Unsurprisingly (Captain Nick had warned us while remaining hopeful that things might work out differently), the Emerald Princess was docked at the freight pier in St. Lucia today. I knew this for certain before I even got out of bed, because when I turned on our TV to the "front of the ship" channel, I was thrilled to see that the Emerald Princess was docked stern in first, with its bow facing out to Castries harbor, but I could see the P&O Ventura spinning into place to the right of the screen, which meant they got the good dock at Pointe Seraphine. Oh well...my only plan for the day was to practice relaxing in the Sanctuary, and, since Internet had returned to the Emerald Princess last evening, I didn't even need to leave the ship for that.
The P&O Ventura at the "good" dock at Pointe Seraphine.
But wasn't St. Lucia looking beautiful this morning?
G was already off the ship (he just HAS to do that, even if he just walks around the pier area) and back on board having breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room by the time I made an appearance. We had a leisurely breakfast,,,(my usual orange segments, mixed berries, scrambled egg beaters, fresh salsa and, of course, waiter Alvin found me to make sure I received my Christmas stollen. I will miss that when it's gone!
After breakfast, I returned to the cabin for that 9am pill taking activity, and then gathered up what I'd need for a morning in the Sanctuary but also my Sally Hansen Complete Manicure nail polish in Gold Rush, a bottle of pure acetone and a handful of scratchy cotton pads. These last things I delivered to an officer who will remain unnamed for purposes of my blog, but who gets to wear civvies, including nail polish, on Christmas Day. My nails have caused no end of excitement among (mostly) the young, female members of the ship's company. Really, if they knew I wore glitter polish just because it doesn't need to be applied perfectly and I can do it myself, because it wears like iron and lasts at least one cruise, and this particular polish because it was on sale at CVS, they'd be far less impressed.
That duty completed, I made my way up to the Sanctuary, which, for the first time this cruise, was NOT windy. However, as I Komang, a serenity steward, informed me as he was picking up sodden towels off loungers, it had just minutes earlier been raining "cats and dogs" (I love it that the crew knows English euphemisms). Luckily, he had already prepared my lounger with dry towels, so I sat down, ordered a cucumber water, and immediately noticed a third cruise ship, the Horizon from the Croisieres de France cruise line making its way into Castries harbor. St. Lucia was really packing them in today! I believe the Horizon is the old Celebrity Horizon, especially since, not only did they not rename the ship, the name Horizon appears in the same block white letters on the bow that Celebrity still uses on its ships.
I can imagine that the bridge officers on the P&O Ventura were hanging out on their bridge wings watching closely as the Horizon squeezed in behind it. It must be a bit like when you return to your car to find that someone is parking too closely in the spot next to yours and you pointedly stand there and watch and silently dare them to even touch your car.
Three cruise ships in St. Lucia and intermittent rain showers moving through...it was a good day to stay on the ship and a better day to sit in the Sanctuary.
And so I sat in the Sancturary relaxing as noise bled through from the movie A Christmas Carol (Jim Carrey version) on the big screen (MUTS), occasionally drowned out by the sound of forklifts on the freight dock, and I was forced to wonder when, WHEN in the Sanctuary are we going to experience the glorious wind-free, sunny days filled with New Age spa sounds and my fellow beautiful and well-toned passengers moving in smiling slow motion up there; you know, the way it is in the Princess marketing videos. Because, although it's very nice, and certainly a respite from all the activity on the open pool decks during this busy cruise, it's been either windy and/or rainy and/or cold and/or noisy. In fact, right at this moment I was hearing, simultaneously, the movie, the beep beep beep of a forklift backing up and a police siren. Oh, and then a truck horn honking incessantly. An oasis of tranquility it was not.
Finally I started to get hungry, and since G wasn't showing up to spring me, I checked myself out and returned to the cabin, where I found him engrossed in the movie Jobs. Now, when it comes to movies, we are generally the only people in the English speaking world who haven't seen any particular one, and Jobs is no different. I entered the cabin during the turbulent John Sculley years and stayed until the end of the movie, and so still need to see the first 75% of it (no problem, that...it's cruise TV, and I'll be able to see it the rest of the evening and all day on Day 5 of next cruise.)
By the time the movie had ended, we were both starved and so opted for (no surprise) pizza. You know, I never, ever had pizza on a cruise ship until Princess discontinued serving lunch in the dining room on port days, and now it's our choice at least half the time. I backed mine up with a small salad from the buffet, but didn't want to eat too much...I needed to save room for tea served in the Sanctuary!
Finally, G escorted me back to the Sanctuary and then went on his way to do whatever. And I continued to enjoy lounging in the shade but with sun on my legs (that "tanned is thinner" theory) and, once I plugged in my ear buds and continued to listen to an audiobook (Paris in Love by Eloisa James) to drown out the noise bleed of the Bon Jovi concert on MUTS, it turned into a really gorgeous afternoon in the Sanctuary. Tea was served promptly at 3:45pm and that has become one of my favorite parts of the Sanctuary experience.
Served by I Komang from Indonesia
And, speaking of Christmas movies (we were, weren't we, several paragraphs ago?), in the interest of accurate Christmas reporting, in addition to Jim Carrey's A Christmas Carol shown at 10am on MUTS, Christmas with the Kranks was shown at 1pm in the Princess Theater, and Scrooge (from 1970) was shown at 4:15pm and 6:15pm on MUTS. Also shown on MUTS: Monday Night Football, the 49ers v. the Falcons at 9:30.
At 4:30pm, I left my sanctuary in the Sanctuary and returned to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We weren't sailing until 6pm and so there was no compelling reason to go up to Skywalkers for the Elite Lounge (and I'm starting to think that we'll be skipping it a lot next winter on the Royal Princess when it's held in view-less Club 6). Instead we just went straight down to dinner.
At dinner with Darko, we held it to just an entree (orange roughy for me) and dessert (vodka lime sorbet, one of my favorites). We didn't want to fill up too much...the cruise's Most Traveled Party (MTP) was held tonight in Adagio, and we wanted to save room for what turned out (for me) to be three Breeza Marinas and great conversation with the Chief Engineer's wife who came on board yesterday.
Desserts from the MTP party
Once again, we closed out the party, and then returned to our cabin after procuring fuzzy water and popcorn. There is so much going on tonight: tropical deck party, football on MUTS, but we've chosen to watch Jobs from the beginning on our cabin TV, and it just started again at 9:40pm.
Arrival tomorrow in Barbados is early- 7am- and our current plan is for a beach day. Captain Nick warned that tonight could be bouncy again, but, really, this is NOTHING compared to what we've had recently. I predict good sleep and, hopefully, a wonderful Christmas Eve day on Barbados.