The first post of each season:

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Day 75: At Sea (in lieu of Gisborne)

I’ll be honest...after long walks each of the last two days, when Captain Pomata announced that Gisborne had closed their port for two days due to high winds and we would instead have a day at sea, I wasn’t too terribly disappointed. The allure of an entire day with nothing to do sounded pretty good last night. I’ve always thought that the perfect cruising schedule would be two or three port days, then a sea day. Repeat, possibly forever. 

It was rough last night, but not horribly so. I thought we slept fairly well, but, once again my Fitbit told me otherwise. It said I got 22 minutes of sleep overnight. I think it’s a bit like sleeping on a plane; I might not be awake for 4 or 5 hours on an overnight flight, but I don’t feel as rested as I would after 4 or 5 hours of sleep in my own bed. I was awake around 7:30am and it was still pretty bouncy this morning. I had a quick breakfast (oatmeal and fruit) in the Horizon Court Buffet and then returned to the cabin. Meanwhile, G was intermittently sleeping and watching college football on TV, so I spent most of the rest of the morning reading and watching too. 

We went to lunch together in the Horizon Court Buffet (vegetable curry for me) and then, once the stewards carts were no longer in the corridors, I did about an hour of walking inside. I didn’t want to be on a treadmill; nor did I want to be out on the Promenade Deck (I’m not even certain it was open). After an hour of walking I still hadn’t passed by every passenger cabin. This is a big ship!

We went to dinner right at 5pm (seafood starter, salad and fish with vegetables), to allow us to get to Skywalkers for the Most Traveled Guest cocktail party. We really should just skip dinner before going to the party, but we can’t bring ourselves to do that either. Assistant Waiter Lydia observed tonight that we were quiet at dinner, and we said we think it is finally settling in that, seven nights from tonight we will be on a plane bound for Hawaii. We are treasuring these last few dinners in the Golden Princess. It is becoming clear to us that 80 days of cruising is not enough.

Oh, stop with the eye rolling!  ;-)

So far, the weather is looking good for getting into Wellington tomorrow, which doesn’t necessarily mean the weather will be good for sightseeing. We have a couple of things to do in mind, but will wait to see what the day brings. We’ve been told the temperature will be about 60F, which is fine if the sun shines but pretty darn cold if it rains.