We received letters (one for each of us) last night about a presentation taking place in Princess Live studio this morning at 9am for in transit passengers...with the added inducement of mimosas. G was totally on board with this, and left the cabin early to walk around and get coffee at the International Cafe before he attended. I couldn’t imagine that there was a lot about a Sydney turnaround we didn’t yet know, and so decided to sleep in, relying on G to relay any new nuggets of knowledge to me.
That was a mistake. Not because I missed important information (it was important information, but it wasn’t new important information), but because G and I hadn’t agreed on where and when we might meet up later this morning. We’re struggling with that on this ship. On the Grand Class ships, where our cabin is frequently near the back of the ship, the Terrace Deck or the Horizon Court Buffet tables right above our cabin is our standard place to meet up. We don’t yet have one on the Majestic Princess. We’ve been relying on a small whiteboard that is stuck on our cabin wall with magnets to leave notes but it’s about as effective as the Princess@Sea app because it lacks notification ability.
So I ended up keeping myself busy in the cabin washing and rinsing and hanging up to dry some minor laundry items, pulling out the last of the toiletries and prescription meds from the roll aboard case under the bed (nothing signifies the end of a season drawing near quite like the dwindling of our inventory), gathering up the extra wire hangers in the closet and generally killing time until my husband returned. Finally, it was approaching 11am and I was long past antsy. I scribbled a note on the whiteboard and walked out of the cabin...and right into him. If we had unlimited MedallionNet internet on this ship, if it was a Medallion Class ship, if Princess@Sea had notification capability, if this was a smaller ship (on the Pacific Princess, the crew tells me where he is), if we were the kind of couple that goes everywhere together on a cruise (preferably with me leading and him following), this wouldn’t be an issue.
G did actually follow me then...into the World Fresh Marketplace where I had some coffee and fruit, and then we fell back into the usual pattern of me following him down to Alfredo’s pizzeria, where we shared a half vegan and half pepperoni pizza. Two slices of pizza each are perfect for us.
We did not have lunch in the Concerto Dining Room, but here was today’s menu:
Day 12 lunch menu, page 1
Day 12 lunch menu, page 2
Though the day started out rather overcast, the sun eventually came out and the Tasman Sea was placid today. We used a hot tub on Deck 17 with its expansive views of the sea. I do wish the hot tubs on the Majestic Princess- on Princess, in general- were more than lukewarm.
G was cleaned up and dressed in his tuxedo for formal night #981 of the season before he went to the Grapevine Wine Tasting at 3pm. That gave me full run of the cabin to get myself ready, though that process is considerably faster since my hair is as short as 1/2” in some places. Blow drying time is about 45 seconds. Love it! There was no Elite Lounge tonight because of the Captains Circle parties taking place at 5pm and 7pm.
Day 12 dinner menu, page 1
Day 12 dinner menu, page 2
Day 12 dessert menu
Can I just say that we are way past the point where the dining room food has a lot of allure for us anymore? Does that sound ungrateful? I hope not, because it’s not meant to. It’s just that, by this point in the season, we are craving the kind of meals we eat at home. Simple. Small. Speedy. G is definitely struggling with the Majestic Princess menus, which feature far less beef entrees than on the Ruby Princess. He fills in the non-beef days with chicken nuggets or spaghetti and meatballs, both from the children’s menu. I’m having salmon and brussel sprouts or broccoli or spinach at least half the time. I guess none of that is a huge surprise. If cruising was still about the food at this point, our clothes would have long since stopped fitting.
We were very honored to be the guests of second Most Traveled Guests Joy and Brian Byrne at tonight’s Captains Circle party. We have gotten quite close with them from the cruises we’ve been on together this season on both the Ruby and the Majestic. Captain Dino Sagani is leaving the ship for a couple of months in Sydney, and was joined at the party by his wife and darling toddler daughter.
Cruise Director Andrew Kadillac had made an announcement that the first performance production show Fantastic Journey had to be cancelled tonight due to technical difficulties. That happened last cruise, too, didn’t it? It was still going to be performed at 10pm, and again tomorrow afternoon at 1pm, but we chose to stay in the Vista-less Lounge after the Captains Circle party to see comedian-impressionist Fogwell Flax’s show at 8:15pm. After his show a couple of nights ago, I told G that he wasn’t as bad as I thought he would be, and that was a fairly common opinion around the ship. His is not high brow entertainment, but neither is it geared at grade school level. We enjoyed his show again tonight. His delivery style saves his show.
We would have liked to stay up late for the 10pm performance of Fantastic Journey, but we have an early wake up scheduled for tomorrow morning. The AFC Championship game will start about 8am our time, and pre-game coverage will begin at least two hours before that. We know where our priorities lie.
Go Chiefs! :-)
Day 12 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 12 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 12 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 12 Princess Patter, page 4