By time we woke up and watched some TV (which reminds me...I want to mention something about TV on the Caribbean Princess), we just had time for coffee in the IC before lunch. While sitting there, we heard not a single complaint from fellow passengers about missing our stop today; in fact, people seemed to be enjoying the live music that had been quickly scheduled in the Piazza. The Cruise Director's staff had already put together a revised Princess Patter full of entertainment offerings for the rest of the day, and while we sat there drinking coffee, we planned the next several hours. G's afternoon was going to include (no surprise) a hot tub visit, but I am still on that "opposite" kick, and so had some very different plans.
First, though, we decided to go to lunch in the Coral Dining Room. We were seated at a table for four for two by a window with waiter Ignacio from Mexico (who, we came to find out, is singing headwaiter Hector's brother. We knew Hector from the Emerald Princess) and his assistant Denys from Russia.
Now, this whole "Princess Cays is cancelled, so instead of BBQ on the beach, the dining room will be open for lunch with a very "non-BBQ" menu" thing never ceases to amaze me. Inquiring minds want to know: what do they do with all the burgers and hot dogs and ribs, how do they thaw out what they need for a full lunch menu in the dining room and how do they re-allocate the waitstaff from the beach to the dining room? It's a marvel, for sure.
Even better, it was one of our favorite lunch menus, with split pea soup and veggie burritos for G and Thai hot and sour soup and chicken korma for me. Love that chicken korma (and I blame/credit friend Steve for my infatuation with it). But, oh my, by the time all the extra ten toppings are piled on it, even a small serving becomes huge and very filling.
We parted company then. I went into the Piazza to listen to steel pan musician Wilson (such a nice guy, too) perform until 2pm, when, in my most extreme of opposite moves, I went to a game show in Club Fusion called Passenger Feud, just like Family Feud on TV. It's been decades since I've watched Family Feud, but it all quickly came back to me (it's not exactly rocket science, is it?). Still, while my assigned team won the first round, we lost the finals, so it requires some amount of skill that we clearly lacked. Such a crushing disappointment. ;-) Actually, the whole thing was a lot of fun. I will never consider it "entertainment", as in something I'd want to watch in the evening in lieu of a show, but I enjoyed it as an afternoon activity on a sea day.
By 3:15pm I was joining G in a hot tub. The day was bright and sunny, and not as chilly as yesterday (probably in the mid-70s), but, naturally, still windy. That's not a huge surprise to us; we had windy conditions nearly all last winter on the Emerald Princess, and missed Princess Cays three times out of 13. We had purchased a bottle of Barefoot Bubbly yesterday to drink on the Promenade Deck as we sailed away from Princess Cays this afternoon, but we'll simply have to save it for a later occasion.
By 5pm I was in the Elite Lounge for...Breeza Marina night, my very favorite of the cruise. Bartender Armando makes them better than I've ever had before, and the paired herbed goat cheese is my favorite food group. We can't linger up there, though. First, there are only two elevators that go up to Deck 18, so we never know if our wait to get down to Deck 7 will be 15 seconds or 15 minutes. Especially tonight, when we wanted to get to a 7:15pm production show in the Princess Theater, we needed to be at dinner at exactly 5:30pm. I had the Panamanian chicken soup, another new regional menu item, for the first time, and it was very good. We skipped dessert (but, really, at this point we scarcely need one every night) and had great seats for the show.
We were shocked to see in the embarkation day Patter that tonight's production show was going to be Pianoman, which is an old favorite that we were convinced had been retired. It's been years since we've see it, and this was the first time we saw it in the new, child's attention span length of 30 minutes. There used to be a Liberace part that's been cut altogether; but that's ok...it still offers plenty of Billy Joel, Barry Manilow and Elton John music, which, as I thought about it, was definitely the music of my high school years.
We enjoyed it so much that we stuck around for the 8:45pm show and watched it again, then went right from there to the Explorers Lounge for the 50's and 60's Rock and Roll party. Party band Epithanie left on turnaround day, and new party band Fresh Power came on board. Fresh Power...we think that sounds like a laundry detergent. In fact, G has nicknamed them Clean and Bright, but we were talking to cruise staffer Matt after the party and found out they are Hungarian; and are the only Hungarian party band the fleet uses. Their name in Hungarian translates to Fresh Power, so they weren't named for a laundry detergent after all. ;-) But they do a great Rock and Roll party with all the standards. I thought, as the dance floor was packed for "Shout", that many of these passengers could have been at Animal House's Farber College during 1962. I can't say they're hugely younger than the 10-night cruise crowd, but they're definitely more lively.
We skipped the 50th Anniversary balloon drop in the Piazza in favor of a quick trip up to Skywalkers (also packed. Packed!!!). I have retired for the night but G is now down in the Wheelhouse Bar listening to the Massina Duo. We move clocks ahead an hour tonight, making it after midnight right now; I predict another late sleep tomorrow. The question is whether our missing Princess Cays today will allow us to arrive in St. Martin on Tuesday before the scheduled time of 10am. I hope so...
About TV on the Caribbean Princess...unlike on the Pacific Princess and the Grand Princess, there is no 24/7 Love Boat channel on the Caribbean Princess. I'm crushed. ;-) Instead, there is the old "Comedy Channel" showing sitcoms and, for some reason, Season 1 of Downton Abbey. However, like the Grand Princess, there is a channel called Prime US which thrills us, as it offers some variety (not the same shows every cruise) in the way that having TNT on board used to.
Not that we've spent a lot of evenings in front of the TV. This is a partying ship!!