Part of the reason we slept so soundly and so long was that this ship was stable, and it was a wonderful thing. We are cruising south just off the east coast of Australia, and this is an entirely different sport than our northbound trip was. It’s nice!
I walked on the Promenade Deck before breakfast to get some steps in, and then met G in the Donatello Dining Room for breakfast. We sat at a table for 8 with, among others, a woman traveling with her 90 year old mother, and I love to see that. I had just cereal, soy milk and a banana for breakfast (G had the featured item of the day, huevos rancheros, which explains why I was so much hungrier at lunch than he was). At 11am we attended a lecture on prohibition in the Princess Theater, which was interesting though rather dry (haha). Then it was back to the Donatello Dining Room for lunch, because I had seen that there was Mediterranean seafood stew on the menu, plus I was already hungry (G was not and just had two desserts).
Today was the (what we call) garage sale in the Bernini Dining Room on Deck 5, and, God help me, somehow I got sucked in there. While G browsed through all the stacks of T-shirts (because the 872 he already has are not enough), I joined all the bored men sitting in chairs off to the side. That sale is SO not me. We followed that up with another lecture at 2pm by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park pilot who has been on board this cruise. He was very interesting and talked about the history of navigating the Great Barrier Reef and also discussed the different kinds of ships he pilots these days (cruise ships are the fun ones; he pilots a lot of large freighters also).
At 3pm we returned to the cabin for the first time in hours, and shortly after that began getting ready for the Captains Circle Party being held at 4:45pm in the Vista Lounge. (It takes us a long time to get ready for formal nights because we take turns. There’s not enough space in this cabin for us to simultaneously get cleaned up and dressed to the nines...or at least the sixes). We were honored to be this cruises Most Traveled Guests (MTG), and the Princess days for the top three Most Traveled (because readers always ask) were approximately 950, 850 and 830, I was very happy to receive a crystal as an award gift. Many of you know that Princess is doing away with the crystals, and is now giving out wooden boxes, but for ships that still have some inventory of the crystals, MTGs are given a choice between the two. Well, the Golden Princess had just two crystals left: Caribbean and Asia. I have 12 different crystals already but didn’t have an Asia crystal and so that worked out perfectly. Now...if we just have enough room, weight-wise, to get it on our Jetstar flight to Hawaii.
After the party, we were shocked to see bartender Iryna, whom we sailed with for two seasons on the Pacific Princess in French Polynesia suddenly appear in front of us. She had seen our photo in today’s Princess Patter and came to the Captains Circle Party to find us. She is working in Crooners martini bar (no room for those in my life any longer) which is why we hadn’t seen her before today. It was wonderful to briefly get caught up and we were touched that she had sought us out. Dinner was just salmon and broccoli for me, but G said his Beef Wellington was the best beef he’s had all cruise. Production show Born to Dance was new for us, and we loved it, and there was also a magician performing in the Vista Lounge. It’s nice having options!
We are already formulating a plan for turnaround day in Sydney on Wednesday. We’ll have to move our things into our new cabin (boy, we can’t wait to be settled there!), and that always takes longer than expected, and all onboard will be 3:15pm so it’s not like we’ll have a lot of time. Our subsequent turnarounds won’t involve moves, and that will allow us a few more hours to explore. But, really, I’m happy just sailing into and out of Sydney Harbour. Anything beyond that is simply a bonus.