We were awake early today (no surprise) and G went to the ice cream place on the Lido Deck (Scoops?) to get his latte but when I left the cabin about 30 minutes behind him, I headed right to the International Cafe. It was a good time to get there. I beat the crowd; by 7am or so a line had formed to get specialty coffees. G tried to find me using the Medallion App and couldn’t; he texted me instead, but that was when I realized I wasn’t even showing up in the app. I couldn’t check my onboard statement, couldn’t order food or use any of the other features. I figured I’d have to get that fixed sometime today. Fortunately, I was reading the Live From the Discovery Princess on Cruise Critic this afternoon and someone mentioned a similar issue was solved by logging out and logging back in. That remedied the issue and might help someone else sometime also.
We went to the same table for breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room that G’s been sitting at for weeks and met waiter Anatolio from Mexico and he was so much fun. We have that table at lunch, too, and he even came over to us at dinner tonight just to say HI. Best crew at sea, and the main reason we so often return to Princess despite our (occasionally) strained relationship with the company.
Wine bar Vines opened at 10am, and I settled in at a table by the window and tackled yesterday’s blog post. The sea had been very rough all night and most of today, but the difference between the movement in our cabin on Deck 14 Aft and Deck 5 midship where Vines is located was remarkable. Bar waiter Gusti set me up with a light and sweet wine. I will definitely return.
We returned to the DaVinci Dining Room for lunch (are you seeing a trend here?), and then changed into swimwear and went out to the Terrace Deck to use the pool and hot tub. We had just settled into loungers when rain moved in, and stayed for most of the rest of the day. Luckily, our balcony stayed dry and it was fun to watch the storm clouds build and disperse repeatedly the rest of the afternoon. I’ve said it before: the first couple of sea days en route to Hawaii are usually anything but tropical. We’ve encountered this same weather nearly every time we’ve cruised this route.
G has long lost the need to eat a lot at meals, and by dinner tonight I had already hit a wall and ordered just the Mexican salad made dinner sized and topped with grilled shrimp. It was one of my favorite meals ever, especially since I enjoyed a 24k gold margarita to go with it. My first margarita in five years…I can’t say enough good things about that.
Already ordering meals like I eat at home
Worth waiting for
We skipped the show in the Princess Theater again this evening. I am, frankly, a bit nervous, watching what is going to happen with COVID on board for the cruise’s first few days. If we don’t hear anymore about it, I’ll be more comfortable attending events on board when we get to Hawaii.
On other miscellaneous topics, once I signed in to the app again and it began working for me, I was able to order nightly turndown service. I love this. Love it! This, to me, defines cruising. Steward Joao (we call him JoJo) stopped us on our way to dinner to confirm that we really wanted it, especially since G has, to this point, been having what amounts to weekly service, and I told him I did. G joked with JoJo, “I told you things would change when she got here”. Damn straight. I really missed turndown service on the Emerald Princess in October. Returning in the evening to a dark cabin is a little too much like being at home.
And, finally, there are no Elite amenities at all in the cabin. I can live with that, but sure do miss having at least a tube of lotion. I was counting on that and didn’t bring any from home. I guess that’s item #1 in the Honolulu shopping list.
