May 14 – Last Sea Day Before Ireland

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Welcome to the roller-coaster named Caribbean Princess. At least that is how it felt last night. Maybe if we had been Navy people instead of Air Force, then it might have felt better. But through the night the ship accelerated to make up for lost distance and therefore it was very bouncy – if that is a real word.

We got up and dressed at 9:30 when the carnival ride was better, and we headed off to breakfast. Janet got 3 cabins down the passageway and then had to turn around and go back to the cabin because there was still too much ship motion. David went on up to breakfast and then brought back some food for Janet for the morning. Our cabin steward came and cleaned the room but otherwise it was an uneventful morning.

The Noon Report showed that the ship was heading ENE at 15 MPH, with 5 meter seas. Wind gusts are still about 40 MPH and the temperature was 51 degrees. Later in the afternoon it had gotten up to 55, but nobody ever says what the wind chill is out on deck. The one measurement device is that everyone (crew and passengers) was wearing coats when on the deck.

David went down and bought another package of Dramamine for Janet. She is glad that the ride is not causing him the same discomfort as her, but at the same time it doesn’t seem fair either. Fortunately, he can still get around the ship to bring things to the cabin. Anyway, while the medicine is working it helps make Janet’s stomach feel better, but she can certainly tell when the previous dose starts to wear off.

This afternoon at 4:30 was the Captain’s Circle meeting for Elite travelers. Those are the folks who have been on plenty of Princess cruises and accrued the full set of perks. So we continued to rest in the cabin until time to head for the Club Fusion. It was also Formal Night again, but we elected to employ a modified amount of getting fancy. But Janet was determined to participate in some of the fun things, so she was able to walk carefully the whole length of the ship. We even got there ahead of the start time, but she was able to sit on a bench while waiting. Once we got inside, they passed out a few drinks and appetizers before making a couple of speeches. One of the interesting facts is that 658 of the passengers are brand new with this being their first cruise – not sure this weather will have been a good first impression for them. They detailed the number of passengers in each category, finishing with Elite – including us – who have been on more than 15 cruises or 150 days on Princess. There were 621 of us. They also announced the three people with the most cruises. They were 1025, 1114, and 2033. That last one is more than 5 ½ years cruising.

Afterwards we went to the Palm Dining, which was directly downstairs. Janet had Shrimp Cocktail for appetizer and David had Lime & Salt-Cured Salmon. We both declined the Lobster Tail as our entrée and we each had Beef Wellington. For dessert, Janet had Pistachio Chocolate Mousse, and David had Wild Berry Cobbler. It was a delicious dinner. Then we made the long walk back to the cabin with the ship still rocking and rolling.

This evening the captain made an announcement that the bad weather had caused him to divert the ship away from the worst of the storm, so our arrival tomorrow will be delayed from 7:00AM to 2:00PM (estimated). Since we have a 1:00 excursion, it appears that will be cancelled, and we will not get to go to the Jamison Distillery. We were looking forward to this, but also were concerned that it might include too much walking. They will refund our fees if we cannot take the excursion.

One of the facts they told us about in this afternoon was that Princess is going to have a round-trip cruise from Los Angeles to Australia and back. We did not hear the full itinerary, but it is supposed to be 54 days. That would avoid the very long flight across the Pacific, but everyone will be relieved that we think that is too long for us. Maybe a few years back, but not any longer.

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