We went to breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room around 8am. G is eating what he calls his 'healthy' breakfast these days: a huge fruit plate...and a pastry or two. ;-) Since I knew I'd be having a nice lunch just a few hours later, I had orange segments and cereal topped with strawberries. Our junior waiter today was the gorgeous and oh so sweet Marcella from Mexico, who was also on the Pacific Princess just a few months ago.
...which cancels out this. Right? ;-)
We left breakfast and strolled out on the Promenade Deck, where we made the full loop around the ship a few times and then stopped, first at the very front of the ship on Deck 8, and then on Deck 7, watching as the ship's bow churned the water into what looked like whipped frosting. Honestly, I could sit and watch that all day long.
But I had things I wanted to get done today, and we returned to the cabin for our morning pill taking activity and then, after G left to go to through the galley on the tour that follows the culinary show in the Princess Theater, I pulled out the nail polish removal pads (thank you, Jane!) and gave myself a little manicure and then simply touched up my Sally Hansen nail strips in Rock Star on my toes, applied a month ago, with a new clear top coat. That stuff wears. like. iron. I followed that up by doing the hand laundry I'd been neglecting lately and hung it up to dry. It's funny...I don't mind Awesome Ambrish seeing bras drying on our stretchable travel clothesline, but I am considerably more shy when it come to the room service waiter who delivers our minibar on turnaround day tomorrow. These will be dry and stored away by then.
The day was so pretty that I plugged in my ear buds (the audiobook about Rosemary Kennedy was going to *poof* off my phone tomorrow so I needed to get that finished) and plopped a Tilley on my head and went up to the jogging track on Deck 19 to walk until lunch. Mom is now walking .5 miles three times daily around her senior living facility and, darn, I need to keep up! (Go Mom!!!)
G and I met up again for lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room and I was feeling so righteous about my healthy breakfast and morning walk that I simply had a salad with orange segments and almonds topped with chicken breast...and tea with honey and lemon. I still need that occasionally to lose the Bette Davis voice. G was totally not on board with this 'healthy eating' thing at lunch and had a chimichanga and salad and tuna melt sandwich and two different kinds of ice cream, which means that I sat and watched him eat for a long, long time.
We squeezed in a hot tub visit and some water jogging for me (in my fav little pool which, by this point in the cruise has been totally discovered so I had to share). I was ready for the steam room by then, but G went to the Grapevine Wine Tasting at 3pm. We both squeezed in some downtime afterwards (with me continuing to power through my audiobook until the end. What a heartbreaking story!) and G napping.
Actually, as I type all this it sounds like our day was so unexciting, but, honestly, it was our favorite way to spend a sea day.
We kept dinner simple tonight: G had just the New York strip steak (for two cruises in a row he says it's been the best beef of the cruise) and I had the tamarind salmon and a glass of wine. We had just dark cherry sorbet for dessert, but I've already followed that up with the red velvet cheesecake from the Horizon Court Buffet (Suzan, I wish I could send you a slice via text!). After dinner, we sat in the Piazza for awhile and listened to the music of Strings and Steel and then stayed for the short performance by Danny D'Oscar. He twirls and balances three differently shaped metal frames and it was a beautiful thing to watch. We even had a seat right in front, so I was able to take pics.
Speaking of pics, we'll be in Fort Lauderdale in just 12 hours, so I will wait until then to upload a few photos from today. I'm still being miserly with my internet minutes on the ship because of a certain sporting event taking place in just 48 hours that might require me to use a LOT of minutes for texting. Hopefully, I'll be sending lots of :-)s, and not too many :-(s.
Oh man...I've managed to put that out of my mind for most of this week. Must. hang. on. just. two. more. days!!!!!!
And, finally, I ran into a couple in an elevator today who told me they had been reading my blog and, as a result, they were very excited about this, their first Princess cruise. Sadly, they've been less than impressed, and told me why. I was sorry to hear that, but, while I always try to be honest with my impressions of a cruise, I do not put others' opinions in my blog if I haven't had the same experience. I have frequently said that this is just my diary; it's not a travel review.
With a few exceptions (most of them simply related to our transition from the little Pacific Princess to this much larger ship), we've been very satisfied with our cruise experience. It helps a great deal that the people who have the most impact on our cruise- our cabin steward, waitstaff and headwaiter- have all provided excellent service. The bar service has been sketchy with a few standouts, a photographer irritated me so much this week that I actually filed a complaint, there are not enough pool towels for them to be placed in our cabin at night, requiring us to go to the pool area in the morning to get them for our beach excursions, and I dislike the Curtis Stone always available items as much as anyone. These will not be our best cruises ever, but, let's face it, after 100+ cruises, not every one can be. However, we are having such a great time that we've added one more cruise in this series since we've been on the ship, and that really is most credible recommendation of all.
But that has also left us with a dilemma...do we follow the Emerald Princess to Australia next year, cruise the Mediterranean on the Pacific Princess, cruise in the Caribbean or do something else entirely? There simply aren't any bad options.
Life is good. :-)