I know that, by my own definition, sea days are largely 'photo-free' zones on this blog, but I was up early today and uploaded a few from yesterday that I believed to be blog-worthy. ;-)
It's possible that Princess' 50th anniversary flag made an earlier appearance, but yesterday morning was the first time we'd noticed it. The 50th anniversary celebrations started last month and will continue through 2015.
G captured this photo of the Pacific Princess pool area at sunrise yesterday. I thought the lighting made this one blog-worthy whereas most of my ship photos are not.
And, on to today...
Even G slept past 6am this morning, a notable accomplishment. I awoke a few minutes before he did and uploaded the photos above, and together we went to breakfast in the Club Restaurant. It's a busy day on board for all departments, but especially for the dining department. First was the culinary demonstration in the Cabaret Lounge at 10am followed by a galley tour. Then there was a Most Traveled Passengers (MTP) luncheon in Sabatinis at noon, and finally the Grapevine Wine Tasting at 3pm (in addition to the normal eleventy meals plus formal tea served every day). The Club Restaurant was already set up for the wine tasting at 8am this morning to fit everything in.
We were excited to see, in today's Patter, that Princess 50th Anniversary items would go on sale in the boutiques on board at 9:30am. Well, it was also "garage sale" day, where off-season (mostly Alaska, in this case) items are sold at discount. We managed to maneuver our way into a boutique (no small feat), but the only 50th anniversary items we found were bars of chocolate, and the boutiques staff was overwhelmed ringing up the sale of Alaskan smoked salmon and t-shirts. We'll choose a better time to inquire, but are certainly interested in purchasing a 50th anniversary polo shirt for G (if they exist).
We received an invitation to the MTP luncheon (and the fact that we even had one implies there were at least 40 Elite passengers on board this cruise. We later found out cutoff was 205 days with Princess). Lunch was (as it usually is) wonderful, and since I've already exceeded my usual sea day photo submission, I'll simply list the menu below:
Starter: Hawaiian Pearls- marinated lobster and sea scallops with pineapple papaya salpicon (like a pico de gallo made with fruit for those of us who don't use the term 'salpicon' in every day speech)
Entrees: Broiled Sea Bass- served with roasted pumpkin, asparagus spears and sundried cherry tomatoes OR Beef Tenderloin- roasted potatoes, mushrooms and spinach, served with Marsala sauce OR Vegetarian- assorted roast vegetables and blackened tofu served with sweet Thai chili sauce (I had the sea bass; G had the beef tenderloins)
Dessert: Hazelnet Parfait with salt caramel soft center served on a plate sized thin crisp cookie wafer, and Petit Fours (aka in the rest of the world as cookies)
Yum (insert exclamation point photo from above here for emphasis)
We were seated with new captain Mario Ciruzzi, who has his wife and two young boys with him through the holidays. We had not previously met Captain Ceruzzi, and it was nice to get the opportunity to do that in the pseudo-relaxed setting of an MTP luncheon (pseudo because we all sit there and pretend this is something we do every day, which, clearly, it isn't, and a bit of best behavior and reserve is called for, never my strong suit. I could eventually be myself with Captain Maresca, but, in general, I'm much safer with a coupon for dinner in a specialty restaurant for G and I). Captain Ceruzzi certainly did his part, and was a very warm and gracious host.
By 1:30pm, I was ready for a nap, which wine with lunch, a sugary dessert and 90 minutes in a pseudo-relaxed social setting will do to a person (at least it does to me). But there is no rest for the weary...I was immediately off to Douglas Pearson's lecture on the Southern Cross and the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. From there I should have gone to wine tasting, but help me. I just couldn't face another drop of alcohol today. Luckily, our obligations for the day were then complete: all that remained was to go to the Elite Lounge for...well, not for alcohol, that's for sure, but there's always room for shrimp cocktails as an hors doerve (hor doerve?), and then to dinner with Jose and Justin.
The entertainment tonight was comedian Tony Daro, who is quite good but, unlike musicians, comedians are a one-time entertainment form for us. That's ok...starting this cruise we have a different Christmas movie shown on our cabin TVs every day (and five different fireplace channels with Christmas music), and we haven't even begun to tap into the plethora of videos we have stored on our iPhones.
We'll be docked (yay!) in Raiatea tomorrow and I can tell you exactly what I won't be doing: climbing Mt. Tapioi. I've done my duty on that note, and there is a beach on Motu Otefaro with my name written in the sand. G said that the local guy on Rangiroa, picnicking on the beach with his family yesterday, told him in halting English that "your vahine (wife/woman) likes the water" as he watched me snorkel endlessly around the coral heads, completely content. Yes, I am a pescado amarillo, and fishes are happiest with their heads (and, in my case hips) underwater.