We got coffee from the International Cafe but skipped breakfast; lunch was served starting at 11:30am, and so we held out for it. The day was perfect: sunny, hot, and breezy, but not too. But we had no plans for the day. We can get wifi in St. Lucia that meets four of the five criteria for Caribbean wifi: free, cool, quiet and shaded, and, if not fast, not as slow as on the ship, from a friend who manages a store in Pointe Seraphine, and so we walked off the ship with that as our only goal.
Honestly, to use wifi without a meter running is one of my greatest joys at this point. I was getting quite behind in answering emails from blog readers (please forgive) and so tended to those first, and then happily read article after article on tomorrow's Super Bowl and finally called Mom (for free; get the app!) using Vonage. Her garage door has called it quits (after only 53 years of service!) and she is quite house bound until it gets replaced, so the ability to phone her over the Internet is invaluable.
What would we do without technology?!?
Still, it wasn't perfect. I didn't realize, until I was without 24/7 Internet, how much society just expects us to have it now. I managed to renew the audiobook I had been listening to when it expired three days ago, but was forced to first delete it off my iPhone (because it had expired) and then download the book again, which would have been a quick and brainless activity at home, but took over an hour using today's wifi, and draining my phone battery to 3%. We may need to consider a trip to the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale on a turnaround day, just to use the really high speed wifi available outside the Apple Store. G is making noises about purchasing more TV shows from iTunes to watch on our cabin TV. The HDMI cable has transformed our evenings after we return to our cabin. Chief Engineer Roddy, when he was telling the audience at his technology lecture Thursday that, while he is responsible for ensuring we get programming on our cabin TVs, he is definitely NOT responsible for the content, and asked facetiously "How many times can you watch Notting Hill?" And G and I looked at each other and whispered "14 so far this winter". Well, I think it's safe to say there will be no more Notting Hills in our future. Nor Love Boats nor The Offices nor 2 Broke Girls (I cannot believe that show actually made it). Sure, we're still watching the same shows over and over, but they're OUR shows, from my laptop, and we're not sick of them. Yet.
Internet, plus drinking a beer in the beer garden at Pointe Seraphine, is all we did today. We walked back on the ship when our iPhone batteries were drained, about 4:30pm, and skipped the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers tonight. Sailaway was not until 6pm, and we needed to be at dinner and not in Skywalkers by then anyway. Especially now...starting this cruise, only the featured drnk of the day can be purchased for $5; all others are their regular prices. That's a little more profit than perk, especially as I only drink Breeza Marinas. Bummer.
Instead we went to the Michelangelo Dining Room for Dinner with Darko. The dining room was much less busy tonight; now that days are filled with island activities, some people are more inclined to use the Horizon Court Buffet for dinners. It still surprises us how different sailaways are than when we were in St. Lucia only three weeks ago. Just as with Antigua yesterday, sunset occurred after we sailed...
As seen through our dining room window
...and from our dinner table, we could see St. Lucia's Pitons in the distance. THAT was exciting!
We both ordered steak fajitas for dinner; sometimes we just want to eat the way we do at home (though chicken fajitas, not beef, are the norm there). They were quite delicious, and that was really all we wanted tonight. It wasn't as if we'd been very active today. We also wanted to be done and in the Princess Theater in time for the 7:15pm show, a performance by vocalist Bobbie Eakes.
Now, some people apparently knew who she was; she's acted on soap operas and was in a girl band in the 1980s. I've never seen a soap opera (Dallas and Dynasty don't count. We ALL watched those!), so I had never heard of her, but, wow, could she sing!! It was a most enjoyable 35 minutes, which was good, as she was the only featured entertainer tonight. Music and dancing was offered in the Explorers Lounge. And Club Fusion. And the Wheelhouse Bar.
Note to self: Learn to dance.
Tomorrow night, I don't care what the entertainment offerings are. Only one thing matters. I may not write a blog post tomorrow night; it may be a bye day for me. ;-) We're camping out all day by the Calypso Pool (the big screen), so I'll have nothing to report, and I'll either be celebrating or crushed at the end of the day. It's hard to remember how excited I was just two weeks ago when the Broncos won the AFC Championship, because now I want more. So. much. more.
My stomach hurts.
But, two items of note before I end tonight:
The Crab Shack is going to be offered three times each cruise in the Cafe Caribe for $20 per person. I think this is pretty reliable information; it comes right from Darko's roommate Georrrrrgggggyyy (that's George with lots of extra consonants) from Macedonia, who has been moved up there as a waiter.
And the Emerald Princess will start offering unlimited drink packages next cruise for $49 per person per day. I'm not surprised by this -I knew it was being trialed on other ships- but don't it as gospel until it's reality. We know all too well that these things change fast and frequently at sea.