It’s a little tough getting up, getting dressed and putting contacts in while it’s still dark outside, but payoff comes when I get to see another beautiful sunrise. Today it was apparent that the Emerald Princess was heading more east than south on its approach to Puerto Vallarta, so we went up to the jogging track on Deck 19 and watched as the sky grew orange. It was beautiful.
Our old (and current) stomping grounds on the back of the ship
It was also hot and muggy, and even that early in the morning, it was obvious that it was going to be a scorching day. We went to Sabatini’s for breakfast, and I was determined (!!) that I was going to eat more sparingly today, starting with breakfast. Just one cappuccino, one mimosa and a fruit plate. It’s not exciting, but, enjoyed in Sabatini’s with its view behind the ship, it still feels special.
The four slices of crispy bacon? Not mine. 😉
We took our phones off Airplane Mode and received the familiar “welcome to a new country text” from T-Mobile. I’ve said in the past that I save these texts. They’re a bit like stamps in a passport and it’s fun to see all the countries we’ve visited.
The COVID break was a long one!
By 10am the real feel was 97°,
By 10am the real feel was 97°,
and we decided to make it a ship day.
We used the Terrace Pool for the first time this morning. It’s been extremely cold, but is finally starting to warm up. And sitting in the sun after we got out was a great way to handle the heat of the day. I was going to skip lunch, and I didn’t have a large one, but I still ate a little. More importantly, it was my first time eating in the World Fresh Marketplace, and with so many guests off the ship, it was a good time to take some photos to show you what a buffet in the Age of COVID looks like.
Any food that can be served cold or room temperature is plated on little plates and guests can help themselves. I only took one photo of the hot food area: it is pretty much unchanged except guests are served those foods. Director of Restaurant…whatever (the former maitre d’) Rui told us tonight that the DaVinci Dining Room was open for lunch today for those guests staying on board. It was in the Patter but we missed it. Actually, I’m glad we had a chance to try the World Fresh Marketplace.
Chips, guacamole and salsa seemed an appropriate lunch today,
accompanied by a Tuscan white bean salad (in the flower pot)
We changed back into swimsuits, layered on the sunscreen and spent the majority of the afternoon in the large hot tub on the back of Deck 17. We met another couple with our same names (just one letter difference…really) and hit it off so well that we chatted the entire time. G kept making longing looks at the Sams Club and WslMart across the street from the port, but I squashed that idea. They are close but that main street is not easy to cross and we needed nothing anyway.
Around 3:30pm I had baked enough, and returned to the cabin to shower. G stepped off the ship and wandered the shopping area right at the pier for a short time just before we sailed (he cannot refrain from leaving the ship in every port). He then swung by the Explorers Lounge to look for a tiny screw that had fallen out of his glasses hinge while we were listening to Symphonee last night. He felt it might be in or around the sofa we had been sitting on. As soon as he started looking for it, junior bar waiter IGede was there in a flash and on his knees feeling around on the floor. IGede unbelievably found it, under the sofa cushion, and G went right to Guest Services to write a commendation about him. That’s service above and beyond, but that’s what we’re being treated to on this cruise.
We both cut way back on our food at dinner and we cut out the bottle of Pellegrino we’ve been ordering every night too. We are having dinner at the Crown Grill steakhouse tomorrow night and I want to be hungry when I get there. I had the gazpacho and the appetizer ceviche and was done.
Reader Mary emailed me to ask about the varied ice cream flavors that used to be available for dessert, along with a different sorbet flavor every night. Gone.. No longer. Sadly, the choices are just chocolate and vanilla. This change really hurts. On warm itineraries, G usually ordered ice cream and I ordered sorbet for dessert. I will have to go back and look at our Alaska cruises on the Majestic Princess. I don’t remember if ice cream was on the dessert menu or not, but then ice cream was not G’s first choice for dessert in Alaska.
Sorry about the shadows. It is impossible to scan the menus without
getting a shadow from the iPhone.
And then -joy of joys- Monday Night Football was being shown on MUTS starting at 6pm. We didn’t care who was playing, we didn’t care who won, we just wanted to sit in a lounger and watch football on a warm night on the Emerald Princess. And we did!! Talk about memories!!!
Monday Night Football on MUTSAll’s right in my world. 🙂
Still, we pulled away in the fourth quarter to go the the Princess Theater to see comedian Troy Thirdguli’s show. We’ve seen him many times before, and always enjoyed his show, but it became a little more improv tonight when some guests kept interrupting. That really changes things up.
And then we walked back to the cabin across the Lido Deck, where G finally got his ice cream fix at Cones, the ice cream shop on board, with a vanilla soft serve. It’s hard to believe he waited until Day 4 to get his first one! We now have four sea days before we reach the Panama Canal. This itinerary would typically have more port stops, but our feelings right now are quite a bit different than they used to be. Puerto Vallarta almost felt like an interruption to this blissful life on board, and, when the Panama Canal and the sea day after are considered, we now face six straight days in the ship. We feel safe, we feel pampered and we feel content.
That’s a lot to be grateful for.
And, finally, we were told something today that makes sense. There are a lot of crew members on board. They are falling over each other attending to our every need. Many of them are transferring to another ship in the Caribbean when they start up, and are here training. It’s a really unique situation. Years ago I was on a Celebrity ship when it repositioned from Fort Lauderdale to Caracas for the South American season. There were only 700 guests on a ship meant to hold 1800, but the usual number of crew. What we’re experiencing on the Emerald Princess is unprecedented.in our cruising career. I’m so glad we’re here to enjoy it.
Also, to maintain social distancing for the crew when they dine, the Michelangelo Dining Room on Deck 5 is now crew dining only, particularly for crew that interacts with guests. These are strange times…
Day 4 Princess Patter
