We were up early enough to get to breakfast in the Coral Dining Room. Go us! The rest of the morning was spent at a steel drum lesson with Wilson Jean-Baptiste, and then G and I met up for British Pub Lunch in the Crown Grill. I had my first 50th anniversary special Seawitch beer, and liked it. It's very different, kind of fruity, but good. We went back to the Coral Dining Room for dessert, though. Trifle is no match for ice cream (G) or key lime frozen yogurt (me).
We had a serious discussion after lunch about returning home on Saturday that took a lot of time and too much internet. We've always said that we would cruise each winter as long as the weather at home was bad. I think G is frustrated by some minor, but unrelenting service issues on the Caribbean Princess and was ready to throw in the towel, but when we saw the weather at home...well, maybe it's not so bad here after all. If we had felt this way immediately after living like royalty on the Pacific Princess, I'd say we were just spoiled by the attention we'd received on that small ship. But in between we had a wonderful 9-night cruise on the Grand Princess, where we were no different than any first time Princess cruiser and certainly didn't receive any special attention and still felt that the service was exemplary. And it's nothing huge; it's more like death by 1000 cuts. I think this crew simply has no incentive to provide particularly friendly service when they face a new set of passengers every 7-, or 5-, or 4-days.
Grapevine wine tasting at 3pm featured the same wines as last week, and we remained in the Piazza to listen to Wilson's steel drum for awhile afterward. We returned to the cabin with just enough time to dress for formal night dinner, where I had a new (to me) Chocolate Journeys dessert, a chocolate covered pistachio mousse. I did take a photo, and a photo of the menu, and will upload them here when we get to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.
We finished dinner in time to get to the 7:15pm performance of production show Born to Be Wild (again, photos will eventually follow), then went to a session of 50th anniversary Princess trivia in Club Fusion. Our team came in second to an obvious team of ringers who scored a perfect 20/20 (including answering the question about what year Princess launched its website correctly. Seriously??).
We went to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to the Massina Duo for one set, then into the Explorers Lounge where Fresh Power was playing to a packed dance floor. We are in bed early, tonight, by shortly after 10pm, especially notable because we move clocks back an hour tonight. I love these 25-hour days on a cruise ship! Still, sleep could be rough. It's a "tuck in the sheets to keep from rolling out of bed" night up here on Deck 14 aft.