G joined me for my usual breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room (fruit and a veggie omelet, accompanied by a decaf skinny cappuccino). He had just a fruit plate, and then I accompanied him to the Horizon Court Buffet where he had his favorite Frosted Flakes cereal. As we sat there, we enjoyed the view of St. Kitts' verdant Mt. Liamuiga (so much like the mountains above Lahaina, Maui), and watched as tender operations began (45 minutes early, at 9:15am). A P&O ship (we think it's the Adonia but we're not sure), which looks just like the Royal and Regal Princess, was already docked when we arrived and we watched as the Costa Favolosa docked opposite it. It felt a bit like we were stuck in the naughty corner, and we had quite a long tender ride to reach the small boat harbor.
We ended up not going ashore until nearly noon, just after open tender was announced. We enjoyed the ride from the top tier of the tender, but once we reached the pier, it was obvious that mobility challenged passengers were going to struggle to get off the tenders and then navigate their way up the ramp with two steps at the end.
We had no mission for today other than to walk around a bit and buy two postcards. There is no shortage of souvenir shopping in Port Zante, but postcards seem to be getting harder and harder to find. It was sunny and hot and fairly muggy in the port area, something we had missed out on during our beach days. We didn't dawdle on land and were back on the Emerald Princess by 1:30pm.
We went immediately to the Calypso Pool area, intending to get two loungers from which to watch the Seahawks v. Vikings game, which started at 2pm. We were relegated to two loungers on Deck 16, overlooking the pool, and while our view of the MUTS screen was great, we were in the hot sun for hours, just what we were trying to avoid today. We left, one at a time, to get drinks and pizza, and I returned to the cabin to get SPF100 sunscreen and lip sunscreen. I covered myself with both at least four times during the game, and even used pool towels to block the sun and managed to survive the game unscathed. But, oh...that was one disappointing (and shocking) outcome.
We could tell by the few waiters we saw walking through the pool area wearing red and white striped pullovers that tonight was going to be Italian night in the dining rooms. We decided to miss the first half of the Packers v. Redskins game and returned to the cabin to shower (and wash off all that sunscreen) and dress for dinner. We enjoyed a feast: I had a seafood starter with calamari and shrimp, followed by a spinach salad with pecorino cheese and pine nuts and then penne arribiata made by headwaiter Ali from Turkey. It was scrumptious. Accompanied by merlot and followed by lemoncello sorbet, it was a meal for which it was worth missing football. We watched from our table as the Emerald Princess slowly turned to the north and began its course to St. Thomas tomorrow.
We were shocked, when we went up to MUTS after dinner, to find that there was no football on the screen. Instead, preparations were underway for tonight's Love Boat Disco Deck Party. Every lounger had been removed, and the only chairs were around the tables that were set for diners from the Horizon Court Buffet. Hmmm...the lack of seating did not bode well for the prospect of our attendance at the party. But first we had to find the football game, and finally did, in Club Fusion. It was fairly full in there but we found some comfortable seating and watched the second half the game, joined by Suzan and Greg. I truly didn't not care who won that one, but G is a kinda, sorta Packer fan from years ago.
G was already half asleep by the end of the game, and we're skipping the deck party in favor of an early bedtime. Well, not so early...it's nearly 10:30pm as I finish this post. I feel badly that I have nothing more to report for the day, but if you've vicariously cruised with us in the past, you know that we find watching football on a ship, specifically on MUTS, to be a hugely enjoyable part of our winter cruises, one that we missed last year on the Pacific Princess. We have a few more weekends of this...oh, and tomorrow night, too, the national championship game. This is the time of year we plan the ports around football; there is nothing more attractive than a day at sea during the playoffs. No island can compete with that!
But after our day 'off', the alarm is set for 6:30am tomorrow. There is another beach with our names on it on St. Thomas, and we're going to try to get there via public buses.
Pray for us. ;-)