I can’t say I’m actually resentful when we have to interrupt our blissful life at sea by getting off the ship in a port…at least not yet. But I am certainly loving these sea days!
It was nice to turn off the alarm and wake up naturally. Still we were in Snobatini’s by 8am, and lingered and lingered there. I finally left and walked around the ship checking out pool temps and whether hot tubs were open or netted over. I had read a post on Facebook that stated they were all closed except one. Well, thankfully that wasn’t the case this morning. Only two of six were closed. The pool temps seemed very comfortable.
White I was out and about on the open decks, I reserved the Sanctuary for a port day afternoon later in cruise. The manager said I shouldn’t have waited so long, as every sea day was fully booked there, but, frankly, I was so ambivalent about it that it wouldn’t have been the end of my world if I hadn’t gotten a lounger. But I do enjoy a nice afternoon tea up there!
We have a really excellent enrichment lecturer on board. I will have to get her name tomorrow, as it’s not included in the Patter. She spoke the first sea day on the history of ocean liners and cruise ships. Today’s lecture was about Scott’s and Amundsen’s race to the South Pole. Her lectures have become don’t miss events in our day.
We went right from that, held in the Vista Lounge today (too small a venue…a man pitched a fit at me for turning around a chair to sit in front of him. I moved on, then watched with a tiny bit of satisfaction as EVERY seat was eventually taken and he ended up with an even taller man sitting directly in front him…karma) to lunch in the Allegro Dining Room. After all, it had been two whole hours since we had eaten, and Restaurant Manager Nelson looks out for us with a very private table for two. Just lentil soup for me, but Princess’ lentil soup is excellent.
We finally fit some pool and hot tub time into our afternoon. The air temperatures are definitely warming, and we’re seeing more and more shorts on board (and tank tops, proving that personal thermometers are just that). While soaking and swimming, we heard an announcement by Cruise Director Aaron, who we’ve known since he was a baby cruise director, about two matinee shows being held in the Princess Theater called GiddyUp Lounge. We got cleaned up and went to the 3:30pm show just to see what this was all about. It was about the show band accompanying the four production show vocalists performing country songs. Now, I used to not be a fan of country music, but my guys both are, very much, and are turning me around on that, especially the modern country rock that they so enjoy, and that’s basically what this was. It was quite fun to see these vocalists who we’ve so far only heard performing more opera-type songs in Bravo, and two of whom have British accents and one is from (possibly) Argentina all sing with a country twang.
Speaking of my guys and country music (sea day story incoming)…their favorite performer is Zach Bryan, and I was tickled to receive a text from one of them a couple of years ago telling me that Zach performs “my” song, You Are My Sunshine, which I sang to them exactly 832,167 times when they were very young, and that it reminds him of me every time he hears it. My heart… I’m not sure he knew that “my” song has been covered at least twenty times in the past 100 years or so.
We stopped by the PES Lounge which featured herbed goat cheese and bruschetta, which are my personal downfalls, and then to dinner where I branched out from pescatarian and had jerk chicken with black beans and sweet potato, and, oh my, that was delicious.
Mediterranean salad from the vegan menu-yummy!
The Princess Theater entertainment was the ventriloquist again, which totally opened up our evening, so we broke from our usual entertainment style and instead went to Princess Live (I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been in that venue on ANY ship over the years), for a riddle game, and then stayed in our seats for Majority Rules (first time ever seeing that on any ship, too!). It certainly is popular, and CD Aaron did a great job with it. It was obviously highly contrived, but people seem to love it.
We finished out our evening listening to piano entertainer Carlos in the Wheelhouse. We love party band Gravity in the Piazza, but I’ve think we’d have to claim a seat to listen to them by 9am, and we are always late to the game.
I ended the evening discovering on social media that McGee continues to collect major accolades in his sport.
Warming temps, lots more sea days in the offing, seeing people I love pursuing their passions and being recognized for it…life is good!
