October 5 - Day at Sea in the Pacific

Nothing better than a day at sea. Nothing to worry about, nothing scheduled, just a day to do whatever we want and and enjoy the time.

It is a bit cool out but still nice, so we head up on deck.



Off in the distance we spot a whale, yes that is a whale... wish I could of gotten a better shot but by the time I got the camera out and changed the lens this is what I got.

Here are the pizza guys! Princess makes all their pizzas from scratch, the dough which they stretch out right in front of you and then the toppings. It is consumed as fast as they come out.

At 11:15 we head to the Wheelhouse bar for our first of many trivia contests. Brett (our cruise director) is the host. It is quite popular and the place is packed. Beside us I recognize a couple, yup they are Helen's brother and sister in law... Mike Forest and his wife... they are doing the two day cruise and will be getting off in San Francisco. Well we didn't do too well at the trivia but we had a good time. Here is a shot of the Wheelhouse when it is quieter, it is a great lounge that has lots of wooden detail with high back chairs and in the evening they have a band play there, but during the day it hosts lots of different types of games, like trivia, scategories, pictionary, etc.

The Atrium

We planned a lunch gathering for the Cruise Critic gang that got on board in Vancouver. Claus & Krista, Jan & Michael, Connie & Derrick, Caroline & Ken and myself attended. It was nice to put a face to all the names. Everyone got along and we look forward to meeting all the rest of the gang once they board in San Francisco.

I try to get on the internet but it is down. The ship was in drydock two weeks prior to us getting on board in Victoria. This is when they installed MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) and new carpet pretty much throughout, but that is all that we the passengers can see. A lot of things were done behind the scenes and things we can't see. But they did installed a new server and wireless throughout the entire ship, but there seems to be some issues as we can't get online. When I finally can set up an account there is no packages. With Platinum and Elite status you get a free internet package -- I am told by the internet attendant to just buy a small package and you will be credited so that is what I do until I get bounced off the server when it goes down. It is frustrating but not too bad as we don't have to pay for it, I do feel for those that did need to get online and had to pay. Needless to say when we got our final bill the next day for the two day cruise they did charge us for the internet, but a quick stop at the Purser's office cleared it up and we were given the credit.

We head back to the cabin and watch a movie and take some shots. We got our mini bar set up and switched out most of the hard liquor for vodka but left four Canadian Clubs. Here is a picture of Jasper Moose Jaw (our travel mascot) with his favorite drink.

We did get two mini bar set ups because we booked this cruise as two different cruises. Also we got two loyalty credits of $25 for each sailing as this is our 21st and 22nd Princess cruise. This is a new perk that Princess is offering, at 31 sailings it goes up to $50, 41 to $75 and at 51 it is $100. Every little bit helps. Also because we have 100 Carnival shares we got the stock credit for the first sailing of $50 and for the second sailing for 15 days we got $250. Getting the shares is a definitely must if you sail often with any of the Carnvial cruise line (Carnival, Princess, Costa, Holland America, Windstar). For a cruise of 6 days and less you get $50, 7 - 13 days you get $100, over 14 days you get $250, all tax free.

Here is our cookie monster, every day around 3 pm someone comes around with warm cookies and cold milk. A nice treat.

Tonight Bernie and I went to the dining room by ourselves as the other four ate early. We ended up at a table for 8 and everyone at the table is doing the entire voyage. It is Italian night and normally this isn't one we care for but we really enjoyed the eggplant appetizer.

They are having the Champagne waterfall tonight in the atrium but we don't mind missing it and head off to the "No Soup for You" Seinfeld Trivia Gameshow that Brett is hosting in the Explorer's Lounge. We had a good laugh remember the shows but didn't fare too well in the number of right answers. Elliott Max is the comedian tonight and we have seen him many times but drop in for a few good laughs.

Tomorrow we arrive in San Francisco around 10 am, we are suppose to head under the Golden Gate Bridge around 9 am.