At Sea...

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Geo: 20.6509, -105.215

Ahhhh...our first full day on the cruise and it is a sea day - wonderful! We wake up late and go to the Horizon Court buffet for breakfast. Jeff had what he calls a 'normal person's breakfast' which was eggs, bacon and toast, coffee and cranberry juice. I have oatmeal, fresh fruit, coffee and cranberry juice.

After breakfast we start our usual " OMG, we're on a cruise ship and need to pay attention to our caloric intake and expenditure" and we walk around the Promenade deck for about 4 to 5 miles. We're bummed out that both the very front and the very back of the ship have been cordoned off so instead of walking the entire circumference of the ship where 3.2 laps equals a mile, we have to cut across the boat by going inside and straight through on either end. But, honestly, those quick jaunts from one side of the ship to the other give us welcome blasts of air conditioning.

When I'm on a cruise ship, my outdoor vocabulary is limited to "Wow!" As we walk around the deck, every single time I look at the ocean, I say "wow." I just can't help myself. We had a good walk; it's about 2pm and time for lunch. I didn't make healthy choices for lunch; oh, let me rephrase that - I made healthy choices, but the two desserts kind of wiped out my good intentions.

Every Princess cruise that we've been on has had a proper afternoon tea from 3:30 to 4:30 and I'm excited to have tea with Eve, Trish and Mary; I've told them all about it. Since Eve and Trish are from the UK, I thought this would be especially nice. So, you can probably imagine my disappointment when I didn't find the event listed in the daily Princess Patter. Maybe tomorrow?

We haven't seen our compatriots at all and I'm a little concerned because Eve and Leroy have had their "Do Not Disturb" sign out all day. I hope she feels all right.

Tonight is formal night, and Jeff and I are puzzled. We are Princess Platinum members and people at our level and the highest level (one above ours), in the past have had a private cocktail hour every afternoon. There is a $5.00 drink of the day and special snacks, and we don't have anything in our cabin about it, hmmm.....
This cruise ship, the Island Princess, is one of the smaller ships in the fleet and it is used for the Panama Canal cruises because it is narrower than the newer ships. Maybe some of the special amenities we're accustomed to aren't done on this cruise.

Since this is formal night we are sure to see our travelling companions. We know they won't miss the Captain's Champagne Fountain (or the free champagne!) event in the atrium. Jeff and I get dressed up. I'm wearing the galabaya I bought in Cairo and it is so unusual I get a lot of looks. I'm also wearing my shark tooth necklace and when I put the hood of my galabaya up, I declare myself a warrior princess. Jeff tells me I look like a Star Wars character - I choose to take that as a compliment.

As I walk by a man in a tuxedo we briefly make eye contact, and he tells me "You are stunning!!" Made my night!

We arrive at the champagne fountain festivities early because it is often very difficult to find a good viewing spot along the stair railings. We're shocked to see a smaller than usual crowd. Normally people are standing 3 deep peering over one another's shoulders, jockeying for better camera angle positions and there was none of that.

We get our champagne and start circling all the areas around the plaza looking for Mary, Leroy, Trish and Eve - in a crowd this small they won't be difficult to spot. But we never did see them! Now, I'm worried because I know Eve had talked about about the champagne fountain and that she planned to attend. And we're disappointed that we didn't get to see everyone in their dress-up finery; but, there are two more formal nights on the cruise and we'll be better organized about getting together.

Our formal night dinner was nice and our table mates were interesting and talkative.

After dinner Jeff and I head to the Princess Theater to see the show "Piano Man" which is a song and dance montage of the music of Billy Joel, Barry Manilow and Elton John. It was very enjoyable and we were both disappointed that the show didn't last longer. I guess these singers and dancers subscribe to the adage "Always leave them wanting more." LOL
It's almost 11:30 so we head up to our cabin. Before turning in we set an alarm for 8am thinking we'll intercept the others and have breakfast together tomorrow morning.
Good night!

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Comments

[Tom]

I hope everyone is doing ok!! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying yourself, and I hope you find the cheap drinks :)

[wjohnsmithii]

Need a photo of Jane in her galabaya!