We are back in a sideways, mid-ship cabin on Riviera Deck, right next door to the cabin we had for Emerald Princess cruise #2, and perhaps it was that familiarity that led us to both sleep so well last night. In fact. We didn’t wake up until after 8am and took our time to get moving. The cabin TV said it was 62° at that time, so I dressed in yoga pants and a long sleeved T-shirt and we started out with coffee on the Terrace Deck until it was just a smidge too nippy to linger there. We moved inside and grazed a bit in the mini-buffet in the back of Deck 15 and had a seat inside, with this as our view.
The sun glistening on the water never gets old. And that is how I came to say those words that seem to get said at least once every cruise season: “Hurry up and finish eating so we can go to lunch”. And we did, having a quick lunch in the Botticelli Dining Room so I could get to the first ukulele lesson of the cruise.
I enjoy these lessons so much, I really do. Hawaiian Ambassador Brian makes us feel like we are really making progress as he had us playing two songs on our first day. I’m definitely going to buy a ukulele when I get home. Even more people on this cruise brought ukuleles from home. People seem to do this cruise year after year; next year, we hope to be among them, and I hope to be bringing my own ukulele on board.
G eventually came to Club Fusion to observe, but didn’t participate (not that he exactly participated before, either😉). I get the feeling he wants to be involved but doesn’t want to actually get the sore fingers that inevitably result from practicing. But the concentration required to make my fingers form those chords exhausts me, and we returned to the cabin to rest and watch the first of the enrichment lectures on our cabin TV.
Elite Lounge in Skywalkers featured Emerald Princess show band guitarist Andrew playing (he confided to me) the “spa music” he’d been requested to play. No doubt he’d rather be rocking out the way he did during Jason O’s Elton John tribute show, but I enjoyed both kinds of music.
We told waiter Richard last night that we would always eat lightly and quickly and be out of the dining room early, to get our desired seats for the Princess Theater shows that start at 7pm. He was definitely up to the challenge and we were walking out of the dining room at 6pm. I had the beef ramen tonight and the flavors were spot on.
Tonight’s Princess Theater show was comedian Carl Strong. He was pretty good, a little dated, I thought, but he got a standing O, so he was well received. We swung by the World Fresh Marketplace for the coffee we skipped after dinner (so many people playing games and cards in the back section, just as there are in the Michelangelo Dining Room during the day).
And then we went up to Adagio for a candlelight concert by Evgeny who is the pianist in the Emerald Princess show band and is also the ship’s music director. It was very well attended, so I’m definitely not alone in enjoying this type of entertainment.
Evgeny was classically trained in Russia and performed music primarily from the classical, romantic and impressionist movements, including Chopin, Schubert, Mozart and DeBussy (Clair de Lune, natch) and the unusual harmonies of Saties’s Gymnopédies and Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-Sharp Minor and…I could go on and on here. Clearly, Evgeny is hugely talented. Hugely.
Ballroom dancing last night, a candlelight classical piano concert tonight; I am in heaven.
Captain McBain said, in his pre-noon announcement today, that there are two storm systems to the north of us, and, as a result, the Emerald Princess is on a course about 300 miles further south than originally planned. We will pass by the first storm tonight (and the back of the ship in Adagio is definitely moving right now) and by the second, smaller storm in two days. If this is as rough as it gets, I’ll consider that a win. We had sun all day, though it was breezy, and I’m hoping for warmer temps tomorrow.
