Given that it was nearly midnight before I wrapped up the publication of my blog post last night, it was just a tad difficult to roust myself out of bed when the alarm went off at 6:30am. I hit snooze, then hit it again before I finally woke enough to tune the TV to the front of the ship channel. Holy hot dog! We were already docked in St. John's, Antigua! We hadn't heard a thing while it was docked; it's a good thing I had set an alarm.
We didn't know, until this morning, that breakfast is served in the DaVinci Dining Room on port days from 7am to 9am, instead of the sea day schedule of 7:30am to 9:30am. (We really need to start reading the Patter!!). With a little time to spare (we thought), I started to get packed for a beach day, and went up to the Horizon Court Buffet to get ice for our metal water bottles. I had just finished filling them (I use a cup to get the ice from the machine and then fill the water bottles from it) and was a screwing the lids back on when who do I see coming toward me with outstretched arms but headwaiter Luis from Portugal. Luis was our headwaiter during our second and third seasons on the Emerald Princess, and I can't tell you how nice it was to see him here. With Francesco (from our first and second seasons on the Emerald Princess) and Luis from our second and third, this really does feel like a homecoming for us.
When we went down to the DaVinci Dining Room at 7:30am for breakfast, we noticed that people were already in there eating. That's when we found out about the earlier hours on port days. We both ordered oatmeal and G got bacon and I asked for an egg white veggie omelet (still trying to find some way to have a healthy breakfast entree) and it was delicious. Colorful, and full of spinach and peppers and tomatoes and potatoes...I think I've found my scrambled egg beaters replacement.
We met Greg and Suzan in the International Cafe at 8:45am (and managed to be only two minutes late. Go us!!) and we walked off the ship onto Antigua for the first time in almost two years. We've missed it; this is one of our favorite islands. We squeezed into the smallest taxi ever for the short ($12) ride to Fort James Beach. We bypassed the chairs for $5 each and umbrellas for $10, and in no time at all our bags were settled on tarps and towels at the far end of the beach and we were all in that gorgeous blue water on Swimway floats (they're a very good thing).
The waves were perfect (not too big and not too small) and Suzan and I played and talked and floated and talked and talked for over four hours. The guys occasionally joined us, G napped on the beach and they eventually took a long walk down the beach...and Suzan and I talked. They treated me to a rum punch at Millers by the Sea, the outdoor bar/restaurant right there (it was delicious but not quite as good as what awaits tomorrow) and around 2pm we started to pack up to take the same small taxi back to the cruse ship. All on board time was 3:30pm.
Our weather had started out mostly cloudy, and we even had a few brief rain showers (it was very cool to watch the rain droplets bounce on the water surface while we were floating), but the day turned mostly sunny by noon and we knew we were in for a pretty sailaway.
First, though, Suzan and Greg were on a mission to buy a local newspaper, so we temporarily parted ways in St. John's and were making our way back to the cruise ship when we heard saxophone music. We turned left onto that main road to the port and found the source, a two man band with saxophone and keyboard. They were so good we stood and listened and videoed for a long while before walking down the pier.
I dumped everything in the cabin and met up with Suzan in the spa for a steam room visit... and more talking. Back in our cabin, I committed a huge faux pas when I peeled off my swimsuit and dumped (and I'm not kidding here) an entire sandbox of sand right on the carpet. Oh it was a mess! Even after showering and loofah-ing, I think I can still feel sand stuck to my body. I left steward Awesome Ambrish a sincere 'I'm sorry!' note and rushed up to Skywalkers to meet G for sailaway. I was thrilled to see Terry and Sue from cruises past, and we were also joined by Greg and Suzan.
Sailaway from Antigua is really one of the prettiest ones we see on this itinerary. To add to our viewing pleasure, it was Breeza Marina night in the PES Lounge (though it kind of always is) but we enjoyed herbed goat cheese and yummy crackers in addition to the usual offerings. The only downside: they are seriously understaffed in there, and my drink ordered at 5pm took until 5:25pm to arrive. Dinner is at 5:30pm; that's clearly not great service.
But we made it to the Michelangelo Dining Room just a few minutes after 5:30pm where we were met with great service by Victor and Darko (not that one!). G had the surf and turf and gave me his surf and I had a seafood skewer and it was excellent. I had been so hungry (having skipped lunch) but quickly filled up so much (on herbed goat cheese and dinner) that I couldn't decide about dessert and asked Victor to surprise me with dessert. He brought two scoops of red currant sorbet...I think that sorbet is my favorite dessert is on my permanent Princess record.
We went to the Princess Theater for production show Magic to Go an hour early, at 7pm for an 8pm show. The theater is just way too small to accommodate the guests who want to see the shows (this is a perpetual Princess problem). You might recall that Anytime Entertainment was introduced on the Emerald Princess a few years ago, and shows were shortened to 30 minutes to allow three performances every night. Well, the shows are still (mostly) 30 minutes long, but there are now only two of them. And only once so far (last night), has there also been a show in Explorers Lounge. However, we were happy to find out, especially as we had arrived an hour early to get seats, that Magic to Go is 53 minutes long. Woohoo! Adult attention span-length shows!!
I had brought my iPad to the Princess Theater and used that hour to get to this point on this blog post. Normally G dislikes when I do that, but tonight we were both so tired after our beach day that he didn't mind a bit. He chatted with the couple on his right and I typed away and, before we knew it, an hour had passed. I didn't really look up to see how the audience was filling, but was told later that, by 7:30pm, it was SRO.
Magic to Do...what can I say about this brand new Stephen Schwartz show produced especially for Princess? Well, first I can say that it certainly offset any fuel savings Princess might be enjoying this year. This had to cost a fortune, and it is a huge departure from the usual type of Princess entertainment, except for perhaps On the Bayou on the Island and Coral Princess. It reminded me a great deal of some of the shows we saw on the Allure of the Seas. Huge, highly produced, intricate costumes...I think that people who frequent Las Vegas or Broadway shows, or wish they did, would love it. I liked it a lot, and want to see it several more times because I'm sure I missed a lot of details. My husband did not like it at all, and never wants to see it again. And I think this 50-50 split may be fairly typical of the general audience reaction. I will say more about it in later posts, when I am not so tired. Plus, I've been discussing it with G for the last hour, and am kind of over it right now . Maybe tomorrow night at 10:30pm, we'll talk about something less controversial than 'what direction is Princess cruises moving and do we like it?', something like politics or gun control. ;-)
We left the Princess Theater and walked through the new gastropub in the Wheelhouse Bar called the Salty Dog ($19pp charge). We saw a handful of people eating in there, and the 35 or so chairs with a view of the dance floor were filled. Band Domino Duo plays in there every night. We've heard several complaints from dancers about the increasingly limited places to dance on Princess ships (see above paragraph about the direction of Princess cruises). There is still a dance floor in there; there's just very limited seating.
We next went to someone called the Magical Musical Mystery Tour with party band Soul Rocker in the Explorers Lounge. We had no idea what to expect, except that it was supposed to be keeping with the 'magic' theme. I had heard a lot of opinions about Soul Rocker; none of them good; and I have to say I kind of agree. And this show tonight was really just performing songs about magic, which would have been fun if the band was better, but they were trying to get the audience involved in different aspects of the show and that didn't work at all. This whole thing definitely needs some work.
But we had a wonderful day on Antigua with friends, followed by a session in a free steam room that the Emerald Princess still has, then a beautiful sailaway and a great dinner. I saw a new show that I liked (a lot, but I can't say I love it) accompanied by the Emerald Princess orchestra, and listened to two additional bands perform. I had lots of hot water to shower and cool water to brush my teeth, the bushel of sand I dropped on the cabin carpet was cleaned up by someone else by this evening, and I will be asleep in two minutes on a most comfortable bed.
It was a good day. :-)