Our second and last day at sea

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Geo: 49.2605, -123.114

When you take a three day cruise it sure goes by quickly. This is our second, and last day; doesn't seem fair that we have to pack tonight <sigh>.

But we started the day off right - we got up in time for a restaurant breakfast. It wasn't easy but we did it. The restaurant breakfast was tasty. It is nice to have someone wait on you (though I do admit to being very spoiled as, since I retired 5 years ago, Jeff has brought me coffee in bed every morning).

After breakfast we wandered to the "future cruise sales" desk to fill out a deposit sheet on a future cruise. This is a very good deal. We put down $100 each on a future cruise, you don't have to know where or when you are going, and you have two years in which to book. If you don't book a cruise and use the deposit, Princess gives you all your money back. When you do book a cruise and use your deposit, you get free "cabin credits" that is, money to spend on the ship. For example, on this 3 day cruise we got $25.00 free. Our total bill for the cruise, after applying our credits (we had some from other sources as well) was $17.99. We are clearly not big spenders!

While we were out and about we stopped in the library to pick up the daily Sudoku puzzle and then returned to our cabin to change clothes.
We put on shorts and headed to the Promenade deck for our walk. It was a gorgeous, sunny day with no wind and the water was nearly calm. We saw several more whales spouting in the distance than we had yesterday, and those goofy birders had their spotting scopes pointed in the totally wrong direction as far as we were concerned. We walked in our circle for about an hour and a half before heading inside to cool off - I was also starving

We went down the big spiral staircase in the atrium to the "Piazza" where they serve salads, soups and little dessert bites. I had a shrimp salad - huge shrimp and a 'roasted vegetables with extra virgin olive oil' dish. I must have been hungry because I polished that off with a tiny fresh fruit tart and a shot glass sized tiramsu. Yum. Jeff had the same as me EXCEPT instead of dessert he had a small green salad.

Walk, food, clearly time for a nap! We go back to our cabin to sit out on the balcony to watch the waves go by and maybe see some wildlife. Jeff decides to take the camera and go WAY up top, above the bridge, to see if he can get a photo of me on our balcony. I stay, scanning the ocean for plumes of mist that indicates whales surfacing and clearing their blowholes.

From several decks above me a man calls down "Do you see the whales?" I shouted back that I had seen several plumes. "There is a pod about a mile out. Look further to your right" he said. I trained my binoculars and there they blew! I saw three, maybe five, plumes and then suddenly RIGHT in my binocular view one of the whales flipped his tail completely out of the water! I was SO excited!! And Jeff was missing it... Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash, ah! a dolphin. I turned my binoculars that way and the view was UNBELIEVABLE!! It looked like the ocean was boiling. There must have been 100 or more dolphins all moving in the same direction, some leaping high, high out of the water. Sooo high! They, too, were about a mile off the starboard side of the ship. The line of the dolphins went on and on and on and on. I think I started hyperventilating because I was so shocked and excited.I looked up to the very top of the helm and saw Jeff.
I started frantically trying to point to him to "look! look!." He waved back. Noooo...turn around and look! I pointed out to sea. He waved back. Resigned that he was going to miss these two amazing wildlife events, I raised my hand to wave at him and he took a photo. How I wished I had photos, or even better, videos to share with him, but I knew there was no way I could have gotten into the cabin, fire up the camera and gotten back out before the dolphins had passed completely. It was wonderful and I've never seen anything like it before. I think this is by far the highlight of my trip!

Jeff and I spent most of the afternoon hanging out on the balcony, it was beautiful weather.It is about 3:45 and we decide to go to the buffett for a snack. Don't want to overdo it though because we are planning to go up to Skywalkers between 5-7pm for whatever they are serving and for the drink of the day. (Remember that $18 we spent? hahaha) We have guacamole and corn chips, iced tea and fruit for our snack and sit for a while by the big floor to ceiling windows over the ocean.

Tonight, after Skywalkers, we are going to a "Movies Under the Stars". Then grab a bite of dinner and see how much packing we can get done before we go to the late show at 10. We did well! The movie, "Far from the Madding Crowd" was quite good and we each ate 2 bags of popcorn to tide us over until dinner. I had my water bottle filled with mimosa and Jeff had two beers. We had set aside tonight as our junk food dinner night and Jeff was hankering for a bratwurst and fries and I was going to have a vegie burger and fries. No dice. The grill was doing barbeque specials and there was nothing vegetarian at all so I went to the buffet while Jeff waited for a grilled chicken sandwich. My "junk" dinner turned out to be baked salmon, green beans, asparagus and a roll. To console me, Jeff got me a piece of chocolate walnut cake with hot chocolate syrup. YUM!

We dashed up to our room to get a glass of champagne for me and a class of wine for Jeff. (We've almost finished our bottles.)
The show was "okay." It was a one man variety show, Michael Minor. He did some impressions, some ventriloquism and was quite a good (apparently classically trained) singer.
The show ended at 10:45. We went back to our room to pack. So sad. We then set our alarms for 6am.

The ocean is so calm, there is not even the normal "rock you to sleep" motion.

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Photos

Can you find me in the photo?
Jeff took this photo from the very top of the ship.