Day 100: At Sea

100 days!  We made it! This has been our shortest cruise season in six years, but, honestly, as measured by degree of difficulty, this year surely tops the list. I thought things were complicated two years ago when we had a complete change of plans mid-season. Last year we added the side trips to Easter Island and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. But this year, with its 23 countries and over 60 port days and an extension of 17 days and an Atlantic crossing in December, not to mention a shipwreck and three flights across the Atlantic in three weeks was definitely the most challenging season of all. And while I'll admit we still preferred our months spent in French Polynesia, we are returning home with some wonderful memories of our many adventures in Europe and the Caribbean. 

 

 

Our beautiful weather of late changed on us today. The day was cooler and mostly overcast until late in the afternoon, which is when we began to experience the swells that Captain D had warned us about. I went outside only to observe breaching whales- and there were many, many of them- from the Promenade Deck. I love cruising in this area in January! Breakfast was once again in the Club Restaurant and the rest of the morning was spent sorting through paperwork and packing. G had checked the weather in LA for tomorrow and the forecast was for 100% chance of rain. We have fingers crossed that our flight departs on time, but there's no point in worrying about it. At least the weather at home looks decent and we should have no difficulty getting from the airport to our home. 

Captain D, in his noon update from the bridge, said that these winter storms rolling across the Pacific had affected four Princess ships sailing from the West Coast, and tomorrow was expected to be so bad off the coast of California that he was speeding up and the Pacific Princess will arrive in the Los Angeles Cruise Port in San Pedro at 3am in the morning and stay there until 4am Sunday morning. He also said that he was supposed to be going home to Italy from Honolulu but would instead be leaving the ship on Saturday and wished all the onward World Cruisers a wonderful journey. Captain JP Bryant, newly married and just back from his honeymoon, will re-join the ship early for the next segment of the World Cruise. 

We were not one bit hungry but still went to lunch. At this point it is the fact that there is no food in our house that compels us to keep eating until the end. I had a wonderful chicken soup and calamari, and blueberry roulade for dessert, because I really, really wanted it. After lunch we sat side by side in the library with its strong WiFi signal to simultaneously check in for our Southwest flights tomorrow. I got position A58, not bad, and G was just six positions behind me at B04. That bodes well for our travel tomorrow. 

The remainder of the afternoon was spent at the navigational chart auction (it went for $300 for charity, which Princess matches), and then going to the Human Slot Machine game in the Casino Lounge. G had had so much fun with this last cruise that he convinced me to join him, and we added to our Princess water bottle collection. By 4pm our packing was nearly complete, and we dressed for dinner and went to our final PES Lounge of the season. It was sad to say goodbye to Cornilio from the galley team who did such a wonderful job setting up and plating hors doerves every night, and to some of our favorite bar waiters, but the suffering was just beginning...

We finished our last bottle of wine with our last dinner, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset despite the cloudy day (the sun had appeared about 4pm). I had mussels for the first time this winter and we finally celebrated my birthday with a cake and lots of waiters singing Happy Birthday. And all the time I was dreading saying our final goodbyes. It was just as hard as I'd imagined. We love this dining room team, from Maitre d' Oscar right down to the assistant waiters. They were just wonderful and thoroughly spoiled us. 

We popped into the back of the Cabaret Lounge to catch the early show by cellist and vocalist Brandon and James, but just weren't feeling it tonight. Instead we returned to the cabin and packed away the clothes we had worn to dinner and set our suitcases outside our cabin door the earliest we ever have, before 8pm. Go us! I was secretly so relieved not to be finishing the packing at 11pm as we sometimes have in the past. It has helped that we moved cabins a lot this season which kept things organized; plus we had two sea days at the end of this cruise to slowly and thoughtfully pack. I can assure you that packing up a cabin after being in it for more than four months in a row is much harder!

The Pacific Princess is only an hour or so away from crossing the US/Mexican border. We are going to sleep early, and moving clocks back one final time to PST tonight. I suspect we'll be up very early tomorrow, even if we manage to sleep through the ship docking in San Pedro at 3am. We simply cannot wait. I know that G us most looking forward to decent TV and high speed internet, and I am too, at least the latter. But seeing friends and possibly spectating at a college swim meet on Saturday (if I get my car battery reconnected on time) and definitely at 7th grade basketball games on Sunday top my list. And to Suzan, who has so faithfully stayed in touch with Mom and sent me lots of cheering texts...warm up your texting fingers. We have a lot of lost time to make up for!

Day 99: At Sea

Today was simply another lovely sea day:  sunny (though chilly) with calm seas, wonderful entertainment, great food...oh, and we finally saw breaching whales! That never ceases to thrill. In fact, the first time we saw them, Captain D made an announcement that there were whales at 10 o'clock, which naturally led G to comment that these must be very punctual whales. ;-)

After breakfast in the Club Restaurant (more papaya and poached eggs...I have naturally low cholesterol but I think I've given my numbers quite a boost in the past couple of weeks. Too soon I'll be back to eggs beaters and Greek yogurt), we attending Bill Fall's lecture on the Panama Canal expansion. This was the first time I've heard what the locks for the NeoPanamax ships are called; on the Atlantic side are the three chambers of the Agua Clara locks and on the Pacific side are the three chambers of the Cocoli Locks. Both have water saving basins and have reduced the amount of water required for a ship to transit the whole canal from 52 million gallons to about 48 million gallons. Other modifications to accommodate NewPanamax ships included straightening the shoreline of Gatun Lake and widening the Culebra Cut. This lecture was just as fascinating as Bill's other lectures.

Back in the cabin, I took advantage of a sudden motivation to pack, pulled out a suitcase and folded all my clothes except what I needed for formal night tonight, dinner tomorrow night and our flight home. It was chilly enough outside that today (and tomorrow) I'm slumming it in yoga pants and a fleece pullover. All that's left for me to pack tomorrow are toiletries and the over the door shoe rack items (really...that's exactly how we refer to them, and they include sunscreens and first aid supplies and a ziplock bag with a few office supplies and a Sucrets can holding a few pins and a sewing kit). We've reached the end of an era with this shoerack; we purchased it in 2002 for a 25-night back to back cruise through the Panama Canal and out to and around Hawaii with the intention of tossing it instead of bringing it home. 15 years later we really are going to retire this one and purchase a replacement through eBay. I can't imagine cruising without one. 

We went to British Pub Lunch in the steakhouse, and I had the chicken curry which I have really enjoyed this season. Then we went to the Panorama Buffet for dessert and ate it sitting on the Panorama Terrace. It was warm enough back there with our fleeces, and brightly sunny. The coast of Mexico's Baja California was on our starboard side and it was simply a stunning afternoon. We have been so lucky with weather this cruise, at least after the winds that held us in Santa Marta, Columbia overnight. However, at that moment, Captain D started an announcement that indicated change was coming...

The next segment of the World Cruise, from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, is starting on Friday when we disembark the Pacific Princess. The scheduled itinerary included Honolulu; Pago Pago, American Samoa; and Tonga and then a couple of ports in New Zealand. Captain D said a series of severe winter storms were crossing the Pacific and it would be unwise to leave Los Angeles Friday, and equally unwise to travel as far north as would be required to get to Honolulu. Instead, the Pacific Princess will remain in Los Angeles for two nights, sailing at 4am on Sunday, and will skip Honolulu, Pago Pago and Tonga. Instead it will sail in a more southwesterly direction, spending 8.5 days at sea and arriving in Bora Bora on January 30 and Papeete on January 31, and then continue on to New Zealand as planned. 

Our first thought was about all the crewmembers who were supposed to disembark at the end of their contracts in Honolulu. Since the ship won't be stopping there, how would they be affected? And my next thought was remembering that we had been sitting in that exact same spot on the Panorama Terrace a little over a year ago the last time the Pacific Princess sailed out of the beautiful Bora Bora lagoon. Apparently we weren't the only ones who remembered that; when we went to dinner tonight, Maitre d' Oscar greeted us by saying he'd hold our table for us if we wanted to stay on for the next World Cruise segment to return to French Polynesia. He knows how much we (and the crew) adored those cruises. We have other plans, of course, and even if we didn't...8.5 days at sea in a row. Ouch.  It's not in the cards for us, this or any year. 

I sat out on the sunny side of the Promenade Deck covered with pool towels, listening to an audiobook and watching for more whales breaching. Tomorrow should offer more viewing opportunities. We were dressed formally for the 137th and final (!!!!) time this season and up in the Pacific Lounge for the PES Lounge by 4:45pm (soooo early, but then so is dinner, at 5:15pm). Dinner was another formal night feast and I even had a soufflé for dessert. I'm trying to enjoy those things I deny myself all season long but can't get at home either. 

There was a farewell party in the Cabaret Lounge at 7pm and we enjoyed chatting with Passenger Services Manager Carla from Portugal who took Gidea's place. She is a sweetheart and so good at her job, too. As we left, I spoke with Captain D and told him we had just been talking anout him last night with a couple doing the World Cruise, singing his praises. In fact, we had specifically mentioned how he never skips a port due to weather without trying to substitute another one...and his announcement today was a case in point. He said that watching the weather and coming up with alternatives had kept him busy for the past week. 

We ended the evening with our last viewing of production show Motor City. I know others bemoan the fact that this show has been around for over ten years, but we love it. We sat on the opposite side of the stage tonight and saw it from an entirely different perspective. Who can get bored with entertainment that good? With music that good?  Still, I am ready to go home. In fact, I've been ready to go home since January 7. It's not that I didn't enjoy this cruise, it's just a sense that I have that it is time for this adventure to come to an end and the next adventure to begin.  In fact, G and I have spent most of our time since the Panama Canal transit discussing our upcoming Hawaii trip. We've wanted to do this for years; the time has finally arrived. 

Life is good. :-)