Monday, February 3, 2020

Day 132: At Sea

What a day. What a fantastic football day. And not only was this a fantastic day, it brought back wonderful memories of the day the Broncos won Super Bowl 50 while we were on the Emerald Princess. 

I love this!!!!

Of course, there were some positives and negatives about watching the Super Bowl on the Majestic Princess in Australia. Positives: The game started at 10:30am Sydney time. Sure, G was still waking me up at 7am, telling me he had primo seats for the game and I needed to get out there and sit in one, but at least we didn’t have a 12 hour wait for kickoff as we do when we’re on a ship in the Caribbean. Another plus:  There are just over 200 Americans on board this cruise. It was kind of nice to have a get together of sorts, especially since we’ve been out of the country for 132 days. Naturally, I’m assuming every American on board was there to watch the game, but surely they were, right?  

But, oh my, the viewing situation was the pits. The ship was only licensed to show the game in one venue, and it wasn’t shown on MUTS (instead, 40-year old Grease was being shown. This was criminal.), nor in Princess Live, which would have been perfect, or even the Vista-less Lounge. No, we were watching a large-ish screen in the Hollywood Conservatory, with its large skylight creating awful glares on the TV. Many of us complained, but it fell on deaf ears. That’s why G was up at 6am and got chairs with the glare on just one side of the TV. 

Besides, once we all stood for the National Anthem and the game began, and they brought in the tailgating snacks, we kinda sorta forgot about the glare. 


Not the best viewing situation, but my husband got usme the seats with the least glare


That’s a pretty impressive football

As is customary with the international feed, we didn’t get the usual commercials but we did see halftime, which hasn’t always been the case. But the real attraction was that game, and what a fantastic game it was. I was right in my prediction yesterday about the pacing of the game; at 1pm, it was in the bottom of the third quarter, but it was San Francisco who was up by two scores. By the start of Q4, we were resigning ourselves to the worst. OMG that was one fantastic quarter!! I am so excited for Kansas City and cruise friends Fungirl and Nancy and Yvonne and Amy. Enjoy it ladies. It’s just the first of several, I’m sure. 


Who couldn’t be happy for Andy Reid?

If it can’t be the Broncos (or the Saints), this is the next best thing

G had been eating tailgate food (extremely non-vegan) all game long, but I went to the World Fresh Marketplace during halftime and got chips and guac which was good football food. We never really ate lunch, but this was the menu in the Concerto Dining Room:


Day 14 lunch menu, page 1


 Day 14 lunch menu, page 2

When the Broncos won Super Bowl 50, the feed cut off immediately after the game and we didn’t see the presentation of the Lombardi trophy but today the coverage lasted well after the game, which was great, because ESPN disappeared off our cabin TVs when the game started and still hasn’t returned tonight (which kind of stinks). We are watching news coverage of the game on ABC...and that’s not the American Broadcasting Company, if you know what I mean, so coverage is scant. 

We made it to the Elite Lounge in the Vista-less Lounge and then to dinner, where it was nice to be hungry for a change. Francesco has pretty much taken over my meal planning and every dinner is once again exciting, which is great because I was sort of burning out on the food there for awhile. 


Day 14 dinner menu, page 1


Day 14 dinner menu, page 2


Day 14 dessert menu

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was Voice of the Ocean at 6:45pm, and that doesn’t work at all with a 5:15pm dinner time, so we instead sat in the Piazza and listened to Acoustic Rush play for the better part of 90 minutes. Very nice and very relaxing. There is a variety show tonight at 10pm with Rietta Austin and Bruce Mathiski (who scheduled these shows tonight??), but our early wake up today and again tomorrow won’t let us stay up for it. Instead, we ended our evening with a pass through the World Fresh Marketplace for watermelon. I’ve decided that, if this season’s blog was a book, I’d have to title it My Watermelon Winter. Or My Walking Winter. My Watermelon and Walking Winter. Yes, that perfectly sums it up. 

Life is good. :-)


Day 14 Princess Patter, page 1


Day 14 Princess Patter, page 2


Day 14 Princess Patter, page 3


Day 14 Princess Patter, page 4