We awoke at a respectable hour (7:30ish) and G headed out of the cabin before I did. I made my usual International Cafe stop for brewed decaf and joined him at our usual breakfast table. We're keeping it simple on these sea days...fruit and cereal. We know that a good lunch is only a few hours away.
I continue to be a fanatic about where or from whom I get my decaf coffee; I either order a specialty coffee where I can be certain I'm getting decaf or I get my own brewed decaf at the IC or I get coffee from Komang or Darko. Earlier this winter, we spotted a waiter and the assistant waiter pouring "decaf" from two different pots, and I simply can't take that chance. So far my persistence has paid off, and I've had no issues.
After breakfast, we made our usual trip up the midship elevators to the Calypso Bar near the MUTS pool, one of the few bars open that early in the morning. This serves a dual purpose: it allows me to get a fuzzy water for that 9am pill taking activity, and places us at the starboard entrance to the Horizon Court Buffet where the cruise navigational map is posted. We saw land off one side of the ship or the other several times throughout the day; I think we were past the Bahamas and into the Turks and Caicos islands.
G and I sat out on the Terrace Deck for a few minutes just soaking up the warm Caribbean sun. For some reason, we seem to be entering a deeper plane of relaxation this cruise, and I'm loving it. My husband is not one to sit and hold my hand and be contemplative, so these short moments are meant to be savored.
Back in our cabin, we attended to that 9am pill taking activity (a bit late today) and went up to Skywalkers for this cruise's Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. I hadn't been very active in the roll call, for obvious reasons, and was anxious to connect with a few people we've cruised with in prior years but also to check on meeting place and time for an upcoming excursion. (Yes. You read that right. I'm doing an excursion!) It has been such a thrill to meet people who recognize G from this blog, and then connect the dots to me. I still cannot believe that people are interested in my daily ramblings, which, as you know, are often GPS-worthy. Or, to paraphrase favorite show Seinfeld, this is truly just a blog about nothing, but it does take place on a cruise ship.
Anyway, back to the Meet and Greet...Captain Nick has been a star about trying to make it to as many as he can, as has cruise director JJ and deputy cruise director Adam and. Maitre d' Generoso. Today's turn out was surprising large, especially considering that it was held at 10am in a morning after clocks were moved forward.
By then it was time for lunch, and we wanted to go right at noon to try to get a table in Darko's section. And his assistant was no other than...Somphong from Thailand, our junior waiter from last winter. And G said it best: "This feels so strange", kind of a melding of last winter and this winter. Strange, but good. We both had our favorite veggie burritos and I also had Thai hot and and sour soup, and it has been transformed since several cruises ago. Spicier and better...I wonder if someone from Thailand is preparing it now. And this incents me to add again, that every single cruise, even on the same ship and with the same itinerary, is different. The food changes, the entertainment changes, the policies change. While I used to notice this even when we were simply doing two 10-night cruises in a row, it's glaringly obvious now.
The afternoon was occupied first by walking on Deck 19 (and I have been so chilly in the ship's AC that the hot sun felt divine), and then sitting in a hot tub on the back of Deck 17. We went to the 4pm party in the Princess Theater for Gold and Ruby members of the Captains Circle, simply because we love the live music and the singers performing songs from production show Motor City, and Captain Nick's update about what to expect in the ports. He said again today that we had had really horrid weather for a long while (and every time he says that I want to say "Amen!") but that the weather for this cruise was looking good. Yay! But, back to the singers...it was immediately obvious to us that singer Janeta Jackson was absent today, and G thought Brent Bel sounded different. Interesting...we wondered what was going to happen for tonight's performance of I Got the Music.
Well, after a wonderful Dinner with Darko, we found out. Company performance manager (and dancer) Astrid was filling in for Janeta, and the dancers were choreographed differently to accommodate the change. It reminded me of that children's magazine Highlights, where two drawings would be shown and readers had to identify the number of changes. Well, that was what tonight's show was like for us. We loved it, because it was different, but were so impressed by how seamless it all was. A new viewer would not have noticed anything out of place. Then, while singing, Brent Bel sneezed/coughed just once, and G turned to me and said, "I told you so". But, the show must go on, and it did, beautifully.
Astrid performing in Janeta's role:
We walked out of the Princess Theater and into the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall in the Piazza. Several glasses of champagne later, we went to the Explorers Lounge for mentalist Brett Webb's 8pm show. As much as I abhor hypnotist shows, I'm kinda liking mentalist shows. They drive G nuts, and that's not a surprise, as he cannot figure out how it's done, and that would be a major irritant to him. But I love the wonder of it all, and so was highly entertained by Brett's show. He's also going to be doing some performances on the USA Network, so he must be one of the more entertaining of the genre.
We've set an alarm again for tomorrow morning; there's a lot we want to try to do tomorrow in St. Thomas. Whether we actually get up at 6am to start usng 4G Internet remains to be seen, but we want to have our business completed early and still have time for some fun.
And, finally...
Two ship notes: First, there is a team of guys from Poland on board, stringing cable through the ceiling to provide more reliable wifi to all the ship's areas. Notice I didn't say faster, just more reliable. They're keeping the cabin stewards busy vacuuming up all the flotsam and jetsam that falls out of the ceiling and into the corridors.
Second, our deck (Riviera) got brand new pillows yesterday. The stewards were dragging big boxes of them down the corridors. Raymond gave us each two new ones (very exciting), but left two of the old ones I was using in case I still needed them. (The previous pillows were so sad and flat that I used four of them). Now I have quite a tower thing going on; I think I can return the old pillows back to Raymond.
New pillows, better wifi and singer stand-ins...will I be able to sleep tonight from the excitement of it all? ;-)