Yesterday, when we sailed away, the captain had made an
announcement that a low pressure system was headed towards us, but that we
would be staying ahead of the system and that we may have some ocean
swells. That was true and that first
night the ship was swaying a bit; it was great to be rocked to sleep.
Both Linda and I were awake by a little after 5. Having a cabinmate with the same schedule
makes it so much easier to share a cabin since I didn’t have to worry about waking
her up when I took a shower. I told her
that my usual routine is to get up, quickly get ready, then take my laptop, get
coffee, and find a place to sit and type up my blog from the day before, and
that is what I did.
I also spent time talking to whoever happened to come by and
sit near me (which is why it usually takes me some time to actually get this
blog typed up). I do find it easy to
strike up conversations with other passengers and crew. Some people who don’t know me well would
think I’m an extrovert, when in fact, I’m actually somewhat of an introvert—I
do like my quiet time, which is why I enjoy cruising solo. Cruising with my parents does allow me to
pretty much go my own way since we aren’t “tied to the hip” (so to speak). Cruising with my sister-in-law, Holga, on the
previous cruise also allowed me enough freedom to do what I enjoyed doing
instead of feeling like we needed to do everything together, and yesterday, I
was glad to see the same thing with my sister-in-law, Linda. We are all independent enough to feel
comfortable on our own, doing what we enjoyed doing without having to have
someone always there to do it with. So
although I’m sharing a cabin, it’s working out.
Well, enough of the introspection, and on to how the day went.
After spending a couple of hours typing and posting my blog
(while talking with other passengers), I headed back to the cabin to drop off
my laptop, then went to the buffet for breakfast, a meal I don’t usually eat at
home, but do enjoy while I’m on board a ship.
One of my favorites is the crusty bread rolls which are baked fresh on
the ship. They are just like the Kaiser
rolls I remember from Germany
and unfortunately haven’t found anywhere else.
Whenever I’m on board, I have them with almost every meal (which may account
for the couple of extra pounds I seem to gain on board a ship).
After breakfast, I spent some time out on deck reading my
kindle and enjoying the beautiful warm sunshine until it was time to attend the
Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. Several of
the officers were there including the captain, the hotel manager, the cruise
director, and the entertainment director.
I spent a few minutes talking to the captain and the cruise director, as
well as a few of the Cruise Critic members.
I wasn’t hungry for lunch, so after attending the Meet and
Greet, I headed to the shops to buy the ship’s model, a ship ornament, and a
ship coffee mug (the three things I’ve been collecting from every ship I’ve
been on—I am missing a few such as the ship’s model of the Royal Princess since
they didn’t have them when we were on board).
The Princess Patter (the ship’s daily newsletter with the
day’s activities listed) said there was a slot tournament, so after dropping
off my package at the cabin, I headed to the casino to enter. The top 5 people are entered into the finals,
and I made it to the leader board in third place. For the next two hours, I stayed in the
casino and watched the leader board which showed me drop to fourth place, and
finally to fifth place. The last final
rounds took place and I kept expecting to drop off, but surprisingly, I stayed
in fifth place and found myself in the final round. The winner of the final round would get $500,
and the top two would get a place on board the Regal Princess in November for a
chance to win $75,000. I came in
third—darn! I did get a Princess t-shirt
and a bingo entry card, so that afternoon, I headed off to play bingo. Unfortunately, I didn’t win anything there
either. Oh well, I had fun, and that’s
what it’s really all about.
I ran into Linda on the way back to the cabin, and we
decided to go to dinner early. It was
formal night, and also Valentine’s Day and we anticipated there would be lines
waiting at the dining room. We were
right, and there was a fairly long line; it took us about 20 minutes to get
into the dining room. We asked to share
a table, and were placed at a table for eight.
Dinner conversation was enjoyable as we got to know each other. I had the crab quiche and cream of asparagus
soup for an appetizer, and had the broiled shrimp for a main course, followed
by one of the new chocolate desserts created for Princess by a master chef and
“chocolatier.” It was a hazelnut and
chocolate layered dessert and was very rich, but very good.
After dinner, Linda and I went back to the cabin to change
out of the formal wear, then went to the Princess Theater to see the new show,
“Magic to Do.” I had heard quite a bit
about this show which premiered just last fall.
The show was a collaboration between Princess and the composer Stephen
Schwartz, and was a musical about magic and included a lot of magical illusion
tricks. As far as shows go, it was very
well done, and the dancers did a great job, but I thought the show was just
OK—guess I really don’t care for musicals that don’t really have a storyline.
After being packed into the showroom, I decided I needed
some fresh air, and took a walk out on deck.
Thinking it would be a little cool, I was pleasantly surprised at how
nice it was. We had travelled far enough
south that the evening was warm and pleasant.
The seas had calmed down earlier in the afternoon, and I couldn’t even
feel the ship move. There were very few
people outside and it was nice to just enjoy the evening out. After a final stroll out on deck, I headed
back to the cabin. Tomorrow would be
another sea day with nothing planned except to enjoy the freedom to do whatever
I felt like doing.
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