Merry Christmas!

Day 55: Barbados

Well, if there was any remaining doubt about the fact that where a ship is docked in any given port can change at the last minute, the Emerald Princess' experience today should end it...on our first sea day, at our Cruise Critic meet and greet, Captain Nick said that there would be three cruise ships in Barbados today, but that the Emerald Princess would get the close (aka the good) berth. Then at the Captains Circle party, he said that, because one of the other cruise ships, the Costa Mediterranea, needed to load some freight containers, the Emerald Princess would instead be docked on the breakwater (aka the bad dock). And, here we are, sitting smugly, aft first, in the good dock while the Costa Mediterannea is at our bow, further from the terminal. In a first for us, the smaller cruise ship from yesterday in St. Lucia, the Croisieres de France Horizon is on the breakwater but close in, on the angled part of the dock. Apparently, it's short enough to squeeze in there. 

And, as it should be, a freighter has been relegated to the bad dock. All's right in our world after all.

Well, almost.  G has been successful in getting a cold that he's been working at for a few days. The timing is perfect...he's been slowing down at the same time I've been wanting to stay on the ship and use the Sanctuary, and it's really fortuitous today, as I can leave the cabin for him to rest and have somewhere nice to retreat to.

So, because of that, our schedule was a bit turned upside down today. I had cereal and fruit in the dining room and then did a load of laundry which I hung on the clothesline in our cabin to dry (good to put some moisture in the air). I then alternated between the Sanctuary and returning to the cabin to check on G and bring him some sustenance. It was hot and sunny early in the day, but as the afternoon went on, the skies clouded over. I felt sure that we were going to get some rain but, nope, it stayed overcast but nice the rest of the afternoon. 

All on board time today was 3:30pm, with sailaway at 4pm. Usually, Barbados is a port where I wish our visit was a couple of hours longer, but not so today, first because we didn't get off the ship, but also because there were so many Christmas things on the schedule for the afternoon and evening:

10am and 5pm:  that same A Christmas Carol movie with Jim Carrey on MUTS

5:30pm and 8:30pm:  Emerald Princess crew caroling in the Piazza

7:15pm and 9pm:  Holiday Wishes show with the Emerald Princess singers and dancers in the Princess Theater

7:30 and 9:30:  Elf with Will Farrell on MUTS

8:15pm:  reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by cruise director JJ in the Piazza

10:15pm:  Christmas Eve interdenominational church service in the Princess Theater conducted by Father Thomas O'Donnell

11:30pm:  Christmas Eve Catholic Mass in the Princess Theater 

I grabbed a piece of pizza for lunch and took it back to the Sanctuary, and spent the afternoon 1.) staying out of G's hair (because when I'm sick I want to be left ALONE) and 2.) truly enjoying the relaxing experience. I won't say I'm good at this Sanctuary thing yet, but I'm making progress. I logged onto Internet and downloaded Christmas greetings sent via email and generally didn't feel even a bit remorseful that I would not be home for Christmas, which, if you remember the trauma of the early years of winters at sea, is major progress. Yay me!

I stayed in the Sanctuary long enough to enjoy afternoon tea...er, our 4pm sailaway. Now, I had forgotten that, once early on when we were sitting in the Sanctuary and G was looking around, he commented that the ship's horn was located right above. I gave it little thought; I thought I'd never be up there for sailaway because we generally watch sailaway from Skywalkers or the Promenade Deck...until today. I was happily consuming my second cup of tea after having consumed two glasses of cucumber water and was intently watching from the best seat in the house at the front of the ship while the Emerald Princess pushed away from its berth...and BLAST, followed by two more blasts and it was at that moment when I realized just how far it is from my chair in the Sanctuary to the closest bathroom. Yikes!

I returned to the cabin to find G up and showering for the evening, so a down day was just what the doctor ordered. We were sitting in the Piazza on Deck 5 (right next to that lovely gingerbread village) by 4:45pm, listening to Christmas carols being played on the piano and securing for ourselves a good viewing location for the upcoming singing of carols and what we hoped would be Christmas snow in the Piazza. 

Well, there was more mist than snow (that really hasn't worked well on the Emerald Princess since 2010), but the caroling was fun and heartfelt (video to be posted later).  By then, it was time for dinner with Darko, and I just wanted to eat healthily tonight and so had a watermelon starter with salmon and spinach as an entree. There will be plenty of time for splurging tomorrow!

We left the Michelangelo Dining Room and immediately went to the Princess Theater for the 7:15pm Holiday Wishes show. It was really nice; no huge production value but that was part of the charm of it. First the dancers performed in those cute holiday costumes we've seen in prior years, then three of the singers (and one of the dancers) sang. Next the passengers who were part of this cruise's Princess Pop Choir sang. Then there was a hilarious cruise ship parody of the 12 Days of Christmas with the Staff Captain and several members of the ship's company from different departments each singing a different part. Finally the little ones from the Princess Pelicans program came on stage to sing, with live music provided by the Emerald Princess orchestra. And it was fun to see all the re-purposed set pieces (like the stairs from What a Swell Party) and even the leather chairs from the Wheelhouse Bar on the stage. It was simple and fun and perfect for Christmas Eve. 

We raced back to the Explorers Lounge (well, that's not quite right...Deck 7 was packed with people and still we had to contend with two sets of sales tables AND a photo backdrop) to see Timm Metivier, billed as a comedian-magician. (The things we do for love!)  Actually, he wasn't terrible and was pretty good in parts, especially when a 9-year old passenger was asked up on the stage (THAT one has a real future in comedy!). 

G had reached the end of his day, and we returned to the cabin to find a Christmas stocking filled with candy canes, mints and chocolates. I want to stay up for midnight Mass, but my contacts might have other ideas. Luckily, another one is being offered Christmas morning, early, before Santa makes his appearance. His route is being tracked from the bridge, and periodic update announcements will be made Christmas morning until he lands his sleigh on the ship. 

;-)

Christmas gingerbread village in the Piazza

This appeared yesterday morning, December 23rd, and I think it's especially darling this year. 

Day 54: St. Lucia

Aaahhhhhh, sweet sleep. We finally got some last night. The ship was still a bit bumpy but not the kind of "this is the worst we've ever seen in the Caribbean" kind of bumpy we've been having for the past several weeks.  We've had worse seas, of course, twice in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, and once off the west coast of Africa, but those bouts were short-lived, and within three or so days we'd sail out of them. I think it was the duration of what we've been experiencing, even more than the severity, that started taking a toll on us.

Unsurprisingly (Captain Nick had warned us while remaining hopeful that things might work out differently), the Emerald Princess was docked at the freight pier in St. Lucia today. I knew this for certain before I even got out of bed, because when I turned on our TV to the "front of the ship" channel, I was thrilled to see that the Emerald Princess was docked stern in first, with its bow facing out to Castries harbor, but I could see the P&O Ventura spinning into place to the right of the screen, which meant they got the good dock at Pointe Seraphine. Oh well...my only plan for the day was to practice relaxing in the Sanctuary, and, since Internet had returned to the Emerald Princess last evening, I didn't even need to leave the ship for that. 

The P&O Ventura at the "good" dock at Pointe Seraphine. 

But wasn't St. Lucia looking beautiful this morning?

G was already off the ship (he just HAS to do that, even if he just walks around the pier area) and back on board having breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room by the time I made an appearance. We had a leisurely breakfast,,,(my usual orange segments, mixed berries, scrambled egg beaters, fresh salsa and, of course, waiter Alvin found me to make sure I received my Christmas stollen. I will miss that when it's gone!

After breakfast, I returned to the cabin for that 9am pill taking activity, and then gathered up what I'd need for a morning in the Sanctuary but also my Sally Hansen Complete Manicure nail polish in Gold Rush, a bottle of pure acetone and a handful of scratchy cotton pads. These last things I delivered to an officer who will remain unnamed for purposes of my blog, but who gets to wear civvies, including nail polish, on Christmas Day. My nails have caused no end of excitement among (mostly) the young, female members of the ship's company.  Really, if they knew I wore glitter polish just because it doesn't need to be applied perfectly and I can do it myself, because it wears like iron and lasts at least one cruise, and this particular polish because it was on sale at CVS, they'd be far less impressed.

That duty completed, I made my way up to the Sanctuary, which, for the first time this cruise, was NOT windy. However, as I Komang, a serenity steward, informed me as he was picking up sodden towels off loungers, it had just minutes earlier been raining "cats and dogs" (I love it that the crew knows English euphemisms). Luckily, he had already prepared my lounger with dry towels, so I sat down, ordered a cucumber water, and immediately noticed a third cruise ship, the Horizon from the Croisieres de France cruise line making its way into Castries harbor. St. Lucia was really packing them in today!  I believe the Horizon is the old Celebrity Horizon, especially since, not only did they not rename the ship, the name Horizon appears in the same block white letters on the bow that Celebrity still uses on its ships. 

I can imagine that the bridge officers on the P&O Ventura were hanging out on their bridge wings watching closely as the Horizon squeezed in behind it. It must be a bit like when you return to your car to find that someone is parking too closely in the spot next to yours and you pointedly stand there and watch and silently dare them to even touch your car.

Three cruise ships in St. Lucia and intermittent rain showers moving through...it was a good day to stay on the ship and a better day to sit in the Sanctuary. 

And so I sat in the Sancturary relaxing as noise bled through from the movie A Christmas Carol (Jim Carrey version) on the big screen (MUTS), occasionally drowned out by the sound of forklifts on the freight dock, and I was forced to wonder when, WHEN in the Sanctuary are we going to experience the glorious wind-free, sunny days filled with New Age spa sounds and my fellow beautiful and well-toned passengers moving in smiling slow motion up there; you know, the way it is in the Princess marketing videos.  Because, although it's very nice, and certainly a respite from all the activity on the open pool decks during this busy cruise, it's been either windy and/or rainy and/or cold and/or noisy. In fact, right at this moment I was hearing, simultaneously, the movie, the beep beep beep of a forklift backing up and a police siren. Oh, and then a truck horn honking incessantly. An oasis of tranquility it was not. 

Finally I started to get hungry, and since G wasn't showing up to spring me, I checked myself out and returned to the cabin, where I found him engrossed in the movie Jobs. Now, when it comes to movies, we are generally the only people in the English speaking world who haven't seen any particular one, and Jobs is no different. I entered the cabin during the turbulent John Sculley years and stayed until the end of the movie, and so still need to see the first 75% of it (no problem, that...it's cruise TV, and I'll be able to see it the rest of the evening and all day on Day 5 of next cruise.)

By the time the movie had ended, we were both starved and so opted for (no surprise) pizza. You know, I never, ever had pizza on a cruise ship until Princess discontinued serving lunch in the dining room on port days, and now it's our choice at least half the time. I backed mine up with a small salad from the buffet, but didn't want to eat too much...I needed to save room for tea served in the Sanctuary!

Finally, G escorted me back to the Sanctuary and then went on his way to do whatever. And I continued to enjoy lounging in the shade but with sun on my legs (that "tanned is thinner" theory) and, once I plugged in my ear buds and continued to listen to an audiobook (Paris in Love by Eloisa James) to drown out the noise bleed of the Bon Jovi concert on MUTS, it turned into a really gorgeous afternoon in the Sanctuary. Tea was served promptly at 3:45pm and that has become one of my favorite parts of the Sanctuary experience. 

Served by I Komang from Indonesia

And, speaking of Christmas movies (we were, weren't we, several paragraphs ago?), in the interest of accurate Christmas reporting, in addition to Jim Carrey's A Christmas Carol shown at 10am on MUTS, Christmas with the Kranks was shown at 1pm in the Princess Theater, and Scrooge (from 1970) was shown at 4:15pm and 6:15pm on MUTS. Also shown on MUTS:  Monday Night Football, the 49ers v. the Falcons at 9:30. 

At 4:30pm, I left my sanctuary in the Sanctuary and returned to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We weren't sailing until 6pm and so there was no compelling reason to go up to Skywalkers for the Elite Lounge (and I'm starting to think that we'll be skipping it a lot next winter on the Royal Princess when it's held in view-less Club 6). Instead we just went straight down to dinner. 

At dinner with Darko, we held it to just an entree (orange roughy for me) and dessert (vodka lime sorbet, one of my favorites). We didn't want to fill up too much...the cruise's Most Traveled Party (MTP) was held tonight in Adagio, and we wanted to save room for what turned out (for me) to be three Breeza Marinas and great conversation with the Chief Engineer's wife who came on board yesterday. 

Desserts from the MTP party

Once again, we closed out the party, and then returned to our cabin after procuring fuzzy water and popcorn. There is so much going on tonight:  tropical deck party, football on MUTS, but we've chosen to watch Jobs from the beginning on our cabin TV, and it just started again at 9:40pm. 

Arrival tomorrow in Barbados is early- 7am- and our current plan is for a beach day. Captain Nick warned that tonight could be bouncy again, but, really, this is NOTHING compared to what we've had recently. I predict good sleep and, hopefully, a wonderful Christmas Eve day on Barbados. 

Day 53: Antigua

I started this post sitting in the Sanctuary looking out over the city of St. John's, Antigua. It was calm and sunny and, for the first time ever, I actually heard some of that relaxing New Age music playing in that area, and it was all just as nice as it could be, and then a sudden rainshower blew in, and I got a bit wet, but the sun came out again and, I must say, when the ship is docked, the Sanctuary really is quite wonderful. 

When we arrived in Antigua at 8am, we were still in bed after a mostly sleepless night. We're just not getting good sleep, and it's starting to take its toll. Even after hearing the announcement that the Emerald Princess had been cleared by the local authorities and passengers were welcome to go ashore, we lingered a bit, slow to start our day. Therefore, we arrived in DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast shortly before it closed at 9am, and I kept my order to just cereal and mixed berries...and stollen, of course. 

Internet was still out this morning, and I was beginning to have visions of Mom falling on the ice while making her way to Mass, and still lying there and...well, the mind can start playing tricks on you when you're sleep deprived. We needed to get off of the ship today if for no other reason than to find wifi. 

We walked first over to Redcliffe Quay to find the wifi that's usually available at the Big Banana restaurant, but either it wasn't working, or we couldn't get on it because so many crew members had beat us to it, because we got no where there (but it was certainly peaceful and pretty in that little courtyard this morning). 

We next headed back towards the ship a different way, cutting through some of the cobblestoned alleys that date back hundred of years, but still finding no wifi along the way. We thought that Kings Casino was closed on Sundays, but saw someone coming out of it and so walked in. Finally, success. Their wifi is never fast, and several crewmembers were already there making Internet calls home, but at least they had it, and immediately 57 emails popped up on my iPhone to be read, and I honed in on those from Mom, who is fine and didn't appear to be one bit worried that she hadn't heard from us since Thursday. She's a busy woman! ;-)

We sat there for a couple of hours, and I was able to publish the blog posts I'd written for the past two days. We checked things at home (all fine) and financial accounts (all fine) and heaved a sigh of relief. 

We had no real plans for the day (frankly, I just wanted to be on a non-moving surface), and, though it was mostly sunny, occasional brief showers passed through. Being Sunday, we didn't want to risk trying to take a local bus anywhere, and it wasn't looking to be the best beach day. Instead, we dodged some rain drops and returned to the ship and our cabin, where we opened the second box of mail from home that arrived on the Emerald Princess on turnaround day (thank you Martha!). Great fun...we had a few early Christmas cards, including one from Mom with a picture of herself that was taken recently for church- just beautiful, and it's fun to have a photo of her with us on the ship. 

(Shayla...OMG such amazing news about Zak! Congrats; as you once said about G, Zak's mother raised a good son!  Please email me...I don't have a good email address for you. It's only fitting that you're cruising along with me; I think of our world travels so often when I'm here!)

We were in the mood for food by then, and since a brief rainshower was passing over at that very moment, decided to go down to the International Cafe (IC) for lunch instead of up to the Lido Deck for pizza. While we get our coffee (actually, G's been getting hot cocoa) in the IC every morning, we don't generally go back there to eat again later in the day. Well, lucky us!  Today they were actually preparing penne arrabiata right there, and so we started with that, and then I had some of my favorite shrimp and fennel salad, and decided to splurge and have that chocolate pudding (that used to be call Gianduja pudding) for dessert. Well, thankfully, what used to be like eating fudge in a bowl was now horribly disappointing, which makes it just that much easier to stay away from it. 

G stayed behind to talk to Andre and Angela, on for 50 days and last cruise's most traveled passengers but this cruise's second-most traveled, and I returned to the cabin for a bit of iPhone charging and took advantage of that time to call Room Service for the trade out of some of our minibar items. Every cruise (so, for us, every ten days) we get delivered to our cabin a complete complementary minibar setup, including...oh, I don't know for sure, but I think it's 8 tiny bottles of liquors and two beers and four sodas and two Perriers and two bottles of water. Something close to that, at least. Well, we both also purchase, every cruise, either an unlimited soda package for $4.50 a day or the Ultimate Kids' package, which includes the sodas plus unlimited virgin drinks and milkshakes and hot cocoa for $7 a day (G got that one this cruise). So, aside from a few beers that G tries to drink, and the water bottles that I use on the islands, we really don't drink a lot from our minibar. It helps that we can exchange items...the four cans of soda, for example, were traded for water bottles, and the liquors for beers, but I'm here to tell you, this stuff is piling up and taking over the cabin. I think we will have to skip it next cruise in lieu of two coffee cards, and try to get caught up. We're falling horribly behind ;-)

Once I had a bit of battery life, and the minibar items were taken care of, I made my way up to the Sanctuary. I might have enjoyed one of the NFL games being shown on MUTS:

2:00pm:  Panthers v. Saints (I needed my sports advisors to tell me who to cheer for)

5:30pm:  Patriots v. Ravens

9:15pm: Bears v. Eagles

but I'm a bit leary to venture out based on the reports of physical altercations (really) over deck chairs. There's a reason G wanted me safely ensconced in the Sanctuary this cruise. So I went up there, and it was quite nice, but still surprisingly windy even with the Emerald Princess docked.

When will the winds finally end?

I stayed long enough for tea time (not that I needed more food, but it's just so very decadent to be lounging back while tea and sweets and sandwiches are delivered), but returned to the cabin by 4:30pm to shower and change for dinner. We wanted to watch sailaway from Skywalkers, as Antigua is one of the prettiest sailaways we see on these itineraries. It wasn't until we got up to Skywalkers that we remembered there was no Elite Lounge up there tonight because of the Captain's Circle parties being held tonight in Club Fusion. That's ok...drinks and hors doerves or not, I love being in Skywalkers for Antigua sailaway. Even though it was a rainy one, it was still beautiful. 

Then it was dinner with Darko and the Captains Circle party. We're waiting for the 9:30pm show by comedian Peter Sasso to begin, which will be followed by (weather permitting) the Bears v. Eagles game on MUTS and a late bedtime. Captain Nick promised us tonight that the Christmas winds would start to die down over the next five days as there was some weather system in the northeast US to affect them. It's funny to think that snow in New England might allow us to get some sleep.

:-)