Approaching Mytilene on the island of Lesbos
Well, we never had the opportunity to encounter any potential issues; though it was brightly sunny this morning, there was a strong cold wind from the north. Captain D's voice came into our cabin with an announcement about 7:45am, advising us that tender operations could not safely be started in the nearly six foot swells. However, he placated us by saying the Pacific Princess would follow along the southern edge of Lesbos for several hours, providing us a scenic view of the island's mountains and coastline. We were disappointed but not distraught. And when it finally sank in that an entire day with no obligations stretched out in front of us, I felt a little like a kid with an unexpected snow day. A rest day before Athens tomorrow? Well, yay!
The Greek island of Lesbos
We treated ourselves to a long and leisurely breakfast in the Club Restaurant, and when I went up to the library to publish last night's blog post, G settled himself on the scenic side of the Panorama Buffet and was soon in deep conversation with several other guys looking for something to do. A revised Patter was quickly prepared and distributed, chock-full of new activities and seminars, and, most important to me, lunch in the Club Restaurant. I wandered through the Reception Hall during the craft session on card making, but all the seats around the long table were filled and I opted not to participate. Instead I checked out what G calls the 'garage sale' of past season clothing and souvenirs and found a gorgeous metallic gold print scarf (that's scarf purchase #4 if you're keeping track) for $9. I braved the laundry room in Deck 7 to press the folds out of it, but it was the same leaky iron that was in the laundry room last season and I ended up with a wet scarf with folds. That's life.
G and I reconnected in time for lunch in the Club Restaurant and we were seated with another couple and a mother and her adult son traveling together and hit it off so well that we finally left the restaurant at 1:45pm with plans to meet up later. A slot tournament qualifying round had been added to the schedule today and you'll never guess who is on the leaderboard in 2nd place?!?! The top 5 players advance to the final round on the next sea day and the opportunity to win $500, but you know that will never happen for me. They will have another qualifying round earlier that day and my second place finish could even slip out of contention. But it's been mindless fun!
Somehow G roped me into playing ring toss at 3pm, and I was shocked that there were over 30 participants and at least another 10 observers and cruise staffers/dancers MacKenzie and Michael made it great fun and we were all well entertained for nearly 45 minutes. We love this little ship! We then had time for a nap (G) and to start this blog post (me) before getting cleaned up for the evening. It was goat cheese and Breeza Marina night in the PES Lounge and it was wonderful to be able to enjoy it while not being tired from a day in port. However, it was there that I overheard a group of Aussies sitting nearby discussing the fact that President Obama had arrived in Athens and would be spending the day there tomorrow. They anticipated major traffic congestion and had decided to book Princess excursions to ensure their timely return to the ship.
Hmmmmm...
G and I had just sat down to dinner in the Club Restaurant when Captain D made an announcement so important that he repeated it again to assure everyone had heard it. Apparently, it was not known until today by the powers that be at Princess (?) that the risk of terrorism is so great tomorrow in Athens that all tourist attractions are being closed for the day. We were all holding our breaths, wondering if we were going to miss a second port this cruise and a huge one to boot, when Captain D continued on that we would be switching around the next two ports, stopping in Mykonos tomorrow and Athens the day after. There was huge applause in the dining room at that update; no one wanted to miss Athens altogether.
So in just one day, the ship had to deal with a cancelled port and switching the order of the next two ports. The crazy thing is that we had two entertainers who were supposed to disembark in Mytilene (George Riley and Brenda Cochrane) and another, a mentalist, who was supposed to board and do a show tonight (which promoted G to wonder why, if he was a mentalist, he couldn't have predicted this would happen). ;-) The entertainment staff was busy putting together the revised Patter and working with singer Brenda Cochrane to do a show tonight, the galley and waitstaff were busy putting together lunch in the Club Restaurant on short notice, and the bridge was busy trying to figure out in which direction to steer the ship. It was a crazy day.
Following dinner we attended Brenda Cochrane's show, then stopped by the Panorama Buffet for some tea to warm up. Our weather is once again chilly, and, for some reason, the ship felt particularly cold today. Just five more weeks until we arrive in the warmth of the Caribbean. We don't want to rush the cruise along, but I'll admit we're both looking forward to that!