We were awake rather early (going to sleep by 9pm will do that to you), and, as we always do, tuned our TV to Channel 44, the front of the ship webcam channel. It looked grey, but not rainy out, so we were hopeful for a decent day on the beach. But when G poked his head out of the cabin door to take a look through the window of the door heading to the Terrace Deck, he said the wind was so strong it was howling in the hallway. We suspected we might not be able to tender into Princess Cays today.
However, when we were dressed and heading down to the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast, we had a different opinion. It was obvious that several of the balcony cabin residents across the hall from us had their balcony doors open, turning the Riviera Deck into a wind tunnel. :-(
Captain Forteeze, in his morning "Welcome to the island du jour" announcement, forecasted a high of 74F today, not too surprising considering how chilly Fort Lauderdale had been yesterday. I just could not work up any excitement at all about snorkeling in cool, rough, churned up water on a cloudy day. I'm here for awhile, and can be a little choosier when it comes to beach days. Nor did we need to go over to the island just for lunch; we could have a better lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet all afternoon.
Still, G had to conform to the tenets of his religion, which obviously require that he always get off the ship in port. So after our breakfast, he took a tender to shore, and I took advantage of my alone time to do some hand laundry and straighten up the cabin and phone Room Service with a list of leftover minibar items to be exchanged. (This cruise's minibar remains on a tray in the closet). And give myself a manicure. Things were looking pretty rough on that count, and I was dismayed when my right man-hand with its broken nails and jagged cuticles resting tenderly on G's tuxedo jacket made it into our MTP photo in the Patter last cruise. G tried to reassure me that no one even looks at that photo, but that even if they did, it's so small that my hand would not be noticed, but I know he's wrong. The Photo Department was supposed to crop it out, but I guess they ran out of time after the hours of Photoshopping that were required to make us presentable. ;-)
I eventually adjourned to the International Cafe, where Suzan and Greg had reached much the same decision I had about staying on board. We sat and drank coffee (today I had the Princess White Chocolate Medley, which was delish) and talked for so long that G returned to the ship and looked for me there before even going to the cabin (how well he knows me). He said the tender ride had been a bit rough and the water around the fish feeding pavilion so churned up that he could barely see the fish in the water. (Honestly, he knows just the right things to say to make me feel less guilty about staying on board. He is definitely a keeper.)
G was ready for lunch by then, so we went to the Horizon Court Buffet for my first full meal there since we boarded the Emerald Princess on January 4. Oh, I've grabbed chips and salsa and guacamole to eat during football games, and brownies for G and red velvet cheesecake for me on more occasions than I care to admit to, but I haven't had a full meal there yet. We got there right at 11:30am when the lunch buffet line opened, and everything was fresh and looked really good. I knew I'd be having a food- and drink-filled evening, and so kept it light with gorgeous fresh veggies and my favorite sun dried tomato vinaigrette. Oh, and a big hunk of blue cheese (that I shared with my husband).
We changed for a hot tub session then, in our favorite Deck 17 aft hot tub with a great view of the long shoreline of Eleuthera island, on which Princess Cays is located. Of course, by mid afternoon the sun did come out (it figures), but I rather enjoyed sitting in the hot tub before it did, living dangerously, for once without a Tilley hat on my head. After a long while in the hot tub, I moved to the small splash pool next to it, despite the warnings from others that it was too cold to swim in. It was cold, but I started running, first in one direction, to create a whirlpool, then in the other, repeating several times until I had spent about 45 minutes in there. Everyone else was avoiding that cool pool, and that worked to my advantage as I had it all to myself.
I left there and went directly to the steam room in the ladies locker room in the spa. That the Emerald Princess has both a steam room and a sauna available for free is one of the big reasons we are on this ship right now and not the Royal or Regal Princess (though there are others, too...that could be a whole separate blog post). The steam room still smells a bit fiberglass-y after something that was done to it (I later found out it was painted, and it is still being completed) during the dry dock, but it doesn't bother even sensitive me. It certainly is adequately hot and steamy, and felt so good after my water workout.
As it turned out, I was showered and ready for the evening by 3pm, and thought that a glass of wine from Vines might be a perfect way to spend an hour, but then I realized that it was a port day and Vines didn't open until 4pm. Well...shoot. So I instead started this blog post (somehow I knew I might have a late night), and waited in our cabin for Room Service to come and exchange our minibar items. And waited. And waited. This evening it still hasn't been done, but I know that the Room Service waitstaff were the hors doerves servers for tonIght's MTP cocktail party, so it seems petty to complain about it.
We went up to Skywalkers to watch as the Emerald Princess sailed south along the coastline of Eleuthera and Little San Salvador Island where Holland America's Half Moon Cay is located. In fact, we saw a Carnival ship in the distance, leaving Half Moon Cay.
I could have just stayed there in Skywalkers, watching the islands of the Bahamas go by, but we were on a schedule tonight, and went down to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room at 5:15pm. We ate lightly, just two starters each, but of course had dessert, too. There's always room (and time) for sorbet! Waiter Victor told us tonight that, after we leave the dining room every evening, they put a new table top seating six people on our table top for four people that we have for just us. We are feeling exceptionally spoiled.
Back in our cabin, we combed hair and brushed teeth and did the usual freshening up before going to the Adagio Lounge on Deck 16 next to what used to be Sabatinis but is now S h a r e. The MTP cocktail party started at 7pm. We had already seen frequent cruiser Phyllis earlier in the day (we've cruised with Phyllis most Januarys since 2007), but were happy to see Joyce and meet Sue. They are #3, 2 and 1, respectively, and Phyllis jokingly told us she is the reason we were bumped out of the top 3 MTPs. Maybe so, but I can't think of a better reason.
For the record:
#1 MTP 1481 days
#2 MTP 1385 days
#3 MTP 918 days
Sorry, I didn't get cutoff for top 40 most traveled passengers.
Poor Chief Engineer Roddy. My first words to him at the party (actually my second since I might possibly have said "Hi") were, "Who's in charge of the pools?", then, when he confirmed it was him, told him he needed to turn up the temperature of the water at least five degrees. They can always count on me for honest feedback, but Roddy knows me too well to expect anything less...or to take me too seriously. ;-)
I drank lightly, mostly because my second Breeza Marina disappeared off the table while I was being social in another part of Adagio. That's okay; I had a late evening planned and needed to stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. While G went out to listen to some live music, I was bound and determined to stay awake long enough to first sit in the Princess Theater for an hour waiting for the start of the 10:15pm performance of Magic To Do and then enjoy the 53-minute performance.
I was standing outside the closed doors to the Princess Theater on Deck 6 shortly after 9pm, while the theater was being reset after the 8pm performance. My goal was to get one of the great seats with plenty of legroom and unobstructed views in the raised middle section of the theater. Luckily, I did...barely. Passengers were also entering the theater from Deck 7, and had made tracks to those coveted seats. I settled in for my hour long wait, intending to finish this blog post, but just as I typed Phyllis' name (above), Phyllis appeared in front of me. (This prescience is getting kind of spooky.) Of course, we sat and talked and talked and talked until the show started, so I am finishing this post later (much later) in the cabin.
I liked Magic To Do the first time I saw it. I loved most of it this second time. There is dark part in the middle that I definitely do not like, but the Colors of the World segment is incredible. The difference, I think, is that I sat in the front row the first time, and several rows back and higher this time. Magic To Do is not a show to see up close; there is so much going on in it that it's best appreciated from further back. I ended up sitting for two hours total, and walked halfway back to my cabin hunched over like a question mark before I could finally straighten up. But it was so worth it!
We move clocks ahead an hour tonight, making it 1:15am as I finish up this post. I stayed up past 1am and it didn't even involve football. Now that's magic!