Day 103: Princess Cays (or not)

It's a rare day that I pass up the opportunity to have my head (and my hips) underwater, swimming with the fishes, but when the day is cloudy and windy and somewhat cool, I can be convinced to stay out of the ocean. And that's what happened today.

We were awake rather early (going to sleep by 9pm will do that to you), and, as we always do, tuned our TV to Channel 44, the front of the ship webcam channel. It looked grey, but not rainy out, so we were hopeful for a decent day on the beach. But when G poked his head out of the cabin door to take a look through the window of the door heading to the Terrace Deck, he said the wind was so strong it was howling in the hallway. We suspected we might not be able to tender into Princess Cays today. 

However, when we were dressed and heading down to the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast, we had a different opinion. It was obvious that several of the balcony cabin residents across the hall from us had their balcony doors open, turning the Riviera Deck into a wind tunnel. :-(

Captain Forteeze, in his morning "Welcome to the island du jour" announcement, forecasted a high of 74F today, not too surprising considering how chilly Fort Lauderdale had been yesterday.  I just could not work up any excitement at all about snorkeling in cool, rough, churned up water on a cloudy day. I'm here for awhile, and can be a little choosier when it comes to beach days. Nor did we need to go over to the island just for lunch; we could have a better lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet all afternoon. 

Still, G had to conform to the tenets of his religion, which obviously require that he always get off the ship in port. So after our breakfast, he took a tender to shore, and I took advantage of my alone time to do some hand laundry and straighten up the cabin and phone Room Service with a list of leftover minibar items to be exchanged. (This cruise's minibar remains on a tray in the closet). And give myself a manicure. Things were looking pretty rough on that count, and I was dismayed when my right man-hand with its broken nails and jagged cuticles resting tenderly on G's tuxedo jacket made it into our MTP photo in the Patter last cruise. G tried to reassure me that no one even looks at that photo, but that even if they did, it's so small that my hand would not be noticed, but I know he's wrong. The Photo Department was supposed to crop it out, but I guess they ran out of time after the hours of Photoshopping that were required to make us presentable. ;-)

I eventually adjourned to the International Cafe, where Suzan and Greg had reached much the same decision I had about staying on board. We sat and drank coffee (today I had the Princess White Chocolate Medley, which was delish) and talked for so long that G returned to the ship and looked for me there before even going to the cabin (how well he knows me). He said the tender ride had been a bit rough and the water around the fish feeding pavilion so churned up that he could barely see the fish in the water. (Honestly, he knows just the right things to say to make me feel less guilty about staying on board. He is definitely a keeper.)

G was ready for lunch by then, so we went to the Horizon Court Buffet for my first full meal there since we boarded the Emerald Princess on January 4. Oh, I've grabbed chips and salsa and guacamole to eat during football games, and brownies for G and red velvet cheesecake for me on more occasions than I care to admit to, but I haven't had a full meal there yet. We got there right at 11:30am when the lunch buffet line opened, and everything was fresh and looked really good. I knew I'd be having a food- and drink-filled evening, and so kept it light with gorgeous fresh veggies and my favorite sun dried tomato vinaigrette. Oh, and a big hunk of blue cheese (that I shared with my husband).

We changed for a hot tub session then, in our favorite Deck 17 aft hot tub with a great view of the long shoreline of Eleuthera island, on which Princess Cays is located. Of course, by mid afternoon the sun did come out (it figures), but I rather enjoyed sitting in the hot tub before it did, living dangerously, for once without a Tilley hat on my head. After a long while in the hot tub, I moved to the small splash pool next to it, despite the warnings from others that it was too cold to swim in. It was cold, but I started running, first in one direction, to create a whirlpool, then in the other, repeating several times until I had spent about 45 minutes in there. Everyone else was avoiding that cool pool, and that worked to my advantage as I had it all to myself. 

I left there and went directly to the steam room in the ladies locker room in the spa. That the Emerald Princess has both a steam room and a sauna available for free is one of the big reasons we are on this ship right now and not the Royal or Regal Princess (though there are others, too...that could be a whole separate blog post). The steam room still smells a bit fiberglass-y after something that was done to it (I later found out it was painted, and it is still being completed) during the dry dock, but it doesn't bother even sensitive me. It certainly is adequately hot and steamy, and felt so good after my water workout. 

As it turned out, I was showered and ready for the evening by 3pm, and thought that a glass of wine from Vines might be a perfect way to spend an hour, but then I realized that it was a port day and Vines didn't open until 4pm. Well...shoot. So I instead started this blog post (somehow I knew I might have a late night), and waited in our cabin for Room Service to come and exchange our minibar items. And waited. And waited. This evening it still hasn't been done, but I know that the Room Service waitstaff were the hors doerves servers for tonIght's MTP cocktail party, so it seems petty to complain about it. 

We went up to Skywalkers to watch as the Emerald Princess sailed south along the coastline of Eleuthera and Little San Salvador Island where Holland America's Half Moon Cay is located. In fact, we saw a Carnival ship in the distance, leaving Half Moon Cay. 

I could have just stayed there in Skywalkers, watching the islands of the Bahamas go by, but we were on a schedule tonight, and went down to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room at 5:15pm. We ate lightly, just two starters each, but of course had dessert, too. There's always room (and time) for sorbet! Waiter Victor told us tonight that, after we leave the dining room every evening, they put a new table top seating six people on our table top for four people that we have for just us. We are feeling exceptionally spoiled. 

Back in our cabin, we combed hair and brushed teeth and did the usual freshening up before going to the Adagio Lounge on Deck 16 next to what used to be Sabatinis but is now S h a r e. The MTP cocktail party started at 7pm.  We had already seen frequent cruiser Phyllis earlier in the day (we've cruised with Phyllis most Januarys since 2007), but were happy to see Joyce and meet Sue. They are #3, 2 and 1, respectively, and Phyllis jokingly told us she is the reason we were bumped out of the top 3 MTPs. Maybe so, but I can't think of a better reason. 

For the record:

#1 MTP 1481 days

#2 MTP 1385 days

#3 MTP 918 days

Sorry, I didn't get cutoff for top 40 most traveled passengers. 

Poor Chief Engineer Roddy. My first words to him at the party (actually my second since I might possibly have said "Hi") were, "Who's in charge of the pools?", then, when he confirmed it was him, told him he needed to turn up the temperature of the water at least five degrees. They can always count on me for honest feedback, but Roddy knows me too well to expect anything less...or to take me too seriously.  ;-)

I drank lightly, mostly because my second Breeza Marina disappeared off the table while I was being social in another part of Adagio. That's okay; I had a late evening planned and needed to stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. While G went out to listen to some live music, I was bound and determined to stay awake long enough to first sit in the Princess Theater for an hour waiting for the start of the 10:15pm performance of Magic To Do and then enjoy the 53-minute performance.

I was standing outside the closed doors to the Princess Theater on Deck 6 shortly after 9pm, while the theater was being reset after the 8pm performance. My goal was to get one of the great seats with plenty of legroom and unobstructed views in the raised middle section of the theater. Luckily, I did...barely. Passengers were also entering the theater from Deck 7, and had made tracks to those coveted seats. I settled in for my hour long wait, intending to finish this blog post, but just as I typed Phyllis' name (above), Phyllis appeared in front of me. (This prescience is getting kind of spooky.) Of course, we sat and talked and talked and talked until the show started, so I am finishing this post later (much later) in the cabin. 

I liked Magic To Do the first time I saw it. I loved most of it this second time. There is dark part in the middle that I definitely do not like, but the Colors of the World segment is incredible. The difference, I think, is that I sat in the front row the first time, and several rows back and higher this time. Magic To Do is not a show to see up close; there is so much going on in it that it's best appreciated from further back. I ended up sitting for two hours total, and walked halfway back to my cabin hunched over like a question mark before I could finally straighten up. But it was so worth it!

We move clocks ahead an hour tonight, making it 1:15am as I finish up this post. I stayed up past 1am and it didn't even involve football. Now that's magic!

Day 91: Antigua!

Given that it was nearly midnight before I wrapped up the publication of my blog post last night, it was just a tad difficult to roust myself out of bed when the alarm went off at 6:30am. I hit snooze, then hit it again before I finally woke enough to tune the TV to the front of the ship channel. Holy hot dog! We were already docked in St. John's, Antigua!  We hadn't heard a thing while it was docked; it's a good thing I had set an alarm. 

We didn't know, until this morning, that breakfast is served in the DaVinci Dining Room on port days from 7am to 9am, instead of the sea day schedule of 7:30am to 9:30am. (We really need to start reading the Patter!!). With a little time to spare (we thought), I started to get packed for a beach day, and went up to the Horizon Court Buffet to get ice for our metal water bottles. I had just finished filling them (I use a cup to get the ice from the machine and then fill the water bottles from it) and was a screwing the lids back on when who do I see coming toward me with outstretched arms but headwaiter Luis from Portugal. Luis was our headwaiter during our second and third seasons on the Emerald Princess, and I can't tell you how nice it was to see him here. With Francesco (from our first and second seasons on the Emerald Princess) and Luis from our second and third, this really does feel like a homecoming for us. 

When we went down to the DaVinci Dining Room at 7:30am for breakfast, we noticed that people were already in there eating. That's when we found out about the earlier hours on port days. We both ordered oatmeal and G got bacon and I asked for an egg white veggie omelet (still trying to find some way to have a healthy breakfast entree) and it was delicious. Colorful, and full of spinach and peppers and tomatoes and potatoes...I think I've found my scrambled egg beaters replacement. 

We met Greg and Suzan in the International Cafe at 8:45am (and managed to be only two minutes late. Go us!!) and we walked off the ship onto Antigua for the first time in almost two years. We've missed it; this is one of our favorite islands. We squeezed into the smallest taxi ever for the short ($12) ride to Fort James Beach. We bypassed the chairs for $5 each and umbrellas for $10, and in no time at all our bags were settled on tarps and towels at the far end of the beach and we were all in that gorgeous blue water on Swimway floats (they're a very good thing). 

The waves were perfect (not too big and not too small) and Suzan and I played and talked and floated and talked and talked for over four hours. The guys occasionally joined us, G napped on the beach and they eventually took a long walk down the beach...and Suzan and I talked. They treated me to a rum punch at Millers by the Sea, the outdoor bar/restaurant right there (it was delicious but not quite as good as what awaits tomorrow) and around 2pm we started to pack up to take the same small taxi back to the cruse ship. All on board time was 3:30pm. 

Our weather had started out mostly cloudy, and we even had a few brief rain showers (it was very cool to watch the rain droplets bounce on the water surface while we were floating), but the day turned mostly sunny by noon and we knew we were in for a pretty sailaway. 

First, though, Suzan and Greg were on a mission to buy a local newspaper, so we temporarily parted ways in St. John's and were making our way back to the cruise ship when we heard saxophone music. We turned left onto that main road to the port and found the source, a two man band with saxophone and keyboard. They were so good we stood and listened and videoed for a long while before walking down the pier. 

I dumped everything in the cabin and met up with Suzan in the spa for a steam room visit... and more talking. Back in our cabin, I committed a huge faux pas when I peeled off my swimsuit and dumped (and I'm not kidding here) an entire sandbox of sand right on the carpet. Oh it was a mess!  Even after showering and loofah-ing, I think I can still feel sand stuck to my body. I left steward Awesome Ambrish a sincere 'I'm sorry!' note and rushed up to Skywalkers to meet G for sailaway. I was thrilled to see Terry and Sue from cruises past, and we were also joined by Greg and Suzan. 

Sailaway from Antigua is really one of the prettiest ones we see on this itinerary. To add to our viewing pleasure, it was Breeza Marina night in the PES Lounge (though it kind of always is) but we enjoyed herbed goat cheese and yummy crackers in addition to the usual offerings. The only downside:  they are seriously understaffed in there, and my drink ordered at 5pm took until 5:25pm to arrive. Dinner is at 5:30pm; that's clearly not great service.   

But we made it to the Michelangelo Dining Room just a few minutes after 5:30pm where we were met with great service by Victor and Darko (not that one!). G had the surf and turf and gave me his surf and  I had a seafood skewer and it was excellent. I had been so hungry (having skipped lunch) but quickly filled up so much (on herbed goat cheese and dinner) that I couldn't decide about dessert and asked Victor to surprise me with dessert. He brought two scoops of red currant sorbet...I think that sorbet is my favorite dessert is on my permanent Princess record. 

We went to the Princess Theater for production show Magic to Go an hour early, at 7pm for an 8pm show. The theater is just way too small to accommodate the guests who want to see the shows (this is a perpetual Princess problem). You might recall that Anytime Entertainment was introduced on the Emerald Princess a few years ago, and shows were shortened to 30 minutes to allow three performances every night. Well, the shows are still (mostly) 30 minutes long, but there are now only two of them. And only once so far (last night), has there also been a show in Explorers Lounge. However, we were happy to find out, especially as we had arrived an hour early to get seats, that Magic to Go is 53 minutes long. Woohoo!  Adult attention span-length shows!!  

I had brought my iPad to the Princess Theater and used that hour to get to this point on this blog post. Normally G dislikes when I do that, but tonight we were both so tired after our beach day that he didn't mind a bit. He chatted with the couple on his right and I typed away and, before we knew it, an hour had passed. I didn't really look up to see how the audience was filling, but was told later that, by 7:30pm, it was SRO. 

Magic to Do...what can I say about this brand new Stephen Schwartz show produced especially for Princess?  Well, first I can say that it certainly offset any fuel savings Princess might be enjoying this year. This had to cost a fortune, and it is a huge departure from the usual type of Princess entertainment, except for perhaps On the Bayou on the Island and Coral Princess. It reminded me a great deal of some of the shows we saw on the Allure of the Seas. Huge, highly produced, intricate costumes...I think that people who frequent Las Vegas or Broadway shows, or wish they did, would love it. I liked it a lot, and want to see it several more times because I'm sure I missed a lot of details. My husband did not like it at all, and never wants to see it again. And I think this 50-50 split may be fairly typical of the general audience reaction. I will say more about it in later posts, when I am not so tired. Plus, I've been discussing it with G for the last hour, and am kind of over it right now . Maybe tomorrow night at 10:30pm, we'll talk about something less controversial than 'what direction is Princess cruises moving and do we like it?', something like politics or gun control. ;-)

We left the Princess Theater and walked through the new gastropub in the Wheelhouse Bar called the Salty Dog ($19pp charge).  We saw a handful of people eating in there, and the 35 or so chairs with a view of the dance floor were filled. Band Domino Duo plays in there every night. We've heard several complaints from dancers about the increasingly limited places to dance on Princess ships (see above paragraph about the direction of Princess cruises). There is still a dance floor in there; there's just very limited seating. 

We next went to someone called the Magical Musical Mystery Tour with party band Soul Rocker in the Explorers Lounge. We had no idea what to expect, except that it was supposed to be keeping with the 'magic' theme. I had heard a lot of opinions about Soul Rocker; none of them good; and I have to say I kind of agree. And this show tonight was really just performing songs about magic, which would have been fun if the band was better, but they were trying to get the audience involved in different aspects of the show and that didn't work at all. This whole thing definitely needs some work. 

But we had a wonderful day on Antigua with friends, followed by a session in a free steam room that the Emerald Princess still has, then a beautiful sailaway and a great dinner. I saw a new show that I liked (a lot, but I can't say I love it) accompanied by the Emerald Princess orchestra, and listened to two additional bands perform. I had lots of hot water to shower and cool water to brush my teeth, the bushel of sand I dropped on the cabin carpet was cleaned up by someone else by this evening, and I will be asleep in two minutes on a most comfortable bed.

It was a good day. :-)