Day 10 – Thursday – Oct 4 – Fifth Sea Day

---

Hello from a much smoother Pacific Ocean. We continue to head south today, but today the weather is sunny and warm, and fairly smooth sailing today. So we are happy to have a better weather report today.



Last night was the Presidential Debate and it was available to watch on the big movie screen on the pool deck or on one of your cabin TV channels. As a small political comment, about 1/3 of the people were scheduled for their regular dinner serving, and almost half of us were in the Princess Theater watching a show (more on that later), so apparently there weren’t too many people glued to their TV. And that’s assuming nobody was using any of the other lounges, bar, or other shows.



One of the shows each morning is something call the Wake Show which originates on the ship. There are some pre-recorded short messages and other announcements from the cruise director about events happening on the ship. However one of the recorded episodes is about their newest Princess ship (Royal Princess) being built in an Italian drydock. It is going to be huge compared to our ship and will have all sorts of new features. Frankly we enjoy what we’ve got now and would not be anxious to try the newest ship. However we learned yesterday that many of her cruises next year are already sold out and wait-listed, so there seem to be many people who want to go on the newest ship.



Today is the half way point on our vacation. This is the 10^th day of our 19 day vacation. Looking back at the first half we have certainly enjoyed ourselves and looking forward we anticipate much more excitement. We are officially entering the Central America area, so we’re not really in North America any longer.



Anyway, today began by attending the sit down breakfast in the Bordeaux Dining Room. The food actually is pretty much the same as we can get on the buffet, but we sat with a couple from San Jose California and another couple from Utah. So we continue to meet new people and share experiences. Anyway, breakfast was good but a little slow, but we had plenty of time today.



Afterwards Janet headed off to her daily knitters meeting. She has found these informal sessions to be very restful. Meanwhile David went to walk around the ship and snap a few more photos. Then he went to the Enrichment Lecture and head about the port calls of Fuerte Amador and the port of Cartagena. These have been very interesting and Janet is watching the rerun episodes on the TV one day later.



During the Cartagena description, he described the big fortress which we have signed up to tour. Upon hearing the information, we studied the tour details, saw that we had to sign a waiver for any injuries. In addition to pictures, the lecturer had said there were 3 narrow tunnels to traverse, plenty of ramps to climb, and we were advised to bring water and parasols for shade because the temperature is usually about 90 degrees and the humidity is normally about 90%. Anyway, we decided to switch to something not quite so physically challenging. We selected a bus tour instead, and fortunately someone had turned in their tickets, so it wasn’t sold out right at that minute. We turned in our “fort tickets” (which had also been sold out) and will have a city tour instead. But watch for those details later in the trip.



We went to lunch at the Pizzeria today. Janet had a couple of pepperoni slices while David had one pepperoni and one tuna. The pepperoni was good but more or less like any other such pizza. The tuna was something David had never tried before and was really good. Unfortunately it also had onions, so Janet did not want to try it. But if Papa Murphy ever offers this on their monthly special, it might be worth a try.



After lunch Janet went back to the cabin for a restful afternoon. She watched some TV and did some needlework and generally got herself energized for a lengthy excursion tomorrow. David went up to the pool. It was a nice sunny day and the pool was too crowded to swim laps, but the water was refreshing (air temperature was in the mid 80s) and he got a good workout treading water for about 15 minutes and then he sat on the sun deck for another 45 minutes.



At 3:00 we both went to the 2^nd wine tasting of the cruise. It was a lot cheaper so there were lots of people this time. In fact the Master of Ceremonies declared that this was the largest number of tasters they have ever had at one of these events. They had to quickly set up many more settings and delayed the start about 15 minutes until everyone could be made ready. There were two dry whites and two rich reds, and finally a sweet white dessert wine (this came with a complimentary decorative shot glass too). Anyway, we enjoyed this session.



We went back to the room for about an hour before dinner. We ate with our regular table partners (Vic & Carol) tonight, but tomorrow may be different. Anyway, Janet had baby scallops & bacon for appetizer, beef consume, and steak Diane. David had the melon balls, fettuccini alfredo, and pork loin. For dessert Janet had apple pie a la mode and David had cheesecake. Once again the meats were delicious. Afterwards, all four of us had Irish coffee, which was also good.



After dinner we went down to the theater and saw another show by the Sax player, Craig Richard. It was a different set of songs than the previous occasion, but it was a good show again. After that we came back to the room and watched the last part of the Rams football game (Wow, the Rams won!).



There are lots of other activities available in the evening (like tonight is a Country and Western party in the Explorer’s Lounge and last night was “the Ultimate Deck Party” by the pool last night. There are also plenty of other lounges but we just aren’t really into that. There are plenty of things available late into the night if one wanted. However, we have an early/busy day tomorrow, so that’s all for tonight.

---