We had been up late last night watching the 10pm movie on MUTS, and it was after 1am when I finished writing yesterday’s blog post. When I couldn’t get a WiFi signal, I didn’t try too long to find it; there had been a notice in yesterday’s Patter that the ship’s position from 10am to 4pm would prevent it from receiving a satellite signal. That made no sense; we were at anchor in the Port of Benoa before, during and after those hours. Perhaps the Patter was meant to have read 10pm to 4am, because I was unable to get online during those hours.
Not that the internet speed on the Sapphire Princess has been anything to write home about, but I’m inclined to believe it’s more a geographical issue than a ship one. I don’t recall having trouble downloading emails when we were on the ship in Europe in October as I am now. Luckily, our cellular internet speed yesterday in Bali was quite good, so I was able to upload the photos in that post.
Due to our late night, we didn’t stir until nearly 9am today, but, for only the second time this cruise, we did make it to breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet (smoked salmon with honeydew melon, my new favorite combination). We lingered for awhile, drinking coffee with soy milk (even my husband thinks it improves the taste of Princess coffee) and nibbling on pastries (it’s stollen time!). Eventually, I uttered those words that seem to be spoken at least once every cruising season, “Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to lunch”.
British Pub Lunch was offered in the Savoy Dining Room today. I just wasn’t feeling it today, but accompanied G and watched him eat his fish and chips. Then he joined me in the International Dining Room where I had special ordered a vegetable stir fry with tofu. We were seated at a table for eight and really enjoyed chatting with our table mates so we lingered there, too, and that is how it came to be 2:15pm and all we had done all day is sleep, eat and talk.
Sounds like a sea day to me!
I was led unknowingly into this cruise’s ‘garage sale’ in one of the empty dining rooms, where unsold items from the shops are offered at discount. I normally avoid this like the plague, but, there I found myself, in the midst of that mayhem, and, without a chair to plop myself in to wait, I started digging through the stacks of port T-shirts looking for what I knew G wanted: heather grey port T’s with the name of an itinerary on the front and a map of the itinerary on the back. He loves these things (it matters not if he’s actually cruised on the itinerary) and, at home, is generally wearing either a T-shirt from a race or a Princess T. He is a walking billboard. I did find six in his size; he chose three for $6.30 each after our Elite discount and the suitcases just got heavier.
We did spend a few minutes strolling (it wasn’t as ambitious as a walk) on the Promenade Deck and sat for a few minutes in those padded teak loungers (love that there are almost always some available, and that the Promenade is wide enough to accommodate them). We returned to the cabin then, because G was convinced(!!) that we needed to participate in this cruise’s Egg Drop Contest. If you have never done this, even if you are not the participative type (like me), even if you’d rather be doing just about anything else (like me), do try it once. It always ends up being one of the most fun activities of the cruise.
Cruise Director Paul Chandler-Burns has gone on vacation, and CD Marcus Prince J (I haven’t quite figured out that surname) has taken his place. Marcus ran this event splendidly. When only three people signed up for it a few days ago, he had two tables brought in and provided a bunch of supplies and people in the Piazza participated in droves. And by the time the first egg was dropped, there were a couple of hundred passengers standing from Decks 5 to 7 watching and counting down and oohing and aaahing and groaning as some of the contraptions landed so heavily that the egg was almost certainly broken.
As it turned out, all but three eggs survived, and we again won some minor prizes we won’t have room to take home.
Participation in the egg drop contest was so high that it was nearly 4:30pm by the time we returned to the cabin and it was immediately necessary to start cleaning up for the evening. We ate lightly at dinner (I had shrimp pad thai) because the Most Traveled Guest cocktail party began at 7pm, and, as always, the food was simply amazing. We sat with Dr. Diane and her father from Cairns and JoJo and Tony, who we met on the London to Rome cruise (they’ve been on since October 21) and we all had such a great time we finally left Skywalkers when the disco started at 10pm.
That ended my plan to watch tonight’s MUTS movie The Greatest Showman with Hugh Jackman, but I will have several more opportunities to watch it on MUTS and it’s on our cabin TV too. Instead we returned to the cabin where G was asleep in 17 seconds and I am typing this post and half watching a replay on TV by enrichment lecturer Captain David Henderson, who is giving a presentation each sea day on the airline industry. He is a most interesting speaker, and I love not having to attend his lectures in person, but instead being able to watch them on my own schedule on TV.
Also excellent: Destination Expert Debbie Shields. She talks about the history and geography and government of each port, gives information on various worthwhile cultural, scenic, historical and/or entertaining attractions, and then, most importantly, tells us how to get to them, with quite detailed directions for getting through the port and accessing public or private transportation.
The quality of these lecturers on Princess varies greatly; our Destination Expert on the Pacific Princess two weeks ago had a marvelous British actor’s voice, beautiful slides…and not one bit of information on how to get anywhere. I remember trying to find the public bus station in Valletta, Malta (which, BTW, he had spelled incorrectly on all his slides…crazy making), thinking he hadn’t provided an ounce of useful information on how to get there, or even mentioned its existence.
Good mattresses, a good dining table, excellent waiters and cabin steward, attentive, friendly headwaiters , hot tubs that are actually hot, 24 hour laundry turnaround PLUS On Demand TV to watch the replays of these excellent lectures…we may never want to leave.
Life is good on the Sapphire Princess. :-)