Day 72: At Sea

It is Christmas Eve in New Zealand as we round the northern tip of the North Island, scheduled to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, Christmas Day, at 1pm. We are in between activities tonight as I start this post, but our plans for the evening extend to the midnight Christmas Eve interdenominational service. It’s been a wonderful, busy day at sea. 

We slept late again, until 8:30am which, we keep reminding ourselves, was 6:30am just three days ago. We went to breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet where I wandered by the dessert/pastry bar (I have thus far avoided it altogether except to get peanut better) and saw...STOLLEN!  I knew in my heart it had probably been available for days, but had tried not to think about it. However, it’s Christmas, and I decided to treat myself to one slice. It was worth the wait (especially for that little circle of marzipan in the middle). 

Destination Expert Wendy Fuller spoke on the ports of Gisborne and Wellington at 10am in the Princess Theater, two ports that are new to us this cruise, so we went to that and then watched the turkey carving demonstration in the Piazza with Sous Chef Denise (chosen in lieu of our Indian Executive Chef because she is from the US) and Maitre d’ Carlos. Then it was back to the Princess Theater for Maori Ambassador Kane Holmes’ Walata Mai singalong. 

We ate lunch outside on the Terrace Deck on a warm and sunny day, with a view of the ship’s wake. On Christmas Eve!  It simply doesn’t get any better than that. There were all sorts of good things to choose from at lunch in the Buffet today, and I had a salmon salad and black bean salad and some of the gorgeous (!) whole halibut they were slicing. It was perfectly moist and delicious.

Executive Sous Chef Denise ready for Christmas

Rounding the northern part of New Zealand

Following lunch, I walked on the Promenade Deck AND went to the Fitness Center. I’m not sure where exercise (besides lots of walking) will fit into our next six days in ports and decided to be good today. 

We skipped the Ta Moko Maori face painting and learning the Haka in the Piazza with Kane, as we had done both of those last time we were in New Zealand, and also didn’t participate in the gingerbread house  building contest, but those were just two of the many activities available this afternoon. The Patter was packed!

We had invited drummer Giovanni to join us for dinner one night, and there were a lot of approvals and rescheduling that were required, but tonight it finally came together, and the fact that it was Christmas Eve made it all the more special. We have known Giovanni since he first started working for Princess. He is from Catania, Sicily, and it was nice to be able to talk about our visits there last year. After dinner, we went to the Piazza for Christmas caroling with the officers and staff, and I was reminded of Christmases on the Pacific Princess with Jere Ring accompanying us on the keyboard, and, last year, Captain D waving his Santa hat in the air as he sang. And Santa arriving on a tender boat in Bora Bora. We’ve had some really good Christmases on Princess ships (6 of the past 7 years) and I’ve come a long way since the tears I shed on our first Christmas away from home. 

The entertainment tonight in the Princess Theater was magician Brad Manuel, but we chose to skip that in favor of listening to the Golden Princess band (and Giovanni!) playing jazz in the Wheelhouse Bar. Next we will move to the Promenade Lounge to listen to piano entertainer Juan Carmelo Escobar until the midnight service. We can sleep in a little tomorrow morning, which is a good thing. We’ll need it!