The first post of each season:

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Day 83: At Sea

We were asleep so early last night that we were wide awake by 6am. Still, I waited until after breakfast to start the blog post from last night. I knew it was going to take some time...and it did. Between doing some hand laundry, writing the post and rounding up a few things for the trash, including (are you sitting down?), the removable boot and crutches I boarded the ship with, that filled my time until lunch. 

The boot was one I’d had since the 1990s. It wasn’t my first one ever (it was probably my third one), and I really had no emotional attachment to it. In fact, the Velcro straps were so shredded that I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did after this recent surgery.  But the crutches...they were the ones I’d gotten in the emergency room the day of my injury. I was a tad nostalgic about them, but I was on my fourth set of cushioned pads for them, and actually have a newer pair of crutches still at home. I haven’t needed crutches in almost two months. It was time to say goodbye. Steward Vincente stored them on his housekeeping cart until he could get them in the trash. 


That’s not something you see every day on a cruise ship. 
Proof of the healing powers of the Ruby Princess. ;-)


Day 4 lunch menu, page 1


Day 4 lunch menu, page 2

The weather today was beautiful, not hot, of course, but comfortable enough to be outside in a hot tub, and that’s how we spent part of our afternoon. Still in a cleaning mood, I tossed the season’s first two items of clothing:  a pair of undies where the elastic was so stretched by the heat of the ship’s commercial dryers that I nearly had to duct tape them at the top to hold them up and the bottom to hold them down, and a single sock with a hole in the toe. But the latter left me with an issue tonight when I sent its mate to the laundry. I usually write the number “1”?on the laundry form to designate one pair of socks. But how does one send in a single sock? Is it correct to write 1/2?  I settled on “1 sock”. I brought six pairs of these socks on this trip, and feel quite confident that my single sock will soon find a companion when another sock develops a hole. 

We spent a few minutes Skywalkers for the Elite Lounge before going to dinner not even a little bit hungry. I had the stir fried calamari and sorbet for dessert (because there’s always room for sorbet), and we went to the Princess Theater early enough to get good seats for tonight’s production show, Once Upon a Dream.  


Day 4 dinner menu, page 1


Day 4 dinner menu, page 2


Day 4 dessert menu

We left the Princess Theater and walked along Deck 16 to the back of the ship. It was still light out, and the Tasman Sea today had been like a pond. What a beautiful evening. 



We booked an all day tour online today for Hobart tomorrow. We’ve never used this company before, but we are fairly confident it will go well. This is Australia, where we can hold out a palm-full of change to pay for things in a store, and not only are we not taken advantage of, we are offered some bills in exchange for what is left, just to lighten our load. 

We love it here. :-)


Day 4 Princess Patter, page 1


Day 4 Princess Patter, page 2


Day 4 Princess Patter, page 3


Day 4 Princess Patter, page 4