Today marked the start of the second half of our cruise. Can you believe it? All the enjoyment we’ve experienced on the Star Princess to date…and we get to do it all again! What a fantastic cruise this has been!! And we owe it all to that fellow passenger on the Emerald Princess who mentioned it to me passing, and who I never would have encountered if there hadn’t been a family of whales swimming alongside the ship at sunset. Ain’t life funny?!?
You would imagine that we would be up early with that one hour back thing last night, but we didn’t even open our eyes until 8am. Our cabin, except during rehearsals and shows in the Princess Arena, is quiet as a tomb with almost no corridor traffic. And our mattresses! And pillows!!! It’s been a very long time since I’ve cruised on a nearly new ship. Darn, it’s nice!
Today was a brunch day in the Sanctuary Restaurant, and I don’t recall exactly what time we finally arrived there. But I do know that, though I had planned to leave at 11am for Dr. Engman’s enrichment lecture on the Galápagos Islands, I hated rushing off on G (which I seem to do too often) and instead stayed and grazed, and stayed and grazed some more. Those waiters in there- fantastic, every one of them!
We left through the back door and sat out on the Wake View Terrace for quite a while afterwards. It was shaded back there, and so beautiful, although I can’t quite get over that infinity pool. It reminds me of nothing as much as an aquarium, and, now that I’ve seen that, I can’t bring myself to use it again. It puts the worst part of me on full, magnified display and ain’t nobody deserves that!
We returned to the cabin just in time to receive a phone call from the ship’s music manager (aka the bass player) who wanted to follow up on my crew chat from yesterday. He acknowledged that the sax player didn’t make it to the Wake View Terrace for his 4pm gig because the rehearsal for Marc Romano’s show ran long, and that the day before that the musician didn’t make it because of concerns about weather, but acknowledged that many of us really enjoy the live music back there and count on events taking place as scheduled. I appreciated his follow up and told him we were looking forward to next time it appears in the Patter. A+ for effort.
G spent the next hour searching the cabin for socks he swears he brought with him. No luck, so the daily laundry will continue. In case you’re wondering, the washing machine is a gallon ziploc bag with water and a smidge of laundry detergent we brought from home. It works great!
We were happy to see that Round 1 of the NFL Draft was being shown on MUTS tonight. G started out there at 5:30pm but I knew that tonight’s Sanctuary Restaurant menu featured key lime pie for dessert, and, as much as I love football, I really, really love key lime pie. So I went and had a cobb salad starter followed by key lime pie and then ran up to the MUTS screen to watch the draft. This was my first time watching MUTS on the Star Princess and I was astounded at the quality of the picture, especially after what we watched on the Emerald Princess where we couldn’t even make out the play clock on the screen.
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| That sky tonight! |
G left to go to The Dome for one of tonight’s Captains Circle parties to see a friend we knew would be there, but I stayed to watch the draft. I had dressed in a skort and a tropical fish T-shirt that has been on almost as many cruises as I have because I had no intention of going beyond a quick dinner and watching MUTS. Then G texted me a photo that had me abandoning the draft altogether and getting in line for the late Captains Circle party.
Everyone in line to get into the party was dressed nicely and holding their invitations and then there was me, wind blown and make up-less and Captain Arma must have recognized me after yesterday’s MTG event and took a minute to ask me if I was happy and could they do anything for me and I really just wanted to disappear because I knew how disheveled I looked and how inappropriately dressed I was.
And finally I made it past the line of officers and into The Dome and found G and he pointed behind me and there was Rex! Rex! Rex from Shorex! We’ve known Rex for more than 20 years but hadn’t seen him since the Ruby Princess in Australia just prior to COVID shutting down the world. He gave me a huge bear hug and then another and it was like seeing family again after years apart.
Thank goodness G went to that party tonight!
Oh, and because y’all always want to know:
- 3203 days (Joyce, of course)
- 2242 days
- 1941 days
We followed up the party with the 9pm Princess Arena show by cruise director Dan Looney and it was just fantastic. He is such an entertainer, even in his role as CD, but he also spent years in musical theater and in West End shows and is a real talent. His opening was great…he was in the center of the lowered round stage and it was supposed to rise up as the show started but it didn’t work and a stage hand brought out a ladder for him to climb out of the pit and he commented about it being a brand new ship and technology failing. It was harious. (BTW, hard to believe that Mr. Harious is just a month away from being a 2nd Lieutenant).
We returned to the cabin after the show to find room Service had delivered two more slices of key lime pie which never made it into the fridge tonight. #spoiled They made a delicious late night snack!
One more sea day until we arrived in Mazatlan. I really wish this could last forever.
