Day 7: At Sea

I was up really late last night (actually, this morning). First, we are on the windy side of the ship and everything is rattling and shaking and squealing, I finally threw a pool towel over the hangers in the closet to calm them down, but was still pretty noisy. And about the time I started to drift off, my guys, in their typical “It’s Friday and we survived another week” fashion texted me to get caught up. No complaint here, not one, but I did have to finally mention that it was after 1:30am here and I needed to get some sleep. Love those guys!

Still, G was awake early, and snuck out of the cabin as quietly as possible. Between you and me, I did hear him but promptly fell back asleep…

…until our next door neighbor opened their sliding glass door and left it open most of the day. It’s wildly noisy, and it also renders us incapable of cooling our cabin. It’s not as much as issue now as it will be when we reach the Caribbean. Stay tuned to see how this works out. 

Life in an inside cabin is so much simpler. 

I was happily starving by the time lunch was served in the Allegro Dining Room starting at noon. I am finding so many good choices on this new lunch menu. Even though its options initially seemed more limited, I haven’t run out of choices yet. 

Today I again started with the collard greens from the chicken and waffles and then ordered the fish curry and the salmon poke bowl. It was all delicious and reasonably healthy. We’ve been served by Michael from the Philippines and Valentin from India for three days in a row and they simply can’t do enough for us. I do love that part of cruising!!

Fish curry

Salmon poke bowl

It was still very rolly (side to side) today. I risked the slippery floors in The Enclave simply because I love it there so much. In fact, I’m glad I set an alarm for 3:45pm, because I fell asleep on one of the heated tile loungers. That is remarkably relaxed for me. 

Cruise director Olivia announced that tonight’s champagne waterfall was postponed to another night, and G told me that all the pools are emptied and netted over, only a couple of hot tubs are open and several of the outer decks are closed off.  We’ve been on a ship when the champagne waterfall actually did collapse due to rough water. Postponing was wise. 

It was a Dress to Impress night, which is really no different for me than a formal night. I arrived in Crooners for a pre-dinner drink (Empress Kiss, an upscale gin and tonic) and was entertained by the Twins Tripp, a busker-type juggling act that everyone seemed to enjoy. They certainly had the audience engaged. I had seen them scheduled in the Patter but had no idea what they did and am glad I caught their act. 

Empress Kiss

They were so many good choices on tonight’s vegan that I ordered two entrees and ate part of each. I have no need to special order a meal a day ahead of time any longer. I can always count on something being available that I will like. 

Seaweed and tofu starter

Vegetable lasagna (wasn’t there a Seinfeld episode about that?)

Mushroom bourguignon

(I made this for Christmas dinner last year)

We arrived in the Princess Theater a full 30 minutes before show time, and there was barely a seat to be found. That is insane on what is supposed to be a relaxing retreat at sea. Luckily we like front row seats, except for comedians and magicians. 

Part of the seat shortage tonight was surely due to the fact that both vocalist Tom Ball and pianist Kyle Esplin have already performed on this cruise and we all knew how good they are. They actually performed one song together tonight and the crowd went wild. 

We finished our evening a little earlier tonight at the Wheelhouse Bar because of our port day tomorrow. Actually, I can’t wait to step on solid ground. Or even a stable cruise ship. This has been a little rough for those of us (me) with bad knees. There is no cushioning to absorb the deck going up and down and every step is a death defying exercise. 

And finally, I have no story tonight, but I will answer a question that was emailed to me yesterday. For years we had T-Mobile as our cellular provider and while we were overseas, we would have free data (albeit not speedy data) to use in ports. It worked great overseas…but we never had a signal at home and seldom had one around our town. They had no 5G towers in our area and we finally got tired of paying for service we didn’t have. At the same time, we were ready to cut the cable and ditch Xfinity also. 

Our house is located between two Verizon 5G towers, and we moved our home internet and cell phones to them. It’s been perfect, without a single issue, but we lost that free international data coverage. No matter. We purchased one eSIM through Airalo and it has worked great for mapping and using Uber while in Europe. 

To use it, I take my phone off Airplane Mode and turn off Verizon cellular data and turn on the eSIM data coverage. I paid $20 for 5 GB of data in Europe and since we lost a port, I’ll probably have some left over. It’s also 5G coverage, so it's much faster than T-Mobile’s international coverage. 

My phone in Airplane Mode here as seen in Settings

Choosing Settings> Cellular

I named the eSIM “Travel”

Turning on Cellular data on the eSIM

 I just have to remember to put my phone back in Airplane Mode before I reboard the ship.

We don’t arrive in Funchal tomorrow until 9am and 9am arrivals are my favorite way to start port days.  We’ve been been there several times, but are going to do something new tomorrow.  The weather forecast is calling for rain showers in the morning but improving later in the day. We can deal with that. 

Day 6: At Sea

We enjoyed another lazy morning, with coffees and water bottles delivered to our cabin (via Ocean Now delivery).  My Apple Watch has stopped barking at me that I’m not getting enough sleep and is now saying my respiration rate has dropped. When I look at possible causes, alcohol consumption is high on the list😉 (but I think lower altitude also plays a role). While it’s true that I’m only consuming three, four, maybe five drinks a day, at home I go for months without consuming any alcohol, so I guess it’s all relative. 

I forgot to mention last night that we got laundry back the next evening, in less than 48 hours,  and that was a surprise on a transatlantic cruise. I think all the Elites were on the Sun Princess waiting for Port Everglades to re-open after Hurricane Milton and the amount of free laundry being sent in on this cruise is considerably lower as a result. 

It was warmer today but still largely overcast and the seas were a bit rough in the morning, getting worse as the day went on.  Our sliding glass door was whistling a little even when tightly closed and locked, and our connecting cabin door was downright screaming. We used duct tape (supplied by the ship)  to mask off the crack between door and the frame and that helped a great deal. When G was in Ruby Princess jail quarantine, he had the same issue and his next door neighbor was so sick with COVID that he either died or was taken to a hospital in Maui. Meanwhile, the air from his cabin was pouring into G’s room. Grrrr…

Things you don’t see in the brochures

And, speaking of COVID, we left home with TWENTY test kits and tested before we boarded the ship and again today. COVID is on board, but we remain not only well but URI-LRI symptom-free. 

I digress, but it’s a good time to talk about the free, unsolicited, unwanted upgrade we received the night before this cruise. We were in a balcony cabin on Marina Deck marked No Upgrade, and when we returned to our London hotel after our afternoon at a tavern, I received an email about a free upgrade to a minisuite mid ship on Aloha Deck.

Options at that point were kind of limited. It would have been difficult from London to call…anyone who could fix this on a Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t an awful upgrade; minisuites just aren’t our favorite cabins. But we used a Sharpie to correct our luggage tags, aready attached to our suitcases, and just sucked it up. 

It’s a nice cabin, and especially since G had been used to cruising solo (and taking up all the storage in his cabin), the extra space is appreciated, as is the midship location. I detest showering in a bathtub but am using a shower in the spa locker room more often than not. We have quite a large balcony (it’s the widest angled one) and I’ve been out there exactly one time so far. We haven’t exactly had balcony weather. 

Most amusingly, we are getting Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s mail (the original occupants) and someone, probably in our original cabin, is getting ours. They must have been quite excited to get a letter congratulating them on being the third most traveled guests on board and we are having trouble chasing down anything Captains Circle related. 

But this, too, shall pass, and I’ll miss the larger vanity and desk when we move to an inside cabin next cruise. Still, I’ll be watching for an upgrade letter the night before that cruise starts. 😉

It’s nice to be hungry when we go to lunch in the dining room. Food quality remains hit and miss, but I’ll never understand why we haven’t yet had a single hot and fresh French fry onboard. That’s a pretty straightforward thing to deliver. Today I asked for the collard greens from the chicken and waffle entree as my starter, and enjoyed them so much I had them for dessert too. 

I peeled off just the roasted veggies and ate them as my entree

Collard greens and onions. Yes, please!!!

We sat next to the nicest couple from Luxembourg at lunch. I don’t believe we’ve ever met anyone from Luxembourg and considering there are only half a million people in that country, that’s not too much of a surprise. 

Afterwards we tried sitting on the Terrace Deck (this is where we went last night to watch the northern lights), but a squall blew in that chased me inside to The Enclave, aka My Happy Place. Then it was time to shower and dress for drinks and dinner. 

Dunes martini in Crooners. Oh so sweet but I loved the melon liquor (no surprise). 

I had a frozen margarita with dinner, a Mexican salad, vegan pasta and grilled seafood bowl. The salad and seafood was wonderful; I recommend a pass on the vegan pasta bowl. Come to think of it, many of these have been pretty blah, very dry and flavorless. 

A winner

A loser

Simply perfect

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was pianist Kyle Esplin. He looked exactly like John Corbin but when he opened his mouth, a Scottish accent came out. It was such a disconnect.  G made sure we had the most perfect front row seats where I could see his hands and I’ve never seen anything like it. His hands moved so quickly that they reminded me of that leg blur in the old road runner cartoons. I have no idea he he does it. Tomorrow night we’ll have a singer Tom Hall/ pianist Kyle Esplin varsity show which is going to be a treat. 

It was difficult even to walk from the theater in the front of the ship to the Wheelhouse Lounge in the back. The ship was rolling strongly from side to side and many people (including me) were using a walking stick for that third point of contact. We enjoyed drinks and live music in the Wheelhouse for over an hour, but skipped walking back to the Piazza for G’s ice cream tonight. It was just too rough. 

And, finally, today’s short story, The Tale of Two Sweatshirts, was inspired by the fact that I actually wore a Michigan sweatshirt during the day today. I brought it, figuring I’d wear it only in the cabin, but this is turning out to be a casual cruise. An ultra casual cruise. I felt comfortable dressed very casually until dinner tonight, and I like it. It’s very homey. Anyway…

The last time Michigan won a national football championship was in 1997, and even then it was a shared championship with (I think) Nebraska. Still, on a trip to Ohio back then, I went the Ohio State-Michigan store (it really was divided right down the middle) and purchased a sweatshirt that I have loved hard for years. Decades. After increasingly frequent mending, I finally had to stop wearing it away from home, but still sported it for every Michigan game I watched. It became a joke with friends:  what was going to happen first…the sweatshirt disintegrating or Michigan winning another national championship? Yeah, that’s harious. 

We got close two years ago, and I was advised to buy a B1G Championship sweatshirt, but I was holding out for the prize. I just had a feeling it was going to finally happen. 

Stained, worn, faded, but so loved

The day after Michigan won the national championship this year, G started hounding me to get a sweatshirt. It took a couple of weeks of online searching to find the perfect one. Once I had it in hand, he convinced me to buy a second one. I can’t count on another national championship in my lifetime. I can just see me in an assisted living facility at 91, hunched over my walker but still wearing these 2023 national championship sweatshirts. It’s good to have goals. 😊

Hail yes!

Day 5: At Sea

It was so nice to finally enjoy a late wake up and lazy morning.  We ordered coffees in the cabin using Ocean Now (it worked!) and I noted one change from the last time I cruised in that we can now check a box indicating whether we want an order delivered to wherever we are or to our cabin. On the Sapphire in Alaska I had ordered bottles of water, thinking they would simply be delivered to the cabin, only to have the room service steward chasing me down as I moved around the ship. Whoops. Now we can indicate where we want the delivery and that’s an improvement. 

We never made it to breakfast but we have already accepted that we’re two meals a day-type people whether at home or on board. We did swing by the World Fresh Marketplace for me to get my first watermelon of the cruise, and that reminds me of a story I can tell later to fill out this sea day post.  

We were pretty hungry by noon, and went to the Allegro Dining Room for lunch. We had been told that, even with the repetitive menus, there were three entree items and the soup that changed daily, so I took a photo of one side of the menu. Today the new items were the schnitzel, the fish and chips and the chimichurri. 

It was 5 o’clock somewhere, so I had my first margarita of the cruise

A double order of fish street tacos. These were yummy. G’s fish and chips were hard as a rock. 

I spent about 90 minutes at The Enclave. This Princess bed is way, WAY too soft for me, and it takes me a couple of hours every morning to work through the pain. We also replaced the heavy comforter with a sheet and a blanket, and that did improve our sleep considerably. The standard bedding is much heavier than we like. Anyway, The Enclave smooths out any remaining ouchie areas, and is a welcome way to spend a sea day afternoon. 

G went to the PES lounge in the Vista-less Lounge but I prefer a martini from Crooners before dinner so we went our separate ways about 4:30pm and then met up for dinner. We have really hit it off with the couple at the next (close) table for 2. They and their two daughters emigrated from Russia around 1990 with only three suitcases between them, and lived in an efficiency apartment for a while when they first arrived. They stressed the value of education for their daughters and now one is an MD and the other has a doctorate in Pharmacy and an MBA from Harvard, and, wow, if you want to feel both fortunate and humbled, life provides people that can provide both perspectives just two feet away from where you’re dining. 

Baked Alaska martini in Crooners

Seafood starter

Broccoli salad from the vegan menu, one of the best things I’ve enjoyed on the ship

Pasta with red pepper pesto (not great)

We had just enough sun today to have a rainbow at dinner

I had heard on The Enclave grapevine (highly reliable and entertaining) that tonight’s singer in the Princess Theater, Tom Ball was fantastic, and he certainly was. He was a middle school teacher from the UK who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and AGT. We loved his show and he will be performing in a variety show in two night’s time so we’ll get chance to see him again. 

We settled in at the Wheelhouse Bar for the last part of Lilo Duo’s set and then listened to piano entertainer Derek Dishington. When he took his first break, we had to go to the Piazza for G’s requisite daily gelato and, just after 10pm, called it a night. 

My favorite elderflower Paloma in the Wheelhouse from ShaSha from Grenada, who was so excited to see G on board again. He was well looked after last winter on this ship. 

And that’s when we realized that the northern lights, which I’ve wanted to see all my life, were putting on a show of their own. I was supposed to fly to Anchorage last March to see them, but we received two feet of snow and my flight was canceled. This was quite a make up experience.  Having now seen the northern lights, I can’t imagine anything on this cruise could top them. It went on for…well, I’m not sure how long, but we saw it for over 40 minutes. 

And, finally, I will share a quick story that I’ve entitled: I’m too old to buy watermelon.  If personal stories in my blog bother you, look away now. Otherwise, read on!.

Last summer, probably during the July 4th holiday week, whole seedless watermelons were on sale at Kroger. I firmly refuse to pay $9 for a watermelon but when they’re $3.49, it’s hard to pass that by. Naturally, everyone else was also jumping on that deal so that by the time I got to the supermarket, that huge carton of watermelons on a pallet in front of the store was more than half gone. 

Still, I’m tall, and, leaning way over, could reach the melons at the bottom. I shuffled through them until I found the heaviest (juiciest) one with the nicest garden spot and then had to lift it out of the box. I had worked up a sweat by the time I finally got it into my cart. When I checked out, for the first time in my life I accepted the offer of help to get my groceries to my car. Actually, I just needed help getting that watermelon out of the cart and into the passenger seat with a seatbelt wrapped around it. 

G was mowing the front lawn when I arrived home, and shut down the mower long enough to help me unload the groceries. He carried the watermelon into the service hallway and left it there, not wanting to go into the house with his grassy shoes. I didn’t want to wait for him to get it into the kitchen, so I went to pick it up and couldn’t budge it. I swear it got heavier on the way home. So I rolled the watermelon out onto the deck and cut it in half right there. 

I think that was the last whole watermelon purchase I’ll ever make.  Everyone has a moment when they realize they’re getting older. That mine involved my favorite watermelon shouldn’t surprise anyone. 

Best kind of day! 

Life is good. :)