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Published: June 26th 2017
Six days at sea without sight of land is nearly at an end. There has been plenty of entertainment in the evenings to keep most people entertained. There is usually at least one game show/trivia in the evening for those who haven't had enough of the three trivia sessions during the day. One such game show that Roisin and I played was based on the TV show Jeopardy. Each team is given a grid with subjects along the top and a value ($100, $200, $300 etc..) down the side. The quiz master will say 'Food and drink for $300'. The question is read out and each team write their answer in the appropriate space. One nominated team member then runs down to the front of the stage and, if the question is right, receives the equivalent value that the answer is worth. On this occasion, we were joined by Nancy and Ken, a couple who now reside in Florida but Nancy originates from New Hampshire. They are a very likeable couple, humorous and entertaining managing to keep us sane in this crazy world known as ‘trivia'. Nancy is a phlebotomist while Ken works in Property Management. They are the prime reason
Roisin has refrained from smashing someone's face in!! Speaking of which we were also joined by Marina and John. Marina was still smarting from a question from this afternoon: ‘
Which country is bordered by the most countries?' ‘It depends' said Marina. ‘Both Russia and China border fourteen but if you count Macao and Hong Kong, which really aren't countries then China. And then there is Tibet, of course. That's a disputed territory. Have they counted that, I wonder?' Roisin put Russia and of course the answer given was China. However, Google proved that Marina was correct and the official answer is both Russia and China.
She kept repeating this to anyone who was prepared to listen!!! After Jeopardy came to an end (which we didn't win but thank God, for Marina's well-being, there were no contentious answers), Nancy, Ken, Roisin and I stayed on to listen to some of the Karaoke roulette. This is where the volunteers don't know what they are going to sing until they come on stage. After an OK version of ‘My Way' and a subdued rendition of
New York, New York a la Bob Dylan we decided to call it a night.
On the way back to our cabin we were stopped by two ladies who had very strong Latin American accents. I'm guessing they're either from Argentina or Brazil.
‘Showing me the Princess patter and pointing at the entry for Karaoke, one of them asked in very broken English; ‘
Pleeze, where iz o-ke-ko-ke?' I couldn't help raising a smile at their pronunciation and then, and I'm not sure what made me say it, came out with:
Straight down this deck, through the photoshop then when you get to the Club Fusion, you put your left leg in!!' The Crown Princess is one of many ships in the fleet that has MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) This is a cinema screen on the pool deck that shows recent movies. As it was a mild night, we watched Dr Strange starring Benedict Cumberbach. Loungers and blankets are provided and popcorn was available to make the experience authentic!! After a movie has premiered on MUTS it will then be shown in one of the lounges a few days after and then on the TV in all staterooms. These apparently, are the terms and conditions within the performing rights contract.
During
the day, there are stalls set up around the ship. The Lotus Spa will push special treatments or try to sell their miracle lotions and potions. There is no hard sell. The staff are pleasant enough. They always say hello and will only start their ‘spiel' if you stop and show an interest. EFFY are the company that control the jewellery. They also have strategically placed stalls around the decks. On this occasion, one guy, built like the proverbial
brick lavatory, was offering free consultations on your feet. Roisin stopped to chat. Within minutes he had taken a pressure pad imprint of her feet and was explaining what it all meant. He then opened a packet of plastic insteps and inserted them into Roisin's shoes explaining the medical advantages. I was watching from a few yards away.
‘They are two ninety-nine on line plus tax but only one ninety-nine, tax free on board', as the man mountain wrote the figure down and showed Roisin.
‘No thanks', said Roisin.
‘I'll leave it for now'. ‘Why didn't you buy them?' I asked.
‘It's not as if we can't afford $1.99' ‘$1.99?' exclaimed Roisin
. ‘He was asking $199!! ‘What? For those two bits of plastic he stuck in your shoes. I could think of a better place he could stick them!!' I inferred as we walked towards Club Fusion for another session of trivia!
The Azores are a group of nine islands in the mid-Atlantic about 800 miles off the coast of Portugal. They are a Portuguese dependency. The Crown Princess docked at Ponta Delgada, the principle city of the Azores largest island, San Miguel.
The most famous land mark on the island is known as Sete Cidades and crater lake. This is two crater lakes separated by a narrow bridge. One lake is blue and the other lake is green. This is said to have once been the location of the legendary Sete Cites (Seven cities). I have seen photos and TV footage of these lakes and I'm sure it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes. I certainly couldn't distinguish the different colours! Pineapples are cultivated on San Miguel. There are thousands of green houses on the island used to cultivate and grow this tropical fruit. This was another organised excursion. I don't need to walk around green houses to see pineapples. I can
just visit Tesco or Wall-mart!!
Roisin and I have been known to take an organised trip if it is somewhere we really want to see and not possible to organise oneself. However, as it is our first visit to this island we decided there was enough to see walking around Ponta Delgada. If we ever come back to this part of the world we can then possibly consider venturing further afield.
The ship docks only minutes away from the centre of town. The road that sweeps around the port and marina is known as Avenida Infante de Henrique. Now my Portuguese is practically non-existent but I guarantee this thoroughfare has something to do with Henry the Navigator who, I believe is big in these parts!! I'm sure this is not the last time we'll hear his name on this trip!!
The focal point of Ponta Delgada is the town gates consisting of three arches rising about 30ft. They used to be the only way in to the once walled city but alas only the gates remain to remind us of the time that this town used to be so popular they needed a gate to control the
hoardes!!
Many of the pavements and sidewalks have a patterned black and white design. This was evident when viewed from the steps of the town hall, 50 yards from the town gates. The streets leading up from the town gates are all pedestrianised. It was here we came across a busker with a difference. His instrument of choice was the tuba!! Surprisingly this seemed to work well and complimented his instrument of second choice, the washboard, very well. The quirkiness never stopped there. Our busker sang as well. However, he didn't use a standard microphone. He used a megaphone which gave the sound a distinctive 1930s grammarphonic sound
Heading back down toward the waterfront and a few hundred yards from the military museum housed in Fort São Brás we spotted a miniature train known as the
Lagarta. Miniature trains are our thing so we paid our €7,50 each and for one hour drove around the town seeing all the places I'm glad we didn't waste our time walking to!!!
We chugged around the picturesque narrow streets of Ponta Delgada but being a relatively small town, there is not, apparently one hour's worth of chugging so the train
made its way to an area called
Laraneiras. A commentary in both Portuguese and English had accompanied us throughout this short excursion. It referred to Laraneiras as a small village that has, over time been incorporated into the city of Ponta Delgada and is now the main industrial area. It was like driving around the back streets of Bootle!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Bootle, think Beirut then multiply it by the Badlands of Kandahar!!
On our walk back to the ship I noticed the mail boxes are painted red or blue. It's nothing to do with the football team you support but the type of letter you wish to post!
Roisin was quick to spot another quirk about this island. With the increase in the use of cell phones, there is less need for public phone boxes. Rather than remove the phone boxes, they have been painted white, the phone removed and shelves inserted. On these shelves are rows of books. The public phone boxes have been converted to micro libraries!! Somehow, I don't think it's the kind of establishment you'd visit for peace and quiet!!
This evening it was the crew talent
show. This is the part of the cruise when they are running out of shows so they get some of the waiters and cabin stewards to entertain the ‘troops', so to speak!
On waiting for the show to begin, there was a balloon drop within the theatre. It doesn't matter how young or old you are (or how grumpy you are, Roisin just said. Not too sure who she's referring to!!), when balloons are thrown in to the mix, everyone reverts to their inner child!! There was much flapping of arms and batting of balloons. It put everyone in a good mood for the performance. Paul, the cruise director introduced the show. He started by saying there are 1,300 crew members on board so we could be in for a very long show!! As it turned out there were only six acts. The show started by a troupe of singers and dancers, all dancing in well-choreographed synchronisation and singing in perfect harmony. I thought ‘
Hey, these are bloody good' thinking that these were the boys and girls who clean your cabins and serve you dinner. It was then Roisin pointed out that these are the professional singers and dancers!!!
The acts were very good though. From a Philippino singing a pitch perfect
My Way to a guitar playing Indonesian who, although his English was very broken when being interviewed by Paul, gave an excellent guitar rendition of Hotel California with perfect diction, pitch and timing. There was even one of the cocktail waiters from Crooners bar who showed us how easy it was to balance an empty bottle on the back of your hand for three minutes!!!
The show was a late one (by ship's standards!!) not starting until 22:15 so it was past 23:00 when we wandered back to our cabin. Now normally it is relatively quiet in our part of the neighbourhood known as the Piazza/International café. Not tonight though. There was some sort of commotion as we cut through the Princess Art Gallery. A team of chefs/cooks and kitchen staff were putting the finishing touches to an Easter display. This consisted of many giant chocolate eggs, each one with a signature design. On the top of the design sat two rather evil looking ‘killer' bunnies which would not look out of place in a Tim Burton film!! They were guarding the ‘king' egg. (King
because it had a tall crown!) On this egg were written the words: ‘
Happy Easter'. The team were obviously very proud of their creation and were posing for photos during their fifteen minutes of fame. On speaking with one of the creators, it had taken them over four weeks to plan, design and create this work of art only for the eggs to be destroyed once the exhibition is over. This seems to be a waste of chocolate but health and safety dictates as the uncovered chocolate will have been exposed for over a week. I suppose hundreds of people breathing all over the exhibit doesn't add to the cause, either. I also asked one of the crew how much chocolate was used in the making of the display. In the excitement of the moment he turned to me and said: ‘I don't know? A shit load, I guess?!' So there we have it. I'm not too sure how many kilogrammes this new imperial measure equates to but I reckon it's a lot!!
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Dave Bailey
non-member comment
Not convincing me mate.