Day 17 – Thursday – Oct 11 – Back at Sea

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Hello from the Island Princess – somewhere in the Caribbean and unfortunately, heading home. We have two sea days left and we are going to enjoy them for as long as it lasts.



We slept in this morning without any wake-up call and completed a good night’s rest. Somehow yesterday had been kind of tiring so this is a good day for doing very little.



We had a little breakfast in the Horizon Court, and this time Janet got to try their “Texas-sized French Toast”. She initially asked for 2 slices, but changed to just one slice after she saw how large it was. David had his usual Ham & Cheese Omelet but added a Belgian Waffle today.



We went down to the Captain Circle representative. This is basically someone to ask whatever questions you have about Princess Cruise in general. Since we have been promoted to Platinum status, we wanted to know if the “enhanced insurance” would apply to a couple of cruises we already have booked – the answer was yes. Then we wanted to know what the enhancement was and she couldn’t answer the question but offered to print a bunch of legal pages. We have enough things to bring home so we declined and will check the web page in the future. We also wanted to know if the free Internet minutes applied to both of us or if it was for the cabin – the answer was that we both get free minutes.



After that Janet went to her knitters meeting and David went to the Enrichment Lecture. Today’s discussion was about the Caribbean Trade Winds, and how they affected the explorations, development, and trade with in the days of sailing ships. It was interesting but not quite up to the level of the “canal lectures”.



We met up again in the cabin and watched an episode of Love Boat on the TV. Then we went up to have a light lunch because we knew there was a special dinner planned tonight. However it was German cuisine at the buffet and David had more of those goodies than he should have, but it was very good and he rarely gets it.



After lunch we went back to the gift shop to see if they had anything new for sale, but it was the same stuff as usual. Today was the day for displaying their Jacqueline Kennedy collection in the jewelry center, but we didn’t buy anything.



Then Janet went to Iris Folding. This is a technique where you line up folded papers on a pattern to make a design in a greeting card. It is hard to explain but actually fairly easy to do. We made a heart. It is an interesting activity but Janet really does not need more hobbies.



At the same time, David went to the pool to swim and then rested a little while by reading on the pool deck. It was warm but not as hot today as the past couple of d ays, however it was sunny with a nearly cloudless sky. For that reason the pool was very popular and it seemed like many people were trying to get their last minute touch-ups of their tan. As he arrived at the pool, four people got up from deck chairs so David put his stuff down on one of them. Shortly afterwards, 3 of the dancers from the evening shows sat down on the other three deck chairs. They were wearing even less costume than on the stage, but David ignored them and just read his book – right.



The shower in our cabin has a problem in that it is overly hot and does not seem to be able to run cold water. That makes David feel hotter coming out of the shower than going in. He’s asked the steward, Ferdinand, to get maintenance to fix it, but so far it’s still exactly like Janet likes it – lobster temperature.



The Giants-Reds baseball game was on the TV and lots of people on the ship came from the San Francisco area, so they were all anxious to see the game. The Cardinals-Nationals was afterward but we had to leave the cabin before the Giant’s game was over, so we didn’t actually see any of it. But we sat in the cabin and had a glass of wine and kind of pretended we were at the game.



This evening we were invited to the Captain’s Reception for Returning Passengers. The ship’s capacity is about 1920 passengers and there were more than 1400 invited to the reception (700 with us and 700 at a later session). There were more than 900 passengers in the Gold category, almost 400 in Platinum, and a little more than 100 Elite. They provided a couple of weak cocktails (Janet had the Champagne & Cranberry Juice – David had Rum Punch) and a couple of staff members (including the captain) said a few things, but it was all over in 30 minutes so it wasn’t a real big deal.



Then we went directly to dinner. Tonight was the 3^rd and final Formal Night. They always serve excellent choices during this meal and it creates a dilemma for what to order. They offered Lobster and King Prawns or Beef Wellington, both of which are Janet’s favorites. A couple of cruises back she found a solution to this problem – order both – which she did tonight. David had the Lobster. Oh yeah, we both had veal ravioli’s as an appetizer, Janet had Tomato Soup and David had Sour Apple Soup with Goat’s Cheese (sounds bizarre but was very good), and for dessert David had Peach Melba while Janet declined. Then Vic and Carol bought everyone Irish Whiskeys. So we had a large but scrumptious dinner.



After dinner, we all four went to the theater and watched the final production show. It was a song and dance show called “the Piano Man”. Actually there was only one piano song, but all the songs were by Barry Manilow, Elton John, and Billy Joel so I guess they all play the piano and you had to name the show something. But it was enjoyable.



After the show, Vic wanted to borrow our scale to make sure his heaviest suitcase weighed less than 50 pounds. David went over and weighed it for them, and they have no problems. We need to pack our bags tomorrow, but we will put that off as long as practical. Guess we better not wait until after the gift shop closes in case we need to buy another suitcase.



FYI … even though we don’t have a calendar, Janet remembered that today is 10-11-12.

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