In addition to the movement, we awoke to a steady rain, but it started to clear by mid afternoon though it remained cloudy. It’s the worst weather we’ve had since our first cruise in Queensland (so we really can’t complain).
I took care of purchasing a transfer to the beach in Maré at the Shore Excursion Desk and ordered some additional Future Cruise Deposits...it was mostly an administrative morning. I did go to the Piazza at 11:30am when the Entertainment team introduced several activities taking place this cruise, including a new one called the Escape Room. That’s the one I really wanted to hear about, and I did, but I honestly can’t say I’m clear on what it involves. It did sound like more work than I was interested in doing, so I passed, but I may try again on another cruise.
We had lunch in the Donatello Dining Room because the menu offered that broccoli and cauliflower entree I love, and a tuna sandwich with potato chips that G loves. We then raced to the Princess Theater to listen to a lecture on the settlement of indigenous peoples in Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia and European exploration in the area by historian Peter Donovan and he was fantastic. He started with that same map showing the different island groupings of Oceania that I used in this blog when we first went to French Polynesia in October 2014.
I learned that I was wrong when I believed that New Caledonia and Vanuatu are part of Polynesia; they are part of Melanesia (though New Caledonia is part of French Polynesia...go figure). And Peter, when he explained the migration of indigenous people across the South Pacific, said that anthropologists determined the order of settlement based on pottery found on the different islands. At the end, he handed out crossword puzzles covering the things we learned today (with the solution on the back, thank God) which was a clever way to help us retain the information. We are hooked.
Dinner with Alona and Lydia was black bean and pumpkin soup, a salad and vegetable korma, accompanied by the show the huge waves were putting on right outside the window. It was like watching fireworks. Later, we went to the Princess Theater to see Steve Larkins back again as Freddie Mercury in Mercury Rising. We love that show (who could tire of Queen?) and Steve gets a standing ovation every time.
And, finally, today was our 1000th day on Princess Cruises. Our first Princess Cruise was almost exactly 14 years ago, on December 3, 2003, when we did two 10-night Caribbean cruises back to back on the Sun Princess. We hadn’t put a lot of thought into it; G had to use leave before the end of the year, and the cruises were booked very last minute simply because they offered several new (to us) islands. Until that time, we had been mostly Celebrity cruisers, and, though we remained loyal to Celebrity for a few more years, Princess eventually won us over with its itineraries. But I never imagined we would cruise 1000 days, period, let alone 1000 days on a single cruise line when I literally dragged G on our very first cruise in 1997 (I like to remind him how right I was about that). ;-)
Tonight may be (really) bumpy, but life is good. :-)