Yikes! It is 11:45pm as I type the first word of this post. You know what that means...we had a wonderful day on the Caribbean Princess.
We were up today by 8:30am. Go us! We watched the movie The Hundred Foot Journey last night on MUTS (really good) and then G went back out for some more live music, but I called it a night by midnight. Still, I lay about in bed this morning, not needing to rush out for anything. G wanted to check out the garage sale (of course), but I lingered over a shower and then went down to the IC for a coffee. G caught up with me there, eager to show off his new purchases (once again, he bought grey t-shirts with the itineraries of these cruises on their backs. He is a walking Princess brochure!).
A few comments about on board credits (OBCs) under the "new" system (I was reminded of them by G's t-shirt purchases). I hesitated mentioning anything about them until we had three different ships worth of experiences. And now we have, and they've all been handled the same, so I think I'm safe in saying that this is the way OBCs are being handled now...
FCC, CCL and special promotional OBCs have not been refundable on any of our cruises. However, we have had no trouble with the OBCs rolling over from one cruise to the next when we are booked on back to back cruises. So if we have wanted to "save up" our OBCs to be applied against a larger purchase on a later, consecutive cruise, we've been able to.
Military and Captains Circle OBCs have been fully refundable on all our cruises (we used that US currency in French Polynesia for extra tips for the crew, and it came in very handy).
By the time we pay tips and purchase at least one soda sticker and perhaps a bottle or two of wine or some extra Internet or G buys another several t-shirts at the garage sale (because the 217 he has at home are simply not enough), we've generally used up our OBC, and I can't comment on the ability to get cash from the casino.
Also, because it doesn't fit in anywhere else, I'll add here that the cutoff for the MTP cocktail party was 390 days this cruise. On a 7-night cruise. Amazing. I bet it's running nearly 500 days on the 10-night Royal Princess cruises!
The weather today was sunny, but still windy. The deck chairs in the sun were filled but those in the shade of Skywalkers on the back of the ship were largely empty. I just yesterday received an email from my dermatologist with some results and a warning to "wear sunscreen", so I am not going to be consciously working on my tan at all on these cruises (which frees up lots of time for other fun activities).
It another "opposite" move, G went to the EFFY jewelry show on board this morning and snagged two rum punches. He brought one to me in the IC, and they amazingly packed a punch on an empty stomach. No, he didn't gift me with any jewelry purchases for Valentines Day. I guess he figures that four months on a cruise ship is proof positive of his undying love (for cruising, certainly, but for me, too). ;-)
We went to the Coral Dining Room for lunch at noon, and I had my favorite grilled chicken salad with candied walnuts and honey mustard dressing. We just yesterday became aware, from the Caribbean Princess Future Cruise Consultant, that the Royal Princess dry dock, originally scheduled February 2016, has been postponed, and, instead, two cruises, a 7-night Eastern Caribbean and a 7-night Western Caribbean, on February 8 and 15, 2016, respectively, were substituted in its place. Well, this news caused us to wonder just what the heck we have booked for next winter, and whether or not we were too late to get our same Royal Princess cabin for those two cruises. Luckily, we were not. We spent our lunch getting straight on what we needed to do and I went from there to the FCC desk to book those two newly added cruises. We're not one bit certain of our plans for next winter, but it is a safe bet that we'll be cruising on Princess in the Caribbean at some point, so it's nice to have the option of remaining in the same cabin for the entire winter season.
G left to attend this cruise's veterans get together and I went up to Skywalkers, wondering if there was still space available at the 1:30pm steel drum lessons. The Caribbean Princess' steel drum musician (and teacher) Wilson Jean-Baptiste, formerly of Haiti but now from Florida, told me there was, so I stuck around and, with others, learned the G scale on the G scale drum, plus three chords and then, the pièce de resistance, "When the Saints Go Marching In". Mom, you'll be happy to know that those years of piano lessons definitely paid off, and I was placed in the lead group. Go me! In the end, it was tremendous fun, and really quite easy (having steel drums with the notes marked on them definitely helped), and, at the end, Wilson played "What a Wonderful World" for us on his much larger tenor drum with no notes marked on it.
I can't wait to do this again next cruise, too. :-)
The Grapevine Wine Tasting for this cruise was held at 3pm. G pulled himself out of a hot tub just in time to attend with me. We had thought, when we woke up this morning, that we had already missed it this cruise, and it took some hunting through the paperwork in our cabin to find the invitation that told us we hadn't, and that it was going to be held this afternoon. We can barely keep up the pace this cruise! We had five wines, some familiar but a couple not: Beringer White Zinfandel; Chateau de Chaintre Chardonnay; Côtes du Rhone Red Rhone Blends (a wonderful red); Estancia Pinot Noir; and, of course, Errazuriz Late Harvest Sauvingnin Blanc. We must have been seated at the designated "Ohio" table, as everyone there was either from Ohio or was originally from Ohio. Usually, cruising at this time of winter, we're seated at the designated "Ontario, Canada" table. ;-) So many of our fellow passengers are disembarking tomorrow and flying home to frigid winter temps. We are very lucky to be extending our winter fun a bit longer!
We had a short break of about an hour before we needed to go to our 5:30pm dinner seating. I gave G a haircut because we hadn't had time to do that at home. Luckily, today has not been bouncy at all on the ship, probably because we are back in the protected Caribbean Sea. G was bemoaning the fact that there was no time for a nap, but no, no, no, no! We have to keep moving here!! We're only one quarter through this round of cruises; we cannot slow down.
We went to dinner expecting the same landfall dinner menu, and though some items were the same, there were several new Caribbean items, too. The best part was the salmon with tamarind sauce; I loved it.
Waiter Marian from Romania and junior waiter Slava from Ukraine presented us with a CD of Romanian music along with a note with their names and a drawing of a cruise ship. That was certainly a first, and it was a thoughtful remembrance of some great dinners with them. We had a quick sorbet for dessert and managed to get to the 7pm show of magician Alex Ramon in the Princess Theater. He was one of the best cruise ship magicians I've ever seen (second only to David Cats), and I tried to remember what he did to be able to tell the twins about it.
The evening remained busy until its very end. We first listened to band Epithanie in the Explorers Lounge (they're disembarking tomorrow. So sad!), then steel drummer Wilson Jean-Baptiste was accompanied by the Caribbean Princess orchestra in the Exlporers Lounge and performed all types of music: Mozart; Ave Maria, Dixieland, Latin. He received a standing ovation at the end, the first time I've ever seen that for a steel drum musician. He is quite remarkable!
After that, in another opposite approach to this cruise, we stayed and watched the Princess Pop Star final for this cruise. It was actually a lot of fun, even more so because of the antics of the cruise staffers Matt and Theo. If our table at this afternoon's wine tasting was Ohio based, this week's Princess Pop Star was definitely Michigan based. Nearly all six contestants were from Michigan.
Our first cruise on the Caribbean Princess has come to an end. Despite its slightly rocky start, it has definitely been one of our funnest cruises ever. We can't wait to see what the next seven days will bring (and when we'll get our minibar setup this time around). But turnaround morning will come too early. I need to get some sleep!