Though we could see the southwest Eleuthera shoreline from our breakfast table this morning, I think we were almost expecting Captain Forteeze's announcement around 8am informing us that, due to swells of more than 7 feet, we would not be able to safely tender into Princess Cays today. The storm last evening, the wind we've had most of this cruise, the slight though persistent bounciness of the sea...no, we weren't surprised in the least to miss our island stop today.
While I'm certain there were thousands of disappointed passengers as a result, for me it meant a 48 hour reprieve before I might again face a forced march to the lighthouse on the southern end of Eleuthera. We'll be back again on Sunday. I could claim the tenets of my religion expressly forbid me from partaking in any strenuous or stressful activities on its official day of rest, but I doubt that would work. We all know what stress I'll be exposing myself to the next Sunday.
I'll keep working on an excuse. A tummy ache might work. I could leave an open ibuprofen bottle on the vanity. But I think my best bet is for Mom's knee brace to make an appearance tomorrow. It's hard to miss that message.
Given that today became another sea day, our excitement peaked early. Yesterday, cabin steward Awesome Ambrish informed us that he was going to be involved in some water survival training this morning at the Neptunes Reef pool, starting just before 7am. This, of course, was cause enough for us to set our alarm for 6am. Anything outside of the normal course of activities and events...we're so there!
It was still dark out as we made our way to the International Cafe for hot chocolate (G) and brewed decaf coffee (me). Up on the pool deck, it was just starting to get light, and we saw 10-12 crew members dressed in shorts and T-shirts standing around the pool, which was closed off with caution tape. In the pool was one of the inflatable lifeboats. The safety officers began by demonstrating how to safely step off into the water, the same thing that is demonstrated during every muster drill. The crew had to actually practice doing this by stepping off the edge of the pool, and then successfully climb from the water into the lifeboat. Awesome Ambrish is not a fan of the water, but he did a great job. And being there to show our support certainly motivated us to get an early start to our day.
Unfortunately, after Captain Forteeze's announcement, a whole long day stretched ahead of us. Sure, the cruise staff immediately published a revised Patter filled with quickly scheduled daytime activities, but we weren't feeling especially participative. We returned to our cabin, intending to change for a hot tub session, but ended up reading and napping and watching part of a Hugh Grant movie (which, like most of his recent movies, was not great) on TV.
We spotted a large ship just behind us off our starboard side at lunch. Some quick detective work (looking at my ships in port with us spreadsheet for Port Everglades tomorrow) told us it could be the Westerdam (no...too big), the Coral Princess (no...too big) or the Independance or the Oasis OTS. G went online and found that it was the Oasis OTS.
Lunch was offered in the DaVinci Dining Room (it always amazes me that they can pull together a full lunch menu that quickly), and we enjoyed that, but the fritto misto I ate accompanied by a glass of wine convinced me that I had to incorporate some serious activity into the afternoon.
G and I started with a hot tub visit, and he continued to hold down the hot tub while I ran around in circles in the Splash Pool for an hour and then did some deeper water aerobics in the Terrace Pool. I was showered first for dinner and waited for G in Vines, where bar water Cherry always welcomes me so sweetly and poured me a glass from the bottle of Merlot they store for me there. Sitting there at a table on the edge of the Piazza, listening to Ryszard Sulek playing the piano, I suddenly acutely missed Suzan and Greg, and took a minute of valuable internet time to text them and tell them that.
Let me elaborate for just a minute about that...this new Princess@Sea app makes logging into and out of wifi so quick and painless that it's entirely possible to compose and send a text using one minute or less of wifi. I think that's my favorite thing about the new system. With the old system, it was impossible to log in without using three minutes of wifi, and it always seemed to round usage up by a minute or two. No longer!
Dinner with Victor and Darko (not that one) was superb. My tamarind salmon has never tasted better, every bit as good as embarkation day lunch salmon. And G said his New York strip steak was the best he's had. We had just sorbet for dessert...because you know what dessert is offered the last night of every cruise in the Horizon Court Buffet!
We sat in the Piazza for 30 minutes or so, awaiting the quick song and dance bumper about Princess' 50th anniversary performed by the production show cast.
We still had plenty of time to get seats for the 8pm performance in the Princess Theater by comedy guitarist Dan Riley. Now, we've seen Dan's performances for years, and got to know him well last year on the Pacific Princess (that small ship lends itself to mingling with the entertainers), but I think his show tonight really connected with this audience. We've heard the average age this cruise is 62 years, solidly baby boomer-ish and Dan's show was perfectly geared to it.
Then it was time for the second-most exciting part of the day, a visit to the Horizon Court Buffet to pick up a brownie for G and a piece of red velvet cheesecake for me. Honestly, it's enough to make me wish the cruise starting tomorrow was 4-nights long instead of 7-nights long. ;-)
And speaking of turnaround day tomorrow, Captain Forteeze gave us the very unexpected and completely unwelcome news during his noon announcement that the Emerald Princess will be at Pier 21 in Port Everglades tomorrow, not our usual Pier 2. Well...shoot. We did not get off the ship last turnaround day, and definitely need to tomorrow. The errands that are easy to complete when docked at Pier 2 become a bit more complicated from Pier 21. And while I might have said slogans last night for precipitation, my hope for tomorrow is for clear skies and non-humid air.
Good grief I'm fickle. And picky. I'm fickly picky. :-)