Thursday, April 23, 2026

Day 11: At Sea

I never realized just how far a ship has to travel to go from the Panama Canal to Mazatlan. Five days at sea; that’s like an Atlantic crossing, or cruising to Hawaii from California. Fortunately, our weather has been perfection, and were it not for occasional dolphin and sea turtle sightings, we wouldn’t even know we were at sea. 

So today was the third of those five sea days in a row, and we have fallen into a relaxing rhythm where we try to get sleep, food and sun in the right, and moderate quantities. To that end, we skipped breakfast altogether, and I attended Dr. Engman’s morning lecture on bioluminescence (but not his afternoon lecture on caves, because I’m definitely not a fan of caves). 



G and I met up in the Sanctuary Restaurant for lunch, and then changed into swimwear and spent the afternoon on the Sea View Terrace until it was time to get cleaned up for the evening. It was formal night, but we just weren’t feeling it. Looking around as I sit in the Piazza awaiting a 7pm show, it appears most people weren’t feeling it tonight, though I see a handful of formals and tuxes. You do you!

We were excited to be on the Wake View Terrace at 4pm to listen to the show band’s saxophonist, but he was a no show (as was a musician yesterday at the same place and time) which irritated me enough to fire off a crew chat. However, guitarist Kali J did show up at 5pm as scheduled and played some mellow, bluesy tunes, and that was just heaven. 

Can’t imagine a better to enjoy a pre-dinner…mojito flavored water!


At 5:30pm we snuck in the back of the Sanctuary Restaurant where G ate fast and I dawdled over dinner. He left to go to the 6:15pm Captains Circle party in The Dome, but if I’m not in the top three and thereby contractually obligated to attend…I don’t. 



Broth based soups are served with the solids already in the bowl and the broth poured on at the table. This has led G to believe we need to do this at home, too. Oh yeah, let me get that old Tupperware kool-aid pitcher we’ve repurposed for deck plant watering and fertilizing and use that to serve our Progresso minestrone. 


Instead I went to the Piazza for the 7pm performance by Italian vocalist Marco Romano, back with a different show. The beauty of being a solo is that you can slip in just before the show starts and get a great seat. And I did! And it was a fantastic show, even better than his first performance in the Princess Arena two days ago. 



As soon as that show ended, I headed toward the Princess Arena where I was joined by G and we sat holding our seats for nearly an hour for the second theatrical show of the cruise, called Meridian. This is not a protection show in the Bravo, Magic To Do, Rock Opera style. This stage in the round provides the opportunity for a different type of show. And this sure was. Reviews were generally mixed but I have to give huge props for set and costume design. 




These curly bangs had me in stitches

The stage goes round and round and up and down…a lot!
If you’ve got it, flaunt it, I guess. 

And that was the end of our day. I picked up a meringue cookie from the International Cafe (my first time getting food there) since I skipped an entree and dessert at dinner and am wrapping this post up by 10:30pm, which will be 9:30pm after we move clocks back an hour tonight. That’s a record. Go me!

Finally, I took a few cabin photos without socks and underwear on our clothesline today. I’ll get some tomorrow of the bathroom. 



Not sure if I posted these drawer pics yet. They are very roomy.


But the nightstand drawers are tiny, one quart sized ziploc wide.