On this night, when it is 10;30pm as I type these first words, and I haven't uploaded a single pic yet, I am reminded of the sage words of friend Tracie-Lynn: the hardest part of blogging…is blogging. Fortunately, I truly did nothing today- not a thing- so telling you about my day should take about 3 paragraphs. And I do have lots of pics to upload so this post won’t look too anemic. I hope.
First, I must confess that I have been keeping something from you in the hopes that it would all disappear, but, so far, no luck. But I feel I must explain: otherwise, you’re going to be thinking that I have become quite slothful, which is true, but there’s a reason behind it. On Thursday, after the cross country race but just before our ride arrived to take us to the airport, I was carrying my 34 pound suitcase down the stairs when I did something to my knee. It was one of those “oh darn (or something a little stronger)” moments when I knew something had happened but hoped it was a temporary thing. Frankly, I’m still hoping that, but spent today researching orthopedic surgeons near us and Googling “Medial Cruciate Ligament tear recovery”. This is not going away as quickly as I had hoped. During my best moments, it hurts a lot. During my worst moments, I would love to go to the Medical Center to see if they have crutches I could buy, but I’m too sore to get there. However, I do have a glimmer of hope tonight. The walk from the Princess Theater to our cabin at the back of the ship was a smidge easier. 🤞🏼
So my goal every day is to RICE the injury. Cabin steward Mighty Mo keeps me well provided with ice, and I spend our days alternating between our cabin, the balcony and the pool and hot tub on the back of the ship. These six consecutive sea days are a real God-send. But I’m making an appointment for as soon as I get home just in case.
Sigh. It’s always something.
For the first time today, it was quite overcast this morning and there was no sunrise. As a result, we were a little later getting to Sabatini’s for breakfast…but it didn’t matter. Sabatini’s breakfast is open until 10:30am on sea days. Also for the first time, at our doppelgänger friends’ recommendation, I had the brioche French toast and G had the poached egg served over potatoes with hollandaise sauce on the side. Oh my. They were delicious! Rui stopped by to tell us that he spoke with the technical department on board and it is believed that the cause of the vibration in the back of the ship (it’s much better in our cabin but still pretty bad in the Botticelli Dining Room) is algae and barnacle growth on the hull of the ship due to traveling at low speeds and sitting at anchor for 18 months. The water flow around the hull has been considerably disrupted as a result.
Beginning tomorrow, more of the crew is returning to the crew dining room for their meals and the remainder of them will move to noisy Botticelli and those of us in Botticelli will move to Michelabgeli but we will have similar tables and the same waitstaff in a dining room that is configured totally differently and, oh boy, was Rui busy today arranging all that and notifying guests of the change. Our doppelgänger friends joined us on their way out of the restaurant and we stayed another hour discussing travel, one of my favorite topics to talk about.
WiFi speed this morning
Medallionnet WiFi is fast enough to do everything I need to do.
In fact, I uploaded 10 photos tonight in less than a minute.
We relaxed on our balcony until G decided he did want to eat lunch today (I had planned to skip it), but we both ate lightly because of our reservation at the Crown Grill Steakhouse tonight. While we were there, we chatted at length with Assistant Director of Restaurant Operations (formerly known as the assistant maitre d’) Hermanio. He explained some of the work that was required to get galleys that had not been used for over a year operational again and all I can say is that it has been a massive and unprecedented effort to get these ships started up again.
Black bean salad today, and German potato salad, which I haven’t had in 30 years
I discovered this formal night hor doerves order form in our cabin last night.
That should have been a hint….
We didn’t go to any meals in the dining rooms today, so I captured these menus from the ocean concierge website (since the app still doesn’t have them).
G spent the afternoon out and about, including playing bocce ball on Deck 19 this afternoon.. He said it was beastly hot up there. I iced and napped and read, and pulled myself together for dinner just minutes before our reservation time. When we got down on Deck 7, I saw a man in a white tuxedo, and thought there must have been a wedding on board. Then I saw more people all dressed up, and the photographers had their backdrops set up to take photos. It finally occurred to us that this was the second formal night of the cruises. Doh. No wonder we had the formal night hora doerves order form in our cabin. I wanted to run back to the cabin to get changed, but I can’t exactly run anywhere right now. And formal night attire is not required in Crown Grill anyway. Oh well.
It turned out to be a 3 hour dinner. Waiter Wilfred from India was extremely attentive but we didn’t help him pace the meal very well when people kept stopping by the table and we talked for quite a while with each of them. The Emerald has an extremely friendly management team, and they are all so happy to be back. Actually, many of them have been on the ship even during the shut down, but they’re happy to have passengers back on board with them.
We had just enough time to swing in to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to guitarist David Barrett play some Eagles songs and then went to the Princess Theater for showtime. Tonight’s entertainer was saxophonist Tommy Proulx accompanied by the Emerald Princess show band. G’s dad was a professional saxophonist so he particularly enjoyed the show. His desire to hear live music (besides that performed by his wife, I guess) has certainly been met on this cruise.
And that was the extent of our day. As I said at the start, I think I might be a little better tonight, but I’ve experienced a lot of “2steps forward, 3 steps back” since we boarded this ship. But hope springs eternal. Tomorrow could well be the day I turn the corner.
