After breakfast, G and I went to Zumba. Yes, you read that right. G did Zumba! (Did you feel the earth shift on its axis about 9:15 this morning?). He did great! Martha was there too, but across Club Fusion, so we didn't see her until we were done.
Martha and I stayed for line dancing with Leesh as G checked out the $10 Bijou Turner sale. He sure enjoys that sale and the "garage sale" of off season tshirts that's held later in the cruise. He now owns five Princess Baltic t-shirts- a cruise he's never done. But for less than $5 each, who cares if the ship's laundry eats them up...and the laundry seems to be hungry lately (hoping my undies hold together until we return home!). A few cruises ago, that sale on one of the last days of the cruise, featured St. Kitts t-shirts for $1.99. Within hours I must have seen 25 people walking around the ship wearing that shirt. Cheaper than laundry!
After line dancing, Martha and I took a walk for a lap on the Promenade Deck, just to cool off. It was still grey and gloomy...definitely not yet a pool deck day! We all met up for lunch in the dining room (the problem with all the exercise is that it leaves me starved), and then went our separate ways until 3:00pm, when Martha, G and I went to Frenchie's second French class in the Adagio Lounge. She is really priceless; such a comedian.
The thermostat in the Adagio, however, was set at just above freezing, and we left there and went right to the buffet, where we had tea. And scones. And cookies. 'Cause we still had nearly two hours until dinner. We're picking up some very bad habits. I blame Martha and Betsy for corrupting us. ;-)
We had to carefully plan our evening. We wanted to see the production show What a Swell Party and pianoman Antonio Salci AND listen to band Sol Provider. In order to fit it all in, we had to skip the Elite lounge in Skywalkers, go to dinner at 5:30pm, be at the production show in the Princess Theater at 7:15pm and then pray for seats to still be available after that for Antonio Salci's 8:00pm show in the Explorers Lounge. Amazingly, it all went according to plan.
Martha and Betsy enjoyed What a Swell Party immensely (you know, it really is impressive. If only it was the music of Elton John and Billy Joel...oh wait, they've already done and retired that show). The set is so detailed and the costumes just beautiful.
Antonio Salci backed again by the Emerald Princess orchestra was so energetic and entertaining. As I've said before, we are partial to being entertained by musicians, and in Antonio's show there were eight of them, then another five in the band Sol Provider. Whenever I take a moment to think about having the opportunity to listen to this sort of live entertainment nearly every night of our winter, I am truly amazed.
Martha was able to meet Sol Provider singers Rhonda and Nancy. They have beautiful voices, and everyone we've talked with loves this band. The real proof is that their audiences are always peppered with the cruisers who are on for multiple cruises. We never tire of listening to them.
And, finally, we received our invitation today for the Chef's Table, a special dinner that begins in the working galley and is specially prepared for us by the executive chef and hosted by the maitre d'. At $95 per person, it's not something we've ever done before, but we wanted to enjoy it with Betsy and Martha on board. We've been looking forward to it all winter. But as soon as I saw the invitation...run roh. It is being held tomorrow night and conflicts with this cruise's Most Traveled Passenger party, which is G's favorite thing on the entire cruise. Oh well, Chef's Table we do one time: I have a feeling we have several more Most Traveled Passenger parties in our future.
Tomorrow: our plan is to do the Segway tour again in Antigua. Pray for us.
Photos 1-3: production show What a Swell Party
Photo 4: Antonio Salci backed by the Emerald Princess orchestra
Photo 5: band Sol Provider plays in Club Fusion
