Day 2--At Sea

Day 2—At Sea

Slept great the night before.  Even though I was on Deck 14 all the way forward, I could barely feel the ship move; it was just enough to gently rock me to sleep.  As usual, I woke up a little after 5:00 am.  Since I’m on the Lido Deck, the Lido Buffet (and morning coffee), was just a short stroll away.  Drank my coffee out by the Neptune Pool on the Lido Deck and watched the sun rise—beautiful, and well worth getting out of bed to see.

Spent some time exploring the ship and tried to take the stairs most of the time (hoping to counteract all the food I know I’ll eat on board).  Went all the way forward on Deck 16 and all the way aft on Deck 18—yup, this ship is BIG compared to my first cruise.  I had breakfast in the buffet—it was just OK, nothing to rave about, and was a much smaller buffet than on the Zaandam (and definitely doesn’t come close to the buffets in Las Vegas—but I wouldn’t expect it to).  Two Japanese ladies were looking for a place to sit, so I invited them to join me.  They spoke very little English and I certainly don’t speak Japanese, somehow we did manage to communicate.  They were sisters, or rather sisters-in-law, were travelling together with a tour group.  They were both single (the brother of one and husband of the other had died—not sure how long ago).

I joined in on the trivia game and met a few other folks (JJ who is traveling with his wife, and Patrick and Chris, a married couple who are from Los Angeles)—even though we were only able to answer 11 of the 20 questions correctly, we still came in second.  Also went to the Journaling/Scrapbooking class.

I had heard so many great things about the pizza on board Princess Cruises from CruiseCritic.com that I thought I’d try it for lunch.  It was good pizza, but still it was pizza.  So while it was good pizza and something I’d order at home or for lunch at work, I’m not sure why so many folks would rave about it.  Don’t get me wrong, I definitely ate the entire large piece and enjoyed it, and might even have it again for lunch some day.

At 12:30, I met the CruiseCritic bunch in Skywalkers (all the way aft on Deck 18).  There were quite a few of us there and the executive chef, hotel manager, and assistant cruise director were all there to welcome us and spent some time socializing with us.  It was nice to meet some of the ships senior management (unfortunately the captain wasn’t able to join us).  I did meet all the people I had been “talking” to on line for the past two months, which is always fun.

Even though dinner was at 5:30, I decided to go to the afternoon tea to see how it compared to Holland America.  It was very good and the scones were wonderful.  There was a Canadian couple and another lady at my table along with a Japanese couple.  The Japanese couple didn’t speak English and didn’t join in the conversation, so I said good afternoon to them and told them my name in Japanese.  The man just nodded to me, but the Japanese lady smiled and introduced herself and her husband in Japanese, then started talking more.  I apologized for my very bad Japanese, but was able to at least make them feel welcome to the table instead of feeling left out.

It was formal night, so after tea, I went to my room to get dressed for dinner.  The four women from Walmart were there, but the other folks at our table still hadn’t shown up.  The “Walmart ladies” said they had to start getting ready for the formal night at 3:00 in the afternoon since all four were sharing one bathroom.  I can’t imagine four people in one small cabin.  Heck, I’ve gotten used to having the cabin for myself, there is no way I’d share with another person, let alone three other people—and I’m not in my cabin that much.  But they all seem to get along and were having fun on the cruise.  I’ve only been on one cruise, and this is my first on Princess, so I felt like the “old, experienced” cruiser. 

My table steward, Ryan, and assistant table steward, Riza, were both very good.  Riza now knew I wanted cappuccino after dinner and had it ready for me without my asking.  I did have to present my coffee card since Princess charges for specialty coffees.  The chef made bananas foster for dessert right at the front of the room, which was next to our table, so we were able to watch the whole process.  Even though I don’t usually have dessert, I decided I had to have some—it was wonderful! 

After dinner, the captain hosted a “Champagne waterfall” in the atrium.  Champagne glasses were stacked up to form a tree and there was a short staircase rolled up to it.  Champagne was poured into the top glass and when it was full spilled over to the next row of glasses, and so on down to the bottom.  They went through a lot of bottles Champagne—some of the passengers got in line and were able to pour the Champagne.  I didn’t really see the point of standing in line to do this, but watched for a few minutes from Deck 7—the atrium starts at Deck 5 and goes up to Deck 7—so I had a pretty good view.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me.  (Come to think of it, I haven’t taken nearly as many pictures as I did on my first cruise.)

I did go by the Wheelhouse Bar and listened to Phoenix Rising.  During the break, I walked up to the guitarist, Jerry, and introduced myself and told him my friend said I should say hello.  We talked for a few minutes, then he went back to work, and I went back to my cabin, to be lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the ship.