I don't think there is anything sweeter than a sea day on these port intensive cruises almost half a world away from home. The funny thing is that, unlike when we were in the inside cabin on the first cruise of the season, we didn't need today to find things in the cabin and get settled. We were settled as soon as our luggage arrived. I haven't quite figured out what the difference is; with the exception of having a loveseat now instead of a chair, as we did in the inside cabin, they are virtually identical. We aren't even storing anything in the large window ledge...yet. (Just give us time.)
No, it was the sheer luxury of not having to do anything that we were most looking forward to today. Because it's Halloween (our third in a row on the Pacific Princess!), tonight was not a formal night. No formal night, no MTP nor Captains Circle commitments, no Grapevine wine tasting...this was truly a bonus day. Still, I was awake and in the Club Restaurant for breakfast by 8am. Headwauter Petros is used to me being alone, but still knows to seat me at a table for two. I am not one for early morning socializing! I haven't mentioned the melon on these cruises, but it has been delicious. It's not honeydew; I think it's casaba, as sweet as candy. I had a double order today along with my usual egg white veggie omelet.
After breakfast I took a few photos of the carved pumpkin display in the Club Bar. The Pacific Princess (and most Princess ships, I think) does this every year. As usual, they were intricately carved and arranged in quite a large display. Then I went up to the library to upload last night's blog post and attempt to download emails. It's not always easy to do on these bouncy sea days, and we were definitely bouncy this morning. One side of the Promenade Deck was closed off and the pool was partially emptied and netted over.
The Club Bar was decorated...
...as was the entrance to the Cabaret Lounge.
I returned to the cabin to find G getting dressed, and accompanied him the 9:30am port presentation for our next two ports of Khios and Corfu, held in the Cabaret Lounge. I wasn't certain how long I'd last in there, but I did fine this morning. It was chilly, or course, but I simply unwound my scarf (this was the Rome purchase) from around my neck and used it as a shawl. How convenient! While the port lecturer was very through, I've been reminded over and over again what a treasure Douglas Pearson is. He weaves a story into every lecture, pulling his passengers into the Polynesian world. We miss him!
Next up was breakfast for G. I sat with him the Panorama Buffet while he ate, and then again in the Steakhouse while he had British Pub Lunch. He then followed me to the Club Restaurant where I had an entree-sized salad topped with chicken (and wine, of course. It was a sea day, after all!) and then we went up to the Panorama Buffet for dessert. They had a special Italian buffet today, with a huge wheel of Parmesan Reggiano cheese, and a display of Italian desserts. We had cannolis (vanilla and chocolate) and these giant squares of deep fried sweet pastry covered with powdered sugar. Nearly every country has something like that, I think, and it's easy to understand why. They're good!
British Pub Lunch fish and chips (with some Parmesan from the Panorama Buffet)
Italian themed lunch buffet in the Panorama Buffet
I would have sent this to McGee and McGuy if I could have. They have a special fondness for $22 per pound Parmesan cheese
(which I, of course, do occasionally buy for them, because spoiling them is my job!)
Italian desserts
If you're keeping track, you'll have noticed that we had gone to three different restaurants and spent about two hours just eating lunch today. If that's not a sea day, I don't know what is. All that food left us sleepy, so we took a brief nap and G went to use a hot tub while I was going to walk in Deck 10. However, it started to rain right then, so I instead used a treadmill in the fitness center and did weights while G...held down the hot tub.
We knew the crew was going to go all out with their Halloween costumes again this year, but we hadn't put much thought into ours. At least I hadn't, and didn't go to dinner in costume. G went as a Rastafarian, though he also could have worn a bed sheet as a toga. I expected we might see a few of those tonight, and we did. The crew decorated all the public rooms with spiderwebs and paper skulls and pumpkins and all the decorations certainly livened things up. We were still full from a day spent eating and skipped the PES Lounge and went directly to the Club Restaurant at 5:30pm for dinner. No other department dresses up quite like the waiters, and they ranged from scary to funny. Marco was dressed as a vampire, though, as he explained, he had to forego the fangs. Fangs plus a Mexican accent make it kind of hard for him to do his job as a waiter.
Another Rasta for Halloween
G with headwaiter Antonio from Portugal
I was not hungry at dinner. I guess that we don't generally eat lunch on port days, and today's extended lunch as well as relative inactivity were to blame. I order the seared tuna escabeche and two Mediterranean seafood soups and called it dinner. Tonight was the Welcome Aboard champagne waterfall and Maitre d'Oscar was there wearing his clown costume in all his glory. Oscar could liven up a funeral!
Cruise Director Sammi Baker introducing the officers at the Champagne Waterfall
Though the seas had stabilized a bit this afternoon, the bounciness picked up again this evening. The outer decks were again closed off and, when we went to the Cabaret Lounge to watch a performance by vocalist Glenn Maclamore, I didn't even make it to the start of the show. That also ruled out tonight's Halloween party in the Pacific Lounge. Our next door tablemates were talking at dinner about how they couldn't sleep last night; their cabin is at the very front of the ship. We were very comfortable midship Deck 3 all night; however, when the sun rose this morning, there was a ring of light shining around the edges of the porthole cover. Something tells me that, in the event the porthole leaked, we would have gotten wet in here! We lifted the porthole cover this afternoon and were pleased when we returned to the cabin tonight to see that Bianca had left it open. It makes the cabin seem so much roomier!