G was already out and about when I woke up, but returned to the cabin to collect me for breakfast in the Club Restaurant. We ate lightly this morning- just a fruit plate and cottage cheese- because, frankly, we knew we'd be eating (and drinking) all day long. I had waited until seeing today's Princess Patter to make a decision about attending the Maitre d' wine tasting ($25) at 2pm today. They were presenting six wines, and about half of them were new to me. There were no conflicts in the Patter and G would be attending the veterans get together at the same time, so I signed up this morning and had a very pleasant hour to look forward to.
First, though, we had to brave the meat locker chilliness of the Cabaret Lounge to attend Douglas Pearson's lecture in Nuku Hiva for the first (and only) time this year. Nuku Hiva, as I mentioned last year, is part of the Marquesas island grouping of French Polynesia (more specifically, it's part of the Northern Marquesas Islands), and this year we are considerably more knowledgable about the significance of the early Marquesans in settling and influencing much of the rest of Polynesia. While the first Marquesans are believed to have come from the Samoan islands, they went on to truly discover (not just European 'discover') Hawaii, Rapa Nui, Tahiti and the Cook Islands. They were master navigators but also master carvers, mostly wood, but, as we saw last year in Nuku Hiva, they did some stone carvings too, and certainly influenced the carving of the moai on Rapa Nui.
We attended the British Pub Lunch, held in The Grill (steakhouse), for our first time this season and I was instantly reminded that, only a little more than a week ago, I was eating fish and chips at the Sea Salt following diving on Rarotonga. Sometime, after we return home (and after I re-live these days by reading my blog), I will realize just what a spectacular experience this cruising season has been. Right now, while it occasionally creeps into my mindset (as it did while eating Pub Lunch), we are mostly focused on staying healthy and uninjured for the next day and the next day and then the one after that.
My opportunity for afternoon hot tub time officially slipped away at 1:15pm when I decided to take advantage of G using a hot tub (and therefore being out of the cabin) to get cleaned up for formal night #5 of the season. Yes, I started getting ready for formal night at 1:15pm. There is something very wrong about that, but my time was taken from 2pm to 3pm, and again at 3:45pm and then again at 5pm and we both needed to use the bathroom for a longer period of time than on non-formal days. Besides, having the cabin to myself meant I would not have to endure comments about primers and liners and brushes.
I was in the Club Restaurant at 2pm for the Maitre d' wine tasting. I enjoyed this so much when I did it on our first cruise this season that I really wanted to repeat it. G is simply not the wine drinker that I am (but if they offered a beer tasting...), so I tend to stick with drinking wines I know that keep well after being opened, and the less expensive wines to boot. This wine tasting gave me the chance to sample wines costing over $100, and while I liked some better than others, they were all good. I sat at a table with five fellow passengers and have concluded that I like the social part of wine tasting as much as the wine part of wine tasting. (And G swears that it puts me in a better state of mind for dressing up for formal night. He's probably right).
I swung by ring toss in the Reception Hall just in time to see G win another bottle of engine room champagne (the stuff that's pretty much undrinkable unless it's hidden in OJ) and then crossed to the opposite side of Deck 4 to catch the tale end of Douglas Pearson's Tales of the South Pacific. He can be so mesmerizing that I stood there (literally stood there) for 45 minutes without even moving to a chair until G came to claim me to go to the BIG!!!!!! $500 Treasure Hunt Drawing*!!! (*must be present to win). Yes, it was that time of the cruise again, and we sat in the Cabaret Lounge, ever hopeful but, once again unsuccessful. I buoyed G by reminding him that we didn't win a thing until our 6th cruise last winter and didn't win big until our 7th. Unfortunately, we'll only have six cruises total on the Pacific Princess so we need to step up the pace this year.
At that point, all I had to do to finish preparing for formal night was change jewelry and get dressed, and it was much more relaxing in the cabin while I simply sat on the bed and G was able to move about getting ready. Next time, it's his turn to start getting ready after lunch. ;-) We spent some time at the Elite Lounge in the Pacific Lounge, listening to duo Rockin' Paradise (it was the ever-so-wrong pairing of smoked salmon and the Chairman of the Board drink tonight), and at 5:45pm were being seated for dinner. Headwaiter Jozko had stored two of our bottles of champagne while we were off the ship for 20 nights, and we enjoyed the Korbel with dinner tonight. After our heavy fish and chips lunch, I was sooo good tonight and just had salad and beef tenderloins, and sugar free poached pear dessert Must. Pace. Myself.
Tonight's performance in the Cabaret Lounge was production show Stardust. Of the four shows that are performed on the Pacific Princess, it's probably our least favorite, but changes are in store and we didn't want to miss it. The current cast (who also act as entertainment staff for activities) are leaving after next cruise. :-( The new cast comes on board next turnaround and will perform half of the shows that cruise before taking over all of them the next cruise. We've been through these cast handovers in the past on the Emerald Princess, and, as much as I will grievously miss these dancers, it's fun to see a new cast perform in familiar shows. But I haven't yet asked the cast which shows they're performing for the last time this cruise...so we're just being safe and seeing them all.
The hot tubs were not open when I checked just before 9pm, and I ended the day much as I had started it...promising myself some serious hot tub time tomorrow.