Merry Christmas!
We never did wake up to attend last night’s midnight interdenominational Christmas service. We were surprisingly wiped out after our day at the Siam Bayshore (I had to force myself last night to write yesterday’s blog post). I think it simply takes less and less to wear us out each day as this season progresses. But there was another Christmas service this morning at 9:15am in Club Fusion, and we easily made it to that one.
I was awake at 6am, and took advantage of that time to wash out the clothes I had worn yesterday. I should have done that last night, but since I had clean clothes to wear today, didn’t absolutely have to. Washing and rinsing and wringing and hanging…it’s the glamorous side of a season of cruising. ;-) I am sending very little to ship’s laundry these days, and G never has. I could probably wash another load of my dinner clothes at the passenger laundries, but it may have to wait until we get to Hawaii or return home.
MUTS featured an entire line up of Christmas movies starting at 9:45am. Elliot, the Tiniest Reindeer, Four Christmases, the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Muppet Christmas Carol, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Man Who Invented Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas. And Pope Francis’ Mass from St. Peter’s Basilica, his Christmas message and the Queen’s Christmas message played on our cabin TVs. A Holiday Family Fun Fair was held in the Piazza this morning, the trivias were all holiday oriented and, of course, there were the usual sea day activities offered, too. I love when Christmas Day falls on a sea day; it’s much more inclusive and fun than when it’s a port day (not to mention that so many things are closed in ports on Christmas Day).
The biggest event began around 10am when the First Officer on the bridge made an announcement that they were seeing something on radar that looked suspiciously like reindeer and a sleigh. Around 11am we were in our cabin when we heard the ship’s horn blow several times in quick succession. Santa was here! We did not go down to the Piazza to see him, but we have in the past and know that it’s a darling scene.
From that point until dinner, it was a rather usual sea day. We had a nice lunch in the International Dining Room, and then did what we seem to do best on sea days this season: napped on and off and watched movies all afternoon. Not to belabor the point, but restful sea days are the only way we can get through these long, hot days in big Southeast Asia cities.
Tonight was formal night # 236 of the season. (One more. Just one more.) The dinner menu was nice but not spectacular as the cutbacks to Princess food continue. G ordered beef medallions and was served single medallion smaller than a deck of cards, certainly not more than 3 ounces. Seconds could not be placed on the same plate so Joffrey got him another whole entrée. Really, it’s Christmas! However, we still had the same wonderful dessert choices: panettone, English pudding and sauce and gingerbread soufflé. Oh, and mandarin sorbet for me (I had salmon and salad for dinner).
As is typically done on Christmas cruises, we had a Christmas variety show in the Princess Theater tonight. It was a hard decision, to choose between that and It’s a Wonderful Life on MUTS, but we’ve seen that movie at least 183 times, so live entertainment won out. It was especially nice this year, with a harious version of The Twelve Days of Christmas done by the Cruise Director’s staff. During the pre-show wait, the cruise staff passed out white balloons that turned the Princess Theater into a huge party.
They brought the little kids from kids club up for two carols at the end.
Tonight, more sleep is winning out over watching White Christmas on MUTS. We have still another early morning tomorrow as we take a bus 90 minutes into Ho Chi Minh City. We considered just staying on the ship…for about a minute. The sights and sounds and smells of Saigon are drawing us back.