I think the hum of the engines starting up just prior to our departure from Mazatlan is what woke us up morning. We initially thought we had left early, but no. We sailed at 7am as planned. It remained quite hot, quite humid and surprisingly sunny. It definitely seemed as if the Grand Princess was cruising slowly, and the captain’s noon announcement confirmed that. The ship was moving northward at about 11 knots, staying just behind Hurricane Rachel as she headed west out to sea.
We ate lightly in Sabatini’s, me because I wanted to get an early pool session and didn’t want too much in my stomach, believing the pool water might be sloshy. Actually, it was perfect. The water temp was 86°, it wasn’t rough at all and I was in the Terrace Pool alone until I was nearly finished. Loungers were never set up today on any of the aft decks, leading us to believe that the deck crew expected some high winds and heavy seas, though I don’t think it ever got that bad.
My workout done, I got cleaned up for dinner…at 10:30am, which kinda ruled out a hot tub visit later in the day. We sat on the Promenade Deck until lunch with Nyoman and Peter. I enjoyed a delicious Mongolian seafood stir fry today; G had mint ice cream for his dessert. It was a good day. 😉
We finally made it up to the Sports Deck after lunch (2 basketballs, 2 soccer balls, a smaller ball I didn’t recognize and a full pickleball set up, including 4 paddles and a bag of balls). With no loungers set up, the aft decks looked massive…and empty.
We napped then. Well, I pretended to. I must get better at that before the crossing. Moving clocks back an hour day after day sounds so easy…until I want to go to bed right after dinner. Captain Ravera told us that we will be moving clocks back at 2am, not midday (he is not a fan of that). Back, I don’t have an opinion. Forward I like doing midday.
Sometime this afternoon we received an email from Princess containing a move over offer. Thanks, but no. I think this may be a tough sell, with our upcoming cruise being a repositioning voyage. Aussies are probably already on their way to California, and people from this side of the world are almost bound to have onward travel plans, be they more cruises (like us) or flights home from Sydney. One thing is certain…we won’t be enjoying the extra space and empty elevators we’ve had on this cruise.
We stopped by the Elite Lounge (a sea day full of food) where I discovered Jimber had put out macadamia nuts. Had I missed them on previous days? Will they be there tomorrow? I wasn’t going to take a chance and ate ahead, just in case.
I had to laugh at the dinner menu. Entrees included Mexican seafood stew, which is basically cioppino minus the oregano plus cilantro and more red pepper flakes, and similar to the Bering Sea stew served on Alaska cruises. No matter. I love Princess seafood stew by any name.
Tonight’s Princess Theater show featured a juggler and it is a testament to the fact that we wanted to be doing something that would keep us awake until the New Orleans jazz set at 8:30pm that we went. To a juggling show. Us. Never say never, but if it had been a ventriloquist instead, I predict we would have been tucked into bed at 7pm.
