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Published: March 18th 2014
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Today we are on our way back to Australia. It is a two-day cruise back and provided us with a nice restful time to relax and enjoy the sway of the ship as it moved over the waves. Actually, the Tasman Sea has a reputation for being a bit rough sometimes (contrary to what we experienced at the start of our cruise), and we did hit some bumps in the sea today, especially during the morning. There must be some remnants around somewhere of the storm that was blowing the past couple of days. By mid-morning the sky was clear and the temperature up to mid-60’s – just breezy. See the pictures of waves in the pool today.
Today we slept in fairly late for us. We didn’t get up until almost 8:30. We had a nice breakfast at the buffet. At 9:15 Janet went to her knitter group and at 10:00 David went to the traditional cooking demonstration hosted by the Executive Chef and the Maître D’. The demo is part cooking and part comedy, and is followed by a brief tour of the galley (which David skipped this time).
Although the cruise staff
has arranged lots of activities for everyone to enjoy, we have chosen to have a fairly quiet day. We went to lunch in the Horizon Court about Noon and then Janet wanted to watch a movie on the TV. They have been changing all the cabin TV sets to convert to an on-demand system, but lately there have been some bugs (no sound) in the system. But Janet get it all set up and enjoyed the movie.
We have had enough quiet time during the trip to do some reading too. Janet finished one book and then joined the ship’s book club, which needed her to read another novel before their discussion session tomorrow. She finished that last night. David has read two books he had brought along as well and is starting on a 3
rd. There was also enough time some naps, which we both did today.
At 5:00 was the Captain’s Reception for Platinum (50-149 days) and Elite (more than 150 days) passengers. They gave everyone some free cocktails and appetizers, and the captain made a short speech. There were 263 Platinums and 64 Elites. The passengers with the greatest number of
Princess Cruise days had more than a year with 396 days – they won a bottle of champagne.
Tonight was the second Formal Dinner for this cruise. Typically they serve both Beef Wellington and Lobster & Prawns, which are Janet’s two favorite dinners. Tonight the choice also included Veal Ravioli, and she almost always chooses anything with veal, regardless of the alternatives. Anyway the lobster won tonight for both of us. After dinner was the traditional end-of-cruise dessert, the “Parade of Baked Alaska”. All the assistant waiters walked through the dining room with platters of Baked Alaska. This was an especially yummy dinner tonight. David took some pictures and we will include a couple here.
This evening’s entertainment was a return show of Adam Dean (the magician/comedian who we had seen earlier in the cruise) or a production show which we expect to be able to see again later. So we chose the magician. Some of the tricks were interesting but others were just silly, and most of the jokes weren’t all that funny. Not all choices work out as we might hope.
We get one hour back on the clock
tonight because we are heading west again. This makes up for one of the hours they took at the beginning of the cruise. It is difficult to believe but it has already been 2 weeks (as of today) since we packed our bags and started the vacation in St Louis. We really appreciate the kids taking care of everything while we are away.
FYI, we have been receiving some “messages” and “comments” attached to the blog, and we enjoy reading all you have to say. We appreciate the volunteers who would be willing to have dinner at our table – all we have to do is send them airline tickets to get here. J Also, we were told on a couple of tours that the only original land based mammal to NZ were two types of “bats”, but we never saw any of them (thanks to Barb for warning us to watch for them). There are plenty of transplanted mammals (especially the Australian Opossum which the local New Zealanders would like all the Aussies to take back when they leave). But thanks to all for the comments and suggestions.
The laptop error message we
have sometimes gotten occurs when booting up the system with the battery partially discharged and the power adapter connected during startup.
It says: AC Power Adapter wattage and type cannot be determined. The battery may not charge. The system will adjust the performance to match the power available. Please connect a Dell 65W AC Adapter or greater for best system performance.
Press F1 to Continue
Press F2 to run Setup
Press F3 to not show this message again
Despite the message, the laptop seems to be working satisfactorily and the battery still does charge – so far.
Janet’s knee is MUCH better today. She has been taking the pills for two days and she is in far better condition than the other day. The medicine is called Diciofenac Tablets. It says it is made in England. In any case, it seems an amazing drug – we hope it’s not illegal to bring the rest back to the US. J
Anyway, that’s about all from the Sun Princess for today – see you again tomorrow.
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