Prepared Thursday evening, February 6th
We were up early, made our run to the International Cafe for brewed coffee and then to the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast with Paul from the Philippines and Ahmed from Indonesia. They've been our breakfast wait team all cruise long, because the hostess Mihaela from Romania always seats us at the same table by a window. However, we know to expect changes tomorrow...the waiters' breakfast and lunch duties seem to get rotated every cruise.
We wanted to be on one of the first tenders over to Princess Cays this morning, and so we packed quickly and caught a tender over, but apparently it wasn't the first or second one; our favorite loungers in the shade must be someone else's favorite loungers in the shade too, and were already taken. This put us in the sun all day, so we slathered on the sunscreen, plopped our Tilley hats on our heads and enjoyed the gorgeously sunny day.
Almost immediately I went into the water to snorkel around the feeding pavilion. I wanted to get some good photos before they had lots legs in them. My original Lifeproof case is still going strong; it takes snorkel photos one minute, gets dropped in the sand another, and then follows me out with my float so I can listen to an audiobook and enjoy the water at the same time. It's a winner.
The water was clear and didn't feel as chilly as I'd expected it would (on a later trip into the water, I took our thermometer; it was only 80F!), and the snorkeling, though limited by the fact that this was Princess Cays (so there's almost no coral), featured lots of hungry fish.
I love the fish staring at me in this one:
The tide was so low it made finding the little spit of beach in front of the bungalows a bit difficult. I overshot it, and then walked back along the rocky ocean floor that would typically be under water. I had a huge step up to get to the bottom stair of the steps that lead out of the water there. If I had snorkeled a second time, I would have just gone out around the pavilion and then come back in the same way I'd entered the water.
After that, the day fell into a comfortable pattern: sun, listen to an audiobook, float in the water while listening to an audiobook, eat grilled chicken breast, feed burger buns to the sandpipers, eat fruit, repeat. Finally, by 2pm, we both decided we were done jussssttttt riiiiigggghhhhttttt and didn't need a lot more sun, sunscreen or not. We walked back to the tender dock and enjoyed just a smidge more sun while sitting on the upper deck on the way back to the Emerald Princess.
Instead of our usual dash to a hot tub, G had another idea today. We both got showered and then met up on the Promenade Deck on the island (port) side of the ship while the last of the tenders was hauled up. G was carrying a bottle of Barefoot Bubbly and two plastic stemmed glasses. And there we sat, toasting 99 safe and wonderful days at sea. We had commented earlier today that, not only are we not on a first name basis with the ship's doctor this year, we don't even know who the ship's doctor is. We also don't know the Princess-contracted dentist in Fort Lauderdale, nor her favorite endodontist, nor do we have any BFFs at the AT&T or Apple stores. In fact, we have not had anything worse happen all winter than colds (two each). No Code Red norovirus, no damaging slips and falls, a Nest thermostat that works perfectly, security webcams we can access from the ship, clothes that still fit perfectly...it's all been good and easy and relaxed this year. Maybe we're slow learners and it's simply taken us four winters to know how to live on a ship, or maybe the planets have aligned for us this year. Or maybe Mom's novenas are being heard. Whatever the reason, we are thrilled.
Insert deep sigh of relief HERE.
And so we sailed down and around the southern tip of Eleuthera, and started back up its eastern coast, toasting our good luck over and over and over again, so that by the time we arrived at Dinner with Darko, we were all smiles and he knew why.
That now-familiar southern end of Eleuthera:
You have to look closely or zoom in...it's not my imagination. It IS a bit of an uphill climb on the hike back to Princess Cays:
A surprise...the old flag-inspired uniforms made an appearance tonight at dinner for the first time in years (modeled by Darko):
Because the ship stayed on AST time today, and the Bahamas are actually in EST, sunset was late, at 6:51pm. Which leads to another observation: from a tradewinds and general weather perspective coupled with the fact that the days are getting longer, these February and March cruises really are our favorites of the winter. We went out on the Promenade Deck again, this time to watch the beautiful sunset over the 110-mile long Island of Eleuthera.
Tonight's entertainment in the Princess Theater was a show called Souled Out by vocalist Kyle Kennedy. We'd never seen his show before, but soon found out why: it was his first solo show on a cruise ship, though he'd been a production show singer for ten years. Well, imagine our surprise when soul singer Kyle Kennedy turned out to be a white boy not from Detroit, not from Memphis but from Overland Park, KS. And, wow, could he sing soul, and backed by the Emerald Princess orchestra, it turned out to be the best entertainment we've seen since pianist Ryan Ahern. (It also helps that classical, Soul and Motown are my favorite music genres). Kyle received a standing ovation for his first solo cruise ship show ever. G decided to return for his 8:45pm show, but I chose instead the excitement of doing two loads of laundry. Kyle Kennedy's singing is magical, but so is having all our clothes except those we're wearing clean at the same time.
And so, I'm sitting in the laundry room as I finish this post, as excited about cruising today as I was when I first stepped on a ship 100 days ago. We are ready to continue; please keep your fingers crossed that good fortune continues to sail along with us.
Life is good. :-)