It's madness I say. Madness!
We walked as far as Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, which is to say, not far at all (it's right at the end of the pier at which the Caribbean Princess was docked). Much like when we cruised for 7-nights on the Allure of the Seas, we are letting ourselves just go with the flow this cruise. Of course, what flowed today were margaritas (for me) and music (Salt! Salt! Salt!). Our fellow cruisers provided the best entertainment, but by the time the DJ played MJ, even I had to get up and dance. On the spectrum of cruise experiences, this cruise is as far from our 16-night cruise from Papeete to Los Angeles on the Pacific Princess as one can get, but we are lucky to have enjoyed ourselves immensely on both.
Caribbean Princess docked at Grand Turk
In our single good deed of the day, I bundled up several things we've accumulated (shot glasses, Coke tumblers and Elite amenities) and delivered them, as well as a small gift, to Samantha at Effy jewelers in the cruise port. The day after I had fallen in St. Thomas, G stood in Effy writing out postcards, and Samantha, seeing how very bad I looked, offered me a seat, brought me a water bottle and kept me company. She was very sweet when I most needed it.
Funny how that, around 3:30pm, the DJ at Margaritaville stopped broadcasting and the party started to wind down. I guess it takes that long (all on board was 4:30pm) to get people in shape to walk back to the ship. Luckily, in Grand Turk, it's not a long trek. The security staff at Margaritaville was pressed into service helping inebriated passengers back to the ship, using a wheelchair when necessary. We didn't drink that much, and had no trouble getting back under our own steam, and subsequently showered and went up to Skywalkers for sailaway. I stopped by Vines on the way to dinner to get a different glass of wine to have with dinner, and what a dinner it was. We. Were. Starved. I enjoyed five courses, and G had six (he thought my pasta fagioli soup looked good and so ordered it for himself). A leisurely two hours later, we returned to our cabin for a brief lie-down. The show tonight was magician Alex Ramon, who is wonderful but...well, it's a repeat for us.
We were still in the cabin when there was a knock at the door. It was steward Antonio with the laundry we had turned in just last evening hanging in one hand. After I thanked him, he pulled out from his other hand, hidden behind his back...washcloths! I gave him a silent happy dance and he doubled over, silently laughing himself. Clean clothes are nice; clean washcloths are something to get excited about.
The big event of the evening was the 50th anniversary Love Boat Disco Deck party. It's a repeat; too, but we did not want to miss it, with these cruise passengers. The weather was picture perfect, and the deck around the Calypso Pool was packed with dancers. The funnest part is always the Love Boat theme song singalong. Imagine 500+ people singing the Love Boat song at the top of their lungs. When I used to watch that show, who would have imagined that all these years later I'd be on a Princess ship singing the theme song at a deck party?
And, finally, Captain John Foster gave us an update today on the ship's norovirus situation. Apparently, the number of cases has not dropped and we will continue under Code Red for the remainder of this cruise (no surprise there...it only lasts one more day). Frankly, it also wouldn't surprise me if we are under Code Red for the entire length of next cruise (5-nights), too. Caught between a certain snow shovel and a possible stomach flu, we're choosing the latter and staying on for one last cruise of the winter.