felt just right.
When I awoke around 7:00am, G had already left the cabin, claiming and possessing two chairs of his choice next to the Calypso Pool for Super Bowl viewing on MUTS. Thankfully, the day looked like it would be just partly cloudy with hot sun. My fear had been that we would have to deal with intermittent showers which would have forced us into watching the game in one of the inside venues, most likely Club Fusion as the casino would be too smoky. That turned out not to be the case at all.
I dressed in swimsuit and coverup (the cruise equivalent of jammies) and joined G poolside. We took turns getting breakfast from the buffet and bringing it out to where we were sitting. While it was initially pretty deserted around the pool, that soon changed, and we could see entire rows of chairs on the upper levels reserved, no doubt for Super Bowl watching. Not quite our style; we had decided that one or the other- usually both- of us would be in our chairs until game time.
The movie How to Marry a Millionaire came on MUTS at 10:00am, and the audio was alternately too loud and not loud enough. The sun was shining in such a way that the screen wasn't even visible. I gave up on the movie, and plugged in my ear buds and sat on the wide, tiled overspill skirt of the pool, staying cool in an inch of water and enjoying the sun.
When the ship docked at 1:00pm, the MUTS pool area instantly emptied out as most people rushed to the beach located right next to the cruise ship pier. Nature videos accompanied by music were shown on MUTS until the movie The Devil Wears Prada came on at 3:00. By this time, the sun was right, as was the sound, and I enjoyed watching the movie for the eleventy hundredth time. By the end of it, things had picked up again around the pool, with more and more people showing up to claim loungers for the game.
G napped throughout the afternoon, and every so often, one of us would get veggies and dip from the buffet, or cookies or a slice of pizza. It's true that we were missing all the lead up to the game that we would have seen at home...but we were also poolside in the Caribbean sun with a long expanse of beach next to the ship.
Finally, one at a time, we showered and changed into shorts and tshirts. While it's possible to use the two hot tubs in the Calypso Pool area in the evening, the swimming pool is netted off about 6:00pm. Once the ship sailed at 7:00pm, and the breeze across the deck picked up, we were much happier in dry clothes and having washed off the day's accumulation of sunscreen.
I was in tears from the second the announcers said Newtown, Connecticut until the final note of the national anthem. But never mind: that's just me.
While y'all were watching clever and expensive commercials, on the international satellite feed the ship was receiving we were treated to commercials for the Roland Garros tennis tournament in Paris; West Indies Cricket; Scotland v. Italy rugby; ICC Womens World Cup cricket in India (G turned to me and said he was rooting for Sri Lanka); and, my personal favorite, Tottenham v. Newcastle soccer.
Call me crazy, but I just can't figure out the value of the water features on the new Royal Princess. There are going to be water shows at night on the pool deck, with fountains of water spraying up out of the pool. Tonight was a relatively warm night after a very hot day, with just a gentle breeze. Still, as soon as the Emerald Princess left port, the pool water started sloshing back and forth, every so often sending up a low spray that was immediately chilly. They're going to have to issue rain gear for Royal Princess passengers who want to linger on the upper decks during the water shows.
Let's hope it proves me wrong.
Of course, we had cancelled our table in the dining room for dinner tonight. The Cafe Caribe buffet featured Indian food tonight (not G 's favorite), and there were no food tables by the pool serving hot wings, mini hot dogs, etc. as there were last year, so our dinner was just more pizza. And ice cream. Not our healthiest eating day, and we'll have to make up for that tomorrow. Salmon and broccoli. No, scratch that. We're out of broccoli. Salmon and spinach. And strawberries. And Zumba. And line dancing. It's payback time!
Photo 1: Grand Turk with Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville to the left of the pier
Photo 2: Margaritaville and the Grand Turk Cruise Center
Photo 3: more beach to the north
Photo 4: tonight's sunset
Photo 5: Super Bowl XLVII on MUTS
Photo 6: staying warm on deck