Sea Days January 25 and 26

Two sea days!

Sleep in, yup Vickie is finally sleeping in and I don’t feel guilty about it. Bernie has gone up to the Horizon Court for some breakfast and when he comes back he informs me that yup it looks like the ship may have an outbreak of Noro virus. Yup and then shortly thereafter the Captain is in our room, well not really in our room, but coming over the loud speaker. For safety reasons we are now under red alert to help combat the spread of the virus.


This is the third year in a row in January where we have had an outbreak. Now for those who are not aware Noro Virus is very common everywhere, not just on cruise ships, but those on land are not reported like they are on a cruise ship. For this ship once 12 people have confirmed cases they must go to red alert, which out of 4000 people on board is not a lot but the health of the passengers is first and foremost. Once passengers come down with the symptoms they are quarantined to their cabin (but trust me they don’t want to go anywhere anyways) and then the next day the symptoms are gone but the patient is way too weak to go anywhere and needs to rest. Normally after 48 hours of the first symptoms the patient is cleared and can move about the ship but often needs to take it easy. I have personally had the virus (on land and comfortably in my own home) and know someone who has had it on a ship (and his spouse who shared his cabin didn’t get the virus).


Right away the ship goes into safe mode, hand santizers even though prevelant before are everywhere, hand washing is the most effective means of removing the germs, but you must sanitize your hands before entering any of the food areas. Cutlery is handed out, staff serve you at each buffet station, after you leave the table the whole table is quickly wipped down and sanitized. On deck, deck hands carry a cloth and sanitizer spray to wipe everything down that is touched, in bars staff do the same and everywhere you look crew are wiping elevators, railings, walls, arm rests (wow the ship sparkles).


Speaking with some of the crew (photographers, dancers etc. that are allowed to eat in public areas) are confined to the crew mess hall while the alert is on. All public sales outside of the stores are cancelled, so darn it the Bijoux sale is cancelled, the galley tour is cancelled but the demonstration still happens. At the wine tasting yesterday they did not provide communial cheese/crackers/grapes. Salt/pepper shakers are off the tables and little packets are provided.


Okay enough about the virus.


For lunch I grab two slices of pizza and watch a bit of a movie at MUTS (movies under the stars) but the sun is hot so after a half hour I take cover and arrange to meet up with friends for some wine in their cabin. Then darn it is wine tasting where a few nice wines have been introduced.


Skywalkers has port for the drink tonight so I am heading up there while Bernie heads to the trivia. Tonight is formal night and we have opted out so we head up to Café Caribe for the Landfall dinner, it is rather busy and it goes rather smoothly, and they have lobster claws, crab and large shrimp! I get my feast!


We watch the sunset off the aft deck and then head up to the Movies Under the Stars to watch the movie “You Again” with Sigorney Weaver, Betty White, Jamie Lee Curtis – it is cute and it is so nice to enjoy the movie in the heat. I love that they come around with fresh baked hot cookies and cold milk for you to enjoy, it is these little things that make sailing so special.

Last day for the first leg – we sleep in room service is delivered at 8:45 a little late but that is okay because I think they are extra busy this morning. Then it is down to the International Café for a latte and chatting with friends. Today I am going to go to this Zumba class at 10:00 in Club Fusion and for 45 minutes we dance dance dance and I hopefully burned off that donut I ate earlier, I love it because it is great exercise for me with my back injury.


I head up to Adagio’s Bar for trivia for which we sucked! Well at least it is consistent. Jerry and Rose join us for lunch in the Wheelhouse Bar for the Pub Lunch and I tried the Ploughman’s lunch and the others all had fish and chips (again a newer item that is included and makes sailing with Princess even better).

 1:00 pm sees us in Club Fusion again for Movie Trivia which we did pretty good at but still didn’t win so we better go drown our sorrows and we head to Mike/Sue’s balcony along with Bill/Cathy and two bottles of wine and some finger foods and a lot of great laughs.

 It is our last dinner with Jerry/Rose tonight and we have to say goodbye to so many but we are excited about staying on and seeing our friends from Blackpool England that arrive tomorrow Colin and Gwenda.


We also have to move cabins tomorrow we are heading to A743 and have already spoken to our cabin steward and informed her that we will move our own bags and that we will just put them in the closet. We will unpack after we come back from running errands in Fort Lauderdale.

Alice at Wine tasting

Paul at the Wine tasting