The alarm was turned off and, for the first time in weeks, we had nothing we had to race out of bed to do. The knowledge of this fact alone made for a good night's sleep; add to it our exhaustion after all our recent busy-ness and I slept until nearly 8am. I looked around the cabin to see if room service had been delivered (I hadn’t heard a thing), and, sure enough, it was sitting there on the vanity. G must have let them in, eaten part of a pastry and a few slices of orange and fallen back asleep.
I’ll interject here that we do have kettles and packets of instant coffee in each cabin. Our room steward, Soupe from Thailand, told us they will be removed after this cruise, and only put back in the cabins when the Sapphire returns to Southampton next spring. I know the Brits love their kettles in the cabin and apparently Princess does too. My point in mentioning this now is that I ordered only hot water and herbal tea from room service for breakfast, so I could easily have just used the decaf coffee that was already in the cabin or a few of the tea bags I brought from home. But since G wanted some food, too, the order was placed.
Once awake, I lingered in bed even longer, reading Rick Steves” Mediterranean Cruise Ports book on my iPad (I had downloaded our local library’s copy using the Overdrive app just before we left). G raced out of the cabin to sign up for the Egg Drop Challenge later in the cruise (I could tell he’d been thinking about that one since we did it on the Golden Princess in January), and I did eventually officially start my day, but I had warned G that these were going to be two days of relaxation and rebuilding for me, and stuck to my guns. I’ll be getting plenty of walking in ports (16000 steps yesterday, despite six hours sitting on a bus!); no need to be walking on the ship, and, though it wouldn’t hurt for me to do some strength training in the fitness center occasionally, it will be done on a whim, not planned into my days. In other words, sea days are going to be days of rest that allow me to get through our many port days.
I spent most of the rest of the morning figuring out where things were in this cabin. I had unpacked in such a rush Sunday, and only managed to squeeze it in before the muster drill because that had been delayed, but nothing was logically put away. The problem was that I had liquid toiletries I’d packed and liquid toiletries in my carry on that I used in London, and the same for dry toiletries, so I had two of some things out to be used, and none of other things, and still hadn’t found the Bose noise cancelling headphones I’d used on our flight to London. Those were not cheap, and I needed to hunt them down. They were eventually found, as was everything else I was searching for, and I feel more settled as a result.
Something caught us off guard yesterday. Word went around that we needed to take our passports or a copy of our passports ashore with us in Le Havre. We never take our passports ashore, particularly not in pickpocket-prone areas. And we did have color copies of our passports...but do you think we could find them? No, we could not. So we walked off with our actual passports, mine in a money belt around my middle. That’s why, when we were approached by those miscreants on the Pont Alexandre III, I was far more irritated than worried that they might actually steal something from us. Today I gathered up the passport copies so we’ll have them for our other ports. And also today, we did find something in writing in our cabin telling us we’d need our passports or passport copies ashore. It’s just that we had not had the chance to read that before we arrived in our first port.
Remember what I said about a starter’s pistol? Yeah, it’s been exactly like that until today.
I met up with G for lunch in the International Dining Room. Actually, I first went to the midship dining room on Deck 6, as that is where lunch is usually served on sea days, but there was a garage sale taking place in there. So I walked down to the midship dining room on Deck 5 but that wasn’t open. (Honestly, I’m not even certain right now what the names of those dining rooms are. I know there’s the Santa Fe and Savoy and the Pacific Moon, but the fourth name eludes me and I couldn’t say which is which.) That took me up to Guest Services to get a Patter so I could see where lunch was being served, and that was the first time since we boarded that I’d actually held a Patter in my hand. Talk about playing catch up! It turns out that the dining room breakfasts and lunches are being served in the International Dining Room on Deck 6 aft, the same one in which we have dinner. So it was up to Deck 7, then back to the aft stairs and down to Deck 6 and the International Dining Room. I’ll get the hang of this cruising thing eventually. I think it might be easier if I had never before cruised on a Princess ship, because I would be much more attentive to the whats and wheres. Instead I’m just going on instinct, which is letting me down.
Lunch was chatty, with a couple from Reno and another from Western Australia. I had special ordered the grilled veggies starter but without the sliced deli meat it usually included. They breaded some calamari for me specially with no dairy and I added some gazpacho and it was a delicious meal. I returned to the cabin to start this post (I love it when I can do that on sea days!) and G went off to do...something. We met back up for the BIG!!!!!! $1000 Treasure Hunt Drawing*!!! (*must be present to win), held in Club Fusion at 3:15pm and, naturally, won NOTHING. Oh, I bet that’s where G went, around to the various departments to get those stamps on the entry forms. Then it was hot tub time, pool time, formal night clean up and dinner at 5:30pm in the International Dining Room (give me a second to set up that keyboard shortcut, because typing that out every time is already starting to get old).
Headwaiter Adrian from Romania is being very attentive to my dietary requirements. Since I know to avoid meat, but I will eat some fish, he told me to ask for items to be made lactose free during breakfasts and lunches when he is not with me, and that has worked a charm. Tonight I had a fruit starter, a salad and shrimp Diablo that actually had some kind of creamy sauce on it, but it was vegan friendly and delicious. Then for dessert, I was surprised with a slice of fruit pie with a vegan crust and whipped topping. I’m so glad someone knows how to make these things!
The Captain’s Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall started at 7pm, and we stayed for a few minutes talking with junior officers from Guest Services and then we made tracks to the Princess Theater for tonight’s production show, Bravo. Well bravo for Bravo! I think this was one of our top three favorite productions shows we’ve seen on Princess. As we were delivering a much-deserved standing ovation at the end, I was thinking, “I’ve got to see this again at 10pm”. As soon as the curtain fell, G turned to me and said, “I’ve got to see this again at 10pm”. And we did, and I can’t remember the last time we did that on a cruise. What a great show!
Afterward, we stopped by the International Cafe for late night decaf cappuccinos, which were made by none other than Andrea, one of our favorite bartenders on the Pacific Princess. And as we walked to the elevator afterward, we ran into Food and Beverage Manager Melldon, who we’ve known for years. We never count on seeing familiar faces on board, but somehow we always do. And we’ve seen two couples we know from prior years’ cruises, too. It’s a fun part of cruising.
I know I said I’d have some comments about our cabin upgrade and the Sapphire Princess in general, but it is 12:19pm, and I think I need to end this here. I’ll do more catch up tomorrow, which is another sea day.
We don’t like them until we need them. And then they’re the best. ;-)